corona "gezellig"

April 21, 2020 in art, dining room, family, family room, hank, living room, pet, residential interior, sofa

one of my sweetest, most poignant learnings from living in the netherlands for nearly six years is the idea of “gezellig,” the dutch word for coziness. gezellig applies to social concepts like inviting or friendly people, parties, situations and meals, but what i have been really thinking about lately as we all “shelter in place” is how the dutch instilled gezellig in their homes. in a land where it rains at least a portion of most days, our amsterdam neighbors knew how to create welcoming spaces to retreat within and enjoy their families, while the rain drummed outside. corona is pushing us all inside now and we can learn from the comforting, warm interiors of the dutch.

corona week 4

April 16, 2020 in family, hank

there are some things i have enjoyed about the quarantine… i like not having to drag my kids out of bed by seven so we can leave for school at eight. they really prefer to sleep in until somewhere between eight thirty and nine and are generally more pleasant when they wake naturally.

artful bookshelves

April 14, 2020 in art, family, family room, living room, residential interior

in this time of "social distancing" and "shelter at home" when we are meant to remain within the confines of our houses we probably have a bit more time. it is the PERFECT opportunity for interior improvement projects. channel your boredom and extra energy by reorganizing your bookshelves to maximize their visual impact. thoughtfully arranged bookshelves add life, color, warmth and intimacy to a room. bookshelves can provide amazing insight into your loves, interests, travel, collections and favorite authors, personalizing a home and making it unique. following are tips for turning what is often only a functional aspect of a room into something that enhances, informs and brightens the space.

happy birthday lulu! x0x

April 11, 2020 in family, holiday

for some reason it was not easy for me to get pregnant. we tried all kinds of things (besides the obvious) before finally ending up seeing the amazing dr. cedars of UCSF’s center for reproductive health. dr. cedars guided us through the whole IVF process and we ended up with ten embryos. two of those we used to get theo and we froze the rest. then we moved from san francisco to amsterdam.

the order of a seder

April 08, 2020 in family, holiday

seder means “order.” there is an order to every aspect of the passover celebration from the way the seder plate is prepared to which course is served first and second and third to what prayer is said, what song is sung, what question is asked and when. even though i am not jewish, i have been hosting passover dinners for nearly twenty years. inevitably i mix up at least one aspect of the order. sometimes i even schedule the seder for the wrong evening - the jewish calendar is confusing and i am not always sure if “begins at sundown” means the dinner should take place that night or the next. i give myself a pass on this as a shiksa mama raising jewish children. i have enough trouble with simple time telling (my mom thinks that’s because i had the chicken pox the week i was meant to learn it in first grade) and adjusting to different time zones and daylight savings.

easter brunch

April 07, 2020 in family, holiday, recipe

my whole life there have been two essential easter recipes served at our brunch: my mother’s mushroom crust quiche and her easter buns. they are both a little trashy… the quiche has smashed up saltines in the crust and the buns are made with the dough that comes in a can you bang on the counter to pop open. but they are both delicious. the quiche (or KWEE-CHEE as theo used to call it) LOOKS a little more elegant, but the buns are never pretty. the filling always squirts out and the jam slides around so they are just a mess. i have tried and tried to clean them up to no avail. when new people come for easter, they usually bypass them on the buffet and i have to force them to try one… no one has ever been disappointed. AND they are both still yummy, cold, the next morning as leftovers. happy, happy easter all! x0xx

hank is famous!

April 05, 2020

handsome hank was just featured in a houzz story… he was photographed in our playroom by the amazing heather knierim of HBK photography. CONGRATULATIONS sweet boy! x0x

Show Us Your Pets!

liz murphy of rosie girl studio

April 02, 2020

i am not sure what this means about me, but by far the hardest aspect of the “shelter at home” has been missing my appointments with my beloved colorist, liz. (OBVIOUSLY i mean the hardest thing other than being worried sick about dear friends in new york and the deaths of thousands of people here and around the world and the whole economy tanking.) normally, i go like clockwork to see liz at her NEW rosie girl studio location in niwot every two weeks. i had to miss two appointments which put me at about half an inch of silver roots (unfortunately, my hair grows pretty fast) and i was NOT happy. it did not help that my daughter kept saying, “oh mama… this is not good. please put on a hat!” every time my head was bare. i DID experiment with scarves (this accommodation reminded me of the women during WW II who drew seams down their legs with eyeliner when stockings were not available) and lucy also started wearing one in solidarity… it looked MUCH cuter on her!

eco-friendly home products... boulder county home + garden, spring issue

March 31, 2020 in dining room, family, family room, living room, residential interior

i am a bit abashed to admit that my children are the ones who have pushed me to consider how the product choices i make for my home effect the environment. because of them we now have a collection of metal straws (BIG ones so they can be easily cleaned with a little brush), reusable bowl and cup covers that look like my grandmother’s shower caps (used in place of plastic wrap) and cloth napkins for everyday use, rather than paper ones. i DO cringe each time they rub spaghetti sauce or jam on the napkins because of course that means they will need to be washed. “mama, you HAVE to let us wipe our hands - that’s the whole point” they say. so it was serendipitous when i was asked to write an article for boulder county home + garden on eco-conscious home items and furnishings. i had so much fun discovering these kitchen and home decor products that are both visually delightful (MUCH prettier than my shower caps!) AND support conservation and sustainability. THANK YOU to dot & army, MoMA, marley’s monsters, Khala & Co., minna, archive new york, area home, leah singh and coyuchi for your beautiful, creative and thoughtful designs.

the gift of art... kelly degnan x0x

March 25, 2020 in art

in these unprecedented, uncertain days sometimes the best thing for our hearts is something beautiful. the SUPER talented, inspiring kelly degnan dropped off this joyful, uplifting piece yesterday… what an important, soul nurturing gift. in between vacuuming and cooking and math facts and monopoly and more vacuuming (it’s AMAZING how dirty the house gets when we are all here ALL the time!) we have each paused in front of it to take in the bright colors (i especially adore the hot pink) and notice the shapes and little drips and brushstrokes and depth and texture of this painting. THANK YOU kelly for sharing this beauty with us… we couldn’t be more grateful. x0x0x

kelly degnan is an abstract artist from boulder, colorado. follow her on instagram: kellydegnanstudio to keep up with her gorgeous work.

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.

salad people

March 10, 2020 in recipe

we have never really been “salad people” in my family. when i order a salad in a restaurant i usually eat all the yummy stuff off (the bacon, hard boiled egg, cheese, croutons, candied walnuts, etc and then leave the boring lettuce. the other weekend i was in iowa and i had dinner [TWICE] at the cracker barrel. i had a perfect salad there - it was covered in fried chicken, deviled eggs, cheese and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes. of course, when i got through those things i stopped eating and handed the waitress my bowl of romaine. and then i dipped into my mother’s chicken n’ dumplings, which i highly recommend.) there ARE a few exceptions… i LOVE the simple salad at brasserie ten ten - it has fried capers and tomatoes and butter lettuce in an amazing dressing and i eat all of it. i also love the kale apple salad at oak, which is bananas because normally i won’t go anywhere near kale. this kale is chopped into thin little strips no wider than a dried spaghetti and it’s covered with so many tasty things you can’t even tell it’s kale, which is why i can eat it.

UPDATE on the grandma

March 05, 2020

this morning the kids and i were beside ourselves when the grandma we wave to on the “i” street as we drive to school WAVED BACK! we didn’t think she could see us because my car windows are tinted, but apparently she has really good eyesight. she has such a pretty wave… just like the queen. we have gotten especially attached to her since we lost our gg (there is an uncanny resemblance) and it truly made our morning! x0x

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.

best of houzz 2020 service award

February 25, 2020 in commercial interior, residential interior

i LOVE to get prizes… i think this stems from the fact that i wasn’t a sporty kid and didn’t participate in activities that got rewarded with trophies or medals. i may have gotten a couple of “participation” ribbons the summer i was nine and did swim team, but i never placed. so i am thrilled and GRATEFUL to receive this service award again from houzz. i DO wish they would send me a big, fancy ribbon with my name on it or some kind of statue, but an email notice is nice as well. x0x

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.

boulder county real producers

January 28, 2020

my SUPERSTAR client, emily bossert, of compass was featured in the december 2019 issue of boulder county real producers as one of the leading real estate sales managers here in boulder. the profile shares her heartfelt journey to both boulder and compass. AND she was photographed in the interior of one of my favorite projects on pine street. CONGRATULATIONS emily … i have so enjoyed working with you and can’t wait to see your home completed as well.

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photos: julie kruger

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.