Also, That's It

A Perfect Way to Start the Week

I hope your week is filled with a little bit of greatness and a lot of patience.

Also, Ira Glass pretty much always says it right. I guess it's his killer taste.

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo...
...via NYC Taught Me

Twenty-Three Hours

As I mentioned here, I went away this weekend for a full 23 hours. When I was getting ready for my time away, I was excited and wishing that I could do more for longer, but alas, I only had less than a day.

So how does one vacation for 23 hours? Thank you for asking. I will tell you my tricks.

1. Vacation close to home. 2. Make it the Best Ever.

For my posse, that means St. Louis. If you want to recreate our 23 hours, see below...

First, take the requisite "I'm on vacation in St. Louis photo." This is very important for setting the mood and will help you feel like you aren't just crossing the Poplar to go to dinner or shopping or a doctor's appointment. So do it.

Then, check in to the best hotel in the city (...with a spa and a movie theater... just in case you have more than 23 hours and can partake of those wonderful amenities. This movie looks great, but I will have to wait for it to come out on Netflix.)

Then, hightail it over to the best restaurant ever. Order at least two bottles of wine and oysters and the best chicken ever. Who knew chicken could be so amazing, but it was!

Realize that because of all the hightailing and the fact that you did it in heels, you now need a bandaid and elicit not only a Disney princess bandaid from your sister-in-law/best sister-in-law ever but also moleskin from your sister/best sister ever!

Then, head off to the many bars/night life available in the Central West End and possibly crash a wedding at the Chase before crashing in your room in a fuzzy bathrobe in your comfy king size bed at the Chase. (No pics of this portion of the night are available.)

Wake up to coffee purchased and delivered on a silver platter (I wish I had taken photo evidence of this because I am not making it up.) by your mom/best mom ever, church at SLU, brunch at Wildflower (YAY mimosas and smoked salmon!) and a little bit of outlet shopping (get this, this, and some of these) before heading home to the baby that you miss more than a gourmet dinner, nightlife, a full night of sleep, mimosas, smoked salmon, and shopping.

That's it!

Also, because it's only 23 hours, I can't emphasize enough that you need to go with the best...best people, best hotel, best restaurants. If you are going to do it, you might as well do it right. I am available to be one of your "bests" if you need me. Just know that at about hour 20, I will start making sad faces and talking about my baby.

Chase Park Plaza Photo Credit: Caroline Patek

APP-solutely Fabulous

I had always planned on taking posed monthly pictures of Will, but when he was one month old, I was completely sleep deprived and completely forgot about the little onesie stickers that a friend had gifted us that I had planned to use. I was really excited about dressing Will up in a cardigan and anxious to get the shoot done in the tiny bit of quiet alert time we had at that point, so I just propped him up in his recliner, snapped a bunch of pictures, and was done with it. When looking through the pictures the next day, I kept wondering if I should retake them with a framed number or if I could try to add a number in iPhoto (I can't; that is photo shop I was thinking about.), but then, I remembered the A Beautiful Mess App that I had downloaded earlier in the week while nursing in the middle of the night.

A Beautiful Mess is a genius DIY blog by Elsie and Emma, and about five months ago, the ladies launched the photo editing iPhone/iPad app by the same name. For $0.99, you get fun filters, delightful doodles, fabulous fonts, and beautiful borders. (I've been reading A LOT of children's board books lately.)

The app is very easy to navigate, and you can buy even more doodads, but the ladies seem to provide new free options with updates too. I have been happily using the app for the last five months to create Will's monthly update pics. The last two months' pics are below.

The only issue that I ran into was printing the pictures. If you print pictures that have been saved to your camera roll from the app, you just need to be aware that they are square like instagram pics, but other than that, everything is easy peasy... and here are some other fun pics because oh-my how fun is it to add colors and words to pictures.

Also, when taking Will's monthly pictures (or really any pictures of Will), I always just point and frame the camera on my phone and then start snapping (clicking? tapping?) away while smiling and acting crazy to get him to smile. I sneeze, say, "Baa Ram Ewe" in my best sheep voice, or shout, "Booshie!" Which is why I sometimes get priceless pictures like this...

The Fuzziest FauxHawk

I challenge you to find a fuzzier one.

How was your weekender?

Over the weekend, I spent my first night away from Will. We stayed at the Chase Park Plaza for a Girls' Night and had a perfect 23 hours of freedom/trying not to miss babies.

Although I had planned the trip over a month in advance, I still found myself packing at the last minute. In between putting on makeup, curling my hair, trying on shoes, and putting Will down for a nap three different times (He knew something was up!), I found myself throwing anything and everything into my red faux snakeskin weekender bag.

Jason got me the bag either free or as a gift with purchase from Bath and Bodyworks (of all places) about ten years ago. I only use my weekender a few times a year, but every time I do, I feel like I am using Mary Poppin's or Hermione Granger's magical bag because everything I could ever want fits in and comes out of that bag. (Even if it only comes out when you are unpacking after the trip and not during the trip when you actually need it. Accio socks!)

I have already started thinking about Christmas shopping, and a weekender bag seems like a perfect gift for moms, sisters, brothers, dads...basically, anyone who is not a recluse. Below are my favorite options from around the web right now.