My blog and I have been hibernating... but here's what's been going on

After the rush of Etsy orders that hit my shop during the fall and winter, come January I decided I needed a break.  It was too much to have the husband working 13 and 18 hr shifts while I take care of two little ones... it was a bit too stressful. Although I miss that income and sense of connection with my customers as well as a separate purpose than being a mom... in all my life is a lot less stressful than having made-to-order shipping deadlines.

My break also stemmed from my need to get some bigger projects completed. (this proved virtually impossible during the fall when my free time at night was consumed with fulfilling orders). One such project was completing a knit blanket for my cousin and his wife for their wedding back in September 2013.  It was a very fun project that has become a traditional gift for my cousins when they marry. I realized that in order to get big tasks done I simply have to chip away at them veery night... so at the beginning of January I set to work and managed to finish it one month later! Phew! (You can read more about it here.)

Now as a result, I'm knitting a large blue throw blanket for our family room. (A perfect project to have stashed away when I need something mindless to keep my hands busy while watching a movie etc. IE: wont be finished anytime before next fall.)

The other larger project I am working on is my children's book. It's about our daughter's "Jingle bell christmas hat" (she named it) which started as a hankerchief which evolved into scarves to act as hair, since her hair is slow growing. I've written the story, mapped out the story board, and have begun drawing and painting some of the scenes. It's slow going, but I'm enjoying the process, as I try and finalize composition and medium.

We've had a very cold winter that has kept us indoors but we've stayed busy with new crafts and family activities, like Dad- as a jungle gym.

Our daughter at almost 3.5 has stopped napping in the afternoons, which means her bedtime is now 6pm, which is pretty great for everyone... however most nights she wakes up and comes into our bed anytime between 12-4am. It's both sweet and insane (Leg kick to the back of my neck) and I know it's just a phase and some nights I put her back in her own bed... but most nights I'm dead to the world when she comes in, the extra snuggling is pretty nice though, so I'm soaking up the sweet moments.

These two little sweeties adore each other, it's been so fun to watch them grow and to see how they interact and play together, they are two goofy monkeys that know how to make eachother laugh.

Also this winter, during the second weekend in February, I went out to my friend Katy's wedding in Colorado. It was my first time being away from both kids for 48hrs. YES my first 48hr child free time in 4 years (insane!). It was really fun to catch up with everyone and to celebrate Matt and Katy's awesome new life together (they are incredibly sweet and perfect for one another!)

(ah yes, the day after one of our many snow storms when I had to get out of the house. It was epic. It was toooo cold but I managed to walk them around the block. note the boots on the wrong feet, classic.)

Then the first week in March I went up to NYC to see my friend Clint's opening as part of a group show at the Curator Gallery.

Here is Clint's window drawing. It was pretty exciting to see his work in NYC.  Then my sister and I went out to dinner that night and I spent the night at her place before returning the following days to my motherly duties ;).

And this little guy is going to be one next month!!! (minds are blown!)

So yes, the past few months have been spent hunkered down with family and friends visiting us and I visiting them. We are looking forward to the spring, but know it is still quite a ways off. So we are pacing ourselves with thoughts of warm days and list making of a spring and summer bucket list.

our daughter's third birthday

We celebrated our darling Daughter's third birthday over the weekend. At every birthday of her's I find myself becoming very sentimental, and for some reason this year in particular I felt more aware of how fast she is growing up.  And it made me very nostalgic.  I love her so very much and now that her brother is here and we are experiencing all the baby stuff again, she just seems so much older in comparison (obviously) but also at this age is when her impressions are really taking hold, and she is transitioning into the realm of being a little girl... I think we still have until she's 5 for her to be out of the toddler phase and into the little girl arena... and eventhough there are really super crazy hard moments with this age, it is still so sweet. One day she wont hand me her boogers, or need me in many ways, and that's natural, but well I guess I'm simply trying to convey that I am working very hard at living in the moment and being grateful for it all.

So without further ado here are just a few pictures from our weekend.

Above: on friday we were invited to go to her school for her birthday celebration where she held the globe and walked around the sun three times. We brought in pumpkin muffins and stayed through snack time.

After snack we picked up her surprise birthday balloons with the bus, aka the "Balloon Bus"

and then we surprised her with them on saturday morning the day of her party! success!

(do we look tired enough? and old? lol)

On sunday the 27th, on her actual birthday, we spent most of the day in our pjs. We had blueberry pancakes for breakfast, did a crazy toddler pedicure in the bathroom (every color was used!) then followed by a mid morning hot chocolate with mini marshmallows in mom and dad's bed where we gave her two more presents- a book and a stuffed knit kitty cat doll. Then we just lounged there and read the two new books she received. It was pretty perfect!

And I caught her having a little quiet moment at the end of the day.

Our daughter is lovely. I am so grateful to be her mom (I gage when I read this on blogs, but it's true).

I'm holding on to these moments, these special years where after struggling to finally get her to stay in her bed, all I want to do is go in there and snuggle her... it's an ironic mix of sentiments and discipline and this is why the dishes aren't always done...

So Happy birthday to our darling girl. We look forward to all the adventures and funny moments this next year has in store!

Back to School Fall 2013

Well Summer is officially over!

Our daughter went back to school last week, eeer the week before, I have no idea!? She is going to school 4 days a week this year! wowah. And she is already loving it. I will admit that I feel guilty sending her for so many days, but with the husband's crazy work schedule (70 hrs the other week!) and my etsy shop taking off while also taking care of our now 5 month old- it really is for her benefit (and everyone's) that she has some time away from the house and on her own so to speak.

She is so great. A fantastic big sister. She is so funny, loving, and fun to be around. But she is also having a bit of a hard time adjusting to our new pace- the finalized sort of rhythm we have found ourselves in...as a family of four, and rightfully so! I mean I haven't blogged since June people!? What is up with that!? (I have lots to catch you up on- if your still out there and reading this?)

But here she is in all of her almost 3 yo glory!

*Stay tuned for a hopefully- onslaught of blog posts! Summer recap, New Etsy Merch, The slow evolution of our living room makeover, Other home stuff, updates on the kids, planning her 3rd Birthday at the end of October, etc!

I've missed you all!

xo

abs

5th Wedding Anniversary

Sunday marked our 5th wedding anniversary! 5 years already... a little crazy. We are waiting to celebrate sans kids this Thursday night when we will go into philly for a concert and maybe a bite to eat.

 Here's how we spent the day as a family.

Last year I gave Cameron Nigel Slater's book Tender, so this year it felt only right to give him Slater's book on fruit, Ripe. Can't wait to dive into this book! The card was by modern memo on etsy.

For breakfast Cameron made us my favorite- eggs benedict with smoked salmon, tomato, avocado, and basil!

The breakfast scene with Cameron just returning from working 7pm-7am the night before!!

Later that morning we enjoyed the sunny day and washed the bus. It was a lovely day and fun to reminisce back over these past 5 years and to think ahead to what the next 5 will bring!

8 weeks old

On Saturday our son Ansel turned 8 weeks old, (counting sat-sat) a fun little milestone for all involved. So far life with two is exciting and bone tiring. But it's amazing to see how quickly I've adapted to taking care of two. However there are nights where the husband and I look at eachother in disbelief and wonder if we will live through this, lol. 

But it helps that Ansel is a very easy baby, as most 2nd babies are due to the parents need to split their time between the baby and older sibling. Thus he falls asleep easily and is content to stare at the wall for minutes on end, etc. He is smiling a lot more this week, which is very fun and rewarding and makes his interactions with his older sister very cute and fun to watch! He still has this slightly furrowed- old man look on occasion, and the quivering bottom lip is always adorable.

And he is growing and growing and growing...! At 6.5 weeks he weighed almost 14 pounds, giving him a weight gain of 1 pound a week. His growth spurts make us scramble to keep him wearing clothes and diapers that fit. 

He is a sweat little boy and I look forward to watching him grow and his personality and point of view unfold.

crickets... ie: explaining my blog absence..

I'd like to think and thus be able to say that this blog post in an indication that I'm Back baby! That I'll once again be blogging on a regular daily basis, that I haven't given up on this mini creative outlet, or outreach... And I haven't given up, just simply finding a new rhythm and prioritizing my new life as a mom of two. (which is still kinda wild to say and type!)

So where have I been this last month and what's been going on!?

Well, firstly I didn't expect to take a month off from my blog, in fact after our daughter was born blogging became a very regular thing but that's life with one... now we have a toddler AND a baby and even though the baby sleeps well and gives us nice 4-5 hr stretches, our daughter has suddenly started not sleeping so well. BUMMER. After 4 months of being a stellar sleeper in her big bed, she now gets out of her bed a few times during the night... so that's awesome (eye roll). I'll be sure to blog more about this toddler wakeful thing later (fingers crossed).

So this past month has seen its challenges, mainly in the nursing department... I got sick, had to heal, and get breast feeding back up and running... it was rough for a few weeks there, but we are back on track. Our son is gaining weight at a crazy pace and thanks to our awesome lactation consultant, I stuck with it and have been able to continue to nurse. (it was touch and go there for a while, thought I might have to throw in the towel). But now nursing still takes forever and requires both hands... so add that to the baby needing to nurse every 2-3 hrs... and thats all I've been doing, but I have the perspective that babyhood is fleeting and this time next year I'll have more free time- yah know to stay on top of the dishes and laundry, like a true cliche.

Besides all the nitty gritty, we are having fun with our newest addition! He's very sweet and chill. He's smiling a bit more this week.. like he's thinking back on some inside joke. We managed to go the shore at the end of April for a long weekend, and it was fun to see how we faired out and about as a family of four.

Well, thats the condensed version...! I hope to elaborate on some hidden themes in future posts. I hope your last 5 weeks have been glorious with spring time! Cant believe we are half way through May!!!

See you back here soon!

xo

abs

Introducing Our Son...

Our son Ansel Norman was born this weekend. arriving early Saturday morning at 2:23 am and just a little less than a week before his due date (gotta love that!).  We are all doing well. His Big Sister is over the moon in love with him. She claps in the morning after waking up to find that Ansel is still here!! (I hope this feeling lasts! lol) It's been a great past couple of days and we are excited to see how this all plays out, what type of little guy Ansel will be and his relationship with his sister and with us of course. It's very exciting.  Here are just a few pictures... I hope to return to a some what regular blog schedule next week-ish!

xo

abs

Easter Pictures, from 2013

Hey everyone, I wanted to check in and share some pictorial highlights from this year's Easter Sunday.

Above: our daughter's genuine reaction to her first jelly bean.

Saturday night I had a bit too much fun assembling her Easter basket! I might have gone a tad over board this year... and for a few reasons. This "to-do" got caught up in my general nesting to dos and thus had been in process for a while... accumulating little bits here and there! Also I was subconsciously worried that if the baby came before Easter, there was a possibility that her basket might take a back seat. Hence the extra planning. But mostly, these things are fun to do with our daughter as each year she is more capable and interested in new things.

I knit her two bunnies (that went into the plastic eggs for the egg hunt). We also found some tasty organic jellybeans and lollipops at our local orchard that also went into the plastic eggs (along with some pennies, and hair bows).

In her basket went a little potted plant for her to plant outside, 3 wooden eggs, a chocolate bunny, a no spill bubble thing, a pink sun hat, three nature/spring themed books, and a vintage wooden puzzle.

She was pretty pumped.

We spent Easter lunch at my folk's house where we had some incredibly delicious lamb, and coconut cake for dessert!

There was a second Easter egg hunt at my folk's house. It was a lot of fun to watch her look for eggs.

It's pretty wild to look back on the past two Easters and see how much she had grown and changed...! and Next Easter there will be two baskets to fill. pretty wild!

First Easter

2nd Easter

Have a great Start to your week!

A Love Letter to Spring: Spring Activities with our Toddler...

For this week's Love Letter to Spring, I wanted to share our spring activities from this weekend! We are really looking forward to spring around here and we are starting off this new season inspired by some of our favorite children's books!

Honey Rabbit: We bought at a consignment store. It's very cute and fun to do different voices for all of the animals that help Honey Rabbit define what spring actually is.

And Then It's Spring: might be one of my all time favorite books. It has a simple narrative and the illustrations are so darling and full of funny little details. This book was the big inspiration for our weekend's spring activities (see below!)

Who's in The Garden: Was a gift from my cousin and it too is very spring inspiring. There is a lot to look at in this book, and each page has a little peek-a-boo cut out circle. I have to remind our daughter not to sing "Lets go Fly a kite" at the top of her lungs, when we get to the kite page...! ; )

So with spring on the horizon for quite sometime now, our daughter has been talking non stop about making a birdhouse and hanging a bird feeder (as pictured in "And Then It's Spring"). So I was pretty pumped when I found this birdhouse at whole foods the other week! I was going to save it for her Easter basket, but the husband made the good point that birds are starting to build their nests and perhaps we should get it up sooner rather than later.

So this weekend we gave our daughter the birdhouse and she quickly set to helping her dad put the house together.

The Melissa and Doug kit only came with 4 colors, so we used some other paints we had on hand in order to fulfill the request for purple!

At our daughter's school they make a lot of hand print and footprint artwork, so it was only natural that the house have at least 3 handprints on it! She asked me to help paint the house, so I added the one yellow leaf and blue trim. A nice collaboration.

After the birdhouse was finished, in the afternoon we set about starting our seeds for this year's garden!

Pretty ambitious/insane to let so much dirt into our family room, but it was a pretty easy clean up. Plus it was just a bit too damp this weekend to work outside... It's going to be fun to see how much more helpful she will be this year with the garden! (You know as helpful as a toddler can be!)

Then on Tuesday we hung the epic birdhouse out back. It's going to take a very special bird family to move in! ; ) We also hung the bird feeder and look forward to observing the activity that will take place between the two new backyard additions. We can see them from her little studio/sunroom at the back of the house as well as from her bedroom.

And our rainy Tuesday morning turned into a sunny afternoon, perfect for jumping in the mud puddles in our swampy backyard.

it's not spring, or childhood without a muddy face!