hooks + needles: how to resize a beanie.

hello there!
today i would like to share how i pretty easily resized the Urban Revival Beanie pattern by Vickie Howell to crochet a sweet spring slouchy for my little miss...

at the zoo: summer in april?

yesterday we took little miss to the bronx zoo...

our valentine's day.

first roll.

 

 

we got our new camera!

it's been one and a half days and i've taken 600+ shots. many are just me testing the waters... but i'm really quite happy and inspired by my new friend! 

after i've logged more hours on the newbie i may do a full write up... but for now, briefly. we got the Canon EOS Rebel T3i. when it came down to it i liked my first rebel until it brokedown... and i dropped it. we wanted to stay in the Canon lens family, and the camera's overall first impression is pretty great. as i said, i'm happy. love the screen. love the weight. basic functions A+. haven't touched the video, that's for joey to play with. i don't have more than that at this point so 'to be continued'.

big week. lots happening. lots getting done. then my mom and sister visit!

love.

how to road trip with a toddler.

choose a travel buddy.

bring something for everyone.

pack refreshments.

be courteous.

make a few unscheduled pit stops.

prepare for a few breakdowns.

turn distractions into learning opportunities.

savor every moment.

 757 miles.

14 'ish hours.

good conversation.

lots of giggles.

a few road blocks.

piggies all counted.

many car naps.

i know travelling with a toddler isn't easy,

but it's getting to be so much fun.

love.

love these days.

 

 

i got so much done yesterday and really started feeling like i have a plan for the rest of the year.  i can't express just how good that feels! abby is still adjusting a bit to having her time zones all screwy but we had a really fun day together despite some strange nap times that keep popping up. she's been really into playing with her crayons since we came back... i know what activity to start packing on our plane trips in the future. we made our first drawing to give to daddy, he loved it!

we had some rain yesterday so we didn't get our park outings started up again like i had originally planned but we still had a good time. abby has started doing these little bursts of running while walking laps between her room and the living room. it's pretty cute to watch her rev up and then try to slow herself down.

joe was home early yesterday and so the rest of the evening was spent chatting and planning for the weekend. it's nice to have the whole weekend with joe... we definitely need it to recover from our trip. it will be nice to get some things done and just relax. 

 some weekend goals...

trip to storage

start a pet project 

finish journaling the vacation 

get working on some halloween projects

late night knitting & dreaming

with lots of time in between to play with my two favorites!

love.

p.s. i hope everyone has a great weekend! anyone going to maker faire in nyc?

unpacking and updating.

we are back.
great trip, more on that later...

i'm doing my best to get things totally unpacked and put away so i can start unpacking all of the "we're moving!" boxes that had piled up before we left for our taylor family vacation. i meant to update before we left but unfortunately there was far too much going on for me to really share anything.

but here's how august played out...

goodbye old friend.

my camera broke. officially. which meant i had to use my phone and instax for the majority of the trip. i did give in a few times and pulled out the point and shoot but it's no secret that i hate that awful thing. saying goodbye to my canon has been difficult. (especially since my new one won't be in the budget for a few more months... ugh.) joey gave me this camera to take to south america with me 7 years ago... best present ever. well, besides this little cutie of course...

little miss helped inspect each book while we packed.

over the course of three weeks we were thinking about moving, moving, and so not moving. i posted about our amazing weekend in asbury park, but unfortunately that was not the right path for us... adding four hours travel time to joey's day is just not an option right now. no matter how damn cute the house is *sigh*.  i decided at that point to give this area another try and found an amazing place that was pretty much perfect, but unfortunately our application was not chosen...

a very frustrating decision based on having vs not-having pets... but i'm over it. mostly. 

so now we are again sitting tight. we have absolutely no idea what this final year of joey's current contract will bring so we are keeping our options open and putting focus elsewhere for the moment.

just about when the moving issue wrapped up our attention became focused on hurricane irene.

late night "emergency supply" walmart run.

we decided to get all of our supplies late wednesday the 24th instead of waiting until friday and i was so happy we did... when we did go out friday for just a few last minute things shelves were empty.

our family enjoyed the weekend in. nyc/nj transportation was completely shut down so we hunkered down in our little apartment, walked the dogs in between rain bands, and enjoyed lots of playtime & cuddles. 

abby gets another shelf!

thankfully our family and immediate neighborhood came through the hurricane completely unscathed. i know many on the east coast weren't as lucky and we feel very blessed to have been through two hurricanes (wilma in 2005) with no major injury/major damage. i got a lot of cleaning and prepping for our trip finished while abby + joey got lots of father/daughter time in. i got started on a knitting project that was waiting in the "casted on" pile and was even able to spend some time re-organizing the bookshelves (one of my favorite rainy day activities).

and then... september. *sigh of relief*

date totally saved. (love this!)

it was time! roxy was dropped off at the farm to be boarded for 2 weeks, i did some last minute "fall/SF weather" shopping for little miss, and i got us all packed up to head home to indiana for the first part of our vacation.

as i said our vacation was great. i can't believe how much we packed into the past 10 days... we saw so many people that we love, and had such an amazing time. i'll be sharing the whole trip in a few parts over the next few days because this would become a ridiculously long update otherwise.

so now i'm back where i began! unpacking. revising + adding to my to do list + project queue. getting things back to a normal routine while making some more changes in our current space.

and most importantly enjoying a new stage of parenthood with joey - raising a toddler...

when it's just too quiet in her room.

but that deserves an entire post as well.

love.

mommy + me style: new feature!

hi friends!
i'm really excited to be starting my new feature 'mommy + me style'! as i shed my cotton tee & yoga pant uniform of the past year i will be sharing some of the fun things little miss and i have in our closets...

*disclaimer: there is absolutely nothing wrong with cotton tees, yoga pants, or any other uniform you adhere to. to be honest my wardrobe is still and forever will be full of my favorite cotton tees from target BUT after leaving my job at anthropologie, a pregnancy, and my first year as a SAHM i have gotten lazy and complacent in the fashion department... this is an opportunity for me to share as i kick myself in the butt and fall back in love with my clothes and my closet.

{mommy's accessories: ag denim jacket/anthropologie, vintage restyle necklace/anthropologie}

sunday morning was again super crazy hot here. looking at me in a jean jacket makes me break a sweat... the idea was that little miss and i would wear our jackets in church but it was so hot inside even that we didn't need them!

i stepped a little out of my norm and opted to let my hair down. i surrendered to my natural wave and used a few pearl pins from anthropologie to twist back the front (still waiting for a good opportunity to get my bangs cut).

{on mommy: top/eloise by anthropologie, skirt/bcbg}

this skirt is several years old and is one of the few things that has survived through many closet purges post florida. it did have a dumb hot chocolate stain on the front that was about 4 years old and so last week it was put into the bag to donate this month. but for some reason i was determined to wear it and keep it yesterday. on a whim i thought i'd try to get the stain out once more so i poured straight bleach onto a paper towel and went to town. lo and behold it came right off! i had washed and taken this thing to the dry cleaners several times but for some reason never tried straight bleach. now i know i guess know!

{on little miss: top/koala kids, bloomers/carters, shoes/faded glory}

abby was not in the mood to stay with me for some photos... she wanted to show off how good she is at standing and stepping. not quite confident enough to walk in her sandals but she does these cute little step outs and then bounces and claps for herself. so cute. she also wanted to get down and crawl to daddy with the camera... not happening on the sidewalk with those chubby bare little knees!

hope you all had a great weekend and stayed cool... sunday began our tiny break from the heat wave hitting the east coast. i'll be sharing more a bit later and introducing more new features all week!

love.

little miss: just another monday.

{mornings are daddytime!}

abby just turned 13 months, and (taking after her momma) already knows everything. she's fiercely independent, smart, loving, and so curious.

mornings are her daddy time and this morning was no exception... despite getting in around 4am this morning he sprang up when she called at 6:30. (don't worry i'm not an awful wife, i took over and let him sleep!) when it was time for daddy to wake up she was so excited to jump in the bed... we always play this ridiculous game where she & i bang on the wall at the head of the bed and say 'help! help! i'm stuck in the wall! how did i get in here?' she cracks up. we crack up. perfect way to wake up!

{always in her book corner}

in between meals & snacks (the most important parts of the day) little miss has lots of work to do. she pulls out her toys and puts them back again... takes her blocks out of the drawer to taste, throw, and put back again... watches a couple of shows or baby einstein dvds... takes apart the stereo. yup. she's gotten so good at taking things out and putting them away. she hands things to me and is giddy when i say thank you or give them back.

her reading time is very important to her. it's not my job to read any book she's currently interested in. i can read a book that she's not interested in out loud and show her occasionally... but her special stack of books that she pulls out is off-limits. period. don't touch mom, in fact, stay a few feet away.

abby is constantly learning new things and showing me. it's so amazing to watch her when she 'gets' something new a about a toy or an object. she lights up, gets so ecstatic, claps, waves, yells, babbles. it's phenomenal to watch and you can't help but laugh and be excited with her.

she loves learning about color & music... lots of baby dancing! today we pulled out the crayons for the second or third time...

{picking her own colors}

we didn't have to talk to much about eating them this time... she has decided i'm correct and they are not something she considers edible. she did want to pick out her own colors from the box instead of the ones i picked to show her how to draw on the paper.

{all ready! so excited! where to start!?!}

{figuring it out}

she did so good this time and was really working on figuring these skinny little things out! she actually made some marks on the paper and stayed near the paper instead of losing interest or trying to use the crayons in another way (i know i'll find them stuck in her train or something at some point, ha). as she does when she's trying to learn anything she did lots of yelling at the crayons to make them work...

{!!!!}

and at the paper!

we had fun and when she got bored of the paper she spent another 10 minutes taking crayons out of the box and putting them back in.

little miss is not quite a walker but definitely pushing herself out of the crawler stage very quickly. she's a perimeter cruiser and furniture mover... if she encounters an obstacle she will literally throw all of her effort and strength into getting around it. sometimes that means moving a dining room chair or using her bouncer (which i move everyday but still think is heavy) as a walker.

until about 4pm we were having a super typical, chase the baby from one room to the next, work on 'no please' (as in no please don't play with mommy's typewriter)... monday. and then tragedy struck!

in an attempt to stand up using the small tub we keep her 'little people' in little miss fell face first and scored herself a bloody lip. oh she was not pleased. not at all. but we survived.

she recovered from the incident & cleanup a lot faster than she recovered from the swelling she woke up to after a tiny sleep. she had rolled into her 'downward sleeping dog' pose and i think the rush of blood exacerbated her condition. not happy, but again we survived.

and so we come to the end of our monday. bedtime was really quite normal this evening... little miss stayed up a bit later than usual so we could take our time with dinner and still blow off a little steam before bed. she told grandma + grandpa about her day and performed a couple tricks before letting me know it was time to call it a night...

cuddles... a song or two... and another monday, all done.

love.