My copy of Dwell arrived with a supplement this month: New York Magazine and Dwell have partnered to create City Modern, “A Celebration of New York Design.” This Saturday and Sunday, they’re hosting home tours in Brooklyn and Manhattan (for a pretty penny, I’m afraid). I was especially interested to see that 41 Bond is on the list of homes being toured. The building is one of the city’s most interesting new constructions, in my opinion; I love the use of greenery throughout the design. Abbey snapped these photos of it with my phone one morning after breakfast as part of her lovely series, “Daily Dose of Green.”
Here are some things I’ve been starring (some for, oh, forever) with the intention of sharing. Let’s see if I can get better about making weekly lists…
I’ve kind of given up on keeping my own spice jars, but these pretty labels could change my mind.
I love listening in on people’s guilty tv-watching confessions. Aron and I are total Breaking Bad junkies right now, and it’s pretty much all I watch now that I keep the TV off all day around Hudson. But Mad Men, Downton Abbey, Parenthood, 30 Rock, and The Office are some of my favorites. And then every now and then I get sucked into a season of The Bachelorette, or a gone-by series like Friday Night Lights or Felicity.
Speaking of cooking. It’s time to start breaking in our kitchen in earnest. The “we haven’t unpacked the pots and pans” excuse is a no-go now. Could you last on a 30-day challenge?
I love Rachael‘s family photo at the start of her Boston guide for Bridget’s blog. The uncorked bottle of wine. The classic Volvo on the edge of a precipice. The babe in dad’s arms. And mom’s expression: how do you read it? What’s the story there? To me, it feels so emblematic of a road trip with a baby. I love it.
Have you read Jenny’s cleaning schedule? When I first saw it, I have to admit I thought it was insane! And then I kept reading and realized it’s the most brilliant plan. (And I’m clearly not the only one–that post has 1,943 comments!) I told Aron about it and next thing I knew it was posted on our fridge. I only realized this, however, after we’d had a babysitter and two friends over: I was so embarrassed! What are we? College roommates?!
But I have to be honest. I haven’t stopped thinking about it! It’s so brilliant! Especially this bit about baskets: “I zip through my house every night with this basket, throwing in every misplaced item, then going back to each room once and put the things back where they belong.”
We have a cleaning service coming to our place today (part of a most-wonderful housewarming gift from Aron’s parents) so now seems like the time to get some sort of routine in place. I think the fact that Aron is excited about it tells you just how good I am as a tidy homemaker. Ha!
Baskets at the ready! I’ll be adding watering the plants and skimming the pool to our list. You?
Hudson’s curls are so beautiful that it always pains me a little to see them go, but they were getting a bit out of control. We used to take him to a kid-specific salon where he’d sit on a frog’s lap or pretend to fly an airplane for distraction, but I decided it was time to (literally) try my hand.
I decided not to worry about bits of hair falling and mingling with a bite of food, or screen time rules, and used slices of pear (which takes him a long time to work through) and a video of Mary Poppins (only the cartoony bit with dogs and horses and lively music would do but it was just long enough) for distraction. The video advises wetting your baby’s hair with a spray bottle, but I used a wet washcloth and a comb. You don’t want the hair to be too wet, especially if it’s curly–it will get too short once it dries.
Next, I tried to do exactly as I’d seen on the video–cutting sections “vertically”–only I started in the back. They get squirmy after a while, so the video advises starting with the bang trim as its probably the most important. I figured I’d better know whether I was going to be an utter failure before attempting that and went for the back. It worked well for me.
The main lesson I took away and thought was really most useful was to cut the hair “vertically.” In other words, grabbing the hair in the back and getting it between your fingers with you fingers perpendicular to their shoulders (and not straight across). You can do that same technique all across the midline of their head (like you’re making a mohawk) and then on each side. I only used the scissors parallel to his shoulders when trimming above his ears and a bit along the bang line–but then I also cut into the hair a little to be sure that I had no hard lines (which is the opposite of what you’d do if you wanted a completely straight bob, for example). I’m sure there’s a simpler way to explain “cutting vertically,” but hopefully that makes sense.
Be confident but start slowly–better to wish you’d cut more than the other way around.
Hudson’s hair is pretty forgiving, with its waves and curls, but I love how it turned out! (And that it saved me $30.)
