Football is Back and Life is Good
Sep.15
IT’S BACK!!!!
After the sports drought of summer for gridiron fans, pro football and college football come back each fall to save us from despair just in the nick of time. With so many teams to follow – Penn State, USC, Alabama, Titans, Chargers, Ravens – I’m always challenged to get organized and keep track of what team is playing, at what time, and on what channel…this is hard work! And that doesn’t even include the fantasy players I follow.
Back in the day, I spent time scrawling in pencil on the drywall in the basement or taping up sheets of legal paper until the place looked like a scene from the film Seven. But now, with Wallcandy Arts peel and stick chalkboard wall decals and large stick on white board panels, I can just use the large adhesive decals to keep track of everything. I jot down that the Giants play the Redskins on Monday night and the Titans’ Chris Johnson just rushed for over a hundred yards last week and is on track for a single season title. Life is good! Or, I can erase everything and start from scratch if the Ravens are on a losing streak and I don’t want to look at that ugliness.
Even better, I can peel the material off and place it back on the original backing for transporting to my friend Brian’s house when we watch games there. Because there’s no risk of leaving behind mess or residue on the walls, I’m safe from scuffing up the wall and enduring the wrath of his wife and mine. With Wallcandy Arts products, there’s never a problem.
Baseball is Berry Berry Good to Me
Sep.14
Major League Baseball is entering the final crunch toward the World Series and you need to get those brackets up and running. There’s no better way to keep track than by using Wallcandy Arts peel and stick whiteboard or chalkboard wall decals.
They’re large and can be removed easily and taken to the office to put on the wall near the community fridge… and then removed if the boss objects. (When he or she leaves for the day, just put it right back up and keep on bracketing – it works for me!)
I also like to use WallCandy’s reusable Frames wall decals – they add a retro Polaroid look to pictures of my boy, Derek Jeter, or anybody I think will bring me good luck during the run to the Series. Kurt Gibson and Lou Gehrig are favorites, too.
These removable wall stickers are tailor-made for the sports fan, so check ‘em out!
How to Decorate a Nursery Using Destination Inspiration
Sep.8
We were pretty stoked to see a WallCandy® design in the Fall 2011 edition of Pregnancy & Newborn Buyer’s Guide. The magazine featured our peel-and-stick frames wall decals in a spread suggesting a few ideas for holding a couples-friendly baby shower that doesn’t overdo it on the baby pinks and blues.
Frames are truly among our favorite removable, reusable wall decals because of their decorative versatility. They can be captioned and recaptioned with a dry-erase marker, and just like the Polaroid camera resting quietly among the dustbunnies in your attic, they make any image look coolly vintage.
As kids armed with our own Polaroid cameras, we loved dabbling in landscape photography. While portrait shots of our parents, grandparents, and childhood doggies needed time to appreciate in aesthetic value, photographs of backyard sunsets and mountaintop views from Girl Scout campgrounds were always instantly amazing. Those Polaroid-captured lookouts got us thinking about the places we’ve been and how each destination could potentially inspire us as we were deciding how to decorate a nursery. Any of the following five decorative destination ideas could be pulled together with a few carefully chosen snapshots displayed on the wall in Polaroid style, but we’ll let you use your imagination:
1. Nashville, Tennessee
You won’t need to fly all the way to Music City to find a few country-inspired items for decorating a nursery. Paint the room in shades of moody blue, pose your guitar in the corner near a cozy rocking chair, and add a framed poster of the Parthenon shot during a semi-rare winter blizzard. If you’ve got time to do some hunting, you could easily add a row of baby-themed country records on one wall. Give yourself a big country kiss if you can find “Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On” by Conway Twitty, “Baby Let’s Play House” by Elvis Presley, or “Baby on Board” by The Oak Ridge Boys.
2. London, England
Start with a search for crib bedding and textiles in just the right shade of Tower Bridge blue and top with throw pillows printed with the Union Jack or graphic renditions of famous London landmarks. Add touches of Royal Botanic Gardens with clusters of colorful flower wall stickers near the baseboards or on the wall behind the changing table. Pull the nursery’s theme together by using removable and reusable wallpaper in a London bus print to create an accent wall that doubles as an ode to the oh-so-stylish Brits.
3. New York, New York
Anyone who declares the city to be no place for babies has never fallen asleep to the soothing din of muffled afternoon traffic. If you can paint squares and straight lines, start your city chic nursery with a handpainted black-and-white-checkered skyline. Design your own rush hour motif with peel-and-stick car wall decals that could potentially highlight a crib repainted in taxicab yellow. Complete the look with a removable, reusable apple chalkboard wall decal for displaying a few lines of “Mannahatta,” Walt Whitman’s plush poem about New York City.
4. Eugene, Oregon
If your idea of serene is lined with tall trees, keep Eugene in mind as you prepare the nursery for its peaceful little inhabitant. Choose nursery furniture made with natural wood, and cushy textiles in leafy greens and chestnut browns. Continue building your forest room with a reusable tree wall sticker you can arrange and rearrange to resemble a sweet spring sapling. If you’d like to add some adorably watchful nighttime critters to your baby’s abode, try a few owl wall decals in a kit that happens to also contain a silvery shade tree and matching night sky.
5. Corea, Maine
Spend one afternoon in a maritime museum and you’ll likely emerge an expert on how to decorate a nursery in a nautical theme. Begin by designing a focal wall covered with peel and stick wallpaper in blue and cream stripes. Use the leftover wallpaper to line bookshelves where jars of sea glass can share space with a few decoratively displayed books, such as Lois Lenski’s The Little Sailboat, or Jerry Pallotta’s The Boat Alphabet Book. Add lamps that cast a seaside sunset glow, then create spaces for snuggling with schools of stuffed fish, lobsters, and mermaids.
What’s your destination inspiration? Leave a comment and share your own favorite places and nursery decorating ideas.
What’s More American than the Fourth of July? Why, Apple Pie!
Jul.4
If you’re like me and grew up in a state where fireworks were once not only legal, but distributed freely by the local Chamber of Commerce, you’ve probably got a few unique Independence Day memories to call your own. The props in my own favorite Fourth of July anecdote include a large trampoline, truckloads of sparklers and punks (both the functional fire-bearing kind and the neighborhood kind), and a set of blissfully unaware parents – in other words, the stuff scary public service announcements warn against. I’m sure you have similar tales, but perhaps it’s best if we all store those particular stories far away from the impressionable young minds we hope to keep safe.
Still, Independence Day is such a fancy-free holiday – it’s warm out, most folks are free from work, and the expectation to eat, drink, be merry, and enjoy some cool pyrotechnics is an easy one to meet. Even if you prefer to spend your Fourth of July watching cable movie marathons and catching the ice cream truck as it drives by your house, that’s a perfectly wonderful way to celebrate living in a free country.
Now that I’m older, slightly wiser, and satisfied by the beauty of one or two sparklers enjoyed safely on the front porch near a bucket of water, Independence Day has become my favorite opportunity to bake sweet things and eat them freely, without any guilt or longstanding monarchy to stifle my dessert experience. In honor of my lovely new kitchen chalkboard and all things ultra-American, I’ve decided to bake an apple pie from scratch this year.
I began with a quick search for the highest rated apple pie recipe on the Internet. Once Google did what it does best, I scribbled down the ingredients and baking steps for easy viewing while I work (I don’t know about you, but following a recipe I’ve written down at eye level on the wall is much easier than navigating a cookbook’s small font or trying to avoid smearing the computer keys with butter). Yesterday, I took a trip to a nearby apple orchard – here in New York, apple-picking is practically a summer sport – and now I’m all set to spend some time baking for today’s festivities.
If you’re lucky enough to know a few mini-chefs who’d love to help with preparation and will likely have no problem spending any boring baking time on the swingset outside, you could easily make this basic-but-modifiable, all-American treat part of your Fourth of July celebration:
Grandma Ople’s Apple Pie (from allrecipes.com)
Ingredients
1 recipe pastry for a 9-inch double crust pie
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
8 Granny Smith apples – peeled, cored, and sliced
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a latticework crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.
While your Independence Day dessert is baking, leave a comment and let me know what you did to make this summer staple – and your Fourth of July – your own special creation.
Homemade Ice Cream Recipes for Planning Summer Dessert Socials
May.11
When I was a kid just old enough to navigate the dry goods in our pantry, my favorite game to play was Pretend Restaurant. My patrons (sisters) ordered spaghetti and steak, so I served them cereal and marshmallows. My middle sister, who is now a chef, liked to feign outrage, become unruly, and refuse to leave without taking an irritating nap on top of my place settings. Pretend Restaurant became much more fun during the summers, when it often became Pretend Ice Cream Parlor instead. I’d spend scorching afternoons watching my grandmother’s electric ice cream maker spin inside its little wooden bucket, ready to serve whatever manner of frozen chunky peach or mint chocolate chip ice cream would appear inside that thick metal container after hours of torturous waiting. My patrons were better behaved during the dessert course, but a surplus of sugar usually led to monkey antics at the ends of their bowls.
Wherever that little ice cream maker is, I bet it still works like new. Since one of my summer aspirations is to host a Saturday afternoon sundae bar soiree with a few pals (and maybe a sister or two, if they can control the urge to digress), I’ll need to browse a few used electronics sections to find one so comparably sturdy and loud. Decorating the adult version of Pretend Ice Cream Parlor should be easy, since I’ve long envisioned shades of chocolate browns glazed and spackled with oversized sprinkles.
One of the latest designs from WallCandy® Arts happens to be an extremely spacious ice cream cone chalk board wall decal. I got a chance to play with it during the ENK Children’s Show in March and immediately bought one the moment it appeared on the website. It doesn’t take much to get me thinking about ice cream, but an adorable person-sized space to play with sundae bar ideas is the stuff dreams are made of. Once my very real ice cream menu has been somewhat finalized and the soiree draws near, I’ll erase my blueprints and use it to display descriptions of my creative toppings for any visual learners I might invite. Or, if I’m feeling like a sharer, I could write my recipe in the sherbetest of invented fonts.
Even if summers are already pretty magical in your house, simply adding homemade ice cream to your summer to-make list will send a psychic shiver of glee down the spines of any child within a 2-mile radius. When it’s your turn to host a play date, suggest the kids decorate their imaginary ice cream shack and while you taste your way through the various stages of sorbet-making and topping chopping.
If you don’t have an ice cream maker, start with this basic single-serving homemade ice cream recipe from curvygirlguide.com to satisfy summer cravings without making a dessert run:
Ingredients
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup milk or half & half
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons rock salt
1 pint-size sealable plastic bag
1 gallon-size sealable plastic bag
ice cubes
Directions
Fill the large bag half full of ice and add the rock salt. Seal the bag. Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag and seal it. Place the sealed small bag inside the large one and seal the large bag carefully. Shake until mixture is ice cream, which takes about 5 minutes. Open each sealed bag carefully and enjoy!
For a more grown-up ice cream party, try this homemade raspberry buttermilk sherbet recipe from foodnetwork.com:
Ingredients
6 cups raspberries (5 or 6 pints)
1/4 cup 100% grape or apple juice
1 cup superfine sugar
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup heavy cream
salt and freshly cracked pepper
Directions
Puree the raspberries, juice, and sugar in a food processor until smooth. Pour through a mesh strainer into a bowl and discard the raspberry seeds. Stir in the buttermilk, cream, and a pinch of salt, then cover and refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze until firm, at least 2 hours. Serve sprinkled with pepper.
I’m personally going to try my hand at a sherbet punch ice cream. I haven’t found a solid recipe yet – at least not one that includes any warnings about turning the punch into a solid ice cream – but experimenting with dessert sounds about as risky and intimidating as laying on a beach in Bermuda. I’m sure it’ll be fine, as long as no one demands a sample before my concoction’s official Pretend Parlor debut.
Toast the Royal Wedding with Hip Housewares and a Fairytale Sale
Apr.28
Only 24 hours to go! (Photo credit: Chris Ison/AP)
With Prince William’s marriage to Kate Middleton only one day away, Royal Wedding Fever is at its most contagious. If you find yourself scowling at your spouse’s sudden obsession with E!, your dental hygienist’s plan to host a WilliKate lookalike party, or your cubicle neighbor’s suspicious new accent, just breathe and remember it’s perfectly natural to find the British monarchy fascinating, if only because any governing organization that dates back to 400 A.D. makes our own political pot look so shallow. If you’ve watched even 20 seconds of The Tudors by accident (or the entire series in one shameless sitting, thank you very much), you and I probably share a category – temporarily interested, but only because it’s more tantalizing than baseball or bickering politicians. Yawn.
If there’s one thing about the Royal Wedding I’m enjoying, aside from a wicked case of gown anticipation, it’s the opportunity to save on a few Kate-inspired fashions or home accents for my own Buckingham Palace, which is slightly smaller and much more prone to hosting city mice but still my favorite place to fix up and Feng Shui. I appreciate any occasion that inspires my favorite designers to add new items to already fabulous collections and oft-visited stores to knock a few bucks off the things I’ve been eyeballing for weeks but avoiding due to a mysterious wallet drought. (If you know a few stores who are taking advantage of the Royal Wedding by allowing me to take advantage of a sweet sale or two, post a comment and clue me in!)
Brandon and his Union Jack
I admit that I never paid much attention to the Union Jack until I visited the humble abode of WallCandy®’s leading lady. I’d seen that most famous of flags numerous times on postcards and flagpoles – and once on a well-sculpted forearm – but its place in the Hall of Style Icons is hard to recognize without the proper medium. As a high-quality home accessory carefully planted among complementary shades and shy standards such as, say, a quilted maple bench purchased straight from the furniture maker’s dusty warehouse, the Union Jack truly stands out as a lovely bit of geometry done up in bright, classic colors. One of the most noticeable items in Allison’s house is the crown in her son’s bedroom, a thick Union Jack throw rug, which I daresay he’ll enjoy as a bit of warm-but-masculine décor well into his teenage years.
The Union Jack toolbox
In case you were wondering how cool the Union Jack can get, take a look at the newest addition to WallCandy’s hip housewares collection, the Union Jack metal toolbox by Alice Supply Co. What better way to commemorate Prince William of Wales’s terrific taste than to treat yourself (or your hosting dental hygienist, who just might know the secret to making homemade Aero bars) to the most stylish method possible for keeping up appearances? Use it to keep jewelry in a safe place, corral day-to-day supplies, or give an inherited tool collection a proper home. However you use this sturdy does-it-all, you’ll surely fall in love with a classic historical icon that just happens to be an effective space-sprucer all on its own.
WallCandy’s own Royal Wedding celebration doesn’t end with a groovy toolbox. From now until May 7, every item for sale on the website is 10% off – simply enter the code royal10 during the checkout process and save on a few fun things that will surely last way longer than the televised exchanging of vows.
Queen Elizabeth II prefers sprinkles.
Anyone itching to start a new season can score a pack of large whiteboard wall stickers or a chalkboard wall decal for planning a warm weather bake sale to christen the newly green front yard. Once rampant Royal Wedding Fever has subsided and we can all unglue our eyes, help your kids plan a menu of royally decorated pastries on our spacious cupcake chalkboard wall decal, throw those windows open, and let the scent of springtime baking permeate the neighborhood with the sweet smells of reality. When the first batch is sold out and everyone’s enjoying a sugar coma, it’s a cinch to move any of our reusable chalkboard decals to the playroom wall for an entire summer spent pretending to be the Royal Family’s official caterers.
Crunchy Countdown: 9 Ice Cream Cone Trends You Should Know
Apr.4
I’m a huge fan of eating ice cream all year round — even in a blizzard. Did someone mention Blizzards?
But the melting of the snow certainly reprograms the brain back to the joys of taking the family out for a special stroll to the neighborhood ice cream stand.
In the spirit of Spring, I’d like to share some ice cream cone-related trends you should be aware of (in order of importance)….
#9 — FASHION DESIGNER CONES
When you’re wearing that cute little black dress, you wouldn’t want to be caught dead eating ice cream from a generic sugar cone. This fabulous designer Chanel cone will make you the envy of every mom at your local scoop stand. Truth be told, Chanel has not branched out into the ice cream accessories business just yet. This was a fun photo prop created by art photographer Liz Von Hoene. But if Bloomingdales can serve up high-end candy apples, can fashion cones be far behind?
#8 — WOODEN ICE CREAM CONES
This is the ideal ice cream to serve your toddlers. Wood doesn’t drip on the floor. Wood doesn’t stain the upholstery or carpet. We love the whimsicalness of all Melissa and Doug toys, and we’d like to congratulate them for winning a Cribsie Award for “Best Wooden Toys They Won’t Want to Share.” That also opens up a natural opportunity for me to congratulate ourselves for winning the Cribsie for Cutest Nursery Wall Decals!
#7 — ICE CREAM CONE TATTOOS
Hip-Hop star Gucci Mane has received a lot of electronic ink speculating what motivated him to permanently etch his face with a triple-scoop ice cream cone with the word “Brrr” printed on it. The rapper’s spokesperson, Kali Bowyer, told Rolling Stone magazine that the tattoo “is a reminder to fans of how he chooses to live his life. Cool as ice — as in ‘I’m so icy, I’ll make ya say Brrr.”
Apparently, Mr. Mane also wears an ice cream cone medallion to convey the same message.
#6 — CUPCAKE CONES
If you haven’t bit into a cone and come up all cake, then you haven’t been to a birthday party lately. Ice cream cone cupcakes are so popular that Williams-Sonoma just came up with a special cupcake pan to duplicate the look of ice cream cones without using actual cones. Of course, that kinda defeats the original purpose, doesn’t it?
#5 — FLAVORED ICE CREAM CONES
OREO ice cream cones are a huge hit at my house. Goes especially great with mint chocolate chip. I’m surprised that there hasn’t been huge strides made in this area. Why are there no strawberry-flavored cones or vanilla-flavored cones? Certainly, there are plenty of variations at local shops that dip the cones in various coatings, but there’s a golden opportunity here to bake in the flavor.
According to The New York Times, there was a gourmet cone company in the late 1980s called Taste Buds, but it either went of business or doesn’t believe in publicizing itself on the Web. Taste Buds had infused real peanut butter and apple puree into their cones.
#4 — MOTORIZED ICE CREAM CONE
If you buy AA batteries in giant 64-packs at Costco and you are wondering what you will possibly use them all for, then you are in luck. The Motorized Ice Cream Cone by Hog Wild Toys saves you the trouble of moving your tongue. You keep the tongue stationary and let the mechanized revolving cone do the work for you. It’s the same revolutionary concept behind the electronic lollipop holder. As a bonus, the removable ice cream dish is dishwasher safe.
#3 — POLITICAL CONES
When political satirist Stephen Colbert unveiled his “AmeriCone Dream” flavor with Ben & Jerry’s a few years back, he accused the entire institution of dessert of harboring a “well-known liberal agenda.” He promised that his new flavor, which included fudge-covered waffle cone pieces, would “bring some balance back to the freezer case.”
We love the idea of including shattered ice cream cone shards embedded in the ice cream itself. It lends the same crunchy sensation as the broken cookies in those Carvel Ice Cream cakes.
#2 — SOLID CHOCOLATE-FILLED CONES
Easter’s coming up and the greatest disappointment in the universe is biting off a chocolate bunny’s head and discovering the hollow body cavity. Biting air doesn’t satisfy the appetite. What will, however, is this Solid Chocolate Ice Cream Cone made with a real cone and topped with sprinkles and a cherry. This yummy gem was created by Dylan’s Candy Bar, the Manhattan candy boutique owned by Dylan Lauren, daughter of fashion designer Ralph Lauren.
#1 — ICE CREAM CONE CHALKBOARD WALL DECALS
C’mon, were you expecting anything else at Number One?
WallCandy’s Ice Cream Cone Chalkboard Wall Stickers would make the perfect decor for any ice cream shop wanting to showcase its “Special of the Day” in a stylish way. But it’s also the perfect playroom decoration for the kiddies who are playing with Melissa and Doug’s wooden ice cream scoops or scooping out real flavors to enjoy in the battery-operated cone!
There’s plenty of drawing space on this dessert-themed decor. Green chalk can instantly create pistachio ice cream. Pink chalk can scribble Peppermint Stick, the kind that stains your tongue forever.
And if you have an irrepressible sweet tooth, you can pair the chalkboard ice cream wall sticker with the Sweet Dreams Fairies, the lollipop wand-waving trio who brighten up any little girl’s bedtime routine.
(Have a favorite ice cream cone trend that we missed? Please share it at marketing@wallcandyarts.com)
Surprise Wall Decals and Other Inexpensive Ideas to Boost Bunk Décor and Sleepaway Camp Experiences
Mar.31
Photo credit: Cammy Ambrosini
We weren’t Girl Scouts, but my sisters and I once found ourselves 50 miles from our home in Smyrna, Tennessee, at an official Girl Scout sleepaway camp. We were outsiders unfamiliar with the creeds, songs, and preexisting friendships. (The cookies, we knew.) Our father, bless his little pea-pickin’ heart, would’ve been fine with only his toothbrush and a pair of sweatshorts, so he wasn’t much help regarding what to bring to summer camp as we were packing only one tiny bag between the three of us the night before. Since children typically aren’t interested in what-to-pack lists and have a limited idea of exactly what they need in order to feel comfortable outside of food, shelter, bear, and blanket, we’d packed only leftover Easter candy and summer clothing. What would’ve been perfect for one night at Grandma’s was a bag of horrors for a week at sleepaway camp – the candy and clothing melted together, as candy and clothing tend to do in severe humidity according to the laws of childhood physics.
Even if your child has been to sleepaway camp before and found it to be a fantastic experience, night-before nerves are as natural as a walk in the woods. If packed carefully and correctly, the suitcase or backpack can be an antidote to that anxiety, especially if it contains little surprises for the child to look forward to once you’ve driven away. Presents make everything a little more bearable, as does the ability to claim a space and personalize it for the week ahead. This year, try the Christmas-in-July approach and include these five pieces of bunk accessories for your child to discover at that crucial moment just after arrival:
1. Bath accoutrements that fit easily into a mildew-proof, easy-to-carry shower caddy can counter the stress taking a shower at camp will likely muster. Bathing is a huge part of everyone’s comfort level, including the folks in our near vicinities, so giving a child a few unexpected grooming luxuries is a must. Pack a travel-sized sample of Mom’s favorite summer-scented shampoo, a soft loofah (even if your child doesn’t typically use a loofah, the gesture is sweetly memorable), and a couple of extra character toothbrushes. I personally recommend some method of marking the outside of a shower curtain to let outsiders know it’s occupied, such as a laminated sign equipped with a hook for a standard shower rod. Camp showers are typically noisy and other campers may not realize that the stall is in use. A moment of exposure can be devastating for a child – trust me.
2. Open up a pack of peel-and-stick chalkboard tiles and use smudge-proof chalkboard ink markers to write a lovely encouraging message on the package’s top tile. Your child can stick the decals to a bit of blank wall space near the bed and use the remaining two to doodle or write little reminders (such as, “Next year, pack all chocolate in a sealed plastic baggie.”) Don’t forget to include the chalk! Once your child meets a few pals, he or she might just decide to move the wall decals to a more common area so everyone can scribble silly messages.
A collection of souvenirs from home.
3. Scan three special photographs and print them as 8″x10″ copies perfect for fitting inside our Polaroid-style frames wall decals. Kids can fill any remaining wall space with comforting, familiar images and decorate each frame with the included tack and tape accent decals. If your child is worried about losing a cherished bear or blankie, perhaps a safe photograph would temporarily replace the real thing while he’s away. Since all of our wall decals are removable and reusable, it’ll be a cinch to bring them back home without upsetting the camp counselors by tearing up the bunk walls.
4. Handmade satchels of dried lavender, peppermint, and honeysuckle can be fantastic mood boosters and effective suitcase fresheners. Since scent is an essential part of human comfort (just ask brain doctor extraordinaire Dr. Daniel Amen) and campsites can quickly become stinky once dozens of children are in their playtime zones, a sweet-smelling gesture for a better night’s sleep might be in order.
"Dear Mom and Dad: Camp smells delicious!"
5. It might sound silly, but seed packets can provide your child with a unique activity for sharing with any would-be camp buddies during free time. Leave a note suggesting she make the campground a prettier place, the way she’s made your life extra beautiful.
The trick to packing a soothing suitcase is to combine new surprises with familiar comforts. Don’t forget to include something special from home that could stand to be soiled or even lost, such as an extra pillowcase in a recognizable pattern from Mom and Dad’s bedspread, or a cozy sweatshirt from Big Brother’s stash for those few uncomfortable minutes after exiting the lake or swimming pool. Oh, and make sure any edible treats you pack have a super high melting point.
Warm Up Your Decor with Summer Shades, Shapes, and Wall Decals
Mar.16
We definitely need some sod for the living room. (Photo credit: Ryan L. Hyde)
This week, it’s supposed to reach the 60-degree mark on the official New York City thermometer. Lately, I’ve been wondering about that thermometer. I’m not sure where it’s kept, what it looks like (cartoonish oversized novelty thermometer, or electronic wonder small enough to fit inside a button?), or who’s in charge of checking it, but I hope he or she is strict and diligent in limiting viewing access. This winter is passing through at a frozen-molasses pace, so it worries me to think that someone has been staring at the official thermometer often enough to cause watched-pot-never-boiling conditions.
Because I just can’t wait to stash my woolly socks away for a short season, I’ve decided to take on a summer-invoking decorating project the way a kid left to call all the interior design shots might hang up the holiday lights the day after Halloween – with gusto! March is always a low-budget affair, but there’s usually a welcome delay in any financial pinch I feel while sprucing up for the warmer months. I suppose throws, insulating curtains, and thicker materials are easily more expensive than vintage mirrors, potted African violets, and pillows fit for a warm afternoon’s nap.
If you’re interested in starting your own relatively inexpensive early indoor summer, start with these five tips for an easy seasonal shift:
1. Consider the sun. As you switch accessories and adjust your color scheme, choose fabrics and hues that look best in bright, cheery light. Mirrors – especially the kitschy vintage kind – are classic sunshine reflectors, so why not hunt ‘em down and hang ‘em up?
2. Berries are best. Replace forest greens with grape, beiges with golden raisin, and reds with raspberry. Color is king from May until December – go ahead, crown your space early this year. After all that snow shoveling we did, we totally deserve a sweet color makeover.
3. Pick summer shapes. The iconic soft-serve snack inspired WallCandy’s new ice cream cone chalkboard wall decal. It’s taller than Lilly, our resident product tester and Allison’s adorable 6-year-old, so there’s plenty of space for a Saturday sundae bar menu, potential summer road trip routes, or a countdown to the school year’s official end.
4. Move flourishing greenhouse perennials to the living room. I love a few good cacti because they love a humid day, they live to be forgotten, and the cat stays far away from all tipping points. If you’d rather keep your plant life to a minimum, try enhancing your indoor creepers by adding a kit of gracefully lush flower garden wall stickers as a baseboard accent.
5. Decorate to remind your kids that winter is on its way out. Nothing’s more contagious than childhood spring fever, so adding a row of festive flowers wall decals or a mighty sun wall decal to your child’s favorite environment is sure to inspire more than a few infectious good moods.
Share your summer decorating tips – we’d love to know how you shed the winter blechs and prepare for longer, sunnier days perfect for sipping iced tea and watching the bubbles float on the breeze.
How a Heart Chalkboard Wall Decal Begat a Better Valentine’s Day
Feb.14
Craig makes it impossible to shop for him on any holiday, which becomes an even bigger obstacle when a holiday technically requires a gift with a specific romantic message. He’s a terrible consumer. If he wants something and happens to mention it in my presence, he’ll immediately talk himself out of wanting it before I can finish staking my mental garden marker in what was briefly a flourishing gift idea. I’ve done the math – six years of dating multiplied by roughly three major holidays per year equals 18 or more times I’ve gone shopping and returned with only sore feet and stress-induced hives.
This year, I decided to embrace the Valentine’s Day spirit by fusing decoration, adoration, and inspiration on our kitchen wall. I arranged a chalkboard heart wall decal opposite our front window where any passing city-dweller could see it and perhaps be unconsciously warmed, should he or she be scanning for visible décor through the windows of the overhead apartments. Thankfully, I’m no longer confined to keeping my chalkboard decals where I know Craig will see them, as he now seeks out and quickly fills all the shapes I bring home with his to-do scribbles before I’ve had a chance to finish playing with potential designs.
My plan was threefold: to decorate lightly for Valentine’s Day (the surprising number of New Yorkers who adorn their porches with lights in February is quite inspiring, although I suspect many of them have simply added strands of red to the white lights they used back in December), to add a month’s worth of meaningful appreciations to a relatively dull daylong celebration of love, and to actively brainstorm until I’d drummed up a decent gift and overcome Craig’s indulgence handicap for once.
“Don’t write on this one,” I told him, sticking the baby hearts where they’d look bubbly and supportive of the queen heart.
“Why not?” He was chewing.
“Because I’m gonna use it to write you a little love note every day this month. It’s part of your Valentine’s Day gift.”
He paused between bites of bran flakes and said, “You don’t have to do that.”
I told you not to get me anything.
(Photo credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)
I’d prepared myself for this exact infuriating response, which came from the same place that won’t allow him to buy himself a new pair of Levi’s but once every decade. My response was simply to write “I love you because…” at the top of the heart, leaving space for the first of my daily reasons – “I love you because you’re slightly easier to shop for than the Dalai Lama.”
I wrote a different reason every day for the first two weeks of February. I praised his dedication to nailing a perfect Marge Simpson impression. I celebrated his clam chowder recipe, as well as his admirable work ethic and ability to remove mysterious laundry stains. It’s been a unique challenge to come up with a new and true sentiment for each day, so I recently gave myself a break and instead drew a picture of two doting stick figures at a movie theater, a mountain of fluffy yellow popcorn parked between them.
Craig stood in front of my hasty chalk art for a moment, again munching his morning bran. “Remember that time we left after watching one movie and decided to turn right around and go see another?” he said. “That’s always been my favorite date of ours.”
With that, my chalkboard project led me right where I’d wanted to go. For his official Valentine’s Day gift, I made him a Cinema Night kit complete with microwave popcorn, an economy-sized resealable bag of peanut M&Ms, and a pack of movie tickets thick enough to put us through Oscar season and beyond. It was an easy, stress-free spree.
I plan to see my daily love notes through to the end of the month. Once March 1 arrives, our heart chalkboard decal will become open for his reciprocated affections, fondue recipes to try, running lists of must-see coming attractions… all the lovely things its shape inspires.
