It's a Blue Christmas

It's a blue Christmas - not because we're sad, but because this is the year of  blue for us.  Blue car, blue dresser, and now a blue tree. Maybe it all started with Thomas the train and my son's love of the color blue.  Though, our house is also very blue/brown as well, and I can't credit Nikhil with that one.  I usually do red/gold ornaments for our Christmas tree, but I was at Walmart the other day and saw these "shatterproof" ornaments, so I decided to try them out.  They had these beautiful turquoise colored ones, so of course, I had to get those.  And, let me tell you, shatterproof is the only way to go with a 2 year old boy.

The ornaments did live up to their name and at $5 for 12, they are a good deal.  Every year, we are always cleaning up shards of cheap glass from ornaments that have accidentally fallen off the tree and this year, we've been lucky with the new ornaments.

 

In addition to the tree, I saw this DIY Christmas ornament tutorial on younghouse love's website from their Pinterest challenge.  The step by step instructions are here (with a video tutorial).  I thought it would be a neat thing to do with my son, since he really loves arts and crafts.  We added a bunch of different colors to each ornament to make it more fun.  My niece, Bella, was visiting, so we did some more ornaments together.  I found the plain glass ornaments at Ben Franklin and had a bunch of acrylic Folk art paints from other projects.  

Aren't they pretty?  I love the swirls.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Turquoise is the new black - my refinished console

Lately, I've been loving the color turquoise.  One of my favorite stores in Honolulu is Pacific Home and they have these beautiful vintage turquoise pieces there that cost upwards of $2000.  Well, I've been on the hunt for a dresser that can serve as a console in the room that my parents use as their living room at our house.  I'll post pics of that soon.  I've found craig's list here in Hawaii is nowhere as good as it is on the mainland, but the key is to keep looking, even when you're not really looking.

I finally found this item for $50.

 All wood, dovetail construction, I saw the beauty in this piece.  Jeff was not so convinced. He saw the scuff marks, the fact that none of the drawers on the third row closed all the way and the missing hardware.  But, I saw a gem.  Originally, I was going to paint it white, but when I was talking to the very nice man, Richard, who sold it to me, he suggested an aqua blue and once he mentioned that I was sold. 

I scoured the blogosphere for tips on how to glaze furniture since I've refinished lots of pieces in my life, but have never glazed before.  I found this inspiration pic which I pinned on my pinterest board.

I emailed Julie from Less than Perfect Life of Bliss blog, and she helped me with suggestions of how to glaze.  Don't you love the color green she chose for her console? Thanks Julie!

So, originally, I went on maternity leave at 38 weeks, leaving 2 weeks to do all these awesome DIY projects.  Of course, Taj wasn't in on the plan, so he arrived just 2 days after my last day of work, which meant I didn't get to do anything before he was born.  So, my father was a huge help.  He did all the boring stuff - sanded the whole dresser, fixed the drawers so that they shut properly, cleaned all the original hardware (since I wanted to keep it) and primed it.  That left me able to do the fun stuff, paint and glaze.

Here's what I used.  The paint color is Hotel Cincinnati Abbey by Valspar.  We primed (or Dad primed) with 2 coats and then I did 2 coats of the paint.  Then I mixed in a 3:1 ratio, clear mixing glaze to stain (I was going to just eyeball it, but my dad being the retired electrical engineer that he is actually measured everything exactly).  We applied the glaze with a paint brush, left it on for about 10 minutes and then wiped it off.  We reapplied a little more in areas where we thought it was needed.



Here we are, hard at work. And, the finished result was well worth the effort.

I love how the glaze really makes the details of the dresser pop. And, since one of the drawer pulls was broken, I just moved the top center one down and bought a simple bronze, antique knob at Lowe's to replace it.

And, I'm loving the color.  I think I'm going to repaint a bunch of other furniture pieces this color.  It's turquoise, but not an in your face turquoise, which is great.

M-I-C-K-E-Y

We went to the new Disney Aulani resort yesterday.  Our friends were kind enough to invite us to a business dinner there, so we decided to stay the night. It was our first trip with both kids and granted it was only an hour drive, but it was a big deal.  It certainly took longer to pack up then to drive out there.  And, remember, an hour on Oahu, is like the furthest you can drive.

The facilities were great - the lazy river where you can ride down in an inflatable raft, the bridge with all the fun slides for the kids and the pool were all of course, very child friendly.

I wasn't as psyched with the service that the hotel provided, but that commentary will be saved for my yelp review.  Nikhil loved it because he was with his "girlfriend" Phoebe, one of my good friend's daughter who also goes to the same preschool with him.  They just started holding hands totally by themselves.  I love these pics - with their cute little outfits, I think they look like a little mini power couple ready to go for brunch or a round of golf.  Phoebe's mom and I joke that they will be prom dates in 14 years.

And, here Nikhil is with his buddy Micah.

We were super lucky enough to have our wonderful and awesome nanny, Shawna, agree to drive up and babysit for the 3 toddlers and 2 infants with a friend of hers.  Still, pretty, brave, right?  5 kids and 2 adults, I don't think I would do it.

By the time we got to the room, Nikhil and Phoebe were fast asleep on the bed.  Nikhil in his usual  horizontal position.

And, of course we had to get a picture with Mickey.  Nikhil was a little scared at first - perhaps it was the large head, but he warmed up to him.

I don't think I would take a day trip again for a while, with the checking in and checking out, it's not easy.  But, we had a fun time - thanks Hope & Jimmy!

DIY Airplane Crib Mobile

For Taj's nursery, I already had this cute crib mobile my dad had bought for Nikhil, but I wanted something a little different.  I was googling mobile ideas and found the following pic:

However, this retails for $130 - yup, over $100 for a mobile!  It doesn't sing, dance or anything else other than look very cute, which it is, but no way would I spend that much.  And, then I remembered that I have an awesomely talented Mom who is like a crochet and knitting genius.

So, I googled around some more and found a cute free pattern here for an airplane crib mobile.  I decided on planes because I'm doing a very loosely based travel/cultural theme for Taj's nursery.  The big nursery reveal is coming soon.  But, for now, just the mobile.  We made one small tweak to the pattern.  I bought these music buttons for $1.69 at Jo-Ann Fabrics (and yes, they actually ship to Hawaii, though it takes 2 weeks).

So, my mom glued these little buttons into each airplane.  She made them with yarn which coordinated with my crib sheets (from Nikhil).


And, here is the final result!

Nikhil loved it so much that when he saw the planes before they were attached to the embroidery hoop, he took them to his own room and hid them in his bed.  It took us forever to find them.  Mom was going to knit more, but then we finally found them.

Of course, the best part of the mobile is that it was made by my mom especially for Taj.  Totally worth more than $130!

Introducing Taj

It's crazy to think that my due date was yesterday and that this little person who has been with us for 2 weeks already should only just have been born!  With the bed rest and the 2 previous trips to the hospital, we were actually somewhat prepared even though he was early.

We were blessed to welcome Taj Cameron into this world on October 26 at 6: 21 am at 8 pounds 4 ounces and 21.5 inches.  He was actually born on Diwali, which is the Hindu festival of lights, one of the most important holidays.  It signifies the triumph of light over darkness, so very auspicious.  That makes us a family of holidays, Jeff, Nikhil and I were also born on holidays.  Taj means "crown" in Hindi and Persian.  We're also going to have a Chinese name for him, which my mother-in-law is figuring out as we speak!

The only reason that I'm even semi-coherent now is because of my parents.  They have been phenomenal.  My mom came out to Hawaii early when I was on bed rest because she retired at the end of September.  My father came out a week before Taj was born and they've been so great with helping out with Nikhil.  They totally take care of him, dropping him of and picking him up from school, getting him ready in the morning.  It's so nice because I can spend time with Taj and catch sleep when I can.  Jeff and I really could not do this without their help.  And, did I mention that my Dad has been doing all of the grocery shopping and my mom has been cooking and cleaning every day?  Yeah, I know, we're totally spoiled.  I feel bad because they haven't done anything here in Hawaii for themselves yet, but they want to spend time with their grandsons which is nice for me!

Here are some hospital pics of Taj.

Taj with his Popo.  He's her 9th grandchild.  Should we make it an even 10?  Don't tell Jeff!!

Big brother, Nikhil, looking on.

My parents with Taj.  This is their 3rd grandchild.

Right now, he looks pretty Chinese and very similar to the way Nikhil looked at this age.

On the 11th day of Taj's life, we had a Hindu "Naming Ceremony" .  I posted the wikipedia link there, which describes the different types of Naming Ceremonies in various religions.  I guess in the olden times, they didn't want to name the baby before he was 10 days old because of the high infant mortality rate.  So, to ward off evil eye, they avoided naming the baby initially.  We had my mother-in-law, Jeff's sister and aunt come over for a quick little ceremony which my father conducted.

And, last, some pics of Taj at home.  Nikhil is a good big brother.  If Taj is crying, he runs to the bassinet and tries to give him stuffed animals or play music for him, saying "Don't cry baby Taj."  Very sweet.  Though he does get a bit jealous when Jeff carries Taj.  He doesn't mind when I do.  I guess somehow, he kind of knows I need to hold the baby and as a result, Jeff has been spending more time with Nikhil.  So, when Jeff is unavailable, then he sometimes gets a little more territorial.

The hardest part so far is trying to work from home to continue doing the admin work for our practice with a 2 week old.  There's not much time between the nursing and diaper changing to be processing payroll and other fun admin issues, but I'll figure it out and of course it's well worth it!  Jeff has been great, seeing patients and doing what he can at the office too and we're lucky to have a wonderful staff.

Baby Shower

My very dear friend Hope threw me the most wonderful shower last Sunday.  It actually was cutting it a bit close, since I delivered just 2 days later, but I really wanted my Mom to be at the shower since she missed my shower when I was pregnant with Nikhil.  Originally, she wasn't going to come in until just a day or two before the shower, but when I went on bed rest, she came 2 weeks earlier to help out.

It was so amazing to be surrounded by such amazing friends and family.  It really made me realize how blessed I am to live here in Hawaii and have developed such close friendships (and luck into having a great family and married into one as well).  And, of course, Hawaii is small, so a lot of my friends knew each other.  What an awesome day to spend a couple hours with my girlfriends, uninterrupted by kids!

My friend, Jules made this adorable watermelon baby carriage fruit salad.  How creative is this?  Just the amount of work to scoop out that watermelon is more than I could have ever done!!

Here's my Mom and I.  (she wants everyone to know that I'm wearing heels)

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Hope organized this cute game where I was asked 20 questions and told to answer them the way Jeff would.  But, instead of just telling us what Jeff answered, she had videotaped his answers.  It was so cute to see his expressions and it made the game so much fun.  Types of questions she asked were:

-What qualities in Rupa has pregnancy brought out?
I thought for sure that Jeff would say my obsessive side, but instead he said "nurturing".  How sweet.

We did get a bunch of answers the same too though!

And, since I already had pretty much everything I needed since this was boy #2, Hope came out with this awesome group gift idea.  It's for a personal chef to come to our house and cook us a 4 course meal (groceries included ).  How neat is that!  With all of my awesome friends who contributed, Jeff and I are lucky enough to be able to enjoy 4 dinners!  No need for a babysitter and we get to talk to the chef to decide upon the menu!  I'm really looking forward to using this gift.