Scenes from The Week-End

Thanks for all your sweet comments during Audrey Week. She loved hearing each one... It was such a fun way to celebrate her first week of Kindergarten!

Speaking of the first week, as successful as it was, I'm glad we're finally onto week two. We seem to have (finally) gotten into a bit of a groove and have a (somewhat) consistent morning and evening routine. Everyone seems to be more "in sorts" this week. So hooray for that.

The weekend was busy and fun, filled with good meals shared with old friends we hadn't seen in years, new friends we're digging getting to know and of course lovely cousin Erin and boyfriend Ben who, in lieu of our weekly Sunday dinner, made a stellar Sunday brunch.

Audrey also had her first ballet lesson on Saturday morning with her besty, best, best friend Emma. They're at different schools now, and not wanting them to lose touch, Emma's mom and I signed them up for a Saturday morning ballet class. They were so happy to see each other...sweet girls!

Hope your weekend was stellar! Happy Monday.

Blogger's Favorites (Sort Of) -- Audrey...

So true she's not actually a blogger, but it's her week, so I'm breaking the rules a bit. Audrey and I have been discussing this post all week...let's just say she had a hard time narrowing it down, but after much pondering, she came up with her absolute favorite things.

Herewith Audrey's list. Enjoy and have a great week-end!

The Beach -- I'm not sure sure she loves the "beach" so much as she loves our annual beach trip. Inevitably after an hour or so playing in the surf, she complains of sand in her bathing suit, and we have to head up to the bookstore, the pool or set out on a bike ride. But this is her list and she said "the beach", so the beach it is...


The girls donning their lovely Handmade Charlotte frocks

Her Sister -- Despite all the bickering, taunting and general big sisterly behavior toward Millie, Audrey still declares her one of her all time favorite "things". Sweet...

image via art.com

The Beatles-- She LOVES The Beatles-- words can't describe. We have to listen to them non-stop. She's a fan of the Sgt. Pepper era more than the early stuff (thank goodness). For the record, her favorite Beatle is Paul and her favorite song is Hey Bulldog (she insisted I include this.)

image (+ actual cake!) via one of my favorite. bloggers. ever. the lovely Rachel

Chocolate Cake -- Those of you who happen to know Audrey in real life are probably wondering why this isn't at the very top of the list... The child is nuts for chocolate in general but chocolate cake is her nirvana.

Making Art -- Audrey draws, paints, colors... non-stop. She wants to be an artist when she grows up, and she takes this stuff v. seriously!

gorgeous dress-up duds via wovenplay

Playing Dress-Up -- Besides making art, this is her absolute #1 favorite way to spend time. Right after school, she and Millie head to the dress-up box and dive in. Anything remotely fairy or princess like is (of course) a fave...

Audrey Week -- Birthday Party Planning

Audrey turns six next week and we're gearing up for her big birthday celebration!

I am a huge, huge birthday person. Growing up, my mother always made us feel like the most important person in the world on our birthday -- there was singing when we woke up, a special breakfast, lots of little gifts and a dinner of our choice, and sometimes a party too!

I knew I wanted to carry on this same feeling when I had my own kids, so starting with Audrey's first birthday we wanted to make everything feel extra special. (Not extravagant mind you, but special -- I'm a big believer that "special" doesn't have to be expensive or complicated...)

Each year, Audrey and I start talking about her birthday in July (what kind of party she wants to have, if she wants co-ed or just girls), then I start looking around for inspiration.*

*Let me just pause here to say that I am constantly blown away by the sheer creativity out there when it comes to throwing great birthday parties. There is no shortage of inspiration. Need proof? Check out this brilliant Frida Kahlo party or this Where The Wild Things Are one, or how about this lovely Peter Pan soiree. See...amazing, no?

Last year we went with a "girls only" woodland fairy bash, but since Audrey's at a new school and wanted a chance to reconnect with her old classmates, we opted to do a co-ed party this year. Audrey wanted an Alice in Wonderland theme, so watched the movie together to figure out what part of it we wanted to focus on for the decorations and ultimately decided on a Queen of Hearts motif...

The plan is to use the photos below as inspiration for the cupcakes + we'll have loads of red balloons, and I'm making a little "chandelier" for over the table using red and white Chinese lanterns and tissue balls, red heart garland and red heart playing cards.

I also managed to find an Alice in Wonderland bouncy house, so we're set for some sweaty, jumping fun. The party is next Saturday... I'll be sure to post lots of pics of the actual event!

images via cupcake social

I've had these photos in my inspiration folder for a while but can't find a source...if anyone recognizes where they came from let me know and I'll post asap!

Audrey Week -- Through Her Eyes Part IV

Audrey caught lovely cousin Erin and me sharing some lunch... And speaking of lovely cousin Erin, take a peek at her gorgeous creation!

What would Audrey week be without a few of her latest photos... Enjoy!

A Winner! and We Heart Small...

The winner of the Chanel Vamp nailpolish is Megan! Drop me a line with your address, and I'll send it your way.

And thank you so much for all your lovely and kind comments!

Now for some Small Magazine love... I am totally smitten with the Autumn issue (especially the interview with Little Creatures founder Kristin Brenneman Eno.) In keeping with Audrey week, she and I flipped through it last night, and she declared the following her favorite page...

Plus I was so honored to be asked to contribute to the issue! Take a peek at my Small Bites piece.

Loving...Audrey Style

I'm happy to report that Audrey's first day of Kindergarten was a rousing success...She met a new friend (Spencer!) and just generally had a blast + she's already declared her undying love for her teacher Mrs. Akins. My Kindergarten teacher was named (are you ready for this) Miss Kitty Bankston. I LOVED her...words can not describe.

Day-one of school a success, Audrey and I looked through some of the photos I have archived last night, so she could "curate" today's Loving post.

Herewith her picks. (Can you tell she's obsessed with purple and pink?) Enjoy!

She loves this wallpaper... I love it too -- maybe for behind the wall behind the bed in Millie's room?

She went crazy for all those pink flowers adorning one of Sarah Magid's creations...

Millie making a mess... This cracked Audrey up -- she loves it when her sister causes any sort of mayhem.

She was psyched to see this in my photo folder... It's her all time favorite book, and the Lauren Child version is amazingly cool.

I love all the kid's clothes from Golden (so much so that I wish they made grown up clothes.) She loves this pink skirt (of course!)

A Milestone + Audrey Week

Today's the big day. Audrey officially started kindergarten, and it was (as expected) a bit bittersweet.

She was beyond excited -- we all were actually, as we love her new school and have already met so many great kids and parents, but the minute the bell rang, I got all misty. She was so brave and sweet and eager sitting there ready to learn.

So in honor of Audrey's first week of big girl school, I'm going to do a full week of Audrey-centric posts. Stay tuned and happy Monday!

Earthy Modern...

my ALL TIME FAVORITE "earthy modern" room...Ione Skye's house from Domino + a few more lovlies...

via remodelista

via nate berkus

I'm a bit of a sucker for a quiz of any sort, so it's no surprise that I succumbed to Deborah Needleman's style quiz. In all honesty, I wasn't sure it would reveal anything relevant, as there were a lot instances when I wanted to answer "none of the above" + I sort of raced through it.

But then, my style profile came back as "Earthy Modern" and said things that were pretty right on or that I aspired to...

like this:

You keep up with culture, style, and trends, but have an appreciation for timeless forms and simple lines. You value good design, quality craftsmanship, and prefer the streamlined to the overly embellished or cluttered.

and this:

You also appreciate the warmth and individuality of natural materials and handcrafted things and are inspired by colors and forms from nature... You love mixing up different textures... Your style is grounded and solid, not flighty or frilly.You value creativity. Your home can be happy and lively and the place all of your friends want to be.

Ok, so go take the quiz and tell me how accurate it was for you...

What a Difference a Year Makes

While I did forget my blog anniversary, again…I have completely, totally and utterly embraced those dark toenails I was so on the fence about last year. No more wimpy pink toenails for me.

So in honor of my belated second blog anniversary, I'm doing a little giveaway to mark my progress -- a bottle of my favorite polish (for toes) Chanel Vamp (I'm also fond of Essie Bordeaux, but Chanel is so much more giveaway worthy, no?)

Just leave a comment on this post, and I'll pick a winner at random on Monday at 3 pm CT.

And thank you, thank you thank you. I love to blog because of you guys. You inspire me daily!

Refreshed

We spent the past few days doing some serious end-of-summer bonding with the girlies at a fun hotel outside of Austin that sported all sorts of cool/mellow things to do -- think movies under the stars, s'mores around a big campfire, a big shady pool...

Usually quick trips with our kiddos are more stressful than relaxing (fun but stressful nonetheless), so this time we were determined to do things differently. We didn't plan any activities (we didn't even leave the hotel for three days!), we slept in, didn't rush around and generally just lazed about. At one point, I sat in the little sandy beach area off the pool burying my feet in the sand with Millie for three hours. No reading material to distract me, just me + millie...digging.

It was pretty much perfection.

An Update + An Adventure

First the update, I realized with all my waxing about our back to school preparations, I completely forgot to do a Things I Bought Thursdays post -- otherwise know this week as the "Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin Eater Post." So here goes: I broke my August shopping hiatus with an insanely cute Baby Bean tunic top for Millie (this was before the realization that she has 59 shirts, but I can safely say this one is now my #1 favorite) + two funky pieces of art from the farmers market that I paid a whopping $3 each for!

image via habitually chic

One of the pieces is a groovy little acrylic paining of a lady and the other is the piece below. It's actually a plate with a glass top and a leather bottom -- so cool in person. It reminded me of the Damien Hurst spin painting from the Domino spread of Johnson Hartig's home...

p.s. no worries, I'm back on the wagon now.

As for the adventure, we have a couple of fun events planned for the weekend -- some more end of (summer) school festivities + Audrey's hosting another sleepover -- but we're pretty much counting down the minutes until we leave on a little family mini vacation... We're heading out for a few days to hunker down with the girlies before all the school year hoopla begins. We'll be back on Thursday, and I'll fill you in on all the details.

What are you up to this weekend?

Getting Ready for School

chalkboard via three potato four shop

We're flush with milestones around here. Audrey lost that wiggly tooth on Monday (we finally got to use the cool tooth fairy kit), and in a mere week and a half, she starts her first day of kindergarten.

I have to say, she's pretty excited about the whole enterprise of embarking on "big girl school", and since she's been at a full-day pre-school for the past few years, this isn't really a drastic. That said, there will be lots of changes. It's a new school and only a few of her pre-school classmates will go there with her, so lots of new faces, new teachers, new routines. But she's rearing to go, and we're doing all the requisite get ready for school activities.

First there's been the giant clothing purge... My mother-in-law generously offered to buy some school clothes for both girlies, so I wanted to be sure we knew what we really needed and didn't just buy a bunch of things haphazardly. Plus Audrey has become rather persnickety about clothing and won't wear any number of things due to this pesky thing she calls "comfort". (I'm not sure what she's thinking here, doesn't she realize girl's clothes aren't about comfort -- jeeze kid get with the program...)

She eschews puffy sleeves, little belts, zippers and buttons, and as such, we can expect a clothing related melt-down most mornings. (The one down side of Kindergarten -- especially for me -- is that it starts a full 45 minutes earlier than her old school, so I'm determined to get this clothing thing down to a science.) I started by pulling every. single. item. of clothing she owned out and making her try it on, creating Audrey approved (i.e. über comfortable) outfits, that she promises to put on before school with no fuss. We sussed out a grand total of five outfits, which for a messy five-year old is about half of what I was aiming for.

Now Millie on the other hand (and this is the most comical/sad revelation of the great clothing purge), as a result of Audrey's hand-me-downs and doting grandparents, has, wait for it...59 shirts (and that was after giving a slew away to friends, Goodwill, etc). That's just the shirts, there's an equal abundance of pants, skirts and dresses. It's kinda sick. So we've asked for no more clothes for Millie (quite possibly ever, as there are equally bulging bins stored away for age 3 clothes, age 4 clothes, etc...etc...) and we're working on finding things Audrey will actually wear.




finnish chalk and notebooks via kiosk

While the school clothes issue has been a major whip, procuring school supplies is a whole different story. Ooooh school supplies, how I love thee. I'm flush with new #2 pencils, fresh crayons, big nubby, pink erasers, snowy lined notebooks. It's all so lovely. Between the school supplies and all our John Hughes reminiscing, I want to go back to school myself...sort of ;-)

And Now We Pause For a Moment to Swoon Over Jake Ryan...

I was pretty sad to hear about John Hughes passing last week. His movies (no matter that they sometimes veered into schmaltzy territory) were such a key part of my youth... While he wasn't necessarily a cinematic genius, he definitely captured the zeitgeist of the 80's. The music, the teenage angst and romance, the clothes. It was all there; and it was perfect.

My all time fave Hughes movie is without a doubt Sixteen Candles (with Ferris Bueller's Day Off a close second.) My mom rented it for me one weekend, and I watched it, wait for it, 13 times in 48 hours. I was obsessed. I can still quote huge chunks of that movie -- sad, I know.

When the girlies get older, I'm definitely planning a John Hughes marathon... We'll kick off things with Ferris on Friday night, do a back-to-back Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink on Saturday and finish out the weekend with The Breakfast Club.

So what's your fave John Hughes movie?

Loving...

Lizzie Fortunato for Urban Outfitters -- especially digging this necklace...


mara zepeda's gorgeous kraft paper covered + calligraphy adorned books via d*s ...

Elsa May's house -- So many lovely spots. (She has an excellent blog too...)

Clare Vivier’s gorgeous caramel nubuck messenger tote -- I'm pretty sure this is going to be my Fall bag...

Hugo Guinness' latest work -- If I win the lottery, I'm devoting an entire wall of my house to HG (via Modern Craft)

I'm slipping him in to see if you're paying attention... Actually I have to admit, I'm oddly attracted to this guy -- maybe my detox is making me a smidge crazy. (via the sartorialist)

This groovy owl drawing... (very hugo guiness-esque, no?)

My friend Tonya's genius + sweet photo jewelry...