five years.

I met this boy almost ten years ago. On a blind date, over coffee. Four years later, he proposed at that same coffee shop where we had sat and talked for the very first time.

One year after that we got married, wearing Chucks and Vans.

(wedding pics by Joe Murphy)
This year, as we celebrate our fifth anniversary, I'm still feeling like a pretty lucky girl. I don't know how I found this guy, or how he found me. I don't know how I found true love, a guy who makes me smile every day, or laugh in the middle of a spat. He's the best dad in the universe and I am proud to start our little family on this foundation we've built. While we're not perfect, we're close. I think Howard Stern once said that you can't be 100% compatible, but you're good if you can shoot for 98%. We'll go with that.

off to the fair

Ahhhh, the Iowa State Fair. Some people love it, some people loathe it.

But with this little girl, what's not to love? We can't help but have a good time.

We lucked out with the most perfect 70-degree sunny day.

We took Lo to Little Hands on the Farm, where kids make their way through a farm along a path that includes a garden, grain bin, apple orchard, chicken coop, tractor shed, sheep barn and dairy barn.

After gathering items along the way, they get the chance to sell these items at the Farmers’ Market for a dollar to buy a treat.

Of course, the animals were a hit. Lo wanted to hang with the baby chicks all afternoon. And we got to meet a few horses and cows and pigs throughout the day.

The butter cow is always a thrilling sight to behold.

And you can't leave the fair without having a corn dog. I love fair treats.

The fair food indulgences are mostly my thing, Bo being the vegetarian and Lotus being, well, the picky two-year-old. (But forget the chocolate covered bacon. I only eat the normal stuff.)

Lo was really funny with the cotton candy. Totally freaked out by it. There was no way she was going to try it.

It was a fun-filled, busy day for sure.

But it was awesome to have a whole day of uninterrupted family time, just the three of us.

mama's fallen angel

Dare #146 is up! And it may be slightly incriminating. This week we're daring you to scrap something bad you did as a kid. Maybe something you've never fessed up to until now. Something you never told your parents. Go ahead and get it down on paper so that someday your kids can hold it against you. (Or so you can prove to them that you are human.)

By the way, am I the only one who cringes when they see photos of themselves from the 90s? Yikes. The photo above is high school me. And the other one is a photo I took a zillion years ago at a Metallica show.

Go peek at the other girls' secrets and confessions here. Then play along, link up your page or post it to The Dares Flickr group. We wanna know your secrets, too.

first sweater

Last November when I was learning how to knit, I made a goal to knit at least one real sweater before the year was up.

So I started knitting this little cotton cardigan for Lotus last month and here it is, all sweater-like. In one piece. With buttons and everything. (You can find the free pattern here or here.)

I bribed my little model with Krispy Kreme before the photo shoot.

And despite the sad look on this face, I promise that she really liked the sweater. And the modeling.

I just wish I had made it one size larger – sadly, I didn't double check the measurements very carefully and it probably won't fit for much longer. But I really don't mind. This was my practice sweater and I've already picked out a new pattern to knit the next one. I can't help it - I'm totally hooked on this hobby.

little books

So lately, it seems that everyone is talking about mini books. My pal Mandi has an amazing mini book tutorial on her blog (I can't get over the oh-so-cool photos of her process.) Jamaica makes made some of my all-time favorite little books ever. Elise has really been on a roll lately. And you must see this post by Christina Clouse where she lays down the master list of some of the best mini books ever made.

Because of Christina's post, I decided to upload all my mini book photos that I had on my hard drive to Flickr, where I could see them and organize them into little groups. I'm so funny about making little books. There are so many of them in my house. It seems that when I'm done making one, I just throw it on the shelf and wonder if its pages will ever see the light of day again. Sometimes I wonder why I keep making them.

But then I think about the content. The range of subjects I have documented. I made a pregnancy book, and a twenty-page book for Lotus containing detailed notes I took about her babyhood, every single month of her first year. There's a book called 'I have to confess' (a free class by Shimelle) that dishes a bunch of my secrets and embarrassing traits. 'Life' has some of the funniest every-day little stuff that I've ever written about. I have a few little books dedicated to music; one about growing up on mtv in the 80s/90s and another with obscure song lyrics called 'Words to Live By.'

But even if I wanted to stop making mini books, I don't think I could. The subjects you can cover never end. There's huge appeal in knowing that you can finish a book in one night. (Okay, it might be a late night.) It's the perfect way to document a trip, a year, a season, a list or random stories and facts that you want to keep forever. Even if they do end up on a shelf for x amount of time.

Someday, you'd have to hope that they will end up in the lap of that potential someone who may love paging through and reading all of the random things you wrote. I was that sentimental kid, sitting around boxes of old photos at my grandparents' house and wanting to take home the old Sears Roebuck catalog they kept in their closet. I looked at the backs of every single photo to read the notes and dates and learned to distinguish the difference between my mother's and grandmother's handwriting. I was fascinated by a tin box of things my dad had collected when he was serving in the Army as a medic in Korea when he was just 17-18 years old. Those things were my favorite treasures.

So really. When you laugh at yourself for spending an evening making scrapbook pages, consider that it may not be so pointless after all. You just may inspire some young future person to do the same, three or more generations away. (It's also possible that everything you make will be destroyed by a natural disaster, thrown out or put in a box and never seen again. But I think we're all aware of those risks and continue in good faith. Ha.)

Anyway, here are the WINNERS of the giveaway mix CDs from the last post...




YAY! Kristen W., Je, Sheri and Jamie – email me your mailing addys to jgeigley [at] gmail [dot] com and I'll get these sent off soon. Thanks for playing; this was so much fun.

every summer needs a soundtrack.

New Dare is up! And this week, we have a special guest – Morgan Novak! If you know Morgan, you know that she is the queen of playlists, the master of mixes. She's a pretty inspiring girl.

So this week, we dare you to make a mix/soundtrack/playlist and document it. Write down the songs, what they mean to you, where they've taken you, or whatever story you want to tell. Or just burn a CD and make a cool cover for it. Then share it with someone! I made the mix above for my friend Erin. I called it 'a girl's guide to summer' and it's full of all of my latest faves. (Like Metric, Wild Light, Tiny Masters of Today, Architecture of Helsinki, Manchester Orchestra, Passion Pit, Peter Bjorn and John...)

But I couldn't stop there. I tried, but I had two more playlists that I absolutely had to scrap. The mix above is called 'headbangers ball' and it's full of my most favorite metal, the heaviest of the heavy. I love this one.

I was really really excited to put all of these songs together. Like really. You have no idea how happy this makes me. Slipknot, Pantera, Tool, Rage ... and I just realized right now that I forgot Ministry. That's going to be a problem. I'm going to have to fix that.

And the last mix is called 'people watching.' That's the feeling these songs give me. Like you could be walking around downtown with your headphones on, doing an inner monologue about everyone who walks by. I like people watching. (This one has Rivers Cuomo, The Flaming Lips, Elliott Smith, the Kinks, Ben Folds...)

Fun, huh? I hope you'll play along! And definitely take a minute to go and check out what Morgan and the other Dare girls did. (More girls will be adding their pages throughout the day, so check back.) Also – leave a comment below if you're interested in a little giveaway! Just let me know which mix you think you'd like best: Soundtrack to Summer, Headbangers Ball or People Watching. I'll pick winners on Monday night. Also, a sincere thank you for all of the kind words on the last post. I love you, blog friends!

a little red star

I have some big news! And I still can't believe it.

I'm a Fashionista at ScrapInStyleTV! Which means I will be part of the most rocking scrapbook design team on the planet, and have a little red star next to my name. If you haven't checked out SIStv before, it's definitely the go-to place to find lots of inspiration and some really cool, talented people.

I have looked up to so many of the Fashionistas for a long time and never, ever dreamed I'd be part of the team.

So thank you, JJ - a.k.a. 'Big Sis' - for taking a chance on me. It's an honor.

SIStv is one of those places where there is just a real, genuine camaraderie.

As cheeseball as it may sound, I have made so many amazing friends through SIS since I joined in 2007.

Sure, we have a common bond through our love of a hobby.

And we can have in-depth discussions about things like paper manufacturers, stickers and adhesive.

But we also know the names of each others' spouses and kids ... and so much more. We laugh, we joke, we listen ... and laugh some more. No holding back.

As you may remember from a previous post, I was lucky enough get the opportunity to hang out with a bunch of my SISters in June. Like, in real life. Sure, we met on the internet. But when we were finally all together in the same room, you would have sworn that we had grown up together. (Photo jacked from the lovely Mandi.)

We had such a great time that we are already planning another get-together next month at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago. So excited for that! Because it's truly a rare thing when you connect with other women from all over the place (and I mean all over the place ... Sandy is from Canada, Danielle is in Mexico) but have so much fun together that everyone makes travel plans to meet, just to see all of those wonderful faces in person again. I kind of love that.

So here's to my SISters. My new and old Fashionista pals. And to new adventures down the road. Much love.

no, I don't sleep

Welcome to nap wars with a two-year-old. Well, nap negotiations maybe. Let me just tell you this: the parents win 87% of the time, but it can be really hard to get this kid to lay down! (This is dedicated to this pretty friend who also has some fun with nap wars. And also this girl, who suggested that our kids had possibly been texting each other to share tactics.)

skate.

We love skate park days. And Bo hasn't had his fill yet this summer.

Our nieces and nephew are in town for a visit from the Chi-town area and they brought their boards, so it was the perfect time to give it a go.



Lotus got her turn, too.









Such good summer times. And I just love watching Bo skate. It's one of my favorite things ever.

Totally unrelated, Dare 144 is up. Where do you hang out?

In summer, the song sings itself.

Millions of peaches, peaches for me. No, really. My sweet dad and step-mom brought us a whole box of Fay Elberta peaches. I can't get enough of how good they smell. That's summer, right there.

Peaches = peach crisp.

And here we have the Vespa boyz. Bo and his friend Jordan got to meet and hang out with Clay Enos. He's a photographer who is doing a cross-country Vespa ride to photograph small-town America.

He even jumped in our sidecar for a bit. Follow Clay's Local Time Vespa Tour here, on his blog, or on Flickr. Very cool stuff, indeed.

Date night around here looks like this. We get lots of smiles and waves when we're out with the sidecar.

Last week, Bo did a leg of RAGBRAI, riding 77 miles from Greenfield to Indianola and then an extra 25 or so, biking from Indianola back to Des Moines. (RAGBRAI is an annual seven-day bicycle ride across Iowa. This is its 37th year, and it's the longest, largest and oldest touring bicycle ride in the world.)

Meanwhile, this little girly and I headed up north for a visit to see my family.

I'm still in awe of all of the wind turbines that have been put up along the highways on my route home. They're going up everywhere; fields of them.

I'm sure they're not a big deal at all to the locals, but I love watching them. Lo and I agree that they make the drive much more fun.

My hometown.

The gravel road and cornfield at my dad's house. There's definitely something kind of special about going home to visit the parents and the house I (mostly) grew up in ... but with my kid. It made me smile as I was laying in my old room in those familiar surroundings with my little girly snuggled close; something I never could have imagined when I lived in that same room during high school.

Waking up to Lo making blueberry muffins with grandma. With real blueberries. And my dad and brother drinking coffee and reading the paper in the kitchen.

Coloring with grandpa. Just like I used to do.

The fam. In front of little brother's corn.

A parade that Lo wasn't quite sure about at first.

Swing time and uncle Chris.

At the park with grandma. On a day that seemed much too cold for July. Reminiscing about the time that my brother hit the little orange bouncy animal in the lower left corner on his snowmobile. Not exactly sure what kind of animal it is, either.

So we rode the cute little blue horse instead.

We visited a real farm.

With pretty flowers.

And two our favorite people, Phyllis and Jim.

A pretty sunset. Reminds me of summer nights when my friend Jane and I would sit on my driveway and sip on cherry slushes from Casey's. (If only I had a picture of that!)

And any good road trip usually ends like this. With songs playing on the radio and more summer memories made. Happy summer to you.