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Lifestyle

In A Day

The past week has been spent adjusting. (And painting walls and installing lights and putting things up and pulling things down and ripping tape off of boxes that appear to be multiplying like mogwais while we sleep and trying to find somewhere, anywhere, that will feed us Thai food and oh right, my final book edit is due on Friday, nbd...but mostly adjusting.)

What's presented an interesting challenge - and one that I didn't expect - is that both Indy and Goldie have changed a lot almost overnight (or at least that's how it feels), and so while we figure out all the things you have to figure out when you move to a new place, we're also having to figure out how to adjust to our kids' newfound needs. Goldie used to sleep what felt like all day long; suddenly she's dropped down to one nap, with maybe a little bonus rest in the early evening. She moves now. A lot. Basically, she's like tiny, extremely cute and very awake lightning.

With Indy, it's more of a situational shift; his school out here doesn't start for another couple of weeks, and even when school does start, we don't have the regular routine set up out here that we had back at home, with lessons on this day and playdates on that day and...you know, stuff to do.

Decor

The Easy Decor Trick You Didn’t Know

hot pink deer head white faux taxidermy yucca tree

...Or at least I didn't know it until I read this post. It's something that I was doing before at least semi-intuitively, but consciously paying attention to this tiny fix is such an easy way to instantly give a room a more polished feel.

Basically, forget about centering art on a wall, and pay more attention to orienting it around the furniture. (This doesn't necessarily mean always placing it dead center above a major piece of furniture - although it could - but rather just thinking about the art as it relates to the way you've arranged the pieces in your room.)

My Looks

Le Vibe

Santa Cruz, CA

What you are seeing here is - apart from Kendrick's graduation - the first time I've gotten actually dressed (meaning, selected things from my closet that were things I actually wanted to wear, rather than just opening a box, going "that looks fine and marginally clean" and getting on with it) in about a month.

It was fun.

Lifestyle

The Good Dad

...Or, more accurately, the best dad.

Father's Day is always a tough one. I mean, seriously...how many ties and belts can you buy a guy? For this Father's Day, I wanted to get Kendrick a present that he could use, you know? And, more specifically, use to do something he's wanted to do for a long time, but has never really had the time for: getting outside and just going. For the past couple of years he's spent all of his time either in class or driving back and forth between Yale and our place, and I know he'd love to make being outdoors a real part of his everyday, and so I thought I'd get him something to inspire him to do just that.

SNAPSHOTS

Noah’s Art

noah's art joshua tree

I totally forgot to show you the last stop on our road trip - and I have to, because it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

When we were in Joshua Tree, we stayed at a gorgeous AirBnB way out in the desert, and when we were driving back to the main road we saw this crazy sort of art installation rising out of the sand, and pulled over to discover a full-on outdoor museum of "assemblage sculptures" - basically, pieces created using only found objects ("Noah" refers to Noah Purifoy, the museum's founder).

If you ever make it out that way: go, for real.

Decor

A Little Help Over Here?

(Kel, if you're wondering, is Kendrick's nickname - his dad made him that stool when he was little.)

Alright, so yesterday I showed you all those little things about our new place that I love...and now I'm going to show you a room that I very seriously do not like even a tiny bit.

Our bathroom.

Decor

Light Me Up

hanging pendant light copper large

Now that's a good globe.

I promise, I'm not turning into Young House Love, Ramshackle Edition over here; I just literally have been doing nothing but working on our place for the past week, so...well, talking about home decor is what I've got.

The present object of my obsession: lighting. I'm working on a full remodel of the lighting situation in our house (by which I mean I having lights as opposed to having literally none and living in near-total darkness, because that's what was going on before). I'm shooting a before-and-after video so you can see the full extent of what we're doing, but in the meantime we need to talk about lighting fixtures.

Lifestyle

Oh, Love

Needlepoint by my friend Erin

I loved our first house so much. I loved the leopard carpet, and the gold hinges, and the stone wall in the yard. The strange Greek myth wallpaper and the attic bookshelf. Mostly I loved that it was our first house.

When I started looking at places out here, I sort of resigned myself to the fact that we wouldn't find anything as sweet and charming or special as our little Tarrytown colonial; houses out here tend to be more of the all-one-level popcorn-ceiling ranch-style variety (until you get into the hills, when they become ridiculously gorgeous rustic cabin-type places, but are also, like, three million dollars per bedroom). I knew I'd love wherever we ended up, but I figured I'd love it because...I don't know, because of what we put into it. Not because of the house itself.

Lifestyle

Road-Tripping With Kids: A Survival Guide

Q. Hi Jordan!

I was hoping you could do a post on keeping young kids happy/entertained in the car when you get a chance? We'll be driving from Rhode Island to North Carolina in a month with my 21-month old (and a surly cat, God help me) and I'm really nervous about it. We usually plan longer car trips around bedtime/naps, but that obviously won't be possible this time around.

Any tips would be much appreciated!


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