What Ana Does

This week the girls went back to school. On Tuesday, we dropped off Leah's supplies in her new 3rd grade classroom and met her new teacher. It's so amazing to look around the room and see all the posters and cheers. You can do it! Leah is super happy to be back in school. At Her Desk, Dropping Off Supplies First Day Back - Getting on the Bus. It was 25 Minutes Late! The next day, we dropped off supplies at Kindergarten for Alice. The teacher wasn't there, because she was dropping off her college student. So we walked around the room and checked out all the cool areas. Alice picked out the Purple table and hoped that's where she'll be sitting the next day. First Day for Alice, Second Day for Leah! Hopping On the Bus -- Her First Solo Bus Ride!  It's hard to predict Alice's moods, so I wasn't sure if she'd be reluctant to get on that bus Thursday morning or not. I was ready for both -- armed with encouragement in either ca...

Have I complained about this yet? I'm so frustrated and upset -- my neck is getting that pinched/tightness that I get when I'm stressed over something. At the end of the last school year I decided I was going to get a babysitter to pick Alice up from Kindergarten and get Leah off the bus, then watch them until we got home. Easy, right?  Most importantly, the babysitter would help Leah with her homework -- a task we desperately need help with. Her after-school program was doing nothing to support homework and 3rd grade is the year they start to get "serious."  Now, we're a day-care family. The girls have been going to a day care center since they were both 14 weeks old, so we're all used to the dependability of having a place to drop them off each day and pick them up by 6pm each night. We all loved it (except for the monthly tuition payments - ugh!). So, this babysitter/nanny set-up is out of my comfort zone. But, they're getting older. It...

I still love the paint color in my powder room, so that's a relief. This weekend, I got fancy and hung up some artwork I had hanging around the house. It's getting there... Gallery Wall

What a day! We started our morning at Pikes Place Market, a long 2-block hallway of grocery, fish and craft shops. Starving, I picked up a cinnamon roll and Dave got a pumpkin cookie. We headed to the world famous stall to watch them throw fish. We were not disappointed. It was pretty cool. They were giving out smoked salmon which the girls tried and Leah loved. That made me think of lox, so I easily found a bagel place where I could get lox and cream cheese bagel. Yum! We meandered down the other fantastic stalls in the Pike's Place Market -- lots of grocery items and crafty things. I loved it. This is where my crush on Seattle started. After leaving the market, we started to meander toward the Experience Music Projects -- which is Dave's Mecca. The walk got too long and he got too impatient, so we hailed a cab for the rest of the way there. OK, the EMP is seriously awesome. The kids loved it, we loved it. We played, we laughed, we sat for a while and watched video...

We wanted to be on the road as early as we could, so we packed up the rental car said our good byes to Joe, Rachel and a sleepy Atticus and headed out. But first a breakfast stop at The Tin Shed, a Diners Drive-ins and Dives-featured restaurant that was on David's Must Do list. And it was amazingly good. The biscuits! Don't get me started. It's a three-hour drive to Seattle from Portland, with little in-between, so we made it by 11am. We checked into our hotel and explored the area. We found the downtown shopping area and the Niketown -- as we do in most big cities first -- and plotted the rest of our trip.  We picked a restaurant down by the Public Market called Pike's Pub and weren't overly impressed by it. But the girls ate salmon and loved it -- so they said, so a good start for them.  Seattle isn't at all what I had expected. It's hilly and not that closely tied to the water (there's a highway in-between). I thought we'd be surrounde...

This place is so much different than any place I've visited. I mean , it's not Mars or anything, but think Brooklyn on steroids. And you're in the ballpark. Our friends Joe and Rachel live in the city but just outside of downtown. Picture a large outer-city of small Craftsman and Victorian houses built around the turn of the century. With main streets running nearby filled with independently-owned shops and restaurants. The only chains we saw was a Whole Goods and Starbucks. That's it. People walking everywhere. Creativity abounds. The small yards brimming with flowers and veggie gardens. It was amazing. And the bartering system -- crazy. Joe traded beer he brewed for plumbing services for the house they renovated this summer. I won't dwell. It's definitely worth a visit. Especially if you have locals who can take you around.  We basically walked around a few of these Main Street areas, hitting a fantastic fabric store and street festival. Joe and Rach...

We started day 2 with a morning swim in the hotel pool -- our last morning to take advantage of it so we did. Dave had his event today, so that left me and the girls to entertain ourselves in Tacoma. As luck would have it, the Children's Museum was just next door, so once were cleaned-up from the pool, we headed there. It was a small space but with several pretty cool play areas that kept the girls busy.  Water Room of Fun! More Water Fun Alien Ship was Cool From there we walked to the Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch. I hadn't realized that it was a chain. There was a train caboose inside that we sat inside to enjoy our pasta lunches. Not bad.  Caboose Seating For Us After that, it was frozen yogurt time and we had to decide on our last activity before meeting David. We picked the Washington History Museum just across the street.  It was another small museum with some fun exhibits about the history of the Washington state. They had a s...

Since we arrived late on Thursday night, we got our first look at Tacoma, Washington in the morning. And true to its reputation, it was raining. But that didn't detour us from our plans. After overpriced breakfast at the hotel, we hit the pool. Because when the girls see a pool is available, they become laser-focused on getting into that pool. So 30 minutes -- we were in and out.  Then we hopped into a cab and headed to Point Defiance Park to rent a boat and check out the area by sea. This was a brilliant idea. Though the morning was still gray and cloudy, we had so much fun tooling around and seeing the beautiful scenery.  On the Boat and Hanging On! I Didn't Mean to Dress Them Alike He's a Fisherman Once we were done being the professional boatmen that we are (not), we walked through lovely Point Defiance Park, through a flower park of roses and dahlias, spotting a doe and two fawns along the way.  The Deer at Point Defiance Park Lunch w...

I have banned the use of Pinterest during work hours. Most of the time, I have no trouble doing this as my job keeps me very busy. But there are odd moments of the day I feel my mind heading in that direction ... and my fingers almost always want to follow. Pinterest is seriously the best thing going on the internet. All my crafty ideas and fun, wacko quotes, my wanderlust and my bathroom remodel ideas; They all stem from all the cool/neat/beautiful things I find and pin . My Work Computer, With Pinterst -- Big No No I could get sucked in for hours in the pinning vortex. And I do. Just not during work hours. Relates posts: What am I crafting? See those posts here

Tonight I went to a canning demonstration at my library by the author of Preserving by the Pint. It's small batch canning for folks like me with a CSA membership and just a bit too much fruit on my hands -- but not enough to put up a few dozen jars. Marisa, the author and writer on this blog , made a vanilla plum jam in the hour-long session. All that was left to do at the end was cool the two half-pint jars and eat them. That. Was. It. And I was so PUMPED after seeing how easy it is. I bought the book several months ago and still found the whole canning thing difficult to imagine. My Mom never canned/jarred, so I've never seen it done. Just reading about preserving food sounds exotic and risky. I don't want to give anyone food poisoning from a jar of my homemade jam, for pete's sake. But her step by step was so simple, and we got to interact and ping questions as she did each task. I'm a doer-learner, ya know? And watching a demo, I'm SO ready to ma...

Lots of pretty things are in bloom in my backyard. Most notably the hibiscus that I didn't have high-hopes for. It was cut back to nothing at the beginning of the Spring -- and now, looky there! First big bloom and little buds with more on the way. HELLO Hibiscus! Transplanted Black-Eyed Susans are Happy This Crazy/Pretty Weed that's Everywhere this Year. Kinda Looks Like Yarrow. I've cut some blooms for my vases. Tomatos! 

So, my 20th high school reunion was this weekend in Minnesota and I really really wanted to go. But, I didn't. Bummer. First, here are two things you need to know about me and high school: 1) I haven't been friends with anyone from high school since about 6 months after graduation (why is another story). 2) Therefore, other than superficial social media contact (facebook!), I haven't talked to anyone I graduated with in those 20 years. So, it shouldn't surprise anyone that when I messaged some of the girls I used to know from high school on Facebook, they weren't going. And couldn't be convinced otherwise. So fine. And I wasn't about to lone-wolf the reunion. No way. Crazy. On the plus side, I took my family on the roadtrip to Minnesota anyway. I got together with one friend from high school and met her family -- this was awesome. And saw some family who still live there. All in all, a pretty awesome weekend. And I did notice some Facebook updates ...

Pretty Scribbles Guys! I found something new to do with my iPad and it's ooh so fun. So, first you have to pick up one of those pens that allows you to write on your tablet (I got one for free at the conference in Atlanta -- swag). Then, you get the Penultimate app. It's free. Then, you write notes, draw hearts and scribble to your hearts content. I put Trader Joe shopping lists and weekend To Do lists in my iPad now. No paper for this modern girl. And you can access the notes from any other device you have the app on. So I write the note in my iPad and check it on my iPhone. Cool. You can also take pictures .. and then scribble over the pictures. Good for my decorating ideas and furniture layout brainstorming. That. Is. So. Cool. Plans for the Powder Room Ideas for the Master Bathroom

BEFORE: Two Colors Another weekend another paint project. This time, in my powder room. If you remember, I painted the little powder room on the main floor of my house in two colors with a piece of white trim planned in between. The trim never got done and I started to regret the blue color on the bottom. It was coming off a little too country-ish. And dark. It's a little space. So, I went through a few chips of color and decided to stay in the blue/green family -- but find something brighter. (Not red, though, it was a fun idea for a few days.) I don't like painting bathrooms, so it took some time to psych myself up for this one. You have to be a bit of a contortionist to reach under the toilet and sink. Ugh. And originally, I was going to leave the top color, but decided against it once I got this fantastic, dynamite color on the wall. I just love it. The color is called Hotel Du La Plage by Ralph Lauren. Leah helped paint around the toilet and a little around...

I discovered this cute little yellow and white desk in my random internet travels. Oh how I love yellow furniture. And it's metal, so it matches (kinda) my little yellow stools. So, yeah, I purchased it. The price was right and I'm a sucker for free shipping. Anyhow, it's here now and I've set it up in one of two spots I thought it'd be perfect for -- behind the sofa in the family room. We had a dark-wood console table back there, and it did a pretty good job of looking big and dark, but not much else. My idea was installing a desk with a direct line to the TV to make multi-tasking easier. For example, some evenings I have brainless tasks for work to do. Then I starting thing that maybe this table could be used to build a puzzle and the puzzlers can still feel part of the action instead of in another room in the house. Perhaps even a homework spot? And a sunny spot to work from home during the day. You get the drift. We'll see how the rest of the...