The cherries are starting to ripen.
Both Ben Blair and I grew up with cherry trees in our yard. And we both have parallel memories of cherry pit spitting contests. Cherries feel like summer. What are your summer foods?
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From the monthly archives:
June 2009
Last night’s main course was a vast salad which included greens and sugar snap pees from our own backyard. It reminded me that I never regret time and effort spent attempting to grow food. So after dinner, we gathered the kids and used the rest of the evening to weed the garden spot. Then we ate Grandma Jenny’s famous slush for a treat (which tastes a lot like someone froze a carton of pine-orange-banana juice).
Thing I learned: my trowel is a piece of junk and must be replaced. Possibly with the beauties pictured above from Labour & Wait.
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My kids have been watching Michael Jackson music videos all weekend while we’ve tried to explain the (pop) cultural significance of Thriller. Anyone else? It feels like the end of an era.
Speaking of “the end,” Laurie just sent me the link to a fantastic flickr set put together by Dill Pixel.
The typography on this one is so delicious.
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I loved getting emails about both of these darling parties. A Yoga Party featured at Honeyflake, with adorable invitations rolled up like yoga mats and cheerful mandala tees.
And a Mr. Man Party for a set of triplets featured at Full House, with mustache lollies and a banner of neckties.
For moms who need a creative outlet, sometimes hosting clever birthday parties is just the thing.
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A couple of my recent posts you won’t want to miss at Cookie’s Nesting blog.
1) A roundup of ginormous summer totes.
2) And these really beautiful fire extinguishers you won’t mind having on the kitchen counter.
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I’m coveting an S. Stein Workbag. The line of bags and accessories is gorgeous. And the product photos make me happy. Also. This is fun: Sherry Stein, the designer behind the line, is a Colorado girl. Nice.
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I was so delighted with Laurie at Tip Junkie’s request to interview me for her Talk To Me Tuesday series. You can see my answers here. Thanks, Laurie! I had a great time.
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My heart is both heavy & racing. Heavy because it is Friday, my last day as guest mom. I was soooo scared (read: intimidated) to do this, feeling in the presence of greatness each time I read Design Mom. But once I started, it felt like a window was opened, with the best cool wind breezing through. My mind flooded with all sorts of things I wanted to share. But would anyone care to read them? Can’t stop — it felt so great to write, and post, and rush home from “regular” work to see my post on a real live blog. With real live comments. From real live wonderful people. I might just have to keep writing. Funny how you can fit things in when they truly feed your soul.
So for my last post, I’ve collected a sort of “favorite things” list (I love reading lists!) Things that are essential in my world. Things that in common, share a sort of beauty, comfort, & simplicity.
1. Gap boyfriend jeans. Please believe, after 17 years, I have amassed quite a collection of jeans. And I have donated many of those. My definition of a great pair of jeans are any pair I can wear on my day off — because I WANT to. And these are the best pair Gap has ever ever made. I actually have 2 pairs, as does my friend Jen. We nearly sold out of them before they hit the sales floor because so many associates bought them. They are that good!
2. Waldorf mobiles. My best friend from college first discovered these at a Waldorf school in new york. She hung one in her daughter’s room, and I have been smitten ever since. Wool roving is such an amazing material. Paired with stars — unmatched in its beauty.
3. Ruth Krauss & Maurice Sendak. I first discovered the book A Hole Is to Dig at an Anthropologie store a few years ago. I was captivated by the tiny drawings & brilliant definitions of everyday things. A couple years later, I happened upon Charlotte and The White Horse and I’ll Be You and You Be Me. Again, the sweet line drawings coupled with moving words written by an adult yet echoing the true sentiment of childhood proved that the collaboration of these two was nothing short of magical. Whether you have children or not, little or grown, I promise you will love these books. They’ll make you smile, they’ll bring a tear to your eye, because that special optimism & innocence of childhood never ever leaves you. Thank goodness.
4. Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips. When I was little, I thought it was so special to have chocolate chips in the house (my mom did not care to bake, so when chips were around, it was something!) I vowed that “when I grow up…” I will always have chocolate chips on hand. And I do. And these are the best. I truly eat them every day. We (I) go through a bag a week. At least. They are good mixed with cereal (no milk). They are good on ice cream. And they are good alone. Go buy some now. You won’t be sorry. (Oh—they are good for baking, too. But I don’t very often because as a grown-up I am responsible enough to know that I will eat the lion’s share of the cookies. And my kids will get mad.)
5. Robert Ryan. In a way, Rob Ryan is not about simplicity. Or comfort. But beauty — for days! I recently discovered his work and cannot stop looking at it. Rob is an artist in London who creates exquisite works with scissors & paper — which I guess at its heart is simple, but oh, the detail! I gave his book This Is for You to my husband for father’s day, and pray that someday we can own one of Rob’s breathtaking works of art.
I know I could go on, but I will stop here. 5 is a tidy list.
Thank you Gabrielle. For blindly believing that I could be a guest mom in the footsteps of so many other great ones before me. For your kind readers and their kind comments. For the joy I have felt writing and sharing this week I wish I could wrap it all up in a bow and send it to you. You’re the best!
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Did I tell you what Ben Blair gave me for my birthday? This rad watch.
When the hip girls from Brooklyn would move to my neighborhood in New York, I would study them for the latest in cool. Amy Palmer, who is effortlessly stylish, would wear a Casio. Or sometimes a calculator watch (remember those?).
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Magazines became a part of my being at age 11 when I decided I wanted a haircut, a short one. My mom is a beautician, but trained in the 60’s, she was more comfortable with beehives & back-combs. So she bought me my first fashion magazine ever. Seventeen magazine. I was hooked. At eleven. So many things to see, to learn, to want to be. And I found a haircut.
I craved every new issue—I think I still have the one with Whitney Houston (as a model) on the cover, eating a giant ice cream cone & wearing a sweater dress whose pattern was in the magazine (did I mention this was like 1982? And no, even though I begged, my grandma would not knit me the dress, as I was only 12, not 17).
By high school, it was Seventeen, Teen, YM (sometimes, not a huge fan), & the queen of teen mags, Sassy. How unbelievably crushed was I when it disappeared. How could I go on without Sassy’s witty commentary & solid advice? But go on I did.
To college, where I had now enlisted the likes of Details, Elle, Vogue, Bazaar, Interview, & Mirabella. The occasional splurge of British or Italian Vogue might cause me to skip a meal or two, but it was so worth it. I lived through those pages, shaping my world, what I would someday surround myself with, after this collegiate journey. Then, no Mirabella. Gone. The way of Sassy. It’s existence as ethereal as the images by Paolo Roversi. I was sad.
Then came Martha. Martha Kids. Martha Baby. And Real Simple. And Country Living. And Domino. Blueprint. Cookie. Wondertime. I had a lot of reading to do! But each one brought something different, something essential. There were piles in the car, while I waited at preschool. The reason my purse is as big as I am—to carry mags, of course. Oh, I must mention here that I also keep many of these. Forever. Not in a weird, stepping over piles in my house way, but in a necessary, these magazines contain a world of important images, articles, and inspiration that I might well need someday way.
And thank goodness I did. Because so many of them are now gone. And I can honestly say that for a time, like after I realized there would be no more Blueprint, no more Domino — ever — I wondered how I would ever find that collection of visual inspiration in my life. It felt like something was dying.
Enter blogs. Without realizing it, they had slowly begun to take magazines’ place in my world. First, Design Mom. Then Oh Happy Day. Then A Cup of Jo. Black Eiffel. Bloesem. Inchmark. Katie did. Simple Lovely. Twig & thistle. Heather Ross. Simply Photo. The list grows every day. All of these amazing visionary women. To you I must say: thank you. You have given back a part of me.
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