my birthday twin! x0x0x

December 12, 2023 in holiday

(anne marie and me on our fiftieth birthday! )

today is my FIFTY-FIFTH birthday! i am stunned and quite horrified to be associated with this GIANT number that is odd to boot (i really prefer even numbers.) i am not sure how to process this milestone and realize i need to start thinking of myself as SIXTY because that’s what happens when you round up and time seems to be moving at warp speed (theo is GRADUATING this spring and hopefully going to college in the fall - HOW did that happen??) so i need to be prepared.

HAPPY SINT! x0x

December 05, 2023

* today is SINTERKLAAS the dutch winter holiday. it actually starts in early november when sint arrives in amsterdam on a yacht from spain. there is a big parade after he debarks and he rides through the canals on his giant white horse, trident. this parade is the only time you can catch a glimpse of sint… unlike american santa he does not ring bells on street corners for the salvation army or sit in photo booths taking christmas present orders or show up at holiday parties. he is tall and lean (like most dutch people) and chic. he wears long robes and a pointy hat like a bishop. for me, this holiday marks the beginning of the holiday madness… from sint we will move on to hanukkah, christmas and finally new years. i LOVE celebrating all the holidays but am always grateful for the quiet of january. x0x

the "baby" pine street cottage! x0x

November 28, 2023 in dining room, hank, living room, pet, residential interior, sofa

(the baby guest house of my pine street project)

in the spring of 2021 my pine street cottage project was featured on the cover of 5280Home. it was so EXCITING! this darling house has a calm, neutral palette with lots of texture and dimension in the textiles, pillows, throws and wall art. at that time, the family was remodeling the guest house, which i was so happy to furnish. so now there is a baby cottage!

REPOST: raisin-free cranberry sauce

November 21, 2023 in holiday, family

* something really interesting happened to me a few weeks ago… i tried eating blueberries and i LIKED them! previously, i have only enjoyed them in eggos and i’m pretty sure those aren’t real blueberries. hank really likes them too so we have just been scarfing them down. my kids were wondering if i might give raisins another try… of course that is just ABSURD! which is why i am reposting my favorite raisin-free cranberry sauce recipe in anticipation of thanksgiving… ENJOY! x0x

* theo went to a “friendsgiving” the other night and brought my cranberries and they were a bit HIT with the teen crowd! x0x

braces!

November 14, 2023 in family

(8th grade was the epitome of awkward for me!)

i got braces the summer of 1982, right before my 8th grade year started. for some reason, i also chopped off all of my hair. this was a super unfortunate combination. my children are both delighted and horrified by my school photo that year. my daughter also got braces during the summer before 8th grade. she has them on the top and the bottom. i don’t really understand why she needed them at all because her teeth were perfectly straight before (unlike mine, which were seriously wonky on the top AND the bottom, although the ortho only braced the top.) i think it has something to do with her bite and how her teeth will work in the future. anyway - she is pulling them off far better than i did (to be fair, she did NOT cut off all of her hair) but no one will ever even see her braces because she has perfected the closed mouth mona lisa smile and we don’t have any photographic proof that she has braces at all. despite my best interests, i am incapable of smiling without showing every single tooth i’ve got, braced or crooked. lucy’s generation has been practicing their angles and learning about their “good sides” with selfies for years so you will not catch them in an unflattering photo.

it's THAT DAY! x0x

November 07, 2023

HAPPY, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! x00x

October 31, 2023 in hank, holiday, pet

(halloween hank as a turkey! i think he’s worried that we’ll throw him on the thanksgiving table…)

there are two things i love about halloween: dog costumes and candy. all the scary, bloody, gruesome stuff i could really do without. also the WORRY about whether my kids will make it home alive. this year hank is going as a ROASTED TURKEY! i am beside myself because i think his back legs already look like drumsticks.

the postives of being positive! x0x

October 24, 2023 in family

at the beginning of the month i had another bout with covid. this time felt very different than when i had it two years ago…rather than being almost delirious with a horrendous sore throat and feeling like i might die for well over a week, i was headachey, nauseous and had a bit of a sore throat for a day and a half. i thought maybe it was the twenty-nine hour flu. at first i was flat - the kind where you contemplate getting a glass of water for like half an hour before you actually make it to the sink. and then i felt MUCH better. this was super exciting because i couldn’t go out, i couldn’t take meetings, i couldn’t run errands but i was actually pretty functional. you can get out of ANYTHING when you have covid. my first husband was making market and pharmacy runs, my meetings were all pushed and i didn’t have to cook because no one wanted to eat any food i prepared, including me. i only had lucy (and hank) with me because she’d had covid recently and we thought she’d still be full of antibodies. so i was in this funny little time cocoon where i was stuck in my house but i could do whatever i wanted. and to top it off, people were dropping off lovely get well treats! it was kind of awesome.

UPDATE on BIG MAMA

October 17, 2023 in family

BIG MAMA is getting ever more brutal. she had a guest arrive a few days ago… i thought she might be a niece or a younger cousin (she was quite a bit smaller than BIG MAMA) who came to check out CU and our darling coach prime - did you see how he squeaked past arizona state just when you thought he wouldn’t? I LOVE HIM!! anyway, the niece or cousin was mostly hanging out on the upper deck sunning herself as college age kids are apt to do and then all of sudden she was wrapped up in a ball of BIG MAMA’s web, sucked DRY! i’m pretty sure this is cannibalism… familial cannibalism even, which feels worse. i am really disturbed by BIG MAMA now. i don’t do well when creatures eat their guests or roommates. years ago, we had two goldfish: nemo and blemo. one day i saw that blemo was just floating on the top and his fins looked all tatty and frayed. i tried to convince myself that he had gotten caught up in the filter, even though he did look a little eaten. after the funeral in the backyard, i procured a new roommate for nemo. and a few days later that blemo was floating at the top as well. at that point i figured nemo had had plenty to eat so i just stopped sprinkling fish flakes in the tank. eventually he was a floater too and that was the end of our goldfish. nemo was unceremoniously flushed down the toilet, NOT buried properly like the two blemos he ate.

PLEASE VOTE if you enjoyed our winter park project! x0x0xx

October 11, 2023

please VOTE for our winter park project to win 5280 TOP HOME OF THE YEAR! we were so excited to be included in the magazine but it would be AMAZING to be the reader’s choice. click here to vote! thank you so much! x00xx

here is a link to see the full project!

tune up

October 10, 2023 in family, hank

(here is my mother checking under the hood of her friend’s car in college)

periodically, everything needs a tune-up… your car needs the oil changed, the filters need to be replaced on your HVAC, the dryer vents need to be flushed out, you are due for a bikini wax… our nervous systems also need check ups and repair. the summer after my divorce i went to a retreat at the chopra center to work on restoring my psyche, which was pretty much a mess. i learned LOTS of helpful things like how to meditate (who is better equipped to teach that than deepak?), the benefits of green smoothies, yoga and gratitude and how detrimental refined sugar is, possibly worse than crack!

BIG MAMA is back!

October 03, 2023 in residential interior

(BIG MAMA a few years ago with a big dragonfly she caught!)

it is the beginning of october and there are now witches and skeletons and ghouls and black cats and gravestones all over boulder. it is startling to walk around my neighborhood… hank and i are constantly getting surprised (and frightened) by all the decorations so we are hanging out in the park now to avoid the grotesque. one lady we can’t avoid, however, is BIG MAMA. she the humongous spider who takes up residence under the corner drainpipe of my house each fall. we can see her perfectly because of the giant window in my stairwell. as much as i try to avert my eyes each time i go up or down the stairs, i am inexplicably drawn to her presence and almost always peek, risking TERRIBLE dreams.

i still BELIEVE in PRIME! x0x

September 26, 2023 in family

i am a super loyal fan. i grew up in the bay area so my teams have always been the cal bears, the niners, the warriors and the A’s (billy ball!) back before the TV networks determined the times of the games and scheduled them for all different crazy times, the cal game was always saturday at one. fall saturdays were spent cheering for the bears (GRRRR - RAH! GRRRR - RAH!) in the “family section” of the stadium. you didn’t have to sit anywhere particular once you were in so it felt like an extension of high school where we roved around and chatted about the party from the night before. we didn’t have to pay too much attention to the game because the bears were never very good (save a few glorious moments like THE PLAY when we beat stanford - i WAS present for this unbelievable touchdown but didn’t understand what was happening until i heard the cannon go off, indicating that cal had scored.) sundays were frequently spent at candlestick cheering for the niners… they WERE good, so good that they brought home FOUR superbowls under joe montana. he still makes my heart flutter (i seriously considered becoming a flight attendant after i read that he met his wife, jennifer in the air!) we were always dressed properly (blue and gold for cal, red for the niners) except for one unfortunate saturday when my dad mixed up his gear and sported a red niners shirt at the cal game. he had to endure hollers of “TAKE OFF THAT RED SHIRT” (stanford’s color) for the entirety of the game. so fierce was my loyalty that i was stunned when a dear friend of mine decided to attend stanford. never mind that it was and is one of the BEST schools in the country, i just couldn’t wrap my head around how she could cheer for a team whose mascot is a walking tree after a lifetime of growling for the bears. she managed… in fact she LOVED it, but did admit recently that she never felt comfortable wearing any stanford stuff when she was home in berkeley… not even a hat.

REPOST: yom kippur, the day of atonement, is coming!

September 21, 2023 in family, holiday, recipe

(hank thinking about his transgressions during the year)

* i am reposting my story about yom kippur as it is approaching… l’shana tova! x0x

this week is yom kippur, the day of atonement in the jewish religion. while i never converted, i am raising my children in the faith of their father (with santa and the bunny thrown in) and i have spent more time in temple than i have in any other religious setting. i have hosted loads of seders, rosh hashana dinners and break fasts (i can cook all of the holiday food, except brisket - my brisket is TERRIBLE - so we have roast chicken instead), i know a fair bit of the prayers, or at least the tunes and i have a general understanding of the fundamentals of the religion.

happy, happy new year! x0x

September 19, 2023 in family, holiday

(hank sharing his sweet rosh apples)

when we moved to boulder we did not join a temple straight away… first we collected a group of jewish (or half jewish) families that we have been celebrating shabbat, rosh hashana, yom kippur, hanukkah and passover with for over a dozen years. this special group has made us feel grounded and connected and has been such an important aspect of our lives in boulder. also, several people in the circle know how to make a proper, delicious brisket, which is my achilles heel, so my kids have been able to ENJOY that signature dish, rather than dread it.

REPOST: fifteen

September 12, 2023 in family, hank, travel

we moved to amsterdam from san francisco when i was pregnant with my first baby. we stayed there for nearly the first five years of his life and the very beginning of my daughter’s. traveling with babies is not easy… particularly on eleven hour international flights. and then when you arrive there is the horrendous jet lag that kicks in (there’s a NINE hour time difference between california and the netherlands.) so i only brought my children home once a year, but we would stay for at least a month to stabilize and enjoy the visit before heading back. now that we live in colorado we have continued this summer tradition. the kids LOVE their camp in berkeley (kee tov) and i get to spend time with my family and all my growing up friends.

kristen abbott's "language of leaves"

September 05, 2023 in art, photography

(one of kristen abbott’s pieces from “the language of leaves”)

seeing something beautiful always gives my heart a lift. on friday my girlfriend, rachel, (a very talented designer with a great eye) took me to the opening of kristen abbott’s solo show “the language of leaves” at the new local annex. kristen uses actual plants to create the organic silhouettes featuring carefully curated foliage on her canvases. the linens and silks are colored via a process using cyanotype that produces hues ranging from indigo to gold. the results are stunning. the show is up for the rest of the month!

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my darling dad! x0x0x

September 03, 2023 in family, holiday

wishing my very handsome father the happiest of birthdays! so excited to celebrate with you! i LOVE you higher than the sky is high and deeper than the ocean is deep! x0x0x

to read more about my dad click here or here

my project was included in an article on houzz! x0x

August 29, 2023 in office

my juniper home office project was included in an article on houzz! thank you kyle trautman for throwing my work into the mix. thank you also heather kneirim of HBK photography for the lovely photos. following are additional images of the space. x0x

theo's LAST first day of school...

August 22, 2023 in family, hank

(theo on the first day of kindergarten… obviously he couldn’t read yet as he agreed to wear that shirt)

i am a crier. i cry about happy things, i cry about sad things, i cry when things change, i ALWAYS cry on the first day of school. (i do NOT cry when people get hurt, even my own children… then i laugh, VERY inappropriately, which has caused a fair bit of upset.