A Rustic Wedding

I was so excited last week to wake up to this lovely email from a bride and groom that I worked with back in November. Kara and Brandon were so kind to share photos with me from their wedding and their photographer Angela Barutenek of Aster & Olive was just as nice for letting me share them with you! You can check out more of their wedding on Angela's site here.

The wedding was rustic and took place in Geneva on the Lake. The details look amazing and these two were a breeze to work with. They saw the fabric they like from my Boutique Bridal Bazaar display in 2013, they let me pick the lining, and these guys look amazing. And Kara is a beautiful bride. Oh, ad don't forget that awesome little pug! Thanks so much to the happy couple, wishing you lots or happiness!

Three Like This.

Oh little love. You are three today! What an amazing three years of fun and craziness. I can say with certainty that there was no way to prepare ourselves for your might, will, humor, and love. We are lucky to have such a silly, smart, and determined guy. I wish you a lifetime of adventure, love, and just enough bumps in the road to carve out your character. You are surrounded by a community of love and support. Happy birthday! And now I will unleash just a few of my favorites from the last three years.

It was hard to pick just a few photos but I think this bunch might just capture the fun and silly side that we all love. May you always be generous of spirit and light of heart.
Love, Mama.

Year 1. Year 2.

Happily Ever After.

Hey all you newly engaged folks out there! Let's plan your wedding! Boutique Bridal Bazaar is this Sunday, January 12th from 12:00-4:00 at the Tudor Arms Hotel. Bring your best friend, mom, and groom to check out this very fun event showcasing Cleveland's talented makers, chefs, venues, photographers, bakers, and more!

This wedding show was so much fun last year and nothing like your typical wedding event. I'm excited to participate again! There are so many great ways to specialize your special day and all of these vendors are there in one place to help you plan! 

I will have ready to buy pieces to finish off your final details and I'm also available for custom work too. Just fill me in on the details and color schemes and together we can have the groom and all his men looking dapper on your day! Check out the website for more details and then come by and see me!

Holly and Jolly.

I hope that your holidays were happy and healthy. We managed to pull off a really fun couple of days with family and friends and ended feeling grateful and loved. This year in the new house felt flush with so many great things. We hosted most of the family for Christmas day and had a great brunch of oysters Rockefeller, homemade pecan rolls, and mimosas with fresh juice. It was amazing! Then we saw more friends and met the newest member of our clan that was born on the 23rd! Here are some photos I wanted to share.

Dancing lights set to music. This place had their own radio station set up!

Waiting for Santa and his reindeer. O was contemplating just how he'd get in the house and avoid the fire in the fireplace. Once he was in bed JJ assembled this awesome train table that he scored on Craigslist. He had it in the house for over a month and could hardly wait to give it to O!

The morning was filled with surprises including my new yellow bike! Which was a complete surprise and about four years in the making! And now O can officially join the families since he has his own work bench and tools. His Papa and uncle know him well.

I just had to include this one. Every time we are inside our friend's home O finds a way to lay on this cowhide. He loves it. It's such a strange thing to me since it's not exactly snuggly, but he thinks it is great. Not to mention that tired out look on his face, Christmas was good to him.

I hope that all of you had a wonderful day with your families. As you can see, we missed out on a full family photo once again so you'll just have to believe that we looked lovely in our matching green accents. Have a happy weekend!

New Traditions.

We haven't had a real Christmas tree in years but this years. But this year with an eager toddler and a bigger house, we decided that a real one was the way to go. We headed over to the church near our old house last Friday night in the cold, wet snow and picked out a winner. O was so excited "we need a 'tah fa da top!" (translation, star for the top).

When we got home he ran around the house in complete delight (and nudity) to celebrate the arrival of the tree. He helped get it in the house and up in the stand, those photos are excluded due to content…The next day we got a star and had the decorations up by the end of the weekend.

He is mesmerized by it and has to give anyone that comes by a tour of the tree. I'm so excited to start new traditions with our little family. He is so delighted with the littlest things that it really puts a smile on both of our faces. From one happy house to yours, Happy Friday!

Measuring the Day.

I had a very happy return home to my favorite boys and was happy to spend the day solo with O on Wednesday. My patience was restored from my little getaway and it was funny to pay close attention to just how our minutes are spent.

We spent 30 minutes trying to put on a pair of socks. 10 minutes running outside avoiding getting into the car. Two 20 minute chase scenes, one was about putting pants back on, the other was just laughing, hiding, and chasing. 20 minutes at the BMV, behaving and making friends. 30 minutes on task doing some sort of desired activity. 22 minutes walking home from the playground looking at sticks, acorns  (coconuts he calls them for some reason), leaves, and squirrels. And so on. I did my very best to just laugh at just how very determined he is not to do what I ask, even when it's something he wants to do. Happy Monday, may you measure your day in happy moments!

Away We Go!

Last week I did something just for me. Me and seven of my favorite gals flew to Florida for what was deemed a "mama break" although we weren't all mamas. It was so wonderful to feel the heat of the sun and hear the waves crashing in while enjoying my ladies. No chasing babies, no real cooking, and lots of cocktails that kept the laughter flowing. Here are a just a few of my favorite photos I took that do not include any unauthorized bikini shots. 

It was such a treat to hang out with my friends without having to entertain our children (that we do love dearly) or worry about the time. It was a generous gift of time from my friends, the home owners (my friend's parents), and most of all my husband. He made it through the weekend without a hitch and even had some surprises upon my return that I'll be sharing soon! Now back to the grind.

Wedded Bliss.

I am so very excited to finally start sharing photos from some of the weddings that I had the pleasure to make ties for! Thanks to the lovely bride and groom, Terri and Ben, plus the amazing photographer Jeff from Dovetale Photography, I am able to show off. The amazing photos and the beautiful people really make the ties look great. 

Ben and Terri had a beautiful wedding day in Cleveland back in May. I was lucky to see a photo or two the night of the wedding and was amazed by how happy and love-filled the day was.

These two were a breeze to work with. The mission was to match the coral dresses with a cool fabric that wasn't too feminine. I honestly showed them two rounds of samples and the choice was made! Ben wanted to wear a bow tie and all of his men wore skinny neck ties. On my end, we picked and ordered the fabric...then we bought the house and moved! So the project spanned two homes and a lot of stress but I was really pleased with how they turned out. Thank you SO much for letting me share your special day. There are more to come. Happy Friday, friends!

Rainy Day and Allergic Reactions.

Wednesday was rainy and I wasn't feeling too hot when we first got up so I was concerned about the days activities. Luckily we had a morning play date so that took care of a good chunk of time. Lately O has been pretty obsessed with Playdoh. He needs to make cookies, carrots, and people like everyday. We have a fun set of cookie cutters that make the play time even more fun for him plus the bright colors cheered up the dreary day.

He was pretty proud of his creations and helped take some pictures to document the fun. He's my son alright. The funny thing about the cookie cutters is that he can't quite recognize all of the shapes until he uses them. He was pretty serious about the above animal being a kangaroo, he had it hopping all over the room until suddenly he realized it was a dolphin. Suddenly meaning I had told him that initially but I guess he thought I was wrong.

We hit up the grocery later and picked out a pineapple to have with lunch. He diligently cut it up with me with his little spreading knife and like any good chef was sampling along the way. I had no cause for concern since we've had pineapple before. But suddenly after having a healthy serving he started to yell that his tongue was hurting and kind of freaking out. I looked in his mouth to see some large bumps forming on the back of his tongue. No tongue swelling but he was clearly uncomfortable. So naturally I called my mom, then the advice nurse. I have enough sense to know it wasn't life threatening at that point but it was kind of scary anyway. We calmed down, cooled his tongue with a combo of things and safely ended the mild reaction. I wasn't expecting it so it seemed scary and I was nervous about his nap, but he was fine and was able to eat comfortably by dinner. Yikes! I've heard awful food allergy stories and I know this one was pretty tame but I wanted to share it anyway.

We've got another fun weekend coming up...this mama is turning 35 on Sunday. Have a great weekend and steer clear of really acidic pineapple!

Just the Mama.

Well after two and a half years I finally had a full on weekend on my own. JJ had a fun boys trip to Chicago which left all of the mamas in Cleveland with the kids. Anticipating it made me nervous which is a funny thing since he's my kid. But the feeling of being alone for days at a time with my own child freaked me out, no buffer, to tag team, what was I going to do?! I know that I'm lucky though, he's a good kid and there a so many amazing people that do it alone out there. 

 

We were just fine. We played with friends, stayed up too late, went to the market, played so more, ate waffles, and you guessed it...played so more!

On Saturday morning he told me in an annoyed voice that "he was taking the train to Chicago." As if to say, I'll find that Papa. We checked out a new playground and found this cool map. He wouldn't listen long enough to show him where Chicago was.

I feel lucky to have such a cool kid and lots of friends to hang with when the husbands take off. I hope they do the same when we all leave next month because it certainly makes things easier. Happy Friday, I hope you have a great weekend! We have a wedding and birthday parties so it should be another fun one!

Weekend Getaway: Just Us.

Last weekend we had our very first entire weekend away since Little Man was born. It happened to fall just after our eighth wedding anniversary so it really was a treat. We headed to Chicago to see my brother's band play at Riot Fest. Such a big deal! There's no way we were going to miss it! The funniest part about it is that our friends in Chicago that we always stay with just moved back to Cleveland (and our other friends were out of town), so it was a trip for just us, for the most part. It was great! We missed Little Man but sleeping in, staying up late, and having no plan at all was a much needed treat. These were our best Riot Fest faces to start the weekend off. The drive there is always more exciting than the drive home. We played games and listened to music. And I tried my best not to cry about leaving the boy. Now for the major photo dump.

Friday night we stayed in this cute B&B in Logan Square called Longman & Eagle. Each stylish little room is different. Ours had this cool mural over the bed and a nice subway tile bathroom with a hanging terrarium and a variety of mix tapes, which was pretty fun. Plus we got two wooden nickels for whiskey drinks at the bar. Friday night was filled with bar hopping, taking the train, and catching up with the Riot Fest folks after their night. Plus we discovered Cards Against Humanity, JJ was the big winner.

 

I didn't get a proper photo of the swanky place we stayed Saturday night downtown by the river called the Langham. It was equipped with a rapid fill tub and a rain shower with a privacy glass that turned back to regular glass with the tap of a button. We walked around the city, had a low key dinner, then a nice quiet night watching a movie in bed. We had a great time catching up with my brother and sister-in-law plus a really great surprise friend that came to check out the show too. I'll share more about Riot Fest on part two, you can only take so many photos, right? Happy Tuesday.