I remember when I used to write letters. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to that again.

Every year we go to the Trail of History. I think, given the right circumstances, I would have been extremely happy as a historical re-enactor. The volunteers here camp out for three days 19th century style and visitors can ask them questions about their trade and their own family story. It is SO MUCH FUN. I highly recommend this to families in the McHenry County area. Note: Some of these pictures are mine but most are courtesy of Jonah who has been making good use of the camera he got for his birthday.

So yeah. We’re shooting a Venna video.

The space was donated, the props were borrowed, the talent was free… So really, this was like winning the lottery.

I’m going to save the best ones for later… I want it to all to be kind of a surprise. We’ll do a little press release when it’s ready to go. We’ll also be releasing a 3-song EP of what very well likely may be the last of what we do together as a band. We finished recording a couple weeks ago – just some mixing and mastering to go. Day one of the video shoot is done – final stuff will happen this weekend. Nick Cavalier (remember him from this video I got to be in??) already cut together some stuff and it is looking SO AMAZING. I can’t wait, I can’t wait, I can’t wait.

Anyway, this whole thing with the EP and video has been sucking away every moment of the weekends lately and I’ll be glad when it’s all buttoned up and ready for you all to see/hear.

In the meantime, here’s some shots from the space kindly opened up for us by our friend Noah Currier (who is the brains and heart behind Oscar Mike, if you didn’t know.)

So sorry things have been a little quiet around here! I have some outfit posts just sitting here and tons of everything else in the world to write about but it’s Sunday night and as usual, I’ve got a billion things to do before the work week rolls in to kick my ass again.

More soon.

So, on the way home from St. Louis, driving through the whole big bunch of nothing that is southern Illinois suddenly we saw THIS:

Obviously, we had to stop and check it out.

All of these weird amazing things are out in a field in front of this HUGE antique mall. We spent about 15 minutes stretching our legs and taking these pictures – we couldn’t stay as we were in a big rush to get home but we are definitely coming back here to treasure hunt. Such a fun little adventure!

Since I’m home sick and I’ve already dealt with my boredom by sleeping, cutting my own bangs, sleeping some more and spending way too much time at Zoo Borns… it’s time to accomplish something and blog.

So we went to St. Louis over the weekend to see Bon Iver. We have not, until now, gone on a “weekend away” since we’ve been together. I mean a weekend where we go, just we two, somewhere out of town, for the sole purpose of hanging out with one another. To all you couples out there who are able to do this often or at all, please take a moment to appreciate how incredibly lucky you are. To all you who are like us and have things like money and children to worry about, don’t fret. Turns out you can survive eight years of marriage (albeit perhaps by the skin of your teeth) without such luxuries, but best of all, when the opportunity finally arrives… IT WILL ROCK SO F-ING HARD.

Observe:

Our hotel room was gorgeous, overlooking the “Loop” area.

Free breakfast at the hotel restaurant, served with a side of OMGGUESSWHOISSITTINGNEXTTOUSOMG! (Note: If you like running into members of your favorite band, staying at the hotel right next to the venue where they are playing is a FABULOUS idea.)

Then it was out on the town, for record shopping and Thai food eating.

Bon Iver’s set was amazing. I can’t believe how… professional they’ve become. The set was so tight, even with technical difficulties. It was a real joy to watch. The only damper on this whole thing was the undeniable fact that I was definitely getting sick. After the show, we went back to the hotel and took a quick rest because sick or not, I was NOT going to miss out on drinks at the rooftop bar.

Yep. That’s a moon on the roof. If any of you ever are in St. Louis, I highly recommend the Moonrise Hotel. Totally wonderful.

Oh yeah, and clearly they had this painting made just for me.

More from the crazy trip home later!

Yep. My babies turned eight last week. Un-freaking-believable.

All pictures by Steve.

The end of summer, in photographs:

Summer drinks + Hell’s Kitchen.

The never-ending commute to work.

Walks on the dock.

Finding new things to love about Lake Geneva.

More walks by the lake.

Enjoying the best parts of the Midwest.

The last of my flowers are blooming. (These got to 11 feet high this year.)

Hanging out with butterflies.

…and taxidermy.

K. I should be packing for St. Louis. More later!

I’ve been away for a while. Truthfully, work has just been so busy I’ve been having to take home reports and other grown-up sounding business home to do on the weekends and just haven’t had time for a good old blog. I’ll do a recap of the less grown-up type business we’ve been up to later (plus I have some exciting news to share!) but like I said… later.

Since I am at a place in my life (read: I am too old) where I can’t really get away with wearing the whole animal print thing anymore, I’m at least going to share my faves here in case any of you younger sorts want to indulge. Confession: If I find the rabbit dress in stock anywhere, even if I’m 50, I am totally wearing it.

1 – Top Shop

2 & 3 – Lulu’s

4. ModCloth

Also, I’m finally buying myself a new pair of glasses. I was totally inspired by this pretty French lady:

(Also, can I please have her hair and lips and eyebrows too? Kthx.)

So I did the Warby Parker trial glasses and finally settled on these:

(Oh yeah, that’s a lego sphinx me and Marky made in 30 minutes. No big deal.)

It was between this and another pair which my brother very bluntly described as looking like I was “wearing a Halloween costume” and my dad told me I looked like “a TV character, someone named Madge.”

Oh well. Can’t win ‘em all.

More later!

These are both pictures of 9 year-old girls with Down Syndrome alongside their mamas.

The first girl is my sister who has a huge family that loves her, lots of friends, parents who lovingly spend their time and money making sure she has access to every and any opportunity to be healthy and happy and a community that (for the most part) at least acknowledges that she is a person with basic rights.

The second little girl is Katie who has spent her life in an orphanage in Serbia. She is pictured here with her soon-to-be adoptive mama. She’s been left in a crib. No one holds her. She drinks bottles of “gravy.” Her body has stopped growing. No one has ever bothered to brush her teeth.

SHE IS NINE YEARS OLD. SHE HAS BEEN LIVING LIKE THIS FOR NINE YEARS.

It’s hard to even think after seeing pictures like this. But this is reality. This happens. This is happening right now.

This is happening right now to other little ones who don’t have a soon-to-be mama patiently wading through the adoption process trying to rescue them.

Today my sister turned 11. Tomorrow she will have a big birthday party with presents and ice cream and a bunch of people who love her.

Tomorrow, Katie will lay in her crib, alongside others, and have a bottle. If she fusses, they will tie her down.

If you want to read more about Katie’s adoption in process or find out about how you can help, go here.

If you want to see other children who desperately need help, go here.

And if you are like me and just don’t know what to do because this is completely overwhelming… pray. Pray a lot.

So my next door neighbor works at Goodwill and though she is not a knitter, she knows I am and she immediately saw the value in all this yarn and snatched it up for me. This is HAND PAINTED sock yarn, a lot of it is hand spun and it is all extremely high quality wool. This is like 15-40$ a hank yarn.

(This isn’t even half of it, by the way.)

I already started a pair of socks. I couldn’t wait to get it in my hands.

And the price per hank?

I know. Unbelievable. Actually, she paid less because of her discount. Still. Amazing. I love Goodwill. Thanks Jeneanne! <3

Expect lots of pictures of socks in progress from here on out.