Ramblings of a Mom of 2

long time no blog, my mind is overwhelmed with hot weather...

Sometimes naptime includes momma... especially with this terrible humid hotness lately. 

Where is fall??

I end up with a lot of pictures like this on my phone. 

She is so funny & I'm beginning to hear "Whats this & Whats that" all day long and strangely I love those little questions. 

She is not liking the weather either and takes it out on me. Oh well lol.

I really like food -

Paul Martin Grill

go there now

He is super sweet 70% of the time and the other 30% he is teething. 

Poor guy has a streaming river out of his mouth, soaked drooly wet onesies for days. 

Plus the saddest tears when I put him down. 

He may be a more needy baby than Hayden was but I don't care cause his smile & dimples wreck me every time . 

My friend

Kim's

 3rd Annual Mug Swap happened this past week, I have participated every year. I love everything about it, the joy in finding and deciding on a mug and bits for someone else and then knowing one for you can come at any moment. It's a whole lot of fun! My mug came from another Emily, Emily Hope of

Hope Ink

to be exact. I've been loving the mug she customized and of course she sent some of her inspiring artwork along too. Which is happily placed next to my washi tape storage. 

I was assigned to get a mug for

Kate

 of Songs Kate Sang, she stated her preferred style was

simply relaxed & romantic

. With that direction I opted for a simple feather mug with gold detail from Target's Threshold line. I threw in one of my handmade crocheted coasters, two summer teas from David's tea & some fun little bits including her name on Dymo tape. Always fun to pack up all the stuff and I'm so glad Kate liked it!

Mug Swapping 2012

Woot woot! A little mug swap recap right here & you can hit up Kim's

#mugswap linky here

Failure to take a before mailing picture...

I was assigned to mail a mug to

Miss Chelsea of Glimpse of Joy

I mailed her this versatile tea to-go mug (available from amazon and urban outfitters), an assortment of my fave tazo loose bagged teas, a crocheted coaster made by moi & and of course some little bitty clips for her new little lady.

And

Michelle of michmash had me to send to

She sent me this uber-fun chalkboard bubble mug & yummy cocoa mixes that I'm dying to try! The darn evil warm weather came back... I've been having a lot of fun writing silly things to the hubs on the mug so far and I know he will at some point too.

Thank you Kim for putting together such a fun swap! & thank you Michelle for my mug and treats!

-xo Emily

Weekend Plans

Over this past weekend Hayden & I flew down to So Cal for our first ever blogging conference - Blog Sugar!

A what?! 

Yes, you read that right and yes those do happen. A lot of them actually. 

I've always thought it would be fun to go to one and then I heard from Jess and Kim that they might go to this one. So I asked if me and the little lady could tag along and we did.

So the weekend adventure began on Saturday...

First Hayden and I got dropped off at SFO by my sweet and wonderfully helpful mom-in-law. Everything went very smoothly, too smoothly because we got checked in less than 15 minutes and then had nothing to do for 2 hours while we waited to board our plane. During which Hayden decided to wake up and play but made great friends with the airport security guys. Flight there - fed her, a little fussy, then passed out. I even did for a little bit.

We landed and were picked up by the girls and then headed to late lunch at Cafe Rio with everyone else staying at Julie's house plus the lovely Drew B and baby Kennedy. Cafe Rio was super yum - kinda a mix between Chipotle, Baja Fresh and Coldstone (they sing when you ask for extra things I think). After lunch we went to my second coffee love - Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. I got their summer special blended drink - Honeydew Melon.

After settling in a little bit at Julie's gorgeous house. The speakers headed to dinner at Andrea's house and we headed to Fashion Island, met up with some other bloggers and ate at Cheesecake Factory. Love their new "Skinny" menu! I had the chicken samosas.  Once back at the house we chatted some more and eventually went to bed.

The big day... Sunday!

While planning our trip the girls had the genius idea for us all to go to Dry Bar. Who doesn't like to get primped and pretty a little bit plus one less thing for me to pack.

It was really fun to experience. I love me some relaxation and I think Hayden did too! She sat on my lap quietly observing the process. My girl doing my hair was really sweet and patient since I had baby with me. They serve complimentary drinks (I had flavored water) and have a chick flick type of movie playing plus fun music.

Some girls got their makeup done after that but Kim and I went to Barnes & Noble so I could buy a copy of Mollie Makes and then headed to grab a bite to eat. Jess then met up with us and we headed for Blog Sugar!

...

and then we arrived!

I was hot and someone little spit-up all down my back. Good thing I brought another shirt! So our time didn't start off that great plus I know events like this involve mingling but I'm horribly shy in these situations and feel like a loser. Hay-baby and I headed to the bathroom and saw all this adorableness on the way.

I was really excited for my sessions though!


I chose :
1. Sarah Markley - Carving Out Your Space: Finding your unique niche in blogging while connecting with your readers
2. Lindsey Cheney - The Juggling Act: Learning to balance a successful business , family and self
3. Julie Carson & Jeannett Gibson - Blogging For Good: Using your blog for a greater good


I have been transformed, inspired and really encouraged by all my sessions and by keynote speaker Meg Duerksen. This weekend came at just right time, things have already been shaking up over here in content and even more will be changing once I get all my ideas down on paper. 

p.s. Don't wear a chiffon shirt while breastfeeding, you will get milk on it and have spots... Now I know!

Pictures provided by Kimberlee Grover aka A Cuppa Kim plus a couple from the iPhone :)

The Swap

So remember I posted that my friend CuppaKim was throwing a Mug Swap for her 1st Blogiversary.

Well mine came! and as you can tell from the picture below its super cute!

It has different tea sayings and teacups and pots on it.

Which is perfect :) 

I may not be as hardcore about tea as the CuppaKim but I do love it, all kinds!

I was so excited to open my package when it came all the way from South Carolina... 

From the sweet Mrs. Heather K Holden :) from We are The Holden's

I encourage you to check her out and her shop
I'm doing everything I can to stop myself from buying all the headbands in her shop to share with Hayden but I just might have to get a couple soon ;)

So the best part about a swap like this is that you get to make new friends from all over the country and the blogging world becomes even better!