Design Star

All Design Star and Color Splash fans raise your hand! My friend Allison and I spent Saturday afternoon at Ecohaus in Seattle listening to David Bromstad share his work history (anyone know he started out at Disney?) and give design advice. He also painted a picture for a lucky raffle winner to take home. Allison and I were very impressed by David's demeanor, personality, skill and humor. We, of course, had to get a picture with him after.

Color Wonder

Do you ever come across a new product that works so well you just want to tell everyone about it? I do. My newest purchase that I am excited about has to be Crayola's Mess-Free Color Wonder. It comes packaged together with colorless ink markers and a special coloring book. The markers only color on the special paper! Genius!

I was at my wits end after two discoveries. 1. Søren had used a ball point pen to draw on our couch and 2. He used permanent marker to color on our exercise ball and guest room sheets and pillows. I had seen the commercials for these markers and knew this was my only solution to Søren's fixations with pens and markers. He loves the markers and loves to color in the coloring book. He walks around everywhere with the markers in hand. Some may argue that I am not solving any problem, but I at least have peace of mind knowing he can color and it is only going to mark where it's supposed to.

Top Chef Returns

Tonight begins season 6 of Top Chef. If you know me or have followed this blog, you know I love this show! Last season, on the night the show aired, I cooked a meal I had never made before or had always been too intimidated to try. I started the adventures in cooking again. Tonight's dish; Chicken Scallopine with Safron Cream Sauce by Giada DeLaurentis. It was SO good. I could not get enough of it, I was tempted to take Sam's last half. I wish I would have made more. Søren even ate it! Safron is one spendy spice, but if you are willing to spend the money on it, you won't regret it. It makes this dish. This is definitely a keeper and one you should try. (Invite me over when you make it.)

18 Months!

He's turned the corner and he's on his way towards turning 2!

New this last month:

Potty training continues...He is getting the idea, but by the time we get him undressed and on the toilet he's already gone. We're not rushing it though. He'll get it.

Has learned how to open the pantry. He loves the "bar bar's"...Fruit Leather and Sweet n' Salties

"No" is becoming a more constant word in this vocabulary.. actually it's "Mo."

LOVES his clothes and especially his shoes. Tears have been shed over shoes being taken off.

Knows how to pick the berries from Grandma's garden.

Is fearless in the water.

He is my little helper. He helps carry the milk in from the milk box and loves to take the clothes from the dryer to the bed.

I fall more in love with this little guy each day. I never thought someone who couldn't talk could make me laugh so hard.

Escaping the Heat...

I am beside myself with excitement right now! A few weeks ago I entered the above photo of my husbands cousins into a contest. There were two requirements for the photo. 1. It had to be on vacation and 2. It needed to have the technique "depth of field" involved. I couldn't wait to get to our vacation spot, Lake Mayfield, to take on this photography challenge. I was so excited with how this photo turned out, exactly how I wanted it to with no editing done! The photo made it to the top 5 along with 4 other AMAZING photos. You have a chance to win a camera by voting. Go to the following blog http://www.merakohblog.com/ and vote for your chance to win. All you have to do is post a comment and vote for your favorite finalist. Leave a few words about why they were your favorite, and you are entered into the Sony Cyber-shot Camera drawing! Did I mention how excited I am?!

Before and After

I bought this bench from a favorite antique store back in February. I finally finished making the pillow for it this morning. There is no closet in Søren's room, so this little storage bench is just perfect. The best part is is that Søren hasn't figured out how to open it, so what's in there stays in there. :)

Quilt

I finished my first real quilt last night. It's a little wild for my taste, but I think that is why I was drawn to the fabrics. I didn't want to choose a brick red, sage green or deep yellow that would match the rest of my house. It's a pretty basic quilt, but I needed to work on my straight lines. I can't wait to get started on my next quilt, which I hope will be a bit more of a challenge for myself.

Website Update

I have finally updated our family website www.samandlinnea.com I have not been doing a good job with that this summer. I added 3 new photo albums; Teitzel Wedding, Summer '09 and Lake Mayfield. Enjoy!