Loving It

Happy (almost) Father's Day! Lately I've been loving...

1. My son's father! My baby daddy! My husband with whom I have a child! He's a good dad, I tell you what.

2. Water tables. They keep a baby busy.

3. So do bran muffins. Baby = busy with the bran.

4. Thomas has been eating all the food. We finally took him to our favorite Japanese restaurant. He didn't eat sushi (so not all the food), but he was all about some crab salad, seaweed, tofu and vegetables!

5. Also: this face. Lately, I have been loving this face!

Feeling feelings

 "Let me tell you about you -- You feel strongly about everything," my husband said.

"And let me tell you something else," he continued (we were laughing) "Sometimes you get mad at me for not feeling strongly about everything."

It's true. I am an ENFP. He is an INTJ. According to Keirsey, it's a pretty perfect match in an opposites-attract kind of way. I feel my feelings, people. I mean, I feel them. I try to be a Zen bunny, but I mostly fail. Robert, on the other hand, approaches everything (almost) with pure logic. (And love! And humor!)

Want to know something I feel strongly about? This outfit. The shirt is second-hand from eBay, and it is splatter-tastic. The pants were thrifted, and they have a great uniform pattern. Look at that! One crazy, all-over-the-place print feeling its feelings and one more structured, logical print looking good too. It's a match made in heaven!

Celebration

Robert and I celebrated our fourth anniversary this weekend, and it was wonderful! I love this guy and our little, baby boy. Oh! And Mother's Day! That was pretty good too. Pancakes, people. Mother's Day means pancakes.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I think Valentine's Day is pretty stupid, but cherishing your love is not! When I worked in an office, I felt like there was a weird competitive vibe about who got flowers and how big they were and blah blah blah, which is so lame.

Since getting with Robert (Yep. I decided "getting with" was the best way to describe the beginning of my relationship with the man I married/had a baby with/will adore forever.), we started an awesome tradition of not going out and not buying flowers/jewelry/whatever and instead buying art. Art is the best! This tradition has turned us into official art collectors, which is awesome.

Anyway, this year we bought this rooster, and he is an amazing rooster. ("You're getting the chicken? I'm so glad someone is buying the chicken!" the guy who checked us out said.)

We too were glad to buy the chicken. Happy Valentine's Day!

Fabulous?

So this is an accidental outfit. I wore the maxi dress because my style is dictated by what fits over my belly and because it is awesome and comfortable and it was a lovely spring day. Then it was so super cold in the restaurant, Robert ran to the car and got his flannel for me  (aww... romantical), and I wore it, and I was like "Is this fabulous together or is it just me?" I haven't actually answered that question yet. Is it fabulous together? Or is it just me? (I'll tell you what was fabulous -- that hamburger I was eating when I asked the question!)

Brewing beer

For his 30th birthday, I bought Robert a beer-making kit. That was in January, he has since been a beer-making machine, and I love it. I knew he would like making the beer because he's great at baking bread and baking bread is a science that uses yeast... and so is beer brewing so there is my logic. Also he loves beer. That was another big piece of my logic. 

We have a "Brew Store" in the town next to us. It's a big warehouse randomly sitting in a residential area, and I find it to be a very interesting place. I went with Robert on his last trip (and took lots of pictures like a beer-brewing tourist). Robert had his recipe and picked up specialty grain and hops and other whatnot and other required for making trappist (an ale that monks are known for making or something along those lines).

So the process is as follows: we make some beer tea by steeping the specialty grains (or at least I call it beer tea, it is not actually called beer tea), then we take this beer tea and put it in a big kettle in our backyard and pour in the rest of the malt.

Then we hang out and stir it until it comes to a boil (lots of steam steams up my glasses). Then we add our first hops, a little bit later we added sugar that tastes like rock candy (trust me, I tried it) and then more hops to finish it off. When that's all done, we cool it off, then we strain it into a bucket. Not pictured: adding some yeast and letting it sit for a while -- this one for at least a month. Then we have beer!

Robert made this beer once before, and it was so good I told him he had to make it again. The recipe can be found here in case you're a brewer yourself or interested in more specifics. I think it's great fun, and when you're done, you have beer! What's not to like?

On one woman's love of beef jerky

Portrait of a Marriage 

"You don't love me despite beef jerky, you love me because of beef jerky." -- Me. 

"I know." -- Him 

My husband's shirt

I've started thrifting for my husband. It's not quite as fun as thrifting for myself, but I still get that thrift-high when I find an awesome shirt for $1.50 that will look dynamite on him. Then I steal that shirt.

And I wear that shirt. And, frankly, I rock the shirt. And when Robert wears it, he rocks the shirt too, but the look is very different. (Because as Mr. Rogers taught us, we are all special in our own special way.)

It's such a feminine thing to wear masculine clothing, isn't it? I mean, it can also be a masculine thing to wear masculine clothing, but you unbutton a couple of buttons and wear it with rolled up jeans and ballet flats it's just early '60s adorable in my opinion.

Plus it's kind of a sweet thing to do when the shirt belongs to your lovah. Although, I did feel like I matched my husband a little too much as we walked hand in hand through the grocery store in our thrifted-plaid-button-down shirts. We're a slightly too much sometimes I think. (At least we like each other.)

First anniversary

Here's looking at you, kid

Alternate post title: Inspiration Bogart. 

It has been chilly, and I have been all up in this trench coat. Robert and I both found trench coats at a thrift store this summer. Then we bought them. Then we talked about how awesome we were because we both own trench coats. Then we walked our dog in the rain in our trench coats. One time, we both wore fedoras while walking the dog in the rain in our trench coats. I'm not saying it's okay, I'm just saying it happened.

 See that shadow in this picture? It's symbolic. These shoes are emotionally torn between keeping the woman they love in Casablanca or letting her go with her heroic husband. They ultimately let her go. They'll always have Paris. And gin. And that sassy policeman.

If I am talking gibberish to you, I suggest you watch "Casablanca." It's such a sad, awesome love story centered on two people who wear trench coats. Would "Casablanca" have been one of the best movies of all time if its stars were wearing hot pink sweatsuits? Unlikely. Trench coats totally helped make that film. They are really the most romantic of coats.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to my husband of nine months!

Newlyweds are nauseating. It's not our fault.