a little bit of me.

{coin-laundry}

a little bit of randomness to post today.

yesterday i brought evan to a coin laundromat.

why?  bc ever since i saw her cute laundry self-portrait, i've been obsessed.  then i discovered tons of fabulous coin laundry photoshoot shots on ILP - one of my favorite sites for photo inspiration.

and then i felt compelled to go myself and try it out ;)

sooooooooooo...  evan and i drove a little bit north into the slightly-skanky ;) beach-y-er part of town and found a coin laundry.

and i was like, hmmmmmmmmm.  should i just walk in and start taking shots?!  and then i thought why not?

& so we walked in.  past the boss of the laundromat - and then to the dryers - which were a fabulousl-y-70s retro shade of yellow.

and i put evan down hoping he'd stand up and grab the dryer to hold on (since he is now SO into hanging off of everything - but still not yet walking) - but no dice.  he wasnt interested.  he just wanted to crawl all over the dirty floor.  all while the boss was watching and giving me the evil-eye.  awesome.  but i still didnt say anything.  ha.

and so our little photoshoot only lasted about 90 seconds.  i got 10 shots total.  no shot was really great.  i TOTALLY want to go back when he's really standing... 

i think these warranted vintage and high contrasty xprocessing.

 

 

evan totally humors my photo-taking.  and i love him for it.

ps im looking for a fabulous vintage action.  ive been loving the vintage look on certail shots lately and i have just been using random diff actions that were already loaded into my PS from sets i had bought for something else...  if you have any suggestions - i would love to hear/see!

:)

{fall in mn}

Fall in minnesota was one of my very VERY favorite things ever.

i'm not going to lie - i am so SO sad that were missing out on it this year...

BUT - we did get to grab a little taste of the very start of the season this past week :)

((hence my sorry lack of blogging ;))

eric was scheduled to be in mn for work, so ev and i tagged along.

...and we saw LOTS of friends...  (which was so SO good for me...)

...and we visited our house (evan climbed his first full set of stairs with eric guarding behind him the whole way up!)...

...and evan indulged me in some fall photos (my guestimate is that about 10% of the trees are starting to turn in mn - there is still SO much green tho)...

 

...and i had 12047239820982 caribou coffees.  ok really more like 6ish, but i wish it were that many.  :)  caribou was my indulgence in mn.  LOVE the whole concept of coffee from a drive thru.  while i was there last week i discovered the new fall "PUMPKIN" coolers.  add in a shot of expresso and take out the whip, and im in heaven.  seriously that good.  if you live there >> TRY IT.  for me.  and report back.  :)

...and there was no way i was leaving without a visit to the apple farm that we had grown to LOVE while living in mn.

 

we plopped evan down outside in the middle of the orchard - then eric gave him an apple to hold - and my child who is the picky-est eater ever, decides to take a bite.  from the dirty-off-the-ground-apple.  awesome ;)

 

and from his reaction, i'm pretty sure he thought it was super-tasty.

and that was our week.  :)

{xoxo, me}

i've got nothing new to post.

other than the fact that i don't understand how no one has figured out how to expand our days by say, an extra 5 hours?!

that would be SO helpful.

you know?!

((too much going on))

and so im posting a page of AC goodness.

i was recently LUCKY enough to be called out of my ACDT retirement and rejoin the contributing design team...  you can see my little BIO here >> ME!

everything here is AC.  except the embroidery floss ;)

im seriously in love with AC's FLAIR.  :)

 

that's it.

& the fact that i'm really, REALLY hoping for 6 hrs sleep tonite ;)

{our weekend}

eric and i spent a few nights away from evan.

but im not sure ev really missed us...  grammy and pop-pop (erics parents) came to stay with him, and fed him all sorts of delicious things like auntie anne's pretzels and chicken nuggets and watermelon (of which he had previously refused 2 out of the 3 from me).  and took him on lots of wagon rides and fabulous outtings!

and we flew north to NJ.  for a wedding.  that was gorgeous.  and for which we dressed up.  which was superfun considering 'dressing up' can usually be defined by me as wearing my cropped 7's jeans and a t.  ;)  and for this it meant black tie.  eric was even in the wedding...

 

and so, since we were in NJ for the wedding, we had time to venture into NYC on saturday morning for brunch (with eric's cousins in the city)...  and wander around a bit before brunch.  and remember how much i LOVE that city.

 

there is NOTHING like driving through the Lincoln tunnel and emerging on the other/nyc side in a land full of energy and excitement and nonstop photo ops.  ;)  i only brought along my little point and shoot, since this wasnt really a photo-taking kinda trip, but i still had fun with that.

before brunch we parked the car and hopped on a subway to Buttercup Bake Shop.  Which totally wins as one of my favorite (and sweetest) nyc spots.  and i grabbed some cupcakes to enjoy later...

 

and then we went back in the direction of our brunch place, and walked the streets for a little bit, and randomly stumbled upon Mikasa's to-the-trade store, and saw this:

 

i love love LOVE everything amy butler - and have LOVED her fabrics, and sense of vintage chic midwest modern style for so long now, and had NO idea that she had partnered with Mikasa to do a line of dishes.  You can see them in detail HERE.

and letmetellyou they are FABULOUS.  like i wanted to take them home with me.

 

i also think that mixing a few diff sized plates into a wall display that incorporated her actual fabrics, too - would be so so FUN.  and im not even going to lie - id like my next kitchen to have that same turquoise wall (below).  awesome.  ((eric got mad bc i kept taking pics through the window.  ha.))

 

and so that was our weekend.  we got in this afternoon.  and i have a TON to get accomplished this week.

so i better start.

:)

{mini-pony}

i would like to start this post by saying that i almost hyperventalated (sp?) when i went to watch gossip girl tonite and the first 7 minutes were NO GOOD - the volume was absent - until the network figured out something was sketchy and turned off the HD option.  was this everywhere, or just in lucky jacksonvile?!  ugh.

>> i would then like to say "THANK YOU" for the all of the reader comments and encouragement not to cut evan's hair.  i think i might go that route a while longer...

;)

i like long.  :)

>> and then, i'd like to recap our little beach walk yesterday night...

first of all, evan LOVES the beach:

 

second of all, i'm now not even remotely doubting my desire for a mini pony at his first bday party, after seeing how much he loved the random, but why-the-heck-not(!) mini-pony taking a stroll on the beach last night...

 

awesome.

i hope we see it again, sometime soon on the beach.  i might ask if we can rent it by the hour for evan's enjoyment??

:)

{at 13 months...}

i'm a little bit late on this...

and i wasn't sure whether i was going to continue it or not...

but really, its such a great way for me to keep track of little details that might go forgotten otherwise...

and come back to when i'm journaling pages...

so here it is.

:)

evan at 13 months...

((photo taken by my fabulous photog sister, kristi...  when we were in south fla last weekend))

...loves to read.  lift up flap books in particular.  Karen Katz books are his fave - where's baby's belly button, toes/ears/nose, and where's baby's mommy? -- and a few more have been ordered from amazon to add to his little library.  the best part about reading - which we do in the comfy arm chair in his nursery...  is when he leans his little body over the arm to pick out another book (we keep them all on the floor next to the chair), and then either eric or i grab one and evan either APPROVES or VETOS.  a veto = him pushing the book away forcefully until you grab another.  an approval = evan's delighted squeal.  :)

...has SUCH a limited diet.  breakfast =s cheerios and pancakes.  lunch/dinner =s brocolli, peas, noodles.  snack =s graham crackers and apple juice.  every.single.day.  he did however try BBQ baby back ribs, fried okra, and sweet potato fries last week and liked them.  for one day at least.

...has lots of sounds and says 'dah dah' to mean all done.

...cries when toby barks at him sometimes.

...loves when i sing wheels on the bus.

...wants to live at gymboree.

...is starting to pull up on EVERYTHING.

...climbed into the dishwasher last week.

...rubs his ear when he's sleepy.

...likes to sit in my lap when we watch his shows on tv.

...loves looking at photos that i have framed on the wall.

...will sit in his crib and read books for 20 mins each morning and let momma snooze.  (thank you dear baby)

...thinks its funny when we brush his teeth in the bathtub.  really i think he enjoys the toothpaste ;)

...is not so tolerant of late of stroller and shopping cart shopping.  like we had to walk out of cosco last week.  :(

...enjoys throwing toys.  :)  particularly thinks its hysterical.

...weighs ???

...& needs a haircut.  which i keep putting off....

:)

{30}

happy

happy

happy...

30(!)

candles.

we love you.

:)

 

((i had these 12x18's printed at costco - my new fave printing source!!))

{labor day}

we spent the long holiday weekend in south florida.

where we stayed with eric's parents...

and celebrated his birthday a little early - he still has 1 official day left in his 20's.

he'd better enjoy it.  :)

eric's brother marc broke out the camp lokanda poster for the party...

which >> i thought was awesome ;)

& evan loved chilling in his grandparent's pool...

:)

and then eric surprised me with a little get-a-way in a get-a-way to here...

after about 10 minutes i knew that i wanted to live there.  permanently.  ha.  ;)

this was what we woke up to...

and this was where we lounged during the day...

totally nothing to do, or think about, and no email.

such a good thing for a change.

and a really nice warm-up vacay for the mexican cruise that we booked for december with her and of course kevin and meer, too.

and that was labor day.

:)

ps - who watched gossip girl?  raise your hand.  and if you had to rank it on a scale of 1 to 10, what would you give it?!  i vote 34.  it was that good.  i'm a little obsessed.  ;)