eager little mind

A few months ago I took everything off the walls in my living room and have been waiting for inspiration to hit. I’ve been obsessed with aqua/turquoise and birds lately and bought this pillow from Joom last year. This pic from Etsy makes it look a little dingy, it’s not in real life:

I still have no idea what to do above my sofa, but I have made progress on the mantel. Here’s a photo of the wall decal from ellynelly I mentioned yesterday. Boy, was that a pain in the ass to put up. But I was dying for something different. I had a huge mirror and a few large black and white prints up there previously.

It’s still a work in progress. The accessories I picked up at Hobby Lobby today and I’m not exactly sure where they will end up in the room. I also have a print from Alicia Bock that I got for Mother’s Day that needs a better frame:

I don’t know, decorating has really been the last thing on my mind lately. I’ll probably finish the rest of the room by Christmas.

Saw this site today and thought it was a cute idea, especially as we get more of Daphne’s milestones (crawling, walking) on tape. You can upload your short video clips and have them turned into a flip book. Check it out: flipclips.com

You want to know the first clue that I’m not enjoying Battlestar Galatica this season? I keep forgetting it’s on. Like tonight, Chris is away at a Twitter meet-up and I just got finished putting my wall decal from ellynelly above my mantel. I sat down for a break and started to scroll through the channels until I got to Dr. Who and saw BSG set to record at 9:00. This is off topic, but who watches Dr. Who??? I’ve tried to watch it and just can’t get into it. I hear people say what an amazing show it is. Yeah, I don’t get it. Anyway, I had completely forgotten about BSG. That’s how much of an impression this season is making on me. Very disappointing. Especially considering the length of time they made us wait for a new season.

Later I went to SciFi.com and noticed the “Last Supper” promo pic. I’m sure this picture has been discussed ad nauseum online, but with the exception of Watch With Kristen on E! I don’t seek out any fan or spoiler sites.

Huh, Six in the Jesus position. An empty spot in front of the “grail.” Interesting.

I need a creative storage idea for Daphne’s hair bows. She has completely grown out of the hair bow holder I made for her a few months ago, which was basically just a sign that I attached ribbon strips to:

Yes, she’s pretty much set for hair accessories for the next few years. But if I don’t put a bow in to hold back her bangs they end up in her eyes and in her food. See what I mean?:

Her bangs are actually past the tip of her nose now. And she is developing ringlets. Do I just need to get a different sign or hanger and add more/longer ribbon strips? Or is there an easier way? I’ve seen some ideas that involve an over the door plastic shoe hanger or jewelry organizer, which would work for the clips, but I don’t want the bows squished.

I’m sure someone has already thought of this, and it’s really too late for Daphne anyway, but I need an online baby book service that allows you to enter info, pictures, maybe a calendar, etc. then when you are ready it’s formatted and printed up for you in a nice book. Has anyone seen anything similar?

Last week I updated Daphne’s baby book. First off, I hate writing in her book because I have the worst handwriting. Really, it’s just awful. Sometimes I can’t even read it myself. Second, I have not been disciplined enough to write down specific dates for some of her developmental milestones (first slept through the night, sat unassisted… you know, that kind of stuff). I can’t remember now what question I was filling out in her book but my answer was 3 or 4 months. That’s a little vague. For possible baby #2 I will make sure and create an online calendar or a separate email address and keep all that info together until I’m ready to write in the book. The good news is we have 10 million pictures of her first 9 months. That’s got to count for something, right??

As I was updating Daphne’s book I was comparing it to my baby book. It’s funny how times have changed. My first rice cereal was at 3 weeks. Green beans at 5 weeks (5 weeks old!!!!!!). My first vacation was at 11 months. We drove to Colorado for a two week vacation. The back of the car was converted to a little play pen area with the addition of a crib mattress. No car seats with 5 point harnesses. Plus we all slept in our cribs on our tummies with blankets. How did we survive?!

Is anyone else excited about the Lost season finale tonight? Chris & I are looking forward to it. I’ve really enjoyed this season. In fact, I don’t think there has been an episode where I haven’t said “What! Did that just happen?” and made Chris hit rewind.

Speaking of Lost, a friend (who is a fellow Lost/BSG/Arrested Development fan) sent me this picture of him in Sedona sporting a Hanso Foundation t-shirt. Something about the scene and the Lost reference t-shirt told me I needed to Photoshop a Smoke Monster into the picture.

It adds a whole new dimension of terror to an otherwise harmless vacation photo. Chris thinks my follow-up pic should be a polar bear, or Cylon. Yeah, I don’t know. My Photoshop skills are pretty limited to photo retouching and black amorphous blobs. I’m not ready for Fark-like challenges.

I got a Posh Tots catalog in the mail yesterday. I’m pretty sure I’d been on their website before while I was looking for baby furniture. Lots of pretty things, if you are filthy rich. For example, need a crib for your little princess? How about this coach crib for 5 grand:

I would have killed (you know, stabbed someone with my safety scissors) for this playhouse as a kid. Only $9,000:

This is where it gets absurd. A $14,000 chuck wagon bed. Did they get authentic cowboys to whittle this? Why is it 14 THOUSAND dollars?

If you thought that was crazy, hold on to your hats. This Tumble Outpost is $123,000. I know people that didn’t spend $123,000 on the first house they owned. Holy Crap!!!

Daphne is 9 months old today. Gosh, this first year is flying by. Normally I would have all the stats (weight, height, etc) from her Dr. visit, but he couldn’t get her in for another 2 weeks. Anyway, she has definitely grown in height, but thinned out a bit. Must be all the crawling, jumping and walking. We think she’s about 17 lbs now.

And even though we get a million comments on how Daphne is my mini-me, I think she’s looking more like Chris. This isn’t a great comparison since you can hardly see me, but here’s a picture of my husband as a 9 month old, Daphne yesterday, and me.

Thank goodness she got Chris’ hair.

I’ve had a bunch of post-processing to do lately on Chris’ photos. Last weekend he had a mini shoot with a set of 5 year old twins. The previous weekend he did a family shoot with a set of 9 year old twins, and a teenager. Lots of pictures, lots of post-processing fun. This is in addition to the images I’ve taken of Daphne in the teacup planter, and other daily pics.

Today I downloaded Adobe Lightroom 2.0 (beta). Wow. I wish I had downloaded it two weeks ago!! Don’t get me wrong, I love 1.3, but there were a few things that bugged me. Like the lens vignetting not following your crop. Now it does!! That rocks my world. And the retouching tool, yippee!!!! I think this will cause me to open Photoshop CS3 even less now. If you are using Lightroom and haven’t checked out 2.0 yet, DO IT!!

Do you remember my post a few weeks back where I was wishing I could grow my own little garden and have tons of organic produce on hand? Yeah, this is why that will never happen:

I. Suck. At. Gardening. I managed to keep Mr. Cilantro alive for two whole weeks. I put him in the window of my husband’s bathroom. He had plenty of sun and water (but not too much water, I’m known to over water). Apparently he had commitment issues and decided to die just as I was buying him a permanent pot. RIP Mr. Cilantro. I’m sorry I never got to make you into a tasty salsa.