WE MISS YOU ALREADY

I am so sad to have more friends leave RVA this summer, but again, life happens, and I can't help but be excited if it means they are on to bigger and greater things. We had a we-love-you-Martha-breakfast this morning and it made me feel sad, but also got me swelling-of-the-heart-thankful.

FIVE THINGS

This is how we do burgers in the Lu household: note the egg + bacon, inspired by the Kojak.

Last week was my birthday. I love getting cards from my husband.

My awesome friend Diane got me the infamous Capellino's lemon drops to see if they would help bring the labor on.

Waiting for our battleship at Black Sheep.

41 weeks. I think she got even bigger in this last week.

WALL PAPER

 

I am kind of in love with the idea of wallpapering one of the nursery wall's with this Hygge and West wallpaper designed by Joy D. Cho of Oh Joy. It's feminine, but graphic and modern, and gold! 

WAITING...

 owl from hilz is hanging on the door of the nursery 

this waiting is really. hard.
i'm grateful that she got to stay in for the full 40 weeks. i'm glad she's healthy.
but i'm surprised to find that after the so-called due date, which i knew was not going to be totally accurate anyways, something clicked in my brain where the waiting became 10x harder.
before the due date, there was a foreseeable end time.
 but now, it's anyone's guess and it can really happen at anytime.
the not-knowing is what's kind of driving me crazy.
k. and i are unwillingly obsessed with talking about when it will happen.

i feel like i'm about to take a big trip, a trip that's going to forever change my life, but i have to wait around to find out when to board the plane, and each day of waiting feels extra long.

in the meanwhile, i'm trying to live life as normal, working from home,  enjoying my husband and doing things like attempting to walk/dance/love this baby out.


happy weekend, everyone!

WALKING IT OUT AT THE VMFA

I took a couple of days off of work (and yes I'm back working again today) because for one, I needed the days off, and two, I figured (hoped? expected?) the baby would come - you know, with all my positive thinking and walking and all that. Yesterday, I ran some errands and ended up at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts - visiting the museum isn't something I got to do for the whole year that we lived so close to it, and since I needed to walk, where better to hang out than a huge museum with lots of square feet of space meant just for that - meandering? I got tired pretty quickly because my feet felt swollen and refused to participate in a long afternoon of museum exploring, but I still got a good hour in and spent most of it on the 2nd floor, mostly with Neo-expressionists and Egyptian/Roman art. I shall come back with baby in tow to explore the 3rd floor.

View out from the cafe.

Orange shells.

Guards of the paintings

What a lovely deck you have.

I love this painting - have to go back to remember the name of the artist.

I was held captive by how striking and creepy this piece was in person. It's by Julian Schnabel, titled 'Understanding Self-Hate (1981)', oil and collaged fabric on velvet.

wall painting

I stared and thought for a while at how the lighting on this piece matters quite a bit.

This is a portrait painting from the late 3rd-4th century from Rome, called "Faiyum Portrait of a Woman, done by the encaustic technique, in which pigment was added to heated beeswax and applied to a wooden panel. Isn't it fantastic?

She is way too comfortable in there....

Sculpture garden. I wanted to walk on the stones in the water.

Then I came home and ate a bowl of cherries.
The end.

40 WEEKS

Yesterday was my 40 week mark, which means my due date came and went...with no sign of baby. All throughout my pregnancy I kept telling myself that I would be okay if she was late, and up until a few weeks ago I was feeling like I wouldn't mind if she decided to stay put till 41 weeks....buuutt I take that all back! As soon as I knew my due date was around the corner, I became kind of feverish about wanting her here, NOW.  A lot of it has to do with logistics, in that, the sooner she comes, the more time both K. and I will have more time with her off from work. Some of it has to do with me not wanting to be pregnant anymore. But most of it has to do with the fact that I want to meet my daughter...soon! K. and I are just about bursting with anticipation. This past year has been about a lot of good things, but also a lesson in being patient and trusting that there is a right time for things.  So here I am, waiting....

P.S. Remember this? My bump in the same shirt as above, at 10 weeks! 

HOME STYLE

I’m still trying to figure out what my style is exactly, but it doesn’t really matter that I pin it down to a category. As long as I know what I like, it’s a fun process to get influenced by others’ ideas and styles to mix it with my own. This also means I like having the ability to experiment, but K. is much less enthusiastic about experimentation so I have to make sure all of my endeavors have a practical bent to it. In our first home, I wanted lots of bright, saturated color – the house we rented was an older-style home and I kind of loved the idea of the contrast of bold colors with the older structure. We went with a deep red in the living room and a screaming teal in the dining room and I was into it. Our second place was an industrial loft with extremely high ceilings and I wanted to experiment more with contrasting the old and new, but wanted to keep the walls white and stark. I’ve been figuring out that I really like the right mix of vintage and modern, old and new, eclectic and serene – and it’s really fun to figure out kinds of things and look constitute that balance. I always get excited about vintage finds, open space, texture, and both neutral and bold visuals.

The design of this new house is a work in progress and will probably continue to be forevermore (especially on a tight budget) but so far my favorite thing about this place are the windows. With so much natural light and the view of so many trees through the windows, I already feel like home. In the meanwhile though, I will continue to be an avid craigslist-searcher, estate-sale-stalker, and design-blog-reader.  I will take photos of the new place one of these days to share, but until then, let the brainstorming rage on. Recently, one of my favorite blogs to look through is that of Emily Henderson, of Secret of a Stylist on HGTV. I like how she writes, I like how she shows the process behind her ideas, and I’m into several of the looks she puts together. I don’t necessarily love every room that she does but once in a while I come across a home that she styles which is right on, and I learn so much.

Case in point: I really like the way this home is styled. This is not something that I would go for usually, but i love the entire feel of the place. I think this would be an environment that I would like to live in. There are a few things that I would opt out of – not sure about the color and style of the couch, and I don't like the curtains – but otherwise, I think it works.  After looking through these pictures I looked at the style-combo and saw that it was titled, “New York Cool Meets California Comfort” – no wonder I'm a fan!

 

source

FIVE THINGS

five things from this past weekend: 1. window spy/ 2. long lashes look good on everyone/ 3. brunch at CanCan/ 4. street art/ 5. currently reading

Since my due date is this week, I decided that this past weekend was the time to start doing all the things that are thought to help move labor along.  On Saturday we took a couple of long walks, ate spicy chicken wings, and had some sexy time. On Sunday, we walked around Carytown after brunch, had some curry for dinner, ate an entire pineapple, and bounced around on my exercise ball. I’ve also been diligent about taking evening primrose oil supplements and drinking raspberry leaf tea.  Our bags are packed and we are ready for this baby to come!