chalk-aholic

Chalk painted the interior doors of the cabinet tower I use as a pantry in my kitchen this past weekend.  Finally.  I think I bought the paint before A was born!  It turned out great - the top door for menu planning, the middle for a grocery list, and the bottom for the girls to draw on while I'm tackling dinner.  Fun!

 

 

 

While the paint was drying between coats I made chalk labels for the storage bins in our shed.  Remember that plan?  May have been around a year mark on that one too!  Oops:)

 



march madness

It's been several years since March Madness meant basketball to me and my world.  The beginning of that end probably coincided with meeting and dating Clayton (not a big sports fan my hubby).  And then Emma's entrance cemented it for me.  Now it's all about the craziness that is the Gates Family March.  Both my mom and my MIL have birthdays this month in addition to our first born.  My homemade February covered gifts for them both - a lovely lemon coconut moisturizer for Clayton's mom and yummy botanical gin (!) for mine.  And then it was a trip to San Diego for a conference/family vacation.  Next: work, work, work.  And most recently, Emma's third birthday!

Since Easter is early this year and fast approaching we decided to have an Easter egg hunt this past Saturday to celebrate Emma Rose.  It was mostly a family affair and she had a great time with the majority of her cousins in attendance (only the two oldest and the youngest missed out).  Easter themed cake balls for the kiddos and a Gin and Tonic station for the adults.  Fun and delicious!

new and improved

Updated picture of the girls in their Mom-made infinity scarves.  Taken on a trip to the San Diego Zoo.  Could they BE any cuter?!?!?

first birthday fun

As mentioned we spent A's actual birthday in Missouri with my family.  It was a low key, lovely day.  And it couldn't have been more perfect.  My mom made her a tiny angel food cake from a vintage mold.  She used the same pan for my twin sister and me for our first birthday!  Annabelle wasn't in love with the actual cake - she preferred the leftover crackers from dinner - but at least she didn't cry when we sang to her!  The crying came later;)

pretty in pink

Delayed Valentine's Day post as promised!

As part of my homemade gift giving goal for 2016 I tackled infinity scarves for me and the girls.  Getting the length right was a bit tricky.  Theirs are perfect and precious.  Mine?  Not so much.  But still so much fun to make and give!

marjorie lee

I think it was sometime Friday while I was prepping for A's party that I realized where my theme inspiration had truly come from.  I've mentioned before that we were doing a 'loose' xoxo theme.  Proximity to Valentine's Day and the ability to double dip on the V Day décor being sort of a slam dunk for me.  But the bigger - more function based - theme was 'donuts and drinks' and wasn't totally sure where that had come from.  I mean.  I love donuts.  I love drinks.  Who doesn't?  When I was getting out various pieces of serve ware needed for our Bloody Mary bar (Happy birthday, one year old!) it hit me like a tons of bricks. 

 

Years ago my grandmother gave me the above piece and called it a celery glass.  She said she wasn't completely sure that it was officially recognized nomenclature but (as I had quite the collection of vintage barware at that point) made a few comments about me one day using it for a Bloody Mary bar.  We lost Grandma over a year ago now.  She lived long enough to know about our sweet baby girl and to hear the name we had chosen for her.  I miss her. Every day.  And make a point to tell our little Lee all about the Lee that came before her.  Felt her presence throughout yesterday's festivities.  My grandma loved a good party:)

donuts and drinks

Had Annabelle Lee's first birthday party yesterday before heading home to MO to celebrate the actual day with my family.  It was a very fun party to plan for and I think our soon to be one year old - although oblivious to the fact she was our guest of honor - had a good time too:)

rich with rosemary

More rosemary harvesting to start my time off!

Gates Made

Been marathon-ing at work since the end of January and the finish line is finally in sight.  Tomorrow will be day 18/18 and I cannot wait until it is officially over.  And officially the start of my 11 day vacation!  Will still be busy - getting ready for A's party, having said party, trip to MO and back - but in such a more relaxing and lovely way.  Despite the lack of posts to offer proof, I have indeed been celebrating a month of homemade.  As promised.  In fact, my little projects have gone a LONG way towards keeping me sane.  Will offer up a belated Valentine's day post when I can convince my littles to pose for a picture in their mommy gifts - so cute!  But in the meantime I'll share some of my homemade food related offerings.

Homemade gin for a residency reunion get together and homemade lavender
simple syrup for part of Claytons' Valentines Day present - yum!
 

Pumpkin and apricot pouches with sage - the girls LOVE these!



More healthy snacks for E and A! 

monday

My sweet Annabelle Lee is turning one in just a few short weeks.  We're having a party at our house to celebrate her first year and then heading home to Missouri to spend her actual birthday with my side of the family.  And while she would be none the wiser if I didn't give her anything beyond a pretty cake and lots of clapping (she loves clapping!), it just wouldn't feel right for me not to give my baby a gift for her special day.  So.  I decided to make her a little something that could be used to add to her party décor and then later find a home in her room. 

I decided on an embroidery hoop 'art' piece.   The fabric I chose has meaning only to me and A.  It's from the hospital gown I wore during my labor and her delivery.  Yep.  I was one of those women who felt the need to fancy up the whole having a baby experience.  And know what?  Felt cute wearing it even in my sweaty, oversized state.  It made me happy!  The red heart with aqua embroidery thread factors in to her loose 'xoxo' party theme. 

I think it turned out almost as sweet as she is:)

month's end

Today I finished up the prep on my rosemary harvest.  On call today so squeezed in time both before and after work.  Plus got a little assist from the best husband ever:) This ends my January challenge of a month of daily projects.  Got a ton accomplished but, of course, still have plenty to do - that list will never be completed.  Will still update with any projects worth the photography and writing time but for the most part I'm moving on!  February is a month dedicated to homemade-ness.  That's a word.  Promise;)  As I've previously mentioned, one of my goals for 2016 is to make every effort to gift the hand or home made. This next month is filled with lots of gift giving occasions!  So before my official transition here's one last pic collage . . . which now that I think about it, is the perfect bridge from one challenge to the next as these little containers of Gates Grown dried rosemary would make such a nice gift!

beauty full day

The unfortunate demise of our garbage disposal gave me to opportunity to reorganize the space under our kitchen sink today.  The neat freak bones were in place but had been neglected as of late.  Now everything is in new, perfect working order.  Being on floor level, however,  made me realize how dingy our cabinets are looking.  Which made me think about repainting vs a total kitchen rehab.  Which then in turn made me think about how we needed to repaint the exterior of our house before taking on any big internal projects.  Which made me think about our yard and the professional landscaping services needed for an erosion problem we're having in the front.  Which led to thinking about the back yard and how I was supposed to be spending all day outside because of the freaking amazing weather we are having!

And so Family Gates trooped on out and spend a lovely few hours pulling weeds, cutting back our grapevine and rosemary bush, building houses with gardening stakes, and soaking in a glorious amount of sunshine.  Harvested a decent amount of rosemary for an upcoming project and considering myself done for the day.  The babies and the boy are sleeping.  So I'm off to take a quiet, hot, long shower.  Feeling very, very blessed.

high in the 70s

Today is my last week-day off before a marathon work schedule begins.  I'm off tomorrow too - my last free Saturday *sniff, sniff* in the foreseeable future.  So as soon as I can throw our sheets in the dryer I'm off to finish shopping for A's birthday party and then to - please! please! - hopefully squeeze in a little me time with a much over due pedicure.  It's the start of a beautiful weekend here in Texas so planning to spend lots of time outside tomorrow with our girls getting the herb garden ready for planting.  But I didn't forget my project of the day! 

We've all been battling colds these last few weeks but are thankfully seeing the end of the cruds in our house.  Our bathroom closet, home of all things health related, took a beating during this time period.  It needed a little organizational love:)

the dishes are done, man

Today, taxes.

homemade teaser

For a while now I've been making an effort to go the homemade route for gift giving when at all possible.  This past Christmas I was successful with my goal of mom-made gifts for my girls as well as one for my brother-in-law (we draw names on that side of the family).

 

For the BIL I did a custom cocktail kit.  Gin, simple syrup, and grapefruit bitters - all homemade!

 

 

I made a super hero cape for Emma Rose - how cute is she!?!?

 

 

Used the same fabric to make a bow organizer for Annabelle Lee - functional and sweet!

 

 



One of my goals for 2016 is to go further with the homemade gift giving.  More on that to come . . .

full

Had a running around kind of day today.  Did some needed shopping for A's upcoming first birthday party.  Then a lunch date.  And dinner with the in laws.  So not much project time left.  Decided the desk drawer needed a re do.  Have about a million berry baskets from our local pie shop.  No judging.  I save them all and am now finding them to be super helpful with this month's challenge!

sleep, sleep is good

 

Worked my first overnight call shift in almost 3 years on Monday.  I've never felt more old.  Used to be able to stay up all day after my last night in a string in order to get back on a normal sleep schedule.  I made it to about 0830 this morning and hard core CRASHED.  Woke up in time to relieve the nanny and then inhaled some coffee.  So come bed time tonight I was maybe a little wired;)  Thus, tackled my craft shelves.

 

The before was a little intimidating. But the after?  The after was pretty happy:)

 

 

 

power food prep

I suppose I was inspired by our turkey stock making on Saturday as I have spent some significant time in the kitchen since then!  2 new projects for the last 2 days with some additional small cleaning/reorganizing efforts that aren't even really worth detailing.

 

Overnight oats with ground flax seed for me and Greek yogurt with wild blueberries for Em!

trucking right along

When I was reorganizing my baking cabinet the other day I noticed I still had several baby food cookbooks crowding our shelf.  One I used all the time for Em, one was a rec from my sister that just didn't work that well for us, and one was the WORST thing I've ever read.  Seriously.  Think unpasteurized milk and a lot of liver.  Yuck.  None of them are needed any longer as our little Annabelle will be 1 year old in just another month and we really did more of a baby led weaning strategy for her meal times.  Several other cookbooks caught my eye as no longer needed and so they joined the happy pile.  I did however decide that Clayton's 'I Love Bacon' and "Jelly-Shots' cookbooks might still come in handy;) 

The above we'll-call-it-effort took care of yesterday's project and today's is also underway.  Finally getting around to making homemade turkey stock from the carcass we've had in our freezer since Christmas.  Great opportunity to clean out our 'fridge!  AND, it smells amazing :)

xoxo

A little Valentine's Day décor for project number 21 . . . muah!

hump day

I did not take out the trash.

Today I did two small projects to make up for my apathetic day yesterday.

Bought some pretty document boxes from The Container Store to use as keepsake boxes for the girls.  The previously mentioned "Day You Were Born' books will now have a home amongst ultrasound pictures, hospital bracelets, and the like.  Still haven't figured out how I want to document their milestones.  In the moment I just jotted things down on a calendar but probably will end up doing something a little more formal . . .

Also tackled my baking cabinet.  Organized sprinkles, food coloring, and birthday candles.  Realized I had two full size rolling pins and a cake pop pan.  I've never made cake pops.  Today I accepted the fact that I will never make cake pops.  So one rolling pin and a never used cake pop pan went into the ever-growing donation pile.  Cannot bear to part with my Star Wars pancake molds however and so back they went into the folds. 

losing interest

Sunday I went through our DVD/BlueRay collection and did some purging.  Had forgotten that I had done this not so long ago.  Was surprisingly still very attached to anything starring John Cusack.  Will obviously need to revisit this task!

Monday I organized my purse.  That is all.

Today is Tuesday and I have no idea what I'll end up doing.  Wondering if taking out the trash would count . . .

four for four

Four days and four organization projects down.

Project one: complete overhaul of the miscellaneous drawer in the kitchen.  This drawer holds every random kitchen utensil you can possibly imagine.  Realized as I was doing it that this effort was the first such effort applied to this space since we moved in 5 and half years ago.  Oops?  I may have had 6 extra corkscrews that I got rid of . . . and that wasn't including the bar stash.  It was a proud moment.

Project two: purge and organize the coffee/tea drawer.  A couple of questions.  How many coffee cups does one family need?  And does tea ever expire?

Project three: containing the container drawer.  We don't do Tupperware or plastic containers anymore.  Use these great glass containers we initially bought for baby food making.  We love them, they are awesome.  They take up ridiculous amounts of space.  This is a monthly project that honestly should probably be done weekly.  You may see this one again as a repeater.

Project four: investigation and subsequent relocation of family snacks/treats.  Bit the bullet and threw out the last of the Halloween candy.  Don't tell Emma!  Also got rid of some very suspect raisins.  Had to make room for all the chocolate that somehow finds it's way into my house after the holidays.

And I actually did some minor bonus organization in other areas of the kitchen while I was at it.  Go me!  Remember this when I start slacking towards the end of the month;)

my babies

Yesterday I finally filled out 'On The Day You Were Born' books for both of the girls.  A sweet patient of mine gave them to me when I was pregnant with Annabelle.  She apparently had a business in the early 80s with a friend designing and publishing these memory books.  It was so nice of her to have her children dig them out of storage for me.  She actually gave me three - thought it might come in handy down the road;)

Today I rearranged our mantle to make room for updated pictures of our littles - it's a happy view:)

the busy life

A little behind in the documentation BUT actually did do a project for each day since my last post.

On Tuesday I cleaned out my car.  Full disclosure: I actually cashed in on a detail package that Clayton gave me last year for Christmas.  So the actual cleaning was outsourced.  But the organizing and purging to get ready for such a gift was handled by me!  Even did a bonus cleaning of the girls' car seats.  And, yeah, first time around on that one . . .

Wednesday I reorganized the dining room record collection.  Took a photo because it looked so pretty.  But it is currently lost in the internets.  Will update if found!

Thursday was sock drawer day.  That is all.

Saved Friday for the bras and other unmentionables.

Yesterday was a wash because Family Gates went to a lovely day wedding.  PS: we all clean up really nicely:)

Today I made up for yesterday with two projects:

trying out thin felt hangers to reorganize my closet (but REALLY wanting to do all wooden hangers so we'll see how long this lasts . . . )

fixed ER's penguin (because I'm a doctor) with real (meaning visible) stiches per owners request;)

day 4

Another fairly easy one today.  Emptied out my bedside table and set aside most of the contents for either trash or donation.  Only things that made the cut were my new - stocking stuffer! - hand cream from L'Occitane and a collection of Hurraw lip balms.  Oh how I LOVE seeing 'stuff' leave our home!

a new year

So I'm challenging myself this month by tackling at least one organization or home project daily. May be big.  May be small.  Day one's took some time: reorganizing our holiday closet as I packed away all out Christmas décor.  The closet had taken a beating over the last few months but I forgot to take a before picture to prove it.  Post project pics below!

I was exhausted after all that New Year's Day effort so yesterday's project was kind of a phone in.  BUT.  Needed to be done and was way over due . . .

Today's efforts were very rewarding and again LONG over due!

filing cabinet drawer before . . .

 

and then an ENTIRE trash bag full of paper later . . .

 

the after!