Bloom Where You're Planted

So we have accomplished very little decorating in our apartment. I think this is somewhat due to being burnt out on moving and redecorating several times, but probably due partly to laziness and the thought that we might move again soon so why bother (well, that's me, I can't speak for the Hubs). But I'm learning to bloom where I'm planted and part of that is making the best out of my circumstances, including improving what I can around me and being at peace with what I can't. I'm being renewed in my passion for making this our "home" instead of just the place we live in. Didn't expect such insightfulness (yes, I made up a word) to accompany simple pictures of our decorating, did ya?

Our living room is my favorite room (and the only one that we've decorated, which is convenient that it is the first room you come into and where people hang out). It distracts our guests from realizing that the rest of our walls are bare. This frame is on your left on a small wall when you walk in our door past our coat closet. It contains an assortment of scrapbook paper, and it's kind of funky, which I like. I accidentally cut off our cute key hook/mail holder, oops. It's bright and cheery and make me happy.


At this point (in case you were wondering), I could have taken a big shot of our living room...but then I would have had to clean it...so I masterly shot around the clutter. :) It was either clean or blog...I choose procrastination.

We love mantels, and decorating them. Oh, did I mention that all of our cute decorations somehow migrated into the living room which is maybe #12 why we have not decorated elsewhere...cuz everything is in the living room. The paintings originally hung in our bedroom. I painted them, and they have our wedding vows etched into the primer (which you can't see unless you get close). The candle holder was originally on our table. Oh, in the pictures I somehow missed the 5 instruments that live in our small living room. I don't mind as long as the Hubs plays them. Oh, 5 is a lot you say? HAHAHA, that does not include the other instruments in the closets...I'm living in a music store people. We need to have kids so we can have a band and I can have good music all the time.

The cake topper from our wedding has survived 3 (4?) moves and now sits on our mantle

This is on the same wall as the front door, and has the recent-ish new addition of another of my paintings (for sale, BTW), and the awesome quilt made by my MIL. She had no idea that we had decorated in navy blue and lime green, but it goes perfectly. It's in the picture for your benefit, but it's rarely sits there since it's the perfect size to cuddle under.

I love funky and bright pillows. The ones in the picture are from Ikea (as are our curtains, not pictured). These are the two funky ones, the other ones are just green and blue. They're so comfy. You're welcome to come over and take a nap with our comfy pillows and quilt...I wouldn't mind the company.

The pillow background is white, but the light wasn't good (and neither is the photographer). Don't you love polka dots? Hope you enjoyed the mini tour. If you have any decorating tips/suggestions for the rest of my rooms, please send them my way. The bedroom has caused me great anxiety, and my husband says I'm no longer allowed to order bed linens off the internet. Actually, if someone wants to call Vern or Genevieve and plead our case that we deserve a beautiful, professionally decorated bedroom...I wouldn't mind :)

Shopping...bleh!

Have I ever told you I hate shopping? Well...specifically grocery shopping, but I have to be in the mood (and have money) for other types of shopping. Insert unpleasant household chore here ____ and I would rather do that than grocery shop. It gives me hypertension. I try to avoid it when I can or make someone go with me (have I told you lately my husband is Mr. Wonderful?) I don't know why...but I hate grocery shopping.

The exception to this rule are stores like Trader Joe's (I know there is a category for these types of stores, but it's not coming to me at the moment). There is something about a store like Trader Joe's that makes you want to try to be a chef, be green and crunchy (read hippy), and start using aromatherapy all at the same time. Unfortunately, I have yet to find such stores in or even near Flowery Branch (have you looked this up on a map yet? Do you know where I live? Yeah, most people don't either.) I happened to be back in good 'ole Athens this week (seriously got warm and fuzzies when I drove into town) and so I had made my list of must buys while I was there. I hit my 3 favs...Trader Joe's, Earthfare, and the Fooks Foods (the Asian food market). Little tip from me to you...if you can, buy your Asian food stuff like soy sauce from an Asian food market...ridiculously cheap and tastes way better. I stocked up on soy sauce, oodles of noodles, wanton wrappers, etc. I should have taken a picture of the humongous bottles of soy sauce that I got for around $1.35.

And of course I had to stock up on herbs. Buying them wholesale is ridiculously cheap. Example (I've picked the most expensive one on my receipt): Thyme was $19.99/pound...I picked up enough to refill the bottle in my spice rack (which I actually got too much)...and it cost me...wait for it...$1.00. I bought a bunch of herbs and spices, quinoa, deodorant (Tired of nasty pit stains and your deodorant ruining your clothes? Come talk to me.), nutritional yeast, and got out of there for a whopping $12. Left my car smelling "herb-y"....mmm.

Our Green Cabin

Our home for the weekend

Tim's birthday, which always lands near Labor Day Weekend, usually brings about some kind of Zack family trip. This year we ventured off to a cabin on the lake in Pine Mountain, GA (near Callaway Gardens). Among all the drab earthy colored cabins sat this beauty, and it was ours for the weekend...along with Tim's parents, sister, brother-in-law, and the three crazy kiddos. I think Tim's mom picked it just because it was green. The name of the cabin was "Margarita". The inside was decorated with items from "Margaritaville". Our bathroom included a sign that said "It's 5:00 somewhere". The cabin also came with its own set of ants and rickety stairs, but this did not ruin our weekend.

We fished, played ping-pong, played putt-putt, the kids swam, ate food off of the grill, and celebrated my hubby getting older.

Me fishing with the birthday boy...letting him do all the paddling while I snap a photo :)

He caught one (the only one) fish all weekend...but he had fun trying

To save on some time, we bought a cake that I hacked apart and redecorated (I really should have taken before shots. Imagine cake with giant blue gum paste bow, red piping on the edge and red and blue gum paste dots.) I turned it into this...

Our African Antarctic Penguin

Ok, so I had originally planned on a white icing background. Paul dubbed it the African Antarctic penguin. Isn't he cute? Everything that could have gone wrong with decorating the cake went wrong, but it still turned out pretty good.

Sorry we're not better at taking more pictures. It was a great weekend!

Tim (one year older), Ava (5 yrs old), and Me (not as old as Tim)

The hammock turned into great entertainment for the kiddos.  Joey got a little crushed by his sisters though...he survived :)

Out of boredom came...

a new painting.

An Aunt's Perspective

Maddox David Akin was born last night. I don't have any pictures yet because I was taking pictures on my sister's camera the whole time. So here's one side of the story...

Friday night I got a call around 11:45pm from my sister to tell me that her water broke in the kitchen. I asked her if I needed to come then and she said no, just go to bed and she'll call me if she progresses significantly (I was thinking, "I am in bed silly, why were you not in bed"). I woke up around 8am to my cousin texting me to ask if I'd heard any more news, but I hadn't. I called my sister after a bit and she was having contractions, was laughing at the entertainment provided by her awesome doula, Lindsey, and her husband, Davey, and was making cookies for the nurses. (Davey later laughed about how every time he left the hospital room he could hear the nurses whispering "oh, there's the cookie guy", LOL). So I went about my business making plans to go grocery shopping, etc (my day was planned for excitement, can't you tell?). I talked to Sarah a couple more times, each time labor had progressed more, but she was wanting to hang out at home as long as possible.

I was just about to arrive at a restaurant to eat lunch with Tim when I got the call that they were heading to the hospital. I went ahead and ate lunch, drove home, through a bag of stuff together, and left my husband to entertain himself for the evening. I drove the hour to Atlanta Medical Center (my sister had to pick a hospital in the middle of Atlanta off of one of the worst bottleneck exits). When I got there, my aunt, uncle, cousin, and Davey's mom and dad, brother and sister-in-law were hanging out in the waiting room. Davey came out to get me and as we turned to walk back to the room everyone started putting up a fuss. We realized that they just wanted an update :).

When I got there, Sarah was having some pretty strong contractions but was still walking around, making jokes, eating fruit snacks...etc. There was a birthing pool in the room, but other than that the room looked like a standard hospital room. At different points Lindsey would explain things to me or tell me what to expect. I really enjoyed having her there and seeing her and Davey encouraging and guiding Sarah was really an amazing experience. I was in charge of periodically texting our family with updates. Between Sarah, Davey, and Lindsey, I was entertained the whole time. Lindsey said that it was the most fun she had had in a birthing room. Sarah continued to progress steadily and it looked like we were going to have a baby by dinnertime. She got into the birthing pool and said that it felt amazing...unfortunately it felt so good that it seemed to really slow down her labor. She hung out in the pool for a while; we enjoyed the cool view of Atlanta from her room and watch a thunderstorm come in and out. It was so peaceful it almost seemed like her labor had stopped.

Around 8pm, I went out and had some dinner in the waiting room with everyone, but couldn't stay out there for long. I just felt better being in the room with her. Her labor significantly picked up, and Maddox David arrived at 11:04pm. They hadn't told anyone what the sex was, and I couldn't get close enough to see (I was standing out of the way behind the birthing pool to get a good shot with the camera), so after what seemed like forever (which was probably 20-30 seconds) they said it was a boy! He was 8lbs 7oz, 21'' long. He immediately started nursing. Lindsey videotaped and I took pictures of Davey coming out to everyone and telling them it was a boy. Maddox (I told my sister I was going to call him "M-diggy", she glared) is a beautiful boy. He seemed really peaceful after only one cry. I was really blessed to be a part of the experience.

I got home around 1:30am, and went to bed.