today.

today i leave on an adventure. wearing my old boots, the same old nina beana, conquering some of my biggest fears (flying, being away from my kids). i like jumping out of my routine, only to come back renewed and more grateful for the rhythm of my everyday. this afternoon i will dip my toes into the ocean and swim in a pool outside and order a fancy meal and have a couple of delicious adult drinks. i'll walk on the sand under the big glorious moon. i have my husband to thank (and an awesome friend who was the planner extraordinaire) for gifting me this adventure for mother's day, just so i can have a little r&r.

it will be a chance to let my beastly hair down.

so off i go! goodbye dear ones. maybe i will sleep on the plane considering i missed four hours of sleep last night due to lulu's random crying episodes.

and here's an offering from joey, always reminding me to see the beauty in the most everyday of things. xx

highlights

i live a charmed life, that's for sure, but no more charmed than anyone else's. i just try to approach each day as a gift, focusing on the 'everyday amazing'. how fitting then, when a friend gifted me a cup of this tea:

these past weeks have flown by. we're coming off a week of school vacation, which was surprisingly pleasant, jam-packed, and flew by. there were many highlights- too many to list here. but here were some of my favorites--


delicious vegetarian meals with one of my bestest friends from far away

taking the kids on a beautiful earth day walk and picking up lots and lots of trash and then sorting through it. they were so proud of themselves!

homemade playdough with friends

busking for cash on the side of the road (upturned hats and all!)

hippie tea date with my girl

new art journals and mandala drawing (and little helpers!)

a few tears to keep the happiness in check

field hockey and gray wearing lulu's legwarmers as her shin guard covers

lots and lots of gathering with friends

a little bit of crafting thrown in for good measure

some quiet time reading and holding steaming cups of tea


little blue eyes (six of them) peering at me constantly, reminding me why i do what i do

headwraps!

i'm headed off on an adventure to miami tomorrow for the weekend. yes, i will be wearing a bathing suit. yes, i will be dipping my toes in the ocean. and yes, i will probably be the only freak with a suitcase full of feminist lit and magazines. have a beautiful weekend! xx

why i love my local coffee shop/farmstand

most days around here have the same rhythm- drop off gray at the bus, get our coffee mugs, and then a trip to our local coffee shop/farmstand/apple orchard. you see- they have this beautiful thing- you can buy a reusable coffee mug for cheap (20$) and then you can go and get coffee five million times a day if you want, for the rest of your life. and tea! and now they have raw unprocessed honey. this makes mama happy, and also makes for a happy four year old coffee-drinkin' joey. joey received his own mug from puppa for christmas, and now holds the title as the youngest member of the coffee club.

so on most days, you'll find joey and i (and lulu in the backpack- which i'm finding is quite controversial- people either think it's fantastic or have very not-nice opinions about it, which they aren't afraid to share!) toting our mugs into the farmstand, where joey loads up on half decaf half milk (hey! i pick my battles! the kid likes coffee. i promise decaf won't kill him) and mama loads up on her beverage of choice. my favorite part of our adventure is that it imparts this really great feeling of community for us- everyone knows us by name, and we stop and talk to our produce peeps, and our checkout peeps, and on any given day i run into a friend, oftentimes one of my BFF's, and we get to sit and have coffee. and when i'm done i load up on apples, avocados, stuff for salads, cage free local eggs, cider, and milk. yes, it is a luxury, but one that i never take for granted. my children know where their food comes from- they know the people who work to make it possible. they know the names of most vegetables. they also know the sweet rush of morning coffee and the taste of an occasional apple cider donut.

in my mind every day (and out loud, too), i thank john for working his tail off so i can be there for my kids in this special way.

i can't help but wonder what our lives would be like without this little ritual that has become so important for us. i'm so glad a place like this exists in my community. and this is why i am so grateful for you, dear coffee shop.

little lulu

so my little lulu is one of the main reasons why my blogging has been severely lacking lately. as you can see, she's my first climber...she likes to get on top of anything, oftentimes just intentionally plunging off the edge of furniture just to see who's on their toes, and who's around to catch her. she manages to get up onto the dining room table, on top of the tv cabinet, and she also likes to throw around my prized vinyl records like frisbees. needless to say, my computer time is pretty limited.

she is the most confident, self assured child i have ever met. when she puts her mind to something, she just does it with ease. those beautiful diamond screw-back earrings that my girlfriends bought her? the ones that are supposed to be impossible to take out? it took her only a couple of hours before she managed to yank them out of her head. she takes off her shoes and socks and hides them so we can put them on. she climbs behind the couch. when i'm in my craft room sewing, she unplugs my sewing machine to get my attention. she eats the tops off of markers.

i am tempted to say that some days with lulu are hard. but really, they are just intense- focused- and energy zapping. there is little downtime. she will leave no crayons uneaten. she will find the most dangerous thing and put her finger in it. at the end of the day, i fall into bed exhausted. but i know that all this is temporary, and sometime very soon, i will look at her and wonder what happened to my little baby toddling around, conquering the world.

next, she'll be eight and trying to get a tattoo (which would actually be pretty cool).

it's the little things

finding self portraits taken by little people and left on my camera for me to find later. i especially love this one of joey taken in the door handle

wearing crazy colorful headbands out in public because it's spring

love notes from gray


sun flares

craft supplies and pussy willows

colorful jewelies in my bathroom

a new plant- a handmade necklace from joey

messages around town

these three little faces peeking

being outside. finally.

dove love

this is my newest painting, which was commissioned by my friends for E's nursery. i loved the idea that they had- they bought four matching ready-to-hang canvases, and mailed them out to four of their artist friends. each one of us received a package with the blank canvas and some scraps of fabric that they used around the nursery. the fabric scraps were black, hot pink, greens, and blues. i also loved how they didn't know if they were having a boy or a girl, but decorated the nursery however they felt like, using bright pops of color.

each artist also got an animal to base the painting around. i had already elbowed my way into getting a dove, mainly because i'm elbow-deep in dove imagery as i design my new tattoo. historically, the dove symbolizes innocence, gentleness, faith, and peace. i love the idea of the dove's presence in a baby's nursery, a subtle reminder of everything that is childhood.

i decided to use the actual fabric pieces in my work, and cut them into heart shapes, coming out of the dove's mouth. the dove itself is cut from a piece of vintage wrapping paper featuring ice cream cones for a bit of whimsy.

i'm really happy with way it came out, and was even happier when i was able to go to the hospital the day after E was born and gift it to the mamas. i wrapped the finished painting in a little mini quilt/changing pad that i sewed one of my baby blankets from when i was little inside as the lining.


spring is a busy busy time, and i love every minute of it. you should see my craft space right now- total trainwreck goodness!

and just as an FYI, my paintings and photographs are going to be hanging in a local coffee shop for the month of may. i'm also going to be having an "opening," so stay tuned for details! i'd love to see some of you over some good coffee.
xx