From the monthly archives:

June 2011

Paloma’s Nest Giveaway

June 30, 2011

Did you hear the news? One of my favorite creative studios, Paloma’s Nest, opened their first brick-and-mortar store last week! As you might expect, they’re still celebrating. You get to celebrate too, because they’re offering a $75 gift certificate to a lucky winner!

The store is in Austin, Texas, and I hear it’s just the beginning. They have plans to open a store in historic Chattanooga this fall and are excited to explore other possibilities worldwide in the next few years. Paloma’s Nest hand crafts such beautiful things. I always want to reach out and touch the screen when I see their wares.

Doesn’t the new shop look lovely? If I had $75 to spend at Paloma’s Nest, I’d be tempted by the wooden hangers, the where you were born maps, and the tiny text bowls. How about you?

To enter, visit the Paloma’s Nest site and leave a comment below. The winner will be announced on Monday. Good luck!

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Amy is the lucky winner! Thanks for playing.

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Heart & Stone Giveaway

June 30, 2011

I’ve got two giveaways for you today and I’m quite sure you are going to love them both. For the first one, Heart & Stone Jewelry is offering a beautiful Tiny Tags Necklace!

The winner will receive a 2 tag necklace valued at $295! This is a design Heart & Stone created several years ago but it had a couple of complications, so the design was tabled. Several people begged them to bring it back and they’ve just about worked out the final details. The fact is, they’d love your feedback. You can read about the complications here and see what you think.

(Lucky you, you’re getting the very first sneak peek of the new design!)

To enter, visit Heart & Stone and leave a comment below. The winner will be announced on Monday.

P.S. — In case you’re wondering, the prize necklace doesn’t include rubies, sapphires, emeralds or diamonds — any other stones are A-OK.

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Leslie is the lucky winner! Thanks for playing.

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Cooking Class

June 30, 2011

photos by Stacey Haines forTraditional Home

My brother and sister-in-law have spent the last few days touring around Paris, and today they’re coming to Normandy! Ben Blair and I are meeting them in Louviers at One Rue Tatin to take a cooking class from world famous chef, Susan Loomis.

I’m so excited! It’s been ages since I’ve taken any sort of cooking class and I can tell this is going to be a really good one. Plus, I’ll get to spend the day with some of my favorite people.

How about you? Have you ever taken a cooking class before? If you were to take one, is there anything in particular you would want to learn?

P.S. — For those of you who have seen our House Hunters International episode, we’ll actually be taking the class in the 2nd home featured in the show — the restored convent!

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Has Blogging Transformed Motherhood?

June 29, 2011

poster here

My mom writes a sometimes-blog and I especially loved her latest post. It’s about how blogging has changed motherhood for her daughters. In her post, she references a journal entry she wrote in 1973 (the year before I was born) when she had 4 young children at home.

I hope you’ll read it and tell me what you think. I’d love to know if you feel the same way about blogging.

P.S. — I love that I get to blog for a living. Even better, I love that I get to blog about my experiences as a mother for a living. I would say I definitely do what I love and love what I do.

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Shadow Puppets

June 29, 2011

image by Plum

It occurred to me that I need a better stock of rainy day activities so I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for something we haven’t tried before. What do you think of shadow puppets? I saw this set of 9 on Plum and think they’re so cute! You can find your own set here (also dinosaurs).

What are the latest rainy day activities at your house?

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Letters to Her Future Self

June 28, 2011

Here’s another idea I worked with Yahoo! Mail to develop. When we started this adventure I knew I wanted my kids to keep a record of their experiences here in France. They each have a journal, plus assorted notebooks and sketchbooks, but I can’t say anyone in the family (including me) is a great pen and pencil journal writer. So we came up with a plan. I registered new email addresses for any of the interested kids. Without sharing the real addresses, I’ll tell you they’re along the lines of maude2012@yahoo.com.

The kids write emails to their new addresses whenever they feel like it. When something cool happens, when they get frustrated, when they end up in the hospital(!) for 4 days. My hope is that this is easier than a blog, something they don’t feel compelled to add pictures or links to, or share with an audience. The plan is to open all the email when we get back and find a fun record of their year in France. At that point, they can turn the emails into a book, or just keep the digital record. Either way, I think it will be great for them to re-discover their year abroad through their own letters.

Do you do journals and diaries at your house? Paper or digital? Any tips for encouraging kids to keep a journal? (And yes, Maude is getting better everyday. She’s still in bed, but look! there’s a little color in her cheeks. Hooray!)

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This is post #3 of a 3-part series sponsored by Yahoo! Mail.

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Chateau Medavy

June 28, 2011

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On Father’s Day, we were taking an afternoon drive and happened upon Chateau Medavy by accident. It’s a grand old building and you can pay a few euros to take a tour of the interior, but we were delighted to just walk around and enjoy the grounds. I thought the round outbuildings (apparently, former towers) were the best part.

I would say happy accidents like this are one of the big differences between living in a place and visiting a place. Chateau Medavy is beautiful and it’s definitely a place we’d love to share with houseguests, but if you’re only going to be in France for a week, and there are places like Chateau Versailles to visit, Medavy is probably not going to make your list. : )

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Red, White & Blue

June 28, 2011

photos from Martha Stewart

I’m reading my July issue of Martha Stewart Living and devouring all the red, white and blue (I think it’s my favorite color combination). I just realized this will be my first Independence Day where I’m not living in America. So strange! I think we will visit the Normandy D-Day beaches on July 4th — and eat peanut butter sandwiches too — so that we’ll feel properly American that day.

Have you already made your 4th of July plans? Maybe we should all make one of Martha’s red, white and blue desserts.

P.S. — It makes me happy that France’s flag colors are red, white and blue too. And that their version of independence day falls in July as well. Makes it easy to feel patriotic. : )

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Coolest Categories Contest

June 27, 2011

Hello, Friends! I have a big announcement and I’m all sorts of excited about it. It has two parts. Here’s the first one:

This year, the American Cancer Society has had some of the biggest names in art and entertainment join in to help create a world with less cancer and more birthdays. People like Rihanna and Justin Bieber. People like Eric Carle. And now, it’s your turn.

-Musicians/Future Rock Stars, submit a music video of you performing the “Happy Birthday” song.
-Super-cool Artists/Designers, submit original art inspired by the progress we are making against cancer.

The winning musician will be featured in a nationwide advertising campaign. The winning art will be featured in an American Cancer Society card collection on Tiny Prints. And both will be featured in the More Birthdays online gallery. Best of all, every entry will help raise awareness and support for the fight against cancer. Awesome, right?!

There will only be two big winners of the Create More Birthdays Contest, but you can bet, there will be many other amazing submissions that deserve recognition. Which brings me to the 2nd part of the announcement: I’m going to run a concurrent contest on Design Mom called the Coolest Categories Contest.

I’ve teamed up with the American Cancer Society to create four additional categories with four cool prizes. The categories are Did That Just Happen?, Can’t Get It Out of My Head, Most Likely to Go Viral, and Gasp-Worthy. And the prize for each category is: a print of your choice from the More Birthdays gallery, a collection of More Birthdays wrapping paper, and a Tiny Prints gift pack. Rad! If you don’t win the Create More Birthday Contest, you’ll be considered for a prize in the Coolest Categories Contest — you don’t have to do anything extra to enter.

How will the lucky winners of the Coolest Categories Contest be picked? I have 4 fabulous guest judges that I’ll introduce to you on July 6th. So watch for it. And in the meantime, go enter and go vote! I can’t wait to see your artistic creations and hear you (or your kids!) sing Happy Birthday. I’ll be sharing some of my favorite entries here on Design Mom. Yay!

P.S. — I don’t think I know anyone that hasn’t had their life touched by cancer in some way. How about you? Also, which category do you want to win? One more thing: find contest info and rules here.

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French Tag Sales

June 27, 2011

In France, garage sales/yard sales/tag sales are called Vide Greniers (pronounced veed-gren-ee-ay). And they are organized by the community. Each town picks a weekend and a location and any resident that wants to join in, sets up a table with all sorts of random stuff they’re ready to sell.

Now that summer is here, we see signs for vide greniers all the time and try to stop whenever we happen upon one. We rarely buy much, but it’s always fun to see what’s there. Here are some of the treasures we’ve brought home so far:

1) A little lunch pail.
This is actually very small — about 7 inches high. Perfect for a light lunch or a big snack. I bought it hoping Betty would use it for her daily snack container. But when she saw it she just looked at me and sort of sighed and shook her head no. I’m sure she’s wondering why her mom can’t figure out how to buy a normal snack container with a Hello Kitty on it.

June 21, 2011

Happy First Day of Summer! I can hardly wrap my head around the idea that summer is really here because my kids still have another week of school (that seems so crazy!). How about you? Are you already in full summer vacation mode? Something about summer makes me daydream of building a tiny getaway. I [...]

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← Previous Entries

June 2011

Paloma’s Nest Giveaway

Heart & Stone Giveaway

Cooking Class

Has Blogging Transformed Motherhood?

Shadow Puppets

Letters to Her Future Self

Chateau Medavy

chateaumedavy02

Red, White & Blue

Coolest Categories Contest

French Tag Sales

Minga Berlin Socks

A Few Things

Pip Studio

French Country Wedding

Museums With Kids

The Illusion of Control

Maude

French Greys

Book of the Week: Parisian Chic

Tiny Houses

Welcome

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Initiation

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