I jumped at the chance to order Hudson’s Easter basket and wanted to make sure that I wasn’t scrambling at the last minute. I ordered all of our Christmas stockings from Pottery Barn Kids because ...]]> One of my favorite things about being a first-time mom is getting to experience so many of my son’s firsts. Holidays are some of the best firsts around and I try to make them as special as possible without going overboard on an infant’s first holiday.

I jumped at the chance to order Hudson’s Easter basket and wanted to make sure that I wasn’t scrambling at the last minute. I ordered all of our Christmas stockings from Pottery Barn Kids because they had a cute collection of stockings that included two older-looking and more adult stockings in addition to the fun Sugar Plum Fairy and Santa Claus stocking. We were really pleased with them, so I was excited to order Hudson’s basket from PBKids, too.

We chose the green basket liner with the bunnies and got it monogrammed. I ordered him the small basket in Espresso.

Then we got to help the Easter Bunny stuff the basket. I obviously can’t ask the Easter Bunny to give a 10 month old (he’ll be 10 months old by Easter) chocolate and Cadbury Mini Eggs, so I had to get creative. This is his completed and stuffed Easter basket.

Hudson loves books, so the Easter Bunny chose these wonderful books for him. The kids department at Nordstrom always has a great collection of seasonal children’s books, so I picked out a few cute options there.

Where Are Baby’s Easter Eggs by Karen Katz
Easter Surprises by Lola Schaefer
Who’s A Bunny by Chris Theiss and Jennifer McGill
Little Quack Counts by Lauren Thompson

We found a cute pair of bunny ears and a sweater knit stuffed bunny from Pottery Barn Kids. We also got him a couple of Baby’s First Easter bibs from Target. And because I don’t see much point in dying Easter eggs for a baby who can’t eat eggs for three more months, we picked up some plastic eggs to fill his basket.

If there’s a little one in your life, what will you put in his or her Easter basket this year? Any suggestions for me for the future?

© Elizabeth Anne Designs, 2010 · Permalink · 4 comments · StumbleUpon It!
Posted in: Children

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But. I have always been a little rigid, controlling, obsessed with tidiness and cleanliness. I’m a Monica. I obsess over the little things like a crumb on the counter top or some dog hair near the baseboard. I can’t help it, but I’m learning to tone it down a bit.

What girl doesn’t want her house to look impeccable and always be ...]]> Turning into a mommy just happened over night. One day we were two and the next day we were three.

But. I have always been a little rigid, controlling, obsessed with tidiness and cleanliness. I’m a Monica. I obsess over the little things like a crumb on the counter top or some dog hair near the baseboard. I can’t help it, but I’m learning to tone it down a bit.

What girl doesn’t want her house to look impeccable and always be ready for the guest that just pops in unexpectedly? I think one of the main rules your own mother teaches you is to not let the  cleaning pile up. Keep up with it, so if someone calls and says , “I’ll be there in 5 minutes,” you can just pick up a few things and throw on a smile.

On any given day, you can bet that my living room looks like this. (Pay no attention to the guard dog on top of the sofa.) We sort of set the room up and use the furniture to barricade him in the area where we want him to stay.

And my kitchen looks like this. Drying rack, bottle pieces, formula, cereal, and water are always on my counters.

It’s okay. I can’t be too worried about having it all there, all the time. I pick it up during nap time and pick it up again every night. We have some cute toy baskets for the smaller toys. But just knowing that everything is generally messy kind of makes me go crazy thinking about it. I came up with a few solutions to help me through the baby clutter.

1. Buy cute storage bins. We have these canvas buckets from Pottery Barn Kids for all of the small toys. The bins look cute in the room and aren’t too imposing on the rest of the decor.

2. Don’t let the baby messes pile up. Deal with small things throughout the day and pick up the toys every night.

3. Have some rooms in the house that are baby-free. Our guest bedroom and our study are not baby-friendly zones, so we don’t put toys in there. I’d love it if our master bedroom was baby-free, but that’s where I have to get ready every day and it’s just not realistic to keep all of his things out. We use our Pack ‘n Play as a playpen in our bedroom and keep a few of his toys in there. It keeps him entertained long enough for me to get dressed.

4. Don’t buy too many toys. It’s so easy to go into the store and come out with a new toy every time because you know he’ll love it. But we just don’t have the space for it in our little bungalow. We don’t have a play room and anything we bring him just makes our house a little bit smaller. Hudson likes playing with pots and pans (the cheap ones, not the All Clad), so excessive toy is unnecessary.

5. Get over it. People know I have a baby and they’ll be forgiving, not judgmental.

Relaxed is a stretch. I can be relaxed. But I still strive to keep a clean house. I just wait until my son has turned in for the evening to attempt to make the sophisticated adult home a reality again.

© Elizabeth Anne Designs, 2010 · Permalink · 3 comments · StumbleUpon It!
Posted in: Children, Organization

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Now that we’re entering the fall season, it’s almost impossible not to start thinking about the holidays. We’ll start with football, lead into Halloween, then comes Thanksgiving, and finally the December holiday season of Hannukah, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. It’s such an exciting time of year, but can also lead to lots of stress if you’re a newlywed.

I’ve written about compromise before, but I think one of the ...]]> I hope you’ve all got Madonna’s “Holiday” stuck in your head now!

Now that we’re entering the fall season, it’s almost impossible not to start thinking about the holidays. We’ll start with football, lead into Halloween, then comes Thanksgiving, and finally the December holiday season of Hannukah, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. It’s such an exciting time of year, but can also lead to lots of stress if you’re a newlywed.

I’ve written about compromise before, but I think one of the hardest areas to reach a compromise is when dealing with the holidays. I’m sure no one’s going to bicker about where they’re celebrating Halloween this year, but Thanksgiving and Christmas can be very touchy subjects. Both people have their own traditions and both don’t like the idea of not getting to observe those traditions. My mom makes the best food on the planet and our celebrations are always full of tons and tons of family. My husband’s mother doesn’t love to cook and she is an only child. My husband is an only child. Holidays at his house are quiet and relaxed. They eat whatever she feels like fixing that year and then go home when it’s over. But both of our families want us to celebrate with them.

Fortunately, for us, we’re not getting any pressure from either side. My family is willing to give up Thanksgiving this year because we spent it with them last year. But I’m the one that still wants it my way and wants to spend the holiday with my family. I know I’m being unreasonable and my husband would just rather go along with me than argue about it, so we’re going to spend Thanksgiving with his family. For Christmas this year, both of our families are getting together in the mountains and renting a large house that will accommodate everyone for a week.

Now that a baby is in the picture, things have changed a little and everyone wants to be there for his first Santa Claus experience. No one wants to miss any of those moments. The whole things stresses both my husband and me out and I’m hopeful that we can get into a good routine that helps us establish our own traditions. And I hope, more than anything, that within the next few years we can establish a tradition of celebrating these holidays at our own home and our kids can spend the holidays at home.

The most important thing, though, is that we surround ourselves with people that we love. My grandmother’s thought was always, “It’s Christmas when you get here. Even if it’s February!” So I’m going to adopt her sweet little viewpoint and go with the flow!

What works for you? How did you and your significant other blend the holidays?

© Elizabeth Anne Designs, 2009 · Permalink · 5 comments · StumbleUpon It!
Posted in: Holidays

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Scrapbooking used to be one of my biggest hobbies. In college, my roommate and I would ...]]> Memories are very important to me. When we found out that we were expecting a baby, Todd got our family a Canon Rebel. Then we purchased a pretty good little video camera after he was born. We don’t want to miss a second of his life and want to make sure that we capture the important little moments for him to look back on later.

Scrapbooking used to be one of my biggest hobbies. In college, my roommate and I would pull out all of our scrapbooking materials on a Saturday morning and sit and watch movies while scrapbooking for two days.

I love to scrapbook and have high hopes of putting together some gorgeous albums for Hudson that will be his someday. Here’s the problem: I don’t have a lot of free time! Scrapbooking requires space, making a mess, planning, and cleaning up. It could take 45 minutes to complete one page. That’s the extent of nap time some days.

My other option is to get some beautiful leather albums where I can just slip the photo into the sleeve and move on to the next one. I still have some scrapbooks from college that I haven’t completed and would like to finish before starting a new project. I have found some beautiful leather albums that can be engraved with his name and the year.

I guess I just have some dreams of being the super mom that scrapbooks her child’s entire life and gives it to him as a gift at his high school graduation. (I had some friends whose mothers did this for them in high school and I was seriously impressed—and jealous.)

How do you store your memories? Photo boxes? Albums? Scrapbooks?

Do you set aside entire Saturdays to catch up on your project or do you just find a few minutes here and there to work on them?

© Elizabeth Anne Designs, 2009 · Permalink · 4 comments · StumbleUpon It!
Posted in: Children, Crafts, Newlywed Life

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If I’m making dessert for a good sized crowd I ...]]> Being a newlywed means that you’re going to be invited to lots of dinners at your friends’ homes and you’ll most likely be asked to bring a bottle of wine or some dessert. I always choose to bring dessert. Dessert is especially fun to make because you know that it’s going to be someone’s favorite part of the meal and because your husband gets to lick the beaters and the bowl.

If I’m making dessert for a good sized crowd I always choose to make Paula Deen’s Not Yo Mama’s Banana Pudding. It’s a great no bake dessert that is sure to be a crowd pleaser—unless those that are eating it don’t like bananas. (I made the grave mistake of bringing banana pudding to a friend’s house when she hates bananas—oops.) I like to make this recipe over and over again because I know it by heart now and it only takes about 20 minutes to prepare.

I know that Paula Deen is notorious for her love of buttah, sugah, and fried stuff, but there are ways to make this recipe figure friendly.

Ingredients:

• 2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies
• 6 to 8 bananas, sliced
• 2 cups milk
• 1 (5-ounce) box instant French vanilla pudding
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping thawed, or equal amount sweetened whipped cream

Directions:

Line the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and layer bananas on top.

In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer. Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended. Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the remaining cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

photo and recipe found here

This recipe is just as delicious if you use fat free everything. The only ingredient that cannot be substituted is the Pepperidge Farm Chessman Cookies.

For a really beautiful presentation, use a trifle dish instead of a 9×13 dish.

What is your go-to dessert? Care to share the recipe?

© Elizabeth Anne Designs, 2009 · Permalink · 5 comments · StumbleUpon It!
Posted in: Cooking and Food, Recipes

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I’d love a new car, but I’m not ...]]> My husband and I have been car shopping for about six months. We’re looking to find something that is big enough for our growing family and that will also accommodate our two dogs. The idea of a new car is always exciting, but there is a downside. We have not had a car payment since we’ve been married and I can get used to that really quickly. I have gotten used to that.

I’d love a new car, but I’m not looking forward to having a car payment that doesn’t go away for a really long time. I also have some feelings of sadness as I think about getting rid of my car and thinking about someone else driving it.

My first car was a 1992 Ford Explorer that had belonged to my grandfather. When he passed away, my grandmother gave it to me because I was a couple of months away from getting my driver’s license. The brakes on the Exploder (my nickname for the car) went out on me a few times, but it was a good car. When it came time for me to go 14 hours away to college, my parents weren’t sure that the unreliable Exploder was the best option for me to be out on the interstate all by myself.

For my high school graduation, my parents gave me a Volkswagen Jetta. I was so in love with that car. I nicknamed it The Muppett because when the headrests are raised up, it reminds me of Beaker from The Muppetts. I drove that car to college, then from college to grad school, then to my first job, to my second job, and to the hospital to have my baby. The Muppett has been there for the most significant moments of my life thus far and I hate to see it go.

It runs fine, it doesn’t even have 100,000 miles on it yet—more like 98,000, and it does what a car is supposed to do and gets me from point A to point B. But it’s just not big enough to accommodate our two dogs and baby. I’m sure we’ll make the decision within the next year about which car we’ll purchase, but it’s not going to be an easy decision. And the day I say goodbye to The Muppett will be a sad day.

Is anyone else still driving the car that drove them to high school or college? Did you give the car a ridiculous nickname? Will you be sad to see it go when the time comes?

© Elizabeth Anne Designs, 2009 · Permalink · 10 comments · StumbleUpon It!
Posted in: Children, Newlywed Life

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We’ve got the swing and the gym in the living room, the pack ‘n play in our bedroom (for when I’m getting ready in the mornings), bottles and the ...]]> Oh my word. I had such high hopes of remaining normal after having a baby. I committed to keeping all baby-related items in the nursery and my house that I’ve worked so hard on would remain an “adult house” and there would be no sign of baby outside of the nursery. Psha!

We’ve got the swing and the gym in the living room, the pack ‘n play in our bedroom (for when I’m getting ready in the mornings), bottles and the bottle warmer always on the kitchen counter, and a bouncy seat that seems to travel from room to room. I almost forgot to mention that our stroller is so heavy that I have trouble putting it back in its place on my own, so it often just sits in the living room floor. Our family room is not large, so these large baby items take up a lot of space. I feel claustrophobic and like these things have taken over my house.

We live in a 2400 square foot bungalow. The attic was transformed into the master suite, so about 700 of those 2400 square feet are the master suite– the bedroom, sitting area, bathroom, closet, and laundry area. The baby and I rarely travel to the second floor and the last thing I want to do is lose my master bedroom to baby gear. We love our house and have no plans to move anytime soon, but I do find myself designing my dream room for all of this stuff. If I had it my way, I’d have a kitchenette and a bonus room where the baby and I would spend the day. All of his gear would be in there and the rest of our house would not have to be overrun with my entire baby registry!

These are some of my dream room ideas for all of this stuff. (My real dream room is a giant craft room with slate floors, but I’ll touch on that later)

photos from Pottery Barn Kids

Ideally, this room would be very, very large. Large enough to accommodate two sofas and a rocking chair. We’d have a large television and plenty of space for the huge baby swing that we have and all of the other baby gear. This room would also double as a media room for watching football games or the Academy Awards. We’d have one chalkboard paint wall that the baby could do whatever he wanted to when he gets older. Storage in this room is the most important thing.

Do you have a problem room? Do you have a dream room? What is it? What would it look like?

© Elizabeth Anne Designs, 2009 · Permalink · 3 comments · StumbleUpon It!
Posted in: Around the House, Children, Newlywed Life, Organization

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We closed on our house and moved out of our bachelor and bachelorette pads about five months before our wedding in May 2008. We had each been out of grad school and law school for three years so we each had lots of furniture and plenty of stuff to fill our own houses. We moved into a precious bungalow that was ...]]> When you get married you gain a partner, a husband, a best friend, a new family… and lots of stuff.

We closed on our house and moved out of our bachelor and bachelorette pads about five months before our wedding in May 2008. We had each been out of grad school and law school for three years so we each had lots of furniture and plenty of stuff to fill our own houses. We moved into a precious bungalow that was built in the 1930s and had recently been updated. The attic was turned into a giant master suite and we have tons of space in our bedroom. The only down side is that we don’t have an attic– or any storage. The closets are still the same old 1930s closets and all of my craft supplies fill up an entire closet. It was clear that we needed to get rid of some unnecessary objects.

My sweet husband is a bit of a pack rat. He doesn’t hold onto things because they’re important to him. He holds onto things because he doesn’t want to take the time to go through everything to decide what should be purged. I throw things away all the time. If there’s a mess I’d like to just pick it all up and dump it in the trash rather than hoard more stuff– which often leads to throwing away important things.

The item that I was forced to give up in the move was my massive collection of wedding magazines. I had every issue of Martha Stewart Weddings dating back to 1999. I would spend entire Saturdays pulling out the magazines and flipping through each one looking for inspiring images that I may not have seen the other 20 times I looked at the magazine. We can call it my secret single behavior, but I loved it. When we got engaged I started tearing things out of all of the magazines and filing them by category into a huge binder. So I was a little bit sad to give up so many beautiful issues of the magazine, but I made sure to go through and tear out any gorgeous pages before tossing them all in the dumpster.

Because I had to give up all of my magazines, I thought it was only fair that we not try to store (in our house with limited storage) hundreds of issues of Sports Illustrated– dating back to 1989! Yes, I’m serious. My sweet husband agreed to get rid of them as he had never gone back to look at any old issues.

We both were a little bit sad to get rid of such big collections, but felt better once they were gone. Interestingly, getting rid of those magazines was a much bigger deal than choosing whose sofa to keep and whose sofa to sell. We also had to get rid of one TV, one bed, and one breakfast table. We had two of everything, but those magazines left the biggest hole in our lives.

Did anyone else have to decide how to merge your stuff? Were there any major or significant compromises?

© Elizabeth Anne Designs, 2009 · Permalink · 4 comments · StumbleUpon It!
Posted in: Newlywed Life, Organization

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