Latest Posts

Decor

Meet The Best Toothbrush In The Whole Wide World

May 24, 2018

Every once in awhile, you discover a new product, and cannot understand how you lived without it before. (You also wish you had invented it yourself, because then you would get to be a gazillionaire, and that sounds fun.)

Until now, my toothbrush/toothpaste situation has - like yours, I assume - been a total disaster. Between the four of us we have something like 30 different toothbrushes, all in various stages of disrepair. All of them are neon, with fussy little rubber finger-pads or elaborate chargers or pictures of Paw Patrol dogs on them. Our toothpaste tubes - we have four at the moment, and all of them are mostly empty - are all sort of jammed into and around the toothbrush holder in a big, sticky, the-cap-won’t-go-on-anymore-because-it’s-too-gunky mess. It’s gross.

In short: If you’re anything like me, no matter how pretty your bathroom is, your toothbrush situation messes it up.

Lifestyle

Kendrick’s Father’s Day Gift Picks from eBay’s New Akron, Ohio Shop

May 23, 2018

(by Kendrick.)

I had nothing to do with the new eBay shop featuring small Akron, Ohio-based business. I promise! I know I work for eBay, but I had literally nothing to do with this. I just thought it was awesome, and thought Ramshackle Glam people might think so, too.

So. I look on eBay one day, because I work there, and because I have a bad habit of buying things on eBay (thereby gradually refunding my employer for my salary), and I see something about my hometown (technically I'm from North Canton, but nobody knows where that is, so I just say "near Akron"). And seeing something online about my hometown is weird, because people don't usually talk about Akron all that much.

Home Projects

Oh, My Patio

May 22, 2018

This is what my patio looks like this morning. It is not, however, what it looked like yesterday. Between the whole winter/rain situation (the one that also destroyed my outdoor table and benches) and the fact that it’s served as the equipment storage area and workspace for the renovations we’ve been doing for the past six months…

It was officially trashed.

It was so gross I’m embarrassed to show you, but I’m going to. Greater good, and all that.

Parenting Guilt

The One I Can’t Forgive

May 21, 2018

I've made a lot of mistakes as a parent. I've written about most of them here - they range from tragicomic incidents like accidentally bringing my four-year-old to a verrrrrry adult haunted house and getting my entire family into a The Hills Are Alive situation, to having my head elsewhere when they need it to be right there with them.

Listening. I am so bad at listening.

I've also written over and over about the importance of forgiving yourself. About the fact that we are, all of us, flawed - and yet all of us are, of course, doing the best that we can. We love our children impossibly, and yet we make mistakes - sometimes the same ones, over and over and over. I know that dwelling on these mistakes helps no one. I know that you learn from them; you move on; you try to do better the next time.

ENTREES

Reader Recipe: Salmon & Spinach Fettuccine

May 17, 2018

When it came to comfort foods, I was an odd kid. I'd come home from school and dump a can of French-style green beans into a bowl, microwave it, and eat the whole thing (yes, just a bowl of French-style canned green beans. Delish). I'd stop at the deli across the street and buy a whole pickle - you know, the ones that you get from the big jars behind the counter - and then settle down in front of Duck Tales with a bowl of salt, into which I would dip the pickle.

And then there was my favorite dinner: a recipe that I'm going to credit to my mother that involved...wait for it...

Microwaved salmon.

Fashion Projects

Style Hack: How To Get the Vetements Look…At Costco

May 16, 2018

On Mother's Day morning, Francesca and I were laying in bed drinking coffee and scrolling through TheRealReal (because this is our favorite thing to do, especially when Kendrick indulges us by bringing us refills and also toast and then segues neatly into mimosa-delivery around 11AM), and I said, "Ooh, search for Vetements."

I love Vetements. I know I shouldn't, and I know I would never actually buy anything from the brand because I obviously cannot afford to, but I still find myself lusting over their stuff. If you're not familiar with Vetements, it's actually a Paris-based "design collective" with a largely anonymous design staff, and is sort of an experiment in what happens when "real clothing" is worn "in a real way" (distressed, DIY-ed, abandoned, etc). Think sweatshirts. With reallllly long arms. And logos. For $2k.

So depending on your perspective, what they're doing is either making wearable art, or blatantly taking advantage of impressionable fashion people and making a fortune while doing it, a la Derelicte. I am certain that my mother thinks everything Vetements makes is hideous. I am certain that it looks far, far better on people like Gigi Hadid than it would on me.

Decor

Ariane Moshayedi: California-Inspired Fine Art Photography

May 15, 2018

Three, by Ariane Moshayedi

Forever and a lifetime ago, an email landed in my inbox from a woman, Ariane Moshayedi, who said she was a reader of my site and knew I was expecting my first child. She was a photographer, she said, and she'd love to take our first family photos once the baby arrived.

The shoot did not start out especially fun. We timed it perfectly, of course: Ariane arrived at the exact moment that our son decided he needed to nap, and that if he was not going to be permitted to do so, he was going to make all the adults contributing to the non-napping situation as miserable as possible. Kendrick and I were mortified, but Ariane was patient, relaxed, and so much fun to work with that we eventually just all settled into letting the photos be whatever they were. We coaxed a couple of smiling-through-the-tears shots out of him, but most of them ended up looking slightly less peaceful-and-dreamy, and slightly more like...this.

DIY Projects

How To Make Your Trashed Outdoor Furniture Look Gorgeous Again

May 11, 2018

Winter can be rough on wood.

During the purchasing process for our home, the one thing I asked the former owners if they'd be willing to sell me was their patio table and benches (you can see the set here). It was rustic, and sturdy, and fit the space perfectly - but it was also clearly handmade, so I doubted they'd say yes. And I was right - they said no - but then we moved in a couple of months later...and there they were, waiting for us.

Yay, right?

Makeup & Beauty

Just Some Earth-Friendly Products I Love

May 9, 2018

"All-natural" isn't something I typically look for in my beauty products. Perhaps not the loveliest admission, but I tend to be about results more than about the absence of parabens (yes, I know, parabens = bad; it's just an example). As I'm getting older, though, I'm discovering that my skin is getting increasingly sensitive, to the point where some products make my skin react immediately and visibly - and extremely unattractively. When I was in LA with Francesca, for example, I decided to try a different K-beauty mask every night, and...let's just say that this is not something that the sensitive-skinned among us should do. (Oh my god.)

So while I'm not tossing all my chemical-containing serums anytime soon - because excuse me, those things were expensive and many of them are indeed quite wonderful - I am trying to pay a bit more attention to what's in the stuff I put on my face. Mostly what I'm looking for are products with fewer ingredients and fewer artificial scents, but I'm not especially well-versed with regards to what's out there in this category, so back in April (a.k.a. "Earth Month") I decided to test-run a whole bunch of eco-friendly, all-natural products. I spotlighted a few of my favorites on my IG stories, but now it's mid-May and I've had more time to play around with them...and there are a few that ended up being so great that I needed to write about them here.

For posterity, you know.

DIARY

Putting It On My Succulent

May 8, 2018

I may need more than one.

Francesca has, as of late, been using the word "manifest" in casual conversation more than I'm reasonably able to handle. (And I have told her as much, e.g. "I love you very much, but if you keep telling me to manifest I will put you on mute.")

Look, I had a meditation coach for awhile. I spent my high school years practicing Wicca, and really wanted to buy a massive, perfectly round crystal I saw in a store the other day. I am, in other words, not completely sans woo elements in my own personality. (And please be aware that I use the term "woo" - as in "woo-woo" - with a big spoonful of affection; I respect and appreciate that people explore their inner selves in various ways that sure, may appear a little odd to others, but that work for them. Yay for spirituality and self-exploration. Yay for crystals and meditation. Just please don't make me manifest.)

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