learnings from the corona

March 24, 2020 in family, exercise

this new reality of corona “social distancing” and “shelter at home” has certainly been shocking and hard to get used to, but i have had some important learnings as well:

(1) ONE pair of sweatpants is NOT enough when you spend every day at home. usually this time of year i toggle between jeans and jammies each day. if i am not going out, i typically get into my jams right after dinner. i have two pairs of lulus that i wear to my bar classes (that is an indication of how frequently i exercise - most boulder moms have a collection of ten to fifteen pairs. but most boulder moms also wear their lulus as regular clothes. i may run an errand or two in mine after bar class, but i rarely wear them all day long.) however, with my new corona sofa regime, jeans are not comfortable attire for a full day. also, i think all the cookie dough i have been eating (we have been practicing home schooling “life skills” and the ability to make proper nestle tollhouse cookie dough is imperative) has made my skinny jeans even skinnier. i DO have a fairly extensive pj collection but i keep reading that staying in your pajamas all day is not good for your mental health. so sweatpants seem like a good compromise… unfortunately, i only have one pair. now my favorite day is the one when my sweats are fresh out of the laundry.

corona

March 18, 2020 in family, hank, holiday, travel

in the last few weeks the world has turned completely upside down. two weeks ago i attended what we lovingly refer to as the “no talent show” at my daughter’s elementary school. this is a day i dread each year as the show goes on for HOURS, the gym is always a bazillion degrees (this is coming from someone who is almost never too hot) and i end up feeling punch drunk and cheering too loudly out of desperation for it to end. this year my girlfriend confided that she’d had two beers before she came, which i thought was brilliant. in NINE years i have never thought to give myself an aid like that. and now i may never have to because it’s hard to imagine in our new corona reality that we will ever jam ourselves into a hot, stuffy gym with fourteen million elementary school kids, their sneezy, coughy siblings and all their parents and grandmas and grandpas to boot.

matti berglund's ladies

March 03, 2020 in art, family

i never got to meet my maternal grandmother, but i have always felt that she was looking over me and now she is busy with my children as well. this sense of my own grandma angel has given me peace and a feeling of protection and love my whole life. she has been described as a woman of quiet reserve who bestowed her family and those dear to her with great kindness and generosity. she and my daughter share the same middle name as i wanted to further this connection between the generations of women in my family.

gg

February 18, 2020 in family

my grandma had the most beautiful handwriting. i saved all of her letters and cards - even the ones that just reported the kind of weather she was having - because her script was a wonder.

theo's bar mitzvah

February 04, 2020 in family

when my son was in second grade, we joined our local temple. we had always agreed that we would raise our children jewish, the faith of their father, with santa and the bunny thrown in in a nod to my secular upbringing with christian-based holidays. we signed up for the “family school” program which meant that once a month all four of us spent most of a saturday at temple learning about judaism in both large and small groups, finalizing in a service. we made this decision because i am not jewish and wanted to participate in what my kids were learning and because the rabbi leading the family school grew up in the same town and same synagogue as my husband in long island… a crazy, small world synchronicity that we embraced.

disciplinary tactics

January 21, 2020 in family, hank

(this photo was probably taken right before they polished off MY burrito!)

it’s a wonder that i am not perpetually passed out on the floor dehydrated and starving because my children are always eating my snacks and drinking my water. whatever i may have, they consider theirs. to be fair, when they were little i frequently poured my water into their glasses because i didn’t feel like getting up once i finally got to the table. likewise my spaghetti or chicken nuggets. but they are bigger now and both of them can reach the glasses and the sink and they are perfectly capable of serving themselves. alas, these poor habits are deeply ingrained, despite my recent campaign to change them.

lucy's "teef"

January 14, 2020 in family

when my daughter’s teeth came in they were perfect little white chiclets with lots of small gaps between them. her smile was ridiculous, exuberant and huge. she seemed to understand the power of bestowing her grin on random strangers and reveled in the big, positive reactions she received. she was not shy.

routine

January 08, 2020 in exercise, family, hank, pet, sofa

hank and i are very comfortable with routine. week days, i typically wake up pretty early (6ish) and head right downstairs for coffee. i always set the machine the night before so all i have to do is press one button. hank usually sleeps a little longer and comes trotting down by 6:30. he likes to have his breakfast straight away, while i need my one and a half cups before my scrambled eggs. after eating, hank likes to go outside for his potty. he is pretty quick about this and then goes back to sleep in his favorite sofa corner. sometimes, when he’s had a particularly arduous playdate the day before with his girlfriend dharma, (this is his second girlfriend… ellie moved away) he goes back upstairs and returns to [my] bed. it throws me when i don’t see his big bat ears poking over the arm of the sofa and i walk around the house calling for him until i remember his secondary routine. (unfortunately, hank doesn’t really understand about weekends when i would love to sleep maybe all the way to seven. he sits over me and sighs and breathes noisily until i open my eyes to find his face hovering mere inches above mine.)

christmas sticky buns

December 26, 2019 in family, holiday, recipe

the BEST breakfast of the year is always christmas morning because of my mother’s sticky buns. they are coils of cinnamon deliciousness with a sticky, brown sugar topping baked on. she makes two pans each year - one with pecans and one without (my nephew has nut allergies.) i prefer the ones with pecans, but i would NEVER turn down a plain one. we think about and anticipate the sticky buns all year long… rehashing how many each of us ate the year before and whether someone selfishly snuck a third before everyone else had seconds. when the pans are cooling we circle round them like sharks, peeking under the tin foil covers and trying to count how many there are (it always varies depending on the girth of the buns) - my mother protectively swatting us away and shooing us out of the kitchen.

george lange

December 17, 2019 in art, family, holiday, photography

last spring i took my kids to the studio of photographer, george lange. he had been living in boulder after a storied career as a celebrity photographer whose projects took him all over the world and was preparing for yet another move back to his hometown of pittsburgh. he was clearing out the prints from decades of work shooting all kinds of interesting people: the cast of friends, tom hanks, sophia loren, a young uma thurman, the seinfeld gang, kermit the frog, bill gates and steve jobs (together!) andy warhol, athletes and rappers and rockstars and jazz musicians, authors and politicians. we spent hours there pouring over the different prints and deciding which ones to bring home. at some point, mr. lange wandered into the room where we were organizing our choices and started chatting with theo about going to summer camp. (theo was wearing his camp kee tov hoodie.) he was unassuming and warm and i thought he was another customer. but then he asked me if i would mind if he took a couple of pictures of the kids and i realized who he was. we went into the garden where he set up the backdrop and he clicked away for about five minutes. he took my contact info so he could share the photos with me later.

i LOVE new york!

December 10, 2019 in family, holiday, travel

i moved to new york to go to grad school when i was twenty-three or four. i felt like i needed to stay after i completed my program because my studies had been so intense that i might as well have been in kansas for all i saw of the city. thus began the cycle of my tortured clashesque dilemma: “should i stay or should i go now?” that i revisited each summer. the appeal of california was strong - my whole family was there, it was the landscape of my childhood and i am generally a sunny person in keeping with the california persona. but new york offered so many freedoms - the ability to pop into a taxi without worrying about the directions, a numbered grid geography that also alleviated my navigational challenges (unless i was too far downtown where the streets are a jumble of unalphabetized names), the potential to be both anonymous (not having to smile and say hello to everyone you pass on the street as is customary in california - i find this friendliness EXHAUSTING) and known (by my dry cleaner, my bodega guy, my corner take out) and, of course, the SUBWAY - such an easy system that even i, who continues to get lost in my own hometown, could competently traverse the city. my california/new york conflict was so strong that for a while, i would only date transplanted californians, in case i decided i wanted to move back.

bike to school

December 03, 2019 in family, exercise, travel

each fall in boulder, there is at least one wednesday morning when you are supposed to bike your children to school. i live on 7th between the “c” and “d” streets and school is on the “h” street and 9th… so really, school is only six blocks away. that may not seem like a lot (especially since we lived in amsterdam for nearly six years and i biked everywhere), but you have to take into consideration the hills and the severe altitude we have to deal with here in our mountain town. when i was married, i always pushed the “bike to school” responsibility onto my husband. when we got divorced and our parenting plan was set, giving me the kids every wednesday, i considered asking for a special stipulation exempting me from those particular wednesday mornings. but we had enough to sort out and i kept my mouth shut.

raisin-free cranberry sauce

November 20, 2019 in holiday, family

as the holidays approach, stress levels elevate for most of us with all of the extra planning and socializing and spending and obligation to celebrate with perhaps less than favorite family members. and of course, there is always the possibility that you will be invited to share thanksgiving at the home of someone who puts raisins in their cranberry sauce, which is really the tipping point for me. so i am sharing my mother’s delicious raisin - FREE cranberry recipe once again. you can always bring it as a hostess gift to insure that you won’t be subjected to that dreaded dried fruit at your holiday meal. happy, happy thanksgiving!

(greatly) modified parenting goals

November 12, 2019 in family, family room, hank, living room, sofa

(carefree in new york when i knew everything about parenting, but didn’t yet have children)

when i was living in new york in my twenties spending sundays enjoying boozy brunches (after taking an early yoga class and wandering through the chelsea flea market - which is sadly now all condominiums - clutching a giant coffee from the bodega on my corner) i had all kinds of ideas about what my life would be like when i had children. i would, of course, still live in the city, but i would have a giant loft, rather than my run down holly hobby sized apartment and my children would just slip into my life without disrupting my routines. they would come to brunch with me wearing adorable outfits and contribute witty, charming stories to the conversation, enchanting the waiter so that we were sent a plate of free beignets each week. they would use their cutlery properly and keep their napkins in their laps and they would NOT whine or cry at the table like all the other bratty, poorly-parented children in the restaurant. they would be like this because i was going to be a GOOD mother who paid attention and set boundaries and generally just had my shit together.

boulder halloween

October 29, 2019 in family, hank, holiday, pet

halloween in boulder is outrageous. when we stepped out to go trick or treating our first year in colorado, i thought we’d wandered onto a movie set. literally EVERY house in our neighborhood was decorated, and not just with a pumpkin or two but with strings of orange lights, giant spiders and webs stretched across the houses, skeletons and zombies and werewolves emerging from the lawns and ghosts and ghoulies hanging from the trees. and when you ring the bell, the homeowners answer in full costume. sometimes they jump out at you and sometimes they just smile and offer the kids candy and the parents a glass of wine or a beer. yes - if you accept all the libations presented, you will be quite tipsy by the end of your neighborhood rounds. there are even a few famous addresses that do full spook houses… i took lucy to the one on 10th street when she was a little too young and we were both traumatized … i nearly peed my pants when a gazillion enormous spiders dropped on us and she let out a wail that lasted for at least two blocks. we had to retire for the evening after that.

girl power

October 08, 2019 in family

we have a long history of dance parties in our family. they usually spontaneously begin when i am tired of waiting for my kids to finish their dinner or breakfast and a good song comes on the sonos. they take a break from eating (you would think i am serving them HORRENDOUS meals by the way i have to threaten and bribe them to eat - theo had a particularly painful masticating period where it could honestly take him fifteen minutes to consume a single bite of scrambled egg - something you don’t really even need to chew! i would be beside myself with boredom and fury and end up drinking that unneeded, extra glass of wine - not at breakfast, mind you, just dinner.) generally, my offerings are very “kid friendly” as i, myself, have the palette of a five year old and favor mid-western comfort food over anything with too much spice or herbs sprinkled on top or any kind of blue cheese or raw onions or mayonnaise or raisins or any brown, dried fruit or salmon or any fish that isn’t white and mild and preferably fried.

meatballs

September 18, 2019 in family, recipe

lucy was a very easy baby. she was GIANT (one week late) … nearly nine pounds and VERY difficult to get out, but as soon as she started life outside my belly, she was really accommodating. all she did was eat and sleep. since she was super-sized, i think she had a lot of capacity in her own belly. she would stock up on milk and then take epic naps. she didn’t get cramps, she didn’t spit up, she rarely cried and when she woke, she would pop up like a little prairie dog (without the bubonic plague - they are carriers, FYI) and smile. she didn’t get flapped on the TWELVE hour flight when we moved from amsterdam to boulder, she didn’t get bothered when we moved FOUR times during our first two years in boulder, she wasn’t upset about frequently being off-schedule and dragged all around to her brother’s soccer games or swim lessons or playdates. she was pretty amazing. (i know this because theo WASN’T an easy baby - he had loads of gas, he spit up EVERY time he ate, often on me, he refused to nap except when being pushed in the buggy and he cried A LOT… so i felt like i deserved my cooperative lu.)

living room with bludot ottoman

color, texture and warmth in south boulder

September 04, 2019 in art, dining room, family, living room, residential interior, sofa, family room

we created a clean interior envelope of white walls and light blonde flooring to house the eclectic mix of bold colors, varied textures and warm woods in this south boulder home. the owners, a young family of four, decamped from northern california to the front range bringing with them a collection of bright, mid-century graphic prints. these vivid, compelling pieces inspired the color palette in the downstairs living spaces. a gold-hued print set the tone for a family room done in burnt orange and golds featuring a tweedy cayenne loveseat, an orange powder-coated side table and a geometric felt rug.

interviewed by artworkarchive.com

August 22, 2019 in art, family

hi friends,
i was so delighted to be interviewed for this article by emily zupsic of artworkarchive.com on best practices for artists and interior designers working together... thank you emily for including me!

The Art Blog | Artwork Archive (dragged) 2.jpeg

The Art Blog | Artwork Archive (dragged).jpeg

to read an article published on houzz click here

brownies

August 20, 2019 in family

two years ago i was talked into doing something so far out of my wheelhouse i am still stunned it happened. my second grader wanted to join the brownie troop at her school and it was full. the troop leaders said, “you can start another one… it’s just doing arts and crafts after school once a month for an hour or so.” i like arts and crafts and i generally like little girls and i like to be inside (which is where i assumed the arts and crafts would happen) and there was another mother who would be my co-leader. so i told my daughter i would do it. then the truth started coming out. turns out, the brownies are a part of the girl scouts. (i should know this, as i actually WAS a brownie when i was in second grade, but i had somehow buried this important information.) the girl scouts are all about nature and camping and outdoorsy stuff (unlike me… i am all about reading and sleeping in my bed and watching movies and indoor stuff) and selling cookies and do-gooding and it can go on for YEARS… not just second grade. also, i had to fill out tons of forms and register and attend a training session for several hours in a church basement.