Spring Day

Strapped my little lady in her Bjorn
Went for a walk downtown to meet my love at his office
One River
Two coffee drinks
Walked home together under the sun, just us three

Many tulips
Quiet dinner
I played the guitar while he held our daughter

Friday Music Muse

Animal Collective

My Girls

There isn't much that I feel I need

a solid soul and the blood I bleed

With a little girl, and by my spouse

I only want a proper house



There isn't much that I feel I need:

a solid soul and the blood I bleed.

But with a little girl, and by my spouse

I only want a proper house



I don't care for fancy things

Or to take part in a pressured race.

But to provide for them when they ask

I will, with heart, on my father's grave



On my father's grave



I don't mean

To seem like I care about material things,

Like our social status,

I just want

Four walls and adobe slabs

For my girls
       

Wearin' My Baby

I am so into baby wearing.  So far we have the baby K'Tan and a Baby Bjorn.  They are very different from each other but both have great qualities.  I feel so much more free when I'm outside wearing her instead of dragging a big stroller, and I get to steal lots of kisses this way too.

Something's Hiding in Here

I am very much so in love with my new Forage bow tie created by Something's Hiding in Here.  I just learned how to actually tie a bow tie, and as you can see I sort of messed it up, but I'm working on it. 

To prevent complete embarrassment, I will try not to go on and on about how increidbly cool and talented and amazing Shauna & Stephen, the masterminds behind Something's Hiding In Here are.  They are sort of my idols and it's hard not to cyber-stalk them I have to admit.   From their incredibly cool loft/workspace, to their drool-worthy letterpress paraphernalia (makes my heart stop), to the way they document their process, and the amazing products and packaging  those four hands create, they are one fantastic duo.  I can't wait to see what they come up with next!


































*top image from Etsy

Oyster night

The other night when Davey and I went on our date and I was reintroduced to the wonderful world of oysters and white wine (having only one glass was difficult) there was a special diner sitting not too far from us.  He lives in Chicago.  He has one of the most famous girlfriends in the world.  Who else could it be but Stedman, Oprah's man!  No, Lady O was not with him unfortunately.  That would have been quite overwhelming.   David actually saw Oprah at the gym a couple weeks ago and was on a weight machine just a few feet from her!!  (yes, I had a mild heart attack when he told me.)  He does not have the same special place in his heart for Oprah that I have, so of course he played it cool and just went on with his workout.  If I were in his situation, I would not have been able to play it cool, that's for sure.  I'm probably too shy to have said something.  All that talk about running into Oprah made me think about what I would do if I ran into Bob Dylan ever.  That had me almost in tears just thinking about it.  With Bob Dylan, you really can't go up to him, and I know for certain I would not.  I would just observe from afar and my heart would pound and I'd tear up and he would just float on his way.

Tuesday Poetry Post

How To Listen
by
Major Jackson

I am going to cock my head tonight like a dog
in front of McGlinchy's Tavern on Locust;
I am going to stand beside the man who works all day combing
his thatch of gray hair corkscrewed in every direction.
I am going to pay attention to our lives
unraveling between the forks of his fine-tooth comb.
For once, we won't talk about the end of the world
or Vietnam or his exquisite paper shoes.
For once, I am going to ignore the profanity and
the dancing and the jukebox so I can hear his head crackle
beneath the sky's stretch of faint stars.

*image from here

I am so in love

Happy

It's my sweet precious girl's first Easter.  A happy one it is.

Tri-State Girl

Here are a few photos from last weekend.  It was our little nugget's first trip to Michigan.  Super relaxing and beautiful.

Friday Music Muse

Shine

by
Laura Marling


I Ihave travelled past your window many times,
I find your face too hard to define,
I can't touch you hollow thing,
Your plauged my mind,
I can never go outside,
I will never go back to being blind.
I have wondered what you're doing ever day since last I asked.
Your cheeks hollow I don't like your eyes dark
The guilt got me, so it scraped at my bones
My god left me, I am finally alone.
I need shine, I need shine, I need shine,
Step away from my light I need shine,
I am honest now, not a shouter,
I am reformed, forgiven and reborn.
And you're been busy but you've missed me
And I plauged you mind.
You will never go outside,
You will never go back to beind blind.
I need shine, I need shine, I need shine,
Step away from my light, I need shine,
I need shine, I need shine, I need shine,
Step away from my light, I need shine.
I need shine, I need shine, I need shine,
Step away from my light I need shine,
I need shine I need shine, I need shine
Step away from my light I need shine.

Scraps

 So beautiful and creative!  Pencil shaving necklace by Vic Mason.   Via Modish

Underlined: A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

"As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans."

I know I've already used a line from this book before, but it truly is one of my favorite reads, and it's been on my mind lately.  I think one of the foods I missed most while I was pregnant were fresh raw oysters(and white wine of course!)  Tonight my parents are babysitting our nugget, so David and I are headed to Shaws for some raw oysters and white wine which I have not had since last July!!  I will be channeling Hemingway for certain all night.

*image from here

Swatch

How cool is this fabric swatch book from a French textiles mill?  The fabrics date back to the 60's and 70's and the mill produced textiles for Lanvin, Givenchy, and Balmain.  This book is available over at Ports of Entry's Etsy shop.

Tuesday Poetry Post

Break

by
Dorianne Laux

We put the puzzle together piece
by piece, loving how one curved
notch fits so sweetly with another.
A yellow smudge becomes
the brush of a broom, and two blue arms
fill in the last of the sky.
We patch together porch swings and autumn
trees, matching gold to gold. We hold
the eyes of deer in our palms, a pair
of brown shoes. We do this as the child
circles her room, impatient
with her blossoming, tired
of the neat house, the made bed,
the good food. We let her brood
as we shuffle through the pieces,
setting each one into place with a satisfied
tap, our backs turned for a few hours
to a world that is crumbling, a sky
that is falling, the pieces
we are required to return to.

*image from here

Endless Love

I am working on writing my birth story and it's taking me forever.  Maybe if I had a shorter labor it wouldn't be taking so long!  As I write I keep thinking about all the incredible women who helped make it all happen, and the strong women who have helped me since giving birth through these gorgeous but difficult first several weeks.  From my two monitrices who helped me through almost 35 hours of labor, to my incredible doctor who I love dearly, nurse Sheila who showed us such warmth and knowledge our first day at the hospital with our baby girl, to my mom, my sister-in-law Molly, and my brother Tony and his girlfriend Angela who have spent many nights up with our girl to help me get a little bit of rest, to Miss Stacy who brought over a homemade meal.  It's pretty incredible and I feel so lucky to have all this help and love and positive energy around me. 

*image from here

O R They?

While I was pregnant I heard a great interview Terry Gross did with Jason Schwartzman on Fresh Air and it stuck with me all this time.   He was descrbing how his mom's actions influenced him.  Live by example. 
Making our lives art.  That was one of my wedding vows to David. 
I love it:

“But, at a young age, what I really did witness, because she never forced it upon us, but I witnessed how movies and music can be nutritional, I guess, to a person. I would come home from school; she would always be downstairs with an old movie on. Every room in our house had a different book open, face down. There would be music on in one room, even though she wouldn’t be in it, and she would kind of just go from room to room and pick up and read and go and listen and go downstairs and watch. She needs that. It’s still the same way. If you go to my house, the same house I grew up in, she’s there with movies on, music playing and books everywhere. And so I witnessed how important these things can be to you.”

Hello gorgeous

This dress completes me.

My Little Lady

Friday Music Muse-Songbird by Willie Nelson

This song came on when we were in the car driving home from our first pediatrician visit.  I have been particularly hormonal and emotional of course, and music especially is difficult for me to listen to without crying.  Having a baby and experiencing this kind of love has made old songs new and they hit me in an entirely different way.  This song makes me think of David, and how my love for him is very different now.  It's grown in ways I never thought possible.  We have been through so much together in these past three weeks, starting from my difficult and long labor, which he was there for me by my side for every second, and he was a pilar of strength and support.  I could not have endured it without him.  I hung from his strong shoulders for most of the contractions.  He literally held me up and kept me going.  He coached me and gave me confidence, both during the labor and birth, and more recently in the middle of the night these past few weeks when I started doubting myself wondering if I could possibly go another moment without sleep.  He is so strong and positive and incredible with our daughter.  The man who had never changed a diaper before is a pro.  The man who waited all these years to marry and have a family...what a father he is.  Even the way he has been with Woody Guthrie, giving him extra attention and walks and pets him so sweetly.  It's like he was made for this.  The man who has stood by me all these years, and keeps me going.  That man, my goodness that man is amazing.  Davey, I love you , I love you , I love you like never before

Songbird
by Willie Nelson

For you
There'll be no more cryin'
For you
The sun will be shinin'
And I feel that when I'm with you it's alright.
I know its right.

To you
I'll give the world.
To you
I'll never be cold.
'Cause I feel when I'm with you its alright
I know its right

And the songbirds are singing
Like they know the score
And I love you , I love you , I Love you
Like never before

And I wish you all the love in the world.
But most of all I wish it for myself.

And the songbirds keep singing
Like they know the score
And I love , I love you, I love you
Like never before.

And I love you, I love you I love you
Like never before

Color Combination Obsession

I am currently obsessed with the above color combination after approximately 11 years of total obsession with the primarys.  It's funny how I'm finding these colors pop up in our home accidentally.  (You can barely see the blue pillow behind the yellow one)  These wooden geodes are available on my etsy site for $25 and come with a sterling silver chain.  The necklace in the last photo is a sneak preview of my new line of jewelry!

One by One

The other day I had one of those days that just fell perfectly into place.  With a newborn, I know that's not something that will happen regularly.  I had my mom's help on this wonderful morning as well which made all the difference.  I had a pediatrician appointment I did not realize we had until the night before.  I also had an appointment to go to in Oak Park shortly after, and a feeding to get in somehow in between, but it all sort of fell into place, and we had a great appointment (healthy baby=total happiness) and I got the feeding in and left my girl with my mom, then I bolted for the car, got in and turned on NPR (how I missed it!) and a Bob Dylan song was on.  I thought, can this get any better??  It was Masters of War.  I was wondering why there was a Dylan song playing on NPR, and low and behold one of my top 3 NPR programs was on, Sound Opinions (This American Life and The Story are the other two favorites) and it was a Dylan special.  I thought, ok, this could not possibly get any better.  But it did.  They played an obscure Dylan song I had never heard!  Ok, now it could not possibly get better.  Oh yes, it did.  At the end of the show they do their Desert Island Jukebox, and after mentioning Woody Guthrie and his influence on Dylan, they picked their favorite Wilco recording, which was the Woody Guthrie song One By One about a man growing older and reflecting on his life and regrets.  So, I had Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and Jeff Tweedy  combined in one delicious public radio program.  Needless to say, it was the best drive to Oak Park I've ever made. 

*image from here

I Make Stuff Because I Get Sad if I Don't

I love and can SO identify with the title of Will Bryant's website.

Hilarious

I'm loving this poster by artist Haley Nahman.  She certainly got Illinois right.  New York made me laugh too, and I wouldn't mind being in Georgia right now: hot and drunk.

Via www.gadling.com and http://koalogist.tumblr.com/

Tuesday Poetry Post-To a Daughter Leaving Home by Linda Pastan

 To a Daughter Leaving Home
by Linda Pastan


When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels,
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
the hair flapping
behind you like a
handkerchief waving
goodbye.

*image from here

What a Face

Date Night

The other night my mom watched our little munchkin so we could get dressed up and have a nice dinner out.  We went to Gilt Bar and ate some amazing food and reminisced over the past two weeks of our lives. 

Friday Music Muse-Iron and Wine: Naked as We Came

Iron and Wine has been sounding really good lately.


She says wake up, it's no use pretending
I'll keep stealing, breathing her
Birds are leaving over autumn's ending
One of us will die inside these arms

Eyes wide open
Naked as we came
One will spread our
Ashes round the yard

She says if I leave before you darling
Don't you waste me in the ground
I lay smiling like our sleeping children
One of us will die inside these arms

Eyes wide open
Naked as we came
One will spread our
Ashes round the yard

*image from here

Twins

How cute is this identical twins print by Judy Kaufmann?  It makes me think of that viral twins video that recently made the rounds.