Bon Voyage!

 {image}

Tomorrow we leave for California!  We'll have a week of r&r before the BIG DAY!  I'm so unbelievably excited and I can't tell you how awesome it's been to share my experiences with all of you along the way.  

We're spending 4 days in San Francisco/Sausalito then camping with many friends cliff-side at Point Reyes National Seashore and then heading up to Calistoga for all of the wedding festivities.  The wedding is Friday, August 6th and it's going to be INCREDIBLE.  Ladies and gents, when I return, I'll be Meagan Badger and a very glowing, happy wife.  So until then, have a great week and a half full of happy days! 

I'm sorry

{image}

I am sincerely sorry that my posts are lacking, they're so scatterbrained and that I've not been by to drop comments on all of yours.  I'm afraid it might continue like this for a few weeks and that frightens me.  Hopefully we'll have some good guest posting while I'm gone and hopefully my life settles down once I'm back home from California.  So until then....I love you all, blog friends.  Hopefully this cute apologetic puppy can make do. 

P + L

Yesterday, while running around town going crazy, I stumbled into this adorable new-to-me boutique in Lakeview called P + L.  It's a clothing/accessories boutique for not only women but men and children too.  In fact, the children's section tempted me to purchase some super incredibly adorable teeny eeny weeny wellies for my friend Hadley's not-born-for-a-long-time baby.  Everything was SO CUTE. 

Like this dress - perfect for a summer stroll along the bay, right? 

Or this tank here (sold out though) which has such cute colors and a great shape. 

Or this tank - it may be gray and sort of boring but look at those little details.  They make it special.

I actually bought a stripey tank from the sale section.  It's sherbet colored and I love it.

The boutique has jewelry, belt buckles, artwork, you name it.  While it is rather small, it's independently owned and operated and it's basically what I want in my not-so-far-off future.  If you're in the area, I suggest a visit.  The clothes are pretty affordable and if you have a baby or small child, you'll find it hard to resist!   While the website may be kind of bare, don't let that deter you. 

I was hit with some super annoying news yesterday so I'm gonna do some stress-relieving yoga, get my hair cut and hopefully do a little retail therapy late this afternoon.  I'm soooo ready for this to be over.

This is awesome (and a little weird)

I slept in til 10:30 today.  It was just like a regular Saturday or Sunday for me.  And then I woke up, understood that it was indeed Monday morning and that no, I wasn't late for work.  No guilt! Just pure incredible happiness! And a little annoyance seeing as how my kitteh didn't quite get it, and thought he needed to be a cute alarm clock (it's not cute when you're sleeping).

So life is great.  For those first few seconds when you realize you're at home on a Monday morning and that you never have to go back to that job you dislike and then it hits you...oh man, we leave for our wedding in 5 days! I then bolted out of bed like a maniac.

And now, I'm off to run some errands and do some much needed cleaning.  Wish me luck! This week is going to be over before I know it. 

New beginnings are so awesome!

* Image - I feel like this right now :)

A Non Sequitur

Hey all! This is Mo's friend Hadley. I don't write here often (not because I'm busy, but rather because I'm a massive procrastinator, and I'll usually have a half-written post pulled up on my computer for weeks before I think about pushing "publish," and by then, the thing is outdated and stupid and garbage).

HOWEVER, I just finished reading the world's most amazing blog piece, and I'm sitting here with tears streaming down my face, so I needed to share it with the world.

But first, a little background:

Firstly, I'm about 2.5 months pregnant (10 weeks, or 68 days, or 1632 hours, not that anyone is counting). So beyond the normal emotional ups and downs, I have a fiery, burning, heaving, passionate connection to all things baby, including stupid baby blogs. Hence, the following.

Secondly, New York Magazine published this story about "unhappy parents" last week. It's received a lot of flack from the parenting community (duh), but the author (a parent herself) has some valid points. In fact, when I first read the piece, I found myself reticently agreeing with some of the things she said about parenting; sometimes, it just plain sucks. But the whole time, I felt this inner nagging. Won't my experience be different? If children make parents unhappy, why do people continue to have them?

And then, my girls at GoFugYourself led me to this doozy. Oh. My. God. A story recounting the trails and tribulations of raising a special needs child, this piece rocked me to the core. I mean, we're talking fiery, burning, heaving, passionate tears. Right after I put on makeup, too. Girl can write.

Anyway, long story short (too late), I'm back on board with having this gosh-darned kid. I promise that this will be one of only a handful of baby posts (this ain't no baby blog, after all), but I hope you all will put up with me in the meantime.

It's my last day!!

I'm squealing with delight over the fact that in a few hours I am done. 

Music to your ears

Vacation



Flaming Pig



Check out these videos.  My friends/fiance are pretty talented and creative, right?  Mittens played another show last night, this time at the Empty Bottle.  I was told their performance was going to be 'ok', but they did really well, had new material and everyone was into it.  I'm proud of my friends, as you can probably tell.

Warm and fuzzy

{image}

So as you all know, I am quitting my job.  And getting married.  Anyway - my coworkers put together a little surprise party/shower for me and it really did warm my heart.  They gave me a very large gift card to Macy's, a glass wine decanter from Crate & Barrel and other cute little gifts.  Seriously, it was so sweet and really did come as a surprise.  Just wanted to share!

P.S. - I had a dream this morning that I was singing karaoke w/my best friend's husband.  It was one hell of a hilarious dream!  I've been having a lot of funny dreams lately.  Is something in the water!?  Do you guys have funny dreams too? Have you ever dreamt in black and white or cartoon? My stepdad has, he's so proud.

Anywhere but here

I want to go somewhere and play.  The Lakehouse will do just fine.  Just anywhere but this ugly cubicle! 

Only two more days left after this one.  Aaah!

Sorry for the short and weird posts as of late.  But you probably know that life is crazy for me right now.  I promise to bring wonderful content to this blog of mine when things get a little less chaotic!  Hope you're enjoying your sunny summer afternoon!

Wake up, sleepyhead

Tonight, oh I can't wait for it, tonight...we get a new mattress.  It's being delivered tonight and I can't WAIT to go to sleep.  I've been day dreaming about the dreams that may come tonight.

You see, we have been sleeping on a 12-year-old (or so, maybe older) mattress for far too long.  The coils poke me.  We both wake up achy, with knots and stiffness in our necks/backs/shoulders, you name it.  So this is sure to be heavenly.  And there will be lots of snuggle sessions on this new mattress, you can count on that.  Aaah, sweet dreams to me and Badger tonight :)

Please

I need this. 

Thanks.

Lunar Burn

Saturday night, Badger, Inna and I headed over to Lunar Burn to watch the most exciting and fascinating show I've seen in a very long time.  With an ice cold beer in hand, we watched from a distance as artists poured and poured iron and bronze into molds. It was in-cred-ible.  I mean, have you ever seen anything like this being done?  I've always wondered how crazy the process was and now I know.  I have such respect for everything that goes into this art form, cause it's not easy.  We ooh'd and aah'd all night long as sparks flew like fireworks across the studio. 

The studio itself was rather intriguing.  Every direction I turned there was something that caught my eye, like these heads:

There were bodies and heads and skulls.  Back by the bathrooms there was a whole other room for glass blowing.  It was so neat I can't even find the words to describe it. 

If you ever get the chance to see anything like this in the making - don't miss out on it.  I mean it.

This ain't just another Monday

This is my LAST Monday as a working professional for the next ____ amount of weeks/months.  Woo! 

I'll be free as a bird...

{image}

"The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage." - Thucydides

Weekend!

{image}

The article associated with this super incredibly awesome squirrel is quite sad.  But don't let that stop you from having a stellar weekend, ok?  What are you up to?

We'll be doing a lot of finalizing, naturally.  But we'll also be going to brunch with a friend we haven't seen in awhile.  And another friend from NYC is making an appearance in Chi, so that's sure to be fun.

Seeing an iron sculpture in the making!

Mayhaps we'll watch The 'Burbs since it will be arriving in the mailbox tomorrow.

Have some much needed relaxation time.

Etc., etc. 

Have a glorious, sunshiney, summery weekend everyone!  If you're in Chicago and going to Pitchfork, have fun and good luck with those port-a-potties. 

Three Weeks!

Only 3 weeks remain until it's a done deal and I am feeling more excited than ever.  3 weeks flies by...so in no time, I'll be unemployed (yay!), in California (double yay!) and getting married (hooray!).  Whew!  So in honor of the upcoming nuptials, I'm sharing with you today this absolutly lovely wedding from Our Labor of Love (there isn't a photo on there that I don't like, honestly). 

Adam Jordan and Jordan Kaltwasser were married recently outside of Memphis, TN...during a tornado.  And, Jordan took his last name.  Read more about it here - I really want to be friends with this couple!

Shutter Island

{image}

{image}

{image}

So we finally got around to watching this last night.  Both of us really, thoroughly enjoyed it.  I remember when it came out, there were so many mixed reactions that I sort of lost my huge interest in going to see it.  Alas, we decided to wait for it on dvd/Netflix.  It was worth the wait.  Have you seen it?  I don't want to give anything away but it was such a mind trip (literally) that I can't stop thinking about it.  Since we had waited so long to watch it, I kind of forgot what the premise of the film even was and I didn't bother to read the description on the Netflix envelope as I wanted to go into it blindly.  The acting is great - Leo honestly chooses such compelling roles/films.  Michelle Williams did a great job with her character as well.  So many questions left to answer...if you saw it, what did you think??

Hah!

I love it when R29 shows readers 20 of the freakiest shoes or 5 fall trends to avoid now-type articles.  They are always chock full of humor.  Like today's...the freaky footwear list.  Just take a look at some they featured (and a few more from humor-articles.com. 

I smell a bridesmaid gift for Anna with these. Take a look around on the website, you'll be laughing for awhile.

Pokemon Gameboy Platforms.  The sad thing is, is that I know people circa 1995 - middle school years, who would have worn these. 

What? Enough said.

Just plain creepy.  Imagine seeing me walking down the street donning these!

Are you hungry? Here, have a bit of my sneaker.  Good luck keeping the rats and bums away from you as you walk down the street...

I couldn't help myself, these are too funny to not share with you!

Some more Mo clothes

Clothes I can't afford but would do many things to have:

{Lauren Moffatt}

{Built By Wendy}

A girl can dream, right?

Bliss in a Tea Cup

Richard and Rebecca run this awesome Etsy shop called Blissinateacup.  Everything is made reusing different mediums such as wood veneer (I'm such a sucker for all things wood these days) and vintage curtains.  That silhouette chalkboard and woodgrain clock have me lusting big time.  Also, check out their vintage store on Etsy - Darling Heart Vintage.