Lazy Day

For a plethora of reasons, today is a lazy day for me. It's one of those days where I really had to cast about for some motivation to get dressed. Luckily, E has been happy to roll with my lazy attitude today. We watched some Sarah & Duck in bed, let him run around the house and play with his toys, made some more granola bars, and read books in bed until nap time. Now I'm back in bed and catching up on my blogs in Feedly. If I didn't feel guilty depriving him of the company of other children, I'd stay home from playgroup today and continue to veg out with some pizza and a movie.

So, in lieu of anything interesting going on with me, I thought I'd share some interesting things I've found from other people. Enjoy!

Swoop bags. If you had any idea how much Lego there is in our house, you would understand why this appealed to me straight away. I knew what I was getting into, though. This is what comes of marrying a man whose Wikipedia mention centres around his Lego gun building skills. (Also, how proud am I that my husband is on Wikipedia!?)


A cheesy joke is always fun. A drunken cheesy joke can be even better. And finally, a drunken cheesy joke, animated lovingly by your spouse has got to be the ultimate winner of the cheesy joke competition. This made me giggle.

Kim over at Day with KT is brilliant...I know I've said this before. How much do I appreciate her corn salad recipe? Tonnes. Let's just say that there will need to be stake burritos going on in this house very soon to give me an excuse to make some of this stuff.

Teal's post on getting your act together and making what you pin on Pinterest has me inspired. Those taquitos look awesome, plus, I always love being able to do the projects that inspire me. (Hopefully, once I'm over my bout of laziness, I'll have a Pinterest project to share with you soon!)

Thank you, Design*Sponge, for mentioning the company Chasing Paper. This is a wallpaper-loving renter's dream. Of course, so are the removable wallpaper tiles from Hygge & West, but with our tight budget, I'm not holding my breath.


People: I. Love. Steven. Pinker. I highly recommend listening to his TED talk above, though you should know that it does the topic no justice. To really get the feel of it, I strongly suggest getting the book that this TED talk was based off of: The Better Angels of Our Nature. The Husband and I are each working our slow way through it now, but it makes an amazing case for the fact that far from needing to be nostalgic for the 'good old days' when the world was so much better, we're actually living in the most peaceful period of human existence that time has yet seen. Even just the first chapter of his book will blow your tiny mind...it certainly did mine.

Have fun!

A Place to Begin

Happy birthday to me! In the spirit of celebrating the anniversary of my birth, the Husband has taken the day off, and once E wakes up from his nap we're heading out to let me do a bit of shopping and then tonight it's dinner out and Star Trek: Into Darkness, with the oh-so-adorable Benedict Cumberbatch. Ginger or no ginger: he's my type. Tall, thin, pale, blue eyes, deep voice, English. Seriously people, I know I have a type...every last one of those descriptors fits my husband, too! Are you ready for 139 minutes of ogling Mr. Cumberbatch, Chris Pine, and Zachary Quinto? Because I am.

Happy. Effing. Birthday. To. Me.

So what goodies will I leave you with to peruse while I go enjoy my birthday spoils? These ones:


Goodmornings.org, via SwissMiss.
 I like the idea behind this. It's such an easy thing to do to say 'good morning!' as a way to brighten your day and someone else's.

My feet have traveled plenty of places. Edinburgh, London, Salt Lake City, Rome, Venice, Copenhagen...they'll even be going to Vienna next month! I'd like to come up with a fun photo template like this to save all of the fun places we get to visit.

I do love so much of the stuff that Diana at exPress-O links to and this cute story of a trans-Atlantic relationship is really fun. I like the idea of the split screen narrative, because when such an important part of your life is so far away for so long, it really does feel like you're living in two different places at once!

Here is today is a good way to get some perspective; and I love the minimalist style of the animations and the graphs. I feel like the only thing it could possibly be missing is a .gif of Neil deGrasse Tyson giving you a thumbs-up. Let's get on that, people.

Poketo and Lisa Congdon have made tea towels! These look absolutely adorable to me and I have Poppytalk to thank for showing them to me this week. Also: no idea who Lisa Congdon is? Have a gander at some of her work...

So yes, a lot of the cute clothes I've seen lately are either specifically maternity, or are pregnant friendly. This isn't on purpose. But with a shirt as cute as this one from ASOS, surely you can justify buying it with or without a bun in the oven!?

I don't speak French, but I still loved how cute this Olive Us episode was from Design Mom. Little Red Riding Hood? Too awesome.

via BOBgear

So eventually I'd need a double buggy, but if I had my way and money was no object, this BOB jogger would be mine all mine! But then, Runner's World did give a good review of quite a few good joggers that are less likely to break the bank.

Vicarious Tourism: The Vyne

As an early anniversary present, we got a year's subscription to the National Trust from the Husband's parents. I like this sort of gift: it'll encourage us to get out more and to enjoy some of the fun things we can only see living in the UK. So, on the Bank Holiday, we took the chance to grab our friends and head over to Basingstoke and go see the Vyne.

The original house was built during Tudor times. As I recall one of the guides telling us in the family chapel, one of the members of the original family who built the house, saved the life of Henry VIII in battle. Pretty awesome. The house was a fun mix of Georgian and Tudor decor and the grounds were loads of fun to walk around (though the 'Shimmering Lake' wasn't so much shimmering as it was covered in pond scum...). The best part for the kids, though, was the Hidden Realm play area...all themed like something out of The Hobbit.

Though the crowds were definitely in force that day, the kids still had a great time running around, wandering through the tunnels designed to look like Hobbit holes, and going up and down the slide. Snowy in particular got quite good at queuing to wait her turn to go down the slide again. Who knew that was a skill your kid could pick up at the playground?

The whole place was just nice to walk around in. I know the Husband isn't a big fan of crowds (everything feels more hectic when you're navigating throngs of people), but I felt like the whole time there went pretty well. It's the sort of thing that feels really worth the time when you've got a membership and don't have to think about whether you'll do the grounds or the house or both: you can just go as the mood takes you, no planning required. Since our initial plans of hitting up Leith Hill Tower and a few castles during the weekend didn't pan out, we'll definitely have to get back around to that some time soon...what with this nice weather and all.

The downside to the day? Ethan managed to let the 500-year-old gravel at the Vyne leave its mark on him...well, on his forehead. The poor thing! He came home bruise and scraped and dirty, and altogether looking like an action hero at the end of the movie. But he did seem to enjoy the chance to run around outside for so long. We'll have to refine our small-children-in-historic-houses strategy.

A Day Out

 We had what was meant to be a lovely day out the other week with E's cousin Henry and my sister-in-law, Rachel. The sun was out, it was a lovely warm day, and we hit up a little park out by the River Thames for the afternoon once the boys got too rambunctious to be allowed to stay inside.

The boys enjoyed climbing up and down the equipment that was actually part of the playground as well as climbing on some of the outdoor exercise equipment. They loved the chance to run and jump and be as full of beans as they could be.

What E didn't like so much was being made to walk under his own steam. That, apparently, was too much to be borne. Especially because walking on his own meant having his bottle of juice taken away. We aren't quite at the walking whilst drinking stage yet. He would consent to walk about 20 yards at a time - crying all the while - then plant himself in front of me until I picked him up. Though this continued on the way back to the car, at least it all took a break when we got to the lock.

He loved getting to see the boats go through as the water level adjusted itself, though I think he felt something was missing from the experience since he wasn't allowed over the fence. It was a great chance to just wander and enjoy the sunshine...and to chase Henry's football while we were at it.

Though we're still working on not having to be carried everywhere, it was a good chance to get out and do something...but nothing really specific. I want to give him more chances to go out on walks, to wander and play and see new things, like boats going through locks, or areoplanes taxing on the runway, or giant bubble blowing machines and dinosaur skeletons in the Science Museum.

I think we'll have some fun adventures this summer!

Our Favourite Reads: Fifth Edition

There's always something fun about discovering new and interesting baby books, and over the next few weeks I have some gems to share.

I want to start with two books we picked up, courtesy of my mom, when we all went to London for a day to do some museum-hopping, Oxford Street-shopping, and sight-seeing. While we popped into the Tate Modern we had a great time. Mom and I giggled and whispered inappropriately through a movie we were convinced was meant to make you feel like you were on acid. We also came to the conclusion that when you need artifact text of more than a few sentences to explain what your modern art sculpture is about, you've done it wrong. If I can't get some idea of what you're on about just by looking at the sculpture itself, then you're just bad at communicating in this medium and you ought to consider something easier.

But some of our greatest fun was in hunting out souvenirs in the gift shop (cue angelic choirs. Museum of Everything reference, anyone?). We had a great time looking at all the prints, frames, postcards, books, mugs, aprons, and other odds and ends. But the children's books selection had some of the best offerings.

A Bit Lost by Chris Haughton is an adorable story about a baby owl who falls out of his nest and needs help to find his mummy again. Not to mention that the illustrations are bright, fun, and adorable. There's a lot of visual interest in this book, which makes even the simplest story fun to read to your kid over and over. Plus, I felt vindicated when I saw this book featured on Design Mom just a few weeks after we brought it home! (Only for whatever reason it has a different title in its US release! Cut it out, people!)

We all know that Oliver Jeffers is a big deal in this house, so it should come as no surprise that his The Heart and the Bottle was my other choice for something to bring home. It's a sweet story about learning to keep enjoying life, even after losing someone special. Jeffers writes and draws to a superb quality, so this book is fun to read even if you aren't trying to find a way to help your kid learn to grieve.

We've had some brilliant finds over the past few weeks at the library as well, so I'll definitely be getting around to posting those during the rest of the month. Happy reading!

Mommy Mondays: Free Swag

So the other week my loot from Shopbop came in the post. The gift card arrived, I eventually decided on what I wanted to order, and when it got to the house we all know I was too excited not to try it on straight away.

This striped top is super comfy. And I always love a reason to have another short-sleeved tee. I've gotten really into tops with a shirttail hem lately. I just appreciate the fact that I have a bit of extra coverage in the back when I need to bend over or squat to pick up E. Plus, the curve of the hem feels a lot more forgiving at a shorter length than most straight hems do...especially on looser-fitting shirts.

Those Gap jeans are a fun purchase as well. I'm the last person I thought would like or look good in mid-rise straight-leg jeans, but these things are stylish and super comfy. And, because they're so classic, I can dress them up to do a smart casual look, or I can dress them down into my usual mom uniform.

And now, I have a waking baby to console. We had a trip out to the Vyne today and someone got a little up close and personal with the 500-year-old gravel.

A Place to Begin

We're off to my sister-in-law's place today to give E some time to hang out with his cousin, Henry. Plus, I needed something fun to do that gets me out of the house without spending extra money. (Extra money? What's that?) So, since I won't be around at the usual time to put up posts, we're knocking this one out early today to give you some fun things to look at over the weekend. It's a bank holiday weekend for us here in the UK, so we have quite a few fun activities planned to look forward to. Hope everyone else is doing something fun over the weekend!


Fake Townhouses Hiding Subways. I have to thank Nicole over at Making It Lovely for this one: she included it in her Honor Roll roundup that I read at the start of the week and I found it really interesting. Especially since I've seen one of those fake houses and never knew at the time that it was just a front for venting the Tube! The things you can learn on the internet...

Poppytalk Mothers' Day Lookbook. The cards gifts and clothes in this are soft and cute. I like the pastels, though you do need a pop of some more vibrant colour on Mothers' Day. I do love the Ash & Anchor scarf that they feature, and those Wind and Willow Home bowls are darling: I got a set for my mom last year!

VS knot front top. After my sister-in-law's post on hot or not maternity wear, I got sucked into the vortex of online clothes window-shopping. After pinning enough maternity clothing to raise suspicions, I remembered a cute maternity fashion website that featured a VS ruched dress, so off to the website I went. In addition to all the dresses and yoga pants I checked out, I really enjoyed the look of this top.

SUNDVIK children's chair, IKEA. I've been meaning to buy E a chair for ages now. Not that we have room to have a little table for it to sit at. And not that I have money to spend on a random chair, but still. Seeing him sit on the rolled-up carpet that still lives in our living room makes me want to give him a proper chair of his very own. And why not make it a cute one, like this?

Brevity signature necklaces. I'd totally wear a necklace with the Husband's signature. I think that'd be a really sweet keepsake. Or perhaps a favourite grandparent who's recently passed away, your kid as they first learn to write their name, or make matching sets with your BFF!

This wrapping paper by Hammerpress looks like so much fun. It reminds me a bit of a more vibrant version of the Esme Winter paper I'm in love with at the moment. A bunch of the blogs have been picking it up, so I'm excited to see this stuff in their online store come June.