Children's Books

I have boxes in my attic filled with books my children read all through elementary school. These are two of my son's favorites. Every night I would read him either a Dr. Seuss book or a story about the Berenstain Bears—usually both—or several. When he was 8-years-old, I read him, New Baby, and then announced that he was finally going to be a big brother. I was saddened to to hear that co-creator, Jan Berenstain, just passed away, but I was reminded of all of the wonderful nights we shared her, and her husband Stan's, lovely words and illustrations with my son and then eventually both of my daughters. Their books helped teach him life lessons that every parent tries to accomplish on their own, but with the help of cute, furry bears, it makes that task a bit easier.

In addition to every book the Berenstain's ever wrote we have just as many, if not more, Dr. Seuss books. From Green Eggs and Ham to the Cat in the Hat (one of his favorites) and everything in between, the rhymes and reasons of Dr. Seuss were stuck in our heads for years. When it was time to read these classics to my girls, I didn't skip a beat, and sometimes, I didn't even need to turn a page to know what was coming next.

My son eventually turned his affections to Brian Jacques Redwall series and Harry Potter. Which then turned the girls on to Harry Potter, but only after they found their own favorites, including Eloise, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Auntie Claus, The Secret Garden, Little House on the Prairie....and the list goes on and on. I even shared some of my favorites—Nancy Drew, Anne of Green Gables—hoping my love of reading would rub off on them. And thankfully it did.

I am indebted to Dr. Seuss, Stan and Jan Berenstain, and J.K. Rowling, for they have helped mold my children into dreamers and thinkers and lovers of books. I am in awe of any writer who, with just a stroke of his or her pen, can transport children to another place and time. For when you read a book, any book, you are held captive in a world filled with infinite possibilities.

The books I have in my attic are stored away for my children's children, so that we can continue this great adventure.

Blue and Green

Inspired by the colors of nature.

Color Inspiration

Ralph Lauren SP13B Mariner Blue, BM 811 Old Glory, BM 805 New York State of Mind

BM HC-128 Clearspring Green, BM 553 Richmond Green

Images via EnglishMuse.com and Suziebeezie.tumblr.com

It's a Mystery

I loved my Nancy Drew books when I was a young girl. I don't remember how many I had, but I read them again and again. (I even tuned in when Pamela Sue Martin occasionally teamed up with Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson during episodes of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries series in the 70s.) My grandmother was a huge fan of Agatha Christie novels. When she was through with one, she'd crack open another. She had worn paperbacks all over the house just waiting for her to pick them up and help solve the crimes. Even my dad is getting in on the fun. He's quite taken with a mystery author who lives in the same seaside Florida town he lives in. It must be in the blood.

As I got older, I turned my teenage affections towards the love story. What teenage girl doesn't. And being the hopeless romantic that I am, I still need a good love story fix now and again. These days I'm reading a lot of realistic fiction (gotta love these labels). Stories of women, mostly, dealing with one thing or another, sometimes there's a love story mixed in, sometimes a little mystery, but it's mostly about the struggles they face and the relationships they try to foster.

I've come full circle and now I'm ready to dive into a juicy mystery once again. I've read some Laura Lippman, I got through the first book in the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson (and I have the second one on my bookshelf when I'm brave enough to read it), I've ready several books by Lisa Scottoline, I'm due to pick up another Lisa Gardner, and it only gets more intense from there—Harlan Coben, Dean Koontz. (I'll save my Denis Lehane story for another day.)

What's Next?

Photo: NancyDrewSleuth.com

Sugar Body Scrubs

Dry, winter skin can take its toll, but soothing beauty products can be expensive. After purchasing a sugar body scrub for my youngest daughter, I decided the next time around, we'll make some. That's when I found this recipe from the blog, Food for My Family. The recipe is simple to make and perfect for just about any skin type. Here's what you need:

1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tablespoon ginger, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup cold-pressed oil (tea seed, grape seed, sunflower, or almond oil)
3/4 cup granulated or turbinado sugar
1/4 cup kosher salt
1-4 drops essential oil

For the complete recipe, click here. And to try other natural sugar scrubs, check out these other recipes from In Words and Pictures, Rebecca's Soap Deli News, Under the Table and Dreaming, and Prudent Baby.

They make great gifts, too.

You Are What You Eat

If that's true, then I'm probably about 75% peanut butter. I eat it every morning—on toast, a bagel, an English muffin. I gladly, gleefully, shamefully admit it.

I'll eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but only as a last resort. I don't particularly care to eat peanuts as a whole. But, if I'm sick, I feel a lot better if I eat a bowl of chicken noodle soup and peanut butter spread on white fluffy bread only. Go figure.

Let's not even explore the rest of my diet.

These days, I'm trying, really trying to eat more vegetables. Mostly because I should. But now I'm cooking and eating more vegetables because my Kate has become a vegetarian. It's thrown my whole menu plan into the can. I never thought that cooking vegetables would be so....time consuming. But it is for me.

I spend a lot longer in the produce section than I used to. I pick things up one at a time wondering how many ways each item can be prepared. I ask myself if she would like them steamed, raw, roasted, sautéed. I wonder if I can hide them under macaroni and cheese.

Then it's time to prepare dinner and satisfy my vegetarian daughter and the three carnivores who sit at the same table. Dinner conversation hasn't been this lively since her brother lived at home.

Last night, I prepared a quasi-Asian dish of spicy chicken (for the meat-eaters), a stir-fry of broccoli, pea pods, bean shoots, and carrots (raw for daughter Amanda, all separated for my dear husband), and a smorgasbord of noodles (chili oil for me, plain for daughter Amanda, and a little garlic and oil for the vegetarian and hubby). I don't even remember how many pots I used.

So, if you're still following along....here are some yummy recipes for you to try (with peanut butter) and some for the vegetarians in your life. Good luck!

Garlicky Green Beans Stir Fry

Spaghetti with Garlic Oil and Chili Peppers

Pesto Pizza

Peanut Butter Cake

Peanut Butter Brownies

Photo: tastespotting.com

Pinterest Interest

Yes, you're right. I haven't been present. I've been a bit distracted lately by deadlines and daughters. Ideas are never in short supply and neither are words. It’s putting them together that’s been difficult. I’m sure to find my rhythm soon.

In the meantime, I’ve been having some fun with my new Pinterest page. But I only allow myself to play once the work is done (or I take the tiniest peek in between projects). If you haven’t visited yet, here’s a preview above.

My favorite board, bar none, is Reading and Writing. This is where I get to post photos of books I love, tools-of-the-trade, and snippets of ideas to keep me motivated.

Because my love of design is not far behind, I’ve created a few color boards. One is filled with color palettes I’ve created and featured here on my blog, the other two are filled with Beautiful Colors, and—a play on words—combinations of colors and styles that I feel are the epitome of the word, Classic. I'm sure to have fun working on any of these.

Small Town Charm is just a small board filled with photos of grassy slopes and country roads. I’ll enjoy filling it in with my own photos and equally beautiful images from around the globe.

Of course, there’s a board all about food, my photos of New England, and pictures that illustrate my idea of what escaping the real world looks like.

So as I scout out a new blog designer, keep my editor happy, and juggle my daughters (and the doggies), follow me here or there or both. And please keep sending me notes and emails—they make my day.

Sunday Afternoon

I don't know why I haven't visited the pond since last summer. I honestly didn't think I could make it into the parking lot when I realized that the small amount of snow we've had this winter wouldn't keep me from driving right up to the water's edge. So I grabbed my camera and my husband, and we went to take a look.

The day was bright and clear and just warm enough when you stood in the sun you didn't mind the occasional gust of wind. I stood looking out over the pond thinking about all of the times we've spent splashing in the water and swimming to and from the dock. And that's when I heard what sounded like whales crying in the distance.

After assuring me that it wasn't whales, or even the Loch Ness Monster, my dear husband told me that that's what melting ice sounds like. Who knew? I wasn't allowed to skate on open water as a child (my Mother said that's what flooded bogs were for—much safer than a pond) and since the piles of snow are usually too high to maneuver a 4-wheel drive into the pond's lot, I remained ignorant of another one of nature's secrets.

After we listened for a while, my, I'm-never-too-old-to-try-something husband decided to test his weight on the melting ice. Soon he was throwing rocks. I finally joined in by stomping on the ice jammed up between the boat ramp and the rocks on the shore. There we were, two middle-aged kids on a cold February Sunday afternoon, just hanging out.

Is there a better way to spend an afternoon? Maybe next time we'll actually bring the kids along.

Subdued Colors

Color inspiration can be found anywhere and I'm always excited when I look at ordinary objects in new ways and find even more color combinations to work with. These photos come from one of my new color boards over on Pinterest.

Color Inspiration

BM 1635 Water's Edge, BM 1650 Stillwater, RAL 7043 Traffic Grey, HC-578 Chocolate Gray

HC-70 Van Buren Brown, HC-110 Wethers Field Moss, HC-125 Cushing Green, HC-122 Great Barrington Green

A Simple Life

There are days when I wake up and wonder how the heck did I end up in New Hampshire? Well, we wanted a house with a yard—a big yard. So 18-years ago, we packed up lock, stock and barrel and moved to the woods and into our new home without looking back. (Okay, we looked back a little, sometimes a lot in those early days.) But the real story is that my husband and I wanted to live a quieter existence. We wanted to be able to walk outside and see the moon and the stars, and miles and miles of sky and land. We wanted a place that allowed us to choose what we wanted to do each day, a place that didn’t have a mall, a McDonalds, or a 7-Eleven. We wanted parks and ponds and dirt roads. We wanted snow and fresh air and trees, lots and lots of trees.

Of course we have cell phones, satellite television (there’s no cable in the woods), and internet access. Our movies get shipped via Netflix or can be found in town at Redbox. But we don’t have to wait in traffic or stand in line for much. We can walk down the street without bumping elbows or jockeying for position. We can wander outside at night and hear the sounds of the woods echo in the distance.

Once in a while, I’ll head down to the nearest mall (40 miles away), and we’ll grab a bite to eat, pick up what we came for, and head home wondering why we ever made the trip in the first place. And when we head back home to Massachusetts, we muscle our way through the traffic like the locals we were and thank goodness we don’t have to go through that on a daily basis ever again. Having lived and worked in Boston for many years, David and I are veterans at handling all kinds of traffic woes. I sat through the southeast expressway construction for years, doubling, sometimes tripling the amount of time it would take me to get home. Living in the suburbs had little appeal. We either had to stay in the city or move away—far, far away.

So I traded in my high heels and designer suits for a pair of shearling-lined flats and yoga pants. I traded lunch on Newbury Street for picnics in my backyard. I swapped out polished marble floors for rough-hewn wood. I gave up walking the dog on a leash for plenty of room for him to roam and run to his heart’s delight. And most importantly, I traded all of the scheduling and doing and have-tos, for stillness and quiet. For Sunday suppers and walks in those woods. For endless Saturdays not filled with errands and obligations. For time to swim in the pond whenever I want. To think and feel and live.

Living out here in my quiet, peaceful corner of the world, I learned to understand and appreciate that the good things in life are rarely found in a mall or while sitting in traffic or knocking yourself out when trying to climb the corporate ladder. 

I’m afraid of heights so I stay off ladders. It’s a simple choice for me.