When we were passing through LA last month, our friend Joe snapped a few quick photos of us while we were visiting at his house, and I am so so pleased! Aren't they lovely? As the family photographer, my tired old joke is that Henry is going to grow up and ask if I wasn't around much when he was a baby.

Which one do you think I should hang on the wall? I like the candidness of the second one, but I love Henry's smile on the first.

sometimes the simplest things are the hardest to find. one might expect to see a range of affordable little second hand bookcases like the one above, on craigslist, but no. anyways, i am after one, should you pass one hanging out on a streetside or at a thrift store, do let me know. image from the selby *it's ok for me to neglect the blog for weeks then just pop in with something random, right? oh, happy new year!

Henry and I have been slacking, but we finally have our shit together, and there will be some serious merry making this weekend. We're talking baking, wrapping, celebrating, libations, shopping and more. 

Have a great weekend!

PS- check out our rad potted pine. It will live outside year round, and come in for the holidays, until it is too big and needs to be planted?

Where H and I will be tomorrow. Tend Holiday Pop Up Shop ya'll!

Pre and post April 21, 2011.

If you were to take an abstraction of my iPhone photo roll, this would only be a minor exaggeration. 

Just one more thing. Radical Twin Peak stills on But Does it Float.

More than a few things I have been liking, things I want to share:

one love photo via apw
When Ben and I decided to get hitched we headed to the bookstore for a little help in planning the dang event. Guess what; the book I was looking for? It didn't exist. When the same thing happened to my pal Meg, she decided to go ahead and write it. A Practical Wedding (the book) is available for presale now, and starts early shipping tomorrow. Team Practical is asking that if you plan on buying the book, do so tomorrow on December 7th to help make the book best seller for a day. If you are getting planning a wedding or know someone who is soon, I can't (even though I haven't read it) recommend this enough! Meg is wise and witty, and I am so proud of her.

handmade holiday

One more day to pick up some limited edition goodies (like the above print) from the online Handmade Holiday. Free shipping ya'll!

Angela Hardison
Speaking of free and holidays; Angela made the above art and you can download it for free right-banana-here. I am particularly interested in that super easy to craft garland, and am *thinking* about heading to our local Michael's so that I can make my own!

The Locals

Do you all read Miss Moss? I love looking over sites like the selby for inspiration- seeing homes where records sometimes live on the floor and you can actually see a cord or two- and she just pointed me in the direction of the Russian site The Locals.

Sarah Bebe Holmes via Arial Edge via Peonies & Polaroids via ESB

In other wise and witty wedding lady news, ESB has a NEW PODCAST. What? Unintentional side effect; her giggling is outting her as the warm and kind person that I know her to be. (Shhhh. Don't tell.) Anyways- got a problem? Wedding or otherwise? CALL IN.

Lauren McClure

Remember I mentioned the super talented photographer Lauren McClure (woah, almost a year ago!) well for a limited time you can pick up some of her prints! Hop on it

Hello Little Printer, available 2012 from BERG on Vimeo via indigo bunting

Just, watch the video and be happy. (Yes, it is a real printer.)

Time for another letter to Henry. I hope you don't mind.

Last weekend your Uncle Billy, Aunt Becky, and cousin James (who you really seemed taken with) came to visit. Since your aunt Becky is pregnant with a little boy (you will have another cousin! A boy! Almost exactly a year younger than you!) we gave her most of your baby clothes that you have outgrown. I was showing her what was in the bag, and when I pulled out one of your first newborn PJs I was absolutely in shock as to how small they were. I laid them side by side with your current jammies, in awe. There is simply no way to prepare for your insanely rapid growth and development. It is amazing.

In the last few weeks you have become a guy with not one, but TWO front teeth; first one, then right after, the second. It has been a little rough here and there (ouchie) but you are a pretty tuff guy, I think. Last night you bit my nose for the first time. I didn't mind.

We have started feeding you bits of food. In fact that is how we celebrated your six month birthday- with a big plate of softly steamed veggies, bananas, and avocado. You go in waves with the whole food thing- sometimes you love on the solids INTENSLY. Pears especially. Other times you would rather just bang your spoon against the table for the whole meal. It's cool. We are not in a hurry.

You are just crazy about the animals. Especially the kitty. And Emmy Lou. (Diamond mostly hides from you.) When Manray comes into the bedroom every morning you grin a big grin at him and try to pet him. We are working on teaching you to be soft and gentle.

A few months of go, seemingly out of nowhere, you taught yourself to sit up. One day I noticed that you could (to my surprise) hold yourself up while leaning forward onto your hands in kind of a tripod pose. Then a week or so later, just like that, you were a guy who sits up. And boy, do you like sitting up. You don't tolerate being horizontal too much anymore. You haven’t liked being held in a cradle position in what feels like AGES; except when we rock/bounce you to sleep. Then you will lie in our arms until you peacefully drift. In the mornings when you wake up, you will lie happily for a few minutes, smile up at your owls over head, but before too long we have to sit you up. And that really gets the big smiles. You look around, studying that the room is still more or less the same as it was before; you smile at the fan or at the light, then reach for a toy or our phone to play with.

Soon, we expect, you will be teaching yourself how to crawl. I think this one is harder for you, because it means being down. Down AND on your belly. Not your favorite. But you do seem to know that this is the position required to get places. And so you dutifully flop yourself down, or carefully lower yourself onto your hands, onto one knee- then the next, then you know; sort of rock back and forth while staring at the object of your desire a few inches away. It is tuff work. You grunt and groan and eventually your little arms give out under the weight of your body- or your knees slide out because of the slick surface beneath you. We have been joking about putting rubber patches on the knees of your pants to help out. Either way, once you get going, we are certain to have our hands full. You are so curious, and so active!

Remember when I said that you were too serious to be bothered with being social? Well- now you are Mr. Charmer. You smile at all the dudes, and all the ladies. You squeal and kick. You crack some folks up with your antics. The front neighbors, who are always enjoying their porch, love when we go buy, cause you always give them the biggest baby hello. Not to say you are not still a mama and papa's boy. You will tolerate being in the arms of someone else, but man, there is no where that you would rather be than in one of our arms. You went through a brief fear of other people- the height of which was your grandpa fear. It was so terribly sad. He comes down once a month to visit you, you know. Has done so every month since you were born. And for about 2.5 visits- all he had to do was look you in the eye to make you wail. Luckily that has passed almost as quickly as it came on!

You love: looking in the mirror, listening to and watching your papa sing and play the guitar, exploring faces with your little hands, , iphones and sunglasses, going on walks, pulling blocks out of your basket (by either tasting one at a time, or dumping them all out at once), sitting in the grass watching big kids play, your train toy, swinging at the park.

You are still bald as an eagle.

I can't even tell you how much joy you bring to me and your papa. I won't lie; it is HARD sometimes. Harder than I might have ever anticipated. But the reward? The love we feel for you little guy? Exponentially greater. We might be feeling WRECKED for all the times you will get us up in a night, but the moment you wake up and smile in the morning? All of that literally just melts away.

We just celebrated your first thanksgiving (you mashed up some squash, but I don't think you ate any) and I am so excited for your first Christmas season. We are going to pick out a smaller table top tree this weekend, cause I do expect you to figure out that whole crawling situation in the next month.

Keep being so awesome man, we love you something fierce.

My coworker and I were talking a bit this morning about health, and supplements, and whole foods, and eating well and cancer, and this article....

And it has left me with a deep desire to recommit to feeding our family well. I am talking home cooked, whole foods, with fresh vegetables, nutritious grains and legumes, and little additives or processing. We already eat fairly well, but I think we could do better. And what better time, now that Henry is starting to eat solids. It has been really hard lately to find time to spend in the kitchen, so I am working on a game plan to help make it happen:

1) Weekly (thoughtful!) meal planning. I think this needs to happen on Mondays, because that is when we get our CSA produce box. We need to commit to sitting down and spending a good 20/30 minutes here, otherwise we just end up listing our easy go to meals, which usually involve at least one processed food item "crutch".

2) Choosing items that we can make in bulk and eat throughout the week, or even better- freeze for later use. This one worries me. When I first went back to work I went on a major kick of preparing food for the workweek (salads, a frittata) and I ended up in the kitchen for a huge part of Sunday. No good, when that is our only day off together. How to achieve without spending *too* much time?

3) Using our crockpot. I am totally new to this. I was turned off by the complicated recipes in the book we were given. Honestly, can't I just throw a bunch of stuff in there and hope for the best? Refining as I go? I am thinking yes. My idea is to chop veggies and soak beans the night before, then toss it all in in the morning before work. This seems like a no brainer.
4) Continue with our simple 2 step meal style. Step one: roast veggies. Step two: cook grains. I lied, there are four steps. Step three: combine in a bowl. Step four: Add sheep or goat feta. The downfall here is monotony. I think I just need to break out of the box with fresh herbs and different combinations of veggies and flavorings to keep it interesting.
With a bit of extra work and a lot of thought and commitment (plus restraint, from grabbing tacos too often), I think this is achievable. It will also cut back on the amount of waste we produce. (I am sickened at how full our recycling bin always is.) And I think, done correctly, we will save on our grocery bill, no?

This plan ties into a broader goal I have been mulling through, which can be boiled down to living life with a bit more intention. I know that is pretty broad, but I am still working through the idea myself. I will share more when I figure it out.

In the mean time, I would love to hear your tricks for simple and wholesome eating!
PS- photos by Abby, who is selling all her prints at 40% off through next Friday, before she closes up shop for good! I picked up this one!

Hanging planter from Mociun.

Do you think I could learn this kind of knotting? I need to get back to my ceramics classes.