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Want Your Own Summer Tablescape Refresh?

May 31, 2016

Noritake china sandefjord scandinavian serving platter with a cake

My birthday cake, about to be frosted in my daughter's favorite color ("peeeenk").

If you've liked the tablescape shots I've been posting lately - mostly featuring Noritake China's Cher Blanc and Sandefjord patterns - I am about to make your first day back at work after a long weekend (ugggg) way better. We're giving away a $350 gift card to Noritake China (plus signed copies of both of my books, Ramshackle Glam and Carrying On), which you can use to pick up some of the items you've seen featured here...or anything else on the site that you're into.

Decor

Kid Room Redux

May 27, 2016

Indy's Tiny Room (with Tiny Bed)

OK, I need your help. I've been brainstorming ideas for what to do about our kids' bedroom situation, and could use any suggestions you might have - because my parents are here this weekend, which means that I have the ability to make a child-free trip to Ikea. And we all know how child-inclusive trips to Ikea go, so I'm thinking I should take advantage of this.

Here's the present setup:

Eat

Cedar-Wrapped Salmon (And Me Turning 35)

May 25, 2016

cedar-wrapped asian salmon recipe for the grill

I turn 35 tomorrow. (And the day after that, my son graduates from preschool, which is even more perplexing. ...How did this happen? Am I happy about it? Am I going to cry massive crocodile tears? The answers: I have no freaking idea, yes with qualifications, and ohhhmygoodness yes.)

The fact that it's my birthday has nothing to do with the photos of salmon in this post (other than the fact that I suppose I should be ingesting more omega-3s...?). It's just on my mind.

The thing is, I've never been into New Year's resolutions; New Year's is a holiday that I'm not especially fond of because it stresses me out (HAVE FUN! NOW!), but beyond that, I've never gotten that grand "Hooray! This is my chance to start afresh!" burst that apparently motivates dedicated resolution-makers. This birthday, though, I'm sort of getting that feeling: the desire to hit the refresh button in certain ways. I don't think it's any mystery that I've been going through some searching with regards to how I can live better, feel better, and mostly be better, as a partner and mother and daughter and person. These are obviously things that I've always thought about to some extent, like everyone, but something about this particular moment in my life seems different.

Decor

My Dog Matches My Bedding (or: Kelly Van Halen Makes Blankets, And That’s Kind Of Amazing)

May 24, 2016

Don't worry; he's literally going in for a bang trim today. Vision is imminent.

OK, so I have a thing for blankets. Kind of a big thing. (Whatever, as fixations go I think enjoying a nice, fuzzy blanket is a pretty non-terrible one.) The blanket pictured here both perfectly matches my dog and sort of feels like him, except better (sorry, Virgil). Let's say you crossed him with an extremely fluffy baby panda, and then gave the whole deal a nice blowout: that's a pretty good approximation of the softness level we're talking about.

And you know who makes the one pictured here? KVH by Kelly Van Halen. I don't know, I thought that was sort of random and interesting. Apparently she's been designing and building beautiful Los Angeles area homes for years, and recently decided to expand into making luxury at-home essentials – including the blanket you see here.

Decor

The Great Outdoors

May 23, 2016

Alisa + me + babies | Our newly redecorated backyard

The fact that I love our house is a bit of a lucky surprise – purchasing a home that you’ve only seen on a FaceTime video is…well, a questionable decision, at best. But I do! I totally love it.

The one thing about our place that I wasn’t quite sure about when we decided to buy it: its size. It’s about the same square footage as the house we moved out of, which had been starting to feel a bit cramped for our growing family. And yet this house feels way more expansive to me – partially, I think, because it’s all on one level, but mostly because of our outdoor space.

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