Madeleine Creative

A few of my favorites from the Mom-isms I wrote down, bottled up, and gifted in a piece of antique French opaline ✨

1. Two martinis max
2. Lower your expectations
3. Cook it slow and low
4. Everything is figureoutable
5. Nothing like the last minute!
6. When traveling, pack a car bar
7. Put some music on
8. Sometimes both options suck. Still gotta pick one.
9. Write your grocery list by section of the store. Also write down your menu.
10. Surround yourself with people as good as are better than you are

Love you lots Mom 💛

Colin noted last night that my highs and lows of 31 were pretty obvious, and I’ll certainly agree. Which caused me to flip through my last 12 months and pick out all the highlights that weren’t quite as obvious. Very much looking forward to more of these middle moments in 32 ✨

A high of 2025 that never got the recap it deserved— our first week married in Aruba 🩵 certainly called One Happy Island for a reason. And it certainly was One Happy Year. 🥂

Birthday boy 🎈Love you C, thank you for the year of all years.

Papou 💙 Sending you off knocked the wind out of me. It was equal parts, really beautiful and really devastating, and somehow it was exactly as you always planned it’d be. Feels weird to be doing almost anything in a world you’re not in anymore, especially going to family dinner tonight. The only thing I’ve craved the last week is hearing your melodic voice again— how you lingered to select the perfect words always, and your cackle— especially when you thought something YOU said was particularly funny. ☺️

Oh what a treat it was to find the voicemails you’ve left me in your recent years ✨ One wishing me a happy birthday and, ironically, reminding me not to waste any time. One complimenting my first attempt at cooking a favorite Greek dish of yours, somehow managing to work in a lesson about discipline and “keeping at it.” One asking me to “tell my mother that her voicemail is full, and as a a businesswoman, that cannot stand!” One asking me to come by when I was ready to talk so you could help me fix a problem I thought unsolvable. And of course, one telling me you’d cut an article out of the paper that you thought I’d like to read. All began with his same “hello Madeleine,” and all ending with a sweet “okay, bye bye, we love you.”

I wish I could call you one more time to tell you “I made it!” You loved to know wherever I was, whatever time it was, no matter how old I was. You loved good music and playing it loud. You loved a cowboy hat and an Indian bracelet (or two). You loved your family and encouraging us to work hard. You really loved life in a big, big way.

Saying thank you feels so trivial. But I will say, I’m grateful beyond measure you held on for our Greek wedding— sharp and present, there with us all day long. That’s probably one of the greatest gifts I’ll ever be given. 💙 Love, Little Girl

Our first look 🤍

So nice, I married him twice ✨🇬🇷🤍 Opa to our little Greek wedding!

A dozen views of the slowest and fastest space of time right before ✨

The last days of the summer, our first day as the Elders 🤍

1 month til we’re dancing in September ✨🪩☀️