The Wait is Nearly Over!

Wow, could that slideshow BE any smaller??  Ulia is so glowingly, Pantene-model beautiful, and you just can't appreciate it in a thumbnail.  And Paul was such a good sport about the pictures (which we squeezed during pre-game festivities for the last Pats game of the season).  So here are a few of the best ones blown up.  I wish I had time to do them all, but the Pitocin was started at 7:30, water broken before 10am, and this baby may may be BORN before I finish this post if I dont' HURRY.  Also, I hope posting these is okay with Paul and Ulia because I wasn't calling them at the hospital to ask permission.  I invoke Godmother's (and Photographer's) privelege, if there is such a thing, lol!

To sum up...Go Ulia!  Go Paul!!  Go Baby!!  We can't wait to meet you!

One of the good guys

Marc woke up at 4:15 this morning.  He was at the office by 7:00, worked until 5:00, took a work-related call on his drive home, slapped me five as I ran out the door with Jack to Cub Scouts, got Molly and Ben ready for bed, put Jack to bed, wolfed down some dinner, and by 9pm was on a phone conference with associates in India, Australia, London and Hong Kong, until 11pm.  Had a bowl of cereal and headed to bed, since he needs to wake up in five hours and do it all again, though hopefully without the late night conference call.

Yesterday, he sent me flowers as a pick-me-up.

My kids are always playing "good guys vs. bad guys", and they have no idea that the world's best "good guy" is their Daddy.  We are so blessed.  :)

It's The Great Mudroom Reveal, Charlie Brown!

It really is AMAZING how one simple, little thing can change the flow of your days and the stress in your life. Having a mudroom that works means the ability to get in and out of the house expeditiously and safely, and it has singlehandedly made my life so much easier!

I almost forgot to take "before" pictures, so focused was I on the changes ahead. So halfway through emptying the closet, I grabbed my camera. Here is what our mudroom looked like before we pulled ourselves up by our DIY bootstraps...

 

You can see the beginnings of something taking shape - the fabulous wall quote that was a gift from  my friend Sandy, who was my BFF before BFFs were cool (in fact, I'm pretty sure we started the idea back in 1984, but we'll let all the TXTers think they were the geniuses). 

But the rest?  The rest was just a Hot Mess.

                    

And this is AFTER I removed the twentyeleven coats hanging from the rod and the giant baskets of stuff that had fallen over and created this mess. 

The double closet with the sliding doors was killing us.  It took up half the tiny mudroom, leaving us not enough space to get our gear on without knocking each other over.  My mind first went toward demolition - I needed a sledgehammer to take that closet DOWN!  But reason prevailed - I don't have the time, or the resources (mental or financial) to go remodeling this place.  I just needed to find a way to make the space work for us - which is where the idea to take off the closet doors was born.

And it WORKED!!  I merged ideas from all of my inspiration photos (thank you Google!) and the end result has been nothing short of  a miracle.  And the best part is that all it required was one saw cut, a few nails, and some paint. 

Here she is, the NEW and IMPROVED Mallett Mudroom!!!

 

Aaaah!  Just looking at it makes my stress melt away.  The tray table is destined for another spot in the house, but it's a good placeholder for a thrifted dresser I have yet to find and paint blue.  It will hold all our overflow gear, like mittens and hats in winter, and floaties and beach towels in summer.  All of which are in a bucket in the laundry room currently...baby steps! 

The lamp is a $29.99 find from Homegoods, as is the glass jar filled with Springtimey things that remind me that spring is only FORTY DAYS AWAY!!!  The faux paperwhites were $8 on clearance from Pottery Barn.  Have I mentioned that it ROCKS to have a PB store nearby - the seasonal clearance items make me swoon!  Thank goodness I can only go when I'm alone, which isn't often. 

Molly's infamous ruby slippers (well, infamous among the twelve people who saw our realtor photos from Edgewater Drive, har har) hanging on the blue doorknob hook.  This was one thing I KNEW would be incorporated into the mudroom.  It's one of the few truly original ideas I've ever had, but even more than that, it's my favorite way to decorate - around items that highlight our family's journey in an artful way that makes sense within the house.  Sure, I could stick a picture of Molly in her red shoes on a shelf, but to me, this is a way that takes one memory as a seed that blossoms into many new memories. 

All of our comings and goings are past those shoes, and maybe my kids one day will put their own little girls in ruby slippers and remember the shoes that watched over their shoulders as they came and went all these years.

Sigh. So anywho...

functional + neutral backdrop + seaglass hues + pops of red + familynostaligia + far too much vinyl lettering. 

That's pretty much the theme here.  And the closet?  What closet?

I don't even remember the old closet, so functional and fabulous is this new niche.  Each person gets their own double hook for their coat and bag, plus a spot for their boots in the boot tray.  They are LABELED because 'some people' (and by that I mean Marc) have been known to commandeer more hooks than their fair share, creating an ugly domino effect. 

When I couldn't find the cottagey white bench of my dreams within a price point I liked, I'd initially wanted to paint this $89.99 BJURSTA bench from IKEA white and make a cushion for it.  Once I got it home though,  I remembered that I have three children and zero free time and that a black bench with a few pillows on top would do just FINE thankyouverymuch. 

The surname photo-art above the hooks was a Christmas gift from my parents. My mom and I clearly share a brain, because this is the same art that was hanging in one of my inspiration photos - but she ordered it BEFORE I posted my inspiration photo.  (insert mysterious music here...)

Initially I had some nice, cheap, chrome hooks to put up, but when I went with the black bench, I knew I had to get the dark hooks to match, even though they were three times the price at $6.50 apiece.

The pillows were a Homegoods clearance find for $18.00!  And they have a coordinating but contrasting fabric on the back, which matches a shower curtain I bought for $8.00.  I'm going to use the fabric from the shower curtain in other projects around the house to tie in the color scheme.

The boot trays were $24.99 Target versions of the $49.99 ones from Ballard Designs  that I've coveted for many moons.  One is 3 years old and one is brand new and the only reason I know which is which is that I tried to scrub the sticker off the first one.  With the second one I knew not to bother because it wasn't coming off without a blowtorch!

The three clocks is an idea I have had in my idea bank for years from an HGTV mudroom redo on a show called Decorating Cents.  The idea didn't make sense when we lived in MA (I mean, what other time did I need to know but Pembroke Standard?)  But now it totally does!  Sadly, I am "time zone" challenged, consistenly adding or subtracting in the wrong direction to figure out what time it is in MA.  And I'm pitiful when Marc travels to London (which is often these days).  I ask questions like "is it still the same day there?" because my brain just. does. not. compute!  These clocks are my little secret weapon to my brain's shortcomings.  And they're cute.  And cheap!  I got them at Target for $2.99 apiece.  $2.99!!!  And they were yet another reason to get out my Cricut and cut some vinyl letters.

This laundry room door was a late LATE night design decision that looked AWFUL...until I put the vinyl on it!  Nothing like some black vinyl letters to add just the right amount of pizzazz!  I found the magazine holder last weekend at Homegoods for $19.99 and it is exactly what I need to corral the kids' papers after school each day.  But the blasted thing has two keyhole openings on the back and even though I've measured and marked the wall, it's going to take two screw anchors, two flathead screws of juuuust the right dimensions, a drill for a p

ilot hole, a screwdriver for the screw and a whole lotta prayers to get it up on the wall.  Goodness I do hate keyhole mounts!

So it LOOKS pretty, but how does it FUNCTION???  Take a look!

The key is to keep only the absolute, daily necessities here.  One jacket, one pair of shoes or boots, hat, mittens, and bag.  Overflow has to go elsewhere because it clutters up the works and the whole system goes to pot.  So for right now, we're keeping off season jackets, raincoats, and dress coats in everyone's bedroom closets.  

And now with the benefit of experience, I can see where the system needs to be tweaked to achieve optimum performance.  That will include pulling the bench forward to the front of the alcove, and adding a lower tier of hooks for each person.  Then the longer snowpants and coats can hang down behind the bench, and Molly and Ben will have hooks they can reach by themselves without having to stand on the bench.  I'd also LOVE  better overhead light and an electrical outlet or two, so that my lamp doesn't need an extension cord into the laundry room.

But all in all, this has been one awesome home improvement because not only has it added functionality to our lives, it has made our home more "ours".  I love going through the mudroom now - sometimes I'll just stand in there and soak it all in.  

Coming and going is SO much easier and better now.  And every time we pass through our doorway, we walk by another special treat from my mom - it sums up so much of how we feel about our home and our lives here....



Snowmageddon 2011

When we moved to Illinois, we thought we'd be giving up the snowy winters of New England.   Much to our neighbors' chagrin, we apparently brought the snow with us!  It's snowed at least a dozen times since Thanksgiving, though usually only 2-4 inches at a time.  But last night, we got the mother of all snowstorms!  A real New England-style blizzard.  And we woke up this morning to a neighborhood that looked like an alien land.  There were areas of the ground that had only a dusting, and others that had 6 foot high snowdrifts.  The sidewalk and street were nowhere to be found - covered by a solid 18" of the white stuff.  It was like a white ocean!

It goes without saying that we were all absolutely GIDDY at the snow day that lay ahead.

After breakfast, we couldn't get our snow gear on fast enough.  No, really.  They whined, and moaned, and whined some more that they wanted to be outside...but any parent who has ever lived in a snowy climate knows how impossible it is to get them all in their snow gear.  I remember one of my favorite parenting authors once blogging about trying to practice a more Zen approach to the ordeal.  To enjoy the moment instead of being frustrated by not being DONE with them moment.  She would chant to herself "There is only the snowsuit.  Putting on the snowsuit.  Only the snowsuit" and try and concentrate on making that act a precious one, instead of one to just get the heck through to get to the other  moment that you wanted to get to.  I'm not sure it worked, because short of traffic and telemarketers, snowsuits are about the most frustrating thing on earth.

Case in point?  I had Molly finally all dressed: fleece pants, knee socks, 2nd pair of socks, elbow gloves, snow pants, boots, double layer jacket, ski mask, hood.  Phew!  Then I turned around to get Ben into his gear and had to listen to "I'm hot.  I'm sooooo hoooooootttttt noooooow.  I'm DIIIIEEEEEEYYYINNNNGGGG.  Can't I go outside?  PLEASE?" 

No, it wasn't Molly, it was Jack!  He'd dressed himself and was bent on getting outside ASAP.  Not knowing what lay outside, I wasn't willing to let him charge ahead alone.  Marc finally sent him out to the garage to a. stay cool and b. get out of our faces!

Molly wasn't quiet though - quite the opposite.  First, her long sleeve tee shirt wasn't tucked properly into her jacket - it was bugging her.  So after I wrestled Ben into his left boot, I turned around to find Molly half-undressed!  Then while I was wrangling her back into her gear (with her sleeves tucked just SO), he went and took his boot off.  And when I got him back into it again, Molly was in a heap on the floor writhing in agony because now her pants felt bunchy.  So I snaked my hand up her snowpants to get the fleece pants to lie flat (which I know how to do well, because she gets her bunchiness aversion from yours truly). 

Ten more minutes of chasing Ben around, a few pointless threats, and enough whining to make your eardrums bleed in protest...and we were finally ready!!  Here are the troops all sweaty and miserable after 30 minutes of "Can we go yet???!"

The picture of winter cheer, no?  But a few minutes later....

That is a garden bench that Molly is walking by.  The snow is higher than the seat and one of the arms!

It was all smiles as we played in the backyard, and then wound our way out to the front yard through a gate that was miraculously untouched by the storm...

That is BARE ground there!  And yet, step back a bit further....

...and there's a six foot tall snow drift up against our neighbor's house!  When we got out to the front yard, the snow was breathtaking.

It's kind of hard to show just how deep the snow is in some parts.  Here are some pictures of the kids and thier friends to give some perspective...

Ahoy there!  Do you need a tow?  This is Drew trying to get across the street to come play.  Later in the day when I tried to take Molly and Ben over to their backyard, I had to put Ben on my back and finally collapsed before doubling back when the snow reached to my chest.

Here's Connor atop the big snow drift to the side of the garage.  Eventually though, the whining to go IN began.  You really can't blame them.  After an hour, they were

EXHAUSTED.

SNOW COVERED.

ICICLED.

It was time to retreat to the back yard.

For hot cocoa!  Then the big boys decided to get outta the snow and go play some Wii at Brandon's house.  But they had a lot of snow to trek through to get there!

Molly, Ben and I finished off the cocoa and made some "Snow Paint" by filling spray bottles with cold water and food coloring.  Then Molly finally had to give in to her bladder and come in to use the bathroom.  It dawned on me today, only because all other doors were blocked with snow, that this kind of day is PRECISELY why I have a door in my laundry room - it singlehandedly saved my house from being a puddle!  How have we not used it before now??  I brought Molly in and started peeling off her layers while Ben was behind me outside, happily spritzing the back yard green.  But then I heard his voice a little closer, and when I turned around I gasped when I saw him spraying MY NEW LAUNDRY ROOM RUG!!!  He'd followed us in and kept on spritzing - I am thanking my lucky stars that the rug was olefin and rinsed off perfectly right in the laundry room sink.  Thank heaven for small favors!

At this point we took a break.  A braet to BAKE!  We started with a dozen and a half strawberry cupcakes and three trays of chocolate lollipops.  Then we used the extra cake batter to whip up a batch of donuts in the pan Molly got for Christmas.

I'm sure they were famished from all the exertion in the snow, because after lunch when we glazed and decorated the donuts, they couldn't keep their hands off of them until the glaze set up.  I managed to snap a few quick pictures...see those sneaky little fingers just itching to snatch a treat??

Wait!  There they are!

Finally I acquiesced.  They were just too tempting to resist!

Approximately seventeen seconds after the shot above was taken, I turned back around and this was the scene...

GONE!!!  Every. Last. Donut.  This next picture represents their feelings a little better though...

After the dryer finished with our gear, and one failed nap attempt, it was back outside until sunset for us!  The Naperville plow finally made an appearance and our landscaper was able to get to us before the kids were asleep.  Well, not Benny.  He was out by 6:59.  And spent the last :59 of that a crying mess - but whatcha gonna do?  Sometimes you just run yourself right out of gas from having too much fun.

Speaking of out of gas...I've been typing with one eye closed.  I'm going to tuck myself into my cozy bed and thank my lucky stars that I live in 2011, when a 21" snowfall and subsequent below zero temperatures don't equal anything but a superfun snow day and a great night's rest.

And the best part is...we get to do it all over again tomorrow!!!  :)