an owl friend. (and crafty catch up!)

hello.

things have been pretty unplugged here for the past few weeks but i'll play catch up a little later. first i want to FINALLY introduce the owl friend i've been spending a lot of my amigurumi-time with lately...

3KCBWDAY2: a "little" help (photography challenge)

remember the elves and the shoemaker? wouldn't it be nice if we laid out our work for the next morning only to awaken to completed projects and a clean workspace? 

i think so. especially this week! what a couple of crazy days we have had.

a good start.

sunday was our monday so i already feel ahead for the week. love that.

weekend wip: finishing up.

hi there!
happy friday!

i'm loving how quick this short week went. it's a little strange to say that because on the one hand i look at little miss and see how she's changing everyday, getting bigger and so much older, and i want time to stand still for a little longer... on the other hand we really look forward to weekends with daddy (he's pretty fun to hang out with ♥).

spring colors + friendly monsters.

our valentine's day.

i got a new friend today.
i'm very happy.
love.

making christmas. week 2.

hello friends...

not too much to share about week 2. we had a really great thanksgiving break at home with just the three of us. joey has a few big work weeks before christmas so we made sure to get in lots of fun daddy time and relaxation.
 
i did a little crafting and a lot of work on this...

i've been working on this cardigan for way too long. embarrassingly too long. i'm so ready for it to be done but frankly, i'm bored. i hate 40 inches of the same thing. ugh. i'm not a marathon knitter. if you were hoping to receive a beautifully knit & cabled sweater from me one year, think again.

we got our tree up and our 12 11 ornaments. santa met with a fatal catastrophe two years ago when we got a real tree... a catastrophe caused by a dog of course. i need to replace him very soon... i love our old world christmas newlywed set and i do not like the empty space in the set's box. (p.s. i LOVE my tree skirt, it was purchased from anthropologie a few years back and has a matching stocking. purchased on extreme discount i might add!)

so, what's on the agenda for this week?

finish decorating!

stocking & restyle diy's

a little nyc holiday market shopping

a trip to see the rockefeller christmas tree!

can you believe it's still in the mid-50s and 60s in nyc? there has been some rain today and a little more called for tomorrow but by thursday it will be all clear again so i'm hoping to enjoy some time in the city with little miss so we can enjoy these warm days while we can!

love.

thank you.

for my sweet little miss.

for a most patient & loving man.

for this perfect little family of ours.

for a roof over our heads,

food in our bellies, 

and the clothes on our back.

for everything we have,

and everything we don't have (yet).

for grandparents.

for great grandparents.

for our sister (and the coolest aunt ever).

for our ever supportive families and friends.

for smiles,

tears,

laughter,

 and mean faces.

for hope.

for love.

thank you.

i hope everyone had a fantastic thanksgiving! this time of year makes my heart feel so full and happy... so very thankful for all of the blessings in my life. we're having a great long holiday together and are so excited to get our tree tomorrow! 

love.

making christmas. week 1.

hello friends!

this past week i began all of the planning and preparations for our holiday season here at the taylor flat. i love this time of year. last year we did so much traveling in november that putting time into our holiday decor (and then turning right around to spend two weeks in indiana) didn't really make too much sense. especially with a 6 month old little miss who wasn't terribly interested in christmas just yet but...

this year is completely different! this year we are staying home and celebrating thanksgiving together as our little family of 3. this year we are starting our own traditions. we have the unique opportunity to stop, reflect, give thanks, and dream a little about our future too!

i feel so blessed that we have the ability each year to celebrate christmas at my parents'... their home is always so amazingly decorated, and tends to feel more like home to me than our tiny apartment. but this year i have the time to make christmas at our house!

so for the next few weeks leading up to christmas (can you believe there are only like 5 left!) i'll be sharing how i am 'making christmas' at our house. each week i plan to do a 'vignette love' recap post, share projects, and hopefully i can help share a little inspiration this season on how you can make christmas at your house without spending lots and lots on new decorations (no matter how much those target christmas aisles tempt).

as i said, this week was all about getting a solid plan together. we pulled out our two boxes of christmas decor from storage. i have a feeling we'll be putting more than two boxes back... but i'll worry about that later. :)

i started clearing some of our spaces and pulled some non-seasonal non-essential bits and pieces to be packed up in the christmas boxes to make way for  holiday vignettes.

i made goal lists that i felt were reasonable without overloading myself with too many projects... which is something i love to do. bite off more than you can chew much? i do! i made some recipe plans for thanksgiving weekend and grocery lists.  i wrote a plan for each room in the house and a supply list for all of the projects on my queue. oh, and gift lists!

later in the week i started working on a few of the diy ideas and patterns i've collected to experiment and see how long some of them would take. i'll share in more detail a little later but i LOVE the 'simple statement wreath' pattern by Good Knits. wreath #1, huge success!

and then to wrap up the week, on saturday we took a trip to the craft store.
i'm sure the first trip of many! hehe.

what's on the agenda this week? thanksgiving for sure. did i mention the 5 whole days little miss and i get with our most favorite? so happy. ♥

also...

cleaning. cleaning. cleaning.

(can't put nice new handmade decorations on dusty shelves!)

complete project list for little miss's room.

find a tree!

i hope everyone is having an amazing season so far and enjoying some time with family this thanksgiving week!

love.

vignette love: what a week.

 

  

  

 

besides my christmas planning (and birthday shopping) this week...

little miss had a doc visit, and some vaccines. not happy.

lots of teething, drooling, and sniffles 

(can't wait to try her amber necklace when it gets here)

a sick pup (roxy is much better now, thanks!)

a broken needle and other clumsy mishaps
tested a few diys for 'making christmas'
some harajuku mini shopping
(you know to help make the teething hurt less and make up for the shots)

despite the teething grumpiness we did have a great week. little miss turned 17 months old this week and every day i'm surprised at what a smart cute little girl she's becoming. i know i say this all the time but she learns things so quickly and comes up with things that just crack me up.


i'm very excited to start a series of posts for the holidays... 'making christmas' week 1 will be coming tonight!

love.

par for the course.

today has been one of those days where somewhere in the middle of cleaning up after a sick dog, chasing and soothing a cranky post-vaccine little miss, and dropping or breaking just about everything i touch... i have to sit back, surrender, laugh a lot, and take life as it comes.

tomorrow is a new day.

love.

a new year // 29 before 30

1. restyle my space.
2. develop & focus the blog.
3. plan a real honeymoon.
4. take a sewing class.
5. start keeping a family meal planner.
6. crochet a ripple throw for my bed.
7. host a dinner party. (or two or three!)
8. take more walks with the pups.
9. learn to knit socks.
10. use or purge 25% of scrapbook stash.
11. family beach getaway to asbury park.
12. create a small jewelry line.
13. picnic & family photos in central park.
14. make & install curtains for little miss.
15. get a new tattoo.
16. family bikes.
17. sew a spring quilt.
18. learn to play guitar.
19. drink more water, eat more fresh + local.
20. plan regular (and more frequent!) date nights ♥
21. sharpen up my time management skills.
22. discover the good thrifting towns in nj.
23. join a mommy + me swim class.
24. plan a girls' weekend (road trip?) with my mom & sister.
25. learn to ice skate.
26. join a yoga class.
27. get a new computer. or ipad. (or both!)
28. knit, crochet, or craft my way through a book.
29. find a home we can love.

i love my list this year. i'm so inspired and motivated, i know 29 is going to be amazing! i intend to keep much closer track of my goals this year and update here more often... i'm excited to start checking things off.

usually around my birthday i also share some of my end of year goals. just a few simple things so i stay on track and feel good about what i've accomplished during this hectic season when inspiration and project queues can get a little overwhelming. some of mine this year include...

• style a family photo shoot.
• send out christmas cards.
• make or thrift a desk for little miss.
• finish knitted cardi.
• dye my hair back to dark auburn. (it's joey's favorite, mine too!)

do you create and share a list of goals each year at your birthday? or maybe at the start of each new calendar year? do you use quarterly goal lists? do you have a few simple goals you'd like to accomplish before 2012? please feel free to share!

off to work on a restyle and get to bed 'early'. tomorrow little miss turns 17 months (and gets a flu shot... eek.)

love.

birthday bangs.

hello friends. next week is my birthday and today my besties took me out for a little birthday shopping trip.  while we were out i decided it was finally time to get my bangs cut and my hair trimmed a little. i've been growing my hair out for almost two years now and want to keep it going (if you are new to the blog or don't remember how short it was you can get a refresher here..)


my little walk-in appointment is going to be the last time i go in to have someone cut my hair for a very long time. i'm happy with the trim up but i could not get the stylist to cut my bangs how i wanted them. she cut a tiny side bang when what i really wanted was a nice full bang... and after asking her to cut them shorter 3 times i gave up.  so when we got home i took out my trusty cutter bee's and took matters into my own hands... and i have to tell you i'm in love! i haven't been this happy with my hairstyle in a super long time!

(disclaimer: i'm NOT advocating cutting your hair with crafting scissors, even if they are awesome. for future bang trimming i will be purchasing real shears.)

i've been researching DIY haircuts for awhile. i've had my mind up to get bangs one way or another for awhile now and since i tend not to have amazing experiences with salons (unless i'm getting everything chopped off) learning to cut them myself has been a major desire. if you're interesting in trying to cut your own hair you should check out you tube and do some searches. there are a ton of really great videos to help you get on the right track. i suggest watching several until you are really confortable with it!


along with some new threads i got a new pair of Minnetonka's while we were out...

so comfy. all in all it was a beautiful saturday out with my two favorite people!


i hope everyone is having a great weekend... i'm off to cuddle with my little family as joey plays acoustic and little miss circle dances around us. happy days!


love.

outfit:

shirt: day trip

cardigan: merona (target)

jeans: h&m

moccasins: minnetonka

necklace: anthropologie

be prepared to share.

it was another gorgeous day today. i feel so blessed to have this beautiful weather to enjoy with little miss before the temperature drops for good. today we made another trip to our favorite jersey city park/playground at lincoln park. the leaves have finally all changed and fallen. i think the shock of halloween's snow warned the foliage that despite the late amazing weather winter is indeed on it's way!

 

after some playtime in the leaves, we did our usual run around the playground. first stop is always the swings... little miss runs right to them. this girl would swing for hours. i think besides just the enjoyment from swinging she likes being up high and able to see everything going on in the park... she was having a great time today watching huge fat squirrels run around looking for handouts. i couldn't believe how bold these guys were...

this little guy kept running underneath abby as she was swinging and before i knew it...

what a little thief! he climbed right up onto the stroller and grabbed a cereal bar! to be fair i had forgotten that i'd opened it and offered it to abby as we were walking in... she'd rejected it for the time being and left it on the tray of her stroller. abby thought this was all quite hilarious, especially the little chase scene that unfolded as another squirrel realized the bounty that was to be had.

 

after that swing time was over and she just wanted to chase squirrels for awhile... those dang things let her get really close before taking off and it was scaring the crap out of me. i was afraid they were so used to all the kids that they would just charge her... they  probably wouldn't have. but we moved on anyway.

 

i know the weather around the country hasn't been quite as great this week so i'm very grateful for these days... we're doing our best to make great use of them.


love.

woah october.

talk about a busy lightening fast month.

i had no idea october was going to fly by like it did. i guess i should have though... between preparing the house for fall and holiday decor, a visit from each grandma, and some crazy work weeks for joey we were constantly running, adding things to the to do list, and recovering from the fun.

we didn't get out to the orchard as planned... mostly because our weekends were filled with fun with the grandmas. first my mom & sister came to visit...

 

the weather was amazing for their visit. the first day we hung around midtown/central park. it was in the 80s and warm enough to let abby play in the sprinklers at the playground. she had a blast!

 

joey had the weekend off so we headed in to check out the progress down at world trade. we bumped into the occupy wall street people and made our way up through soho (with a quick stop for sushi!) and the west village before meeting up with my sister for a bit in between her conference activities...

 

 

we visited with her at The Meadow to pick up some Fresco Chocolate... 

the shop is really cute. i totally spaced taking photos of the outside as i juggled socializing, chasing after abby, and keeping her from tearing all of the chocolate bars off the shelves. The Meadow sells chocolate, gorgeous flowers, and salts. lovely! 

 

  

 

 

the weather was so gorgeous that we decided to end our afternoon with a walk on the highline. 

 

 

 

it was incredibly crowded because it was so nice out. it did not at all feel like october! indian summer at it's best!

little miss was in great spirits enjoying her time with grandma & daddy... blowing kisses all around!

then nonna (joe's mom) came to visit for a few days... the weather was getting to be more fallish and pretty windy so we only went into the city for a few hours to visit central park and see some of daddy's friends who were also in town.

 

abby & nonna borrowed another little one's car stroller for a bit. she loved it so i guess my little girl who loves building and cars and hates dresses will be needing one of these soon.

 

the rest of the visit was spent with nonna in hoboken where she was staying. i got some much needed mommy-alone-time. it was a very nice weekend off for me. while i had the time i got going on abby's halloween costume. i'll share it, and my complete fail, a bit later in some halloween posts. ugh. i can't even think about it yet without wanting to jump into a time machine or call a do-over.

we had one last weekend before halloween to get in some of the family fun that we had been putting off so far this season and bam... snow. nor'easter.

we went from 80º playing with abby in the sprinklers at central park... to snow... in october.

thankfully it was all melted again by halloween. joey was off monday so he went to abby's halloween party at the little gym with us. it was a good time but another costume tantrum erupted just before we left for the party so we opted to wear halloween-themed attire instead to keep little miss happy.

  

and then poof! just like that it was november!

i'm very happy with how our fall is going so far and really excited for the holidays coming up. we are putting our tree up much earlier than we have before, and are going to be starting some november traditions within our little family that i'm excited about. i feel like we haven't had a holiday with just the three of us yet so we are taking november 2011 off just to be together, regroup, and remember why this time of year is so important and special.

love.