Written by Candace on August 21, 2015 | 1 Comment

The Weekender

It’s Friday! Here is a new edition of The Weekender.

Rose Svitlana: My baby girl is 6 months old as of August 14. She is fiercely strong; it’s one of the first things people say about her. That, and she has the most beautiful eyes. I personally love her squishy thighs. There are definitely days I feel there’s no way I can be a mother for the long term. And then there are days that I count motherhood as one of my greatest gifts. Today is a mix of both!

Date Night: We spent date night in this week! We put Rose to bed and then gave each other our full attention. Vitaliy got out a bottle of 17 year old single malt that he kept for a “special occasion.” Putting our marriage as a priority is worth the occasion, he said. Anyone who knows Vitaliy knows that he has a strong love for giving toasts. Last night we toasted to marriage and making each other more of a priority. He compared our marriage to the complexity and richness of a nicely aged and matured single malt. It was epic as all of his toasts are!

Vitaliy’s Birthday: Vitaliy’s birthday is coming up at the end of this month. Last year I scheduled him to go skydiving for his birthday. Both attempts were rained out and then the season ended. He is a lover of experiences over gifts. Leave me some birthday celebration suggestions in the comments! My sleep-deprived mind is falling short and he deserves something special.

Summer Bucket List: With school back in session, everyone seems to be talking about the arrival of Fall. Though I do feel ready for some cooler weather, I don’t want the ease of summer to end just yet. I revisited our list this week and I couldn’t believe everything we’ve done so far. I’m not sure we’ll get to every single one, but being able to use this list when we had a free day this summer was so helpful. Smore’s in our backyard is definitely going to be a priority over the next week or so.

Failure: Do you see that beautiful photo of Vitaliy and I? We took that picture and a lot more over a year ago for the About Us page of our website. We were long overdo for updated photos and I wasn’t sure how excited I’d be to take new photos after being pregnant. We have yet to update our website with the new photos. We shot a new video too around the same time. I’m sharing this to let you know that you are not alone if you have something on your to-do-list that has been there for over a year. Cheers to progress and not perfection!

Rising Tide Challenge: Speaking of imperfection, I joined the #risingtidechallenge on Instagram this week and only completed 3 out of the 5 days. But I wanted to share because it’s a community worth looking into if you are a creative/entrepreneur/small business owner. You can find the Rising Tide Society website here. Their motto is community over competition! Now, that is a mindset I can get behind!

I’m watching Rose work on her crawling skills as I type this. She’s not quite there yet, but she sure is getting close. I hope you all have a great weekend! We actually have a free Saturday and I’m hoping to make the most of it! Any fun plans or events going on in the area I should know about? Leave me a comment!

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Written by Candace on August 14, 2015 | 2 Comments

The Weekender

Here is a weekly review of my thoughts and findings from the week.

Coffee: As a new mom, I am desperate for a cup of coffee first thing in the morning. It’s usually the only cup I drink in the day so I try to savor every sip. We keep one container of medium roast beans and one container of dark roast on hand and we grind it up each morning. We prepare pour over and drink it as black as can be. My current fave is Verve’s 1950’s Blend which we purchased from our favorite coffee shop across the bay, Cafe 4. I soooooooo wish we lived closer and could enjoy their space more frequently.

Life Hack: Vitaliy and I are on a mission to live a slow cooked life. That’s a post on it’s own which I hope to write about soon. Actually I hope Vitaliy will write about it because it’s really his concept. But think slow, savoring, and peaceful. A bit of trial and error to achieve these. This week we’re trying something new in our daily routine and so far it has been perfect for us. We found that our evening routine was just too busy and overwhelming. Trying to prepare a big home cooked meal while also trying to get Rose fed, bathed and ready for bed felt all consuming and exhausting by the end. So, we decided to change things up! A big lunch, nightly routine for Rose, followed by a snacky type dinner and rest for Mom and Dad. Win, win for everyone! I realize this won’t work forever, but it fits for this season and I feel like I’ve cheated the system and come out on top.

Small Home: We are still living in our 350 square foot in-law unit with our 6 month old baby daughter. I remember when we first moved into this space we weren’t sure we were going to be able to make it work with just the two of us. We’ve now been living there for almost 3 and a half years and we’ve added a baby. It’s crazy, but we make it work! Unless you live in the bay area, it’s hard to understand why or how. And don’t get me wrong, there have been many days these last few months that have been consumed by discontentment or envy. But I’ve been working on my thought life and my heart and I have a new fondness for our little home. So, I was super inspired when I came across fellow entrepreneur and small home living Sonnet James founder Whitney Lundeen’s apartment tour.

Date Night: We’ve got quite a few work events coming up that we need babysitters for so we’re trying to save babysitter requests for those. So, this week we went to a local outdoor movie in downtown Redwood City, Movie On The Square. First up, it’s free! Secondly, the movie plays at sundown which correlates with Rose’s bedtime. It wasn’t perfect, Rose did wake up twice during the movie. But it was a statement. I wanted Vitaliy to know that I still valued adventures with him even though we have a baby and can’t be quite as adventurous as we once were. We held hands and enjoyed a beautiful night together.

Crafted: Earlier this week, Vitaliy enjoyed a night out with the boys. I wanted to relax in front of the TV, but didn’t feel inspired by the usual run of shows. I was in the mood to learn something and felt drawn to watch a documentary. I scrolled my Amazon prime options and found a short documentary called Crafted. 25 minutes long, perfect! I rarely can last longer than an hour these days without falling asleep. It was just what I was looking for! Three stories about fellow creative entrepreneurs. As a small business owner, I felt so inspired and encouraged. Three takeaways that I could totally relate to: 1. Running your own business is hard, some days you will just want to quit. 2. There is always a level of dissatisfaction in the creative process. 3. You don’t do it for the money, you do it for the joy and the lifestyle it affords.

There you have it! I hope you all have a great weekend!

Photo: Friday family work day

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Written by Candace on August 12, 2015 | 7 Comments

Rose Svitlana
3 Months Old

We are only days away from having a 6 month old.

So, I thought we better get around to sharing a few of Rose’s 3 month baby photos. Obviously, we take fun photos of Rose all the time with our phones which you can see on our Instagram accounts here and here. But Vitaliy and I also decided to take 3 month, 6 month, 9 month and 12 month photos of Rose with our “big camera”. After culling through these images, I’m so happy we made this commitment. There are so many milestones throughout a child’s first year of life and now we have them captured for memories sake.

These totally happened on a whim. We were nearing the end of her third month and decided everything else needed to be put on hold so we could make what was important to us as a family happen. We didn’t buy new clothes, we didn’t get hair and makeup done, we didn’t scout out locations. We worked with what we had and made it happen. I really love that we decided to stay at home to take these photos. For one, we get beautiful natural light in our bedroom which is perfect for photos. But more importantly, I never want to forget this time in our little home with our little newborn enjoying our little family.

And before I go, I want to thank you all so much for your love and genuine support of my last post regarding our anniversary. The response was incredible! Thank YOU!

Dear Rose, you have left a huge mark on Mommy’s body and heart. I’ve never worked harder at anything in my life than caring for you. And I couldn’t be more thankful! You are worth every single hardship and every hour of sleep lost. Your scream is loud, your independence admiring, and your touch invigorating. I love that, as of right now, you look just like your daddy. You are my new favorite thing and this is only the beginning.

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