dressing the babe / winter pop...

Winter in Los Angeles is anti-climatic for sure. While the rest of the country (and other parts of the world) get to enjoy the brisk cold, we're lucky if we get to pop on a hat and scarf for a couple hours a day. With dark blue and faux fur as my wintry base, here's my version of an L.A. winter with a flash of color that you just can't miss.

I pulled out my favorite skirt from when I was pregnant, and used it as the inspiration for both of our outfits. You can see all the outfit details below...

Mama outfit / 1. Target tank, 2. Zuzii faux fur pom hat, 3. Lauren Moffatt jacket (past season) - similar, 4. Loeffler Randall boots (past season) - similar, 5. Calypso skirt (past season) - similar.   

Babe outfit / 6. Target faux fur vest (past season) - similar, 7. Ban.do buttons, 8. Gap Kids tights (past season) - similar, 9. Two Els dress, 10. Zuzii shoes. 

And, if you're in L.A., this Taschen Gallery is pretty amazing!

{Photos by Casey Brodley, outfit styling by Joy Cho, flat styling by Julia Wester. Ruby is 3 years old and getting sassier every day.}

a growing family portrait...

 

When Ruby was born a few years ago, I had custom thank you cards illustrated by the super talented Anna Bond of Rifle Paper Co. We sent them out to friends and family for all the amazing gifts and tokens of love we received. Once we ran out of the cards, I thought it would be fun to update it again with a slightly older Ruby. And since then, we now update it every year or so (with our newest shown above).

I loved the mini portraits so much, I started framing one of the cards from each year and hanging them by our front door. Sadly, our cat family has shrunk, but it's fun to see how our human family has grown over the last few years!

{Photos by Casey Brodley for Oh Joy. Painted portraits by Rifle Paper Co.}

8 nursing essentials...

Lately I'm living in a dreamy/messy world of breast milk and baby spit-up. After our post-baby Dressing the Bump video, I received more questions about nursing favorites so I wanted to share a short-list of some of my favorite nursing essentials...most of which I use every day...

1. Fast Food nursing bra by Boob / I wear a few different nursing bras, and this one combines the best of both worlds. It's soft and comfortable—yet actually cute—which is a nice little bonus when you're covered in spit-up and wearing the same clothes everyday in those early newborn days! (To purchase in the US, click here)

2. Nursing kimono by Milk Snob / When you need to cover up, I love that this piece has bottons to help cover up your babe. And, when you wear it, it doesn't look like a typical nursing cover. 

3. Milkies milk saver / When you're building up your supply in the first couple months of nursing, every drop of milk counts. While nursing on one side, this collects extra milk on the other side that would otherwise get wasted or leak through.

4. Lansinoh Nursing pads in Ban.do pouch / I've tried a bunch of different nursing pads (from washable to disposable), and these are my favorite because they never leak through. They're also easy to carry around and have extra on hand when you need them.

5. Nursing tee by Boob / These tees make it so easy to nurse both at home and in public. No more of that awkward pulling up your whole shirt to feed your babe. (To purchase in the US, click here)

6. Medela breast milk bags for pumping / For when you're pumping, these attach right to the pump and make it easy to pump and then store extra milk without taking up too much space in the fridge or freezer.

7. Honest x Piece & Co. nursing scarf / This piece doubles as a chic scarf and another way to keep covered up.

8. Baby Log app / There are tons of feeding/nursing apps out there that help you time your feedings, but this one is my favorite (I used it for Ruby, too) because it also includes sleep and diaper logs too. And it has a handy chart that lets you compare the days or weeks and how your baby's patterns change over time.

Also, this doesn't have to do with nursing, but as something that many new mama's experience (when you laugh or sneeze, if you know what I mean) these period panties are great for that post baby issue we sometimes experience!

What are some of your favorites that you love using?

P.S. Did you know you can usually get a free breast pump through your health insurance? And lactation supplies are now tax deductible?

{Photo by Casey Brodley, styling by Julia Wester for Oh Joy} 

valentine's day funfetti biscotti!

With Valentine's Day around the corner, we've baked up a couple sweet treats to make and give to your nearest and dearest. For something sweet (but not too sweet), biscotti is one of my favorite treats because they're like cookies that disguise themselves as a breakfast treat...or really, an all day treat. Here's our funfetti version!

Funfetti Biscotti
(Makes 15-18 pieces)

You'll need:
-3 cups flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-3/4 tsp salt
-1 cup vegetable oil
-1 cup sugar
-3 eggs
-1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
-1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles
-1/8 cup shredded coconut and 1/8 cup sliced almonds
(or if you want to go nut-free, you can use 1/4 cup chocolate chips instead)
-1/4 cup of candy melts in white and pink
-pink sugar sprinkles 

Here's how: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl mix all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) set aside. 

3. In a larger bowl, whisk together oil and sugar. Once fully blended together, whisk in the eggs one at a time and then add the vanilla. 

4. Slowly whisk in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and then fold in the sprinkles and other additional toppings. 

5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lay out the dough to form a long rectangle. 

6. Top with pink sugar sprinkles and a few pinches of sea salt and bake for 25 minutes.

7. Remove from oven and reduce heat to 250 degrees. Use a serrated knife to cut into 1 wide inch pieces and place them on their sides. Bake at 250 degrees for 25 more minutes. 

8. Follow the instructions for heating the candy melts. Once biscotti is cooled, dip ends into the candy melts. 

As a super easy way to package them up and give to friends, use permanent markers to draw fun shapes, words, or patterns on Ziploc bags!

{Photos by Casey Brodley, styling by Julia Wester. Recipe inspired by and modified from this one by My Name is Yeh.} 

a monday night ritual...

Soon after before Ruby was born, we started a ritual of going out to dinner on Monday nights with two other couples/friends who have kids of the same age. I know it sounds odd to make Monday the night to go out (wouldn't Friday or Saturday make more sense as an end of week celebration?). It started as a way for us to try new food trucks in our neighborhood (ah, tiny Ruby in that photo!), and has since become a day for Ruby to see her friends regularly and a chance for us parents to vent over how tired we were or how good (or not good) our kids were being that week. And the last thing I want to do is make dinner on a Monday night (which is usually the busiest work day of the week for both me and Bob). 

Since then, every week for the last three years, we have a standing date at 5:30pm on Monday night. It's early enough that we can get the kids home for their 7:30pm bedtime. And on a Monday, you never have to worry about a reservation. Now that we all have two kids, we're like this giant table of twelve with six parents and six kids. It's sometimes insane trying to wrangle the kids, have our own adult conversations, and feed ourselves and the kids at the same time, but it's one of my favorite parts of my week. I enjoy a nice glass of wine with dinner and kick off the week with a simple celebration of family and friends.

Do you guys have a weekly ritual you look forward to?

{Photo by Bonnie Tsang}

happy friday + 3 months with coco...

Before having my second baby, I had serious doubts that I could love another baby as much as I loved my first. It sounds silly, I know, but I didn't think I had any more love to give. But then, Coco came into our lives with her happy and laid-back disposition, and I fell in love all over again. I seriously marvel every day at how much I love her.

Now at three months in, I feel like we're finally getting into a groove as a family of four. Ruby is no longer super jealous and loves her sister (most of the time), I'm no longer crying every day from lack of sleep and hormonal emotions. And, I no longer feel guilty for getting take-out or delivery because I just cannot make daily meals from scratch while wrangling two kids. We are finally figuring out how to just do this thing the best that we can.

Here's a look back at our last three months of Coco. Babies change so much in the first few months of life that it's fun to see how they start to look like the person they'll become...

I also shot some lying down photos this time around...

Some people like to do the same outfit and same background for their monthly baby photos, but I like to keep a couple things the same (the chair she's sitting on, the size of the number), but have her outfit and the background blanket change every month. She has too many cute outfits that she outgrows so fast that it's nice to get to remember them from these photos.

Big sister always makes a cameo. Ruby likes to pretend to take the monthly photos of Coco with her toy camera and then she can't help but get in there, too. 

And because I love seeing how everyone does their monthly photos, I've added a few of my favorites on my Oh Baby board right here for some inspiration!

{Mini pinata numbers by Katie K. Franklin. Coco's Outfits - 1 Month: Boden onesie, Thief & Bandit leggings, 2 Month: Rylee & Cru onesie, Little Hip Squeaks headband, Freshly Picked moccasins, Month 3: Little Hip Squeaks onesie, Thief & Bandit headband.}  

lessons learned / from my favorite makers...

In the past few years, there’s been a huge resurgence in handmade goods and the appreciation for the people who make these one-of-a-kind goods. In partnership with American Express in support of the Shop Small® movement, here’s a look at a few of my favorite makers right now whose work I personally love wearing or having in my home.  Also, because I love hearing how small business owners evolve over time, I asked each of them one thing they have learned as a small business owner...

coco's nursery!

A few months before my due date last year, my friends at Target said "Hey, what do you think about having Emily Henderson design the nursery for your new baby?" Since I'm a designer at Target and she's their style expert, it was a fun way for us to work together show people how you can design a nursery at a reasonable price and not have to go crazy on super fancy purchases. Plus, Emily and I have a loooong history of working together. She designed our living room for her show (and then again when we needed to baby proof). She designed our studio, and she has signed-on to design every single house I will live in for the rest of my life (just kidding, but not kidding because I will pay her in Ryan Gosling kisses). So it only made sense for us to work together again on Coco's room. She gets me, I get her, and we just have fun hanging out together.

However, the one thing about this whole "Let's design a new nursery" thing is that I didn't actually have an extra room dedicated to our 2nd baby. As is the case with the many second children (sorry, second kids), we weren't planning to do anything special with Coco's room. I figured we'd put a bassinet in our only extra room (our home office) until our new baby was sleeping through the night and then have her share a room with Ruby. So I proposed that we do an office/nursery-in-one because the reality is that not everyone has enough space for every kid to have their own dedicated room.

Since my home office was no longer my main office, we were able to scale back on the needs of that room and give Coco a special area just for her while she's little and getting her sleep skills mastered (more on that whole newborn sleep thing soon...).

Here is the space before...sorry it looks like an explosion went off in there. It was once my home office for Oh Joy but had since turned into an office/storage/extra junk room.

And here it is now...

Since I already had the usual Oh Joy "pops of color and gold" in Ruby's room, Emily convinced me to go a different direction with this nursery and made it more gender neutral, graphic, and fun. The main pieces (crib, changing table, pouf, rug, lamps, book shelf, office chairs, baby bedding) were all from Target and so well-priced. And everything else was a combination of pieces I already had (like the glider which used to be in Ruby's room), vintage finds (like that cool credenza with gold accents she found on Craig's List for $200), and other affordable sources like the Ikea desks which had custom legs and lucite tops added to them.

Here's a look at the "office" part of the room... (click below to see more)

baby's breath can be cool...

I don't know about you, but there's only one kind of baby's breath that I can't get enough of (and that's attached to my little Coco). The flower kind on the other hand has always seemed like an unnecessary floral to me used as a filler in cheesy, gifted bouquets. And because I love challenges, we challenged ourselves to do something with baby's breath that doesn't look cheesy...

I love wreaths and think they they should be a year-round thing. So why not use the above-mentioned questionable flower to make a decorative wreath? With the addition of other fresh flowers, it's really pretty for a party or event for the day. And, if you want it to last longer, use flowers that will dry nicely the way that baby's breath does.

Here's what you'll need:

- gold embroidery (we used a 10 inch hoop) 

- floral wire

- flowers (we used baby's breath mixed with freesia and hydrangea) 

- leather or faux leather strip with leather hole punch tool

Here's how:

1. Gather a small bundle of flowers and place them on the embroidery hoop.

2. Use a piece of floral wire about 12 inches long and wrap it securely around the bundle and hoop. Keep going around the hoop added baby's breath and wrapping with the wire as far as you like. We covered it only partway because the exposed gold hoop feels sort of modern and fresh.

3. You can hang your wreath directly from the hoop or make a strap using a piece leather and punch a hole at the end using a leather hole punch tool. The baby's breath will dry out but like dried flowers do, it should last at least a couple weeks.

{Photos by Casey Brodley, styling and crafts by Julia Wester for Oh Joy}

how to get your kids to drink more water...

I don't know about you, but it can be really hard to get my kid to drink water. Ruby will say "How about some juice? How about some chocolate milk?" We try and stick to water or milk during the week and then let her have special drinks on the weekend. In an effort to get her excited about water, we recently started doing something so simple that I never even thought about...adding fruit to the water! I've never been much of a "add lemon to water" kind of girl so it didn't come naturally to me to try that with a toddler. But all of a sudden, water seems so much more fun now. And she loves getting to pick out what kind of fruit goes into her water.

Her favorite combo right now is raspberries mixed with orange slices. And then the best part is getting to eat the fruit at the end as a reward for finishing the whole cup!

With an active toddler and a tiny babe, anything that makes the process of keeping the dirty dishes and cups to a minumum makes my life so much easier. These crazy cute Puj Phillup cups are a new favorite for our fruit water. They hang from adhesive hooks on the fridge and make it easy for Ruby to grab when she's ready to get a drink and to hang back up for later when she's done.

We even use them for the whole family because everyone can have their own cup color to use throughout the day. Plus, anything that is safe and fun for my kids is a win-win for me. And now, we're all drinking more water which is never a bad thing...

P.S. I've long been a fan of Puj (even before they become a sponsor) and so excited that these Phillup cups are available for pre-sale now through 2/15!

This post is brought to you in collaboration with Puj—a brand I've been using and loving for years. All content, ideas, and words are my own. Thanks for supporting the sponsors that allow me to create new and original content like this for Oh Joy.

{Photos by Casey Brodley, styling by Julia Wester for Oh Joy}