By Gabrielle. This home makes my heart jump a little. There’s a garden that reminds me of La Cressonnière, and stone walls and gorgeous beams that sweep me straight back to France. Boy, I miss that place. But Felicitas’ home is the perfect antidote for Europe-sickness! It’s a wonderfully balanced mix of old and new, austere and cozy. A place that lives in her childhood memories, but will also take center stage in her own daughters’ memories, too. Probably, that red garden door will, too. Friends, please welcome the Von Richthofens and enjoy the tour of their haus! Q: Please tell us all about the family who makes this house a home! A: Our little family is made up of me, Felicitas, and my husband, Raphael. We are both 33 years old and have two children: Viola is three years old, and Elenor is one. We live in a small village called Sondermuehlen in Germany. Raphael and I have been together since we met at school. I am an art historian working for the Kunsthalle Bielefeld. Raphael is director of the family enterprise, Stock Mode, which specializes in fashion. We own four stores in our town and neighborhood. …

Living With Kids: Felicitas Von RichthofenRead More »

Oil pulling is by far the most hippie thing I’ve ever done. If you had told me 2 months ago that I was about to stop brushing my teeth, my confused response would have been something like, “Because I’m going to be in coma?” Brushing teeth has been such a part of my daily routine (and no doubt yours as well) that I couldn’t even imagine life without it. So how did I become someone who has abandoned her trusty toothbrush and tube of toothpaste? Well, I am about to tell you all about my adventure, but first I have to tell you that if you have no desire to try oil-pulling that it won’t bother me at all. I am not writing this to convince you to try it. I really am not. I receive no benefits or advantages if you try it. Zero. I am not in league with any sort of Oil-Pulling World Domination Organization. I am not an authority on oil-pulling. I have not done extensive research on oil-pulling. I have not taught my kids to oil pull. We still go to the dentist — in fact, Betty was there for some cavity work last month. And if you do try it, and don’t like it, I won’t have my feelings hurt one little bit, and I won’t try to convince you to try it again. I promise. This post is just me, reporting on this odd thing I tried and happened to like. In early December, Ben Blair took a trip to France to oversee some work on The Cottage. While he was gone, I spent a Saturday morning seeing what was happening on Facebook and I happened upon an update from a woman I don’t even know very well, but she shared a link to someone’s blog post about oil-pulling, and said she was curious about it. And I was curious too. So I clicked through and spent an hour or so in an oil-pulling rabbit hole. …

Oil PullingRead More »

By Gabrielle. Images by Ben Blair. Oh man. This episode is an epic one. Here’s a little back story. When people visit the region of Normandy (which is where we lived in France, and where our little cottage is), the number one thing they want to see is Mont St. Michel. And while we were there, we visited this legendary island at least a dozen times. Every time we approached, there was this moment where we all of a sudden notice the castle-looking structure off in the distance — across fields of sheep — and our breath catches. And then, as we get closer and closer, there is this feeling of wonder. We loved visiting Mont St. Michel, wandering it’s tiny street and stairways, walking along the beach and exploring the boulders that surround the whole island, sitting quietly in the Abbey garden at the very top, taking in the views on the approach, and the views from high up on the mount. It’s a special place. So we weren’t too surprised when we learned it was one of the key pilgrimage sites for Christians. Makes sense! When we found out our local friend (and knowledgeable historian), Mark, had made the week long pilgrimage several times — going by foot from our town of Argentan to Mont St. Michel, and staying in gites (which are homes in the countryside that rent out a room for the night) along the way, we were intrigued! The idea of making a pilgrimage, a walking one, with a slow approach, was so appealing to both me and Ben Blair, and we talked about it a lot, and I wrote a post about it here. So getting to film this episode was simply a treasure. Mark acted as our guide, finding the prettiest routes and giving history lessons as we went. As you’ll notice in the episode, we learned that King Arthur legends have a place in Normandy as well as England, and that some people believe Arthur is buried along the pilgrimage trail — visiting his possible burial site was such an experience! I feel like there’s so much I could share about this video, but for now, I just hope you watch it and enjoy it. And if you’ve ever visited Mont St. Michel, I’d love to hear about it. I’d also love to know if anyone out there has made a religious pilgrimage before. Pilgrimages aren’t really a part of my religious upbringing, but they hold such an appeal for me. I hope to make one some day! …

Olive Us: Pilgrimage to Mont St. MichelRead More »

By Gabrielle. Images of little June and her hot cocoa by Blue Lily. Do fancy dinners and crying babies mix? Not when social media gets involved! According to this article and lots of play on Twitter, Chef Grant Achatz publicly broached the question all parents ask themselves — usually while blushing in the middle of a lovely restaurant when their child transforms into something not-so-lovely! — and the responses were surprisingly heated. His original tweet: To give you some back story, the restaurant in question is Alinea, a Michelin-starred spot that charges $250 per person upfront to reserve a table. Does that detail matter? It does when the couple in question was set to lose $500 just because their babysitter cancelled! Have you ever experienced a similar situation, whether from an embarrassed parent or an annoyed diner perspective? Has there been a time when you either sensed or were told outright that your children were not welcome in a particular restaurant? Were you understanding or outraged? Depending on where you live in the world, children are either welcomed with open arms and a kids menu, or the complete opposite, right? In France, children are raised with such impeccable table manners — learning to eat with a fork in their left hand, and a knife in their right from age 2! — that I was always so nervous about taking our big circus of a family to French restaurants. But we worked hard on our table etiquette as a family and ended up eating out freely. Still, even with great table manners, in our little town, restaurants were either considered family friendly and kids were welcome, or they were fancier and with few exceptions, we simply didn’t see kids there at all. (As I type this, it occurs to me, that that divide doesn’t sound too different from New York.) I can’t wait to hear your own stories and opinions!

By Gabrielle. Oh, you’re going to love this tour! It’s a holiday from our regular peeks into our everyday homes as we venture to a vacation home in Nicaragua. Certainly, there’s much less clutter and personal items – good thing Legos can fit well into carry-ons – but there are still signs that this is a wonderful home to fill with family memories. Like naps in hammocks. Crashing waves. Sand castles for days. Surfaces that get dirty and wet, but just need a good sweep every so often. Even better when those good sweeps are performed by a caretaker! One of the greatest things about Natalie and Jeff’s tour is that it comes to life with one click over to House Hunters International. (Consider this tour a spoiler if you haven’t seen their episode yet! Sorry!) So, Friends, please enjoy a little trip south of the border. Way south! Q: Tell us about the family who vacations in this incredible beachfront home! A: We are a family of four. My husband, Jeff, is a VP of Risk for a large regional bank  – nothing like Along Came Polly! I am the communications director for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, which is a museum of conscience that enables modern abolition through the lessons of the Underground Railroad. Our son, Colin, seven, is a sweet, gentle soul who nurtures an obsession with birds when he is not building Legos. Our son, Graham, four, is full of energy, loves to be the center of attention, and is always afraid he is missing something. His favorite question right now is, “Is it tomorrow?” …

Living With Kids: Natalie HastingsRead More »

Images and text by Gabrielle. I’ve got another Treehouse report for you today, all about our fireplace whitewashed bricks. Plus, I worked in a little story about the bricks in my childhood home as well (find it when you click through). When I started to consider whitewashing the bricks, I looked up as many tutorials as I could find. This one and this one seemed to have the most clear instructions, and both mentioned using leftover white wall paint they had on hand. They both showed examples of more paint coverage than I was looking for, but I figured I could just dilute the paint more and get less coverage. As I read further, some commenters recommended using lime for your whitewashed bricks, or other natural paint products that would let the brick “breathe”. I didn’t know if I cared whether or not the bricks breathed, and whether or not it was worth looking for alternatives, when I already had spare latex wall paint I could use. But the more I read, the more I thought it was at least worth looking into. In the meantime, I decided I’d better do what I could to clean the bricks first, because the front of the fireplace was covered in soot. Ready to see what the process was like? …

The Treehouse: Whitewashed Bricks TutorialRead More »

By Gabrielle. Image by Ben Blair. Do you remember Betty in Paris? Fun fact: it’s the most viewed episode of Olive Us! And I can’t say I’m surprised. Paris is a magical place, and Betty in Paris is a magical video. We enjoyed making it so much, that we thought it would be fun to make episodes showing each of our kids exploring a famous city somewhere in the world — a mini-video-series within the larger Olive Us series. We like the idea of pairing up each child with a city that fits their personality. For example, (pretending we could somehow film anywhere) if we were making an episode for Maude, we picture Tokyo. For Olive, it would be New York. And today, I’m sharing video #2 in this mini-series: Ralph in London! This video definitely feels more teenager-y than our other Olive Us episodes — including the music! So your youngest viewers may not be drawn to it as much as our other videos. (I’m actually really curious about this, so please feel free to let me know what your kids think of it if you decide to have them watch it.) For this episode, Ben Blair and Ralph took a weekend trip to London last May (we were still living in France then, so it was easy as can be). Then they spent the weekend running all over town from morning till night, while Tiger in a Jar filmed. We had been to London a couple of times as a family at that point and Ralph had really fallen in love with it. He feels a connection with that city. So it’s a treat for me to see the city through his eyes in this video. In Betty in Paris, we show a 6 year old’s simple and sweet view of the city, but in Ralph in London, we show a grittier version of a day spent exploring. It’s interesting to me, because cities really do tend to have multiple personalities — so if we had filmed Betty in London, instead of Ralph in London, it would have been an entirely different video, while still staying true to a London experience. I love that! I love that the same city can mean something entirely different to different people. Have you ever been to London? If yes, did we capture any of your favorite spots in the city? And if we were filming a “You in Any City” episode, is there a particular city in the world you are most drawn to? (I can’t decide which city I would choose! Amsterdam? New York?) P.S. — Speaking of Betty in Paris, it just turned One! Join in the celebration here!! Would you like to know more about Olive Us? Here you go: – Find the official Olive Us website here, and subscribe to the Olive Us Newsletter here. – Find all the posts I’ve written about Olive Us — including every episode — here. – We’ve made 44 episodes so far and collaborated with ulive on 20 of them! You can find the Olive Us page on ulive here.

Image and text by Gabrielle. I feel like I age in spurts — like I look the same for years at a time, then suddenly, over a few weeks, I look several years older. For example, I’m quite sure I could have passed for 20 until I was 25, then overnight, I looked like I was 25 — that sort of thing. And from what I can tell, I think I’m in one of my aging spurts right this minute. When it ends, I’ll tell you how old I look. Hah! Late last night, I was taking off my makeup and taking out my contacts and chatting with Ben Blair about my possible aging spurt, and I asked him how he pictured his adult life when he was a kid or a teenager. I was curious to know how far into the future he had imagined himself. We both discovered that we hadn’t thought past 25. We had vaguely assumed a stereotypical life of kids, house, pet — but we had never considered what we ourselves would be like in our 30’s or beyond. It made me wonder if that is a typical thing for a child (not being able to conceive of a future self), or if there are people that have thought ahead to every stage of their someday life. Ben mentioned he’d read something about this topic, so I looked it up — it’s an NPR article. Turns out, people that envision their future self tend to make better decisions now. Which makes sense, of course! If you can picture yourself as an 85-year-old, an actual person who has a weekly tennis match and is learning to speak Chinese, I can imagine you’d be more likely to take better care of your body today. …

Your Future SelfRead More »

By Gabrielle. Image by my favorite childhood artist, Norman Rockwell. Oh my goodness. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all the feedback and kind words you’ve shared in response to my 2014 plans. I have devoured every comment and am looking forward to responding to more of them. I truly, truly appreciate the support and thank you from the bottom of my heart. And now, on to a sort-of opposite topic: The word “bullying” is on my mind. I feel like it gets thrown around like crazy lately — and in some instances I find myself confused about how it applies. In an attempt to keep children safe from bullying (a worthy goal and one I fully support!), many schools have instituted a zero tolerance policy toward bullying and bad behavior. Does your school have one? Even if it doesn’t, I’m guessing you’ve heard this term once or twice, right? It is likely written in your school handbook in a bold font, mentioned often during PTA meetings and Back to School nights, and it has possibly even accompanied a few not-so-subtle warnings before your kids got on the school bus! After reading this editorial about some US school districts reconsidering the concept, I couldn’t wait to hear your thoughts. Since our return from France, I’ve really noticed the leaning in the US to act quickly and harshly when bullying or bad behavior is even remotely glimpsed. It seems like there’s not a lot of discussion or wiggle room or parent persuasion when it comes to breaking the rules — written or implied — in school. My initial instinct, is that I’m totally fine with that…I think! Because so far, we’ve not been directly touched by the policy. (Let me repeat: So far! I have six children, Friends! And there’s always tomorrow!) Then again, an acquaintance recently told me about her experience with zero tolerance. Her son attends an international school and was recently suspended for a day because another student reported him for bullying. She asked the Head of School to define bullying in this specific case, and was assured that her son hadn’t done anything of consequence. Rather, the complaint had to do with an uncomfortable feeling the other boy felt whenever he spoke to her son, likening it to a queasy stomach! After a long silence, the mother suggested that her son now had a queasy stomach, too. From speaking to the Head of School! As comical as this situation sounds, I’m sure it was super frustrating for all involved. I can tell you my response would not have been as reasonable or calm as my friend’s was — I think I would have freaked out if my child was suspended for vague reasons! I’d love to hear how zero tolerance makes itself known in your school experiences. Do you see it as too stringent? Too black and white? Or have you seen it work well to keep negative school behavior in check? Also, I’m curious to know if your school attempts to define bullying as part of their zero tolerance policy — I’m guessing different schools have widely different definitions. P.S. — I asked Ralph and Maude what bullying was like at their high school here in Oakland — specifically about whether or not homosexual kids felt like they could be safely and openly gay. They both answered that they didn’t see bullying against gay kids at all, and that any kind of mocking of homosexuals would be completely shut down by students at their school. I was glad to hear it! Sounds like progress to me.

By Gabrielle. Hooray for a fresh start to our Living With Kids tours! Let’s start 2014 with a home I could’ve probably photographed myself as Jessica and her family live in my neck of the woods. They’re renting in the gorgeous area of Cupertino in a Mackay-designed home, which seems to mean that the sunlight slides in so wonderfully throughout the day. Still, for all the sunshine there’s a tiny bit of rain in the Doll family’s life. But Jessica’s attitude turns those rainy days into another reason to cozy up on the couch with her boys and recognize that there’s beauty in downpours. Great windows and an even greater outlook on life are such gifts, don’t you think? Friends, I’m happy to welcome you to the Doll house! I hope you enjoy it. Q: Please tell us all about the lovely family who lives in the Doll house! A: We are a family of four, residing in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. I’m a professional photographer and blogger, and my husband is a Creative Director who loves to build and fly RC helicopters. …

Living With Kids: Jessica DollRead More »

Image and text by Gabrielle. Hello, Friends! Do you have a minute? I’d love to talk 2014 with you. As I mentioned last week, there are some changes afoot here at Design Mom. The first is a biggie. In 2012, I started working with a regular team of contributors. It was an experiment, with the original goal being to double the content on Design Mom to an average of 6 posts a day, and to eventually create a place where I could even step away for a few days, or even weeks, as an author — to create a place that was more about the team than me as an individual. And goodness, I LOVE working with these ladies. They bring so much talent and enthusiasm to the table and I know how much they treasure this community. But friends, the experiment didn’t work! Turns out readers didn’t want 6 posts a day. It was too much content. And turns out, I don’t want to step away from Design Mom. I love this job. I love interacting with readers. I love reading and responding to comments. I love your emails, ideas and suggestions. And I love writing blog posts. You may have noticed that contributors had less of a presence on the blog through December. And that’s going to continue. Over the next week, we’ll finish the transition, and for the remainder of the year there will no longer be contributor posts.  To be clear, I’ll still be working with lots of talented folks (and lots of the same talented folks we’ve all come to love), but they won’t have regular columns. Instead, all articles will be authored by me, and I’ll bring on help per article, as needed. So if there won’t be regular contributors on Design Mom in 2014, what can you expect instead? …

Design Mom in 2014 – The Future Looks Bright!Read More »

By Gabrielle. Let me guess. School doesn’t start until Monday and you have some bored, stir-crazy kids on your hands. Well you’re in luck! I’ve got the perfect Olive Us episode for you. It’s called Tongue Twisters, and it will have your kids testing out their own weird word concoctions — and probably giggling a lot too! As you can imagine, this was a really fun episode to film. The hardest part was narrowing down which tongues twisters to use. In fact, if you have a favorite tongue twister, I’d love to hear it! I hope you enjoy the video. And I hope you enjoy the rest of the holiday break. P.S. — Would you like to know more about Olive Us? Here you go: – Find the official Olive Us website here, and subscribe to the Olive Us Newsletter here. – Find all the posts I’ve written about Olive Us — including every episode — here. – We’ve made 44 episodes so far and collaborated with ulive on 20 of them! You can find the Olive Us page on ulive here.

By Gabrielle. Images by Ben Blair and Gabrielle. I’m still giddy as can be about our finished floors! I’m definitely in the honeymoon phase where I tenderly sweep and sponge-clean them each day, and passionately apply felt protectors to any furniture that is even thinking about moving on to those floors. The whitewash finish is exactly what I hoped it would look like. But my-oh-my it took some work to get them to this lovely state. …

The Treehouse: Whitewashed FloorsRead More »

By Lindsey Johnson of Café Johnsonia for Design Mom. Menu #23 of our Lunch Box Series has a bit of Asian flair. We eat a lot of Asian food, and therefore a lot of rice. If I have leftover plain rice, a great way to use it up (besides rice pudding) is to turn it into another meal. Here I made good use of it for a quick, semi-healthy hot lunch. If you don’t want to go to the trouble of making it from scratch, order a little extra the next time you have takeout and use it for an easy lunch. LUNCH MENU #23 – ham fried rice – kale chips – clementine – freeze dried strawberries and chocolate chips – milk (or water) …

Lunch Menu #23Read More »

By Gabrielle. Oh. This episode is one of my favorites! About an hour north of our little town in France, you’ll find the village of Honfleur. It’s a small fishing town that is such a delight to visit! (I wrote about it here .) We spent many lovely afternoons in Honfleur. It’s near the beaches of Deauville, and we loved taking our visitors who had already seen all the “big” sights in France and were looking for something less known. One thing we learned about Honfleur is that it’s considered the birthplace of Impressionism. Monet and Boudin painted here and it became a meeting place for their contemporaries. Fantastic, right? And if you visit, it’s easy to see why — the light in the little town is extraordinary. (Laurie White helped us with the research — her Great Artist program is terrific!) So we thought it would be fun to make an episode about painting “en plein air“, and share what it’s like to visit Honfleur for the day. I hope you enjoy it! Tell me friends, do you bring paints or a sketchbook with you when you travel? Have you ever tried painting en plein air? I’d love to hear. P.S. — Would you like to know more about Olive Us? Here you go: – Find the official Olive Us website here, and subscribe to the Olive Us Newsletter here. – Find all the posts I’ve written about Olive Us here. – We’ve made 44 episodes so far and collaborated with ulive on 20 of them! You can find the Olive Us page on ulive here.

By Gabrielle. Oh, we’re in for a treat today! Friends, I’d love to introduce you to Kayce Hughes: wife, mother of seven, and classic designer. I’ve worked with Kayce a lot over the years, so I can attest to the fact that she is inherently stylish; she hails from a gorgeous lineage of women who define style, among them an aunt by the name of Lilly Pulitzer! She is an anything-is-possible maker. Her style is timeless and effortless. She runs toward color, and somehow leaves us wishing for boldly patterned red chairs to match our green walls…and not just in December. Years ago, she whipped up nightshirts for her daughters, which were the first of a now 200-plus piece collection that includes children’s apparel, gift and layette collections, a flower girl collection, and an ever expanding women’s line of clothing and accessories. She has shops, too, so if you’re lucky enough to be in Nashville, Chattanooga, or Atlanta, pop in! (I’m told her fall line is on sale 40% off!) Q: Please tell us about the family who makes this house a home. A: We have seven children – two boys and five girls, ages eight to 20 – and two white labs. Our children’s names are Reagan, Charlotte, Sophie, Owen, Clare, Audrey, and Olivia. And our dogs are Jack and Lilly. My husband is a great photographer, and I design woman’s and children’s clothes. There is a lot of creativity under one roof! With nine strong unique artistic personalities, there is always someone to hang out with and something fun going on. Q: How did this home become yours? A: We bought our house 20 years ago when Scott and I moved to Nashville from New York City. It was built in the 30’s. I have fond memories of the first few years when we spend so many hours scraping wall paper and painting one room at a time. Fourteen years ago we added on the kitchen and family room which is where we all spend most of our time. It was great to have lived in our home for so many years so that we knew what we wanted when the time came to add on. …

Living With Kids: Kayce HughesRead More »

By Lindsey Johnson of Café Johnsonia for Design Mom. I know what you’re thinking — another breakfast-for-lunch menu? Yep! I think my kids and I could eat breakfast for every meal, so Menu #22 of our Lunch Box Series is a popular one in my family. It doesn’t have to be French toast. It could be baby pancakes or waffles. The idea is that it’s a finger food that doesn’t need a fork or plate. Dipping is all part of the fun! I like to include jam instead of syrup for several reasons: 1) syrup is super sticky and spills more easily, and 2) it’s super sticky and spills more easily. : ) I add in some kind of extra protein in the form of lunch meat, cheese stick or cubes. Rice pudding is a relatively new thing we’ve been trying. I didn’t love it as a kid myself, but so far so good! It’s a great way to use up leftover rice and fill their little bellies. If it’s not your child’s thing, you can totally substitute yogurt or cottage cheese. This menu is 100% flexible! LUNCH MENU #22 – homemade French toast sticks with all-fruit jam (see below for directions) – a few slices of lunch meat – carrot applesauce – rice pudding – orange juice …

Lunch Menu #22Read More »

By Gabrielle. This weekend, I was at the grocery store, picking up a last-minute gift for an event, and remembered this little video I made last year. Since this is the week before Christmas, I thought it might come in handy for some of you! Watch it, then keep the ideas in the back of your mind, and if you suddenly remember you still need a teacher gift, or coach gift, or neighbor gift, or hostess gift you can pick one of these up during a late-night grocery run — or on the way to the party! Not in the mood for a video? Click through below and you’ll find the 9 recommendations from the video plus notes on why I chose each one. By the way, how is your shopping coming along? I confess: I’ve barely started mine. Yikes! I feel like our life has been on hold for 11 days while the floors were being redone and we were camping upstairs. We don’t even have our Christmas Tree! I can hardly believe it. We’ve definitely never had a December like this before — we’re going to need to pack in all the holiday magic we can in the next 10 days. I can feel Tim Gunn chanting Make It Work in my ear. : ) …

Last Minute (Thoughtful & Stylish!) Gifts You Can Find at the Grocery StoreRead More »

By Lindsey Johnson of Café Johnsonia for Design Mom. I’ve been really trying to find something my son will eat for lunch. He has numerous issues with food beyond being a picky eater. It’s more of a sensory issue — he’s on the autism spectrum. When I find something he will eat besides peanut butter and honey, I’m super excited. For Menu #21 of our Lunchbox Series, I made him homemade pizza pockets! (I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before!) Admittedly it’s not the healthiest of lunches, but every once in awhile I feel okay about it. And it’s a lot better than the pizza they have available at school. LUNCH MENU #21 – homemade pizza pocket (recipe below) – carrot and celery sticks – banana – dried cranberries – portable kefir (my kids call these ‘yogurt smoothies’) …

Lunch Menu #21Read More »

By Gabrielle. I’m so pleased to share another episode with did with ulive! It’s called The Clockmaker and it’s really lovely. As Ralph explains in the video, in France, all students in the 9th grade (troisieme) do a professional internship. We were so excited that Ralph could intern with Jean-Francois, a clockmaker in our small town. After Ralph’s first day on the job, he came home determined that this would make a great Olive Us episode. When we went to explore the shop, Le Diable au Cadran, we too became mesmerized by the possibility! Thankfully, Jean-Francois was very open to the idea as well. He was such an easy-going, creative and fun person to work with, and his shop is really something to experience. I’m sure it has something to do with all the gears, dials, faces, hands, and tools — plus the ever present tick-tocking. We love how the video turned out. And we love that Ralph was able to experience in internship while in France. We hope you enjoy it! P.S. — Would you like to know more about Olive Us? Here you go: – Find the official Olive Us website here, and subscribe to the Olive Us Newsletter here. – Find all the posts I’ve written about Olive Us here. – We’ve collaborated with ulive for 20 episodes, you can find the Olive Us page on ulive here.