Doll Fair

I have an ongoing fantasy about living in a Tasha Tudor book (if you don't know Tasha, I highly recommend forming an acquaintance. Your imagination will become more charming by the page). In my favorite book of all, A Time to Keep, Tasha's family puts on a doll fair for their dolls. We decided that we should do this, too.

The flower show and button money...

...getting ready for the musical number

The girls decorated a carriage so Mrs. Squirrel could arrive in style. Anything less would just be humiliating, really.

Pants, and the presence of hair on top of one's head, were optional for the toddler crowd.

special button jewelry was required.

p.s. Remember the game hen we were in the process of mummifying? My husband just reported to me that the feral cats in our neighborhood tore open the bags it was packed in (I had put it on a corner of our porch to cure - no way that thing was staying inside) and ripped it apart! Wow. Gross, and probably the end of that particular experiment.

Sisters make the best friends

On the big iron bed I shared with my two little sisters as a child lived a pillow my mom had cross-stitched with the message: "sisters make the best friends" (see above). That pillow witnessed many brutal wrestling matches, book stealing schemes (mostly Baby-Sitters Club - I thought Claudia was such a great dresser), and other - worse - acts, like the game of barber shop we played one fateful night in 1980, when I gave my little sister Lauren a really drastic hair cut the week before a big family reunion.

Visiting home recently, my two girls shared that same iron bed (until night three, when the bigger of the two decided the little one smelled too much like pee-pee and chose the floor instead). I was so excited to see that my mom still had the pillow. I've told the girls about it, doing my best to subtly brain-wash them with the innocent little motto. When they saw it, they immediately started to fight over who could sleep with their head on it. Awesome. The magic lives on.

And then, further proving that what goes around comes around, a couple of days later my girls locked themselves in a dark closet and had their own fun game of barber shop. The six year old mowed a wide, jagged path through the three year old's blond tresses, right down the middle of her head (to the scalp) and then made some nice bangs (also to the scalp) on herself "because it just looked so cute and good."

Thank goodness for sisters. And also for anthropologie dinner napkins. Which the three year old will wear every day as head scarves for the next year of her life while the top of her hair grows back. Including at my little sister's wedding, in eleven days.

Rip the Page Giveaway!

Hello! Do you remember Rip the Page, Karen Benke's great book I posted about a bit ago? The kind people at Shambhala would like to give a copy away to a lucky reader. If you are interested (and you should be! This is the coolest book. Perfect to have in your arsenal for those long vacation car rides) just leave a little comment. I'd like to hear about the best book you've read this summer (aren't we always looking for a good book? Right now I'm loving Heroes of History, by Will Durant). I'll close the giveaway on Wednesday.

Speaking of books, did you happen to see this David Brooks article in the New York Times? I love that someone out there is researching the value of reading from actual books. (And it makes me wonder: can I now justify buying those beautiful new Penguin classics for our family library?)

GIVEAWAY CLOSED! THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING! WINNER, YOU HAVE BEEN EMAILED...

Katie's house

Whenever I visit my older sister Katie, I am consumed by a desire to go back to my house and (a) paint my walls the exact same shades as hers and (2) throw away my junk - Katie's house is always so clean (but still warm. And not in the hot, humid Virginia sense of the word). It calms my hyper self down to spend time there, enjoying her thoughtful little corners (and perfect light fixtures).

(mobile by Roost. So pretty.)

(thoughtful quotes. And I love my sister's handwriting)

(I really want to plop down on that bed. It smelled so good in her guest room - like clean linens and fresh flowers.)