Love is in the Air

I've never been a real big fan of Valentines Day ~ I was the girl that never got anything, so from an early age I decided that I hated it and rebelled against the whole idea. It's another time to 'have to buy' or 'expect' something on another holiday, blah blah blah. Well, now that I have a lovely little family (hee-hee), I don't mind it so much. I still would never expect a gift from Brendan or anyone, no flowers, chocolate or card.... But I am warming up to the idea now of making and/or appreciating pretty things that are Valentines Day-related.
I have found some nice things while perusing my favorite sites and of course the Valentines Day theme kept coming up, and well, I liked some of it. I found myself saying... woah, I love that... awww, that is so sweet...
So here are the things that make me think that, the things that I love:

I love anything lemon. And these lemon bars look so freaking good.

I am on a tea-kick at the moment. This is such a good idea from Bird and Banner! (Amy if you see this, you should print some of these~ hmm, I could collaborate with you on this idea :) Oh and here is where we could get the cheesecloth drawstring bags from... ok, now my mind is whirling with ideas....



And I really love printmaking, something I haven't done in so long and I miss and appreciate it. Now I just gawk and sigh when I see great designs. Lovely Design is one of my favorite blogs, she makes pretty things. Here is her recent pattern she designed for the month of February.

And these salt & pepper hug shakers by Scott Henderson are so freaking cute.

Guess What? It's Still Snowing

As I write this, we are getting more snow. The weather people have predicted up to 20 more inches. It started today and will continue into tomorrow. It's like a snow-epidemic of snow-proportions, I'm snow-not-kidding.

Brendan is working again today. I'm home with Konrad (no babysitter)... and we are having a jolly time being inside again. Let's see, we watched Cinderella and I made pecan snow ball cookies. (I'm still using up those Georgia pecans!) We played a lot, cooked a lot and gawked at all the big trackers and snow trucks beep their way by our little house. I do think Norman has aged a little more and Konrad's teeth grew. But who snows, I mean, knows... it could be just me.

On Sunday Brendan fought a fire in Charles Town. A picture of him even made the front of the local newspaper which cracks us up. If you haven't seen it yet, you can see it here. The photo that they used is the third one down... that is Brendan crawling out of the window.

Brendan made a cute video of the big snow, here it is!

How High is the Snow Mama?

Three feet and risin'!

Ok, I am having flashbacks to 1983, when it snowed 3 feet...I was in third grade then and it was very memorable. We all knew we were past due for one of these storms! Finally it came this weekend.

We were well prepared for the perfect storm and hunkered down good. Brendan worked on Friday and I was surprised that he even made it home when he did. Got to love our trusty little VW!
So, what did we do? I Martha-ed-up in the kitchen, made a hearty winter beef stew and also tried out my new ice cream maker that my parents got me for my birthday ~ I made butter pecan, which was pretty darn good I have to admit.
We ventured out to the post office (which was closed), it was a beautiful walk. Everyone was on foot, walking with shovels and dogs, it was so nice. It was a very cozy and neighborly time.

Here are some pictures from our day...

and I hear we are getting more snow on Tuesday!

Couch Surfin'

We have been talking back and forth lately on buying a new couch. Our current one (from IKEA) is leather and very practical especially for having a kid in the house, but unfortunately the leather has worn thin and in many places has split open. I've also grown to not like leather couches, they're so cold and not-so-cozy. Carrot Top is such a tiny house isn't very practical for over-night guests, so we will have to get another couch and preferbly a sleeper sofa for guests of course :) But we'll need to find one that is small so it's not taking up 3/4 of our tiny living room. And has enough space underneath it that we can sweep up dog hair and reach random toys. The catcher is we will need to get the couch by next week when Aunt Anna comes to visit!!! YAY Anna!

So here are the ones we have been pondering over...

This one from Room & Board is my favorite, but of course it's not available for another 6 weeks.

And here is my second choice (from Design Within Reach), is available now but $450 more.... ha, I love it, but yeah right..

And the next two are so lovely, but we'd need a Crate & Barrel of money to afford them.

Ride-n-Style

I found this really clever bike decor...vintage upholstery and vinyl fabric made into bike seats and handlebar bags ... Made by Beatrice Holiday. Seeing this made me miss my bike really really bad!! I really dig the seat, not so much the handlebar bag.

That's My Boy

Here are more pictures (extras) that Miriam took of Konrad when she watched him the other week. They are so wonderful, I stare at them a good bit.

And here he is at the library. So adorable.

He was a big fan of the fish as you may of remembered.

And one of my all-time favorites...

A Weekend in Staunton, Va

Last weekend for my birthday, Brendan, Konrad and I visited Staunton, Va. We stayed at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel which is located downtown and is absolutely beautiful. It was built in the 1920s and recently restored. Here is a link to the hotel. Our room was perfect, we had a nice view of the surrounding historic home roof-tops, the American Shakespeare Blackfriars Playhouse theatre, Mary Baldwin College, and Woodrow Willson's birthplace and presidential library. The hotel had an indoor pool that we basically had to ourselves every night, and a full really fancy breakfast every morning.
What was so convenient was that the hotel was downtown, so we walked everywhere. We were surprised how nice the town was, as all the buildings and sidewalks were very neatly restored and used. We had our choices of coffee shops, contemporary restaurants, galleries, boutiques, a tea house, organic groceries, and hair salons. Yes, there were at least 10 (or more) hair salons within walking distance (Brendan got his hair cut for $15). Everyday we ate lunch and dinner at a different restaurant. The only thing we missed out on was the Shakespeare Theatre, they have 1-2 shows per day every day and the theatre is one of two exact replicas in the world. We will have to go back when we have a babysitter available.

Here is a random picture of the train station. We were amazed how beautiful it was. It was one of the only places that hasn't been fixed up yet. It's still a working train station, used by Amtrak.

It was like something out of a movie - this train station. You have to see it in person as these pictures don't really capture it.

And here is Brendan and Konrad walking up to the School for the Deaf and Blind - to their tempting playground. We took lots of pictures of their campus as it was very nice.

Konrad had a good time at the playground. The weather was nice and the sun was warm.

Konrad placing rocks on the slide...

Brendan is working on a video from our trip, so I will be posting that next. I don't want to spoil it now with repeated pictures...

Staunton has 5 historic districts - all downtown and within walking distance of each other. The town is known for it's architecture, so you can imagine that most of the buildings are really something to see. There is a free trolly that you can hop on and ride throughout the town - this is how we saw the areas that we didn't walk to. The people were so nice everywhere we went. And on our way out of town we stopped off at the Mental Institution (formally), which was closed down in the 1970s (I believe) it has been bought and made into some really amazing contemporary apartments/condos. We got a tour for the heck of it and were blown away how amazing they were. I could go on and on, but you really have to go see it for yourself. If you are ever in the mood to get out of town for a long weekend, I highly recommend you go to Staunton. I know we will be going back!

Six Girls and the Doctor: A Post by Miriam

I got together with some friends on Wednesday night... Miriam, Shawna and Ruby, Carrie and Evangeline. it was so much fun. Short and sweet. Miriam recently started a new life and a new blog. It's called Blue House Red Dog, you've got to go check it out. She took some fabulous pictures (of course) and blogged about our evening. Here's a link to her blog bluehousereddog.blogspot.com . Oh and if you're wondering who the Doctor is... it's Konrad. See, Brendan and I had played around with the idea of naming him Doctor. So he'd be Doctor Soennecken. Well, it stuck with Shawna and Ruby. It's really cute when Ruby calls him Doctor.

I'm sorry I've been out-of-blogging for a bit. Christmas was wonderful, except for the fact that Konrad got really sick on the 24-25. All three of us didn't get much sleep that night and I was stressed out with a sick for-the-first-time child. It wasn't until the 26th that Konrad perked up and enjoyed the tree (ornaments took up the top 3/4 of the tree) and his massive new Buggamachinea (sp?) (imported from Germany). It's a huge tractor with a front-loader for ages 3 and up, so we have to help him up on the thing. Yeah, it's nice and it only takes up a 1/4 of our living room!
New Years was quiet. Brendan worked and Konrad and I were in bed by 9:30. Yeah,  while Brendan fought a fire the entire night up on the mountain, we slept soundly. The highlights from our holiday besides Konrad pulling off random ornaments and sitting atop of his tractor, were the fabulous meals Brendan has been making with the venison meat. He got two dear this past season, as you may of heard. Our Christmas meal was a fabulous venison roast with turnips, carrots and spaetzle. New Year's day we went to our friend's Brian and Allison's and ate a huge spread of schnitzel, spaetzle with Jager sauce, red cabbage, a horseradish carrot salad and a creamy mustard cucumber salad. Allison made a dessert that was so good that we renamed it Bezzlebub's Fantasy. And the other day, I came home from lunch to have the best German goulash made with venison and juniper berries over spaetzle....oh it was wonderful.

Christmas Season Stuff

And now I can concentrate on nesting for the rest of the month.
Here are the things left that I would like to do:

Make pecan cookies.
Decorate the house.
Leave out shoes for St. Nicolas Day, Dec. 5
Make front door wreath and Advent wreath.
Get a live tree (put on the front porch till we're ready to bring it in).

Make Mom's cheese balls.
Finish wrapping gifts.
Sing and listen to Christmas songs.
Mail out gifts to Germany, Vietnam, Colorado and Georgia.

Play the Christmas card game with Brendan.
Celebrate Advent with Konrad and Brendan;
eat Lebkuchen & Spekulatius and drink teas.
Address and mail Christmas cards.
Buy more Christmas cards for those who are left and send out.
Have friends over for mulled wine and desserts.
Decide what soup to make for Christmas day dinner.

We set up our first nativity scene. I have been looking for one for years and I finally found one that we all love. It's made by Habba and it's adorable.



Yum and these are the pecan cookies I want to make. I just need those delish Georgia pecans still!

The Kaiser's Portrait

I don't know if you are familiar with Photo.Stamps.com ? You can submit a photograph and have it put on a stamp. And that is what I did with the photo above. I used the stamps to send out thank yous for baby gifts last year.

I was surprised yesterday to of gotten an email from Photo Stamps saying that this photograph has been selected from thousands to be a finalist in their photo contest. I filled out the respective form and signed the agreement and today got a Congratulations that Konrad's photograph has made it to the final pick!! Brendan and I are so surprised and hope that his picture will be the one that gets chosen... if not, it is still so cool that they picked it as a finalist!!

If the photo gets selected as the winner, it will go on display at the Smithsonian's Postal Museum in Washington, D.C. (Ironically, the same museum where my poster is on display and where my last job at the Postal Service was).

This picture of Konrad was taken when he was just 2 weeks old. Brendan swaddled him and laid him on our bed to take pictures of him for his first passport photo. He got some great photos out of it, this one being the best and it has since gotten tons of compliments. My brother and some friends have told me that I needed to put it into a contest... funny how it's naturally found it's way to one!

So, keep your fingers crossed and thumbs tucked that the Kaiser's portrait makes it into the Smithsonian's Postal Museum! I'll keep you posted.....har-har.