The first is an electric kettle. Apparently, these are common as can be — like more standard than a toaster — in every Western country but the U.S.. And they’re definitely sold here, but I had never seen one used by an American friend, and I had never used one myself, until we lived in France.

They are so handy! The water heats to boiling super fast. It’s great for making hot drinks, for making ramen (or cup noodles, as my kids call them), or anytime you need a small amount of boiling water fast (like when we made dye for Easter eggs). Sometimes it surprises me how often we use it.

There are tons of options available. We use a ceramic version when we’re living stateside — I chose the one pictured for its looks (I thought it would be pretty sitting on the counter) but it works great too.

I don’t know the official name for the second tool. We call it a mini-masher, and it took me several searches to track one down. This is the one we have. Dang I love this tool! I use it for two things specifically: to mash avocados for guacamole, and to mash boiled eggs for egg salad.

If you don’t eat either of those things, I would not recommend this tool to you. But if you do eat guacamole and egg salad, this tool will make you about 75% more willing to make them, because it does the job so well, so quickly and so easily — even if the avocado isn’t perfectly ripe.

Of course, this made me wonder: do you use/adore any kitchen tools that you think are probably uncommon? Where did you discover them? What do you use them for? Also, have you used either of the tools I featured? I’d love to hear!

P.S. — Headed to France? Here are Ten Fabulous Souvenirs Under $5.

The post Two Kitchen Tools appeared first on Design Mom.

Of course, they remind me of the hair bobbles of my childhood — with colorful plastic balls at the ends. But these are much gentler on your hair and more modern looking. Plus, you can make them in any color you like. A small box with 3 or 4 of these would make such a sweet gift. You could create them in springtime colors and include them in an Easter basket. Or they would be wonderful to make at a birthday party — a happy little activity that guests can make and use right away.

The contrast of the glittery band or colorful shiny elastic against raw wood is such a delight. If you prefer a glossier look, you could paint the beads to match or compliment the elastics. The combinations are endless. These hair twists are easy to make; fun to make alone or with friends on a craft night.

Let’s start making!

SUPPLIES

– Wooden beads (1/2-3/4″)
– 5/8″ fold over elastic
– wooden skewer
– scissors

INSTRUCTIONS

Measure and cut one 12 inch piece of fold-over elastic. (Optional: Once cut, seal the ends by singeing their edges over a candle.) Choose 2 wood beads. These beads can be raw wood or painted with hobby paint, if desired.

Carefully thread the elastic through the bead and pull close to the end. It’s helpful to coax the elastic through the bead by pushing it through with a wooden skewer.

Tie a knot about 1 inch in from the end.

Repeat this same threading and knotting of the elastic band on the opposite end.

Fold in half to estimate the middle…

… then gather the beads and knot the band together as close to the beads as possible. Once the elastics have been knotted, your beaded hair ties are ready for wearing and giving!

HOW TO WEAR

These hair twists are worn like traditional hair bands. Start by fitting the elastic around pony tail, keeping the beads on the outside.

Twist the elastic into a figure 8 and draw the second loop up and over the pony tail.

Adjust the double elastics that are now holding the pony tail into place so that the elastic is flat and so that the beads are on top.

——–

THIS WOULD ALSO BE GREAT FOR:

– Easter gifts.
– Classmate Valentines.
– A birthday party/slumber party activity.
– Party favors.

P.S. — Like to make gifts? Here are more ideas from our Perfect Gift series.

—

Photography and assistance by Gina Vide of Willowday.

The post A Perfect Gift: Hair Twists with Wood Beads appeared first on Design Mom.

We have an unconventional home because we have an unconventional life. (Don’t we all?!) My husband is an artist who does visual special effects and computer animation, and I am novelist. We both work from home with our two daughters who are four and nine. With all this togetherness (day after day after day) we need a home that we like to be in because we are always there! Together. Always.

After an exhaustive search for a house that would allow my husband a separate entrance and suitable place for a studio, we found our home driving past a For Sale By Owner sign. I went to look at it and immediately thought, “By Jove, I think we’ve got it.” I knew it was special when it met all of our business needs and had that amazing sun room that we call the art room. My children can work their creative hearts out and I never lose my kitchen table to sudden bouts of inspiration. My husband says to mention that there is a three-car garage and a built-in shed for the mower. That’s what did it for him!

I don’t know if our style has a name. Definitely mid-century modern, but with an artistic and natural twist.

We are a rare case of husband and wife caring equally about home design. My husband hates anything fluffy, anything country. He is modern all the way. I add a touch of whimsy. I love natural, unexpected elements that have a hint of humor and happiness.

We never changed our style with children. My friends ask me how I can do glass tables with children. I just smile and say, “I tell them not to break the glass tables.” It’s never been a huge issue. The only way children affected my style was to increase my creative outlets. There is nothing more fun than going to town on a kid’s room. There are no limits.

I tell my children that the more things we have, the less we love our things. If they want a new toy I often make them pick a toy to give to a friend. I have issues with clutter. It makes it hard for me to work or be happy or even breathe when my environment is chaotic. When in doubt, I throw it away!

Also, don’t waste money! Those kids are going to college. Decide what you want and watch for it on Craigslist and clearances. That is how we got almost everything we own.

I say that I want my home to look like a New York loft married a beach cottage and had a baby. I want elements of excitement and elements of tranquility. I am inspired by nature and industrial design. I like to put the best of man with the best of God and watch what happens.

When we buy a home, we look at it and dream as big as we can and say in a perfect world with an unlimited budget this house would look like… Then we form a detailed plan of furniture, flooring, colors and accents, and then don’t do or buy anything outside of that plan. I’d rather wait ten years for what I really want than buy a filler that distracts me from my grand plan.

You might be curious about the challenages of both my husband and I working from home. What challenges? I am typing this in complete peace and my children are not running in circles through my “office” and dropping their pet rats on my shoulders. Did I mention I use sarcasm sometimes?

I work at a desk off of the kitchen, penning my novels in the very heart of the house so I am accessible. Sometimes too accessible. I try to work while my children are at school or otherwise engaged. My husband uses our basement as his studio, and thanks to sound proofing he doesn’t even know what kind of trouble he’s missing. What works for us is to be respectful. I never bother him during the day unless it is necessary. He tries to give me space when my keyboard is a clicking. And we both drop everything when our children need us. We decided a long time ago that we are in this life together, so we put our family first and our jobs second.

My favorite time of day is evening. I am either reading my girls a story in the “boat room” that belongs to my nine year old, or we are sitting in the sun room with the windows open to a breeze, waving to neighbors or painting pictures. My husband took the screen off our toy room window and we often sit on the roof of the sun room at night and watch the day go to sleep. That is my children’s favorite place to be, and I think they might be right.

My favorite thing about living with kids is their heads! The smell of their clean hair when I press my face against the soft strands. I can’t stop kissing my children’s heads. They’re used to it by now. If I don’t grab their noggins and tell them they smell like sunshine, they feel confused. I love their voices and their hugs and the miracle of being loved so unconditionally and forgiven for my mistakes so completely. My daughters are my greatest treasure.

I also love that my four year old can’t say the “th” sound. I know she’ll figure it out eventually, but right now she has a “fedder cowection” instead of a feather collection and it makes me laugh out loud every time we talk about it. Now that I say that, it’s the laughter. I will miss their laughter the most when they are gone.

I hope they will remember our home as a refuge where they are completely loved. I hope they remember our home as a beautiful place to be and play and dream. I love a clean house, but it cannot always be. There is brownie batter on my floor. There is spilled paint on my patio. There are grass clippings on my welcome mat.

I hope someday I walk into my daughters’ homes and find just enough mess to prove they are enjoying life, and just enough organization to prove they’ve got their lives together.

I wish I had known that my children would be my best friends and the women I most admire. I might have treated them with more tenderness and respect in those hideous moments of frustration that every mother faces. I wish I had known how much good I could do by resisting the need to punish and criticize and spending more time adoring them.

[ 6/19/12 Update: This just in! Regina won the Young Adult Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for 2012. That’s a big deal! Go Regina!! ]

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Thank you, Regina, for sharing so eloquently the pure joy of living with kids. I’ve read your answers more than a few times, and I still feel a pang in my heart!

Friends, what do you want your kids to remember about their childhood home? Is that something you consider during your day-to-day chores and tiny traditions? I’d love to hear your own hopes!

P.S. — You can find all the homes in my Living With Kids series here.

The post Living With Kids: Regina Sirois appeared first on Design Mom.

Picture it: I’m sitting at a desk in a dark, depressing basement of our rental in New York, my first generation iMac (the sort-of bubble looking version that came in lots of colors) is in front of me. The date is July 8, 2006.

I’d turned 32 a few weeks before, and I’m currently on maternity leave—my newest baby, Betty, is 2 months old. She is my fifth child. The 4 others are ages: 1-Oscar, 4-Olive, 7-Maude, and 8-Ralph. I’d been married 10 years (my 11th wedding anniversary would be the following month).

At that time I’ve been in search of a creative project; something that will help me keep postpartum depression at bay. Everyone around me seems to be starting blogs, just for fun. I’ve been reading essay blogs for a few years, and even tried to start one but felt my writing wasn’t strong enough.

I had also discovered design blogs. They would post much more frequently than essay blogs, but just quick easy posts—maybe a product image and a few short paragraphs. Those short posts felt like something I could maybe handle with a newborn — I could picture typing up a post with one hand while the baby nursed, or typing with two hands while the baby napped.

But what would I write about?

My degree was in graphic design, and I’d been working in New York as an art director at an advertising agency. I was also the mother of five children. My two main identities at that moment: designer and mother. I thought about the kinds of questions I often received from my peers who were having their first baby — they wanted my advice as a mother, but also as a designer who had a good eye. Where should they find design-forward maternity clothes? Do they need to throw a 1st birthday party? Are there such a thing as toddler shoes that don’t have Disney characters on them?

I figured I could write posts that would answer those types of questions. My blog would draw on my expertise as a designer and a mother.

So I went to a website called Blogger.com (it still exists! I believe it’s now owned by Google, but wasn’t back in 2006), and I created a new blog called Design Mom. The tagline: The intersection of design and motherhood. And I’ve been posting here ever since.

Want to know how I’m commemorating this anniversary?

We Made an 8-Episode Podcast to Celebrate!

To mark this momentous occasion, I thought it would be really interesting to interview each of my kids on what it has been like to grow up with a chronically online mother, and then share the interviews with you.

So we recorded an 8-episode podcast series, called Design Mom 20, wherein I interview each of our six kids, and I interview Ben Blair. For the 8th episode, Ben interviews me.

I have published each episode on Substack (you can find them in the podcast tab), and I am also pushing them out to Apple Podcasts, which should eventually make them available on whatever podcast platform you prefer. I published them in the order we did the interviews:

Episode One – I interview Oscar

Episode Two – I interview Betty

Episode Three – I interview Flora June

Episode Four – I interview Ben Blair

Episode Five – I interview Olive

Episode Six – I interview Ralph

Episode Seven – I interview Maude

Episode Eight – Ben interviews me

I hope you enjoy each episode!

You should know that Oscar handled all the sound tech, the production, and the editing. It was a labor of love and I’m so deeply grateful.

Some of you have been here since the very beginning, most of you found me somewhere between 2006 and 2026. Whenever and however you found me, I’m glad you’re here.

Thank you for supporting my work by reading, sharing, and when possible, subscribing. It’s a big deal that I’ve been able to sustain this work for 20 years, and I could not have done it without you.

I can hardly describe how meaningful this community is to me. Thank you for being here.

kisses,
Gabrielle

P.S. — Our family had a great time recording these podcast episodes, and that’s what got us thinking about a family podcast. We’ll keep thinking about it and working on it and see if we can make it happen.

The post Twenty Years of Design Mom appeared first on Design Mom.

It’s a good guess that when it comes to outdoor cooking, grilling is the most popular method. Summer seems to be when grilling is at its peak — starting with Memorial Day and ending with Labor Day. But I know a lot of us grill year round.

It’s such a great way to cook food — most of the mess is outside, it doesn’t heat up the house, and it tastes fabulous! Plus you can grill just about anything.

Ready to get grilling? Let’s go!

PREPPING THE GRILL

The first thing to decide? Gas or Charcoal.

There’s a bit of a debate over which is better, and I’m still on the fence. Charcoal gives food a smoky flavor that’s hard to duplicate. But it’s also harder to control the temperature and takes a bit longer. Charcoal also requires and additional 20-30 minutes to heat up before cooking. Gas is cleaner burning, quicker, and easier to control the temperature. Secret #1: Really, it’s personal preference. In this post I’m using charcoal because that’s what we use, but I’m including tips for using gas too.

No matter which type of grill you’re using, it doesn’t have to be fancy. Grills with all the bells and whistles, knobs and side burners are great — not really necessary. Secret #2: With grilling, it’s all in the technique. You could even say it’s an art. And that comes with practice. Lots of delicious practice. : )

In addition to a grill, you’ll want to have a few tools handy. Secret #3: When it comes to grilling, look for tools with long handles. It can get pretty hot over the grill! Again, you don’t need fancy tools. There are some really fun grilling gadgets available now, but I stick to a good grill brush with stiff, wire bristles, a pair of tongs, and a spatula.  The little brush pictured below is good for getting in between the grates. The flat one covers the top of the grate.

Secret #4: You always want to start with a clean grill. Of course, it helps if you clean the grates after each grilling session. But if you forgot last time you grilled, no worries. It’s pretty easy to do and only takes a few minutes. You can clean the grates when they are hot or cool. Secret #5: I find it’s a little easier to clean a hot grate.

The cleaning can happen while the grill is heating up or after cooking while it’s cooling down. Secret #6: I also clean the grate in between cooking different types of food, too — particularly if I’ve cooked something with a sticky glaze, or something spicy. I give the grill a good scrub with a wire brush and that seems to take care of most of the food residue.

Secret #7: If you have a lot of burnt-on residue, you can even turn the grill up really high and burn it off. As I mentioned, the extra heat seems to help, but elbow grease will also work if you clean it when it has cooled. If you don’t have a grill brush, you can wad up some aluminum foil, hold the wad with tongs, and rub the foil across the grill to clean the surface.

We talked about starting charcoal in our Dutch oven post, but in case you missed it, here’s a quick refresher. You can buy traditional briquettes or hard wood briquettes. Secret #8: We like to start ours in a charcoal burner. You simply put the charcoal in the burner, add a little lighter fluid (totally optional), and light with a match.Self-lighting charcoal is also available and doesn’t require more than a match to get it going. As I said, using lighter fluid is totally optional, but we tend to use a little bit to help things move along more quickly. Though you should be aware, some people feel it negatively affects the flavor of the food. Ultimately, it’s your call.

With gas grills there is typically a button starter, if not, you’ll light it manually with a match. There are valves and knobs to control how much fuel you let in, which in turn creates a bigger or smaller flame. Bigger flames=more heat, smaller flames=less heat. Some gas grills are very large and have several burners. Secret #9: This is advantageous, because you can easily create a hot side and a cooler side. You can do this with charcoal too, by piling up more charcoal on one side and less on the other. Or, you can pile the coals in the center for direct heat and use the outer part of the grill for indirect heat. (Read on for more about this.)

Secret #10: Once the grill has heated up, you’ll want to oil the grates well with a paper towel soaked with a little vegetable oil. This helps keep food from sticking. Avoid using nonstick cooking spray which can cause dangerous flare-ups.

PREPARING THE FOOD

Before we get to the actual cooking part, let’s take a little detour and talk about preparing the food.

Secret #11: Practically anything can be grilled. Grilling itself provides a lot of flavor, but you can further enhance the flavor of grilled foods through marinades, glazes and rubs, or by smoking the food using wood chips or planks. (I’m of the opinion that simple is better. If you start with good food and season it simply, then it will always be good. That being said, I have a hard time saying no to a good marinade!)

Secret #12: Grills are good for things that don’t need to be cooked for a long time, think: steaks. But you can also use them for longer periods, think: ribs. Grills are also great for smoking food. That means longer, slower, lower cooking temps. We love to smoke fish using wood chips or cedar planks. But you can smoke other meats, and even vegetables.

Secret #13: When cooking meat, a lot of good flavor comes from fat. So look for cuts with good, even marbling. If the steak feels tender when raw, it will likely be tender also when cooked. Making friends with your butcher or fishmonger will be a great help when deciding which cut of meat, poultry or fish to buy for grilling.

For a really good steak (the one above has been dry aged), all you really need is some coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper. You don’t want to mask the flavor of the meat.

Secret #14: Some cuts of meat are leaner or tougher — they require a little tenderizing and benefit from marinating and long, slow cooking.

Secret #15: Marinades and spice rubs are done before grilling. They infuse flavors into the food before it cooks, which can be nice for leaner cuts of meat or foods that require a little extra seasoning. Secret #16: Marinades contain an acid (vinegar, wine, citrus juice), salt, and oil and sometimes a little sugar.

Secret #17: Dry rubs consist of a blend of spices, salt, and sugar, that are applied to the outside of the food. They are good for food that cooks quickly on the grill and won’t become more tender when it cooks — such as steak, fish, shrimp, and chicken breasts. Secret #18: Wet rubs are dry rubs mixed with a liquid ingredient such as yogurt, buttermilk, beer, mustard, tomato sauce, oil/butter, etc. Both kinds of rubs help create an irresistible crust on the food once it’s grilled.

Secret #19: Unless a recipe instructs otherwise, meat and chicken should be marinated at least 30 minutes or up to several hours prior to grilling. Though marinating for too long can affect the texture of the food. Secret #20: Fish and other seafood should only be marinated for a brief amount of time or it can actually “cook” the food.

Speaking of marinades, some fresh fruit juices like pineapple and papaya contain enzymes that are good tenderizers, but if left too long will make the meat turn spongy. Either use cooked juice or marinate for a short time.

One last thing, there is also a method called brining. We talked about wet brining in the Turkey 101 post. Dry brining is done by heavily salting meat, placing in the fridge for a few hours and then rinsing the salt off and patting dry before grilling.

Secret #21: When using dry or wet rubs, be careful not to press too hard into the meat. Just rub on the surface, you don’t to be too rough or it could damage the texture of the meat. Secret #22: Also, trim any excess fat before marinating or seasoning. This will help prevent flare-ups on the grill.

Secret #23: Glazes are added at the end, or near the end of cooking time. This is because glazes tend to be sweeter and thicker — like BBQ sauce. Jams, jellies and other prepared preserves also make great glazes. But if the food is glazed too early, the sugars in the glaze can caramelize and burn.

It’s best to brush the glaze on a few minutes before the food is done, or just as it’s pulled off the grill. Secret #24: Some marinades can be boiled down and turned into a glaze. Just be sure to let it boil for several minutes or more to kill any harmful microorganisms.

Secret #25: Make sure to pat the food dry before searing it over direct heat. If not, the food can steam instead of developing a nice crust on the outside. Try to remove most of the marinade from the food. Rubs are fine and don’t need to be removed.

Secret #26: If you are planning on making skewers, smoking food, or using wooden planks, plan ahead and soak them in water first. The extra moisture will help keep the wood or bamboo from catching fire. And in the case of wood chips, will also help create the desired smoke.

Vegetables can be cooked whole or cut into wedges or cubes. Secret #27: They should be lightly rubbed with a little oil to keep them from sticking. Other than that, veggies are pretty simple to grill. A little salt and pepper is all they need, but they can also be marinated if you prefer. (Mushrooms are really great marinated and grilled.)

Once the food is ready, it’s time to head outside and get grilling!

INDIRECT AND DIRECT HEAT

There are two ways of cooking on a grill. Secret #28: You can use indirect or direct heat. Indirect means that the food isn’t over the hottest part of the grill, and with direct heat it is. Direct heat is for foods that cook quickly — 20 minutes or less. Indirect is for foods requiring longer cooking times, like ribs. Secret #29: Indirect heat is also okay to use when you’ve cooked something and need to keep it warm. I’m not talking about steak though. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

The grill above is shallow. This means when the grate is placed on top, the food will be closer to the coals.  The charcoal in this type of grill cools quickly, so it’s best for things that can cook very quickly over a hot, high heat.  Kettle grills are deeper (unless they are filled very full of charcoal) and have more distance between the food and the hot coals.

Holding your hand over the grill will help you determine if it’s hot enough. Hold the palm of your hand about four inches above the coals and/or grate. Count the seconds it takes until it becomes too hot to hold your hand there. Secret #30: Two seconds is approximately 375-400 degrees F, three is 350-375 degrees, four seconds is 300-350 degrees and five seconds is between 200-300 degrees F. For most recipes and grilling purposes, you’ll want the grill to be in the 375-400 degree range.

Foods best cooked over direct heat: boneless poultry and meat, skewers, burgers, hot dogs, steaks, vegetables (whole or sliced), fruit, bread slices

Foods best cooked over indirect heat: bone-in poultry and meat such as ribs, whole chickens or turkeys.

Once the grill is hot enough, put the steak (or other cut of meat or poultry) on the grill.

GRILLING

Let’s talk about timing. Bone-in cuts of meat and poultry will take a bit longer to cook than boneless and can be seared first over direct heat and then moved to the indirect heat to finish cooking. Thinner cuts will cook much more quickly than thicker cuts, so keep that in mind if you’re cooking steaks and prefer one that is more rare/well done. Vegetables and fruit cook in a flash. Skewers and kabobs cook much more quickly than whole pieces.

Ribs need to be cooked slowly for a long time over even heat. If the temperature spikes, the meat can dry out.

Secret #31: Once you put the food on the grill, don’t be tempted to turn it a bunch of times.  Let is stay on the grill to get a good sear on the first side, then turn over once. Resist the temptation to keep turning it over and over again.

Secret #32: When preparing and cooking skewers, make sure the food isn’t too crammed together on the skewer or on the grill.  It needs to be close enough so it stays juicy and doesn’t become too dry, but not so close it takes a long time to cook or steam.

Secret #33: Put the lid on the grill to keep the heat in, but leave the vent open so the charcoal or flame doesn’t go out.

When is the food done? A lot of times experience is the best way to know when food is done cooking. Secret #34: But it’s also a good idea to buy an inexpensive instant read thermometer. It will tell you pretty quickly if the internal temperature is high enough.

Medium-rare beef will be about 150 degrees F on a meat thermometer. Poultry should be cooked to 180 degrees, pork and lamb are cooked when they reach 160 degrees.

Secret #35: Remember that food will continue cooking a bit once it’s off the grill. And in fact, you should let meat and poultry rest for about 15 minutes to allow the juices to be reabsorbed. You can lightly cover it to keep the heat in, but it might sacrifice the nice crust a bit.

Steak is one of those things that when done correctly is magical, and if done incorrectly is horrible. Secret #36: A good way to gauge if a steak is cooked properly (rare, medium, well, and in-between) is to use your hand. Bring your pointer finger to your thumb loosely in an O shape. Feel the fleshy part of your palm just under the thumb. That’s what rare feels like. Bringing the middle finger to the thumb feels like medium; ring finger to thumb is medium-well, and pinky to thumb is well done. Secret #37: Don’t worry, it’s better to err on the side of rare. You can always put a rare steak back on the grill for a few minutes.

TROUBLESHOOTING

Flare-up? No problem! Secret #38: Just close the lid to tame the flames. Don’t spray water on it. It could cause splattering and burns. Better to sacrifice a burger than end up in the emergency room.

If the grill is not hot enough or the food isn’t cooking as quickly, simply add more coals for charcoal, turn flame up for gas grills. Secret #39: We like to keep an extra batch of charcoal going when we are grilling so we can add hot coals as needed. It’s particularly helpful if you’ll be grilling for a crowd. That’s another disadvantage of charcoal — it can go out before you’re finished cooking!

Certain foods might fall apart or fall through the grill grates. Secret #40: You can use a grill pan or make a little boat out of heavy-duty foil to keep that from happening. More delicate foods like fish are best cooked in a grill pan or special grilling basket.

MENU

And last, but not least, our menu!

Grilled Toasts and Brie, Figs and Jam
Grilled Kale with Sea Salt and Olive Oil
Grilled Marinated Flatiron Steak
Grilled Vegetable and Chicken Skewers
Grilled Peaches and Poundcake with Ice Cream

Grilled Toasts with Brie, Figs and Jam
Ingredients:
1 large wheel brie
jam
10-12 fresh figs
1 loaf artisan bread, cut into 1/2-inch slices
olive oil, for brushing

Instructions:
Brush slices of bread with olive oil. Grill over direct heat for a 1-2 minutes each side until toasted. Transfer to a serving platter. Rub grate with paper towel soaked in a little oil. Place whole wheel of brie and figs on the grill. Turn the bried and figs after a few minutes. The brie will be done when the inside feels jiggly when pressed gently with tongs. Carefully transfer brie and figs to a serving platter and serve with the grilled toasts and jam.

Grilled Kale with Sea Salt and Olive Oil
Ingredients:
2 bunches kale (I used Lacinato Kale)
1-2 Tablespoons olive oil
coarse sea salt

Instructions:
Wash kale and pat dry. Brush the leaves with olive oil. Working in batches, cook the whole leaves on a hot grill for a few minutes per side. The leaves will darken in places and even become a little crispy. Transfer to a serving bowl. Remove the hard stems if desired and tear the grilled kale into bite-size pieces. Season with coarse sea salt and serve warm or at room temperature.

Grilled Veggie Skewers
Ingredients:
assorted cubed vegetables such as zucchini, onion, and bell pepper
cherry tomatoes
olive oil
salt and pepper
bamboo skewers, pre-soaked in water for 30 minutes

Instructions:
Have a hot grill ready. Place the vegetables on the skewers. Brush with a little olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Place skewers on grill and let cook for 3-4 minutes per side. Serve warm.

Grilled Marinated Flat Iron Steak
from epicurious.com
Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less but requires additional unattended time.

Ingredients:
2-to-2 1/2 pound Flatiron steak (London broil or flank steak can be substituted)

For marinade-
4 large garlic cloves, minced
4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
1 teaspoon dried basil, crumbled
1 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
2/3 cup olive oil

Instructions:
Whisk all marinade ingredients together in a bowl.

Put the meat in a large resealable plastic bag and pour marinade over it. Seal bag, pressing out excess air, and set in a shallow dish. Marinate meat, chilled, turning bag once or twice for several hours.

Remove meat from marinade and discard the marinade. Have a hot grill ready. Cook meat for 9 to 10 minutes on each side, or until it registers 135°F. to 140°F., on a meat thermometer for medium-rare meat. (This may vary according to the thickness of the meat.) Transfer meat to a cutting board and let stand 10 minutes. Cut meat diagonally across the grain into thin slices.

Grilled Peaches and Poundcake with Ice Cream
Ingredients:
4 large peaches, peeled if desired, halved and pit removed
1 pound cake loaf, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 pint premium ice cream

Instructions:
Have a hot grill ready. Rub the grates lightly with oil. Place the peaches on the grill, cut-side down for 3-4 minutes. Transfer to a serving platter or bowl. Clean grill grate with wire brush, if needed. Rub again with oil. Place the pound cake slices on the grill. Grill for about 1 minute and carefully turn over and grill for another minute. Gently remove from the grill. Serve warm with the grilled peaches and a scoop of ice cream. Yield: 8 servings

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Now I want to hear your grilling secrets! What’s your go-to grilling favorite? Are you a summer-only or year-round kind of griller? Will you be grilling this weekend for Labor Day?

P.S. — This is part three of a 3-part Outdoor Cooking mini-series — check out campfire cooking here, and dutch oven cooking).

Created by Lindsey Johnson for Design Mom.

The post Ultimate Guide for Cooking on a Grill appeared first on Design Mom.

Just think, a simple doodle can transform a plain fish bowl into a fun and interesting home for our finned friends — without having to buy (or clean) extra accessories.

If you’re worried about your doodling skills, we took care of that for you. With the help of illustrator Stephanie Frey, we have three underwater scenes you can print off and trace on your choice of fish bowl.

You can choose from a school of fish, the ocean floor (with pirate’s treasure!), and seaweed and coral — or choose all three!

Ready to find out how simple it is? Come see!

Supplies:

–fishbowl
–oil-based permanent marker*
-free printable fishbowl scenes — treasure + ship or school of fish or seaweed
–tape

*To doodle, there are a number of marker options. The basic permanent marker will work although it won’t withstand scrubbing but if you’d like a change of scenery often, this marker will work fine. The oil-based permanent marker is what I used. It has better color opacity and really sticks. It can be removed with rubbing alcohol or acetone if you make a mistake. Finally, there is the option of porcelain or glass markers. These are made for drawing on glass surfaces and require a little oven-cure to make them permanent. Just follow the directions of the manufacturer.

The only step is to tape the printable in place and then trace it with the marker on the outside of the bowl. That’s it! You might need to resize the print-out to fit your bowl. Most of mine were reduced to between 70-80% size, except the ocean floor which was enlarged to 125%. And feel free to rearrange them to fit your needs. Whatever works!

Once you have the doodles just the way you want, add the water and fish (make sure to follow all the instructions for introducing the fish to a new bowl). Note about the fish: A commenter mentioned that Beta Fish thrive in fishbowls, but Goldfish do not. Good to know!

Tie a ribbon on and it’s ready to give!

Created with Amy Christie for Design Mom.

The post Custom Fish Bowl + Free Downloads appeared first on Design Mom.

FREEZING PRODUCE FOR SMOOTHIES – A COMPLETE GUIDE

Frozen Food Is Fresher Tasting Than Canned Food

There’s a reason for that. I find that some things are quicker to preserve when freezing, like berries. And other produce is fresher tasting and the quality is a bit better when freezing instead of canning. Plus, confession: I just don’t like canned veggies all that much. So, freezing it is!

Remember last summer when we covered the basics of washing and storing produce? Consider this the companion to that post.

Freezing Produce Requires Planning & Proper Equipment

As with canning, freezing produce requires a little bit of planning and gathering the proper equipment. While canning relies on heat to kill microbes, which then also destroys some of the nutritional value, freezing delays the growth of bacteria and slows the work of enzymes, which keeps the food preserved. That’s not to say that frozen food isn’t as safe as canned food. It’s just a different way to do it.

A big plus for freezing produce is that it ends up tasting much fresher and contains more nutrients than canned produce.

But there is a draw back as well. The texture of thawed veggies and fruit can be undesirable. In the process of freezing, the water within the fruits and veggies turns to ice. As it does, it expands which causes cell walls to burst. This can equal mushy texture when thawed.

But there are steps you can take to ensure higher quality frozen fruits and veggies — similar to the ones you buy at the grocery store. And we’ll cover those below.

First let’s talk about the materials you’ll need to assemble before you start.

Materials for Freezing Produce

Secret #1: Something great thing about freezing fruits and vegetables is that you don’t really need fancy equipment. Freezer bags come in handy for “dry pack” freezing that doesn’t involve using syrups or purees. Rigid plastic containers, glass containers, and jars come in handy for liquid or semi-solid foods, sauces, jams, and other preserves.

In addition to containers, I also recommend freezer paper, freezer tape, and heavy-duty foil. They come in handy for packaging certain foods and for long-term storage. Long term means longer than the typical 6-12 months. The longer you store the food in the freezer, the more the quality declines, but it is still perfectly fine to eat.

Another essential for me is a rimmed baking sheet. I use it to quickly freeze individual pieces of whole or sliced produce. More on that in a bit.

How to Prepare Fruits & Vegetables for Freezing

You’ll want to wash all fruits and vegetables well, especially if you don’t plan on peeling them, and pat them dry with a paper towel or dishtowel. Some fruits and vegetables can be frozen whole, while others need to be peeled, pitted, and/or cut into smaller pieces. A bit of it is personal preference, but some produce definitely does better in the freezer when cut into smaller pieces.

Secret #2: Fruits and veggies that do exceptionally well frozen whole:
Berries (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, currants, cranberries, etc.), bananas, chili peppers, beans, asparagus, tomatoes, and corn.

Secret #3: Produce that does well sliced or diced:
Bell peppers, avocado, mango, pineapple, melon, peas, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, stone fruits (peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries), apples (yes, you can freeze apples!), summer squash, and winter squash.

Cut broccoli and cauliflower into florets. Shell peas, trim the ends of green beans and asparagus. Dice or slice peeled carrots, squash, brussels sprouts, and large leaves of spinach, chard, and kale. Rhubarb should be trimmed of woody ends and diced.

Potatoes can be frozen, but benefit from being shredded. Think: hashbrowns. (Note: I personally don’t like freezing potatoes at home. The quality just isn’t as good.) Zucchini is another veggie with a high water content. It can be sliced or diced and frozen, but I prefer shredding it instead.

Corn and bananas are pretty versatile when it comes to freezing. Corn can be frozen whole or cut from the cob.  It’s totally up to you!  I think it’s one of the best veggies for freezing because the quality isn’t as affected by the cold temperatures.

Bananas can be frozen whole and unpeeled, or peeled and whole, or peeled and cut. They’re pretty fabulous that way! I can’t resist adding a frozen banana to my daily smoothie to sweeten it up without adding sugar.

After fruits and veggies have been peeled, sliced and diced, as needed, there are a few more preparation steps.

Secret #4: Most vegetables also need to be blanched before freezing. Blanching is nothing more than plunging vegetables into a pot of boiling water, letting them cook briefly (3-4 minutes max), and transferring them to a big bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.

Why is this important? Remember that mushiness I mentioned earlier? This will help with that, but it also helps maintain the color and nutrients, as well as killing any surface organisms that could lead to spoilage.

Corn (though you could), tomatoes, onions, potatoes (including sweet), and winter squash don’t need to be blanched. And neither do fruits.

Leafy greens don’t have to be cooked, but they can be. But one thing is for sure, quickly sauteing spinach, for instance, really saves on space! Pictured above is four ounces of spinach cooked and fresh.

Something I saw a few months ago (and a few of you lovely readers mentioned to me) that I think is brilliant, is making spinach ice cubes to add to smoothies. I usually just put the greens into my smoothie packs, but I finally tried this and I’m hooked! Simply add a whole bunch of leafy greens to a blender with enough water to make a smooth puree and freeze. Easy peasy!

I also like to roast some foods before I freeze them. I’ve done this with tomatillos, plums, tomatoes, and peppers. I will either puree them into a sauce or freeze them as is, juices and all.

Secret #5: In canning, foods are treated with citric acid, lemon juice, or ascorbic acid to help kill microorganisms and prevent discoloration. The same rings true with freezing. Think of all of your favorite fruits that turn brown after being cut — bananas, avocado, peaches and nectarines, apples, etc.  They benefit from a quick dip into acidulated water.

Make a solution of 1/2 teaspoon ascorbic acid (found in the pharmacy or canning section of grocery stores) per 3 Tablespoons of water, or 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice in 4 cups (1 quart) water. Sprinkle or dip the fruit with the solution and let dry.

How to Freeze Produce

First up, Dry Pack freezing, where we start by talking about IQF, or Individually Quick Frozen. The idea behind this is simple: if a fruit/veggie is frozen in a single layer (whole or sliced), it will freeze more quickly. Secret #6: Freezing quickly is great because a) fruits and veggies are easy to thaw out if they aren’t frozen together in a big lump, and b) the quality is better after thawing.

All you do is place everything you want to freeze in a single layer on a lined baking sheet. Lined, so that what you’re freezing doesn’t stick to the pan.

The goal is to freeze the food as quickly as possible. Adjusting the temperature of the freezer ahead of time is a good idea. You want to ensure that it’s as cold as possible — at least 0 degrees F or lower. You also want to make sure there is plenty of air circulation for even freezing, so it’s better not to layer a bunch of bags or containers in the freezer at once. Doing it over the course of a day or a few days is a good idea.

Be sure to not open the freezer as the produce is freezing on the baking sheets. You really want them to freeze as quickly as possible without fluctuating temperatures. When the food is frozen, transfer to containers or bags and place the bags back in the freezer.

Removing air from containers and bags will help keep frozen food last that much longer and help prevent hoar frost from forming.

Secret #7: Another option is Wet Pack freezing, or freezing fruit in a sugar syrup. The recipe for the syrup is the same as you’d use when canning. All of the steps are the same as with canning, except no cooking needed. It’s so easy to do!

Of course I can’t talk about freezing produce without talking about freezer jam. In the winter months, it’s really wonderful to pull out a jar or container of freezer jam made from summer fruit. We really enjoy making jam at our house and it is another great way to enjoy frozen fruit.

I also freeze fruit and vegetable purees (including baby food when my kids were tiny), soups, sauces and other condiments, like fresh salsa.

How to Label & Store Frozen Produce

Secret #8: You’ll want to label the bags and containers with the date and the contents. You might think you’ll remember what it is, but six months down the road it might be more difficult to remember what was in each bag or container.

Freezer tape will stay on the containers despite the cold temperature and the moisture. I like to run tape around the containers too, to keep out air and prevent hoar frost. Wrapping bags and containers in foil and taping will also help with that.

I like to use resealable freezer bags a lot when I freeze produce. They’re easy and inexpensive. Secret #9: Both bags and containers should be packed full. Remove as much air as possible. A trick I learned is to use a straw to suck all of the air from the bag and then quickly close it.

For containers, removing air is a bit challenge without the help of a vacuum device. A vacuum sealer is definitely the way to go for long-term storage — both for bags and containers. It is worth the extra expense to purchase a device if you do a lot of freezing. Removing the extra air and sealing fruit and veggies individually in plastic packaging yields a lot better results than the freezer bags alone. (My grandma swears by it!)

Secret #10: When using containers, be sure to leave enough headspace to allow for the liquids to expand as it freezes.

Storage Time & Thawing Instructions for Frozen Fruits & Vegetables

Typically in a basic freezer, frozen fruits and veggies will last a very long time. As time passes, the food doesn’t become inedible, but the quality does deteriorate. If you plan on keeping frozen foods for a long time, a deep freeze might be a better bet as it has lower temperatures and is opened less often.

Secret #11: Fruit will keep well for a year, and veggies will keep for about 18 months. (I’ve had some keep for much, much longer.)

When thawing, know that fruits are better eaten when still a little frozen so they aren’t completely mushy. Or you can cook them into sauces, or add them to smoothies. Vegetables are best cooked straight from the freezer, no thawing.

Some vegetables suffer no ill effects from freezing — corn and peas, particularly. Others will be better in recipes where they will break down and be consumed in smaller pieces, like soups, stews and sauces. There’s nothing easier than pulling a bag of broccoli, carrots and cauliflower straight out of the freezer and toss them right into a Thai curry.

Well there we have it. Everything you need to know about freezing fruits and vegetables for smoothies, and getting your summer harvest stocked away for the winter, .

What about you? Does all this talk about freezing fruits and veggies take you right back to summers at your grandma’s house? Do you prefer canning? Any tips or secrets you’ve learned along the way? Oh. And for those who’ve asked, here’s our favorite blender. I’d love to know!

P.S. — Favorite kitchen tools.

Don’t have time right now to start freezing produce? Pin this for later:

Created by Lindsey Rose Johnson for Design Mom.

The post Freezing Produce for Smoothies: 11 Tips & Secrets appeared first on Design Mom.

Afterwards, when you are entertaining dinner guests, or simply tossing a salad on an any-old-Tuesday, these colorful utensils will brighten your day.

If you’re anything like me, you’re going to want to make extras. They’re so much fun to make that both children and adults will want to try variation after variation. Plus, you can use all the extras for gifts!

Supplies:
– Craft Paint
– Masking Tape
– Paint Brushes
– Scissors
– Wooden spoons or wooden utensils — new or old
– Optional: Wood Safe Sealant or Shellac Coat

Prepare a work surface for painting with a protective layer of paper to catch drips and smudges. Also, prepare your work area by arranging your paints, paintbrushes, water, masking tape, scissors and wooden utensils for painting.

First up, STRIPES for the grownups.

Choose the paint color you want to start with and tape as many stripes as you’d like up and down the wooden utensil’s handle. Press the edges of the tape firmly so that paint can’t slip under the tape. Do your best to make the taped sections parallel.

Now, it’s time to paint. Paint the exposed wood in your first color, then place the utensil, with the painted handle up, in a cup to dry.

Once the utensil has dried, carefully, carefully pull back the tape.

Then add more tape where you want to make more stripes for color number 2. Once again, let it dry and carefully remove the tape.

Keep repeating this process until you’ve added all the colored stripes you’d like. Easy peasy!

Optional: If you’d like to protect those carefully made stripes, you can coat them with a wood safe sealant or a shellac.

Once dry, your stripe-y spoons are now ready to use. (Or gift to a lucky friend!)

Next, DIPPED utensils for the kids.

This is actually a faux “dipping” approach. Begin by asking your child how much of the handle they want to paint and wrapping a piece of masking tape around the handle wherever they choose. Just like above, press the edges of the tape well to ensure that paint doesn’t slip underneath it. Repeat on any wooden utensils your child will paint.

Now, it’s time to paint. Carefully dip your paint brush and begin painting the handle making sure that the paint isn’t too thick. Give a little extra attention to make sure your eager painter stops when they reach the masking tape!

Just like above, place the utensil in a cup, with the painted handle up, and let it dry completely. Once the utensil has dried, remove it from the cup and carefully, carefully pull back the tape, and you are done!

By the way, when you remove the tape, if you have any uneven edges, no stress. Simply tape again (above and below the area you’d like to change) and re-paint.

Time for play!

I hope you enjoy making these as much as we did. If you give it a try, we’d love to hear about the fun you’ve had together!

P.S. — Find all the posts in the Big & Small series here.

Images and text by Gina Vide for Design Mom.

The post Big & Small DIY: Painted Spoons appeared first on Design Mom.

Who lives in this home? Well, let’s see. There’s me, and my husband Vince, and our daughter Madeleine. We also have a dog, Hank, who is very, very bad, and a cat, Spike, who is not.

I am a former corporate communications writer (I’m sorry, I see that you just fell asleep) turned interior decorator, stylist, and blogger. In fact, my one-year anniversary of leaving that corporate job is in just a few days, so yay to that! It’s been quite an adventure. My husband Vince Chao is also self-employed. He does something something with some things in China. There is possibly manufacturing involved. (I like to tell people that he exports potato chips and imports fake mustaches.) And finally, there is Madeleine, our only child, who is sixteen and a junior in high school. I’ll say one more thing about that, and then you will understand why I have to be medicated some days: she drives. A car.

Our house is located in a part of our small Louisiana town called the Garden District — historical, beautiful, quiet, tree-lined, super-close to Mad’s school — and it’s a place I have always, always wanted to live. So when we began looking for a house to buy in 2003, I knew exactly where to go. The house we ended up with was actually not even on the market at the time, but I just knew it was THE ONE, and I somehow inveigled the owners into selling it.

The house was built in 1945 and, while charming, was badly in need of several updates. So we saved and saved and made lots of notebook drawings and charts and spreadsheets and had some fights, and finally updated the kitchen. After that, I was hooked on renovation, and we’ve tackled at least one room a year since.

We are currently on our VERY LAST ROOM, the master bath. It’s currently nothing but a sub-floor and studs. After that’s done I guess we will just have to pack up and move.

The first and most important tip I would give is: less is more, y’all. Just take it all out. If you have eighteen thousand tchotchkes on your bookshelves, your bookshelves are going to look terrible and be hell to dust. If your desk is a tangle of cheap plywood and cords in the middle of your living room, I am going to have to ask you to remove it. The ceramic light-up Statue of Liberty that your in-laws brought you from New York that you secretly hate? I am sorry, but you cannot have that anymore. Oh my gosh, isn’t it crazy that it just got LOST somehow? You’re devastated. I’m just saying, the cleaner and clearer a room is, the better it’s going to look.

Tip Two: Use beautiful but hard-wearing materials: leather, jute, cowhide, cotton canvas, velvet, hardwood, wool, etc. The most beaten-up items in my house, by far, are the ones in Madeleine’s room, but that jute rug and pine IKEA desk just keep on ticking. My sofa’s white cotton duck slipcover was made in 1981. It doesn’t have a working zipper on the back anymore, but it still looks pretty good after years of washing and bleaching.

Tip three is a tie between a) don’t underestimate the power of paint, and b) don’t buy an item just to fill a space. The paint thing is self-explanatory — everything looks better with a fresh coat, right? The other one is more difficult to carry out, but listen: why are you spending $300 on bedside tables when the ones you actually want cost $600? Save the $300 and then save some more and buy the ones you REALLY want and love. In fact, don’t buy anything unless you love it. That is how you get a beautiful, well-designed, impeccably-collected house. And I know what I’m talking about, because I have been using twelve-dollar IKEA stools as bedside tables for the past forever.

Those of you with older kids will be laughing at this one. Madeleine has gone through multiple phases of style, from preppy to emo to vintage to hipster to neo-grunge-post-modern-Japanese (I made that one up). I don’t know who she is from day to day, sometimes. And she definitely has her own ideas when it comes to design.

But overall, she’s got pretty good taste, she understands the importance of line and scale, and she can style a vignette like a tiny little Jonathan Adler. I don’t know if she gets it from growing up with me, or if it is just hereditary (my mother is an exquisite but ruthless editor, herself). I’m really enjoying watching her style develop into its own amazing Madeleine-ness, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

There are rough patches raising any girl, but the worst I can remember is when Madeleine was in junior high, and she and her friends had, oh, just a TINY BIT of an eyeliner problem. If you had done a study that year of the sentence I said the most, the winner would have been “TAKE OFF THAT EYELINER RIGHT NOW YOU ARE GOING TO SCHOOL NOT A RAVE WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU.”

And just when I thought things couldn’t possibly change or get any better, they did. And then she was in high school and went on dates and got a drivers’ license and is going to be a senior next year and I don’t want to talk about it.

The screened-in porch and kitchen, hands down. They’re the best, most comfortable places to congregate, and they are where the food and drinks are. And we do a lot of eating and drinking down here. Sometimes people have guitars, and there are sing-a-longs. Sometimes a person pretends she is Gladys Knight and enlists others to act as her Pips. I do not know that person.

It’s so easy to get all mad about the small stuff — and it doesn’t MATTER in the long run, so let it go. And you can do that with a teenager! They don’t need you to feed, bathe, clothe, or help them, nor do they want you to. So don’t get all aggro if their rooms aren’t totally clean at all times — teenagers throw clothes around and have a lot of Styrofoam cups. Give them a bunch of chores on the weekend, one of which is cleaning their dumb horrible bedroom with the forty Sonic drinks in it. On the other hand, don’t be letting your baby out of the house with a flask and hot-pants. It’s all about balance.

Oh, and keep a lot of food in the house. The grosser the snacks, the better (I’m looking at you, Totino’s Frozen Pizza.).

I am so excited about Dewit Design Camp. The term “Dewit” comes from my friends making fun of me for the very Southern way I say “Do it” — something I say a lot, because I am kind of bossy about the correct way to do things.

Through my blog, I hear from so many people who are into interior design and want to hire a decorator, but don’t necessarily have the desire/disposable income for that kind of commitment. So, Dewit Design Camp is a weekend design boot camp-type situation, where along with the basics of design, campers will learn how to make inspiration boards and layouts — and learn about all the paint colors and furniture and lighting and window treatments that go into those things — and then drop all that knowledge onto their own homes. It’s their chance to DEWIT!

Camp will also cover things like using and re-purposing existing items, common mistakes, budgeting, regular styling, floral styling, and shooting interiors. So, you know, EVERYTHING. This thing is going to be so much fun, and I cannot wait for the first one (which is in New Orleans the second weekend of May and there are only five spots left, I am just telling you). Also, there will be adorable swag. And lunch. And probably cupcakes.

I wish I had known that all shdes of white aren’t the same. That oil paint really does take that long to dry. That one original beats ten knock-offs. That burr coffee grinders are superior to all other grinders. That mayonnaise is just totally necessary on a shrimp po-boy. That only children are spoiled just a little bit. That long-distance running sometimes makes your toenails fall off.

—-

Thank you so much, AB! I can’t wait to hear all the rave reviews from your Design Camp; it’s sure to be a hit! Send our thank yous to Madeleine, as well, for opening up her room to us and being such a gorgeous model.

I think AB’s right. One original does beat ten knock-offs. And about less being more. And about just chilling. And about how a messy room doesn’t matter in the long run. Before you know it, they’ve got drivers’ licenses and dates. For those of you living with young kids, how do you feel about someday living with teenagers? Oh! I think I need a tissue!

P.S. — You can find all the homes in my Living With Kids series here.

The post Living With Kids: AB Chao appeared first on Design Mom.

Don’t you think this would be a fantastic fit in the room of a fierce little girl? Or in one of sisters whose loves gets a bit tangled up sometimes?

P.S. — This series — illustrated quotes from children’s books — is a collaboration with hand-drawn type illustrator Emily McDowell. You can find the whole series here.

By Carter Higgins for Design Mom.

The post A Midsummer Night’s Dream Quote appeared first on Design Mom.

A good rotisserie chicken is probably our favorite quick dinner — just grab a baguette, some fruit and cheese, and maybe a few fun drinks, and you’ve got yourself an easy meal. Bonus: it’s also one you can take on the road for a picnic or to eat while you watch your child’s soccer game from the sidelines. And it’s so much better than hitting up the drive-thru.

Something about this meal always feels festive — casual + sophisticated at the same time. And it pleases everyone in the family!

The great thing about slow cooking a chicken this way is that it ends up very juicy and flavorful. True, you don’t get the golden brown skin, but you get just as much flavor as you would with traditional roasting methods. The parchment paper is a little trick that will help keep the chicken from drying out. This same trick can be used for cooking pot roast or pork loin in the slow cooker too, so file that away for later!

No liquid is added to the slow cooker because we don’t want the chicken to get mushy. It will release a lot of liquid as it cooks, and the slow cooker is lined with a sliced onion, which will also provide liquid as it cooks. This is a much shorter cooking time, but makes for a really juicy chicken that isn’t under — or over — cooked. No one likes over-cooked chicken!

The juices are really good, so be sure not to throw those away. Just like with Thanksgiving turkey, you can make a brilliant broth after all the meat has been removed. Just pop it back into the slow cooker and fill it up with water and you’ll have some amazing stock for soup or gravy.

Hungry yet? Let’s get started.

Slow Cooker Rotisserie-Style Whole Chicken

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, between 3-5 lbs, giblets removed
1 extra large onion, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns (or 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper)
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
pinch cayenne pepper

Instructions:
1. Have a slow cooker, a large piece of parchment paper, and a piece of kitchen twine ready.
2. Combine the salt and spices together in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder.
3. Pat chicken dry outside and inside. Season well inside the cavity and evenly over the entire chicken. Use the twine to tie the legs together. Place the onion slices in the bottom of the slow cooker and put the chicken on top. Press the parchment paper against the chicken and tuck it down against the sides. Put lid on slow cooker and set to LOW for 4 hours, or HIGH for 2 hours. Don’t take off the lid!
4. After the end of cooking time remove the parchment paper and transfer to a serving platter. Slice and serve. Reserve the juices in the slow cooker for another use or turn into gravy.

Yields about 6-8 servings.

TIPS AND NOTES
– You don’t need to add water to the slow cooker. The chicken will release plenty of juices as will the onion on the bottom of the slow cooker.
– The parchment paper helps keep the chicken from drying out.
– Tying the legs with twine helps ensure even cooking.
– For a lower fat version, remove the skin from the entire chicken and proceed with the recipe directions.
– After most of the chicken has been removed from the bones, you can put everything back into the slow cooker with the juices and onion. Fill up the slow cooker with water and place on LOW for 8-10 hours to make a flavorful homemade stock.
– Substitute any spice blend for the spices listed. Ready-made poultry seasoning is a great substitute, as is Cajun seasoning, for a spicier chicken.
– This can be modified for slow cooking in a traditional oven by placing the chicken in a Dutch oven with the parchment paper and cooking at 300 degrees F for 2-3 hours.

P.S. — More slow cooker recipes that my family loves.

Created by Lindsey Rose Johnson. for Design Mom.

The post Slow Cooker Recipe: Rotisserie-Style Whole Chicken appeared first on Design Mom.

Here’s how it’s done.

Supplies:

–Wooden craft sticks
–Permanent markers
–Modge Podge or white glue (if you want to go for the real stuff, wood glue is perfection)
–Small wooden pendent
–Jump Ring & Key Ring
–Very sharp cutting blade
–Sandpaper
–Electric drill with small drill bit

Color the wooden sticks in your desired shade(s).

Cut the sticks down to get the most coverage out of each stick. Cover the pendent with a layer of glue and adhere the colored sticks. Allow to fully dry.

Using the very sharp cutting blade, trim off the excess wooden sticks. This takes a number of swipes with the blade. Just be patient, push hard and soon enough, the edges will be cleaned up. Use the sand paper to smooth the edges.

Use the drill bit to make a hole for the jump ring.

Before I attached the jump ring, I topped the key chain with Modge Podge.

Attach the jump ring and, if necessary, attach to the key ring.

Attach to keys or a backpack zipper and enjoy the pop of color and design.

——-

THIS IDEA WOULD ALSO BE GREAT FOR:

– A craft activity at a tween or teen birthday party.
– Using as statement necklace instead of a keychain.

P.S. — We love making gifts! You can find all the posts in this series here.

By Amy Christie for Design Mom.

The post DIY Wooden Keychain Craft appeared first on Design Mom.

And when she sent me many, many dozens scenes from her daily life, I spent a good afternoon poring over them. I had to beg Mary to edit them down for me because I simply could not! This tour would have included at least 750 photos! Because, Friends, this life of the Heffernans is pretty lovely. And busy. And thoughtful. And supremely well-designed. I love it all, and I hope it just makes your day, too.

Hello! I’m Mary Heffernan, a mom and small town business owner and a country girl at heart. My husband Brian is a manly mountain man who is surrounded by a crazy wife and four independent, strong-willed little girls. Luckily, they tend to be tomboys and are out there hunting and fishing with him, so he couldn’t be happier. Brian and I met in 2006 at a charity event, where he was on the board and I was volunteering. Eight years later, we have four daughters and a fun and crazy life together, running a range of small businesses in Los Altos, California.

All four of our girls are named Mary, which makes traveling interesting! They are all named after different grandmothers, as we are both from big Catholic families with a lot of Marys! Our eldest, MaryFrances or Francie, is six and the leader of the pack. MaryMarjorie or Maisie, is four and a sweet, maternal soul. MaryJane or JJ is the wild child at three and full of personality and outfit changes. MaryTeresa, Tessa, is one year old and packs a punch to keep up with those big sisters! We have a chocolate lab named Moose, and three Navajo Churro rams on our ranch named Chief Big Horn, Geronimo, and Eugene.

My husband and I are both native Californians – my girls are 7th generation stock to Northern California! – and love the outdoors and wide open spaces. We live in the city, but our roots are in agriculture and farming on both sides. We escape to our ranch in Siskiyou County as often as possible to raise free range kids and – soon! – free range cattle and chickens to serve in our restaurants.

We feel very lucky to be stewards of this old house full of history. It was built in 1910 by a Southern Pacific Railroad executive for his wife, Rose Shoup, to raise their children when the area was nothing but apricot orchards and railroad tracks. Only three other families have lived here since then, so we are the fourth! The house was meticulously restored by the last family, the Jennings and their four children, to bring it back to life. We actually lived right next door while they restored it and got to watch the progress.

I grew up in a 100-year old house that my parents restored, so when the Jennings moved, we knew we had to raise our kids in that house. Now, my husband and I are slowly working on a big old house project on our ranch: fixing up an 1868 farm home built before electricity and running water. I guess you could say we are drawn to old houses and their stories. This house is on the historic registry, and we just hope to do it justice by filling it with family memories and lots of noise.

We love Los Altos! We live six blocks from our little downtown where my husband and I run our family-centric businesses. It’s a small town feel, but also close to so many great places: 45 minutes to San Francisco and just a few miles from Stanford, Palo Alto, and all the Silicon Valley hot spots. Our house backs up to Redwood Grove Nature Preserve and a great park, both with a creek running through. It’s a place which means hours of entertainment for my kids and where I also have many memories playing as a child.

The downtown has really seen a transformation over the past several years and we love being a part of it. There are so many families with young children in the area, and it’s a really great community to live and do business in. The weather is great, and we walk to town for work and school most days.

Our businesses are built around family. We know people value good services and good food and try to offer both! Twelve years ago I started my first business, a tutoring company called Academic Trainers, and I met my husband when he was a lawyer in the area.

Since then, we have opened two restaurants, Bumble Los Altos and Forest on First, that center around locally grown, healthy ingredients and a welcoming environment for families to feel comfortable bringing kids out to eat. We have a playroom in Bumble staffed with attendants to entertain kids while parents finish their meal in peace, and Forest on First has a gorgeous redwood and natural eucalyptus treehouse play structure with more casual cafe fare and an all-natural juice bar.

We also have a creative DIY supply and class shop called The Makery that is really fun and my happy place to craft and be inspired by the latest, coolest stuff made by our vendors and in-house staff! The Botanist is for all things beautifully botanical, like succulents and home decor and flea market finds galore. There’s a throwback arcade called Area 151, and an old school hobby shop called Red Racer, and a children’s drop-in class space called PLAY.

We are working on another restaurant to open this summer called The Alley with a local Michelin star chef, Marty Cattaneo – who I grew up with – to do really awesome burgers and locally produced fare.

And yes I know this seems a little insane – some days it is! But since most of the businesses are in the same town, it’s more like running one big business for our very loyal customers. Instead of taking one good idea and doing it multiple places, we found a captive audience hungry for good businesses and did multiple ideas in one place. It’s a great town for business!

My husband and I certainly spend a lot of time together, so we try to balance it without driving each other crazy! He is the morning bird and wakes up early every day to get things prepared for the day. My downtime is staying under my down comforter a little longer!

We both walk the girls to school in the morning, then head to work. We are very fortunate my sweet cousin Emmy watches the babies and brings them to music class or for a snack at the restaurants, so we get to see them a bit during the day. My husband and I start our work day with breakfast together and our laptops at Bumble, then head to various meetings or dealings with employee issues and pow wows for what’s up next.

We wind down with a house full of kids to feed and sit down as a family for dinner every night if we can, even if we end up having to order in pizza or clean out the fridge for kid snacks! Our girls are night owls like I am, so I usually wrangle bath time and talk them into going to sleep. Working together was a bit of an adjustment for sure, but once you get used to seeing each other ALL day, it’s hard to imagine going back!

The house has a lot of period specific style. We try to stay true to the craftsman style and work with a lot of beautiful, dark woodwork. The kitchen is a bright white open space for gathering and family chaos.

When the house was built, the kitchen was very small and mostly used for the staff to prepare meals for the first owners, the Shoups. My, how times have changed! Now it is the gathering place for entertaining our family and friends.

My husband is the cook in the family and we love to wind down in the kitchen with the girls, usually throwing food around or dancing half-dressed around the island. It’s never quiet in our house!

Many of the colors were here in the house when we moved in, but I painted a few rooms a little more neutral. But I am a big fan of color and saturation! I think the house needs some deep color to compliment the beautiful dark wood that has all been stripped back to original wood after being painted white at one point! It works here.

Any changes? Maybe picking this house up and moving it to the country with wide open spaces around it!

My mom, aunts, and grandmother were big antique collectors, and I have inherited many of their pieces. I went to college in Virginia and found some neat stuff there to fill my little college house I shared with seven friends. Now, I love to scour flea markets and collectible sales!

Alameda Antique Fair is always a good bet, and last year we took a trip to Canton, Texas for First Monday Trade Days to fill a U-Haul for The Botanist. We found some really amazing stuff and the prices couldn’t be beat.

Right now my favorite collection is vintage kilim rugs. I have them in almost every room in the ranch cabin, and somehow still feel the need for more! I am not very good at cutting myself off from a collection; I like to repurpose and put the old ones someplace new to make room for new ones. Sometimes they even end up for sale at one of the businesses!

I hope they remember playing with each other, cementing those long-lasting, sisterly bonds outdoors and in the sunny windows of our home. We don’t have a working TV – it’s been too complicated to set up since we moved in, so we gave up and got used to it! – so they spend a lot of time creating games and forts or stirring up a ruckus with the neighbor girls, who also have four girls under the age of seven!

I only hope I can be half the mom to my girls that my mom was to me! The get-on-the-floor-to-play-board-games kinda mom. I hope technology hasn’t interfered too much so they remember me with an iPhone in my hand…but technology does allow me to work a lot and be a present mom during the day or when we travel, which I am very grateful for.

Living with four girls, each with their own distinct and strong personality is a new adventure everyday! I love when they all crowd around me to tell me about their day or latest discovery. It’s chaos and crazy, but I know I will miss these days and try to savor them. We entertain a lot, but my favorite days are hanging out at home, just our family, sitting on the front porch while the girls run around in the yard.

I am most surprised about how much of myself I see in them, especially Francie, the eldest, and how she knows just how to push my buttons! You can’t get much past her and I see so much of myself in her. She reminds me to find some patience, and it takes a lot of mental work to best figure out how to discipline or encourage her…I guess the oldest is usually the guinea pig on this front anyway, and she’s very tolerant of it!

I already miss so much about having a squishy newborn and all those baby stages! Now that Tessa is a growing toddler, I am missing the baby phase and all that comes with it…well MOST of what comes with it! I think we are good for now with four, but maybe a surprise baby down the road wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

I wish someone had told me to slow down and soak it in. I am trying to remember that, but life is so busy and crazy that I know I will look back and think I should have been more present for these early years.

They are very special times and I try to be there as much as I can, but working and life sure do get in the way. When we can escape to the ranch, life is so different and a much slower pace. It really makes me look at our busy life at home and want to press pause!

–-

Mary, I am the same way about about technology! I want my kids to remember me as present, but the fact is that I can be present more often with technology at my fingertips wherever I may be. Thank you for the tour; your home and life are dizzyingly delightful!

Friends, do any of you work with your partners, either in the same space, in the same business, or the same industry? How do you separate your personal relationship from your professional connection? Is that even possible? (For me, I consider it such a gift that I get the chance to work alongside Ben Blair on a daily basis. He is the very best partner-in-crime for me!)

P.S. – Take a peek at all the homes in my Living With Kids series here.

The post Living With Kids: Mary Heffernan appeared first on Design Mom.

For you Smalls, create a necklace with a wrapped washer, one for each year of your age, in whatever colors you like, and string them on a chain.

We’ve made these for a Mother’s Day gift, and made another set for ourselves — and we’ve been wearing them all the time!

In addition to Mother’s Day, the Small version would be a wonderful birthday tradition, don’t you think? Create the first necklace together and then, every year bind a new colorful disk and add it to your “small’s” necklace. The necklace would be a perfect gift for a friend too.

Let’s start creating!

Supplies:

– Washers
– Scissors
– Chain necklace
– Big: Waxed Linen
– Small: Embroidery Thread
– Super Glue, optional

For both types of necklaces, you’ll begin by cutting an arm’s length of thread. Fold this thread in half and insert the top loop of this thread into the middle of the washer. Draw the tail of the thread through the loop forming a connection. You will have a double length to use for wrapping, rather than a single thread.

Hold the washer with one hand and carefully begin binding the washer. You will want to bind it smoothly and evenly. To bind, insert the end of the thread into the middle of the washer, pulling it out tightly, laying this double thread smoothly across the surface of the washer and continuing in this way all the way around the washer until it was completely covered.

I found the best technique for binding was to hold the washer in my left hand, holding the already bound thread in place with my fingers, while using my right hand to do the binding. If you are right handed, reverse this. By looping the thread into the middle, I found that I could see the binding best and keep it the most even.

Those are the universal steps for both necklaces, but now we move into specific steps for each. We’ll start with the BIG necklace.

Continue to bind the washer until it is completely covered and tie off the final thread but do not cut the end. Bind as many washers as desired, finishing them all in the same way.

Once all the washers have been neatly bound and tied, you’ll attach them. Carefully clip the cord of one of the two disks, but leave the other tail long. Use that long thread to tie the two together, then wrap the thread through both holes three times, and end by tying a knot and clipping the excess — keep the knot on the back side of the washer.

If you do not have a long thread tail, simply cut a new length of thread, tie these two disks together with the the new piece and wrap this binding three times, then clip.

Continue connecting all disks together in this fashion until all of your washers are attached.

To finish, cut 2 new pieces of the this same thread. Each will serve as a side of the necklace. Cut these pieces accordingly — make these long enough for the necklace to sit at the correct length on your neck and also allow enough extra for tying a knot to the disks, and additional length for tying as a closure at the back of your neck.

Tie one piece of thread to the middle side of each side of the disks (one on the far left side of the left disk and one at the far right side of the right disk)

Waxed linen binds itself well but, if you are concerned with loose ends not holding or for extra wear, dot the end of the thread with super glue at the time. Let the glue dry.

Once dried, you Mother’s Necklace is ready for wearing! Enjoy!

Now it’s time for the SMALL tutorial.

When the washer is completely covered (using the direction above), tie off the final thread and carefully clip the knot. Bind as many washers as desired, finishing them all in the same way. If you are concerned with loose ends not holding or for extra wear-and-tear dot the end of the thread with super glue with adult supervision. Let the glue dry.

Once completely dry, thread the chain with these colored disks and close the clasp — and your necklace is ready for wearing!

Happy necklace-making!

P.S. — The Big & Small series is about projects grownups and kids can do together. There’s a more advanced (and some times more sophisticated) project for BIGS (those are the grownups), and a simpler, related project for SMALLS (those are the kids). We love thinking of you and your littles making them side by side. Find all the posts in the Big & Small series here.

Images and text by Gina Vide for Design Mom.

The post Big & Small DIY: Wrapped Washer Necklaces appeared first on Design Mom.

Which brings me to my 10 Shortcuts for Better Cooking. You may already know some of the tips I’m going to share with you, but even if you do, consider this a nice reminder. And it’s pretty great to have them listed in one place!

Let’s begin with one of the first shortcuts I learned even before I got married over 10 years ago. Shortcut #1: Buying chicken in bulk (this could be one big package, or several smaller ones) when it’s on sale is great for saving time, and helps my pocketbook too. Separate the chicken into resealable plastic freezer bags, and take it a step further by adding a marinade to the bag. Note: if you buy your chicken already frozen, this still works!

I have a rotating list of favorite marinades, and I spend about 30 minutes after I come home from the store to stir up the marinades and them add to the bags with the chicken.

Squeeze out any extra air, then seal the bags and freeze. When you need them for your menu, pull out the bags to thaw. I like to pull one out in the morning and let it thaw in a bowl in the fridge. As the chicken is thawing, it’s also marinating. By dinner time, it’s ready to go!

And hey, I mention chicken here, but of course, this same technique works for any meat.

Here’s another shortcut I also use on a weekly basis. Shortcut #2: Cooking big batches of healthy rice, quinoa, legumes, sauces and soups — and then freezing them in individual, smaller bags. This is so easy to do and great for when I’m in a hurry.

If I freeze them flat, they thaw out quickly in a bowl of warm water and are ready to go in a few minutes. Or if I remember to put one in the fridge first thing in the morning, it will thaw out all day. If you think about it, your whole meal could already be cooked, in the freezer, and ready to be thawed out or warmed up. Brings new meaning to freezer meals, doesn’t it?

Slow cookers (you didn’t abandon yours, did you? : ) are really good for cooking large batches. I do regular batches of slow cooker black beans and freeze them. We’ll eat some freshly cooked for dinner that night, and then I put the leftovers in resealable bags. It’s just as easy as opening a can of black beans, but fresher — and cheaper!

Shortcut #3: Something I’ve been doing for a little while (and is totally trendy right now!) is to make my own smoothie packs. It makes things infinitely easier for me in the morning if I have a smoothie pack ready to go.

Purchase fruit in bulk or on sale and freeze your favorite combinations together in bags. I like to add fresh leafy greens from my CSA to mine, but if you don’t have access to fresh greens, places like Trader Joe’s have frozen spinach and kale that is great to add to your packs.

In the morning, put everything in the blender, add some juice, yogurt, water or milk and you’ve got a healthy smoothie for you and the kids.

We’ve tackled a few bigger dinner menu items, and helped you about with breakfast, but let’s talk now about the flavor components of recipes.

I’ve been known to groan when I’m mid-recipe and notice that what I’m making calls for fresh garlic. One of several things happens: A) I’m out of it, B) I don’t want to take time from what I’m doing to chop one measely clove of garlic, or C) My knives and cutting board are dirty and I don’t want to wash them. Okay, B and C are pure laziness, but still.

So, Shortcut #4 is buy some in a jar from the store (I’ll say it — the jarred version can be too strong and sometimes nasty). Or — do this instead! — you can prepare your own jar of garlic ahead of time and keep it in the fridge. (Edit:  there seems to be a chance that storing garlic in oil can cause food borne illness.  See the comments for more info.  Freezing as with the herbs and garlic seems like a safer bet.)

Peel the garlic and simply chop a few heads in a food processor or put them through a garlic press, put in a jar and top with olive oil. Much better than the store bought! You could do this once a week or every other week depending on how often you cook with garlic. If you’ve planned your menu ahead of time, then you’ll even know how much you’ll need for the week and can prep accordingly.

You can even add herbs to the garlic, which leads me to the next shortcut.

Shortcut #5: Chop fresh herbs, top with olive oil and freeze in ice cube trays. Brilliant, right? Maybe you’ve seen that kicking around Pinterest. It’s such a great, time-saving idea!

The cubes can be tossed into sauces and soups. Or put one or two on hot cooked pasta. Or toss a couple in with rice while it’s cooking. Fresh herbs really add a lot of flavor, but sometimes they might wilt before you can use them all. This is the perfect solution.

Ice cube trays also come in handy for our next two secrets.

Shortcut #6: Sometimes I might only need 1/2 cup for a recipe, but leftover wine doesn’t last more than a few days in the fridge. Freezing extra wine in ice cube trays is a great way to curb the wasted wine. (If I drank wine this wouldn’t be a problem, I’m sure.)

For times when you only need a little wine in a recipe or maybe you’ve made a killer sangria and you don’t want to water it down, use the frozen wine cubes.

Shortcut #7: Store-bought bottled ginger doesn’t taste as good to me as fresh, but along with chopping garlic, grating ginger is one of my least favorite kitchen prep tasks. The answer is very similar to the garlic, except that instead of a jar, I’m using my handy ice cube trays again. This keeps the ginger much fresher.

Simply grate it (I used my grating disk for my food processor) and place tablespoon-sized spoonfuls in the wells and freeze. Pop them out and put them in a resealable bag.

My next shortcut involves butter and a cheese grater. I learned this tip from my husband’s cousin as he had a sudden craving for lemon bars. Shortcut #8: He grated cold butter into the dry ingredients and the crust was ready in a flash.  No pastry cutter needed, which is a kitchen tool not everyone has on hand.

Bonus: This also works for pie crust or if you want to quickly soften butter for cookies or cakes without using the microwave.

Shortcut #9: Kitchen shears are one of my all time favorite time-saving kitchen tools. Skip the knife when you’re chopping smaller amounts of herbs and snip them into little bits.  You’ll be amazing at how quick this is.

Other ways to use the shears over a knife? Cutting tortillas and quesadillas is very easy with kitchen shears. So is cutting chicken into pieces. It’s easier to snip homemade candy like caramels, marshmallows and taffy into bite size pieces.  Kitchen shears are also great for snipping dried fruit into bits, as well as cutting raw or cooked bacon into small pieces or trimming fat from meat.

The last one is another favorite tip that I use all the time. My family likes roasted root vegetables quite a lot. We eat them on a weekly basis. It can take a very long time to wait for the oven to heat up and then for the veggies to roast until they are tender enough to eat. Shortcut #10: Parboiling the vegetables cuts the time in half!

Toss the veggies with a little olive oil and stick under the broiler to finish them off. You’ll wonder why you ever did it any other way. Similarly, you can also microwave diced onions to help them soften and caramelize more quickly, then finish them off in a skillet.

Okay lovely Design Mom Readers, I’ve shared my favorite cooking shortcuts. Now, what are your favorites?

P.S. — You can find all of posts in the Living Well series here.

Created by Lindsey Johnson for Design Mom.

The post Ten Shortcuts For Better Cooking appeared first on Design Mom.

Thinking about all of this reminded me of an old snapshot of my Granny, standing in a field of sunflowers and sticking her tongue out. I think Jane might get a kick out of that! How about you? Would you rather be happy than dignified? I also bet these sentiments can align without separation, and what a beautiful picture that is, too, right?!

P.S. – What a thrill to have Emily McDowell’s lettering work back on Design Mom!

By Carter Higgins for Design Mom.

The post Jane Eyre Quote appeared first on Design Mom.

There’s some practical goodness in here, too, especially for those of you who may find yourselves on edge whenever the paints come down off the tip top shelf! Megan runs a design company that specializes in helping people set up kids’ art spaces, and she completely understands that not everyone enjoys a Jackson Pollock-esque living room at the end of a creative session. Enjoy the tour, Friends!

I live in a small cottage in Mill Valley, California with my loving husband, Aaron, our 16-year-old dog Shanti, and  our two little girls, Karuna and Ora. Karuna recently turned six, but could pass for 36 by the way she nurtures her little sister Ora, who is two. Whenever I leave them with a babysitter, Ora says, “Okay, Ra-Ra will be my mommy.” Ora is a spunky little girl, completely opposite of her sister, so they make a great duo!

Aaron and I met in college at a bar. It was the day after I returned from a solo trip through Europe and the Middle East.  According to him, I was emanating a traveller’s cheerful, free-spirited vibe. When I first saw him, he was sitting across the room, smiling at me like we had known each other forever. He had this look in his eye and huge dimples that drew me in. I have been smitten ever since.

We live in my grandmother’s old house that we rent from my father. I grew up in Oakland and would come out here often to visit, but I never thought I’d want to live here. I guess I was a city girl and couldn’t imagine settling down in the suburbs. It wasn’t until I got married and started thinking about having kids that Mill Valley suddenly became our dream destination. We begged my dad to rent this house to us – otherwise there was no way we could afford to live here – but he already had a tenant who had looked after my grandmother before she passed away, and he wasn’t about to displace her.

At this time, we were living about an hour north in Santa Rosa, and Aaron was commuting to San Francisco every day. We talked more and more about trying to find an affordable place in Marin County, not only to be closer to his work but also to his brother who lived here with his wife and two kids.

Here’s the crazy part of the story! As we were figuring all of this out, my brother-in-law’s wife tragically passed away after the birth of her third child. We packed up our things and immediately moved to Marin, sleeping on couches, to be with our family and help take care of our new baby nephew and his siblings. Three days later, my dad called and asked me, “Do you believe in serendipity?” I said, “Yes, why?” and he proceeded to tell me that after more than 15 years of living here, his tenant suddenly decided to move to Illinois. She would be moving out in a few weeks and we could finally live in my grandmother’s cottage, only ten minutes from our brother-in-law where we would be spending most of our time for the next year. I can’t help but think my late sister-in-law and maybe even my grandmother had something to do with this turn of events.

Mill Valley is incredibly unique. It’s ten minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge, nestled at the foot of Mt. Tamalpais, with gorgeous hiking trails and redwood trees, wedged between the beautiful Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Although our little town is starting to become a suburb for the San Francisco tech workforce (with its expensive homes and boutique shops), I still feel it has held on to its old-fashioned quaintness, artsy vibe, and adventurous outdoor lifestyle.

We really lucked out with our neighborhood and the wonderful families that moved in with young kids when Karuna was little. Our kids have grown up together, and we always made it a priority to have a regular moms’ night out or Friday night pizza parties with the whole family. It really is a village when it comes to raising our kids. If Ora is napping when I need to pick up Karuna from school, I just pop my head out of the fence to look for a neighbor who is heading to school for pick up. I’ll yell across the street, “Can you get Karuna for me?” And ten minutes later, she is walking in the door.

From our house, we can walk to our elementary, middle, and high schools, to Whole Foods, to a variety of parks and creeks, to the quaint downtown for a good cup of coffee, or to see a show at the Sweetwater, which is an awesome, intimate venue backed by Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead. It really is a dreamy place!

For me, there are a few key design elements for living with young children. The first is an open concept, which we have only been able to achieve in our kitchen and dining space. We remodeled the kitchen when I was pregnant with Karuna, but dream of redoing the rest of the house someday…a perk of being related to the landlord!

The second element is playfulness. The bright colors, hanging hammock chair, ostrich wallpaper, and chalkboard wall are all ways we bring playful design into our home. Making room for creative expression is part of this playfulness, which is why we have turned our sunroom into an art studio for the girls.

The design element that has surprisingly impacted our lives more than anything else is our attempt at minimalism. The kid stuff seems to multiply on a daily basis, and I think I would go crazy if we didn’t have a system for purging and organizing.

Every few months we go through our problem areas like drawers, closets, and toy bins, take everything out, and only put back our favorite or necessary items. I get my kids to do this before birthdays and the holidays so that they have room for all their new toys, which gets them excited about purging.

The first time I tried this, I dumped Karuna’s toy bins into a cardboard box and told her to pick out only what she wanted to keep. I was shocked when she only took out a few of her favorite little figurines and a couple random toys. I found myself saying, “Are you sure you don’t want to keep this My Little Pony? Or what about these Calico Critters?” She knew what she wanted and she was so good at letting go of everything else! Now she’s used to this system, so even though she is more attached to some of her things, she’s okay with this process. I think she would have been a lot more resistant if I had started off by saying, “Pick out what you want to give away.”

My favorite time of day in my home is dinner. I love cooking for my family, and I’ve been trying to recruit my six-year-old to learn alongside me. But most of all, I love sitting down for dinner with everyone, expressing our gratitude and talking about our day. My kids like to hold hands before dinner and say something they are grateful for. They call this ritual family. “Let’s do family,” Ora says, as she reaches her arms out to hold our hands.

One decor item in our dining room that relates to this ritual is our gratitude/manifestation board. Inside the acrylic frame it says, “I’m so grateful for…” We use dry erase markers on the frame and write down things that we are thankful for, as well as things that we would like see to happen, and express gratitude for them as if they have already happened. I am a strong believer in manifestation! Our bedroom also has two small manifestation pin boards that my husband and I make every New Year. It’s so amazing to look at them at the end of the year to see how our hopes and dreams have manifested in our lives.

The Art Pantry is a design studio and resource for kids creative spaces and art exploration. I help people set up kids’ art spaces in homes and schools, and provide tools to keep kids engaged in the creative process. My background is in early childhood art education – I taught at Reggio-inspired preschools and ran a children’s art studio – but I am also in love with design. The Art Pantry is the best of both worlds!

As much as I wish we could all have a free-spirited art space in our homes, I know it’s not ideal for many families. But this doesn’t mean you can’t have a totally awesome, inspiring space. That’s why I love my work! I like the challenge of finding ways for families to have the idea of a free-spirited art space, while still making it work for their particular children and their lifestyle. This might mean limiting messier activities to the outdoors or creating a messy art bin that only comes out when everyone is willing to deal with the aftermath.

I will say that messy art gets a bad rap in terms of effort and cleanup, but it doesn’t have to be so scary. My go-to item for keeping messy art projects under control is a large, sturdy tray. My favorite one is the Ikea SMULA tray, which sells for around $1.99! It’s made of super sturdy plastic and is a translucent-whitish color that doesn’t compete with the colors of the art materials. When my girls are done with a messy project, I just throw everything on the tray, do a quick wipe-down of the table, and carry the tray over to my kitchen sink. If I have time, I will wash the tools and wipe down the tray. If I don’t have time, I just soak the tools in a cup on the tray and leave it for later.

The reason I started my art studio and my design services is because I strongly believe in teaching children at a young age how to use tools and materials to explore their world. I also believe in giving them autonomy in their creative process by making familiar supplies easily accessible. If you start kids young enough – ideally between 18 months to three years – all kids can learn how to experiment and respect the materials, learn to self-regulate, fall in love with the creative process, and gain important skills that will serve them throughout their lives. If you miss this age window, it becomes harder to get the non-artistic kids to feel comfortable and confident with these creative tools.

I love that I have been able to stay at home with my girls and follow my passions at the same time. I love that my daughters are watching me run a business and be creative and they get to be a huge part of that.

The most difficult part is finding a perfect balance. If I’m working a lot, I feel guilty that I’m not with the girls. If I’m with the girls a lot, I feel like I’m not getting anything done at work.

Meal planning has been important in this whole work/life balance. I used to scramble at dinnertime to figure out what to make. Then someone introduced us to The Fresh 20, a meal planning service, and it changed our lives. I don’t even use it very often anymore, but it gave me a foundation to do my own weekly meal planning. I try to plan out simple meals, shop ahead of time, and prep ingredients ahead of time. This makes our dinners easier, healthier, and so much more enjoyable.

My favorite part about living with kids is their unconditional optimism. They wake up every day with their little faces beaming with joy and excitement for life. What age does this go away? I hope not any time soon!

I love the toddler stage where the personality really comes out, but they still have the simple, snuggly qualities of a baby. I also love the newborn stage. The smell of a newborn’s head as it sleeps, curled up on your shoulder…irresistible!

I wish someone had told me that once you introduce TV into kids’ lives, it becomes an addiction. Not for them! For me!

Of course I knew that kids could get addicted to TV, but I didn’t realize that I would get addicted to letting them watch TV.  Working from home while being my children’s primary caregiver means that I rely far too much on the television. There are so many hours in the day and even if just one of them is filled with TV, the guilt sets in. Maybe one day I’ll be brave and just ban it for all of us!

–-

Ahh, yes. I think we’ve all relied on the television a time or two…hundred! Megan, thank you so much for telling us your story.

Friends, I’m particularly taken with Megan’s manifestation and gratitude board. Do you engage in a similar practice in your own homes? I’m all in when it comes to making family goals, but Megan’s simple dry erase markers and acrylic frame makes the process so simple and attainable, doesn’t it?

P.S. – Take a peek at all the homes in my Living With Kids series here.

The post Living With Kids: Megan Schiller appeared first on Design Mom.

How to start:

-Buy some decorator tips—not a whole set, just a few basic ones to start. Wilton is a great source for that. Find them online or in any craft of party supply store.

-Don’t worry about buying expensive pastry bags. You can use freezer Ziploc bags (because they are a little heavier). It makes for very easy clean-up.

-Find a picture of a cake you like and copy it.

-Practice! Make some icing and practice piping on a piece of parchment paper. Get a feel for which tips you like and the pressure you need to have on a bag and the consistency of icing.

-Experiment with different kinds of icings—it’s not all about piping. Not all icing is meant to be piped.

-Look for these icing recipes:
Seven-minute
Cream cheese
Chocolate Fudge
Ganaches
Glazes

-Play around with different types of cakes, too. Experiment with different fillings.

-Be creative! Explore! Personalize your cakes according to your own tastes and interests!

You can TOTALLY do it. It’s fun — like art class. Only you can lick your fingers! And this cake decorating how-to is only the beginning. Pretty soon it will be a “piece of cake.”

Credits: Written by Lindsey Rose Johnson.

The post Cake Decorating for Beginners appeared first on Design Mom.

Keep reading for the easy instructions.

Materials

1/3 yard Burlap (coffee or rice bags will work too)
Gardening string
Organic potting soil
Seeds
Scissors

Step 1: Cut burlap into 6.5” squares.

Step 2: Put a small handful of potting soil on each square.

Step 3: Liberally sprinkle seed mix onto potting soil.

Step 4: Gather the edges of the burlap up and tie shut with string.

Step 5: You are done! Bury the whole pocket in the ground and the seeds will grow through the burlap.

Warning: These little pockets are addictive to make. Happy planting!

6

Created by Helen of Curly Birds for Design Mom.

The post DIY: Flower Seed Pockets appeared first on Design Mom.

Find full instructions below.

For the dye, use food coloring drops, boiling water and vinegar, mixed. Give the boiled eggs a rubdown with vinegar before putting them in the dyebath, and they take the color more intensely. Click here for the best dyebath recipes and instructions.

For the découpage, use origami paper and tiny shaped hole punches. The origami paper is just the right weight — try punching out shapes in the spectrum of colors. Put some Mod Podge in a bowl, and use a sponge brush to apply Mod Podge to a section of the egg. Add the punched shapes (they’ll stick to the Mod Podge), then coat them again with more Mod Podge to secure them in place.

This is a great project for kids — not too messy and you can’t really get it wrong.

P.S. — When we made the eggs in these photos (April 6, 2007), my older 3 kids and I went through 4 dozen eggs and were still going strong, but then the babies woke up from their naps which meant the whole production had to be put away. I remember wishing I had reserved a dozen eggs to work on just by myself. It was very therapeutic. And pretty much every color combination and pattern had some merit about it, so the work was very satisfying as well.

The post Dyed Easter Eggs With Decoupaged Cutouts appeared first on Design Mom.