This & That

Camp Wolf is pretty much consuming my brain these days and as it should be because we are set to launch in a matter of WEEKS! Cristin and I have been working our buns off to make this happen. It's pretty surreal that a tiny dream is now becoming a really exciting reality! Besides CW business, I have been day dreaming of Autumn, cool weather, layers of clothes and fun holidays. Is that crazy to be wishing for these things when we have that weather pretty much 9 months out of the year here in Portland!? With thoughts of fall comes the reality that my little pal's second birthday is in four months and I know that time is going to FLY by. Lately, we've been working on Miles' room, making it geared more towards him and less about my office/storage space. We recently got a big boy bed for him and even though we still plan on co-sleeping, we wanted to introduce him to naps on it to eventually make the transition easier. I'm so excited about painting his walls and adding new art and shelves! I'll be posting a DIY tutorial of felt pennants I made for his walls soon. I haven't been working on too many crafts lately so having to re-due his room is an excellent excuse to surf Pinterest for fun, affordable room ideas.

First wedding anniversary!

 Happy first anniversary to my sweet, sweet husband!

It's hard to believe that this time last summer we were getting married.

Thank you for the most precious year of my entire life.   

I love you, I love you, I love you!

So here we go again- road trippin'

 Well, you may be wondering why I'm going to be reposing the first few days of our road trip we went on in June and the reason is because all of the blogging we were planning on doing didn't exactly pan out. For starters my mom's new laptop broke days into our trip, damn. Secondly, the new tablet she got to replace her laptop didn't upload photos to my blog, great. And lastly, do you know how hard it is to find time to write while traveling with four kids and sight see at the same time? Hard! So here I am, three weeks later updating you on our crazy adventure!

By the way, the stories of our trip are written by my sister Clair. She's better with words and was able to bring to life the days on the road to the my blog. Enjoy!

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 Road trip.  The words evoke images of open roads, mixed tapes, and bottles on the floor boards.  Road trip... with 4 kids. Those words evoke images of a different kind, mostly accompanied by a wince. Yet here we are road trippin our way across the US, 4 kids and three adults, packed into my favorite 8 passanger Expedition.

The purpose of this journey is actually 54 years in the making.  My mother was 6 when her mother gave a little girl up for adoption.  My mom still remembers the excitement of being a big sister and the confusion she felt when her mother came home empty handed and empty bellied.  That was the end of the story.  Until Feburary 2013.  My mom got an unexpected Facebook message from a women who thought she might be her sister.  

So here we are, driving east across the Rocky Mountins and the great plains to visit Marie, who is indeed her sister.  And my aunt.  And her kids and their kids, our cousins.

As we head out across our beautiful America, we are seeing sights we've never seen before, on our way to visit family we've never met before.
 
 Just a wee mom and her papa.

 My mother in 1957, Phoenix Arizona

 My mom and her grandfather, "Senator" Clarke Crandall. He was a famous magician and one hell of an eccentric man. He was associated with the mob in Chicago, had six monkeys, wore kooky outfits at a time when men only wore suits, played the banjo and adored my mother.

These people are my kind of people.

 Being away from this papa for a whole month was not good for any of us. For starters, the husband was miserable working his ass off 10 hours a day, six days a week and coming home to a quiet home with no real meal to eat and no crazy kiddo to fill his arms with after work. No fun. In fact, it really sucked bad for him. Me being gone last month really screwed with our finances and everything fell behind like things usually do when there's no one home to look after those things. So on top of working too much, no wife or son to be with and absolutely no money for four weeks really left him feeling like shit. My husband isn't a very emotionally romantic sort of fella but to hear him say how much he was missing us was sort of a blessing in disguise. You know how absence makes the heart grow fonder? Well, in our case it really did. We weren't having any problems or anything but like most relationships, some space will do you all good. I came back really damn excited to be home. I really, really missed my house and my cats and most of all my sweetheart. I feel like I needed some space from Portland and my home to really appreciate what a badass life we have (broke or not!). I feel like I'm less on the computer and my phone when Steve gets home and more outside hanging with my guys. Don't you sometimes feel like you maybe spend too much time on blogs, pinterest, instagram, netflix or is that just me!? I've recently tried to keep my blogging and computer time for when the fellas fall asleep so I can have uninterrupted hang time with them in the evening and it's been so awesome! Dinners outside, lots of hammock time, beers with papa and Miles on the skateboard starring at bees on our wildflowers is way better then the computer any day. I guess what this post is about is just taking the time to step away from the routine with your family to really appreciate what you have and actually make a change for the better.

Instagram jam

In case you don't follow us on Instagram @MilesMama here are a few of my favorite photos from the last few weeks.

Super awesome family photos!

 My mom sent me a box of old family photos and I was dying of laughter over some of these gems!

 Holy hair!! 

 One of my favorite photos of my dad. I think I look a lot like him.

Zoo day

The last few days before our trip we spent as much time as possible with Steve since we would be leaving him for over three weeks. Thank goodness Portland weather was absolutely dreamy because we were able to hang outdoors all weekend. On Saturday we took Miles to the zoo to hang with the animals and celebrate Father's Day. We had an awesome time together in the sun before heading out to Las Vegas Sunday evening. We are so excited to begin our trip but we are sure missing dad already!

 

My Mother's Day

Papa took the day off so we hung around the house, walked to the park, took fun photo booth pictures, drank wine and ate pizza. Sometimes it's the little things that make the most impact. I woke up wanting to be swooped off me feet with flowers and an extra special breakfast... and quickly learned that it wasn't going to happen today. Steve has been in a funky whirlwind with working so much and our money has been really tight right now for an upcoming road trip AND not to mention that Steve isn't so great in the gift giving department SO I pretty much knew nothing fancy would happen like that. I was pretty bummed this morning feeling neglected but I really had to stand back and tell myself to snap the hell out of it! My awesome husband took the day off to be with us and we had the whole day to do whatever we wanted with the number one person who made us parents and that's pretty damn cool if you ask me. So with a little attitude change and a sweet family, my day ended up being pretty freaking awesome!

But you better believe I want breakfast made for me next weekend :)

Hey Boise!

Well, I should be asleep but as usual mom is finishing up packing and preparing the house for a much need getaway to Boise Idaho to visit family and friends. We are so excited to show off this kiddo to our friends who haven't met him yet and to get lots of squeezes in from grandpa and grandma (Steve's folks). I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty pumped about the mini van we rented so that Miles can watch a few flicks and we can stretch out. I'm such a mom!

Happy weekend everyone!

Happy Easter!

The weather has been D R E A M Y lately! A Springy 76 yesterday! Steve's working his tush off making me new display fixtures for my larger space so it's just going to be my little pal and me for most of the day. I don't have any real big Easter plans for us so we might just soak up the sun, eat strawberry shortcake and bug dad in his work shop till her plays outside with us!

Us lately

 I had a whole post dedicated to why I haven't really been blogging lately when at last minute I decided I didn't really need an explanation, life gets busy, plain and simple. I'm a mom to a fast paced, curious little boy who has me going non stop till around 11 at night and my alone time lately consists of Pinterest on my phone. I still craft, I still thrift and I still photograph all of the awesome things he does all day but finding time to write about it sometimes gets away from me. Most of my free was going towards a children's clothing line that a partner and I had been working on over the past few months. Unfortunately plans fell through so now I am working on a plan b. I could say so much more about the situation but I will share that I'm working on starting my line independently now. I'm also moving into a much larger area at the antique mall so I've been focusing my attention towards my new space and all the awesome changes that come with more room. Having a husband that can build just about anything is the best! Speaking of husband, Steve just celebrated his 40th birthday on Tuesday! We had a big bbq on Saturday with our friends and enjoyed a weekend off together. On his actual birthday Miles did the unthinkable and went to bed before 9 (!!) so Steve and I had a few drinks together, laughed our asses off and ate way too much cake. We had fun! 

Last week our cat Willow scratched Miles' face and left a nasty bruise under his left eye. Miles is pretty affectionate with our cats and she usually tolerates him but this time he grabbed onto her too rough and she hit him back. Poor babe looked pretty banged up for a few days. Thankfully after a half an hour of crying he forgot all about it. The weather last week was killer so we spent a lot of time in our backyard and at our neighborhood park. We can't wait for summer around here. Being cooped up indoors with a mobile kiddo can make us all a little wacky after a few months. Thankfully this winter hasn't been too crazy in Portland so we've had some nice days in between the rain. The upside to staying home more often is being able to work on forgotten old projects and a few exciting new ones.

 A recent haul of pretty shoes to the antique mall.

An exceptionally warm day!

 Hanging with dad.

 Snaking on fruit strips (the start of his bruised eye).

 Miles loves to climb! He likes to hang off of things too :)

The culprit.

Nap time in the car always lasts longer then at home!