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DIARY

Killing 2017 So Far

January 3, 2017

jordan reid and daughter on new year's eve

Snapchat @ramshackleglam

When you fly across the country in the company of delays and cancellations and unexpected overnights in random cities, you are tired by the time you get home. You want to have an actual good night's sleep. You want a shower. You want, perhaps, not to have raw sewage coursing in waves down your driveway.

I thought something smelled weird when we dragged our kids and our bags into our house around 11PM on Sunday night after a week in Ohio and two days trying to figure out how to get back home, but I figured it was...I don't know, our dogs. Or our luggage. Or us.

Video

Our Weird Little Stranded New Year’s (Video)

January 2, 2017

Oh hey! We're home from Ohio. Two days after we left. Suffice it to say that spending New Year's Eve figuring out how to get the rest of the way across the country was not in the original plan.

I should just start traveling with, like, a full-on astronaut supply kit, just in case we accidentally find ourselves stuck in the Alaskan wilderness one day. With no luggage. And the flu. (If history is any indication, this could totally happen.)

Lifestyle

Peace Out, 2016: Here Are 10 Reasons To Feel Hope For 2017

December 31, 2016

By now you've seen the "2016 WAS THE WORST" meme at every turn (my own contribution is above; you're welcome). And it really was. The worst.

But just because things (by which I mean our democracy, and our country, and our world, and, okay, the future of mankind) are looking a little bleak at the moment, that doesn't mean that it's all bad out there. It also doesn't mean we shouldn't have hope; to the contrary, now is when we need hope the most.

So - and I say this as the Grinchiest New Year's Eve-er of all time; a person who views this holiday as little more than a vehicle for crippling hangovers and guilt over broken resolutions - tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, let's celebrate the fact that millions and millions of people all over our country are coming together in ways they never have before, united by the desire to prove once and for all that love speaks louder. And then let's wake up to a brand new year, where anything's possible.

Style

Winter Water

December 29, 2016

Capitola, CA

Pants Sweater (similar)

I still cannot get over the fact that we go to the beach in December here. I mean, we're hardly wandering around in swimsuits (that's exclusively November territory), but it's totally lay-down-on-a-blanket-and-nap-in-the-sun weather - and really, that's all I ever want to do at the beach anyway.

Lifestyle

Killed It. Ate It.

December 28, 2016

Me, mere minutes before innocence was lost forever.

Cropped Sweater (similar) Midi Skirt (similar) Gold Heels

I've eaten a lot of respectably adventurous things in my day. Century eggs, for example. Blood soup. Pulverized pork scraps. But never have I ever actually laid eyes upon a creature, slain it all on my lonesome, and then consumed it.

Lifestyle

24 Hours Of Fun

December 27, 2016

Kimono Boots (similar)

glam | camp Blanket Lulu & Georgia Pillow

See this happy, relatively relaxed-looking face? This photo was taken just before we left for the airport to spend a few days in Ohio with Kendrick's family. The dogs were walked, the kids were dressed, breakfast had been eaten, and everybody's toes were fully intact and more or less where they were supposed to be, so we were doing about ten thousand times better than we were this time last year.

DIARY

Until Next Year (A Poem)

December 23, 2016

My (single, with no children) friend Billy posted the best rant on Facebook the other day. "Dear All Parents with 'Elf On The Shelf,'" he wrote, "Make that shit a priority. I don't want to hear any more whining about 'I forgot...' or 'I'm a bad parent.' Pretty soon your kids won't believe in Santa Claus and his annoying little elves, and it's your job to make them wonder. It's like 24 days. Suck it up. I still believe in Santa, and I'm 35."

FIIIIIIINE.

I mean, don't get me wrong: I love Elf on the Shelf season. But I also have a tendency to pass out in my daughter's toddler-sized bed while "snuggling for a minute" and then wake up three hours later with my eyelids mascara-ed shut, at which point I commence the shuffle towards my own bed only to be shaken awake by my brain, who is yelling at me to MOVE THE ELF SO YOU DON'T DESTROY THE MAGIC.

Lifestyle

Eleventh Hour (Addendum Number Two)

December 22, 2016

Hi, most terrifying Christmas photo ever #badsanta

Kendrick and I are really going to have to have a chat about how this whole "putting together a gift guide for publication on the Internet" thing works. Below are his (very) last-minute (and presumably final) gift picks, both of which you can still order in time for Christmas. Check out his *actual* gift guide here, and his first addendum here.

Just to add to the below, if you need a last-minute gift for a 2-6 year old, get them this; for a 4-8 year old, this; for a woman or a man or a human: this. - Jordan

Decor

The Sputnik Solution

December 21, 2016

Look way up at the top there. See that big light fixture? Did not like.

Over the weekend my parents came to visit for an early Christmas celebration, and one night my dad and I were sitting at my dining room table talking about how unfortunately cavelike the lighting in my dining room/kitchen area is. The two primary problems: I had recently moved my dining room table from the center of the room over to one wall, and the pendant light that had previously hung over the center of the table now hung in the center of the dining room. Like, at head level.

The second problem I discovered on the day we moved in: the only light in our kitchen comes from one of those big, square 1960s-era fluorescent monstrosities. It's huge and ugly and casts a sort of sickly half-glow over the room, but I've always been nervous to pry it off because god knows what's underneath.