Made in the 216.

Hey friends! I'm excited to announce the return of Made in the 216 to Ohio City this weekend! I will be participating in this fun event again hosted by Room Service at a pop up location, 1810 W. 25th St from Friday-Sunday! There will be a whole lot of awesome local artists, bands, and food so please come and check it out! The bow ties are looking pretty fly in my humble opinion. See you there!

Parade The Circle.

Happy Monday! We had an action packed adventure filled weekend so I'm starting the week off with a Parade the Circle photo dump. We hopped on our bikes and rode down to the parade Saturday morning to meet up with friends and have a picnic. Riding bikes is the best way to get down to University Circle when there is going to be a crowd, there was a complimentary bike valet that made it so easy to get in and out of there quickly! 

The parade was kicked off by this veteran followed closely by the Parade the Circle balloon arches that mark the sections off. The boys oohed and ahhed at this giant blue man and the creatures that followed behind.

These giant Playskool toys were so awesome! Do you recognize them? I loved the chattering teeth too.

The sailors with the pop-up Jaws and Giant Squid were SO awesome and definitely my favorite! They pulled a huge lighthouse too and every so often closed up the boards to reveal these giant creatures of the sea.

This parade is a Cleveland classic and I love to see how creative and colorful these volunteers can be. The music is a lot of fun and the boys loved the dancers and drums. I love the people watching too! The Botanical Garden's Glasshouse makes for a perfect backdrop for photos. 

The Dads championed the big hill home with trailers and the boys quickly (and uncomfortably) fell asleep on the ride home. It was a great day! Happy Monday!

Super Sunday

How was your Super Bowl Sunday? Ours was pretty fun! Little boys running around playing, eating popcorn, and the 5th annual Chili Cook-Off! 

We were decked out in our football gear, which in our house means Browns gear for the most part. As I was taking my sweet time getting ready, JJ was busy making what turned out to be the the winning chili for the night! I'd share the recipe but for the first time ever, he just kind of made it up using a few recipes so it will remain a secret! I thought the peppers looked so pretty.

Our lovely host and hostess sent us all home with chipotle and rosemary roasted nuts (you can find the recipe here) in these cute little glass jars! It was another fun night with friends on a cold winter night.

Quick Paper Garland

If you have a sewing machine and some paper than you can make this super simple and fun garland in a flash!

Materials

Colorful or patterned paper

Rulers

Scissors

Pencil

Sewing machine, thread

Using a straight edge draw faint lines on your paper to mark out the triangles and cut them out. I probably would use more colorful paper next time but this is what I had on hand. The machine was threaded with white and I didn't really want it to pop so it was perfect. Leave a four to five inch tail at the beginning of your first triangle. Then simply run the paper through, you can keep the shapes close like I did or spread them out a bit. Leave the same length tail at the end and you are done!

Thomas and Diesel totally approved so I hung it up on the mantle and was ready to party! I know I talk about garland a lot but it really makes for a festive look. What's your favorite party detail?

Happy Birthday Little Love.

This joyful little love of ours is two years old today! It's hard to imagine that it has already been that many days since we first held him in the hospital. I'm not one for sugar coating, we've hard long hard days over these last two years but those days have become less and less and are far out shined by the days of pure joy and laughter. He's a gentle little soul with a hell of a sense of humor. He's an actor, a chef, and the most hilarious boy we've ever known. Three cheers to you, my son! And now a few details from the train party!

Thomas the Tank Engine is by far his favorite character these days and I've mentioned before his love of trains in general so the theme was simple. I got the glass milk jars from this etsy site and they were simple and cute. I printed out an image of a train that we liked and tied them on with baking twine. Paper straws are everywhere these days but we got ours in Denver last September. 

I have been a long time fan of Geronimo Balloons but it didn't seem reasonable to get an official one for a two year old so we just got them from the party store and added a little frill. These giant balloons seriously made my day when I found them! The day of I whipped up this very easy paper garland for the mantle (check back tomorrow for a DIY).

My ever impressive husband (and fellow birthday boy) made this amazing Thomas cake and loaded up the cargo cars with all sorts of treats! We welcomed the sugar rush with open arms...well kind of. O was so excited that he just stared at it for ten minutes to make sure nothing happened to it! And the grand finale was this awesome train set from Grandma and Grandpa. We are lucky to have so many wonderful friends willing to cram into this little apartment and let a gang of sugar crazed toddlers run amok. Yay for parties!

Happy Halloween!!

We ran off to join the circus! We all opted for leading roles too of course, The Ringmaster, The Conductor (it's a traveling circus), and me the Tightrope Walker. 

Initially the costume theme was based on this lion suit. But naturally you should not rely on the will of a 21 month old child. His will was very much against this cute little suit. So about an hour before we had to leave for the party we came up with Plan B. It worked out just fine.

The party in the park was a lot of fun despite the cold wind and rain. The kids didn't seem to mind one bit. After all, there was pizza, creepy cookies, and donuts hanging from a string!

I was cold much earlier than this guy even cared. He and his bff loved the wet ground and puddles to splash in!

The three-legged race was comical, and there was a mummy wrap contest too! It actually made me so dizzy I thought I was going to fall on the ground.

Thanks to Andy Warhol, we got an invite to a really fun party! Our Trick or Treating was postponed due to the storm so I'm not sure what we'll do tonight to celebrate! But I wish you all a spooktacular night!

The Pressure of Halloween

So many people call Halloween their favorite holiday. It is indeed mine as well. My husband and I share that sentiment and for five awesome years we hosted a fabulous Halloween party at our old house. The costumes were always impressive and the running for Best Dressed was always fierce. We even started setting up a photo booth in our side room that always promised wild and hilarious photos! My appreciation of this day is deep rooted in my Dad's love of dressing as Frankenstein almost every year! Here are some of my favorite costumes.

This is our second Halloween together as Bonnie and Clyde.

Our first ever party. I was a Devil with a Blue Dress on.

The year of the infamous Teen Wolf costume! My brother in law has gone down in history for that one. And Superheroes too!

This year we had two totally separate costumes, the first was Day of the Dead inspired and thrown together in about an hour. We had all of the tools on hand! The next day the entire crew from Masters of the Universe showed up to pose with the ever famous Andy Warhol.

These two never disappoint with incredibly elaborate and handmade costumes! Chinese Take Out and MacGruber.

And then last year, with the babe, we were karate champions from the Kobra Kai Dojo. What's my point exactly? That the pressure of having a good costume is serious business over here and I'm feeling it hardcore this year. What will we be?? What are you going to be? We are attending a party tomorrow so we'd better settle on something now! Hope you have a spooky weekend, friends!

Let's Party

We had such a fun night at the Best of Cleveland Party on Friday night! The event was sold out and the crowd was ready to celebrate all that is lovely in Cleveland. I brought along my two "employees" to help me out and we had a lot of fun! Here are the best of the best photos that we took that night!

Another great weekend under our belts. Hope yours was good too! Happy Monday!

Happy Dance

It's an exciting day here so I'm doing a little happy dance and singing out loud. Best of Cleveland Party here we come! And to help you celebrate with me I'm offering a discount in the Etsy shop with this code: BOC10 until the end of the month! Enjoy your weekend, friends and a big thank you to Cleveland Magazine!!

To Market, To Market

Cleveland's own West Side Market is celebrating it's 100th year and is celebrating in lots of fun ways. On Sunday we braved the 40 degree rainy weather to check out the Street Fair and it was well worth it.  The street was closed off and there were food vendors, music, and people out and about. Eventually the sun did come out and the rain stopped.

Oliver wasn't too sure at first why we took him from his warm carseat and out into this weather. But once the music started and snacks were passed out he was a happy guy.

We ran into JJ's cousin Heather and Oliver got to see a real live police car up close and check out the cool lights. Then we headed down to Campbell's to sample delicious popcorn and check out this West Side Market popcorn structure. Oliver may have eaten about a half bag of white cheddar popcorn himself...

We rocked out to the Colin Dussault's Blues Project and danced away the cold. Oliver loved this band. He was cheering for more between each song. 

And then there was a photo booth set up too. Oliver wore what can only be described as a pimp hat and I was a sailor.  I'm glad we got up and out of the house to celebrate a Cleveland landmark.