Tales of Me and the Husband

beanie love.

 fisherman beanie | plain cuffed beanie (a million colors and all under $5, what?) 

i do not discriminate against a beanie.  i have many and have probably never spent over $15 on one.  if you’re up for a bit of a pricier one, that yellow polka dotted one is perfection in my humble opinion.  now, when it comes to a beanie purchase, can i offer some tips?  take ’em, leave ’em, hate ’em, love ’em… but here they are nevertheless: look in the men’s section.  beanies are practically unisex, so don’t limit yourself to the women’s section.  same goes for kids.  most of parker’s beanies aren’t even “kid” beanies.  also, if you don’t like the cuffed look, you can often uncuff it (as long as it’s not a stitched cuff) to achieve the more slouchy look you want or to get it further down on your forehead.  and finally, when you’re having a bad hair day as i often am, get out your beanie.  that one was pretty obvious.

you got any beanies for me?  i love me a beanie.

lindsey reviews: wonder show

lindsey was sent this book way too long ago (thank you for your patience hannah!) by a reader of mine.  the reader, hannah barnaby, is actually the author of the book and, knowing lindsey likes to read, offered to send her the book hoping she would like it. 
well, she loved it.  she read it in about three days.  i came down to her reading it alongside her morning cereal the day after she got it.  
so, now i am turning over the blog to lindsey to write a little “review” of the book if you will.  i told her not to give anything big away!
in wonder show by hannah barnaby, a girl named portia is sent to live at a home for wayward girls which is run by “mister”.  there, portia meets caroline.  mister wants to marry caroline, but when portia helps her out by trying to stop the wedding, it all goes wrong.

i really enjoyed this book.  it was short enough to have the plot move along quickly but long enough to provide the perfect amount of detail.  i recommend that everyone read wonder show, though not until they’re about ten years old.

so, if you’ve got any avid readers yourself, maybe consider sticking this in their stocking this christmas?!

thanks lindsey and thanks hannah!

(you can visit hannah here, or on twitter at @hannahrbarnaby.)

faux leather + flats.

{jacket: asos}
{shirt: zulily}
{jeans: h&m}
{bracelets: c/o a lil bit fancy}
{flats: h&m}
i’m always at a bit of a loss with what to write for these outfit posts.  wax poetic about faux leather?  bright flats?  talk about something entirely different?  
let’s go with the latter.
i just watched the (pretty much no spoilers!) julia/zoe episode of parenthood.  THE julia/zoe episode.  (unless  there’s another to come that i haven’t seen yet.)  to date, most tears i’ve shed over that show–wait, might tie with the hospital/amber scene.  anyway, tore my heart right out.  and them manipulating us with death cab while the whole scene plays out?!  they get me every time.  damn you parenthood, i love you so much.
(yeah, i’m behind.  i started watching it for the first time a few weeks ago.  loving it.  thanks to all of you who recommended it!  and don’t give anything away cause i’m preeeeetty sure there are more tears to be shed over that show…)

and p.s.  go over here to check out a huge giveaway happening to raise money for an adoption!

giveaway with musana jewelry!

i mentioned earlier this month that there’d be a giveaway with musana jewelry coming and here it is.  musana is such a fabulous company and i love spreading the word about them any chance i get.  you’ve read this before on my blog, but just to refresh, here’s their mission taken right from the site:

to empower Ugandan women through a vibrant social enterprise that provides stable employment and educational opportunities, thereby building the capacity of artisans to end their cycle of poverty and become advocates for change in their communities.

above are a few of my favorite musana pieces, and this giveaway is for any piece off the website.

and, to put a face with a name, here’s eve!  eve is one of talented jewelry makers behind the musana brand.

now for the giveaway!  enter to win ANY piece off the musana site.  and here’s a 20% off reader discount as well: BRIDGET20.

giveaway ends sunday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

spiced pumpkin bread.

I am no Suzy Homemaker.  I mean, I love to cook.  Not always, but put on some good Spotify station, gimme a glass of red, get out of my way, and I can make a mean dinner.  I just don’t think cooking awards you the Suzy Homemaker title.  I think only baking does.  I rarely bake though (my Mom never baked when I was growing up–something about sugar being the devil–and the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.)  But, second to perhaps chicken stock simmering in your kitchen is the smell of pumpkin or banana bread baking away.
Today was just beautiful.  It was one of those fall days where a jacket’s barely necessary and the air is clean.  A friend recently remarked how blue the sky looks and at first I thought isn’t it the same sky year round?  But then she pointed out that the lack of humidity makes the air more clear and thus we almost see the sky better than we do otherwise.  It made sense.  The trees on our street are beginning to shed their leaves, and our driveway is positively covered in yellowy pine needles.  I had to drive Steve to work today and the backroads at that hour are at their best: steam rising up off the grass, horses grazing on hills, ancient stone walls along the old New England roads.  It doesn’t get much better than Massachusetts in the fall.  I had coffee with me, so did Steve, and we chatted about his weekend (he and the big kids were away).  There was something special and cozy about it, heat going in the car, no music on, driving twenty-five or so the whole way.  
Later in the day, Parker took a long nap and William played across the street with some friends.  Over the weekend, I was productive and got nearly all the laundry done, vacuumed, odds and ends.  With an almost clean house, I decided to bake.  I can’t really bake unless the house is basically in order.  It just feels too frivolous otherwise.  Cooking is a necessity, we need to eat.  But baking?  Baking is special and the icing on the cake.  The cake being the clean house, of course.  I had grabbed at least two cans of pumpkin puree at my last Trader Joe’s visit so pumpkin bread it was.  Plus, it’s mid October so, you know.  This is by far my favorite pumpkin bread recipe.  It makes two loaves which is always perfect–share one, keep one.  Eat one, freeze one.  In this case, I shared both.  It was so very neighborly of me, delivering warm pumpkin bread both across the street and down the street to two friends of ours.  Wrapped in parchment paper, tied in twine.  As I delivered it I laughed, “This is so not me, but here I am delivering pumpkin bread!”  Hopefully I didn’t do something totally wrong since I didn’t get to taste test it myself.
I might make more tomorrow morning (if for nothing else than the house still smells like the pumpkin bread we never got to eat!).
Spiced Pumpkin Bread
makes two loaves
3 cups sugar (I can’t bear to do this much and it’s still good–and remember, it’s for two loaves!)
1 cup vegetable oil (I used coconut oil)
3 large eggs
1 16-ounce can pumpkin
3 cups flour
1 t ground cloves
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground nutmeg
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking powder
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional–or better yet chocolate chips!)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and flour two loaf pans.  Beat sugar and oil in large bowl to blend.  Mix in eggs and pumpkin.  Sift flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt, and baking powder into another large bowl.  Stir into pumpkin mixture in two additions (and walnuts/chips here if desired!).
Divide batter equally between prepared pans.  Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean–1 hour and ten minutes.  Let cool.
Enjoy with a big pat of butter!
{Recipe credit: Bon Apetit}
And, to really fill in all the promising details of a cozy fall afternoon, enjoy with a new playlist:
Listen below or follow this link to Spotify.  It’s really a good one.

the topsfield fair.

topsfield fair.  what a crazy place.
the topsfield fair in cut off sentences and such, here we go:
it’s like an eye party, this fair.  lights, colors, flashing, music, smells.  goodness gracious.  you can find everything there.  animals!  cows, baby goats, an elephant, roosters, ducks, baby chicks galore.  we kept telling parker, “it’s ella the elephant!” or “pamela the camel!”  bringing life to his favorite bill peet stories.  the option to eat everything under the sun.  loaded baked potatoes to lemonade to funnel cake to fried sweets to bbq.  i even saw an ad for vegan tomato soup.  going on the tilt-a-whirl with lindsey was a highlight.  tilt-a-whirl is the best ride, i think.  we laugh-screamed through most of it.  we tried fried oreos.  they were good but i still think i’d take a normal oreo over the fried variety.  william rode the that huge swinging ship (see him up there?).  used to be my favorite ride but i was too wussy for it now.  there is a downside, however.  the expense of it!  they ain’t cuttin’ any deals here.  we spent about $100 and did not go crazy whatsoever.  the admission to get in, plus three rides, lemonade, and oreos and there you go.  mostly fun, sort of crazy, and definitely pricey.
so, should you go?  yeah.  it’s something to see.  but every year?  nah.
and there you have it.  the topsfield fair in a paragraph.  

Steve had a birthday (and how cheesy we used to be).

Promise by Ben Howard on Grooveshark

Sunday was Steve’s birthday.  And while a post on Sunday (or Monday, as the beginning of the “work week” — can we call it that as bloggers?) would’ve made the most sense, the weekend was busy and I didn’t get my act together.  I was cooking (breakfast for dinner!  his request!) and folding laundry and his parents are in town and, well, the post was never posted (or written).  And, on top of a post-less birthday, I really did not feel like I made a big enough fuss over him for his birthday.  I had been asking him, “pleeeease tell me what you want.”  Because honestly, one can only give a man so many J. Crew Camp socks or non-iron shirts or books (or lingerie which, if I’m being honest, is an awesome gift to give to a man) before enough is enough.

He said, “I really don’t need anything,” so I wrote him a little card detailing a night about the town at his pick of three really awesome restaurants.  And then we gave him two little presents, all wrapped in brown paper (Trader Joe’s bags, my favorite wrapping paper as of late): Les Mis (movie, not book) and a snow hat.  Really, the whole thing was terribly exciting, can you even stand it?  And, bless him, he didn’t even care whereas such a non-fuss birthday might’ve had me a little bummed.  I’m not proud to admit it but I am speaking the truth.

(I hate when men say they really don’t need anything.  Men are not easy to shop for, at least Steve isn’t. He’s just all content with whatever when I know my birthday list could be, if I allowed it, a mile-long.  So men, do us a favor, and tell us what you want.)

Here we are, at least a few days after his birthday and I am a terrible wife.  He doesn’t think so, but if the shoe fits…

The other night we were in bed and I was rustling through a rarely opened drawer in my night stand and found a journal that I kept when we were dating.  I opened it and began chuckling to myself at some of the things I wrote.  He was lying down, his back to me, half asleep at that point, but asked me to read it aloud which I barely could bring myself to do.  I did though, and it was hilarious.  Terribly sappy and terribly sweet and, let’s just say, present Bridget thought past Bridget very silly.

But the truth is that it was also really fun to read.  However saccharine it was, it was true.  And I’m glad I got it down in writing.  I had forgotten the time he called and told me he needed the license plate number of his car for some insurance thing (I was borrowing the car) and so, one night, I trudged out in the snow to check for him while still on the phone, and there he was, leaning against the car.  What a stud.  I’d forgotten the notes he wrote me for every day I was in Israel (three weeks!) and how excited I was to see him again.  I’d forgotten what those feelings were like at the time.  The feelings are different now.  They’re more comfortable, more familiar, more steady.  Fewer highs but fewer lows too.  More like the perfect pair of jeans than a fancy pair of earrings.  Truth be told, I’d rather be here than there.

And the idea that I’d forgotten some of these little things?  That we’ve been together long enough that there are things I’ve forgotten?  It made me stop and think, “hey, we’ve been together awhile.”  We’re coming up on our seventh wedding anniversary and when did that happen?  Seven feels so real.  Like, we should be some wise, sage married couple by now (we’re not).  Yes, I know, it’s not sixty seven but still!  Seven.  Feels awfully legit.

I was scrolling through an old photo album on the computer recently and came across pictures I hadn’t seen in awhile.  Ones from our first summer together, and some trips we took.  There was an excessive amount of kissing pictures.  The above is our trip to Switzerland when we got engaged.  It’s a favorite.

Anyhow, he’s my best friend.  He is my best friend.  And he is just a really, really good person.

ogunquit, maine.

CLICK TO READ MORE… 

on parker: shirt c/o mamacase // pants: arrow&aspen // shoes: c/o freshly picked
a couple days ago, parker and i met my friend jenny up in ogunquit.  a few things to know: jenny is an amazing friend and ogunquit is an amazing place.  thus, the day was bound to be a good one.  and it was.
we parked at perkins cove which is this perfect little jut out of land (jut out of land?  roll with it.  though i know there is an much more appropriate new england term for jut out of land.).  it has a walk called marginal way that runs all along the ocean and even though parker said, “walk, walk, walk, walk” theeeee entire time meaning, he wanted to get out and walk, we continued meandering whilst the child remained strapped.  see, it’s beautiful and perfect but if any sort of friend-to-friend real conversation is to take place, you can’t be also manning your child on the semi sudden drop off with jagged rocks and ocean below.  he was patient, bless him, and waited until we headed back towards town until i let him stretch his legs.  we also had quiche and fruit (not entirely true–parker ate every last one of my grapes, and jenny’s too, and then we ate quiche; and i know there’s some cantaloupe pictured there but do you know i’ve never met a cantaloupe i’ve liked.  or honeydew.  weird?) and sat right on the ocean.  is there a more perfect spot for a coffee shop than one on the ocean?  no, no there’s not.
jenny’s just one of those friends.  you end up feeling blessed by her when you leave.
and when she had to head back to pick up her boys from nursery school, the trolley was just pulling up.  it was nearly nap time but parker was eyeing it with such excitement.  so, we hopped on.  for a $1.50 that boy had so much fun sitting on the bench sans carseat and touring around the town next to me.  
{last trip to ogunquit.  given how much i like the place, i really ought to visit more often.}
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