September 29, 2011

Shana Tova!

A lovely, quiet, special dinner yesterday.

Apples, pears, raspberries, challah, jam, and honey - most from our CSA farmer.



Twinkle lights, candles, flowers, and a dressed up table.



Sweet food, sweet words of love, sweet family, sweet wishes for the next year.

September 28, 2011

Art Displays

It's amazing how quickly you get used to living in a space as-is. The grand plans are still there, reassuringly hovering in the imagination, but in the meantime you just go about the daily routine. And it's not that you're making do, resentfully eyeing your unfinished space. No, quite the opposite - your eyes just grow accustomed to what is in front of them and the surface thoughts of your brain are undisturbed by what is now familiar.

All of which is to say, I finally put up the art! After a careful selection process, in which we basically decided to weed out everything that was a reproduction and keep only the originals, I spent a day laying the arrangement out on the floor, carefully measuring the whole thing, and slowly putting them up gallery-style in our dining room.

The dining room before - yellow, with green toile curtains and a very heavy dark wood curtain rod:



After:



One of the best parts? Somehow the art makes the room feel much bigger - maybe because it somehow gives that wall a sense of dimension?

At the same time, I finally created a display place for the kids' art around their little table in the living room. This time around I went with the pants-hanger approach - easy to swap pieces out, but still looks very clean and tailored, which is a good thing for this public-ish space.

The living room before - the column was the same yellow as the dining room, and
there was a very heavy dark wood border under the stairs:



After:



Next on the project list? The bathroom remodel is going splendidly and should be finished Friday, and after that we'll tackle the office!

September 11, 2011

Transitions

It's sometimes harder for me to try to imagine the whole sibling thing from Jakey's point of view. I'm an only child with a few younger cousins - it's just a slightly less imagination-reliant leap to get at least some part of what Lara's experience is like. But what does it feel like to never have been the only kid in a family? To have always existed near another like you, but not quite you, but certainly more like you than anyone else you'll meet for a long time?



Last week, on the second day of kindergarten, Lara and I dropped off Jakey first. We walked him out to his little daycare playground, I said good-bye, and he toddled off to play... until he turned around and realized that she was leaving with me and not staying there with him. He was not happy. "Where's Wawa going? But I miss 'er!"



All of which is to abruptly say, changing suddenly both the tone and subject, which of these pictures do you like best? Because I am not sure this kind of happiness at seeing each other at the end of the school day is necessarily going to repeat itself forever.

September 7, 2011

First Day



This talented, beautiful, happy girl is now officially a kindergartener!



One small step for her, one giant leap for our emotions.



She is thrilled, excited, and very self-satisfied.



We are grateful and in awe.