Steamie Parties: Nanny’s 85th Birthday!

We got to celebrate Nanny’s (Steve’s Grandma) 85th Birthday! Everly enjoyed seeing everyone, and when Steve gave a sweet toast, about how he loved going to “Palm Pings” to visit his grandma growing up, Everly also hogged the mic & repeatedly wished “Happy Birthday Nanny”! So special to have a Great-Grandma for Everly to spend time with! And seriously- Look at that desert!

  
  

Teeny Steamie: Dance Class

This is our second round of dance class- this time it’s “Ballet” specifically- Everly LOVES her ballet outfit, and enjoys playing at the barre before class!

  

Steamie House: old wood, new decor…

After our class at The Makery– I saw some neat posts on instagram from another craftsman in the community space. I sent him a message about possibly making a reclaimed wood infil panel for our fireplace.

We visited his workspace, to scope out the materials he’s picked up around town, and here’s the final piece- we LOVE it. Love hearing about where the wood came from, especially since some of it is from orange, (especially since Steve is also sourced  from Orange! haha.)

  

Steamie Family ‘Cation: Monterey

Team Steamie does Monterey! We booked ourselves a cute Airbnb- and hit the road to Monterey!

Everly loved saying “Cation”, and “Monterey” and, of course “Fishies” since we’d been telling her there would be lots of fish to see at the aquarium.

Doing a little research before hand we learned about the Dennis the Menace park- it was a HIT for our playground obsessed little lady. She covered every inch of this playground- even the things we thought were a bit to advanced… those are some BIG ladders! haha.

The house we stayed at also included passes to the aquarium- so we visited it both Friday & Saturday. Out firiends Szara & Makalah met us up for fun with the fishies.

Aside from the aquarium, we walked, explored, and [excitedly] rode the trolley around town, strolled, checked out the coastline & ate lots of yummy food.

Everly is STILL asking for more cation, and more Monterey! SO clearly we just have to plan more trips! 🙂

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Steamie Crafts: Weaving

As a make-up mothers day gift to ourselves- my mom and I attended a weaving class at the really neat space- The Makery. Located in the Community space- it’s a really neat little collection of shops/workshops, and obviously flamenco dancing too.

We arrived to little DIY looms waiting for us, and loads of yarn options.

After a couple hours- we each had our own creation to take home! I’m looking forward to future classes there, and to making more weavings on my own at home!

  
  
  

  

Steamie Kitchen: AFTER

 AFTER.

While typically I love nothing more than a good before & after photo comparison,

seeing the “After” in our very own kitchen has come with much more bleh/frustration/angst than I had ever hoped.

To be sure, it is still very NOT PERFECT.  And man, did the process make us [ok- mostly me] VERY unhappy.

But behold the power of transformation!  The “after” sure does make our house feel like new,  now that we’re finally (sort of/ mostly) DONE.

The last item on my to do list (beyond the lingering construction defect issues!) was to add the roman shade over the kitchen window.  Voila!  Thank you The Shade Store for simply showing up & putting it in correctly the first time.  haha.  We needed something to go smoothly in here!    This window is our same old window- but with the removal of the mini-blinds- it feels much more open!

We love how much more open the whole kitchen is now- without the low ceiling, and the wall & pocket door at the dining room.  Our bench seat in the dining room gets way more use now too, as it’s easy to sit there facing the kitchen or facing the dining table- depending on where the activity is.  🙂

So, no thanks to the awful process we went through to get here, we are very happy to be home with our new and improved space!

and  I swear, we’ll take a bit of a break from the remodeling to all recover (both emotionally and financially!) before we tackle the master bathroom (and the 70’s shell sink!!!)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2015!  Team Steamie is ready for ya!

We spent our new years eve snuggling (aka being the human mattress) while our Teeny Steamie sweated and slept off her mystery fever.  Poor babe, nothing is more sad than looking at those little eyes all glossy & cheeks all flushed with sickness.  But thankfully she perked up on the 1st, and so far has been her happy (and feisty) self for the new year.

Cheers to all the adventures to come in the new year.

2014 | Recap

Before we get knee deep in the adventures of the new year, I wanted to do a little reflection on what 2014 brought us!

January  |  Steve was awarded City Employee of the year!  (Go Steve!!)

February |  We sold the condo we’d been renting out for 3 years.   But first It got a pretty new kitchen for the new owner to enjoy!  (clearly we like to start kitchen renovations in Decembers!!)

March |  Paid off student loans!  HOORAY for that.  Only took me 10 year post graduation, but I’d say it was worth it, and honestly if I had to do it over again, I would have probably borrowed a bit more, and lived in nicer apartments!  haha- but hindsight is 20/20 right!?  🙂  So long Sallie Mae!

April | Celebrated our darling little girl’s first birthday!  What a milestone for our little family.  So fun to see all the changes a year brings, and celebrate our little miss!

September | I got a new job- which means way less [so far none] traveling for me, so more time at home with my hubby & baby!

October | Rang in Team Steamie’s 4th wedding anniversary- in the same suite we stayed at during  our wedding weekend at the LAAC!  Love that hotel, and running around downtown for a weekend!

December | Commenced with the kitchen remodel!  That project won’t wrap up till later in January- but the prepping, planning and demo started in Dec and led us to finish 2014 with dust & excitement of pretty new things to come!

Not too bad for one little year.  It’s always crazy to look back and see how quickly things change each year.

Steami-ized Gift Tags- DIY

Requiring no actual “crafting” this DIY, is more of an “OIY” (order it yourself)… but here’s how we arrived at our cute little personalized gift tags:

Since the other half of this “Team Steamie” was kind enough to cave to me pestering and get a holiday card photos shoot this year [pictures here]… I just couldn’t leave well enough alone at using the photos just for the cards.

Must. Maximize. Cuteness.

While I was checking out online cards, I noticed templates for simple, square business cards. The light bulb clicked on, and I ordered a set of 50 cards with a simple image from our photo shoot (Gotta love E’s sparkly shoes!). Yes, I had a coupon code… yes, I’m a sucker for square format anything.

With just a simple hole punch- voila- personalized gift tags.

I really think they added a lovely touch to this years wrapping. I didn’t buy ANY wrapping supplies this year, just used up what was left over in the archives (aka- the wrapping paper box under our bed). I envy those out there with a full room dedicated to creating magical packages to sit under the tree… but I’m happy with our sparkly yarn & adorable feet adorning gifts for our loved ones!

Ho. Ho. Ho.

Have a very STEAMIE Christmas! [2014]

Happy Holidays from Team Steamie!

Here’s some excerpts from the mini-photo shoot for out holiday cards this year.  It was quite chilly & breezy & our little E was a bit camera shy, preferring to try to run off and play rather than sit & pose, but they still turned out darling.  Love that little FACE.

I made her little romper the night before using this pattern from Etsy.  The fabric I had snatched up at Joann’s back in September when I went shopping for Halloween costume fixings.    It’s a little loose still, but OH SO FUN!

*photos taken in and around the Boathouse Collective I saw a review with one picture of the exterior & instantly knew I wanted to hang out with all that corrugated metal!