My sweets, Toby and I love to read before bedtime. But we've read the same books over and over and are looking for a few more to spice up our repertoire. Do you have any favorite children's books? Was there a book you especially adored when you were little? We'd love to hear! xoxo
This weekend, Alex, Toby and I took the ferry over to the Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governor's Island.
A jazz band played old-timey tunes, and there was a tug-of-war, pie contest and Charleston lessons.
People dressed up in fabulous 1920's ensembles--lots of pearls, suspenders and straw hats. (I, of course, wore a nursing shirt:)
Toby mingled with the dapper crowd.
And this girl wore the most fabulous swimsuit (which she had made herself). Yowza!
So, last night, I hosted the Cookie Swap!
The ladies came over at 7pm with containers full of lemon squares, magic bars, homemade thin mints, and Cornflake cookies, among many others. The coffee table was overflowing. (Toby made a quick cameo before bedtime; you can see him cuddled in my friend Samantha's arms above.)
We passed around pitchers of ice-cold milk (and bottles of wine), and people found cozy spots on the floor to hang out.
Megan (right) made her grandmother's recipe for bark with almonds, chocolate and Matzoh!
Susan Cernek, a fashion editor at Glamour, didn't have time to make cookies, so she brought bottles of nail polish instead. :)
Alex came home just in time to say hello to the ladies, including pretty Lee from Copenhagen.
Toby zonked out about fifteen minutes into the festivities, but we still doted on him (and his sweet bald head) by video monitor.
Sometimes I wonder if Toby really knows who I am. But yesterday I went to get him after his nap, and this sweet face was waiting for me. It made my heart sing. (You can imagine the smooches that ensued.)
I got Toby this new T-shirt at the cheese shop. He was dubious at first...
But found it hilarious once I explained it to him.
Toby asked me to show you guys his new trick. It's called the Magnificent Head Raise. He has been working hard on it every day.
I'd love to show you a few photos of our Manhattan apartment, if you'd like to see. I'd always found our place cozy, but we could never get the decor quite right. So this past winter, the amazing designer Jenny Komenda from Little Green Notebook gave our apartment a little makeover. She had beautiful, clever, and surprisingly inexpensive ideas. Want to take a peek?
Since our fireplace is non-working, Jenny filled it with cut wood, which I adore. (It felt like a Domino Magazine touch!) Our mantlepiece displays a photo I bought from Brooklyn photographer Anne Hall (from a series she sweetly describes as "horses and their girls"); two family photos; and Toby's first toy.
Alex loves mixing old-school cocktails, so we thought it would be fun to have a bar cart in the living room. Jenny scouted this amazing vintage brass cart on Craigslist. (The story behind it was sweet: The man who sold it to us revealed that his grandfather had given it to his grandmother as a tenth anniversary present.) Then, to make the room look bigger, Jenny found a giant mirror at a flea market and painted it a rich blue. (She's a genius at transforming things with paint.)
Our place barely has any closets (welcome to New York!), so we're always craving more storage space. Jenny found this vintage campaign-style dresser and painted it black to make it look brand new. She also found the 1960's brass lamp at a flea market. (The vintage brass deer is from etsy, and the Diptyque Paris candle is my favorite scent--Feu de Bois--which smells like a roaring fireplace.)
Since I work from home, I desperately needed a desk. So Jenny found this a-maz-ing campaign-style vintage desk, which is now my favorite piece in our whole apartment. She also scouted a vintage desk chair and painted it dusty blue. (Alex's black globe is from eBay. And I was lucky enough to buy the flying car photo from Brooklyn photographer Matt Porter a few years ago.)
Our apartment's hardwood floors are elegant but not that cozy (especially with a new baby), so Jenny found us a graphic Pottery Barn rug on eBay. She sewed the blue linen curtains herself--insisting that long curtains would make the room look bigger (true). She then brightened up our ho-hum wooden coffee table by painting it a glossy black. (I bought the curved-backed wooden chair from Nightwood a few years ago, and our friend Rachel gave us the British pillow as a gift.)
Our prewar apartment has built-in bookcases (such a treat!), but they were looking a little blah, so Jenny cleverly painted the backs of each shelf a gorgeous dusty blue. She also hung our captain's mirror (which I had gotten a while back at Anthropologie) on the bookcase--a classic touch I never would have thought of. Alex had always wanted a sheepskin throw, so Jenny found a soft (and cheap) one at IKEA. Jenny also found the vintage office lamp and...wait for it...painted it blue. :)
Finally, here's a quick photo of our bedroom, which we try to keep sweet and simple, since Alex and I tend toward insomnia. The black-and-white photo shows Alex's family driving an old Triumph TR3 in California (they had stuffed a family of five into a two-seater; "Ahh, the 1960's," says Alex:), and I bought the seagull photograph from Portland fisherman/photographer Corey Arnold. The pendant lamp was $5 from IKEA, and my grandmother made the needlepoint pillow!
Now I'd love to share a few photos of Toby's nursery! When I was pregnant, I felt a little overwhelmed by the prospect of putting together a nursery, so I was incredibly grateful to collaborate with Jenny Komenda, the designer behind Little Green Notebook (and mother of three). After discussing a few ideas and inspiration images, we rolled up our sleeves and got started...
One of my top priorities was a black-out shade, since the room gets very bright during the day. So Jenny found a basic white shade and hand-painted clouds onto it. Isn't that amazing?! She also made the grey-and-white striped curtains herself.
We'd always loved Dwell's chocolate-dot crib sheets, and Jenny made a yellow crib skirt to complement them. The white crib is from Walmart (they have a surprisingly nice selection).
My brother and sister gave us this sailboat mobile last Christmas, in anticipation of Toby's arrival. They found it at The Ark in San Francisco, and then embroidered the blue boat with the numbers of our grandparents' Wayfarer, which we sailed during childhood summers in Cornwall, England. (Thank you again, Lucy and Nick!)
Although the room is small, we luckily were able to squeeze in a double bed, in which I've been sleeping since Toby was born. (As a new mom, I can't handle being a hallway away quite yet!) To spruce up the bed, Jenny made the blue-and-white striped fabric headboard. Bonus: It's really soft and comfy to lean against when I'm nursing Toby at 2a.m. (and 4a.m. and 6a.m....) (She also scouted the vintage bedside lamp and the cute yellow stool.)
We'd also hoped to create a frame wall for the nursery, so Toby could be surrounded by photos of his loved ones. Jenny not only scouted all the frames (some new, some vintage), but also figured out the arrangement for hanging (one of the hardest parts of putting together a gallery wall!)
Next to the bed, Jenny put a vintage dresser, which she had painted a soft grey. Three brass elephants live on top, along with our J. Schatz egg nightlight, which scatters stars around the room and makes Toby's bedtime feel magical.
Jenny found a vintage wooden dresser to store Toby's (hilariously teeny) clothes and diapers. It looked world weary at first, but she brightened it up by painting the dresser a bold red, the drawers a crisp white, and adding baby blue knobs. So cute! And the sweet baby deer photograph (by our friend animal photographer Sharon Montrose) keeps Toby company during his naps.
A huge thanks to Jenny for creating a warm and happy space for our little man. It was an absolute pleasure working with you. Readers, I'd highly recommend Jenny for any decor consulting you might need! xoxo
My dears, I promise our birth story is coming soon. I have been writing a bit each day, but with a teeny baby, everything takes way longer than expected! Here's a photo from right after Toby was born, which still makes me feel little weepy.
Last week, we took our first family vacation to the Hudson Valley, two hours north of New York City. I'd love to share a few photos, if you'd like to see. We rented a charming colonial cottage in the town of Red Hook...
Alex liked drinking beers in the wooden Adirondack chairs...
...and I loved the swing hanging from an enormous tree.
There was a gorgeous screened-in porch...
...which overlooked a meadow (with butterflies in the morning and fireflies at night).
Seven-week-old Toby approved of the comfy porch furniture. (He even gave us a few toothless grins, which were totally endearing.) And a delicious bonus: The owners of the house left us eggs from their own chickens and buttermilk pancake mix.
Mornings were pretty slow-paced with the baby, but each afternoon, we'd pack everything up and go exploring. One day, we toured the ridiculously fancy Vanderbilt Mansion. We even saw the servants' quarters--the women lived on the fifth floor, and the men in the basement, so as to prevent any hanky panky. Alex and I found it fascinating, but Toby was less impressed and slept the whole time.
We also took Toby on his first boat ride, which motored down the Hudson River past two lighthouses.
We sat on the covered upper deck and enjoyed the breezes...
...and did double-takes when we saw this girl's tattoo. :)
In the evenings, we'd explore the charming little towns, and we became addicted to the fish tacos at Sante Fe in Tivoli. (We went three nights in a row.) The trip was wonderful, and, although it was chaotic sometimes with nursing, diapers, the car seat, and the staggering amount of baby gear that we had to bring along, it was really lovely to travel with the little man. I'm so glad we did it. Looking forward to going back. :)
Where to stay: The Hudson Valley is peppered with adorable small towns, such as Rhinebeck, Rhinecliff, Tivoli, Saugerties, Hudson, Hyde Park and Kingston. We rented one of the gorgeous homes in the area (you can find rentals on homeaway.com, airbnb.com, or vrbo.com), but we also LOVE the Villa at Saugerties (pictured above; we've stayed there in the past; it will re-open again as a bed & breakfast soon). Also, the Saugerties Lighthouse would be a fun and quirky place to stay, and the Beekman Arms in Rhinebeck looks pretty swanky.
