May Flowers at Lobsterfest

This afternoon we attended our 3rd annual Lobsterfest at my parents' best friends' house. I've chronicled this amazing shindig in the secret garden before, and this year didn't disappoint. I made two peach pies to ensure that we'll be invited back next year. Though next year it'll be harder to crack lobster claws with a baby on my lap. Imagine that!

I couldn't help snap this lovely clematis on my way out.

And what about this pink peony? There were white ones and pale pink ones too, but these guys just begged for attention.

Dude.

Sweet.

Odosketch is my new favorite thing on the internet.

Sharing A Poem

This one's hot off the presses from this week's New Yorker.

Enjoy.

Turning
by W. S. Merwin

Going too fast for myself I missed
more than I think I can remember

almost everything it seems sometimes
and yet there are chances that come back

that I did not notice when they stood
where I could have reach out and touched them

this morning the black sheperd dog
still young looking up and saying

Are you ready this time

Unexpectedly Awesome

The hardwood under the wall to wall upstairs and up-the-stairs.
A work in progress, but something to smile about.

This may mean we need to class up the joint and get a better light. 

The Only Wall In The House

Our small Cape Cod is full of windows, built-ins, and wood panelling (painted white, thankfully). Since we moved in we opened up the first floor by knocking out a wall in our kitchen. The upstairs is a classic small Cape Cod configuration of sloped ceilings and dormers. This is a round about way of explaining that basically, we have no place to hang anything on our walls. I was pretty sad about this until I realized that all our family photos could adorn our stairwell! It's such a non-space that I had been neglecting it. 

A few months ago I went to Ikea and bought a ton of frames, mostly white ones in various sizes but also a few small unfinished wood ones that I painted grey with left over test samples from Benjamin Moore. (I had to resist the temptation to use only white frames. So many people do that -- understandably, it looks like a million bucks -- that I feel like I had to add my own (messier) personality and use some of my existing frames from our old apartment.) They were sitting around for a long time before I filled them with photos (it's so much harder now that everything is digital). Then they sat a little longer until Mr. SevPrez and his SevParents embarked on the upstairs painting extravaganza. 

This Sunday, after a Stolen Goods pop up the day before and an action packed Mother's Day Brunch at my brother's, I came home intending to take a nap, but somehow found myself hanging frames up the stairs. It must be the nesting instinct.

I followed the ingenious tips from the guys over at Young House Love, namely to use scrap paper and tape to map out where everything will go on the wall before making holes everywhere. Next you mark where all the nails go on the scrap paper, hammer them in, remove the paper, hang the frame, and just like magic, everything looks perfect the first time. No cursing required.

The only thing bad about this project is that it's a tough space to photograph, so I can't share any good pictures with you. But I assure you that walking up and down the stairs has become a totally different experience. I look forward to being reminded of our great friends and family and the highlights of our lives. 

Next time we go to Ikea we'll pick up some more frames. We have more space on the wall I started and there is a small empty wall at the top of the landing that will probably get filled up as well. This is good, since I think once our little one gets here we'll have lots more photos to add.

Stolen Snapshots. Too tired to write!

Now that I've tried Grandma's Crumb Cake, I don't think I can eat any other kind.

Cupcake porn. They sure are pretty.

Getting to know the Booze Cake. Tough, but somebody's got to do it.

Whoopie pies are definitely attracting a following.

Raspberry Pinwheels. Never made them before. As tasty as they are pretty. 

Apple Cranberry Pie Squares vamping it up.

Housework v. Homework

Mr. SevPrez is finishing up with his first year of grad school — hurray! With his internship complete, his papers turned in and only a few days of classes left, he's started to attack the very long list of things we need done around the house. Currently he's painting the upstairs bedrooms, taking them from what I intended to be a subtle, discreet shade of alabaster — in reality an ugly butter yellow that I've hated since the day it dried — to a discreet, soothing elephant shade of gray (Benjamin Moore's Harbor Gray, the green version that gives off no VOCs and therefore isn't scary to pregnant ladies like me). 


He made a huge dent in the project yesterday and it already looks 200 times better. I can't wait to see it today with all the trim work done. Pictures to come, but I am so happy to have my man about the house back that I thought we needed a new banner here at the Seven Presidents blog. And by "we" I mean I, I have just been very swept up with the royals, between being blindsided by my infatuation with the wedding (that Kate is just so charming and graceful) and watching "The Kings Speech" this weekend. It was a great movie. I'm still not sure it was The Best Picture, but it was definitely a great watch especially on the heels of the royal extravaganza. Also a great movie: "The Lives of Others." Two thumbs up from both me and the mister, which doesn't happen very often.