Weekend Links

 

Why are even toddler breakfasts so cute? Get a load of that pinky!

A few things...this is the LAST Friday you'll ever see my blog looking this way. Next week my new design will be up and running and I'm so, so excited for the much-needed change.

I also wanted to ask you all if there is anything about Sometimes Sweet (blog design/navigation related ONLY please, haha) that you have had issues with. Please let me know so I can pass that along to my talented designer who you will learn more about next week too.

This upcoming weekend is jam packed with goodness and friends. I hope yours is the same! Tonight I am headed down to Phoenix for the evening to see The Gaslight Anthem play and I'm beyond excited. So think of me this evening as I'm singing along to my favorite songs! I'm counting down the minutes.

Here are some links to start off your weekend! xoxo

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First things first, my wonderful blogging pal Emily launched a brand new, awesome (understatement of the YEAR) website along with two of her talented friends. Say hello to Small Fry. I promise you, you'll love it. And please report back here after checking it out and let me know, just so I can say I told you so! ;) But really, read this blurb from their first post and tell me you don't adore this:

"Small Fry is a declaration to ourselves and to our boys that every moment with them is a gift and also a choice. A choice to let the magic of childhood find us, and to look for it in everything we do. That the world is ours and there is adventure around every corner. To make the daily decision to look past the things we did not check off the list, but focus on the simple things we can do to illuminate our lives. To let the hard moments, minutes, phases, heartaches come when they may, but not break our stride or our desire to live vibrantly.

We’ve been told this season of our lives is fleeting. What if we could say that we soaked it all in, let it envelope us, looked into those big beautiful eyes of our children every morning and said 'let me show you something amazing today.'

What if?

Welcome to Small Fry."

And in other news, say hello to these super healthy raspberry peach pancakes. YUM.

Still Jux-ing...still in love with it. Have you made one yet?

Be sure to check out Melanie's amazing print sale going on. I'm obsessed with her art and I know you will be too!

The cutest ice skaters. I can't wait to do this with Henry.

I really enjoyed this post about recreating simpler times. 

The wonderful folks over at Baby Ink is offering free shipping right now with code "SSweetDeal." Be sure to take advantage before the weekend's over! ELF is also offering 10% off to SS readers with code "SSweet." 

Come on, baby boy "S"!

I love A Lovely Lark.

Hello, beautiful. I'll take one in pink, and one in yellow please.

I really enjoyed reading Moorea's thoughts on blogging.

5 extra years? A good read over on The Paper Mama.

Love these Autumn goals over on Orchid Grey. Inspiring!

Katie is the cutest.

What lovely portraits! I'd love to get some done of my little family.

Sponsor love: pop over and check out the cute new items at Jigsaw and the sunglasses sale at The Sunglasses Shop! Then head over and sign up at Pave Life for discounted tickets and nights out.

Love reading friends' Currently posts! Do you participate every week too? Here's a couple favorites: one and two. 

Katie makes even a sick day look lovely. 

Love this short film: Citronnade on Cailyn's blog.

Welcome to the world, Lucy Jo!

Do you read Pollen and Salt? It's a great family blog filled with wonderful photos and words.

Lessons from under the pillow...

How to roast perfect pumpkin seeds.

Have you ever gone swimming with a sea lion? Erica has!

Caramel apple pancakes. Delicious.

Still my favorite candles. And they're local, made right in Phoenix.

And speaking of local, are you going to the LuLu*s event tonight? I won't be attending but I'll be there in spirit!

Why "Mom guilt" is good.

And finally, some wonderful blogs: one, two, three, and four.

That Gorgeous Little Lovable Chipped Tooth Smile

And then suddenly your little boy is a big boy, more and more of his baby self slowly starting to fade away as he grows and grows, every morning waking up just a bit bigger than the day before. And there he is, running and playing and kicking a soccer ball. Jumping up and climbing down, and going non-stop with that familiar sparkle in his eye that's one part mischievous, one part pure joy. You ask, where did the time go? You wonder, how did this happen? You look at baby photos with tears in your eyes, thinking back to those hazy days of him always being in your arms, but in that same moment you look up and see that little face, that gorgeous little lovable chipped tooth smile saying "play with me mama, c'mon mama!" and you know the best is really yet to come.

Literate & Stylish: Michele from Short Girl, Long Island

The premise of Literate & Stylish is simple, and the post is short but sweet- every Thursday I'll be showcasing a lovely lady and her favorite book. She'll share a few pretty photos showing off her personal style, along with her book of choice, and tell us why she loves it. 

from Michele of Short Girl, Long Island

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

In 1999, I discovered Nick Hornby's High Fidelity. As a former music major and mix tape connoisseur, I immediately connected with the protagonist, Rob. The pop culture references, “top five” lists, and banter between Rob and his friends at the record store Rob owns, are fantastic. Whenever I hear the Katrina and the Waves' song, "Walking on Sunshine," High Fidelity immediately comes to mind. The novel also showcases the relationship of Rob and his girlfriend, Laura, who is growing impatient as she waits for Rob to enter adulthood, even though he is already in his mid-thirties. I find myself smiling often and frequent laugh out loud when I read this book – I’ve read it at least half a dozen times, and picked it up over the weekend to read again. This book is like comfort food to me, no matter how often I enjoy, I never get sick of it.

If you enjoyed the book and would like to read more in the realm of music and pop culture, I highly recommend the works of Chuck Klosterman and Rob Sheffield. If you’d like to read more by Hornby, About a Boy and How to Be Good were also excellent reads.

Michele’s Top Five Favorite Books
01. High Fidelity – Nick Hornby
02. Invisible Monsters – Chuck Palahniuk
03. Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs – Chuck Klosterman
04. Love Is a Mix Tape – Rob Sheffield
05. Still Life With Woodpecker – Tom Robbins

see previous Literate & Stylish posts here. 

I used Amazon Affiliate linking in this post. To visit Amazon without my link, click here. 

Spread the Love! An Inspiring Story and an Awesome Sale

If you've been reading Sometimes Sweet for awhile or follow me on Instagram, you may have seen Melanie's from Spread the Love artwork make an appearance now and again. When Henry was born, she sent us over a custom Baby Platte that I feel in love with the second I saw it. It's one of my favorite gifts for the new mama friends in my life, along with a million of Melanie's other creations.

I love supporting Spread the Love for obvious reasons, but I also really love Melanie's inspiring story.  In a nutshell, she and her husband fell in love at 19, went to school together, got married and wanted to start a family. For years and years they struggled with infertility due to Melanie's endometriosis but tried to remain positive. They did everything they could to get pregnant- infertility treatments...Clomid, IUIs, more Clomid. Nothing was working for them and they finally decided to try IVF. It was a struggle as those familiar with the process know. From Melanie's own words: "Finally, IVF was our last resort. Oh, the DRUGS. The drugs were rough and so very insane. MANY, many needles injected into my thighs and bum. To someone who barely took aspirin it was a serious hurdle but I was not willing to give up on our dreams. It was dark at times, and we really had serious thoughts of stopping. Everyone around us was having babies, even their second children were being made and born while we desperately kept trying for our long-awaited first. Finally, we harvested eggs and made them into embryos (still sounds sooo bizarre and weird) which were then frozen. We had 3 attempts. The first 2 failed. The pressure was stifling."

But finally on that third and final IVF attempt they got a positive pregnancy test and Melanie is now 7 months pregnant! I find her story to be so inspiring and special; I actually talked with Melanie about this and she mentioned at the end of her story how important it is to keep believing in your goals and dreams, and to try your best not to compare with the road traveled by others.

So when she decided to do a nursery and kiddo collection of prints to celebrate the upcoming birth of her baby, I wanted to share it with all of you.

What's awesome about these groupings is the hard work is already done for you. The prints compliment each other perfectly, and you get all of them, for one price. M has been selling them at $75 for the set, but for Sometimes Sweet readers she is extending the Nursery or Kiddo set for just $60 each, limited to 20 of each set.

You can check out the sets in detail by visiting the links above, but be sure to buy via this Paypal button if you'd like to receive the $60 sale price! They make great gifts for your own kids, or as birthday or shower gifts too. It's a great deal for beautiful artwork. 

And congratulations Melanie, this is definitely something to celebrate! :)

p.s. if you're viewing this off of my blog's main page (through an RSS feed, etc.) you'll have to click into the actual post to see/use the PayPal button.

Choose your grouping:

The Nursery Collection The Kiddo Collection

Hawaii 2012

What a great week we had on the Big Island of Hawaii! It was really wonderful to have so much quality family time and to spend the week in one of my favorite places. Our family has a home on the Kona coast, so we are able to travel out to Hawaii pretty frequently. I am so thankful for this- it's really a treat and every time we go I think we always spend that first afternoon just overwhelmed with how wonderful it is to be able to go, and how grateful we feel to have the opportunity to do so. We had last been the summer before Henry was born, but since then hadn't been back. We'd been Hawaii-dreaming for quite awhile but couldn't find the time to make the trip, so when my mother-in-law suggested we do a quick family vacation at the end of summer, it was perfect timing.

I'll write more about traveling with Henry next week, but I was blown away with how smoothly it went. I had kind of set myself up for him to be a little difficult but he was a total champ through the early morning flight to Honolulu and then our connecting flight to the Big Island. Yay Henry, and boo to me for not giving him enough credit! He also slept in his pack n play no problem, which was night and day from our recent trip to La Jolla, when he refused to do so and made it a bit difficult when it came time to sleep! It also helps that our bedroom is on the second floor, away from all the other rooms so we were able to really get him comfy and cozy. Both Hank and I were totally happy and after that first successful night we were high-fiving all morning. Yeah!

The week went by quickly, and it was filled with so much outdoor time and enjoying the gorgeous weather. We went to the beach everyday and we all had a great time swimming and building castles in the sand. Henry is such a water baby and absolutely cannot get enough. He cried when it was time to get out of the ocean almost every single time, his tearful "bye bye ocean" and waving breaking my heart. The water was really rough at some points so the lifeguards had all the kids get out, so there were some afternoons we just switched over to the pool at home.

We ate good food, Hank enjoyed some of his favorite coffee spots and we got to workout every day. Some people think working out on vacation is ridiculous (just enjoy yourselves, guys!) but for me- and now for Hank too- it is how we enjoy ourselves. To me nothing is better than starting out a vacation day bright and early with a run, enjoying the local sights and sounds. It sets such a good tone for the day and I can't imagine not doing that! We even got to check out the local CrossFit box and had a great time meeting new friends and have some great workouts too.

All in all it was amazing. Some of my favorite parts: spending extra special time with my wonderful sister-in-law...I love her, macadamia nut pie (my favorite!), Henry calling Hank "Snack Master" (long, hilarious story), all of the live music everywhere, going to sleep and waking up to the sound of the ocean, walking to the beach every morning, our green smoothies, daydreaming with Hank about retiring there one day, good talks with my MIL, seeing Henry and his grandparents have the best time together (I didn't include photos of them here because I usually keep them off the blog- this blog is a little too public for them!), all of the fresh island fruit and all of the delicious seafood, laughing with my hilarious step-FIL, Henry's "Hawaii car," finding the perfect gift for Lucy, and seeing the huge smiles on Hank and Henry's faces daily.

We left with the happiest of hearts, full of gratitude and love. It was a great trip.

And finally, here are a million photos, with a lot more on Flickr. Lots of iPhone/D-SLR pictures all mixed together. Thanks for reliving it right along with me! Mahalo! ;)