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Current Obsession: Nipomo Hand-Woven Blankets

October 19, 2018

Hi I love you

I discovered Nipomo's blankets at the MTHR retreat in Sonoma last weekend...and now I want to fill my house (and my Christmas gift lists) with them. They're gorgeous. And hand-woven. And come with (also hand-made) leather carrying straps, in case you love yours so much you feel the need to take it with you everywhere.

The woman who designs the patterns and color ways, Liz Clark, was one of the vendors during the Makers Pop-Up Shop on Sunday, and...you've heard the term "flying off the racks"? These blankets flew. (Liz's mom is the one who makes the leather straps, which is obviously wonderful.) I bought one as a gift for a friend, but am kiiiiind of wishing I'd picked up a couple more, because not only are they spectacularly pretty and unique, they're also crazy-versatile - you can pop them on top of a rug pad and layer them on your floor, use them as beach blankets or picnic blankets, toss them over your bed or the back of a couch...whatever.

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Entertaining

Everything You Need For A Truly Epic Halloween

October 16, 2018

Here is why I feel okay about the fact that I will be putting in something akin to "zero" effort re: my son's birthday party this year:

Because this was what I did last year, and he deemed it "okay. Not very spooky though."

So I think it safe to say we're dealing with a tough customer. And my feeling is, you know: y'all got a trampoline a week ago. You're welcome. (I will be making a spooky cake, of course, but the rest of the festivities will involve takeout Chinese and plastic eyeballs stuck on top of supermarket cupcakes, and it will be great, because I will be sane and he will be on a trampoline, and there you have it.)

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Eat

Oh Dear. It’s Sugar Month.

October 1, 2018

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, according to my children: Sugar Month. Yes yes, Halloween is technically one day, but that little detail appears to have escaped my two sugar monsters, who are under the impression that the second those first leaves fall, it’s all-chocolate, all-the-time. (I blame grocery stores; can we PLEASE put those ten-pound snack-size assortment bags on shelves beyond the reach of a four-year-old? …Please?)

Herein lies the problem: When children know that candy is (allegedly) on the menu, they’re not super interested in anything else, and especially not in coming inside because dinner is ready. No, they’re very, very busy hiding on the front porch with the trick-or-treat buckets that they pulled out of storage sometime in August and filled with pilfered munchies, thinking that Mom doesn’t know what they’re up to. (Spoiler: Mom knows everything.) 

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Decor

You Need To Know About Lorena Canals’ Washable (!) Rugs

September 28, 2018

Relevant to yesterday's post, here is yet another example of why women (and moms, specifically) are set to just go ahead and run the world: Because we come up with genius inventions not just "because" (or just because our egos need a little stroking; ahem, Elon Musk, love you but dude, the "kid-sized" submarine?)...but because they are needed. 

You've heard me whine and whine and whine here for yearrrrrs about my simultaneous love of throw rugs and total rug-related phobias and/or catastrophes. I love the way rugs look; I love the way rugs feel. I do not love that they specialize in attracting dogs that want to pee on them and babies that want to throw up on them, because any rug that lives in my house must be pristine, or the aforementioned phobias come out and I have to sidestep around its borders like a weirdo.

I've bought cowhide rugs. Tossed them. Fluffy rugs. Sacrificed them on the altar of Virgil. Gorgeous woven rugs. Moved them to a "cleaner" spot, then to another, and then gave them away. And now I've landed on a semipermanent solution, using outdoor rugs indoors...except a) that seems wasteful, given that I have to replace them once a season, and b) that still does not solve my sidestepping-around-the-borders-after-a-pee-speck-touches-them problem.

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