Taking a Little Break

Hi Friends! I wanted to let you know I've decided to take a little break from blogging. I'm getting the kids geared up for school and am searching for a job. I figure it's a nice time to take a week or two off and recollect. Thank you for supporting me and I'll see you soon!

The Second Home/ The Weekend Home

A couple of years ago, one of my dear friends gave me a specialty magazine called "Weekend Homes" that has turned into my favorite publication. It's filled with over-the-top beach houses (mostly at the Cape and the Islands). It's the sort of magazine that I pick up and flip through to wake up my *muse*. As I'm looking through it, I daydream and ask myself, "how can our house have this sort of feel? (note, my house is a lovely small cape, no massive 6,000 square foot Martha's Vineyard mansion, no worries!) One day I was in the car talking to my husband and I went off on a very long tangent about wanting our house to have a "second house" feel. Let me explain what I mean by this.

When I think "second house" I think a house that has the following characteristics: uncluttered, comfortable, a place for reading, piles of magazines, puzzles, easy meals, nothing in it you don't like, a radio playing (rather than flat screen tvs), a small manageable garden, the home you go to get away-from-it-all.....I could go on and on. You know the feeling - you go on vacation and you sit in the beach house thinking "ahhhhh". THIS is what I'm going for in my own home. THIS is why I love paring things down, keeping everything in the house simple and streamlined. Not because I'm some drill seargent organizer who must have everything in it's perfect place (whatever that is?), but wanting to have our house feel like we're on vacation, while in it.

Does that make sense to anyone? My husband thinks I should write a book called "first house as second house", or something along those lines.

Where oh where do YOU live?

Good morning, dear readers. I was just sitting here thinking "I wonder who reads this blog, anyway??" and thought it would be fun to ask you to leave a comment letting me know where you live. Just click on "comment" and leave your first name and your town. I've heard rumors of people as far as Germany and as close as Boston. Some of you are Penn State alumn, right? Go ahead, reveal yourself!

Ziplock BIG BAGS!

I love using Ziplock big bags to store seasonal things around the house: beach toys, winter bedding, guest room pillows...endless uses. Have you seen them? Used them? Let us know how you use yours! What's particularly great is how inexpensive they are. You can find them at Target or most grocery stores.

If you go to their website, http://www.ziploc.com/, you can sign up to receive a coupon to buy one, get one free. That way, you can try one of their 3 large sizes.

Happy storage! Go clean out those closets!

THOUGHTS OF THE DAY

"We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry." E. B. White

"Teach us delight in simple things..." R. Kipling

This is what this blog is ALL about!!

Time to Try on Fall Clothes

Yesterday I did one of my favorite things: pulling out the bins of fall/winter clothes and trying things on again. It's a really good idea to do this seasonally because 1. things sometimes have lost their appeal since last season (purge!!) and 2. it lets you know what the gaps are in your wardrobe. I pulled out my sweater bin and realized I didn't need 3 gray turtleneck wool sweaters, for instance. My kids thought it was hysterical that they were trying on foot pajamas and snow pants in August, but it's a great thing to do on a rainy summer afternoon. If you're really ambitious, you can buy up summer items for next season at a big discount this month. I was in Target yesterday and saw kids low-top Converse for $4.99. I bought 2 pair for my kids, in the next size up!

Attention Fellow Book Lovers!

I recently read about a cool website, www.whatshouldireadnext.com, which recommends books, based on what you just read.

"Enter a book you like and the site will analyse our database of real readers'
favorite books (over 47,000 and growing) to suggest what you could read next".

Isn't that a great idea? I tried it and am going to take their advice!

An amazing new snack food

Okay, so when we were on vacation I tried a snack food that drove me absolutely crazy. It's called Glad Corn: http://www.gladcorn.com. I usually only go for the sweets (not the crunchy/salty thing) but this stuff is simply incredible. You know when you eat popcorn and get to eat the best half-popped stuff at the bottom? This is exactly what this tastes like. I tried the original flavor and the jalapeno and liked them both. The problem is finding it. If you're lucky enough to live near Whole Foods, that's where I found it on vacation. Has anyone tried it??

Happy Sister's Day!

About 2 years ago, we started a little tradition in our family that every August 1st would be a new holiday called "Sister's Day" and September 1st would be "Brother's Day". It works well in our family since we have one boy and one girl. Usually what we do is give a tiny gift (I gave my daughter a small jewelry box) at breakfast and then we do a really fun family activity including taking the special kid out to lunch. This year we're going to Horseneck Beach and having lunch at a funky little restaurant overlooking the bay. It's a great excuse to celebrate each child with something other than a birthday.

I thought of Sister's and Brother's Day and timed them as I did because there were no real holidays in Aug. or Sept. that involved celebration...and we love celebrations in this house!