happy living Design

hello friends - meet my new assistant

Since my last post back in October (I can't believe that much time has passed!) we welcomed this sweet little creature into our lives.  Kherington Paige was born right on time on April 15th at 12:06 AM.  Apparently we were the talk of the hospital that day...the baby born to the accountant on Tax Day.

Although I am doing a little bit of work here and there, luckily most of my days I just hang out with this chick.  She's pretty good company.  I've missed blogging though and I am gearing up to officially open my own design business, so here I am, back to 'work'.  With a mini assistant in tow.

Originally I thought I'd relaunch the whole blog/website, but instead you'll see small changes happen over time and I hope you like them.

hiatus part two

 

Can you believe it's autumn (at least here in the northern hemisphere)?  Where does the time go?  I hope for any of you that still have this blog in your feed and get to read this that you are doing well.  I just wanted to come out of hiding for a moment to say 'hello'.

That small orange bump you see in the bottom of the photo above is going to be our special delivery on or around April 15, 2010.  I am about 16 weeks along and feeling fine.  Still a bit nauseous and still quite tired, like my dial is turned down and the knob broke off.  I lost a bit of weight in my 1st trimester so I am still fitting into a lot of my regular clothes but I did wear my first pair of maternity jeans on Sunday.  Boy are they saggy and I don't think a bigger belly is going to help.

My long term plan for the blog: This blog is most likely going to stay on hiatus until next year sometime.  My goal is to 're-launch' it once I get happy living Design, LLC up and running officially, sometime after the baby arrives.  I say 'sometime' and use it loosely.  I have a lot of the groundwork set, like my architect's license, my business license, but there is a lot left to be done.  A lot.  There will be a new design, some sort of portfolio, the blog of course and some other fun stuff.

In the meantime, all the old happy living Blog stuff will stay here and you can find me intermittently posting over here at price street.  It's a more personal blog (it's been mostly hidden for awhile) but I am opening it up.  There's no defining it, really.  It's just what I feel like posting on any given day: home, design/decorating, photos, chatter, being pregnant!.  If you feel like coming over to say hello, I would love that.  

All my best,
Erinn

  

hiatus

The last few months have been a big long roller coaster and to say it has left my brain a bit hazy would be an understatement.  I have decided to take a hiatus from the blog and from some other things as well.  My priorities have shifted immensely and I am making some adjustments.  This is really difficult for me.  In my mind, to put this on the shelf means moving further away from getting out on my own and having my own business rather than closer.  But I know it's only temporary and I have to look at the big picture.  I am not sure when I will be back.  Unlike last year when I decided to take the summer off from blogging, this time around I am not putting myself on a schedule.  I am going to see how things go.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who reads and comments for your support and encouragement.  I hope that when I am back (because I will be for sure) that you will rejoin me.  I will still be around occasionally on Flickr, Facebook and Twitter (see sidebar links).  Please say hi.  I will still be blog-reading for sure and will hopefully cross paths with you 'out there' too.

 

on a boat somewhere in the Delaware Bay

We spent this past weekend at my in-laws' beach house in Lewes, DE with both sets of parents.  They get along well and we all had a great time and lots of laughs.  It made me so thankful for both our families' love and support.  I feel very lucky.

On that note, I wish you all out there a wonderful summer (what's left of it) and I hope we're not separated too long. ;)

erinn

soggy

I have no other way to describe the weather here on the north part of the east coast for the last few weeks.  It just totally sucks.  I am going into an early summer depression (instead of a late winter one) probably from the lack of sunlight and all the rain.  I could really use a pair of these right now.

 

Aren't they cute?

burning the candle(s)

Burning the candle(s) at both ends.  That's me lately.  It's the only way to describe it and it has me totally out of sorts, scattered, down and losing sleep (and blogging at 12 midnight).  I do too much.  I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of you do too much too.  I have to find a way to prioritize, edit, to slow down a little because lately I think life is passing me by while I am running around crazy trying to catch it.  Most times being home is the constant, the calming and centering place in my life where I can disconnect and reconnect.  Lately it has become part of the stress.

The one goal I have had for the house this summer is to redecorate the 'master' bedroom.  You can see some before pics here and here.  But with everything else going on I just don't know how I am going to get it done.  I have contacted one contractor to get a price for the work that needs to be done, but it is really hard for us to pay someone to do work that we know we can do ourselves.  So I either make the time to do it or I hire someone to do it for me.  It's really that simple.

The boy left for work early this morning so I had some quiet time to myself.  I had a peaceful breakfast on the porch.  It seems that location in the house is going to be the good one this summer.  It reminds me not to blame the house (the object) and be thankful that I have a lovely little house to stress over in the first place.  And then I just feel silly for being stressed in the first place.

The photo was taken on Saturday night at my cousin's birthday party in Philly.  His friend has a lovely apartment/condo right on South Street with a view from the balcony to the river.  We had a great time.

dreaming of the sun and london

There was a chance I was going to get to go to Salt Lake again with the boy (who's on a business trip) but it didn't work out.  So I am here.  And it's like the 100th day (a little overstated) in a row that I have woken up to thick cloud cover.  Ahhhh.  Get me out of here.  I'm starved for Vitamin D and can't wait to have the sun on my face.  I'm also ready to hit the road.  To where?  I don't know.  I'd even take a weekend away even if it's only a hours drive away. 

My parents are considering going to London to visit my Irish cousins in September.  And it's pretty much all I can think about.  I am already compiling my shopping list and stores to visit if I actually get than chance to go.  But the stars have to align.  Money and other things need to be considered. 

In the meantime I am looking forward to: the end of tax season when I get my husband back, the spring and planting some Purple Allium and the summer and going to the beach.  I promise when it's 99 degrees in August I won't complain about it.

the london list

EllaDoran

The Modern Warehouse

Everything on Wee Birdy's London shop tour

habitat of course

Where would you go?

sunday

waking up to

the smell of coffee

and a wood fire

a little bit of snow (followed by lots more tonight!)

making soup

with homemade venison sausage

and fresh thyme.

some other things too like catching up on magazines and the Sunday paper, a run to the grocery store, a tumble off the spending-hiatus wagon (a good one, I might add), taking care of some important household business like paying bills and budget planning and catching up with friends and business partners.

happy sunday, my friends.

the holidays. the new year. random things.

The holidays have whizzed by and I haven't even wished you all something wonderful.  So I will wish you a fun evening celebrating the new year.  I am not sure if I am sad or happy to see the end of 08.  But it is in the past and I know I am looking forward to 09.  We have two sets of friends who are expecting babies in the coming year and that is always fun!

 

 

Bethany tagged me a couple of weeks ago, so here are 6 random things about me in no particular order:

1. I am a scarf hoarder.  One can never have too many scarves and luckily they make scarves for almost every season.
2. I don't collect anything. (ok, maybe scarves but they eventually wear out and I donate them or something)  One year I said that I liked snowmen so I have a decent collection of snowmen ornaments but that is about it.  You won't find any collections just hanging around our house, not plates, vintage salt & pepper shakers, boyd's bears.  Sometimes I longingly admire other people's collections but it just isn't for me.

3. I traveled in Europe for 3 months between my third and fourth years of architecture school.  It was really life changing and I have made a pledge to remember that if my daughter ever tells me that she is taking a cargo ship over to Holland that I will be open minded and remember what a great experience it was for me.

4. I love traveling and if I could I would do it several times each year.  There are lots of places that I would like to go, but I have a really strong desire to go to Morocco.  I an not sure why, but I am totally intrigued by the people, the architecture, the food, the culture.

5. I am a gear-head.  I love cars, especially fast ones.  I love Nascar.  The only explanation is that I grew up watching my dad constantly fix our vehicles (only out of necessity) and it turned into a pasttime.  If someone wanted to give me a silver mini with a black stripe I would not turn it away.

6. The boy and I were married on the same day as Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson.  We are still married but Nick and Jessica obviously are not, despite their wildly popular reality TV show.  No one has asked us to do a reality TV show yet.  We are still hoping...

ps.  don't ask me how I know about #6.  It's one of those useless pieces of information swimming around in my head.

happy new year.  Thanks to all of you who are still reading even though I haven't been posting much lately.

hello there.

Has it really been almost two weeks?  Would someone please tell me where the time goes?  I have been using up most of my energy these days at work.  I have never been so busy and it comes at the worst time of the year, during the holidays.  It is a wonder that I had the presence of mind to decide to NOT host Thanksgiving dinner this year.  I am sure I would have been pulling 'all-nighters' just to get dinner on the table.  And that is definitely NOT the way to host family and friends.  I am barely motivated to even decorate for Christmas, which is really sad to me.

But isn't it SO much an issue of mind over matter?  Gratitude leads to Joy.  Gratitude leads to Joy.  I have seen this at least twice over the past couple of weeks and take it as a sign to stop for a minute and get a new perspective.  I have gratitude for my job.  I have gratitude for my job.  And the lessons I am learning now will be priceless in the future.  I am thankful, therefore I am joyful.

  

Just one quiet moment in my very own space at home.  I love the morning sun this time of year.

 

The sunday before Thanksgiving I did take some time out to climb up the mountain with the boy to scope out his hunting spot near the Appalachian Trail.  Fresh Berks County, PA air is good thing for ones disposition.

And in protest of a busy, hurried life, this weekend I will hibernate at home, work on drawings for a renovation project that the boy and I have undertaken and put up some Christmas decorations.  I might even enjoy some spiked egg nog.  It's the little things, like spending time at home and hanging stockings that make me feel a bit more centered when everything else feels like it is out of control.

Any thoughts?

autumn and getting caught up

It's been a pretty quiet day here, except for the occasional leaf blower.  I finally got some more painting done.  Just a bit of trim and the chalkboard door.  In the last 2 weeks I have seen my husband for a total of 3 days.  These weekends 'to myself' are getting a bit old.  My dad had surgery last week but all went well with that, thankfully.  And while Carl was in Colorado my wireless connection on my computer was...well, not working.  Therefore, just when I thought I would get caught up with my blog...the universe has other plans.

I was reminded about gratitude this week.  Thanks, Brene.  I have lots of it today, for the weather, for my friends, for the health of my family, for the power of prayer, for my husband and his job, for my wireless connection!

I am also reminded of moral courage ("the courage demonstrated through holding onto to one's values") lately.  Please vote on Tuesday, but please vote with your heart and with your soul.  Both of the candidates preach CHANGE but change for the sake of change is dangerous.  Know and believe in which CHANGES you are voting for before you punch your card.

I need to get going.  I am planning on sharing some Chinese takeout with my b.f.f. tonight.

Happy November!