i feel like halloween always sneaks up on us every year…

costume choices, gathering up pumpkins at the farm (or in city living from the garden stand), decorating & preparing for oct 31- it always leaves me wishing for more time. maybe it’s because i always see a million things i want to do, make and cook. with pinterest this year, i feel even more exhausted without even making anything yet. then add to it, my baby’s upcoming first birthday party. and you know i love a festive 1st celebration. so how do i balance the i want to make, do, cook all before oct 31?

i pick out what i love MOST about this time of year. because to be honest, it is not that i love halloween that much. really, i know? i was the one in grade school that almost gagged at the smell of so many candies and chocolate bars inside a plastic pumpkin. i don’t think i ever ate anything past a tootsie roll and some m&m’s. i also pass out the dreaded raisins, goldfish packs and maybe even apples? in years past. so not the thing to do as i learned that after a few teenage kids stopped by my house years ago.

what i love most about this time of year is a bit simple, and a little selfish. i love the weather, i love the colors outside, i love a simple decorated front porch, i love cooking soups, baking pumpkin cookies and wearing fall clothes. i love watching my kids play soccer and wearing wellies in the rain. i love carving pumpkins outside in the cold air. i love celebrating my wedding anniversary. do all those things have much to do about halloween and my kids? not at first look, but they do make for a more mellow mom, who gets to show them the season through the great outdoors, through cooking from seasonal favorites like pumpkins & apples, and through the general mood that is october.

and so i keep it simple for halloween. i decorate the front of the house in some simple manner- mums, pumpkins & a few spooky, window silhouettes. we gather pumpkins, carve them and sit them outside with tea lights. i have on occasion painted a few. we put together costumes, half bought from the catalogs and half made from home. we pick out a candy that we can all enjoy. then we enjoy what the rest of october has to offer.

what do you love most about this time of year?

*photos are from the inside/outside of our living room last year on oct 31. i used the idea on martha stewart living to free hand draw images like a witch and bats onto black poster board. i cut the silhouettes out and attached them to our windows with 3m clear tabs. i find this is less expensive than the window clings and actually stay put longer. we save ours to reuse each year. when the darkness settles outside, draw your blinds or curtains, turn on a lamp and watch your home glow from the streets on oct 31. and don’t forget to warm up to october in the days before because once halloween hits, you will wake up the next day to november.

i grew up in a small town in ohio (shout out to springfield!) and we had the most amazing antique & flea shows. throughout grade school and high school i would have a countdown for the big shows in the fall and spring. my mom is a collector, she taught me well. one year we were collecting vintage sports and outdoor equipment for our “ralph lauren style, lodge basement”; another year it was christmas snow globes and vintage holiday decor; year after year it was the thrill of the hunt. we also would routinely pick up plaid blankets, picnic equipment, dishware, fall plants at a discount and of course a hotdog to munch on while shopping. what i learned  from my mom about being a collector: you don’t necessarily have to collect one item with a thousand versions, just collect things you like. also, be ready for storage at some point- because as a collector you will have a hard time parting with objects you love while they are not part of your current decor. i actually thought I should have a booth at an antique market to sell some of my not in use items because of lack of storage. reuse, recycle & RENEW!

in college, i searched with friends and family for furniture to slip cover for my dorm room. i sewed my first tailored slip cover with my mother in law one summer before senior year. it was a big accomplishment for me. and it was pink. it looked perfect with my laura ashley bedding. i loved the transformation from old to new, or from not my style to MY STYLE.

aren’t these photos below great? my now father in law snapped them. look at that phone i’m using while sewing? haha. and my hubby- boyfriend then- you can see learned early on about my creative ideas…

after graduation, my boyfriend (now amazing husband) and i would spend saturday mornings scouring estate sales in the queen city and surrounding areas, scoring antique hutches and bookshelves, linens and more for next to nothing. we would wake up at six in the morning, get coffee/tea, grab the newspaper and mark where we were going that day. just thinking of that makes me smile. i’m lucky to have a partner who enjoys the search as much as i do. i think he has learned that most likely i will turn our “find” into something that compliments our home decor or at the very least inspires another project. sometimes it saves us money, sometimes it doesn’t. but what it always does- it encourages our personal style, creating our meaningful space.

with marriage, babies, a few homes and a new city under our belt, we are getting back out there. my house now is another blank slate. just one glimpse of the nate berkus show, my favorite design blogs or pinterest and i’m all fired up for fleas. and they have certainly evolved since those early years of estate sale finds.  i felt like a period not so long ago, the prices were ramping up, and people were getting smart about selling stuff and reading the trends. now, with the economy where it is at, there is some good on both ends. there are more shoppers, and creative ones certainly. these shoppers (like myself) know that things made a long time ago will outlast anything of today. they also know that the internet breeds creative ideas for transforming objects. on the other side of the table, sellers are eager to SELL.

art brushes, test tubes and plants..together? this was a serious love last weekend, for a science major turned creative designer girl like myself. great job this seller did in staging these items together.

linens are a home decorators best friend. easily transformed into napkins, pillows, a child’s dress, a toy. some fb friends and instagram friends voted for me to make pillows with these dreamy orange linens i bought.

in another seller’s table, i found box after box of artist supplies. it seemed so cool and exciting to see the tools someone used all sitting there together. i could feel the energy. because i am delving back into watercolor these days, i picked up the metal watercolor palette/tray/case. it had one tiny tube of choc brown inside. i loved that. i would have scooped all these crates up if i had a proper studio to showcase them in. look at that print and color scheme on the pencil box? inspiration..

my son pointed out that the dixon brand he was required to get for school for his pencils, was the same one on these boxes from yesteryear.

who doesn’t love a good flea? i am on the hunt to find all the great antique and flea markets around the northern illinois and chicago area. do you know some? heck if we could we would travel to some that are not so close, as long as we can fit that in with the soccer season. where should we go?

if you are in the queen city (or near cincinnati) they have an awesome new market: thecityflea lindsay and her hubby started this gem after a move from brooklyn to cincy. i met lindsay online through abe’s market’s lisa frame. cool people.  and i cannot wait to head back to my old stomping grounds to check it out.

and if you are feeling a chill in the air like we are here in chicago… you can warm up to these recipes we shared last fall: homemade spaghetti & meatballs or turkey chili.

enjoy your weekend!

even with all the food allergies around here that i will be posting about soon, i still enjoy cooking baby food. simple organic ingredients with one step cooking makes it easy. because we are suspecting food allergies with my little one, we are still cooking simple ingredients. butternut squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, broccoli, fruit all either baked or steamed. adding rice or lentils takes it one step further. it can be pureed or cubed, whichever stage your baby is at.

i bake fruits like pears or apples and vegetables like butternut squash and halve them. i place them face down in a shallow baking dish with the skin on. a little water is added and a couple piercings with a fork. i set the oven on a slow bake at 325 degrees and carry on with my morning. once they are soft and the skin is pulling away and tender, i take them out. after they are slightly cool, i scoop it out of its skin and place in my mini prep cuisinart or you could cube them. i blend to whatever texture i want.

for the peas and broccoli, i steam them in a mini stainless steel steamer (that i love). it’s the perfect size, i use it only for baby food and it is also great for warming the baby food over the stove.

i then place them in storage for the freezer. i have several different storage systems and like the glass wean green containers the best. i also have silicone trays and food portioners by brother max.

once it is meal time, i warm them over the stove. many times in the morning i sit a few out to thaw on the counter. the individual storage size makes it easy to also take with you on the go. when we are at home i use my collection of vintage china dishware from years ago. i actually think i started collecting them before i had children. they are my favorite to use and i use them every single day.

of course, your baby will tell you how good the food tastes. my little one (proudly wearing his joyababy bib) gets so excited at the site of mommy or daddy getting a cube of orange or green out of the freezer! he cleans his plate every time.

happy september! (is there anything more representative of september than pencils?)

it has been a little crisp around here in chicago these last few days, reminding me of all that fall has to offer. while most people get refreshed in spring for clean up and organization, i believe fall is my season of restoration. i blame it on the fact that i’m a libra and that i moved recently into a new home & neighborhood. lots of ideas for design, projects and organization all around me. trying to find the balance.

while i am cleaning up around here on my blog, i thought i should ask you, my readers, what categories you would like to see here more often?

so far i fill these pages with joyababy, photography, meals, travel, projects from my creative journal and birthdays. please share in the comments section if you have any other wishes or which ones you like best.

also, i have been recently asked what are my favorite places to visit online. so, i am going to list a few here that i most frequent. my family +home + joyababy schedule doesn’t allow for a lot of exploration online and i know that seems odd for being online a lot, but it is true. most of the places i frequent have been passed on by friends or linked from other favorites. so if you have places you love online, please share!

my online stops …

for inspiration, creative ideas, projects and design boards.

for whats new and hot in the parenting, product and family world.

for an abundant amount of ideas and inspiration for creative play.

for cool gift ideas for the little ones or the latest must-have iphone app.

for tried and true recipes, yes i am classic when it comes to food.

where i can live vicariously through a year of family life abroad.

for my everyday reading of fashion, inspiration, gifts & now motherhood.

for insightful writing and a warm, inviting family life.

for reflecting on life, gratitude and love (and yoga).

where i enjoy beautiful photography of a beautiful family.

for delicious confections, style, photography and great reading.

when domino magazine folded, i found happiness here and here.

when cookie magazine left the paper world, i started reading this.

eye candy and tools for crafting and inspiration all here.

loving good paper * good design makes me want to live in pacific northwest with newly launched design workshops and live in utah to take classes here.

because i am a modern parent and i am very at home with mothering naturally.

for hunting down unique items and gifts by color.

for my love of photos of anything for inspiration.

for stocking up on art supplies and paper supplies.

where i search for fabric and decor ideas most often.

i don’t really shop for clothing online because i always like to try on stuff (true for the kids sometimes too).

however, i like to get inspiration online for fashion

and for the kids here.

that’s it for now. do you have a favorite place to be online?

this was all my idea. the beachside bbq that is.

as a group we decided not to go out to dinner for every meal on this trip. this was nothing new for us because we cook a lot at home and for previous vacations we have often done the same. this also works really well with our allergies as a family. so when we were visiting turtle beach on siesta key one early morning at low tide, i spotted these cute beachside picnic tables, shelters and bbq pits. seemed like the perfect place for a little bbq and picnic with the kids one evening during the vacation.

it looked like a mix between camping and beach frolicking. a few steps and you were on the sand. my boys loved the idea from the minute i mentioned it that morning. doesn’t it just look perfect for a small, casual gathering?

i decided to plan an inclusive family meal that would transport easily to the picnic area. my menu was turkey drumsticks, two different types of potato salad: curried peas and italian parsley with pancetta, roasted vegetables with quinoa and watermelon. cooking in a kitchen not of your own can be challenging, but a simple, yet flavorful menu makes it work.

i like to picnic with real dishes. just makes the entire meal seem special. not to mention any time you can use less paperware, it helps the environment. after all the hard work cooking in a kitchen with organic ingredients, somehow the presentation and taste matters.

my husband picked up gluten-free beer for me. can’t say it’s the best we have ever tasted, but somehow with cooking all day and a beachside picnic- it tasted just perfect. and watermelon is exciting around here..because it is a new fruit my little one can eat! can you imagine your first taste of watermelon?

the turkey legs were bbq’d, and we sat down to enjoy dinner.

if you ever have a meal with me at some point, just know that i will want to enjoy the meal at a normal (non rushed) pace. i will want to enjoy your company with good conversation and positive energy.  this is especially true after meal planning, recipes, grocery shopping and cooking. thankfully my husband feels the same and we always have a good time together. what’s not to love with good home-cooked food, drinks and a sunset? i think it sure beats sitting inside eating chicken nuggets or pizza on vacation. at least for one night.

the boys entertained themselves as they ran about eating watermelon and gathering twigs, sticks, leaves and the like.

after our meal, we packed up our picnic and enjoyed the beautiful sunset. i think in the future this could be a fun tradition, especially with a group of friends or family members that enjoy this sort of thing. what do you think? would you come to a beachside bbq of mine?

from the field journal:

yet another beach vacation where my children could not wait to collect seashells. this is their all time favorite beach activity, so much that we even hit low tide at the wee hours in the morning for collecting.

for this trip we gathered up science tools to take to florida and spent an afternoon documenting their shells. they enjoyed using the caliper (with adult supervision) and recording all the various sizes of similar shells, to the hundredth decimal point of course. our tiny pocket microscope came in handy for close up inspections. they created charts with illustrations, identified and traced shells and wrote down the location of where they were found. we traveled to three different beaches to document the different varieties and volume of shells.

if you have a budding scientist, this might be a nice change in beach activities. you know, something to do with the bazillion seashells your little ones collect.

what would the classic road trip be without a few pit stops?

when we headed out of town on our eighteen hour journey, there were the obvious places to stop: grandma’s house in indiana, big cities like nashville and atlanta and any whole foods on the way. this time i decided to google a few key words and see what came up on our road map. we discovered some gems along I-75 in places that were not so big city like valdosta, ga. and in our big city stops, we uncovered some classic charm reminiscent of a small town. a nice balance, yin and yang, because we love them both.

in nashville, we stopped at our friend jen’s founding store: the green wagon. it is a small, green general store and when we realized we forgot our laundry detergent (a must have for any allergy family) we were in luck here.

then, at the recommendation of our close friend diana from babybearshop, we had lunch at the frothy monkey. fresh, organic salads (i saw the cook shredding my carrots for my salad right from the carrot itself!) and sandwiches were perfect for our family pit stop lunch. when you do not eat fast food  (our family has been fast-food free for over two years, started because of allergies, ended because of food, inc.) and you embark on an eighteen hour journey by car- in the u.s.a- you have to look for special places to eat if you decide to stop. we actually pack a cooler of sandwiches, snacks and drinks for our car ride as a back up.

on our way back through nashville we had lunch with diana and popped into tweed, a darling children’s boutique. the boys picked out a toy from her classics collection and enjoyed entertaining the locals on a street bench. i would say very nashville right? considering one was playing a harmonica…

we stretched our legs in an old garden with a tall stone wall and beautiful flowering trees. story goes, a woman used to own the buildings and had exotic animals wandering the grounds. the boys loved that.

past atlanta, we were in need of a stop.  i was simply googling “organic grocery or market” and we found whisk organic market in valdosta, georgia. allergy parents- can you imagine randomly finding a grocery that was tiny but had all the specific allergy-free brands that you and your child could eat? on an eighteen hour road trip? in the middle of southern georgia? it was like the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow! owner gracie, was well.. so gracious and sweet. with her georgian accent she told us all about whisk and the local farmers they support. she could tell we were so excited to have spotted her from our random google search. the boys picked out some fresh produce and i found some gluten and allergy free cookies i could eat.

moral of the story, pit stops can be much more exciting than a gas station that sells fireworks.

our summer road trip, part one

yes you can take three kids (ages baby-grade school) on an 18 hour road trip and survive.

prior to the trip with help from my older boys, we assembled some road trip kits. they really weren’t kits, but rather some fun stuff specifically for this vacation all stuffed into their landsend canvas totes. last year they were all about the big map and it was tough to keep asking them to share the folded map with each other AND then fold it back up. so this year after some inspiration from martha and molly, i decided to print the AAA triptik (that i used to LOVE as a child) and hole punch them onto a ring for each. they helped assemble them by gluing them onto index cards. (i did have to do a little resizing to fit via Adobe Illustrator) During and now after the vacation, they have attached postcards, photos and drawings.  I took the boys to the office supply store and while there, they also picked out “specimen containers” aka a teeny tiny bin and a teeny tiny field notebook. We also packed snacks, books, games and a new movie for the trip. We loaded up our playlists, packed lightly (finally i figured this out) and we were on the road again.

next up in Road Trip, Part Two: we made some fun pit stops along the route,  including a sweet little organic market, a green general store, a visit with friends over tacos, picked up some fun, simple toys and stretched our legs in a pretty garden. see you there.

anyone else taking an end of summer vacation? every summer i always try and think of at least one fun activity or project for the boys to remember our vacation.

family vacation memories: one year we did seashell treasure chests, another we took all kinds of cool iphone photos and made them into small photo books and thumbtacks. we might still do the two above for this years vacation again.

road trips and travel activities: i remembered the fun road trip kits that molly from charlotte’s fancy put together for her girls. i am assembling a little something for the travel time for mine.

fun in the sand: and we will definitely be building this at the beach.

my little nature lovers: my adventure boys love science, so we are assembling sea shell collecting kits for them. wouldn’t this be cool to house the collection in? i think we will aim for something much smaller- in a small box, labeled like a mini taxidermy.

a few ideas from martha stewart below. new uses for mason jars, tic tac toe beach towel, road trip travel kits and a sea glass wind chime.

images above from marthastewart.com

ready to cool off in blue waters!