still baking - and no power!

So we ate out and then had half-melted ice cream. Yum!












picasion.com

andiamo!

Miles enjoyed practicing Italian and piano with Papa.

baking

We have a knack for visiting during hot spells. Thank goodness for friends with pools!







Miles' first popsicle: Disappointment

namma & papa's

First day at Namma and Papa's house and Miles gets right to work.

Taking care of the yard waste:




Explaining to Namma and Papa why the yard waste was dumped back in the yard:




Cleaning up his pile:


And relaxing:

inspired

Try to keep up with this timeline, it moves really quickly.

For Christmas last year, Chachi gave me a gift certificate to Succulence, to take a vertical gardening class.

In May, I took this class (see, moving fast) and made this:


I was really inspired by the class to make a bigger vertical garden, and one suggestion was to use a pallet, which are often free on Craigslist. The end result:
http://www.designsponge.com/2011/09/diy-project-recycled-pallet-vertical-garden.html

I found a pallet, which required borrowing a friend's suv to bring home. And now it's been sitting in the backyard for mumblemumble months. I might have been a bit ambitious...



So, plan B. I'll return the pallet to the Craigslist sphere, and start smaller.

We removed this grate from the window of the back door when the house was painted. Step one: spray paint!





Step two: add chicken wire backing and then stuff with moss. Check back soon, we're moving at the speed of light here.

portrait of the artist as a young preschooler

Miles is getting creative with his photography.

Ps & Qs

After a (chaotic but) nice dinner with the playgroup gang, we wandered down the street to check out a friend's band. So.Much.Fun!

(click to watch video)

summer 'do

Time to get this mop cleaned up! Especially if we're going to spend some time back east, where it's actually warm in the summer.







Much better!

last day of school

Well, really it's just the last day of the spring program. We'll continue through the summer, but we'll have new kids in class and a new teacher.

my first ikea hack

I love this website. My project isn't exactly a hack, but let's say it is anyway.

I spent about 20 minutes in Ikea during my last shopping trip picking various plates, serving trays, and candle holders, and arranging them in various combinations. I was going for size and shape, rather than pattern, assuming that I would spray paint the whole thing to match.







Too big, too small, too short, too tall. I started to feel like Goldilocks.

But then... just right!


Well, almost. The plates were just the right size. But the candle holder was a little more bling than I was aiming for. So break out the spray paint!

Et voila!

happy father's day!

(Click to watch video.)

(Click to watch video.)

another quiet moment