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The Christmas House

November 22, 2017

I have never been a big Christmas decorator. But that’s not because I don’t want to be - oh my gosh, I would very seriously like to have my house look like a Christmas explosion, please - it’s because I never really had the space or the materials. When you grow up in a two-bedroom apartment in New York City, there’s not a ton of square footage to allow for high-volume decorating, and if you want to get all festive on the exterior of your place, what that means is stringing some lights from your fire escape.

Which is cool! But…you know. Definitely not the same as being a member of the McCallister family.

DIY

< Head Explodes >

November 14, 2017

Oh hell no.

Remember how, last week, the guys working on my garage told me they "might not" be able to complete the project? Amazing news! They totally showed up, got to work, and made it happen, and now my three-months-in-progress garage renovation is done!

Decor

10 Spectacular Bathrooms With Encaustic Cement Tile

November 10, 2017

Hellooooooo my love (via).

Yesterday morning, I had this post all written in my mind. I was going to talk about how, after I finish our garage renovation, I'm going to start thinking about redoing our bathrooms (hoorayyyyy home equity line of credit!). I was going to rhapsodize about cement tile (and specifically Villa Lagoon's tile, which we used for our entryway redo and which is gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous).

...And then guess what happened yesterday afternoon?

Crafts for the Uncrafty

Homemade Halloween Costumes Win Forever and Always

October 30, 2017

This photograph was taken in 1988, in case the crimped hair didn't tip you off.

Every year when I was a little girl, my mom would start making my Halloween costume in September. I might want to be a can-can dancer, or a character from Little House on the Prairie, or Cher (oh yes)...whatever it was, my mother would somehow pull out confusingly professional sewing skills that she apparently reserved solely for Halloween, and whip up a masterpiece of glitter and ruffles and perfection.

I am simultaneously sad about and relieved by the fact that kids these days ("kids these days"!! I'm so old) don't want homemade Halloween costumes. There was something grand - even heroic - about the fact that despite having no particular interest in crafting and exactly zero time to spare, what with her whole "being a lawyer" thing, my mother just rustled up her reserves and knocked it out of the park, year after year. And even when she didn't - my Cher costume consisted of a stretchy tube of sparkly fabric and the most unfortunate wig you have ever seen...it was still the only costume of its kind out there. It was mine. Made by my mom. I loved that.

Entertaining

The (Super) Spooky Party

October 25, 2017

OK, last post about this party - promise. (Maybe. It was SO FUN.) In these shots, you can see what we did with the decor, which went way further than last year's. My son had requested that the "whole house" be spooky, as opposed to concentrating our efforts in one space, and...ok, so that sounded a little intimidating, because I've never been one of those people who has a massive bin of, like, skeleton cats and spiderweb bowls in their garage. But one trip to Party City and one trip to the Dollar Store later?

Super spooky. (Or at least "semi-age-appropriately super spooky" - we wanted to mildly freak out the six-year-olds in attendance...as opposed to, you know, traumatizing them. I still remember the misty coffin that my neighbor set up in a faraway courtyard of our apartment building, and it still haunts my dreams, THIRTY YEARS LATER. That was not the goal.)

Eyeball Cake Step-by-Step

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