Back to blogging!

It's been over a year since I blogged here on Journeys of Mangonett and I have to admit I've missed it. So many things have happened between the arrival of our son, moving into our new home, and all the other things in between. I hope you have all been well, and if you are reading this, thank you for checking in and HELLO!

We have all been well and while the past two years have been a rollercoaster, which meant that blogging was put on the back burner, I feel that we have finally hit our groove and I am ready to get back to blogging and sharing again!

Thanks again for stopping by, I can't express how much it means to me!

A few weekends ago we took a trip down to the art district in Miami to see the Wynwood Walls. It's an up and coming area in Miami with cool gastropubs and music festivals, but best of all the streets are lined with art covered walls. It's not uncommon to spot works by artists from all over the world and the colors are beyond amazing. Nothing like art, music, and soft serve ice cream to make a Saturday afternoon...

Our little guy is now 19 months old! Can you believe it? Time has flown by since he was born. He's now not just walking, but running and climbing. He says what feels like a new word every day and is so funny. Yep, he's a keeper!

4 Months

It's been 4 months since my little guy was born. He's growing so quickly and changing so much every day. It's really amazing to see how this little human being seems to have all of a sudden learned a new skill over night. The most recent one is his ability to roll around, which means no longer will he stay in one place. Yes my friends, he is mobile!

The most fun is when we take him to new places. Recently we taught him about our love for 5 guys and although he couldn't try a burger yet, he thought the red tiles were pretty awesome. 

I'm still relishing every moment in baby-land. Every day I come home from work and can't wait to hear about his day from my mom, who has been amazing these past couple of weeks watching him while I went back to work. So hello from baby-land, I hope you are all well! Lots of love and baby-hugs to you!

Alexa's Beauty How To

Lisa Eldridge posted this video tutorial of how to get Alexa Chung makeup, and to make it even better Alexa Chung was there to demonstrate how she does that awesome winged eyeliner.

She's been my inspiration for my go-to makeup routine this summer and I was so excited to be able to watch exactly how she does her makeup. Plus it was secretly great to hear her talk about the giant "spot" she gets on her chin every once and while...Amen! me too!

Here's a bit more of my favorite Alexa Chung beauty looks. Always so simple and pretty, perfect for a girl on the go...

1, 2, 3, 4

Our little one is here! A Birth Story

Hello friends!

I know I've been MIA for a little while from the blog. The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind and I've finally been able to sit down and create a post to share it all with you!

Our baby boy arrived on March 17th and we are head over heels in love! My original due date was March 10th and when the date whooshed by without any hint of contractions I was bummed. I spent the whole week trying everything from eating spicy foods to going on long walks to help bring on labor...

Here I am the day before I reached 41 weeks taking a walk with Jack and my husband hoping to get things going! Well it worked because at 1:30 am that night I started having contractions :-) Everyone told me that it could take hours of laboring at home until you reached the point of having to go to the hospital, but within 2 hours my contractions were already 7 minutes apart and lasting a full minute. A phone call to our doctor later we were on our way to the hospital. 

Once we arrived at the hospital I was admitted right away already measuring at 4cm. After a few hours of laboring I went ahead and requested the epidural, oh sweet relief! I was so exhausted having not slept since the night before and welcomed a chance to rest a bit until the really hard work began.

Finally it was time to push! My husband and sister were my birthing coaches and they were amazing, encouraging me during the whole two hours that it took for him to arrive. I was exhausted, my head was spinning from everything that just happened, and deliriously happy to finally meet our son.

Say hello to William Alexander! Our family was waiting in the waiting room during the whole process, so when he was wheeled out to the nursery he did so to the sounds of applause and laughter...not a bad way to start your first hour of life :-) 

Our first family portrait thanks to my lovely sister who was able to capture this amazing moment in our lives in between telling me to push and following William as the nurses cleaned him off. 

Since then I've been home hanging out with this little human being who I find so interesting that I pretty much just stare at him all day. Yep, I've become a starer. I now have two men in my life that I am completely obsessed with...

Life is pretty darn awesome if you ask me.

It's the Bebe Shower!

It seems like yesterday I posted our baby announcement on the blog, and now all of a sudden we only have 4 weeks to go until the little one arrives! Time has totally flown by!

Over the weekend my family hosted a lovely baby shower to celebrate Baby M's arrival at local restaurant on the beach. I spent the afternoon with 40 of my favorite ladies eating a shameful amount of sweets and swooning over little baby gifts. It really was a great day filled with lots of love and the occasional posing while guests took photos of my ever growing baby bump. Seriously people, in the period of about a week my belly bump went from a hint to a full blown, "yeah she's preggo" belly bump.

My sister was able to take a few photos in between all of the running around she did. My girls did such a beautiful job! I even had a surprise visitor all the way from the polar vortex in NJ come in for the event. So cool!

In the words of Franck and Howard from Father of the Bride 2, it's the bebe shower!

I can't get enough of these two :-)

Now we are in the process of finishing up the nursery and a few more projects around the house. Hopefully we'll be done soon and I can basically stare at my stomach waiting until it's time to deliver. The little dude is getting bigger and bigger every day and the waddling has begun. It's almost time to serve an eviction notice! Hope you all had a great weekend!

*All photos taken by Tammy of Rubber Boots Photography*

So long 2013! Hello 2014!

Happy 2014! My transition into the new year pretty much summed up 2013, all of a sudden I looked at the clock and realized it was a new year. Sounds about right, 2013 seemed to fly by, so I guess the fact that I missed the big count down is very fitting. 

This year we didn't plan any vacations like we normally do during our time off, instead we decided to hoard any vacation and sick time we had in prep for when the baby comes. I spent the last two weeks taking the house piece by piece organizing and cleaning. I haven't done that since we moved in so it felt pretty good to get rid of stuff we haven't missed since the move and finally put everything in it's place. 

A big focus was getting started on the nursery! Since the move the room has basically been storage space, so we started off by moving everything out. The crib arrives next week, but we were able to bring in the dresser, which will double as our changing table. Since I was starting to get the accessorizing itch, I ran over to HomeGoods and found a new lamp, but was most excited about these whale bookends I found tucked away in the back of Pottery Barn! Perfect for all the Dr. Seuss books I've been collecting since we found out we were pregnant...

Jack has officially found his spot (hello Sheldon!) right in the middle of the room. So the entire process revolved around not stepping on the napping golden retriever. Right now the room is basically just the dresser, but once we get more in there I'll post more about our progress!

On another fun note, I cut my hair! While sitting on the sofa waiting for my hair appointment surrounded by the sound of hair dryers and the local gossip I was going through Pinterest and landed on these two photos: Cut 1 and Cut 2. With wide eyes and a big smile I sat in the chair once it was my turn, looked at my hair stylist, and said, "Forget the trim, we're doing this today!". I admit, the waiting area of the hair salon is probably not the best place to decide to chop off your hair, but it felt really good. I'm still getting used to the styling part since with my long hair I didn't really do much, but I'm really loving the change...

Overall the transition into 2014 was a pretty nice and relaxing one. Nothing like a good stay-cation at home! I'm really excited to see what 2014 has in store, especially with the little one arriving I have a feeling it's going to be quite a whirlwind. In the last few weeks I've definitely "popped" in the belly department. We took this photo on Sunday and I was amazed how much the bump has grown...

However now that I'm getting bigger, the word "uncomfortable" doesn't really sum up the overall experience. I've been reading up a lot about what to start expecting at this stage, and it's always so awesome to read the experiences of other women who are feeling or did feel the same things I'm experiencing during their pregnancies! Solidarity people! 

Here's to wishing you all a WONDERFUL 2014! May it bring everything you hoped for an more. Let's get this party started!

All images from my Instagram

Image of the Day: Angled Kitchen

Image via Floor Design Ideas

Dark herringbone floor in the kitchen...come to mama!