The Bean (and Bug) Journal: September 2011

Pure Cuteness

Side-Part Day

Just loungin'

Somebody FEED me!!!!

Fine. I'll sleep. But you can't make me sleep happy.

Three Good-lookin' Guys

Luca and Court are sharing a room, well not yet but they will be just as soon as Little Man (excuse me, "Honey Bear", that's Luca's nickname of choice for Court) gets to where he's sleeping better at night. In any case, back when we found out that baby #2 was a boy, something had to be done. Luca's room had pink carpet. That carpet was actually the deciding factor for which of the same sized bedrooms would be the Master when bought the house. Pink carpet is great for little girls but Joe said "NO WAY" for his son. Happily for us, underneath that girlish color were beautiful wood floors. And so the makeover began:

Before: (For the life of me I cannot figure out why this pic keeps loading sideways. Sorry, just tilt your head.)

I found some adorable elephant fabric on etsy and decided to start with my beloved Black/White/Gray pallet (Yes, I am boring). Then because it is a children's room I added in some bright turquoise. This was one of my ever-evolving inspiration boards:

And here is our After: (Joe did all of the muscle work; painting the walls and ceiling, pulling up carpet, fixing the floors and building Luca's bed. It's pretty wonderful to have a handy husband!)

I have to say that it's probably my favorite room in the house due in no small part to the fact that it is 98% finished. :) Along the way Luca helped paint the $8 dresser (Thanks, Melissa!) with it's awesome hardware and I turned a hideous goodwill find into my favorite set of bookends.

And with my etsy elephants in hand and a thanks to a few strategic coupon applications, some fun turquoise and gray fabrics, I recovered Luca's bumper pad and faked a crib skirt for Court.

With the leftover bedding fabric, some more fun shopping and this magazine inspiration I had squirreled away a long time ago, my Mom, Janet & Gloria created a quilt for Court. (LoVe!!!!) I think it's very modern and boyish.

Then it was on to a mobile. I saw one of my favorite designers do some yarn/sticks in a nursery once and there were several (expensive) mobiles on etsy (is anyone else addicted?) that I thought were pretty cool. So I stole their ideas. Ta Da!

(By the way, if you ever want to have your husband look at you as though he may soon have you committed to an institution; let him catch you wrapping yarn around a stick. Yeah. I got a look. He did like the finished product though! My goal is to eventually have him so immune to my craziness that I can say "I want to buy a samurai sword" and he'll say "sure". Not that I have any ideas for samurai swords...it's just an example.)

Rounding out the room were some tissue poofs above Luca's bed (she calls them her "foofs"), the Pouf at the foot of the rocking chair, adding a colored band to the bottom of the drapes and the softest white rug (thanks Mom & Dan!) to keep little toes cozy. The only thing left to do is cover some window shades in the chevron fabric below (it's sitting on my ironing board, ready to go! Come on, motivation) to keep out every little bit of light and weather. And I may try to make one of those things with the lights...wouldn't it make a cool night light? But that's just an idea....

My Little Artist

Luca has developed a pattern of being completely consumed with a particular activity for about 1-2 weeks and then dropping it and moving on to another. Past activities have included playdough, tinkertoys, rubber stamping and couch cushion forts. We are deep into coloring at the moment. Mostly markers, occasionally the crayons and less often the colored pencils. (She says those are for Madi. Which is true, colored pencils don't write on bodies or furniture very well and they're harder to ingest. So I have learned that they are the better choice for Madi. ;))

Luca doesn't just color her pictures either, they become very important artifacts. Sometimes they are displayed on the refrigerator in just the right way:

And sometimes they are folded very carefully and get carried around in plastic bags. And sometimes they are artfully displayed on the floor (I was emphatically informed that I was "messing it up" when I tried to straighten this pile):

The best thing about this current infatuation is that I'm actually seeing what she says she has drawn...most of the time. Here, with her hesitantly granted permission (she wasn't sure that the scanner wouldn't somehow ruin them) is a compilation of Luca's recent work:

This is "A Monster With Lots of Eyes" ( We think this comes from watching Monsters, Inc., and all of those little circles sure look like eyes to me!)