(Picture borrowed from Jason’s phone this week.)
We’ve tried so hard to keep our cocker spaniel Lucy from getting fat but she’s getting a lot of extra snacks these days.
Phone Photo Friday
08/05/2011
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Art, Art: Phone Photo Friday, Family, Family: Foster Parenting, Family: Ladybug, Family: Lucy | Tagged: cell phone photography, cocker spaniel, fat dog, high chair, Phone Photo Friday, toddler | 
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Posted by mahlbrandt
House Rules
08/04/2011It wasn’t a requirement for us but I thought it would be a good idea to come up with some solid House Rules before we have any kiddos bouncing around in our house. I took some inspiration from others’ house rules (K&D and Meg from whatever…though I can’t find the specific posts) and some design inspiration from here, and came up with 6 House Rules for our home.
When our home study writer asked me on the spot if we had any house rules, all I could say was “no hitting, no breaking things, no throwing toys across the room…you know, normal parenting stuff.” All of that seems like a given to me and falls under the umbrella of “show love,” because really part of showing love is respecting other people and property. “Take risks” could be twisted, I suppose. Running out in front of a car is taking a risk. Standing on the dining room table is taking a risk. But, taking risks is an important value in our household and what I’m really thinking of is … Take a risk and try the brussel sprouts even though they look gross. Take a risk and trust us to love and parent you even though you’ve had your heart broken by adults in the past.
We have little L with us now and she’s too young to really understand the rules much. She’s great at showing love, taking risks, doing her best and having fun. Work together needs a little tweaking, especially when it comes to diaper changes and snotty nose wiping. But she is already learning so much. Yesterday papa taught her how to blow her nose in a tissue and how to say please. And tell the truth? Well, she’s 1. It’s hard to tell sometime whether she’s lying or mistaken, especially with yes or no questions.
You can download a free printable (8.5×11) PDF of these house rules if you’d like.
6 Comments | Art, Art: graphic design, Family, Family: Foster Parenting | Tagged: foster parenting, house rules, parenting | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Front Garden Expansion: Phase 3
08/01/2011Plants! After chopping down the grass and covering the area with landscaping fabric, it was time to start adding plants.
Besides less front yard to mow (hooray!), we don’t have a specific plan for the landscaping of this area. Jason will have lots of space to play and plant and tinker and propagate and all those fun things. I’m sure in a few years it’ll be as full and lush as our back garden. We’re using gravel as mulch. More on that in the next post.
Artichoke agave:
Blue Elf Aloe x2:
Some kind of cactus… if you want to know the name, I can ask Jason
Variegated yucca transplanted from my parents house:
Orange Sedge:
And lots more space for future plants:
2 Comments | Art, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation | Tagged: front garden expansion, front yard, garden, landscaping, plants | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Phone Photo Friday
07/29/2011
If you liked that Curtis Jeré style tree in our hallway, I saw these at Pier 1 recently. I like. HomeGoods often has similar metal wall art trees.
1 Comment | Art, Art: modern design, Art: Phone Photo Friday | Tagged: cell phone photography, curtis jere, metal art, Phone Photo Friday, tree | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
House Tour: Hallway & Cloffice
07/27/2011Hallway
Ah, the hallway. It’s so utilitarian. Attic access in the ceiling. Smoke detector. Carbon monoxide detector. Thermostat. Air intake. Doorways…
A couple of black and white photographs of Jason and I from my college photography class back in 2003 (shortly after we got married) hang on one wall. They’re not excellent photos but I like that I shot them with an old manual film camera and developed them myself.
At the end of the hallway hangs this brass tree. I spotted it on an estate sale website a few years ago and Jason was able to find it for me. I don’t remember what he paid for it… maybe $40? My relatives from Sweden wanted to buy it from us when they were visiting.
Cloffice
I actually spend a lot of time in this hallway thanks to my cloffice (closet+office). I wrote about the original transformation from a coat closet into a home office earlier this year. It hasn’t changed much since then, except that the hallway was painted SW greek white.
When Jason removed the closet door and doorway to give me more elbow room, there was a strip of the original hardwood floors missing. We came up with this simple solution of inlaying a piece of wood and painting it with white trim paint. I like how it defines the space and it has held up well to 6 months of chair rolling.
The desk is not very deep. It works well for using the computer and not much else, unless I move my keyboard, mouse and laptop stand out of the way. I love having two monitors, and though I think side by side would have been better, this works. I don’t believe I mentioned before that the desktop is removable; it’s sitting on two wooden rails and tightly wedged into place so it doesn’t move. We didn’t make it permanent because there is an access panel to get to the plumbing of the hall bathroom tub on the back of the closet. See it there behind my pen cup?
It feels as small as it looks. Or maybe it looks bigger than it feels. It’s a pretty tight work space and I find myself paying bills on the couch and blogging from bed more than I used to when I had a regular home office. But, this solution was so worth it to free up a bedroom for our future kids. That little cardboard owl cup serves as my waste basket. My printer was relocated to the living room bookshelf. I traded my scanner for a slim design that can slip onto the top shelf of my cloffice, between my portfolio and my storage boxes. The best thing about it being small is that I can’t afford to let it get messy.
7 Comments | Art, Art: Closet Office, Art: house tour, Art: interior design, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: cloffice, closet office, hall, hallway, house tour | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
The Garden: July 2011
07/26/2011I take no credit for the piece of paradise located in my backyard. This oasis is all thanks to my husband’s love of plants, especially dessert and tropical plants.
We have yellow bamboo (left of the gate) and black bamboo (right of the gate, not pictured below) in neatly contained planter on our patio. We cut these blocks out of our concrete patio. (Anywhere I saw “we” just assume I mean Jason.)
The black bamboo was very determined… it’s roots spread under the patio and it shot up a bunch of runners into our cactus garden this summer. We’ve left most of them to grow because the idea of a bamboo grove sounds nice. Plus black bamboo is super expensive (the most we’ve ever paid for a plant!) and it spreads pretty slowly. It’s really neat to see how fast a new stalk grows. I’ll do a post just on that some day.
Most mornings while Jason and I are having bacon, eggs and toast at the kitchen table there is a couple of yellow finches having breakfast on our echinacea (cone flower) plant. I guess the seeds are tasty.
There is also a hummingbird that frequents the echinacea and the red yucca (tall finger-like pinkish plant in the center of the photo.)
Our patio needs repainted. Or stained. Or tiled. Or something.
This is a banana tree. It’s just ornamental, it doesn’t get fruit on it. But it’s huge and fast growing and definitely the focal point of the garden right now.
We love this pretty crepe myrtle tree.
There’s a sister banana tree in the corner of the garden.
Our key lime tree, which seems to be fruitless right now.
So there’s a quick tour around our garden paradise this July. It’s been hot and humid and the plants are lovin’ it!
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation, Family, Family: Jason | Tagged: gardening, green thumb, landscaping, oasis, paradise, plants | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
My New Favorite Snack
07/25/2011I dug up a quick blog post idea since I didn’t have anything prepared for this morning. (Sorry.) This is my new favorite lunch or afternoon snack:
Wheat crackers
Cheese (I’ve used hot pepper cheese or havarti)
Sweet basil (fresh from our garden…LOVE!)
Tomatoes (also from our garden, mmm…)
Sprinkle of salt & pepper
It’s kind of a quick cross between bruschetta and caprese salad.
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Posted by mahlbrandt
Phone Photo Friday
07/22/2011
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Posted by mahlbrandt
Front Garden Expansion: Phase 2
07/20/2011With the practically tropical Nashville summer weather, even cropping the grass down to the roots wasn’t enough to kill it. It’s basically perfect growing conditions for grass right now. So… Front Garden Expasion: Phase 2. Landscaping fabric. We used WeedBlock from Home Depot. First we thought the 300 sq. ft roll would be enough. Then we bought another 300 sq. ft. roll and a 150 sq. ft. roll, thinking we could take the smaller one back. Nope. Our front garden expansion project is more than 750 sq. ft. We used some leftover thick landscape plastic for the last, oh 50 sq. ft. or so.
(Jason, if you’re reading this… we need enough gravel to cover 800 square feet. That’s a lot of rocks. This gravel calculator says we need 2.5 cubic yards for 1″ depth, 3.7 cubic yards for 1.5″ depth, or 5 cubic yards for 2″ depth.)
1 Comment | Art, Art: gardening | Tagged: front garden expansion, front yard, landscaping | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
House Tour: Hall Bathroom
07/19/2011Hall Bathroom
Guest bathroom. Kids bathroom. What do you call it in your house? Our house has a couple of unique features that caught our attention the first time we saw it. Besides the angled front wall of windows in the living room and there is also this downward angled vanity in the hall (only original) bathroom. The countertop was replaced with concrete and a bowl sink before we moved in. Jason added different knobs and painted it gray. Together we laid the slate tile—our first tiling job! The tiles and tub, originally pink and blue, were painted white before we moved in. We also changed the light fixture and added a shower fan. The wall color is Sherwin Williams Softest Green.
Step stool from IKEA for children to read the sink.
I really like the concrete countertops. We’re thinking about trying out this technique ourselves someday for our master bathroom or kitchen.
Rub-a-dub-dub.
2 Comments | Art, Art: house tour, Art: interior design | Tagged: hall bathroom, home tour, our house | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
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