tie dye and mother's day

Dress: F21, Denim Jacket: F21, Hat: Thrifted, Sandals: Thrifted, Ring: F21, Bracelet: Fossil, Necklace: Voz Collective via Brika

Is it really Monday again already? Since we got here I've kind of stopped keeping track of time and I keep catching myself wondering what day it actually is. We had a long weekend over here thanks to a holiday but I caught some sort of stomach bug Friday night and so that was that... 

Majorly! glad my parents were taking Logan off my hands as much as possible so I could get some rest. I started feeling better by the time Sunday came around. I got up before everyone else and made pancakes. Jason made sure I received some beautiful flowers for Mother's Day and I wish we could have all spent the day together as a family instead of being 5000 miles apart. Bummer.

Then today I got to meet my cousin's 3 week old baby boy and oh my did it make me realize how very big my own baby has become. Was he really ever that tiny?? It seems so unreal to be the one with the rambunctious toddler now... 

How quickly the stages change and how quickly do we forget what it was like before this point. Only a few more days and I have a 2 year old!! A beautiful, bright and most of all healthy one that I am truly blessed to be Mama to.

 

So Mother's Day and newborns must be the perfect combination to give me a healthy case of the baby fever. I guess it's a good thing the husband is far, far away ;)  

Gimme a pitchfork, I'm wearing overalls!

Overalls: Freeman T. Porter (thrifted), T-Shirt: Target, Shoes: Converse, Bracelet: Fossil, Headscarf: mom's closet

I didn't think I was going to admit it this early, but I kind of miss blogging... So here I am, back for the moment at least.

We had an almost perfectly smooth ride to Germany and seem to have gotten over the initial jet lag as well by now. Logan spent the second night in my bed instead of his crib, talking, squishing my cheeks with his chubby little fingers, laughing without apparent reason and finally fell asleep around 3 am. At least that's my guess, since I must have fallen asleep before he did, which I realized when I woke up around 4 am and he was snoring next to me while facing the foot end of the bed. 

It's been a good few days so far weather wise as well as everything else. We are taking full advantage of living in a neighborhood where there are 3 playgrounds within a few hundred feet, sidewalks and we can take the tricycle for a spin several times a day.

I've had way too much bread already and this way those new overalls may come in extra handy, once I need to start hiding the food baby. 

Speaking of overalls, can you believe I thrifted those puppies? Those and a brand new, Australian made, brimmed, wool hat!! It will be the saddest day when my mom closes her thrift store at the end of June. 

I don't think I would have made an effort to find overalls in a regular store but since I happened to come across them for so cheap, I thought I may give them a try.

I ended up really liking these ones, especially since the back looks like you're just wearing suspenders (no weird "mom butt" going on) and the whole top is detachable, which turns them into regular jeans.

Most of all, they are so comfortable and if nothing else I can always wear them to the county fair this summer ;)  

So what do you think? Overalls yay or nay??

overseas

Yes, I'm still here and guess what? Tomorrow we are once again getting on that airplane to Germany. It hasn't been quite as long since we were there last, which makes it even nicer and we are getting away from our routine over here. Let's be honest, routines can get kind of boring and we are definitely ready for some new adventures. The only bummer is that Jason won't join us for another 4 weeks :( 

So wish us luck and a smooth and easy flight with the big boy, who is for the very first time getting his own seat!! The fun times where we get to fork over a butt-load of money to travel 3 people abroad have finally arrived. 

I'll be popping in here every once in a while but mostly I'll just be enjoying some much needed time off.

Time to recharge those batteries and hopefully get into a better blogging habit once we return.

If you'd like to see what we're doing over there on a daily basis just follow along on Instagram, @theforgeblog. 

recipe: foil potatoes with gruyere and goat cheese

I don't know about you, but at our house we like to take every opportunity to fire up the grill. Even in the middle of winter when it's snowing outside. Thankfully, it seems like Spring is here to stay so we don't have to freeze, which makes barbecuing much more enjoyable and gives me a reason to perfect my recipe for delicious foil potatoes on the grill.

I love to experiment and this is hands down, one of the best batches of foil potatoes I've made in a while. It's by no means anything spectacular or fancy but I love how the two very different cheeses add so much interesting flavor to simple potatoes.

To make these you will need the following:

Aluminum foil

1 gallon freezer bag

Potatoes, thinly sliced

Onion, sliced

Italian Seasoning

Garlic Salt

Pepper

Paprika

Olive Oil

Goat Cheese

Gruyere, grated (we love the cheddar/gruyere blend from Trader Joe's)

Take the freezer bag and add about 1-2 tbsp of olive oil to it, depending on the amount of potatoes you'll be using. Also add in all of your spices (ital. sasoning, garlic salt, pepper, paprika). No measurements here, so just a dash of each or however much you'd like. 

Add in your potaoes, zip it and shake it all well. 

Lay out large sheets of aluminum foil and spray with a bit of cooking spray.

Place a layer of potatoes down, add some onions and some gruyere cheese. Now add another layer of potatoes, onions and gruyere cheese over that. Lastly, cut some of the goat cheese up into slices or chunks (it's very creamy and soft, so whatever works). Place the goat cheese on top of the potatoes.

Now wrap up your foil packages tightly so that they can be flipped on the grill.

Place on the grill and cook until potatoes are done and cheeses have melted.

Delicious, I tell you!  

PS: I am no food photographer and I realize that these may not look all that amazing in the pictures, but I promise they do taste much better than they look ;) 

keeping it casual

 

Jeans: LOFT, Sweater: F21, Jacket: Target, Shoes: Converse One Star at Target, Belt: Gap

Yup, and that's kind of how our weekend went as well. Casual.
Logan got sick at the end of the week so I was busy wiping snot and distributing appropriate doses of hylands cough syrup. I managed to make some chili, which by the way is the BEST. Just so you know. Then I even experimented with some banana, oat muffins that turned out delicious, so I guess you could say it was a good weekend for food.
Jason worked most of it, then not only did he pack up his bags once again but he also made us get up at the butt crack of dawn on Sunday morning to take him to the ballpark.
No need for that car to sit in a parking garage for 10 days ;)

So we started our Sunday quite early, very out of the ordinary if you know us, and after we dropped the hubs off went on out to grammy's house. Logan stayed and I went on home to get some much needed cleaning done. You know, the fun stuff you do when you're without the child for an entire afternoon.

In other news, my brother and one of his friends are coming in from Germany on Friday and I am excited to have a little change in routine. We managed to book our flights together so Logan and I will be flying back with them in May. Things like this always kind of creep up on me... They seem so far away for such a long time and then all of a sudden they're here and I start making lists, and stressing over packing once again. Oh packing how I loathe thee!!

What's new in your neck of the woods?

baby blues

Now just look at those baby blues, will ya?!
I know I'm kind of biased here but dang I think we made one handsome little guy.

So I've been kind of absent around these parts because the above mentioned mister has gotten sick for the second time within the last 3 weeks. Needless to say we've been getting a little lot less sleep and I got to experience the not so pleasant side effects of spending the night curled up into a tiny ball, with my toddler, in his crib.
Anything for a few minutes of shut eye, right?

So the rest of this post pretty much contains a perfectly normal amount of pictures that you'd want to share with the world after spending the morning at the park, soaking up some sunshine before the whole sicko thing went down again.

a casual outfit and a few recent purchases

pants: target (mossimo), t-shirt: husband's, denim jacket: f21, sandals: thrifted in Germany, necklace: aerie

So of course after yesterday's post, things quickly turned around today and Logan decided to be a true toddler again... Oh well, the peace couldn't last forever and I was kind of jinxing it anyway by writing about it, wasn't I? 

On a different note, I finally found a pair of pants at Target that actually fit me nicely. So far I've never had real luck with their pants so I couldn't resist getting these dark blue ones from Mossimo.

It's been so warm and kind of humid here this week that I actually turned the a/c on last night. I know it's way to early for those kinds of shenanigans but as much as I hate the cold and snow, I also have the hardest time going to sleep when it's hot and humid in the house. Luckily for our electric bill the temperatures are supposed to go back down into the 50's by the weekend.

Now that's enough weather talk for one day. 

Moving on to this...

find it here

find it here

The couple of things that I just ordered from my wonderful new sponsor Brika, which you may have noticed looking pretty in the sidebar up there. 

They are a brand new shopping site, featuring a curated and limited selection of modern handcraft items. What sets them apart however, is that they also put an emphasis on sharing the stories behind the objects by introducing you to the makers and their design process. 

It's an all around, beautifully designed shopping experience and the selection is so much more limited than Etsy for example, where I get so overwhelmed most of the time... 

The prices are also discounted compared to purchasing directly from the different shops. 

When you sign up here, you will receive a coupon code for $15 off your first purchase (you betcha I used mine) and you're automatically entered to win one of two $100 Brika gift cards. If you order by April 15th, shipping is free on all orders over $50 as well. 

I ended up ordering one of these cute necklaces from Jackie and Lauren over at Voz Collective for myself and this t-shirt from Daniella and Sandrine at Monorail, for Jason. The print on that shirt just fits him perfectly ;) 

So, if you're like me and love unique and modern handcrafted goods make sure to take a look at what Brika has to offer :) 

As always, thank you for supporting my lovely sponsors and thereby supporting this blog of mine. You rock!