There’s a point between here and there where the newness runs out. When I do feels like do I have to? When a newborn’s cry feels common and exhausting. When misplaced rose colored glasses shatter beneath a tiny foot and a pile of leaves. When you walk through the back door for the 100th time and the house no longer smells new. It’s to be expected, even when it’s not. Read more
In another life, I’d like to have a baked donut truck. Freshly roasted baked pumpkin donuts and baked apple cider donuts would make up our entire fall line-up. We’d close with the exit of the last donut. I’m not sure what name we’d plaster to the side of the donut truck, but our tagline would be: always baked, never fried. We’d disclose that these baked pumpkin donuts were built with wheat flour and partially sweetened with honey. Though they wouldn’t believe us. These are the things of my daydreams. Read more
There are more important things that need protecting in this world than my morning coffee routine. But I protect it because there are more important things in this world. Coffee fuels those efforts. Quick and fast are heralded words these days. I like to apply those terms to my weeknight dinners. But with a new day soon to be swept away with 10,000 to-dos, I like to start my mornings slow. With pour over coffee that requires a quiet and steady attention. Hallie now knows our coffee time is sacred time. She pulls out two enamel mugs from the drawer. “Oh, here you go mommy.” We cheers with our pretend coffee while I continue attending to the real coffee. This all started after going to a coffee cupping, much like a wine tasting, during our time in Chicago. I fell in love with the nuances in flavor and the brewing technique. I’ve been making pour over coffee since, 3+ years and counting. Here’s a guide to making really good coffee at home. Read more
I have one of those market totes you’d see on the streets of Paris. It’s knit from water reeds that look like a soft wicker. The top edge is trimmed with a line of leather. It’s my co-op and farmers market bag. Walking home from the store yesterday with my tiny person in tow and a baguette and green onions poking out from the top of our tote, I realize I’m in one of those “What people think I do” collages. You know the kind that ran around the internet last year with six square images set on a black background? At first thought, I’m certain I’d appear in one of the perfectly styled initial images. Woman with well-behaved child walking home hand-in-hand from the market with a beautiful bag of produce. But as I start to break out into a run, I realize I’m not her. I chase my tiny human down praying the baguette is still intact. At least there’s a cool tote on my shoulder, even if it’s barely hanging on. There’s a picture of that in the collage too. Read more
Hello from the 8th stop of The Great American Pouf Tour. I’m celebrating with my friend Anne of Flax and Twine today on the launch of her new book, Knitting Without Needles. If you’ve been around since the early days, you might remember my shop full (and sometimes not so full) of knitted cowls. I think it was around that time that I met Anne. She’s been making crafting cool again since the early days. When her arm-knitted pouf arrived a couple weeks ago for The Great American Pouf Tour, Hallie usurped it for her own room. With the addition of the pouf to her tent and dog beds (keep reading!), her nook is looking pretty magical. I’m not sure if it’s more for her or me. Read more
Pineapple. A tropical fruit with a juicy yellow flesh and a thorny green skin. A DIY halloween costume. A stencil design at my grandma’s house. An upside down cake. An emoji🍍. A symbol of hospitality. The emblem Chuck Williams imprinted on his store in 1956, a store you and I know well. Williams-Sonoma. Today, October 2, is Chuck’s 100th birthday! It only seemed fitting to put a little pineapple in his cake. Read more
Growing up in Texas, we learned about fall, winter, and spring from textbooks and encyclopedias. A feed full of changing leaves on Instagram wasn’t a thing then, and connecting to the internet was about like dialing the man on the moon. I always thought the spelling of seasons was a mistake. It’s season. My pen pals from other countries thought we traveled by horse. Come to find out, we lived in the same country and it wasn’t called Texas. I now joke that Texans have a hard time believing in climate change because the climate never changes. I’m kidding. Kinda. Read more
It started to show itself in the way I kept my hair. Or didn’t. In high school and college I washed, dried, and straightened my hair daily. It was a thing of beauty. Well kept. Perfectly in place. With no sign of unruly wave, even under all those thick, thick layers. It was a good representation of how I saw myself. Of how I saw the world. I was a straight-laced rule follower. My perspective looked a lot like the scenery of The Giver. Things were orderly. Things were black and white. So black and white. Read more
