Phone Photo Friday

02/03/2012

I work with a fun bunch of people. But you wouldn’t necessarily know it since we’re generally over-worked and grumpy. Every now and then, though, our boss pushes us into some forced fun. He returned from the annual general managers meeting at corporate glowing with pride and stack of awards for our office. Following our year in review meeting, we all carpooled over to the bowling alley to celebrate a fabulous 2011. The only catch—it was right smack in the middle of my deadline time at work, when I have the perfect storm of three magazines due within 2 weeks. I debated whether or not to go but ultimately decided that free food was worth an extra long lunch break. Besides I would be coming in early and working late either way. Turns out knocking things down with a big heavy ball is great for stress relief. Plus it’s nice to get off the ole rolling chair and get a little exercise. I can’t say my day was healthy over all—I had pizza for lunch and dinner, two dr. peppers, a cup of tea and a cappuccino that day. My only redemption was a bowl of multi-grain Cheerios for breakfast. (Thanks Mom!) All in all, though, hitting the bowling alley with my co-workers made a crappy day into a good day. Bonus: check out this vintage bowling alley sign. Isn’t it gorgeous?

1 Comment | Art, Art: mid-century design, Art: Phone Photo Friday, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

“Have fun!”

02/02/2012

I come from a long line of worriers through my mom’s side. When my mom was growing up, every time she’d leave the house her parents would call out one last warning, “Be careful!” The world is a scary, dangerous place. Because of the fear it instilled, my parents made a point to be different. When we’d leave for school in the morning, go out on a date, or take off with friends for a sleepover, instead of saying, “Be careful!” they’d smile and say, “Have fun!”

I’ve always made a point of doing the same. People often tell me, “Be careful!” when I’m leaving… my boss, friends, Jason’s boss as Precious and I were leaving for the Tampa airport last week. And I answer back, “Ok… Have fun!” Because, really, we’re always careful, smart, calculated, paying attention, right? But what really helps to counter the anxiety that starts creeping up before a big adventure is a reminder to have fun.

So, wherever you’re going: Have fun!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Mother-Daughter Adventure #1

02/01/2012

Precious and I went on a big adventure last week. Jason was in Florida for 12 days on tour so we decided we’d join him for a few days in the Tampa area. I’ve flown alone with a toddler once (Ladybug) so that probably took the edge off my fears, but it was still a little scary flying into an unfamiliar airport, renting a car and driving to meet Jason all on my own. Thankfully, Precious is an AHHHMAZING traveler! I didn’t really expect anything different since she’s super easy-going and happy in general, but wow. Not bothered by the pressure in the airplane. (She was sleepy and yawning through both flights and had a bottle as we started descending.) Not bothered by sitting in the Florida heat watching me wrestle with the rental car seat for 20 minutes. Not bothered by sleeping on hotel beds, cribs at random churches, or on the floor of the green room. Not bothered by all the strangers ooohing and ahhhing at her. Not bothered by getting shown off from stage in front of hundreds of people. (I was nervous as heck, though!) Not bothered by missing a nap here and there. Ok, maybe that did bother her a little bit… She had a few, “Hey, I’m freakin’ tired over here!” melt-downs but considering all we did, she did awesome. Best tiny travel companion ever.

Oh, and it’s wasn’t JUST a mother-daughter adventure, of course. We had a great time hanging out with Jason and the guys. Precious and I arrived in Tampa on Saturday and flew back to Nashville on Wednesday. The first three days were show days for the guys so us girls just went along with whatever they were doing and tried to stay out of the way. Tuesday and Wednesday were off days, though, so we all headed south to Sarasota and booked a night at Lido Beach Resort. It was gorgeous! The weather was perfect. Highs in the upper 70s to low 80s, sunny, breezy with lower humidity the whole time we were there. Precious had a nasty first experience at the beach. Right after we sat her down and took a picture, she face-planted into the sand. Sand was in her eyes, nose, mouth, ears. Poor baby girl! I took her into the pool to rinse off and she was happy again. It was her first time at the beach and her first time in the pool. I’m determined to get her swimming unassisted by floatation devices next summer (when she’ll be 2). We’ll be in the pool A LOT this summer since we’ll be living at my parents’ house. Knowing how to swim is a life skill and “waterproofing” is not an option in our family—all kids must learn to swim as soon as possible. Anyway, enough about all that. On with the pictures.

Right after we arrived, watching Daddy set up for sound check:

Representin’ Guy Penrod with the onesie my co-worker made for her:

Packed house at this one…lots of Q-tips

Pretty Spanish moss everywhere. It’s so romantic.

And palm trees everywhere too.

We’re happier than we look…the sun was just so bright!

Bare feet!!! I love Precious’ chubby little toes.

Outside the door of our room at Lido Beach Resort:

Lunch poolside:

First time in the sand at the beach…right before “the incident”…

The pool makes it all better

We ate dinner at the nationally reknown Columbia restaurant. It was as fabulous as everyone said it would be. I found it hilarious that all the guys pulled out their cameras to take a picture of our stone crab appetizer before we started eating it.

We stayed out of the sand the second day and everyone was happy

It was a short trip during a very busy season of our lives…but oh so worth it! Thank you, Lord!

1 Comment | Art, Art: God's creation, Art: music, Family, Family: Jason, Family: Me, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

SOLD!

01/31/2012

We got a contract on our house last night! For our asking price minus some closing costs. I’m thankful. Relieved. And honestly, sad. It’s been an exhausting week (wait, it’s only Tuesday?) so maybe I’m a little extra emotional. I really do love this house. As I was looking for a picture to put with this post, I saw so many projects we’ve done here…our master bathroom, Jason’s studio, landscaping, the fireplace. And there are thousands of memories here from the last 5 years, especially from last year as our family grew from two to three to two and back to three. It’s bittersweet. Even more so than I expected.

Our new house will be nice and most importantly, it’ll have room for more kids we can reach as foster parents. I’m looking forward to the whole process of designing and building a home. But I feel like it’s extra hard to say goodbye to one house when we don’t have another house to move into. I love the character and quirks of our old house and “new” scares me a little bit. I don’t know anything about the buyer except that she seems to really like the house. I hope she appreciates it as much as we do. I hope she likes to garden and is happy with the updates we did.

We’ll be staying with my parents during the transition period—several of you have asked. They also live in our neighborhood so we’ll be close to the new house as it’s being constructed. We’ll be gradually packing up and moving out in February. I know I’ll be so consumed with the next season that soon I’ll detach from this one, but for today I just want to savor this old house a little longer.

8 Comments | Art, Art: mid-century design, Art: Old House Favorites | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

The Best Time to Buy a Winter Coat

01/30/2012

…is probably the end of the winter, right? Much to my mom’s dismay, we’ve managed to get through the winter thus far without a winter coat for Precious. She has a giant snowsuit that my mom bought her but we’re tired of wrestling with it to get her into the car seat, especially since the majority of her van rides are under 10 minutes. Next year, however, Precious will be a toddler, a year a half old, the age/size of Ladybug (hard to believe!)…and she’ll need a proper winter coat. Since she’s growing an inch a week (it seems), I decided to hunt down a unisex, warm, hooded coat that Precious can wear next year and we can reuse for our future kids. It was surprisingly difficult to find a unisex (ie. boys) coat that was all one gender-neutral color…yellow, red, black, green, gray, brown. After a small bit of research, I decided on London Fog. I was pleased to find this artichoke green jacket on sale for just $18 and free shipping. Score! (Extra bonus: It came the NEXT day!)

It’s 2T size so it should be perfect next winter. And, she can even wear it for the last month of winter this year, too. Happy, Mom?

As someone who lives in an artichoke colored house and loves artichokes on pizza and pasta, I do with this “artichoke” was a little more yellowish green like the website images and a little less hunter green. I’ll just have to dress it up with a girly hat and mittens next year.

4 Comments | Art, Art: fashion, Family, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Phone Photo Friday

01/27/2012

1 Comment | Art, Art: Phone Photo Friday, Family, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Precious: Monthly Portrait 6

01/26/2012

Little girl, it’s hard to believe you are already half a year old! Happy 6 Months, Choongie. You still seem like a tiny baby until I look back at your pictures from September when you joined our family. You’ve changed so much. And my arms and back can verify that you’re getting heavier. In fact, you’ve already grown out of most of your 6-month size clothes—especially the pants and sleepers. Shortly after Christmas (and your 5 month birthday) you started sitting up on your own. Now your balance has improved so much that you’ve started rolling from your back to belly and back more frequently. The same week you started saying Dada for real. We’re not sure if you know what it means yet, but you get a positive response when you say it, especially from your Daddy. When he kisses your cheeks you still get a speckled red rash from his prickly face and everyone can tell he’s been kissing on you. Now that you’re 6 months old, we have the go-ahead from your doctor to start you on solid foods. We’ve shelved the bland rice cereal and moved on to avocado and carrots. There are sweet potatoes and bananas waiting in the wings. It’s fun to watch your reaction to new tastes. You’re still sleeping like a champ through the night, even though teething pain wakes you up from time to time. You’re great at putting yourself back to sleep sucking your thumb. You’ve been napping less, sometimes just two naps a day now for an hour or two a piece. It’s getting harder to get anything done when you’re awake because you’re so much fun to play with!

1 Comment | Family, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Bathroom Vanity Inspiration

01/25/2012

I was over on House*Tweaking the other day and I got some inspiration for bathroom vanities in our new house. Floating is nice but I’m a sucker for storage. I like these options, as long as their is enough counter space built around the sink. I think they’re both from IKEA.

Source: housetweaking.com via Martina on Pinterest

I’m generally not a fan of double sinks in master bathrooms but this might be good in a kids/guest bathroom where people aren’t as good at sharing.

Source: housetweaking.com via Martina on Pinterest

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Homemade Baby Food

01/24/2012

It sounds really complicated but really Homemade Baby Food is just fancy words for softened (steamed, baked, mashed), blended food frozen into small portions. It’s easy and it’s inexpensive. For Christmas, Precious got this wonderful Baby Bjorn bib that my friend recommended. It’s made from a stiff silicon-ish material so the food catching lip doesn’t collapse. Also, the neck is adjustable so it will fit for a while. Perfect for Precious’ reintroduction to solid foods. (We started on rice cereal at 4 months old but neither of us was really ready yet. Now, at 6 months she’s ready. And I am, too.)

She also got some great Oxo Tot baby food freezing containers for Christmas. Oxo is my all-time favorite kitchen gadget brand. This Oxo Tot freezer tray pretty much just looks like any old ice cube tray but it has a lid—a pretty green lid—with a special function. It’s curved at the ends so you can dump just one ice cube out at a time. Smart, huh? It makes 1 oz. portions. Perfect for introducing new foods. Once the cubes are all frozen, I’ve been popping them into freezer bags so I can label and date them.

The Oxo Tot baby blocks six pack tray and 2 oz. containers are handy for taking larger portions on the go. I haven’t seen these in action yet but the first batch of pureed carrots is freezing right now. So far I have made avocado, carrots and bananas for Precious. Next on my list are sweet potatoes, green beans, broccoli, apples and pears. I’m curious to hear from you: What were the first foods you fed your kids? What foods were their favorites? Did you make baby food at home, blend up whatever you were eating or buy baby food pre-made?

7 Comments | Art, Art: Cooking, Family, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Things I Love About This House – Wood Paneling

01/23/2012

One bedroom in our house—the kids room—has wood paneling. Thankfully, it was already painted when we moved in. I wouldn’t choose it for my new house but I have thoroughly enjoyed the texture it creates on the walls, the striped effect. Also, it’s solid wood which makes hanging art and shelving super easy—hooray for no hollow wall anchors!

Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: kids room, Art: mid-century design, Art: Old House Favorites | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

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