There's a rumor going around that boys are tougher than girls. Oh please. Can you carry a 7lb baby in your stomach for 9 months and survive hours of labour? Can you cook, clean,and talk on the phone all at the same time? Can you bleed for a week and not die? Can you walk in 5 inch heels? Can you cry all night then wake up the next day like everything is okay? Remember guys, women are only helpless till their nail polish dries

what's your super power?

i heart vintage shoes

the Romarin Pumps by Charles Jourdan (made in Portugal)
Size 39
@ I<3Vintage
http://www.ilovevintage.nl/nl/vintage_pumps/48898/The-Romarin-pumpsArray

Nate Williams ~ Illustrator Extraordinaire

A special shout-out to 'Jack-eh! Designs' for sharing her love of this most awesome illustrator, Nate Williams.  I especially appreciate it since I am ALWAYS on the look out for discovering talented artists.
Cheers Jacks! 


Nate Williams is an illustrator with a love for  hand lettering. He is inspired by nature’s inventions, unique ideas, foreign cultures  and the questions children ask & thinks the keys to creativity are curiosity, inspiration, play and discovery.

                                                     Outer Space

Jack-eh! Designs: Nate Williams, My Illustration Hero

Jack-eh! Designs: Nate Williams, My Illustration Hero: Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had a beautiful week-end! To start off the week, I would like to share with you all one of my favorite I...

fave foto of the week

A VonGruesome~ly Awesome morning

7 am, Monday morning  ~ my three guys are off to work, school & daycare

Maison Missoni

One of the world's greatest fashion houses. Famed for its distinctive design ethos. Brilliant use of colour. Fine textiles.

The Bold style, the colour, the pizazz of Missoni

A Hotel Missoni room in Edinburgh 

Missoni for Target

in stores September 13th 2011....

I heart Montreal

                                    Home is Where the Heart is!

Kids say the 'darndest' things!

**Zeyden Stalling @ Bedtime*

z;"mama, can I please have only one cookie before I go to bed?"

~ "No way! Sorry mister, but it's already very late & you gotta go to bed, like now!" 

Z; "But I'm a bit hungry still."

~"Well if you're really still hungry you can have a vegetable."

Z; "Can I have some potato chips?"

~ "Sorry baby, but no chips either."

Z; "But you said I could have a vegetable and a potato IS a vegetable mama!"

                                            .....Nice try wise guy.         

           Asleep before his head even hit the pillow

This mama is HOME ALONE!

So with my eldest child now in pre-kindergarten all day long & with our youngest in daycare full time as of TODAY, one word comes to mind...........................................................................................
                                ~FREEDOM~
I dedicate this song to Zeyden's pre-k teacher & Lukas' daycare workers ~ CHEERS LADIES!




                  ~Ahhhh!!!
        Feet Up, Fuzzy Slippers, Facebook & Chillin' like
                    a Villain!








                love Vee
     

Potty Training Kid Number Two

Thursday, September 8th 2011

So we've arrived at that 'wonderful' time in a young child's life, the time of reaching yet another  milestone and the start of a new chapter... *drum roll please*...  The start of potty training your stubborn toddler! Alas, the wheels are in motion & potty training Lukas Dean has slowly begun chez les VonGruesomes & I now realize why it is I was procrastinating & why I kept putting this process off with child number two. Because I hated it with child number one, and still do.

Lukas is a very strange little creature. Adorable as he may be, he is quite the tricky little bugger. He is very determined to do things on his own, yet that always depends on what the things he WANTS to do are. 

Peeing in the potty is definitely not one of them.

On the other hand, pulling off his diaper & running around the house naked is totally "his thing".... and this he does after almost EVERY single pee! Hence  costing mommy & daddy a pretty penny in diapers & training pants.

 One thing potty training my first born Zeyden has taught me is that you just can't push 'em. They will go when they are READY to go. And no, your child will not be wearing diapers or peeing his or her undies in the sixth grade. So, from now on, we just go with the flow, Lukas' flow, because that's all we can do. Our huge achievement of the week is that Lukas will now sit down on the potty, naked & 'pretend' that he is peeing. Hey, this is a big step away from putting his toys in the potty, closing the lid & then flushing. 

So I just wanted to share one of the many little joys (& headaches) in the life of a stay-at-home mom...

More to come... Stay tuned! 

fave foto of the week

My kiddos dressed up in their costumes for Halloween 2011~
Lukas is a one-eyed, two-horned, pouting, blue, people eater &
Zeyden is Optimus Prime, fearless leader of the Autobots

mama's boys ~ my three babies

“For a mother the project of raising a boy is the most fulfilling project she can hope for. She can watch him, as a child, play the games she was not allowed to play; she can invest in him her ideas, aspirations, ambitions, and values -- or whatever she has left of them; she can watch her son, who came from her flesh and whose life was sustained by her work and devotion, embody her in the world. So while the project of raising a boy is fraught with ambivalence and leads inevitably to bitterness, it is the only project that allows a woman to be -- to be through her son, to live through her son.”

Andrea Dworkin

I am in love with this...

Modern designs, but one foot firmly in the past - that's the retro-styled artwork by Ingela P Arrhenius. The Swedish illustrator Arrhenius takes inspiration from the 50s and 60s for her cartoon-like images, Ingela often employs cheerful characters, simple shapes, and natural color palettes. Her posters are packed with color and guaranteed to brighten up any room, child's room or not.

Limited editions, but not at a limited edition price. Choose between Bird Tree, Tivoli, Hi Stockholm, or A-Z

Each poster measures 20" x 27" ~ 30$


Meet the Robots. The robots are joining the ferm LIVING family this spring. They are charging their battery and are full of energy! They are making quite an entry as they are so adorable, especially paired with the Robot bedding (soon to be on huset).
Both pillows are 100% organic cotton and they are filled with polyester filling. ~ 32$

Mr. Small and Mr. Large Robot from FermLiving are wonderfully represented on this lovely junior bed set. The set includes an all organic comforter cover and pillow with these cool robots adorning it and green pipping. The bedding comes with a matching bag, perfect for smaller robots and cars that boys like to bring with them everywhere they go or for overnight trips to grandmas.
All organic 100% cotton bedding. Comforter cover measures 39" x 55"
Machine washable. ~ 95$

SCHOOL DAZE

As the night before school started, when all through the town, the parents were cheering -a riotous sound!! By nine, kids were all washed & tucked into bed where memories of homework filled them with dread! New pencils, new folders, new notebooks too! New teachers, new friends -their anxiety grew! The PARENTS just giggled when they learned of this fright and shouted to all "GO TO BED!!!! IT'S A SCHOOL NIGHT!!!"

Zeyden's First day of pre-k

(a note from daddy) "What a good boy we have! He was sooo AMAZING! No fear at all. When the bus doors opened you could tell he was a little nervous, but he gave me my hug and kiss and went up those 4 BIG STEPS. He was so intent on being a good boy and following the rules. I asked him for 'five', he turned around and gave me the sweetest smile then sat down on the first seat. As the bus pulled away, he waved at me with a little nervous smile... I thought I was gonna cry! OUTSTANDING! Love you! -D 

Maple Trees & Muddy Trails

RockNRollGods

just had to share this


                                 David Bowie - Iggy Pop - Lou Reed

              
                     "my god is rock n roll"
                                                 ~ Lou Reed

Genie

If I had a genie in a bottle, I would be one rub away from a perfect spring day in Montreal.
Daddy would hang with the boys, enjoying himself with boyish activity & plenty of father/son bonding time,  thus leaving mom to some well deserved alone time. I'd probably sit in some park for an hour or two, enjoy the rays (while protected by plenty of SPF 30 & my fave Roberto Cavalli shades - yet another awesome Winners score), and read.

Then I'd head out to meet my ladies for cocktails at some trendy terrasse up on the Plateau. My hair would be the perfect shade of fiery Vamp red, on fire in the spring sunlight, and my nails would be immaculately painted blackest black. I'd have on my uniform favorite pair of H&M black tights, one of my fave Rock'n'Roll tee's & beat up sleeveless & faded Levi's jean vest adorned with a collage of old punk rock band badges. My well-worn-out black cowgirl boots would march to the beat of some badass tunes on my mp3 player. And slung over my right shoulder, the envy of all fashionable passerby women *insert wild fits of girlish giddiness*, would be this little gem of total awesomeness......

                                    

JJ Winters Fringe Chain Bag

http://www.boutiquetoyou.com/JJ_Winters_Fringe_Chain_Bag_p/254c.htm

What? A gal can dream can't she?!.... *wink*

Danzig - Mother

 

Domesticity Kills

I hate Mondays!
           
                                                                                                                               
She couldn't remember... was it one teaspoon of arsenic or two? All the baking soda in the world could not mask the scent of her despair. She was suddenly comforted by the knowledge that they were all helpless without her... was the secret ingredient  resentment?  She was suddenly struck with an overwhelming metaphor for her entire existence... if by "happy"  you mean trapped with no means of escape...?... then yes, I'm happy! 
Today was in dire need of a Ctrl + Alt + Delete. #%&@*!!!!! 
I should come with a warning label she thought... "DOSMESTICALLY DISABLED!!!"   
Ahh Happiness!.... Happiness is dreaming about bulldozing the entire house instead of tidying up. Happiness is day dreaming about all the fun stuff you can't do because you're too busy being a mom.
She just couldn't fathom why it was that her kids were louder & messier than a room full of Hell's Angels?!.........

                      "I truly hate Mondays!"        
             

Effortless Kool

My two beautiful boys are so much cooler than I can ever aspire to be

They are the product of a Rock'n'Roll mom & dad
They got their daddy's killer good looks & mama's badass sense of style
These muppet monsters just ooze "Cool" - effortlessly             xx

Spock is Hot



 a HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY to Mr. Leonard Nimoy - whom immortalized our favorite half Vulcan/ half Human Science Officer aboard the USS Enterprise..........................
     All logic dictates that he surely has
           "LIVED LONG & PROSPERED "
                                                    
 http://startrek.com/article/happy-80th-birthday-leonard-nimoy