Under the covers…

I am suffering from a beast of a head cold, which is not. fun. Especially with a despot. And a sick husband.  Oh, did I mention it’s raining? All I really want to do is crawl back under the covers. There is nothing better than a nice fluffy bed to crawl into when you feel sick.  So, let’s look into creating the perfect sick bed, shall we?

First up?  Looky what I found!  My Pottery Barn “Sparrow” duvet and shams!  Some of you were asking for this, so here ya go.  Even better? It’s on sale! So pretty and spring-y, no?

But sometimes, you just want a fluffy, all white bed to fall into.  Not too frilly, but with great detail. And yes, before you ask, I own this one too. Pottery Barn Pearl Embroidered duvet and shams (mine is in sandalwood).  Crisp, clean, and screaming for a little nap. Plus it hides kleenex surprisingly well:

Speaking of kleenex, this duvet looks like one big box of ’em, and this is the bed I would jump into right now if I had the energy.  Instead, I will stay on the couch, but goodness gracious. I want this. And I want it NOW.  The West Elm Cotton Pintuck duvet and shams:

And sometimes, you just want to lie in bed and read a good book. Or Kindle. Whatever.  And though I love the look of wrought iron, I don’t love the feel of it when curled up in bed with a good book. So, let’s look at some comfy headboards, shall we?

First, we have my own.  Which I love. It’s from Ikea.  The Floro:

Here’s something for those of you who don’t like to build your own furniture, and have a little cash- the Colette Bed from Crate and Barrel:

Or the Squire Tufted Headboard from Ballard Designs:

Alright, all that talking about naps is making me tired, the despot’s napping, and I better take advantage.  Sweet dreams!

If I had a million dollars [Weekend Getaway]

I am going to start a little series of posts called “If I had a million dollars”.  For this inaugural edition, I am going to focus on a little something I love: Travel!

I love to travel. I love to plan my next vacations about 6 months to a year in advance.  Last summer, I was too pregnant to haul my patootie anywhere, which made for a very sad sack over here. There is nothing I more look forward to than my summer vacation!  We’ve done some pretty cool things and visited some very cool places.  For instance, we learned to surf in Nosara, Costa Rica.  We’ve swum with sharks in Belize.  Taken in a new year in Paris. We’ve thrown ourselves out of planes.  Lots of good times.

For this little post though, I will challenge myself and focus on a weekend getaway fit for a millionaire within driving distance of Boston (perhaps include car rental of Bentley or Lamborghini?).   And with a big birthday coming up (May 7th, if you are wondering and would like to send a gift), I think it’s time to start planning. Hint, hint, Kase.  I’ve been perusing my favorite travel sites, Travel + Leisure and Tripadvisor.com.  And if I had a million dollars and wanted a quick weekend getaway? Maybe I’d book something like this:

Glenmere Mansion in the Hudson Valley. Behold:

Um, yes please.

I love the fancy schmancy music that plays on their site. Really, I suppose I could just turn the lights down, turn up the volume and stare at the photo gallery and just pretend I am there and save myself the $600 a night fee.

Anyway, while there, I would take in a few spa services and of course, play some croquet, cuz I’m fancy like that.

Yes, Jeeves, please just leave my mallets over here.

Oh, to be rich and be able to spend $550 (to start) for a night here.  Looks nice though, right?

Or maybe a weekend here?

The Inn by the Sea, Maine:

I’ll just sail my boat there. Good idea, Kate

 

We’re talking a little bit of everything I like here: Maine, the beach, a spa, and  a fancy restaurant that serves up LOBSTAH. And of course, while there, we would take nice leisurely strolls along the grounds. Like so:

"Love your khakis, honey. Burberry?"

Well, there ya have it. Two weekend getaways totally worth it, if I had a million dollars.  Got any of your own?

City Face Off!

I just saw this feature on Travel + Leisure’s online site- it is called City Face Off, which cracks me up. Just for kicks, I picked Washington DC to face off with Boston. Take a look-see:

Have to say, I agree.

It’s an interesting little tool. Go and visit the site for yourself, especially if you are planning a visit to one of America’s best cities.

Please, step into my nurfice.

It’s an update on the Nurfice, folks!  For those who are just joining us, (I think) I made up a term called the nurfice– for all intents and purposes, it is a room devoted to the despot and his nerdy dad.  Oh, wait, maybe we should call it the Ner-fice?  I’ll put it to a vote later.

On a serious note though, we decided when we moved that an office was important for us to keep. We used to have a dedicated office in our sunroom. It was awesome. But we don’t have that luxury of space in our new place, so we had to come to some tough decisions.

We had to weigh our options with our current needs.  Being that the despot is a mere 5 and half months old, he doesn’t need too much space, and generally wherever I need to be, he will be as well. So a dedicated playroom isn’t necessary at this point.  But an office with file cabinets where we keep important paperwork and hide the scary bills? Where my husband can work well into the wee hours of the morning? Tres importante, folks.  After all, he keeps us in Ikea, so we have to make a spot for him to do all his pencil pushing. Just kidding, babe.

Upon arrival, this is what this space looked like:

Before

And then the movers came:

The giraffe looks like he wants to escape. I remember feeling the same way.

And I had a nervous breakdown, Kase and I had a bad fight (about where to put the towels, natch), and I decided to never enter this room again.  Oh, but the despot needed a place for all his (annoying) toys. So here we are.  Please, come into my nurfice:

After

After

Where the big guy does the pencil pushing.

Where the little dude does his Johnny Jumping...

Where D.C. meets Boston....

The Nurfice. Despot approved.

We have all the elements we need- a desk with storage, our computer, a four foot giraffe, lots of stuffies, our books and a doorway for our Johnny Jump Up.  We are still mastering our jumping skills (Colin), but in the meantime, we love to look at our map and learn about countries we never heard of (me), and of course,  push our pencils (Kase) all in the same room together. Say it with me: Nurfice.

*PS- Excuse the weird lighting- these shots were taken throughout the day- the despot was being extra despot-y which makes staging a photo shoot tough.

Girl, you’ve got to hide your life away…

(That’s a little riff on Eddie Vedder, but moving right along…)

Our new bookcases are making me way happy.  Wanna know why? Other than being pretty darn good looking, they are helping to make my life easier.

For one, they are helping me get out the door about 30 seconds faster in the mornings, which is important when I am trying to make a class at the gym which starts in the next 5 minutes.  Wanna see how?

It’s my “gettin’ out the door” bookshelf.  I’ve got a little bit of everything there that I need at the last minute.  And since we now occupy two floors, it makes my life that much easier when I have a screaming despot overheating in his stroller.  Did I mention that’s my favorite part of the day? I’ll break it down for you:

On the top shelf, we have a little white bowl- if you like it, it’s the “swoop” bowl from Crate and Barrel.  I just saw it in the store and grabbed it and it turns out, it’s the perfect little bowl to hold our keys. Since a certain husband is always every so often misplaces his keys, this has been a lifesaver for the both of us.

Below that shelf, we have the covered portion of our bookshelves.  This is where I hide our “crap”, as I like to refer to it.  That’s a technical term, too, by the way.  We’ve got a glass cube which is currently holding change, our mail (read: both outgoing and incoming bills), and another little serving dish from the C&B to hold miscellaneous items like work badges, lip balm, mints and other crap. On the shelf below that, I’ve got two canvas totes with all our winter gear like scarves, gloves and hats.  And some animal items, like Ninja’s pilgrim hat which he breaks out on Thanksgiving.  And then below that, I have the shoes I use the most- my sneaks, Uggs and my leather boots. I keep my rain boots next to the bookshelf in a basket.  I got this idea from a Martha Stewart Living Magazine where they referred to it as a “boot tray”.  True story- I looked at the sources page. May I just say: It’s a basket people. Get over yourself Martha.  (oooh, that reminds me- when does my Martha Stewart Living subscription begin? I really love that mag.)

But I’m not the only one that needs to be organized- oh no.  The despot is true to his title when it comes to his own items being accessible. Mama can’t be running up and down the stairs to the Nurfice when the tiny tyrant requires some entertainment. So Colin has his own bookshelf. See?

Okay, I’ll be honest. He only has this because my fat patootie is too lazy to go up and down the stairs for things like diapers, wipes and toys.  So little dude gets his own spot.  But it makes my life easier as I run out the door in the odd event I forgot to replenish the diaper bag. Which is every time. Or if he needs a hat, I can grab one right in the basket there.  Or a blanket- same deal. Easy peasy.  Gotta love that.

The only thing left to do is hang a mirror just above the “boot tray”- Ain’t nothing I love more than checking out my fine self in the mirror. For spit up stains.  And crap in my teeth. But it will finish off the “jumping off point”.

So I’ll grab what I need and I get to stepping, just like so:

**PS- That’s my Old Navy purse hanging there. Loving it. Both as a purse and the occasional diaper bag.

A living room worth living in….

Well we worked our behinds off (well, Kase did. I supervised the despot), spent Saturday building Ikea furniture, spent Sunday returning to Ikea to obtain some essential missing hardware, and we finally got it done.  The living room is finally a room in which I want to live. And actually enjoy.  I used to only like the fireplace. Now I like it all.

I think we came up with a pretty smart solution for such a tiny space. Here’s a “before” pic to remind you of just how crowded this space can look with all of our living/dining furniture when we first moved in (excuse the lighting):

Before

Before

We had a couple of obstacles to deal with here.  First was our furniture and how to make it all work.  We had both living and dining furniture in a space with a chandelier which teased us “of course you can have a dining room! Look, I’m a chandelier!”. That chandelier is a bold faced liar.

I’ll break it down for you: we tried every possible furniture arrangement that this space would allow.  We moved the couch to face the windows.  We moved the couch in front of the windows.  We moved the couch back to its original position (as seen above).  Still no room for a dining room, let alone the table. Well, that’s not true. In the photo above, the table is pushed so far to the side, you basically could only sit on one side of it. And even that was tight.  So we dismantled the table and went without a table for a few days.

Which totally didn’t work for us.  We didn’t use our table often in the condo since we had an island and bar area.  But now we had neither.  We needed somewhere to eat- I mean, we’re adults.  Not barnyard animals. Don’t get me wrong, I still eat the occasional meal from the couch, but only by my choosing.

So we picked up a drop leaf table from the Crate and Barrel store here.  It has console table measurements when not extended, which works perfectly behind our couch. But that still left an entire open wall without a thing on it.  In fact, it was the only open wall in the living room and I was not about to waste it.  We certainly couldn’t use it for our existing furniture, and we also realized we had no storage, which we sorely needed.  So we decided to go with the tried and true, the familiar and friendly Billy Bookcase.  And it all came together last night. Here’s a little play by play for ya:

 

I believe the little man in the upper left corner is perusing his local take out menu. Ourselves? We chose pizza.

Hands off ladies. He's mine.

Instruction manuals are for losers.

Ta da!

This morning, I took some “after” shots so that we can compare when we first moved to now. Quite an improvement I should say.  Behold!

After

After

I am loving the space now. Not only is it much more functional, but also more open and inviting. Most important of all though?  It is Despot approved.

**PS- I have updated the source page to include the living room. Check it out!

Mama Must Haves- Home Edition

And it’s back!  A new Mama Must Haves post dedicated to, wait for it, cleaning! More specifically, keeping your home so fresh and so clean, clean, and keeping your fine self clean and smelling like roses. Well, maybe not roses, as I really hate that smell. Reminds me of scary grandmas. Not my own, mind you. They were lovely as can be.  Shall we get started?

Caldrea Kitchen Caddy

Ahhhhhh....

 

Oooh, girlfriends (and boyfriends).  This is my new fave. Every time I use my little kitchen caddy of assorted cleaners and soaps I just get happy.  I bought this puppy at Target back before we moved. It has the essentials that I use every.single.day: Dish soap. hand soap and counter cleaner.  Done, done and done.  More than that, I knew I would need the extra space under the sink previously devoted to cleansers of every type and brand.  But in Boston?  That space is devoted to dog food, trash bags and well, garbage.  I don’t love “clutter” on my counters, but this is the exception. Wanna know why? First, this stuff just looks nice.  It is in a little chrome caddy and takes up a very small amount of space.  Second, this stuff just smells goooooood.  I have the olive oil scent and let me tell you, Caldrea could bottle it up and sell it to me as perfume and I would wear it.  My kitchen gets to smell pretty, why can’t I? Stupid kitchen.

Go to Target today and snatch one up for yourself. Your kitchen will thank you. You can thank me later. Preferably with a gift basket of Caldrea.

Williams Sonoma Hand Soaps

Thirty bones and totally worth it.

 

Again, when you move into a new place, it’s tough to make it feel like home.  Especially when you don’t have soap in the bathrooms to wash your hands. On our first day in Boston, Kase and I trudged through the snow over to the Williams Sonoma and plucked down thirty big ones on hand soap. Ridiculous?  I don’t think so.  We bought the Fleur de Sel scent, and that stuff will keep you going back to wash your hands over and over. Which I do a lot. What? I don’t have OCD.  I change a lot of diapers.  Smelly ones.  But this stuff smells and looks good. Worth the splurge if you ask me.

Bounce Dryer Sheets

Okay, just one more load.....

 

Did I mention my son has a lot of diaper blow outs?  Oh I did? Sorry about that. And did I mention we do a lot of laundry around these here parts?  It’s all good though, because when I open the closet door to our laundry unit, a pleasant aroma wafts out to greet me, luring me in to finish up the 12th load of the day.  And that scent?  Bounce (with Febreze) dryer sheets. There really isn’t much to say other than they smell good, but not too overpowering.  So try em.

Gettin’ ready for the ‘rents

When Kase and I move, we inevitably end up having some sort of shindig involving my family very soon after which serves my purposes of getting our place set up in a timely fashion.  Kase does not agree and usually ends up muttering with a Swiffer in hand about creating “false deadlines!”. To his credit, he usually is doing something annoying, like cleaning a toilet or building something manufactured by a swedish superstore in order to help me get ready, so I really can’t blame the kid.

This time is no different. My parents come to visit next weekend, so we are spending this weekend working on all the remaining projects in the apartment, like getting the living room functional, which will entail Kase, master Ikea carpenter, installing our Billy’s (love ya honey!), cleaning up the Nurfice, stashing away the despot’s growing toy collection which has spread like a fungus throughout the apartment, and finding a spot for the remaining accessories and other riff raff throughout the apartment that we have moved from place to place muttering to ourselves, “we’ll find a place for that once [fill in the blank].”  The blank has arrived.

Oh, yeah, and I probably should clean. For the first time since we moved.  With things not being in their forever home, I just haven’t felt it was “worth it yet” to clean, which, if you know me, is not normal, but hopefully by the end of the weekend everything will be in place and we can finally feel at home!  I’ll also be writing a post about getting your home guest ready in other ways, so check back Monday for the updates!

Going straight to the source

Hey all!  Due to the very welcome increase in traffic and questions about Colin’s nursery as well as other home decor items, I have started a sources page (along the top menu on the home page).  Check it out if you have any questions about furniture or accessories in our home and where we purchased them (Ikea for $200, Alex). And thanks for stopping by!

I think it’s going to his head….

The despot fancies himself something of a celebrity now around these parts. God help us all. I didn’t think his melon could get any bigger.

Can't talk Mom. I'm blogging.

If you found us through Colin’s Nursery post on Ohdeedoh: Welcome! I hope you will check out some of my previous posts and projects and stick around for the updates at Casa de Despot!

Oh Dee D’oh!

 

Exciting news! Colin’s closet nursery was featured on one of my favorite design sites- Ohdeedoh.com- sister site to Apartment Therapy. Sweet validation is ours!  Check it out here.   Or, if you would like to view the original post, click over here. And if you are visiting us for the first time, welcome!  Come back round, ya hear?

Sweetening the deal

My masochist trainer at the gym informed me that in order to lose those last pregnancy pounds I need to change up my diet.  That bitch.  Hate her.  What does this mean? No brownies? No hazelnut wafers?  No more pasta for dinner, but she recommends salad. Wuck??

Let me explain something: I only order salads at restaurants where they do them up fancy and add things like croutons.  But I can’t be eating out every night- the despot won’t be having that. So I needed to learn to jazz em up on my own.

Confession:  I eat salads simply for spiced pecans.  I have even tried poached pears due to my focus.  Verdict: me no likey pears.  Me lovey spiced pecans.When I peruse a menu, I look for this particular ingredient in a salad.  Doesn’t matter what else is in it.  I’ll just remove that part. Like the pears. I now remove those. Eeew.

So yesterday I got to getting domestic up in here and tackled this recipe.  It seemed the easiest out of those I found, and it was.  Go ahead and follow these simple steps to sweeten up the deal.

1. Open the awesome new Cuisinart Hand Mixer your awesome sister in law gave you for Christmas (optional- but you need a mixer).

It's like a sexy little sports car of kitchen gadgets. (thanks Ania!)

2. Whip up an egg white and a tablespoon of agua.  That’s water for you unilingual folks out there.

3.  Mix together salt, sugar and cinnamon.

4. Add pecans to frothy egg white mixture.

Mmmmm, frothy!

5. Add delicious sugar mix to pecans and coat evenly.

6. Spread onto a baking sheet and put into the oven at 250 degrees for one hour, stirring up every 15 minutes.

Nom, nom, nom!

7. Try not to eat all pecans before making salad.  This last step I add, but is definitely the hardest step of the recipe.

8. Enjoy!

I whipped up a salad and added red peppers, grape tomatoes, croutons, and of course, Perdue honey roasted short cuts.  Took a little stroll over to yummy town.  And then I ate a brownie.

Edit: For this recipe, I would cut the amount of sugar in half.  They came out way too sugary.  But waste not want not, know what I’m sayin?

Happy Valentines Day!

(If your name is Kase, do not read any further. Well, you shouldn’t be surfing the web anyway on your FIRST DAY! Get back to work, slacker.)

Does anyone else feel like Valentine’s Day is on steroids this year?  I definitely do.  I don’t remember another time when every.single.television.show. had a special episode devoted to Valentines Day. It is just really overwhelming this year.  Ah well.  Kase and I don’t do Valentine’s Day really, so no skin off my teeth.

However, it is my partner in crime’s first day of work today and we can’t be sure when we are gonna see his handsome mug tonight, so instead of planning a celebratory dinner, I decided to plan a dessert combining one of our new loves: the fireplace.  Say it with me peeps: S’mores!  Awwww yeah!

A little of this.....

plus this.....

Equals a trip to Yummy Town: Valentines Edition.

Did you know you can make s’mores in the fireplace? It never really dawned on me before.  Well, it did once, but it was a gas fireplace and just didn’t seem all that kosher. Definitely untasty. Turns out I am onto something. Check this out.

Come on baby, light my fire

Boston was pretty chilly today, I won’t lie.  The despot and I met up with some new friends today at the Museum of Fine Art and enjoyed the walk to and from, but boy, we were both pretty cold when we got home. Luckily, my hubs sweetly knew I would be wanting a fire- we did purchase a fireplace screen and poker set-thingy on clearance at Target yesterday, so it was inevitable, really.  And tonight, we made a fire.  And Kase even remembered to open the flue.  What a guy. I knew I missed having a fireplace, but it’s even better than I remembered! See?

 

Just a relaxing Friday night. Despot approved.

Now, we plan to enjoy the last weekend before Kase heads back to his new job. And hopefully, by next Wednesday I will be able to post some “After” pics for the main living room in our new place. Keep your fingers crossed Ikea Stoughton has gotten their act together since the last trip. 🙂

Nobody puts baby in the corner…

…but we sure did put him in the closet!  Yes, its true. My name is Kate and my child sleeps in a closet.

Let me explain a bit here.  We moved from our 2 bedroom condo to a smaller apartment in Boston.  We didn’t realize we were losing essential space- our sunroom played an intergral part in our old home as a home office. So we had two bedrooms and a home office. We still need a room to function as an office.  But we have a baby.  What to do?

In our new home, we have two large closets. The closet in the second bedroom, or Nurfice, as we call it,  has much needed storage space, which left us to decide if the master bedroom closet was worth a shot. With a little creative thinking and a quick call to our management office, we took down the shelving and removed the door of the master bedroom closet and created a nice cozy nook for the despot.

Ready?

Before

After

See?  Everything he knows and loves is still intact (save for his giraffe which is in the Nurfice).  His Sharon Montrose animal portraits still hang above him while he sleeps. His way too expensive mobile still amuses him when he wakes. We can feed and sit with him in his chair.  And you know the best part?  It’s about three steps over from where I sleep when he requires his middle of the night pacifier fix, rather than the little trek I used to take nightly at our old place.

We played around with the idea of painting it or using decorative wall decals but in the end, I like the simplicity of it- I think it keeps the space light and open.  Keeping with the light and neutral decor also means that we can easily convert this back into the closet it was intended to be when we move out.

And we aren’t the only ones who have put their baby in a closet, so we can’t take all the credit for such a brilliant idea.  Check this out.