We celebrated the new year the classic way- fondue (cheese for dinner and chocolate for dessert) and sparklers. That was pretty much it. The kids went to bed at the normal time and Garth and I probably would have retired early if it were any other night. Here’s a little of our front yard popper and sparkler fest.

A few days later we celebrated Garth’s 33rd by going on our first date of the year while the kids were at school. We just had lunch and went to a movie but it was so sweet and nice and it sorta felt like it did when we were dating/newly married. We were even able to drive around with the top down since Jack wasn’t in the back to complain. We were sure excited to see them later that afternoon though! Cutest. kids. Ever.

There are some crazy exciting things happening in the xoelle bow tie world right now- but nothing that can be spilled just yet- and of course, crazy awesome things happening in real life too (like a dishwasher!!!! after a year of handwashing in hotel rooms and bathroom sinks we have a dishwasher! I just got a few extra hours each week!).

I can share with you the awesomeness that is the xoelle swatchbook though- they’ve been in the works since last summers Indie Wed, when my parents skipped almost an entire night of sleep to help me assemble them. They have been fine-tuned and tweaked and are now in the shop to delight and seduce potential bow-tie-owners. I lub dem.

ecks oh.

elle

and it was gooood ice cream.

We have been busy busy bees here with some very special guests. We will be back with regularly scheduled posts when life gets back to normal and our dear guests are back on the mainland.

xoooox
elle

ps. next time you come to Hawaii we’ll make rad signs and meet you at the airport too.

My life right now is this out-of-balance & out-of-whack crazy/unpredictable/predictable ball of randomness. Our move from one state to another has really upheaved our lives. I can’t seem to get into a routine. We are living in a temporary rental house in the heart of Honolulu with only a few basic items. And 3 sewing machines. This randomness includes but is not limited to:

the kids not eating meals anymore. They just snack on goldfish crackers whenever.

wishing that we had a backyard. Jack loves to be outside, but our back porch leads directly to a yucky gravel parking lot.

buying all kinds of things that we already own.
loving the rainbows and spontaneous sprinkly rainfalls that punctuate the day.
everynight is movie night.

getting an awesome package of goodies from my parents that included a valentine’s day gingerbread house in a gazillion pieces (it still tasted delicious!)

finding a used phil & ted’s stroller on craigslist for a steal and using it to galavant around town.

spending hours trying to get Jack to sleep at night.

ukuklele practice.

making dozens of bow ties and rebuilding my little studio to do so. I will have two of everything soon.

eating lots of costco pizza. it’s delicious.

finding out how many places we can comfortably walk to. so far: 3 supermarkets, costco, home depot, chinatown, and the post office.

ginger is learning to crawl, jack is learning to jump.

using redbox way more than we should since we pay for netflix.

trying to eat more fruits and veggies. currently have carrots, apples, oranges, grapes, avocados, spinach, tomatos, and two varieties of onions.

Jack spilled an entire bottle of dawn on the carpet one morning and we had to walk ourselves down to costco to buy a shop vac to clean it up. The sound of the vacuum makes Jack cry and it took a looong time to suck up all of that blue goo.

we’re in Hawaii but 90% of the time we might as well still be in Florida since we hang around the house most of the time.

buying new towels= the best shower ever.

not sleeping nearly enough since there’s so much to do and so few child free hours in the day.

I love instragram.

watching the fringe on dvd a couple of nights a week makes us miss the x-files.

This is the randomness in my head. More cohesive and thoughtful posts are coming soon, fingers crossed.

in all good things,
elle

Lots of hanging out in hotel rooms and long car drives looking at houses and late night tantrums since we’re not at home with familiar things on a regular schedule (yes, it was 1am when Jack went to bed last night). We’re not doing much of the touristy fun stuff (but enough to suffice for now- I keep reminding myself that we will be here for three years and will have opportunity aplenty to beach/sun/museum/bike-ride/shave-ice it up.).

Us doing super cool things:

Highlights: spending all our our days and nights together, house hunting, Waikiki Beach, the sunsets, breezy warm weather, a lovely church building, flip-flops, Goodwill Surplus Center, and staying a night at The Royal Hawaiian Hotel (I’ll probably have a post just to gush about how much I loved it).

Lowlights: spending all of our days and nights together, house hunting, hotel living, wearing the same four outfits over and over, sleeping on an air mattress, expensive thrift stores (expensive everything).

The house hunting is coming to a close very very soon.

Happy lovey dovey day everyone- hope you got lots o’ chocolate, just like me (right honey?)

elle

Oh it has been a marvelous holiday, my friends. Garth had 4 days off in a row and I tried my hardest not to wander into my studio (the living room) and work. Mostly we stayed in our pajamas ( we each got two sets this year!), watched movies, and drank hot chocolate. And egg nog. And ate cookies. In fact, we’re still eating cookies.

We took our annual Christmas Eve bike ride through North Hill Pensacola to look at the lights (even though it was a chilly 40 something degrees) and upon arriving home we changed into our jammies (after Jack peed on his playroom floor and then cried about it). After the kids were asleep Garth and I started on the adult assembly required that we had been looking forward to all week. It is some sort of rite of passage for parents, right? And, it only took until 3 am or something.

Santa brought Jack a Radio Flyer trike (that he’ll have to grow into since his feet can’t reach the peddles yet) and Ginger a tuff stuff toy sewing machine (every four month old needs a pink toy sewing machine). Garth made me a pair of flip flops out of some special order foam, webbing from an old backpack, and tread from his old motorcycle tires. They rule. I got him a vintage Gillette double edged razor (every few weeks for the past three years we’ll be riding in the car and he’ll tell me that he’s always wanted to shave with one of those old razors that uses a real razor blade.)

And now, it’s Wednesday and Garth has one more (short) day of work before another four day weekend. And then there’s one short week until several strange men will come into our home, pack up all of our stuff, and place it on a ship to be reunited with us in approximately 40 days. holy smokes.

Hope your holidays were just as sweet.

ps. a million thanks to the family that had this message in lights on Christmas Eve. I surely miss my Bob so very very much and your lights made me smile.

xoxoxox

elle

If I don’t talk (type) to all ya’ll before then, have a super extra double Merry Christmas!

elle

Saturday. I worked the market in the morning (for the last time!) dressed in my costume. I was surprised at how many people didn’t know I was dressed up- I suppose that I do wear some strange things sometimes. Stripey socks, yes. Bright dress, yes. Apron and pointy wool hat? no. Later that evening we went as a family to a little Halloween carnival. We got there too late for the costume contest and to purchase tickets. Since tickets were required to do any of the activities, or buy any of the food items, we really just spent the whole time waiting in line for the haunted hay ride. It was worth the wait. We all loved it- little Ginger slept thought the whole things, screams and all.

Sunday. We went to church in the morning and got into our costumes after naps just to take photos at the park. We carved pumpkins on the front porch as the trick-or-treaters came. I am always amazed at the trick-or-treaters in this neighborhood. Less than half of them dress up. Many of them don’t say trick-or-treat, and waaaaay too many don’t say thank you. So, it’s like strangers in street clothes walking onto your porch and holding out a bag to you that you then put candy into and then they walk away without saying a word. And the age of these strangers? Some were elementary aged. Some were high school aged. A few were adults. Yeah. We got adults (sans kids, sans costumes) trick-or-treating at our house this year. Adults that were older than us. Wierd.

I’ll share a little more about the making of the costumes tomorrow or shortly thereafter.
Lovely lovies,
elle

There is so much to see and do elsewhere.

And it’s hard to take direction (“hold this sign”) from Mom when there’s a new way to answer “no” to practice (which looks like a referee calling a ball “safe”).

And it’s hard to hold a sign up when it’s so darn intersting to look at.

Or hide behind.

And it’s hard to enjoy sharing a bouncer chair when a certain little sister is crowding.

But it is so easy to wish grandmomma a happy birthday from 2500 miles away.

Sorry for the silence. We are enjoying being a family of four and doing our best to hang on for the ride (and keep ourselves fed and clean and rested). Ginger was blessed in church last weekend and then we took some photos in the park. Then we came home, took our pants off, and ate popcorn. Isn’t that what everyone does on Sundays?