first celebration for her first!

Posted on November 21, 2014 by tandem in love

we were able to get together with dick, jane, aunt wendy, and their cousin donna for a little birthday celebration! olive’s first birthday! well, her birthday day is still a wee bit aways but we love celebrating all week long here!

it was our typical routine. wake up. nurse. playing around on the bed. she gives me kisses. olive gets bored and now slides off the edge of the bed and scurries away. i get ready. she tears up the house. i run around and pick things up. i brew a pot o coffee. i make her breakfast. she eats. she plays. she rubs her eyes. she nurses. she goes to bed for her morning nap. every. single. morning. that we have together. so trying to predict how long she will sleep is a gamble!

so, i waited and waited and waited. a bit stressed out because we had to leave for our lunch date! so i went in her room to peek on her…i kind of made a ruckus to see if she would stir {i shuffled through her drawers to pick out her outfit of the day}. stir she did! woo!

she nursed again, i got her dressed, and we were off! i had already thrown everything into the car and got myself ready while she was napping. we sped on our way to the restaurant. we had agreed to meet at a halfway point…at the streets of woodfield, where maggiano’s is at. we were already a half an hour late!

they so kindly waited at the bar…a good excuse to have a drink, non? once we arrived, we were seated right away. it was too cute…they had decorated the table with confetti and wrote a sweet note to us. we were celebrating a few birthdays! olive’s and jane’s!

[sitting next to papa]

[they sprinkled our table with confetti!! how cute!]

[jane, donna, and wendy]

we perused the menu and quickly decided on food. how could you not go with their buy a classic pasta and take one home?! um, best deal evah! i ordered the mushroom ravioli and asked for the eggplant parmesan to take home. yum!

we entertained olive and conversed amongst one another. she was having a blast playing with the crayons and having papa feed her pieces of bread. I had a great time talking with the ladies. It was wonderful to finally meet donna! over the summer, while jane was watching olive, donna stopped by to visit…she was able to meet olive but i didn’t get a chance to meet her. so today was the day!

[my babes]

[yummy mushroom ravioli]

after our meal, the sever came by with a birthday cookie cake topped off with a candle. olive wasn’t quite sure what was going on. she stared at it, perplexed. we wished her a happy birthday and i then blew out the candle for the little lady! she then proceeded to throw almost all the cookies onto the floor! hey now, mama will eat those cookies! thank goodness there was another plate…i devoured three! they were so yummy!

[lemon cookies]

[happy birthday olive!]

[make a wish!]

after dessert, we started to pack up to get going. i tried to get olive to walk to show dick and jane but olive wasn’t cooperating. she just wanted to crawl. so, all they got was a little stroll while she held onto jane’s hand. too adorbs.

it was a lovely lunch date with the fam! we had a great time starting out olive’s week long birthday celebration! woo hoo!

xoxo

first birthday candle

Posted on November 20, 2014 by tandem in love

i searched and searched for glitter ‘1’ birthday candles. no one sells them in a retail store {at least i couldn’t find one!} and i found a few on etsy but i was not going to pay $10 for a glitter candle!! yes, i will pay for handmade things but it has to be comparable to time + price to push me to buy it. making one costs less than 1/5 of what they were charging for it {including shipping}. so, i decide to makey a candle myself! it’s so easy peasy, that is why i couldn’t bring myself to buy one at that price!

everyone wants to have a little sparkle on their birthday, non? well, olive definitely does. much to hc’s dismay {he hates glitter}. so glitter, sparkle, shine i did.

1. just buy a one candle at the local party store or whatever number you wish to glitter.

2. take the rubber cement wand {tap off the excess glue} and brush it along the outline of the candle. just enough to the edge so the colored outline will be covered. if you want, you can also use a different, smaller brush to help control the glue and be more precise.

3. take gold glitter {or the glitter color of your choice!} and sprinkle it all on top of the candle. be generous! cover the entire top and let it sit for just a bit before you tap off the excess. you want to make sure it has a thick, even coat of glitter.

4. ta da! you have yourself a nifty, cool, homemade glitter candle! let it sit for at least another thirty minutes before you can tap off any excess glitter {again}.

so, there you have it! a lovely, gold glitter candle for olive’s first birthday cake! i’m super excited and can’t wait to see it on her sweet little smash cake.

xoxo

paper rosettes

Posted on November 19, 2014 by tandem in love

so, olive’s first birthday is coming up…and i have been a mad women preparing for it {brainstorming months in advance}. it’s oooohhhhh so much going on, with her birthday party planning and prepping, thanksgiving coming up, we need to decorate for christmas, and get some holiday shopping done! i must admit…it’s been a bit overwhelming.

to top it all off, we are hosting the party at our house and we needed to get soooo much stuff done internally. hc was in the middle of remodeling our bathroom, we needed to buy a bunch of supplies for the party, we had to organize the basement {of course, it’s on our list to remodel…well, basically the entire house}, and execute a lot of cleaning!

the basement was our biggest task! when we moved in, we knew that we would eventually remodel the space, so we threw a whole bunch of stuff down there and promised ourselves that we would ultimately get it organized. well, that time was now. ugh. it wasn’t hard but time consuming!! we are super happy with how it cleaned up…it usable, but we can’t wait until we really can make it an awesome playroom down there! so, as of right now, it will do. it’s all cleaned up and now the kids have a play area!

anyhoozle, what a tangent i was on {it was a much needed rant!}! so, for olive’s party, i mostly bought the decorations…although it kills me to do so. ya know i love crafting and making everything myself but with soooo much going on, time is money and i had no time, so i spent the money 😉 everything i purchased, i can make but since i was stressed for time {so click, click, click and buy i did}, i saved it by just purchasing what my creative mind wanted to do. besides, if i do have any free time, i love spending it with my olive…just chillin’, getting hugs and kisses, and giggles is priceless!

so, some of the decor…i ended up making myself because 1. either i couldn’t find what i needed/wanted 2. it was too late to order anything to get it on time! i needed paper rosettes to decorate certain areas for olive’s party and i couldn’t find them so easily…isn’t that cray?! online, yes, but in store…no. it was hard to find them. i thought i was in the twilight zone! c’mon…paper rosettes should be an easy find and buy!

alas, that wasn’t the case so i ended up making them on my own. besides, i was then able to get the colors i wanted and the quantity i needed!

1. i chose a packet of paper card stock in five shades of pink. card stock is a bit difficult to work with, i would use a lighter weight paper but i couldn’t find the size or color i needed in a thinner paper. it just makes it a bit more tough to fold.

2. fold the paper {long length} in half inch folds, back and forth, to form an accordion style.

3. fold the entire piece of paper until it’s all an accordion fold, don’t worry if it’s not perfect…any flaws will be hidden or not noticeable.

4. fold the paper in half.

5. tape the inside fold sides together.

6. your paper, once taped, will look like a fan.

7. repeat with another piece of paper and attach your fans together to form your paper rosette. you can do four fans and make a more dense rosette, but i chose to only fold two sheets of paper to from mine!

ta da! you have your pretty paper rosettes! so easy peasy, non?! you can also fold the paper long ways to make different sized rosettes; and depending on your party, theme, color scheme, you can make your rosettes in solids or patterns…no matter what, they will always look fabulous and add total pizazz to any party decor and ambiance!

xoxo

we got a walker!!

Posted on November 18, 2014 by tandem in love

well, we thought for sure, that olive would be walking by ten months {’cause she was standing up so early!}. but ten months came and went and she did not independently take a step. then came her eleven month mark and holy moly, we got a walker!

oh it was just fantastic. it started out at my parent’s house. hc is away for work and my parents wanted us to come over for dinner.

btw…it’s soooooo cold out! windy, cold, and a low of 7 degrees! yowza! ohmygosh how it reminds me of my maternity leave…we were paralyzed by the polar vortex. i was trapped inside for months, with it being so cold, and almost went out like jack nicholson.

anyhoo, we were over at my parent’s house when this glorious moment occurred. we were all upstairs hanging out when my dad stood olive up and had her walk towards him. walk she did! she took a solid three steps. so we kept it up. my mom sat across from my dad {about five feet apart} and they called for olive to walk. she would take 4-5 steps and fall into their arms! she was so giddy! she was having a blast taking her first sturdy steps. they did it back and forth. we were all giggling and laughing joyfully. it was just so awesome to watch her walk for the first time. olive was so happy! this went on and on for quite a bit of time. i think i recorded a dozen video clips.

after awhile, we called it quits. olive looked a bit tired {she also didn’t nap very well today…she took two very.short.naps}. we wrapped it up and decided to head home. once we settled in, i wanted to see if olive would do some more walking. oh my, she did a lot! this clip you are about to watch was so impromptu, i wished i had better lighting! we had just gotten home and i only flicked on a few lights in the house, so therefore the video footage is so dark {sorry folks!}.

her face is too presh in the video, isn’t is?! she is now officially on the go and we are now officially screwed 😉

xoxo

chill night

Posted on November 17, 2014 by tandem in love

hc came home from work and brought home some ingredients for me to make it a mexican meal night {woot, woot}, so cheesy quesadillas it was {does that say cheesy cheesy??!…natch}. i first whipped together some guac to go with our chips and eventually to dollop on our meals! most folks will say gauc should be simple, salt, pepper, a dash of lime but i do like mine to have a touch of tomatoes and onions {preferably red onions}. yuuuuummmmmm.

[ingredients]

we broke open some coronas and lime and cheered our way to some yummy food. i started out cooking the sliced chicken on the skillet {a bit of olive oil…is that mexican?? 😉 }, on high heat. after the chicken was cooked {no pink!}, i scooped it out and threw in sliced onions {i have to always have a kick to it!}. i then threw the chicken back in {medium heat} and threw on some seasoning and water. like i said, it needs a kick, some flavor.

after the chicken was cooked. i threw some mexican rice into a pot of boiling water and started that, so it would be nice and fluffy once the cheesydillas were done. i then took the chicken and folded it into some tortillas. i buttered one side of the tortilla, threw a whole bunch of cheese on top of the chicken and folded the tortilla in half. normally, i would cook the quesadilla on a skillet until the cheese was melted and the shell was a toasty brown but i decided to put it in the oven to see how it would turn out.

um, i definitely prefer the skillet method. the oven did it’s purpose but i didn’t like how the tortillas turned out. a little too crispy for my taste. but all in all it was all so delicious!

[cheers!]

olive enjoyed her snacks and eating bits of my rice and chicken in-between. she loves eating! hc and i noshed on our food, drank our beer, and reveled in olive’s antics.

[eating her cereal puffs]

it was quite a chill night. i had a great time making dinner and relaxing with my darling family. we were stuffed, satisfied, and ready to hit the couch and put on a movie after dinner. cheers to simple meal nights!

xoxo

october snapshots

Posted on November 15, 2014 by tandem in love

warm, cold, outstanding october has passed us by! it was a great month full of changes and fun. it was olive’s first halloween! the leaves changed, the weather changed, the ’tis the season’ is starting to creep up on us!

we had a fabulous time soaking in october’s glorious offerings. i loved the days when the sun was shining bright on cool temperature days. we had the best time doing fun activities such as apple picking with the family for reagan’s birthday, doing seasonal baking, carving pumpkins, and trick or treating.

olive and i spent a lot of time together. hc pretty much spent the entire month of october traveling for work, so we had a lot of girly time! she’s getting so big and developing a big girl personality!

i love october for it’s change of leaves, the vibrant colors are so beautiful. i love how it’s the start of the best holidays. i get so excited to decorate for the season. there’s something warm and inviting about this months {albeit the temperature change!}. maybe it’s because mother earth starts to shut down for the cold winter and we begin our indoor hibernation, where we get to spend a little more time being closer together, warming ourselves up with burning fireplaces and hot chocolate.

[her new thing…putting sticks and such in her mouth like a cigar]

[date night]

[cheeeese!]

[first time falling asleep outside of her scheduled nap times]

[how she likes to drink her bottle…swinging her legs back and forth]

[learning to walk with papa]

[playing around // sign language for more]

[my halloween outfit]

olive’s first halloween was pretty cool, we loved her little lamb costume and she did collect a whopping three pieces of candy in her awesome black cat treat bag. i tried my best to outfit her in cute little festive outfits and she was the best apple picker of us all! so many wonderful firsts for miss olive this past month!

anyhoozle, we seriously had the best time this past october with all the fun things we did! i think novembers snapshot are going to be just as swell! 😉

xoxo

flashback friday

Posted on November 14, 2014 by tandem in love

today takes us back to 2012.

here we are at beer hoptacular in chicago. we were quite excited to attend! we had purchased tickets along with my sisters, brother in law, hc, and miss dana. we also had other friends joining us there as well.

it was a cooler, rainy day. we {me, hc, and dana} grabbed a taxi and headed on our way to the event. we shuffled along with everyone else in line, stoked to get inside the big black tent to start our beer tasting adventure. when you get there, they give these cute little shot glasses to use. inside was a mecca of beer vendors ready to pour copious amounts of samples for you! it was beer heaven! we skipped from one beer vendor to the next, sampling all sorts of yummy beverages.

it was cute and fun because they also handed out little mustaches to the patrons to wear. uh, hells yes i put a mustache on! i rocked that thing like a champ. it also had free a photo booth that we totally took advantage of! on top of that, they were also giving out chip and stuff…score! tasty snacks to munch on!

after a couple hours of us beer tasting, we were dunzo. we grabbed a cab back to our place and hc and dana passed. out. on the couch. it was too cute. they were both out cold on the couch while, of course, i was a busy bee…cleaning, crafting, and doing random things i needed to get done, waiting for them to get up. it’s so me…i can never sit still or lie down for a nap, even if we were drinking for a few hours. call me cray!

it was a spectacular time, attending beer hoptacular. it is definitely a fun event everyone should at least try once, or twice, or three times 😉

happy friday y’all!

xoxo

olive’s 11 month loves

Posted on November 13, 2014 by tandem in love

month eleven.

wooden taxi // stitches and soles moccasins // bear hat // plasma car // angel dear blankie // boogie wipes

olive is really loving any push toys right now. she will grab anything on wheels and roll it all around the floor. well, it doesn’t have to have wheels. she will just push it across the floor if she can. so, this little wooden taxi is a favorite. it’s actually a substantial size. it’s sturdy, bright, and easy to play with. it’s so cute to watch her roll it across the floor while she does her gimp crawl {it’s an interesting combo of moves that gets her across the room}. annndddd, like i have said before, i love wooden toys. i love the texture of them. i love that they are environment friendly. i love that they are made with non-toxic paint {cuz everything goes into her mouth!}. i love that they are so aesthetically pleasing as well!

i love, love these moccasins from stitches and soles. they are too cute and so easy to put on olive. they have elastic hidden bands and they totally stay on her feet! her shoes are top notch in quality and design. these shoes add total oomph to any of olive’s outfits. they come in lots of fun colors and she offers two cute styles in ’em. i can’t wait to add more colors into her collection and dress her up in my love {all over, all over}. yeah, madonna fans…ya got that one?

hats. hats are a must right now. i think my problem is finding hats that fit olive’s noggin. okay, she doesn’t have a huge head but it’s near the 80th percentile on her chart {so, she has outgrown some cute hats i have gotten her a few months ago!}. i love fun little hats like this babygap one. it’s good to have a few neutral ones available that can go with any outfit she has or any coat. the weather is so unpredictable, so it’s imperative to have warm hats on hand to protect her little, presh noggin.

this push car is one of olive’s favorite. it’s at my parent’s house and olive loves to push it around. she is such a strong little girl that she can push it when her cousin reagan or auntie kim is sitting on it {or both at the same time!}. it is hilarious to watch…and ya kinda feel bad for her at the same time. olive loves to push people around on the car {so cute} but yet, it melts your heart she is working so hard at it. a determined little gal.

she’s such a snuggle bunny now. she loves her little blankies or anything soft, so she can rub her little cheeks and lips onto them. she loves this soft owl blankie {courtesy of auntie carol} and has become so attached to it. she loves to sleep with it. she loves to watch tv with it. she loves to crawl around the house with it. it comforts her. it calms her down and i’m totally into it. it’s so endearing and heartwarming to watch her snuggle her blankie {her new bestie}.

boogie wipes are a lifesaver. seriously. olive went through a week where she had a bit of a runny nose {poor babes!} and she did. not. like. it when i tried wiping her nose. it finally dawned on me that i had a stash of boogie wipes in her diaper bag! hallelujah. it saved me. she totally let me wipe those icky boogs off her face with these wipes! no problem. no fussing. no tears. i just pulled out a wipe, cleaned up her nose, and she would hardly flinch. thank goodness! she didn’t have to look like a kid whose parents would let their boogies run down their face {yeahs right…like i would ever let that happen!}.

well, those are olive’s eleven month loves! can you believe she is eleven months?! oh em gee…it’s cray to think about it. she is so amazing. i love her sooooo much and every minute i have with her just melts my heart to a mushy, puddled mess. she brightens up our world and sometimes i think my heart might explode with love. *sigh*

xoxo

moccasins

Posted on November 12, 2014 by tandem in love

i’m a bit obsessed with baby moccasins. yes. yes i am. i am loving those cute little shoes for miss olive. i’ve seen a few brands around {some that are really expensive!} and have fallen in love with these cute, little, sweet shoes for miss olive.

they are from this etsy seller, stitches and soles. they are well made, constructed, and sturdy. i am in love with them! they come in so many different colors and she makes them with hidden elastic sides, so it’s easy to put on and take off. plus, they stay on her feet {even when the little bugger tugs and tugs at her toes}! bonus. that’s why i love them so much!

i have already complied a list of colors to purchase for olive. a girl’s gotta have a slew of choices to match her wardrobe! natch. the leather is buttery soft and the platinum color goes with everything. it also comes with the cutest little muslin bag to store it in.

our first run with the shoes was a trip to ikea to pick up some knick knacks. hc was like…”what are those?!” i said, “her new shoes!”. he was not impressed. psh. men…what do they know about baby style?

anyhoozle, as we were cruising around the store, olive received plenty of compliments on her awesome shoes. customers were loving her and loving her fun shoes. hmph. that showed hc up! ha! he knows better than to question mine or olive’s choice in fashion {she’s a fashionista in training}! snap. 😉

[a shopping trip to ikea…the other consumers would compliment her on her ‘fancy’ shoes. olive was like “yeah, i know”]

so, these are my current obsession. i am soooo loving these chic little moccasins for our baby girl. such a cute addition to any outfit she sports! yay!

xoxo

abbey

Posted on November 10, 2014 by tandem in love

soooo, long story that i will try to make short {cross your fingers!}. i met abbey more than ten years ago. we crossed paths and instantly became close friends. we had so many crazy moments together. she was my partner in crime. we went out all. the. time. fashion show nights in the city. bars in the city. art shows. dinners. fancy dinners. super, super fancy dinners. eve of the eve parties. shopping dates. pool time. brunches. lunches. you name it, we did it. anything in the city was game.

after years of being close friends, life sometimes takes you down different paths and those paths are not parallel anymore. they veer off into different directions and you loose touch. mine and abbey’s path veered off. seven plus years went by.

last year, abbey reached out to me and i reciprocated. we started to talk via fb and then by phone. we’ve exchanged communication here or there and moved our friendship along. well, abbey contacted me a few weeks ago to let me know that she would be in chicago {she lives in missouri} and wanted to meet up! i was totally game, i was excited to see her. i was glad our schedules worked out perfectly for us to meet up.

i chose for us to brunch at little goat. i was a little nervous it would be super crowded {it usually is and a very long wait} because it was a very, very nice day! warm and sunny. as i walked towards the restaurant, i saw there were no patrons standing outside {a total sign it wasn’t crowded} and was relieved.

i walked in with o and ran right into abbs! it was pretty awesome to see her. she looked great! we hugged and were so excited to see one another. she was so happy to meet olive! she is so great with babies. her sister val just had a beautiful baby boy, lake!

we were seated right away {woo!}. of course abbey and i started gabbing away. i told her, “we better choose what we want to eat or we will never order!”. so, she decided to go with the apple pancakes and a small side of biscuits and gravy. i chose the tuna melt with a side of smoked fries.

[um, it really wasn’t this empty…this space happen to clear out]

[she’s got her other bottom toof coming in!]

[smoked fries]

we gabbed and gabbed and gabbed. there was so much to talk about. we had such a great time catching up. so much has changed! at the time abbey and i were friends, i was ‘single’. not married. still living in chicago. no children. and now all that has changed!

abbey tried her best to get on olive’s good side. olive was being shy. it was too cute to see. i would slide her over to abbey and she would crawl back to me. i would slide her back again, and she would wiggle back to me. the only way abbey was able to get her to stay be her was to feed little o. ha!

[she was being shy]

[tuna sammich]

[yum, yum…the only time olive felt comfortable, when abbey fed her!]

after we finished our meals, we stayed awhile to continue our gab fest. abbey for sure wanted to take pictures in the photo booth. of course! i’m all about photo booths! i love ’em! we wriggled our way in and our bottoms shared the tiniest little round seat. abbs put the money in and we were like…uh, when does the booth take a photo {it was definitely an old school machine}?? duh…as you can see in the first shot, we were soooo caught off guard! but then we got it!

[before we left, we had to participate in the photo booth!]

our day was so fun! it was fabulous to see abbey again after all these years. we had such a good time catching up and i was super happy she was able to meet little olive. i hope our future visits are in closer proximity and we can’t wait to see her again. it was awesome seeing girl!

xoxo