A book and a barrette

borrowers by mary norton

My aunt, who has rescued countless books from her local public schools’ discard bin, gave us this book several years ago and it’s been in regular rotation ever since.

Just a quick post to give a shout out to two items that are getting quite a bit of air time in our universe these days. Either one would make a good kids gift, what with Hanukkah bearing down on us and Christmas hot on its heels. My “official” (whatever that means) gift guide posts aren’t starting till next week, but I figured I may as well toss a coupe of things into the fray early.

First up, The Borrowers, the classic novel by Mary Norton chronicling the story of a family of tiny people who live under the floorboards of a big old house in the English countryside. We are currently reading this for the third time. The idea that there might be little people nicking our safety pins is almost too exciting for my daughter to bear, and I can’t imagine that she’s alone here.

I especially love our 1953 edition, because the line drawings (by Beth and Joe Krush) are so compelling. Plus I’m a big fan of buying books second hand whenever you can, and this one isn’t particularly rare or expensive.

Oh and then, once you’ve read the original version, check out The Secret World of Arrietty, a beautiful film from Studio Gibli (the folks who gave us Ponyo and Spirited Away) that takes the story and twists and expands it in a way that is entirely satisfying, true to the original spirit and lovely to watch. It was a children’s movie that I was actually excited to go see in the theater. And how often does that happen?

isabel et toi hair bow

Nothing puts a smile on a girly girl’s face like a big bow.

My daughter has pretty wide ranging taste… she loves scooters, star wars and digging for worms in the garden… but all activities must be done with as girly a dress as she can possibly get her hands on. Which can be hard for her mom who, while known to love a skirt and heels for herself, is not so into sparkles, lace and bows.

But they say you have to let them be their own people.

And I respect that. I swear. But if she’s going to wear big old bows in her hair, at least let them look like this one (by Isabel et Toi) that we found during a recent visit to our all time favorite kids store, Sweet William. You can order them online too, if you don’t happen to live in Williamsburg or lower Manhattan.

7 menorahs that don’t suck, including one my husband made in preschool

kid handmade menorah

This is the menorah that we usually use. Over 35 years old (so it’s vintage!) made by my husband when he was around 4. If you can get your hands on one of these, you should use it for sure. Only horrible people with cold hearts don’t like them. Plus it’s probably free. This is Menorah #1.

Last night, when I was putting my daughter to bed, I dropped the bomb that Hanukkah starts next week. NEXT WEEK. In 8 days, to be exact. Her face almost exploded with excitement (presents! candles!) which served as a comforting counterpoint to my interior monologue which runs something like: “Oh my god only 8 days plus we’ve got a belated birthday party in our messy apt this weekend, my office isn’t put back together, we’ve gotten NOTHING for anyone yet, my in-laws are all living on the west coast which means advance gift buying/wrapping/shipping is a must, and my husband, who is the Jewish member of the family by the way, is away on business till this weekend and is, as such, minimally helpful… which some would call useless but I don’t like that label as he is the opposite of useless in so many respects.”

So here we go, trying to get it together on the fly again.

First things first: The equipment. We have a menorah (see photo above) though I have just realized that we are out of candles. I only like the plain, white or natural beeswax candles, which are, for some reason that I do not understand, very difficult to find. Multi colored, striped, sparkly? No prob. Plain? Good luck. Thank god for Amazon. I just ordered mine, but supply is low so you guys better get on it lest you be stuck with whatever they have at the Whole Foods check out.

And then the menorahs. If you don’t have one that your husband (or wife, or girlfriend, or uncle…) made as a kid, there are untold millions of models to choose from. As with anything, one tends to have to scroll through lots of ‘maybe-nots’ to find the ‘that-could-work’ ones. Which I did. Last night. For HOURS.

Here are 6 (in addition to the sentimental one above) that I thought I might choose should the need suddenly arise. Hopefully, if you are actually in need, this post will save you from painful hours of late night scrolling.

menorahokl1 For Menorah #2, One Kings Lane serves up the grown-up version of the one you made in preschool (just in case your mom is like mine and threw everything out the minute you moved out of the house.)

 

modular wood menorah from etsy

Next up, Few Bits on Etsy is making this modular wooden menorah out of sapele (a wood in the mahogany family) You can place the candles in any configuration (gives the kids something to do and the in-laws something to argue about) and each block is hand carved to order and as such, unique, which is always a plus in my book.

industrial menorah

Out of the woods and into the factory with this industrial menorah made from copper pipes. I think my husband, who is obsessed for some reason with making things out of pipes, is going to love this one.

bigchristofflemenorah

If money were no object, I might go for this one, by Christoffle.

jewish musclassicmod

Option #6: The Classic Modern Menorah from The Jewish Museum.
Nuff said.

danielmichalikmenorah

And finally, this Daniel Michali cork menorah is different but still feels true to the spirit of the holiday. Perfect for when you’ve just moved into your new loft apartment in Toronto and forgot to look in the basement for your preschool menorah when you were at your folks house last month.

menorah_tags

Oh and while I have you on the horn, these double layered menorah gift tags are nice too.

Feel free to add any suggestions of other nice menorahs in the comments. We need all the help we can get.

Monday, Monday – or more links about holiday food, tartan, and airbags for your head.

Just watched Brigadoon for the first time (with my daughter, who LOVED it) and was blown away by the fact that Gene Kelly was both the star and the choreographer. Is there anybody doing stuff like that today? That’s actually any good…?

It is much harder to commit to a year of wearing only 3 brands than I thought. Even if it is just pretend.

One of my favorite kids’ lines, Kallio, just busted out a great flannel tunic/dress that’s perfect for the cold weather that’s finally here.

This invisible bike helmet is the Best. Idea. Ever. Prepare to be blown away.

Hanukkah is basically the day after tomorrow (aka the end of next week) so here are some simple instructions for making a great latke.

But before the festival of lights comes THANKSGIVING. Thank you oh thank you sweet Julia Moskin and Melissa Clark for breaking the whole thing down for us lesser mortals. We will be forever in your debt.

And lastly, check out this 1994 Today show clip where they get all confused trying to figure out what the “Internet” is. The world had no idea what was coming:

When you wish upon a tree…

art - kids
yoko ono wish tree

This wish tree was recently at the Jim Kempner Fine Art gallery in Chelsea.

I had a couple of extra minutes before a recent shoot in Chelsea, so I wandered into Jim Kempner Fine Art Gallery and saw, in the courtyard, this Wish Tree by Yoko Ono.

Of course I had to participate in the project (anything to help motivate some of my wishes into transforming from dreams into realities) so I took one of the little labels, wrote down my wish, squeezed it with my eyes closed, and then tied it to the tree.

It was a really nice, contemplative thing to do before heading off to work.

That particular tree is no longer in that particular courtyard, but you can add your wish to the collection by going to ImaginePeace.com. They also have instructions for building your own wish tree (do I hear weekend activity with your kids, anyone?) with templates for tags and everything else you might need.

Maybe if we all wish hard enough for all the stuff we need to make a better world, it’ll come true.

It pays to be a good egg

carrots from good eggs

I mean come on, how good do these carrots look? Of course I’m going to buy some. Potential web sellers take note: good photos really help move units. (all of these beautiful photos are lifted directly from the good eggs site. Please forgive me.)

Oh happy day, my dreams are coming true little by little. Not that I don’t love a casual stroll through the farmers market, or the surprise you get when you open up your CSA box, but man, when you tell me I can get produce straight from nearby farms and small batch locally prepared food directly from the makers all delivered to my doorstep Fresh Direct style, I will raise my arms up to the heavens and shout Hallelujah!

As a matter of fact, I have to pause here for a minute and place my order for Thursday. Please bear with me for a sec…

Ok. All done.

Really all I want to say is that if you live in Brooklyn or San Francisco (or LA or New Orleans) you get to partake in this new food revolution called Good Eggs. It’s a beautifully designed (no really, even my super web-design-snob husband loves it) community oriented web company that is linking these farmers and food producers directly with their potential customers. So you can get all local and fresh and whatnot without leaving the comfort of your own home.

You go to the site, set up an account, decide what you want to buy (reading the little bios of the sellers if you are so inclined), buy it, decide when you want to receive the bounty (for example, order by midnight on Tuesday for Thursday delivery) and then just hang out at home till the food shows up. In a nicely designed brown paper bag, often with a note from some of the folks making the food.

For example, if you’re curious, you can scroll on down to see what I ordered this week (and I didn’t get any pasta, or grocery staples, or baby food…)

buttermilk bis

Saturday morning breakfast is going to be all about these buttermilk biscuits from BeeHive Oven. Which we had last week. I ate 3 of them myself.

bacon from dickson

We will also be eating this bacon from Dickson’s Farmstand Meats. Worth every penny, cause it ain’t cheap. Josh says it’s the best bacon he’s ever had in his life. And I’m all about keeping my husband happy, since he does most of the cooking.

apples from good eggs

Macoun apples from Fishkill Farms. So we can make more apple sauce and pies and just bite into their crunchy fresh awesomeness.

brooklyn sodaworks

AND OH MY GOD THIS IS THE BEST SODA EVER. You might remember an earlier post in which I raved about it and talked about how I was going to stalk the people at Brooklyn Sodaworks till they delivered some to me. Well my stalking days are over.

So now you know a bit of what we’re eating this week. Please please check these Good Eggs folks out. You will not be sorry.

Monday, Monday or more links about long underwear, Google, and our bodies as recycling waystations…

So evidently our fingernails are 50% carbon, a good part of which hails from a chimney or a tailpipe. Crazy... (Illustration by Yuko Shimizu for Nautilus.us)

So evidently our fingernails are 50% carbon, a good part of which hails from a chimney or a tailpipe. Crazy… (Illustration by Yuko Shimizu for Nautilus.us)

Evidently Google knows/keeps track of everything you do while you are logged into your Google account (hello, gmail?) Even and especially all of your searches. If this bothers you, try searching with Blippex. They actually value the concept of privacy.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Time to get your squash on.

Best, warmest, most awesome long underwear ever. Because it’s finally getting cold out there.

And speaking of the change of season, our skin is going to need a bit of TLC these days. Check out these all natural products with labels that read more like a salad bar at a spa then your typical lotion ingredient list.

Maybe after watching this TED talk about Fibonacci numbers we will all be as excited about math as Arthur Benjamin is. Too bad he wasn’t my high school math teacher…

Check out these 6 keyboard shortcuts for MAC and suddenly feel all warm and fuzzy about how cool your computer is.

We’re already recycling all sorts of stuff without even trying because, it turns out, we are all made of waste. No seriously, we are.

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

Screen time is limited in our house, and we generally watch shows together, so I have to be able to stomach whatever is on. Recently, whilst trolling through the selections available on Amazon Prime Instant video in the desperate hunt for something that doesn’t suck for my daughter to watch, I stumbled upon the 1984 season of Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood, a childhood favorite.

(Amazon’s instant video, by the way, is really great… there are hundreds of movies/TV shows/etc available for free if you are a member of Amazon Prime. I know that Amazon is an instrument of the evil overlord, as are Google and Facebook, but I do find myself taking advantage of it’s offerings because who wants to pay a la carte to watch episodes of old TV shows when you don’t have to?)

I did not remember how utterly surreal the whole Mr Rogers scenario is. It is the most gentle world, full of full length songs about love and friendship, live instruments, puppets (more than one of whom, from the sounds of it, are played by Fred R. himself) trips to places like the aquarium or the antique train museum which are run by people who are as gentle and patient and capable of bursting into song as Mr Rogers himself. It’s kind of like being in a Waldorf preschool classroom, but on TV, which is ironically about as un-Waldorf as you can get.

Anyway, I am happily taking little vacations with my daughter in Mr Rogers neighborhood, getting inspired to compose our own operas, learning about fish, hanging out with King Friday in the land of make believe and humming along to the theme song.

More links about marathons, births and split pea soup

Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya

Geoffrey Mutai, in orange and blue, running (really quickly) by our apt, almost halfway to winning the 2013 NYC Marathon.

Watching the NYC Marathon has become a bit of a tradition. The course goes right by our place, so we can watch while making waffles (buttermilk waffles, to be exact) and scream ourselves hoarse without leaving the confines of our stoop. It is always really inspirational, and gives me all kinds of motivation to do all sorts of things that I may or may not ever actually get to in my lifetime.

But a girl can dream, right?

So here are a few post-marathon links that I’m hoping will give me the extra energy I need to prevail, now that it’s getting dark at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Watch May El-Khalil explain how the marathon she started in Lebanon gives a nation torn apart by war one day of unity.

In the gargantuan effort to rid myself of at least a significant portion of my excess stuff, I am reading Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui, by Karen Kingston. I am a bit embarrassed to be seen with it on the subway, but the book came highly recommended, so I’m diving in. And there are lots of really useful and motivating tips in there. Maybe, just maybe I’ll make some real progress this time…

My office is slowly coming back together and I’ve just hooked up my turntable, reuniting myself with my records after what seems like a lifetime! I am happily listening to Coexist, by the XX right now. You should too.

Converse all-stars are totally not running shoes. But these Missoni Chuck Taylors sure look good…

I defrosted the freezer today and found 6 (six!) packages of frozen peas. Perhaps it is time for some split pea soup

I just heard about this crazy and mesmerizing map by Brad Lyon that records all US births and deaths in real time. Go check it out.