Artsy

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My husband told me recently that I'm artsy.

When I was a kid, I thought perhaps I'd be artistic like my great-grandpa and grandpa.. I had high hopes, really, but I tried carving a couple shapes out of soap and painting some pictures of mountains like theirs, and quickly threw up my hands on my efforts. They had beauty and I had messes.

When Brian said that to me a couple months ago, I was surprised. I thought about it, and realized he may be right. When I think about favorite things for me, I think of music, writing, taking photos, and sketching fun little pictures. All things belonging to my artistic side.

So here's me, being artsy. Welcome to my new StyleSmaller blog!

Kate

Morning Downtown

Hi Friends!

I'm working on a little re-design (it's about time!), and I'm not a designer, so doing my best to figure this whole thing out is swallowing all my spare time! I'll be in & out of the blogging game this week until I get things up and running. :)

We did go downtown today for a little morning outing. The best day to go downtown is always Monday. It can get soooo chaotic during the weekends that I just avoid it altogether, but Mondays are so peaceful and beautiful. The cable car line is only about 15 people long, rather around and down the whole block, and a stroller can easily maneuver down the sidewalks.

Hey has the La Boulange food hit your Starbucks yet? I was hesitant to be happy about Starbucks buying La Boulange because I've loved them both separately, and sometimes the small company gets eaten by the big one and becomes sub-par, but in this particular instance: well done folks. The collaboration is ideal. One day, not too long ago, I went into a Starbucks and ordered a chocolate croissant. It changed my entire outlook on food at Starbucks in that first bite. It was warm and literally melted in my mouth. Maggie ate more than her fair share and we both wished we had doubled the order. Sharing is overrated sometimes (don't mention that to my children). It was an amazing croissant!

Today, I went to Starbucks to have the same perfection, and it tasted... well, terrible might be an exaggeration, but it wasn't good. I looked at the little food window and there were no La Boulange signs, whomp whommmmp... mystery solved. Looks like they're rolling it out store by store, so I hope for all our sakes that they expedite that rollout. Or maybe I don't because summer is coming and chocolate croissants melting in my mouth do nothing for my figure.

It's time for me to get back to "designing." Hopefully I can get this whole thing done asap so we can get back to the regularly scheduled program here. I heart consistency.

Love,

Kate

Review: Alphabet Books

Somehow, I realized just this week that Sophie is really shaping up to be a good student. She is perhaps the only kid I know that is her age and doesn't go to preschool (more on that subject another day, & no I don't plan to homeschool), but she's becoming addicted to letters. She asks for the cereal box so that she can "practice" her letters, and I  have overheard her spelling words like "G-R-A-I-N" as we're getting lunch ready. I actually think she started this whole obsession with letters when I let her watch LeapFrog, so I'm a big fan of that show these days, of course.

Basically she's been requesting all her books that review the ABC's, so we're reading these same three books over and over, and there is a crazy amount of letter progress being made:

1. ABC by Alison Jay.

2. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom... you think we've read it a few times? Yes, we could definitely use it in a hardcover. :)

3.Sophie's Amazing Alphabet Adventures. 

Okay, so I have to take a few minutes to review and tell you about this amazing book. I mean, perhaps we're making our child a narcissist, but perhaps it's just good, clean fun and absolutely hilarious. Basically you go to the Shutterfly site and fill in the information about your child. Add a photo of their face, order the book, and be prepared to be amazed. Every page is a different letter, and every letter has a paragraph full of alliterations that are also illustrated on the page. Each letter is written as a capital, lowercase, in both print and cursive in the corners of the page... BUT most importantly, Sophie's face is on every page doing some crazy things: kayaking, chillin' with elephants, speed ice-skating. I mean... it's the best tool for teaching letters I've ever seen. I'm no teacher so maybe I'm an easy crowd, but seriously, I'm impressed. It was one of the best gifts ever.

You know when you have your first child and they're about 18 months and you think to yourself, "gosh, they should be a lot further along in their talking..." or something, and you start to get really nervous that they'll be slow through all their classes in their future? Maybe it's just me, but I've definitely had moments of thinking that my kids may be behind in school because of this or that. This week, I could not be more encouraged about the whole learning process... and by all means, if you can learn with a hat and ballet slippers, even better!

Love,

Kate

Small Style: Add a BowTie

I like a good bow. I  also like a good bow tie. There's something about them that just adds the right brightness and flair to an outfit. An otherwise dull look gets a little makeover with a bright bow. Make it an oversized version, and you have even more cheer.

Sophie's was $4 from Janie and Jack on sale, but below are some other cute ones for ya:

Top Row: J.Crew, Bottom Row: Forage.

All pictures of Sophie taken by the amazing Manus Chau Photography.

XO,

Kate

I'm Loving...

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 

Life

Last week was really about love. My husband worked plenty, but when Valentine's day came around, he came home early with darling gifts for his three girls. We had a sweet little family dinner where we all told one another what we loved about each other. Maggie just sat and smiled and made us all laugh every couple minutes. We've never gone out for Valentine's day because well... crowds and overpriced food doesn't compare to steaks on our grill and bread with olive oil and vinegar, and the headache of finding babysitting seems a bit unnecessary. He always decides to out-do himself and spoil me, even though we always say we'll be simple about the whole thing. I tried creating my own little card for him (using the photo above by the ever-so-talented Pictilio), but it ended up looking a bit more crafty and a bit less professional... next time I'll get it like a classic Hallmark card... either way, it was a beautiful holiday.

The week itself had some ups & downs. Maggie got a bit of rugburn on her nose from falling down a few stairs, alarmingly enough... we got some good rest... and some not so good rest. Who knew Maggie was attached enough to her giant pink octopus that leaving it at her gramma & papa's house one day resulted in a night of me singing soft lullabies until my voice was hoarse and my mind was fuzzy? Who also knew that when Brian went to eat a calzone for lunch, our vehicle would be smushed to a month of repairs? BUT, who knew there were still beautiful, honest individuals who stay and take responsibility for hitting cars these days? You win some and you lose some.

Our eyes were collectively glazed over in sleepiness most days, and then we came to this gorgeous three.day.weekend. Do you guys find that whenever you're right at that breaking point, where you basically can't move... that's when the holiday just shows right up on the calendar? It's amazing how the timing coincides so perfectly.

SO, you may have noticed that it's Monday and I'm doing Friday's life post.. yes, it's true! I have no real reason, except that it's a national holiday today, so "I do what I want" today. Actually, all weekend. It's been such a true, refreshing break to put that phone down for the weekend and take a real break from everything except what's right in front of me.

More links Friday. Hope you got some rest in honor of the dear presidents of this country today!

XO,

Kate