Chicago

Hands down the cleanest city we've been in.

Period.

We're Off To See The Wizard

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Of course, last night at midnight, Mr F said "Shall we talk about tomorrow?"

And I knew right then that he was not able to take today off as we had hoped.

He said he'd just go in in the the morning.

I think we all know that "morning" can be a highly variable term.

And, ahem, technically over by now.

I'm expecting a 5 PM departure (as I have all week... I'm no dummy).

Nevermind. More time to make ShrinkyDinks.

Just in case you're wondering our weekend plans include:

This.

This.

This.

This.

and

This.

(also sleeping in as late as we can, not worrying about bedtime, swimming in the hotel pool, ordering breakfast in bed, and hopefully NOT catching bedbugs)



Just overheard...

"Really, there is no need to put your face in my G!"

So... uh... gotta go.

Let Me Just Say... I'm Getting Tired

Of making dinners Mr F never comes home in time to eat.

Lots of things are better.

But a couple of things are worse.

Mr F works less in total... but... he works more during our children's waking hours (as in all of them).

And he sometimes goes a couple of days without really ever seeing them.

And he regularly misses out on their things and their life.

It's been really hard on most of us (except Baby... she just refers to him as "THEE IDIOT" now)

We're going away for the weekend.

We'll be brainstorming some solutions.

And buying large historic dolls.

Because nothing brings a family closer than spending money on large dolls.

Maybe This Will Go Away Soon

It seems like I can't seem to maintain the blog these days.

I'm sorry about that.

I've had a strange headache since Thursday.

I feel like my brain is trying to expand beyond my skull.

So, you know, that makes looking at the computer a little less enjoyable.

It's not just you I'm neglecting.

I didn't take baby to her class this morning (because it bores the shit out of me and the brain pressure is a good excuse).

Plus, Kid starts Brownies tonight.

I had to save up my energy for that.

Oh, and Mr F's magazine is closing* this week OF COURSE (for the 2 or so readers that have any idea what that means... well, they'll know that not feeling well this week is the worst kind of luck).

And next week Mr F will be on a work trip ALL week.

He's going to miss Kid's cheer debut at the JV football game (don't tell her).

She's going to be HOT.


* this month's issue... the magazine is not folding... no worries!

Sneak Peaks

I've been wanting to wait until Kid's room was 100% done... but we're still waiting on those new carpets, and a couple small projects that may or may not get done soon (or ever... although we have the best of intentions!).

You may recall that Kid's room was the first one we tackled (in large part thanks to my Aunt Alice!).

Kid wanted a more grown up room than the one she left behind.

A lot of ideas came and went.

After viewing The Little Princess, and having a large cache of goods from a trip to India, I suggested we go with an Indian theme.

My aunt graciously offered to take it to the next level with her mural skills.

BEFORE:


DURING:
First came the blue:

Then the foliage:

Then the animals:

AFTER:






We're all really happy with it! Unbelievably it only took my aunt three days to paint the entire room! I've had a great time hunting all the finishing touches. I'm also pretty happy that when Kid outgrows this, everything I've bought can be repurposed somewhere else in the house.

Details:
The curtains are 2 Saris I brought back from India. Behind them I had cotton sheers from Ikea ($12... cut off tabs and used the hem as a pole pocket). The curtain rod is an old double rod from PB we had.
The bedding is from Ikea ($30/set). The throw pillows are from Cost Plus World Market ($19/ea) in their Eat Love Pray area. The painted mirror is also from CPWM in the clearance section ($40). The painting I brought back from India. The tin lantern I already had. The little jeweled lamp is from Target ($9). The elephant lamp is from an antiques fair ($30), and still needs shades. The little chair and dresser are family antiques I already had. The throw on the chair is a fashion scarf from Target ($12). The bed frames we had and are from Ikea (Minnen... $100?/ea). The bookcase (I'm going to paint) is just a solid wood folding bookcase we've used in our craft area. Bean bag (Kid insisted!... and, well, it is her room) from Target ($19). The bedside table is the old white one we had in her room with a piece of fabric my aunt had swaged over it to hide it. All in all I spent about $185 decorating this room. My aunt furnished the paint (again, thank you!!) so that cost is not included.

The LATER:

We're still waiting on the new carpet. I also think I'm going to put in our large green/purple floral area rug that we had in our old room. We're also going to install a ceiling fan over the beds to replace that light (if I can get one that isn't too expensive we're looking for one of the palm leaf style ones), and a new light fixture closer to the doors. We're also putting up a couple of picture ledges for her to display her collectibles, and hanging the mirror, and hanging that lantern from the ceiling by the left bed to balance out the tree.

And we're going to rearrange the shelves in this mega closet:

To make a built in desk.