My Art Lessons Are Coming in Handy

Last weekend the stud hubs and I finally put on our big kid homeowner pants, busted out the paint cans, and converted a wall in the Bean's room from beige to chalkboard! 

He's very much so in the littlebig boy stage of go-go-go life these days. Stop, vroom his truck around, throw the basketball, eat a cheerio off the floor. Then, go-go-go again. 

It's hard to catch that wriggly footed pajama blur sometimes. 

After breakfast, I tried to tempt him with this chalk rendition of the almighty new favorite animal. 

And just like that, Bean paused long enough to tap out some dusty impressionist grass art for Mr. E to munch on. 

Athletic AND Artistic? 

The Bean could be quite the Renaissance Man, ahem, all you blog lady babies out there. 

...

DIY Chalkboard Paint Recipe {HERE} 

xoxo

{Bon Bon}

Our Lemon Lime Life Lesson Sofa

About three years ago, I was spending the afternoon in the city with one of my good friends. Maybe it was a bad hair day or the after effects of some wrong side of the bed syndrome, but whatever it was and regardless, it cast a silly grey cloud of insecurity over my head. Dripping with woe is me raindrops, Eeyore-sized galore. 

For a brief moment, I forgot what made me "me." 

I forgot my favorite color is green.

Forgot that I can still wear those vintage striped jeans from 7th grade, because they are now back in style after I first wore them when they weren't in style. And the lilac skinny cords.  

Or that I read "The Catcher in the Rye" when I was 11 because my {then} crush, Mel Gibson was obsessed with it in "Conspiracy Theory." 

 I had let a butterfly topple my house of sticks. 

...

All this to say, 

we have a new couch. 

And it's bright green. 

My favorite color. 

It reminds me of those silly afternoons we all have. 

When we feel so small and get so lost in the shadows. 

It should also mask the inevitable applesauce, highlighter pen, and pee accidents of the Bean quite well. 

It's just that bright. 

P.S. What's your favorite quality/characteristic/talent/fact/thing about yourself? 

xoxo

{Bon Bon}

The Bean: 14 Months and Ballin'

Literally. Ballin'. 

From the minute he wakes up to the final buzzer before bedtime, it's all about those hoop dreams. 

And with this kind of dedication, who knows, maybe Daniel and I can retire in Boca Raton by 45? 

Last I checked, the NBA doesn't allow crawling, traveling, drooling, climbing up the net, hanging off the rim, or excessive after-dunk celebrations, 

so, we'll have to work on that. 

Of course, Daniel is over the moon and on fatherhood cloud nine. 

{The hoop has been set up in the Bean's room for about a month now, and every night since then he would toss the ball into the corner and scurry over to his xylophone instead. hehe}

xoxo

{Bon Bon}

$$$ Etsy Giveaway! Kind of.

Just poppin' in to say 'ello! AND, remind you all, {that includes followers and lurkers* and yes, even you Grandma} to check out Mish Lovin' Life's bigbigbig giveaway. I'm just a teeny tiny part of it, but my photo is first...soooooo, interpret as you will.**

Mish is basically my sister from another Korean mister...except my mister was {is?} German. That's a long story in and of itself. Somehow, it works and sometime within the next 6 days, you should enter {here}. 

The End. 

*lurkers have to become followers to enter. muwahahahahah. gotcha

**pride comes before a fall...3rd grade marble race, you taught me that. 

xoxo

{Bon Bon}

InstaWham Weekend

{InstaWham. You see what I did there?}

A weekend decorating the Bean's room with vintage art deco posters, consuming pinkalicious birthday foods, shopping in the kids xxl clothing section for the biggest kid of all {me}, and doodling korean pop stars at the 'bucks,  is a weekend well spent. 

What were you crazy cats up to Friday-Sunday? 

xoxo

{Bon Bon}

Civil Union

You know you're married to an engineer when he immediately whips out some Google SketchUp before buying a new couch. 

Maybe someday we will start that international nonprofit civil engineering-interior design company. 

There's a need for that, right? 

xoxo

{Bon Bon}

Let's Hear it for New Yooooork

{1st polaroids at mode models, circa 2002. gulp}

Again. 

I just can't stop talking about it or doing my best Jay-Z/Sarah Jessica Parker combo in the middle of the living room. 

New York Fashion Week is rapidly approaching,

and thanks to the magic of world-traveling father-in-laws, my $10 plane ticket will get me there and back quite nicely for my 1st girls' trip since the Bean was born. Thanks Papa Pete!

In between finagling* our way into those stuffy white tents, my east coaster friend J.J. and I have been compiling a list of the who/what/where/wear for NYC.

{*Plan D: My highest heels paired with my thickest European accent, and I think we should have a solid 2% chance of getting backstage).

SoHo, Meatpacking District, Brooklyn (where a Portlandia girl like me will fit in), Central Park, shopping, (ahem, window shopping, Daniel, window shopping), and the #5 special on as many take-out menus as possible. 

Yes. Six days of city lights and greasy korean bbq should suffice.

Though, I'm sure the minute I step foot into the airport I'll start outrageously missing my boys, 

but that's nothing a new pair of Louboutins won't cure. 

haha. funny joke. I mean, nothing a new pair of... Old Navy flip flops won't cure. Sigh.

But they'll be NEW YORK Old Navy flip flops! 

...

xoxo

{Bon Bon}

Want to See Something Scary?

{1920s neighborhood eyesore--->2013 flipped gem}

Right after touring this house, falling in love, making an offer, and beginning the closing process (all in one weekend), 

we discovered the BEFORE pictures. 

dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnnn. 

{we had fun excitedly showing our family/friends  the before photos of our "new" place, as if it still looked like this, and then watching their faked and forced happy reactions! "Soooo, you already put an offer on it?" "Oh, wow, is that...blue...carpet? (in reference to the ugliest blue threadbare carpet that had been hidden underneath cat skeletons for the past 70 years) Yes. We are evil}

I'd like to dedicate this post to our house flipper extraordinaire, Mr. Jeremy H. 

Without you, we would be at Home Depot for the next three years. 

Actually, no. 

We would have run away. Far far far away from here.

So, 

Without you, we would still be house hunting. 

that's an even scarier thought.

xoxo

{Bon Bon}

I Like This Outnumbered Thing

During the week, while Daniel is a busy worker bee at his office, it's just me and the Bean in a handful of places and with a handful of people. 

No matter what we're doing though, that empty 8-5 "DaDa" gap is wide open in our hearts. 

With the slightest scent of a whisper alluding Daniel's very existence, a funny look will darken over Bean's tiny face and off he'll scurry, peaking in all the usual spots for his best friend who has just-the-right-amount-of-sandpaper-scratch in his beard to make you squeal. 

Eventually, he finds it. 

xoxo

{Bon Bon}

Show Me How You Bungalow

Now that we have been somewhat settled into our New (to us)---Old (creaky floored 90 year old goodness) house for two months, and the chaos of closing date delays and ordering blinds for the windows so we aren't living in a fishbowl anymore, has simmered down, it's finally time for my most beloved part in this whole equation: Decorating and DIY. 

Of course, every good blogger knows that's really code for Pinterest Boards and Chalk Paint. 

Both in copious amounts. 

Both equally headache inducing. 

So, as I show you this newly minted dresser-sideboard thing in our hallway that's lookin' all antique and sassy like...

realize this... 

A). It took me a trip to Lowe's, the Bean's afternoon nap, 637 goldfish crackers to keep him occupied once he woke up, and a bottle of hard cider to get through. 

B). DIY Chalk Paint= Paint+Plaster of Paris. Take that Annie Sloan. 

C). It's smelly and I lost some brain cells. (Before Paint: Won 6 games in a row of "You Don't Know Jack." trivia vs. Daniel, and After Paint: Lost 3 games in a row and gave up)

...

Anyone else out there revamping, revising, or rearranging? 

xoxo

{Bon Bon}

Oregon is Fresh

{Photos courtesy of Lana and David. Mi familia! Check 'em out!}

And just like that, it's the year 2013. 

We don't have our flying cars and we aren't living on the moon, but hey, at least the world is still spinning madly on? 

And all that spinning makes for some fantastic coastal weather and waves here in Oregon,

full of beach football, "Bezzerwizzer," and "Auld Lang Syne" at the Nauti Mermaid. 

I still have sand in my shoes and half-unpacked suitcases

and don't even get me started on any sort of obligatory New Year's resolutions, which for now comprises of such loftiness as,

1. Clean Sand out of Shoes

2. Unpack Suitcases

3. Compromise on Buying a Couch that Blends Comfort (Daniel) with Crazy, I mean, Style (Bon Bon)

4. Dust the Cobweb Hanging on the Bathroom Ceiling Above the Shower that I Always See When I'm Shampooing my Hair and Think to Myself, "I should Really Dust that Cobweb." 

{Is there any significance in jotting down goals when,

naturally, my life keeps outdoing itself year after year? 

In the past four years, I have lived in Africa, returned to Oregon, almost left for Africa again, stayed in Oregon, became engaged and love and marriage, and then after all that k-i-s-s-i-n-g in trees along came the baby carriage and a house and a plant}

I think I'll keep my little list and see where it takes me this year. 

xoxo

{Bon Bon}