Back to School

Oh my freakin goodness.
I can't believe Swede is old enough to be in 3rd grade.


Ingrid and Swede headed back to school yesterday.
The girls of course are all excited about their new clothes...
But, I'm not too excited about the fight to wake them up and make them do their homework.

Sofia who is stuck here at home with mom until preschool starts next month
came up to me literally 5 times before noon and asked if it was time to pick up the girls from school...
"time to get mah sistahs at da school?"
 These little cuties will be missed!

our duties and a vintage schwinn

we're heading to Salt Lake to deliver some artwork to a client.
i'm feeling so blessed that my husband can use his talents to earn money for our family.
so blessed that their are people out there who have the means & desire to buy artwork even in this economy.
so blessed that God has given him this talent.
and that i might be able to talk hubby into stopping by Anthro and Urban Outfitters while we're in SLC, hehe.

We've had church lock-up duty this week.  It's where hubs is in charge of making sure the church is locked up every night before we go to bed...

"Maybe I am not meant for these duties.
 Cooking duty.
Dead guy duty.
Maybe it's time for me to get a better duty!"








We actually have really thought having lock-up duty was the bees knees because we don't have a great place near our home for the kiddos to ride bikes so we've taken them down to the church parking lot to ride bikes for an hour or so each night.  It's been one of the highlights of their summer so far, which shows how lame our summer has been, haha.

the barbie bike is too small now so she inherited the awesome orange vintage schwinn 

you go girl, ride that schwinny goodness for all it's worth

I guess I was inspired by the kids athleticism...or I was too lazy to drive to the gym...but I also got a couple of bike rides in this week...rode long enough and far enough to make not only my legs hurt but also some unspeakable places...
anyway, this is my "i'll cut you" look.  I was mad at the photographer for reasons unknown and this is what he gets in return.  nice.
linking up with Jeannett for Instafriday!

you're dying because of what??

we were driving home after a funeral this weekend,
and apparently Ingrid had drank a LOT of water at the luncheon thingy after the funeral.
she had to PEE SO BAD
she was in the back seat doing a potty dance...
"i'm gonna die, i'm gonna die!"
she kept shouting because she had to pee so bad.
"i'm going to die from PEE-ness!!!"

really? you're going to die from PENIS?
jeremy and I were busting out laughing the whole way home...

i LOVE these cray cray kids!

Red, White & Chambray

we had to go to this pretty place to "help" daddy with some scenery photos for a painting he's working on.
as soon as we got there, i had one kid dancing around about to pee her pants, another kid peeing on a rock, and another child peeing in her pants (nope, i'm not naming names...but she's kinda little and her name rhymes with bofeeya) all in all, a grand time.
we're off to a parade today then maybe we'll head back up the canyon for some more family togetherness, that is, if the parents don't go crazy first!

chambray rompers: old navy, ross

chambray shirt: old navy

red shirt: downeast

tan shorts: thrifted

red sandals: kohls 

linking up with Lindsey for what i wore wednesday

have an awesome, safe, dry panties type of 4th of July, mmmkay?

the big reveal...

come on into my home,
make yourself comfy
i'll get you a big bowl of cookie dough ice cream...
or i have some skinny cow ice cream sandwiches if you're watching your weight...
or, i have oodles of easter candy, if you're lactose intolerant.
we can talk while the kids fight over an etch a sketch


i've been re-doing my front room for a while now, & i'd love to show you, now that it's done.
it's a small space. only about 10 feet wide and 12 feet deep.

the motivation for the makeover was this here brown couch.
it might look ok, but it turns into the devil when you want to sit or lay on it.
it wasn't terribly uncommon for a cheek to fall asleep while sitting on it because it has bars under it that hit you in all the wrong places.
it's super uncomfy. and brown.
quite frankly, it was boring in there.

i had to find the perfect couch that would fit the room and fit our budget.
we were searching for a grey leather couch with a vintage modern vibe.
it had to be leather, because of it's proximity to the kitchen (and inevitable spills)
and it had to be 35" deep or narrower
it had to be comfortable
and hopefully under $1000.
(which is a hard price point when looking for super adorable grey leather couches)

our search ended when we found this pretty leather number.

I added some random, pretty grey and turquoise stripes to the wall.
I had all these paint colors on hand and didn't have to go buy any, which was nice.
I'm loving the stripes.

1. We found the leather sofa at Macys.com 
it's the Claudia sofa in Taupe
we had to wait about 3 weeks for the sample to come in the mail.
we were worried the taupe would be too brown.
but, when the sample came it was a nice warm grey so we went for it.
and, since we have a history of getting credit cards and never activating them, 
we decided to go ahead and get the macys card to save an extra $100
it ended up being $899 plus tax and shipping (around $1000)
(which is waaaaay better price-wise than the other sofas I had looked at)
2.  Pillow from Moxie Mandie more info HERE
3. IKEA
4. Pillows from Mindy Mae's Market (they sell all sorts of awesome stuff at discounted prices online...follow them on facebook & you won't regret it!)
5. Oh, how I love these paintings! Jeremy (my husband who is an artist) painted these of each of our kiddos :)  They make me happy!  To see more of his work click HERE

I kept the same Danish Modern side chair because the chair wasn't too terribly uncomfortable, and i happen to LOVE danish modern furniture.

I just added some bright reddish orange-ish color fabric and more pillows from ikea and some chevron from MMM. (since re-upholstering this, i've noticed this color ALLOVER the offices of Sterling Cooper Draper Price  (& if you don't know what SCDP is, i feel so sad for you.))

Dont' look too closely at my reupholster job...it was my first crack at sewing upholstery with piping...yeah, it's perfectly imperfect, just the way i like it ;)

Then, I wanted to add a little extra seating for when we have company.
With only the sofa and side chair, there just wasn't enough.
So, I went on the search for a table/bench that could be used as a coffee table OR a small bench for the kids to sit on.  I found the perfect one at IKEA

IKEA Molger bench in brown

it's decorated with another snazzy pillow from IKEA..(did I mention that I found those pillows for $2.99 each?? crayzay! that may be why there are 3 in this small space) and here's the third beautiful copper item that i was talkin about the other day...and some adorable vintage childrens books and some coasters.

The armoir also got a makeover, making it a lovely shade of yellow.
open it up, and it's (surprise, surprise) turquoise :)

some things we kept the same:
the turquoise table with our copper antiquities (no way i was getting rid of that!)

our collection of ebony elephants that we've been collecting each year on our anniversary, our lamp we bought when we were first married, our vase from downeast

 and some cool Aesop's fables illustrations from Jeremy's dad

and, in an effort to keep it real, i'll show you what it will really look like when you stop by:

so, come on over.  we can watch an episode of the new girl, or what not to wear (as seen here), or once upon a time ( i have them all recorded on our dvr :)  or, maybe we could watch madmen...or just gossip about WTFreakityFreak is going on with Don Draper...hope to see you soon!

oh, that's just typical

weather in utah.
it's funny.
teeter-totterin' it up one day

and snow the next

we've had spring break this week
i had wanted to do something adventuresome
so we had an impromptu mountain climbing adventure while the weather was good
we just parked the car and started walking

and didn't stop walking until our view looked like this

if you look closely you can see a black spot where the road ends...that's our car

these girls are such troopers
they just followed right along with their momma's/aunt's crazy whim
and it was exhausting
i seriously had a hard time getting out of bed the next morning
(of course, that's nothing new...)
and here's my favorite shot of the day..
which was actually taken by Swede my 7 yr old.
this is Sofia
all ready to climb a mountain like a pro

 it's funny how when we started hiking
the girls were complaining about walking through the field of weeds and brush
to get to the base of the mountain
but, by the time we got done climbing the mountain and back,
the weedy, brushy field was like heaven compared to the steep mountain
sometimes, all we need in our lives is a little perspective

PS: so happy instagram is now on android!!
you can find me there now (sugarblossomboutique)
let me know, & i'll follow you back :)

New Spring Collection by Sugar Blossom Boutique

I've had so much fun working with these fabulous spring colors, i hope you like 'em!
One of my favorite parts was doing the photography :)

The Boom Boom Pow

Sweet Mint

 Do The Hokey-Pokey Polka-Dot

I am a Robot BeEp bEeP BeeP!

Two Scoops of Peach, Please

Team Tangerine

and, my favorite: the Ruffly Fluffly headband

a big thanks to my cutie pie models!

 don't forget to enter to win a $20 credit to my shop over at Oh, Sweet Joy's blog