Peck Life

Portlandia

In case you forgot, I went to Portland this past weekend for the PNW blogger meet up. I headed out early Friday morning with coffee + top pot donuts + my 2 co-pilots: Chelsea and Melissa, 2 super hilarious girls that made the 3 ½ hour drive down seem like 20 minutes. Together, we comprised HALF of what our hotel room would eventually become when Jill, Amy, and Mandy joined us. It was guaranteed fun.

Upon arrival, we did a little shopping, had some lunch, and Chelsea and I explored some cute neighborhoods and had fro-yo while Melissa chopped all her hair off into the cutest new do. I wish I could live here. I mean……push out windows and big front porches? It’s my dream.

That evening, we met at the Lucky Lab with an amazing group of women – 50 in total, to chat about blogging, life, and babies {because there were 10 prego ladies, 4 of which were in our hotel room!} all while drinking yummy wine/beer and eating sandwiches and salad. The BLT kind of made my night. It was so fun to see so many people I love and adore {although I must admit, I wish I would have been better about introducing myself and expanding!}

Lauren, if you are reading this….this is my most favorite picture of you ever. PURE JOY. {with the lovely Libby}

Chelsey, Fiona, and Mandy. Hilarity ensued.

The next morning, we all woke up pretty early {because we are moms and that’s what we are programmed to do} and we headed out to breakfast at Mother’s Bistro. The wait was long but the food was THE BEST. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I had the best latte and eggs benedict of my LIFE. Stumptown coffee is my new favorite! And can we just talk about hollandaise sauce for a second? I only started eating eggs bennie a year or 2 ago because I was always scared of this crazy sauce. What is it? I’ve had some REALLY nasty hollandaise and some really good too…but this? It was perfection. I could taste the cream…butter…a slight hint of lemon….whipped perfectly….I can’t even describe. I want to dip everything it forever and ever and ever.

I am so happy I’ve gotten to know so many wonderful people though blogging over this past year and can’t wait for more meet-ups! In case you are a PNW blogger and would like to be in the loop on future events, go here! Also, a huge thank you to Sara Gray photography for taking our pictures!

Weekending

{First of all, I think I might have a few new readers so welcome! If you are just getting familiar, I’m Emily {hiiii!} and you can read more about our family here. It’s nice to “meet” you!}

A typical Saturday – “play trucks mommy!”

Birthday party sprinkles for Lily

Jumpin’ with my boy.

The most precious naptime photos – sleeping and stretching, just like super Grover!

Our sweet dog, Lily

This weekend seemed 2-fold. On one hand, it felt long and slow and was filled with birthday parties, visiting family, house cleaning, thinking about Grandma {still can’t believe she’s gone…} and general laziness, mainly due to exhaustion. On the other hand, my mind was in overdrive trying to complete some outstanding “day job” work, a manual photography class, and blog posts for the week, since I’ll be working crazy hours for the next 5 days. You can bet I’m counting down the days until Friday! It seems to be one of those times in life where there is just TOO much going on. Is it just me or is it happening in your life too?

PS - On another note, I didn't have the urge to check Pinterest all weekend. What's wrong with me??

I’ll see you all tomorrow for a very special giveaway, my first one {eeeek!}. Happy Monday friends!

Eat, drink, and be merry

It’s fair to say the entire weekend has been centered around food and gathering. It’s the perfect thing really….eating, talking, visiting, eating more, drinking, dessert. I’m a happy camper.

Saturday night, I met up with a few of my favorite bloggin’ girls for dinner at Z’Tejas in Bellevue, followed by frozen yogurt, which led to mall standing {it could probably be a pastime} and roaming through Forever 21. Part of me felt like I was in high school all over again. Oh, and PS….the mall was so crowded! Bellevue, hello?! Remember when you were tiny? I LOVED seeing these ladies and we had such an awesome time commiserating about life, blogging, raising young kiddos, working, target, colored pants…all of the important things.

Left to right: amanda, jill, chelsey, fiona, chelsea, melissa, mandy, amy, ashley, mandy, me, stephanie, and kiara.

This is Chelsea. She makes me laugh hard! She has a cute daughter named Lily {just like our doggie} and another little bun on the way. You should check out her blog because she’s adorable. <3 {Linking up with Mandy at Harper’s Happenings! On me: pants/kohls {again}, shirt/marshall’s, shoes/ruche}

Aren’t these hats the best? You can get your very own at Forever 21! We got shoosh’d for taking pictures, ooops!

The merriment continued on Sunday for a brunch spectacular at Salty’s on Alki. I’ve always wanted to try it so as a final 30th birthday party celebration with all our family and a couple close friends, it finally happened!

The amount of food is out of control. Anything your heart desires…it’s there. Crepes, omelets, pasta, tons of meat, oysters, crab, shrimp, pancakes, bacon, eggs benedict, 50 million desserts….enough to keep you full forever. Sometimes I get a little weary of buffets…because there are a lot of hands on the same pair of tongs..but really, this was completely fine and the food was soo soo soo good! They even bought us warm towels to wipe the germs with!

We reserved a private room downstairs and I’m SO GLAD WE DID. The main dining room was packed, like standing room only! It was so wonderful, we had tons of space, a gorgeous view of Seattle, our own private deck, and the kiddos could run all over without disturbing the peace. Such a perfect way to lounge while you stuff your face.

This is my best friend, Fallon. I love her a lot…that’s why we make hearts, yo!

Aside from all this consuming and quality friend/family time, the last 2 days of festivities was topped off with a very VERY special birthday gift:

I am like, indescribable, over the moon excited. Not only is blogging one of my favorite things in the entire world and I’m super giddy to learn, hear great speakers, and be in the presence of people I’ve followed and loved for YEARS, BUT….New York City, man. It’s been a dream for as long as I can remember. The one thing I need to do before I die, the pinnacle, the PEAK! I can’t even think about it without getting butterflies. I am SO SO SO excited.

Sky’s 2nd Birthday Celebration

You’re probably sick of hearing about it, but my little boy turned 2 on Sunday. We had a small family gathering at our house and Sky had been waiting for his “party” all week. Each day, we would talk about who would be there and what it would involve {mainly cake and candles since that’s what he seems to be obsessed with lately}. Sweet boy thankfully took a nap before the festivities started and woke up ready to go! We had lots of yummy food, the best cake ever, some simple decorations, and lots of wonderful family to help celebrate.

Thank you to Malia and Clint for capturing one of the best photos of Sky EVER with their snazzy new camera. I’m so in love with it.

The cake had a minor accident during the car ride home but it was still one of the best cakes I’ve ever had. It was four layers of chocolate bliss with cream in between and crazy buttercream frosting…like REAL frosting that you could eat over and over and over. Magical.

Malia and Clint – aren’t they cute?

Pinterest supplied nearly all the food choices. The pizza muffins turned out perfect!

Me and my bro – he’s taller than my fridge!

Josh, if you are reading this…I didn’t get your permission to use this photo, and I’m sorry. I think you look studly but I worry you’ll think you look silly. You are asleep right now and rather than wake you {since you work at 3 am}, I’m going to risk it. Somehow, we managed to go the entire day without taking a family photo to commemorate this great day in history. I love you.

Finally, the moment he had been waiting for…Happy Birthday song and blowing out candles.

Birthday Inspiration

1. Paper Circle Garland 2. Antipasto Kabobs 3. Felt Birthday Banner 4. Old Fashioned Birthday Cake 5. Ice Cream Cups 6. Pizza Muffins 7. Streamers! 8. Nilla Wafer Goodness 9. Simple Decorations

Sky will be 2 in a little less than a month, I can’t believe it! We are having a small, simple family party and even though most of the house will be decorated for Christmas, I still want to have some traditional birthday touches so Sky knows it’s his day! At this point, I’m definitely planning on circle garland, a fat striped table cloth, some sort of birthday banner, and balloons {maybe polka dot?}. The party is happening between lunch and dinner so we will have lots of appetizer-ish snacks and of course, cake and ice cream. Sky’s favorite food is {what else!}….pizza so I think the pizza muffins are a must.

Much more pretty party inspiration can be found on my pinterest boards: general party ideas, garlands, buntings, & banners, and cupcakes & cakes! What did we do before this site existed?!

2nd Birthday Invitations

I am in both shock and awe that Sky will be turning 2 very soon. We’ve opted to have a small party at our house this year with our families on Sky’s ACTUAL birthday, since it will be on a weekend. I’m still figuring out the details of decorating and food but one thing I didn’t waste any time on, were the invites. I knew I wanted to make them and I knew I wanted to try some ombre envelopes after being inspired by these dip-dye paper flower pots. Here’s a little peek into the creation and finished product!

If you decide to dye paper {envelopes especially}, a word of warning that it takes the “sticky” off the envelope flap. You’ll also want to flatten the envelopes after they’ve thoroughly dried. I pressed mine in between some heavy books for a few days and that seemed to work well.

The invite itself was creating using some clip art from Jessica Sprague {one of my favorite sources for digital graphics}, free fonts from Da Font, textured paper from Paper Zone, and my ink jet printer. I use Microsoft Publisher to design/format the invite – it’s one of my favorite programs for projects like this! I’ve removed the date/address but I promise it looks much cuter with more text!

I embellished the back flap with some fabric tape, but you could also use washi tape or stickers, the possibilities are endless! Don’t forget cute stamps!