Friday Roundup

Happy Friday! What are you up to for the long weekend? We are headed over to Eastern Washington to enjoy the sunshine and perhaps bring Myles to his first winery. :)

Here are some links to get us started!

The inventor of Comic Sans defends himself ;)

The eight best VMA doppelgangers.

Amazing photos from county fairs across the country.

Florals for fall. <3

Guys with fancy lady hair. LOL.

How to stay friends when your friends have kids.

10 awesome subscription boxes.

Tooth Fairy inflation: $4 for a tooth!!

Simple tips for taking photos at home.

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The Cronut Has Arrived in Seattle!

Have you tried the new big thing in desserts, the Cronut? I guess it's a cross between a croissant and a donut and is supposed to change your world. They were invented by Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City and are slowly migrating across the country. I'm excited to announce that they have finally arrived in Seattle and at one of my favorite restaurants, Ba Bar! I'm so excited to try them, especially since the pastry chef at Ba Bar is already serving up my favorite French Macarons in the city. I'll report back!

Have you had one? Are they overrated or as amazing as they sound?

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Vote for Iron Curtain Press!

Congratulations to our good friend (and blog designer!) Rosanna and her company Iron Curtain Press for being nominated for Martha Stewart American Made. I'm so glad to see their hard work and beautiful letterpress be recognized. The next step of course, is winning and that's where we come in. You can vote up to 6 times a day for Iron Curtain Press. The grand prize is $10,000 to grow your business. 

Click here to vote for Iron Curtain Press! 

1st Month Favorites: Baby Gear

Mylo in his Snuggle Nest

Here is my favorite "stuff" from Myles' first month!

Easy access clothes: I bought a bunch of adorable clothes that he ended up wearing very briefly because they were just too difficult to get on and off! Having a fussy baby around made me grab for the most convenient and easily accessed clothing. I especially LOVE the Peek "Happy Pants", little kimono shirts, and zip (not button!) pajamas.

Old-fashioned cloth diapers: A friend's mom sent me a pack of these to us for everything from spit up to preventing Myles from peeing on me during diaper changes. We have used them constantly since day one, and have them on every surface in our house for the little messes that come up every day here. 


Bouncy exercise ball: I don't know what we would do without this one, absolute essential for us and the one sure way to get Mylo to calm down. We had one sitting in our basement for "exercising" that we brought upstairs and have used at least 10x per day since he was born. 


Mom nipple butter: This Earth Mama Angel Baby Nipple Butter has been a lifesaver for me as Myles learned to breastfeed and then when I started pumping. It smells great and is all natural. 

Biodegradable Diapers/Wipes - We love our Honest diapers and wipes! The cute prints make diaper changes a little more fun and Myles hasn't had any diaper rashes yet. 

Honest diapers and Peek Happy Pants - Love!

White Noise - I thought the white noise machines were just for Myles - not so much. I have probably used his white noise machine as much as he has to drown out all of his little baby noises in the night so I can get some sleep! We have this adorable Giraffe one that I love, it has a 20 minute or 45 minute setting. 


Portable Basinet - This Snuggle Nest bed has been perfect to carry around the house so Mylo can nap anywhere. It also traveled well to Priest Lake when we were there for his third week of life.


Dry shampoo- a new mom's best friend, love the Klorane brand.  

Zing Bars - I've already written about my love for these amazing gluten-free bars. They kept me alive after my c-section. The chocolate-coconut ones are by far the best, so tasty. 

Swaddlers - We tried to use the Aden & Anais swaddlers but either we are terrible at wrapping him or he is Houdini-baby because we were never really successful (although the A&A swaddlers are useful for about 100 other purposes!). We had way more success with the Summer Infant SwaddleMe because they have velcro to keep the little guy from busting free. 

Pretty Pictures

What do you do the night after you win a VMA? If you're Jason and I, you post a bunch of wedding photos to Facebook while spooning on a tiny bed in a studio on the upper west side. So if you like JKoe Photography on Facebook, you might have seen these pop up Monday night.

Check out some of our favorite shots the summer! 

Sleep Deprivation and Cat Videos

As you can imagine, this new mom is sleep deprived about 90% of the time right now (apparently five week old babies don't like to sleep at night!). One of the results of this is that I get pretty loopy and the laughter gets a bit out of control (like to this ridiculous commercial). Seriously though, at 3:00am sometimes the only thing that gets me by is a marathon cat video viewing session. And boy did I find a gem. You won't regret watching this one -- the keyboard player and drummer are my favorite!!

And no, I haven't watched it like six times in the past 24 hours. ;)

VMA Recap

Jason and I had a wonderful time at the VMA's on Sunday night. I still can't believe we're gonna have two moon men statues living on our mantle! Crazy! 

I ended up finding an Alice + Olivia dress that I loved and Stewart Weitzman peep toes to go with. My purse was vintage eel skin, a great goodwill find. 

When we arrived, not gonna lie, I was feeling pretty nervous. We were told that the professional categories (best director, cinematographer, etc.) wouldn't be announced until the end of the evening, so we were shocked when they were announced at the first commercial break. I was beyond shocked to see the very familiar images from "Can't Hold Us"pop up on the screen as the winner for Best Cinematography. I was shaking, jumping, cheering, waving to our friends seated in other rows, etc. In contrast, we were sitting across the aisle from the guy who won for Best Editing for Justin Timberlake's "Mirrors" he played it cool when his win was announced.

Here's a screen shot of when "Can't Hold Us" won Best Hip Hop Video. Can you spot Jason and I standing in the crowd? We're about 5 rows directly behind Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez. 

Other fun things you don't see when you watch the VMA's on TV:

During commercial breaks servers come through the aisles passing out shots of Patron, Champagne, vodka sodas and finally a bit later in the night, water as well.

Lady Gaga didn't change after her performance. She sat in her seashells & thong the entire night which is impressive to me because the A/C was pumping.

Everyone famous is much shorter in person, especially rappers. Taylor Swift towers over them all. 

Will Smith somehow still looks 25...

Some famous people  have crazy security details who sit with them and escort them them to the bathroom, other people, who you'd think would have security, are totally walking around like normal...

For the most part, everyone was really friendly- congratulating winners, walking around in the aisles during commercial breaks and chatting, etc.

I'm the first to admit, I might have gotten a little too excited when NSYNC showed up, but I wasn't the only one, everyone (well, all the ladies) in our section were standing, jumping, screaming. I fit right in.

Also, they don't give you your moon men statures. They come in the mail later!