Long Time No Write

The last few days have been rough and so much of it I can't talk about but I promise to write more tomorrow. Kids....furniture....jobs.....finances...sometimes it all gets a bit much to handle.

What's that saying...when life gives you lemons, you make lemon vodka drinks with sugar on the rim in highball glasses? Ah, yes, that's the saying.

Read More

The Owyn Toy Box

A lovely family who purchased the Owyn Toy Box this year sent me this fantastic picture of their little one enjoying all the toy box has to offer. Thanks so much to them for sharing this great photo!

Read More

Minor Details

One of my favorite design bloggers, Jenn, was kind enough to highlight some of my furniture for a second time on Feb 13th. My daily trips to the grocery store for my brood have interrupted my blog browsing time so I was not aware of the post until today. Check out this post on Minor Details when you get a second -- she's amazingly good at finding really cool design. Of course me saying that has nothing to do with the fact she picked my designs. :)

On a non-design related note, is it cocktail hour yet?

Read More

Apprentice x 5

"What do you use this for?"

"I use that to sand off rough edges."

"And what's this do?"

"It helps me draw straight lines."

"Do you use a jackhammer?"

"No."

This is just a tiny snapshot of what's going on in my garage lately with my new kids. They are so curious which is really great because my kids are SO OVER me and my garage life. Except for the occasional game of "wood shop" with Grace. The Gottlieb boys have all seen me build many things for their own house and for my business, but they're now seeing the day-to-day of it. Overall, I get the feeling they think I'm crazy.

I did actually build a toy box today without interruption so now that I think about it, maybe my new kids are over me too. They keep asking which one I'm building to see if it's one with their name. I think Patrick may feel a bit slighted because his older brother gets the Eamonn Table Set and Patch only gets a chair -- aptly named the "Patrick Chair." I can't say as I blame him but that's what happens when you are family friends of a mom/carpenter who builds modern kids' furniture and names them after cool kids she knows. It happens all the time, I'm sure.

Gotta get back to packing lunches and organizing backpacks so I can pretend that the morning will go smoothly trying to get four kids out the door. Then it'll be off to the garage to finish that toy box while Gracie asks me over and over again why I haven't built her Barbie motel yet. What do Barbies do in a motel? Wait...I don't want to know.

Read More

I'm Cool!!

I have to post this because this wonderful blogger thinks I'm COOL. LOVE THAT!!!

Check out SimpleSong, a beautiful blog about here and there thoughts.

Read More

Carol Brady (Minus Alice)

I feel a little like Carol Brady tonight...without Alice's help or Mike around to offer sound advice about tattling. We're thrilled and honored to have Oonagh's three boys with us for ten days while Oon and Jason head back to England for Mick's funeral (see previous post). The three boys are like our own kids so having them stay with us is not really much of a change in our minds. Just in our pantry.

I was supposed to be working on a toy box today but instead, Grace and I made a Costco run. As Jas put it, it now looks like we're running a restaurant. Add four boys, ages 6, 9, 10, and 11 + Gracie, age 5, and you get, well, the need for a bottomless carton of goldfish and three ketchup bottles hooked together by one of those things that kills sea life.

They're all tucked away right now, sleepover style, in front of the TV watching a movie so I have a few minutes to write. While I should be in the garage, I think I'll just wake up early. It's too cold and dark out there right now.

Scott will be home tomorrow so I'll have my "Mike" back and this "Brady" clan will either enter a crap singing contest or we'll all play football in the front yard and hit someone's car and Scott will give us the lesson in it all. It'll be a Sunshine Day, that's for sure!!!

Read More

In Honor of Mick Delaney

">

There is really nothing sweeter in the world than this video of Mick Delaney singing to his granddaughter, Maisie. Much love and our deepest sympathies to the Delaney family.

Read More

The Letter "S"

What comes after Sciatica in the dictionary of medical illnesses? None other than STREP THROAT! Apparently, I'm coming down with anything that starts with "s". After the sciatica ordeal last week (it's better, thanks to the advice of everyone to see a chiropractor), I started feeling a tiny bit of fire in my throat. Sure enough, it's a massive throat infection. Next up, Syphilis. Or a Staph infection...or...oh hell, I could do this all day.

One good thing that doesn't start with an "S" did come my way by way of the strep throat. It's called Vicodin with a "V". WHOOHOOO!! Boy does that help my throat. I did notice my jigsaw cuts were a bit more wonky today than normal. Oh well, I have Vicodin! I'm almost 35 and had never been prescribed this lovely pain killer before. I promise not to go overboard and end up writing this blog from rehab. But I'll certainly enjoy not feeling the throat pain for a little while.

Back to making wiggley jig cuts and smiling as I walk through my filthy, dirty, kid-stuff- everywhere house. Strep Throat --- bad. Vicodin --- good!

Read More

Apartment Therapy: Los Angeles

I hadn't been keeping an eye any posts lately and was so thrilled and suprised to see this lovely post on Apartment Therapy: Los Angeles.

"Our lil' sibling site ohdeedoh has mentioned Mod Mom Furniture
before, but here's a few of their more adult-inspired pieces we
wouldn't mind having ourselves..."

Read More

Loss

I've been sitting here staring at this small blank white space for awhile now trying to figure out how to write this. This will also give some explanation as to why to why I haven't posted on the blog in the past few days.

One of our dearest friends in the whole world lost her father (at the very young age of 72)on Saturday to a rare lung disease. I KNOW I don't have the writing chops to even begin to explain the effect his passing has had on so many people. And what an amazing man Mick Delaney was and how much he loved life, his family, his grandkids, his theatre work, his writing, and how much everyone else loved him.

Mick was one of the people who stuck up for me when a certain dad blogger wrote negative things about my little garage company. I had only met him once but felt like I'd known him for years. My dear friend and Mick's daughter, Oonagh, told him about the post and he immediately wrote and posted a comment defending me. That meant so very much to me, more than he ever knew, I'm sure.

I'm afraid I'm at the end of this post for fear I'll just turn into a blubbering mess again.

Read More

Super Tuesday Sawing in the Living Room

One word. Sciatica. I had never heard this damn word until a couple of weeks ago. And now, it plagues me like walnut stain clings to new designer jeans. So I'm dealing with this odd pain that runs down my back all the way into my knee and trying to minimize it by not lifting heavy or awkward wooden things...like toy boxes. You see where this is going.

I have this toy box that's going to be shipped tomorrow and I needed to add the hardware so I lift it and bring it into the house to make sure it's on a flat surface (dining room table) in order to install the hinges. Not a problem just a bit uncomfortable. Now here comes the good part. I needed to jigsaw the hand openings on the front that give some finger room to lift up the toy box lid. Normally, before Sciatica, I would have taken it back out to the garage to cut and hand sand and apply stain. With Sciatica, I gently put the toy box on the living room floor, mark it accordingly, fire up the hand jigsaw and proceed to cut the openings. And sand it. Then apply stain to the new hand openings while watching American Idol.

Did I mention I left the saw dust on the living room floor? And that it's still there?

Pretty soon, Scott will come home from a business trip and the entire garage will be set up in the family room. Ah, Sciatica.

** Tomorrow I'll post about the "You Made My Day" award given by a very cool blogger named Carrie Kim.

Read More

0 is for....

(Owyn in one of Denise's designs for Dandy Social Club.)

Check out this treasury that Denise, my friend who also happens to be a genius clothing designer, made on Etsy...and included the Owyn Toy Box (named after her daughter) ---

O is for...

You can see and buy Denise's work at Dandy Social Club!

Read More

Website Redesign

If you've tried http://www.modmomfurniture.com/ and notice the links aren't working, you're not alone. The website is being redone and for whatever reason, links viewed in Internet Explorer are not working (aside from the BLOG link.) If you view the website in Firefox or Safari or have a Mac, you shouldn't have an issue.

Thanks for your patience! A new and improved website with working links should be up and running very soon!

As always, my online store can be found on http://www.modmomfurniture.etsy.com/.

Read More