Report from Aunthood, Part 2

Vacationing with your family when you're a childless aunt to cute little kiddos is hard. You love every second with your nieces and nephews, yet you also want to spend time with their parents. But their parents really want to relax and not hover over the kids all vacation. They want to talk to you! It's great being in demand, but sometimes I just want to color.

One thing I've learned to bring with me are pads of blank paper for each kid and myself. No one should feel limited in their canvas on vacation. Draw and color to your heart's extent! The kids seem to love them and randomly start drawing all day long.

This year I brought these:

Next year, I'm also bringing these:

How about you? What's in your auntie satchel?

Better said

Tattly obsession continues. Pic also seen here.

Wabi-sabi is something I learned about from an ancient Body + Soul magazine. That periodical is now called Whole Living and has been for some time. But back then I read it religiously.

The one article that sticks with me, the one I thought I saved and of course can't find, is the article introducing me to wabi-sabi. 

I've searched for ways of explaining wabi-sabi but honestly, it seems too big a responsibility. I don't want to get it wrong. But Wikipedia puts it so well (as long as they are right, I'm no expert), so let's let them introduce it to you:

Thank you Wikipedia.

There. Doesn't that sound nice?

And now, two other things better said:

Found here

Found here

Farmers' market flowers

I go to farmers' markets to buy fresh produce. I try not to have a shopping list. Instead I buy what calls out to me, like those ruby red strawberries did last week. Damn those were good.

One thing that consistently calls out to me, but which I seldom purchase, are the flowers. Gosh are the flowers amazing. It's not the prices that turn me away. No no. The flower prices are always unbelievably reasonable. My excuse usually has to do with not "needing" flowers, and how cumbersome they can be to get all the way home. 

So lame!

A varied bunch from Chicagoland farmers' market, circa 2014

Let's not forget to add flowers to our mental farmers' market shopping lists. Go for the bunch that sings your name. They nourish us every bit as much as those sun-filled, juicy-as-beating-hearts heirloom tomatoes, just in a different way. 

Wouldn't you agree? 

Prescription for anything

We all have these ailments that we don't think are serious, but may need medical attention. Come to Dr. Francis with your problem, mental or physical, and this is what you may hear:

And don't forget to floss!

Homey hooks

As a kid I'd read this story about a bear who wore overalls. Was it Corduroy? No, I don't think so. This was a more independent animal. Did Corduroy have a sequel? I think the bear lived in a tree, like Pooh. But this wasn't Pooh.

Basically I have no idea what I'm talking about. In fact, this could have been a dream I concocted after blending many children's stories. Was he even a bear? Or a he?

What I remember most, and all that really matters, was that he hung up his clothes on hooks in his bedroom. He only had one outfit, which I'm not even sure were overalls now. It could have been a rain jacket. Or trousers. Whatever it was I never stopped to consider that after he did this, he was naked. Not once. Little me was fixated on the hooks. Hating to put away my own clothes, I dreamt of having hooks all over my bedroom. A hook for this. A hook for that. No more drawers or hangers. Just hooks for everything. It made complete sense to me at the time. 

For my last apartment I bought dozens of 3M hooks and plastered them all over the place. My hook dreams were coming true. In my bedroom they were to be used for "in process" clothes. You know, the ones you wore once or twice but they aren't dirty or smelly yet, like jeans and hoodies and work button-ups. Putting them back with the clean clothes always seemed off. Piling them on a chair is unsightly (and the waste of a chair). What is one to do?

Hooks to the rescue!

I always see Anthropologie getting nods for hooks and knobs and such. They do have a beautiful (rather expensive) collection.

Etsy has some handmade and lots of vintage/refurbished hooks to choose from.
birch / green / wire loops / colorful / moose and trees / gear

In my current bedroom, on all the walls that allow it, I plan on adding hooks. Heck, I plan on hookin-up my whole apartment! I've learned to keep the hooks (for in-process clothing) about 4 feet off the ground (higher if you have longer legs) so that arresting art can go above them and distract from the blobs of fabric. Hanging clothing at eye-level is not très chic. I have some pine panels that I can paint and then affix onto those a few sturdy metal hooks (like the wire loop hooks above). I like this idea because the pine panels can be screwed into the studs, wherever they may be, very easily. Also, my dirty-ish clothes will be a little more off the wall, less prone to sullying the underlying paint.

I sure do hope no one is keeping track of the DIYs I talk about rather than do. You know the phrase - put your money where your mouth is? I am strongly feeling a new phrase - put your hands where your mouth is. Wait, could that mean shut my mouth? Ok then!