Rancho Siempre Verde

Last year, we set out to cut down our own Christmas tree and stumbled on Rancho Siempre Verde, which is like something out of Gilmore Girls. It’s a tree farm with s’more roasting, and wreath-making tables, and a big ball of kids who roll around inside a cloud of dust.

There are half dozen rope and tire swings hanging from the Eucalyptus. I wish this photo were scratch-and-sniff.

Hank’s favorite part is riding around in the tractor cart when it goes to pick up trees.

My favorite part are the wreath tables — $7 for the wreath forms and boughs, but the local ladies bring berries and ornaments and ribbons and small animatronic animals to affix.

When I was making my wreath, the ladies at the next table were discussing who would drive them all home. They were a little smashed on thermos toddies. Who made the toddies? They are strong. Fortunately, one of them was on a cleanse, so they poured another round.

Next year, I’m bringing toddies.

Rancho Siempre Verde
2250 Cabrillo Hwy, Pescadero, CA 94060
(650) 326-9103

Little Kid Scientist Gift Guide

As a toddler he was impatient to get to the moon, when she turned four she asked for a lab coat. A few gifts for our budding geeks. Live long and prosper, little ones.

Tattly Science Set of Temporary Tattoos, $15 Future founder of the first scientist biker gang.

Break Your Own Geodes, $15 Geology means you get to smash things.

Fire Bubbles and Exploding Toothpaste, $12 We’ve been through alllll the science experiment books around here, and this series is our favorite. Simple experiments, solid scientific explanations, and many of them work with stuff you’ll have around the house.

Miracle Fruit Tablets, $15 Condensed Miracle Fruit tablets temporarily bind to the tastebuds and make sour things taste sweet. So neat!

Crystal Growing Volcano, $8 Like a baking soda volcano, but you don’t have to do it in the driveway and change clothes afterward.

My Twinkly-Kapow Tree Topper

Behold this little firework tree topper. Pow. It’s from Wendy Addison’s Theatre of Dreams, a boutique tucked away in magic Port Costa, CA. (If you’ve never seen Wendy’s work go look.)

My sparkly twinkle topper was $48, and if you want one of your own, I think you should get it. Drop her a line at shop@wendyaddisonstudio.com. She will cut it out, and glue it up, and make it sparkly, and send it to you with her hands. Thanks, Wendy.

Mighty Closet, Catie Nienaber

Catie!

Catie and I have known each other for a few years, and some of you will remember her from Camp Mighty. She runs Dronning Vintage, and is so tall and striking that I always notice her around town.

Mai shot these a while ago, and now Catie’s style incorporates a lot of modern pieces as well, but here’s what she has to say about her affection for vintage clothes:

Being an online vintage shop owner means I am utterly surrounded by my work at all times. I operate the business out of my home, and it’s not unusual to see hand-washed dresses hanging from the shower curtain rod to drip dry, or receipts and checklists stacked on a tower of hat boxes.

The apartment building I live in was built in 1923, and I love that so many of the original details, like glass doorknobs, the enamel bathtub, and the picture frame moulding that wraps around every wall, are still intact. I don’t wear vintage every day – it’s too delicate for what my real life entails – but when I do, I feel that much happier in my home. Sometimes I go all out and do my hair and makeup in a vintage style, too. Soft waves or victory rolls are my favorite.

This simple late 1950s/early 1960s cotton day dress is super comfortable.

I dressed it up with Miu Miu kitten heels, but I would just as easily wear it with ballet flats (maybe from Tieks or Repetto).

I especially love when mid-century dresses have a belt because I like accentuating my waist.

This late-1940s rayon blouse has palm trees and surfers on it. The blouse is a little on the short side so I always wear it with higher-waisted trousers. Although these pants have a ’40s-style influence to them, they are in fact from the 1980s.

The platform sandals are also 1940s though.

I got the fresh gardenia from a flower stand in downtown San Francisco, you can find them at most stalls in the city.

This red 1950s Suzy Perette dress is a great example of how Christian Dior’s New Look influence trickled down into mid-price American design houses, with its huge skirt and smaller waist.

Bag is from Tory Burch.

These black and cream heels are from Miu Miu. It’s very rare that I have vintage shoes that are big enough to fit my feet, and Miu Miu usually has strong vintage styling in their designs. If you don’t want to shell out for a brand new pair, you can get some very gently worn ones on eBay quite often so watch for deals.

Celluloid was a popular and affordable material used for making jewelry in the 1930s and 1940s and these days the pieces are quite collectable. I have a nice collection of animal novelty pins and brooches and this celluloid parrot is a great one.

These butter-yellow 1950s shorts are made of soft, very fine-wale corduroy.

The blouse is Miu Miu, as are the loafers.

I’ve had them resoled several times because I wear them so often. Cobblers are more and more rare these days so if you find a good one, give them your business!

The story behind this suit is amazing. Someone took a 1940s wool suit and expertly dismantled it, eventually flipping it upside-down, making the jacket into a skirt and the skirt into the jacket.

I call it the Surrealism Suit.

I wore it with a 1940s hat and simple, classic Christian Louboutin heels.

Like a lady. Catie, thanks so much for showing us your amazing closet. If you’re a vintage devotee, have a look at Catie’s shop, Dronning Vintage.

Photos by Mai Le of Fashioni.st.

Simple Holiday Photo Cards

Real mail! It’s better than Christmas.

I’ve been looking for a pretty photo card for this year. If you’re looking too, these are some of the more attractive options I found:

Merry Little Everything card from Artifact Uprising, 1.75 each

Konfetti Photo Card from Paperless Post, $1.96 each (Use dicount code CHEERS for 20% off plus free shipping through Dec. 15)

Peace Holiday Photo Card from Pinhole Press, $1.96 each (Discount code CUPOFJO gets you 30% off through Dec. 5)

Joy Photo Card from Artifact Uprising, $1.75 each

Painted Diamonds Photo Card from Minted, $1.63 each

Here’s to the Good Photo Card from Artifact Uprising, $1.75 each

As you can see, I’m a huge fan of Artifact Uprising, they are nailing it right now. If you have any favorite print sources you don’t see listed, let us know in comments.

Paper Culture is a great option, and holiday photo cards are 30% off right now. Thanks, EG!

17 One-Click Stocking Stuffers for Kids

I mostly shop for stocking stuffers and Christmas gifts online, and I try to avoid shipping fees. We’re Amazon Prime subscribers, so all the ideas below are Prime eligible. Also, Target is offering free shipping on everything through the holidays, so you might want to poke around over there as well.

If you’re an auntie or uncle and unsure of what little gifts will please a 6-8 year old, you can send one of these every few months with the click of a button, and bam! You win all the affection and thoughtfulness awards.

1. Piperoid paper craft robot kit — This is a good gift for grownup kids as well.

2. Hand buzzers — Can be repurposed for next year’s jellyfish Halloween costume.

3. 52 Nature Activities — Let’s all put down the iPads for a sec.

4. Laugh Out Loud Jokes for Kids — Hank loves these, and it’s a whole series that includes knock-knock jokes, animal jokes, and so on.

5. Rubberband Powered Glider — Classic. It should break the first day or you aren’t doing it right.

6. Tin Can Robot — A little kit that lets your kid turn a regular tin can into a mobile robot.

7. Finger Monster Temporary Tattoos — Also stellar for grownups. The good ones, anyway.

8. Assorted Pack of Foam Gliders — There are 72 gliders in this $7 pack, so be aware.

9. LED Light Up Balloons — I may actually bust these out on Christmas Eve as a morning surprise. How magic to find glowing balloons all over the living room floor when the kiddos sneak out before sunrise.

10. Animal Crayons — Fresh crayons are a no-fail.

11. Color My Bath Color Changing Bath Tablets — Hank loves these. They’re tiny bath fizzes that change the color of the bathwater.

12. Rainbow Monkey Bandages — Solid non-branded bandages.

13. Glow Sticks — This is two big packages of glow sticks, so you might just want to pick one up somewhere. I like to keep them around to make the bath water glow. Yes, I’m sure it’s killing us all slowly. Shhh, Internet. Shhhh.

14. Oogi, a figure toy with suction cup head, hands and feet, and long stretchy arms.

15. Silly String — This is three cans, because the tyranny of the single can of silly string will not stand.

16. Wind-Up Retro Robot — It’s a challenge not to make every gift guide an all-robot gift guide.

17. Bloonies — If you don’t know Bloonies, do get some. They’re a liquid plastic that you push onto the end of a small straw, then blow up to make tiny fragile balloons. They are wondrous.

Happy holidays, nice people.

Very Nice News Indeed

This is the birthday card Brad drew for me this year. I’ve been a little quiet around here lately because I’ve been putting all of my energy into sitting very still so I can keep food down.

This is because we are expecting a baby. A tiny one, who does that thing with the giant yawn that’s still only as big as a thumb print. A little one, who keeps its fists by its face in case of trouble.

Gah! Baby!

The baby is coming in late April, and Hank has told everyone in his class several times over. Other kids have begun requesting siblings from their parents in the interest of fairness, which along with my unmarried status, has made us very popular at the elementary school.

When we found out our baby schemes had worked sooner than expected, I started pulling together Instant Wedding. Finding-a-venue-and-a-dress-and-a-cake-and-calling-everyone-and-bopping-to-the-courthouse-and-doing-this-thing! Then I fell asleep. I have been asleep for several weeks now, so we’re delaying the wedding until we’ve had time to have a baby. Also to procure knitted hats and booties, which said baby can pull off and throw on the ground.

Come out, baby! I cannot wait.

E-Bikes, I Want One

Bosch sponsored this post, but the enthusiasm is mine.

A few months ago Bosch sent me to The New Wheel to borrow an e-bike for the day.

I’d never heard of an e-bike, but they’re bikes with electric motors. Riding one is a lot like riding a regular bicycle, you have to pedal and you still get exercise, but you can set the motor to give you a boost when you’re climbing a hill, or getting tired from riding a long distance, or coming home from eating a lot of pasta.

None of this meant much to me until I was climbing vertical San Francisco hills like Wonder Woman on an adrenal high.

Guys, I have worn some adventure helmets in my day, but this was incredible. I don’t even like to walk up those hills, but biking up made me feel like I should be holding a tiny parasol and waving at passersby.

We biked places I would never take a regular bike — over massive hills in Pacific Heights and out to the Golden Gate bridge, up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower, and right through the nightmarish traffic on Fisherman’s Wharf. We even climbed the massive Potrero Hill to see the city lights. In 15 years living in the city, I’ve never seen as much of it in one day. It was so much fun!

This guy wrote a piece on Medium about why he sold his car for an e-bike, and I was doing the same calculations in my head as we rode around.

Karen, who owns The New Wheel with her husband, loaned us the bike and led the way. She told me that lots of their customers are buying e-bikes to replace cars — new ones run about $3,500 and up.

While we rode around, Bosch asked me to catalogue some of my favorite places in San Francisco that are harder to access by car. So check that out if you’re interested.

And if anyone ever asks you if you want to try an e-bike, do it. And then keep it.

Non-Fugly Storage Bins that Aren’t Plastic

I have an open shelf that needs storage, and was having trouble finding some not ugly, not plastic bins. I wanted these woven felt baskets, but they were out of the size I needed (and were a little pricey), so I ended up going with the top option below.

If you’re looking for storage solutions yourself, here’s what I picked plus some others I was considering:

Jute Bins with Rope Handles from The Container Store , $17-$25

Industrial Shelf Baskets from Restoration Hardware, $45

Felt Bins from The Land of Nod, $20

Other good options:

Metallic Woven Baskets $29-$119 Love these, and would have gone with them if they’d been anywhere near the right size.
Canvas Mega Sorter, $25 These are huge and have subdividers great for storing kids’ toys, art supplies, etc.
Crated Office Collection, $29-$59 These were the only wood option I liked.
Wire Mesh Storage, $39 These would be cool to hold staples like toilet paper or paper towels.
Modern Weave Oversize Storage Bin, $89 Huge and good for open storage because you can’t see through them.

Glitter Skull Decoration for Halloween

I wanted to make something creepy and festive for our front door this Halloween, and found these papier-maché masks at Paper Source for $4. So many possibilities!

If you’d like to make one like the above you’ll need:

Paper Skull Mask
Glitter in various shades
Glitter Glue
Modge Podge Glue
Paint Brush
Craft Wire or pipe cleaners
Tissue Paper cut into squares about the size of your palm
Bit of Ribbon
Glue gun

First choose the glitter you’ll use to coat your mask and mix it with Modge Podge at about a 1:1 ratio. You’ll need less than you think, and Modge Podge is the secret to using glitter without finding it on all future generations of children born to your family.

Paint the mask with a base layer of glitter. Once it’s dry, you can go back for touch ups. In person, the pink looks less Dawn of the Dead.

Your work environment should be pristine.

While you’re waiting for the first coat of glitter to dry, you can make the tissue paper flowers. I used the technique outlined in more detail here. Just stack five or six squares of tissue paper, accordion fold them like a fan, and secure the center with wire or pipe cleaner.

Then fluff the layers. The glitter dries pretty fast, so by now you should be ready to decorate.

I used a mixture of glue-with-glitter, glitter glue pens, and beads I had left over from a caviar manicure set. The latter looked kind of cool (you can see around the eyes), but they were a huge pain.

If I had it to do over, I’d go all pre-mixed glitter glue pens, which is what I used for the green dots over the eyes and temples. It goes on 3-D, but dries flat, and is super easy to direct. I did my decoration freehand, but here are a bunch of skull designs you can use for ideas.

If you’d like to hang it up, use the glue gun to glue a little loop of ribbon to the back at the top.

Now just hot glue your flowers on the crown and voila! Darth Maul meets Day of the Dead. Jedi! I have been waiting for you.