Meet Sophie

This girl.
I don't even think I can properly describe how precious she is. I fell in love with her the moment I picked her up and she nuzzled her little head in my neck (she has since decided that nuzzling is not enough and chewing on my ears is better). She is bouncing around one minute, boxing and playing, and fighting sleep the next. She doesn't really like falling asleep it seems. Fights it to the last second where she simply cannot stand anymore. It's pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Here's a little video the mister took on our trek home from picking her up.

She's also costing mama quite a bit of sleep, and keeping us on our toes making sure that she doesn't chew on everything in sight. For reals, Day One included the things one might expect (shoes, table legs, fingers) and lots that maybe you wouldn't expect (books, carpet, power cords). Anything. Doesn't matter. But only mildly interested in her own toys. Figures. 

And the kitties are doing alright I think. Molly is very curious. Winston is suspicious and scared, but I'm impressed that he's not just staying under the bed and is venturing into the living room more than I expected him to. I think they will get along. I love our growing family. :)

mama's got a brand new bag!

Thanks to the lovely ladies over at Ellington and Unruly Things who generously offered up a free bag to one lucky winner... ME! Just in time for my birthday, and seriously, just a few days before I entered the giveaway I was telling the mister how I needed a new bag (I basically have 2 bags that I have been using for the past 3 years and they are quite dirty). And here it is. The leather is beautiful, the details are perfect, and the size is great. It holds my knitting and has enough pockets to keep everything I need to get to without digging into the bottom of my bag.

I'm feeling some good blog karma, and loving it.

no words

Ok, so not exactly NO words, but very few. I am completely exhausted from our trip to Vegas. I slept about 12 hours last night. Here's some random peaks of life according to my iPhone. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Random thought: it was interesting to do Vegas by day. The only times I have been to Vegas previously were with school and with work, and I was in meetings and such all day so only had time to go out at night. And it's not like we had all the free time in the world this time around either. Only one free day actually. So I'm not sure why it felt so different. But even driving around running errands, I was able to appreciate the scenery in a way I hadn't before. The mountains and desert and palm trees are quite lovely and a nice contrast to the cheesy, sleazy feel of the strip. But I still love Fremont St the best. The old neon signs and actual light bulbs used, they get me every time.

Oh yeah, and we were happy to be there for our dear friends getting married! It was a beautiful non-Vegas wedding with lots of personal touches, and they just looked so happy together you can't help but have a good time around them. 

Thank you for having us! :)

And the winner is...

First of all, thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway. I'm so happy to be able to celebrate with all of you and to be able to share my hard work! It's great to hear such positive feedback around something I am so excited about. Thank you thank you!

So without further ado...

Which means the winner is...

Congratulations! Please send an email to dropandanchorstudio (at) gmail (dot) com with your choice of hand muff and your mailing information.

Again, thank you to everyone who entered. Keep an eye out on the blog and you will be the first to know when the muffs are available in my Etsy shop!

And keep reading the blog because you like it, obviously ;)

my night in photos

Yes, I could have already seen Mates of State weeks ago here in DC. But. They just happened to be playing on a Wednesday night and the mister has class on Wednesday nights. When I first realized this, I was kind of devastated. I don't even know how many times I have seen Mates of State at this point, but suffice it to say it will never be enough. But it was not to be. 

Until.

I heard that they would also be playing Baltimore. Just a little while later. On my birthday.

So, yeah, I could wait.

 

I think it was pretty much meant to be. The Ottobar is a cute little venue, with an odd little balcony that puts you just at top left of the band. You could probably reach through the beams and touch Kori's head (if that weren't a totally creepy thing to do). And for some reason I thought I had read an article that indicated they would be playing almost exclusively new material at the shows, but was so absolutely thrilled to find out that was not the case! Not that I don't love the new stuff, but they played so many of my favorites that I was totally not expecting to hear. I kept thinking well I'm sure they're not going to play this one. And then they did. 

Fluke

 At Least I Have You

For the Actor

Goods

True Love Will Find You in the End

And then some. I was also surprised at how many songs they played from Re-Arrange Us, given that it was largely disliked by critics. I liked it, but I'm a little bit biased. And I'm still waiting to see Mags on stage. That's what people are really there for, right? No? Just me? Ok.

Oh and whatever you do, don't forget to enter my giveaway! There's still time!

Click here

it's a celebration!

It's my birthday!

It's my 500th post on this blog!

And I've got something great to give away! 

Let's celebrate!

 

I can't even remember how I got this idea in my head that I wanted to knit hand muffs. It's almost like it grew there silently and suddenly sprouted into this giant idea that I could no longer hold in. No one wears hand muffs anymore, but why? You think if your hands are cold, the best solution is to wear gloves. But gloves can be bulky and hard to do anything while wearing them. I can barely open a door wearing gloves. Operating a touch screen cell phone wearing gloves? Forget about it.

 

 

So imagine this: You're walking down the street in the cold and the wind, your hands cozy and warm inside this lovely hand muff. Your phone rings. You slip your hand out of the muff, find your phone, answer it, and when you're done you slip your hand back into the muff, still warm and cozy. If you were wearing gloves you would have been fumbling around trying to pull the fingers off, and you've probably dropped the glove you just took off while you were trying to find your phone. Not so with your trusty hand muff. It's hanging around your neck just waiting for you to use it.

Now that's practical.

A modern take on an old fashioned idea. That's something I can get behind.

 

 

 

The Giveaway: 

The winner gets to choose either the blue or yellow hand muff. Both are designs that I have been developing for sale in my Etsy shop. I hoped to get to the point where I could do a product launch in the shop and do the giveaway at the same time, but I'm not quite there yet. And I just didn't want to give up on the giveaway. So. There you have it. One hand muff of your choice. A Drop & Anchor exclusive!

How To Enter:

Leave a comment here telling me which one you would choose if you win. Bonus entries if you re-blog or re-tweet this giveaway with a link to my blog, just comment again with a link to the post or tweet. Or pin one of my photos on Pinterest with a link to this post. Again, leave me a comment on this post letting me know that you pinned my photo.
Winner will be chosen at random using the Random Number Generator. You have until Friday October 14 to enter!

Good Luck!

warm and fuzzies

It may have been nearly 80 degrees today, but I'm having a hard time not thinking about cold weather, cozy scarves, cuddly blankets, warm jackets, Christmas music (did I just say that?), chai lattes, baking and decorating cookies... Did I mention I traditionally strongly dislike cold weather? I'm a summer girl. Or at least I was for the first, well, lots of years of my life. But then something happened.

I have a growing collection of jackets, but I think I need to add another one. This one is just so cute and classic and I can wear it with everything! I can pretend I would retire my army jacket that the mister hates but who am I kidding, there's no way. I love that jacket. But... I promise to love this one too?

P.S. here's a sneak peak at the upcoming She & Him Christmas album. LOVE.

sharing the love

Because I like you.

There are lots of designer discount sites out there. I know because I belong to a lot of them. Rue La La is pretty much all clothing. Gilt has a little bit more diversity, but it's mostly the kids clothes that get me excited (no I do not have kids, nor do I have immediate plans to have kids. But boy am I in trouble when I do. I want to buy little people things all. day. long.) But I'm pretty sure Fab is the most interesting and diverse and appealing of the bunch.

There are cute toys

Stationery and notebooks

Fun pillows

Bikes

Crazy backpacks & messenger bags

And design books

And did I mention... that's just today's sales. It's pretty amazing. But you decide for yourself.

It's free, and you get a $10 credit when you join, so you may as well check it out here.