Archive for April, 2009
April 30, 2009
· Filed under Design, Home, Molly · Tagged modern clocks, wall clocks
Time to get a new clock.
Our kitchen clock went kaput. Finito. It’s toast. And apparently I need to replace it because I look at the empty space on the wall (out of habit) about 20,000* times a day.
*approximately
So, here’s a little clock round-up, in case you too are in the market.
The Doily clock by and furthermore,
The Cosmic Clock at Chiasso:
The Bouquet clock by decoylab (I really like her fun cuckoo clocks too):
The Petal Links Modern wall clock by PILOTdesign:
The Bengt Ek Clock, at Scandanavian Design Center:
And this one is my favorite – the Pendulum Number 6 clock by Oliver Hemming. You can get it at Unica Home:
April 29, 2009
· Filed under Etsy Finds, Molly, Pretty Things · Tagged Anthropologie, Boden, Etsy, J. Crew
These past few lovely, sunny days have got me thinking about sunny things. Even though it’s crappy out today. Maybe especially because it’s crappy out today.
How about the Calendar Pages dress in dark purple from Anthropologie? I’ve been wanting to wear summer dresses with little cardigans to work lately.
Hand-printed bed linens by jodii:
Palma yellow patent ankle wrap sandals, by J Crew:
Weave magnets by Summersville:
The Gemstone Necklace from Boden
And the Red Patchwork Tree pillow by the Little Stitch:
p.s. Turns out it’s not really that crappy out today.
April 28, 2009
· Filed under Molly, Recipes & Food · Tagged macaron, parisian macaroon recipe
Not to be confused with the coconut macaroons that you commonly see at bakeries (Blech. I am not a fan of coconut), this week’s recipe is for Parisian macaroons, or macarons.
Martha’s got an easy-to-follow recipe here, and a recipe for the filling here.
If you’re dying to know more, here’s a brief history of the macaron from Serious Eats, with some gorgeous pics and some good tips on how a good macaron should look and taste.
I haven’t actually made this recipe, but it’s been on my “things I want to make” list for a long time now, so maybe I ought to, eh?
Have you tried making them before? How did they turn out?
April 27, 2009
· Filed under Birthdays & Parties, Crafty!, Molly, Recipes & Food · Tagged bake sale, Pine Grove Cooperative Nursery School, Rutgers Day
This is how I got my craft on this weekend.
Rutgers Day is a giant (campus-wide) field day, filled with family activities, food, games and 4H-type livestock demonstrations that thousands of people attend. This year, my daughter’s co-operative pre-school had a bake sale at Rutgers Day to raise a little money, and because I was totally channeling my inner-Martha for this event, I had to share photos.
First, here was our booth (way prettier than everyone else’s):
The “tablecloths” are yellow paper from the teacher supply store. I made the flag garland from glittery card stock and ribbon; I used a hole punch and threaded the ribbon through each flag – it was a five minute project that turned out spectacularly well.
All of the preschool families pitched in their baked goods. Here was the menu I designed:
And the goodies were packaged in a variety of cute ways:
A fellow parent bought eco-friendly packaging (corn-based, compostable containers, and unbleached wax bags). I made two different decorative labels:
We almost sold out of everything by the end of the day.
I have to give shout-outs to some of my inspirations. First, the Bunnycakes blog: here, and here. When I was insisting to fellow organizers that we have to make the table and the packages look pretty, I sent them links to those Bunnycakes posts, as well as these really lovely ideas from inchmark. Also, there are a lot of flag garlands out there, but somehow, this is the one that convinced me that I had to make one for the bake sale table. And finally, the idea for selling milk to go with our bake sale came from this great idea I spotted on Hostess with the Mostess.
All in all, a good, albeit very (unseasonably) hot day. I think Martha would be proud.
April 25, 2009
· Filed under Green Living, Home, Kids, Molly · Tagged children's table and chairs, eco-friendly kids furniture, storage cubes
Bonus Saturday post!
I dig this table and chairs from Way Basics. For $135, it’s stylish, requires no tools, is made of 99% recycled materials, and is recyclable. You can choose from several colors, or something very neutral.
I also really like these spinning cubes for storage (they come in espresso, if you’re not into the colors):
I will be hawking baked goods for my daughter’s co-operative preschool all day today. I’ll have photos of the pretty packages for you on Crafty Monday, with links to my inspirations.
April 24, 2009
· Filed under Family Fun, Good Books, Kids, Molly · Tagged children's books, Hilary Knight, Hulu, Maurice Sendak, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
Did you ever read any of the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books by Betty MacDonald? They were some of my favorites, so I’ve been reading them to my girls.
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle is a wacky, wonderful lady with homespun cures for common bad habits that children pick up. Need a cure for Never-Go-To-Bed disease? Mrs. Piggle Wiggle’s got that. Got kids with the Won’t-Pick-Up-The-Toys illness? She’s got a prescription for that too.
Children love her, parents can’t live without her.
And did I mention she lives in an upside down house? With buried treasure in secret places around the house?
There are four books in the series, three of them illustrated by Hilary Knight (who also illustrated the Eloise books) and one by Maurice Sendak. The books have been re-issued since I was a kid, with updated artwork, but this is how I remember them:
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle’s Magic
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle’s Farm
and Hello Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
There’s also a Happy Birthday Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, but it was written by Betty MacDonald’s daughter and is not part of the original series.
And apparently it’s been made into a tv show, with Jean Stapleton as Mrs. Piggle Wiggle and featuring a number of other celebrities as the parents who are at their wits’ end. You can watch the episodes here on Hulu. I haven’t watched them yet, but they might be fun.
Have you got a favorite Mrs. Piggle Wiggle book or chapter? Tell me about it in the comments. My kids like the “Thought-You-Saiders Cure.”
Happy weekend, everyone!
April 23, 2009
· Filed under Design, Freebies, Molly · Tagged Feed Your Soul, free artwork, Indie Fixx
Psst. Hey, you! Psst! Come over here. Hey, what if I told you that I know where you could get some artwork…for free?
Feed Your Soul is the brainchild of Jenn Wallace of Indie Fixx. You can go to her website and download several pieces of artwork for free by a number of different artists.
I’m thinkin’ she has some cool friends.
She changes the collection on a monthly basis, so bookmark the website and be sure to check back for new artwork.
This is my favorite from April’s selection, which is by Jill Brown Louie:
And I really love Tara Hogan’s etsy shop, so I am excited to see her on the list of artists too. Here’s her contribution:
And because I often find my girls sitting on their beds, with open books strewn about their room, I really like this one by Jo Askey:
Learn more about all of the project’s artists here and if you like what you see, visit their Etsy shops and support them.
April 22, 2009
· Filed under Design, Home, Molly, Pretty Things · Tagged 2 Modern, Anthropologie, Crate and Barrel, Goldiehome, modern furnishings, Offi
If you wanted to, you could buy me this Offi Scando coffee table (note the handy magazine pocket/crumb catcher/built-in matchbox car ramp):
Other expensive things you could buy me include (but are not limited to), this Lollipop Blossom rug from Anthropologie:
The Tate bed from Crate and Barrel
And Goldiehome bedding from 2Modern:
Next Wednesday’s requests: yachts, the Hope Diamond, and a majority stake in Abu Dhabi’s hotel industry.
April 21, 2009
· Filed under Crafty!, Molly, Recipes & Food · Tagged baking cream puffs, cream puff recipe, My Neighbor Totoro
And the Oscar for the best representation of a children’s movie by a cream puff goes to…
Totoro cream puffs!
A show of hands of all the people who have seen My Neighbor Totoro (or “Tonari no Totoro,” if you want to be super geeky about it). Yes? Best movie ever, right? Am I right? Yes, I am right. Best movie ever.
Don’t even try to argue with me.
So, Anna the Red, you are my hero.
And I noticed that the cream puffs look like a lot of work, so could you please just send me some? They are seriously awesome. K?ThxBye.
Spotted on Craft:
April 20, 2009
· Filed under Kids Crafts, Molly · Tagged crafts with rocks, painting rocks, pet rocks
Oh, but you’ll want these rocks, Charlie Brown.
Perhaps predictably (are they cute? are they impeccably painted? are they generally better than anything you could hope to come up with on your own? check, check, and double check), these pet rocks are the handiwork of Martha (and let’s not forget her minions). Click here for the how-to.
Admit it: never in a million years would you have come up with those performing seals. You would’ve thought of that pig, but the seals? No way, José.
Spotted on ohdeedoh.
