family
throughout my childhood, my dad frequently spoke about his “all time dream car”… i would share it with you but it was an ever shifting parade of beautifully designed automobiles that my dad described with great reverence (also, i can’t remember what they were called, as i am not really a car person, but i can picture them perfectly.)
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(the boulder creek fest)
every memorial day weekend in boulder there is the “creek fest” which features lots of food trucks, bouncy castles, bungee jumping, henna, face painting, artsy vendors and “bossy” vendors who give nutritional, political, environmental, parental, etc advice. every year i think i like the idea of a festival and every year i forget how fucking HOT it gets. this year we were obligated to go because lucy’s awesome dance troop, streetside, was performing.
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(theo celebrating his third birthday with a chocolate cupcake)
my son turned seventeen a few months ago. while i am no longer planning big themed parties with magicians or puppet shows or the olympics or pajamas i do still decorate the house, make his favorite breakfast (poofy pancakes) and plan SOMETHING. i love doing this and get super excited at the approach of these celebrations, even though he only begrudgingly poses in a birthday hat for photos now. but this year i was bummed in the same way i get when one of my own “big birthdays” arrives (40, 50, 60 - sixty hasn’t come yet, PRAISE JESUS! but i am already dreading it.) it hit me that next year will be his last birthday at home before he goes off to university and i just felt gutted.
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(my dad in the early 60s)
* i am reposting this story about my dad that i wrote for his 80th birthday… i LOVE my dad. i love his wild humor, his naughtiness, his creativity with words, the crazy faces he makes, his immense confidence, his VERY quirky habits and his ENORMOUS heart. i love that he has told me, “i love you higher than the sky is high and deeper than the ocean is deep” my entire life.
recently, my father had a fall AND came down with covid… the illness probably triggered the fall. he is currently in rehab rebuilding his strength, making faces at the nurses and charming everyone. his popularity is topped only by ROSIE who comes to visit every day… she just curls up in her donut on his bed and naps with him when he is tired from all of the physical therapy. i am so PROUD (but not surprised) of my father for facing this challenge with his typical grace, determination and humor. please send him your best healing wishes! x0x0x
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(this bedroom is from a project that was SUPER fun to work on!)
i am generally a very efficient person. i hate to waste time (unless i am watching tv and then i can do it endlessly.) i set the table as i’m unloading the dishwasher (even if the next meal is HOURS away) because i never want to put dishes away that just have to come right back out. if i am making a green smoothie in the morning, i also make a veggie plate for dinner since i am already chopping stuff up. i frequently get on my tread in my jams because they already need to be washed. i put things on the stairs that have to go up so i can do it on my next trip. i stack my meetings or source fabric or tile or whatever for multiple clients at a go if i am already at the upholsterer or the tile shop. i read once that chefs are trained to make their movements as minimal as possible because they are typically working in small spaces and want to conserve the energy they expend while working. i think about those chefs all the time as i am planning my days.
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* lucy’s bat mitzvah festivities kick off tomorrow… while the lead up has not been without some unfortunate situations (hank had to have BACK SURGERY and lucy’s face blew up from an allergic reaction to all the crazy products she learns about on tik tok, my house and my car are intact [KNOCK WOOD!] and the tailor [elegant tailor right next to village coffee shop] did an impeccable job altering our dresses… we did NOT go to the one who destroyed theo’s pants.) i am reposting this story about what was going on just before theo’s bar mitzvah with much gratitude that we’ve had an easier time this go. PRAISE MOSES!
in early december i got an email from my girlfriend in LA with the subject line, “have you heard about this coat?” she attached an article from the strategist that detailed the popularity of the orolay amazon coat among moms at pick up on the upper west side. it was sold out, of course, because it is the coziest, most comfortable, best priced coat in the world. i stalked amazon until it came back on offer and it was well worth the wait. i LOVE my amazon coat! it has tons of pockets that are straight up and down so that stuff doesn’t slip out of them AND they all have zippers, just in case you are carrying around something super special. the hood is lined with fuzzy, warm stuff and the inside is a bright, cheery orange. you can get it in black, navy and army green (putty too, but that colorway is not nice.) i was so delighted with my coat that i planned all my christmas travel outfits around it (no dresses, just boots and jeans because the amazon coat is too casual for a party dress.) i had to wear it on the plane because it is too bulky to put in a suitcase, but i pulled that snuggly hood up and had the best airplane nap of all time, despite the fact that i was sitting between my two children. the hood also seems to be noise cancelling. so i thoroughly enjoyed the holidays with my amazon coat and then my life became a series of shit fuck events that snowballed into my nearly falling completely apart… but praise jesus, i had my amazon coat. i just crawled into that coat and added my pizzeria pom pom hat and i have hardly taken them off (even indoors) for the last three weeks. because overlaying all of these horrendous events has been planning my son’s bar mitzvah. i am so PROUD of my son for his dedication and earnest commitment to learning, but planning a bar mitzvah (especially for a shiksa mama) is no small endeavor and despite all of my hyper-organized lists and spreadsheets, i still felt desperately behind three weeks out. following are the events that sent me diving into the safety of my amazon coat:
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my dearest, darling lucy is THIRTEEN today! she has been full of surprises ever since our doctor called with the news of my very much desired but completely unanticipated pregnancy. she arrived with a bang and has been upending our lives and our thinking and our hearts ever since. lucy - i cannot begin to tell you how proud and GRATEFUL i am to be your mama. wishing you a thirteenth year full of joy, adventure, SLEEP, snuggles, GOOD BOOKS and loads of LOVE! i love you higher than the sky is high and deeper than the ocean is deep! x00xx
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* i am reposting my mother’s easter recipes that are a staple at my brunch each year. they are super comforting and yummy, if maybe not the most elegant! x0x
my whole life there have been two essential easter recipes served at our brunch: my mother’s mushroom crust quiche and her easter buns. they are both a little trashy… the quiche has smashed up saltines in the crust and the buns are made with the dough that comes in a can you bang on the counter to pop open. but they are both delicious. the quiche (or KWEE-CHEE as theo used to call it) LOOKS a little more elegant, but the buns are never pretty. the filling always squirts out and the jam slides around so they are just a mess. i have tried and tried to clean them up to no avail. when new people come for easter, they usually bypass them on the buffet and i have to force them to try one… no one has ever been disappointed. AND they are both still yummy, cold, the next morning as leftovers. happy, happy easter all! x0xx
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* with the approach of passover i am reposting this story about the seder dinner… it is my favorite of the jewish holidays!
seder means “order.” there is an order to every aspect of the passover celebration from the way the seder plate is prepared to which course is served first and second and third to what prayer is said, what song is sung, what question is asked and when. even though i am not jewish, i have been hosting passover dinners for nearly twenty years. inevitably i mix up at least one aspect of the order. sometimes i even schedule the seder for the wrong evening - the jewish calendar is confusing and i am not always sure if “begins at sundown” means the dinner should take place that night or the next. i give myself a pass on this as a shiksa mama raising jewish children. i have enough trouble with simple time telling (my mom thinks that’s because i had the chicken pox the week i was meant to learn it in first grade) and adjusting to different time zones and daylight savings.
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* lucy and i are spending spring break this year taking care of hank and preparing for her bat mitzvah… we have been thinking A LOT about theo’s bar mitzvah and all that it entailed… x0x
when my son was in second grade, we joined our local temple. we had always agreed that we would raise our children jewish, the faith of their father, with santa and the bunny thrown in in a nod to my secular upbringing with christian-based holidays. we signed up for the “family school” program which meant that once a month all four of us spent most of a saturday at temple learning about judaism in both large and small groups, finalizing in a service. we made this decision because i am not jewish and wanted to participate in what my kids were learning and because the rabbi leading the family school grew up in the same town and same synagogue as my husband in long island… a crazy, small world synchronicity that we embraced.
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BIFF, the boulder international film festival, just took place here in town and my girlfriend arranged for a group of us to see the documentary, “judy blume forever,” about one of the most pivotal authors of my childhood (YOURS too if you grew up in the late seventies and eighties.) it was INCREDIBLE on so many levels. i realized that even though i read her books over and over (just certain parts of some!) i had never registered what she looked like. she resembled “sabrina” from charlie’s angels when she first started writing in 1979 and she is still a gorgeous woman now at 83. (she currently lives in key west, rides her bike all over and runs a bookstore. i am determined to go visit her shop.)
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we did an extensive remodel on this family home nestled under the flatirons in the chataqua neighborhood of boulder, colorado. originally built in the 80’s, we updated the exterior with earthy wood siding and local stone, in keeping with the home’s mountain setting.
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darling miss rosie is FIVE tomorrow! in the six months that she has been with my parents she has stolen all of our hearts and given everyone so much JOY. she is just a tiny peapod of sweetness and is definitely the reigning principessa of the house. we’re sending you loads and loads of BIRTHDAY LOVE miss rosie! x0x
* unfortunately we will not be able to visit keukenhof on our christmas visit, but it is a MUST SEE if you go to the netherlands in the spring! x0x
the dutch east india company was founded in 1602 and monopolized both asian and european trade for two centuries, a period known as the dutch “golden age.” a wealthy dutch merchant class was established and the netherlands was the center of some of the greatest achievements in art and academia (think rembrandt, vermeer and hals, the invention of the pendulum clock, the discovery of bacteria, the first modern stock exchange…) at the start of this era, tulips were imported to holland from the ottoman empire. these brightly hued flowers with petals growing in the shape of elegant teacups completely captured the dutch and became highly valued. the “tulpiere” vase was designed to hold individual stems, as each blossom was considered so precious. by 1636, the tulip bulb was the fourth leading dutch export, following gin, herring and cheese and “tulpenmanie” was at its height. tulips became so expensive that they were treated as a form of currency and a speculative frenzy ensued. it is said that one canal mansion was offered in trade for just ten rare bulbs. in 1637, the tulip market crashed after buyers in haarlem refused to show up to a scheduled auction and make good on payment. some believe that the haarlemmers stayed home because the bubonic plague was going around and they didn’t want to stand around in a big, infected crowd. since this was long before purell’s product launch in 1988, it is completely understandable. the burst of the “tulip mania” bubble did not have a lasting impact on the dutch economy, but it did effect the dutch psyche and is considered a reminder to stay grounded when making financial decisions. tulips continue as a beloved and iconic symbol of the netherlands (as do gin, herring and gouda, also popularized during the golden age) and today’s dutchies still love to chat about the period in history when a country the size of maryland fairly dominated the world.
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* this little bunny is one of my FAVORITES! i just can’t wait to see her in her hometown! x0x
i moved to amsterdam when i was three months pregnant with my first child. i had never spent any time there and like many americans, i associated the netherlands with wooden shoes, tulips, marijauna “coffee shops” and the red light district. i was leaving behind my family, my pacific ocean and my super-fun job styling the windows for banana republic. the whole move happened so quickly i barely had time to process what i was getting myself into and what i was going to do with myself when i got there, besides being pregnant. one of my favorite work friends suggested i start styling the red light windows. i could rework them every season with different themes like we did at banana and dress the women in something beyond tiny, white bikinis that glow iridescent in the intense red lights.
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* whenever friends are planning a trip to amsterdam they always reach out for my favorite spots… i have a list of my favorites but the one place i insist they CANNOT MISS is pompadour… it is the loveliest place in the world! x0x
i moved to amsterdam in august, but you wouldn’t have known it was summer because of all the rain. there is the general misting present most days that you can still walk around in and then there are the serious downpours where you need to go inside. one of my earliest rain-evading discoveries was the chocolate shop, pompadour. this “gezellig” (dutch word for cozy, but meaning so much more) patisserie was located just around the corner from my apartment. it was almost a holy place for me. the interior is beautiful…rich, intricate, rose-colored wallpaper with warm, carved wooden moldings cut for the town hall of mortsel in 1895 and imported and repurposed, striking light fixtures evoking wild flowers or some kind of nature and inviting little marble cafe tables. there was just about no trouble that couldn’t be soothed away by having a cup of mint tea at pompadour. the tea was served in a large, clear glass of hot water with a couple of fresh mint stalks tucked in, accompanied by a delicious almond cake on the side. and i haven’t even gotten to the gorgeous chocolates and little cakes that looked like works of art.
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for some reason the holidays feel more hectic than usual this year… possibly because after several years of the pandemic and toning down the celebrations i am totally out of practice. and we didn’t even leave town for thanksgiving. we had a nice, quiet one in boulder with all the grandma turkey plates and glassware and recipes from my mother (i didn’t even make a turkey - i picked up a cooked one up from whole foods… i can roast the crap out of a chicken, but turkeys terrify me) and we watched the macy’s day parade (we just LOVE those rockettes!) while we made pies (blackberry, apple and pumpkin - we need to overdo it so we can have pie for breakfast in the days following.) mariah carey was the grand finale and honestly, no one sings about christmas like that gorgeous diva did in her red mermaid dress and CROWN… the BEST! but the highlight of the day was definitely the national dog show, won by none other than winston, THE FRENCHIE!
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* we are spending christmas in amsterdam this year and i am just beside myself. in anticipation i am reposting stories about some of my favorite dutchie things. jip and janneke are two adorable little friends beloved in the netherlands… x0x
jip and janneke are two little dutch kids who met when they saw each other through a hole in the hedge that separated their houses. in the celebrated story by annie m.g. schmidt, jip was peeking through…
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(roșie hanging out with me in the bed… my favorite place to be!)
earlier this month i went home to spend a few days with my dad (and ROSIE)… my mom was on her annual trip with her sorority sisters (they have been friends for over FIFTY years - so sweet.) dad and i like our father/daughter time when mom is away… we turn the heat right up, we eat chocolates at breakfast (after our scrambled eggs), we watch the news, we check the weather and we take a lot of naps. it turns out rosie likes to do all of these things too (except the chocolate - we did NOT give her any scotch mallows.)
we had a very relaxing schedule… i took the first walk shift with rosie because i am a rooster and dad is more of a teenager in terms of waking times. mom left me a hat with a light on it (like a minion) so i would be able to see rosie’s “sticks” and pick them up in the early morning dark. (rosie has PINK poop bags by the way - they match her harness and leash.)
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