A Fun Birthday Cake Idea

With my nephew Toby's 2nd birthday coming up next week, I have been looking online at kids' birthday party ideas. There are so many cute things you can do pretty easily!

Today I found this cute cake idea on OhDeeDoh. It just uses sprinkles as decor in the frosting between the layers of the cake and then sprinkled on top in a ring around the exterior.

Our updated foyer

We have a semi-private elevator entry to our condo. We share the foyer with our next door neighbor. When we moved in last year, the foyer was hideously ugly. It featured 80s floral wallpaper, ugly porcelain tile floors and the cheapest-of-the-cheap overhead light fixtures. A few days after moving in, I asked our new neighbor if they would care to re-do the foyer. They were all for it, thankfully!

Our foyer is almost completely redone at this point. We had marble floors put in. The wallpaper was removed and we selected neutral wall and door colors. We bought a beautiful wall mirror and a bench, providing us all with a place to sit down and take on/take off our shoes. And we have a runner in the foyer now to help keep dirt out of our homes. Today, I had my electrician hang the new light fixture.

The foyer is a pretty small space so it's difficult to photograph, but here are a few shots that show the new-and-improved entrance to our home!

The final touch is to put "15D" and "15C" on our doors. I've already purchased the hardware, but we have to spray paint the numbers/letters since the letters were a slightly different color than the numbers. So we're not quite done, but very close!

Cousin Tom's Visit to Chicago

We had the pleasure of spending a day with Dan's cousin Tom earlier this week. He arrived on Sunday night and left on Monday, so it was a quick trip, but it was so fun to see him and hear about his upcoming adventures. Tom is in college and will be studying abroad in Spain next year. He had to interview at the Spanish Consulate in Chicago this week to get his student visa. Tom and his sister Samantha are planning to fly to Europe in July and backpack across the continent for 6-8 weeks before his fall semester starts. That sounds so fun!

Guest Bedroom Updates

A few months ago, we finally "pulled together" our guest bedroom. We bought a beautiful mahogany sleigh daybed with a pop-up trundle so that it will make a king-size bed for guests yet not take up too much space on a day to day basis. My mom gave us the rug we have in the room (a Tibetan rug she bought from her friend Joy). She also made all of the pillows on the daybed and helped me find a great seamstress who created custom bedding and bolsters. I am really pleased with the outcome! Here is a photo of the finished product:

Today, I was so excited to receive a box in the mail from Grammar with two quilts (for the daybed and trundle) and an afghan that she crocheted. They are beautiful and the colors match perfectly with the bedding and the rug. Here's a close-up shot of the quilts and afghan:

I love the fabrics on the quilts (they are identical and are double-sided with stripes on one side and the Moroccan pattern on the other). We found them at Mom's favorite discount fabric store in Tucson. I really love the chevron pattern on the afghan. Last year, during our girls' weekend at Jekyll Island, Grammar taught me how to crochet. I am not very good but it was neat to learn and I have a greater appreciation for the hard work that goes into Grammar's creations!

Construction White Noise

The building next to us (the one we see from our living room, dining room and kitchen windows) has been doing construction/repairs for months. I am excited about the finished product as it will make for a much prettier view than we had before, but boy does it take a long time to get there! Here's a photo of work going on today:

The "finished" look can be seen on the far right of the photo. That side of the building was finished before we moved in last year. The side of the building to the left of the photo is what they're working on now. First, they jackhammered out most of the concrete beams, then reinforced the steel bars behind the concrete, and now (finally!) they are starting to pour concrete to rebuild the beams. The construction has become just like white noise for me, although I will admit I am eager for them to finish up!

A Favorite Site: Decorpad's Look 4 Less Blog

I love Decorpad.com. When we were remodeling our kitchen and updating other parts of our new condo, I visited Decorpad daily to browse through the site's home photos and find inspiration. It is almost addictive because the photos that people share are so gorgeous! You can search by room, by color palette, or do a search for a specific item (such as "daybed" if you're looking for examples of rooms with daybeds).

There is a part of the site called "Look 4 Less" that helped me discover a few bargain priced items that look almost identical to expensive designer furniture. Our side tables in the living room are one of my favorite "Look 4 Less" finds. They are identical to the hundreds-dollars-plus tables made by Horchow. We bought them for a fraction of that at Urban Outfitters of all places!

Today I discovered a new photo on the site that I think is so fun. It's definitely a casual look and wouldn't work in our current home (not to mention we don't even have stairs!), but I think it would be so fun at a beach house. Here it is:

A Visit to Salt Lake City

I flew into Salt Lake City last night and will be here through tomorrow. The city is relatively small, but it is so charming and beautiful here. When our plane approached the airport, we flew over snow-capped mountains. It was warm (in the 70s) when I got outside, but there is still snow way up on the mountain peaks.

I didn't take this photo myself, but it looks similar to what the city looks like today. It's very pretty with snow on the mountains and lush, green mountains below.

My Saturday Thrift Store Finds

Today I stopped by my favorite thrift store while out running some errands in the neighborhood. This place is amazing. We have purchased some incredible, high-quality things at rock bottom prices there - a fur coat for $117, McGuire chairs at $40 a piece, an artist's easel for Dan for $45, vintage books for $1 and so much more. Anyway, today when I was browsing around I noticed that the shop has expanded its children's area. I had to take a peak and sure enough, I found three things that were just too cute not to buy! (I am sort of addicted to buying cute baby clothes, but fortunately I have several young nieces and nephews so it all works out.) Here were my finds today:

 The teddy bear is so soft and cuddly. It was $2.

This adorable little play romper/jumper is from Osh Kosh B'Gosh. It was $1.50!

These embroidered jeans from Baby Gap were only $1.25!

I am so excited for my finds. Although we don't know if we're having a boy or girl yet, I am sure the other baby girls in our family can get some use out of these.

Our Adventures in Jordan

In late April, we flew to Jordan for a one week vacation. My sister Claire and her family live in Amman. We had a great time visiting them for a few days before heading on to explore Petra and Aqaba on our own. Later, all of us went to Israel for a few days to see Jerusalem and relax in Tel Aviv. From a sightseeing perspective, Petra was truly the highlight of the trip. It was so much more magnificent than we could ever have imagined. It is huge - it spans miles and took us many hours to hike around and see everything. It is essentially an ancient city carved into the sides of mountains in a red rock valley. The structures are enormous and impressive.

Behind us was a huge mountainside of tombs!

 This is the Treasury (made famous in the Western world thanks to an Indiana Jones movie).

Dan floated in the Dead Sea (I later got in with Claire).

 Claire, Emerson, Dan and me at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.

 Dan had the honor of sharing Emerson's first-ever hammock experience!

Flowers

I love to buy fresh flowers for our home. It's such an inexpensive way of glamorizing a space. Usually I only buy flowers when we're expecting guests. This week, Dan's friend Rich came to visit and stayed with us for a night, so I indulged in some flora. Our local grocery store sells small bouquets of flowers at $4 a piece (!). I picked up four bouquets and created several arrangements for our dining room. I put three vases on the dining room table and one on the console table. I'm hopeful the flowers last for the week - what a treat!