Babies First Lilacs

'...and these are lilacs.'

There is nothing more wonderful than Spring's first lilacs. 

Except maybe sharing them with the babies for the first time.

'Aren't they pretty...'

Pie Safe is a 'California Cooler'

The only feature that's original to our kitchen, besides the fir floors, is the pie safe California Cooler (including its Shaker style cabinet doors). When we gutted the kitchen that lazy summer day...it was all that remained.

We loved its antique charm. When we told our cabinet maker we wanted to keep the pie safe California Cooler intact, he abhorred the idea, truly amazed we'd want to keep such a thing. We asked him to build the new cabinets to match.

This is the top cabinet. It is located to the left of the sink counter...you can see a smidgen of one of my bread boards leaning against it. 

This is the lower cabinet.  

Other than a fresh coat of paint, I just scrubbed each rack (they're removable) with warm soapy water....

...and moved in. 

This old pie safe California Cooler is our food pantry. So far, it's served us just fine. Our beans, grains and pastas, flour and baking groceries, and other dry goods, are housed in the lazy susan - which is to the right of the kitchen sink. 

Thank you Tamara for sending me information on the California Cooler! The information I read was so fascinating and is absolutely what it is. There was a vent at the top, which led outside, as well as a vent in the bottom floor of the cabinet (which you can see the patch from). 

Go here for more information on California Coolers! And thanks again Tamara! 

Spring Entry

Despite the mix of cool spring showers with our sporadic spring sunshine, we're slowly inching our way towards warmer days. So much so that I removed our woolens from the hall tree and replaced them with wicker, straw and jute. 

White tulips from Hubby. 

Here's the other side of the entry. The light through the window offers a bright welcome. 

Pickets and Tulips

So far, I've only planted a small handful of bulbs in the yard. Every year I say that I will plant hundreds, yet every year slips by me. This year...

Hopefully, this post will inspire me to follow through. There's nothing lovelier than the elegant welcome of these lovely ladies at our gate. This variety is from Van Bloem Gardens and is called 'Triumph.' 

Limelight Dreams

The dining patio is beginning to stir after months of wintry stillness. 

Thanks to the few hours of sunshine we're getting between the spring rains, the Limelight Hydrangea are budding. 

  It's hard to believe that those little buds will grow into such large fluffy blossoms. 

The dining patio becomes a Limelight oasis by mid-summer. 

As the late summer nights begin to cool, the Limelight blossoms fade to a soft pink.

Happy hydrangea dreams to you!

Spindle Bench

Our spindle bench has been relocated to our bedroom. It had been in the living room but was quickly replaced by the baby swing and bouncy chairs.

I love the combined textures of the wood spindles, the crochet quilt and the rush seat. The pillow is made of burlap and cotton.

So far, there haven't been any stubbed toes in the night!

Bath Time

One of my favorite times of the day is bath time. At first I bathed the babies separately by putting them in this bath that sits inside our claw foot tub. 

Because they both love playing and splashing in the water, I recently started to use these little newborn bath chairs so that they could enjoy bath time together.

It's so sweet to see them splash around together.  

Dining with Daffodils

Daffodils are out! At least at our local grocery store. There's nothing that makes the dining room brighter than a dozen are so smiling daffodils. 

We spend a lot of time in our dining room. We enjoy our meals there of course. Since we expanded the table, we've also been using it for many other pursuits. The large flat workspace has proven great for sewing projects, wrapping gifts, sorting through piles of paper in preparing our taxes, and Mike even used it recently to assemble a poster for a work conference. 

However, the most wonderful thing about the expanded table is that there is plenty of room for two bouncy chairs! This allows us to be able to sit down to meals - together - much more often. Although this has always been important to us, it became harder to do with two newborn sweetie pie babies. xo 

The babies gaze up at the chandelier as if it were a large mobile.  When their interest begins to wane, we adjust the dimmer which creates different sparkles and hues. With all that gazing, I've had to put 'dust and clean chandelier' on my to do list. 

Happy daffodils (even the grocery store variety) to you! 

Thoughts of Spring

We had a warm, cozy fire over the weekend.

Every time we have a fire in the fireplace, we always ask ourselves why we don't have them more often. For some reason, our fires are lit in the coldest months of winter. As I suggested to Mike, a summer fire...with the windows thrown open and the chirping of crickets outside...why haven't we done that? 

My hydrangeas are already budding, inspiring some spring reading (or at least the thought of spring reading)!

I added an orchid to the mantle in anticipation of the changing seasons.

Ever since the babies arrived, we've been spending most of our days in this room (which was tidied up before I took pictures!). For wear and tear (and spills and leaks), I typically throw a quilt over the couch. Baby swing is by Nature's Purest. 

A Moses Basket

I found a lovely Moses Basket at a baby consignment store recently. It has the sweetest eyelet lace lining that I was able to remove, launder and press. This task took an entire day as each step had to wait for nap times.

Hubby was gracious enough to help me with photos. I assure you that he had other matters on his mind (he's a Wisconsin native, and the Super Bowl game was mere hours away), but he obliged me anyway. I even requested that he change out of his fourteen year-old Green Bay Packer sweatshirt (temporarily of course)...to which he also graciously obliged.

Can you guess which little sweet pea of ours was first to enjoy the new basket?

Baby Girl

Hmmmm...what's missing?

Her.

This is our sweet Margaret's favorite snuggle spot in the house.

Things that aren't captured in this photo but are lurking about:

crib (which is conveniently on wheels)

diaper genie

bouncy chair

night stand full of burp cloths

sound machine

diapers, wipes and diaper cream

assorted recently changed baby clothes and baby blankets

And me (in my pajamas) snuggling with the baby girl.

xo

P.S. First photo taken pre-babies.

December Tidings

I'm a little disconnected from blogging these days. It's not due to the arrival of our sweet babies though - we're still pregnant! Rather, it's due to my very pregnant body, and my general lack of energy to do much of anything.

Thankfully, my Mom is here and helped me decorate the dining room for Christmas!

On the way home from our last doctor's appointment (the only time I leave the house these days), we stopped in at our local Christmas tree stand to pick out a tree for our dining room. Mike commented that it was the quickest tree selection I've ever made! This is true...my aching feet and back cured my perennial case of 'Christmas tree indecision.'

The three of us decorated the tree with cardinals and simple strands of white lights. We'll have another Christmas tree in the living room, which will be decorated with our vast collection of childhood ornaments (yes, this includes my favorite ornament - 'Hunk of Love').

My favorite Christmas decoration is the greenery. I just love the lush green color against the sleeping winter landscape outside our window. I also love the fragrance of the cuttings, which offers such an intoxicating mix of nostalgia and crisp earthy freshness.

We replaced the burlap runner on the table with an antique crocheted table cloth I bought a few years ago for $10. My Mom has a larger one that my Great Great Grandmother made, which was always put out for Christmas Eve dinner.

My dear friend Joan from For the Love of a House added three beautiful antique brass candlesticks to my collection recently, which I've placed on the Empire card table below the mirror.

Hope you are staying warm and cozy wherever you are!

P.S. I've been meaning to mention that our kitchen was featured in a little article on Small Space Kitchen Design over at HGTV.com.

A Green Nursery

Creating a healthy home has been a priority of ours since we began our renovations five years ago. Our motivation was due, in part, to the fact that this was a home in which we hoped to raise children. So naturally, creating the healthiest nursery possible was also main priority for us. It motivated all of our choices, from furniture and wall treatments, down to the rug.

These are the choices we made:

The Cribs: We chose the Da Vinci Jenny Lind crib because it is made with wood harvested from sustainably-managed forests. It's also lead and phthalate free, and stained in a non-toxic finish. Also, the teething rail is BPA free.

The Crib Mattresses: We chose Naturepedic organic mattresses. They offer a non-toxic waterproof surface that includes 100% food-grade polyethylene. They are also hypoallergenic, filled with organic cotton filling.

The Crib Sheets: We chose 100% organic cotton crib sheets.

The Armoire: It was important to us to not purchase any furniture for the nursery that was made with manufactured wood, that may contain glues, adhesives or other compounds which may off-gas over time. Antique furniture provides this safeguard, as well as the opportunity to recycle beautifully-crafted pieces made long ago.

Mike created shelves for the armoire using solid tongue and groove pine floor planks. My Mom then covered them in 100% cotton fabric.

Nursing Chair: We selected the IKEA Jenny Lund slipcovered arm chair for nursing. I was really nervous about bringing a new chair into our nursery, as most new furniture is constructed with manufactured woods that may off-gas. So, I was happy to learn that IKEA strictly procures wood from sustainably-managed forests, and their pressed wood products comply with low formaldehyde standards.

The Rug: We narrowed down our rug choices quite fast in knowing that we would only buy something that was made with natural fibers (with no rubber or plastic backing). We initially looked for 100% wool rugs, but ended up ordering a 100% jute braided rug for its style and shape. It's also reversible, so it should stand the test of time.

Wall Treatments: Like the rest of our house, the nursery was painted using Benjamin Moore's no-VOC line. Everything from the ceiling and the mouldings, to the doors and walls, were painted with the color Simply White in either flat or semi-gloss finishes.

Choosing white for the plaster walls was a natural choice for me as it was the color of my childhood room, from birth until I left for college.

White also has the added benefit of having less pigment added to the mix (pigments most often contain VOCs). I did just recently learn however that Benjamin Moore is one of the very few lines that uses VOC-free pigments. Thus their VOC-free line truly is VOC-free, no matter what color one chooses.

When Mike created the paneled wainscoting, he used solid wood mouldings, assembled and secured in place with a finish nail gun instead of glue.

The Closet: To create extra storage, we relocated the antique dresser from the guest house. We preferred using the dresser for the same reason that we chose the antique armoire. Also in the closet are the toys and books in waiting....until the babies are older.

Purchasing two cribs, two mattresses, two car seats, clothing, diapers, etc.... added up as you can imagine. So we focused our budget on the things we knew we would need from birth through the first several months. Any toys and books we have were ours from childhood, or were given to us by family and friends.

When we do start buying toys, we will focus on brands that offer phthalate-, BPA- and lead-free products.

Baby clothes: We have been very lucky in that we have received lovely hand-me downs from my friend Karen, and my brother Steven and his wife Marna, who have a son and two sweet daughters. The above knit sweater was my adorable nephew's.

This sweet outfit is a combination of a hand-me down (the white cotton onesie) from my niece and a purchase from a baby consignment store (the 100% organic cotton jumper with pink velvet piping). I've found consignment stores to be a wonderful resource for beautiful clothing, often hardly worn, at much lower prices than retail (organic knit jumper was $11).

I hope that everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday! I managed to stay on my feet long enough to make the pie crust... I spent the rest of the day on the couch nodding off and listening to the bustle of kitchen activity made by my mom and Mike.

Happy Holiday Season to everyone! xo