Sorry for my absence this week. Aside from my day job I’ve been soaking up lots of Jason time: going out for dates, meeting up with friends, taking a day trip to IKEA, working on landscaping projects in the dark, entertaining new friends at our home, watching shooting stars from a hot tub on a cool night … we’ve been been busy, y’all!
Where have YOU been this week?
Bonus phone photo this week: Lucy sticking her tongue out at me after I gave her a bath and a haircut.
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Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends, Family: Lucy, Family: Me | Tagged: busyness, Jason, Lucy | 
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Posted by mahlbrandt
Since my last update on the coat-closet-turned-home-office I have (all by myself!):
• painted 3 walls teal … with a brush, using watery old paint. It took 3 coats.
• hung my second monitor on the wall. Jason? Please help me re-hang it straight and centered.
• mounted under cabinet lights below the shelf to shine on my desk. Currently the right one is shining on my monitor because it’s not centered. Jason…?!
• hung my silver @, my bulletin board and clip board for quick inspiration and fun designs
• relocated my printer to the bookshelf in the living room where it’s connect to our airport extreme so we can access it wirelessly. The brown fabric box below the printer holds all the printer paper and accessories. Apparently I have a mess of cords that I need to do something about.
2 Comments | Art, Art: Closet Office, Art: graphic design, Art: interior design, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Me | Tagged: coat closet, hall closet, home office | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Sorry I’ve been missing this week in the blog world. I’ve been sick. I’ll be back … soon! Meanwhile, here’s a picture of my sweet baby Lucy:
2 Comments | Family, Family: Me, Other | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Love is risky. It requires vulnerability as we trust our hearts to another person, believing that he’ll take good care of it. But every person fails at one time or another. Failures from the ones dearest to us hurt the most, don’t they?
Believe me, I do my fair share of failing my husband, but the other day it was my heart that was aching from a misstep on his part. I decided to reread 1 Corinthians 13 as I was making a choice, subconsciously after 11 years, to love him still and trust him again with my bruised heart.
I think just about everyone has read or heard 1 Corinthians 13, “the love chapter,” at some point. It’s popular at weddings and it’s no wonder — it’s a beautiful passage. Verse 7 popped out at me. “[Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Then I saw verse 4, “Love suffers long and is kind …” That sounds painful. Messy. Beautiful. Dangerous on one side and safe on the other side.
Much like the overwhelming feeling of joyful reunion that we would never experience without times of separation, love would not be the beautiful feeling that it is without the risk of pain.
I am thankful to have a husband who loves me well. When he slips up, he is careful to tenderly pick my heart back up, take it to the Healer of broken things and to lovingly hold it again, a little tighter than before. I hope that I do the same.
1 Comment | Faith, Family, Family: Jason, Family: Me | Tagged: forgiveness, love, marriage | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Old Stockholm 1987. That’s me in the stroller, being rolled by my mama with my Swedish grandma in the background
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: Phone Photo Friday, Family, Family: Me | Tagged: cellphone photography, Phone Photo Friday, Sweden | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Jason and I have been with Verizon for at least 8 year but this summer when our contracts were up we came the closest we’ve ever been to parting ways in favor of getting the iPhone. As much as we love Mac products and even after weeks of research, the idea of dropping around $400 on making the switch didn’t sit well. Truthfully, we wanted them so bad but we prayed about it and had no peace about making the move once we were standing in the Apple store.
All that to say, we got what we decided was the next best thing: Palm Pre Plus. It’s not an iPhone but at least we have Verizon’s excellent coverage and the phone is very, very close. It has a large touch screen, tons of apps, unlimited data usage and a slide out QWERTY keyboard (which I think is a lot easier to use than iPhone’s touch keyboard.) Another nice feature of this phone/Verizon is that it’s as easy as pie to turn the phone into a mobile hotspot so I can use the internet on my laptop from anywhere. Anywhere … like poolside or on a tour bus. That means I. can. work. from. anywhere. (Please, Boss?)
Jason and I have never had smart phones before and these things are rocking our world. Here are some of my favorite applications / the best palm pre apps I’ve discovered so far:
Standards like YouTube, Facebook of course
1. Pandora – free customized online radio
2. TweeFree – apps make the Twitter experience so much better
3. Flashlight – bright white screen
4. Evernote – photo and text notes that can be accessed online from any computer
5. Asphalt5 – super fun driving game. drive with the phone like steering wheel. Bonus points for including a Mini Cooper.
6. Speed Brain – good brain exercise
7. AP Mobile – news
8. AccuWeather – I find it to be more optimistic than Weather Channel (which is also a free app) and usually right. I like how it just shows a red thermometer for the days when the high is 100º and up.
9. Scoop – RSS blog reader that works with a Google Reader account
10. Yelp – restaurant/store/attraction finder. I use this all the time to find out what’s nearby or to call the place we’re going to order ahead or check their hours and to read reviews
11. Topple Ball – fun, phone-tilting puzzle game
12. Pink Pad – cycle management for ladies. Make notes about what’s going on and it helps me plan ahead
Most of these apps are free because we’re cheapskates.
After a month we only have a few complaints about the Palm Pre Plus. Jason’s and mine have frozen 5 times collectively. Three of those required popping the battery out to reset and once popping the battery out and letting it recharge. The other complaint is short battery life but we expected that and we do use them a lot. We got car chargers (and cases) cheap from Amazon.com and we take our chargers with us everywhere we go. I can usually get by with only charging it though the night.
4 Comments | Art, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Me | Tagged: iphone, palm pre plus, smart phone, verizon | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Actually, I could have called this post Gifts are Fun! But that sounds kind of … materialistic. Maybe gifts is my love language. Regardless, I’m so thankful for each of my thoughtful, wonderful friends and family members and I got some really neat things that I thought I’d share with you. Not literally, you know, just in pictures.
I mentioned yesterday that my first birthday gift was Gee-Wiz.
My sister and brother-in-law sent this beautiful bag from a recent trip to Nicaragua. It seems to match almost everything and is the perfect size!
My brother and his wife sent The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey since I’ve been wanting to read it. I forgot to take a photo but really, it’s not a pretty book anyway.
I got a canister of my all-time favorite tea, Mango Ceylon Republic of Tea, from our friends Nate and Kala. Yummy! I have this everyday and somehow never get sick of it.
My sister-in-law found some great things, just my style. A cute screen printed burlap bag containing a cute little retro journal, gift certificate for a manicure (we’ll go together), and this really fun book by Pop Ink called Fluffy Humpy Poopy Puppy. Tons of wonderful illustrations and funny quips. I need another copy to cut up and frame.
And the mack-daddy of crafting inspiration: Martha Stewert’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts. My parents got me this lovely book and a metal water canteen.
My dear husband got me some new tank tops that I LOVE! I can only find a photo online of this one, which is actually more of a beach cover up. (Hooray for beach vacation next month!)
And our friends Leila and Jeremy went over the top giving me a new outfit (skinny jeans and a shirt), candy (that I’ve already eaten), swimming googles (that are already in my pool bag) and a handmade pocket mirror (that I’m too lazy to dig out of my purse to photograph.)
Thanks everyone!! I feel very loved!
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: crafts, Art: fashion, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends, Family: Jason, Family: Me | Tagged: birthday gifts, books | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Since December I’ve been able to work from home about one day a week, unless I’m really busy. And the past 2 weeks I was really busy. But yesterday I worked from home and it was nice … blissful, actually!
I woke up and realized my computer was sitting on the floor beside the bed. I worked for almost an hour before even getting up! Then I had a nice sit-down breakfast with pretty vintage dishes. I LOVE Trader Joe’s banana/strawberry yogurt. Top it off with a few just-picked black raspberries… heaven!
Plus I made a pot of tea and a few hard cooked eggs.
Side note … I have to get out this cookbook every time I make hard boiled eggs. Why can’t I just remember – put eggs in pot, bring to boil, simmer for 15 minutes. (One of the three eggs exploded because I let it boil too long.)
My home office is sunny and peaceful. I got to eat lunch with Jason. An afternoon break meant strolling around the beautiful garden to let Lucy out.
And of course, I did some work too. But my desk (on the wall opposite this window) was too messy to photograph! Working from home is the best! I dream of the day I can work from home full time. For now I’ll gratefully accept one day a week.
6 Comments | Art, Art: graphic design, Family, Family: Me | Tagged: graphic design, work, working from home | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
I imagine other people have typical evenings like this: come home from work, eat dinner together, watch some TV, go to bed.
I’m not sure if Jason and I have EVER had an evening like that. We’re always running around doing this or that … working late, running to the hardware store or grocery store, doing freelance graphic design or music recording projects. Sometimes we eat dinner together but it’s often at 8 or 9. And maybe one night a week we catch up on our favorite shows through Hulu (24, The Office, Modern Family). Our wind-down-relax time rarely starts before 11pm.
The other night I was thinking about what a “typical” night looks like for us and I decided to snap a picture of what we were both doing right before our late dinner break.
Jason was installing a new bowl sink in the guest bathroom. The teal glass one was pretty but impractical – it has about 7 chips in after 3 years. (Only one of which was made by Jason or me.)
I was cutting and packaging wedding invitation orders for my etsy shop.
Will we ever have simple evenings and neat-and-tidy lives? Probably not. That’s why I’m one good beach vacation away from a quarter life crisis.
7 Comments | Art, Art: graphic design, Art: interior design, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends, Family: Me | Tagged: freelance, home projects, typical evening, work | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
I’m tired of typing and retyping this story so I’m going to copy this from an e-mail I wrote Tuesday. In short, Lucy was attacked by 2 pit bulls who got loose Monday morning. In trying to rescue her, while the owner was trying to get control of her dogs, my right hand got cut, punctured & bruised and my right knee got scraped up. Lucy is miraculously unhurt. (Seriously, this must be a miracle!) and I’m confident my hand and knee will be fine in a few days. It could have been so much worse. Thank God it wasn’t!
Here’s long story of what happened. Our friends Leila and Jeremy live down the road and around the corner from us. Their house was slowly flooding on Sunday. J is out of the country but on his way home now. We helped Leila on Sunday get out some of her most important items out, move most of the cars/scooters out before they got flooded, etc. Sunday night at 11pm the water was just about at the foundation line (but several feet deep in the yard). Monday morning when I woke up I decided to walk Lucy down to their house to see how things had changed. The water had come up about 4′ and stayed that way most of yesterday.
Right after Lucy and I got down to the edge of the water a neighbor’s two pit bulls got loose out of their back yard and starting charging at Lucy and I. The owner was in her front yard. She yelled “Pick up your dog!” as she took off running after them. In my 2 or 3 seconds to react I decided that picking up Lucy would probably result in me being knocked down by the two dogs that probably each weigh as much as me. They just sniffed for a second and then started jumping on her and biting. It was so scary. I just kept yelling “No! No!” at the dogs. It was probably only a matter of 30 seconds before the owner got her dogs under control. I was trying to pull Lucy away. She was trying to pull her dogs back and at one point, as I tried to pull one of the dogs off of Lucy my right hand made contact with teeth.
I scooped Lucy up right away. Another friend and neighbor was there and I asked if I could put Lucy in her car so she could take us somewhere. Right about that time Leila and her brother Nate pulled up (coming to check on the house). I asked them to take us back home to survey what had happened. Blood was dripping and I was sure Lucy had been cut somewhere. I mean – I could see the dogs mouths around her – I was right there! But we couldn’t find any cuts or puncture wounds on her anywhere. Besides being in shock and pooping and puking for a few minutes, she seemed totally fine.
My hand stopped bleeding pretty quickly and within a few minutes my parents came over and my nurse-mama cleaned me up and bandaged up my hand. I also scrapped up my knee pretty bad on the concrete. This morning Lucy and I are both pretty sore and moving a little slow but she still seems to be fine. My fingers are a little bruised and swollen and I’m taking antibiotics to prevent inflection. It could have been so much worse and I really think it’s a miracle that Lucy is OK. I’m confident my hand will be fine in a few days.
5 Comments | Family, Family: Lucy, Family: Me | Tagged: dog attack, dog bite, Lucy, pit bulls | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
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Graphic designer, MCM interior design enthusiast, wife to amazing guitarist and hard working realtor, mama—by way of foster care, adoption and biology—and follower of Jesus Christ.
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