in the works.

welcome to our living room.

what i love about this room: the white walls, wooden floors, and big east-facing windows make it a cheery, warm space.
favorite pieces: b's paintings: the colors of the house painting, the technique and warmth of the oranges (they remind me of california, too), and the calm river in bishop, ca; the calder-inspired mobile; the credenza/stereo; the knit wool rug.

our color palette is probably partly a response to gray northwestern skies. our warm reds and yellows make for a lovely contrast to this gray, drizzly time of year.

suitcase love.

i love this suitcase toy box. brilliant.

it led me to these:

and reminded me of these:

land of nod

my kids love suitcases, especially lulu. she loves to pack her bags and "go on a trip" to grandma's house.

Our Own White Walls

It only took a couple of hours to fill our new space.

It is taking longer to arrange and organize said things, as expected. I'm excited to see what kind of progress we make this next week.
And yes, this house has the best morning light in the living room and dining room. Heavenly.

I am trying to keep visuals like this in mind as we get through this chaos of packing and cleaning. I'm trying to use my extra-nesting+spring-cleaning energy to help me stay motivated to get rid of stuff. It has been very freeing, and every bit helps me get closer to this vision, to living in a space like the one above. Sometimes it feels out of reach, but I am learning that life can be even better than I ever imagine, and that I shouldn't worry away the good times while they're here. Instead I want to make more good things happen in our home physically and emotionally and spiritually.
Have you caught the spring-cleaning bug? What spaces are you trying to clean out?

A Bright, Cheery Kitchen

I stumbled on this article about the kitchen of Lauren Childs, artist behind such beloved characters as Charlie and Lola. Being familiar with the style of several of her books and the show Charlie and Lola, I wasn't too surprised to see what her kitchen looks like:

I love the clean white walls and open shelves with all the brightly colored kitchen tools and art works. It definitely seems like a great place to create works for children.
You can read the full article here.