I have moved!

Hi Madre friends! Sharing my last post on wordpress today and announcing that after three years blogging I have finally made the decision to purchase my domain and move on over to a new site! You can now find me regularly on makinglamadre.com.

I started the transition in September and have posted a few times over there already as well as my full archives. Hope you like the new look of the site and please update your links & click HERE to get email notification. Looking forward to another year of  real talk.

xx ly

when you are the bad friend

On July 31st I went into the gift shop at work and picked up an overpriced birthday card, it was made by letterpress here in Portland and while it was super cute it was still a lot more than a greeting card should be. But I was compensating for the fact that I was collecting birthday gifts from the gift shop on campus.

Next I found an extremely large Chocolonely chocolate bar and a few other small but cute snacks. I was extremely proud of myself for taking the time days before my best friends birthday and just 24 hours before a flight to Toronto to organize a care package for her birthday.

I began writing her card during a quiet moment at work and intended to walk over to the post office on campus to get this little collection of items routed to NYC ASAP. My agenda got the best of me and before I knew it, I was in the car park headed home with her goodies strewn about in my bag. In this moment I was proud that I had even

GUEST POST: 5 things from a mom boss

Happy Saturday! Before I commit myself to #momlyfe for the weekend, and while I am at my computer awaiting a few documents for a Saturday morning conference call (eee!), I wanted to share a guest post with you.

Fellow working mom Katie McBreen is a long distance friend. We actually have never met IRL, but I used to work with her twin sister so I feel like I know her and we are great insta friends online. Katie lives in Washington DC

Knowing What You Want

Knowing exactly what you want is something I am pretty good at. I spend my time making the right decision about a pair of high waisted jeans or weighing all the options when considering the perfect black boot. I can tell you right now that I have always wanted a house painted a crisp white with clean black trim, a wood paneled jeep grand wagoner and a collie. Things like that, trivial things, are the types of things that I can tell you that I know for sure.

Kids and family details are much hazier for me.

five things: jeffrey campbell edition

I visited the Nordstrom site over the weekend with the intention of snagging a few #nsale items but to be honest I am a little underwhelmed. Instead I found myself scouting shoes and landed on the Jeffrey Campbell collection. I love his shoes. Unfortunately most of the ones I like are not available in my size- WTF.

So what do you do when you can’t buy the shoes you want? You share them with the internet.

1) butterfly mule  2) fling sandal  3) espadrille  4) jelly slide  5) platform

Please someone buy these and and live out my shoe dreams.

xx Ly

July 4th Traditions & fotos

parade preparedness with Sara & Asa

We were spoiled with a five day weekend and three day work week last week and I wish that happened more often during the summer. We spent the weekend with family and friends and on the Fourth enjoying our favorite July 4th tradition up in my parents neighborhood.

When I was 15 we moved up to the neighborhood and since then have participated in the parade that takes place the morning of the Fourth. Kids decorate bikes and trikes and dress up their dogs and sometimes goats too. The route is lead by Engine Number 9 from the Portland Fire Department and is completed after two laps of two blocks. There is a potluck immediately following the parade where we get to catch up with the old neighbors. 

the question ‘why?’

This is a call for HELP.

I could never have anticipated the amount of times I would get the steadfast reply of ‘why?’ nearly every single time I say something to Mo. Without hesitation he will look me in the eyes and ask ‘why?’

Just now for example when he reached for my phone and said ‘my phone.’ I told him ‘no that is my phone.’ He looked up at me and said ‘why?’ and I replied ’cause its mama’s phone’ and he replies: ‘why?’

I am almost at the point of not being able to deal. Thats an exaggeration of course,

The Truth about Stay at Home Moms

image via Nichole Kobi

Ever since going back to work, after five months of maternity leave, I have been curious about the lives of parents who stay at home with their kids. Do they love it, or do they secretly hate it?

I imagine its a bit of both. I like to think that I get a glimpse into this on weekends. When there are stretches during a Saturday or Sunday when we have a really good rhythm. Leaving me feeling capable and happy with my wily boy. On the other hand there are nap protests & horrible table manners (thank you iPad & friends who don’t mind a two foot tall companion) at a restaurant or in the country wine tasting or doing all the things that 30-something grown ups want to do.

Long story short, Monday morning comes and we go our separate ways and we are all the better for it (thank you mom!) So when my friend Liz made the decision to stay at home with her kids earlier this year I was really interested in her perspective.

New favorite shirt

Plus a few other cute things I snagged from Zara.com last week. Cause lets be honest, Zara always wins when it comes to little boy and baby boy clothes.

Nearly 2.5 years a Madre

Somehow I have a nearly two-and-a-half-year-old boy, B-O-Y.

On his second birthday I wrote that I had always wanted a two year old boy, it was the stage I looked forward to the most. A cute and misbehaving companion that enjoys walks through the neighborhood holding my hand, one way conversation that can be quite annoying considering his dismissal of my behavioral corrections but also quite charming when sitting at the dinner table using his flatware and stemmed (plastic) wine glasses on occasion.

Below is a handful of “status updates” on life two years and five months into motherhood.

CONVERSATION As mentioned above he is becoming a chatty cathy who throws in dramatic hand gestures and unexpected facial cues into almost every ‘conversation’ we have. His eye rolls and winks are very distracting (in a cute way) when trying to interpret his words. A sample of some of his phrases are as follow: “don’t want to”, “I do it”, “need a tissue”, “I wash my hands” said as a demand and intended to mean that he must wash his hands. He loves washing his hands.