Awesome Accessory Alert: Purse Hook

While drinking a beer at my local dive recently, my friend Kat and I were having a very serious discussion regarding the importance of hooks under bars (and tables for that matter). Everytime I get to a bar or restaurant I immediately run my hand under the length of my bar area searching and hoping for a hook to put my purse. This can be quite an unpleasant experience, especially if it ends with the discovery of gum instead of a hook. If there is no hook, you are forced to either keep your purse on your lap (which is uncomfortable and gets in the way of my drinking) or put your purse on the floor. We are all well aware of what may await us down there on the ground. Nothing pleasant awaits for you or your poor purse. Anyways, a few weeks after Kat and I had this long talk, she surprised me with the best gift ever! A purse hook! The hook can hold up to 35 pounds and safely keeps your purse (or jacket, scarf, whatever) off the floor! You can even have the circular part that sits on the table personalized (mine is yellow with a "B" in green gem stones). These go for about $20 but I saw some cheaper ones on Amazon. Next time you are at a restaurant or bar or wherever, take notice of how annoying purse placement is and consider the purse hook. Here is a link to a site that makes eco-friendly hooks. They also have hooks that double as bracelets, however I am unable and unwilling to vouch for that product.

http://pursehook.net/

Spice up a fruit salad!

Add lime and chile powder! This is a staple food stand item in my neighborhood (The Mission District). Add these two ingredients to any fruit salad. I picked one up for lunch today at a local torta shop and it included papaya, pineapple, melon, grapes, jicama, and cucumber. Yum!

Perfect Parent

There was a time when I first was a mom that I had this idea of a perfect parent. For me, a stay at home mom, that meant basically keeping a totally clean house and home cooked meals as well as hosting fun playdates for moms (oh yah, and kids too). Then we moved back to the U.S. And I had another baby ... and life happened. And things got crazy and then I had another baby. So ... I have started to learn over the past (nearly 6 years) of parenting that there is no such thing. And the ones who look perfect are probably crazy.

So I love this website that I just came across:

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/tools.php

And I also love to remember my childhood and try to draw inspiration from the amazing parents who raised me.

I have also learned so much about judgement being a parent. There is a book a couple of moms wrote a few years ago called "I was a perfect mom before I had kids". That about sums it up. I think for the most part, as parents, we all try to take the best from our own childhood and incorporate from our own lives what works well and just run with it. There is no perfect parent and no better or best - I try to keep in mind what type of end result I want for my kids: happy, well adjusted, confident, contributing members of our family and our planet.

I love Dr. Sears for medical and growing advice: http://www.askdrsears.com/ and love the Happiest Toddler on the Block (Dr. Karp). Also Louise Ames Bates wrote great books, published in the 70's called "Your One Year Old", "Your Two Year Old", etc. You can find these in used book stores and they are awesome for referencing behaviour specific to a childs age during the appropriate year. It is also a good reminder for me of where each child is emotionally and developmentally - I think I expect my 3 1/2 year old to be where my 5 1/2 year old is ... since they play together so much.

Postings for later today: my delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe (okay, it is out of Martha Stewart's Cookie Book) and the famous Shelby's Salad dressing (Uncle Rich may have accidentally memorized this recipe when he worked at Shelby's in Orinda - the menu ahs changed - maybe this is the balsamic glace from the Chicken Spinach Salad on the lunch menu? Only Rich will be able to tell us: http://www.shelbyseatbetter.com/docs/lunch.pdf.)

In the meantime, it is Ash Wednesday and I am going to put it out right here and right now - I am giving up alcohol for lent. That is right. I don't think I will be able to get ashes today, but I am participating in lent. There we have it.

Now while the kids are napping, I will be setting up our new computer. If I am back online tonight, it worked.

i needed a little inspiration!

Hola hermanas! I have to say thank you for the home improvement motivation that you gave me. The blog must be working because I just painted my bathroom! When we moved into our new place I decided that I couldn't live long with the peeling wallpaper in the bathroom - even though we are just renters. Richard gave me the "i'm gonna kill you" face when I suggested we redo the bathroom, but I think he is happy that I insisted. The project took about two days (over a period of three weeks). We spent $15. We used the dregs of four different paint cans that were in the basement and came up with a zippy blue that makes me happy and chill all at the same time.

Before...


During...



And after!

Living Room 2010

So, as you can see from this very unprofessional photo I just took at 11pm, I have changed just a few details in my living room. I added in some green and turquoise and fushia. I need to show you my dining area next because it will make more sense - I have fushia chandelier lamp shades and some other green and turquoise accents. I loved the pashmina idea that Katie was inspired by and used my turquoise pashmina on my couch, although you can see it needs to be ironed very badly! The main piece of furniture that I added is a black suede tufted bench....done by Andres Alsina himself. Andres was my interior design teacher and is an inspiration and also a lot of fun. I will post some of his work later.

What do you think???

Living Room Before (1 year ago)

Ok...here is a photo of my living room area 1 year ago...Since then I have made a lot of subtle changes. First, I got rid of the red accent color. I decided that I don't like red at all. I have added in fushia and turqoise accent colors instead. The other change was I decided to try and wash the curtains. I took down one side and tried to wash it and it didn't work out, so I ended up throwing it away! Now I only have one side of curtains. I only keep it there to keep the sun out during summer (which is now in Chile) and because we are most likely moving soon and I don't want to measure and do curtains for this apartment.

The Mirror

How much would you pay for this mirror? Seriously.

Here is a daylight photo from today (notice the pashmina decor):

And here is the "Before" mirror. This is after Tara waved her wand - moved my rug, moved the CD rack, all the furniture in this room ... and voila, I have a french provincial style room. Kind of.

Here is the work in progress. The first challenge was finding the right size and shaped frame at Wertz Brothers antiques showroom. We found an awesome 70's style Drexel mirror for $39.99.

Oh yeah.

And of course we tried to negotiate -but they don't negotiate at all there. So we paid full (!) price. Then, Tia Tara researched the exact color online at Benjamin Moore, I swung by the paint shop 5 minutes before closing and grabbed two sample sizes of the color we wanted (4.95 thank you) and some gold paint. We did two coats of blue and then added the gold trim when the second coat was wet.

Note the shiny black chairs behind me. That is the next story.