My Own Personal (Free) Interior Designer

. . . can be your own personal free interior designer as well! Check out this new blog, dedicated to interior design. Design With Christine offers free advice and encourages you to post questions and pictures so that she can solve your design woes. Here is the post where I posed a question to her and she answered it in part, with more questions. Here is the post where she answered in more detail, after determining what it was I am looking for. I can't wait to start shopping for the right textiles for my master bedroom!

Go on over and take a look. She has posted lots of ideas on decorating mantles and fireplaces, and she stands ready to answer your questions as well! And this post on up and coming color combinations might interest you if you are redecorating.

Tell her Michal sent you. Then I can take a teeny weeny bit of the credit when your next project turns out to be fabulous! I'll post before and after shots of my master bedroom when I'm all finished.

Party Wrap-Up

So last night's party was a success. We figure that we had about 90 people come, a few less than RSVP'd, but not too shabby! We had plenty of food, although we did have Jared's parents run to the store for ketchup, then 1/2 an hour later for mustard (what can I say--I don't think straight under pressure--can you imagine how scary it would be if I actually had alcohol at my parties?)
I really realized how many people help make our annual event a success. As already mentioned, Jared's mom and dad are the ones who run to the store for everything we forgot, plus I think Dad made three trips earlier in the day between his house and ours with tables, chairs, a crockpot . . . you get the picture. Then, there was Christine, who offered to have the boys come over and play after naptime. I was sure that I'd be fine without her generous offer, but by 3:00 it sounded pretty darn good. Nancy showed up at 4:00 and said, "I've got an hour. Put me to work!" and proceeded to vacuum most of the house (I had only gotten to the family room so far) and to clean up Ian's room, which he had torn apart during his naptime. My wonderful sister, Alli, showed up about 4:30 with her arms full of decorations (which I hadn't asked her to bring but which made such a great addition to my two little decorations!) She is so good to think of the things that I don't.
We are so blessed to be surrounded by family and friends, and this annual tradition always helps us remember how wonderful that is.
Anyway, here are some pictures for you to enjoy. As you can see, Colonel Sanders attended to festivities (complete with his accent). So did my newest adorable nephew, Isaac, who came as himself.
Here are a few other party goers, enjoying their food, conversation, and other delights (like the train table, which was a hot spot!)
James was so in love, he wanted to share his Skittles with Bronwen. Thankfully, his mother intervened!
Henry felt so let down when the party was over. Here's where I found him when everyone had gone.Dad and Kimball were crashed in the living room at about the same time.
Hope you can make it out next year, dear readers!

Am I Shallow? Perhaps.

Goodbye old fridge. Hello to a beautiful new friend, gleaming stainless steel on the outside, clear and clean on the inside.
In the ten years that I've been married, this is the first fridge we've had that didn't come out of the Pennysaver. And it makes me smile every time I pass it. With my new dishwasher and this fridge, I can almost pretend that I am the host of my own cooking show or a contestant on Top Chef. Of course, that means overlooking the outdated flooring, oven, range, microwave, countertop, cabinets--essentially everything else in my kitchen--but when I catch a glimpse of my newest acquisitions, those other things fade away.

My kids love that our new fridge is actually big enough to keep the Brita full of water cold. I love that I can see all the leftovers without having to squat down and dig around.


Jared will love the new electricity bills, since we just replaced two old fridges (one in the garage and one in the kitchen) with one energy efficient wonder. He also appreciates that I had to get rid of the basket full of clutter that used to sit on top of the fridge because it won't fit anymore.
I did call Christine to ask her what I should do about my newest obsession of keeping the appliances free of fingerprints and smudges. She is highly qualified to answer this question, having a degree in Interior Design and all the accompanying credentials and experience, besides owning a few stainless steel appliances of her own (and four darling kidlets). Alas, she couldn't come up with a solution either, but assured me that I might soon be able to tolerate fingerprints for an entire afternoon before wiping down the fridge after the kids go to bed. I pondered on the internal struggle going on between the woman who loves shiny, sparkly, clean, and looks-like-a-cooking-show-or-magazine-layout everything and the mother who really wants her kids to grow up in a home where they are comfortable. Surely it would be unreasonable to make touching the fridge off limits. Do you think it would be neurotic to require the entire family to wear gloves? You don't have to answer that.

But even with the compulsive wiping down of my new treasures, I don't regret choosing them one bit. Nor do I regret having so many small hands around who will surely touch them as soon as I finish wiping. Both things of beauty and sticky-fingered children are more than worth the extra effort. And if loving my kitchen appliances makes me shallow, I guess I will have to live with that.