Erin Akin Carroll

If this house building thing actually goes through, I’ve got a list a mile long of ideas. And you can bet that I’ll be sharing them all with you.

But one of the first things to decide other than 1) how wide can the house be according to the lot size and 2) how deep can the house be according to the lot is 3) what style of house do I like? The first two questions are hard to answer because we do not own a lot because we aren’t completely committed to this process. Selling our current house is priority number one.

Southern Living has a great online resource for house plans and I’ve found a few that I like. Our big criteria, more than minimum square footage, is have good, usable square footage. The purpose of this move is to get more space for our expanding family, so this move needs to last us a while. I don’t want the square footage to be choppy and separated. I want openness that helps us feel like we have more space than we do. I like traditional styles and Southern styles and I have a lot of houses of this kind saved into my “house ideas” bookmark folder on the computer.

My favorite style, however is Acadian or Country French– also known as South Louisiana Amazingness Style. I’m a Louisiana girl. I want to build a Louisiana house if we’re able to.

I love the interesting roof lines and all the windows. These designs are from Acadiana Home Design.

What is your favorite style of home? Do you like old bungalows? Traditional two-story? Low country? Tudor? Colonial?

Once again, my Friday post is going to be a jumbled mess of random tid bits. So stay with me. I’ve been stumped for content lately (hopefully you haven’t noticed).

1. I finished Love The One You’re With last weekend. It was my fourth straight Emily Giffin book. I am now on my sixth book of the year and I am two books ahead in my 2010 reading list. I’ve got to say that I liked parts of the book. I thought her husband was wonderful and adorable. I could see why she still might have feelings for her exboyfriend. But I thought she was a complainer and couldn’t see the joy in her seemingly perfect life. She should have been counting her lucky stars for marrying into such a wonderful family that included her best friend and being in a position to not worry about money and still do what she loved.

2. I’m straying a little bit on my reading list and reading Beth Moore’s So Long Insecurity before the trip to Atlanta at the end of the month. I often struggle with non-fiction, but I love the topic of this book and love Mrs. Moore!

3. This has been the first year that we’ve ever had to pay taxes. Holy robbery, Batman.

4. We met with a builder and looked at lots in the neighborhood that we love yesterday. I don’t have many details yet because nothing is firm. But it has been so informative to explore all of our options and it is surprisingly inexpensive to build right now. I appreciate those of you that have sent me emails about the building process. Our house goes on the market on Monday, so we’re about to enter a world of constant cleaning. Hopefully we’ll show our house every day and someone will snatch it up!

5. I never really considered building a house to be an option for us. I’m usually constantly tearing out home decor inspiration, but now that we’re discussing the building process, I’ve kind of frozen and don’t really know what to do.

6. Our New York City plans are all finalized and I can’t wait to share our plans with you. I’m so excited!

7. As most of you know, my favorite book, The Help, is being made into a movie. Some of the casting is finalized already (with Emma Stone cast as Skeeter). Who is in your dream cast of The Help?

8. I’m loving Dancing With The Stars this season. Erin and Maks are my favorite. I’m not a fan of Nicole and Derek. They’re good, but they’re cocky.

American Idol is okay. It’s one of my favorite shows, but I can honestly say that I don’t really care who wins this year. I like Casey, Lee, Crystal and Katie. But I could take it or leave it.

I have abandoned The Biggest Loser. After the Olympics I just didn’t care anymore. I’m more into the scripted dramas right now.

Last night on Project Runway, we found out which contestants are going to get to design a collection for fashion week. I won’t give anything away, but I think I know who my favorite is. It has been a pretty good season!

The Damages finale is close and it is getting so good! I can’t believe this season is almost over! The Lost finale is getting closer, too. I feel like they’re finally answering some questions.

I’m hoping that once all of the season finales air in May I can take a break from TV this summer. Except for Mad Men.

This post has been in the works for a long time. I have gotten dozens of emails asking me where I buy Hudson’s clothes. Most of them are from moms of boys who, like me, once found it difficult to find sweet baby clothes for little boys.

I will admit, and I may stir the pot a little here, that I am a baby clothes snob. I have a very particular way that I like babies (my baby) to dress and I’m very careful not to stray too far from that idea. I want my baby’s clothes to be timeless and not to be an attempt to keep up with the fashion trends. I want him to dress like a little boy and not a miniature version of his Daddy.

I like footed pajamas made out of soft fabrics. I like john johns and knickers. I like onesies for play clothes. Hudson doesn’t own any denim and won’t until he’s old enough to ask me for it. I think it’s just a Southern thing and the way a lot of Southern women dress their babies. I’m dressing Hudson the way my mom dressed my brother. And, trust me, there was a day that my brother asked my mom if he could wear blue jeans.

The first thing I will say is that every season (or every time Hudson is ready for a new size) I go to Babies ‘R Us or the Carters outlet and stock up on basics. Solid white onesies and turtlenecks in different colors. There’s no reason to spend a lot on those things. I also buy a lot of play clothes that he can get dirty and we use those for days when we’re just hanging around the house and won’t be seeing anyone or going anywhere. These things are inexpensive and don’t stay in great shape after being laundered a few times, but that’s okay. They didn’t cost much and it’s okay if they get covered in spit-up.

Now that he’s bigger and wears separates to bed, I buy all of his pajamas at Target. They come in sets of 2 or 3 and most are mix and match tops and bottoms.

I have four favorite places to shop for his clothes: Little Lambs and Ivy (in Columbia), Bumble Boutique (in Columbia), Hip Hip Hooray (in Dallas), and Kelly’s Kids (online and trunk shows). Some other great resources are Shrimp and Grits and Blessed Be The Name. Janie and Jack (the Layette section) and Baby Gap have some cute things that fit into my “baby clothes” category, too.

My favorite brands at the boutiques are Feltman Brothers, Anavini, Bailey Boys, Funtasia Too, Le Top, Zutano Baby, Fancy Threads, Monday’s Child, Kissy Kissy, and Magnolia Baby.

I’m going to show you a few of Hudson’s outfits and some pictures of him in those outfits and tell you where we got them.

This is a sweet Bailey Boys outfit

These three outfits are all the same and are all reversible. They’re by a company out of North Carolina called Boojue.

a Kissy Kissy sleeper– the softest and the sweetest

Le Top

Church outfits, from Left: red Lullaby Set (from Hip Hip Hooray), blue Fancy Threads (from Hip Hip Hooray), smocked frogs Two Silly Kids (purchased at a gift shop in Savannah)

All three of these (including the red gingham in the monkey photo) are from Janie and Jack and are so great because they’re dressier play clothes.

These two are both Kelly’s Kids john johns and I love them! Hudson can either wear them with bare arms or he can wear them with a little peter pan collar shirt underneath. The seersucker outfit is reversible!

From Left: Monday’s Child with embroidered scooter and Anavini with embroidered monkeys

Zutano Baby from Little Lambs and Ivy. These come in separates and in one pieces and they are so comfortable and unusual.

Both are Kissy Kissy. One is a sleeper and one is a playsuit. I’m not kidding when I say that these are my absolute favorite things for babies. Hudson lived in them for months– obviously not these specific two pieces.

he was so tiny!

We have lots of these Carters sleepers and onesies that have things on the rear end and cute things on the feet. They’re just cute!

Please email me if you have any additional questions about shopping for a baby. In order to eliminate any questions, I think that I’ll start putting a note at the bottom letting you all know what Hudson is wearing– even if it’s just a diaper!