LOVE WHERE YOU LIVE

Two of my fellow Becky Higgins Creative Team members are hosting an online class / workshop all about documenting where you live.  It is a four week class that begins this week.  It is not about capturing or magazine or Pinterest worthy shots of your home.  It is about recording where and how you live your daily life.

I often capture bits of our home in the background of photos or take zoomed in shots of the "pretty bits" for blog post headers.  But I have never done a full-on house wide photo shoot or taken the time to write out the stories of where we live.

Our house is always in flux.  From the toys that are spread daily on the floor to the photos on the walls.  I am looking forward to capturing how we live right now and putting a time stamp on this moment.

Part of what appealed to me about this class is that there is no set format for documenting.  It seems like so many scrapbooking workshops are designed around the plan to create a mini-album.  Mini-albums are just not my thing.  I like having all of my documenting in one place and I prefer the pocket-style layout.  Accordingly, I will add whatever I create for this class right into our current family Project Life album.

You can read a lot more about Love Where You Live and register for the class here.  There is certainly no obligation here, but if you decide to register for the course, I would love it if you would let them know that I sent you when you register - just enter "brooke petermann" at checkout.

ON MAKING THE BED

For most of my life, I've been a proud anti-bed-maker.  It wasn't an act of rebellion from being forced to make my bed as a kid.  It wasn't that I enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to make my bed.  It was just that I was going to get back into it and mess it up again at the end of the day.  I didn't see the point.   I would estimate that my bed has been made less than 5% of my adult life.  

To contradict this, I have vague memories of a period of time (when I was single) when I made my bed and then slept on top of the made bed with a throw blanket on top of me.  In the morning, all I had to do was throw the blanket back on the couch and my bed was "made."  

Although I hadn't analyzed it much until now, this "make the bed and keep it made 24/7" phase is telling.  I do like the bed to be made.  I was just too lazy to do it.  

Out of the blue, Brian made our bed on a random day about two months ago.  

I had no idea what prompted him to do it, but I liked it.  Our room felt like a bit of a refuge from the general kid chaos that always takes over the rest of the house.  Our room felt calm and I'm always a fan of calm. 

So, I made the bed the next day and that evening Brian told me how much he liked it.  

It has been made almost every day since.  

I think the thing is that once the bed is made, the room feels put together.  It makes me want to keep the rest of the bedroom tidy and organized.  No piles of laundry - clean or dirty.  No random piles of papers on top of my dresser. A made bed is a catalyst for keeping things neat.  It makes me want to find similar motivations in the other rooms of our house.      

As an added bonus, our daily bed-jumping and tickling sessions always have a nice, photo-ready backdrop.  

And, to follow up on my "lazy" comment above, I should note that we sleep with just a fitted sheet and a duvet.  So, making the bed is as simple as straightening the duvet cover over our pillows and calling it done.  It's almost as simple as throwing that throw blanket back on the couch and I'll proudly admit to it because simple means I'm willing to do it and if it were more complicated I probably wouldn't.

LIVING ROOM PHOTO PROJECT

A few weeks after the rest of the holiday decor was stashed away, I finally replaced the "Merry Christmas" photo display on our living room wall.

Using the "A Beautiful Mess" app on my phone, I edited 18 recent family snapshots.  I cropped each image into a circle and then added a one word text overlay.  I stuck with a palette of warm colors, leaning a bit heavily toward pink, since that is my favorite. 

The frames are 5x7 clip frames (similar) with chipboard backs that "matte" the 4x6 photos.  

This is actually a repeat project, as I did the exact same thing a year ago.  When I completed that first set of 18, I was very pregnant with Eli and had intentions of updating the photos a few times through the year so that I could include some baby photos in the mix.  The weeks and months passed and that never happened.

When I pulled out the holiday decorations, I took down last year's photos and replaced them with the wood and white text photos that spell out Merry Christmas.  The photos that hung on the wall through all of 2014, found new homes in our holiday album.  

Most of the photos that I used are snapshots from the past few weeks.  A few are a bit older.  The one of Sam in his Halloween costume is the oldest.  I like having these snapshots of our life on our wall and I like that they tell a more personal and more real story than professional photos would.  

Unless I should find myself so motivated later in the year, I think I will leave these up for all of 2015.  When the "Merry Christmas" photos come out late next fall, I will add these to our holiday album.  

And so, a tradition begins.  

I'm curious.  Do you hang snapshots in your home?  Or do you stick to "portrait" type photos?  We have a mixture at our house, but the snapshots definitely have the winning percentage.

ORGANIZING, RIGHT NOW

I scheduled today's post back in August.  At that time, I was religiously using my daily checklist and thought it would be good to check in on my organizing system every few months - to see how it developed and to see which things continued to work.

So, here we are.  I seriously thought about pushing back the publish date because I don't feel like I have any awesome organizing "systems" working in my favor just now.  But, in the name of keeping things real, I decided to share how I'm keeping life organized right now.    

I have used my daily checklist only once in the last two weeks.  Instead, I have been mentally sorting everything that comes my way into two categories: priority and non-priority.  I've been focusing on getting the most important (or sometimes urgent) things done and managing to do so.  Everything else?  Well, life isn't falling apart, but it is slowly moving in the direction of chaos.  

I've deemed Christmas and documenting personal priorities.  These things are important to me and to our family.  I want to do them well.  I have a spreadsheet to keep track of our holiday shopping lists and money spent on gifts.  I created our Advent calendar and have a plan for how we will recognize each day as we count down to Christmas.  Our family Project Life album is up to date and I have the basic bones of my December Daily album in place, so that I don't have to do a lot to stay caught up with that project.    

Anything and everything that I accomplish on the blogging and business fronts is done when I am off mama-duty.  We allow Sam about an hour of computer time after breakfast.  He wakes up early, so I can often get about 45 minutes of work done while he is occupied and Eli (who sleeps a bit later) is still sleeping.  A few times each week, their nap times overlap and I can squeeze in a bit more work.  Otherwise, I have to wait until they are in bed. 

I have big lists of ideas and things to accomplish scattered throughout several notebooks, draft posts, random scraps of paper and too many Evernote notes.  Honestly, it's kind of a mess.  When I find some time to work, I just do a little shuffling and searching through my files and try to determine which items are of utmost priority.  

This part of my life is currently in a hamster-on-a-wheel cycle and I feel like I can't run fast enough to every catch up with myself.  I am in a constant state of working to just keep up with the next urgent task (which is often the next blog post).

I've been thinking a lot about the difference between urgency and importance.  I want things of importance to take priority over things of urgency.  This is where being intentional comes into play.  There is never going to be enough time to do all the things that I want to do, but I do get to choose which things take up my time.  

I need to get back to using my daily checklist to help me accomplish more and feel like I am keeping up with more than just a few areas of my personal life.  But, at this point, at least I feel like my personal priorities are pretty well aligned with my values.  

My work life, on the other hand, needs help all around.  I keep thinking that a magical day is in my near future where I will have several hours to get things sorted and organized and get myself back on track.  No such day, however, is on the calendar, so I think I just need to spend a few of my "work hours" doing some strategic planning and organizing to help myself sort out and prioritize the business side of my life.

So, that is what organizing looks like in my world right now.  Not a disaster, but in need of help.   

What about you?  Are you working on what's important?  Do you have any magic secrets to help me with my urgency problem?

A BIG KID ROOM FOR SAM

Completing a "big boy room" for Sam was #79 on my goal list. Last Friday, I crossed it off!  I'm on a roll and it feels good.  

Truth be told, everything that is in his room has been there for the last six months.  I finally got it rearranged and organized and re-hung things on the wall.  And with those little fixes, I'm calling it complete.  

He doesn't use a pillow or a blanket.  We've tried, but he seems good without them. 

The pile on his bed is usually a bit bigger than what it is in the photo - more stuffed animals and more "night-nights."  I also picked up the usual toy / book disaster before I took photos.

The rug is from IKEA and crazy affordable.  I made the circle art sometime around 2005.  My mother-in-law made the curtains when I was pregnant with Sam and reupholstered the little rocking chair about a year ago.  

The dresser is a hand me down from a cousin and the bookshelf is from IKEA.  

Sam cracks me up because - other than being enamored with the photo of himself and his cousins hanging on the wall - he didn't even seem to notice that all of his furniture had been moved.  

ORGANIZING - RIGHT NOW

A month ago, I felt like I was being pulled in too many directions.  Every area of my life felt like it was lagging a bit behind a general level of "okay" and far behind an A grade. 

Take out full time employment and add in a daily checklist and things are starting to improve in my little world. 

I have an abundance of organizational ideas and plans swimming around my brain with hopes of future implementation.  But, for now, my life is coming together with one tool: a daily checklist. 

My list:

• is doable, but requires effort and time to complete.  A checklist of more tasks than I could reasonably accomplish in a day would leave me feeling that I failed.  Every day.  That doesn't sound like a recipe for success.  A checklist that I could knock off in an hour wouldn't be much of a challenge and would likely mean that I wasn't getting a lot done in a day.  It's all about finding that happy medium.
• includes a few specific tasks as well as several items that are open to interpretation.  A cookie cutter list would only work on the random day when the specific items on the list needed to be done.
• includes Brian, Sam and Eli.  They're my people.  Doing something with and for each of them, each day means I am doing my job. 
• includes self-care.  Keeping me happy and healthy is important, too.
• has only three fill-in-the-blank lines.  This prevents me from over scheduling my days and helps me to prioritize my extra to-do items.

I want to use these first few months of being a stay-at-home mom as a jumping off point for some good habits.  It is much easier for me to start something new when I feel like there has been a clean break in my world. 

Creating this checklist and working through it each day equal good habit number one.  And each day it is helping me baby step toward a house, a schedule, a budget and a set of priorities with less frazzle and more intention. 

And - clearly - pink highlighters make everything more fun.

ELI'S NURSERY TOUR

We finished decorating Eli's nursery a few weeks before he arrived.  With the exception of one empty photo frame (waiting for a photograph of our family or perhaps of just Eli and Sam), things are set. 

I love this space.  It feels so airy and light.  It isn't too matchy-matchy.  The artwork makes me happy.  Yep, things are just plain good for our new little man. 

All of the furniture previously lived in Sam's room.  The robot mobile is also on it's second run.  The mustache chalkboard is a leftover from Sam's first birthday party. 

Both boys have a yellow Leo Little Lion print, a chalkboard mustache and a Sharon Montrose photograph.  They both have custom-made-by-grandma changing pad covers.  They both have chevron curtains.  I like that there rooms each have their own feel, but also have a lot of things in common.  (Here's a peek at Sam's nursery as it looked when we brought him home.)

Once Elijah came home, we discovered that the LaZBoy recliner is the only comfortable chair in our house for nursing.  So, the recliner has been moved into Brian's and my bedroom (next to the bassinet) and the corner of Eli's room is now graced with our Eames RAR.  We will do a switcharoo again once he starts to sleep in his own room. 

Resource list:

Chevron curtains: West Elm// Crib: Walmart // Dresser: thrifted by auntie and refinished by grandpa // Changing pad cover: Charley Harper fabric, sewn by grandma // Cloth diaper caddy: Target // Robot mobile: Very Cute // "Adventure Awaits" print: Just Izzy Design// Twin lions print: The Animal Print Shop by Sharon Montrose // Personalize lion print: LeoLittleLion Studio // Painting: by mama // LaZBoy recliner: hand me down from great-grandpa // Footstool: thrifted // Yellow chevron throw: TJ Maxx // Giraffe under tree print: Art.com

OUR OFFICE

We ordered our desk (the Linnmon/Alex combo) in late December, along with a bunch of other IKEA goods.  Everything else arrived before Christmas, but our desk was out of stock. 

We waited.  Perhaps a bit anxiously, on my part.

Last Friday, I received an email to inform me that our desk was in.  Brian picked it up that night and on Saturday morning we put it all together. 

Our pre-this-desk office had zilch for storage space.  Those two sets of drawers are rockin' my world.  Also, I've never had a set place to blog.  I would just move my laptop with me from place to place around the house.  A dedicated space is pretty nice. 

I invested in some pretty word art to go along with my One Little Word for 2014.  The designs are by Belinda of Poppy Loves to Groove and I printed them as 12x12 photos through Persnickety Prints. 

I'm really looking forward to having and using this space that can be dedicated to all my projects.  

REVERSE 100 THING CHALLENGE

Inspired once again by Courtney Carver, I took on the Reverse 100 Thing Challenge this past week.  The idea behind the challenge is to remove 100 items from your home. 

I started a small pile a few weeks ago and thought I would do a thorough sorting, dumping and tallying sometime after the holidays.  But, the pile started to bother me and I didn't want it hanging out in the house until January.  

I know that we will have an influx of new things coming into the house over the next month so it seemed best to get this project moving.  

My pile grew throughout the day on Monday and while Sam napped I started sorting and counting.  My first count was 63.  Getting from there to 100 was a bit more difficult than I anticipated.  I made another sweep through the house, spent some time in our basement store room and finally tackled the kitchen cupboards and refrigerator. 

The final count was somewhere around 100, but I quit keeping track once I got over 90 and started cleaning out the refrigerator.  There were a few bunches of things that I ended up counting as single items. Hangers and old scrapbook supplies, for example. 

My 100 things are being allocated approximately as follows:  75% to Goodwill, 20% to the trash and 5% to friends and family that will put them to a better use than I have.  The twenty percent that left with the garbage truck makes me feel the worst.   It seems a bit ridiculous that I had that much trash just taking up room in the house, but it also feels great to get rid of it. 

Not only is my house 100 things lighter, I managed to rearrange and reorganize a few spaces in the process.  It feels like a little treat each time that I open the newly organized cuboards and closets. 

I think this could be the start of a new early-December tradition. 

Courtney Carver was also the original inspiration behind my capsule wardrobe (which is still going strong).  I highly recommend subscribing to her blog.

FESTIVITY AROUND THE HOUSE

THE TREE

After purchasing a tree from a local hardware store the past few years, we decided to go a bit more authentic this year and take a trip to a tree farm.  Amazingly, we found one about a mile and a half from our house.  We had visions of cutting it ourselves, but decided that the cold weather and wind justified choosing one that had been pre-cut.

The ornaments on the tree are grey, white and silver.  Many of them are from IKEA, a few years back.  Our full ornament stash also includes an assortment of solid silver and silver-glitter bulbs, but those guys are breakable and we decided to leave them in storage for this year. 

THE GALLERY WALL

For the past two years, a sampling of post cards from this Charley Harper collection has graced our living room walls.  I love the sweet birds and their mid-century modern feel, but wanted to make things a bit more festive for the holidays.

I replaced the postcards with white letters spelling out "merry christmas" on a woodgrain background.  I had intentions of ordering a few 4x6 shots to place on either side of the word "MERRY" but it hasn't happened yet.  We'll see. 

THE STOCKINGS

No chimney at our house.  Last year, we hung them in the foyer.  This year, we were worried about sticky little hands grabbing at them and pulling them down.  I kind of dig their new home. 

I bought the glitter initial ornaments last year and now need to find one for the little man growing in my belly.  Anyone know where I can find something similar? 

THE NATIVITY

Our Willow Tree Nativity Set was purchased / gifted to us over the course of our first year and a half of marriage.  I love them.  As a kid, I loved rearranging the nativity set and look forward to the time when my own little boys are big enough to understand what it means to be gentle. 

TREES

I don't really like to "collect" things because I don't like things sitting around my house.  But, I have a small collection of modern-ish trees that I bring out for the holidays and they make my heart sing.  Although I still keep my eye out for newbies to add to the collection, I would really have to fall in love with one to pull the purchasing trigger because I'm fresh out of display space. 

THE OUTDOOR LIGHTS

Brian knocked it out of the ballpark once again.  I love our outside lights.  Nothing fancy, but nice and straight and clean-lined.  (Hello, my name is brooke.  I like (crave, need) straight lines.)  Just my style. 

BABY BOY NURSERY IDEAS

We won't find out if Baby P is a boy or a girl until the end of October.  Either way, Sam will be moving to our current, upstairs guest bedroom and the nursery will remain a nursery. 

Much as I did while pregnant with Sam, I have been whiling away my hours scoping out adorable nurseries and scheming up two nursery plans - one for a boy and one for a girl. 

No matter if we have a boy or a girl, the nursery walls will remain cream colored, the furniture will remain white (with the exception of the 1970s orange La-Z-Boy) and we will add in some happy colors with artwork, fabric and accessories.

Finding and coordinating boy artwork, fabric, etc. is proving difficult.  A big part of that is because I think it would be hard to decide which things should remain in the nursery as "baby things" and which things should move on with Sam to his big boy room as "Sam's things." Instead of stressing myself out over these things, I've decided to just wait until we learn if we are having a boy or girl to really try to make each room work. 

In the meantime, here are a few pieces of art that I'm crushing on for a baby boy's room:

1 - Adventure Awaits

2 - Lion King

3 - Baby Giraffe Little Darling

4 - Giclee Print

The Lion King print goes along with the Queen Giraffe print that I included in my girl nursery artwork board.  Again, I think it would be fun to have coordinating prints for both the new baby and Sam. 

The Baby Giraffe photo is by Sharon Montrose.  Sam has the Baby Porcupine (also by Sharon Montrose) in his room and that is one piece of art that will definitely be moving with him to his new room. 

And that's where I'm at on artwork for a little guy's nursery.  I can hardly wait until the end of October.  I am anxious to not only buy some art, but also some tiny little clothes. 

We love you already, Baby P! 

We won't find out if Baby P is a boy or a girl until the end of October.  Either way, Sam will be moving to our current, upstairs guest bedroom and the nursery will remain a nursery. 

Much as I did while pregnant with Sam, I have been whiling away my hours scoping out adorable nurseries and scheming up two nursery plans - one for a boy and one for a girl. 

No matter if we have a boy or a girl, the nursery walls will remain cream colored, the furniture will remain white (with the exception of the 1970s orange La-Z-Boy) and we will add in some happy colors with artwork, fabric and accessories.

I'm sure some of my ideas will change if/when I actually get to work on decorating a nursery for a girl, but here's the plan for a baby girl nursery, just now:

1 Hello, You're Awesome Print

2 Campout Print

3 Woodland Owl Frame

4 Queen Giraffe Print

5 Fabs - Limited Edition Print

If I buy the Queen Giraffe print, I won't be able to resist buying this coordinating print for Sam's room.  It has been on my wish list for him for a long time. 

And that's where I'm at with girl nursery ideas.  I love this part of dreaming and scheming up decorating plans. 

ALL THE SMALL THINGS

I've been noticing all the small things that make my days a bit better, a bit prettier and more meaningful.  It started with my tiny alphabet stamps that have been getting a lot of use in my Project Life album.  Once I began to pay attention, I ended up with a whole list of good little things.

And the list goes on: pacifiers (known as binkies around our house) are high on the list, my seafoam nail polish, Burts Bees and EOS lip balm, chickpeas = yummy homemade hummus, my iPhone, my prayer book, Sam's little hand holding mine while we pray before our meals, my Kindle, my calendar, my zoo membership card.

All things that can easily fit in the palm of my hand, but that make life just a bit more enjoyable. 

MY PERENNIAL FLOWER BED

I didn't manage to plant any flowers, last summer.  Thankfully, I can use my status as a first-time-mom with an infant to care for as my excuse.  My pots, usually overflowing with annuals sat (disheartened, I am sure) in the garage all summer long. 

I had grand plans for changing that up, this spring.  But, it hasn't happened yet.  I set the empty pots on the front porch a month ago.  I decided that I would go to the nursery the next day.  And then I didn't.  It is still early in June.  I might make it there, yet. 

To be honest, I'm kind of undecided on the whole thing.  At this point, I'm not expecting to make a separate trip out of the house to buy flowers.  But, if I find myself at the store for other things, I might just pick up a few pots of Geraniums and maybe fill a flat with Vinca and whatever else catches my eye.  I know that if I just made time for it, I would really enjoy them for the rest of the summer.  So, we'll see. 

And now comes the part where I say, "Thank goodness for my perennials."  

I love having pretty flowers out front.  I appreciate them for their own sake, I appreciate them for the bit of zest and color that they bring to the front of our house, I love that they make me think of/feel like my mom (who is all about flower gardening).

Perennials mean doing the work once and enjoying the fruits of that labor year after year.  Can't get much better than that.  They are also easy to divide and share.  All but one of my plants in my front yard flower patch were divided gifts from either my mom or a co-worker.  They were actually gifted to me while I lived in my first house and then divided once again to move with me here. 

My perennial flower bed is made up of Peonies, Lilies, Sedum, Ajuga, a small Hydrangea bush, Cosmos and the tiny little yellow flowers that are in the photo above.  I don't know what they are called.  Anyone?  Can you enlighten me? 

The Peonies are in full bloom right now and the Lilies are full of buds just waiting to burst.  The Cosmos are just a few inches out of the ground.  In a month, they will be to my waist or higher.  My Hydrangea is seven years old, but hasn't made much progress in the growing department.  It faithfully blooms by mid-summer each year, though. 

If you are in want of flowers for your own home, I can't recommend perennials enough.  Find a friend or neighbor with some and ask them to share.  If you know me personally (and live close by), I would be happy to be your friend that shares.  Just let me know.

PEACE

When the living room looks like this, I feel peace. 

I have read of others taking month-long challenges to make their beds every day.  I have yet to be bothered by my unmade bed, but a living room littered with toys, books and half-folded laundry nearly drives me bonkers.  

You'd think that knowing this about myself would lead me to pick up the living room on a daily basis, but that isn't the case.

My own mom is a picker-upper.  Walk into her house and you will definitely not find a random shirt or shoe lying in the middle of the living room floor.  I grew up with this and I think it contributes to my own desire for an uncluttered space and having things put away. 

There was a particular family that both my sister and I babysat for when we were teenagers that lived at the opposite end of this spectrum.  I remember feeling a sense of shock the first time that I walked into their house.  Up until that point,  I'd had  no idea that it could be "okay" to live with things strewn here and there.  There house wasn't dirty and they weren't hoarders, it just felt like they were really living life and not particularly concerned with where their various items found homes. 

I would say that we fall pretty much right in the middle of these two extremes.  It depends on the day and it depends on my mood, but there are times when you could find our home in either place. 

Currently, we are in a stage of life that seems to require a bit of a mess.  We play on the floor all day long.  Playing = toys and books all over the place.  I appreciate this because I want our home to be lived in and enjoyed.  And it is. 

But, I can relax much more easily when the living room floor is cleared of clutter. 

For the past few weeks, I have been challenging myself to pick things up, on a daily basis, once Sam is in bed.  

He goes to bed early, so I get to enjoy the clean floor for a few hours in the evening and start my next day with things in order.  I haven't been perfect, but since I have taken the time to really notice how much better I feel when it is done has really motivated me to keep it up.  

Since we only keep one bucket of toys, one bucket of books and one container of blocks in the living room, it only takes five or ten minutes to get everything put away.  It's not so hard to convince myself to get 'er done when I know that I'm only investing five minutes of my time.  

LITTLE HOUSE

A new little friend has come to live at our house.  He has made himself at home in our front entryway.

This is how this sweet little house looked when he arrived home with me.  Pretty enough to leave untouched. 

I did, indeed, leave him alone for a week or so with plans of painting him a nice, bright white. 

As you can see, that didn't happen.  I went downstairs to dig through my craft supplies and couldn't find any white paint.  The black bottle was staring up at me, though, looking a bit sad for lack of use.  I carried the black paint upstairs and got to work. 

Midway through house painting, I knew that I was onto something good.

I foresee this little gem having a nice, long lifespan at our house.  Unlike my pretty pink ceramic bowl that Sam pushed to the floor and smashed to smithereens, a few weeks ago, this guy is made of cardboard.  This should be a big help in his extending his longevity. 

VALENTINE'S DAY

I made some garlands out of pink yarn and red and pink construction paper and hung them in Sam's doorway, '70s style.  He was interested in them, the moment he woke up and it was fun to see how they kept grabbing his attention throughout the day.  I also made a fourth one and hung it across the dining room window to add a bit of Valentine cheer to our meals.  

This was such a quick and inexpensive project that managed to add a big punch of fun to our house, that I have been inspired to make similar garlands with a mustache theme for our impending mustache bash.  The party is one week from tomorrow!  Time to get organizing! 

Brian bought me a lovely bouquet of spring flowers, which I much prefer to roses.  And, he was kind enough to pick them up on Wednesday evening, so I was able to enjoy them all day on Valentine's day.  There is something about having a vase of fresh flowers in the house that just makes the rest of the day seem better.  It also motivates me to keep the table cleared off, so I can really enjoy their beauty and not be distracted by all of our day-to-day clutter. 

And there were cards and kindnesses and texts and plans for fast food tacos with wine and candles.  We're fancy like that.  Sadly, our schmancy dinner plans were canceled, as I was called in to work.  But.  I was only there for a short while and back home before Sammer went to bed.  Yep, it was a good day.   

I hope that y'all had a wonderful holiday and that you have an even lovelier weekend.  Cheers!