TODAY IS GOOD

-walking into the kitchen this morning and seeing a freshly brewed pot of coffee with my favorite mug sitting out ♥ 

-the weather today is literally perfection. 

-the breeze came through the windows and I got giddy for fall air

-we leave for Yosemite and San Francisco in the morning!

-did you hear? we leave for vacation tomorrow!

-I FINALLY have my kiddo styling portolio together! you can find it in the navigation bar at the top of this blog :) yay!

I'll be away from the blog for the next week but you can follow our yosemite camping and san francisco city adventures via my twitter

Have a great rest of the week, all!

Over the weekend...

This past weekend was filled with so much goodness. The Flea was super awesome- we had one of the best turnouts to date and our space was just....well, amazing.  Thank you to everyone who came out! Aside from a fantastic day of flea market fun, we volunteered with the kids at church, went to brunch with my mom, bought some new hiking boots for our trip to Yosemite this week (!!!), celebrated nick's birthday with his family and took a nap. We're tired, happy and excited. This vacation of ours can't come soon enough- just two days away! Hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend!

1. me and my beef cake

2. beefy taking in all the sights and smells at the Flea.

3. Hubby and Will on their way up to the DJ platform

4. Signage

5. Flea entrance

6 & 7. Flea

8. My new boots!

Flea Market weekend!

Just a quick reminder for the local folk who pop in around here- Tomorrow, The City Flea moves indoors to the American Can Factory in Northside and we couldn't be more excited about how awesome the entire day is going to be.  Artist collective parProjects is putting together an amazing sculpture park outside and in the main art gallery, incredible sculptures by artist, Ledelle Moe can be viewed.  We have a little contest / giveaway happening too! So much good stuff happening this weekend in Cincinnati! 

For those who are new around little one love, The City Flea is an urban Flea Market founded and curated by my husband and I. We just closed our first summer season and are super excited about tomorrow's market and a holiday  market we have in the works.  Make sure to come by tomorrow if you live in the area. Tons of awesome vendors including coffee, artisan style food, handmade, handcrafted goodness, vintage clothes, furniture and so much more! Yay! 

This past week...

1. Grandma's adorable little cottage
2. Gram with nephew, huddy buddy
3. Clyde face
4. Wellies
5. Besties. Middle bestie just had twin boys!!
6. San Pellegrino
7. Montessori
8. Industrial "Flea" space for this weekend
9&10. Nick's Birthday Dinner :)

Have a wonderful weekend! 

mini fashion ♥ {blu pony vintage}

Can I get a huge, ginormous swoooooon up in here?! Blu Pony Vintage truly is the epitome of well designed, vintage inspired clothing.  I saw the amazingness in real life last spring in New York and literally had to pick my mouth up off the floor.  We spoke with the designer and owner for well over an hour, who was lovely beyond words, and seven months later I still can't get this line off my mind.  I will warn, it's pretty pricey but you pay for what you get, right?  

Two beautiful boys.

Two amazingly beautiful baby boys were born today.  My best friend is their mother and I couldn't be more ecstatic for her and her husband. Christy and I have been friends since we were 6- there hasn't been a small or huge moment in either of our lives that we haven't shared together.  It's so surreal that she's a mom now, that her role has completely changed in the blink of an eye.  Just a couple weeks ago I blogged about her baby shower- it's so so crazy that they're here already (2 months early!) both babies and momma are doing so well and our friends, their family and everyone else who loves these two new parents as much as we do are happy beyond words.  Both little bubba's were in the NICU when we visited.  We were able to go up and see them anyways and the miracle that these two little ones are moves me to tears every time I think about it. EEEK, we're all so happy for you, Christy and Chris!

Courtney, New Momma, Me.

two years.

Just a quick post in honor of our anniversary. I just got back from a week of traveling for work and i'm dog tired, and hubs went away for the weekend on a boys camping trip which i'm so happy he was able to do. We're both sad that we didn't get to spend today together but life happens and we both agreed that we don't need to celebrate on only this day.  I find that to be such a comfortable and reassuring thing- that for whatever reason, we don't need just one day to celebrate our marriage. We can celebrate any day and it doesn't change the fact that this is an extremely special day we can honor with a few sweet phone calls and e-mails. Besides, we're headed to San Francisco next week in honor of us! I feel beyond blessed and lucky to have my best friend.

Back to regular blogging this week after a good night sleep tonight! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Thought to paper.

Yesterday, we held a journaling / writing workshop at the shop.  As the organizer of the event I was mostly worried about how many woman would show up, how the night would run and if we had enough wine.  Those worries quickly diminished once the workshop started.  Led by  my amazingly talented friend April, I got so much more out of the night than I ever expected.  We were given three different exercise with time to share and reflect on each afterwards.  The first was to write about a single moment you had in the past week that impacted you in some way. It had to be a happy, good moment but the point was to describe that specific moment as vividly as you could.  I loved this one. My moment came to me instantly and it was a great reminder how every day moments should be cherished almost as much as the big moments.  We take the little moments for granted but they're actually what make life so special.  The next prompt was to write as many things in your life that are "working." I thought, okay this will be easy, my life is great, lots is working- wrong. I came up with 2 things and then was completely stumped. Part of the challenge was not writing anything negative which I found I did in every single one of my entries.  After reflecting on it, I realized it was my way of validating or justifying the good in my life.  April asked, "Why don't you just allow the good to be?" I loved that question and have been thinking about it ever since.  It's so true. So often we feel like the good things that come our way have to be for a reason, not just because. The third exercise was to list the ten most important moments in your life.  Again, I thought this would be easy but it was extremely hard. After four, I didn't know where to go.  The obvious things were the easiest- My wedding, the times I moved to LA, New York and back to Cincinnati. The first time I went to Europe, spending time in El Salvador but the moment I keep thinking on was one that came into my head so unexpectedly. It's almost as if I didn't realize how special it was until I was asked to write about those moments in my life.  It was with my brother the night before my wedding.  He gave me a letter that was so unbelievably touching (that's all I'm going to say about it :) but I loved that that moment came to mind when thinking of the most special moments in my life. At the end of class April suggested that each night we take five minutes to write down one win of every day- It could be as simple as getting dinner on the table, but i love the idea of taking time to remind ourselves of our own goodness.  

We had a {super awesome} weekend.

I don't know what it was exactly that made this past weekend so dreamy.  Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was just spending time with my little family and all the fun activities we did together.  Either way, it was so great. Woke up this Monday morning really feeling blessed about so much in my life.  We hiked through the woods of a new (to us) park, volunteered at church with the kids, ate lunch at the farmers market and had a romantic dinner on our back deck.  It was seriously dreamy. Oh yes, I also napped...twice! aaahhh, bliss....

Have a wonderful Monday!

TODAY IS GOOD {TGIF}

-officially have the iphone 4s ordered (eeee!)

-it's friday, sunny, and the weekend ahead is looking wonderful

-movie date with my mister man tonight

- plans of the park with friends tomorrow and a nice dinner out with family

-volunteering at our church sunday morning followed by a little photo shoot with fellow entrepreneurial Cincinnatians (fun!)

-dinner and wine with my girlfriends last night still has my heart smiling

-the amount of coffee i plan on consuming today (i ordered my phone at 4 am- thats dedication :)

Have a wonderful weekend, friends!

Cool Kiddo Finds {Wall Art}

All uniquely different and inspiring.  I love how different each of these pieces makes you feel when you look at them and how much they would influence decor and feeling in a nursery or kids room.  Seriously thinking about buying the yellow bird / chevron print for myself!

1. honeycup

2. priss designs

3. barking bird art

4. parada creations

5. Kat Hannah

6. honeycup

My Love{s}

I think in every healthy relationship you go through phases. It's normal and I think it makes your relationship stronger when you are able to appreciate the really good times and work through the not so really good times.  Currently, I'm in the I love you so much, i'm overwhelmed phase (which sadly, I know will pass) I'll always love Nick like crazy but sometimes through every day life, tiny arguments and little tiffs, you forget just how much you love one another-  You know you love one another but you don't feel it in your soul.  I hate those times, but I know that soon, the overwhelming love will come back.  It's the cycle of marriage.  Last night, laying in bed hysterically laughing at nothing and everything was a reminder of how perfectly our lives have fallen into place (even during the imperfect times)  I can not imagine another man by my side.  I'm sharing because I feel like so many younger couples end in divorce because they think the insane love is supposed to always be there- that once they're not feeling so overwhelmed by their love, the relationship is in trouble.  Sometimes, i'm sure thats the case but other times I wish people would really work at finding what it was that made them fall in love in the first place.  I'm no therapist, nor do I claim to be, but the divorce rate is scary and I think this may have something to do with it. What do you guys think?

a baby shower for christy.

Sunday, me and my two girlfriends hosted a baby shower for our dear friend Christy at my house.  We made some yummy brunch staples, drank mimosa's and coffee, took some photos under the boys banner and just plain had a good time.  Christy and I have been friends since we were 6. It's so crazy to think that we've been this close for 21 years.  I'm so blessed and lucky to have the friends I do in my life. They're amazing in every sense of the word.  By the way, Christy is having TWINS- how amazing does she look!? We absolutely can not wait to meet these little guys! I also have to say that while this was a girls only shower, Nick was above and beyond the definition of a good husband. I didn't ask him to do a single thing but he cleaned and gardened, picked fresh flowers the morning of and ran out last minute to grab something we'd forgotten completely on his own. He's just that kind of guy-  I got pretty lucky in the husband department too, I must say. ps. those are bibs that we're holding in the photos- ha!  Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!  xo