Giving Thanks

On October 10, 2013 my life changed forever: my babies, Olivia Harper and Thomas George were born. It has been a whirlwind seven weeks, and I have not been as exhausted or as much of an emotional mess in all my life! The twins were born nine weeks early; which was a little scary and wonderful all at the same time! Our Liv is a blondie, and looks like her Dad, while Thomas is dark-haired like me, two little opposites and both so lovely. I am so blessed to be their mama.

They both spent two weeks in the Neo-natal ICU at St Elizabeth's hospital in Brighton, where they were born, then when they were bigger they were moved to a Special Care Nursery closer to our home. Tom has since come home and is keeping us busy, while Liv stayed on at the Nursery to perfect her breathing, a fairly typical occurrence with a premature baby. The great news is that we're planning on her being home by the end of next week! So while they will both most likely have some preemie "issues" to deal with as time goes on, they are both doing well and making their parents feel so grateful and exhausted (wait, did I already say that?) this Thanksgiving weekend. We have been so overwhelmed with the love and support our friends have shown us over these last crazy weeks... I know other South Africans overseas and expats will know how much that means.

I leave you with some hurried pics of the completed (3 weeks after the babies' arrival!) nursery, with the promise of some more photos of it, and the babies soon! I'm still on pinterest now and then, as much as my sleep-deprived brain manages, so pop over to see what is catching my eye.

Sign Here

A little something fun for the weekend - for my South African readers, you may not have heard the expression "put your John Hancock here". I never had before moving to Boston! I believe because John Hancock's signature was so beautiful on the American Declaration of Independence, his name has become synonymous with the word signature.

Well, in Boston there is the John Hancock building - next door to another that used to be the John Hancock building (unfortunately I don't know the whole story). So, we were driving by the old one on our way to a class on parenting multiples (!!) when the garage door was open and we saw this! It must be the sign that used to hang on the outside of the building. Gorgeous! I love the combo of the lights against the subway tile...

Nursery Inspiration

So, as you can imagine, we are baby crazy over here! Everything is going well, the babies are now about 2 lbs (900g) each, and growing nicely. We have three months to go, and so we are focused on getting ready! I wish I could blog more, but it turns out that I've been tired quite a lot, and getting through the work week, and getting stuff done on weekends is leaving very little energy for blogging. But Wednesdays I'm now working from home, so hopefully it means I get through the week more easily, and maybe I can do more blogging! Yay!

One of the biggest things on my mind has been getting our babies' room ready for them. I'm envisioning a calm, cozy place - because heaven knows with one baby things would be slightly un-calm at some points, so I can only imagine what it will be like with two!

Here's my inspiration for the room.

1. This room inspired me for its colour. Soft browns and golds, white walls and lots of texture.

2. So I started with this rug, from West Elm. It was on sale, so I snapped it up! The dresser will double as the changing table and was a craigslist find. I've since spruced it up a bit because it was in bad shape. I decided to get it restored at a later point, once the babies are less likely to beat it up even more.

3. A wonderful friend gave us the crib her babies, and the rest of her family's babies, first slept in. We love that our babies will become a part of this long line of snuggles and happy bubs. We bought this second one from Ikea - the Gulliver - because its clean lines matched our inherited crib. We're still undecided on whether or not our twins should share a crib to start with. I think its something we need to discuss with our pediatrician, when we get to that point.

4. For window treatments (and some sound proofing!) I got sheers and curtains from Ikea. The sheers are not great quality (but they were the right length) but the curtains are just divine. For the life of me I can't remember the name of the curtains but I'm pretty sure they're the Ritva in beige - although there are no "natural" Ritvas on the Ikea website, and the backing in the online pics is not the backing on the curtains I have. Anyway, I love them. I was originally going to get the Aina (I was inspired by this blog post) but in person I liked that the Ritva were a softer colour.

I decided to add pom pom trim to the inside edge of the curtains, to add some fun and a splash of colour. Not exactly an original idea, you can see more here and here - but it looks great! The nursery is nowhere near done but I have put up the curtains and its just fabulous with the pom poms.

5. Another friend has gifted us a glider rocking chair, which we are so pleased to have! It's most likely that two of us could be in there for feedings, so we needed two chairs. We already had one rocking chair, one that we used to have in our living room, that we bought on our visit holiday on Cape Cod. Its a stereotypical New England rocking chair - and to make it more comfy for those long nights, I decided to make a cushion for the bottom and the back. I found the floral fabric on ebay, by searching "vintage fabric" (thank you Little Green Notebook for that idea!) and that will be for the bottom (I got the style of fabric idea from Marin's big girl room), and the blue ticking is for the back cushion. You can see the yellow pom pom I purchased in the pic I took in the car after my successful run to the fabric store.

To put up our feet, I got the yellow Moroccan pouf for a great price on fab.com. And I decided to get the West Elm Martini side table for a place for bibs, bottles and other little things. I hope that because its hard to push over we can use it in the babies' room for a while. It will sit between the glider and the New England rocking chair.

6. Once it got to decorating, I realized I headed into a bit of  a theme - animals. I decided on Sharon Montrose's baby animal prints for the wall - they're all over the blogosphere but no one I know has them, and I love them, so why not? I've chosen all African animals so my babies won't embarrass me when we go home to South Africa and they don't know their zebras from their elephants! The star picture of the bunch though? The twin lion cubs, of course!

We holidayed in Key West earlier this year (it was wonderful! check it out here) and bought this beautiful coastal bird mobile, while our baby (just one in our minds back then!) was just a twinkle in our eyes!

I also fell in love with these hunting dog pics in an image on pinterest. Since then I've found a matching pair in cross stitch (one for each baby!) on etsy. You'll see them when the nursery is done!

7. For some some soft light in the room, I got owl lamp from West Elm. Looking at it now, I hope it doesn't scare them when the babies get bigger! But we can always put some specs on him, or maybe add a mohawk!

8. Lastly, for a place to store their books and toys, I pretty much decided to copy this beautiful set up I found on pinterest - an Ikea Expedit bookcase. Books can go up top, and toys can go in the baskets.

For finishing touches, we have some childhood and family toys to add to the room, as well as a picture I grew up with as a child. Right now the room still has some of my husband's furniture in it (we live in an old house, with small closets, so he's been using the room as a dressing room of sorts) but we're almost there. I promise to show you everything in its place when its done. Until then, you can see more inspiring baby rooms and pics on my pinterest page.

Can't wait!

Christmas in July

So things have hit planning mode over here big time - with the imminent arrival of not one but two babies later this year, I've been busy making plans. One of the more fun things I have up my sleeve is our babies first Christmas, and we are lucky enough to be spending it with all of their grandparents! I've always wanted to create a cozy, tartaned-up Christmas and this is the perfect excuse... so while everyone else around me in Boston has been celebrating the height of summer Independence day fireworks, I've been dreaming of Christmas.

I have plans for the tablecloth, I've ordered some beautiful black raffia placemats, I have hurricane lamps and bone-handle china for the table. We'll pick up some pine cones for the centrepieces... And guess what arrived the other day? The tablecloth! The joy of planning Christmas in the middle of the year is the great bargains you find! (And it comes in a runner, if you prefer).

It was such a treat to open such beautiful packaging (even if I was in the car with the air conditioning on at full blast!)

Here are some of the images I've found on the web to inspire me (all images and more on my pinterest Christmas Table page, where you can follow them to their sources).

Coffee Addiction

So (doesn't any good story start with so?) my husband and I have lived in the States for ten years. And yes, we have somewhat grown accustomed to the coffee culture. No, you won't find me schlepping an idiotic (sorry to those who love them!) travel mug on my morning commute BUT I do love to make a stop on my errands sometimes and grab a latte from Starbucks. On the go. Gasp. I know. Sacrilegious to not stop and enjoy it but, hey, they have these handy straws and everything.

My husband, on the other hand, will not be caught dead with a Starbucks. He is a Dunkin' Donuts guy, through and through. Dunkin' is a local company and he swears by it. Personally, I can't handle coffee that's too strong, so I only drink lattes, and Dunkin's lattes are nothing to write home about!

So, here we are, accustomed to our American coffee traditions - like ice coffee - and we head home to South Africa. Americans who've visited South Africa may know this - you can't get an ice coffee there,  you get milkshake coffee type things. And other similar fancy drinks but nothing you're used to. My husband, the eternal optimist, ordered various cold coffee drinks while out and about but nothing would scratch that itch. So we were at a restaurant one day and he asked for coffee, ice in a glass and milk, all separately. The waitress brought everything - and instant coffee! In South Africa, filter coffee is not what most people drink, it's instant - so she thought that's what he wanted. So what he did was ask her for a shot of espresso, then poured that over the ice and added the ice. Finally! The itch was scratched.

So (here's another so) it seems like there are some guys who are going to change all that! The Department of Coffee - in Khayelitsha, of all places! I say go boys! I read a lovely article on them in the Jul 2013 House & Leisure magazine, and they say their coffee was really popular in winter but are still convincing people to try ice coffee in the summer. It is just. a. matter. of. time. I know. It didn't take us very long to be addicted!

The guys host events and do tons of fun stuff at their location, so if you're South African or American and find yourself in Cape Town and needing a good (and reasonably priced!) cup of coffee, these are your guys.

Images from here. 

Boston

What is there to say about what happened?

We have been in Boston for 10 years, and love this city. I have never feel it so sombre, but also so united. The Boston Marathon was chosen as a target because its an event where people train through the harsh New England winter in order to be ready. An event where people come together to celebrate that dedication. An event where if you're not running as one of the top athletes, you are running to raise money for charity. An event where life is celebrated - the beginning of warmer weather, athleticism, camaraderie, the fulfillment of months of dedicating your body to meet the challenge but also collecting money to help your fellow human beings. Hope.

This will not stop the awesomeness of the Marathon. All those good accomplishments. People will still come from all over the world. Because even as the bad things happen, good people got up and met that head on, and helped each other. That will never change. In this loss we will still run, and sing louder, and use our talents to celebrate life. Because the good things will always overtake the bad.

This guy said it much better than me.

Love that dirty water.

Out in The Cold

I feel like a bit of a weather service right now, but things are busy and the most exciting thing I have to share with you is the insanity of the weather in Boston. This morning, where we live a bit west of the city, it was a balmy 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Which is -12 Celsius. Plus with the wind chill it was 6F, or -14C.

I try not to think in Celsius anymore.

So here's something interesting - when I first moved to the States we stayed with my husband's grandparents out in beautiful Wisconsin, near Lake Superior. The awesome thing about that is in the winter it get so cold that condensation forms above the water (maybe because the water is warmer than the air? Hmm, need to look that up!) and it is magical. Here's a couple of pics of what that looks like from a blogger out there. It's called sea smoke.

Have a great day - hope it's a warm one!

South End Garden Tour 2012

Let's leave the snow behind! With my busy end-of-year family visits, moving and so on and so forth, I haven't had a chance to share my pics (from June!) with you.

Why do I love the South End Garden Tour and do it each year? Well, one reason is that I get to do the tour each year with a wonderful friend. Reason enough. But also because I live outside of Boston I don't really get an opportunity to wander around the neighbourhood streets and check things out as much as I'd like.

Here are more reasons from last year's tour:

I finally got to walk inside of the Union Park park (it's privately owned by the people who live on the street).

 I got to see the beauty in the South End buildings

Including witnessing how old buildings have evolved over time, showing their growing pains as scars on their walls.

I got to go places in those buildings I would never ordinarily get access to... like walking through this tunnel to get to a garden, and seeing some gas lights down a side alley that has been in Boston since forever (really!)

Of course, like everyone else, I got to see all the lovely plants and things that made each garden unique.

Including some gorgeous hydrangeas that happened to match my manicure!

One special moment was in a (otherwise unremarkable) quiet garden, where there was a welcome bench to sit on for five minutes. It was great to take a breath, and sit. And look up...

A restaurant we stopped at for another break had the cleverest rainwater gathering system - a simple design where the rain ran down through plants on an angled roof, then down a gutter, and to the plants below via a metal chain. Smart! And pretty.

And then, somewhere along the way we got to see Boston from the skyline, which I very seldom get to do. Bliss. I love my adopted city.

Even though I do enjoy the snow, I can't wait for summer to roll around once again. Every year the Garden Tour is a different and more beautiful route...

Tomorrow

What do I love about New England winters? The sun will come out tomorrow.

Snow Day

I woke up to a beautiful world of white this morning... although Boston winters can be a long (especially for an African girl like me!) the snow definitely makes it worth while. Here's some shots taken on my way to work, and around work's parking lot (my workplace is out in the suburbs, with some woods surrounding the building. Just in case you were wondering where in Boston this is!)

 

Happy New Year!

2013 is here! I have a feeling it's going to be a good one, and I hope that you are feeling rested and refreshed to tackle a new year, with new opportunities, new starts and all the possibilities that brings.

It's been somewhat chilly over here, today is the most cold so far - 23 degrees Fahrenheit (or, not that I really want to think about it,  -17 degrees Celsius). The upside? Snow! and some pretty great-looking ice.