...on pink shoes and lots of balloons

It's the friday before the first day of balloon fiesta and I kind of feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas. I'm sure I have mentioned before but...Adam proposed at balloon fiesta so it is very special to us.  Plus, it's just so much fun!  When I opened the blinds this morning I saw about six balloons across the street and shouted, "Adam-balloons!  Lots of balloons!".  Adam threw on some clothes and we walked across the street to watch the balloons take off!  Jack just kind of took it all in looking everywhere.

Next, Jack and I went for a jog and we saw this...

and this...

I love it!  

Also, today was my first jog in these little babies...

My new "I finally drank the inov-8 kool aid" shoes..and they are pink-obviously.  These here are minimalist shoes so I have worn them around a little this week in order to get them a little broken in.  They are quite a departure from my old UT colored man shoes that were free, by the way.  Ok, so I've just made the turn on my jog to come back home and I'm thinking, "man, I must look so legit in my pink minimalist shoes..."  People don't need to know i've only run 1 mile so far, right?  Ok, so right after I finish thinking this some guy runs by me wearing...wait for it...no shoes.  Yup....totally barefoot.  My first thought was...well, quite honestly my first thought was, "ouch" but then I thought "man, that guy is way more hardcore than I am."  I guess he is taking the whole minimalist movement to the extreme!  Good for you, buddy!  I feel like he deserves a pedicure after that run!  

To sum it all up:  Balloon fiesta starts tomorrow AND I love my pink shoes.  

...on our little get away

Every year, usually around May, Adam and I drive up to Jackson Hole for a week of vacation.  We spend the week eating, sleeping, photographing, hiking, talking, and relaxing.  This year, we decided to be responsible adults and save some money by not making the trip up to JH.  Adam has been working so hard (CPA by day and master photographer by night) at his job(s) that we decided it was time to take a little getaway.  We wanted to do something quick, close by, and low key so we decided to head up to Taos for the weekend.  We wanted to go for a short-ish hike on Saturday so we headed off on a trail from the ski valley to William's Lake.  Once we got there we decided that we weren't quite ready to be finished so we just kept on going.  We kept on going all the way to the top of a little mountain called Wheeler Peak-the highest peak in New Mexico.  Our short-ish hiked turned into a 5 1/2 hour, 15 mile hike up a mountain.  Good, good times.  Needless to say we were both completely exhausted by the time we got home and also fairly sore.  Here are some photos from the day.

This weekend getaway was so nice.  It was nothing fancy but It was great to have some time to getaway just the two of us.  Did I mention Jack stayed with his Hammy and Papa?  Seriously, if you have babies and you haven't gotten away just the two of you in a while, I would highly recommend it.  Adam and I really don't want to be those people who only talk about their kids and then once the kids are gone they have nothing to talk about.  I am convinced that making time for each other plays a huge role in not becoming those people.

Ok-enough of that...let's move on to this...

This is Jack in Chloe's bed with a lot of shoes, right?  I'm not sure what he was after but that's really not the point here.  Ever since Chloe was a little puppy she has had something you might call a shoe fetish.  It's not that she eats shoes-nope, she's never eaten a shoe.  Once Adam and I leave the house, she picks up one shoe (from somewhere in the house) and drags it to her bed.  On this day, we happened to have a lot of shoes out because we were packing for our trip.  I mean, does anyone else's dog do this?

...on thursday threads

This week I made these....

...and that's all.  I love them.  

Here's a question...has anyone else ever gotten random magazines in the mail?  Over the last year I have started getting monthly issues of SELF magazine and...wait for it....Latina magazine.  I have no idea why.  I mean, Latina...really?  I never even knew such a magazine existed!    

...on cookies

Today I felt the urge to bake but I wanted to bake something different than my traditional chocolate chip cookies.  I found a Martha Stewart recipe for chocolate chunk cookies and decided to give them a try.  These were super simple and a fun little project for my sunday afternoon.  They were very tasty, too!

Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chunks

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat chopped chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl in 20-second increments, stirring between each, until almost melted; do not overheat. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; beat in melted chocolate. Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks.
3. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough 2 to 3 inches apart onto baking sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are shiny and crackly yet soft in centers, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on baking sheets 10 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

...on diy fabulousness

About a month or so ago I got a phone call from a friend letting me know that Lowe's had some mirrors on sale for $20 from $80.  I ran down there to check it out and ended up buying both of them.  They were both a little beat up so I decided that these would be a DIY project for me.  I had been wanting a mirror to go over the dresser in our bedroom so I figured that these mirrors would be perfect.  I ended up only using one over the dresser and the other one is still just hangin' out in our room-on the floor.  

As I said before, the mirrors were kind of beat up so I went out and bought me some spray paint in order to give these little ladies new life!  Here is the mirror before all taped up and ready to be primed and painted.

As usual, I don't have a lot of pictures of the process.  Next time I'll try to do better.  Here are a few pictures of the final product.  The newly painted mirror and some frames that we had sitting around the house.  

I LOVE the way this turned out.  After Adam hung everything last night, I just wanted to sit in our room and stare at it.  I have to give a lot of the credit for this idea (the way things are hung) to pinterest.  I didn't get it at all the first time I visited the site but now I'm kind of hooked!

...on thursday threads

Today's "thursday threads" consists of one project and a whole bunch of fabric.  I'll start with my project-another skirt.  It happened again-I went to throw something away and the packrat in me said "NO!  You can totally make something with that!".  Needless to say, the packrat won.  The item that was in line for goodwill was a red skirt.  A cute skirt, one I have had for years but rarely worn.  It hit me just so at the waist that it made me have serious love handles so really, it probably should have gone a long time ago.  With the tight waist and the longer skirt (below the knee) I decided to shorten this baby up a little and get rid of the restrictive waistband.  I did not take a before picture-oops!  I'm still new at this.  I'll learn eventually.  All I did was chop a few inches off the top and create a new waistband.  Here's how she turned out.

I think it turned out pretty well considering I had to rip out a few stitches here and there.  In the middle of it, I thought it was going to be a huge disaster so I was pleasantly surprised by the end result!  I haven't worn it yet and now that it's getting cooler here, I wonder if it might have to wait in my closet until the spring.  

On to the next!  Fabric!  One of the new loves of my life.  Seriously, who knew fabric could be so fun and addicting?  These fabrics are from my last trip to SAS and, as you can see, I have done nothing with them yet.  It's probably because i'm still working on the batch of fabric from before!  

A little argyle, some mushrooms (LOVE those mushrooms!), and and rootin' tootin' fabric for my texas friends, topped off by a fun floral girlie fabric.  I have big dreams for these little guys and I'm hoping to get some things started this weekend!  

...on dirt and nesting

The mornings here have been so nice lately that I have been leaving the back door open.  Every morning, Jack crawls on over to the door and tries his hardest to get down the step but usually ends up sitting at the doorway staring longingly at the backyard.  This morning I put a blanket outside and Jack's fire truck thinking that he might like to play with his toys outside instead of inside.  Well, I was right about the outside thing but he was not to happy to simply sit on the blanket and play with his toys.  He decided to go straight for the rocks.  At first I kind of cringed and tried to keep him on the blanket but then I just gave up. He LOVED playing with the rocks and crawling around outside.  Now he is completely filthy which I'm finding is kind of a trend with our little guy.  I can not wait until we can landscape our backyard and get rid of all the rocks!  I do NOT miss our old house but it sure would be nice to have some grass!

Has anyone else continued nesting well after their pregnancy was over?  Because I'm pretty sure I still am.  I know I have said it before but I just can't stop rearranging things in the house and wanting to decorate everything!  The problem with that is a lot of times "nesting" translates into shopping which requires money-which is fine except that when you stay home and no longer have an income, it's not as easy to just go out and spend money.  I suppose that is where the new DIY trend comes from, right?  My latest "nesting" project is decorating over our dresser.  Right now we have nothing over it, no mirror or anything.  Not to worry-there is a plan in the works!!  Pictures to come soon!

...on ten months

I. can. not. believe. it.  TEN months old.  Seriously?  The year is flying by.  Before we know it, Jack is going to be one year old and walking and talking.  Until then-he is my ten month old BABY.  Here are a few photos from this morning.

This last one is my favorite.  The look is a result of multiple things including me acting like a crazy person in order to get him to smile and the camera flashing in order to focus.  I can't believe we only have one more monthly photo shoot until he is one.  

I don't think there are even words to express how in love with this baby Adam and I are.  We just want to eat him up every day-all the time.  He's is such a goofball and is beginning to have a little bit of a temper, I mean, personality.  If you ask Adam, he'll tell you I'm crazy but I'm pretty sure Jack's on the verge of saying "banana".  We're pretty sure he said "mama' specifically to me the other day too!  We also think he is the cutest and smartest baby on the planet so, there you go.  

...on sweet mornings

This morning Jackson woke up at 6:30-a little early for my taste.  I put him in bed with us hoping he would fall back asleep but all he wanted to do was talk and play.  So...here we are...Jackson is roaming around the living room-livin' up to his new nick name "the wanderer" and talking up a storm.  I am drinking my leftover coffee from our walk to Starbucks yesterday-love when that happens!  I must say, not a bad morning so far.  

Yesterday was mandatory "family day" in the Baca house.  We have been so busy lately with random tasks and things that I decided we needed to have a family day-just the four of us.  In the morning, we took a walk to Starbucks (chloe came too!) and had so much fun!  It was pretty overcast and almost cold!  Right as we got there it started to rain so I parked Jack, Chloe, and I under an umbrella outside and Adam went to order our drinks.  We sat under the umbrella and waited out the rain (about 10 minutes) but it was so nice.  Such a fun memory!  We did a few other things but mostly just spent time as a family.  I did have Adam do some family shots of us so we'll see how those turned out!  Seriously, such a great day with our little family Mandatory family day=Success!!

Pretty soon we'll start getting ready for Church and Jack will go to the nursery for the first time-at 10 months old.  I'd say it's probably about that time.  Hopefully he won't have too much separation/stranger anxiety this morning. 

...on friday randoms

Getting excited for Jack's birthday!  I have a THEME which I am quite excited about....more on that later.  This afternoon, Jack is at his Hammy's house and I am home alone.  I'm looking forward to getting some sewing done and then maybe getting to work on some bunting for Jack's party.  I just warmed up my coffee from yesterday and thought I'd write a quick blog post before I get cracking on everything!  The weather here is beautiful today and it makes me so excited for fall!  Balloon fiesta, Jack's birthday, Thanksgiving, and then Christmas!  I am currently sitting in my little sewing room with the window wide open.  I've got my "morning drive 2" playlist jamming in the background (from my last drive to PHX) which is a smattering of worship songs that are great to sing along to-of course!  My sweet little dog, Chloe, is here barking at the people talking outside-I forgot to take her to Hammy's house...poor thing.  It's amazing how your focus shifts from your pet to your child.  I remember in one of the pregnancy books I read it said something like, "you might want to start spending less time with your dog so that they get used to not getting as much attention".  I remember thinking, "man, how sad!"  But now I see that, while sad, that was actually pretty good advice.  Oh well, at least today Chloe will get some quality time with her mama.  Ok, enough rambling....I'm off to sew!  Have a great afternoon!

...on thursday threads

It's that time again!  I have a few projects in the works (nothin' fancy) but today I thought I'd show you all where all the magic happens....our guest room/sewing room.  Remember a few months ago I said that we rearranged the furniture in the guest room in order to make room for some sewing goodies?  Well, here is my new sewing space...



This is my little sewing nook.  I love it, it's actually quite cozy.  Sometimes I bring my computer in and put on a movie while I work and sometimes music.  Sometimes Jackson comes in and plays while I sew.  Now I can leave my projects out until they are finished without the entire living room looking like JoAnn's exploded in house!



This table belonged to my great Aunt and I absolutely love it.  It spent a few short, sad months in storage when we moved into our new house because there was not a place for it.  Now, not only is there a place for it but it is extremely useful!

This is the stack of fabric that is just a-waitin' to be made into something fantastic.  I'd say I'm all set on fabric for quite a while.

And finally, an overview of the entire room.  There you have it!  My little space!  

...on the best job I have ever had-really

This morning was a coffee kind of morning.  After Jack played outside for a little while, picked up dog poop, and tried to eat a rock, we loaded up and drove off to Starbucks.  The drive-through line was so long and I didn't realize why until I saw the sign for the seasonal drinks-pumpkin spice lattes are back.  I've never had one which to some people, I'm sure, is crazy talk.  I just am not a huge pumpkin fan...am I missing out?  Anyways, Jackson fell asleep in the car on the way home and transferred beautifully to his crib.  It's mornings/moments like these that make me think, "man, I'm livin' the life."  No, really, I mean that.  I love being a mom.  I was going to sit here and explain why I think that this is the best job I have ever had but I feel like I would run the risk of sounding like, 'oh, look at me, my life is so wonderful!" and frankly, I can't stand blogs like that.  Truth be told, I have been having a really hard time lately and stressing way more than...well, ever.  I am learning to let go of worry and anxiety over the little things and am embracing this fantastic little man who is becoming more and more fun every day.  Embracing the fact that I am woken up every day at 6:30 by a little man who is just hungry.  Embracing that I almost always have avocado or drool on me.  Embracing that I can pretty much always get a big toothy smile out of Jack with only the tiniest bit of effort.  Embracing that on any given day I may not have time to get things done.  It's not all about me.  That it's not even 3 and I have already changed 6 poopie diapers.  That my kid loooooves to eat.  I would not trade this time with Jack for anything and let's be honest, if he doesn't nap, he doesn't nap.  It's not the end of the world.

...on shoes and other things

I started clearing out my closet yesterday and decided to do a little reorganizing.  I ended up storing all of my "not as practical" shoes up top since I don't wear them very often.  When I finished I was surprised to see them all lined up.

As it turns out, I have a lot of heels.  I love shoes and I love heels-I just think they are so pretty!  Also, I can hardly resist a sale so, there you have it.  Let's do a recap really quick.  What do I do?  I am a mom.  What did I do before I had Jack?  I was a teacher.  Do either one of those jobs require pretty high-heel shoes?  Nope, they sure don't.  So the question is, what do I do with them?  If I'm being honest, I really don't wear them very often but I think I would like to.  It's not even that the extra height bothers me, I love being tall and pretty much embrace the fact that, in heels I am well over 6' tall.  It doesn't bother Adam when I wear them.  Maybe my goal this year will be to wear my shoes!!

Other things:  Sleep.

Adam and I have been tackling the "sleep" situation with Jack this week.  Naps and night time have been very interesting this week, to say the least.  We had been implementing the "cry it out" method at night and, long story short, Jackson has fallen asleep SITTING UP more than once this week.  Um....seriously?  What do you do with that?  I'm not kidding, I have it on video.  I don't even know what else to say about that.  We are making strides....slowly but surely.

Hope everyone has a great Friday!

...on thursday threads

I am such a pack rat.  I have gotten much better over the years but one thing that I still hold onto is clothes. I probably only wear about 70% of the clothes in my closet-the rest are clothes that I desperately need to get rid of.  I have things in my closet that are well over 10 years old and things that are painfully out of style.  My thursday threads project comes from an article of clothing that falls into the "painfully out of style" category...wait for it-gaucho pants.  Oh yes, I have three pair.  They are so stinkin' comfortable that I can't bring myself to get rid of them.  With that said, I can't remember that last time I have worn them...ok, maybe it was when I was pregnant-don't judge.  Instead of throwing them out, like I should have, I decided to upcycle them into something I might actually wear-a skirt!  I'm sure that Stacey and Clinton (from what not to wear) would die if they knew that I was walking around town in a skirt that used to be a pair of gaucho pants from target.  Oh well, here it is...

Seriously, I love it.  It is so, so comfortable.  This was a really easy project and great for people like me who would rather repurpose something than throw it away.  The best part of this project is that I had some material left over to make little shorts for Jackson.

I still need to add a waistband on these but you can get the idea.  I think these are adorable and, get excited Jack, now we can be matching!!  Ok ladies, time to grab those old gaucho pants out of the closet (I know you have them!) and get to work!