daddy day art :: paint that town

Yesterday, I gave you a sneak preview into our neighborly playdate. For Callan and I, this date was a first! We live on the most wonderful block---dare I say it---in the world. This is quite possibly no exaggeration. There are half a dozen couples with children just a bit older than Callan and one iconic couple who take bike rides and wear fedoras and make the rest of us look very midwestern. And here's the best part: we like them all. Every last one. I'm happy when they stop us on the sidewalk, I run out to catch a few minutes of convo with them, and I am so grateful that Callan gets to watch their children and learn from them. And the iconic couple makes me want to be a stylish mom because they're so dang good-looking and sweet.

So we invited the ladies and their spawn over for the lunch hour to make some finger-paintings for Daddy's Day. I was so pleased when the ladies said yes. Everyone brought something extra for each other---cookies, paints, canvases, and a newborn. 

While the kiddos painted away, I snapped photos. Here are my favorites from the day.

C-man:

Callan making his masterpiece (and drooling).

Big smiles from Daisy* and Patty:

Rose* and Carmen:

Baby love and C-man's mama, Virginia; can you believe she came on a playdate with a newborn and a 2-year-old? How cool is that?

The girls tried to play with Callan, but half the time he wasn't sitting up so they just made faces and let him giggle.

And one of my favorite photos of the little guy, propped up by Virginia.

I also had a shot of all their finished work, but the lighting was so bright I couldn't even adjust it to make out the paint. Sorry!

Thank you, ladies, for a wonderful day. We had a blast, and Hawk loved the personal touch. Literally.

*I changed their names because you just never know...

icj,

~j

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sneak preview :: daddy day art

Ace and I held our first playdate for Father's Day. Here's a sneak preview:

Tomorrow, I'll show you more!

And Patty, I have your paints here so next Happy Hour, I'll bring them by.

icj,
~j

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happy anniversary, babe

Happy Anniversary, Hawk.

Two years ago, we hitched ourselves to something pretty great. Unique. Far from mediocre, mundane, merose.

The walk thus far has had it's great challenges, but we knew that going in...

Marriage calls each spouse

to fight against himself for the sake of his beloved.

~alice von hildebrand

You take care of me. You carry me past my own faults. You make me a great wife and mother. And I like how your eyes match your blue ties.

Thank you for making me take life less seriously the past 2 years of marriage. Thank you for providing for us. Thank you for wanting our family to grow, and to grow quickly. Thank you for making a home, making a marriage, and making it all even better than I envisioned it could be.

I respect and admire you above all others.

yours, 

cheeks

all photos courtesy of frontroom photography, taken by erin calfe weide

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oh at 29

The love of my life turns 29 today.

Here's to your mando skills

your annoying wisdom 

your patience

your dedication to providing for our family

your love for our son

and for marrying me.

icj,

~j

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aw, shucks

Someone stole Hawk's new iphone from off his desk this week. Not cool.


So here are a couple of phone pics to make us feel better. Most of these could never be stolen so easily...

eclectic home office design by london rossana

eclectic hall design by new york interior designer Marie Burgos Design

The last three are all off gettyimages.com

So, here's to the end of the world when I will finally learn the $*#@'s name. And I will still be angry at him.

icj

~j

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i can be romantic

Like I said on Friday, we don't get too into V-day in our house. I'm not huge on roses; I'd rather get blooms for no reason than to enliven our home. And Hawk just likes a quality meal.It's not that we don't like what it represents, just that I think we'll have more fun with it when our kids get older.

So it caught him quite by surprise when I did something. The idea came to me a little over a week ago. We both value encouraging words and need to know that the other believes in and supports us. Over the last few days, I've been using my Momento app to keep track of things I love about him. From the very beginning I envisioned throwing them on the wall pretty much as you see above. You can take it or leave it, I don't mind.  I just wanted something un-heart-ish, fluid-looking, and in these three shades of pink and red.

In no time at all I'd amassed 70 loves including our vows, "i love you in sickness," "i love you in health," and memories like "i love you for protecting me from lightning," which refers to a 4th of July 2006 incident when a bolt of lightning struck 50 feet from where he, Ellen, and i were walking. I wrote them on paper, taped and pasted them between 2:15-3:45am...You do what you can with the time you've got.

t.

Here are a few at eye-level...

Happy Tuesday! Hope you enjoyed a little insight into my rare romantic times. Let me know if you ever do something similar and I'll post it!!

icj,

~j

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to breathe or not to breathe: our first anniversary

Alright, to be fair, our first anniversary was three months ago. I know. Shameful. But so many of you have stayed with me the last three months of "is she going to post this week," and I believe it is just worth the time.


Most couples remember their first anniversary with fondness, I presume. I also presume there is a dinner, perhaps flowers, some gift made of paper if the couple is really on top of tradition. Ideally, I wanted to go to Canoe Bay for the weekend, but since we weren't interested in spending $1000 for the full experience, we've decided to save up for it and go there on our fifth.


Instead, we tried to go "up nort" to the cabin where Hawk proposed, and when that fell through, we decided to spend 3 days in Door County. For those of you unfamiliar with Door County, oh, become familiar! It is a gem. A peninsula. (Those of us who know better call it an island):

We were all set to go after Mass on Sunday, the 16th (our anniversary). Hawk had respectfully asked if he could play basketball that morning, and of course, I said yes.


Can you see where this might be going?


Around 9:20am, I finished packing and thought, "What a good wife I am. I could have made a big deal about his wanting to play ball on the morning of our anniversary, but what's the big deal? And how great am I? for recognizing this and not making into a big deal something that is good to do."


Not too minutes later, Hawk walked into the house and I heard from downstairs:


"Babe, I have some bad news."


I froze. Bad news means anything from I crashed the car to someone died.


"What," I replied. Just like that. Not a question. A statement. An acknowledgement that I'm ready to hear whatever it is.


"I broke my nose."


Oh yes. My good-natured husband broke his nose during the last pick-up game, and instead of rushing home for me to take care of it, he stopped the bleeding so it wouldn't look worse than it was and then proceeded to feel like he had ruined our anniversary. When I finally saw him, I found his nose cracked at the equator, shoved to the side, and swollen.


Poor guy.


Long story short, we made it to Mass where the priest was waiting for us to give us a marriage blessing. He's a really great guy, so of course he roasted Hawk a bit.


The best part? Instead of a simple blessing, he had us take each other's hands and renew our vows. Gazing at my poor, generous husband looking like this made those vows even more potent:

After Mass, we waited until we could meet up with Dad Hawk, an oral surgeon, and a dear family friend, Dr. D, so they could take a look at the nose and possibly reset it. In obvious pain, he didn't complain once. Just kept apologizing. The Drs wouldn't let me watch---they were worried that I would pass out and fall on the baby. Good worry. When I heard about the sound it made when they reset it.... ugh.


So we jumped back in the car and around 4:30pm, we finally took off for Door County. 


Here's a final pic of my husband of one year, all drugged up, patched up, and still patient.

More on our anniversary coming up!

icj,

~j

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a mandolin is not a man violin

I must say this because most people, upon hearing that Hawk plays the mandolin, think that this term is one of the many terms created by placing "man" as an adjective within a compound word (thanks, Miss Kostelny!)


I knew that living with a man for the first time (dads, of course, do not count) would offer its surprises. What I did not know is how good they would be. Well, most of them.


One such goodie is that this mandolin-playing man will serenade me constantly. While I cook, when I'm listening to other music, when I'm on the phone. No sarcasm here: I love it.


Here he is when I am cooking:

And here he is when I am reading:

Happy Friday!


icj
~j

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Muffin Man

photo by overant

Everyone likes muffins. They're an excuse to eat cupcakes for breakfast.

So when Hawk called and suggested he make/bring muffins to his office Thanksgiving party (after his suggestion of Li'l Smokies), I grabbed ingredients and became his sidekick.

He chose a Banana-Chocolate-Chip recipe. For the most part, it was good, but it needs a little kick. We're not sure what, so if you have better muffin suggestions, please, do tel!

I've been putting my baking ingredients in a little woven basket to keep things accessible and intact. It's very convenient!

Here is the Muffin Man himself, measuring out some baking powder:

And that delicious batter....I ate at least a muffin's worth with my fingers.

...performing the challenging task of getting just the right amount of batter in each muffin cup so that we get the desired muffintop:

Now, you'd think that I would have taken a photo of the finished product. I did not. Ugh. But they were pretty tasty!

icj

~j

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