All About Ava

Here's a quick update on the boss of the place. Literally! She's run me ragged these past few weeks and I think she knows it! I'm wiped out, friends.

Ava has been working on her new words and phrases like a champ! Here is just some of the new things I hear all day, every day:
-"et's go ow-side" or "let's go outside!!!"
-"sh-icken" or "chicken"
-"da-dee" or "daddy". no more "da!"
-"mommy turn" (for when we're "taking turns")
-"of you" or "love you"
-"hug"
-"yucky"
-"tubby now?"
-"okay"...."okay, okay, okay..." lots and lots of "OKAY!"
-"rocks"
-"bugs" (we love finding rocks and bug outside. LOVE.)
-"pants", "bow", "shirt", "sock", and "shoes" are all part of her daily vocabulary.
Hmmm, that's about all I can think of now, she's working on new ones daily so it's hard to keep up!!!

(***And, Yes. It's okay if I brag about Ava. My blog. My brag.***)

I guess those are the new biggies? My mind is mush... I will say hearing her say "of-you" is about the best thing, ever.

She's also all about pointing out letters EVERYWHERE, or in her case, "ABC's". We've discovered shapes like "circle", "i-angle" (triangle), "quare" (square), and the oh so famous, "star"!. We're also big on colors. She's got the basics down, red-orange-yellow-green-blue, but the absolute favorite is definitely PINK. She finds pink things EVERYWHERE. Pink! Pink! Pink! We've been doing great with reading stories. Before she was interested in flipping through the pages but now she'll sit for a pretty decent size story that I read aloud to her. Sometimes over and over...and over! :) Ava is also a big sorter these days. She likes the farmer toys to be with the farmer toys and then blocks to be with the blocks. She's quite organized! Lately, when she's getting dressed each morning and then into her pj's at night, she likes to give her ensemble a quick once-over just to see what she's rocking out in. She likes it when there is some sort of a character, like a princess or a frog, that she can call out when she sees it. Oh, and if there is some "abc's" on the front, that's a big plus too. She loves to "cow-er" and "urn page" with her crayons. In less exciting news I've laid the hammer down with this whole eating business. Basically, I make a meal and she either eats it, or she doesn't. Today we have some toast with strawberry jelly and peaches on the side. Bust. Then she had some grilled cheese for lunch with peaches on the side. Bust. Dinner is set to be spaghetti and meat sauce and some bread with butter. Which, surely, will be a bust. My frustration is that Ava won't even TRY it. She lives on chicken fingers and that has got to stop. WIsh me luck as this first day is proving to be unsuccessful.

Okay, so my girl is doing great and I love sharing her awesomeness with anyone who will listen. Ugh. I'm officially one of those parents! Be sure to check out my FB videos!!! Lots to dance routines to see on there!!!!!!

House Becoming A Home

Here are some new pieces I just ordered this week. Things are moving along!!! Curt has given me free reign to get this place in order (within reason, of course) so I've been a busy bee in regards to getting some random odds and ends. I'm about to take on the task of measuring for curtains and hanging something simple, yet dramatic enough, to make our large window in the kitchen have some life into it! I'm thinking some sort of a chocolate brown micro-suede material. We're both anti curtain, so this is a big step for us!

I found my beautiful wrought iron table online, as if there was ever any doubt, and it's going to get here next Wednesday. I've honestly never been so excited about a piece of furniture in my entire life.


Here are the other things I just bought this morning and should be arriving over the next few weeks.

I saw this mirror and instantly knew I had to have it. There are so many places it would fit just perfectly so I'm not sure where it will ultimately hang, but again, I love it.


So, I'm learning that I really, really, REALLY have a thing for wrought iron furniture. I just gravitate towards anything with some iron on it and have a lot of trouble looking away! We were in search of a computer desk for some time now and I'm glad I stumbled across this one. It had the option of coming with 2 drawers instead of 4 but we're all about functionality as well as overall appearance. So, this should work out great in the office. Plus, it will match the antique bookcase we bought in England. SOLD!


Yes, I need a full length mirror. NEED. You can only imagine my disappointment when I realized that they didn't have one to go along with the full bedroom set we just bought. Our BR furniture is quite dark in finish so although I knew it'd be difficult to match something completely, I think this will get pretty close.


I can't wait to take some pictures of the house once it's all finished! I'm pretty proud of myself for taking this on without second guessing my choices. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be very happy with the final result.

(The console table was purchased at homelivingstyle.com and the other three pieces were found at homedecorators.com. I was pretty impressed with the prices as homedecorators, not too bad! The console table? Well, lets just say that took some convincing on my part in order to get Curt on board. He actually really likes it and believe it or not, he'd sooner pay $$$ for a quality piece as opposed to $ for a cheap-o, junky piece.)

My Closet Inspiration

When Curt and I first got married, he learned pretty quickly how many magazines I always buy on a weekly basis. the first thing he did was get me some subscriptions so I wasn't paying full price! Any way, he saw how I essentially started hoarding them all in my room in an effort to hold onto the ones that had things inside of the that I really liked, which was a lot. Ummm, let's just say he made his thoughts on that stack of InStyle's pretty quickly so to keep everyone happy, instead of keeping the entire magazines I began ripping out the pages that I really liked.

Introducing: "The Book". (Clever, I know.) Those of you that don't really take an interest into clothing, accessories, etc., are going to find this a bit weird and boring. However, we each have our own "weird" obsessions and this just happens to be mine. So of you might day dream about fixing up houses, some of you may day dream about scrap booking, and then of course we have the big cookers and bakers and crafters out there. Me? I like the clothes, the bags, the jewels... That's me, and that's what I like. Correction. That's what I love.

So, here she is. It's, of course, broken down into categories and sections and organized ever so perfectly so I can reference particular things at different times. Sometimes, if I'm bored, I just go through the entire thing...front to back...and gaze at all the lovely things I've collected. I'm...actually...serious.


I've been updating the book the past few days with some new pages I've collected and also because I was searching for a couple new dresses. (For those of you that really know me, I KNOW, I already have enough dresses.) We have TONS of things coming up over the next few months so I wanted to see if there was anything out there that caught my eye. Well, there is. There's a lot.

I'm seriously loving a lot of neutrals with some subtle, and not so subtle, embellishments. These are all completely out of my price range but like pottery barn, I see what I want, and then try to find it at a reasonable price.




This is the one I walked away with. I'm seriously about to go back and get this beauty in black, too, because the price was a steal! I can totally picture this dress with a really pretty pearl cluster necklace like the one on Kim Raver and my hair in a loose side bun like Mischa. Hmmm, tough decisions, I know! :) You see! Saving my favorite pictures really helps with my brainstorming!





I tried to include some of my favorite pictures from my book but blogger is being a big, slow, pain in my rear. So... Not tonight.

I'm off to sleep but I hope to get up my post about Relay this past weekend! I have a couple great pictures to share with you. Oh, and if you're feeling like you need a little Ava fix, feel free to check out the 50 million videos I put on FB the past few days. I have a big Ava post coming up too! She's got lots of new things to share with everyone!!!

A Big Milestone

Now, this may not seem like a big milestone to most of you out there but I, on the other hand, am pumped to say that yesterday was the first time I was able to put Ava in some of her very first PIGTAILS. Oh man, let the fun begin! She, of course, ripped them out the second she saw her reflection (in the oven door, mind you) but still, at least I know it's possible!!! I'm going to have to get some of those really small rubber bands to put in there so it's harder for her to rip them out and so that the stay nice and snug for as long as possible. Of course in order for her to sit still, I let her dump all the other hair ties all over the floor. Eh, whatever works...for now!


More importantly, as far as milestones are concerned, AVA ATE CHICKEN. The girl LOVES HER SOME CHICKEN. Aahh, the joy I find in knowing that she's finally starting to branch out. CHICKEN, people. CHICKEN!

Hmmm, what else. Lately Ava's been obsessed with a couple things. Counting, everything. The steps she takes, the toys she has, the pages in her books... I mean, if it can be counted, she's all over it. We're all the way up to 11! The second thing she's all about it colors. I'd like to say she's one of those kiddos that says, "yay-ohh" instead of "yellow". But, no, friends. She's very articulate with her l's and it comes out oh-so-delicately, "yellow". It's still pretty darn cute if you ask me. We like to go through our ring stack and proudly exclaim each colors respective name. "Boo, Geen, YELLOW, Orge, Red". Rinse and repeat....repeat, repeat, REPEAT. I also really love watching her put her "ba-bee" into the bumbo and she makes her way over to the Elmo kitchen, fixes the baby a snack, and then feeds her. SO COOL. She LOVES the "Mar-Mer", better known to us as a "Farmer" and all his little buddies. Other than that she's still climbing, running, splashing, hopping, skipping, jumping...she's on the go! Where's Da??? Mommy's tired!!! But, overall, I think my favorite thing she does now is when she carries her shopping basket around like a purse and just prances around the toy room. (Hmmm, where did she learn that???) :) My little own mini-me. Evidently I've been shopping with Ava quite a bit lately because when we get to the check out she says, "Money"! Ha! Yup, time for the money.

Her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. Lots of two word sentences when she's asking me for something, or, better known as ordering me around. BOSSY!!! :) She loves to get my attention by yelling, "mommy! watch!" or telling me "there it is" and "what's this?". I seriously can't take it how quickly this is happening. The best is when she looks at her picture and says, "Aaah-Vaaa" for "Ava".

(Just Because... A New Bathing Suit!!!! Man, I love Target.)

For those of you that follow me in FB you know that about 12 hours after Curt let for Utah and Nevada Ava decided to have a nightmare of a virus. Ugh. I'm not sure I'm even ready to talk about it. I called the nurse hotline THREE TIMES in 4 days and went to two doctors appointments. A part of me thinks that this was a reaction to her MMR vaccination that she had a week prior and we just had some trouble recovering for that. She ended up getting some blood work done (nightmare!) and a urinalysis (via catheter, mind you) which was quite the experience to say the least. It was a long week and although I'm still waiting on some lab results, the initial tests showed that she had one small abnormality which implied she had some sort of a viral bug. Whatever it is, I'm glad it's made it's exit. Good riddance!

I've been on a roll lately in regards to crossing things off our "to-do" list for our house. I've made some pretty big/important purchases over the last week or so in hopes of getting some things done and in place by the time Curt gets home. I just ordered a TON of prints from our TLohse sessions and I'm going to have them framed and matted to hang on the walls. Sure, we could hang some "decorative" things on the walls, which I will, but I'm more interested in getting some pictures up of our family! This is finally OUR HOME and I want to do everything I can to make it feel that way. Sure, we may move every three years but there's no reason for us not to make ourselves comfortable in the interim.


Here's a little preview of somethin' I did in the kitchen. Obviously these are the top of our cabinets and I have to say, the angle of this shot isn't that great, but I bought a bunch of stuff from HOMEGOODS (love that place...) and Michael's to try and spice up the kitchen. I love the cathedral ceiling but without anything up on the cabinets, it was lookin' a little sad. If you can't already tell, my decorating style is VERY traditional. I'm all about the dark wood, wrought iron, tans, chocolate browns... You catch my drift. I plan on finishing things up here in a few weeks so I'll be sure to post some pictures of the whole house when we're done. Almost there!!!

I'm excited to have Curt back home in a few days! We miss the Da, big time! I'm happy to say that most big trips on the horizon involve the entire family and it's all about the weddings this year! Both Curt's brother and sister are engaged and we're just so thrilled to be a part everything.

Well, I'm sure I can find something to work on in the house right now and I have about a million and one errands to run so I'll leave you with this. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone out there who helped me with Relay for Life! We're doing our walk this weekend so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and let you know how it turned out.

Nautical Inspiration

So, I'm completely consumed by all things nautical during the summer. I can't get enough of the stripes, the navy and the yellow, the extra attention to detail when simple things like a belt are replaced by a rope, and even when the one pant button becomes replaced with a sailor inspired look of 6 or 8 buttons instead. So, my hatred to summer temperatures aside, I can totally get on board with the fashion that comes with this change in season.

I'm completely obsessed with this Diane Von Furstenburg dress and if I were blessed with Jennifer Lopez and Kourtney Kardashian's bank account, I assure you it would be hangin' pretty in my closet right now.

A Closet Affair

I love my family, I love my friends, I'm thankful for what I have...

But, yes.

I also like the stuff.

So, here's the stuff I can't keep my eyes off of lately.

Tory Burch patent leather croc print revas. Love.


Jennifer Zeuner Initial Pendant Necklace.


Tom Ford Sunglasses - "Jennifer" style.


Hunter Rain Boots in that delicious red color.


Kate Spade Dress, which, by the way, is nowhere to be found. So summery, I love it.

Take Me To New England

As the warm days are coming at us at a more consistent pace, I keep finding myself daydreaming about the days when Curt and I will be making a decision to "retire" and move somewhere of our own choosing. I think most of you know that I'm a northern girl at heart and all but despise the heat and overbearing humidity that is in the south. I just wasn't raised in this kind of a climate and even if I were, I think I'd still prefer to be somewhere north of Pa.

Yep, that's right.

I know that nowhere is perfect, but in my mind, I keep imagining a house for Curt and I somewhere in, maybe, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, even Maine! I'd like to live somewhere close to the coast where you can enjoy a nice (warm, not hot!) summer, but I love the idea of having a brisk, cool fall day and snowy, cold winters. I just crave that kind of weather. And yes, when the summer does roll back around, it's never overbearing and humid with temperatures in the upper 90's and even 100's. I mean, really? 100 degrees? Where are we, the desert?

So, if I could be neighbors with Ina Garten, stroll the streets of Boston in the Fall, walk the beaches and sight see in Martha's vineyard on the weekends in the summer, I'd be one happy camper.

Welcome to my "Happy Place". I'm sure these pictures look like they fell out a JCrew catalog (pre Jenna Lyons, of course).

Now, where'd I put my ruby red slippers?

"There's no place like home, there's no place like home..."














PS: Like my JCrew advertisement? Ha! If they're selling a lifestyle I'm SOLD! Where do I sign?
PPS: It's going to be helpful if Curt and I decide to become multi-millionaires in order to build a house with the rooms featured above. Hey, a girl can dream, right?