In need of pillows...

We need pillows. We bought new family room furniture in December and have been wanting new pillows ever since. These are the pillows they came with:

As you can understand, I want different pillows...new, beautiful, colorful pillows. I would love a couch full of pillows like the ones they display at Pottery Barn:
So, I've been looking around a new pillows. I would like some neutral colored pillows, as well as some colors that coordinate with the room (reds, blues, khakis, yellows, etc.) I got some new placemats the other day and I love the colors in them!
Here are some pillows I have been looking at (aka just window shopping as we can't afford to splurge on pillows right now). I love how this one is neutral and also has a little bit of color in it:

Pottery Barn

I love the shape and colors of this one:

Pottery Barn

I've always loved their solid textured linen pillows with buttons:

Pottery Barn

Love this one!

Pottery Barn

Things with birds are so popular lately:

Pottery Barn

I love the idea of something monogrammed too:

Pottery Barn

Pottery Barn

Pottery Barn

I saw these the other day at some different stores...

Home Goods

Target

Target

Maybe I can update you again down the road if/when we finally do get new pillows. Why are pillows so expensive?!

A few little recipes...

Here are a couple recipes from this week of cooking -

Grilled Chicken and Corn Salad with Avocado and Parmesan - from Real Simple

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

3 cloves garlic

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 chicken breasts

3 ears of corn

lettuce

1 avocado sliced

shaved parmesan

Whisk together the lemon juice, rosemary, garlic, 3 tablespoons of the oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Use half to marinade the chicken and the other half as the salad dressing.

The recipe said to grill the chicken, but it was storming here so I just threw it in the oven with some extra rosemary and lemon.

The thunder was so loud that Ruby got scared and stood perfectly still in the kitchen while I cooked. I think she was too scared to move. Poor dog.

Banana Muffins with Walnuts and Wheat Germ from Eating for Pregnancy

this recipe is a good source of protein, folic acid, faiber, iron, vit c and b :)

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup regular flour

1/3 cup wheat germ

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

3 mashed bananas

Heat oven to 350 and spray muffin cups

Mix together flours, wheat germ, baking soda, salt and walnuts.

In another bowl combine sugar, oil, eggs and milk. Add bananas then add the dry mixture.

Divide into muffin pan and bake 25 mins for regular size muffins or 10 mins for mini muffins.

Gingersnaps - from the Junior League of Gwinnett and North Fulton Counties

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ginger
3/4 cup butter-flavor shortening
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
sugar to roll cookies in

Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger together. Cream the shortening and 1 cup of sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the molasses and egg and beat well. Add the flour mixture and mix well. Roll into small balls, adding additional flour if necessary to make the dough easy to handle. Dip in sugar and place 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks.

I've Got My Eye on You

So what do you do when you get a fancy new camera? You take weird pictures. On Friday we (really Brett) received a brand new, awesome camera in the mail. He was required to have one for his program - to take closeup pics of implants and other dental procedures to add to his portfolio.

Luckily, I will reap the benefits of this shmancy new toy on the weekends when it's not at the clinic. On Friday we fiddled around with our new pride and joy and the different lenses. Here's a little Monday game for you - can you guess who's who?

I will give you a hint: We had a wonderful, wonderful visit from one of you lovely ladies this past weekend.

Zebra, Tiger, or Pin, Oh My! - I'm Obsessed with Stripes

So, I have a bold obsession. It's stripes! I'm predisposed to love the classic jail bird's uniform, I think. Or, I should be a referee. Tash, this is a new obsession of mine but I am channeling you at every turn, the girl well ahead of her time, who was also obsessed with striped shirts when we were in elementary school. I get it. They rock. They're clean, bold, graphic and provide texture in a print form that I find less intimidating to mix in with other colors or other prints. Especially black and white stripes (which you'll see plenty of to follow) - they are everywhere in my house and wardrobe and go with just about anything. I use them a lot in professional graphic design work I do as well.

| | | | Stripes are the new 'black!' | | | |

I propose a focused house tour to illustrate my obsession through my striated lens.

Here is our guest room and home to one of our striped mates. These are our new guest beds, for those I've been talking to about my West Elm issues (another post entirely). We went with two IKEA slipper chairs with fitted slipcovers that conceal and convert to be two twin beds! They are firm, but comfy ...so we hear from family and friends who have enjoyed them since they found their way into our house.
Our Living Room (with our new amazing my-total-favorite chair - a gift from Mom + Dad!). Our rug is striped and one of our posters is as well (designed by Bruce Mau for Yale School of Architecture lecture series). Also, one of the pillows on our couch is striped-pattern sweedish goodness from IKEA. Their designers make the coolest graphic patterned textiles and fabrics. I'm dreaming of lots of pillows and slip covers I could make with all that affordable awesomeness.
Our bar gets jazzed up to match the house too. It turns out stripes are a slippery slope. This was a bday present gifted to my sweet recently. Is that a striped lampshade? it is. it gives off a wonderfully subtle striped glow for our entryway when you turn it on. Yes, this is becoming a rather bold obsession. I also love the bulb-like blown glass white base on this little fella. And, its dim-able!
Remember our china hutch that I contact-papered the inside of a few posts back? Well - here she is - look closely - its a disassembled stripe pattern! ahhhh! the humanity - all those lines chopped up and pieced back together every which way!! Even our china has stripes on it when you look closely. Eeeeps! Nope, the kitchen is not safe either. Our backsplash hooked towel rack is a fantasia of stripes too. So is our pair of cooking aprons. We also recently removed wallpaper from our little mudroom (off the kitchen, at our back door to our yard) and painted the walls citron yellow....then we added white stripes. It really brightened up the space and makes the room look taller than it is (those tricky and talented vertical stripes!). Its going to be especially lovely to have cabana stripes to frame views of a snowy backyard come winter. We used Frog Tape to tape out the stripes on the walls. I'd never used this before, but its amazing! It really seals the edges to prevent unwanted seepage but doesn't adhere too strongly to the paint layer you're trying to have stay put. Its great!!
I have some fabric that I am going to make chair cushions out of for two newly rehabbed chairs at our kitchen table (which will be discussed in my next post).

They don't match, but have the same pattern and the colors pick up different elements in the kitchen. I'm on the razor's edge of crazy about lines.... But, every crazy person needs feedback if they want a hope of progress in a positive direction, so let me know if you guys think these will make a cute pair of chair cushions or not! hehe (note that I'm not floating other, non-striped options as replacements....)

And, to end, my favorite pair of socks (comfy bright stripes) and my favorite bag (seriously fancy Rebecca Minkoff stripes).

My ode to lovely lines and the seductive spaces between them concludes!

Until next time, with love from BeanTown. :)

Play Dates

We just got back from a play date with some of our friends and though it was 90+ degrees and quite gnatty out, we had a great time.

I try to go on play dates at least once every two weeks and sometimes every week. It gives me a chance to get out of the house and gives AM time to play with other kiddos and run {or crawl!} off some extra energy.

Though we are in a small town, there is always somewhere to go and this week and last week have been two of my favorites. Last week we went to a place called "Jumpin Jax" and this week we went to the park. Both of these places are inexpensive {Jumpin Jax = $4 and the park = free} and fun.

Its safe to say that AM loves swinging and I think that throughout the fall we will be spending quite some time at the local outdoor parks!! Right now its really hot out and while it was fun, I think it will be more enjoyable once the cooler weather rolls around. One of my friends carries around a spray bottle with water in it and that was perfect for spritzing the kids faces as they ran around and played.

As mentioned, last week we visited with friends at "Jumpin Jax." Though AM is not yet walking, she had fun crawling through all of the bouncy things and chasing the big girls! I got in all of the jumpers with her and helped her bounce around. She would chase after balls, grab them, and try to roll them before a bigger kid would swipe it. Then she would just go on to the next one and start over again. At one point I tried to go down the slide with her...it about killed me trying to climb the ladder while holding her and I am not sure if she enjoyed the slide as much as I did!

Anyhoo, this was the perfect play date as it was inside {so with AC!!} and during the day there was hardly anyone there. I didn't have to worry about little AM getting run over by the big kids and she had a great time!

AM in the pink.

She is at a really fun age and we are enjoying every second of it. She is GREAT playing with other kids and loves sharing her paci with everyone. All of the play dates are not only fun for mommies but also help wear the kiddos out - which only makes nap time that much better!!

Today we got home from the park and I thought she would go straight down for a nap. Instead she is destroying all of my cabinets!!! This would be fine except I have 20 people from work coming over tonight so I am trying to clean up, not pull out!! The pots and pans cabinet is her favorite one as it makes the most racket!

Lastly, at the ripe old age of 10 months and 1 week, I think we finally are about to see our first tooth! Woo hoo!!! I thought I would be the only person on the planet with a 10 year old and no teeth!! ;)

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Ours will be filled with friends, in-law visits and soccer games!

xoxo,
lauren