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From the monthly archives:
August 2008
[ Note: There are over 165 different auctions being held through out the internet in celebration of Nie Nie Day. I am hosting 3 here at Design Mom. What's Nie Nie Day? See here. ]
Take a look at this beauty. A full-size stroller, with graceful lines, that weighs in at only 18 pounds. Say Hello to the Micralite Toro. And then open and close it over and over again in one quick move — because it’s so easy to do.
In fact the only thing easier than expanding and collapsing this bad boy, is reclining the seat at virtually any angle. And smoothly. So as not to disturb your sleeping baby. Grand! I adore this stroller. And so do my kids. The Toro is a new line from the UK that has only recently been available here in the U.S. Explore the demo to take a virtual test drive, and I know you’ll fall in love with this stroller too.
Available in four great colors (I have beautiful emerald), and retailing for $525, the Toro comes standard with color coordinated all-weather foot boot, zip on raincover, shopping basket and airpump. I find it’s the perfect compromise between city and country stroller — the large, inflated rear tires make for easy travel over “off-road” surfaces (read: sand and grass), but the Toro is still lightweight and can turn on a dime in tight urban spots.
Great-for-walks plus easy-to-use-for-shopping equals the-perfect-stroller. You can find a list of online Micralite Retailers here. Or. Head straight to Fawn and Forest — one of my favorite baby supply stops.
Thank you Scandanavian Child for the generous donation. A family out there is going to be very happy with their new stroller. : ) Happy Bidding Everybody!
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How this silent auction works:
1) Please place your bid by leaving a comment with your Bid Amount in the comments section of the item you are bidding on. Check the comments to see the most recent High Bid.
2) Following the close of the auction, I will contact the winner (make sure your comment bid includes an email address or link to your blog or some way to contact you). The winner will pay the amount of their winning bid to the Stephanie and Christian PayPal account. The winner will then forward the PayPal receipt to gabrielle@designmom.com and I will put the winner in touch with the sponsor. The sponsor will send the item.
3) Please bid in increments of whole dollars. The auction will end at Midnight PST on Sunday, August 31, 2008.
4) Thank you for participating!
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[ Note: There are over 165 different auctions being held through out the internet in celebration of Nie Nie Day. I am hosting 3 here at Design Mom. What's Nie Nie Day? See here. ]
Prep your hankies my friends. This auction may get you feeling sentimental. The clever shop owner over at Darlybird has paired Six of Her Best Items with photos straight from Nie Nie Dialogues. Making for a Nie Nie Themed Collection that any fan of Stephanie’s would love. Love! Take a look:
Gorgeous CakePlate plus Patterned Cupcake Wrappers. Handmade by Mosser Glass. Start you own cake plate collection — just like Nie’s.
Lola Ruffled Apron by Funktion. Nie always looks so hip and domestic when she dons an apron.
Let Mr & Mrs Nielson’s romance get you inspired to fire up you own. These clever vouchers will help. They include such helpful items as Candlelit Bath, End To Argument and Juicy Kiss.
No one loves a birthday like Nie Nie. Now, you can add pretty tapers like these to your next birthday cake.
Freshwater Pearls and 24 kt Gold make up these delicate little DarlyNest Earrings. Pretty earrings to remind us of pretty Stephanie.
Silhouettes can’t help but remind us of Nie Nie. Wear this Sihouette Cameo Necklace close to your heart.
Did you have any idea an auction could be so adorable? Neither did I. And just think. The whole wonderful lot (with a retail value of over $130!) can be yours if you are the high bidder. So get on that. Don’t delay. Get your bids in pronto.
Thank you Darlybird for the generous donation — and thank you for being a go to stop on the web for chic gifts, home decor and entertaining supplies. Happy Bidding Everybody!
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How this silent auction works:
1) Please place your bid by leaving a comment with your Bid Amount in the comments section of the item you are bidding on. Check the comments to see the most recent High Bid.
2) Following the close of the auction, I will contact the winner (make sure your comment bid includes an email address or link to your blog or some way to contact you). The winner will pay the amount of their winning bid to the Stephanie and Christian PayPal account. The winner will then forward the PayPal receipt to gabrielle@designmom.com and I will put the winner in touch with the sponsor. The sponsor will send the item.
3) Please bid in increments of whole dollars. The auction will end at Midnight PST on Sunday, August 31, 2008.
4) Thank you for participating!
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[ Note: There are over 165 different auctions being held through out the internet in celebration of Nie Nie Day. I am hosting 3 here at Design Mom. What's Nie Nie Day? See here. ]
Ladies and Gentlemen! Get yours bids in right away for this chance to win $150 worth of merchandise at Sarah Jane Studios. That’s right! $150 to spend as you please on any of her beautiful prints and art pieces. Use the gift certificate to buy something for yourself. Or use it to pick out gifts for friends. (Sarah’s prints would make perfect baby gifts!)
Sarah Jane’s work is delightful. I adore her creations, and you can find her delicate line drawings in my own home — in both the playroom and my girls’ room. The colors and styling are up-to-date. The illustration style feels vintage and classic. So charming. Any nursery would be improved with a series of her drawings displayed on the wall.
Cards. Prints. Even a Calendar. Thank you Sarah Jane for the generous donation. Happy Bidding Everybody!
———————
How this silent auction works:
1) Please place your bid by leaving a comment with your Bid Amount in the comments section of the item you are bidding on. Check the comments to see the most recent High Bid.
2) Following the close of the auction, I will contact the winner (make sure your comment bid includes an email address or link to your blog or some way to contact you). The winner will pay the amount of their winning bid to the Stephanie and Christian PayPal account. The winner will then forward the PayPal receipt to gabrielle@designmom.com and I will put the winner in touch with the sponsor. The sponsor will send the item(s).
3) Please bid in increments of whole dollars. The auction will end at Midnight PST on Sunday, August 31, 2008.
4) Thank you for participating!
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If you stand still in my house long enough, you’re likely to get pickled.
I pickle most everything, sans the vinegar. Placing virtually any non-food objects in jars creates instant decor. Walking through my house the other day I noticed that I actually have more glass encased stuff than I would have ever guessed. I think of it as 3-dimensional framing.
Simple glass canisters make the best displays. In one I have a nest found abandoned in my father-in-law’s Sonoma vineyard by my kids while picking grapes. In another, cotton picked by my grandfather when he was young. Beads, buttons, nature finds, miscellaneous craft scraps and vintage game pieces fill other jars or bottles. I’ve a candy jar that holds a chubby little wooden horse carved and painted by my dad a few years ago and a large apothecary jar filled with potpourri and old book pages. One of my favorites is a little mason jar that holds a collection of unique rocks from camping trips that my children, as a tradition, find just for me.
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Friends. You are amazing. The energy and love swirling around everyone’s auction preparations is incredible. Every time I read a comment or an email or work on the big post for tomorrow, I get emotional. Over 90 bloggers will be hosting auctions. And the list continues to grow. In my best imaginings, I had no idea the response would be this overwhelming and wonderful.
And no doubt. Hundreds and hundreds of you — maybe thousands even — are preparing to generously open your pocketbooks and participate by bidding. In fact, Stephanie’s father is in the Utah State Legislature, and a little birdie told me that many of his colleagues are planning to get in on the bidding too. Beautiful.
I told Ben Blair that I’m hoping people are in a public radio mindset. Like when you hear the NPR commentators say: “pledge your membership of only $75.00 and we’ll send you this canvas tote bag with our logo on it.” You know the tote bag is worth maybe $5. But it’s not about that. You’re looking for a way to be generous and supportive. And the tote bag is just a bonus.
I am working fast and furiously to have everything organized and ready to go bright and early tomorrow morning. Be here first thing to see the incredible (incredible!) list of participating sites. And please, please spread the word. Send an email out tomorrow. Put it on twitter. List it on kirtsy. Write a blog post. Make a phonecall. I want to make sure every auction gets the attention it deserves, so that the greatest benefit possible will go to Stephanie and Christian and their dear children.
image from Blue Lily Photography
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A popular topic in Ask-Design-Mom emails is boy clothes. I get lots of questions along these lines: I have 2 sons. I see lots of great clothing for girls out there. But what about the boys?
And I totally feel their pain. It does seem that for every one line of boys clothing, there are a dozen boutiques focused on girls. Well. Never mind that. There are lots of fantastic lines out there with boys on the brain. Here are some great ones:
Wonderboy
All boy. All the time. Casual pieces that are always interesting. I’ve met the husband-wife team behind this line at two different trade shows. They are both delightful. They not only design the clothing, they also design the textiles they use. Which is extraordinary. You can find a list of retailers on their site or see some of their line at small concept.
babysusu
For boys through age 4. Beautifully constructed with a dressier, more modern feel. Find this line at places like petitluxe and citibabes.
Original Penguin
For toddlers and school-age boys. Original Penguin launched with golf shirts for men in the 1950′s. They have very hip mens and womens lines and they’ve recently expanded with a selection for boys. This line is perfect for that leave-it-to-Beaver look.
Do you have any favorite boy clothing lines?
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So a year or so ago. Maybe two. We ditched our cd player (read: moved it to the basement workroom) and replaced it with an mp3 dock. Which is streamlined and wonderful.
But sometimes we miss the cd player.
I noticed this beautiful wall-mount version on Swiss Miss. It’s by Muji. Seeing it gave me courage it admit that I’m not prepared to be cd free yet.
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When I was a kid, we didn’t have a party for every birthday. We did, however, get to choose what was for dinner. Boy have times changed.
Money was very tight when my kids were little. You know how the saying goes, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Turns out to be a wonderful concept as it put my creativity into overdrive and my kids always had more fun when we created an event rather than simply hosting one.
When my son, Bennett, turned 3, (he’s now 13!) we held a birthday parade. At that time, we lived in a track-house neighborhood, which made for the best of parade routes. We invited guests to bring their bikes, wagons, skates and baby-doll strollers. We tied balloons to everything that moved. One mom pulled the wagon with the “Happy 3rd Birthday” sandwich-board that hid the boom-box blasting parade music. (As official parade director, I’m somewhere in the back.) We circled the hood to find neighbors coming out onto their porches and into their yards to wave us by. You’ve never seen a prouder group of tiny people. No one seemed to care that it was raining on our parade. Soon enough we were home for cake, ice cream and presents before everyone left happy and ready for a nap.
Homemade Invitations: $5…Balloons: $25…Cake & Ice Cream: $20…A birthday we’ll never forget: Priceless.
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Actually. I don’t think I’ll be in Chicago on Thursday. (I’ll be celebrating Nie Nie Day.) But one of you might be there if you can act super fast. I’ve got it on good authority that the Oprah Winfrey Show will be filming a segment with Ty Pennington this Thursday. And they’re still looking for guests. Here’s the 411 straight from the source:
Do you have a home improvement question that only Ty Pennington can answer for you? Are you in the middle of a home design project and need Ty’s help to finish it? Do you have a great do-it-yourself idea that you want Ty to know about? Do you have a home improvement creation that you want to show off to Ty?
Well, we have great news for you! Ty Pennington is coming to “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to help you solve all your home design dilemmas! If you are a HUGE Ty Pennington fan and have a question just for him, we want to know! If you’re interested and have questions/ideas/anything for Ty, please click here to submit your information!
[ Edit: the original link is having problems, so this one is better: http://www.oprah.com/pluglist.jsp?teamTypeName=TOWS Go to the Decorating section, and click on the HAVE HOME IMPROVEMENT QUESTIONS FOR TY PENNINGTON link. Sorry for the confusion, someone else just alerted me to the problem! ]
Fun stuff! Email me if you make it on the show so I can be sure to watch whenever it airs.
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