Silver Baskets

I love this idea from Martha Stewart!  I will be spray-painting some old baskets of mine and giving them new life!

image via Martha Stewart

Instagram

My old flip phone which I had been using for literally 7 years finally was stolen last week at the airport.  Hallelujah?  I caved and bought an iPhone and finally joined the rest of the under-80 crowd.  Today, I made another huge "Mily" leap and downloaded the Instagram app....love it!!  Where have you been all my lifeeee??

Sophie and Mama, May 2012

Memorial Day Weekend

Every year for Memorial Day weekend, my family usually gets together at my aunt's house in New Jersey for a mini family reunion.  This year, we'll be having a real family reunion in Cancun later this summer, so our annual New Jersey trip was cancelled.  Being the person that I am, I couldn't just sit around and do nothing for Memorial Day, so I took my family to Virginia Beach for the weekend.  We had just come home from Orlando, but Darren amiably agreed to make the 3.5-hour drive to the beach anyway.  We had a great time! Even my sister's family and my parents came along...it couldn't have been better!

Orlando Trip

We took a whirlwind, last minute trip to Orlando this past week and it was Sophie's favorite vacation yet!  It felt like the surface of the Sun for Darren and I, but Sophie didn't seem to notice (Grace probably didn't even know we were on vacation).  She spent time floating down the lazy river at the hotel, received Hermione Granger's magic wand at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and met Disney princesses at the Magic Kingdom.  This was the first time she did not want to come home, which is a great sign that she had a fabulous time.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day everyone!  I won't bore you with the details of my Mother's Day, but I'll just say it was a great one, filled with family time and thoughtful gifts. Hope you all enjoyed Mother's Day with your mothers or your kids (or if you're lucky, both!).

Sophie and Grace's gifts to me: keychains with their fingerprints.

Darren's gift to me: my dream bike, an Electra Townie 7d in Vanilla with a leather saddle and handles.

Most importantly, family time! Brunch with my parents, my sister's family, and Darren and the girls.

My parents with their four grandkids.

Long Time, No Blog...

It's been so long since I've last blogged!  Springtime is in full bloom around here and along came with that was the hustle and bustle of outdoor activities, vacation planning, farmer's markets and outdoor festivals.  Fun stuff! Instead of a long winded recap, here are some snapshots from my life lately:

The Pied Paper was featured on another blog, Arthouse.  The author is a graphic designer, and her talent really shows!  Check out this compilation of golden glittery goodness:

image via Arthouse

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week!  Unfortunately, I didn't remember this until Wednesday.  Also unfortunate: between the two girls there are twelve teachers.  So, I stayed up until 5:30am on Thursday night making twelve sets of stationary as gifts for the teachers.  That's 60 cards.  Luckily, I had taken the day off and had taken a four hour nap earlier, so I survived Teacher Appreciation Week 2012.

On Friday, I was at home with Gracie and did our usual running around.  Gracie and I braved Costco.

Gracie, check.  Chik-fil-A nuggets, check.  Milk, check.  Juice, check.  Running errands and eating at the same time.  We're always living on-the-go.  

I did not relish packing my car all by myself.  Or unloading those things into my house!

 But since the weather was perfect, we also fit in a whole lot of doin' nothing.  Life is busy, busy, busy, but soooo good!

Grace wearing her sister's gear and riding her sister's trike.  Guess who she emulates?

Grace has taken to strolling around like a 70-year old man. 

Listmania!

Rifle Paper Co. "Sweet Briar" notebooks, $13

You've heard of those people who make lists of everything, right?  Well, that's me.  It helps me clear my head when my hundreds of "to-do's" are written down somewhere.  Plus, I have "mommy brain" which means I'm forgetful and always a little frazzled.

I've got lots and lots of little stickies languishing at the bottom of my purse and crumpled up in my wallet, and the notepads I take to meetings at work are hideously tattered.  So I picked up this cute threesome at Anthropologie the other day.  Now, I can keep all of my grocery lists, work notes, and doodles in one stylish place!