First Day

Monday was the first day of school for my sweethearts - my oldest is a first-grader now:

He chose a green-striped shirt, brown shorts, orange laced shoes, red-strapped backpack and bright blue jacket :D

We are lucky in that he has some of the same classmates from last year as well as a friend he's known since he was 4 months old.

My little one is going to kindergarten in another school:

He's all about dinosaurs. It's a very rushed morning for us, dropping off my oldest first then racing to my youngest's school, where there is virtually no parking. His teacher, thank goodness, understands it's out of my hands and has told me it's ok for us to be a few minutes late. Thank you, thank you, sweet understanding teacher!

I will be volunteering in my oldest's class - I'm so excited!!!

Boy games

Last week my oldest decided he was big and strong enough to carry his little brother:

Little brother thought it was awesome!

Have you met the Queen?

If you've spent any time around the blogosphere, then you are probably familiar with vinyl decals being used around the home. In my case, I was longing for some order mixed with ornate for my pantry, and I found it at Leen the Graphics Queen's site.

She has a really cute set of canister labels, which added to my new IKEA canisters, resulted in a seriously pretty addition to our pantry.


Or rather, my husband liked them so much that he asked if we could get them off the pantry shelf and put them above our microwave. They look great and bring order and prettiness to things we use often. The labels are custom-made so you can have them say whatever you wish - as you can tell, we don't really use sugar, so one label reads Splenda!

I was not paid or gifted anything for this post, I purchased this set and was so happy that I wanted to share with y'alls. I've also purchased Leen's chalkboard decals and liked them a lot. Her prices are very reasonable and she ships very quickly - go do some browsing! Now!!!

Vogue Latin America Aug '11

Vogue Latin America's August 2011 issue features my homeland, Peru, in a gorgeous photoshoot starring model Tiiu Kuik:

I love the vibrant colors and the unspoiled landscapes; you can see the rest of the photos at Fashion Gone Rogue

Fashion Friday: the leopard print trench

As with every summer, the prediction for fall/winter fashions include animal prints. It is a classic print, really, so you can safely spend a little bit more than you would on something like the color-of-the-season.

Here, I present the Banana Republic Mad Men Collection leopard print trench. Whew!


It's gorgeous, isn't it? Fully lined, nice shape, I do happen to love Mad Men but you don't have to love it to covet this trench. I usually wouldn't go for a print trench but like I said, animal print, if done right (i.e. not in hot pink) can be timeless. And the print scale is discreet, not obnoxiously, in your face, huge animal print patterns.

I'm saving my pennies because between this and the Missoni for Target collection, I am seriously in trouble!

Our new mantel

The living room mantel is the focal point of our main living area. You see it as soon as you come in the front door - here it is decked out for spring back in March:

The problem is, the "wall" above the mantel was just a sheet of foam over the brick, which goes from floor to ceiling. We discovered this when we tried to hang a picture and made a huge hole instead.

We decided to tear down the foam and put up some sheetrock instead - at the same time, I really hated the current mantel, so my husband graciously built me a new one :D

Below is the 2x4 that is nailed to the brick wall - the mantel is attached to this and it serves as support.


Checking to make sure the fit is perfect.


Applying wood putty to the rough edges and nail holes:


Our oldest was a very big help!


Painting the sheetrock to match the rest of the walls - we chose to paint the new mantel and frame in a dark chocolate brown:

The rich brown is a very close match to our TV console, coordinates with the large IKEA picture above, and is a good addition to our warm-toned living room.

Here is our new mantel area dressed up with some vintage Paris pictures and pretty flowers:

I LOVE this area, it looks brighter, cleaner and so much nicer - hope you enjoyed our little project!






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Lazy days

We are enjoying these last few days of school vacation - we recently went up to a local park and rode on the train, it was wonderful. The day had cooled down and my three men were having a lot of fun together:

In a few days my sons are back in school. Is it just me or did this summer just fly by?