Before & After Renovations

Does Peel-And-Stick Tile Really Work?

April 9, 2020

Those kitchen floors were no bueno. 

When I first moved into this place, I resolved to keep all my MUST! RENOVATE! HOUSE! tendencies in check. It's a rental, and it's one that's going to be torn down whenever I vacate it (which will obviously be...ahhhh...later than expected, as my down payment money has been evaporating by the day, WHEEEEE). But I am still a firm believer in fixing the things you cannot abide, even in a rental - because you live there. And one thing that I knew I'd have to fix here was the truly abominable linoleum floor: It was chipped, and stained, and made the whole kitchen/dining area - otherwise the loveliest part of the house - feel dark.

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Random & Weird Experiments

Strongly Suggest You Try Making Peepshi

April 7, 2020

Such a fun weekend project!

Hahahahahahahaha remember when weekends existed? It's Tuesday; seems like as good of a day as any for a ludicrous, labor-intensive edible project involving enormous quantities of sugar.

Okay. Now that we've established that you're making Peepshi, because of course you are, let me tell you how to do it. This geniusness was originally created by Serious Eats, but now that I've made one batch and am thus clearly an expert, I'm going to tell you the little discoveries that I made over the course of the Peepshi-making process that I thought were extra wonderful.

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MY PRODUCTS
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Lifestyle

…Are The Kids (Really) Alright?

April 7, 2020

Parents these days are not OK; this we know. Our current crisis has thrown the extent to which our system fails working parents into high relief. We already had to do far too much, all at the same time, and somehow "make it work" even though, for most of us, the avenues of support from everyone to our employers to our spouses to the federal government amounted to nil.

Still: One of the major questions on my mind right now is how all of this is going to affect my kids. It'll have a lasting impact, for sure...but what will that impact be? I reached out to parenting and relationship coach Graziella Simonetti of Your Parenting Pals to find out what we can expect - and how we can help.

We are in what is likely, and hopefully, a once in a generation type crisis.  With that comes an uncertainty over how this prolonged stress will impact us and our children.  We wish had a magical wand that gave us the power to say what life will look like when things settle or to share, with certainty, what can be done to protect ourselves and our children from the trauma. We don’t. What we know is that right now, there is a lot of uncertainty, and uncertainty can cause anxiety and stress.  This stressful event doesn’t necessarily have to turn into toxic stress. The goal is to make it as tolerable and manageable as possible.

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ENTREES

Ridiculously Delicious Bibimbap (With a Fried Egg)

April 6, 2020

Oh. My god. You guys, this may be one of the most delicious meals I have ever made. I've been ordering Hello Fresh to keep some variety in our diets (and to keep me out of the supermarkets as much as possible), and last night's recipe - which I put a little bit of my own spin on, because eggs sounded like an excellent addition - was spectacular. It's also easy! And inexpensive!

Translation: This recipe is now in our regular weekly rotation.

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Lifestyle

Three #ShopSmall Brands I Just Fell In Love With

April 4, 2020

Me and my kimono

I wrote this post right before my parents and I left for the Caymans - I forgot to post it back then, but still want to, because the four brands I discovered are great. It was just a little less than a month ago, and people were still doing things like being in rooms together. (You guys. That was less than a month ago. Read this article; it gave me whiplash.)

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Lifestyle

Do You Qualify for A Small Business Loan? (And How To Apply)

April 2, 2020

One of my favorite shops, Boho Bungalow, in Occidental. Support small businesses!!

Here's everything you need to know about whether you qualify for a Small Business Loan (SBA) to help you get through the COVID crisis - plus links to apply. (This is a direct copy from a Treasury document sent to me this morning by my mother, an NYC attorney, via her accountant.)

The Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) authorizes up to $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses to pay their employees during the COVID-19 crisis. All loan terms will be the same for everyone.

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DIY

The Best Raised Garden Planter You Need To Own Right Now

April 1, 2020

New planters, heyyy!

By (astoundingly) popular request via IG, today's post is about...my planters. It turns out that everyone in the world has decided to become a gardener in their abundance of spare time.

I have, in the course of my years, proven myself to be an astoundingly poor keeper of indoor plants. When you see a lovely, thriving plant in my house, be assured: It is fake. But for whatever reason my black thumb turns green (or, ok, perhaps something more like chartreuse) in the presence of vegetables: In our San Jose house, our tomatoes and cucumbers were actual legend. I never bothered to garden in our last place because 1) I was kinda in crisis last year and tomatoes were not my priority, and 2) I wasn't inclined to put even more work into a rental place than I already had (and I'd already done a lot).

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Lifestyle

A Tarot Spread for Spiritual Decluttering

March 31, 2020

Tarot contributor Jessica designs a spread to help us understand our relationship with sentimental objects that are weighing us down (and then get rid of them).

I live in Michigan, and I tend to hibernate during the months of cold and darkness. I get sluggish and slack. Then the days get longer, the sunlight streams through the windows, and I discover that I hate my house and everything in it. Right about now is when I get spring-cleaning fever. 

For me, cleaning pretty much always begin clearing away the crap that’s accumulated while I’ve been too busy or too distracted or too consumed by physical lassitude and existential despair to deal with said crap. (Midwestern winters are no joke, y’all.) So, as I started considering what this month’s column might be, I found myself thinking about my house and the mess that’s making me crazy now that there’s enough light to see it and I have enough energy to care. (Midwestern winters are no joke, y’all.)

Sometimes, decluttering is easy. That self-help book that has been sitting on my bedside table, unopened, for months? Give-away pile. A really nice box that I kept because it might come in handy while wrapping Christmas presents? Recycling bin. Lipstick I bought five years ago and have worn exactly once? Garbage can. 

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Lifestyle

Tour Audrey Scheck’s Clean & Cozy Dining Room

March 30, 2020

Our Home Editor, Audrey, takes us on a tour of her strikingly minimalist - but also warm and cozy - dining room.

When it came time to design our dining room, I knew that simplicity would be imperative. With two young kids and lots of foot traffic moving through the room, the room needed to be spacious and open. 

When you walk in our front door you enter through the living room, which connects to the dining room. You have to walk through the space to access the remainder of the house, so we needed to allow for that flow. During our renovations, we asked the contractor to move the positioning of the chandelier so that we could center the dining table as far back as possible. This allowed for a wide walkway in front of the table, while still leaving enough space for the dining table and chairs.

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DIARY

In Which I Manage To Almost Kill Myself With A Steak in the Midst Of A Global Pandemic

March 28, 2020

So I think we can all agree that good gossip - by which I mean the exchange of non-terrifying information - is in short supply these days. Just last week, Francesca and I had a phone call which consisted almost entirely of me relaying a play-by-play of how, exactly, I managed to lose one of my AirPods while said AirPods were physically located inside my ears. (This is a true story.)

It was riveting.

But our conversation this morning was a new level of scintillating, as it involved a tale of how I managed to almost die last night. From the virus currently terrorizing the world? Of course not. From a steak.

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