A 40th Birthday Surprise Party!

HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY MI NETO!

After very little planning (imagine that!?) I managed to pull off a wonderful surprise party for Ernesto's 40th birthday.  Having a birthday on cinco de mayo is the best because people are ready to party!  My parents flew in on Friday and hid on the deck until I brought him out there to "show him a plant."  My mom jumped at him and he was definitely surprised.  He and my dad went golfing that night and my Brother Brrrian and his girl Kyja drove in from Asheville. 

The "plan" for his actual birthday:  Mateo got his papi a new golf shirt and then they played in the pool. 

 Ernesto golfed all day with his buddies.  I told him we had dinner reservations at 8p.  He arrived home at 7:15 and we were sitting on the deck waiting for him.  He came out to say hi and then everyone jumped out from under the deck and yelled SURPRISE!!

He was surprised again!  (Although he knew something was coming that night, he thought we were leaving the house for it.) 

The fun got started and it didn't let up until 1am!  All the party-goers smiled big for the camera.

Friends, tacos, beans, tequila, music, chocolate cake, a piñata, and cervezas = a great party! 

Thanks to everyone who brought a delicious appetizer and drinks! 

I love you mi amor, you still look HOT at 40!

Creating a Garden from Scratch!

Our yard was a mess.  Weeds. Weeds. Weeds. And 2 boxwoods.  In the front we don't have much of a yard.  Erensto and I dug up all the weeds and then covered it with a heavy plastic for a week to kill everything.  Here was our blank slate.

I know I should probably put some bushes here (like most people do in Atlanta) instead of a high maintenance garden, but I just love my mom's garden filled with flowering perennials and wanted to fill my little plot with some of the same. 
If you saw my facebook updates around Easter, you know that I brought 5 Rubbermaid tubs of plants [via air] from my mom's garden to transplant into mine.

 The soil here is BAD! Hard. Red clay.  It's going to be a huge difference for these compost spoiled plants from Ohio.  We did amend the soil with a bunch of manure and nicer topsoil, so we will see what happens.  Here is the garden right after I planted everything.

Ignore that pile of rocks to the left.  This is what we dug up, and that is just the bigger rocks.  We had an even bigger pile of smaller rocks.  All the plants are feeling a bit sparse and hodge-podge right now, but I'm hoping once they get established, they will fill in the space nicely.  I just had to get them in the ground quickly as it had been 4 days since they were dug up in Ohio.

Here they are a few weeks later and looking a bit more established.  I still need to put newspaper down and then mulch.

 The sedum that I planted may be the only reliable plants this year.  These are hard to kill.
 They are planted along the edge and will eventually spill onto the sidewalk.

For the back yard, we have beautiful plan in our heads which includes a stone patio covered with a pergola,  a fireplace and grill, a grassy area, and garden beds in one corner running up the side of the house.   All of this will not be happening this year of course, but we will do what we can.

Currently, there are two ugly trees overrun with kudzu and a bunch of weeds.  One challenge I have is to clear all of that out without hurting the few beautiful wisteria vines.  I need to save them for the future pergola.

First things first.  I needed a vegetable garden!  With the horrible clay soil/drought conditions here, I knew a raised bed would be our best bet.  We recycled some wood found across the street, added 10 bags of top soil along with a bunch of manure (picked up free from Craigslist)

I now have it planted with tomatoes, jalapeño & serrano chiles, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant and parsley and cilantro.  (pole beans will be planted up a bamboo teepee to the side)

 Everything seems to be happy and growing fast.  The soil is so good, Im hoping that makes all the difference for a big harvest.  I have already noticed that it does not dry out too fast, which is great because there have been only a few "spring showers."
Our deck is small and square. And because we don't have a garage/shed [yet], we will need to store things under it.  Yes, very trashy looking, I know.

After Ernesto did such a great job with the raised vege bed, I convinced him to build a raised bed all around the base of the deck and attach lattice so I can grow vines on it creating a wall of green. (thus hiding all the stuff under the deck)

He got started right away and had they took shape in no time.

My dad helped with the final steps of leveling the beds and attaching the lattice.  I am extremely happy with how it turned out. We found free fill dirt on Craigslist (surprise surprise!) and added the rest of the manure.  I can't wait to plant these!

I definitely want to cover the lattice with vines though,  Im not a big fan of plain lattice.  Imagine, if you will, the lattice covered in this star jasmine.

It is evergreen in GA and the blooms smell ridiculous!  It is supposed to be a fast grower too, so I will be planting asap! I will post updates as things progress.  Have you guys planted a garden this year?

Catching up!

Hi everyone! Sorry I have been absent for a while.  In preparation for the Inman Park Festival this past weekend,  my kitchen table looked like this for 2 weeks.

After a quick inventory check of all my jewelry,  I realized that I had sold a lot of it at my last show in Chastain Park last November and I needed to get creating for what is usually the biggest show of the year for Zafiro.

Trying to make jewelry while watching a 7 month old is no joke. Especially now that he is mobile.

I called my mom one day last week and asked here if she wanted to come hang out with her grandson while I make jewelry.  She and my dad were on a plane 2 days later.  God, I love them!  An extra big thanks to the best parents in the world for always being available to help. 

I managed to get about 20 new pieces made for the show.  Here are a few variations of one of my most popular styles, the bib necklace. 

{pink sapphires on gold}

{London blue topaz with apatite}

{citrine with orange garnet}

My sister flew in from Ohio for a long weekend and helped me work the festival.  Mateo got to spend a couple fun filled days with his papi.  He went swimming, ate fish for the first time, and went grocery shopping.  This is a text I received.

Oh Lord, are we in trouble!?
Later this week I will show you the raised garden beds that Ernesto built in the back yard and how all my "Ohio plants" are doing after the big transplant.

Seven Months Old {Mateo's Monthly Photo}

Dining Room Dreaming and New Craigslist Find!

Ever since we moved into our house, I have been wanting for a huge round table (60") for the dining space.  I think a round table is great for entertaining and I love the look of upholstered chairs surrounding it.
Here are a couple inspiration pictures:  (from my Pinterest)

Now, I have looked online for a table and there are several that I like, one being this table for $1600 (cough cough)

Room & Board's Adams table

Enter Craigslist of course!  60" dining table was one of my daily searches [for the last 7 months] and it finally showed up.
A solid maple table with 2 extentions making it 90" long.  Perfect for when my family comes for the holidays (ha!) and friends come over for dinner.

The lady was asking $100 including the 4 chairs (that I din't like) I asked if she would take $50 for just the table, she said $75, I countered with $65!  Done!  I love bargaining! 

Now I just need some chairs!

I love these from ZGallerie looking glam in all white with nailhead trim for $299 each.

ZGallerie Scallop Chair

This one from West Elm is great too,    also $299.

West Elm Curved Dining Chair

I found these chairs at a hotel liquidation center north of Atlanta.  

They are from the luxury hotel Mandarin Oriental in New York.  They want $55 per chair.  Hello?  These chairs are usually $300 upwards of $1000.  I love the shape and I am already dreaming of the fabric I can put on these beauties.  I would like a solid color on the fronts and a big bold print on the backs!    (mom, are you ready for this? It will be easy, right?)

I love how these chairs look, although I would never put white fabric (unless it's leather) on dining chairs. 
 
Im sure with enough searching/waiting, I will find chairs I love at a great price.  I mean this is what I do.  Decorating/furnishing a home is a process, right?  I could just go buy a set, but I like I to piece things together.  I think this is what gives a home character.  (This is what I tell myself anyway to help me deal with not being able to go out and buy everything I want.) Maybe it would be different if I had the $$$ to buy whatever I wanted, but then what would I search for on Craigslist??

Dear Mateo

 Mi querido Mateo,
I can't believe you are 7 months old tomorrow. Everyone had told us how fast time goes when you have a child, and although I don't understand how, it does fly by a whole lot faster than I have ever experienced.  And well...I guess time does fly when you are having fun!

And you Mateo, mi papasito, are soooo much fun!  You are such a happy baby.  You are constantly smiling and we can make you laugh so easily.  You are independent and love to play on the rug with your toys or in your exersaucer.  You love mama's iphone and papi's remote for the tv.  Your favorite toy though is a camera that tia Jenny bought you for Christmas.  I have learned the words to all 5 songs it sings (much to the dismay of your papi) and your eyes light up when I do so.

Your favorite book is Brown Bear Brown Bear, although Donde Esta mi Ombliguito? and Pajama Time come in a close 2nd and 3rd.

Oh, and you love Titi.  You intently watch him when he walks by; he always makes you smile.  You are a great napper and do so often with your papi by your side.
 
You have physically changed so much!  Your face has chubbed up and you also have a double chin.  You legs are fat little sausages and I want to just eat them up! Your hair is growing in, your lashes and eyebrows have filled in darker. Your eyes are a striking blue.  You are going to be such a lady killer. A latin lover, no doubt.

Not only have your looks changed, but you have hit some milestones this month.

• You sleep sin swaddle! Just after you turned 6 months, your papi and I decided to stop swaddling you.  Once you started to roll over in it, we thought it was time to stop.  We also wanted you to be able to soothe yourself.  It was a rough month on the sleep front, but with a little bit of crying, you have mastered it.  You love rolling around in your crib and changing positions numerous times during the night.

•  You are eating solid foods.  You leaned into the spoon with an open mouth and didn't spit anything out.  So far you have eaten boring rice cereal, sweet potatoes, avocado, mango, green beans, banana, watermelon, cantelope and probably a few other things that your papi has snuck you behind my back.  He likes to do that kind of stuff. 

• You are wearing cloth diapers

• You said "da".  Twice.
•  
• You started crawling  You may have seen this video already, but here it is again.  All I have to say is thank god for the Flip camera.  It's so easy to catch everything!

• The same day that you started crawling, you stood up in your crib. Yikes!
• 

• You now sleep in your own room. A couple nights ago, your papi moved your crib into the nursery.  We were sad, but you are still close with the video monitor!  Funny enough, from the night you moved, you are back to sleeping like "normal."  I guess you like your room!

• You are climbing on everything!  In a matter of days after first pulling yourself up in your crib you are now pulling up on anything you can get to. Boy, are we in trouble! 

Te queremos mucho!
mama y papi

Happy Easter [too!]

A New Bed!

It was time.  I am embarrassed to say that until a few weeks ago, we had been sleeping on a queen size mattress that we had before we were married! Yikes! We still slept just fine, mind you, but it was getting especially soft and I prefer a more firm mattress.  I was shopping around for months.  Sometimes it is more difficult when you read reviews because there are always people who love it and people who hate.  Who do you believe?

We went to test some out and decided on a Simmons Beautyrest Black.  King size!
(growing family=bigger bed!) It is a cushion firm and seriously comfortable.  What sold us is that there is absolutely no motion transfer.  Ernesto jumped on one side and  I didn't move one bit on the other!

We didn't need the box spring.  We wanted a platform bed, and since the mattress is one sided, there was no need for it.
Until last Friday, the mattress sat directly on our bedroom floor and made me feel like I was in college again.  Must. Buy. Bed.  Must. Buy. Bed.

Now, I just needed a bed frame.  I didn't want a skirt over a metal frame.  I have been dreaming of a tufted fabric headboard.  I love the platform beds where the rails are covered in fabric too, like this:

But ehh, I am sorry Restoration Hardware, even though this Chesterfield bed is on sale [for $2290!], it is a wee bit out of my budget this year...and most likely next year...and the next.

I also love this Tate bed from Crate & Barrel. 

It cost $1600 which is better, but still more than I am willing to pay.   I love the simplicity and clean lines, but I need a bit more glamour and excitement.... I mean it is the bedroom, right?!

  The ultimate headboard being Don and Betty Draper's bed.  Turquoise. Tufted. Oh my!

This is beautiful, but you know me, it has to be a DIY.  I found this step by step tutorial on Schue Love and it doesn't look too hard. 

Now, back to that bed frame that I needed.

Enter Craigslist (surprise, surprise!)

I found this king platform bed for a good price and thought...hmmm...I don't like the headboard, nor the color of the wood, but guess what?   I can change that! 

I just wanted the platform so I can attach my custom headboard.    I will also attempt to cover the rails with matching fabric like Daniel from Manhattan Nest did here to a plain unfinished IKEA bed.  (with gray army blankets- amazing!)
 The bed was purchased from Overstock for $600 and it didn't match the CL listers other furniture so she was selling it.  She hadn't even put it together!  It had good reviews so Ernesto and I went to pick it up.

Already our bed feels better being up higher.  It looks ok for now, but will be getting a major overhaul.....sometime [hopefully soon!]