The charming, idyllic towns along Lake Constance in Germany

Lake Constance is Europe's third largest lake, on the gorgeous Rhine, at the foot of the alps. The lake and it's absolutely adorable towns makes for a gorgeous day trip from Ulm. Actually - I wish we had scheduled more time to explore the towns. You can read about Lake Constance on Wikipedia.

I love half-timbered buildings...

So gorgeous!

As always - thanks to my bf Chris for these gorgeous photos.

Here's that list again of all my posts from our travels that I've posted -

Spain
•Introduction to my European backpacking trip and a list of places we visited
• Galicia - Baiona and Isle de Cies
• Galicia - the coast, some charming vineyards, and Pontevedra
• Santiago de Compostela and gorgeous hidden beaches
• Gorgeous mountain lakes of Picos de Europa
• Stunning mountains - Picos de Europa
• Bilbao and San Sebastian
• Beautiful Barcelona
• The amazing Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona
• Art Nouveau dream house by Gaudi in Barcelona

Italy
• Not to miss - the gorgeous rocky coast of Italy's Cinque Terre
• More from my summer traveling Europe - amazing Rome
• From my summer in Europe - amazing Pompeii
• Turquoise ocean and vineyards on cliffs - the amazingly stunning Amalfi coast
• My Summer in Europe: Pictures from lovely Florence, Italy
• Enchanting Siena
•Venice
•Lake Como, Italy

Switzerland
•Jungfrau region, Switzerland, Part 1
•Jungfrau region, Switzerland, Part 2

Germany
• One of my favorite cities from my European backpacking trips - Ulm, Germany

The Dos and Dont's of Kitchen Decorating

Decorating magazines can be a great source of inspiration, but they can often overlook the basics. The problem is that basics are a big deal to the first-timer decorator. Getting your kitchen perfect is no simple process, and we can’t take anything for granted. So in order to help, we’ve assembled the most essential dos and dont's of kitchen decorating.

Do's

• Invest in a high-quality worktop. It is essential to the aesthetic and for maximizing space.

• Allow for numerous electrical sockets. You can’t have too many unless they’re eyesores.

• Separate the refrigerator from the grill, oven and similar appliances as much as possible.

• Make space for a dishwasher.

• Place base cabinets at least 21” deep.

• Place cabinets above countertops at least 30” high and 12” deep with at least 60” of frontage.

• Make your walkways 42” wide and your passageways at least 36” wide.

• Hire a professional fitter to connect the gas.

• Hire a professional electrician to handle all wiring.

• Hire a professional plumber to set up the water supply, waste disposal and drainage.

Below are some great example of kitchen Do's

via Christopher Peacock

via Kitchenisms

via Pinterest

via Schibsted Forlag

Dont's

• Overestimate cabinetry and cupboards; too much will make the kitchen seem smaller than necessary.

• Go with less than 144” of frontage for small kitchens or 186” for large kitchens (greater than 150 square feet).

• Allow for less than 15” clearance between counter and the bottom of wall cabinets; 18” is best.

• Carpet the kitchen. A kitchen floor will get wet, and it needs to be as hygienic as possible.

• Place a dishwasher farther than 36” away from a sink.

• Hang anything, including cabinets, over an oven or hob.

• Place an oven or hob directly beneath a window.

• Purchase elaborate window coverings. Simple blinds are the best choice.

• Underestimate storage needs. Any kitchen needs a combination of at least six drawers and cupboards.

• Account for less than 12” x 24” for each diner.

• Forget to place a smoke alarm and a fire extinguisher in the kitchen.

This kitchen is a major don't...

via Ugly House Photos

These are some of the major decorating tips to look out for when revamping your kitchen. Happy decorating!

*disclosure: this is a sponsored post

Dallas Association of Young Lawyers Day at the Zoo

For all of our Dallas lawyer friends- this is a great event for you to attend!  (I don't know if we have ever said, but Matthew is an attorney in Dallas.  Maybe you guys have figured that out already.  I honestly cannot remember what we have said about our "8-5" lives.)

The DAYL is having a picnic and day at the zoo and accepting donations to the James Camden Sikes Fund that day.  October 29th would have been James's first birthday.  Matthew and I are tentatively planning on attending- every day is sort of a case-by-case basis, but we hope that we feel well enough to attend.

It should be a perfect fall day to be at the Zoo and see our sweet (or ornery, but I still think she is sweet!) Jamie.

So if you are an attorney in the DFW area, feel free to mail in your form.  And if not, don't let that stop you from heading to the zoo that day.  I promise the DAYL members are incredibly kind, and won't bite!! :)

A Big Thank You to the DAYL for thinking of our James...we are so grateful for you.

Inspiration and tips for organizing your craft space

The better organized and pretty your craft space, the more you are going to get out of it.  Below are a few tips for getting it back in shape and lots of eye candy full of inspiration. These are coming at you from BHG. My additions are in italics.

Clean Out Clutter.

Test all the craft supplies you own, including paints, markers, and glues. Do the same with tools such as scissors, staplers, and punches. Toss everything that doesn't work. Put similar items in clear plastic containers with handles.

Storage for Small Gear.

Hang a clear vinyl shoe bag inside a closet or behind a door. Slip small parts, supplies, and tools into the pouches. If you have no door/closet in your work space - try a small rolling cart with lots of little drawers.

via Amazon

Hang Fabric.

Drape fabric scraps and swatches over rubber-coated hangers intended for multiple pairs of pants. Hang from hooks on the back of a door. Different fabrics need special treatment - even draping velvet over a hanger can damage it This post from Entirely Smitten has great storage ideas, which includes creating your own little minibolts, to using storage boxes originally intended for CDs and other items.

via Entirely Smitten

Organize Ideas.

Purchase eight to 10 sturdy letter boxes and fill with inspirational materials from books, magazines, photographs, and online searching. Organize and label boxes by topic, source, or project. Stack near a chair or desk and use an extra counter, end table, or resting spot. I organize my inspiration and ideas in binders. I fill the binders with clear page protectors and slip my inspiration in the sleeves. It is a really fast way to literally flip through my inspiration. I have a binder for graphic design, hair and makeup, workouts, packaging design, etc.

Here is some great craft and work spaces for inspiration:

so gorgeous!  But I hate when they take cords out of shots - where is the lamp cord?
 Regardless, the cube shelves provide great storage.

This is a dream space - tons of storage drawers, a cushy window seat!
3 above via BHG

via Curbly

via Ikea

via Pinterest

A cabinet with tons of tiny drawers is great if your projects require lots of small tools and materials.
via Pinterest

Come Back to Me

My last thought every night before I fall asleep is "Come back to me".  It's the first thing I think in the morning when I wake up.  At night, it's usually more of a desperate plea.  That I can't bear the thought of spending one more day without my baby.  Sometimes it's a quiet whisper, sometimes silent, but lots of times it's a cry in between sobs.

Please....just come back to me...one more day...one more hour.  One last kiss.  One last hug.  One last swing.  One last smile.  Even though I knew the last time I did all those things would be the last,  could they have ever been enough?

I know everyone will tell me that "James is in a better place" but that is the very last thing I want to hear.  Although I know he is, the truth is, I want him here with me.

I still wake up in the middle of the night and walk into his room.  I don't know when it will hit me that he's not in there.  I still glance in my mirror when I drive, hoping to catch his reflection in the mirror that was in front of him. Neither are in the car anymore.  The baby bjorn and the grocery cart cover are- I can't seem to move them.  My back seat used to be filled with toys and diapers and outfit changes, just in case.  Now its filled with school books.  Such a short time it was filled with the baby gear.

I still don't understand how it happened.  It's like I can't get my brain around it.  And I just don't understand why it had to happen to my baby.  To my James.  A young girl in one of my classes told me yesterday that she was pregnant unexpectedly and they think she might be having twins.  I mean, really God?  She's going to have two babies that she doesn't really want and I couldn't even keep my one?

C'est la vie, right? Sometimes things just happen.  I still don't think everything happens for a reason.  And I know people are going to disagree with me, and that is fine.

The other day the Lifehouse song "Broken" came on my pandora- which was kind of random because I was on the Adele station and I don't think Lifehouse and Adele are that similar.

I'm falling apart, 

I'm barely breathing
with a broken heart 

that's still beating

I googled the song because I was wondering what the meaning was behind it.  One of the band members said that he wrote it after visiting a friend who was very sick with cancer. And I guess that is why it makes sense to me.  

Maybe I will spend the rest of my life thinking that...every night and every morning.  Come back to me.  For some reason I just keeping hoping that one day it will be true. 

Bright, airy, and beautiful spaces to brighten up your Monday

Ugh - I'm feeling this Monday pretty hard. I'd love to just layout in a chaise on my balcony and read and nap. I thought these white and bright images might be a little pick-me-up...

How pretty is this hammock?

via Hubsch Interior

Wallpaper

There is a picture on my- James’ iPad- of James smiling. It’s from his newborn shoot. There are two different pictures of him on the iPad. One is the smiling picture from his newborn shoot. He’s looking at the camera from his side and his eyes are wide open, mouth open, gawking at the lens. During the shoot we paused several times to try to lull him to sleep. The best, or most classic, newborn pictures are those of the sleeping, innocent child. They are designed to capture the child at his most innocent, before age and time wash away the wonder of a sleeping baby and leave you with a smiling child. James refused to sleep during his newborn shoot. We tried feeding him, rocking him, warm blankets. He knew better than to sleep, even at 11 days old. James didn’t have time to be that kind of baby. I think he knew that. He never napped much, he was always wide awake. His eyes were incredibly alert, just as they are in that picture. He always seemed so much more engaged than I thought a baby would be. Perhaps it is only that I was his father and I need reasons, explanations to provide some theme so I can justify things in retrospect. But I think it was more. The other picture on the iPad is the wallpaper picture. He’s smiling at the arboretum, sitting in front of the tulips, a hand outstretched to grab one. Joy came so easily to him, to my wonder and relief.

My Dad bought the iPad while we were in the hospital. James loved to play with phones, my Dad thought that the iPad would be something fun for him to play with during chemo. James had a tactile fascination for how responsive the touch screens were. He marveled at how easily he could manipulate them. The iPad was something we could use to entertain him during the hundreds of hours we’d spend in the hospital while James got his treatments. We eagerly loaded it up with every children’s app we could think of. Doodling apps, PBS Kids, Disney, Rattles, and more. We researched the “top” kids apps and downloaded them all in James' hospital room, liberally abusing the Hospital's free Wifi. We consulted the nurses for advice.

The apps mock me now. Eveytime I turn the iPad on to fire up hulu or check my e-mail, I feverishly scroll to the last screen where I’ve stashed all the non-kid apps. Past Elmo, the Christmas Rattle, and the Doodler James once used to trace lines across the screen. I don’t always make it. Sometimes I’ll be a touch slow, click on the doodle app and wonder that my son was once alive enough make the doodles here. I e-mail them to myself, over and over again, because I always want them at the top of my inbox, as if he just drew them the over day. If I spend all my time on James I won’t do anything else. I won’t ever delete those apps of course. I won’t do anything to materially alter the IPad, that’s inconceivable. It belonged to James, and is therefore sacrosanct.

The iPad is just one reminder. A symptom of a larger, intractable problem. A reminder of a hope, dream, and future I once had that will never be. No hours of chemo, no need to worry about ways to entertain him through long hours. No need to worry about infections. The hard work I spent studying the notebooks the chemo nurses gave us, harder than I ever studied for any exam, wasted. All of this made still more frustrating because I spent time on that instead of with him. All of these are reminders that there is nothing left of James to hold onto. The feel of his hair, the tenuous strength of his fingers grasping yours. All of that is gone, with his piercing eyes. There’s nothing to hold onto. I’m left with his newborn photo, James stubbornly mocking the photographer and refusing to sleep.

That’s not to say that there aren’t comforts. We have had a great many. James has left a legacy far greater than anything we dreamed possible. I am moved by the responses that his story has generated. Still, when I’m flicking through the touch screen to avoid laying eyes on the doodle app, I can’t help but wish I was reading a blog about someone else’s life. Someone else’s child, and not writing about my own. I would never wish what happened to James on anyone else. No one should experience this. I just wish it didn't happen at all.

As always, thank you for your prayers. They are a continuing source of strength.

Closet organizing inspiration!

I have 3 closets in my small apartment, which is great. The problem is that Chris and I have way more than three closets worth of stuff. So, I've been scouting out some good ideas to maximize that space. Here's what I've found:

I don't know who only has 15 items hanging in the closet, but there are some good ideas here. Install two bars one underneath the other to maximize vertical space while providing double the space for shirts, shorts, and skirts.  I am also soooo coveting shoe cubbies.  I don't know if they're in my immediate future because of my budget...

It's smart to combine a few different storage options in your closet: drawers, cabinets, wall hooks, and shelving.

I've yet to find a belt or scarf hanger that does the job, I always go for hooks like these hanging beside my clothes rack or a full length mirror.

awesome utility closet - I need to find hooks like that to hang my mops and brooms...

Stunning - and check out how the curtains can go all the way around the room!

I have been looking for an over the door rack like this for so long!  You can find it here - Chef's

pegboard on the inside of a door is a great organization tool if you have no wall space! You could do this in the bathroom and store cosmetics and other beauty tools

Oh my goodness... heaven's pantry...this is great to aspire to...and I do have glass canisters in mine like they show here.  I cut out the label on the packaging and tape it to the inside of the canister if it's something that might not be easily recognizable - but all those little canisters and tins?   Have any of you done this with your pantry?

via BHG

Hopefully I've inspired you to maybe do a little closet makeover this weekend!  Does anyone have some closet organizing secrets to share with us?

Have a great weekend!