Middle-aged and fashion-challenged

WARNING: This has nothing to do with furniture building. I had this realization as I was dragging Grace around a local mall today looking for something nice to wear out with my husband tonight. Here it goes....I am in my mid-thirties and can't seem to put together an outfit to save my life. When did THAT happen?

I used to be able to shop with confidence. Now, I shop with dread. And a really confused, idiotic look on my face. How do you hide the muffin top without looking pregnant in your low rise jeans? To add insult to injury, I really thought I looked cute today as I marched out of the house in my year-old Old Navy severely faded (not on purpose) jeans and a layered shirt thing. But when I passed a mirrored wall in the mall, I realized those looks I was getting from the sales clerks made sense. Remember that scene from Pretty Woman where she goes into the Beverly Hills store and gets shunned by the sales ladies? Similar situation today. Only difference is I'm not a hooker. Anyhow, I looked so much better in my head than I did in that mirror. And with less muffin-top.

I did end up leaving the mall with a nice sack from Nordstrom. The jeans, I know are good since I paid an arm and a leg for them. The rest, I'm not so sure. What I do know is that I feel more comfortable at a lumber yard than in Macy's. But I'm going to strive for more balance (my husband will be so happy.)

My first step towards regaining my inner fashionista is to NOT wear the True Religion jeans while I'm sanding or staining. I'll keep you posted on my progress....

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Custom Mid-Century Toy Box

Grace and I are off to deliver this custom mid-century toy box today to a lovely woman in LA. When Grace isn't in school, she's my assistant. One day she answered my cell phone while I was still loading something into the car and apparently talked to the prospective customer for about five minutes. When I came in to find her on the phone and asked if there was someone on the other end, she said yes. "It's Grandma." So I pick it up thinking it's my mom and the very kind woman from New Orleans said, "No, not Grandma, but someone interested in buying one of your toy boxes."

Obviously, I "hired" my daughter on the spot. She answers calls, does some light sanding, and says inappropriate things at deliveries. Now that I think about it, she needs a raise!!

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Still Thankful, Still Giving Event

Check out this cool charity event being hosted by Lauren Holly and Meridith Brooks that celebrates adoption and raises funds to help the orphans at Casa Hogar Sion, an orphanage in Tijuana. Proceeds will also help fund the Jr. Sirens an opportunity to take a field trip to get hands on experience at volunteering at the orphanage, while seeing the positive impact they can make in the world.

I am donating a toy box for the event! The children in attendance will get to pick a prize out of the "treasure box" (my toy box) and it will later be auctioned off in the silent auction. Check out http://www.sirenssociety.org/stsg_event.html for all the details and ticket information.

I'm thrilled to have been asked to be a part of this great event!!

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Playing Wood Shop

Grace is not in school today so she's hanging with me in the garage. I, as every good mom can attest, am trying to get her involved in something....chalk drawing....playing in the dirt....anything, really, so that she won't ask me 4 million questions JUST when I've measured and remeasured something only to be interrupted by a question. And remeasure again. Mom of the Year, right?

Anyhow, my attempts to get her involved in anything other than the workshop stuff failed so we played, like we do a lot, "wood shop" while I stained some furniture legs. She comes in asking for wood. I act like I'm selling her wood scraps and ask her questions like, "so what brings you here today, ma'am?" She always says she's building toy boxes and a bed for her babies. And when I ask if she does this for a living she says her company name, Mod Mom Furniture. (I always smile when she says that.) This time, I pressed further. "So Grace, who taught you how to do all that cool woodworking stuff?" I was waiting in anticipation and pride for her to say, "My mom taught me." You know what she said.

"Grandpa." "Grandpa taught me to build toy boxes."

(The photo is of Grandpa pushing the kids on the swings at Pismo Beach)

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The Coffee Table/Building Blocks Table That's Sweeping Hollywood

Maybe not sweeping Hollywood, but it IS now sitting in really great, modern apartment in West LA inhabited by a very cool couple.

Here is the custom building blocks table/coffee table I mentioned a few posts back.

A few facts about it...

• I built the table custom to work with the colors in their living room and the height and width of their sofa. I also didn't adhere the lego boards to the table in case they didn't want to use it as a lego table at some point.


• Instead of building the cube chair for "playing," I, at the request of the owners, built a custom "drawer" with hand openings on both ends for housing magazines and what not. They can also pull the drawer out and place it somewhere else in the room, if they want.


• One side of the brown doors opens to reveal hidden storage.
• The containers are for lego storage on top. When not a building table, they could use the containers for anything, really. Candy. Plants. Remotes. An ashtray. Just kidding about, sort of. Do you remember when they use to produce built-in ash trays for chairs and sometimes side tables? Ahh, the good old days.
  

Drawer action...

Without the lego top.

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The Little Monster Markets

I'm taking a tiny break from my garage to, well.. sit down for a minute. So it's the perfect opportunity to tell you all about the coolest craft market selling unique handmade kids' stuff. Two of them, actually.

My friend, Denise Love, founded the Little Monster Market (http://littlemonstermarket.com/) a little over a year ago. I met her through being a vendor at the first market and decided to partner with her on all things Monster Market. But back to Denise....she's an uber talented designer -- seriously one of the most talented people I've ever met -- who is now designing and making a really cool line of kids clothing called Eeny Meanie (http://www.eenymeanie.com/.) When she's not designing kids' clothes, she's doing all of the web design and marketing materials for the upcoming Monster Markets. Which leads me to.....

If you live in the LA area, check out http://www.littlemonstermarket.com/ for details on the

December 1st show in Studio City and the December 8th show in LA (down by the Beverly Center). Our unofficial tagline is "The Little Monster Market makes shopping with your kids fun....without wine or Paxil....really." We've arranged for activities/performances for the kids as well as yummy goodies to keep their tummies full while you shop. Nothing worse than shopping with your kids when they're (a.) not having fun and (b.) hungry. We've tried to solve both of those issues. Cuz we're both moms.

The one-day markets are featuring independent artists and designers, like myself, who make and sell handmade goods for kids. Even if you don't live in LA, check out the website anyways. There are links to all the vendors' webpages so you can shop from the comfort of your chair.

There's my hard sell. If you live here and make it to one of the shows, please stop by my booth and say hi. I'll be the one with the furniture...you can't miss me. :)

Some of Eeny Meanie's adorable clothing...

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Exciting News!

Here are a few new photos (also on the Etsy site) of the Toddler/Twin Platform bed. I was in desperate need of new photos AND I received a call from a design writer in London wanting to include some of my furniture in a new book being published in England. HOW COOL IS THAT!?! I'm really excited and will share more details as the develop.

Toddler Bed.....

...to twin bed!

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