December 24, 2011

Living Room Do-over

We have more exciting things to share on the home redo front! The living room has been transformed quite a bit and is now just waiting for a rug... but I couldn't wait to show you guys.

So, this is how the previous owners had it:



The first thing we did just before moving in was have the floors sanded and stained so they would lose that yellow cast, and so that the nails used to hold down the planks weren't so highly visible:



But still, the room was sort of dark and cave-like, and felt smaller than it really was. Can you guess what we decided to do?



Besides painting the fireplace - which, honestly, came out so good that I still can't get over it a month later! - I updated the hardware on the built-in cabinets, spray painted the fireplace accessories a textured nickel color so they wouldn't be as sharply contrasting with the white, painted the windowsills white to match the rest of the house (why were they that odd brown color to begin with?), mounted the TV lower, and removed that very bulky and oversized mantle. I'm thinking a narrow (like 5-6 inches tops) square-edged white mantle might look good in the future... although I like it without one also? Thoughts?



Brighter, airier, bigger, better lit - we're totally thrilled.

December 23, 2011

December 22, 2011

Hanukkah Day

Days of hanukkah advent...



Dreidels to contrast and compare...



Happy Holidays!

December 7, 2011

Winter Bouquet



To welcome winter, we made this bouquet from some fallen branches we found in the horticulture garden. There are flowers from Lara, Jakey, and a few from some visiting friends. Maybe we should ask everyone who comes by to contribute one?

It's interesting - we made one of these last year, and this year Lara was suddenly self-conscious about how her flowers would look, to the point that she asked me to draw some flower outlines for her to color in before she would draw her own. It seems so, so early for self-criticism to already be rearing its powerful head...

December 6, 2011

Deep Thoughts



Cosmology according to Jakey, walking to school with Misha:
J: Where's the moon?
M: Behind the clouds, and on the other side of the globe of earth.
J: Where's the globe?
M: We live on it, it's all of this!
J: No, Guyguy* lives in the globe, daddy.

Philosophizing with Lara:
What if we were people who lived in a coloring book and had to wait for someone to color us in?
What if octopi had bones?


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* Guyguy is a Jakey-ism for Gaia, the earth from Greek mythology. He loves the picture of her in the D'Aulaires book.

December 3, 2011

Cooking Dinner

Cooking dinner in the kitchen means...

... a drum circle



... a rocking out duet



... and silliness!