South Beach in the Arctic

January 15, 2016January 19, 20162 Comments

Ok, I’ve taken some time off. It all started with hosting 3 events on a beautiful July weekend, shattering a crystal bowl while washing dishes, and a nasty finger cut that required 6 stitches and a big white gauze wrap. The good news is that my neighbors swooped in, finished the dishes, and I made it back from Urgent Care to host the baby shower with 30 minutes to spare. The bad news – it’s pretty hard to type with a bandaged finger, so I fell out of my writing routine. I’ve kept cooking, but the writing has been on the back burner. (Terrible pun, I know)

It’s time for that to change.

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Help Me Help You – Kids Clothing Extravaganza

July 13, 2015July 13, 20151 Comment

Children appear to provide scale.

In the almost 6 years that we’ve had H, I haven’t given a single thing away. We weren’t sure if our family was going to have two kids or three, and since I’ve easily passed my “no kids after 40” rule, I decided it was time to clean out the basement. My strategy has been fairly simple – when the kids outgrow stuff, I throw it in a bin, put the lid on, and it goes downstairs. Jeff set up a brilliant rack storage system in our basement, so it was easy. Just put it on the shelf. Two years ago I noticed that the hallway between two racks was shorter than normal – the bins were stacked up at the end of it. Last year I noticed that you couldn’t really see the ceiling anymore – it was all blocked by bins. I have an “out of sight, out of mind” denial technique that is awe-inspiring. But this is the summer of letting go, so it was time to take on the bins. Continue reading →

A trip down memory lane…

January 24, 2015April 13, 20152 Comments

When we bought our 1926 colonial in 2007, we thought the very first thing we’d work on was the kitchen. It had to go. Terrible and oddly routed cabinets, hardworking appliances from 1982, and countertops that were installed in 1968. Clearly, everything must go.

Maybe not. After we painted cabinets, installed prefab counters, replaced the fridge, scored a hand me down range, replaced 2 dishwashers, had 2 kids, and realized we were 8 years in, we finally were ready to move forward on the kitchen we really wanted. But first – a look at where we’ve been.