Memory Hoarding

Hey Internet! I didn't forget about you, I promise. After a not so fun stint with jury duty at the beginning of last week, I caught a cold which turned into a week long drama, a trip to the doctor, and a round of antibiotics. So it's a week later, and I'm not totally back to normal (apparently when I get sick, I do it good) but I'm here.

Sooo, has anyone been up to any amazing projects or fabulous family activities over the past week? Please tell me!! I sadly had to cancel an apple picking trip with my bestie this Sunday, and my creative juices are definitely on low at the moment.
 

I had been working on a very small project for the past week. Emphasis on the "very" the "small" and the "week." Like this is the kind of thing you can knock out in one afternoon, but with no energy to speak of, it took an entire week. How embarrassing. Even better though, I finally finished it this afternoon, and promptly learned that when the directions on a can of spray paint says to use in warm weather, the directions don't lie. I ended up with a crackled mess of paint and had to trash it. So at the end of the week, I'm left with no project, and a cough that just won't go away. Woe is me people!!

So instead lets discuss the one thing I've managed to accomplish over the past few weeks... Putting my printed pictures into albums! I think we're living in a world where pictures stay on whatever device they were taken on, or get uploaded to a computer and then stay there. I also think a lot of people are making photo books instead of printing pictures and putting them into albums. I love photo books and have made them for special occasions, but otherwise I am old school and love to print pictures, and stick them into actual albums.
 

But lets get real, doing so is incredibly annoying and time consuming. It's even more annoying and time consuming when you order over 600 pictures at a time and Snapfish send them to you out of order!! Seriously Snapfish, what are you playing at?!

 

After I used my entire dining room table to sort and organize my pictures, I couldn't have been prouder of myself and promptly text this next picture to my sister.
 

 

I may have also mentioned in the text, that the envelopes contained pictures from only June, July, and August. And then my lovely sister starts to tell me how crazy I am.
 

Yes world, I know I'm crazy. Or as I like to call it, I am a memory hoarder. I take too many pictures, I print too many pictures, and I have way too many albums in various bookcases throughout my apartment. But can I defend myself for a minute? Is it really so bad that I do this? Lily already loves looking through the albums, and I feel like its so special for kids to be able to look back at pictures of their childhood.
 

So where do you stand on printing pictures? Do you never print anything but wish that you do? Do you print a reasonable amount of pictures and therefore people can't ever question your sanity? 

Snapfish may have had penny prints recently and I may or may not have another 150 pictures from September waiting to be sorted and put into albums. Yeah, maybe when my cough is gone.

Pumpkins Are Everything

I believe I've mentioned that I am a summer girl who is crushing on fall this year. Even though the love of this season is new to me, I have always been a huge pumpkin lover. 

Forrest Gump. If that movie is on I will be watching it.

Anyway, I'm the one in Dunkin Donuts asking for a pumpkin latte well into the winter, until the barista sadly tells me they don't make them anymore. I stock up on pumpkin scented candles for the year, and bake as many pumpkin goodies as I can. The three main ingredients in any dessert on my Pinterest board is always either peanut butter, blueberries, or pumpkin. So it's a good time of year for me to try out some new recipes.

A few years ago we painted pumpkins at a farm and Moshe had so much fun doing it that it's become a fall tradition for us. 

I took the kids to a local county fair yesterday. It was another perfect fall day, and face painting, pony rides, and a pumpkin patch, rounded out the perfectness. Lily took picking out a pumpkin very seriously. 

The pumpkin patch had tables with paint set out, but Moshe wanted to paint ours at home. 

I put out a lot of newspaper on my living room floor and let my little artists get to work. I made a big initial out of painters tape on each of the pumpkins so they would have a fun monogrammed pumpkin when they were done painting. 

^^^no clothes for those under two is always a good idea

I learned a few things having two kids painting this year. It's going to be insanely messy, the less water you have in the bowl to rinse out the brushes, the better, and there's not really going to be any time for mama to paint her pumpkin if she's trying to make sure the kids don't go all Jackson Pollock on the living room.

After the pumpkins dried and I pulled off the painters tape, this is what we ended up with. 

 

Lily got bored well before she had painted enough to cover the area around the painters tape but if you squint you can make out the L on her pumpkin.

After I cleaned up the mess my kids made, I colored on my funny shaped pumpkin (thank you Moshe for finding it for me) with a sharpie. I tried for a preppy pumpkin in navy and green with a modern monogram, and chevron design. I still love chevron, but it's going to be deader than dead in 2014, so I had one last chevron hurrah with my little pumpkin.

Our three little pumpkins all in a row by our front door definitely make me happy and more in love with fall.

What was everyone up to over this gorgeous weekend? Anyone paint some pumpkins? Even better, anyone bake some pumpkiny goodness? Send some my way if you did!

My HONY Moment

No, I wasn't spotted in the street and asked for a photo, but I had quite the Humans of New York moment last night.

Everyone here is familiar with Brandon Stanton right? He manages to capture the attention of not only the people of NYC, but people all over the world, with a picture and a one line caption of people he sees on the streets of New York. 

The Humans of New York book came out yesterday, and Brandon was at the Union Square Barnes & Noble, meeting his fans. I'm quite a fan girl so I went to camp out with my fab friend, Yael, to get our books signed. That Barnes and Noble is huge. Brandon was up on the fourth floor, and we were stuck waiting on the second. Yael and I haven't ran out of things to talk about over the last 20 years so we managed to keep ourselves entertained while we waited. We weren't even sure we would be able to meet Brandon, because the store employees had told us we needed to have our Barnes & Noble receipt to get in, and wouldn't you know, I had preordered my book from Amazon. 

We finally made our way up to the fourth floor even without a receipt and we got our first glimpse of Mr. Stanton himself. Even after putting his John Hancock on hundreds of books he was still smiling. 

Some of the colorful characters from the book were also there like this adorable tango dancer (EDITED: yes, I know he is dressed as a matador but he calls himself a tango dancer in the book) and Blackwolf the Dragonmaster. 

 

Yael and I had a very quick moment with Brandon, but it was quite a night. I heard an employee say she had never worked such a big event there.

When meeting the author of a book that celebrates New York City, the only way to end the night is with some sketchy hole in the wall falafel and a two hour ride home on the subway because of night work. 

Was anyone else there last night? Did you buy the book even if you weren't there? What do you think of it?

Weekend Recap

No words can accurately describe what a perfect fall weekend we had so I'll just have to share some pictures.

A local fire department had a fire safety day that involved firetruck rides, trying on uniforms, and putting out a real fire with a fire extinguisher. I think these cute faces say it all. 

We spent Columbus Day in gorgeous gardens taking pictures with a fabulous photographer. So excited to see how they came out!

Anyone do anything over the long weekend? Did you have to work? 

Disney Prep: It's All In The Ears

We have plans to head to Disney this winter and we could not be more excited!  Daniel and I went to Disney together the summer after we got married and had an absolutely amazing time.

Six and a half years later, going back with two kids will definitely be different but I know it will be amazing.

This trip is super special because four generations of my family will be there together. My grandparents, parents, two brothers, us and the kids. Woo hoo! We can't wait!

Moshe is having a great time preparing for our trip by watching old school Disney movies. And I'm preparing by ordering all of the Mickey and Minnie awesomeness I find. I know, I need to back away from the keyboard.

A few years ago my BFFs (that would be best family forever as in I'm besties with the whole fam) went to Disney and brought back personalized Mickey ears for Moshe. Obviously that's the first thing being packed! 

I know I could buy ears for Lily in the park, and I may still do that, but when I found a Minnie headband in Target. I couldn't help but buy it.

Ears are just so much more fun with a name on it though, don't you think? So a little puff paint and three minutes later we have this:

And most importantly a certain Boo loves them!

We just won the Super Bowl and we're going to Disney!!

Anyone have amazing winter vacation plans? Where are you heading?

A Tale of Two (ok, One) Paint Chips

After finishing my breakfront transformation, I was on a complete DIY high. I was glad to be done but ready to tackle my next project, an unloved bar that also needed some magic paint. I went to Lowes to grab some paint chips, hung them on the bar and then stared at them over the weekend.

I wanted a dark grey in a glossy finish because I thought it would look really good next to the light grey breakfront. I ended up choosing Pantone's Charcoal Grey.

Ain't he purty??

Bright and early that Monday morning, which was also Labor Day, I dropped Moshe off at school (I know, it's criminal to have school on Labor Day) and went straight to Lowes to get my paint and start my project. I was a little surprised by the long paint line before 9 am but I guess a long holiday weekend gets everyone in a DIY mood. When it was finally my turn I tell the paint guy what color I want and then everything comes screeching to a halt. He couldn't find the color in the computer system... What?? I had been under the impression that any paint company can look up any other company's color and then just mix it up with their paint. I had once even brought in a ball of yarn to Lowes and had them color match it. But there I was in their store trying to get a color that they sold and they couldn't find it. Apparently I had the last paint chip of the color, and it was at home, taped up on my bar, and the guy needed it because it was the only way he was going to be able to mix my paint for me. Luckily for me, I live really close to Lowes. "I'll be right back," I said.

Fifteen minutes later:

Paint Guy: "You're back?!"

Yes I'm back!! I mean business!

And he got me my paint. And it's over a month later, and my bar is sitting exactly the same as it was that morning.

Guess I really meant business huh?

Feel free to pay me a visit Glinda.

Brown Bagging It

It's October 2 yo. Cuh-razy. Someone pointed out yesterday, that 10% of the school year is already done... Can I get another cuh-razy. We're getting ourselves in a good school rhythm over here. I've only got one kiddie in school so I've got the scheduling, making lunch, and homework time mostly under control... but who knew five year olds had homework??

Moshe was pretty excited to get a new backpack. His backpack used to just be a giant lunchbox because I didn't put anything in it besides for his food for that day. This year Moshe is going with homework folders in addition to his lunch. I thought it would be a good idea to contain the food in his bag, instead of just throwing it in the big pocket like I did last year. 

Instead of getting him an additional lunchbox to carry I went old school and got brown bags. I figured I can use the bags as a canvas for a little daily love for my little man. My best friend's mom used to write her little notes that she stuck in her lunch and I always thought it was such an awesome thing to do. After the first day of sending Moshe a note on his lunch bag, and having him bring it home to ask me what it said, I realized this is going to be a lot easier when he can actually read. Until then, my middle of the day reminder that his mama loves him, will have to be doodle heavy.

And when Daniel makes lunch, he decorates the bag. Win-win for this lucky lady over here.

Are there any ways you're trying to make your kid feel special and loved during the school day? Pinterest has a ton of printable lunch box notes that would definitely make this pretty easy to do, but for the time being I'll be sticking with my morning coloring routine.