Living With Kids: Caryn Schafer
If you’ve been reading Design Mom for a while, you might recognize Caryn. We featured her and her adorable NYC apartment on Living With Kids a couple of years ago. Caryn reached out about doing a revisit now that she is really settled into her life in the city, and her girls are a bit older. And I couldn’t help but want to take a peek at what raising 2 kids in less than 500 square feet of living space is like!
Caryn’s home is small but feels very livable with every inch utilized to the max. And her thoughts about why she loves city living have got me itching to pack my bags and find my own tiny apartment. Welcome, Caryn!
… DIY: Print & Fold House Gift Boxes — Free Printable!
This post is sponsored by HI-CHEW. Fill your stockings with HI-CHEWS this year!
How adorable are these mini house boxes? They make the sweetest little holiday gift boxes ever, right? And they are super easy to make. Just print (free downloads below), trim, and fold. Then fill them with whatever you like. Speaking of which, I fully recommend HI-CHEWS to fill these holiday gift boxes!
Have you ever had HI-CHEWS? My friend Audrey introduced them me to about 5 years ago when we were living in France. She had just made a trip to Japan and was coming to stay with us, and she brought HI-CHEWS for the family. Holy moly they are good. The flavors, the texture, the perfect amount of chewiness. I adore them.
Happily, they’ve become more widely available in the U.S. over the last few years — in fact you can even find them at Target. There were even a few HI-CHEWS in our kids’ Halloween trick-or-treating stash this year! And yes, I think I ate all of them — but especially the Green Apple and Strawberry flavors. Put out a bowl of HI-CHEWS over the holidays and wow your family and friends. Everyone loves to be introduced to a new sweet treat!
Ready to make those gift boxes now? Let’s do it! Oh, and for extra fun, you can even cut out the windows!
…DIY: Print & Fold House Gift Boxes — Free Printable!Read More »
Random Thoughts
What an unusual December this has been. How is everyone doing? I just wanted to check in. I feel a bit disconnected and would love to hear what’s on your mind this week. Here’s some of the random stuff I’m thinking of:
– Hanukkah. It started yesterday. Do you celebrate? Or do your relatives or friends celebrate? If you’re curious about the holiday — or mistakenly think of it as “Jewish Christmas” — you might find this short video interesting.
– The fires in Southern California. So many buildings destroyed and so many people evacuated. There are schools that closed last week that won’t reopen until the new year. And a huge number of people will be displaced for the holidays. It’s hard to comprehend the amount of damage.
A reader commented on my most recent Few Things post that she was surprised I hadn’t mentioned the fires. When I read her comment, I thought: It’s true, the fires have barely been on my mind; am I heartless? I suppose it’s because it seems like I’m barely seeing any news coverage. I feel like I saw more updates when the Napa Fires were burning. Is it just because I live near Napa? What about you? Are you seeing lots of coverage of the fires? Do you have friends and relatives that have been personally affected and evacuated?
… Living With Kids: Abby Burba
I am so excited for you all to meet Abby today. She is a interior designer raising her two adorable daughters in lovely North Carolina. And her home is really a stunner. I love when a place really looks collected and curated, you know? Like it doesn’t look like you just bought one whole page out of the Pottery Barn catalogue and plugged it in. : ) It’s neat to see pieces that were found and gathered over time and have a great story to tell.
Well, Abby’s house has that in spades. And she has some really lovely things to say about motherhood that will make you think about the stories in your own life. Come say hello.
… 8 Best Christmas Crafts & How-Tos
Right about this time every December, I start feeling crafty. My tree is up, my decorations are set, most of my shopping for the kids is done — and I get the craving for a project. This year, I really want to paint a set of dessert plates with some sort of holiday theme. Will it happen? Who knows. Hah!
If you’re feeling the same way, I’ve collected the best Christmas crafts and how-tos that will be sure to inspire your own ideas.
… Living With Kids: Hayley Pannekoecke
Ladies, have I got an amazing house for you this week! Hayley, her firefighter husband, and their three kids live on the coast of Australia just outside of Melbourne, in a house that is absolutely breathtaking. Bright light in every room, just like you would want a costal home to have, and the most gorgeous color palette — every picture I clicked on made me want to repaint my own home.
Welcome, Hayley!
… 11 Pieces of Practical Advice For Your Teen Daughter
This post is sponsored by OLLY — here to help make nutrition easy, foolproof and delicious. Shop the full line.
I’m working with OLLY on a 2-part series about advice we would give our former teenage self, and our current teenage daughters. In the first post, I shared my own advice to teens. For this second post, I interviewed Ben Blair and 3 of our kids, Maude (18), Olive (16) and Oscar (12). They have the BEST advice!
We’re such OLLY fans at the Blair house. They are the only vitamins I’ve come across that my kids (and myself) gladly take with no complaints. They’re delicious and chewy and a happy pleasure we’ve added to our routine. OLLY Girl is a recent addition to the OLLY lineup. It’s a multivitamin that’s made for girls age 12-17. OLLY Girl is packed with 15 essential vitamins and minerals to support strong bodies and bones, including brilliant B vitamins to boost energy, and biotin to help with hair and nail growth. Plus it works from inside to support clear, healthy skin. Our 16-year-old, Olive, takes two a day, every day.
Now back to that advice, here are 11 practical tidbits from Ben, Maude, Olive and Oscar (number 7 might be my favorite!):
…11 Pieces of Practical Advice For Your Teen DaughterRead More »
Living With Kids: Maya Babiszewska-Boyle
When Maya reached out to me, one of the things she told me that felt totally charming was that because she is a painter and an artist, she is always using the walls of her home as mini galleries and is always changing out the prints that are hanging on the walls. I love that. And she’s lived a really exciting life to boot — born in communist Poland and now living in sunny California where she is raising her daughter. I’m so excited for you to get to know Maya. Welcome!
… Living with Kids: Annie Bacon
Have you even gone through a big “downsizing” phase? Looking for ways to make your life simpler and less complex, and often, making them fit into a smaller space? I just did a huge downsizing in my own life recently and I think that’s why this weeks Living With Kids home tour really spoke to me. I’m excited to introduce you to Annie — an artist by passion and a graphic designer by trade, who left her day job and seriously downsized her house so she could be a stay-at-home-mom. And the house is just as clean and bright and charming as could be.
… What Would You Tell Your High School Self?
This post is sponsored by OLLY — here to help make nutrition easy, foolproof and delicious. Shop the full line.
As your kids get older, do you ever think about high school and make mental lists of advice you want to give them? What you loved? What you would have changed? What you didn’t understand yet as a teen, but wish you had? I’m working with OLLY on a 2-part series about advice we would give our former teenage self, and our current teenage daughters.
… Living With Kids: Marianne Brown
Bright white walls, big windows, and carefully chosen art, furniture and accessories. There really isn’t anything NOT to love about today’s Living With Kids home. Marianne is an interior designer and a talented one at that. I can’t wait for you to peek around the home and see Marianne’s thoughtfully curated collections. Welcome, Marianne!
… Yep, I’m Still Angry. How about you?
A year has passed since the election. I’ve been reading lots of think pieces about it this week. I can tell you I’m still mad. I still believe the election was corrupted, and I find it quite impossible to recognize Trump as a legitimate president. I understand he’s the president, I just don’t think he’s legitimate. A few of the articles related to the election that stood out to me this week:
I’ve been speaking with white surpremacists. This one. Woah. The fear. Where does it come from? It’s similar to the protecting-your-family discussion we had a few weeks ago. There’s no data or facts behind the fear. Just fear.
One year on, Donald Trump is still an illegitimate president.
Brave enough to be angry. (NYT)
The Glorious Anger of Female Voters, One Year Later.
The Democratic Party owes black female voters a big ‘thank you.’
My travels in white America – a land of anxiety, division and pockets of pain. A line from this one: “Increasingly, for many white Americans, their racial privilege resides not in positive benefits of work and security but in the sole fact that it could be worse – they could be black or Latino. In other words, their whiteness is all they have left.”
When I think about why I am still angry, it probably boils down to the realization that a Trump presidency has turned out so much worse than I had imagined. With Trump at the helm, America has become more entrenched in our racism, more fearful of refugees, immigrants and anyone we can “other,” and more violent in very real ways.
A year ago today, I wrote this post and made a lot of people mad. I just re-read it and gotta say: I still stand by it. I still believe when I see support for Trump from people I know — people who have good jobs, good community systems, and stable lives — it’s support for racism, division and hate, no matter how unintentional it might be.
… Living With Kids: Hannah Olague
I’m so excited for you to meet my friend Hannah today. Not only is her taste next-level awesome, I’m also obsessed with her style — it feels minimal and clean but is still curated and beautiful. Hannah is a designer, her husband is a fabricator and a metal worker, and their home is a really amazing fixer-upper they’ve reinvented in smart ways. Hannah’s also got some really beautiful things to say about our daily rituals and the way we live that I am excited for you to hear. Welcome, Hannah!
… Are Your Habits & Hobbies Determined by Your House?
I own a gorgeous bike. It’s a pretty aqua blue, with a charming basket and leather details. It’s high quality — very well made by Public Bikes, which is a local Bay Area company. And I live in place that has ideal bike riding weather practically the whole year round.
But I almost never ride my bike.
And I know why. It’s because I live at the bottom of a longish hill. Just to get the bike out of our driveway and on to the street feels like an uphill battle (because it is!). My kids rarely ride their bikes for the same reason. It’s so much work to just get to a place where we can comfortably start riding, and so we rarely do. In fact, our youngest, Flora June, hasn’t learned to ride a bike yet. A fact that I can hardly believe.
We love our house and wouldn’t trade it, but when I see our bikes in the shed getting dusty, it’s a reminder to me that where you live really does affect your life in ways big and small. Ways that you might not have thought of or considered before you moved in. Know what I mean? We can lose interest or gain interest in something based simply on our house and its location.
…Are Your Habits & Hobbies Determined by Your House?Read More »
An Overdue Conversation on Church Vs. Religion
A couple of months ago, a long-time reader named Cynthia asked a question in the comments of a Friday blog post: What would it take for you to leave the Mormon church?
I found myself surprised by the question. I interpreted it as very heavy and personal and wasn’t sure what to make of it being posed so casually. I tried to give a thoughtful, brief response, but she was not happy with what I wrote and commented angrily. I was upset by the angry response, and took it down before people started fighting with her. I emailed her explaining why, then I got on a plane.
When I got off the plane, the conversation had continued without me and the new comments (several were very wise!) gave me a different perspective. I realized that Cynthia and I had been talking past each other. Her question wasn’t intended to be personal or intrusive, and my response to her wasn’t intended to provoke anger. I concluded we were talking about two different things.
She was talking about church, and I was talking about religion.
… Living With Kids: Ashleigh Miller
The reason I love this series so much is I’ve always been a bit obsessed to peek into peoples’ lives and see how they live. I’m the kind of person who has been known to go to an open house in the neighborhood, just because I am curious about how someone else lives their life. And it is even more exciting when the person’s life is so drastically different than my own. That’s why I am so excited to introduce you to Ashleigh. She’s a mom of 2, a dog owner, an entrepreneur and lives here fabulous life in a suburb of Nairobi, Kenya.
Please say hello to Ashleigh.
… #MeToo
Did you see the #metoo hashtag? Or see the “Me, too” status updates? Maybe you watched in horror, surprised at how universal the problem is. Maybe you added a #metoo, and could name 100 women in your life who could add one as well. Maybe you had a #metoo to add, but didn’t feel safe enough to post it.
If you’re not sure what I’m referring to, this message was copy-and-pasted all over social media this weekend. If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote “Me too” as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem. #metoo
I don’t know who originated the message, but all of my feeds were full of #metoo. I participated, and so did hundreds of women I know personally. It’s overwhelming.
At some point on Saturday, I said to Ben Blair, “I think you’re the only man on earth I fully trust. I love lots of men. I support lots of men. But ultimately, I don’t trust them.” I have only just started to gather my thoughts on all of this. I must have read dozens of posts, essays and articles about it over the weekend. Here are some of the best ones I found:
– “I wish women didn’t have to rip our pasts open & show you everything & let you ogle our pain for you to believe us.” — Lindy West
… Living With Kids: Sonja Ibsen Allen
Life is its most interesting when it takes some unexpected twists and turns. It’s not always what we expect or what we would plan. Reading Sonja’s story (today’s Living With Kids family) this morning, I couldn’t help think of just that. As a teenager, Sonja couldn’t wait to get out of her small Northern California town. And now as an adult and a mother, she has not only moved back home, but is also living with her parents while she and her husband save some money to buy a place of their own. Sharing a roof with your parents brings new meaning to the idea of “it takes a village” to raise a child.
… Parenting Trend: Are Our Kids Delaying Adulthood?
The Washington Post published an article a couple of weeks ago about some interesting downward trends in the lives of teenagers. Here are the basic numbers:
“Between 1976 and 1979, 86 percent of high school seniors had gone on a date; between 2010 and 2015, only 63 percent had, the study found. During the same period, the portion that had ever earned money from working plunged from 76 percent to 55 percent. And the portion that had tried alcohol plummeted from 93 percent between 1976 and 1979 to 67 percent between 2010 and 2016.
Teens have also reported a steady decline in sexual activity in recent decades. The portion of high school students who’d had sex fell from 54 percent in 1991 to 41 percent in 2015, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
The article also goes into a possible reason why this could be happening:
“According to an evolutionary-psychology theory that a person’s “life strategy” slows down or speeds up depending on the person’s surroundings, exposure to a “harsh and unpredictable” environment leads to faster development, while a more resource-rich and secure environment has the opposite effect, the study said.”
The comments on the article are fascinating. Most comments are by parents of teens and and compare what the article says to anecdotal evidence in their own children’s lives. Some people feel like seeing these numbers go down is a great trend, and others wonder if their kids won’t be prepared for adulthood. Still others feel like the article really missed the whole point and see the downward trend happening for very different reasons that the article suggests.
…Parenting Trend: Are Our Kids Delaying Adulthood?Read More »
Living With Kids: Anne Marie Cropper
Today I’d love to introduce you to Anne Marie and her family. Welcome Croppers! She and her husband built a beautiful home in Southern Oregon (which is what we are featuring here today,) but after living there for a couple of years, made the tough decision to sell it and move to a rental a few miles away so their son with special needs could have access to a school that was a better fit for him. While I am sure it was challenging to make a tough decision like this, Anne Marie has a great attitude about it and about what makes a home. I’m so glad she shared these lovely photos with us of their “dream home” before they moved.
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