My Imaginary Well-Dressed Toddler Daughter

Happy Hump Day, ya’ll! Need a mental break? (Always.) Well, check this out—my newest Pinterest obsession. Tiffany Beverage started a pinboard titled “My Imaginary Well-Dressed Toddler Daughter.”  I. DIE! Basically, she pins pictures of toddlers and kids dressed to the nines, posing and generally looking very un-kid-like. The best part? The captions. She named her “daughter” Quinoa. Her friends’ names? Chevron, Fraise, Haricot, Eleven, Sage, Ampersand, Hashtag…just oodles of ridiculousness, in the best way possible. If you need a chuckle, head on over here and take a gander at Quinoa and her crew. Here’s a sampling of some of my favs, with their original captions:

Quinoa loves to horse around. Like, tying her neck bow off center.

Sometimes, when she's feeling out of balance, Quinoa does a textile cleanse: one week of white cotton dresses with the labels cut out.

Quinoa and her BFF Chevron love to play "drive by Holga shooting" while listening to gangster rap.

Quinoa loves it when Bandeau comes to babysit. They dress in coordinating outfits and play "angry silence" for hours.

Quinoa says why walk into a room when you can SHAZAM! into a room?

On Eighties Awareness Day at school, Quinoa was especially protective of her friend Fennel's Wham-inspired pompadour.

*All images via Pinterest

Summertime Shows, Part 2

Hello! Hope everyone had a fun 4^th of July last week. While I didn’t make it to the lake this year, we hit the pool pretty hard. Always a good time! And did I take plenty of pics? You know, to document all the fun and festivities?

Nooooope.

So, instead of showing off bbqs, food, fireworks and pooltime, here is the second installment of my summer-love concert series.

We hit Grinders in the Crossroads district and while I wasn’t crazy about the headliner, Reverend Horton Heat (??),  the band who opened for those guys was such a bonus. Ha Ha Tonka (weird name, great sound!) were part rock, part hipster-twang, and overall, AMAZEBALLS. They’re somewhat local (one of the guys is from  Missouri), and they were def my fav part of the show.

Sidenote-Grinders is the COOLEST place to catch a concert. Great venue, not too big, plenty of beer and of course, Grinders pizza late night? Perf.

{Ha Ha Tonka, my new music love. And yes, we bought a CD.}

 

Finally, a group of pals and I headed out to Starlight to see Imagine Dragons. This is probably the best show I’ve seen this summer (so far). We missed Churchill, who opened for them (sadness…I really wanted to see them, but the pool cocktails were flowing, so…we arrived a little late), but we did catch Capital Cities. They were great, but Imagine Dragons kicked it. It was such a fun show, and Starlight is a great venue to catch a concert—no bad seats and the sound is awesome!

{Capital Cities, Safe and Sound}

{My pal Josh, "owning the crowd."}



{Fountain pics? Yes, please}

{Main attraction-Imagine Dragons}

{And Radioactive closes the show. AMAZING NIGHT!}

 

Summertime...

…And the livin’s easy. So easy and relaxing, in fact, that I’ve pretty much thrown all responsibilities to the wind and am enjoying my last summer of freedom. (Don’t worry Mom, I’m still paying bills. But that’s about it!) My days have been filled with soaking up some sun at Woodside, reading books that aren’t laden with symbolism and allegory, and spending time with friends and family. And—catching some great concerts! Is it just me, or has Kansas City really stepped it up a bit with the music scene?

(I’m going to divide these concert posts—so many pics!)

First up—I caught the Buzz Under The Stars, Night One show in early June with my friend Crystal and a fun group of girls. The Mowgli’s, The Neighborhood, and The Cold War Kids were awesome—but The Lumineers closed the show with a stellar performance. Although it was kinda chilly and overcast, we had a fab time. These pictures don’t do the sound justice—those guys are amazing live!

{With Crystal, tailgating pre-show}

{Girlfriends! With Crystal on the left, and with Gina and Tara on the right}

{This guy was ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE.
We were lucky enough to get a pic...and a super sweaty hug.}

{Lumineers! I heart you guys.}

My friend Michelle is always down for the free country concerts on Thursday nights at Power and Light, downtown. We saw Pat Green a few weeks ago, and Gloriana a couple Thursdays ago. Pat was great, but Gloriana was AWESOME! “Wild At Heart” is one of my all-time fav summer songs, and they definitely rocked it out.

{Got to break my boots out for Pat Green! With Michelle}

{Pat Green; with my friend Taylor}

{Gloriana show! With Michelle; With Brittany after the show}

 
Up next—some Grinders action, and prob my fav show of the summer (so far, anyway!). Check back later, gators!

Little Letters

First of all…

Dear anyone who is still reading my blog,

Thanks for not totally giving up on me! I'm working on some posts of life lately. In the meantime, here is a dose of randomness from my world:

Dear Summatime,

Yaaaaaaaay! You make me very, very happy. Sleeping in? Check. Late nights? Check. Plenty of cocktails? Check. Me not being grumpy and stressed? Check. Pool time? Check. (I have the sun rash to prove it. Ugh. ) And speaking of pool time…

Dear Kat,
Thank you for the Woodside hook-up. I owe ya, Kathy. I owe ya big time.

Dear Cheerleaders,

I think I am most shocked of anyone when I say, I miss you guys. I am so glad I got to come up to camp and watch your performance. It was fantastic! I was very, very proud. Props to Nuggs and Kater—those switch libs were legit!

{With Abby and Deavyn, seniors this year!}

 

Dear Chris,

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your help with the potential new job! I couldn’t muddle my way through this without you.

 

Dear House on 61^st Street,

You should lower your price just a little bit. Because you are SO. DARN. CUTE. And I would love to live in you.

{Darling, right? Can't you all just see me living here??}

Dear 96.5 The Buzz,
Everyone needs to #listenlonger and keep you guys alive! Love-love-loved the Buzz Under The Stars Night One show. The Lumineers were ridic, and I got to try out my hipster headwear. (More on this later.) Also, I discover new songs every day, thanks to you guys. Currently loving “Royals” by Lorde.

Dear Instagram,

You are my version of Facebook. I think I’m addicted. Follow me! (But you have to ask first.)

Dear Nova,

You are still my all-time favorite person, EVER. Every day,  it’s something new with you, big girl! Kisses, crawling, talking, reading books, eating real food…and you’re just so darn cute as you do it all. XOXO!

 

Birthday Celebration

Over Memorial Day weekend, I turned the big 2-9. My last hurrah of my twenties. Yikes. But! My friends (the ones who weren’t at the lake...having a birthday over a holiday weekend was always so traumatic when I was younger) made sure we had a super fun weekend.

Before my birthday festivities began, we had something else to celebrate. My dear friend Julie, who moved out to San Fran almost two years ago, is expecting!! She is due in early August, so she flew back in town so her pals in the Midwest could shower her with gifts for her new baby girl. Jules looked amazing, and the hostesses did a beautiful job with the party.

We hit up the Royals game on Sunday and had a fantastic time. Since my pal Gina had also made sure I had a fun Saturday night (ugh…shots), I had a bit of a slow start. But we made it out to Kauffman Stadium around noon and a few beers in (and a LOT of water), I felt much better. And what a day! It started with a very nice gentleman picking us up in a golfcart for a ride up to the ticket line. Then, once in line, another very nice gentleman came up to us and offered us free tickets. In the twelfth row! What?! Happy Birthday to me. So, the (very jealous) boys bought outfield tickets and we headed in.

{Golfcart ride!}

{Great seats! Thanks, random dude!}

Although the Royals couldn’t pull out the win, we still had a great time. (I ate TWO pretzels. Ballpark pretzels are the BEST.) After the game, we headed out to keep the fun going.  Total bonus—we ran into my good friend Gary, in town from Denver. Love you, G-man!

On Monday, I went out to my parents’ house to celebrate with the fam. Nova was officially six months old on my birthday, May 26, which makes us half-birthday buddies. And look at this big girl! She can sit up, stand up (almost…she has to balance on something!) and is almost crawling. Any day now!!

{Big girl!!!}

It was a fantastic birthday weekend, full of celebrations. I think this really will be my best year yet.