Happy Halloween!

Autumn

What do I love most? Pumpkin pie? The smell of leaves burning? Apple cider? Thanksgiving? Halloween? Gourds? the first fire in the fireplace? Warm socks? Flannel sheets? Apple crisp? Leaf collections (after EVERY walk)? Cozy dark evenings? All of it? Nope.

Little boys posed with pumpkins... especially these two!

And my middle name is Autumn, so I love it the most.

Trunk or Treat!

Tonight we enjoyed Trunk or Treat at church. There was games, a haunted house, great costumes and of course the line up of cars to trick or treat at. We opened our trunk and explained to Ben, initially timid, what the concept was. He was hesitant to stick his pumpkin bucket out at first and had me say "trick or treat" the first few cars...and then he got it. He was running, leaping, yelling "I LOVE TWICK OR TWEET!" He had another small bucket to empty his full bucket into in the stroller (Daddy's) and eventually started putting that one forward as well after the candy was dropped in his. If someone questioned his second bucket he smiled sweetly in a owl sort of way and said "THIS one is for my baby"... The boy got a good haul, that is for sure. Since we ran out of candy in our trunk it got re-given (with the exception of a few kit kats of course...) Ben didn't seem to mind because the fun was really in the process and he was thrilled with one lollipop before Bed. Jacob stared with wide eyes the whole time...I can't imagine how he was trying to process this experience; just when he was finally starting to figure things out...

Indoor Inspiration

As I am waiting on a new home I am going a little stir (stick) crazy. I want to paint something, make new curtains, re arrange, put up a back splash... but alas. I have to wait...for the blank canvas. In the meantime I have been storing away inspiration. I have been hit with a predicament though in design taste. I will come across an inspiring piece, photograph or idea that throws my usual taste and I will declare (I declare a lot...) "I am now into Zen decorating! Jon throw out all of our possessions! Less is more!" and he will pretend he didn't hear me and walk by (he learned to do that after I declared us vegans, until I got sick and then ate a big mac and felt better...now he doesn't abide by my declarations anymore, but he will let me paint whatever I want as long as I keep buying cheese.)

Then I saw a lot of colour and that threw my love of calming neutrals... so I am easily thrown off track. What always seems to pop at me is brown leather, vinyl, word art that creates ambiance and tone to a room, vintage telephones, room embellishments like, crown molding and backslashes, stone facade walls and so on. I like those elements that make the foundation of the space pop (I really want a stone wall in my dining room...when I get one).

I like re purposing things, like my old pickle barrel that was one of the first things Jon bought me from an antique store (going with me in the first place was truly the real gift). I loved it and stored magazines with it in the bathroom. Sadly I gave it to my Mother during a brief Zen phase and she took it three provinces away. Now I miss my pickle barrel. I just discovered primer and paint- in- one and can paint furniture now in a time my attention and interest span will allow for so that has opened up new doors for me design wise. I have done three pieces so far that I am still happy with (well, the armoir proved to be too much so Jon finished that for me...he hates antique stores and painting (and Ikea) but must really love me).

I love thrift stores and yard sales. They are my most favorite thing. If I don't get lucky there though, I always find something at Homesence. I don't like buying off the shelf first thing because I don't feel like I worked for it and don't take as much pride in it as I would, say...a pickle barrel turned magazine holder (...sob...).

I like arrangements of interest, unique furniture pieces and seasonal decor (but hate storing it...). I really like white kitchens with black hardware and I would like a black counter top in my new kitchen. I want open shelving too to display favorite serving pieces. and white dishes, always white. Once I had blue...but then I went back to white.

I love black and white, dark floors, light walls. I like great chairs. I hate disorder and random or complicated does not appeal to me. I like (need) things to be clean, orderly, streamlined and symmetrical...with a touch of spontaneous for interest. I think nothing sets off a kitchen quite like a great faucet and I detest things on the fridge. I understand the convenience and the importance of hanging children's work but really it bugs me so bad. I do enjoy frames- framed mirrors, calenders, bulletin boards (where my children's work hangs in lui of the fridge.) I am also discovering I like tin, I suppose that goes with vintage. A friend spray painted a tin garbage can black for her kitchen can, tall enough that her kids can't get into it and awesome enough that I love it. I like nature indoors, and enjoy a herb garden on the windowsill (I have gone through three of them...I get fed up with the basil...that grows too tall because I rarely use it (but you can't really have a herb garden without basil..) and then it looks half dead and won't perk up again. Anyhow in a basil fit I usually throw them all out.

...I like clocks, wood floors, interesting soup pumps, abhor nicnaks; or things that sit without purpose (dust collection excused) and hooks. I really enjoy a good hook. I have them in various places in the house now. I have some at children's level at the entryway (little sweaters look so sweet hanging off them) and two vintage ones in the kitchen for aprons. There are some plans certainly that I have in store for the new digs, namely a dressing table in the master bedroom...for moi of course. My mom always had one, I thought it was so glamorous...It was a huge (maybe only in my five year old mind?) dark wood vanity with a bench where she kept her jewelry box. I loved it, and in my mind's eye of my adult self I sat in front of one of my own. So...I want one. I figure that 23 years of want warrants one (sadly the exact one is no longer...)

I like to use our garage as an entry point and plan in our new home to use it as more of an extension of the house with proper flooring and paint, storage furnishings, a mirror, hooks (of course) and shoe storage. I cannot stand shoes in the house, not even for the few seconds they stay in the entryway and so the garage entry is my perfect solution for my bottom-of-the-shoe-germaphobia and aversion to the natural entryway clutter. Finally I am on the quest for an awesome playroom. I have ideas upon ideas and my only hope is that Jon will be as excited as I am because I am going to need his manly drill skills to get it done! It consists of a climbing wall, blackboard wall, built ins, ceiling swings, and of course a reading spot...ideally a hidden under the stairs type of nook for my book obsessed boys.

Since I am easily led away from my true taste, which can probably be defined as traditional, eclectic, vintage and warm I thought I would keep some inspiration pictures here...for easy access later, when I am the proud new owner of a new canvas of walls...and floors...and laundry room, Oh! I am going to have a beautiful laundry room in the the next house!I may be more inclined to hang out there more often.

- I didn't keep track of where I lifted my "inspiration" from so I didn't cite or get permission to reproduce...but decided to go with the "it's easier to beg forgiveness than get permission" sometimes motto...so please forgive me and I would happy to cite or remove upon request...

Relatable

There are a few universal truths about people, one being our need to relate to one another. We search for commonalities and things about ourselves that we share and thus connect over. Sometimes these are awful things, sometimes they are wonderful things. Becoming a Mother was one that allowed me to strike up a conversation with any woman at the park with spit up on her shoulder and a saggy diapered preschooler climbing up the slide. "Your's won't go in the potty for you either huh?" and just like that we can talk for an hour about our toilet resistant sons and feel like we aren't totally inept at raising human beings. Connection over commonalities is also why I facebook friended everyone with the same name as me, and why they accepted. Obviously we should be friends, right? Obviously.

This fact is also why I love blogs. I can follow others with the same trials, triumphs, thoughts and ideas as me. I can also develop my own thoughts and ideals through their suggestions, ideas and- oh the joy...tutorials! I can get lost in the blogsphere if I start linking to links of links of links. Two hours can go by so quickly when I really just needed a recipe for slow cooker butternut squash soup. How can I help it if the window turned picture frame and cowboy party favors and painted mural playroom wall cropped up in the meantime.

There are a few blogs that I read religiously- you know, if blogging were a religion. Since it isn't, my religion is Latter Day Saint although I would still choose this first even if I could blog my way to heaven...This is a status I share with many other bloggers, quite accidentally, Mormons like to blog it seems. Anyhow Courtney of C Jane Enjoy it blogger fame wrote a guest blog today on another site that made me smile as I read because I could relate so much. I felt like she was writing it about me and that made me smile some more. I thought, "that C jane...she gets me!". Or maybe I get her... either way I enjoyed. Enough to share it some more...because that is really what blogging is about.

Friends

A parent quickly learns that when one stage ends, another is just beginning. Thankfully there is usually one as delightful as the challenge to add balance. In the case of the third year and the thousand "why's" a day Ben is blossoming into a good friend. He makes me burst with pride every time he shares, is kind, and shows genuine compassion for another.

(It makes the eye biting preschool nightmare of 2008 a little less memorable...)

Trip to the Orchard With our Seniors

Another Autumn tradition...

The orchards were pretty picked over this year. We must have gone earlier last year but the boys ended up more interested in the worms anyhow...

My Pumpkins In The Patch

Pumpkin Patch

I love watching my children grow through tradition. The first year we brought Ben to the pumpkin patch he was in arms. The second he ran around, carefully selected a pumpkin too large for him to carry and was able to navigate the toddler hay maze. This year he brought his baby brother along.

Shhhhh....

This is what we got Ben and Jake for Christmas...I think I am as excited as they will be!

only 65 more days...

The Stick

It is a wonder I continue to buy toys. I can't escape the cultural push that children in our day cannot possibly thrive without rooms, bins, shelves and baskets of plastic toys; gimmicky one purpose contraptions that moo and count and quiz color recognition.

What Ben plays with most are the things stores don't sell and couldn't replicate if they tried. A stick accompanied with the wild imagination of a boy can easily occupy a morning. When we walked over a sewer Ben used his weapon to fight down the monster ("green and black with five spooky eyes and hair on his arms") and then fished for our lunch.

Those sticks, certainly don't moo or count but I imagine what would have become of us had we been without it...five eyes, and hair on his ARMS!

Two Boys and a Day

We watched the ducks from the bench by the pond that our neighbors salvaged from the curb. It was rickety and positioned on a downwards slope that had Jacob rolling off while splinters threatened. His brother came to the rescue more than once when I was adjusting the flash just out of arms reach.

Our ducks were having a meeting. A serious one. Travel plans perhaps? The air was chili enough for sleeves with just enough breeze that breaking sun spots through the branches overhead were welcomed.

Ben noticed the change and inquired about our ducks (we hold some ownership since we watched them toddle through our grass as sweet little ducklings in spring and by summer were applauding their first independent swimming attempts). I told them they would be leaving when the water got too cold for swimming. Their downy feathers couldn't keep them warm enough for the winter.

He looked at the ducks and back at me. I saw the connection as he held his brother's head on his lap. He touched his bald head lightly and I knew he was wondering briefly if Jacob would be staying the winter. Certainly those wisps of hair couldn't keep him warm either.

It's a good thing that boys have hats to keep them warm in the winter isn't it?

He smiled slightly and dropped his hand from the baby's head, wondering surely how I knew his thoughts.

I measured this moment as the one when Ben has accepted Jacob as a permanent and welcome addition...this little bald brother of his.