A Crafty Card Keeper

I've been keeping the greeting cards my children receive (baby shower, first birthday, holidays, etc.) by throwing them willy nilly in a box in the closet... you know, with the thought that someday I would know what to do with them. So when I ran across this cute Card Keeper craft in the April issue of Family Fun magazine, I thought a.) this is something I could easily do and b.) it looks like a great way to turn all those cards into a nice keepsake.

To get started, cut two sheets of card stock slightly larger than your biggest greeting card - this is your front and back cover. Next, two-hole punch the cover sheets and decorate with some patterned paper and a picture (I used Picasa to add the text on my photo). Then two-hole punch your greeting cards and thread them together with a pretty ribbon. One nice bit about this card keeper: you can always untie the bows to add more cards to the back and it fits all sizes of cards. Crafty and cute.

That Fascinating Royal Touch

William and Kate... need I say more? I couldn't possibly be more excited about the Royal wedding this coming weekend. In that spirit, I wanted to blog about something that would get one in the mood for the ceremonies. In a previous post I mentioned Princess Diana's favorite perfume shop, Penhaligon's. Love it still. But for this wedding, let's update... and what better than with a feather hairpiece: the fascinator. Kate Middleton has been a UK press darling in her custom-made pieces (see here), but you can pick up your own scaled down but still fit-for-a-princess headwear. This black feathered clip with gilded chunky jewels (thank you H&M) looks great next to a side-swept ponytail or worn high, like a little hat. The feathers just meld to the shape of your head... simply divine, like a little bird gone aloft. An uncommon touch you can wear to feel a bit royal any day.

Keeping House Like a Hotel

Nantucket Island as seen by NASA

Reprinted from a newsletter article I wrote in Sep. 2010 for the MOMS Club of Monrovia.

A lifetime ago I had a job that was a bit like boot camp for being a stay at home mom. I was a chambermaid at a historic bed and breakfast inn on Nantucket Island. During high season, I cleaned 10 bedrooms and baths as well as common areas every day... in addition to helping serve breakfast for a house full of guests. What I learned that summer was what it means for a house to feel hotel perfect -- neat, tidy and ready for company to drop in. It may not always be the truth, but sometimes the illusion is half the fun. So in that spirit, here are a few of the cleaning and organizational tips I picked up from "the back of the house" while picking up after everyone else.  

Unbox and unwrap paper products before you store them. The goal is that everything should be immediately ready to grab and use. Take toilet paper rolls and paper towels out of the plastic they come in immediately when you get them home, then store them in your cabinets. My favorite chambermaid secret: store your clean trash bags in the bottom of your trash can. Just toss a big handful in the bottom underneath the bag currently in use. Then when it's time to empty the trash, you just remove the old bag and -  voila! - open up the new bag sitting right there. This is an awesome time saver.

Quick wipe downs are your secret weapon. Don't do a heavy duty clean when a wipe will do just fine. I love Clorox wipes, or just spray with Windex on everything and use a paper towel. If you do only one thing in your kitchen and bath, wipe down your faucet and fixtures and the inside of the sink (that's where your eyes go first). If you want it to look super clean, after you wipe it down, dry off the faucets and the sink bowl with another clean paper towel to catch any spots and oddball grime. It sounds like overkill, but drying your sink after you clean really looks good.

Run the shower or fill the tub with hot water before you clean it. Surfaces clean up faster when not cold. Same rule works for a really dirty pan you're trying to clean. Put some water in it and heat it up on the stove top. Baked on gunk will scrape come right off.

Work from top to bottom and always go in a circle. Going once, thoroughly around a room means you're not hopping all around wasting time and forgetting places. In your bathroom, spray your mirrors and counter tops with cleaner. Then wipe down your mirrors, then your counter tops, then the cabinets. The floor is last - always. If you're dusting, grab a Swiffer cloth (like one you would use for the floor) and go around the room in a circle. 

Keep your cleaning supplies together where you use them. If you can't store cleaners safely in your bathroom out of the reach of your the kids, then put together a maid's bucket with all the supplies you need so you can grab it and take it to the room where you need it. What cleaners do you really need? A multipurpose bathroom cleaner spray (e.g. scrubbing bubbles), Windex, and Comet. For tools, a small dustpan and brush, a roll of paper towels (or can of wipes), a scrub brush, a toilet brush, and an old toothbrush for the little corners. That's it. 

Give yourself a time limit when you clean. Maybe it's a daily 10 minute limit, but set a time and stick to it. Why? Because truthfully, you could clean your house all day. When I had 10 bedrooms to clean by myself before noon, I had to keep up the pace. When the time is up, stop and resume doing whatever it is you really want to do. And for goodness sakes, if it's not dirty - don't clean it.

Keep your linens the same color. White is always right. But so is all black. Or all of any one color you choose. The point is that if all your sheet sets and towels match, there is always something quick to grab that will match with whatever is already hanging up in the bathroom or on the bed. Why remake the whole bed when it's just the pillowcases that need changing? Finally, when your linens get ratty (and you know the ones I'm talking about here), banish them to the rag drawer and buy new ones. Preferably, all the same color as the ones you already have.

There is a right and wrong way to hang your towels. Think "display." Avoid hanging towels from towel bars by just folding them in half vertically. Fold your towels in thirds vertically, and then in half, and then in half again over the towel bar. If that's too much work, use hooks instead of towel bars and don't worry about when guests (or kids) make them all askew. 

Clear the clutter before you clean. Grab a trash bag and run through the house and do a 5 minute pickup. Before you vacuum, pick up what's on the floor first.  One thing that will make your house always look tidy is to have a rule that the dining room table is not a dumping ground. Keep it cleared off when not in use and ready for the next activity. 

No dirty dishes sitting around. At the inn, guests were always leaving coffee mugs, dirty plates and the like out in common areas - as such it was always important to pick them up immediately and get them out of sight (especially if the kitchen is visible to guests). Pop them in the dishwasher right away or in a big stock pot. If you must soak, do it only for an hour or two. Plus, it's true that dirty dishes in the sink do get dirtier. Not only that, using a sink with dirty dishes in it causes bacteria to spread all over the the surrounding sink and counter tops. Yuck.

Keep basic handyman tools in the house.  One flat head and one Phillips head screwdriver, a hammer, and your measuring tape should always be a step away (I keep mine in a tub under the kitchen sink) . Otherwise you gotta walk out to the garage / basement to even think about fixing something and that's one extra step you might not take. 

Good luck keeping your spaces and places clean!

Moms Who Chew Gum = Kids With Fewer Cavities?

My four year old daughter recently had her first cavity.  Truthfully, I felt like worst mom of the year holding her hand while she was getting her poor tooth filled. So when a dental hygenist / friend recommended this Spry gum for it's plaque reducing effect, I was curious. The gum is sweetened with xylitol, which from what I've read is a 100% natural sweetner that's been around since the 19th century; it was mostly known as a sugar alternative for diabetics. What I didn't realize was that moms who chew xylitol gum when their kids are 3 months old to 2 years old have kids with 70% fewer cavities at 5 years of age (read more about the research on the Xylitol page on Wikipedia). Now that's pretty interesting to us parents, especially since there is recent new research that suggests cavities are contagious person to person. That means mothers are transmitting the Streptococcus mutans bacterium, which is responsible for tooth decay, to their children. You can transfer the bacteria to your kids by sharing food and drinks, and even to your significant others by kissing. The gum is non GMO, gluten free, and comes in Cinnamon, Fresh Fruit and Peppermint flavors. Enjoy a tiny piece of gum for 5-10 minutes after meals and maybe my kids will get fewer cavities? I'll chew on that.

A Book of Family Treasures

A few years ago, I inherited my grandmother's collection of miniature shoes, popular collectibles in the 1940s. What to do with these sweet knick knacks? Practically speaking, I live in earthquake country with two small kids who are earthquakes unto themselves. Emotionally though, it felt a bit wrong to bury them deep in storage. I wanted to honor the fond memories of my grandmother that I associate with these heirlooms. My solution: make a photo book. I spent a couple hours one day photographing the shoes with my digital camera. Along the way I learned a bit too. I discovered many of the shoes were made in occupied Japan post-WWII. The cut glass shoes on the cover (pictured here) were beautiful in a new way when photographed up-close. And, as a whole, the collection took on a curated feel when categorized (wooden shoes, metallic Asian shoes, glass ballet slippers). I now have the book on display in my house, and occasionally a few of the non-breakable shoes are put out too. I even ordered photo books for my mom, aunts and cousins; a fun way to re-connect with family from across the miles and remember a charming part of my grandmother's life.

A Better Cut of Brownie

Here's a quick baking tip I got from my mother in-law: cut your brownies with a plastic knife. This gives you a super clean edge on the bars, with no crumbles. I tried it this week using Duncan Hines brownies and it works... even hot out of the oven! Very useful for bake sales and the like where presentation counts. Thanks, Bev :)

Secrets of Your Home's Style

I'm really digging the HGTV interior design show Secrets From A Stylist - the host, Emily, comes up with a couple's two unique style profiles and then combines them in one redecorated living space. So, for example, the woman's style diagnostic is "Hollywood Regency" and the man is "Vintage Country Club." Voila, their combined style is.... "Hollywood Country Club." Kinda fun. Anyway, I like the show because I've always liked to design with themes in mind as well. What's my style these days? Well, I'm a jeans and t-shirt mom, but I like to glam it up with sparkly, trendy accessories. I like Nantucket cottages, Adirondack camps, Craftsman homes, California plein air paintings, and urban retro looks from the 60s. I like objects around me that tell stories. I've always vaguely thought of it as urban country, but I'm going to revise that to "Ladies Who Lodge."

So here are pictures of three items I own that illustrate this look. The first is my dining room light pendant shade - it looks like an abstract design, but it's actually a wraparound photo of birch trees. It reminds me of my family's cabin in northern Michigan. The next is a sweet metal peacock wall hanging I picked up at an estate sale in Glendale - the house was awesome, it looked like a time capsule from 1968. I'm especially fond of this because we had a wild peacock in our yard a few years ago and the kids were thrilled about it. Finally, the last one is a pencil drawing I found at an antique store that was going out of business last week here in Monrovia (80% off and it's signed by Del Gish - I'm having Antique Roadshow fantasies that it's an original like these). It's just very woodsy, and is a reflection for me of the San Gabriel mountains in my backyard.

So my style may not be your style -- I doubt it is -- but we all do have our own unique style profile and I think it's super fun and useful to take a few minutes to think about what that is exactly for you. Maybe it's Classic American Abroad... Croatian Seaside... Manhattan Gothic. Whatever it is, it's a great way to guide your choices and edit the things you already have to create a house that feels styled like you.

What are the secrets of your style? Drop me a note, I'd love to know what you have going on.

Stepping Back Over the Digital Divide

Like many of you, my music collection went digital probably ten years ago. So why, oh why, am I juggling CDs and DVDs again all day long? Ah, kids. First, I'd like to say we were fortunate to inherit a lot of children's music and movies from family - stuff I never knew existed and the kids love. So, that's the upside. But then there is the sheer logistics of managing all those discs, a problem that frankly I thought I'd left back in 1999. Going to the bother of digitizing music the kids are enjoying for only a short time in different rooms of the house and in the car doesn't make a lot of sense for me. And then there is the pile of TV shows and movies to contend with... Tinkerbell's Lost Treasure, Tinkerbell's Great Escape, etc.  Finally, I'd had it with all the CD cases and DVD boxes, which never quite matched the disc inside anyway and were scattering around the house. I pulled out all the discs and loaded them in three storage albums. Painfully old fashioned solution, I know, but I'd forgotten these things existed. All the music is now in one case. The two year old has her own case of age-appropriate videos and my four year old has the same. That's it. Takes up barely any space and easy to grab on the go. All the clutter of the original boxes is gone - stored away in the garage for the blessed day when I get to re-gift our collection to someone else. I hope they like fairies.

My New Found Oil Addiction

Confession: I recently bought a wooden spoon for $17 at Williams Sonoma -- I'd found a lost gift card from my wedding six years ago and wanted to use it. Now I don't know about you, but that's an expensive wooden spoon in this house. I figured I better take care of it -- likely this is my last wedding gift and I don't want it to end up looking like the pieces of driftwood that pass for my other wooden utensils. So I picked up this Tree Spirit All Natural Wood and Bamboo Oil at Crate and Barrel... what a difference this stuff makes.

I'm now obsessed with oiling down all the wooden items in my kitchen that have been long neglected. Wooden handles of knives, wooden salad bowls, IKEA cutting boards... it's like being reaquainted with old friends. They're now well-weathered and beautiful again. No more wood cracking and funny odors being absorbed. It's great stuff. One tip: don't use canola oil or some other cooking oil for this task, you'll get a rancid smell. Go buy the real food safe oil like this and treat those spoons right.

All Natural Wood & Bamboo Oil