The Rowdy Pea

spring cleaning

We've been doing our spring cleaning this week, which is one time in the year that I am very thankful to be living in an apartment.  No yard work, no outside work at all, and then as if by magic, beautiful healthy flowers, green, manicured grass, tidy shrubbery and hanging baskets just appear. Oh, wait, it isn't magic after all. We do pay for it when we write our rent check every month. But still, it's pretty painless and the building managers go way over and above any of the standards I would have for my own house. Josh is so looking forward to getting a house once he graduates and we get re-settled in a new place, but I could happily live this way for a while. So much less work! Our spring cleaning consists of opening the windows, re-arranging all the furniture, lots of vacuuming, scrubbing and dusting those little forgotten corners (how can a 1,000 sf apartment have so many forgotten corners!) and just adding some little spring spruce-ups. 

These new junk-hiding curtains were a little spruce-up project for the kitchen. The old ones were a bright African inspired print of red, green, black, yellow, and white, so this pale Amy Butler floral print made a huge difference in our tiny little galley kitchen. 

I also cleared off our kitchen bulletin board which we usually use to hang postcards and photos and artwork and gave it a little Easter egg theme.  Ivo loved it and has spent many moments looking at the eggs. The little shelf is to hold objects that sort of relate to the theme, in this case eggs, but we haven't decorated any yet. Can you tell I made the Easter egg sign with those block-style Stockmar crayons we bought last fall? My handwriting is usually a little nicer than that, but those crayons are clumsy for writing. They do last a long time though.

And one more picture of the nature table, which Ivo has joyfully participated in creating and maintaining. In the foreground of the picture is his St. Patrick's Day present, a shamrock, in a pot painted for him by my awesome friend Molly, and way in the back is our eggshell and moss garden that we copied from The Little Nest.  In between are two little clay nests that we made together, pinch-pot style.  One holds a pompom bird named Quinn Bird that Ivo made a few months ago and has cherished ever since.  In the other is "tiny Wilbur" (borrowed from our Pig Mania game) and an acorn cap ("Wilbur's pillow"). And I also noticed that Ivo re-arranged the two brown bunnies so they are kissing. Sweet!

more paper crafts . . . also a funny kid quote!

If you wondered where it is all of those scraps are coming from, the ones I talked about re-using for Wednesday's project, many of them are coming from these birthday banners I have been making for family and friends.  Have you ever noticed how many people have February birthdays?  I mean besides the Presidents who shall remain nameless, only because I'm not 100% positive that it's Lincoln (*swoon*) and Washington (heh, wooden teeth--yikes!). In our family it's Papa/Josh, our nephew Quinn, My Grampa, Uncle Jason, Uncle Jack, and three little friends, who will all be turning three. I think I may have forgotten a few . . . apologies!! Anyway, I think February must be the best month of all for a birthday. Something festive to look forward to during a sort of "blah!" time of year. And aren't these banners festive:

They are made on double-sided cardstock, too. So they can be hung in mid air--like suspended over one of those super-wide doorways or something--and look pretty from each direction.  Our apartment doesn't really have anywhere to display them, though, except above Ivo's "deli". So he thinks it's his birthday. Is that such a crime? nah.

Here's a funny Ivo quote: I was giving him a bath and said, "Ivo you have the cutest litte belly. It is just adorable." He thought for a minute and then said, "Mama, your belly is NOT cute. It is big and wavy. It is BEAUTIFUL." big, wavy, beautiful? Too bad it's not my hair he's talking about! But I'll take it anyway :)

the nightmare before crafting

Just keepin' it real for ya.  Does somebody want to nominate me for an Extreme Makeover?  I promise next week to post an "after" picture--now please hold me accountable, someone.

Oh and it's a shop update day.  So you could say out of chaos comes cuteness.  Not honking my own horn here, but these are my kids, right? I'm allowed to think they're cute.

They'll be up in my etsy shop at 11:00 am CST, with a few other goodies.  Have a good day everyone :)

our autumn nature table is here

I love this time of year.  Tonight, in the spirit of the season,I made a chicken pot pie from scratch with a top and a bottom crust. The crust turned out a bit wonky but the house smelled so yummy.  Josh and Ivo had two helping apiece, with Ivo leaving a tidy pile of peas, carrots, and parsnips at the bottom of is bowl.  Tomorrow we are having friends over for a fall art party so I hope to post pictures of that later this week.  Happy almost-autumn to everyone (unless you are expecting spring, that is.  I love having bloggy friends from around the world!!)

corners of my home: the view from ivo's bed

I used to feel really conflicted about having such a night owl kid, but ever since Ivo's had a nice big bed of his own, and a peaceful, playful space to relax and unwind, I've just let it go.  There are times when it is so late, like one a.m. or later, and he is just hard at work with his pattern blocks or one of his puzzles, or having a conversation with his stuffed lynx or playing papa to his baby doll, Peter, and I just feel blessed to be able to accommodate his own style of learning and living.  He does some of his most creative and engrossing work late at night.  Like his dad.  Not so much like me. Which is why it is such a wonderful thing to have a full-sized bed in Ivo's room.  It's perfect for snuggling together and reading stories, and sometimes I get so cozy I just spend the night. And he plays and plays as I drift off to sleep, eventually cuddling up next to me and nodding off.  We don't even keep a clock in the room, which is a nice reminder that for right now we have the luxury of not keeping time.

I fell in love with those bird cards from eeboo when I worked in a toy shop and bought them with my discount, and Ivo loves his "tree" which appeared in our yard one morning after a wind storm.  The little green lamp is such a treasure.  I don't know where my mom picked it up but it somehow ended up as mine and I find it very charming. The little pails to the left of the lamp spell out I-V-O with vintage reproduction alphabet stickers. They were a gift from my sister and Ivo keeps all of his tiny treasures in them.

But my favorite things are the little playtime scenes that appear on this tabletop.  There is always something new going on here, and it always makes me smile.  Signs that wheels are turning, ideas are being carried out, and creativity is afoot.  At two in the afternoon or two in the morning, it's good stuff all the same.

corners of my home: perfectly imperfect christmas scene

Well, this is a far cry from the Victorian Christmas Special I grew up in the midst of, but its the best I can do this year.  We are enjoying having our tree up, especially Ivo who loves to arrange and rearrange the lights and ornaments.  Our collection of Christmas books is growing by the year, which is nice to see.  We all love a good Christmas story (well I do anyway).  That triangle light on the right is made out of baby-food jars and a string of colored lights.  Genius! I can say that because I didn't make it.  It's meant to go on a windowsill, facing out, but Ivo loves to look at it so we put it somewhere he can enjoy it.  That's a cat-scratching post covered in an antique doily-thingy from my mom.  It's not the Ritz but we try our best!   And those adorble hand-knit stockings were made by a family friend for my sister and me when we were little girls. They even have little knit santas peeking out the top so they won't have to sit empty until Christmas Eve.  Oh, and please ignore the heinous verticle blinds. (Lord knows I try to!)

And since it is Sunday, here is my Slow Cookin' recipe of the week.  It's been awhile so I decided to do something simple: Throw one box of prepared wild rice meatballs in the crockpot, cook on high for two hours, add a jar of marinara and a good splash of red wine and cook for another hour or so.  Done!  Serve with french bread, cheese, veggies and dip, and more wine. Doesn't get an easier than that.

corners of my home

This is a very special place in our home.  It's where our days begin and end, where we go for stories or to have a nice chat or a cuddle.  The structure on the right is called "cozy house", but Ivo just calls it "home".  It's a special refuge within the refuge of our home, and we spend many happy hours there just snuggling, relaxing, and reading side-by-side or together.  Sometimes if Ivo is overcome by toddler frusteration, he makes a mad dash for "home" and just dives into the pillows.  Other times it is the first place he wants Josh to go when he gets home from work.  We have even been known to have popcorn parties in cozy house, where we stay up late listening to our favorite cds and goofing around.  Then Ivo spends the next few days foraging for rogue popcorn kernals in the blankets of cozy house. He's his daddy's boy I guess.  And here they are reading The Story of Babar together. Josh finds the whole premise of Babar highly objectionable, but reads it anyway because Ivo loves it so. What a guy.

There is a wonderful flickr group called corners of my home that I have been thinking of joining.  The intention of the group is to share little places in our homes that evoke some type of emotional response--joy or peacefulness are the examples given. I love the idea of sharing the parts of our homes that speak to us spiritually and make the home feel like an extension of ourselves. Whether they are carefully cultivated or just sort of emerge organically, they are the places that make your heart just say "ahhhh . . . home sweet home."  And I think it is such a warm gesture to share those special spots with others in the group, to inspire and to offer a peek into the endless variation on the theme of what makes a home feel so homey.

My only real problem is that we (or I) have moved eight times in the past ten years, which has not been very conducive to creating a homey atmosphere. Currently we are renting an apartment near the university that is spacious but lacking in those little architectural details that are so charming and homey-looking.  What do they call it, character?  The house I grew up in was chock-full of character and I took it for granted.  Now it is the number-one thing I hope for in a house.  Double-hung energy-saver windows? bah. A leaded-glass window? sold! Good thing we aren't house-shopping right now. But most of the time I focus on feeling beyond blessed by the home we do have, which is warm, safe, dry, and in good repair.  And best of all it's filled with love and happy times.