Something in the Water...

sweet angel slippers via oeuf

No I’m not pregnant (and for the record, I have no plans to be), but it seems like everyone I know is.

My sister Jennifer is pregnant, as is my friend Lucia + my best friend Achlee and my other best friend Stacy are both pregnant… And there are loads of blog friends are with child – there’s Jora, Jenn, Kristina, Gabby (who has asked some of her buddies to share their pregnancy memories this week over at Design Mom… you can peek at mine here.)

Despite two rather uncomfortable pregnancies, I loved the entire experience of being pregnant. It’s a pretty amazing, life changing, unbelievable thing…but that goes without saying I suppose.

So congrats to all my lovely friends! Can’t wait to help you love up on those new babies.

And just for fun, a few of my favorite baby things of late...

Baby bean bloomers and top via little bean

Gorgeous Bookhou mobile

Nina's lovely personalized plates... This to me is the ideal new baby gift -- artful and meaningful and unique.

Oeuf's hand crocheted butterflies

Loving... Confessions Edition

Susannah Conway's gorgeous photo from Frankie magazines photo book...

Every once in a while I feel compelled to confess my secret love of pink (the last time was about a year and a half ago in case you're keeping track...) I don't know why it feels so shameful to harbor a secret adoration for the fair color, but well... it does.

I don't wear pink or use it to decorate, no, instead I fully channel my love for it through the girlies who love it in ways that I can't even begin to compete with, so they're an easy foil. I do fear that Audrey's starting to fail me a bit, as a week or so ago she declared her bedroom might be a bit...too pink. As if.

Millie on the other hand is still firmly on board...my little "Pinkalicious" (thank goodness.) Last night we went for some celebratory gelato (Audrey had a good day at school), and she insisted on a scoop of the most girlie, pepto pink flavor possible -- bubble gum (yuck.) I tried to convince her this wasn't a good idea, but she persisted and then proceeded to play with her gelato while pilfering bites of our (not as pretty but far tastier) chocolate.

So there you have it, a long intro to a whole slew of pink things I'm currently loving... Enjoy.

The cover of the new Frankie Magazine Photo Book...Can't wait to see the rest!

Dwell Studio's pink kissed pillow -- I especially love pink when it's tempered with a dark moody color... (via all modern)

Linda and Harriet's chandelier cards...

Maxine Sutton's miracle kits... I'm going to get a set of these to embroider with Audrey, so cool and clever and something she could tackle...

This groovy alternative to a mobile... (via all modern)

Fréya's lovely (and appropriate for many of my beloved) print.

And last but not least, my pink lovin' girl hanging out with Bryan's dad... Millie and her grandfather have quite a lovely relationship. It's v. sweet.

Scenes from The Week-End -- Americana Edition

The weekend was busy and hot (our cool fall weather decided to take a hiatus I suppose)... Audrey + Bryan had an Adventure Princess induction ceremony, which involved getting a little smudge of black lipstick on her nose, wearing leather vests they made themselves and picking "tribal" names for each other (they've decided to go with Big Beatle/Little Beatle in honor of her love for the Fab Four.)

In other activities, we also went to a "food fight" birthday party -- seriously genius idea, the kids went nuts for this, but really how can you go wrong when you let 20 six-year-olds throw spaghetti, jello and mashed potatoes at each other and then jump in the pool.

I'm tempted to do this for my next birthday party, so liberating, no??!

Hope your weekend was fab!

"You've Got to Be a Little Huggy With Yourself."

all images via the selby

Bryan and I managed to eke out a short date night and went to see The September Issue. Now let me pause here to say that I really have no business being blue with a husband willing to go see The September Issue...no? But I digress.

Overall the movie was good, and while the dynamic between Grace and Anna stole the show, any time Sally Singer was on screen, I was giddy. I've always had a bit of a girl crush on Sally, and the movie just reinforced it. So after we got home, I had to revisit the pics of her apartment on The Selby. Sigh.

And in other news of smart, interesting, lovely people, I loved the interview with Juliette Binoche on NPR earlier this week. At first I wanted to be a bit annoyed as she's currently promoting a movie, touring in a dance performance + doing a show of her paintings and poetry,(serious overachiever) but she was just so lovely and real and humble about the whole enterprise, I walked away inspired to take more risks and not worry so much about the external response to my success (or failures.)

Plus she had a particularly brilliant closing line in the interview:

"You've Got to Be a Little Huggy With Yourself." she laughs. "Otherwise, life is too tough."

Preach it Juliette.

I think I'm going to have it printed on a t-shirt (I'm thinking it would be too long on a banner ;-)

Hope your weekend is lovely.

Happy Makers

images via wunderlust

As I was leaving for work this morning, I noticed Audrey had taped a little bunting she made at school to the wall near the door. Truth be told, she’s notorious for this move. (She’s addicted to tape and uses it at every possibly opportunity to stick random ephemera to the walls -- in fact she’s so mad for the stuff, she's asked for a tape dispenser for Christmas. Seriously, who needs expensive presents? )

But back to the bunting. It was cute actually -- falling apart and totally wonky, but it made me want to hang something more permanent in that spot (something perhaps exactly like the little gold "bunting" above), as I think every once in a while you have to throw all caution and convention to the wind and hang random things in inappropriate spots in your house.

What’s happier than that…

And speaking of happy, I’m still fighting the blues, but I can report that I've put things in perspective, which is the starting point for getting out of any rut, no? So a dose of perspective, a little random bunting + the following are collectively joining forces in making me happier today.

• Sondre Lerche on heavy rotation
  
• Two consecutive days of blissful fall weather -- crisp, cool, “today I'm actually wearing a sweater” weather
  
• Three new magazines arriving in the mail yesterday + two girlies that went to bed early enough last night that I actually had some time to flip through them.

It’s the small things friends.

Loving...

This banner (for obvious reasons) spotted via the sweet life...

As an aside, an update on "the blues"... Thank you for all your ideas and your wisdom. I'm planning to implement many of your suggestions this week and specifically have a dance party with the girlies on the docket for this evening and a movie date with Bryan later this week. But most of all I'm going to do a bit of nothing for a while, as I think maybe what I need most of all is a little break from trying to accomplish too much and the inevitable let down when it all doesn't turn out the way I want it to...

A bit of a ramble, sorry. So just thanks and on to more lovely photos.

This Tom Sheerer room... a bit more ornate than I typically go for, but I'm totally smitten with the mix of modern and earthy and glam. Pretty much a perfect combo in my opinion.

Our soon-to-be table... I haven't blogged about this yet, but we (and by we, I actually mean Bryan) are starting work on our dining room table... Yes, this means Millie's bed is on hold for a smidge, but we'll get there + I'm still agonizing over that darn wallpaper, so there's plenty to do.

This is the wood that Bryan sourced from upstate NY. It's black walnut, it's HUGE and it's incredibly lovely. The plan is to have the new table done by Thanksgiving, as we're hosting this year...

Nina’s totally gorgeous hand painted plates … I’m loving her work.

This necklace from Anthro... Bryan if you need anniversary ideas, this might just be the ticket.

This color palette (room by cy design via d*s), which makes me want to switch out my white duvet cover, and that's HUGE, as I've had a white duvet cover for hmm...well, a decade.

Scenes from The Week-End and A Bluesy Monday

The girlies playing outside after days of rain...maybe it was the endless rain that kicked off my funk??

The weekend was lovely and busy and filled with all sorts of nice moments with friends old and new. The girlies had a splendid time at the museum on Friday, busy little bees, jumping from one activity to the next -- taking turns playing the violin, exploring the place, making crowns...

Actually, I'm not sure that the parents didn't have more fun making crowns than the kids... We were pretty into it, I'm just saying.

So after a perfectly lovely weekend, I found myself in a bit of a funk mid-day yesterday. Not sure why, but just feeling bluesy, un-inspired and maybe a smidge burned out. I'm doing a lot of little things right now, and (it feels like) nothing well. First there was all the wallpaper indecision, then yesterday afternoon I attempted to make a necklace, but it was a total bust... I abandoned mission and set to work on dinner instead only to turn out a perfectly average meal. Needless to say, I went to bed feeling rather blah. I was determined to start fresh today, but we all woke up late, I dropped my peanut butter english muffin face down on my newly dry-cleaned black skirt and I'm having a bad hair day.

The week is not off to a good start friends... What do you do to get out of a funk? I need my mojo back.

A Little Shop Update + Happy Weekend

I have a few new things up over in the shop...

We're gearing up for a big weekend, although, it's still raining -- it's starting to feel like Seattle around here minus the hipsters and democrats...

Here's our weekend in a nutshell -- Tonight we're meeting up with our buddies at Late Night at the Museum, tomorrow having dinner with friends in Ft. Worth and Sunday we're making necklaces + doing Sunday dinner with Lovely Cousin Erin.

Hope your weekend is lovely!

Blogger's Favorites -- Jenna of Sweet Fine Day

I'm super excited about this week's list, as I am completely smitten with Jenna's blog (her photography is fantastic, her taste impeccable) and am a huge fan of Whimsy and Spice, the Brooklyn-based confectioners that Jenna and her husband are behind. With her aesthetic and design sensibility and her husband's culinary prowess, they elevate baked goods and homemade marshmallows into little pieces of art. So lovely + cool.

So, yes, her list rocks!

Without further ado, Jenna's favorites. Enjoy!


Paper Snowflakes -- Every winter I make a dozen or so paper snowflakes cut from regular white printer paper. Now that my girls are a bit older, they have joined in on the yearly ritual. We hang them around the house during the holidays and in a couple of years, if we keep it up, we’ll have enough to paper the whole house with snowflakes.

Sushi -- It's my favorite food. I love the presentation, the freshness, the colors and most everything about it. Even though I discovered the hard way that I can’t eat it everyday (I tried! I tried real hard!), I can most definitely eat it a few times a week given the chance. The hardest thing about being pregnant? Not being able to eat sushi. In fact, the very first thing that I did after I got out of the hospital from having a miscarriage in between my 2 kids was order sushi from the car on the drive home.

Lavender Fields -- I went to my first just a few weeks ago on the North Fork in Long Island. Lavender has always been one of my favorite scents and the smell standing in that field was heavenly – I had never been surrounded by that much lavender before. I can still imagine how intoxicating the scent was on that hot day when I look at these photos.

Sledding in Prospect Park, Brooklyn -- I love how quiet the city becomes during a big winter snowstorm. No cars, no noise, just white blankets of snow. We’ll often drag the sled up to Prospect Park and join the throngs of other neighborhood people to play and sled in the snow. Standing in that big meadow without any city buildings in sight, with the snowfall blurring the lines between sky and ground, makes you feel like you're transported to some winter fairyland.

My Mother’s Vintage Handbags -- At some point when I left home for college, my mother allowed me to take her old handbags with me. They are probably around 40 years old and I like to display them around the house. It reminds me of when I used to take them as a kid to play fancy dress up. I loved them then and I love them even more now.

Taking Photos -- I know photography has been a favorite topic for many guest bloggers here, but I had to include it because despite the fact that I work as a freelance art director and designer, photography is increasingly becoming my most satisfying creative outlet these days. My interest in taking photos actually grew in earnest when we started our business. We didn't have a budget for photos so we decided to do it ourselves. I didn’t realize just how much I would end up loving it. My camera usually goes with me wherever I go and I try and take photos everyday, most of which end up on our blog.

The Bunting from Every Possible Angle + Little Bean Shop...

I promised a photo of the bunting that Audrey got for her b-day from her sweet friends Miette and Amelie, but I love it so much, I had to post three pics... Seriously I think I more smitten with it than she is. So fun + festive -- I want to steal it for my bedroom.

And speaking of Miette and Amelie, their super cool mama Christine just opened an online store for her equally cool shop Little Bean. I swear that place is going to break me... So much good stuff.

There's (of course) the bunting and those Obama pillows (+ Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln too if you like your president pillows a little more steeped in history...) and the clothes, oh my all the sweet clothes. Christine's divine line, Baby Bean, is nicely supplemented by all manner of cute things.

You must take a peek!

One More For Your Consideration

This one is now vying for the top of my list... Oh my.

Fall Projects Part One + I'm Losing My Mojo...(aka I Need Help Picking Wallpaper)

Millie's current room for reference...

I mentioned last week that one of our big Fall projects is to redo Millie's room.

After much searching, we found a perfect full size "canopy" bed (below) that we planned to place across the back wall to mimic sort of a groovy, pseudo daybed. (The room is small, so I don't want anything too large jutting out into the middle of the space.) But, the bed we love is pricey...way pricey -- like almost as much as my first car pricey.

So Bryan is going to build it! Sweet husband.

While he's toiling away in the woodshop, I'm searching for the perfect wallpaper for the wall behind the bed. I'm planning (ideally) to keep the rest of the room that perriwinkle color, so the wallpaper needs to coordinate a bit. But I'm also trying to find something fun that will still be relevant as she gets older... (I'd like this room redo to last a while.)

First up, the print below, spotted in last month's Cookie.

This is actually my first choice, as I think it would look good with the wall color and the yellow accents already in the room, and it seems pretty and feminine...

I'm am a little nervous that the background looks cream in the photo below, and I tend to skew a bit more modern. But the size of the flowers seems to make an otherwise traditional print feel a little cooler, so it could work.

Can you tell I'm wavering??

Ok, onto option #2. The Dotswold from Anthropologie that made Audrey's "loving" list. I totally dig this wallpaper -- It's fun and festive, it would look good with the purple walls, and, well... it's just all-around cool.

image via homebug

BUT, I would have to totally change up the color scheme, kill all the yellow and get a new rug + the vibe of the room changes from soothing to sort of crazy, and I'm a little worried that the pattern might end up giving us a headache.

So there's that...

image via see saw designs

Then there's option three. It's the longshot, but it intrigues me. It's vintage Finnish paper, and I totally LOVE the pattern. It would definitely go with the existing colors, but yellow would become the star of the room... not sure if that's what I want.

Typically I feel pretty confident and decisive about decorating stuff, but for whatever reason this project is vexing me (maybe I'm losing my mojo a bit) so I need your help.

Which one do you like...?