The Migonis' go to Florida!

Happy Inspiration

Someone wonderful subscribed me to House Beautiful... I have no idea who but THANK YOU! It was a fabulous gift receiving the mag in the mailbox... I think magazines are the gift that keeps on giving, it's like a mini birthday in your mailbox every month. :)
Here was this month's issue. All pink. I love it.

I generally rip out about a quarter of every magazine for inspiration photos and create "my book" (really just a binder filled with beautiful-ness). Dylan Lauren, daughter of Ralph Lauren, created a tablescape for a fabulously bright party. I think I already started planning Drew's first birthday.

Dylan suggested other "sweet details" to go with it. But when the recommended tumbler costs $95 I'm pretty sure the majority of people couldn't afford to outfit a party of six. So, here are my suggestions:

This looks like someone is testing paint, doesn't it? Well, it's all the colors Crate and Barrel offers for their appetizer sized plates. For $2.95. I would do just tiny plates for the pop because I'm a sucker for an all white dish set that you can mix and match any color with...

Have some fun rock candy on the table or as favors... did you know they are pretty easy to make (click rock candy link)?

And my last photo of brightly colored inspiration... the little boy who was just snoring like a truck driver next to me:

Goodbye Muffin Top (the kind I eat and the kind above my jeans…)

A week ago yesterday was the first day I was allowed to exercise since the c-section. And boy did it feel great to get out there and run. The wet, soggy shoes, the bitter wind in my face and the way my body felt like it jiggled from not running for months (okay, things were better in my imagination leading up to the run than they were in real life). I’ve worked out five days since then and everything, surprisingly, felt pretty good… except for looking in the windows at the gym and seeing my reflection looking back at me. I need to remember that there probably wasn’t one girl in Gordon’s gym who had just given birth seven weeks ago, so if my stomach isn’t back to normal yet, that’s okay. As I insecurely struggled through the stairmaster, the rowing machine and ab exercises I made a vow to not complain about my body not looking “normal”, and just work at getting it in great shape, it just did something pretty amazing for the last nine months! I hope AJ will hold me to this… especially when we head down to Florida (Sunday!!!!) and I’m in a bathing suit!

Five years ago I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. It basically means your body hurts at all times in all places. Oddly, it helps to exercise even if I’m feeling rotten but right now I need some motivation to get out there and run on the freezing days (I have a hate-hate relationship with the treadmill) so I am planning on running this race in Manchester, MA, Hit the Street for Little Feet, a 5K on April 2. Anyone woman want to do the race, join me for training on Saturdays and finish a run with a healthy breakfast? I’m going to ask AJ (he's a cross country coach and amazing marathon runner, I like to brag on him) to make up a training plan for me… and YOU if you’re so inclinded to join in on the fun!

In an added effort to reduce the aches I’m trying to edit out some of things on my diet (and let’s be honest, I’m trying to get rid of the “muffin top”). I did the Daniel Fast a few years ago (only fruits, veggies and water for 30 days but I altered it to let myself have some chicken and a tiny bit of whole grain bread) and felt great. It was like toxins were leaving the body and I literally felt lighter. My aches went down considerably and my energy level was so much higher than normal. Now it’s definitely hard when Girl Scout cookies are in the house (darn you, AJ!) but I’m going to make a valid effort at disciplining myself! :)

I want to be a woman who isn’t burdened by insecurity (who finds security in my relationship with the Lord), and who consistently tries to make healthy decisions in everything from what I put in my mouth to how I treat my body. I’ll post updates on the training progress if anyone is interested in joining in!

The photo above was my breakfast this morning… some quick oats with almond milk, a whole apple, raisins and a teensy bit of brown sugar sprinkled on the top.

First Trip to the Beach and Valentine's Day

Drew and I took our first walk to the beach yesterday! It was around 50 degrees which made it a lot less miserable than it could have been... he was happy as a clam as we were leaving:

And he promptly fell asleep 1/4 mile into our walk. So I walked the hills on the way to the beach talking to a sleeping baby. I must have looked crazy, but whatever calms Drew and works off the pregnancy pounds! :)

After we got back from our walk we set to work on the Valentine's Day dinner... all from the fabulous Trader Joe's: tuna steaks, mushroom risotto and asparagus. For our appetizer we had these amazing chicken and cilantro wontons. Yumm..... And AJ made an adorable card with Drew's handprints on it... only Drew had decided to keep his hands in fists. :)

House Envy

One of our first dates was a run where we ended up in an open house in Beverly Cove... only it was a brokers only open house with wine and cheese and we showed up in our running clothes. Yeah, embarrassing, but regardless, we got to see a fabulous house that we could never afford and drink some wine in the middle of our run (maybe all runs should have snack breaks in the middle of them...). Today was similar to that day... we went to an open house at this gorgeous carriage house in Manchester. The house is listed for $629,000 so it's unfortunately off limits but I am suffering from a major case of house envy. The house is about 3700 sq. ft, on 2.5 acres and it's about a mile and a half from the ocean. I would love love love to take this house from the 1970s to 2011. What would you do?

AJ and I would want to change the color of the house, and possibly the shingles, add in some grass and fabulous gardens, add in a smaller window above the one closest to the front door and change the garage doors to something like this, which is actually called a carriage style door (how perfect for a former carriage house):

Here is a series of photos of the open space of the living room, sitting room (directly in front of the foyer) and the dining room that seats 20 easily. Could there be a more perfect party house? I would even love to take their 70s style furniture and reupholster it in fabulous prints and paint the woodwork on the chairs.

Okay, so the parquet floors and red carpet need to go. It sounded like I was on a dance floor walking across it. But I'm in love with all the windows, especially the small ones, they add a lot of character.

The woodwork painted white would make the house look so much more open. Something would need to be done with the pillars. Maybe something like this with a shorter bookcase and taller pillars (taken from This Old House):

The kitchen has so much potential as well... this house has unbelievable storage (there is only a crawl space for the basement so they have a lot of built ins):

Image a brighter kitchen with no dropped ceiling (there are 2 smaller windows that have been boxed in because of the dropped ceiling). White cabinets? Yes, please. :) I don't think I'd do any upper cabinets because there is a full length wall to the left of the photo of cabinets. How about some extra windows where those upper cabinets are? I'd get rid of the pillar in the middle of the room holding the double oven and I'd place it elsewhere. Oh, and a breakfast nook by the giant window would be fabulous. Maybe like this:

or this

Oh to be able to do all this in real life... and not just on the blog. Maybe some venture capitalist would fund AJ and I... :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Mmmm... Cookies and Card Making

Kim threw a Valentine's Day card-making party this weekend. I made this easy variation of Chocolate Crinkles that I found on All Recipes.
1 (18.5 oz) package of Devil's Food Cake Mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
bake at 350 for 11 minutes

Photos of Kim's creativity:

Giveaway Winner: Courtney Johnson

Courtney with her fiance Jeff Hughes.

They are getting married on August 6, 2011... the story of how they met is below... I snagged it off their wedding website!

We lived less than a mile away from each other for most of our lives. We swam on the same swim team and we walked the halls of the same elementary school. Who knew that years later we would be getting hitched?

Since we went to different schools from 6th grade on, and Jeff is a year older than I, our paths didn't cross too much after our Wedgewood days. It wasn't until I was at a nail salon in my town when I was a senior in High school and I ran into Jeff's mom. I knew who she was and I knew that her son was cute, but I never thought anything would ever come about it. We chatted as we were getting our nails done and a few days later I had a "friend request" from Jeff on Facebook when I was in France on a school trip. Good work Michele! 

We talked on face book through flirty messages and I arranged to go to a lacrosse game at Jeff's college to watch my friend Jason play and meet up with my friend Frank. I happened to call Jeff and say I was on a campus. He will admit, at first he didn't pick up the phone and after a few minutes he called me back. 

We met outside of his freshmen dorm, gave each other an awkward hug and talked for a few minutes. A week later I got up the nerve to ask Jeff and two other friends to go to a Red Sox game to break the ice. I guess it worked. 

From then I went to Texas and transferred back, Jeff went to Australia and now is in Law School. If we made it through the long distance phone calls and stressful studying, I think we can make it through anything. The rest is history...


We'll have another giveaway next month... I've loved reading your comments, thank you for postings. If you don't want to wait to win you can order some stationery, it's not expensive! :)

Tiles, Mantles and the Twin Men in my Life...

Photo: Starting with the cement board after we mapped out where each of the tiles would go.

I had very fussy Drew duty while AJ did the dirty work. (I did dirty work too, but it was the kind on the changing table, not in the entryway.)

Up close and personal. We chose tiles to match our counter tops (after three trips to Home Depot... do those count as date nights?... we chose these) but left a layer of grout on top to give it a little more of a honed look instead of the shiny feel of our counter tops.

The nearly finished product. AJ has to make two tile cuts for the very end and then replace the trim work. After seeing the new marble it made us realize we want a new door. Priority #24343.

The boys in their matching church outfits. Hokey, I know, but I love it. :)

Our paperwhites are giving us hope that spring is coming... in two agonizingly long months. :)

On a different note... would you believe that AJ put those two topiaries in my stocking? I mean, how many people can honestly say that they've had a bush in their Christmas stocking. Not many, I'd guess. :)

Grief and Chocolate Sauce

Disclaimer: this post is random, disjointed and definitely not my best writing. But that is the way I feel grief is... random, disjointed and without great transitions between a normal moment and a moment where you feel yourself tearing up. I was having a hard time articulating everything I wanted to say, and honestly, I didn't even hit half of it... but here's my best shot so far:

I wanted to write this post on the year anniversary of Grandma's death but everything I'd thought about didn't seem quite right. So two months later I'm sitting here pecking on the iPad while I nurse Drew. I wish Grandma had met him, or even known he was coming, he would have been her first great-grandson. I know she would have loved him and she and Grandpa would have been the dynamic duo that they were while I was growing up and would have taught him how to paint and work in the workshop.
As I made a pillow for Drew's room recently I kept thinking back to the hours I spent at Grandma's sewing machine (in their laundry room with the green shag carpet, why do we sometimes remember the smallest details?).  Back then, when Kim and I went every Tuesday during the summer while Mom and Dad worked, I made pillows for my dolls. And when I shoddily do the reverse stitch now I think of how meticulously Grandma taught me to do it... I don't seem to have the skill she did...
For years whenever we had a family gathering I'd always ask if she had her special chocolate sauce (it was far better than anything the store sold) and she'd always whip it out of the freezer for me even if that wasn't on the dessert menu. It didn't matter if she was out of ice-cream I'd have it with cookies, brownies or quite honestly, I'd eat just a bowl of chocolate sauce.
At my bridal shower she was subdued. Within days from the June shower she had her diagnosis of liver cancer. Three days before AJ and I got married (July 10, 2009) she had her first chemotherapy treatment. She and Grandpa sat in the back of the chapel during the ceremony because she was too weak to walk in the processional.
I'd visit as her health declined rapidly, she stopped looking like the picture of health and wasn't able to talk or eat on her own because she became so weak. Dad called me on Thanksgiving morning, November 26, 2009, and suggested AJ and I go and say our goodbyes. She slept the whole time we were there except for this very brief moment when she opened her eyes and looked at us and Grandpa right before she died. I'm not sure tears ever stopped flowing while I was there.
I've never had someone close to me die, much less been in the room when it happened. I was in shock and had to call my Dad to tell him that Grandma died. I remember thinking it was such a role reversal when I called and told him that his mother had just died. As we waited for everyone, including the hospice nurse, to show up at the house, Grandpa spent some time in the room with Grandma by himself. He removed her wedding ring for the first time since they were married. I love that he still wears his.
The next day was my birthday and we didn't celebrate with any chocolate sauce. Instead I cried through most of my party.
When Dad told me about going to the funeral home to pick out the casket and make arrangements with Grandpa he mentioned that Grandpa paid for the funeral out of money he and Grandma saved for a trip out west. I think the hardest part for me about Grandma's death wasn't surprisingly, losing Grandma, even though that was awful, it was seeing Grandpa lose Grandma. My grief is obviously very different than his. Mine comes at random, and sometimes unexpected, moments and is triggered by something as little as chocolate sauce or a green shag carpet.
I was reading a quote by CS Lewis recently that said how the person left behind wants to love well even after the person they have loved has died. When I think of someone loving well I think of Grandpa, who is still loving her well.

The bedroom is done... for now... and the 1 month check up of our enormous son.

After a wonderful snow day, and Drew's 4 HOUR nap, the bedroom is complete! Yes, answer to prayer, especially since I had started to get the room ready yesterday morning and as soon as I was prepped and ready to start painting he started crying (impeccable timing! :) ).
Let me remind you what the room looked like:

This summer I painted the floor Benjamin Moore's Vanilla Ice-Cream (wonderful name for a color!) and then earlier this week I decided that I couldn't stand another minute of the hideous, stained 1800s wallpaper. Even though we plan on ripping down the drywall, insulating the room (yes, that's right, we have no insulation in it, hence the space heater regularly reading in the high 40s) and putting up blueboard we won't be doing that for a little bit. There are a few more projects in line ahead of this room (and by 'a few projects', I mean nearly every other room in the house has priority over this one).

We know the style of the fireplace and mirror don't go with the beachy theme but we hope to replace them with a farmhouse table (for a desk) and we would love to get rid of the ugly teal rug and put a jute rug down.

I've got to figure out something for the modem and phone lines on the floor. I'm thinking a magazine rack secured to the wall, any other ideas?

And... my prize once it was finished. :)

On a different note, we had Drewbie's one month check-up today. I'll shoot straight with you. He's a tank. AJ and I placed guesses this morning on how much he'd weigh. AJ said 10 lbs 8 oz. I said 10 lbs 11 oz. Keep in mind he was 9.1 at birth. He was 11.9 today and 23 inches long. Yeah... the dryer wasn't shrinking his clothes... he really did grow over 2 inches in 4 weeks.

Look at that BELLY!

He was ready to go to the Christmas Tree Shops where I scored a Williams-Sonoma cookbook for $7 and an herb potting set for AJ for $3!

Mom having fun with Drew at lunch... even though for the first two photos I'm pretty sure he was basically comatose until she woke him up with kisses.

And we thought little girls were drama queens....

How is it that one minute he can be happy as a clam and the next he'll be screaming bloody murder?

Well, he's not exactly smiley here (because he burst into tears two seconds later) but I needed to get a photo of him in his hockey gear (AJ played ice hockey growing up). I can barely skate around the rink without freaking out about falling and landing on the blade of my skate so I think Drew is going to have to be AJ's hockey partner later in life.

And 10 minutes later I had to change him again into this outfit. I loved this progression of him with his little cute faces... he was totally fine here, he just wanted to be held and the second I picked him up he was perfectly happy, don't report me to DSS. :)

Smiling as AJ played with him!

AJ testing out the sling that Tammy brought us... AJ made dinner and Drew got held, the best of both worlds
(I think I was working on the blog).

I'm pecking at the keyboard now because Drew has fallen asleep in my arms. I took this photo early this morning, I love how it captures the happiness in each of their faces (the two photos are slightly different).

AJ has run to Gloucester to shovel out the tenants there and I'm going to finish painting the bedroom today! Whoo hooo a project will be done!

Beautiful or Useful?

A friend posted this in the comments section after reading the C.S. Lewis quote and I loved the simplicity of it:
"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
William Morris

That is definitely something I've been trying to live by, especially recently. Isn't it so therapeutic to clean out an area that has just been hanging over your head forever (like the basement, the room in our house I feel like we (and "we", meaning, AJ) organize weekly!)?
I'm using maternity leave as a time to start fresh and reprioritize and reorganize my life. I want to keep life simple so that I can focus on the things that matter. Drewbie just woke up from his nap so I'm going to go snuggle him, but before I go I'm going to leave with you with this great photo of a kitchen because I think it's something beautiful in such a simple and useful way! Martha Stewart just started a line for Home Depot, and AJ and I would love to flip a house and design the kitchen like this...