As someone who is passionate about making it pretty, I love seeing otherwise mundane products elevated by beautiful packaging and design. That’s why when Violight contacted me about offering a giveaway of their Slim Sonic Toothbrush, I was especially eager to share it with you.

Pretty, right? Violight sent me two of these toothbrushes and I have been using them for about a week. It’s not too “buzzy” for a battery-powered sonic toothbrush, and their vented mascara-style caps keep them from getting germ-y in my bag when I travel. It also comes with an extra brush head. I keep the pink toothbrush at work (in my toiletry kit as I’m finding myself showering/getting ready/living at work more and more) and the striped one at home. I took one on my trip to New York City with Rock N Roll Bride and it got tons of compliments. Crazy for a toothbrush, not surprising for good design.

Violight has offered a Slim Sonic Toothbrush for one of my readers in the color or pattern of your choice. Just leave a comment here to enter! Open to US residents. I’ll pick a winner with the random number generator on Friday!

In the meantime, check out Violight on Twitter and Facebook.

xx
meg

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When one of my former brides Alison (it was so long ago that I don’t even have a blog post about her flowers!) asked me to make a bow tie for her new baby boy (so exciting), I thought that was a great little product that I could make for lots of new babies. The ones I sent her had little safety pins to attach them to a collar, but I didn’t think that was the best way, so I reworked them for my shop to attach to baby’s collar with a shoe clip. It’s secure, comfortable, and a little safer than a pin.

So by making them with shoe clip hardware, naturally, you can also buy two as shoe clips!

There are seven colors available in each style.

Bow Shoe Clips: $10
Baby Bow Ties: $5

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making a "flower backpack"

Dear Alice:

Happy birthday, my sweet girl! Today you are two years old. I just got done taping streamers up along the top of your door to surprise you when you wake up this morning. Grey and white, because we’re having a moon-themed day. You LOVE the moon and you’ve been so excited about the moon party we’ve been talking about all week. We made moon necklaces at work today, and colored pictures of moon phases. We spelled moon, and you pointed out that even the “O”s in the word look like little moons.

This month your dad and I went out of town and left you for the longest time we ever have–five days you spent at Grandma Camp with my parents while we spent time working and seeing friends in New York City. When we got back home, you were like a totally different kid. You started speaking in sentences while we were gone. I’ve slept with you every night since we got home and as we fell asleep, we lay on the same pillow facing each other, whispering. You talk with your eyes as much as your words, rolling them around, blinking for emphasis, squinting as you try to remember a word. When you finally finish telling me everything, you wiggle closer and nestle into my chest under my chin. Being away from you made me miss you so much.

Today we’re having our birthday party. To prepare, we made gray and white swirly homemade moon dough and packaged it in old jars for your friends to play with and take home. We’re having cheese and crackers, mini pizzas, and peanut butter and apple butter sandwiches cut into circles. I made a round angel food cake. Today I’ll have you color and decorate some white cardboard circles in all the phases of the moon to cut out and hang from our tree outside. To drink, milk and homemade cream soda.

Here are my favorite ways you grew and changed this month:

• You started giving lots of hugs and kisses. I think every parent would agree that this is a huge milestone for a mom or dad–when we start to get repaid for our anxiety and sleeplessness with true, unprompted affection.
• The popular activity in our house right now is “mix” or “cook,” where you pretend to cook something.
• You love to use cardboard sewing cards.
• You love to climb. I hear you wailing from all corners of the house hollering for me to help you down from some bookcase or countertop.
• When we read now, you pull the book away and try to read it yourself, babble through a few pages, and get frustrated and have a tantrum.
• Sometimes when you’re upset, you say “Adiss need time-out” and take your own chill pill. At our house, you go sit in your chair in your room. At work, you sit in your rocking chair. I don’t bother you until you come back. It always helps a lot.
• With me, you like being at work more than at home. That’s sort of sad to me in a way, but I’m glad you like being at my office. I think you just like to play–you have fun toys there, and you like to sit at my desk and play with different supplies and materials.
• You started saying “breasts” instead of “milkies.” I really appreciate that. These are not “milkies.”
• You’ve started describing yourself as “big.”
• Still obsessed with white horsies.

My favorite thing about you right now is your hilarious sense of humor and deception. When you want to do things, sometimes you tell me it was your stuffed animal’s idea. Here’s the chain of meaning:

“Beebee, want, cook.” >> Your doll Brobee wants to pretend-cook. >> YOU want me to get out an array of dried beans and pots and spoons and cups and watch you scatter legumes all over my wood floor as you measure and pour imaginary soup ingredients into enough bowls to feel the whole neighborhood.

All of this delivered with an impish smile. You can’t hide it when you’re trying to trick me.

I tell you, “I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, Alice.”
You repeat, “Mama fall down, truck. Aw man.”

Another joke you really like to tell is “butt toot.” You announce this with a totally straight face, then your lips quiver and press together to hide your smile, and in an instant you burst out laughing. Butt toot. You said it today at lunch with my friend Rahul. You react with incredulity when I suggest YOU’RE the one with the butt toot. “Noooooooooooooo. Mama’s.”

A final fond memory I have from this month is of you standing up in the tub, feet shoulder-width apart, holding a full bucket of water. You yelled “NAME, ADISS.” Then you squinted your eyes with determination and shouted “HEAD DUMP!” and poured the bucket over your head. You laughed hysterically and fell backward while coughing and sputtering and laughing. It was very Johnny Knoxville. My face was literally this emoticon: :O I couldn’t even believe what I was seeing.

You’re funny, it’s true, but the most beautiful thing that comes with that is that you’re positive and happy. I never forget that your love is the dancing, glowing ball of light that guides me in life as a mother. One night when I sat on our porch stairs with you this week, still, in the darkness, we whispered about the names of bunnies together, watching them hop through the yard in the moonlight. You focused on one rabbit on the sidewalk, who noticed us. He stood so still, and hopped carefully toward us over a few minutes, inch by inch. Your eyes were dazzling as they fixed on the rabbit, and you didn’t get up or startle it or speak. You were enchanted by it, and it was a moment of such pure, unbounded joy for me to watch.

There’s nothing more rewarding than loving you with the pure, innocent abandon that you inspire. Your love is the greatest gift and I promise to always remember the tenderness and compassion you awakened in me. Two years ago today I gave birth to you in the morning, after sixty hours of working with you to bring you into the world. We both cried as you entered it on the same day I did 24 years earlier, and we’ll always have that reminder of our spiritual and transcendental bond. Thank you for coming into my life. I needed you.

love,
mama

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with chris in NYC earlier this week

Today is the launch of my friend and mentor Chris Guillebeau’s (you can follow him on Twitter too!) newest book, The $100 Startup. I’m so excited that it launched to such a great reception–it’s #9 on Amazon now, and #1 in entrepreneurship, self-help, and education. Yowza.

Personally I’m a bit over the moon because I’m featured in The $100 Startup. Chris talks about my unconventional career and how I made my work fit seamlessly into my life as I grew into a coworking studio space, had a baby, etc. There are tons of profiles of crazy unconventional businesses that are different from mine so you are sure to find inspiration and motivation from this book.

I sat down for a bit in Central Park with Chris on Sunday when I was in New York City, where he kicked off the book tour today. I encourage you to check out the list of his stops on the $100 Startup Book Tour and see if you can make it to one of the events. I wish we were hosting one at CAMP again this year but it was just not to be–glad I got a chance to say hi when we crossed paths in NYC though!

Let me know if you pick up the book, and tell me what you think!

xx
meg

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Sammi and James are celebrating their marriage in Illinois this August and I created a bouquet and boutonniere for them that will last for years as a reminder of their special day. I used hand-dyed wool felt in shades of yellow and cream, vintage buttons, and I also covered some buttons with vintage fabric that I chose inspired by the casual country feel of their wedding. In Sammi’s words…

We are getting married with an antique barn as the backdrop (weather permitting). Our guests will be seated upon hay bales covered with picnic blankets and will be provided a program that doubles as a fan. Bridesmaids will be dressed in gray dresses with yellow shoes and jewelry, carrying vintage picnic baskets. My fiance will be wearing a black tux. I’m wearing a simple and pretty ivory dress with my cowgirl boots. Reception to follow inside a barn, vintage chandeliers, mason jars full of flowers, candles and pretty white lights.

Needless to say, I can’t wait to see the pictures! In the meantime, here are some shots of her bouquet.

If you want to, you can see more photos of the flowers I made for Sammi and James’s wedding here in their Flickr set!
xo
meg

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