Sweet Pajamas: Plum Pretty Sugar

If you looked closely at my Valentine's Gift Guides, you might have noticed a pair of pretty pajamas. I wanted to share more about them because I think this is such a perfect gift (for yourself, your best friend, your sister, your bridesmaids, your mom...) Plum Pretty Sugar makes the sweetest pajamas in all sorts of modern styles including rompers, crop tops, adorable side-tie pants...

I like them so much I bought a pair for my sister for Christmas, along with a completely adorable matching kimono-style robe for my niece Margot.

I think they are really affordable for the quality, and the cotton is lightweight and soft. I love the patterns, which are so feminine, and I love that they offer plus sizes, maternity sets, and that you can "bulk order" for your bridesmaids (I mean, come on, can you imagine how gorgeous those "getting ready" photos would be if all your bridesmaids were in these pajamas?). I also love that you can mix-and-match.

Do yourself a favor. Go buy yourself a pair. You won't regret it.

P.S. One thing I learned buying the set for my sister was that the packaging leaves- well, a little to be desired. Based on how pretty they are, I had expected some beautiful packaging. In reality, not so much. They come wrapped in plastic bags (no pretty brown paper or bows here), and are flat- like flat flat flat. I found that to give them as a gift, I needed to take them out of the bag, fluff them up, fold them, and box them myself. Be prepared to do a little fluffing if you order some.

All images from here.

Honeycomb Brittle: A Quick Hostess Gift

So here's the situation. It was 11:00 in the morning on a Saturday. I was still in my pajamas. The boys  (including Zach) were still in their pajamas. We had virtually no food in the house and I was contemplating a lunch of Goldfish and scrambled eggs.

And then. A friend (or, more accurately, a potential friend) that I had been trying to become closer to over the past few months, texted me, inviting our whole family over to their house for dinner. Before I could even think it through, I said yes. I was so excited about the chance to get out of the house and hopefully get to make some new friends. Exciting!

But here is what stood between me and dinner.

• Getting myself showered and dressed.
• Getting the boys bathed and dressed.
• Naptime.
• Coming up with some kind of last-minute hostess gift.

Now, I know 6 hours seems like plenty of time to accomplish all of the above. But trust me- getting two boys both down for their naps and cleaned and dressed for dinner is easily an afternoon's work. So I knew I had to come up with a quick hostess gift that I could finish, soup-to-nuts, during naptime.

Did I mention that there was no real food in the house?

All my go-to's were off the table. We didn't have any bottles of wine. We had run out of our homemade jam. I didn't have any cookie dough in the freezer. So I turned to Nancy Silverton and whipped up a batch of honeycomb brittle.

You guys. This recipe only has 5 ingredients. Four if you don't count the water (yep, that's right. One of the ingredients is water. I told you it was easy). And you don't even have to dip it in chocolate, which means the only things you really need are sugar, corn syrup and baking soda. 

The result is this immensely and deliciously crunchy and airy brittle. It's gorgeous. And if you've never made candy before, worry not- this is totally doable.

And it's even prettier draped in dark chocolate.

As we were rushing out the door, I was wrangling Ames and trying to come up with some pretty packaging. I didn't have any cellophane bags or pretty boxes, so into a jelly jar it went. Topped off with a red ribbon and a tag written by Tate (a perfect distraction while I chased a naked, post-bath Ames around the house), and I think it was a total success.

P.S. Oh. You wanted the recipe too? Here you go.

1/2 cup water

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1 tablespoon baking soda, sifted

dark chocolate

In a deep, heavy-duty medium-sized saucepan, stir togetehr the water, sugar and corn syrup. If you have a candy thermometer, great! Use it by clipping it to the side of the pan. If not, no fear. Go by color. 

Over medium-high heat, bring the mixture to a boil without stirring. Using a pastry-brush dipped in water, brush down the sides of the pan to dissolve any sugar granules. Continue cooking until the sugar reached 300 degrees or turns a pale straw color. Remove from the heat.

Working quickly, add the baking soda and whisk thoroughly for a few seconds. The liquid will bubble up and become foamy. In one movement, pour out onto a baking sheet. Iy will spread out, puff up a little, and get a slightly shiny, porous surface. 

Allow to harden and cool completely, without touching (be patient! touching messes it up). Using the point of a knife, break it into chunks.

Then dip in chocolate and take to your new friends. Trust me- they'll invite you back.

Blog Redesign!

Ok. So much of the last year has been about making our home feel more our own. So you can imagine how thrilled I am that the idea of great design and beauty and reflection of self is being extended to my space here at O Chickadee.

Behind the scenes, we've been busily working on a blog redesign- one that will better reflect my design aesthetic and what I do in this space. I am thrilled to have the help of an expert blog-redesigner (if you want her name, just email me), and things are starting to come together. I can't wait to share it with you! Stay tuned. I know you'll love it.

Beginner Oil Painting

There was a reason I brought up Hillary Butler's beautiful oil paintings yesterday, and mentioned that I had spent months gazing at them. There was something so impactful to me about her paintings, so much so that (drumroll please!) I enrolled myself in a beginner oil painting class.

You guys, this felt like such a big deal! I was simultaneously excited and nervous. I bought my supplies and packed them all up for the first day. Small jars and tubes of paint and long-handled brushes... in my anxiousness, I got there too early and had to wait in the car. And then I walked into Studio 1.

A couple cool things about my class: it is small! Only four students. So we get a lot of hands-on support and help. Also it is offered at our local Fine Art museum. Isn't that great? I love getting to walk through a museum to go to class. This is the first class I've taken since I graduated from my MBA program, and I forgot how much I love the feeling of learning something new and getting to know classmates and asking questions. There is so much to learn. It is 2.5 hours/week.

I learned a lot in just my first class. The importance of brushes and the rich color of oil paints, the uses for Liquin and how tired your back can get working in front of an easel. But mostly I was reminded of how hard it is to learn something new. It takes so much focus and concentration. It takes practice. You have to learn how to crawl before you can run. Because as much as I wanted to dive right in and start creating "real" paintings, we spent the entire class learning how to blend yellow and red. An exercise that allowed me to begin to get a feel for the paints and the brushes and the process. And that reminded me that discipline is important, and baby steps are important. This was a timely life lesson because it helps me to consider all that the boys are being expected to learn every day, and how hard it must be.

When I got home, Tate asked me what I had painted. I told him the truth- that after almost 3 hours, I had successfully painted only 8 lines (but beautifully blended lines, right?):

You know what he said to me? He told me that meant that next time, I could paint a rainbow. Sweet boy.

I am really glad that I took this leap and registered for the class. There were about a million reasons why I almost didn't. It's expensive. It's not convenient. It's time away from the family. But it was so clear to me when I got to class that learning new things is something I love, and I was glad to be back in a classroom.

Hillary Butler Fine Art

I am so excited to share Hillary Butler Fine Art with you today. I discovered her work about 6 months ago and I can't stop gazing at it. It is so beautiful. I find her use of color stunning and though landscape-esque, her paintings are so much more than that. I want to live in one of them.

Isn't there such a melted ice-cream quality to them? I think one of her pieces would be stunning in a little girl's nursery or as a centerpiece in a light-filled living room. Or maybe hanging in my bedroom? (Ok ok, mostly hanging in my bedroom). I find Hillary's work so inspiring. 

And I love that you can commission a custom piece (wouldn't that be an amazing wedding or anniversary gift?), and that her work comes in tiny (and affordable!) 4" and 6" squares, perfect for hanging on a gallery wall.

2015 Valentine's Day Gift Guides

I love Valentine's Day. Maybe because my first date with Zach was on Valentine's Day? Either way, with only two weeks left, now is the time to think about gifts. There is nothing I hate more than a last-minute Valentine's Day gift. So I put together some Gift Guides for you! You can check them out on my Pinterest page. I'll be updating over the next week or so as I spot new items.

Valentine's Day Gift Guide For Kids: When I was little, my mom would always decorate the dining room table while we were at school. There were gifts and cupcakes. The things I put here are little things I thought my mom might have left for us,

Valentine's Day Gift Guide for Women: Good for sweethearts or best friends.

Valentine's Day Gift Guide for Men: I sometimes think that guys get the short-end of the stick on Valentine's Day. So many expectations from the women in their life! I always like to try to do something special for Zach.

Enjoy! And if there's anything amazing out there I missed, let me know!

P.S. See previous Valentine's Day ideas here and here and here.

Big Heart print pictured above available here.

A Big Move: In the Beginning

Here is something I did wrong in our big move. I went to work immediately, for long, long hours. I don't think I left my office before 11:00 pm for the first two weeks. This means that by the time our boxes arrived, I was well into putting out fires in the office, and "settling in" was something that was an after-thought, done late at night or on weekends during naptime. This is one of many reasons why our house never felt like ours.

But as the years have passed, Zach and I have spent a lot of time talking about how we would do "the beginning" differently if given the chance.

You see, in the beginning, everyone knows you just made a big move. They assume (and expect) that you will need to do things related to the logistics of this major life change. There is grace for leaving the office early or coming in late. But after about 6 months, even though we still felt like we were in the early stages of moving and there was still a lot to do, everyone else seemed to have forgotten, and assumed that all our settling was done.

So. If we could do our big move over again, here is what we would recommend doing in the beginning (ie: within the first 6 months or so):

• Establish your health professionals network immediately. Find a primary heath physician and do your new patient appointment (to this day, Zach and I still haven't done ours here, which is absurd). Choose a dentist, and a pediatrician, an ob (especially important, as I learned, if you end up having a baby in your new place) and have all your previous records transferred over. Also important- Zach has a chronic health condition that requires specialists, and I felt like our move here really set back his health because it took us awhile (a year- cringe) to do the research to find a really talented expert to help him. Now don't get me wrong- this is a huge pain. But it is much easier to explain to your new boss that you have your new patient appointment and need to leave early the first few months than it would be for me now, three years in, when, as far as my boss is concerned, I am practically a local.
• Handle your cars. We waited until all our Oregon car "stuff" (licenses, license plates, registrations) expired to handle it, meaning that over the course of the first two years here, every few months we had these moments of panic: "My driver's license expires tomorrow!" or "We need to take the car for its smog check RIGHT NOW!". Do yourself a favor and just do it when you arrive.
• Go to your new city's Town (or City) Office (or Hall) and find out all the licenses, fees, and expectations. Being clear here that you moved from far away will help. Example: our city here in Massachusetts has a fee for each car you own. We had no idea. Didn't pay it. And only found out when collections called us (over a $20 ticket!). In the craziness of moving, $20 bills from the city for your car can slip through the cracks. Also, this is a way you can learn city expectations. For example, having never lived in snow, we did not know that shoveling the (city-owned) sidewalk in front of our house was required within 24 hours of snowfall or face a ticket. We found out the hard way when a police officer came by our house and told us we would be issued a fine. He took pity on us when we explained we had moved from the West Coast and it was our first winter, but you can imagine what would have happened if we had gone to California for Christmas without knowing this law. Turns out that even when you leave the house, you are responsible for getting those sidewalks clear, a logistical annoyance we weren't prepared for.
• Pick one thing to be "yours". Here's what I mean. When I first got here, one of the things I most missed about Oregon (don't laugh) was that in Oregon, it was illegal to pump your own gas. I loved that! I never had to get out of my car in the rain. And here it was so much worse, when you're dressed for work and there's 12 inches of snow, or 90% humidity. So once I found a gas station near my house that had full-service attendants, I decided that it would be *my* gas station. And now I know the attendants and it reminds me of home and I love it. Small convenience, big psychological impact.
• Paint your house. Even if you love all the colors that are already there, paint one room. I speak from experience- your home becomes yours when you put time and care and energy into it. And hang your art. 
• Find the closest Starbucks. And if you move somewhere with lots of snow- find the closest Starbucks with a drive-thru.

I think the beginning really is the hardest part, but what I feel we've found is that the beginning set the entire tone. Had we done a better job of saying "yes, this is our place and we will make a happy life here!", I think all the rest would have been easier.