house for sale!

I've been having the door dream for some time now. Have any of you had this dream before? You dream there is a new door in your house that you had not before discovered. When you open the door, there is a whole new room or wing on your home that you did not know existed. I hear this is a common dream for city dwellers. I used to have it often when we lived in the city. Now that I have four kids, I've started having it again. I think it was partially due to the fact that baby Margot's clothes have no real home. They lie in a tiny basket on the floor of her sister's room. So now, alas, we must sell our sweet New Jersey cottage in the woods...

3threes

How cute are these clothes? All made and available for sale in our brilliant cousin Allyson's new etsy store. Better shop quickly - these will fly away! (For those of you who have the Quarterly - this is the same Allyson who wrote the essay on Ambiance)

some lovely art

The Yellow House, watercolor by Van Gogh


Starlit Night, Georgia O'Keefe


Lierre, Matisse


Van Gogh's drawings of hands

I'm in the process of working really, really hard to start a parent-led art program (on a bigger scale than just one classroom) at my kids' school after coming across this amazing school in Portland. If you have ever wished that your kids did more art in school or had more exposure - but didn't quite know how to get something going - this is a great, concrete model. (Or, even just great art ideas to do with your kids at home). And incidentally they are SO nice when you bombard them with questions...

some randomness

Imagine the unfortunate results that can occur from stepping on a rusty bit of metal: a rather severe case of lockjaw. Yesterday we found an old 2 by 4 in our garage. We thought it would make a great growth chart to attach to our wall. (My sister-in-law Katie made one a while back. You simply paint a long board in a pretty color, then attach it vertically to your wall. As your child grows you mark his/her height on the board. Then if you ever decide to change houses, you can take the board and all the wonderful bits of children-growing memories with you.) Unfortunately, as we were prepping our 2 by 4, my son scratched his foot on a rusty nail. Lucky for us his tetanus shot was up to date...

the Buddha baby

Here is Margot at three months. We've started calling her "Buddha baby". Sometimes we call her "Marguerite" or "Margarita" or "la petite Margot". When my son was a baby we called him "BouBou," the five-year old we called "Beffy", and the three-year old "JuJu". Names can morph into such bizarre creations. What funny nicknames does your family have?

P.S. the Buddha is wearing her handknit sweater by Lynne and booties by cousin Allyson.

Quarterly in the shop!

The Quarterly is now in the shop. (Listing your name on the pre-order list does not guarantee you a Quarterly.) If we run out, we may do another printing later. Oh and this is a small preview: Sugar Box #3, the Three Bears...

(note from Lynne - I'm so sorry the international shipping is so high. I was shocked when I found out how much it would cost to mail our little magazine overseas.)

Quarterly pre-orders

Tap, tap, tap, we're working hard finishing the final minutiae of the quarterly. So far we've got 38 pages of sofa-reading bliss--sans advertisements!--and full of crafty projects, pretty color photos, sketches, essays and more. The price will be $12 plus a small shipping fee. Each quarterly will be printed on nice quality paper, hand assembled and bound with pretty linen book cloth. So we can anticipate how many prints to make, please leave your name and the number of quarterlies you would like. Then we'll get to work printing, assembling, shipping and sending you a little pleasure in the mail...

Quarterly Preview #2

...includes a pattern for Sugar Loom no.3, The Six Swans.

Sugar City Quarterly preview!

Slowly, slowly between all our motherly cares Lynne and I have been finishing the details for the first Sugar City Quarterly, she in California, and I in New Jersey. Along with interesting articles and stories, there will be several patterns and crafty projects. Here's a little preview of what's to come in the first issue: a Little Red embroidery pattern (and Wolfie pattern too!), perfect for imbuing a dress or library bag or skirt with all your good karma and loving stitches.

What kid wouldn't want a frock with her mum's love and karma sewn into it? This Quarterly is chock full of such pleasurable slow-living activities.

slow living

Emma Bovary are you out there? Do you remember her from your college reading days? (Does Madame Bovary ring a bell?) This poor woman was obsessed with reading romance novels and had a certain "romantic" vision of what her life would be like. When she married and had a child, she was immediately disappointed with her mundane wifely duties. Her disappointment thrust her life into a downward, destructive spiral and eventually death. Zola said: "Madame Bovary, c'est moi!" [she] is me!" Perhaps we've all felt like her--disappointed with our seemingly banal lives.

To me "slow living" by its very nature is anti-Emma Bovary. It's finding joy in simple, seemingly banal activities and moments: feeling satisfaction with cleaning a stack of food-crusted dishes; patiently listening to and actually enjoying a five-year old recount her fantasy wish-list for the tooth fairy; laughing at the sight of the three-year old sitting in the bathroom sink with a whole bottle of shampoo mixed into a mountain of frothy suds. (I had to work hard to smile and not scream at that scene!) Seeing this sweet baby peacefully sleep in her quiet sun-filled crib was one of those simple, magic moments that I will always remember. I had to share it with you too.

So be off with you Emma Bovary. You're not invited into my house!

spring wardrobe ideas

teacher portraits, 2009

Masterpiece on top by Modigliani; masterpieces below by some of the kids in my son's second grade class. We just did portraits of his teacher, like we did last year, so now I need to make them into a book for her end of the year present. It's so neat to compare last year's drawings with this year's...