the big first birthday recap: part 2: FOOD!

If there's one thing Jews do right, it's food at a party. Gabe and I knew from the start we'd have to live up to our wedding (greatest meal EVER) so we went straight to the pros. Obviously, some of the best food in town is Postino's. Bruschetta, charcuterie, salads, paninis. Done.

And then there was cake. I literally cried when Alyssa from Cuteology brought the cakes through the front door. Besides being totally stunning in design, both the cake and the smash cake tasted outrageously good. Literally the yummiest cake EVER-well, besides our wedding cake. Beautiful and perfect for our little girl's first birthday.

The dessert table also included clearly the most delicious cookies in town-Barb's! These were the same exactly style the aunties served at my Phoenix baby shower, and I now plan to have them every year! I made the tablecloth and backdrop. That's downplaying it a little. That freaking backdrop took me hours to conceive, craft and install. And I loved every second of it! #craftastrophe My cousin Hannah made the marshmallow pops! I added a little bit of candy, a lot of MacKenzie-Childs and was ready get all Amy Atlas up in here.

one year ago.

i am feeling nostalgic, grateful, and reminiscent. one year ago, i gave my notice to work that i would not be returning from maternity leave. not every day is good, but there is good in every day. forever thankful to gabe for supporting me, especially when i say "today was not good." the long and the short of it- yes, i love being a stay at home mom and yes, i miss working and and yes, some days i feel unfulfilled and yes, most days i feel like i'm the luckiest girl in the world and yes, i will work again in some capacity at some point in the near future and yes, i'm not using my degree and yes, this is the most important work i have ever, will ever, and could ever do. and yes, this was very very difficult to write so i'm throwing in a video of baby Sloane both to mark the anniversary & for good measure in hopes of non-judgement.

Gesundheit. from jenny martin on Vimeo.

halloween GOODIES.

This year I AM SO EXCITED because Sloane actually has some halloween parties to attend! Perfect excuse for some craftastrophe if you ask me. Since almost all of her little friends are babies, we opted against the sugar and will treat them with little toys-stickers-stamps, etc. I went with some Halloween-themed rubber duckies.

I threw a couple of ducks in these "GOODIES" bags, which can be found at Melrose Vintage. Using a Halloween stamp and orange ink, I juiced them up a bit. Then I added some adorable SNOW WHITE tags I made with a Disney stamp and ink stain, used a hole punch and tied with ribbon. Some may say over the top for her little friends; I say a little extra packing makes the whole gift!!

As you can see, not just any ribbon-but a custom printed satin ribbon that reads "xoxo, Sloane." Seriously! Works just like a label maker and is great quality. It's my absolute favorite purchase recently and has made gift giving so much more special. Find it here. Happy Halloween week!!!

It's as if the two of us had a baby...

#YouAreaGoodMama.

Fabulous blog post I came across. Read it here. To my cousin, who is raising 3 children all born in different decades, working a million hours, traveling for said work, volunteering, and running a household-you are a good mama. To my lifelong girl in Boca, raising a son in a crazy South Florida world, without her best friend-you are a good mama. To my own Mama, working every day to support herself and be a strong woman for her grandbaby-and daughter-who needs her so much-you are a good mama.

And to myself, who is still trying to figure it all out and probably will be forever-you are a good mama. Gabe is really, really good at telling me this-often and with meaning. I need to learn to believe him.

10 reasons i love the instagram.

if you don't follow me, you should! @30jennymartin and if you don't know what instagram is, get with the times, man. get with the times. 1. it still feels like a good old boys club. i'd say of my real life friends, mostly the tastemakers and my most "in the know" types are regular grammers. and hands down, it's the best place for a blog fan to feel truly connected to writers they like. i follow all types of friends, bloggers, stores, brands, celebrities (NOT the kardashains-can't handle!). sometimes i tag them, and once or twice they've written back. total win in my book. my close real life friends that gram know how into it i am. and so are they! 2. my feed shows me everyone i follow, all the time. facebook totally sucks now that they control what you see on your news feed.

3. there ain't no shame in #overgramming. my account is what it is-filled with baby Sloane shots with an occasional craft project thrown in for good measure. looking for a picture of your favorite #jewban in a santa outfit?? check my feed. i truly feel like there is no judgement. if you are sick of my baby cuteness, don't look. pretty simple. 4. #hashtags mean something. sure, i use them in cute {lame} ways but i also use them to assign a category to different things im up to. example: #keywestorbust was assigned to all my recent summer vacation pics. 5. other peoples babies! i absolutely love seeing daily our friends-near and far-on the parenthood journey. if i do say so myself, most of my friends are smart and creative-so they all have funny, poignant pictures of their kiddos. 6. gabe loves it. he keeps my feed on his desktop at work. it warms my heart when he shoots me a reminder text "instagram, please!" although he has yet to post pictures himself...not sure why.

7. screenshots! i do this constantly, whether it's an outfit i want to buy, a recipe i want to try, craft i want to put my own spin on or a judgment i want to make and send a friend! i kid, i kid. 8. believe me, i've done the facebook cleanse and weeded out a lot, but I still get the way too often "OMG my baby doesn't sleep a wink" status update that causes me to sigh heavily. There's something more gratifying to instead see an f-in exhausted new momma selfie on the gram rather than read about it.

9. although i could give or take the filters feature, the fact that the grams are saved in a square to your phone is unique. i love to print them using prinstagram. we had a rad poster made of the first 6 months of sloane's life as portrayed in social media: #sloaneswonderfullife.

10. the #abeautifulmess app. Super cool blogger sisters took their full-time gig to a whole new level when they realeased this hipster photo-editing app that allows you to jazz up your grams with super simple text, graphics and filters.

and then, she was 10 months.

as they say, the days are long and the years are short. my first beautiful daughter sloane marie is now ten months old. holy blink of an eye! she crawls around faster than her dachsund brother harvey can run away from her. sloane pulls up on everything. she says mama & dada, and babbles all day. her personality is pretty laid back. her favorite things to tote around are little bottles of lotion & makeup and mini catalogs that come in the mail. at least half of her toys are gator-oriented. we have so much fun playing dress-up. she's a good sport with the headband addiction i have formed.

sloane laughs and laughs. she absolutely loves the pool and can stay in for hours-doused in her sun bum sunscreen, of course. we listen to a lot of the classic musicians (read: fleetwood mac, dave matthews, jay z). mama is strict with her feeding and nap schedule, and she thrives off of it. speaking of meals-sloane eats pretty much what we eat. she totally feeds herself finger foods and interacts with us at the family table. she's a social butterfly, flying from musicology class, swim lessons, shopbopping with mama and playdates all throughout the week. sloane turns the page when we read, giggling at the funny voices and colorful pictures. sundays with daddy are her favorite; she is wrapped around his finger for sure. sloane gets so excited when she hears the facetime ringtone because she knows her papa is caling. overall, sloane is thriving. we are so forever grateful for the opportunity to raise her. i simultaneously want to freeze this age forever and also have her be sixteen so i can tell her how important she is-to me, Gabe and the world at large.

most of all, she has changed her mama. you're welcome, cara lakin.

my mom series: introduction

one of the very few things in life that i can truly do, on any given day, is write. my dear friend nikki has been after me for years to write a book. maybe this is a small step in that direction. but mostly, it's a platform for me to gift my daughter, post after post. i also hope for her to value and admire my small talents in hopes of someday pursuing her own grand ones.

enter a writing prompt. the relationship i imagine with my daughter is very specific. one of the main components is for her to truly know me. when i was a few months pregnant, walking around town with fingers crossed and a very hopeful heart, i came across this little gem of a book at frances-(more on that place later!) this pint-sized journal is filled with questions the fictional child asks her mother in order to chronicle her life. this blog post series will take me on a trip down memory lane and provide sloane will a meaningful lens into where i've been-and where i'm going.

because i love her, and she loves me. yep, that onesie is in spanish. #jewban

classic day.

The day Sloane's crib arrived was amazing. I had been waiting to own one since I started working in the industry. The Oeuf Classic Crib has been a long-time favorite of mine, and now it's actually in my baby's room. We picked it up at the store and alas, the Prius never ceases to amaze us.

The Oeuf Classic Crib is the one that started it all. A company out of Park Slope, Brooklyn, I have had the pleasure to meet Michael, the founder. His passion for modern design equals his strive to do right by the environment. I was SO excited to take a little bit of Oeuf into the nursery.

{image SUPER cheesy-i know.} I've learned through work that mattresses are seriously the most important nursery purchase you make. It's all about the oxygen flow. Nook is the latest and greatest technology on the market. Non-toxic, dual-firm-I could go on for days. Bottom line-it's healthy and safe. Enter baby gear nerd overflow.

Thanks for building it, Gabe.