planning the nursery

baby girl should be here in 6 short weeks, holy lord! but we won't be able to do a nursery for her until we move into a bigger space this summer. in the meantime she gets part of a corner of our bedroom and i'm going to do what i can to make it a special corner, but without going overboard decorating since it's just temporary (i'm thinking paper bunting, do you hate that idea?). anyways, in the mean time, i'm starting to think of what i'd like her room to be like once we do move. here are some sweet ideas that i've been liking lately...

i actually bought these vintage look hangers on ebay tonight, they're exactly what i was looking for (except i was hoping to get actual vintage ones but i kept getting outbid - jerks). anyways, i do love them! and my mom recently gave me several vintage baby girl dresses from her childhood that i also wore when i was a baby. they are so delicate and beautiful that outside of a photo shoot i don't think i'll put our little girl in them for daily wear. but they would be so pretty hanging on her wall on these hangers!

who knows what the windows will be like, so it's pointless to do anything but "window shop" (yuck yuck) for now but i do love both of these options from Land of Nod. sidenote --> stupid Land of Nod that sends me their stupid awesome catalogue full of awesome stupid things i want but can't really afford on every freaking page! the ruffle curtains attacked me from their spring catalogue and they honestly aren't that expensive, plus they are just so classic and pretty.

a friend at work showed me these chairs today on amazon and i fell madly in love. word is, they are "cheap" knockoffs of famous chairs, but they are still out of my buy-it-now pricerange. still i am keeping them in mind for the little lady's room. they have such great color and energy ❤

this one is harder to show, but my parents are giving me an old family dresser that is kind of similar to this one. i'd love to refinish it in white or pale yellow and switch out the hardware for any of these that i found on anthropologie. le sigh! how i love these pulls! especially the one in the top left.

i've had this kind of craft hoop wall installation on my radar for almost a year now (i first posted about it here) and really really really want to finally go for it in baby's room. for those of you who read harper's happenings, mandy did a really awesome version of this in her little girl's room. l o v e!

soooooo... that's what i've got so far. most of it is pretty doable, depending on the space. well those chairs are kind of crazy expensive for plastic chairs, but i really do love them so we'll see. and how i hope we end up with hardwood floors! our current place is carpeted (even in the freaking kitchen, what?!!) and i am just not a fan at all. i love a good rug, but carpet grosses me out. so fingers crossed!

and in the mean time i'll tidy up baby's semi-corner, get the bunting up (unless you hate that idea, anyone? opinions?) and snap some pics of the temporary space really soon. it's not much, but it will be organized and hopefully at least a little charming.

xoxo,
lindsey

mama steez - out and about with the ottobot

yesterday ot and i got to have an all-out day out. we went thrifting (still haven't found any great thrift shops here in eugene, but determined to keep looking), out to lunch, then for a cookie, and then to the "fahncy" grocery. i cherish these times more than ever, knowing that in a few short weeks one-on-one time with my little ham will be harder and harder to come by. here's what we wore -->

on mama: headband (Target), sundress (thrifted), sweater (Lux thrifted), jeans (Motherhood), shoes (MadLove from DSW).

i have been wearing soooo many sun dresses and moo-moos as shirts lately.

on the ham: jacket and button-up (Baby Gap), shants (Le Top thrifted), baby legs (made by mama), shoes (Crocs).

the thrifting was pretty much a bust but we did find 2 new books for Ot and a cookbook for me. then it was lunchtime and unfortunately (for the health of my child) my turkey burger lust got the better of me so we were off to Carl's Jr. my child did not mind!

he was so excited that his "toy" was a book bag (for his new books). that made his bookworm mama pretty happy.

then, as if french fries weren't enough, we headed off to a cookie shop for dessert. i found out some friends of a friend own a little cookie shop right here in town. so random, the owners just moved from arizona to oregon in september. lucky for us because cookies are, well, cookies!

serious cooking chowing at crumb together (what a cute name, right?). meanwhile, my cookie was lonnnng gone.

then it was off to the grocery for loads of beans (if you read my previous post you're acquainted with my newly found bean "thing") and other groceries for the week. sidenote: whoever invented those car-in-the-front shopping carts should really stab themselves in the hand with a fork over and over again. impossible to steer! but whatever, it capped off otto's list of awesome doings for the day.

now it's sunday! a whole 'nother weekend day to fill. i think we're baking an apple cake this morning and then i have a hot date with a bunch of laundry. what's everyone else up to? 

fava or lima beans with artichoke hearts and peas, mmmmmmm

last weekend we had some people over for dinner and i tried out this new recipe that was a smash, bang, boom HIT! i don't know if i've really talked about this on here, but our house is 33% vegetarian (the hubs, a better man than i, or you know what i mean anyways) and so we eat vegetarian meals pretty frequently. almost always, actually, with sides of chicken, turkey, or fish for otto and sometimes me.

anyways, i've been aspiring to work more beans into our dinners menu. i didn't grow up eating many beans and when i did, it was gag town, usa, so this has been a real challenge for me. but i am determined, and finding that i actually do really like bean dishes when they're done right. and so, after all that jabber, here is an easy one that is just super delish!

what you need...

1/4 cup evoo (that's extra virgin olive oil for the recipe uncool)
1 yellow onion, cut into thin half-rings
1 2/3 cups frozen lima or fava beans (aka broad beans) (i used lima)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup water
2 cups frozen peas
14oz artichoke hearts, drained and cut into halves or quarters
2 Tbsp chopped dill
1 Tbsp chopped mint
4 scallions chopped
salt & pepper to taste

what you do...

1. heat the oil over low-medium heat, add the onion and cook about 5 minutes til it's soft and browning
2. add beans, lemon juice, water and bring to a boil
3. reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 5 minutes
4. add peas, artichoke hearts and herbs. stir. simmer, covered, another 5 minutes.
5. remove from heat, salt/pepper to taste, serve hot or warm

this isn't my recipe, in fact i just barely altered it by replacing the broad beans with lima beans and cutting down on the onion content (the original recipe called for 2 onions, egad that seemed like wayyyy too much!) i found this recipe in a cookbook i picked up at CostCo last summer called Essential Vegetarian. so far it's been consistently decent with only one recipe that was pretty "meh" so if you come across it while thrifting snap it up!

speaking of thrifting, cookbooks and beans, i was really excited to find an old slow cooker recipe book while out thrifting with ot today. it's 365 recipes (::aside:: what's up with 365 being the magic # for crock pot books and blogs? so weird to me. that's far too much crock potting! my husband would kill me after day 3. but whatever.) anyways, i am dying to make the above orange-spice glazed carrots and a bunch of the soups and bean recipes, like all kinds of chilis and refried beans! i bought bags and bags of organic dried beans from the bulk bins at the grocery this afternoon. look out world my family will be riding high on magical fruit very soon!

if anyone has any awesome bean-y recipes they'd like to share, i would seriously love to hear about it. and hope everyone is having a great weekend. we're about to watch Drive with Ryan Gosling so my night is gonna be awesoooome (that last part said in a really high pitched voice) i hope yours are all at least as good!

xo,
lindsey

an inappropriate response

today while i was driving i pulled up at a stoplight next to one of these guys whose job it is to spin a sign for a business. not usually notable, unless they're really enthusiastic spinners, except this time the guy (who wasn't a very enthusiastic spinner) looked just like john c. reilly. uncanny.

which just made me laugh (not because he looked like JCR but because JCR is super-funny so seeing him pretty much doing anything would make me laugh). like this makes me laugh, a lot (enjoy).

 

bwahahahahaha! anyways... other than in my imagination, the spinning sign guy wasn't doing anything funny at all. and he looked right into my eyes while i was gleefully laughing right into his eyes, and for a second we were sharing a moment, or so i thought. just me and JCR having a fun old time. except nope. he then got all stone faced and totally skunk eyed me. lame!

but really i am lame for laughing into this poor guy's face. i am a psycho! i blame hormones. that's all. that's my whole story.

xo,

lindsey