just us peas in a pod.

This week I'm thankful for...

friends :: Those lovely people who come visit baby and me when we're stuck without wheels at home. Bearing gifts of conversation, food, rides to other places. You know who you are; thank you. Offering to babysit the babe so the adults don't forget what it was to love just each other too. I guess that's one of the reasons I moved back here.

three :: Suddenly I totally understand the title of hollie's blog & baby makes 3. In this context: we doesn't mean just S and me anymore. Now we are three. (until there is four or more.) It's a beautiful, remarkable thing. Our whole sense of we has shifted.

{tall three}

chocolate + coffee :: Just after breakfast. Yep, I confess.

afternoon walks with Rowan :: We suit up and explore our neighborhood--strip mall wasteland that it is--trying to find tree-lined residential streets and green parks. We smell roses and jasmine and wisteria, and we stop to put our noses in the roses. We see kids running and old men gardening. We hear crows caw and masses of LBBs chirp. Suddenly we see a house finch that we'd yet to see around here bathing with two mourning doves. Then another red finch on the telephone wire--regally alone--kicking it with two blackbirds. And then a Peregrine falcon feasting on carrion just across the street from us. We stop and watch Peri's reluctance in flying away as the 1980s blue Toyota speeds toward him (maybe because he's supposedly the fasted member of the animal kingdom). We talk about how we are building our sense of place-- even in this particular expanse of America's weirdness. And how we have just found our personal NatGeo street.

{also thankful for :: kissing tiny fingers}

another day, just believe :: It's my first Mother's Day on Sunday. A reason to have Chocolate Mascarpone Stuffed French Toast With Strawberry Syrup served to me in bed with coffee. Tèlèpopmusik, how odd is that? {happy mother's day, mamas!}


P.S. There's still time to enter this Shabby Apple dress giveaway!

What are you thankful for this week?

tire chairs.

It seems that I like everything that has to do with sitting on tires. Millegomme upcycles spent tires by creating art installations. And they are huge: They describe themselves as "an international collective of tire crafters. [They] have our network in several countries. [They] love to solve local problems by using car tires." And I love them.

Unused public spaces turn them into fun meeting places for children and adults.  

Or local waste materials become moving curtains with night illumination,

miniature thrones or home offices.

What would you do with your tired tires? 

Enter the Shabby Apple dress giveaway here. 

mother's day gifts.

So, we needed random baby items from Amazon, when suddenly a you might also like... suggestion stole the show.

{via}

An interview book. Go dig up your mother's story. I know some families are good about their narrative and their stories really do stay alive through generations. But if you're like me and you have a horrible memory or morsels of your life--and the stories you've been told--are just plain missing, I can't imagine a more perfect activity than to sit down with your mom and actually write that story down. I'm smitten with this gift idea. There's a book for dad's story too.

Motherless daughters can do this too, though obviously not with their mamas. I'm not sure this is the book for such women, but I've always liked the idea of interviewing others about my mom's life. It's nice to know--even after decades--where + how you fit in. I've been thinking about this more since we moved to the U.S. (my motherland) and since I became a mama myself. 

Of course you could always shower her with flowers or fun presents like these too.

I fell in love with these typographic brackets that I saw on bug miscellany today. And these quirky + cute pendants from Elk.

Are you shopping for mom's day too?


Don't forget to enter the Shabby Apple Giveaway. 

sun + flowers.

{daffodils}

While it's still extraordinarily windy, the temps are rising. Sun shine consistent. And flowers, flowers everywhere, even inside the house!

I think it's safe to say it's officially spring (that is, in the northern hemisphere--wishing my southern buds a crisp, delicious apple pie, er, autumn.)

What's your favorite spring thing?

wide open.

...dreams are not a bad thing. 

- wcw

What are you dreaming about?