Gallery Of Travel

Do you see this tiny tableau of cuteness personified?! This is just a glimpse of our day today...our first time baby sitting our niece Olivia. Ha! As if we weren't pink enough over here...then in walks Olivia who was not only wearing pink from head to toe, she also brought along her tiny deck chair, complete with a pink blanket for added comfort, and a pink umbrella...just because! Oh...and make sure to take a good look at the bottom left corner of the photo. Our usually camera shy Carlos was mastering the art of the photo bomb all day long. And why?...well because he is  IN LOVE with Olivia! The little old man was her shadow...and man did it warm our hearts! 

I had Instagrammed and Facebooked this pic this morning. Giving it the title: "The Calm Before the Storm". Aaron made us pancakes, we sat back and relaxed after baby proofing our house. It's normal for us to have x-acto blades laying around, and lots of fragile glass collectibles, etc...so it wasn't a super easy task to get the place ready for a 1 and a half year old. We had lots of friends giving us some words of advice...suggestions on how to occupy her time for a few hours and stuff like that. It was to be our first time having her here alone, so we were nervous that as soon as she was left with us that she would cry cry cry for her daddy. 

It was also a first time for the pups. Our little guy Jack, seen above, happens to get really nervous around little kids. And when he's nervous he growls. So to keep everything calm we set Jack up in his "good boy bed" in the closed studio while we had Olivia here. So prior to Olivia's arrival Jack got some one on one time with Daddy outside in the sunshine. Just look at our two resident Gingers!

Seriously...she walked in and we pretty much couldn't handle the outfit! Notice the Carlos photo bomb once again.

As you can see, before her arrival we wrapped our coffee table top with Kraft paper, and supplied Olivia with a box of crayons to color wherever she pleased! We gave her some roasted sweet potatoes but she mostly fed those to Carlos. But luckily we found a can of uncle Walt's tuna, and one of uncle Walt's hotdog buns, which when cut in quarters made cute little sandwiches. And the sandwich seemed to last HOURS. Like, she perpetually had this little tuna bun in her tiny fist and every so often I'd have to say "wait, where's the sandwich?"...because it would be placed on a shelf, or on the tiny piano, or on top of a speaker...and oh boy, did that tuna spread itself around! There was tuna on my pants, on three different tv remotes, on her toys, on the dog, etc...  

And when she wasn't playing or coloring she really just wanted to sit next to me on the couch and talk. I have to apologize to her mom for her bed head hair. Her mom likes to keep this little beauty in matching flowery headbands and bows...but she tossed it aside very early in the visit and decided to go with a casual look. 

Ok, the sneakers kill me! Perfect! Olivia started looking like she needed a nap, so I slipped the sneaks off so she could get a bit more comfy.

And then, in an instant, she grabbed her two blankies, leaned over to the side, and slept for over an hour. Of course, Carlos cuddled right up along side her and napped as well. And at first, she was actually resting her head right on Carlos like he was a pillow. It was too darn cute. Seriously...they are besties!

Oh gosh...this was our first time babysitting this little gal and when her dad picked her up in the evening we told him "please, feel free to drop her off over here any time at all." 

It was a pleasure and a treat! We've got our first book signing tomorrow and waaaaayyy too much work to do...and tons of preparation. But maybe this little babysitting interruption was exactly what the doctor ordered. A very pleasant distraction.

Since this is our first book signing we really have no idea what to expect. We were just told where to be and when. We decided that we should add some visual embellishments to the event so that it's not just us at a table with a stack of books. So we packed up some of the completed projects from the book, some cake stands, doilies, a pink tablecloth...

We're not expecting any sort of turn out for us...but our signing is in conjunction with some other stuff going on with Moleskine and the theme of the night is Journaling and Art Journaling...so we hope to maybe add something to that experience. Even if we meet one mother-daughter crafting duo and get to talk with them about how fun it is to create mixed media artwork...then the night will be a total success in our eyes. 

Oh, and if you're interested...here is the Where and When of our book signing:

Ok, thanks for reading about our awesome day with our adorable niece. Back to work...lots to do!

xoxo, Jenny & Aaron