Category Archives: Stuff I bought but probably shouldn’t have.

Jul 28 14 comments
Delilah, Projects, Stuff I bought but probably shouldn't have.

Dee’s Nursery: Part Deux

Oh, hi.   We totally weren’t expecting you.   Come on in.

You’ve come at a great time.   If you direct your eyes to the bottom right hand corner of the frame, you can see one of the natives making an offering to the beast that lives in her closet.    The beast requires {the organic version of} Cheese Nips, and the natives are always happy to oblige.

Let’s start from the beginning though, shall we?

Upon entering the habitat, if you look to your left you’ll find one of my favorite bits…a shadow box/collage of keepsakes from our wedding, made by the ever-creative and talented Auntie Maegan.    Immediately below it is Dee’s chalkboard from Wall Candy Arts which I snagged on Gilt Groupe.

I knew if we had a girl I would hang a Valley Girl poster in her nursery, so when we found out Dee was a she this print was the first bit of inspiration for the Jerome Russell color scheme.

{That’s the Malm dresser that Scott hacked into a changing table by building a changer top, staining it to match the Crib, and adding an accent bit at the bottom there.}  Pay no mind to the the tiny fingerprints on the mirror…the natives like to put their sticky hands all over it, and rub their spitty faces on it in between diaper changes.

{Clockwise from top left: The Wee Gallery Flash Cards which I had originally purchased to hang on her wall come in handy to distract my wiggly little monster during changes.    The “How To Be a Jewish Mother” book was a thift-store find courtesy of Scott’s best buddy Tom, the Momji Poppet Message Doll was a channukah gift from Auntie Marissa, and her JellyCat (which is actually a dog) watches over her diaper stash.   Thanks to Ellen, all of Dee’s hygiene products are uniformly scented – the lovely Mrs. Meyer’s Baby Blossom, which I’ll never switch from because it smells so sweet and will forever remind me of Dee’s babyhood.   That bunny is actually the hare Brush & Comb Set from Skip Hop, which has a mirror on the bottom and is adorable.  And Auntie Maegan gave Dee that beautiful hand made Cate and Levi sock rabbit for Easter…each one is unique and made to order from reclaimed wool, as are their incredible hand puppets.}

Our house was built in the 60′s, and as a result there are a lot of obsolete built-ins.   Like this one for a prehistoric TV, which we had no idea what to do with.    For a while the 3 Sprout Elephant Bin lived in there, until we spotted the Plan Toys Contemporary Doll House on clearance at The Mini Social and our jokes about turning the cubby into a diorama stopped being jokes {and started getting real…complete with an astroturf lawn.}   I’m still debating on painting the inside of the cubby blue with clouds, but I think that might be overkill.   When she gets big enough to play with the house, we’ll bring it down and put the Elephant Toy Bin back up there…it did fit perfectly.

And look!   I finally took a passable photo of the IGE Birds of a Feather mobile!   (And that beautiful clock is actually hand painted on a record by Kailey Hawthorn, which Emma bought for Dee after I gushed over it HERE.   Miss you Em!)

Okay, that’s it!   Thanks for stopping by!   Don’t let the door {with pink monkey door hangers from HERE} hit you on your butt on your way out!

{Looking for Part I of Dee’s Nursery Tour?   Click HERE!}

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Jul 22 5 comments
Stuff I bought but probably shouldn't have.

Kicking back.

Ankle-wrap sandals by Deena & Ozzy.   Tasmanian Devil Made Me Do It orange toenails by OPI. New fence in our backyard by Scott.

Oh, summer…how I love thee.

{And sorry for posting two pictures of my feet in the same week.   I swear I’m not some weird foot fetishist.  Believe it or not I actually hate feet.   I just really wanted to show you guys my pretty new shoes.   I swear it won’t is unlikely to happen again.}

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Jun 25 10 comments
Stuff I Would Buy if I Could, Stuff I bought but probably shouldn't have.

I’m sorry but I have to talk about my iPad.

Scott got me an iPad for my birthday.   I’ve been feeling really guilty about it because, well…let’s just say there’s not exactly a line for pricey frivolous peripherals on our family budget excel spreadsheet.    But he did it anyway.    And it is totally awesome.   And I have to talk about it.    So instead of feeling guilty and playing with my gadget shamefully within the confines of our living room, I am going to [do something I would have declared totally douche-y before getting one of my own, and] tell you all about everything I think about the iPad and iPad related accessories (now that I am obviously an expert.)   And since the number one question people ask me when they spy my new toy is “but…what do you do with it?” I am also going to talk about some of my favorite apps, as well as the apps I wish someone would invent (or since we’re wishing, then I guess I wish I knew how to code an iPad app myself so I could make tons of cash.)  Okay, here I go…

I’m too embarrassed to use my iPad in public.   I need a sneaky case.

I totally know what you mean. Enter the beautiful Dodo Case.   Modeled after the classic {long-standing drunkin’ writer favorite} moleskine notebook, the Dodo Case is hand crafted from Bamboo and bound using some seriously solid old school book binding methods.   Things I love about the Dodo?  #1. It’s really pretty.   #2. It appropriately hides my iPad in public so I don’t feel like a super mega-douche when I whip it out.  #3.  It functions as a stand and a case (which, given a lot of them do, but still) AND protects your iPad with it’s super strong Bamboo construction (yes, the bamboo gets two mentions, because it’s sustainable.)   Thanks to my friend (and oftentimes gadget guru) Sean for sharing this goodie with me.  [For you Kindle folks, Molskine themselves make a pretty swank cover, which includes a reporter pad in a beautiful fusion of digital meets analog.]

Cobbled together from worn-to-perfection bits of vintage leather, The PADstache {from [etsy seller] Fullgive} is another beautifully handmade way to stow your treasured tablet.    The inside is lined with felt, and most of Fullgive’s {killer re-purposed leather} line is fully customizable, so you can pick your color and add little pouches for your phone or a pen (although, why would you really ever need a pen again?) or whatever your heart desires.   Again, for you non-iPad folks, Fullgive has a whole shop full of unique and beautiful satchels and laptop bags and belts and stuff.   I especially love this case for a macbook.

If you’ve been with me for a while, then you already know how I feel about wood.  If you’re stumbling here because you googled something dirty and I curse a lot, let me fill you in – I really, really love a super-sexy wood grain. So obviously this prototype from Substrata has me clawing desperately at my screen covered in my own drool, trying to get it out like I’m Mike Teavee’s Mama.   Substrata also makes some freaking to-die-a-thousand-deaths-for iPhone cases that are definitely worth the year’s worth of milk money you’ll have to sock away to pay for it.   (I know, I have oddly masculine taste in iPad cases.   But imagine it paired with/coming out of a cute hobo/my beloved diaper bag and it’s not weird, right?  And also are “hobo’s” still cool?   I have no idea.)   Still looking for some non-brown, non-manish options?   Try HERE, HERE (also kind of unisex-y,) HERE, definitely HERE and pretty much everything in My Green Monkey’s Etsy shop under iPad.

Lil Sticks iPhone Dock. Not iPad related, but still awesome.

As for stands (and all iPhone/Pad/Pod related docks, etc.) definitely check out ‘Lil Sticks, who makes the raddest iPhone dock I’ve ever seen, and some pretty lovely iPad stands to boot.

But what do you do with it?

I’m glad you asked that question. Now that I am officially douchified as an iPad owner, let me tell you a few of my favorite activities to share with my precious. (Oh man, I can’t believe I just made that weird reference. I’m kind of embarrassed.)

I’m a Mom, as you know, and I work from home, as you may or may not know, and four days a week I do it with Dee by my side. (One day a week my amazing mother in law Ann Marie generously and heroically takes Dee for me all.day.long, and it is luxurious how much work I get done on those days, and I can’t thank her enough.) Ahem, so really, the biggest thing the iPad has going for it right now is it’s one-handed portability-ness.  If we’re having a no-nap day, and I absolutely HAVE to get something done – I can do everything on it but actually write screenplays (which…uh…final draft? how’s that app coming by the way?)

Oh, iAnnotate, how I love thee. Don’t even ask me how I managed to have my iPad for two whole days without it. It was Marcos who first introduced me to it, and ever since then, I swear, this single app has revolutionized my life more than I ever thought possible. I’ve totally forgotten all about my bitch of a printer which will now sit in the corner of my office for all eternity left to rot (okay, print photos) because this app has eliminated my need for gratuitous printing of scripts/outlines/anything that can be PDF’d that I’d usually want to make notes on so I’d print out, but the inevitably would get frustrated and just start reading it on my computer anyway so it would be a total waste of paper.   (See…the underlying message here is iPads are green, so all that money went to a good cause, and will pay for itself in printer ink.)    So now, instead of making notes on the backs of blank pages or squished into the margin with arrows all over the place indicating which line I’m talking about, etc., I just PDF my scripts, open them in iAnnotate, and tap and type and highlight and yes…even draw arrows to my heart’s content.   And when I’m done, I can send a report of all of those notes along with the script (and I hear the actual annotated script as a new PDF, but I haven’t actually done that yet) to whomever might need to read said notes.  My notes are legible, easily organized, easily shared, and I don’t have to record page numbers and dialogue in my note books so I can still tell what I was talking about three weeks later.

So that’s what it does for me.   But I bet you could use it at your job too.   If you read PDF’s, and you make notes, you will freak out for this program.

We are a Mac household across the board, and for me, that includes iWork for all my Microsoft Office type needs.   {In my opinion, it just kicks Office’s ass on all levels, especially keynote, especially for design-heavy presentations.   My .02.}   So the fact that all three programs (Keynote, Pages, Numbers) are available for iPad for $10 a pop is like my wildest dreams come to life.   It makes me so portable, I can hardly stand the freedom.  My heart is soaring right now just thinking about the places I’ll go!

I am not a chef by any stretch of the imagination, but the Epicurious app has added just a little bit of flavor to my supermarket shopping.   You can search recipes, make shopping lists, save favorites, and it is right there with you…if you bring your iPad out in public…which I do only late at night.   But still.   Even if you don’t cook, the startup screen is so pretty, you’ll probably want to go ahead and download it anyway.   Plus it’s free.   So why not?

On the kids front, I keep up with Dee’s reckless nap schedule with Baby Geek, and the little lady quite enjoys SoundTouch, as well as trusy iPhone favorites Infant Arcade and Peekaboo Barn.   There is also a pretty interesting looking Sign Language app called BabySign but it was too expensive so I didn’t buy it (the lite version is worth checking out though.)

For organization I’m actually liking G-Whizz, which I know is basically a button that links to your Google account, but it’s so damn convenient, and works beautifully…if only it had google wave access, which [developer] Ricky Bloomfield assures me will be forthcoming.  Here’s hoping it’s a free upgrade.  Evernote seems like it might come in handy if I could find the time to figure out how to use it, and I’m not quite jumping on the Bento bandwagon just yet, because I don’t really like the way it looks and interacts, if we’re being frank (which I guess, we are?) And introducing the first blog reader I’ve ever liked…Early Edition (which is kind of pricey for a reader, but luckily I had an unused iTunes gift card from x-mas just begging to be burned on apps.)   It’s kitschy interface probably isn’t for everyone, but I find it a really great way to keep up on some of my go-to favorites without losing them in Google Reader or my bookmarks folder.

And Finally…Things I wish it could do but feel optimistic it will do in the future:

Well, first and foremost, I want Final Draft to get on the stick and release their damn app already.  And it better be full-featured.   And yes, I do feel totally justified in being that demanding about it, because I know they are probably going to make it crazy expensive and that is going to piss me off if I can’t do everything I want to do with it but they try to bamboozle me into buying it because I could then access script notes on it, but the joke’s on YOU final draft, because iAnnotate has already filled that gap while you’ve been snoozin’ on the job, and now you’ll be hard pressed to best their interface, options, and compatibility in a mere FD reader.

I want apple to release a “Back to my Mac” app so that I can look for files on my laptop without having to get up off the couch.   Or y’know…if I’m not with my laptop.

I want The Bump, or WTEWYE, or BabyCenter to release a new-parent questions app so that I have easy access when I start panicking that [insert weird noise Dee made] means that Delilah definitely has [insert obscure probably eradicated disease here] I can calm down that much faster.

I wish there was a stylus for quick jotting.   This third party one has my interest piqued.

I wish there was a mount of some kind so I could mount it to Dee’s stroller when she’s napping and I have to walk in circles for an hour.  (I know that’s excessive, but it would be awesome.    I would absolutely not zone out and walk into traffic.)

Oh, and I really really wish that Yojimbo would come out with a damn [desktop syncing] app already so I can stop trying to find a makeshift solution to my ADD.

Damn, I’m sure I had more, but I can’t remember what they were.   Maybe I should have written them down on my iPad.

(How many times do you think I said app in this post?   I think a lot.)

{Oh!   Also, anyone got any good recommendations for a screen protector?   Perhaps one that more closely mimics the kindle reading experience?   Or maybe just plain ‘ol matte will do…}

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Jun 10 21 comments
Baby Fever, Stuff I bought but probably shouldn't have., The Trivial

Retail Therapy

Yesterday I was feeling kind of blue.   Just one of those days, you know?   When life kind of catches up with you, and you feel like you’ll never get out from under your to-do list, and the sky is kind of gloomy, and your baby is cutting two teeth at once, and you just kind of wish you could be someone else for the afternoon…those are the days I’m talking about here.

And when I have days like that, and I feel like I’m climbing the walls there is really only one thing that I can do to center myself:    I go to Target.

Super Target. I can bask in the florescent lighting and wander through aisles of crap I don’t need for hours on end.   It’s my happy place.   And before Dee was born, it was where I would go to do my best thinking.    Writer’s block?   Target.    Family crisis?   Target.   A raging case of the PMS?   Oh yeah – Target.

But then one day, just before Delilah was born, the customer service department at my local store nearly sent me into labor from pure rage during a return gone awry.   I walked out of my beloved Super Target that day swearing I’d never look back.   A week later I had Dee, and my private outings were a thing of the past anyway.   So it’s been a while since me and Le Target Boutique have had one of our little rendezvous.   But yesterday, as I mentioned, I was feeling kind of blue.    And I didn’t know what to do with myself, or Delilah – who refused to eat the apple puree I made her for breakfast, and all of our baby food storage was full, and our small tupperware was in the dishwasher, and we were out of saran wrap, and I steamed and pureed those damn apples myself, so I was NOT about to just feed them to the garbage disposal.   So I grabbed a cooler full of teething rings and off to Target we went, in hopes that maybe MY happy place could be OUR happy place.

And lo and behold…a hot pretzel and an hour later we returned home new women.   Target to the rescue.   Ready to nap.    Ready to write.   Ready to conquer the world.

What’s in the bag? (clockwise, from top) -

  • Munchkin Booty Bags (okay that’s not what they’re called, but what do you do if you are somewhere that you can’t throw a poop away, or worse, when your baby vomits all over herself multiple times during an awkward run in with a former colleague, and you don’t want to throw her entire outfit away?)
  • Just One Year Baby Headbands (I couldn’t find these anywhere on line, but they are some of the best baby headbands I’ve found – not too frilly, and not too tight.   There were four in the package, but Dee was already modeling one by the time I took this photo.)
  • A double-pack of Softlips.   Because (thanks to Sara) I am finally figuring out which things I need two of so that when I need to switch between diaper bag and purse all I’m grabbing for are my phone and wallet.
  • Gerber Bunch-A-Bowls With Lids. This was the impetus for the Target outing in the first place.  I had no idea how often she would not be finishing her snacks/hating on apples once she got started on solids, and baby bowls with lids suddenly became a necessity.
  • A GPS holding mat for my car, because I thought it was illegal to stick things to your windshield in the state of California.   Apparently the Governator actually did something for once, because as it turns out that law was repealed last year (who knew?  Obviously not me, until I googled for a link to the weird law and found this) but I already opened the package, I’m still happy not to have my GPS mounted on my windshield.   Ah well.
  • HappyBaby Organic Puffs.  I am pretty psyched about these.  They have about 1/2 the sugar of the Gerber puffs and [as the name suggests] they are completely organic.   I’ve also been experimenting with their Oatmeal with DHA (so far the only organic oatmeal I’ve come across with DHA in our local stores) which Dee seems to love, but our old favorite Earth’s Best Oatmeal still takes the cake for least ingredients I can’t pronounce (with ZERO) so we’ve been switching back and forth between the two.
  • And lastly, Munchkin Snack Catchers, which are just awesome.   (And proving quite entertaining to Delilah.)

Well, I feel better.   Don’t you?

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Feb 20 10 comments
Delilah, Stuff I bought but probably shouldn't have.

Polka-Palooza

GILT is having an amazing sale on these FATBOY/DWELLSTUDIO bean bag chairs.   I just bought a stool for Dee’s room (it matches her bedding…and her stuffed giraffe…and her toy bin….man I love these dots.)   Click to JOIN GILT and check ‘em out!

…and speaking of things with dots (thanks Ashley!)…

Dee is all packed and ready to go for her first sleepover at my parent’s house.    I’m a nervous wreck.    Scott is already planning out our entire night of awesome-ness and relaxation (it’s our 11 year kissing anniversary as you may have heard…)

This is a major event that has been weeks in the making.    Yup.   We are those parents.   Overprotective.   Crazy.   Need three weeks notice to send her to Grandma’s house.   Probably going to cry when I leave as if she won’t be sleeping in the room I grew up in down the hall from the people that raised me (and as my Dad so often likes to remind me “somehow, [I] survived.”)

*Sigh*   Wish us luck.    The thought of Dee waking up in the night without me is horrifying.   (I realize more so for me than her.)    The thought of her crying and me not being there ties my stomach up in knots.    But the thought of an entire night of uninterrupted sleep?     Priceless.     So we’re doing it.   I don’t know which will be worse – getting a call to come pick her up because she’s gone all Exorcist on them at 3am, or not getting a call and realizing that my little girl CAN in fact make it through the night without me.

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