Ramble Ramble

Well, I feel like it took long enough, but the nursery is now about 95% done. N.C. is still working on some custom art for our little guy (come on, would you expect anything less from an artist daddy?), and I’m still not totally convinced about the furniture layout, but by and large it’s done. And honestly, I love the room–it’s very cute but calm, sweet yet not overly saccharine. I like spending time in there, which I think bodes well. (One hopes?). I’m sure we’ll be making changes as we go along, but it’s a good start!

So I thought I’d share some of my favorite aspects of the room with you guys!

1. The whole scheme for the room came from the striped fabric that’s in the pillow on the chair, which N.C. then took as the main design feature in the room. The stripes are so perfect–I didn’t realize that I wanted them until they were done! They are on two of the walls, so they don’t overwhelm the room, but I think they’re fantastic.

2. N.C. decided to add these little monster guys in the border going around the room. The original inspiration was our Ugly Doll collection, but N.C. of course took the idea and made it his own. These guys were all hand painted–no two are exactly alike, and they’re all so cute and goofy! They add such a cute little element to the room.

3. We couldn’t ever find crib bedding we liked that wasn’t a kajillion dollars. And I kind of refused to spend a kajillion dollars on something that will invariably end up with bodily fluids all over it. So instead, we had our bedding custom made through an Etsy seller. We got a crib skirt, two sheets, a lovely and soft blanket for playing on, and the pillow seen above in the chair for seriously less than 1/2 of what we were finding in stores for bedding. I’m thrilled with it! Below you can see the blanket and one of the sheets.

4. This is the functional side of the room–all square furniture and square bins and such. But there’s a definite favorite item here. That dresser was my great-grandparents, which I got along with a vanity when my great-grandfather passed away. Both pieces of furniture have been with me for years, and despite needing to be refinished in a BAD way (they’re over 85 years old, what can you expect?) they are two of my most treasured possessions. They are well-used functional items that don’t get kid-glove treatment, so it doesn’t worry me putting this dresser in a little boy’s room. And I love the idea that there’s a little bit of family history in this room so filled with new things.

5. This chair you see? Was a total surprise gift. It is not the chair that I have been sleeping in for the past 4 months–that chair is still in the living room. This was an extravagant gift from a dear family friend. I know that it will be a well-used item, and one much appreciated for midnight feedings.

All in all, it’s a room I love. One that I know I will spend hours upon hours in. It’s not perfect, it’s not from a magazine, but I think it will be a good place for my little boy.

As always, for more lists check out:

It’s been entirely too long since I’ve posted photos–of course, that could have something to do with the fact that it’s been entirely too long since I TOOK any photos. In my defense, I’ve been…lazy. I know, I know, I just need to get over it.

Anyway, I decided to just post a few of the photos that are in my camera. These haven’t been edited at all, they’re all straight out of camera…which is of course to say, I was too lazy to do any photo editing. What a shock.

Ooh, purty!

This is on our balcony…and these plants are ALL over San Diego. I love them!

Same plant, just different lighting…

Hey, where’d he come from?

Oh, that’s not cute.

How about a teaser on the nursery?? More on that in the next few days!

What’s this? Could it be?

Photos??

Yes, unbelievable though it may seem, I actually took photos this past weekend. Trust me, no one is more shocked than I am that after months of little, if any, photography happening, I managed to cart the camera around and take photos! (The trip to Chicago doesn’t count, cuz it was a vacation and that’s what you’re supposed to do on vacation).

Anyway, this weekend we spent Sunday afternoon at Balboa Park here in San Diego, this time attending an outdoor organ performance. Kind of random, I know, until you see this monster.

This hulking, yet gorgeous, structure is the Spreckels Organ, one of the world’s largest outdoor pipe organs. And I quote: “This unique organ contains 4,530 pipes ranging in length from the size of a pencil to 32 feet and is housed in an ornate vaulted structure with highly embellished gables.” Um yeah, that’s kind of insanely big. It sounds big too.

You can see everyone with umbrellas for shade–they rent them to you for a couple of bucks, which on a sunny San Diego day proved to be an excellent way to spend $2. Plus made for a fun little shot.

One of the things I love about San Diego is the beautiful weather–and the colors we get thanks to that weather. On a day like Sunday, blue and green can dominate the color palette.

Seriously, there wasn’t even a hint of white cloud in the sky–just that blue as far as the eye can see, punctuated by green. I may complain about the June Gloom out here in southern California, but you can’t see a trace of it on days like this one. And we’re lucky that we have more days like this than otherwise!

Anyway, after the concert was over, we went about our merry way in this little corner of Balboa Park. I got a couple of shots of one of my favorite structures in the park:

I love that second shot, it makes it look like we were in some wild jungle, not downtown San Diego. (I think this is the tower from the Museum of Man, but can’t be sure–I’m always taking photos from a distance to try and get the staircases that show in the the arches of the tower.)

But of course, it wouldn’t be me taking the photos if I didn’t throw in a macro shot somewhere. This time I fell in love with these two little stone lions outside one of the International Cottages (a quirky little area made up of cottages that promote different countries around the world, from Iran to Sweden to Italy to the US. Very cute and friendly!).

Anyway, these lions were guarding the steps to one of the cottages, Italy I believe, and I just fell in love with the crackle in their paint. I thought this was a fun little shot, and a departure from my normal floral macro!

I had a good time taking photos on Sunday, though my growing size makes it hard to get some of the shots I want–it’s hard to get down close to the ground or to maneuver into some of the contortions I’ve utilized in the past. But all in all, it was a nice reminder of the fun I have when I’m taking photos. I may have forgotten a lot of the technical things I figured out about my camera after a few months of not using it, but Sunday I was able to remember that I enjoy the experience of taking photos even if I don’t get many “good” shots out of it.

Here’s hoping I don’t forget that again.

It has been a ridiculously long time since I’ve posted any photos on this site. I’ve had all these photos from my trip to New York just stashed in my camera, but I’ve been too lazy to bother with any photo editing. Finally today I said, “ENOUGH!” If I can’t make myself edit the photos, then I should at least put up the SOC shots. Maybe I’ll do a followup later with some afters of these with photo edits, but for now, enjoy a brief look at New York with no Photoshop magic to make them super pretty.

Well, it’s almost time for the next Exposaroonie challenge to go up, which means an excuse to put photos on the site! This challenge was texture, which is one of my very favorite subjects to photograph–I’ve got loads and loads of photos of that very thing clogging up my hard drive.

But the rules of Exposaroonie require you to actually shoot the photo during the time of the challenge, so no reusing old shots. I would have been bummed since I love so many of my texture photos and would love to show them off, except it gave me an excuse to shoot more.

So now I’ve got another wide range of texture shots to choose from this go round. I have one that is currently edging the others out, but I’d love to hear what you guys think! So, which photo do you like best? Or, if you don’t like any of them, which one do you think conveys the challenge theme of texture the best?

Fire Hydrant

Rusty Screw

Manhole Cover

As a side note, I’ve realized I’m horrible at naming my photos. Really, in case you couldn’t tell from my super descriptive titles on these images, it’s something that really trips me up. So if you have any suggestions for photo titles, feel free to share them…or, if you have any tricks for naming, I’d love to hear them!

P.S. I’m trying a PollDaddy poll for the first time–if it makes things all wonky for you let me know, k?