Come Together

Friends! Family! Random strangers who happen upon this blog! I have something VERY important to talk you about, so get ready . . .

These are two of my favorite individuals on the planet:


This is what they do:


And this is what they sound like:
So good, right?! Their names (for those of you who might not know) are Ian Axel and Chad Vaccarino and they are seriously two of the most amazing and talented people I have ever met. As we speak they are in the process of recording some of their new material for an EP that will be out later this year and GUESS WHAT?! We can all be a part of making that happen!

Here are Ian and Chad to tell you a little more about themselves and what's going on. (Just as a heads up, when you watch this video you may find yourself wanting to want to sign over your bank account in support of their project. That's great and if anyone understands those feelings it's me, but just keep in mind that you still need to eat, keep a roof over your head, etc. Got it? Good. Now you can watch . . . ).



In all seriousness, any amount you can contribute will be amazing and greatly appreciated. Go here to donate and find out more about the awesome rewards they're offering in return for your support. Note that the estimated delivery date for the music is next month! That means, you back the project today (or within the next 9 days) and sometime in September you could have the music you helped make on your ipod. That is a super fast turn around as far as Kickstarter projects go . . . ;)

Please and thank you!!

P.S. Aren't those the coolest t-shirts you've ever seen?!

Love Me Do

I'm just gonna put this out there - I might be the best nanny on the planet . . .

Carry That Weight

A little inspiration from Gunnar . . .



Gunnar is so funny, he picks up these weights and flings them around like they're nothing! Crazy dog!!

They Say It's Your Birthday

I seem to be getting less and less crafty/creative as I get older, at least with my own ideas. I'm getting really good at replicating the creativity of others though, especially when it comes to birthdays! The two things I've tried recently come from the same awesome blog, Oh Happy Day! I decided to end my blogging hiatus by passing on these brilliant ideas because, quite frankly, they're just too good not to share.

IDEA #1: Birthday Post Cards

I had been trying for a while to come up with something fun to do for a friend's birthday for but nothing seemed quite right. I had seen this particular idea on Oh Happy Day! and wanted to wait and use it, not as a birthday thing, but as a "we think you're awesome" kind of surprise another time. The closer July got the less I wanted to wait so I went ahead and did it! Here's how it went from a thought to something tangible . . .

I found the perfect picture on the internet of a cartoon version of The Beatles and I downloaded The Beatles font to go along with it. I printed out a couple pages out and traced them onto a transparancey.

As luck would have it there is an overhead projector in the library at my church, so I used that to trace the images onto a poster board.

Then I took it home, colored it with my handy dandy Sharpies, and cut the poster into postcard sized pieces. Okay, so they were bigger than your standard postcard, but it's the same idea . . .

Then I asked people who love Chad to write on the post cards. Several of these people don't live in VA, so in order to enlist their help I sent emails explaining the idea and asking for participation. I then took the birthday greetings they sent, printed them in various handwriting fonts, and glued them on the back of the cards. I also laminated them for an added measure of security.

I sent 3 or 4 cards each day until they were gone. Ideally I would've had the whole thing ready earlier so they would have trickled into his mailbox a little slower but this worked too!

Confession: I'm always waiting for people to realize just how crazy I am and then flee as far as they can from me. So even though I was excited about the cards I was also worried they would lead to Chad's "wow, Lindsie's a nut job" moment. Luckily that was not the case. ;)

There are a couple of things I really love about this project. 1) It's super exciting to get a few cards in the mail. It's even more exciting when the person realizes that in order to complete the puzzle on the back more must be on their way. 2) It's a fun way to extend the birthday love for more than just a day.

Something risky about the project: You are relying on the postal system and things can get lost. For example, I got the following picture from Chad saying how much he loved the cards and that he thought one piece might be missing.

I would have been fine if it were a corner piece but the middle?! It felt so anti-climatic! Thankfully it was delivered a few days later and the puzzle was complete.

I tweaked the original idea a bit, so you should check it out here. She even has a ready-made version you can use!

IDEA #2: Scavenger Hunt and Gift Wrap

Sara and I actually came up with the first part of this idea on our own. It was March and we were going to be in New York around another friend's birthday. We wanted to do something super fun and decided on a scavenger hunt. The original idea was to leave parts of the gift at several locations, give clues, and go pick them up. It wasn't too shocking to find that stores wouldn't hold strange packages for us, so we ended up writing clues for various destinations along a particular route and bringing all the gifts with us. When we got to the locations there was a question for everyone to answer or we'd take funny pictures then hand over a gift to be saved and opened later. This way it was more than just going from one place to the next; we had fun and got to know random things about each other.

Thanks to modern technology we could even do video clues!

Sara, Ian, Chad, and me in front of the Amish Market "where you'd be most likely to find friendship bread." ;)

Now we could have just wrapped the gifts in any old paper, but we did this instead!

This is where the creativity of others came in!
I got boxes for everything and wrapped them in brown paper. Then I took various colors of yarn and tied them around the boxes. After it was sufficiently covered I trimmed the yarn down.

Some had patterns, others were random, all were awesome. It takes time but it's super easy! And really they're so cute, why would I ever want to wrap a gift any other way?

The wapping was also inspired by Oh Happy Day! It was an idea that she had seen somewhere on the interwebs and passed on to her readers. Here's her post about it.

Fun, right?!

All You Need Is Love

Hold the phone, I think I found a Dharma engagement ring. I bet Ben was saving it for someone special . . . ;)


I found this a while back and have been meaning to post it. Seems like an appropriate time to do it!

Ain't She Sweet

Ingy and I went to Wolf Trap a couple weeks ago for one of their Children's, Theater in the Woods shows. It was a lot of fun! We saw Mr. Steve from Steve's Songs on PBS. Ingrid wasn't too into it until he sang a song she remembered from TV, then she got really excited and ended up having a blast. While we were waiting to go in, Ingrid wanted me to take pictures of her and they're just too cute not to post. Seriously, I love this girl, she cracks me up! Not one of these are posed, she did these all on her own. Well, except the last one when I told her to make a silly face. :)

With A Little Help From My Friends

You know you live in DC when this is the conversation that takes place in your car . . .

Ingrid (3 yrs): Teddy Roosevelt.
Matt (5 yrs): He was the first president of the United States . . .
Lindsie (26.9 yrs): Teddy Roosevelt wasn't the first president of the United States! Who was the first president?
Ingrid (3): John McCain!

If that's not funny enough, let me tell you what one of Ingy's best friends said to her nanny the other day . . . They were going by The White House when Elice, (2.5 yrs) points and says "Look, there's Barack Obama's house!" The funny thing is her parents are 110% republican! Maybe she knows something we don't . . . ;)

I think it's hilarious that both of these girls know enough to even associate John McCain and Barack Obama with being president in the first place! Unfortunately that's probably more than some Americans know . . .

One of my favorite things about moving to DC when I did is that I got here just in time for all the election excitement. I've always wanted to learn more about politics and be more informed and now I can't help but be informed. I feel like I am so much more prepared to make a decision this year than I have been in the past two elections . . . Even if I'm not the biggest fan of either candidate. Now if only my absentee ballot would get here . . . ;)

One more thing. Watch this and be sure to pass it on!

I Want You

Watch. Listen. Act.

Hello, Goodbye

I just wanted to do a quick post letting everyone know I'm alive and well! I got back to Virginia yesterday after two fantastic weeks in Nantucket. I didn't have internet access there, hence no blogs. Don't worry though, I have lots of fun stuff to write about in the very near future. Please, try and contain your excitment. ;)