Monthly Archives: April 2013

A Visit to Portland (Maine)

30 Tuesday Apr 2013

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I got to spend this past weekend in beautiful Portland Maine. I went without the kids for my cousin’s baby shower and managed to get a whole day to myself walking around the city.  I haven’t been in Portland for years, but was happy to see some of my favorite stores were still alive and well.  The flight from JFK takes only about 45 minutes and the airport in Portland is about a 15 minute drive to downtown.  The city is full of good food and beautiful views and old cobble streets.  Here are a few treasures from the weekend:

*Yarn, yarn, yarn and patterns for baby sweaters from KnitWit on Congress Street.  I especially liked their selection of Maine-made yarns and picked up some pretty Swans Island colors.  (I got a little ambitious, and am trying for three sweaters for the new baby by August).

*German Kite Making Paper from Circa Home on Congress Street.  I can’t wait to look up some kite patterns to make with the girls.  Circa Home is relatively new and has a well-edited and affordable mix of vintage and new housewares, toys and office/art supplies.  I fell in love with a set of vintage children’s gardening tools in the window.

*One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey, Seaweed Soap and Cotton Dishtowels by the Yard are from Folly 101 on Exchange Street.  I remember my Great-Grandmother always had dishtowels like these, bought by the yard and then hemmed at home.  I picked up the One Morning in Maine book as a shower gift.  It has the most beautiful vintage illustrations and makes me want to move out to a remote island on the Maine coast.  McCloskey also wrote and illustrated Make Way for Ducklings – one of our all-time favorite books.  Folly 101’s owner Astrid is also a stylist and has a great eye for simple, beautiful housewares.

I had a great weekend visiting family, watching the water and wandering around Portland.  But I am happy to be home again with my family, and happy to have some new projects to look forward to.

Cheating on Mrs. Meyers

26 Friday Apr 2013

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Caldrea

I love Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day, I really do.  I have used their natural cleaning products for years.  But when I am pregnant and have super smelling powers the fragrance of Mrs. Meyer’s can make my head spin.  (Did I mention we are expecting a third baby in August?)  So, when I spotted Caldrea dish soap at Target the other day I gave them a cautious sniff.  They smell amazing!  The scents seemed powerful and fresh without being overpowering.  I gathered up some Hibiscus Yuzu, Citron Ginger and Blackberry Mint.  They cost $5.99 each and the bubbles turned out to last for an entire sinkful of dishes.  (We are crazy people who eat off of vintage dishes and glassware and never use our dishwasher because it would harm the bakelite and wash away Swanky Swigs decals).  The Caldrea soap smell seemed to pleasantly last through washing but did not linger for the next several hours.  I will have to seriously consider my return to Mrs. Meyer’s after the baby comes and my Spidey Sense wanes.

Garden Inside

25 Thursday Apr 2013

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Flowers

We are so excited to have flowers in the back yard!  I have wanted a cutting garden of my own since I worked designing wedding bouquets years ago.  Our garden is just starting out this spring, but we were able to do a bit of cutting from the bulbs we planted in the fall.  I am in love with these checkered Fritillaria and the Hyacinth and Daffodils smell wonderful.  We purchased our bulbs from White Flower Farm in Connecticut and the resulting plants have been strong and vibrant.  We are trying to stick to a blue/purple/white/cream color palette.  Although this scheme has morphed a bit as Chris recently purchased some giant yellow sunflower seeds, some of the tulip colors are slightly different than the catalog image, and Chris’ parents are giving us some beautiful pink peonies from their yard.  We are looking forward to figuring out the flowering schedule and filling in with new plants every season.  This is what has come up and bloomed in the garden so far:

*Narcissus Cheerfulness

*Narcissus Manly (Huge blooms!)

*Fritillaria Persica Adiyaman

*Fritillaria Meleagris (I love this!)

*Hyacinth Blue Eyes

*Hyacinth Miss Saigon (These smell wonderful)

*Tulip Backpacker

*Tulip Champagne Diamond (So beautiful!)

Happy Spring!

DIY Family Time Capsule

24 Wednesday Apr 2013

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We found so many things buried in our back yard when we were renovating.  The broken pottery, bone buttons, metal and marbles were all hints from the past.  We also found wild violets and strawberries and bulbs planted by previous tenants.  These things inspired us to make our own time capsule to bury under the grass and soil.  We decided to make two identical capsules: one to be opened when Ada is 18 and one to be left under the ground until we are gone and another family digs it up.  Here is what we included in our time capsules:

*A vintage juice glass from the collection we use daily.

*3 marbles that we dug up from the dirt.

*A silver spoon the girls used as babies.

*A family portrait that Ada drew in 2012 which was transferred on to ceramic (see that post here).

*Package from borage seeds we planted in the garden.

*Business card with our email and contact info.  (But who knows if email and phones will be around in the future?)

*An expired driver’s license.

*Ticket from Jane’s Carousel in Dumbo.  (The girls spend a lot of time here).

*A drawing of our house by Ada.

*A note from Ada about our family now.

*A note from me, about what I hope for our children in the future.

*A letter to us and people in the future – detailing who we are, our plans for the house and garden, and a little bit about the neighborhood.  We wrote this on archival paper with pencil, in hopes that it will be legible when it is dug up.  The letter also explains the contents of the capsule.

*We used these Anchor-Hocking jars to pack the contents, and placed a few layers of plastic between the screw top and glass.  Our hope is that the aluminum tops will not rust and will keep out some of the moisture from the ground.

*Chris cut pieces of wood to fit around the glass jars, so that a shovel will not break the jar when they are dug up.

We look forward to digging up our time capsule and remembering how we were in 2013.  Hopefully the jar we leave behind will give the next occupants of our house a little taste of the history that came before.

Flea Market Finds: Linens

22 Monday Apr 2013

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One of my usual searches at flea markets is for vintage linens in good condition.  I get especially excited when I find unused vintage Irish linen napkins with the original label still attached.  Linen lasts forever and washes beautifully in the machine.  For tough stains I pre-treat with Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap.  We use the cloth napkins at mealtimes and the dish towels for drying the dishes afterward.  I find that if we have paper towels and napkins at our house that we use a ton of them.  The linens save paper and make dinner seem a little fancier.  I found these napkins and Ireland dish towel at the Brooklyn Flea this weekend.  The booth owner even washed, pressed and tied the napkins with twill tape.  All 11 napkins and the towel came to $20.  Bargain!  Ebay has some pretty vintage napkins here and dish towels here.

Inspiration

19 Friday Apr 2013

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It has been a few weeks since I posted our Instagrams.  We have had two weeks full of house projects, kindergarten tours and lawn preparations.  I am quite happy it is friday and we are all looking forward to a slow and unscheduled weekend.  Here are some Instagrams from the last few weeks:

*Ada’s Wikki Stix Flower

*Josie and Yard Toys

*Our New Sod!

*Josie’s Nesting Dolls Which She Lined Up Behind the Office Door (Thanks Aunt Anna!)

*The Aftermath of the Apple Surprise Balls

*Sleepy Josie

Have a wonderful weekend!

Spring Cleaning: Dusting

18 Thursday Apr 2013

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Our house has tall crown moldings that we rarely notice accept to bemoan their need of repairs.  I have never dusted up there and I am quite sure the previous owners did not. (It took a team of four people nine hours to clean the house before we moved in).  The cleaning team also ignored the crown moldings, so it has been at least five years since they got a good dusting.  I found this Sla-Dust this week and decided it was time to tackle the dusting job.  The Slack Dust Mop Company has been hand-making wool mops for over 100 years in Vermont.  The company is still owned by the same family and they  pride themselves on making sustainable, non-disposable quality products.  My Wool Hand Duster did a great job on the moldings and ceiling fans and also worked to grab dust out of the crevices in our radiators.  The wool head attaches with Velcro and can be hand washed in soap and water for cleanup.  I finished the whole job in under half an hour.  So satisfying!

Found Flowers

16 Tuesday Apr 2013

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Flowers
This is what Ada and Josie found at Home Depot.  I hate going to Home Depot.  I immediately turn into a zombie under the warehouse lights and can never find what I came in for in a timely manner.  We went only to the outdoor garden section this weekend to find some seeds and plants for our ‘window box’ (aka air conditioner guard).  The girls ran around gathering fallen flower heads from under the displays.  Ada cannot come home from Home Depot without pockets full of stray nails, screws, pieces of wire.  Her trash treasure collecting annoys me most of the time – especially after I wash her jacket and realize that it contained piles of dry leaves.  When we got home she and Josie handed over the pile of flowers they had collected and asked that I put them in a bowl.  It looks lovely on the table, this magpies’ pile…I should remember that this love of found things is in their blood.

Charcoal Water Purifier

12 Friday Apr 2013

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PitcherCharcoal
I have been trying to escape our habit of keeping a Brita pitcher on the counter.  It makes our water taste better, but the unattractive plastic container hurts my eyes.  I came across this Kishu Binchotan Charcoal at Dry Goods in Brooklyn last weekend.  (See my post about my new favorite store Dry Goods here).  This charcoal is actually just a piece of ceramic-like burned wood, charred at super high temperatures.  The charcoal absorbs impurities in the water and makes it taste much better.  The Brita and many other filters use the same charcoal technology.  But these Binchotan sticks look better and don’t come ground up and housed in disposable plastic.  (Technically NYC water is safe to drink without a filter, and we had ours tested to be sure there is no lead in our old pipes.  But I grew up with well water and I like ours to have that similar taste).  I boiled the Binchotan Charcoal for ten minutes per the directions, dropped it into my vintage ice tea pitcher and let it sit for a couple of hours.  I was thrilled to find that the taste is as clean, and even better than water from the Brita.  This glass pitcher is a welcome addition to our countertop.  Ebay has a great number of inexpensive vintage glass pitchers here if you want one of your own.  Cheers!

Flea Market Finds: Ironstone Pitchers

11 Thursday Apr 2013

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Pitchers
The city is working on some water mains down our block and has shut off our water during “working hours” for the next week.  The working hours seem not to fit the schedule of those of us who work at our houses, but oh well.  It feels a bit like pre-indoor plumbing days around here and we have pressed some of our large ironstone pitchers into service to hold water reserves for the day.  We have been using them to water plants, flush toilets, and wash hands.  Every household used to have at least one set of a similar large pitcher and basin for washing hands and faces before faucets spouted instant water.  I have always been drawn to the smooth white shapes of these vessels at flea markets.  (These two happen to be from the attic of Chris’ grandparents).  Sets of ironstone pitchers and basins can be found for relatively low prices these days. We tend to separate the two pieces and use our basins for toy and napkin storage, as well as for hand-washing linens.  The pitchers make perfect large vases and are especially lovely filled with peonies.  You can find your own ironstone pitchers here on Ebay and Etsy.  (Hopefully you will have water from your own sink to fill them with).