Preschool Picture Day

This is the outfit that I picked out for Spencer's class picture:



And here is the "special" outfit that he picked out:



Shall we see the outfits side by side?



And now, let me direct your attention to the size of the orange shorts:



They are his favorites. Well-loved for sure. I bought them for Henry [who is 7] when he was 18 months. That was 5+ years ago and they have been worn ever since as evidenced by the holes and fading.

Can you guess whose outfit won?



I actually think the outfit nicely offsets the faux rainforest setting in the background, no? And his teacher made the mistake of trying to comb his hair, too. I laughed when she told me that. The boy has too many cowlicks to ever get his hair in one specific direction! Really, though, I'll probably love the picture that much more because of these things and how it reflects the little man that he is. One of my favorite school pictures is of Reg wearing a t-shirt that says "Have you hugged me today?" Priceless. And I think his hair was sticking up, too.

So today, I can check "embrace imperfection" off my to-do list. Most of the time, imperfect is actually perfect, you know?

Be back soon with some pictures from our weekend!

Smile Because It Happened

I came across this quote in Rue Magazine:



And it did make me smile, and made me think about how nice it feels to embrace the movement of time.

To live in the moment. Find the good. Hold onto it.

And move forward.

Feel incredibly lucky that I was there. That for a moment in time I held their sweet little hands, smelled their perfect babyness, kissed their soft cheeks, heard their "b's" instead of "v's".

And smile.

Because it happened. And I got to be there.

Meet-Ups

Last Friday, I went to the Minted meet-ups in Atlanta. The first was brunch at West Egg Cafe -- delicious food, retro-chic atmosphere, and most importantly, fabulous company.



And a crop of the new Minted tees adorned with amazing hand lettered cards by Sydney:



You know I'd love any place that had vintage school supplies on the table:



And Coke:



If I were going to gut my kitchen, I'd be tempted to do blue cabinets, marble countertops and a white subway tiled backsplash. Don't think I could pull off the open shelving, but I sure like the way it looks.

And it never hurts to have a cool-looking website:



That has a quote from The Great Gatsby on the home page, no less.

West Egg was also just featured in Rue Magazine:



So basically, it's a must go if you are in the ATL!

The second meet-up was at Bocado. We sat out on the back deck and enjoyed drinks and appies. They make a mean Gimlet. And the appies were yum, too.





Thanks to Minted for hosting these get-togethers -- for an independent designer who usually sit at my computer all day, it's nice to actual get out once in a while!

Baby Love

I'll be back with more details from my trip, including pictures from the Minted meet-ups, but here's a peak at a highlight from my weekend: meeting my nephew!



He's such a little punkin.

Oh, and PS: I've been instagramming everything lately. Watch out!

The Play Pen

Did you have one? Growing up, we sure did. That's an 11-month-old me in the picture above, looking forlornly over our 1970's Playpen during my older sister's birthday party. It was a big square with mesh sides and that yellow oil cloth type fabric on the bottom and wrapped around the top rim.

My neighbor has mentioned on occasion -- those occasions where Maggie is performing one of her death defying acts, hurling herself off or onto something -- "You know, my mom used the play pen when we were little." It always makes me laugh because if I ever tried to put M into one she would scream her head off until I got her out -- or until she finagled a way to get herself out. Plus, they only make "Pack-n-plays" these days, which aren't the same. So, it made me smile when I saw this picture in Paper Maiche magazine:



The play pen is alive and well! If only I'd known this early enough to establish it. Although, I'm still not convinced that it would've worked anyway. And I do have to wonder if kids actually go in that one...doesn't seem likely from the pictures, but then what other purpose would that serve in the middle of a living room?!

Sweet Dresses

These organic dresses from Whitten Grey are too sweet. Do the cuts, colors and patterns remind you of paper doll dresses or is it just me? Either way, I'd take the dresses and that cute haircut!

But speaking of paper dolls, I've spotted a few takes on them lately. This feature from Small Magazine:



And this charming illustration from the latest issue of Papier Mache:



Maybe they're coming back...or maybe they never left, and since until recently I was focused on boy things I didn't notice!

Color Collections

I'm so taken with these color collections by Kontor Kontur. The compositions, the colors, the shapes of all the different items -- it's all so intriguing. Plus the fact that they are largely made up of office supplies doesn't hurt either.



When we were little, we used to get those big ole Service Merchandise catalogs in the mail. My sisters and I would play this game in the toy section where you had to pick one toy from each page. That was the only rule: one item, each page. Even in the boy section, you had to pick one. So now I ask you:

If you had to choose one thing from each of the collections pictured here, what would you choose?

My answers: From the white, I would probably choose one of the stamps, because I heart a good stamp. That library receipt-looking pad was calling to me, but I'm going to stick with a stamp. And from the red one, I would have to pick that red stapler on the right. Although, it was hard to pass up that little hole punch.

[Images from Kontor Kontur; click over to the site to see many more color collection compositions. I spotted these on Poppytalk in a guest post by Lisa Congdon, who just recently published a book based off her wildly popular blog "A Collection a Day" that I posted about here. I've already ordered my copy! I think whatever it is that intrigues me about these is the same as what makes her collections so engaging.]

My Birthday Party Essentials

We had a small birthday party for Henry this past weekend, and since this month has been crazy busy, I didn't have a lot of time to plan -- I didn't even send out an invitation. Not even Paperless Post. Not even an Evite. He picked his seven guests and I sent their parents a quick email. While I was thinking about what we were going to do with these 7 kids, I broke things down into our tried and true party hits. Here is my very own Essentials Guide to throwing a party for a 7-yr-old boy with not a lot of time and without breaking the bank. If you do these 3 things well, your guests and the birthday boy are sure to be happy.

1. THE CAKE

I usually just make a cake because I like baking when I can. But this year, Henry was begging for a Basketball Cake from Publix, so since we weren't doing a whole lot of other things for the party, I got him one.



And he loved it.



So did she:



2. THE PINATA

A tried and true crowd-pleaser, this will get any party guest excited.





A few more years, and M will have the whole pinata thing down.

They also played a lot of Basketball, and we set up a couple water balloon relays, which they loved.

3. THE FAVORS

There's nothing like a good favor to send your party guests away happy.



Want to take a peek inside?



I found the small packages of Mighty Beanz at Target on clearance for $0.75, added some sports pencils, sour patch kids and whistles that Weez picked up at Richard's Variety store for $0.99. We had a scavenger hunt at the end of the party where the last clue led them to their favors. Kids this age love scavenger hunts, and it was especially exciting for them when they reached the end and there was a little package waiting for each of them.

And lastly, an essential for the party planner, an adult beverage once all the guests have gone home:



Weez came rolling into town with this bottle of SkinnyGirl Margaritas, so after the kid party was over, the adult party began!

UPDATE: This post was a casualty of all the blogger craziness yesterday, so it published in Google Reader, but disappeared from the actual blog. Bizarro!

Fave Flowers

This Mother's Day, I got a pitcher full of my all-time favorite flower:



And a new favorite flower:



I also got a long nap. Wonder if there will ever be a Mother's Day when that isn't the first -- and really only -- thing that I want?! Besides Mexican take-out for dinner, of course.

What about you? If you could have a pitcher full of any flower, what would you choose?

Twelve Kisses

Hey there, friends, and happy Friday! I'll leave you this weekend with a little collection of my grandmother's Mother's Day letters and Telegrams, the latter being the email of the 1930's, I guess. A big difference to me with telegrams, though, is that they are still tangible, and can be saved in a shoebox -- or a hosiery box as was the case with these. And one day maybe a granddaughter can stumble upon them and be so happy to have found a small piece of a different era. And then post them on her blog. Or whatever the platform will be in 80 years!

Some of my favorite parts:

--How on most of them, my grandmother [who is in the picture with her mom] signs with one of her nicknames "Jab" or "Sugar." We are big nicknamers, so I love this. I love knowing that those names were what her parents called her. And that a lot of people probably had no idea.

--"To the finest mother in all the world." I think we should bring back the adjective "finest."

--"Love is what I love you."

And lastly, my most favorite:

--"I am sending you twelve kisses."

Whether you are a mother or will be celebrating a mother or grandmother or sister who is a mother, I hope that you too will receive twelve kisses.

xoxo

Wedding Invitation Ideas Lookbook

A big thanks to Kristen of Paper Crave and Invitation Crush for including the b.wise design Hearted in the Wedding Invitation Ideas Lookbook! [Check out the full edition here]

It's Bike Month!

Did you know that May is National Bike Month? It is, for real. I heart bikes a lot. And I try to ride one as often as I can. There's something so freeing about riding a bike -- the quiet, the fresh air, no rules, no traffic.

When I can, I'll pick up the kids like this:





Yes, people stare at me because I have so many attachments and kids on my bike. But stare away, I say.

However, as I've mentioned before, I wouldn't mind consolidating all the trappings into this sweet thing:



Not so sure about this big daddy, but it makes me laugh:



Holy Moly -- you could fit an entire preschool in that one!

If only our postman would abandon his post-van for one of these:



It would make mail even better.

And since we are on the topic of transportation, how cute were Will and Kate in their little Aston Martin?



Oh so cute.

So, bike away this month! And tell me about it if you want. Or send pictures. I heart pictures, too.

[Top picture from Giant Bicycles; Will and Kate picture by Daniel Ochoa De Olza]