The Mother-lode

After seeing Olivia's new wardrobe today, JB said, "Aunt Rhonda made it in just under the buzzer!"

Olivia received a package from Great Aunt Rhonda on Saturday, containing what Rhonda hoped would be Olivia's first purse:

1.) It IS her 1st purse!

2.) Isn't it the cat's meow?? I love it! (And not just because the purse reads, "My Mother, My Friend." haha.) It's the perfect size for her, and as she loves containers, she's going to put some major miles on this thing. Thank you, Great Aunt Rhonda!! :)

3.) The reason JB commented on Rhonda's timing was that today Grandma Marian brought back The Mother-lode of clothes for Olivia, after her recent shopping sprees in Florida. She and her friend Lizzy (aka Nanny Liz) are shopping professionals. They hit all the right stores and know all the right ways to find deals, etc. And they never tire of walking the  malls. When I spoke with Marian yesterday she said that she bought so many things for Olivia that she to pack O her own bag for the flight. When I got to her house today, I saw that it was an Adidas duffle bag full.  Not, say, a plastic shopping bag. But an entire duffle bag. (Okay, so there were some pretty shirts in there for me, too, but it was mostly O's!) Included was another beautiful toddler's bag. Marian pointed out that this is a beach bag, though, so Rhonda's is still O's only purse.

Here is a shot of most of the clothes. I am amazed at and grateful for Mark and Marian's generosity. I won't have to buy O anything for Spring/Summer except for rainboots. Isn't that incredible?? The beach bag is in the top left corner, with a matching blue polka dot sunhat and polka dot outfit. There are polka dot sunglasses, too. I wish that half these things came in my size.

There is an outfit, a sunhat, and sunglasses missing in the above shot. But don't worry, you still get to see them, just on the model. O was so enamored with the pink sunhat that she insisted on wearing it at naptime:

Agh! I can't resist! Here's her in the polka dot hat. I wish they made this in MY size!

Extreme Dining Room Makeover

Before I post pics from Olivia's birthday (you'll just have to wait, heh heh heh!), I wanted to share the "Birthday Surprise" that JB and I worked on in preparation for Olivia's and Dad's birthday party. I was motivated to do this after seeing photos of other parties in our dining room, and realizing the sheer ugliness of that room. A dining room should be a focal point, but ours was more of a "try to ignore it" point.

Evidence:





Now, before you start judging me or the previous owners for the stellar color choice, please note that it was a group effort. The purply-mauve trim was from the previous owners, but I picked the blue. Called "animation blue" and it makes me think of Disney. The intent was to strip the oak woodwork at some point. But we never got around to that, and just let the blue walls clash with the purply trim. And neither of those paint jobs were done very nicely to begin with. It was just one big garish blob.

Here it is before I got a hold of Animation Blue. Don't you love the plastic chandelier?:



This was the heat vent. For one thing, 2 wrong vents do not make a right! Secondly, if you're going to have a hole for a heat duct, you might as well have an actual heat duct hooked up to it, and not have a hole that drops straight to the basement. I believe that it was these owners (and not someone before them) who redirected this duct to go somewhere else. WHY????



So, firstly, Mark and Marian got us a lovely register cover for Christmas one year, after we had the heat duct restored:



And THEN, here is the room that Olivia and my Dad got to party in on Saturday! We think it's much better. We painted that lovely green as we listened to MSU school Michigan in our annual football showdown. It felt good to be a Spartan that day. Go Green!







I consider our work to be a small feat, as we did this while dog/house sitting for the in-laws for 2 weeks. So we balanced living at their place and living/painting at ours. Lots of long days, but it's worth it!