Wednesday Five - 10

Oh hey. How are you doing this fine Wednesday? The start of school is creeping closer and closer. According to our Instagram feed, it's already begun in parts of Texas! Early Birds. For my family it's 2 weeks from today. Eeek. So, it's no surprise that most of this week's five are relevant to the back to school mood. 

1. Getting new shoes for the new school year is tradition around here. Well...part tradition, part necessity. It's special to have new kicks for the new school year. And, my kids' feet literally grow a size a season. So, I've been shoe shopping! These are all brands we have at home. They're all quality and CUTE.

Gold ballet flats / Blue sneakers / Pink glitter Mary Janes / Washed gray sneakers / Gold sneakers / Gray and leather hightops

2. I recently discovered that when kids are learning to write, they should use short pencils and rock shaped crayons and any sort of stubby writing tool. Their little hands will gain the fine motor skills much more quickly and with a lot less frustration. So, I went to Amazon and 2 days later (of course I have Prime!) my girls were practicing their letters with golf pencils. They come in all sorts of colors.

3. Taking a break from the back to school talk, let's dip back into the world of interior design and talk mixing metal finishes. This is one of those client questions we get ALL. THE. TIME. Can I mix metal finishes? Yes. But should I? Yes. We recently found a great guide to mixing metals from Kathy Kuo Home. There's a whole bunch of really simple Dos and Dont's. Well worth a read.

I mean, when done right, mixing metals brings an extra WOW.

SOURCE

4. The first day of school picture for your memory book or photo album...or the cloud because so few of us actually print photos. Anyway, have you figured out how you want to capture the moment?! Chalkboards are pretty popular (for good reason) - they're adorable and classic. I found an awesome reusable chalkboard on Etsy that can be personalized with your child's name or not (if you have multiple children and want to use the same chalkboard and just hand write each name). And, guys, it's $14.99. 

5. I've started a new book guys! Look at me. It's a new, old book. Does anyone remember Prep: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld? It was sort of the rage when it came out...10+ years ago. New York Times best seller. The whole thing. I knew it was about prep school drama. And that's all I knew (and all I know). But I never read it. What I did read, years later, was American Wife. Now that was a fantastic book. It's, allegedly, the fictionalized story of Laura Bush's life. Whether or not that's true, I'm sure I'll never know, but either way it's one of my all time favorites. So, as I'm diving back into the world of being a nightly reader, I went through my list of old books I always wanted to read, but never did, that are probably on the shelves at my local library. I'll keep you posted.

Happy Wednesday.

- Leah

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Wednesday Five - 9

Wednesday really snuck up on me this week. Or is it "sneaked up"? Will a grammar teacher please help me out here.

1. Target is having a great home sale. Kids home furnishings and decor are currently up to 30% off. Here are some of our favorite finds (we're clearly feeling mermaids...it is summer time after all).

Contigo thermos / circle wall shelf / mermaid pillow / mermaid string art / CamelBak thermos / table and chairs / ballerina pillow / woven bin / scalloped end table

2. I recently discovered Mapiful.com and I need to share this gem with you. It's a website where you can create a custom map of...anywhere. And a gorgeous map. I haven't figured out what map I want to make or where I want to hang said map, but it's in my future. 

3. The Ringer came out with the best 100 episodes of television this century (so far). And it's an AWESOME list. It includes the highlights from each episode and a clip from each episode. If you're in a TV draught, this has plenty of shows to add to your list. 

4. If you're on Instagram, and we highly recommend it, in addition to following us, you need to follow the Smithsonian's National Zoo. So many feel goods and sweet, funny moments on this feed. I mean, what's better than photos of Moke, a baby Western Lowland Gorilla.

5. Magnolia Home (aka Joanna Gaines) came out with a wallpaper line and I'm feeling a couple options, including this woodblock print style. 

Have a wonderful Wednesday! 

- Leah

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Wednesday Five - 8

Happy August everyone! 

The weather has finally turned around here. Last week was rainy, often down pouring, for the entire week. And, bonus, it was also SUPER hot. The classic New England recipe for extreme humidity (aka bad hair days). 

1. The good news about all the rain was that it didn't matter when I forgot to water my garden (which was every other day)...you know me and my black thumb. And so, come the weekend, I had quite the harvest. Some zucchinis, some cucumbers and lots of carrots. Which had me wondering if there was anything useful I could do with all my carrot greens (the stems of the carrots). Do you ever use carrot greens for anything? It felt so wrong to just throw them out.

2. All the rain also required some creativity when it came to indoor activities. There was definitely some running around in the rain (with and without umbrellas), but I quickly ran through my indoor activity staples - fort building, board game playing and movie watching - and needed to hit up my reserves. I wanted to share a few less common rainy day activities that entertain my daughters (ages 3 and 5) without fail.

- Story Pirates podcast - This kids' podcast so good. I truly enjoy when my kids want to listen. We have an Amazon Echo in the kitchen and they love sitting at the island and listening as the hosts sing and perform plays based on stories written by little kids. It also inspires the kids to write stories of their own.

- Cosmic Kids Yoga - This is a youtube series of kids yoga classes. Each class is the plot of a movie your kids love (Frozen, Trolls, Minecraft, etc.) set to yoga poses. The host, a really enthusiastic British woman who even dresses up in character now and then, tells the plot as a story and incorporates simple but real yoga poses.

- Tinkerlab:  A Hands-On Guide for Little Inventors - This is a great book of science experiments, recipes and art projects that you've never heard of or even thought of. They're mostly simple and almost always involve things you already have around your house (i.e. salt or toilet paper rolls). 

3. White wine slushies. They're trending on Pinterest. I've never had one, but I'm intrigued. I found a great recipe from Modernly Morgan that involves frozen grapes...which I love because half the grapes I buy always go to waste. The whole family scarfs the first half on the day they come home from the grocery store and then the second half just sits...and sits...and sits...until they are gross and squishy and end up in the trash. I'm checking into this recipe this weekend. I'll keep you posted...

SOUrce

4. Speaking of summer drinks...don't you just want to lounge here and have one?   

5. We're back on Instagram with a new and very important poll: do you use the phrase "dog pile" or "pig pile" to refer to people jumping into a big pile on top of each other? This, admittedly, is the least interior design relevant poll we have ever taken. But it is also the MOST important poll we have ever taken as it will settle a long lasting debate...like decade long...between myself and my husband. Please head over to our Instagram account and vote (the poll is in our story). Or leave a comment here. Or something. The more evidence...the better...

Until next Wednesday!

- Leah

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