Lunch Menu #3
Photo and text by Lindsey Johnson.
We’ve arrived at Menu #3 in our Lunchbox Series. This menu is pretty simple and something that I’m likely to put together in a hurry on our way out the door. It comes together quickly and doesn’t require much planning, and my girls love it. I started making cream cheese and jam sandwiches for my daughter when she was little and it has been her favorite sandwich ever since. We switch up the jam depending on what we have. For this sandwich, I used our favorite sour cherry jam, but we also like blueberry and peach.
MENU #3
– bagel with plain cream cheese and cherry (or your child’s favorite) jam
– veggie crisps (these are Inner Pea crisps from Trader Joe’s)
– fresh strawberries
– water
… Lunch Menu #2
Photo and text by Lindsey Johnson.
For Menu #2 in our Lunch Box Series, it’s all about the brown bag, baby! Everything in this lunch is recyclable or compostable — nothing to bring home. This is ideal for events like field trip days when students don’t always have their backpacks handy for carrying home lunchboxes. It also works great if you don’t happen to have reusable lunch gear on hand.
I kind of went old school with the tuna on wheat, but added a little twist that my oldest daughter loves — pea shoots, also called sprouts. They are crunchy and fresh and taste like sweet, just-picked peas. If you can’t find the pea shoots, substitute baby spinach or another kind of sprout.
MENU #2
– Tuna sandwich on wheat bread with pea shoots/sprouts
– Cinnamon applesauce (no sugar added)
– Clementine
– Baby cheese wheel
– Snack size chocolate bar
– Bottled water
Halloween Garlands — Glow in the Dark!
Images and text by Amy Christie for Design Mom.
Tomorrow is October! Bring on the black and orange!! And you know me, I love the garlands. Sewn paper garlands can be customized for everything and I just can’t stop making them. They are a simple, inexpensive and low-key way to dress up your home or decorate for a party.
But for this holiday, an eerie trick! Make the seemingly ordinary garland into a glow-in-the-dark treat.
By day, a festive string of color — and by night, a gleaming strand of ghoulish shapes.
Gather your materials and let’s get started.
… What to Wear to Middle School and Preschool
Photos and text by Gabrielle.
Here is the third and final installment of our 2013 What to Wear to School posts, featuring the lovely Olive & June. This is a bit of a landmark post, because it’s the first year that June has had interest in participating. And boy was she interested! She thought the whole experience was pretty much the funnest thing ever and kept bringing me additional pieces of clothing that she felt should be included — Mom?! What about my watermelon pajamas? Mom! My slippy slops!! (Which is how she pronounces ‘flip flops’.)
Olive has had a big growth spurt since last year and her wardrobe is pretty much entirely new. In contrast with June, who is mostly wearing clothes we bought in France last fall/winter (most are from our favorite French grocery store), sprinkled with hand-me-downs. I confess, I will be sad to retire her little clothes. But on the bright side, it was so fun to have her join in the fun this year.
I hope you enjoy the tour!
On Olive:
Houndstooth Dress from Gapkids (sold out online, but the polka dot version is cute too!). Yellow Knit Tights from H&M. Leather Ballet Flats are hand-me-downs from Maude, purchased at Carrefore, a French grocery store.
On June:
Floral Scarf from Zara Kids, Striped Dress and Grey Knit Tights from Carrefore, Leather Boots are hand-me-downs from Betty. And Betty wore them as hand-me-downs from our friend Kathryn (I don’t know the brand, but you can find similar here.)
… Living With Kids: Debora Kolb
By Gabrielle.
I’ve always wondered what it must be like to live in a popular vacation destination — fabulous, right?! — and this week’s tour answers some of my queries. Doesn’t everyone know one or two families who enjoyed their Florida vacations so much that they moved there? Now I do, too!
Debora and her family now happily reside in South Florida after a stint in the Southwest, and would probably tell you that life there is exactly like a vacation. Except for those pesky jobs that get in the way of beach time! Relocating came with obvious perks (sunshine and proximity to family), but also a smaller, not-exactly perfect home. Not a problem for the Kolb family, though. Here’s their refreshing story; a lovely mix of postcard-perfect and real life, which is exactly how we should all be living!
Q: Please give us a rundown on the family who lives in this fun and functional Florida home!
A: We are a busy, happy family of five. I’m Debora. Before I took on the challenges of being mom to three kids and keeper of household affairs, I enjoyed my work as a professional architect and interior designer. I keep my toe in the water and my creative side engaged, though, as I’m still licensed and working the odd design job on the side. I live design. I even appreciate bad design!
My husband Kelly is an attorney by weekday, kayak fisherman and jack-of-all-trades on the weekends. He’s a great partner and often helps bring my designs to life. One of his biggest challenges, he would claim, is the fact that he is outnumbered threefold by the females in the house; we have a trio of lovely daughters.
The eldest of our children is Taylor. Once a moody, slothful teenager she is now a college freshmen, and a delightfully kind and appreciative 18-year-old. She has survived those tough years and “come back to us” as a young woman who once again appreciates her family and life’s little luxuries. Like a home cooked meal and clean laundry!
… Olive Us: Fruit & Veggie Kabobs
By Gabrielle.
Oh you guys. I have mixed feelings about sharing another Olive Us episode because it’s so awful that it can’t be viewed outside of the U.S.A. yet. But. The good news is, we received an update from ulive that the problem will be solved — and that we’ll have a worldwide-friendly video player — very soon. I will be sure to post links to all the latest videos as soon as the new player is available! In the meantime, for those of you who can’t view it yet, please accept my apologies.
And for those of you who can view it, I hope you’ll enjoy it! We had so much fun filming this episode. What a delight it was to arrange and sort all that gorgeous produce. And the kabobs turned out so charming! Take a peek.
P.S. — Feel free to subscribe to the Olive Us Newsletter! Ben Blair sends one out each week. It’s lots of fun. Job Titles
By Gabrielle. Incredible meeting under the sea by Marco Queral.
What do you tell people that you do for a living? I guess I mean to ask, how do you describe yourself in one official job title upon meeting someone new? Whether you’re a mom or a banker or an anthropologist (one who either digs up artifacts in exotic locales or one who sells all the pretty things at Anthropologie!), what do you mention first? The most meaningful-to-you duty, or the one you think might sound more impressive or audience appropriate in the moment?
I got lucky with my job title – Design Mom – because it’s a fairly basic descriptor for what I do; I’m a designer and a mom. But depending on the situation, I sometimes only mention Olive Us. Or Alt Summit. Or Ben Blair. And I’m not really sure why! I wonder if we all sometimes get the urge to define ourselves in one simple term? If so, what’s yours?
P.S. – This article is cute. I would love to be a Pintern at Pinterest, wouldn’t you? Living With Kids: Ashley Reese
By Gabrielle.
The major element in Ashley and David’s story that intrigued me right away was the path to finding their home. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but it was less of a path and much more of a hike. A hike up Mt. Everest! With very little equipment or even a guide, at times! And they traveled the same grueling, often heartbreaking trek to find their daughters. In so many ways, the Reese family has worked hard for the life they’re living, but I know they wouldn’t have had it any other way. This is one of those stories where the end justifies the means. I’m so touched and inspired by this remarkable family in so many tangible ways, and I hope you will be, too. Friends, I’m pleased to introduce the Reese family!
Q: Please introduce us to the family who makes this house a home!
A: Our family of four lives in this little house: my husband, David, and our two busy girls, Amelia (Mia) and Julianne (June), ages four and 18 months. The locals call it “the white chapel on the hill” because it is so tall, white, and just plain conspicuous set against our rolling plains of farmland.
David and I are both students for a second time after deciding to make career changes. I taught high school English and History, and am now studying Speech and Language Pathology. He owned a landscape design and construction business, but is now is studying to teach high school Science and does personal fitness training on the side. We thought it’d be fun to cover the entire career spectrum before we hit 30!
Like most parents, our girls are the joy of our lives. We realized early in our marriage that our children would need to arrive unconventionally after several rounds of IVF, and now couldn’t be more grateful. They don’t look a thing like us, but I tend to forget that. Some biological mechanism kicks in when you adopt – particularly when adopting from birth, I think – and although my girls both have beautiful brown-skin-chocolate, as Mia describes the look, and David and I are pretty run-of-the-mill for our corner of the globe, I can’t fathom pinching a white bum or kissing a head without curls.
We are a high-energy family and tend to be either doing, creating, or dreaming something up to do or create. We spend a lot of time outside hiking, running, and biking. My husband runs ultra-marathons competitively, while I run just enough to claim sanity, and our four-year-old runs laps on a dirt track around our house as her specially tailored time-out. We thoroughly enjoy growing, assembling, and consuming good food, appreciate interesting architecture, and although we don’t have traditional television, as a self-diagnosed Anglophile, I can never pass up a good period drama or British detective series!
… What to Wear to 9th & 10th Grade
Images and text by Gabrielle.
Are you ready for more What to Wear to School photos? I’ve got a whole bunch for you! Today’s post features Ralph and Maude, our highschoolers. If you can believe it, Ralph was in 3rd grade when we shot our first What to Wear to School photos! I can hardly believe how much time has passed. And I can hardly believe I’ve really been blogging for so long.
Every year, we wonder if it will be the last wardrobe shoots for our oldest kids, but then we conclude it’s so nice to have a yearly record of how they dressed, and how they styled their hair — and they end up using these photos throughout the year for different projects and with their social media accounts. As for myself, I have so few photos of my teenage years. And I know I would get such a kick of looking at my wardrobe choices during high school! So we keep going.
These wardrobes were put together before school started, and I’m curious to see how Maude and Ralph will feel about their choices a few weeks or months in. Will their style evolve with the new school? We shall see!
On Maude:
Cropped Pants by DPAM, Green Layering Tank and Zig Zag Sweater by H&M. Converse Hightops at Zappos.
On Ralph:
Cardigan and Fitted Tee by H&M. Skinny Jeans by Vans. And the Checkerboard Slip-ons are Vans as well!
Note: If you have a son who is in between the boys department and mens department and is having a hard time finding pants that fit, Vans jeans are a lifesaver!
… Olive Us: Let’s Visit Holland
Images and text by Gabrielle.
I’m delighted to share this week’s Olive Us episode! We filmed it on a spring trip to Amsterdam earlier this year. And I love how it turned out.
Some fun behind the scenes info: We had to plan this trip well in advance, and we did everything we could think of — consulted the experts, the locals, the calendars (old and new) — to schedule the trip during the very peak of tulip season. But all that research and careful planning were a bust! Turns out, Spring arrived unusually late in Europe this year. And we missed the main blooming season by 2 or 3 weeks!
The downside to our timing was that instead of the hundreds and hundreds of tulip fields, that you might see on a postcard from the Netherlands, there were only a few tulip fields in bloom. Like maybe 10 or 15 in the whole area. It was simply too early! This was of course frustrating, but also funny, as we commiserated with busload after busload of tourists from all over the world who, like us, had scheduled their trips to The Netherlands at “peak” season. Hah!
The upside to our timing was that the earlier blooming bulb flowers — like daffodils and hyacinths — were still in bloom. And really spectacular! And we weren’t expecting to see those at all, because by the time peak tulip season rolls around, they’re long gone. So we did some last-minute scrambling and re-writing and came up with a fresh new concept for the video. And like I said, I love how it turned out. I hope you like it too!
Note: For those of you who don’t live in the U.S.A. and can’t currently view the new episodes: We are working on it! I promise. I was told it should be solved in 2 weeks or less. So I’m crossing my fingers the wait won’t be too much longer. And oh man, I feel awful that you can’t view the episodes! I’m so sorry. It’s driving me nuts (and I know it’s driving some of you nuts, too). Thank you, thank you for being patient while we sort it out.
And another big thank you, to Lotte! She’s our talented Dutch friend who assisted us with the shoot while we were in The Netherlands. We couldn’t have done it without her.
… Birthdays on Other Days
By Gabrielle.
Yesterday was September 11th. When I go about my day on September 11th, and see something or read something that reminds me it’s September 11th, like many people, I relive those moments of twelve years ago. We had just moved to New York the month before. I held newborn baby Olive in my arms while I watched the news. Ben Blair was in Manhattan.
And then I remember that September 11th is also my dad’s birthday. The picture at top is my dad at Lake Powell. I believe he would have been 70 years old this year!
He died a few years before the events of 9/11. And I’m not sure how he would have felt, sharing his birthday with a national day of mourning. I know that Liz of Mom 101, a life-long New Yorker, has a 9/11 birthday as well, and I’ve noticed she finds good ways to celebrate, while also honoring the somber realities of that day. And I always wonder if that’s a hard balance for her to strike.
I’d love to know, do you share your birthday with another big day? 9/11? Pearl Harbor? Or maybe a holiday? Do you like sharing the day? Or would you switch if you could? And if your child has a birthday on another big day, what’s that like?
P.S. — I was at a business lunch yesterday, and people were sharing their stories. I talked about my Dad, and his decade long obsession with yellow. Yellow socks, yellow shoes, yellow clothes, yellow watch, yellow car, yellow classroom. I miss my dad. It was nice to have an excuse to talk about him. What to Wear to 2nd & 3rd Grade
Text and Images by Gabrielle.
For this year’s What to Wear to School posts, I thought I would photograph the kids in pairs — starting with Oscar & Betty.
On Oscar:
Buffalo Check Shorts, Smiley Face Tee, Chambray Button-down from Polarn O. Pyret. Socks from H&M. Shoes by Vans.
On Betty:
Polka-dot Dress and Polka-dot Leggings from Old Navy. Gingham Scarf by Polarn O. Pyret. Shoes by Vans.
… Living With Kids: Lilian de Vries
By Gabrielle.
I normally begin these Living With Kids tours with a stunning shot of the kitchen or a vibrant welcome from the entryway. But today, I am starting off by showing you a few highly covetable pairs of children’s boots. They are the coolest, as are all the offerings from a fairly new Dutch shoe brand called de Vries. And now we get the chance to see inside the equally cool designer’s home!
Her name is Lilian de Vries, and she is a talent. When she first wrote to me, she casually mentioned she is a shoemaker. Too fun! I consider hers an artisan career that would be fantastic to announce at dinner parties. Or home tours! “Hello. My name is Lilian, and I make fabulous shoes. It is nice to meet you.” Friends, it really is nice to meet Lilian. You’ll see. Please enjoy the tour!
Q: Tell us about the family who makes this house a home!
A: I met my husband Charles in 1996 in Rotterdam while I was in art school. We used to live there for ten years in a great apartment. Two years after our daughter Ella was born in 2003, we decided to move to a house with a garden that was also closer to my work in Amsterdam, and we ultimately ended up in Utrecht, the center part of the Netherlands.
… The Treehouse: Part 2
Image and text by Gabrielle.
A couple of weeks ago, I shared the story of how The Treehouse came to be ours. And today, I thought it would be fun to tell you a little more about what the house was like when we arrived.
One of the most interesting tidbits about The Treehouse, is that when we moved in, it was furnished almost exactly as we had seen it in photos.
… Meet Olive Us!
I hope you’ll enjoy Meet Olive Us. It’s a sweet little introduction to each of our kids — and a sweet introduction to the whole Olive Us series.
Direction and concept by Tiger in a Jar. Title illustration by Clayton Thompson.
I hope you check it out — it’s off-the-charts charming, I promise.
Living With Kids: Anna Keep
By Gabrielle.
There are a few moments in this tour when my heart aches for Anna. She currently lives in the home she and her former husband built and dreamed of living in for their family’s future. As we all know, though, some of the most beautiful plans are the ones that change into other plans altogether. Still beautiful, just maybe unexpectedly so. The marriage is no longer, but the boys and home Anna and her ex built together are still thriving. And so, I can happily tell you, is Anna.
I didn’t know her circumstances during our correspondence — homeowners and I email a lot back and forth throughout this process! — but I always thought of her as so upbeat and positive in her words and decoration. I had no idea of what she may have endured emotionally to get to this point. Her honest answers were probably difficult for her to write, but I believe she made herself write them to remind herself (and us, too) that lessons are everywhere, just waiting to be learned. The hard way, the easy way, and all the ways in between. I love this tour so much, and thank Anna from the bottom of my heart for giving us so much of her own. Friends, please meet Anna.
Q: Please tell us about everyone who lives here!
A: I share my home with my two freckled boys: Ross, aged ten, and Ben, aged eight. Plus, at last count, nine goldfish, four wild green parrots, and a rotation of hamsters. There is also a puppy dog coming soon! Our housekeeper named Sharlena hails from Zimbabwe, and she and her teenage son, Thami, also share our property in a garden cottage.
… Big Olive Us News!
By Gabrielle.
I have some great big news about Olive Us — and I’ve been sitting on this news since January! It’s taken all sorts of self control to not share this happy bit of info. : )
Scripps (you may have heard of them because they own HGTV, The Travel Channel, Food Network,etc.) is launching a new online channel called ulive. It’s all about useful (and entertaining!) lifestyle videos covering topics like food, home, travel, parenting, and wellness. They’ll be featuring content you already love from their well-established TV channels, and they’ll be introducing lots of brand new content as well.
And that’s where Olive Us comes in.
ulive commissioned 20 Olive Us episodes for 2013!! Twenty episodes you haven’t seen before. And we’ve already shot 17 of them — in fact, every spare minute of our last 3 months in France was filled with shooting. Hah! Which means when the ulive site officially launches next week, you’ll have access to a steady stream of brand new Olive Us episodes through the end of the year. So great!
Extra fun: To celebrate, Olive Us is hosting a contest — share your favorite episode and you could win an iPad Mini! It’s easy to enter. Find all the details here.
… Birthday Celebrations
Image and text by Gabrielle.
Do you host a birthday-party-with-friends for your children each year? Something fun and maybe themed with invitations, decorations, games, refreshments and a big cake? I love hosting parties like that!
But as our family was growing, I was intimidated by the idea of throwing a big party 6 times each year, once for each of our kids. So fairly early on, we decided we’d do friend parties on some years, and simpler, family parties on others. Originally, we planned to host friend parties at age 1, 3, 5, 8, 12 and 16. But it hasn’t worked out that way!
When our oldest, Ralph, turned 12, we were still quite new to Colorado and he hadn’t had a chance to make many friends yet. So a friend party didn’t make sense. We decided to skip the party and took him on his first trip to San Francisco instead (at the time, I would have never guessed we would end up living in the Bay Area!).
Then, when Maude turned 12, we had just barely moved to France, and again, a friend party didn’t make sense. So using the precedent of Ralph’s trip, we took Maude to London to see Wicked. (We lived so close! Just a ferry ride away.)
And then we moved here to California, just weeks before Olive’s 12th birthday, and for the third time, a friend party didn’t make sense. Plus, now we had a bit of a tradition happening with a 12th birthday trip. Olive started daydreaming about seeing Wicked in New York (she hasn’t been back to New York since we moved! And she still has a best friend there — who she wanted to invite to the show, of course.) But we needed a more budget-friendly idea.
… Living With Kids: Carey Denman
By Gabrielle.
Buying land and building a home takes so much more than a clear vision. There’s always a headache-inducing budget involved, isn’t there? Made all the more agonizing when that budget keeps increasing throughout the process! Because you want that gorgeous wood floor, that dazzling light fixture and all the others that coordinate, and spectacular kitchen drawer pulls and – darn it! – they’re custom. It must be hard to reconcile dreams and dollars. Carey and her husband’s plan almost didn’t make it to the kitchen cabinet hardware, but luckily they were rescued by a contractor with a heart (and vision) of gold. This is a good story with a beautiful ending, and one to which I probably mega relate because of our French cottage! For those of you also in the midst of building fever, read on (and good luck!). Friends, meet Carey Denman!
Q: Tell us all about the lucky family who calls this place home!
A: My husband Jory and I live here with our four children: Ella, Samuel, William, and Amelia. Ella is eight and has a penchant for horses and anything that sparkles. Our second born child, Samuel, is seven and loves Legos, balloons, and pancakes. William, five, has a mischievous streak a mile wide; he has been known to paint his whole body with black paint and has a fondness for anything on wheels. And Amelia, our fun-loving three-year-old, usually has a doll tucked under her arm and a bag stuffed full of miscellany draped over her shoulder.
I homeschool this raucous bunch and write a column about the adventures of parenting for my local newspaper. I also tend to a large garden that makes my heart happy, and dabble in making herbal concoctions. My husband is a nurse at a nearby hospital, an avid outdoorsman, and a man dedicated to loving our children in real and tangible ways.
… Plaster of Paris Flowers Votives
Images and text by Amy Christie for Design Mom.
I’ve been loving all the plaster of Paris flowers across the web. They have such an ethereal and dreamlike look to them. Building on the process, I took it a step further and turned the plaster-ed flowers into votives. Dainty and functional.
Plaster is a fun medium to work in. A liquid become a solid in a few short minutes and you get to decide how to form it. For dipping, the plaster coats the petals, freezing them in creamy white loveliness. With the stamina of the plastic flower, the votives appear fragile but aren’t so.
(If you haven’t noticed, I love working with plaster — as seen in these posts: gold leaf votives, leaf napkin rings, quote votives.)
The coated plaster of Paris flowers are still ethereal and dreamlike and now, with the addition of a candle, rather romantic. Gather a few for a shelf in a living room, or on a bedroom mantle.
I think a collection of these would make a gorgeous centerpiece for a dinner party — or even as wedding decor!
Ready to get a little bit messy?
…