Street Color

Late this past Fall, my husband and his partner who go by the name Faile put up a massive mural in NYC on the corner of Bowery and Houston Streets. This location is an iconic and highly prominent wall in the city painted by well known artists throughout the years, so it's pretty awesome to walk or drive by and see this huge colorful mural done by them. It's been up since late last Fall but this past weekend we finally got a chance to take some photos of Lyla in front of it. How cool for her to have these photos in front of a huge mural that her daddy made?

Below are some process photos of Faile's studio prepping the giant mural in the studio as well as the installation.







{photos by faile}

Infinite Color + Play

I've loved Yayoi Kusama Dot exhibitions ever since learning of her work back in art school. This past summer we visited the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh and I was excited to see her Mirror Room.

But this particular exhibit at the Queensland Art Gallery might be my favorite yet. It started off as a completely white room and she allowed kids visiting the exhibit to become artists themselves and completely cover the room in colored stickers. Absolute amazingness.


{top 3 images for Queensland Art Gallery by Mark Sherwood
bottom image by Stuart Addelsee}

all via inspiration lab

Sculptural Function

I really love the new pieces by Stephen Antonson at West Elm. My favorite is definitely the sculptural ledge. It's a nice little decorative surprise for a wall shelf.

{photos from west elm}

Purple Power

Lyla's favorite color is purple. It's funny because, while I've never disliked purple, it's never been a favorite color of mine. Don't get me wrong I like it, but Lyla loves it. So I bought her all purple bedding and accent pillows.

I went with Serena & Lily's Delphine Duvet (It's on sale right now!) and their Heather Bloom pillow as the base.

I bought the purple Pillow Pal by Blabla (we've been fans of them for a long time). It's super cute.

Possibly one of my favorite purchases for Lyla recently was the purple robot pillow. Leading up to Christmas, all Lyla wanted was a robot. I'm not sure where she got that from but she told everyone she wanted Santa to bring her a robot. The last thing I wanted to buy her was some cheap, plastic, annoying thing that makes noise, lights up and will break after a week. So I started researching robots and found this wonderful brand called Kauzbots. Every robot has a cause and dedicates 10% of the sales price to their particular cause. Kourage, the purple robot, supports childhood cancer. Lyla loves it, and it's absolutely adorable and comes with a little pink heart that fits in it's back pocket. I highly recommend these robots, they are a great price with a great cause. A wonderful gift for future occasions.

{photos top to bottom}
top two photos from serena and lily
pillow pal from land of nod
robot from kauzbots

New Year, New Baby

Above photo is Lyla at 8 months and the following are from this past Summer & Fall.





Hello and Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and wish you all the best this year.

2011 was a crazy, wonderful year for us. We traveled a lot - I was away for 4 months throughout last year so I wasn't able to devote much time to my blog (as many of you have noticed). We were in Venice, Ca for June, Maine in August, Florida, Minnesota, London, Chicago, Arizona throughout other times in the year. Traveling is fun of course, but can be very exhausting, especially with a 2.5 yr old. But I can't really complain because I know how fortunate we are to be able to get on a plane and head somewhere fun.

One amazing little tidbit that I haven't shared on the blog is that I'm pregnant and due in less than a month! It's always such a miracle to get pregnant and I feel very blessed. The last month has been busy getting ready for the baby and more importantly, making sure this shift is easy for Lyla, my 2.5 year old. Everyone says how important it is to make sure Lyla is happy during this time and when the baby arrives. I've been told not to open presents for the new baby in front of her and for close family and friends to buy Lyla a little gift instead of the baby. From friends and family alike, everyone says you'll realize how easy a healthy newborn is to take care of and how hard it is to take care of a toddler.

One big question I had for friends that have gone through this before is what if I have two crying kids at the same time? Who do I console first? Lyla. The toddler will remember and the newborn won't.

This pregnancy has been similar to my last but more extreme - more tired, more sick, but I think it's because I'm already a mom and don't really have much time to myself or rest to begin with. We don't know the sex of the baby - like last time, everyone thinks I'm having a boy. I go back and forth between boy and girl. We finally figured out a boy name that we both love and have had a girl name picked for a while so we're set on that front. I recently finished up all my design projects for a good while, so it's nice to not have to think about work (well sort of) and just focus on my kiddos.

I'm also experiencing a different type of emotion this time around. Last pregnancy I would get sad that it was no longer going to be just me and Patrick. But now, I feel guilty that Lyla's life is about to change more than she'll ever know. I feel sad that I won't be able to devote all of my time and energy towards her and that she'll have to share Patrick and me. I guess it's normal to feel this way. To Patrick's point, he almost feels guilty for the new baby that it'll never get total focus and devotion like Lyla had for almost 3 years.

And my biggest question of all is - Will I love this baby as much as I love Lyla? I can't imagine loving anyone more than I love Lyla but everyone says you do. Just like how you have no way of comprehending a love for a child pre having a child, I imagine it'll be a similar feeling. I just can't wait to experience that burst of love all over again.

One of the biggest differences in this pregnancy is preparing for labor is ALL about logistics with Lyla. To be honest, I haven't even thought about mentally and emotionally preparing for labor like I did last pregnancy, because it's all about logistics in making sure Lyla is ok and taken care of. We have about 4 different back up plans if I were to go into labor pre-family arriving. We can only prepare so much but it helps to know we have neighbors in our building that could help out, babysitters that'll be on call and friends who live in Brooklyn that are willing to head over to our apt. to help out.

It's all overwhelming, but like everything else, you just figure it out and do it.

photos:
Going through Lyla's personal blog just makes me so sad & amazed at how quickly time has gone. The top two photos are from less than 2 years ago and the rest are from this Summer and Fall. It's amazing how quickly time goes in two years in the life of a child.

Mirror, Mirror

I've always loved Jonathan Adler's apple mirror. I think I'm finally going to buy it for Lyla's bathroom. It's such a fun and colorful piece.


And speaking of mirrors, I recently bought this one from Jayson Home and Garden. It's quite lovely and I was sold on it's hanging attachment.




However I have to say my favorite mirror right now is this one by Grain, but it is very much out of price range.

photos top to bottom:
{apple mirror by jonathan adler}
{freeman mirror by jayson home and garden}
{bound mirror by grain design via remodelista}

Little Style

I'm looking for a cute little winter coat for Lyla. These Max & Lola jackets are high on our list.

They sell them at Les Petits Chapelais, one of my absolute favorite children's clothing stores in NYC. It's right on Thompson Street in Soho, across from a playground, so I shop while Lyla and Patrick hang out in the park - it's super convenient.

{photos from max & lola}

Colorful Living

This is how I want our apartment to look and feel. While we don't have all of the lovely period details of this fancy home, we do have the potential for color. The pattern, color, and overall fun feeling of this apartment is just pure gorgeousness.

{via curbed}

Little bits...

So here's a little bit of what I've been up to personally. Lyla is getting so big - she's already 2.5 years old! I can't believe how quickly she's grown. Even looking at photos from 6 months ago, she has changed so much.

She is quite the active little girl. Last weekend my friend and I took her up to Outhouse Orchards for some apple picking, pony and haystack rides. As you can imagine, she was more into the pony rides than anything else. And the food! I'm still thinking about their apple cider donuts. They were soo good. So much so, I'm considering go up there again this weekend.

Lyla is in school for a few days a week which allows me to work but on our days together we keep ourselves very busy. On most days you'll find us at our neighborhood zoo or riding the carousel. Yesterday we happened to ride it 5 times. Yes, you read that right and she wanted to keep going. To her dismay, we (I) had to take breaks in between each ride. This carousel is super fast, or maybe it's just me getting old. But 5 rides was enough to cover me for at least a week.

It's beautiful Fall weather up here in NY, and we are enjoying every second of it. I hope wherever you are, you're having lovely weather as well.

Have a wonderful weekend!

{photos by me}

Bird Love

I love these bird photos by Leila Jeffreys. Her life has been full of travel and a deep love for animals which she shared with her family. She really brings to life the personalities of these birds through these loving and charming photographs.

I'm excited to see Jonathan Adler is starting to show and sell her photographs in their stores. I'm looking forward to checking these out in person!

{all photos copyright of leila jeffreys}