Our bathroom is a dark, depressing cave. Both of them are, actually. When I decided to renovate them (and yes, I decided to renovate both of them at the same time, OBVIOUSLY, because why have one non-functioning toilet when you can have two?! WHEEEEEE), one of my major goals was to make them feel...well, like places I wanted to spend time in. As opposed to dark, depressing caves.
Which is to say: there is, at present, a large hole in our bathroom wall.
My hallway before I made it awesome.
I painted my hallway green before we moved into our house (or even saw it in person). I did this to a lot of things in my house, actually - painted them, tore them out, replaced them, et cetera - before we first stepped foot in it, because we bought it over FaceTime and I wanted to get as many of the bigger projects as possible done before we drove across the country and had to actually live in the place.
Sometimes this remodeling-via-WiFi turned out pretty well for me - with our light-grey floors, for example, which I continue to love - but the green hallway I regretted almost instantly. The color, which I'd envisioned as a cool mint, was a touch pea-soup-y in the non-existent light, and worked much better in my daughter's room - the spot I'd initially chosen it for.
Happy Thursday! I wanted to tell you guys about something I'm doing this October, on the off chance that some of you might be interested in attending a weekend of yoga, meditation, essential oil workshops, vintage Airstreams and such in California's Wine Country (I know; it sounds terrible). MTHR Collective's 4-day, 3-night retreat in Russian River - at which I'll be one of the speakers - is specifically for mothers who are interested in exploring their creativity in an intimate, informal environment...that just so happens to also be one of the coolest campgrounds (if you can even call it that) I've ever seen.
What the long weekend - October 11-14, 2018 - includes*:
*Aside from speaking at the retreat, I'm not affiliated with or sponsored by MTHR Collective, just FYI.
Dress | Cropped Sweater (similar) | Sunglasses | Boots (similar)
Am I showing my age when I tell you that Reese Witherspoon and Marky Mark (who I'm preeeeetty sure was still called Marky Mark at the time, and if he wasn't, he should have been) in Fear were like the ultimate in hot couples? You know - spoiler alert - prior to him going insane and killing her dog and trying to kill her family, I mean.
The rollercoaster scene, oh my god. I am sitting alone in front of my computer and blushing at this very moment.
Noritake Blue Hammock Dinnerware | HomeGoods Macrame Placemats (similar from World Market)
You guys sent SO MANY RECIPES! My stomach thanks you, as does my wallet - because something I really appreciated was that so many of the ideas you sent - and please keep them coming - use normal-ish ingredients that I already have in my cupboard, as opposed to, say, saffron threads (WHY must saffron be so expensive?).
The first recipe I decided to try was one for Garlicky Chicken with Lemon-Anchovy Sauce. It was sent over by Mimi, who called it "one of the best things I've ever eaten." Sounds good to me.
This girl though. (Dress | Shoes)
The bulk of my daughter's wardrobe consists of her brother's hand-me-downs - because of the money/effort-saving thing, but also because I've always loved how she looks in his old stuff - but of course I do occasionally come across a flouncy, girly dress or pair of shoes that I can't resist. The problem with "special clothing" for kids, though, is that kids have a tendency to ruin it. Immediately. So I did what I suppose most parents do with their children's nicer clothing: I reserved it for special occasions.
Except there was this one dress - a red corduroy dress that my mother-in-law gave her that was meant to be her Christmas dress. But the first Christmas she had it, it was too big for her, so I figured I'd save it for the next Christmas and not have her wear it in the meantime so it still felt special...and then the next Christmas it was too small. So now it's in a box in our garage. After that, I began applying the same principle to my kids' clothing as I do to my own: the only way you can be absolutely certain that you won’t mess it something up is to never wear it...and what that means is that it’ll never get worn.
Witness the work-from-home mother in the wild.
She parents! And makes a living! AT THE SAME TIME.
Alriiiiight, it happened. A troll made me mad. I know I said a few weeks ago that troll comments rarely get to me anymore - and really only do when they feel like they contain a little nugget of truth - but the other day someone asked who was watching my kids while I was in New York City shooting a pilot for a show, and I got all riled up.
I have been on a lifelong hunt for the perfect pinky-nude* lipstick: one that's natural-looking but still makes you look all polished and put-together, and also completely non-gloppy and non-sticky, because I enjoy my lipstick on my lips, not on my hair. AND I HAVE FOUND IT. (I have found several, in fact.)
Lots of things scare me. The possibility of not having enough work to pay the bills. The idea of my parents getting sick. Climate change. Spiders. Most of my fears are pretty general, though; they wake me up at night and start my heart pounding, but still, they don't inspire that immediate kind of terror that you see in movies (well, except for the spiders).
I'm ten thousand feet up in the air right now. My son is watching Thor in the row in front of me and my daughter is asleep on my lap, and my hands are shaking almost too badly to write this, because I don't know that I've ever been more scared in my life than I was just a few minutes ago.
I dream often of plane crashes. I'm pretty sure that they symbolize a fear of losing control, which means my subconscious really knows what it's doing. The dreams are always different, but one element stays the same: I'm looking out the window, and I feel a lift in my stomach, and then there's the sense of falling. Sometimes I crash in my dreams. Sometimes I board another plane, just trying to get home, and the next plane I'm on crashes, too.
OK, so perhaps this isn't "breaking," per se, as a Google search just informed me that H&M has been selling home decor stuff for...ahhh...a really long time. But whatever, I had no idea until yesterday, when my mom and I went into the H&M in midtown Manhattan and I just about collapsed from the gloriousness of all the pillows and candles and trays and mirrors, so we're calling it breaking news anyway.
IT'S SO GOOD, you guys. How did I not know about this before?!?! (The answer is that the H&Ms in my area don't have a home section, and H&M is one of those places that I tend to want to buy from in person rather than on the internet, so I can feel the quality for myself, so I'd never noticed the home decor section on their site, either.)
The pieces are chic and unbelievably well-priced - and there are a bazillion options for every room in the house, including a kids' department that totally schools Ikea's. And you know how H&M clothing is sometimes kind of "eh" in terms of its construction, and then other times you pick up a piece from them and end up wearing it over and over for years? The home decor items, from what I've seen, fall into that latter category: they're trendy, sure, but there are also lots of more classic-feeling pieces, and virtually everything I picked up looked and felt substantial and well-made. I'm serious when I say that I could happily decorate my entire home from the line. (...And since you can get all 20 of my favorite pieces online, I just might have to.)
