a new home for the smartwool!

congrats, ann!
send me an email with your mailing info and i will send you your new smartwool asap. i hope you enjoy them!

thanks everyone for entering and for your super kind words. they made my day. :)

an obsession, a confession, and something for you

ok my dear friends, here it is: i have become obsessed with smartwool. i have just two pairs, both green and well worn, and they are so, so comfortable and warm during this michigan winter (but, amazingly, perfectly cool in the summer!). i find reasons to do the laundry so i won't have to wear my "regular" socks. it has come to the point where i have been looking to sell something on craigslist in order to justify buying a $20 pair of socks. you know us - we are super frugal, we don't really do brand named anything, we have no money for socks. i've spent more time than i wish to share searching online for the ones i want (one of my faves pictured above), how i'd wear them (with a skirt or of course, under boots), and searching for a sale somewhere (none found). and more time than i wish to share talking to my husband about how great my feet feel on a smartwool day, and how cold and un-cushioned they feel on a non-smartwool day. he is this close to banning the word smartwool from our house, i think.

so, change of subject for a second: remember when i won this giveaway for a cloth diaper last summer? and how i promised a few times that i'd pass on the kindness? so here i am, 7 months later, without a giveaway. i've thought about making things a million times but 1) when? and 2) the stress of making something and then wondering if anyone would want it is daunting.

so then it hit me. i should be really kind, and give away the thing i want most right now. and right now (and for the past few months) it's been smartwool. that pair of smartwool. i was on a total sock-high when i went to buy them. then, because i was so happy to share them, and a little sad to have them in my hands for such a short time, i treated myself to a coffee (on a savored gift card) and told the barista this entire story. (sorry, james, who asked me what i was up to today).

so, up for grabs in my teaching-myself-a-lesson-and-passing-the-kindness giveaway is this: one lovely pair of new latte stripeucinno in chesnut pair of smartwool. also, our valentine mixed tape, and a few michigan goodies.

leave a comment below to enter, and i'll randomly choose a winner on tuesday morning. if you want, tell me that you will love them too. :)

ps. could this really be our 300th post?

little sleeper

we found this forgotten little clip tucked away in a corner of my laptop. mateo napping, maybe around 2 or 3 months old? it made us smile.

a nighttime walk in the snow

what we did at e.t. last week

my cousin is a married man!

we went to arizona. over new year's. to see my cousin get married to his beautiful and super sweet fiancée. it was a beautiful day, and a beautiful wedding. here's a little bit of it:

we had tons of fun the week we were there. lots of family time. celebrated new years, celebrated luke & my 4th anniversary. we played apples to apples. some played poker. we soaked up the sun. we stayed up late and told ghost stories. mateo had some major stranger/separation anxiety. we ate mexican food. we shopped. played with a new little puppy. we bump-ed it. had a manicure night. made the martha stewart poofs. brushed our teeth together. and we started a new family tradition that i hope is here to stay: forming a happy tunnel with our arms to see people off. :) i love my family.

mom & baby yoga 3rd(!) session

so we did end up attending the 3rd yoga session after all. (thank you sweet husband of mine!) we finished in december, but with the craziness of the holidays, i forgot to mention it. can't believe how much he's changed since i took these photos of him at the end of our first session.

i know i've said it before, but this session was *really* our last. his army-crawl abilities/curiosity make it a lot harder to keep him in one place now. so grateful we were able to enjoy 5 months of class together. hoping we'll continue at home.

class info here and here, if you're interested.