Crossed off of our Summer To-Do list so far: we’ve had sundaes, a trip to the Drive-In, a sprinkler run, pool time, park visits, dinners on the screened-in porch most nights, catching lightening bugs only to let them go, grilling out, and farmer’s market fruits and veggies. In between has been a very busy time at work and a lot of changes at home as we get ready for this baby we have waited so long to meet.

The last of the pre-baby no. 2 Paper Boat Photography shoots are complete. Once those edits are finished, I hope to:

*Make these bangles with my girl featured by Delighted Momma.

*Print a tote bag like the this one from Sweet Paul.

*Document a week in our lives just for us. For inspiration and info on how to do this, there’s no better source than Ali Edwards.

*Read Paul Theroux’s The Tao of Travel which I picked up at The Morris Bookshop after reading Theroux’s essay in the Financial Times.

*Put up a clothesline in the backyard. How can you not after seeing images like these from Tec Petaja or paintings like these from Jonathan Green.

*Update the Paper Boat galleries and goals.

What’s on your Summer To Do List?

*Have you seen these gorgeous scarves from Secret Pocket?

*The cutest radio Evoke Mio by Orla Kiely. It costs way more money than anyone should ever drop on a radio but hey, we’re window browsing here.

*Kate Spade’s book Things We Love looks like a lot of fun. It reminds me to think about what inspires me and what I would  paste in the pages of my notebook.




Peonies, a road trip, sparklers -sounds like a good start.

Happy hunting!

*I’ve worn out the link to this wedding from Leigh Miller. Her work is so inspiring.

*I love this post from Hula Seventy: Things I’d Like to Tell My 17-Year Old Self. It’s brilliant and so very true.

*Tara Whitney started posted images of her work in the homes of her clients this week. I love that she is sharing these. It’s so hard to envision how photos will look on the wall and in our homes and I love some of these ideas.

*I am working through stacks of images tonight, but it doesn’t feel much like work.

What a sweetheart. Have a good week everyone!

Regardless of your religious affiliation, Max Lucado’s piece on writing called The Write Stuff is uplifting. He writes:

“Well-written words can change a life. Why is this? Words go where we never go—Africa. Australia. Indonesia. My daughter was in Bangalor, India, last summer and saw my books in the display window of a shop. Written words go to places you’ll never go.…and descend to depths you’ll never know.

Readers invite the author to a private moment. They clear the calendar, find the corner, flip on the lamp, turn off the television, pour the tea, pull on the wrap, silence the dog, shoo the kids. They set the table, pull out the chair and invite you, ‘Come, talk to me for a moment.’ The invitation of a lifetime.” -Max Lucado

Literal Boost

We used the One Step Ahead Cooshee Booster Seat at the pottery painting place and immediately came home and ordered one.

We’re at that age where she’s too big for most baby boosters, but not quite tall enough to reach the table. It’s made out of the same material you see on those foam pool floats, but doesn’t tip easily like the plastic boosters you find in restaurants.  I don’t get any kickback from these guys or anything. It just really works – no straps, fits most chairs, fits varying kiddo heights. She moves it around the house to fit different seats so it’s pretty lightweight.

Riding the cart at Kroger in 2008, she reached up for a Little Golden book. He handed her the one on top, Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. She concentrated on the pages throughout the entire shopping trip. Here’s an iphone pic from that day:

SB, as she is known in our house, has been with us every day since: in film, doll form, pillow case, you name it. Other princesses come and go, but the story of SB resonates with her. I am always sad for the parents in this story who had long wished for a child and yet they have to let her go as an infant with the “Varies” {fairies, but my daughter calls them Varies, so I do as well} and when she returns, she is almost immediately married. There is something so dear in the way her mother reaches to hug her when she returns and her dad pats her hair, just moments before she has to take the dance floor and leave again. It’s just a story, but one that seems so familiar.

Each night, getting her to fall asleep is a long process that is often interrupted by passing cars and their bass stereos and a vocal cat who seems to sense the moment when she is about to drift off. When I am sleep deprived too, or haven’t had any time to myself,  I look at the clock and see she’s not asleep yet and think about all of the things I will do once she is asleep.  I’m ashamed to admit that most of the time that I am singing the nightly songs and patting her hair, I am thinking about cases. I have solved more problems for clients in a rocking chair {or trying to get her to sleep in general} than in my desk chair.   Each night, I lay down with her until she falls asleep, her head on my arm. I know that she is finally to that place where I can sneak away when she feels so light that she might float up to the ceiling.  In that moment, I feel relieved for about a nano-second and then, almost immediately, I miss her.  She seems to be floating so very far away and I can’t help but think, on a completely irrational level, that I should try to get to where she is as fast as I can before she floats away.

Listening to: Weather With You – Neil Finn

In the time I spent traveling yesterday, I could have made it all the way to Venice. My girl and I were traveling solo and she was an absolute champ all day which has me dreaming {probably unrealistically} about international travel with her.

I know an attorney in Lexington who spends a month in Italy every couple of summers. He is one of those people who, every time you see him, seems relaxed and happy. Don’t you just love people like that? I was the first attorney to have a baby at my firm. When I was about four months pregant, I sat next to this attorney in court while we waited for motion hour to begin. In the fifteen minutes we waited, I quizzed him about how he keeps his cases going for a month or more while he’s in Italy. His advice was the best real-world advice I found applicable to materity leave. The fog that I was in for the 9 weeks I was able to be home with my new baby was not unlike being in a water-covered place where sirens sound different and phone numbers begin with zero.

Anywho…much later, I ran into him at a mediation and thanked him for the tips. He shared that he and his wife had just taken their daughter and their two-year-old grandson to Italy. I began asking all of the usual questions about traveling that kind of distance with a little one and he was quick to tell me, “Don’t wait too long to take your daughter to Italy. Italians love children.” I had forgotten about this conversation until yesterday, when at the airport for the seventh hour, an Italian family sat down next to us at the gate and giggled and smiled over my daughter’s every move. The mama didn’t speak any English with me, but that did not slow her down. She spoke to me as though I understood every word and while my husband took Italian for long enough to know a thing or two, I know only enough to order fattening delicious food.  They were so sweet to us and everytime my daughter laughed a little too loud under her headphones at Mickey Mouse on my iphone, they were laughing right with her. I’m sure it’s a stereotype, but stereotypes wouldn’t be so bad if they were all as enchanting as the Italians and their kindness to children.