2013, clothes

Pretty lady underthings

by casadeberryLeave a Comment on Pretty lady underthings

I don’t remember the quality of garments being so poor when I was growing up. Now it seems that a piece of clothing will last only if you are lucky, and that goes for undergarments as well. Last year I purchased some new bras at a very popular underpretties place, and within 4-5 weeks the wires were poking through at the ends. About 6 months later, I bought a couple more and the same thing happened.

This time I decided to try another store and ended up being very happy with my purchases. The bras I bought were the Maidenform Comfort Devotion Embellished Extra Coverage in both the nude color below and in black:

I also bought this gorgeous DKNY Balconette bra:

I got coordinating underpretties for both types of bras, and as of now, they are the two types of bras I will be purchasing from now on. Having the right type of undergarment sets me up for a day of comfort, and not worrying about having to adjust, tug, or pull, all day long.

Have a wonderful week!

Uncategorized

Friday Five

by casadeberryLeave a Comment on Friday Five

1 – Check out this adorable fall printable from The TomKat Studio – isn’t it sweet? And it’s free!

2 – I am so happy that Luca won on MasterChef!!! According to my husband, I didn’t like him at first, but now I think he’s just darling! I was rooting for him all the way.

3 – Must remember to not rest my face on the doggie. I was petting her and bent down to give her a little hug and now I sit here with the left side of my face covered in welts. Steve put meds on it and I took some Benadryl, but I tell ya, it’s taking all my willpower to not scratch off my skin.

4 – We’re making pretzels! They will be awesome with the grape jam Steve made.

5 – My dear friend J and I have been going over what crafts we are going to do together this fall. A few of them can be found here – we also like to make cookies for each holiday, and get our kiddos to decorate them. Good times!

Have a wonderful weekend!

2013, autumn, decor, fall, home, living room, orange, september

’tis fall in our living room

by casadeberry3 Comments on ’tis fall in our living room

And nowhere else, apparently, given the 100-degree weekend we just had. But in the spirit of “if you decorate for it, it will arrive”, I added some fall touches to our living room.

We had everything I used, although some of the garlands have seen better days and didn’t get used. I love groupings of candles at varying heights, and I made the little candle with cinnamon sticks last year:

The brown vase in the back is from IKEA and the green bottle held liquor in its former, non-decorative, life. The two lovely glass pumpkins are very dear to me and I will share why later in this post.

On the TV console, I used a fabric runner my mom made a few years ago and used decorative pumpkins, our LED candles and real candles, a miniature chest a friend gave me long, long ago, and a fall floral spray on top:

The other side continues the theme with more small candles. Even though it was like 90 degrees when I took this picture, I have to admit I love candles. Their glow is just magical.

Overall view:

Now on to the glass pumpkins. These were given to me by my dear friend Kat.

I can’t believe it’s almost been a year since she passed. I miss her every day and although I am super busy, the mornings I used to spend with her still feel empty. Thank you for making me a better person, Kat.

So that’s our living room with some touches of autumn throughout, I am hoping that the matching autumn weather is here SOON!!! I dream of long walks with my sweet Foxy, wrapped in sweaters and scarves — both of us, ha ha – while the wind blows and the leaves turn golden. For now I just have super early walks because anything after 10am is too fricking hot and I am sweating like a pig 30 seconds into the walk.

I have a couple of fall projects I am working on and hope to share with you all soon!

2013, fruits, gardening, husband

We be jammin’

by casadeberry2 Comments on We be jammin’

You have no idea how our house smelled that evening. The rich, sugary scent spread like fog tendrils throughout the rooms, even my jam-hating oldest one came in from his karate lesson and said “it smells GOOD in here!”

This madness here:

Has become this yumminess:

My husband patiently peeled each grape, cooked down the whole thing, strained it, added the peels back in, added a bit of sugar, and somehow managed not to devour the whole thing while making it. I would have just upended that pan and chowed down, seared insides be damned.

My youngest, he of the three-PB&Js-in-a-row habit, is loving his sandwiches these days. Even more than usual.

The best part is, there’s another huge bowl of grapes waiting, AND, the vine is only half empty.

2013, husband, outdoors, september

Ivy tired of this!

by casadeberryLeave a Comment on Ivy tired of this!

There is a spot on our front yard that has been an eyesore for me since we moved in.

It’s a square of ivy. The footprint is delineated in brick and then it’s just ivy.

Like many decisions made by the first owner of this house, I have no idea what they were thinking, but in any case, it wasn’t to my liking. Eventually, it, uh, wasn’t to my husband’s liking either. You know how these things go. He was good enough to begin demolishing it on Labor Day weekend.

As you can see, there is a concrete square in the middle. Then the area between the concrete and the brick, where the ivy was planted, is just ground.

This is what the front yard looked like when Steve called it a day:

We have cleaning up to do, of course, but already I like looking at the front of my house more. Instead of this random ivy block placed on one corner of the front yard, now I can see the hibiscus and other plants we have out front.

The general plan is to convert this area into a covered sitting spot so in the afternoon we can sit out here while the kiddos play. The details have not been finalized, but you can believe I am having some fun putting things together.

Hope your long weekend was a wonderful one!

2013, autumn, candle, fall, friends

Trip to the “big mall”

by casadeberryLeave a Comment on Trip to the “big mall”

My friend J and I hit the big mall yesterday, but instead of a plethora of inspiration what we found was mostly “meh”. Maybe we’ve been on Pinterest too long (not) but there were a few things that caught my eye, and our noses:

This candle is awesome. The smell is so unbelievably yummy, I can’t wait to put these out around our living room once this freaking heat goes away.

Seriously. It’s almost September, people, I should not be sweating at 7 in the morning.

Then we hit Sephora and I found this gorgeous gloss, I think I had looked at it before, but it’s such a pretty and wearable shade, although it’s scary purple in the tube. It wore down to a shimmery raspberry.

I had no lipstick or gloss before so I got a pretty true representation of the color. It’s Givenchy’s Velvet Purple and it’s just gorgeous. Still not paying $29 for a lip gloss, though.

The last item that caught my eye was an orange skirt from LOFT. I have so many neutral clothes that it would go with many of my current tops, and it would be delicious with burgundy. Again, once this freaking heat goes away.

Other than that, and our yummy coffees, there really wasn’t much to capture our imagination. Pottery Barn was a big room full of tan and grey, and I’m sorry, I need some color in my life. We were, however, inspired by the pretty candles the autumnal atmosphere around many stores, so J and I decided to go home and decorate for fall. Sort of an “if you build it, they will come” thought, maybe “if we decorate for it, the weather will cool down” — at least we hope.

Thanks, my dear friend, for an awesome morning and even more awesome chat!!!

2013, bedroom, family, history, home

Heritage

by casadeberry2 Comments on Heritage

We brought more than great memories from our trip to the Pacific Northwest:

Steve’s uncle and aunt graciously gave us this steamer trunk, belonging to Steve’s great-great-uncle Carl Swanson.

Isn’t it gorgeous?



The boys were oohing and aahhing over it, and the trunk that previously lived in our master bedroom is now in our living room, housing various blankets.

We are so happy and honored to have this beautiful piece of family history in our home.

2013, family, foxy

Introducing . . .

by casadeberry2 Comments on Introducing . . .

The newest member of our family:

It’s Foxy!
(Miss Foxy if you’re nasty. nasty!)
just kidding.

Foxy is a 6-year-old beagle we adopted on Sunday. She is darling, charming us and our boys with her sweetness and loving nature.

She has made herself quite at home already!

Here she watches Alex picking strawberries in the backyard:

The cats have not been as happy about her arrival. Bernie has engaged in a couple of staring contests and Willie-Boo ran for the back of the couch. Foxy just ignores them.

We had been thinking about getting a dog for a while, and always knew it would be a rescue, so this weekend was spent going from shelter to shelter, past hundreds of chihuahuas and dozens of pit bulls, looking for one who would be ok with kids and cats, not set off my allergies, and be grown up. Foxy met the requirements and the boys fell in love with her, so she’s part of our home now.

I am sure many adventures with Foxy are in our future!

2013, boys, school

First Day

by casadeberry8 Comments on First Day

This pair of goofballs is back in school:

The little one refused to pose unless he was making a silly face or sucking his thumb, and the big one refused to pose by himself.

I miss them. My house is a lot quieter and cleaner, but I really enjoyed having my monkeys home this summer, we had adventures, chilled out, and had fun. Now it’s time for another year of learning adventures – love you both, Aidan and Alex!!!

2013, boys, family, friends, travel

Road Trip, part 2

by casadeberry2 Comments on Road Trip, part 2

After a couple of awesome days with friends and family, we had a quiet morning and then headed out to the Space Needle. Somehow, all four of us were wearing black shirts ;D

At the gift shop, we picked up some fudge and a Seattle tree ornament — I love to buy ornaments wherever we go as a family — and went up on the Needle. The day was clear and the views of the city were just gorgeous:

We met up with some family members for a farewell dinner at Saffron Grill, where we enjoyed a delicious Indian meal. Alexander discovered that he loves Naan bread and ended up eating an entire platter’s worth. I had heard a lot about a local ice cream shop, Molly Moon’s, so we all went to a nearby location to enjoy some dessert:


Simply the best ice cream I’ve had in my life. I tried the salted caramel and vanilla, but ended up ordering the melted chocolate. My husband raved about the vanilla with hot fudge sauce, and everyone was thrilled with their tasty treats. I also bought a vanilla bean caramel lip balm that I swear I am tempted to eat. We had planned to start our trip down towards California on this evening, but our cousins kindly invited us to spend the night at their home. We woke up refreshed and ready to spend the next couple of days driving.

The next morning we started with some Krispy Kremes for breakfast. I honestly think it’s been years since we had donuts — Alex had never tried them — but we decided to have a vacation splurge and got a dozen for the day.

The Oregon coast is stunning, we cut over to start our drive down from Astoria (where The Goonies was filmed!) and began looking for lighthouses, since Alex had read a book on them and really wanted to see one.

When we found one, the boys ran giddily towards it:

We couldn’t get inside but the boys were super happy just to see it up close. Steve took a picture of a nearby rock with a few hundred creatures on it 😀

The last adventure of our trip was Wildlife Safari, a drive-through animal experience that a dear friend had recommended. It was SO worth it!





The boys loved seeing the animals up close. The bears were so funny, they were playing around and getting in and out of the water and generally having a great time.

With some changes coming up in our lives, this trip was a sweet way to close out the summer. Alex said “I love Seattle, but I am very excited to go home, mama.” We are so grateful to our friends and family for hanging out with us, feeding us, and showing us around Seattle. We will definitely be going back.