It Was a Monster Mash

When it came time to plan Hunter's birthday party, I kind of HAD to do a monster theme.  First off, he is our little monster.  Secondly, it was October and I  was eight kinds of psyched for Halloween.  

I had an idea of what I wanted the invites to look like, and after searching Etsy, I couldn't find anything I liked.  So I did what I always do: do it my damn self.  

I really had to make a dollar stretch, but at the same time the dude only turns one once.  I relied heavily on wiggle eyes and cardstock to bring this bash together.

I did a simple lunch spread of sandwiches,  veggies and fruit with dips and chips. I hung a paper banner over the window, the doorway of the kitchen and our banister in the living room. 

If you look on the left, you can see I started to add little monster faces to the banner but ran out of time.  Hunter didn't seem to upset.

I ordered a 6 ft hoagie tray from our local super market and cut it into individual sizes, holding it together with a wiggle eye glued to a toothpick.

I didn't want to do flowers for centerpieces, so I glued wiggle eyes to cardstock and slipped it into cheap IKEA vases I had around the house.  I added tissue paper for "hair".

Tissue paper pomanders hung above Hunter's high chair

We printed out all of his monthly photos and hung them for guests to see.  General consensus was he changed the most between months eight and nine.

There are a row of about 4 or so houses on our street that look exactly like ours.  Since a couple family members hadn't been to our house before, I wanted to make sure they didn't end up knocking on our neighbors door.  We blew up balloons, tied them together with twine and hung them from the porch gables. 

 I think that's pretty noticeable, right?

Hunter had his own smash cake to destroy, but guests were welcome to dine on monster whoopie pies (not pictured dammit) and alien cupcakes

All the kids were sent home with goodie bags that contained bubbles, candy necklace, and a felt monster doll.

Any extra balloons we had leftover were tossed on the floor for the kids to kick around, which they wasted no time in doing

The rest of the guests mingled and caught up with each other.

our newest nephew Mitchell and his mom, Heather

JEGs, Clint, Aunt Marlene and Uncle Gary.

The birthday boy wanted to join the party outside

hey guys, can I come out?

no, seriously, let me come out

Around 3:00 we all gathered in the kitchen to sing Happy Birthday.  I helped him blow out the candles  and let him rip into his cake.  At first he just licked the icing off, but with a little help, he eventually tore into the cake.

My FIL wasn't unable to attend due to foot surgery, so we Skyped

at first I was like...

and then I was like !!!!

After a quick wardrobe change, we sat down to open presents.  Hunter lasted for exactly one gift: the first gift we opened was a fire truck, and he took it into the kitchen to play with it.

As the family started to filter out around 5:00, our friends stuck around and we began the "Lizzie and JEGs Surivived the First Year" party.  We put Hunter to bed, set up a bonfire in the back yard and toasted to the craziest year of our lives.  

A couple weeks later, I sent out his thank you cards:

When it was all said and done, I think it was a pretty successful party.  I have to give a special shout out to my neighbor, Amy, for coming over and helping me glue little wiggle eyes to toothpicks.  And then hiding a bunch around the house (a month and a half later, I'm still finding them ;)

I really really need to say thank you to my cousin Tara.  She came in from Pittsburgh for the party and was practically like my personal assistant for the weekend.  She helped me decorate, bake cupcakes, blow up balloons, set up and attend to the child while I did things like shower.  She seriously helped me hold onto my sanity.

I can't believe my baby boy is a year old.  It's killing me.

Always & Forever,
  ME

Snipping leads to ripping

When you look at the exterior of our house, you are probably all "what a charming little cottage", right?

Well let me tell you what I see..

I don't know much about landscaping, but I can tell you I never liked what was done at our house.  First off I need to address the bushes on the side of our porch.  I assume they were planted for privacy from the neighbors- we live in a twin so the porches are very close to each other- but JEGs and I were super lazy about trimming them, and they ended up looking like this:

Honestly, we really like our neighbors and it was difficult to talk to them while dodging around trying to find an open spot through the mess.  Also, we have had a HUGE mosquito problem and JEGs' blood must be like a fine champagne to those bugs.  It was so bad we could never sit outside for more then a few minutes before his legs became an all-you-can-eat buffet.

So one afternoon, JEGs grabbed his trust shears and got to hackin..

... and it didn't work.  We had to get a chainsaw because these things were beastly.  We found a couple fun treasures in the bushes including a can of beer with a pull top lid.  So that sucker was in there for at least 20 years.

I didn't get any pictures of the chainsawing or fun treasures, but I did get pictures after all of his hard work!

well hello, neighbor!

We talked it over with our neighbors and next spring we will probably try to plant grass between the houses, and maybe some small plants like hostas just to fill it in.  There have been talks of a bridge too, because all that jumping on and off porches has become a hassle (haha).

A few weeks later, JEGs and I were cleaning up the yard while Hunter was napping.  I was planting some mums in the front flower bed and I was complaing about the placement of the skimpy azalea bushes in the bed.  Don't get me wrong, I like azalea bushes, but these were so small and puny looking, they just looked bad.  As JEGs was trimming the other bushes in the bed, I mentioned that I wouldn't be upset if he ripped out the azalea bushes now.

..and just like that, he did.  With his bare (ok, gloved) hands.

While we were at it, we ripped out a bush on the side of the house that was not only dying a slow death, but had been taking over the kitchen window

..and after a little trimming

clearly we have some power washing to do

I can't even explain to you the joy it brings me to be able to look out the window now.

It's the little things in life..

And now for a quick review..

So much cleaner!

We do have a lot more we would like to address; like why the hell is there a TREE dead smack in the middle of  our front porch?  I assume the previous owners put it there for privacy  but I am guessing they didn't think about the fact it was going to grow taller and take over the porch (like it currently is).  The sin of it all is it is a cute little dogwood, so I have hopes that we can transplant it somewhere else on the property.  Also, all of the shrubs both in the front and on the side of the house as well as the arborvitae next to the steps will probably be moved to the backyard sometime in the spring.

Which brings me to my question du jour:  to all my green thumbs, what time of the year would be the best time to move these plants?  Spring?  Summer?  Please don't say fall because that is just about outta here.

Always & forever,
  ME

More tricking than treating and an 'I'm alive' update

Since Sandy blew through this week I had to take down my amazing haunted house that I painstakingly put up in our front yard for fear of it ending up in the next county.

Please.  We all know I'm using the hurricane as an excuse for plopping some pumpkins on the front porch and calling it a day.  To be fair, I had intentions of putting up actual decorations this year, but I kept putting it off till 'next week'.  Well 'next week' turned into this week, and this is all I have.

And Hunter's Halloween costume?  Non existent   My friend Cara and I had this great I idea to dress up her daughter Jenna as Raggedy Ann and Hunter as Raggedy Andy-- I even offered to make the costumes.   

Fun fact:  I do not own a sewing machine.  All sewing I do is by hand. 

Lesson learned:  when making any sort of clothing item,  I should probably use a sewing machine.

Long story short, the costumes were a mess.  But then Cara started a new job and wouldn't be home until well after 6 pm and I actually looked at a calendar and realized I was on the night shift so we scrapped it.  

Then Hurricane Sandy came along and our township has pushed back trick-or-treating to Saturday.  BOO.  YAH.  I am totally scoring a costume at Old Navy on the super cheap tomorrow.  Pictures to follow.  Those pictures will probably be on Instagram and not an actual blog.  #lazyblogger.

The good news is, all is well at Falconhead after the storm;  we never lost power, we had no wind damage and we had very little flooding in the basement.  Much like Irene from last year, we did a whole lot of worrying for nothing.  But this time there was less shelf-building on the front porch and more of me boozing #ilovenotbeingpregnant

Dang, did I just use two hash tags in one post?  

On that note.. how is your Halloween?  Any cool decorations?  Costumes?  

Always & Forever,

  ME

FAQs

I've gotten a bunch of questions via e-mail and comments.  Since I'm horribly lazy, I figured I would answer them all in one fell swoop.

Where exactly do you live?
  I kid you not, people have asked this.  Do you want my address?  Well, you aren't getting it.  But we do live just north of Philadelphia in a town called Norristown.  It's a strange little area.  Don't get me wrong, I love love love our neighborhood, but it is nestled between stone mansions and the ghet. tooooo.  BUT, we are five minutes from the King of Prussia Mall-- and that my friends, is a good thing.

Why the hell do you call your apartment/house Falconhead?
  This is really not that interesting of a story, which is probably why I haven't addressed it earlier.
Before JEGs and I moved in together, we went and saw a comedian named Brian Regan.  This dude is hysterical, you should totally check him out.  Anyway, one of his jokes was about people being pretentious and naming their houses and the punchline was someone naming their studio apartment Falconhead.  I DIED when I heard that, and it was something that stuck with me.
  Fast forward a couple months, JEGs and I are touring this 900 sq ft apartment.  Being the smart ass that I am, I made the comment that we should refer to it as Falconhead-- and it kinda stuck.  Besides, when you are blogging, writing "my apartment" gets kinda boring.  I like to sass it up a little.  FALCONHEAD.  When we bought the house, I felt that it should be differentiated from the apartment, thus Falconhead Cottage was born.  The next house will probably be something grander, like Falconhead Estate.

Where did the nickname JEGs come from?  and how do you pronounce it?
  It's not  "Jay Eeee Geees" (*cough* Shannaigans) it's pronounced like legs or kegs.. but with a J.
My adorable husband's initials are J.E.G.  When we started dating, I was introduced the to world of cars, car parts and car part commericals.  One of them was a company named JEGS.  Their commercials are hysterical and the first time I saw one, I excitedly said to him "THOSE ARE YOUR INITIALS!!" He gave me this look like "durrr".   So every once in a while, I would mimic the commercial and say "JEEEEEEEEGSSSS". 
  Well, he apparently didn't like it ( I can't imagine why).  One day he said to me "I don't have an 'S' in my name."  Not one to let a small detail get in the way of being a smart ass, I started typing it out as JEGs.  And that stuck.  And now he is JEGs.  And I am Mrs. JEGs.  And yes, I call him JEGs to his face.


Do people call you LB in person? or (to those who know me not-from-the-interwebs) why is it LIZZIE in progress?
  This is the deal:   My first name is Amy, and it is the name I go by to most people.  My friends  call me Amy (or Amers), JEGs calls me Amy, and in the general world, I am Amy.  When I started this blog, I wanted to have a a shred of privacy.  Yes, I am sharing some personal details of my life, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to have it ALL out there.  So I went with a moniker my mother calls me: LizzieBeth.   LizzieBeth is a nickname for Elizabeth-- which is my middle name.  Most of my family calls me some form of Liz or Lizzie (or I'll get the occasional 'ELIZABETH!' from my mom, if I've gone too far).

How did you crazy kids meet?
 You can read all about that here.  While you are at it, stop by here and read how he proposed to me!

When are you having baby #2
Little known fact:  as soon as you get married, you are expected to start reproducing. STAT.  No one ever asks if and when you plan on buying a house, or if you plan on staying with your job.  No.  It's kids and only kids.  Once you have your first kid, you are supposed to immediately start working on the next.
  Right now, we are just enjoying our little family of three (four, if you count Winston).  If we decide to have another, it won't be for another couple of years yet.  Financially, we aren't prepared to have two kids in day care, and I work crazy hours, which is hard enough on me with one child, I can't imagine two.  So let me put it this way:  don't put your money on Hunter being an Irish twin ;)


What do you do for a living?
  What, this blogging stuff isn't enough for you?  I've hinted that I work in aviation (I've even shared some of the crazy shit my pilot says) but my official job title is camera operator for a local news helicopter.  That's right Philadelphia area-- when you see a chopper live over the house fire or accident on the Schuylkill, there is a 1 in 4 chance that it's me.  I love my job, I love the people I work with, I don't love the crazy hours I work, but I consider myself very blessed to be here.

Wow!  How did you land that job?
 I totally fell into it.  In 2004 a friend of a friend of a friend..etc knew someone who worked for the local NBC affiliate.  They needed someone to fill in as a back up person and with my connections, I got an interview.  I worked there part time for about 6 months, before landing a full time gig in an office building.  Three years later, a guy I had met while working for NBC called to say they had a full time position at FOX and wondered if I would be interested.  I jumped on the opportunity!  I was there for about a year, went part time for another station and in September 2008 I became full time at my current station and I love it.  BUT, to be fair, I do have a Bachelor's degree in Video Communications and a minor in Photography.  So technically, I am trained to this.


What is your living room/kitchen/bedroom/nursery/etc wall color?
One day I'll get around to putting up an entire source page, but for now this will have to do:
Living Room-  Valspar Jekyll Grand Dining Sea Mist
Kitchen/Mud Room- Sherwin William matched to Benjamin Moore Weston Flax
Stairway/Hallway- Valspar Luna
Nursery- Glidden Navajo Sand
Guest bedroom- Buzz Blaster Blue (painted by previous owners)
Bathroom- Glidden Navajo Sand
Master Bedroom- unknown (painted by previous owners)


Where did you get your couch/kitchen table/ dresser/etc?
 God's honest truth, about 75% of the furniture in this house are hand-me-downs from our parents and I would say 24% are thrifted/yard sales/ trash picked.  The only real item we have purchased is our couch.

Are you still cloth diapering?
Yes, technically   Our new daycare does not allow cloth diapers, so we have to diaper him part time at home.  Here is more on my original cloth diaper post.

Dude... Downton Abbey?
  I KNOW RIGHT?  I totally heart Matthew Crawley.  And Branson, a little bit too...

So there are some of the biggest questions that your inquiring minds want to know.  Any others?  Go ahead and ask!  I answer them-- but I can't promise it will be in a timely manner.

Always & Forever,
  ME

Spin Spin Sugar

The Sneaker Pimps are pretty much the soundtrack to me doing laundry.  Every time I look at the spin cycle on the dial, I can't help but bust out some awesome 90's club music

                             

As we were painting the kitchen, we decided to just go ahead and paint the mudroom the same color as well.  The mudroom is an addition right off the rear of the house, and can be clearly seen as you walk into the kitchen.  I really just wanted all of that hideous green gone from my life.

The only 'before' picture I have of this space is on our House Tour page, and it was before we picked up our washer and dry, but let me paint you a visual of this room:  there is a washer.  and a dryer.  And a bunch of shit (cleaning supplies, paper towels, trash bags) shoved between the wall and the washer.  Since it is the main thoroughfare to the backyard, I needed that stuff hidden.

We desperately needed more storage in this room, and I had this great idea of using Billy bookshelves on either side for storage with a shelf above.  I even spent time mocking something up in Photoshop to aid in my presentation

When I presented my idea, JEGs was all "We can't do that" and I was all "Says you, dream killer" and he was all "No, seriously, we can't do that.  The floors are so uneven that the bookshelves would tip in".

 ..and I was all "Dammit, we can't do that".

We decided that no matter what, we needed to level out the washer and dryer.  The center of the mudroom its its lowest point, so anytime I opened the dryer door, it would swing closed again.  It damn near gave me fits everytime I had to flip the laundry.  In order to level the washer and dryer, JEGs  had to adjust the four feet on the bottoms of the units.   He did that by simply screwing the feet to their highest point, and adjusting them from there until they were all level

 Since the feet are hard plastic and the tile is slippery, he cut out non-skid padding so that the dryer wouldn't walk with a heavy load in it. 

JEGs agreed that we needed to add some sort of storage in this room, so he made his own mock up.




..have I ever mentioned he is a draftsmen by trade?  Yeah.  A little nicer then my shoddy Photoshop picture.

Anyway, so JEGs sends me this picture and after some consideration, we decide that it would probably be better to have the lower cabinet between the washer and dryer.  Since we can't just verbally agree on something, JEGs made another mock up.

Show off.

We started stalking Craigslist and found some amazing deals.  First off, we got a bottom cabinet for $10 (similar new ones from Lowes are nearly $175!)  It was so cheap because it didn't have a top, and it didn't have any hardware, but we knew we could easily fix that.

                                    
We stopped at IKEA and looked around in the old faithful AS IS section and found a piece of wood that fit the width of the cabinet perfectly for $2.99.  It was too long, but we figured that the leftovers could be for the shelf next to the upper cabinets in the mock up.  Knowing there would be an unfinished edge after JEGs made the cuts, I snagged a sample size of Valspar's Dove White (an almost identical match to IKEA white) for any touch ups needed.

I desperately wanted upper cabinets that matched the beveled look of the bottom cabinet, but we couldn't find any that were A. affordable, or B. wasn't an entire kitchen set.  JEGs found a set on Craigslist for $45 that matched our needs perfectly, but were flat paneled.  I fought him hardcore because I didn't think they were pretty enough.

Yes, I am that vain.  I will balk at cabinets that are not pretty enough.

I eventually came to my senses and JEGs snagged them.

When it all came together, this is what we had:

You may notice there is an extra shelf above the washer and dryer that was not in the original plan.  This is because as JEGs was bringing the top to the lower cabinet up from the basement, he dropped it and it split.  So another run to the IKEA as is section and another $2.99, we had a new top and extra shelving to play with.  That, my friends, is lemonade from lemons.

JEGs was able to notch in the shelf so it sat flush with the wall and the window sill, and the cabinet didn't over hang-- unlike my brilliant Billy Bookshelf idea would have.

The shelf next to the upper cabinets holds laundry detergent, bleach and the basket holds all our winter gear (hats, gloves, scarves, etc).  Since we don't have a coat closet in the house, the hanging bar is a perfect place to hang our coats and store Hunter's stroller below.

                         
I would like to get some sort of hook to hang the ironing board and iron on the wall, but it just has happened yet.  Eventually.

The frame is hiding the washer and dryer hook ups because I thought they were ugly.  I haven't set on what I'm going to put in there yet, but I promise it won't be sideways ballerinas.  It will be something a little more laundry appropriate.

Remember all that shit that I said was sitting on the floor between the washer and the wall?  Well now it is stored away in cabinets.  And I love it.

In an attempt to bring the two set together (and to make the cabinets seems less garage-like), we replaced the hardware with 3 inch satin nickle pulls and the matching knob.

Total cost breakdown:
Wall paint-  Free (already had)
Curtains-  free (made from fabric I already had)
Shelving paint- $3
Upper cabinets- $45
Lower cabinets-$10
Selving- $6.33
Brackets (for shelves)- $3.88
Hanging bar- $8.98
Hardware- $12.82

Total: $90.01

For under $100 we transformed that horrid green box of hot mess, into a tidy and pretty laundry room that I am not ashamed to have people walk through.

Always & Forever,
  ME

Hunter: 12 months

At 10:16 AM today, my little boy turned a year old.
I know every parents says this, but seriously, where did the year go?

There were a couple big events this month Bubs.  First off, we switched your daycare.  Since you were six weeks old, we had you going to an in-home daycare with a woman named Susan.  As much as we loved Susan and appreciated how much she worked with our schedule, we decided that it was time for the Bubs to be in an environment with more structure and learning.  We found a great place near our house willing to work with our schedule and kids your own age to play with.  I was a little nervous about leaving you in a new place on the first day, but you took it like a champ



Since starting at the new daycare, we have seen a huge improvement on your motor skills;  you have learned how to use the sign for 'more'-  even though sometimes you just use it to let us know you are hungry.

And... as much as it scares me to say this... you took your first steps on September 17th.  It shocked the hell out of me because I didn't think you would be walking before your birthday.  You were standing at the coffee table, turned around and took 4 steps over to me.  You had the biggest grin on your face too, like you knew you did something great.

In other news, we went to East Norriton Day with your future wife, Jenna, and her family.  You were not as interested in the tractor as I thought you would be.  However, you did discover hay, which I'm pretty sure you think is the most amazing thing everrrrr.

I stopped breastfeeding this month.  I stopped pumping at work soon after we got back from vacation in July and ever since I have been slowly weaning from breast to bottle.  Around mid- month whole milk was slowly introduced into the formula, and I am so so so SOOOOO happy to say that we bought (and finished) our last box of formula last week.  You are 100% on solids now.  Grilled cheese sandwiches and strawberries continue to be your favorite food, but you pretty much nosh on whatever Mom and Dad are eating (especially if it's dipped in ranch dressing) #don'ttellJamieOliver

Otherwise it has been a pretty quiet month.  We have been enjoying your silly faces, slimey high fives, and sweet hugs

Here is a round up of all Hunter's monthly pictures.  What do you think?  Has he changed a lot?  Or does he pretty much look the same?

Always & Forever,
  ME