Outfit 1 – Jacket • Zara (similar) | Jeans • H&M | Boots • Topshop | Purse • Zara (similar) |
Outfit 2 – Blouse • Zara (similar) | Cardigan • Mango | Jeans • H&M (similar) | Boots • DSW (similar) |
Outfit 3 – Camisole • Mango | Jeans • Mango | Scarf • H&M (similar) |
Outfit 4 – Jacket • Zara | Sweater • Zara | Camisole • Mango | Jeans • Mango |
Outfit 5 – Sweater • Zara | Jeans • H&M | Boots • Topshop |

It’s Saturday night and I have one kid cleaning her room, and one in the tub and Tom is out of town for the weekend. This is about as much alone time as I get. And how I am taking advantage of it? I’m writing a blog post. Pretty exciting huh? If I had planned properly I could have bought a bottle of wine and some kind of dessert while I was out today. Unfortunately I don’t think my food delivery app SkipTheDishes offers either of those.

My house is full of collectors. Tom is a major collector, has been since the day I met him. I introduced him to Ebay and it all went to shit after that 😉 There was one point in out first apartment together (it was a really good apartment and was only $400 a month and I keep slapping myself for leaving it) that our living room had an actual store display counter in it to show off his Kiss collection. The girls seemed to have inherited that gene and our house is definitely showing it. I need to figure out a better way for everyone to display their collections without adding to the clutter of the already small condo. I think something that integrate the tv and gaming systems, (with hidden storage for all the crap we don’t have a home for, but also shelves along the top for display the collections. Here is the hitch, we don’t have a lot of wall space. Our living room consist of one wall with the windows that have small sections of solid wall in between each. Another wall is the balcony doors. Everything else is open area with no spot wide enough to encompass and kind of shelving unit except one spot that is about 2.5 ft wide and 7 feet tall ( it would be higher if it wasn’t for the heating duct). I’m not sure if I am going to be able to fulfill that tall order.

For the girls, their whole room kind of needs and overhaul. We bought them a bunk style bed when we moved here to save on space but they are really wanting two separate beds now. Merle says that Roo drops too much stuff on to her bed from the top bunk and Roo wants something a little easier to get up into and keep tidy. This is going to take a lot of planning to pull this off in that tiny room, and I think a lot of condensing and getting rid of furniture/items is going to have to happen. It’s so easy to have these grandiose plans in your head, not so easy to implement them with lack of space and a small budget. I need to search for some small space bedroom ideas for kids. I’m sure Pinterest has tons.

Do you have recommendations for small-space decorating sites?

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Outfit 1 – Mon Fashion Sketchbook by Atsuko Kikuchi (french edition, also comes in Japanese) you can see many of the drawings on her Instagram page under @oookickooo.
Outfit 2 – Cardigan • Zara (similar) | Jacket • Zara | Jeans • Zara (similar) | Purse • Zara (similar) | Shoes • Converse | Scarf • H&M old (similar) | Merle: Jacket • Gap Kids (boys section) | Cat Ear Hat • Zara (similar) | Boots • Hunter |
Outfit 3 – Distressed Sweater • Zara (similar) | Jeans • H&M (similar) | Shoes • Converse |
Outfit 4 – Embroidered Sweatshirt • Zara | Jeans • Mango | Flats • Zara |
Outfit 5 – Sweater • H&M | Jeans • Mango | Jacket • Zara (similar) | Purse • Zara (similar) | Boots • DSW (similar) |

The top photo is of the book I was talking about a few weeks back. The drawings in it are amazing and really great outfit inspirations. You should check it out even if you can’t speak Japanese or French, the drawings speak for themselves.

We went on the weekend to fill Roo’s eye glasses prescription (there was a slight improvement so yay!) and while we were there Tom decided that he would get his eyes checked so he could get some glasses (neither him nor I have bought new glasses in years. We are long overdue) and the eye doctor noticed that he had a hole in his eye (sounds gross but it’s only something you can see with ophthalmologist tools and special lights). They said that it has been there for years and that it is probably from wearing his daily contacts for more than a day before tossing them, which is something I have warned him about a million times but that is another story. She said to give contacts a break for a few months and she will see if it heals when he comes back. As soon as I heard that I thought Fuck. He’s going to milk that for as long as he can.

This is what my future is going to look like:

Me: “Hey Tom can you….”
Tom: “I can’t do that because I have a hole in my eye.”

Me: “Your laundry didn’t quite make it into the bin.”
Tom: “That’s because I have a hole in my eye.”

I’d ask you to pray for me but I’m not religious.

I had one of those moments at the mall last week wear you see something that you want to buys so badly but know you don’t need it. So you muster up the willpower to walk out the store and decide that if you still want it that much in a few days you would consider buying it. I have been really, really good with my clothing purchases lately. I’m proud of how pared down my wardrobe is (it’s like 1/4 of what it was 3 years ago) and have been very stringent in keeping it at certain number of items but I have loosened those reigns somewhat. I gave myself permission to shop a little as long as I make conscious purchases vs impulsive. If I  find myself impulsively shopping again I will tighten those reigns again. It’s kind of like a diet, if you try to remain to a too strict regime you will end up resenting it and probably rebelling. I ended up buying the shirt (Floral embroidered top above) and actually dreamt about the shirt that night (lame, I know) so I figured I made a good choice.

If anyone remembers my struggles I was having finding a secular science curriculum for Roo (we homeschool). We have found success with Ellen McHenry’s stuff. We just wrapped up The Elements and are moving on to The Brain next week which I am sure Merle will also enjoy because she loves learning about the human body and tagging along for studies. So if anyone is looking for a great, fun, and in-depth science program that is secular this one scores high for us. Note that I buy most of my curriculum in PDF form because I like the fact that I can load them on my iPad and print them as many times as I want so I can’t comment on shipping.

 My Ancestry DNA just switched to “processing” today which is exciting. I have no idea how long that step takes, but the results comes next.  

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