Fold Invites Live!

Does anyone subscribe to this blog?  I wonder.  Well, for those of you who do, I'm posting after many months to say that Fold Invites is technically live.  www.foldinvites.com
I'm experimenting with content, and I am trying to get a bunch of new photos up of products I will offer, and weddings I have done.  In the mean time, please enjoy the content and posts that will move there.

I'm not sure I will keep up the personal blog, so please subscribe to foldinvites.com blog posts via email, RSS, and other methods.

Love you guys.

Did you say DIY?

Now that we have this new house, and it needs oh so many improvements, and I am losing my job, and have no money I have resorted to doing things myself.  I'm not trying to sound snooty about it.  I am just bad at everything.

I vowed that at the new house we wouldn't do anything cheap and crappy, but as it turns out, that's exactly what I've been doing...but with flare!

I've been pouring over design blogs and DIY blogs for ideas of things to do myself.  Currently on the list are faux board and batten in our laundry room, A pelmet for Eden's room, and perhaps for the uglier than ugly semi circle window in our family room, and lastly, night stands for our bedroom.  I saw this Bungalow 5 side table in a bedroom spread in Elle Decor (I think), and fell in love.  Problem?  $720 each.  Bah to that.

In researching better pricing, I came across several DIY posts making night stands that looked a lot like the B5 ones.  I decided I would undertake one of my first real DIY jobs (other than painting).  This was scary.  The only other thing I ever tried to do was crackling a bookcase back in '96, and that resulted in re-painting it lavender, then trashing it after six months. 

However, the to postings I read about 15 times, made it sound somewhat doable for even an amateur such as myself.  I love a spoiler, so I will show you the DIYs and "After" shots of the two blogs I used to help me do this myself.

The first one is here but she lives in Canada, and some of the stuff wasn't available at our Home Depot (neither was the hardware), so I used this post instead, and she did a more in depth tutorial with lots of pics for a dummy like me.

So, we ventured to IKEA for the second time in a month.  It's one of Lyla's favorite places, so we tend to go just for fun and a few glasses sometimes.  I also adore the fur throws, so I end up picking them up fairly often since they get Filo-ized over time. Lyla will now go into the playroom by herself since visiting with her cousins Noah and Piper, so that gives us some time to bust the place up before we have to sleep in all the beds and visit the "toy section" with Lyla.  Yes, we get meatballs, were you going to ask that?

We picked up two Rast night stands.  The look like this, and are $34.99 each.  Anything from IKEA scares me, as do paper directions for anything since my brain does not allow me to comprehend any directions given to me in this way.  Trent is always in charge of paper directions or anything that comes with a bag of hardware.

So, last night at almost 10, I guilted Trent into building the tables for me.  I think I even threatened "hating" him if he didn't help in our pursuit of making crap ourselves.  The good man that he is, he went upstairs while I watched the Rachel Zoe Project, and built the night stands.  Yay!  It took him an hour to build both.  He is a total whiz with them, so I knew he was the man for the job, and I was the woman to ensure Rach didn't have her baby this episode.

In between working in the morning (because I forgot Lyla's ballet stuff and had to make an additional trip home), I decided to start the process.

I will share a few pics with you now, and then let you know how the final phases come together.  I have to wait for the drawer fronts to dry, and the stain to dry before doing the lacquer, and having Trent finish the construction of the drawer slides.  Oh shit.  I just though of this...
Trent left the wood for the sides of the drawers upstairs because he couldn't build it until the white fronts were dry.  Which means, I have to stain the side boards!  Blast.  I thought I was done with stain.

Anyway, here are the shots from today's job.

The painted pieces in Royal's high gloss white

The unfinished frames ready for their fate

The wood filler for the silver bolts with holes

My hand full of paint and sticky stain.

One done, one on deck

Close-up of side

Close-up of top

Both done-zo...for now

No One Pees More Than Eden

We all know kids pee a lot.  However, I really think that my kid pees more.  It's not that she pees so often, I think that when she does pee, she takes the kind of pee husbands take when they've held it at a football game until half time and break the seal.  It's a forever pee. 

When E goes down at 8-8:30 her diaper is of course changed, and pajamas put on.  She either wakes up at 3-ish because she is soaked, or manages to make it until we feed her at 5:30 when she is most certainly soaked.  When I say soaked, I mean 20 pound diaper, pajamas drenched, crib sheet and crib totally wet.  Maybe it's the Seventh Generation diapers?  Maybe they don't hold as much?  Although, in pinches we've had to get other brands, and I believe she has soaked those as well.  She's just a soaker.  I think I'm going to have to research overnight diapers or something that hold more pee.  The thing is, she's also wet all the way up to her chest.  It's like she's been dipped it a glass of water.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind changing the kid, but to have to change all the garb and the crib sheet at such an hour is painstaking.  For those of you who saw my Facebook post about changing a crib sheet, you can relate.  It's so damn tight, and never stretches enough.  I never buy the cotton ones any more, only the cheap knit ones.  At least they have some stretch to them.  The fancy sheet that came with my Dwell bedding must have been the size of a bassinet sheet.  I had to use super human strength to put it out.  I would break out in a sweat, and my fingers would be red with abrasions.  I sense an invention by Leslie Wagner brewing.  Please make sheets made out of neoprene or something. 

Every morning, the scene in E's room is two sets of wet-ass pajamas, usually a crib sheet all hanging to dry until they go to the wash, and then her smiling face, happy as a clam to be on the scene.  That's the other thing, she really never fusses about the whole thing.  Even with poop.  The kid can have a total explosion in there, and never gives you any indication she's any worse for the wear. 

It's not just at night either.  I could change her, and an hour later, I see she soaked through jeans!  Yes, jeans.  Like I said, it's not like she pees a million times.  I think she just lets loose like a faucet when she does go, because it happens so quickly.  You'll check and she's fine.  Two minutes later you're changing her out of some complicated get-up.  I should really just dress her in onesies. 

Speaking of which, Laura, our nanny didn't have a change of clothes one day over the summer, so she cut the bottom of a onesie off and the bottom half of the outfit ended up just being a diaper.  She was such a white trash baby that day.  The way she cut it was all off, and it became a half shirt like a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader. 

Lyla wore the same diapers, and she never had this issue.  We really hace a hefty number oner on our hands.  That's for sure.

Fabric Decals

I was reading one of my many blogs, and saw the fabric decals of Love Mae featured. I must have these!


I love the way they make ordinary things like cider vinegar look kitchen-y and chic. Of course, I will need to put all of my every day items into lovely glass jars that cost $20-40 each and carefully transfer everything into them to look pretty, but hey, I have nothing else to do with my money time on my hands starting in November!

They are also running a contest to guess four recipes based only on the ingredients. The first three people to get all four right, win the labels. A $59.95 value. I'm all about value now that I'm almost unemployed a small business owner. I entered the contest, and I think I definitely have two right, one I'm 95% sure, and the other, I am 80% sure. Fingers crossed. Feel free to enter here by 9/28.

I decided to show Lyla their fabulous fabric decal dress-up dolls of which they have several variations.




She thought they were the cat's pajamas, and so did I, so we promptly put them on her xmas list. I do love gifts that I get for Lyla that I secretly want to play with. To name a few, play-doh (even though we rarely play with it any more), any puzzle, anything dress-up. How amazing are these?

We started Christmas list this year because Lyla never asks for anything. If we're out and about, she acts like she wants something, but it's usually an ugly bear or other stuffed animal. To date, she has only ever asked for two things for any holiday. The first is a Leapster Explorer, which is a game console thing. She actually played it religiously for months. Now, we don't even know where it is. She got a little monster-y when playing it any way, so I'm glad it's gone. It definitely competed with tv as a monitored item, and something that typically made Lyla irritated and angry.
The other item was a bike for her 4th birthday.
My parents got her both those gifts. We like it when grandparents are heros for many reasons. For one, it allows us to get crap gifts because she doesn't care about anything after the "wished for" gift. So, essentially we're off the hook. I also don't believe in buying hundreds of gifts for kids for Christmas or birthdays (believe it or not). Maybe it's because Lyla isn't into anything but the opening part. Even after her birthday party, it took three days to open the gifts, because she loses interest. Lyla's entire 4th bday gift from us contained items exclusively purchased at the Candy Kitchen in Ocean City the morning of her birthday. What a delight.

Here and there, Lyla has mentioned a few things she likes, and so we have been encouraging her to add those to the list this year. Last year, I literally went onto Toys R Us' site and guessed by age what she might like. Let's just say she has played with her Easy Bake Oven, Light Brite, and life-sized Big Foot once each. Again, these may have been gifts I wanted to play with on Christmas morning. Big Foot actually flipped over, talked, and walked. Who wouldn't want that?

Right now, we have four things on the list. This is progress. True progress.

Today is the First Day of the Rest of My Life

Hello small group of followers. Today is a big day for me. It marks the day I take my life in a new direction.

After a month of pure hell with selling and buying our house, changes for Lyla, and the cheapest attempts we could make to get the house in order to live in, we finally breathed easy for a moment.

Now, things will stir up again. After 12 years at my company, it is time to move on. Things have changed, issues have come up that I won't publicly blog about, but the future is now.

Trent and I have discussed this over the last few weeks, and for right now, we have decided that I will most likely put Fold Invites back on the map. I will remain at Cie Studios through October 31st, and consult for them through the end of the year, but am able to pursue other interests during that time. I have discussed the whole thing with the CEO, and good friend, and he has been very supportive of my decision to give this a go. It will take a lot of work to get things back on track, but since this will be my new full-time job, I hope I can turn this into something special--finally.

I did my first invitations eight years ago, and discussed how much I would love to make it happen. It's the only thing I have remained passionate about over the past few years. It took a lot out of me to give it up last November. I remember talking through it with Trent at a restaurant called Home in Los Feliz, CA over breakfast one day about seven years ago with such excitement. Well, it may have taken a while, but I am ready to try.

Wish me luck, and stay tuned for lots of changes including a new web site, products, and services.

Here. we. go.

Pat Summit Heroin

This is slightly off my normal topics of weight, fashion, kids, or home decor, but it definitely worth it. For those of you who don't know Pat Summit, she is the legendary women's basketball head coach at the University of Tennessee. She has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and while she continues to coach, she will no longer be calling the plays on-court. This is something that has entered our own lives recently, and it just goes to show how the testing of it really doesn't help in the diagnosis of this disease. Crazy stuff. Here is the video for anyone interested.

Bootie Envy

I have a few pairs of booties, and I love them. However, I don't wear them as often as I should. For comfort at the office, I typically choose flats and jeans. I love booties with dresses, but it works better if your legs are slim. I am loving the booties featured in my fall line-up below.

I also threw in some other pieces I'd love to see with these little numbers.
Thanks to www.mytheresa.com for all the fall inspiration!