I little closer to what you typically see in the Austin area and surrounding hill country. Love it. This is where we had our wine tastings which was $10 for 8 pours and we got to keep the glasses. Pretty good deal.

After the tasting we enjoyed the open air covered patio and listened to some live music. The breeze was blowing through and it was just perfect.

One of the other highlights of the trip was a visit to the only bourbon distillery in the state of Texas – Garrison Brothers. We got a tour of their beautiful facilities and learned a lot more about how bourbon is made. Here is a picture of the sweet mash fermenting. . . smells SO GOOD!

And the bourbon aging in charred oak barrels. . .

Apparently, rocking chairs are a theme in this area of the state. I can’t complain about that.

Our little trip was a nice little getaway from our normal lives. . . we got to nap, eat (pie!), rest and generally take life at a much slower pace. It was lovely.

Happy 6th anniversary love, and here’s to the many more that are still to come.

Monica and I ‘met’ long before our kiddos were born through blog-land. You may remember that Monica came to visit for a sewing retreat some time ago and that’s when we met in real life for the first time. I still can’t believe that we are such good friends in real life because of our blogs. It kinda blows my mind! And what blows my mind even more is that our families as a whole get along so well together. And it all started from blogging. Crazy. Technology can be so great.

Well, one of the things our families both appreciate is really good food. And you guys, Austin has some of the best food. I really, truly believe that. And when you’re in Texas, one of our food groups is BBQ so we had to show them Franklin’s BBQ - the best BBQ in the nation. I mean, it has to be true if Bon Appetit says it, right?

I’m a huge Uchi/Uchiko fan so I was pretty pumped that Paul Qui won Top Chef Texas – he is the executive chef of Uchiko, the best sushi restaurant in Texas. So good. I wish I could eat there every day.

And a visit to Austin wouldn’t be complete without tacos. . . and our favorites are Taco Deli and Torchy’s Tacos. Oh and TexMex. OK, I’ll run through the rest of the list faster now – we also ate at Phil’s Ice House, Amy’s Ice Cream, Olivia (hear me sing “kid free Mother’s day!!”), 400 Rabbits, the Elephant Room, Contigo, Midnight Cowboy, Second Bar + Kitchen AND Austin Beerworks 1st Anniversary Party. Whew. That’s a lot. But it was all so good. I like acting like a tourist in my city if it means I get to eat like this!

And we didn’t just eat the whole time (although it kinda felt like it!), we did visit some Austin icons like Mount Bonnell, Alamo Drafthouse (the new South one), Zilker Zephyr and Playground and the All Abilities Park in Round Rock.

It was just such a good time – the kids totally occupied themselves, the parents got to relax and talk uninterrupted (who knew?) and we got to spend time deepening friendships. I’m sad that we live so far apart but so grateful for the time our families got to spend together. Best staycation and birthday ever!

Finally took the kiddo to get a hair cut. He was looking a bit like a street urchin. It was incredible to see all that golden hair on the ground. I still think it’s crazy that my kid is blond.

Here’s a better shot of the new haircut. And he’s ready to play some basketball.

Chalk is always fun. . .

Even more fun when we trace ourselves!

And I have to share this, in true prideful parent fashion. I saw Jude drawing this so I asked him what he was drawing. . . he said “I’m drawing a ladder.” What do you know, it actually kinda LOOKS like a ladder!

And I’ve been trying to involve Jude a bit more in the kitchen lately – I want him to have an affinity towards cooking and baking as he grows older, even if it’s just memories of cooking with me. Here he is playing with flour and a piece of pizza dough.

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Not much to share for today’s Toddler Tuesday – haven’t been as fast with my camera as I normally am.

Jude did tag along with me for a volunteer mulching work day. It started out pretty clean. . .

And then progressed to rolling around in the mulch. . .

But he did help us fill the wheelbarrows!

I’m still working on getting all the dirt stains out of the socks that he wore this day!

Feel free to link up to the post or leave a link in the comments if you want to participate in Toddler Tuesday and let everyone know what you have been up to!

We ate a TON of good food. Like seriously. These are the Sour Cream, Cherry and Tequila popsicles that were just out of this world. Also worth sharing, although not pictured, sea salt brownie cookies (without the caramel), Orange Pecan French Toast, and crab linguine with Basil, Lemon & Chile. So good.

We saw the biggest full moon of the year over the water…

while roasting marshmallows and making s’mores.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch of some decadent goodies:

My favorite was the Dai Due chicken liver mousse with white mulberry jam!

We enjoyed some yummy cocktails like the French 75.

And I got to take naps in the hammock! Yay for naps!

While I napped, the other ladies kayaked. I think napping wins but they had fun.

We indulged in some yummy Summer Berry Pizza with Nutella and White Chocolate (um yes please)!

As well as ward of these little guys that seemed to be everywhere:

Oh happy little lakehouse, you treat us very well.

Such a nice refreshing time with good friends. Toenails are still painted and looking pretty and I’m still thinking about the ending of Another Earth. Looking forward to doing this again!

Doesn’t that make you want to buy our house?

Turns out it is very affordable to have countertops and tiles professionally ‘refinished’. It’s a great alternative to ripping everything out and retiling! We had our countertop and pink tiles painted a nice clean white. Then I painted the vanity an espresso color and replaced the medicine cabinet door with a matching espresso colored door. Then I addressed the floor. . . I wasn’t going to lay tiles so I found some peel and stick tiles. I know, not very high end, right? Well I spaced them the same way I would space tiles so I could grout between them. I like the final result – it looks pretty similar to real tiles but significantly cheaper!

The last step was to get a new shower curtain and bath mat, which I found on overstock. The shower curtain is a bit more girly that I typically lean towards but I think it gives the texture and touch of luxury that the bathroom needed. But you know what my favorite part of the whole bathroom is?

The cute vintage hippo toothbrush holder that I found on etsy! The bathroom needed just a little bit of kitsch, it is a kid’s bathroom after all!

The last thing I want to do is something I saw on pinterest – framing out the builders mirror with some trim. We’ll see if I can ever get to that!

What do you think of the redo? Much more buyer friendly?

After a lovely Mother’s Day brunch with Monica, (kid free!), we headed to an Austin fabric store and spent some time browsing. I picked up a couple of beautiful clothing fabrics, one of which was this lovely salmon colored jersey. It is so soft, it feels like silk! One of my gifts for Mother’s Day was a little time to myself to sew. It’s been awhile because our schedules have been so full so it was appreciated even more! I spent the time whipping up this lovely maxi skirt. It is so comfy. I think I’m going to be wearing it a lot.

Basically I took my hip measurement and multiplied it by 1.5. That was my width. Then I measured from my waist to the floor. That was my length. I had a piece of 2″ wide elastic so I made a 5″ depth yoke piece the length of my waist measurement. I sewed one seam up the back, encased the elastic, gathered the width of the skirt to be the width of the yoke piece and sewed it all up! Quick and easy (although not without it’s fair share of mishaps). Quicker and easier next time!

And then a good friend of mine found out that she is having a sweet baby girl! I had to make a little something to celebrate with her and these mila baby shoes had been on my radar for a while. The tutorial skipped a couple steps (like flipping the upper part of the shoe and ironing right sides out) but I managed to figure it out and make it happen. I’m not certain I like the way the inside is finished with the raw seam exposed. But overall, they are super cute. I kinda want a pair for myself!

Pretty much, I haven’t made any of the items that are on my list to make. I keep getting sidetracked with other projects! But that’s ok with me!

This week’s stats:
Completed projects – 2
New projects – 2 (both completed)
Currently in progress – 0 (6 waiting on the sidelines – silver tutus, Macaron dress, purple skirt, tan skirt, swimsuit, stripped bag)

Well hello everyone! Sorry for the radio silence and late toddler Tuesday, we have been busy, busy, busy! I’m getting my feet back under me and you will get to see some of the fun things I’ve been up to. Here is a quick glimpse into the fun that we have been having with some of our good friends from Chicago.

We took them on the Zilker Zephyr train,

lots of swinging on the Zilker playground,

fun with marbles,

and some tasty tex-mex at Chuy’s!

It’s been so awesome to get to have a fun mini-vacation with friends in our wonderful city of Austin!

Feel free to link up to the post or leave a link in the comments if you want to participate in Toddler Tuesday and let everyone know what you have been up to!

It’s a quick toddler tuesday around here since we are busy up to our ears with a bathroom remodel (before and after coming soon!), work and some fun getaways!

I took the marble paintings Jude made and turned them into mother’s day cards for all the grandmas in our family. Took a little inspiration from Marimekko and cut out poppy shapes and glued them to construction paper.

And then my mom’s birthday is coming up soon so we took one of Jude’s watercolors and cut it into a heart and wrote our happy birthday wishes.

We got to get away this weekend to Fort Worth for a college classmate’s wedding so we dropped Jude off with my parents. My mom always has fun activities to do with Jude and like me, she loves food. She made these cute stop light jelly cookies with Jude. They were quite the hit!

And finally, she showed up a fun way to use bubbles – wrap cheese close around the bottom of a toilet paper roll and the bubbles turn to foam! Jude thought the foam was perfect to jump on.

Feel free to link up to the post or leave a link in the comments if you want to participate in Toddler Tuesday and let everyone know what you have been up to!

If you would like one of these items just shout out in the comments and I’ll e-mail you or shoot me an e-mail! I will update the gallery to reflect what has already been bought.