Crystal Madrilejos

Ok, this is the last video I’ll post for a little while, I swear! I posted about Q’s First Birthday a little while ago and it’s overall success. The only thing I regret is that I didn’t take more video. This video might be a bit dull to a lot of you since there isn’t too much going on other than mood shots of the decorations and Q eating his cupcake in hyper speed! I had to get all artsy-fartsy with this one because of the lack of footage. Ah well, they can’t all be winners!

Enjoy (hopefully)!

Music: “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence & the Machine

-c

You may remember my post about my early Mother’s Day mid-century modern china cabinet present? That was a really confusing sentence. But come on people, it was just last week. Anyway.

This thing is beautiful but very dirty. I’m sure it’s just an accumlation of years of dust that has congealed into a nasty black grime. But part of me thinks it could be that someone never learned to wash their hands after handling crude oil OR Andrew’s hypothesis: A smoker with a china cabinet next to their stove where they fried fish all day. Whichever way you swing it, this thing has some serious build up issues.

Murphy’s Oil Soap to the rescue! Thanks to Morgan’s post on Refreshing Vintage Wood, we had an idea of how to start dealing with this mess. As you can see from the before and after pictures, we got a lot of the nastiness off but next step is the strip the top of the old finish. Everywhere else on the piece is fine, but the top could use a sand and a finish with some Danish Oil.

I can’t wait to just GET IT DONE so I can start filling it with all my junk!

-c.

Looking for the perfect gift for the little kids in your life? I think we may have figured it out.

There are lots of nieces and nephews in our family, so this means lots of birthdays and lots of present-giving. Andrew and I try our best to come up with original fun ideas for gifts for the little ones and this idea that Andrew came up with really takes the cake, in my opinion!

Introducing the “Box O’ Hats!” This was inspired by our niece Layla, who loves to play dress up, like most kids her age, and who received the Box O’ Hats for her 2nd birthday. So, you may be asking, where the heck does one buy such a multitude of crazy hats without breaking the bank? Party stores, my friends, party stores! Our local Party Station carried all the hats (pictured above) we could possibly need for a reasonable price. I think we spent about $25 (though you could potentially spend more or less depending on how many hats you choose and what styles). What’s better than pulling hat after hat out of a giant box? Not much!

If anyone goes the Box O’ Hats route, I’d love to hear how the little ones liked it. I’m thinking that the novelty of this gift probably wouldn’t work on kids much older than 6 years old, but I could be wrong? What do you think? Would an older kid like something like this too?

-c.

Ever since we posted about our co-sleeper, over the past year we’ve been receiving emails from readers looking to build something similar. Some people have even asked if we had thought about making them and selling them. We don’t have any plans of selling them for two reasons:

1. It doesn’t feel right. We based our co-sleeper on the Culla Belly design and it doesn’t feel like it’s our idea to sell.

– and –

2. Ideally, every one we make would have to be custom fitted to the bed it’s going to attach to and to the baby it will hold. It’s just not a construction that lends itself to mass production (at least with the materials and methods we are using). Maybe that’s why the Culla Belly has yet to be produced.

With that said, we are in the process of trying to put together a guide of sorts on how to make one yourself. It won’t contain any specific dimensions because everyone’s bed set up is a bit different. But the guide will lay out the things to consider and the options you have when building it yourself. Hopefully we’ll be able to get this together in a timely manner!

One last note. We are happy to share our process and make recommendations, but in the end it will be up to you to make sure it’s safe and secure for your baby.

Stay tuned…

-c.

Here are the last two installments of Q’s first year in video! Awhile back, after making a video of his first three months, we decided to do a video recap every three months for the first year to document his cuteness. And also as a reminder for when he is 16 and full of angst that for a brief moment he was our baby boy who needed us and wanted to hang out with us and wasn’t embarrassed by our weirdness.

Music: “Slow Dance” by Art Sorority for Girls

And here he is being all big and stuff.

Q: 9-12 Months from Crystal Madrilejos on Vimeo.

Music: “Go Outside” by Cults

If you haven’t seen the first two, you can view Q: 0-3 Months here, and Q: 3-6 Months here. Enjoy!

-c.

Does anyone know what this piece of furniture is called? A china cabinet? A hutch?

Whatever it’s called, it’s awesome and beautiful and it was Andrew’s surprise early-Mother’s Day gift to me!

This past weekend we went on a little thrifting trip and came across this china cabinet (that’s what I’ll call it for now until someone corrects me) at a local thrift store that is usually hit or miss. This particular store can sometimes look like those hoarder houses on A&E, but they usually have really good prices on large items. So much so that I am willing to look past the old lady who chain-smokes and the cat in the corner giving birth (no joke).

We saw this china cabinet and we both really liked it, but it wouldn’t fit in our car. So we had to pass on it. The minute we left I knew we were passing up on something good, but there wasn’t anything we could do! I was feeling some serious non-buyers remorse. Is there such a thing?

Anyway, Monday I come home from work and it’s in our living room. Andrew had gone back with his Dad’s truck and got it for me! What a guy!

We’re still unsure of what our plans are for it, but you can be sure I’ll be posting about it again soon.

-c.

They weren’t kidding with the whole “April Showers” bit, were they? Yesterday was quite horrible. Walking to my car after work, I was almost that person with the inside-out umbrella. I definitely was that person who wore the wrong shoes and had silt and all matter of disgusting things washing over the sides of my ballet flats. So much so that I looked like I had hobo feet by the time I got in my car. Anyway!

Thanks to our good friend Rachel, this boy can now weather all types of… weather! Isn’t this raincoat awesome? It is a hand-me-down from our friend Rachel’s little boy (who is now getting to be a big boy) and was sent to us when Q was a wee one.  I remember thinking “it’ll be years before he fits in this!” What the heck? When did our baby boy become a little boy with little boy things like raincoats and jeans? Sheesh.

-c.

Image by sparth via Flickr

Ok, so this past week was my worst week yet. I’m going to blame it on PMS. Maybe that’s too much information, but I’m not going to be all holier-than-thou and act like I’m immune to its forces. I bitch and moan and stomp around. Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.

I only worked out two of the requisite six times last week. According to my calculations, I’m now two weeks behind schedule on this P90X thing but I WILL finish. This week would have been my last week if I hadn’t been such a slacker. So now, three more weeks! I’m going to try my absolute best to just finish strong and not miss any more days. We’ll see how that goes.

My post-P90X plan is to try this running thing again. I’ve mentioned this in earlier posts but I’m just going to expound on this idea for a second. I really like the idea of running. I think in another life, maybe i was a runner. But in this life, I hate running and suck at it. I mean, I can run for a couple minutes and feel fine. But I don’t enjoy doing it for any significant amount of time. I don’t know why I have this feeling that I should enjoy running. I think it’s because I have this romanticized image in my head of me effortlessly running with nothing but a stretch of open road and beautiful landscape ahead of me. But the real image is me huffing and puffing around a track while complaining about how tired I am and how much I just want to stop. It’s not pretty. And yet! I’m still compelled to give it another try.

Any runners out there have any tips for a runner-wannabe?

-c.

This hoodie was another great find from the Kids Garage Sale I posted about the other week. Elbow patches? Hell yes.

Q is modeling his new look in front of our Tetris screen door.

-c.

Image by Timothy Sandstrom via Flickr

I’m pretty sure that bloggers are the perfect mix between exhibitionist and voyeur. As much as I love sharing, I also immensely enjoy having a glimpse into other peoples minds, lives, inspirations, etc. It’s just fascinating to me.

So it’s no surprise that I would love this site: Method & Craft

 
About Method & Craft:

We like to think of Method and Craft as the DVD extras of design: the stories behind the work, who made it, how they did it, and the techniques people have developed throughout their professional career. We all use the same tools, but we use them differently. We strive to educate you on more efficient, creative, and engaging ways to create your design. This site will not only be valuable to creative veterans, but also educational to those new to the design field. It’s like looking over the shoulder of your favorite designer.

If you are looking for inspiration or are curious about other designer’s processes, you should definitely check out the site.  Love love love it!

-c.