New @... Ikea
Apparently Ikea has entered the electronics industry, now featuring a branded baby monitor. The Ikea PATRULL is going for $24.99, and seems simple and modern enough to become the next every-parent-owned Ikea basic.
Kid-doodle Masterpiece
We're all aware of the abundance of "art" kids manage to bring home from Pre School: markered doodles, pictures, projects of the week etc. Never mind all those skittle colored images done at the kitchen table while waiting for dinner, and random crafts done at home on the weekends! It has been a constant mom-struggle to find creative ways of keeping up with your children's age-appropriate art, whilst not allowing your home to become a junkyard of recyclables...! That's why you will all greatly appreciate this DIY masterpiece: turn hundreds of kid-art images into one beautifully modern print!! Check out this wonderfully chic collage created by Interior Designer, Jan Eleni.
(Q)waking Up...
I'm rather exhausted today... had half a night, and a way-too-early morning. Frieda woke up from the rumbling earthquake at 4-am, and once awakened by the ground shaking, it's not that easy for me to relax back to sleep and leave her alone in the crib with her bedroom door shut... Ended up having her with me in bed, and not getting that much sleep. You think I'd be getting used to them like my husband (the born-and-bred LA boy), as they have happened every summer since I married! But it seems they just make me more frightened each time. Scared that each 4.5 is a simple pre-quake, I busy myself closing all the kitchen cabinets tightly, moving and large vases in the bedroom to the floor, keeping Freida away from the bookshelves or TV etc. for the next 24 hours! It's exhausting and probably pathetically unnecessary and overtly-paranoid of me - but I honestly am not ready to treat it as is... the calamity possibilities still freak me out. I'm a bit sick of the worrying, of feeling like I'm not at all prepared, and of thinking I may regret not being in the know, should the "big one" ever happen - God forbid - I have decided to at least take the easiest bit of precaution so as not to feel unsteady, or risk feeling regrettably unprepared. I will finally get online and order the Disaster Survival Kit (that is suggested for all Californians to keep at home). All the emergency survival supplies needed to make it through even the worst kind of disaster, all packed into one compact airtight bucket (toilet). They come in different amounts (1 person, 2 people etc). I hope this will help me feel a bit more proactive about something that technically there is nothing much to do about... You can order one here.
Hipster Spring Shades
I'm totally stoked for Pesach vacation in Chicago, but I can't help my mind from wandering to the weeks and months that follow our return to this golden state - all those Sunday beach trips that are rapidly approaching! I've got sun and surf on the mind..... check out this fabulous line of eyewear from Karen Walker. Beach bumming simply can't get much more hip than this! See the rest of the collection here.
Spring has Sprung!
I hope you all remembered to spring those clocks ahead last night (kinda sucks waking up at the wrong hour!)... I always loved this time of year, but being a mom, I realize how many pleasant benefits come with the springtime time-change (I'm looking forward to a few weeks that start like today's did: not being summoned to the crib with good morning baby-babble until 7:45-am)!! I love having some daylight hours to enjoy in the house after having put the baby down vs. feeling the night is deeply upon us by the time the tot's finally in bed, love that the time-change crept up just as I was trying to move Freida's nap from 9:30-am to 10:30-am (makes it all that much easier now that she won't be wiped out until at least 10-am for the rest of the week!), and simply put I love, love, love this cheerful season! Each year I make it a springtime ritual to buy daffodils every week in spring - it brings some sort of instant magical joy to the home; and when Trader Joe's offers 10 stems for $1.49, it's much too hard to pass up. The bunches come completely closed but bloom fully over night, promising a touch of springtime and a smile!!