Ralph and I flew home from San Francisco Saturday night. We had a wonderful time. Really, just fantastic. Ralph is a great kid to travel with. Enthusiastic about whatever is on the schedule. Kind, helpful and he doesn’t complain.
On Sunday, Ralph shared the trip souvenirs with his siblings. One of my very favorites was the fortune cookies we picked up in Chinatown. Jordan, who knows every cool source in every corner of the city, took us to this tiny hole-in-the-wall shop where two women were making fortune cookies one-by-one.
It was kind of a crazy thing to witness. They were sitting next to two good size machines which produced flat dough circles. In front of them was a small table with a stack of fortunes. While the circle cookies were still hot, the women would grab them and fold them neatly over a fortune. One by one. They were super speedy. I will think of those ladies every time I have takeout Chinese food for the rest of my life.
Jordan knew that if you drop by the shop they have little slips of paper where you can write your own fortunes and they’ll put them into a fresh cookie then and there. So Jordan and Ralph wrote up some awesome fortunes and we brought them home for Maude, Olive, Oscar and Betty.
We bought 5 custom cookies — made to order right in front us — and the cost was $2.50. They say fortune cookies were invented in San Francisco — seems like a really good souvenir.
My sister-in-law, Liz, made an adorable book for her son Henry, filled with photos of his favorite things. I would highly recommend bookmarking this project — it’s a really good idea for a baby gift.
Well hello, friends! I’m posting from San Francisco today. I’m here with Ralph and we’re having a great time. Last night we were able to hang out with Jordan & Paul and Jared & Liz (how lucky am I to have relatives in this fantastic town?). We ate Bi-rite ice cream. Visited the Ferney Art Studio on Valencia Street. Basically we did our best to blend in with the beautiful San Francisco hipsters all evening long.
Because all Design Mom Readers are completely and utterly beautiful as well (of course), here’s your chance to win a $200 shopping spree to Cambria Cove. The perfect place to up your beauty quotient with something really lovely.
$200 to spend on anything you please. You could use it to buy a gift for someone you love — Cambria Cove has mastered the art of gift-giving — they have gorgeous items for every conceivable occasion. On the other hand, they also offer a whole section called Gifts For You, which might be a better way to spend the prize. : ) Either way, you’ll have a wonderful time browsing their collection.
This is a story about Rose and the Bald-Headed Elephant. With some of the funkiest illustrations I’ve come across in a long time. I like what Your Heart Out had to say about it. “Rose tries to help Mr. Elephant past his self-consciousness by showing him all the wonderful things she sees in him. We all need a friend like Rose: someone to bring us up when we’re down—and talk us down from getting a toupee.”
The eating of crayons/playdough/art supplies at our house isn’t too frequent. But it has been known to happen. I wonder if I’d mind the tasting if my kids were using Clementine art products. Non-toxic, environmentally friendly ingredients, in fully recycled packaging. It’s not meant to be eaten, but the Citrus Dough sounds delish.
A new company called Stomping Ground has set out to reinvent school pictures. Their sample portraits are adorable!
Thoughts: Can school pictures be saved? Should our own children be subjected to the tacky school photos of our youth? Would you push your school to hire Stomping Ground vs. Lifetouch (or whoever handles your school photos)?
One last note. Ralph had school pictures taken a few days before school even started. One of the options we could pick: pay an extra fee to have zits photoshopped. Blessed middle school.
What a full happy week! Yesterday was Olive’s birthday. Today is Ralph’s birthday. That means breakfast in bed, wrapping presents and making cupcakes two days in a row.
On Monday night, Maude had a wonderful suggestion: “How about for Family Night [Monday nights are family nights at our house], we go to 7-11 because Olive is 7 and Ralph is 11 and on Tuesday & Wednesday they won’t be any more.”
So to 7-11 we went. And shared a couple of Slurpees among us.
And now Olive is 8 and Ralph is 12.I can hardly believe it.
How cute is this creative packaging? Made from pages of a vintage reading book. And sewn with a simple zigzag on 3 sides. Filled with something sweet of course. What a fun gift to receive!
Dip-dye dress by Kandy Kiss. Leggings by Old Navy. Shoes by Salt Water Sandals. Floral headband by Gymboree. Of course (of course!) Olive wanted (and rightly deserved) a chance to model her back to school clothes. Olive is 7. She is starting to phase out of her pink addiction and on to more sophisticated shades [...]
Don’t miss a couple of my latest posts at Cookie’s Nesting Blog. Like a custom print made in Nie Nie’s honor. And and sleek way to glam your gadgets. Also. Cookie has a fun creative cake contest going on. Win a KitchenAid stand mixer and $125 worth of cake-decorating supplies from Wilton. You can send [...]
I’m on my way to New York in a few minutes. I’m being filmed/interviewed/auditioned for something with HGTV. Sort of a vague description. And yet. It’s all the info I have. Basically, I read an email with words like: New York, HGTV, and video, and said: Yes, please. I have no idea if or how [...]
It’s our fourteenth wedding anniversary today. It feels good. Really good. As I mentioned last week, to celebrate, Ben Blair and I climbed a 14er. 14,270 feet in elevation to be exact. I was warned how hard it would be, but I guess I didn’t really believe it, because the difficulty kept surprising me. The [...]
We had our first taste of Pinkberry (a tart, really yummy frozen yogurt) not too long before we moved from New York, and we were instant fans. There’s no Pinkberry in our new neighborhood, but our Sabey cousins hooked us up with FroYo during our first few days in Colorado and it’s hit the spot [...]
I have a thing for serving trays. They’re super versatile for entertaining and they’re perfect for breakfast in bed. (We’re big on breakfast in bed at our house — especially for birthdays.) I’m really pleased with my newest set of trays. They’re generously sized. They nest, so as not too take up too much space. [...]
Assembling the crib. Duct taping the crib sheet to the mattress so it would be flat in the photos. The room full of assembled products for the shoot. The boxes and boxes that were unpacked and repacked over the 3-day photoshoot. The Room To Grow article was a fantastic project to work on. Putting together [...]
Button down by Peek. Tee by Old Navy. Jeans by H&M;. Red sneakers by Adidas.At your request, here is 11-year-old Ralph showing off his back-to-school wardrobe. Today is his first day of middle school (gulp). We’ve spent the last 24 hours practicing the right-left-skip-the-number-right-padlock-unlocking-method so he won’t get frustrated when he encounters his locker combination. [...]
Woot! I’m so excited. Look what came in the mail over the weekend: my September (Back to School) issue of Parents Magazine. That’s pretty exciting on its own — the issue is jam-packed with all sorts of interesting articles. But even more exciting? On page 190 you’ll find the first feature article I’ve designed for [...]
Ooooh. Here’s a sneak peek of the pretty new packaging for some of the prettiest slings out there. By Sakura Bloom. I heart good packaging. Share and Enjoy:
My name is Gabrielle Blair. I'm a designer and mother of six (our new addition was born last May). We are spending a year abroad in France. I post on where design and motherhood intersect.
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Here's something fun. Our family was featured in an episode of House Hunters International! Spoiler: we choose the gorgeous French Farmhouse. It's called La Cressonnière and we take pictures of it all the time. If you're curious, try these links:
