Aarrrrrrgh
OK, so yesterday's conversation under my bathroom renovation post was a little frustrating - you can read it here, if you're interested - but at it's heart was, I think, a solid question:
How in the world does one afford to renovate a house if, say, one has not found themselves the sudden recipient of a trust fund/inheritance/other random windfall of enormous proportions?
IT'S DONE.
I love, love, love, LOVE my bathroom. I say "my" bathroom even though it's the bathroom in the hall (as opposed to the master bathroom) because from the time we moved in it was the only bathroom with an actual bath in it - and we all know how I feel about baths. So while it was the kids' primary bathroom, too, I sort of adopted it as my own.
When I set out to renovate this bathroom (before and after pics are below, but you can take a look at what it looked like when we moved in, and then it's first evolution before the major renovation here), I wanted to make sure that it worked for the kids...but I also thought, what the hell: I've always felt like my bathroom is my sanctuary. So if I'm going to put in the work to fix it up, I might as well go ahead and make it everything I've ever dreamed of.
Awhile back I read a post about a couple who decided to check out of their lives and go ahead and live with their toddler in an Airstream (designed, of course, by Pendleton). They went from town to town, home-schooling their kid and freelancing from their laptops and exploring the country and being adorable and perfect in every way in their adorable, perfect, Pendleton-designed Airstream.
I wanted to be that couple. I fangirled all over their feed. I even briefly fantasized about packing us up and buying a trailer and living the itinerant life. (You know, one designed by Pendleton.)
And then, last week, while visiting Topanga with my two children, I stayed in an Airstream - technically a Silver Streak, but for all intents and purposes identical to an Airstream. And within five minutes of my arrival I realized: Oh. There is no way on the fucking planet that I would live in an Airstream with my children. Because you know what Airstreams are?
This post is sponsored by Red Baron, but all opinions are my own.
Remember when summer was relaxing? I do! It was seven years ago, before my first child was born, and subsequently removed from my life even the vaguest whisper of calm. Now what summer means is that I have to do all the stuff I have to do the rest of the year, except now I have two people right there with me all day, and they need me to not do anything except for devote all of my attention to them all of the time.
And usually it’s more than just two kids, because we are The People With the Pool. I like this fact a whole lot, because it means that I don’t have to leave my house in order to socialize - when it’s 105 degrees out, humans have a tendency to go wherever the water is - but it also means that I have a LOT of children running around my house preeeeetty much every day during the summer. And sometimes the children get overstimulated and crazy and their parents drag them home around midafternoon, but other times they are wonderful and playing together so well that we agree that sure, let’s all have dinner together.
J.Crew Sandals | Anklets by Me
I have decided that anklets are going to be my thing this summer. But not just one anklet - oh, no. Two anklets. Matching anklets. One on each ankle.
I decided this the other morning. I was drinking my morning coffee, when all of a sudden a pile of jewelry-making items was deposited on the table in front of me. Apparently Francesca had been thinking of making me matching anklets - one for each ankle! - for my birthday, but then realized, ugh, jewelry making, ugh, and decided that she would give me the idea, and then give me the stuff, and then let me go ahead and do the actual making of the things.
