Tag Archives: living with kids

Winter Whites

02 Thursday Feb 2017

Posted by in Our Etsy Store, Shop, Uncategorized

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winterwhitesWe have a bunch of new listings up in our Etsy shop.  These pieces are great for brightening up cloudy winter days:

* Antique Ironstone Tureen – Has a lovely blue tint, octagonal shape and was made around the 1880s.  The tureen is still sturdy and ready to be used again.

*Five Vintage Children’s Pillow Cases – Each has a different handmade detail.

*Set of Unused Vintage Linen Tablecloth and Napkins – These ten napkins and tablecloth still have their original “Made in Belgium”labels and are made of beautiful quality linen.

*Paint-by-Number Winter Scene – The colors of this little painting are bright and calm.

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Flea Market Finds: Vintage School Map

29 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in Projects, Vintage

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We have been looking for a large-scale something to hang on the wall behind our sofa.  We are really bad about putting things up around the house. We’ve been here for two years now and have a list of things to be framed and hung, but still have a lot of open white walls.  A version of this Airstream print from Hatch Show Print is on our Want list.  (They had a beautiful red one at the shop when we visited in the spring and said they would print a custom order for us).  Chris found this vintage classroom map of the United States in the back corner of an antique shop.  It was a good price, although we weren’t sure where in our house it would fit at the time.  Perhaps I was inspired yesterday by listening to Martin Luther King Jr.’s beautiful I Have a Dream speech.  Perhaps I was feeling patriotic when I decided to hang the giant map up in the living room.  I copied the hanging technique from some friends and removed the map’s heavy roller case.  I tied strong twine around the two ends of the rollers at the top of the map and hung the string on two nails at the top of our wall.  The map seems much larger on our wall than it had in the cavernous antique shop ,but I think it works.  Ada is excited to point to the states she knows (albeit while standing on the couch).   I am excited by the map’s large scale and vibrant colors – and maybe a little excited about a refresher geography lesson.

To find your own vintage school maps you can check your favorite flea market, antique shop, Ebay or Etsy.  Happy hunting!

Organizing

15 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in Organizing

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I can feel the season starting to change around here. It is cooler at night and the leaves are looking slightly less green.  The change always makes me feel like organizing, moving rooms around and moving out things we aren’t using any more.  The two big girls were at Nan and Pappy’s for the week and I took my time rearranging their room.  I moved toys to a shelf that Ada can reach on her own, and got rid of bags of broken and forgotten things.  (I LOVE that NYC is now recycling all hard plastics!)  Now the room feels more airy and they kids are excited to see toys they hadn’t played with for a while.  Here are a few of the things I try to do when I am organizing:

*Get the ugly out of sight.  I hate looking at ugly things.  It hurts me.  I am not kidding.

*Group like things together (all the blocks in one big box, etc)

*Rotate toys by storing some out of sight, and displaying others.  When the kids get bored with the first batch, rotate.

*Make sure everything has a spot.  If it doesn’t, find a spot or get rid of the thing.  Do not leave something in a place it does not belong.

*Try to have each room back to its organized state at bed time.  There is nothing worse than waking up to yesterday’s mess.  It is a pleasure to start the day with order.

*Do not keep something because you feel guilty about getting rid of it.  Your life will be better when you are not carrying around tons of things out of guilt.

*Leave some space around things.

*Live with only useful and beautiful things.  Get rid of the rest.

*Do not keep something because it may someday be useful.  Aside from really special heirlooms, if you haven’t used something in more than a year you do not need it.

*If it is difficult to clean your space, than your space is too cluttered.

*Do not buy ugly storage containers.  If you don’t want to look at plastic bins on your shelves, don’t come home with them.  If the storage container looks worse than the mess, it is not working.

*Life is too short to use ugly dishes, or cups, or toothbrushes…you get the idea.

*Purge!  It feels great!  I promise.

The Bees Are Here!

11 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Inspiration, Projects

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After six months of waiting, our backyard bees have finally arrived!  I must say I am a bit in love.  We don’t have any other pets and we already feel attached to them after a week.  Josie wants nothing but to sit near the hives ,which she calls the ‘bee house’, and watch them every morning.  Ada is upset that I have yet to let her suit up and pull frames out with me.  I took classes with amazing teachers through Honeybee Lives and spent the winter reading and stocking up on bee supplies.  We have years and years of learning ahead of us.  These sweet girls have yet to give me a sting, which I have no doubt deserved thus far.  I am clumsy and hesitant still- not to mention hugely pregnant.  But they quietly let me transfer them from the nucleus boxes into our waiting hives without my wearing gloves (which can prevent sensitive feeling and cause you to squish bees).  My smoker went out in the middle of the transfer and I am sure I bounced them around more than I needed to.  I changed my mind about where their water should be placed, after I not so brilliantly bought what I thought was chicken waterer at an antique shop.  It turned out to be a chicken feeder and all of the bee water came cascading out of the holes when I filled it.  (My parents are going to laugh at me for that one.  What kind of a farm girl am I anyway?!) I honestly got the feeling that I had just given birth when I finally had all of the girls in their new homes last week.

It rained and rained at the end of the week here, so I had to wait impatiently until Saturday to check on the hives.  Inside of one they had already drawn out comb on the new frames by several inches.  The frames were filling up with nectar and brood and I saw many busy foragers flying in with their pollen baskets full.  Chris and I debated whether the quieter hive was being robbed, and later came to realize it was new foragers out on their first flights away from the hive.  They were just memorizing the entrance of their still new homes.  All of this bee activity is sort of magical.  Watching them fly and move and cooperated so precisely it an amazing thing to see.  I feel so lucky to be able to have them here.  I have to agree with Josie- all I want to do is sit and watch the bee house too.

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Spring Cleaning: Stoop Sale

07 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by in Organizing, Projects

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I spent a few hours while Ada was at school yesterday organizing her room and adding to our yearly stoop sale pile.  It always feels so good to clean out the closets and get rid of unused stuff.  I try to rotate the girls’ toys so they get to play with some they have forgotten, but things they have outgrown can be moved on to another home.  I love living in Brooklyn because we often put magazines and other little things out on our front fence and neighbors take them home within a few hours.  We have gathered lots of our own free books from stoops of our neighbors.  This easy way of recycling and sharing unwanted items always makes me feel good.  (There is nothing better than something that is both free and useful!)  We also organize a larger stoop sale with friends once a year.  (I usually have to send the kids to Nan and Pappy’s so they don’t bring home more than we sell).  Aside from clearing out things that we no longer need and meeting the neighbors, it makes us happy to match items with people who are excited to bring a bargain home.

Found Flowers

16 Tuesday Apr 2013

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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

Posted by in Likes, Organizing, Vintage

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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!

Back Yard Progress: Blooms

10 Wednesday Apr 2013

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We have flowers!  The first of our fall plantings started to bloom this week.  It seems the squirrels left the bulbs alone over the winter and the spring flowers have all started to show themselves.  Our Hyacinths were the first to open, quickly followed by a couple varieties of Fritillaria.  (These seem to be overshadowing our Hellebores in the back, so we will keep an eye on placement this first year).  The Lilac, Lilies, Peony, and Viburnum are sending out green leaves.  The only casualty seems to be one Hydrangea that we transplanted in the late fall.  An abundance of wild violets has returned to the newly-cleaned-out lawn space.  Ada and I have been transplanting them to the designated garden space before our sod arrives in a couple of weeks.  Our three-foot Japanese cherry tree arrived via post office from the Arbor Day Foundation last week.  It was a bargain at under $18 with shipping!  We planted it as our first tree as a family and it has already shot out bright green buds.  This is all quite a learning process, as neither Chris nor I have had a real garden of our own before… This post shows some of the before photos from the previously terrifying back yard – (I found a dead rat back there on our first walk-through of the property).  Our backyard bees are arriving in May and will take up residence in the far corner of the yard.  Chris found these German beer garden table and benches yesterday, which we are considering for use on cement patio.  We can hardly wait for the girls to have a real yard to play in!  We are slowly making progress and looking forward to perhaps even relaxing amongst all the projects outside this summer.

Inspiration

15 Friday Mar 2013

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Instagrams From the Week:

*Sliding Down the Giant Slide at Pier Six

*Family in Josie’s Doll House  (She just re-discovered it this week and has been putting babies to sleep and making everyone visit the potty)

*Fridge Art and Alphabet Magnets

*Josie Loves Daddy (She is pretending to play guitar on the TV remote)

*Giraffes, Bronx Zoo (The strange sky painted behind them made them look like they were in a museum, until they moved)

*Josie Arranging Fabric Spots on the Bed (These are from my scrap fabric box and by far a favorite plaything)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kid Gifts: Target Art Supplies

31 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by in Likes, Party!, Projects, Shop

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GiftsArt supplies are one of my favorite gifts for kids.  I try to keep a supply on hand for birthday gifts and moments of desperation.  These Kid Made Modern art supplies by Todd Oldham for Target occupy a large section in our emergency party box.  The quality is great and I love the Kid Made Modern packaging and smart, thoughtful art kits.  This Construction Zone block of paper has lots of great colors and patterns and different weights of paper.  The Mini Colored Pencils are perfect for little hands and the colors are beautiful.  I recently added these paper tapes from the Target office section to our arsenal.  The tapes come in packs of four and are $4 per pack.  My kids can spend hours tearing and sticking paper tape (exhibit A here).  It is good to be prepared.