And....After

Here is my planter after its been painted with a lovely charcoal black color...2 coats. I had to first scrape the paint and try and get all the flakes and old paint off wherever I could. Doesn't it look great! What do you think?

Problem solved...at least for now

The last 6 nights of sleep have been the best in 16 months. Read my follow up blog to hear what happened. http://my.opera.com/BabyBirch/blog/

Thanks mamas for your advice and support and for the reminder that this isn't the end of the story. I love the image of Claire yelling under the door!

Check out these crazy dancers, called Morris dancing, who came to our farm on Sunday. They were on a tour of the area and stopped and did a show for us and our neighbors. Birch's favorite part was riding on the school bus!

DIY: Planter Project

So a few weeks ago I took my mother's antique planter that has been looking pretty sad in her backyard and gave it a new look. This is a photo of the before shot...

Mama wiggin out!!!

I'm truly going crazy. You can read the whole story at BabyBirch blog...
http://my.opera.com/richyang05/blog/
and look at adorable photos of the past few months...
http://my.opera.com/richyang05/albums/
Here is the other side of the story...Richard and I had to let loose the other night. Our housemates put Birch to bed while we went and had a blast at our friends Liz and Nando's engagement party. Wish we could do that more often, but we are still feeling it - HA! When you have to get up 4 times during the night and then up for good at 6:30am, it doesn't help a body recover from partying. I'm still considering going salsa dancing this friday...

Princess Bean ...

Now that we are in the blog world, I have finally won something! Yes, that is right ... I entered a giveaway on my friend Lean's blog www.momswithoutblogs.com ... she is very funny and this is one of her two blogs. The other one is a work in progress, called The State of the Mom (www.thestateofthemom.com). The video on strollers is hilarious. This week she has teamed up with another blogger to giveaway a Graco Metrolite stroller - if you want it, enter at www.savvysassymoms.com. Next week they are giving away a Bugaboo Bee.

So - last week I entered a giveaway for tickets to Princess Bean's Messy World. www.princessbean.com. Darling show that Sofia and I went to see yesterday - at the Electric Lodge in Venice (very cool solar powered local entertainment space). Great story about being yourself and it was such a fun time with Sofia.

The moral of the story is - there are lots of giveaways online - enter them - you might win!

My Future in Hairstyling

Here is Sofia running laps last week in the Jog A Thon at school last week! She has never had bangs.

A few days ago Sofia started the process with some safety scissors and this morning I completed the project. I think it looks cute!

I think I might have a future in hairstyling!

RIP Miss K

RIP MRS
Exact DOB Unknown, 1989 - May 11, 2009

Day of the Mama

hope you have a happy mama's day, dear sisters.

richard just made me an arugula omelet. and now i am going to spend the morning with some women that i meet with every month to deconstruct white supremacy (heavy topic, i know, but it is a super awesome group and the discussions are really deep and moving). and then my friend and i are going shopping for a sexy dress to wear to our friends' pre-wedding party in a couple of weeks.

sounds like a good mother's day, right? i get to take a break...just what i need.
hope your wishes are coming true today.

love you all.
ang

BZZZZZZ! Happy Bee Day!

Happy Birthday to sister Bee!

Hope you are doing something fun today!

Some of my Favorite Design Blogs

I love looking at interior design blogs in my spare time. There are so so many out there that have great ideas and useful information and inspirations. Some of my favorite blogs/resources that I regularly visit are:

Cote de Texas: This is a Texan interior designer who loves anything french. And I love her blog, the photos and the stories she posts.

Elements of Style: This gal, Erin Gates, is an interior designer and stylist out of NYC. Her blog is inspiring and funny and there is always something interesting to look at.

Eddie Ross: Gotta love him...he is like the guy martha stewart, but in my mind even more creative.

Lonny: Nope I'm not talking about Uncle Lonny (Johnny) ahahahah...This is a cool design magazine entirely online that was launched late 2009 and its team is made up of some of the best people that came from a bunch of the other print design magazines that folded last year. I love it..and would imagine how cool it would be to read this on an iPAD.

What do you think of these blogs/sites? Have you been to any of them and if you have any other favorite ones let me know. I have about 50 saved to my bookmarks that I visit. Its fun to see the new trends and get inspired!

Happy Birthday Eileen!

Bay Cruise

During a short bout of warm weather recently, my friend Kat and I decided to play tourists in San Francisco. After meeting at the Ferry Building and walking down the Embarcadero toward Fisherman's Wharf, we bought tickets for the 3 pm departure of a bay cruise. This wasn't one of those giant, packed to the gills boats you may see on the Bay. This was more of a back alley boat cruise. Part of me doesn't want to let this secret out, but it's too good not to share. It's so secret that I can't find any information about it online to share so I'll keep you updated when I find out more! This boat was much smaller than the massive tourist trap boats so you have much more of a private experience with the very entertaining boat captains. More importantly, a ticket costs $15 as opposed to $25 on one of the big guys. So we spent an a lovely afternoon on the Bay sipping the wine we brought aboard (duh) and listening to Jimmy Buffet's "Escape" and the like. Here are some highlights from our adventure.

Marin Headlands



The Marin Headlands seen in this photo are part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. This is a wonderful spot to hike, hang at the beach, or bike. However, the Headlands are famous for the stunning views of San Francisco that can be found here. 2010 marked the beginning of some major revamping of the Headlands. The goal of the $8.7M project is to improve trail access, create more parking lots, and increase wildlife protection. This 3 year project means some major road and park closures.
Check out www.projectheadlands.gov for more information about changes and closures.

Fort Baker



The area directly to the right of the GG Bridge is called Fort Baker and is also part of the Headlands (therefore the big project, too). The former army post with amazing views of SF now consists of a first-class hotel and learning institute. There is an awesome restaurant and bar onsite. I have only visited Fort Baker once but it made quite an impression on me. I want to get married there. Seriously, I was never one to plan a dream wedding until I came here. What could be better than getting married under the GG bridge and all the guests get to stay in former officers' residences? Stay tuned for an update on my wedding plans in 10-20 years.
Check out the hotel at: http://www.cavallopoint.com
Go here for more info on Fort Baker: "http://www.fortbaker.net>
Alcatraz



Pretty self-explanatory. And Creepy.



Hope you enjoyed some of the highlights from my booze, oops, I mean bay cruise. We ended our lovely day with the sunset on the roof of our friend Giulia's house in Russian Hill.

Book Report

My family knows this about me - but I am a voracious reader. This year Santa brought me a Kindle. I have been coveting one of these since their debut. I have to say, it is fabulous for travel. And for the one click ordering. For those of you who do most of your book shopping online and will buy a new book ... the kindle will probably work great. If you travel frequently and like to have a selection of reading material at your fingertips, this is also a major bonus. I took the Kindle to Hawaii with us and I can't tell you how impressed and fantastic it was -from someone who previously would purchase 3-5 books for a 10 day vacation and then lug them on the airplane along with the myriad of other 'traveling with children' supplies, the Kindle is amazing.

www.amazon.com

For my reading at home - I have found that I still prefer to check books out from the library. For starters, going to the local library is an outing that we do as a family once a week. It is a great way to give kids freedom to pick out whatever they are interested in at the time - spiders, wakeboarding, loose teeth ... not to mention the stacks and stacks of fun childrens fiction. And DVD's. It is maybe one of the top 5 best, totally free, activities that you can do with your children.

The Santa Monica Public library is huge and beautiful. And right across the street from the YMCA, where we take basketball and swim lessons. Perfect.

But I digress - my reading habits are that I like to have 5-10 books on my nightstand. Stacked and overflowing. Almost falling off the nightstand. I will be reading 2-3 books at once. Usually one selection for book club, one non-fiction and then a fiction.

I keep my lists on Amazon, on goodreads.com and on scraps of paper in my purse.
I plan my reading by ordering the books online at the library (it is like free shopping!). My library emails to tell me that the books are in - and I just waltz in and pick up my exciting choices.

Last week, I picked up the following books:

Open, by Andre Agassi
This was a great read. Andre is a likeable guy and he had a fantastic ghostwriter - probably one of the best out there. It was well written and and really analyzes his tennis game, many of his matches and his training regimine. It gave me a better picture of what it is like to be high performing athlete. I really enjoyed reading this.

Too Much Money, by Dominick Dunne
I love to read Vanity Fair magazine. The in depth articles are thorough and always dramatic. Dominick Dunne had written for them for years - and I always loved his work. He lived the celebrity life and wrote about the celebrity life. This was his last book, published last year, before dying. A glimpse into high society in New York City. The Very, Very rich. The way soem people live that most of us will never understand. And it is interesting. Last year I read Mrs. Astor Regrets, by Meryl Gordon - one fantastic biography detailing her life and the end of her life, her fortune and family. Very well done. I thought the Dunne book really worked well Mrs. Astor Regrets. I can't say that I will be shopping for another Dunne novel right away - but it is an interesting view into another lifestyle.

The Best of Times, by Penny Vincenzi
Penny Vincenzi is one of the great current romance / drama writers right now. I started with the Lytton Family Trilogy and really haven't looked back. Her books are sappy, romantic, dramatic and all set in England (primarily). I intersperse my other reading with these lighthearted fantasy books and it works. All the women are terribly thin, enormously rich and very much in love with ... well, someone. That is the story. But Danielle Steele, this is not. There is nothing to be embarassed about when you pass these along to your grandmother. Or vice versa -which incidentally is how I got started reading ...

Last Night in Twisted River, by John Irving
One of my favorite authors, haven't cracked this book yet but I can't wait. Stay tuned.

For book club last month we read:

The Kids are All Right, A Memoir. By Diana Welch, Liz Welch, Amanda Welch and Dan Welch. Okay, this is a great book. For those who loved A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by David Eggers and Glass Castle by Jeanette Wells, this is a great read. The kids are growing up in late 70's, early 80's - coming of age. They are orphaned - the memoir describes how they process this and what happens to them as they see the childhood they used to have and what happens when their parents die. We read this for book club and then one of our amazing members was able to go on their website (www.thekidsareallrightbook.com) and had a Skype in conference call with Amanda, the eldest sister. It was fantastic! (okay, honestly, Jim had to work late that night and I missed the meeting - but I got a full blow by blow the next day!). Fun book.

This month we are reading: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, by Steig Larsson. I have read this and it is a fun, intriguing, hard to put down mystery novel. Great for vacation, airplane ride, car ride. Even more interesting since the author has since died under mysterious circumstances. I have heard the sequel is even better ... and yes, it is on my wish list at the library.

And finally - the books that are always on my nightstand - even when the others are finished and returned to the library:

Simple Abundance - by Sarah Ban Breathnach. A daily reader for women on the joys of slowing down. A great book that I really enjoy.

Your Two Year Old
Your Four Year Old
And Your Six Year Old ... all by Louise Bates Ames. A great quick reference guide for where your child/children are developmentally, some good activity and game suggestions for them. This is not current pop kid psychology - these were written in the 70's and suggest things like- give your 4 year old a carboard box to play with (totally works). Give your two year old a bucket of water and some measuring cups (outside). Again, so much more fun that any of the birthday presents they got!

Okay - now that I have completed this post - stay tuned for my monthly update. Or - for more current book updates - check out: www.goodreads.com and find me ... I will friend you and we can share reading lists!

Happy Monday!

K

Vermont

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be able to visit my brother, sis-in-law (fellow blogger Ang), and their amazing son, Birch, in Vermont. My Mom, Dad, and I did the 3.5 hour drive to Brattleboro from NYC. Despite being born in New Canaan, Connecticut, I haven't spent too much time on the East Coast so the drive to Vermont was really exciting for me. Plus it was fun spending hours in the car with my parents and dog Ella after not seeing them for a few months. Seriously. We spent a great couple of days on the farm with RichyAngyBirch and their roommates. On the way up, my parents had told me that I was seeing Vermont at its worst because it was during that awkward time when the snow melts and becomes mud. Well I hope I get to go to Vermont again because even "at its worst," it was beautiful. Especially the farm.



We took several walks around the property and down to the river nearby.



Rich y Ang and their farmmates utilize their property to grow seasonal vegetables and fruits but make sure they take advantage of each season and don't waste a drop of deliciousness by canning and freezing EVERYTHING! I was blown away and totally inspired by the amount that they freeze and then use throughout the seasons. The two kids (Birch and Levi) who live there are pretty lucky guys.





They get organic fruit everyday from apples and berries and more that their parents have grown then frozen. I definitely try to freeze things (i.e. making a big batch of soup then freezing it for a rainy day), but this was totally beyond that. So cool. I think my freezer is going to run out of space after being so inspired.
I was also able to see the town of Brattleboro where I had a delicious soy maple syrup latte at Mocha Joe's Coffee Shop and perused wool socks and the like at the awesome Sam's Outdoor Outfitters. In addition, my Mom and Dad and I took a short trip to New Hampshire, just so I could say I have been there. Actually, more importantly, to buy some cheap booze. Thank you New Hampshire!
The best times, however, were spent just hanging out at the farm watching Birch explore the outdoors.



It was so cool to be a part of one of Birch's first days walking around without snow on the ground. He had recently discovered puddles so we watched him looking so excited but also unsure as he splashed through the water and mud. Every once and a while he would look up at Rich or Ang for reassurance, as if making sure if was okay to be getting his boots and (super cute) overalls dirty.





It was so great to spend time with the Birchfields and experience their life in Vermont. They are doing some amazing things in their community and they are definitely an inspiration to us all. I took about 100 pictures but luckily for you all, only included a few of the best ones in this post.

Trick ... or treat?

Table for ... six?

Baby #4 is due ... October 31!

A Halloween special. We are all excited!

Love,
Katie

Monday again

It has been a long while since I've posted. This will be quick because Birch is due to get up from a nap soon, but I wanted to say HI! on this lovely Monday. The photo above is of the group of women that I've been sharing this wonderful experience of pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood with. We started meeting back in the fall of 2008. It is now spring 2010 and our babies are all 1 year old. Great to have their support, advice, and friendship.

What's new? Well, I got a MacBook. Love it. LOVE IT! That's right, never looking back.

Tonight is our night to cook for supper club. There are four families in supper club - 8 adults and 2 babies (with another on the way - due in the next week). Each family cooks and cleans one night a week. We usually cook on Mondays. I am making corn chowder - from the last of our garden corn in the freezer. Fried tempeh. Salad with greens from our greenhouse - goat cheese, dried cherries (from Mich!), and pecans. And rhubarb, strawberry crisp for dessert - gotta finish up the fruit in the freezer from last summer before all the new stuff comes. Gonna be delicious. Supper club is awesome.

We split and stacked 4 cords of wood yesterday. That is about half of what we need to heat our house for the winter.

And Birch and Levi continue to keep us entertained. Check out this pre-bedtime disco mania

Modern Education

I recently stumbled upon this life saver while studying for the Math&Science subtest for the CSET (California Subject Examinations for Teachers). I struggled with math and science while in school so to look back upon material I haven't seen in over ten years (and barely understood back then) was incredibly overwhelming to say the least.  A friend suggested I try to find youtube videos explaining concepts I was struggling with. I stumbled upon the Khan Academy youtube channel. It saved me! It's a wonderful youtube channel with a plethora of videos teaching math and science concepts. It's great because it ranges from super easy math (1+1) to super hard college level I don't even know what. Khan Academy was started by Salman Khan, who holds 3 degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard. I trust him. His niece was struggling in math and so he began tutoring her from across the country. To do this, he uploaded videos on youtube for her to watch. Random people began commenting on the videos and requesting more and eventually the popularity was so overwhelming that he quit his job in finance to focus on this endeavor full time. Now, Khan Academy is a legit non-profit doing wonders for modern education by providing hundreds of math and science lessons on everyone's favorite video website. Khan's mission statement is to provide people all over the world with free education.  So far, so good. 

Definitely check out Khan Academy for yourself or maybe for your kids eventually! Sofia should be doing a little addition and subtraction soon right? I'll definitely be using this as a teacher because there are quite a few concepts and modules that I could use a refresher course on. Check it out!

www.khanacademy.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52ZlXsFJULI

Locks of LOVE

I did it. I spent three weeks trying to decide whether or not to do it. I finally got over my vanity and went for it. I have only cut my hair short twice in my life. Once in 7th grade, and once my senior year of high school. Both times I hated it - wish I had some photos to show you. So, after 15 years of long hair I am ready for a change. And being able to donate my golden strands to locks of Love was a good motivation.

I am feeling pretty good about the cut. It is still long enough to pull back and it will grow out nicely. Kind of want to go shorter, but am not willing to pay for haircuts every couple of months for upkeep. What do you think sistas?

Shake it, baby

I haven't put a post up since the Chile earthquake, nearly two weeks ago. I think it was the chaos and confusion and stress of having family in a devastating situation like the earthquake was emotionally exhausting!
Tara hasn't posted yet either - so here is the update: they were in their Santiago apartment when the initial Concepcion earthquake hit and were able to safely leave their apartment immediately. Their apartment sustained permanent damage which makes it unsafe to live in right now. Luckily, Gonzalo's parents have an apartment nearby that is completely earthquake safe.
Tara has been able to get online for short periods of time - but is now in the process of filing paperwork for Gonzalo to move to the U.S., cleaning out and packing up her apartment and in the meantime, living with her in laws and experiencing over 100+ aftershocks, the biggest yesterday which was over 7.2!
I think the worst is over - and certainly they were / are very lucky in terms of not sustaining any physical harm and thank god - were not in Concepcion or the beach towns nearby when this happened.
Just an gentle reminder that despite all we do to create the perfect, happy world in which we live on a day to day basis - we are merely inhabitants of a much larger space! Most of which we have little to no control over!
So - here's to being grateful for where we are and what we have and really keeping it all in perspective!
Love, Katie

Pretty Table and Fabulous Requested Recipes

As I am sitting here waiting for two kids to fall asleep, I am trawling my favorite sites. I love to get design inspiration and lucky for us, there are so many amazing blogs out there with great ideas.


I found this picture of a side table on Absolutelybeautifulthings.blogspot.com - one of my favorites.

The pretty table vignette is taken from here (I can't figure out how to post pictures from either blog):

www.kimficaro.com

I love the idea of this little side table with pretty objects and empty frames. We are so bombarded with catalogs and the big box stores selling us a 'lifestyle' that many of us have forgotten (or never found!) our own style. I love the casual idea of making a pretty table in our house. I am going to make my own pretty table (when Liam wakes up - he is sleeping in my room) on an antique secretary desk that I bought from Craigslist a couple years ago. It will be the perfect setting for some pretty objects and frames.

More importantly, I have recipes to share:

Shelby's Restaurant Soy Vinaigrette Dressing (Orinda, California)
This recipe was borrowed by our brother Rich over 10 years ago when he was a waiter at Shelby's. A fantastic basic soy vinaigrette for your own greenleaf salad. Shelby's served this with shredded chicken, almonds and fried wontons. This is the jumbo size recipe - you will need to scale accordingly:

Shelby's Soy Vinaigrette
4 cups Vegetable Oil
1 cup Soy Sauce
2 1/2 cups Rice Wine Vinegar
touch of Cayenne Pepper
Pinch of Salt
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
3 Tablespoons chopped Garlic

Next recipe to come ... Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies ...

Foam Roller

Hi all! Have any of you ever done Pilates and used the foam roller? It's amazing! I'm a huge foam roller fan. Currently I do Pilates at home with or without a video guiding my exercise but I did invest in a foam roller which I learned how to use when I attended classes. We used the roller in a variety of ways. One of my least favorite things to do in the beginning was to roll out my IT Band. The Illiotibial band is a tough group of fibers that run along the outside of the thigh connected by the butt muscles and knee. It can get irritated from overuse (especially for runners) and needs to be stretched out, that's where the foam roller comes in! Basically you lie sideways with the roller under the side of your thigh and you roll back and forth. For some (for me!) it can be quite painful in the beginning if you have never or rarely target the IT band. But after a few roller sessions you will notice that it no longer hurts and you feel loosened up.
In addition, the roller can be used to massage your shoulders and back by laying on it and rolling certain ways (see websites with examples).
Definitely check out the foam roller! You can find it for $20 or less. I bet if you did more internet research you could find a lot of uses for it too. Then share them with us!

Here's a site about using the roller with pilates:

http://www.healthnews.com/blogs/jennifer-gianni/fitness-exercise/exercise-equipment/pilates-foam-roller-2684.html

This site has more information about using the roller to stretch before or after exercise:
http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=9911

Another interesting weekend in Vermont

It is snowing today. I love it!
We had a gorgeous weekend, and interesting too. I thought you might like to hear about it. This kind of stuff seems normal to me, but I know that we live a unique kind of life in the green mountains of Vermont. Here's a little glimpse into the lives of the Berkfields for all of you urbanites...

Friday night
My housemate Abi and her son Levi went with Birch and I down to Hampshire College in Amherst, MA (about an hour away)for a panel discussion by the Prison Birth Project. The Prison Birth Project provides doula services to women who are incarcerated and they also provide other services like prenatal and postnatal women's groups and mothering from prison women's groups. They do amazing work - check out their website. http://theprisonbirthproject.org/
We went because there was childcare provided. So our babies hung out with a bunch of older kids while we listened to four women talk. Two of the women were formerly incarcerated and told their stories of being pregnant in prison, and of mothering their children from prison. Their reasons for being incarcerated were ridiculous and caused so much trauma in their families. We need to seriously rethink our current prison system, which does not help people rehabilitate, but actually causes further societal damage. It is so great that an org like the Prison Birth Project is working to support women in prison and their children. Abi and I are trying to think how we can support a project like this. We might drive children to visit their parents in prison. I'll keep you updated. I know there are also good projects like this in California.

Saturday
We had an all day retreat at our farm for the organization that we work with - Post Oil Solutions. We spent time imagining what we want the organization to be like in 5 years and we all agreed that we wanted everyone in the area to be a part of the organization, even if they don't realize it. We want people to be working as a community to solve all kinds of issues that will come up in a post oil society... growing food, sharing resources, sharing skills, working together.

And then we spent a few hours doing an Anti-Class assessment. This was a follow-up to an Anti-Racist Assessment that we did a year ago. We are an org mostly made up of people who are white and middle class. We were working on recognizing the assumptions and values that we bring into our work. And then working on how to be more effective in working across classes. We feel that our movement towards a post oil society must be a cross class effort. And if we are working to make our world a better place we envision a world without classes, where there is equality, instead of people with money using their power over people who don't have money. We are setting our goals high. The woman who facilitated was from an organization called Class Action. Check it out http://www.classism.org/

While we were in the retreat Birch was in the greenhouse with our roommates - we planted onions, leeks, kale, chard and spinach this weekend!


Sunday
It is hard to believe, but it is the time to cut and split wood for next wintera. Our housemate Dan is a logger and he cut down about 6 trees on the property and on Sunday we split the wood. Here are a few photos of our work. It was a gorgeous day and it felt great to be working together and committing to next winter.

HI SISTERS! I MADE IT! 

Check me out (but don't read the comments.. yikes..)  http://www.elle.com/Fashion/Street-Chic 

NY Fashion week just ended... here's are some of my favorite looks... 

E xxx

Nightgowns

I love nightgowns. I was just perusing one of my favorite websites, Garnet Hill - and they happened to have my favorite nightgown on sale for $14. I paid wayyyy more a year or two ago. Here is the link to the smocked nightgown:
http://www.garnethill.com/jump.jsp?itemID=7409&itemType=PRODUCT&path=1%2C2%2C2425%2C10714%2C10714&iProductID=7409

Buy it today, love it tomorrow.

Nighty night ...

Crocodile Attack!

One of my little obsessions over the past few years has been crocodile furniture and accessories. I am not talking real crocodile OF COURSE, but "mock crock". I had a headboard made for my king size bed out of a chocolate brown mock crock and its slightly tufted.  Here is my husband Gonzalo reading a book with my son Sebastian, and you can see our crock headboard.

 This gives my room a more masculine look, but then I have other feminine touches so it doesn't look like a bachelor pad. I very much love the look of crock tables. Here is one I saw in Santa Monica at the Jonathan Adler store - which I loved. I saw the one in white and it was gorgeous, but the brown one is equally nice:
http://www.jonathanadler.com/shop/product.php?productid=17563&cat=0&page=1&initial=4797#


And check out this side table  From Graham and Green- I love this!

 

I even love these croc placemats from Urban Barn - how cute are these: