inspiration

Steph sent me these pages from Marie-Claire Maison, a magazine I wish I could find around here. So inspiring. I love the lamps in that dining room...and that blue iron bed. And even more than the images I love and appreciate thoughtful friends who take the time to stick pages in the mail for you that they think you might like. Kindness never fails to make my day.

happy halloween

giveaway closed

congratulations mandi and carly! i've emailed you...

best cookies ever

Definitely a good day to make cookies. Try this recipe here - best sugar cookies I've made yet! Even though I can't snitch raw dough right now. What a shame. And if you are interested, Amy from Progressive Pioneer recently interviewed us here. Thanks, Amy! Always love reading what you have to say.

Giveaway still open until tomorrow...

it's a GIVEAWAY...

The nice people over at Make Good: Crafts + Life recently sent Melissa and I copies of their new releases, Carefree Clothes for Girls, by Junko Okawa, and Felting for Baby, by Saori Yamazaki. I loved them: beautiful styling, great patterns, and best of all, INSTRUCTIONS IN ENGLISH!! They've kindly offered two copies each of the books for us to giveaway here, so make a comment and we'll do the random number generator on Thursday to select the lucky winners.



So far I've made the Coat with Scarf. I love the swing-style of the jacket and the high collar (it's hard to see under the scarf, but the neck is mandarin-style) and it took me just two hours to whip it up (the scarf took me a little longer to knit; I'm slower at that). Am excited to try another (I think the white melton hat must be next).



(Full disclosure: the six year old did admit - "I like it mom, but it turns out it's not good for scooterin'." Apparently the best outfit for that activity would be her bathing suit, underneath her ballet skirt. Not pictured.)



...and super excited to try felting. The slippers on the cover have new baby's name all over them. Whatever that name will be.



Good luck!

ah, trim...

Have you ever seen sweeter trim? Stephanie just updated her shop with this and more vintage french trim, and was so kind to gift me some for my birthday. Thank you, Steph! Thoughtful as always...

she's brilliant!

A gift from the brilliant Nathalie Bearden from Kennedy and Friends. Everything she makes is so bright and cheerful. I love her colorful blog. Her talents are multiple. Have you seen her new living room redo? Amazing! I wish she could come help me brighten up my house!

Nesting Phase One Completed: Girls' Room

This past weekend I finally finished the girls' room. It used to be blue, but now it's a much calmer pink (Behr "soft cashmere") which is somewhat of a visual relief. The blue was kind of intense. Anyway, we wanted it to be pretty but not too little-girly, and loved the headboard that Grace from Design Sponge made last month, which completely inspired our somewhat simplified version. (Her instructions and sources are wonderful, if you are considering making your own headboard. It really was a piece of cake! And she's so cute.)

...Right now I have insomnia, trying to think of lovely names for a baby girl. Any ideas?

Greetings! Yowzers, it's been a busy couple of weeks...piano lessons, soccer practice, ballet, and the art program at school. All good. Things are really picking up with our school art. We have a volunteer coordinator planning our art show for the spring (Pie in the Plaza - fancy!) and I can't wait. So far we have over 200 children who will have art to display, and hopefully that number will continue to grow as the school year continues and more parents get involved. We've had such a great response from the kids and the teachers, particularly. Seriously, if you are even contemplating doing something like this at your school, do it!! I never thought it would take off as quickly as it has.

Here's a small round-up of our projects from the last couple of weeks:

Painting with Scissors, a la Matisse (lesson here)



Van Gogh Sunflowers (lesson here) (oops, don't have a picture of these on my camera - but they were beautiful)

Picasso Portraits (lesson here)



Other things on my schedule:

Start saving to go stay at Stephanie's finished La Maisonette. So, so lovely it hurts.

Just ordered fabric to make matching headboards for the girls' room, exactly like this one on Design Sponge. Am hoping that chic headboards will distract from the perpetual mess from the six-year old's - ahem - creativity.

room-switch & nesting

So now at 20 weeks (phew) I'm halfway through my pregnancy. Happily no longer feeling like I am going to throw up at every minute, I've begun nesting in earnest & thinking ahead to when our little one arrives at the beginning of February. The 2 year old has moved in with the 6 year old... I have high hopes for late-night laughter and secret-whispering over late-night fighting and getting out of bed... and her old room will be the nursery. I've been trying to think of how I can make some little changes to the room to make it the new baby's instead of just Aida's old place, with a different baby sleeping in the crib, you know? But nothing that requires spending much money because that just seems silly.

I wonder why we nest. (And, incidentally, as I just typed that thoughtful question, I witnessed the 2 year old eating a nugget of dog food. Thankfully she chose to spit it out. Just FYI). Because I guess a cute little nursery doesn't really matter so much in the long run. When our son was born 8 years ago, we lived in the tiniest little apartment in San Francisco on top of Mt. Sutro and he slept in his stroller next to our bed for the first 6 months of his life. And it was great. I guess mostly the fun of it is in thinking of the new life that's coming -- bathing newborn toes, unclenching their tight little fists to clip those sharp little nails, smelling them. There is so much about raising children and keeping them safe that is hard and stressful and ambiguous that at least planning a nursery is simple in it's purpose and pleasure, you know?

So, ideas, anyone? I'm planning on making the new baby a new blanket for the crib, and perhaps a new little muslin bedskirt, but I still am waiting to be struck with just the right idea for some artwork or a sweet little mobile. We've moved the little red toddler bed into the 6 year old's room so now the nursery contains: 1 empty crib, 1 empty dresser, 1 pair of plain white curtains, 1 empty tiny bookcase, and lots of old clothes strewn over the floor waiting to be sorted into the right hand-me-down bins.

Hmm...

she's old...very old

Did any of you happen to read about the research done by a cultural anthropologist at the University of Durham? Apparently the Little Red Riding Hood story might be thousands of years old. Maybe that's why we like it so much. Check out the article in the UK Telegraph.