My Latest Obsessions

Silhouette of Miss Cate (made at a Paper Source class)

Happy Friday! And Happy LONG weekend - wahoo! May is whizzing by us and we have already been to the pool a few times due to this lovely warm weather - LOVE IT! Last week I made the above silhouette of Miss Cate at a Paper Source class. I opted for the black & white paisley paper for the background. It was SUPER fun and I now just need to find some time to make one of Georgie and Margaret as well. I think we decided that we'll hang them in the kids bathroom (which will look great up against the twig stripe wallpaper in soft chartreuse).

CMC's Poetry Coffehouse
(end of 2nd Grade) 

I was at Cate's Poetry Coffeehouse this morning (see above pic). Don't you love her beret?! They were all wearing them. All of the kids in her class stood up one by one and read a poem (w/ a microphone!) that they had written themselves - very cute and quite impressive. We were asked to bring in one of our favorite poems to read to the class as well. I have always loved Dr. Seuss - so I decided to bring in the book Oh, the Places You'll Go. We have a couple copies of the book around the house. I picked one up and just as I was putting it in my bag I noticed that it was given to PFC for his graduation from Marquette University - such a fun little surprise. CMC loved hearing that the book was given to her Dad when he graduated from college in 1992 (speaking of which - we are heading to PFC's 20 year college reunion this summer - wowser!).

Tomorrow morning we are heading up to the Lake and then Monday we'll be back for our town's Memorial Day parade and festivities. Hoping everyone has a great long weekend. Looks like it is going to be a HOT one here in Chicago!

Some of my latest faves:

• Trina Turk for Banana Republic = looks like a FABULOUS collaboration and collection (debuts June 7th)! 
• I have been wanting to make these Tortilla Rollups ever since spotting them on The Pioneer Woman. YUMMY! 
• Some great downloadable Table Numbers from Hello! Lucky.  
• Some Braid how-tos I should try instead of my go to = ponytail or bun! 
• Pretty hand-stamped dinnerware - love the colors. 
• Totally digging Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know. 
• LOVE this set of Washi Tapes = cute patterns/colors. And Lotta Jansdotter's totes are super fun and colorful. 
• Ummm, nutella pizza = SIGN ME UP (now!). 
• Orange Au Fait Day Dress = FAB (and love the cut)! 
• I bought CMC these Hollywood Pink (love the name of the color!) Native Jefferson shoes to wear to the pool and the like for summer. I'm still unsure if I think they are cute or ugly but none the less I found them half off at Marshall's = LOVE that even more! I had never heard of them until I saw them in the latest Tea catalogue. LOVE these little Bensimon shoes - too cute. 
• Every year for Christmas PFC gets me a new Linda & Harriet letterpress calendar. I always look forward to getting it - I'm crazy about calendars. LOVE them. The National Stationery Show was just in NYC and I saw that Linda & Harriet debuted a NEW and fabulous BIG calendar for 2013. Isn't it gorgeous? And check out her booth walls = so FUN and FABULOUS! And here are some more of her paper quilts = AMAZING. 
• Okay, SO I started 50 Shades of Grey. I'm hooked. RIGHT. FROM. THE. START. I'm going to pretend that I'm chilling out on one of these islands while I read. Or maybe even relaxing at the Calistoga Ranch in CA. Reality check = reading on the couch after an exhausting day of running around w/ the kids! 
• So, I was telling PFC the other evening how GMC is all over the place these days - running, climbing, jumping and getting into EVERYTHING (the good ole toddler days!). We were talking about this while watching the Roger Waters interview on 60 Minutes. PFC looked at me at one point and asked if I heard what Waters had said. By that point I had jumped back to my ipad. I missed the following = "People always used to say, it must be so hard you know, how do you do it? You know, it must be so hard being on the road, being in a rock and roll band. It's amazing that you survived. And I would look at them like, what are you talking about?" he said. "It's the easiest job in the world...I mean, compared with something really hard, like for instance, looking after a two-year-old child, it's an absolute doddle." TOO FUNNY!  rd, like for instance, looking after a two-year-old child, it’s an absolute doddle.”