Good morning! A few things to share-
- I created a paper flower Mother's Day project for the folks at Parents magazine for the May 09 issue, trickling out to newsstands now (just as an aside, I love working with these guys!). These flowers are simple, fun, and pretty to do with kids (Emma and I had a whole afternoon of fun making these as I was developing this project). A bouquet of these (maybe with a perfume-scented magazine strip) would be something I know I would love for Mother's Day (hint). My personal recommendation is to recycle JCrew catalogs for these. Since they are out of my price range these days, its a fun way to enjoy the colors!
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- The new Boomerang website is up! Go have a look! We have been working behind the scenes for a few months now, creating a new look and feel for Boomerang and we are so proud of how its coming together. As you may know from reading this space, Boomerang has been a valuable piece of learning and enjoyment for my kids long before I knew Dave Strohm (the creator), so I'm quite passionate about this project, as a consumer and as a brand consultant. The graphics you see on the site were designed by Story Trading (props to my brilliant husband for his hand drawing, and to Shawn, for the current issue's imagery on the homepage), the content is still all Dave and his crew in the Boomerang studios. We are working on the final element~ adding some sample audio clips~ to the site today. After that, we will continue to add in some fun things for our young Boomerang fans who visit our space. In the meantime, check our and join our facebook page, where we will keep you update on some exciting things we have in the pipeline.
To help celebrate our website, Eren and Stefani are having a Boomerang giveaway over at their new collaborative blog, The Magnifying Glass, an online nature journal for kids. I bookmarked The Magnifying Glass as soon as I saw it, ts full of all kinds of ideas for getting our kids (and ourselves) outside. Something we all need to do more of.
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- I am excited to be starting a new collaboration with nonchalantmom, as a contributing author on their blog. Founded by Carina Schott, pictured above from a Domino Magazine spread, an extensive background in the fashion industry, working with companies such as The Gap, Baby Gap, Banana Republic, and Espret, she created nonchalantmom as a well-designed, modern, hip, very cool online space for moms and their kids. I will be posting there on a continued basis about living a creative life with kids, and have put an easy-to-find button over on my left sidebar <---. Here's a little background from Carina-
"I know my story will sound cliché, but the idea behind “Nonchalant Mom” is anything but commonplace. When we
had our son Sander in 2002 and we decided it was time
to move so we packed up and moved ourselves from
Manhattan to Rhode Island. I found myself with a lot
of energy, 20 years experience in the fashion industry
behind me, and no one with whom to share my love for
natural living to raise my son. I also found it hard
to network and get information on raising my son as
naturally as possible. We still go all the way back to
New York just to see our pediatrician, Dr. Michel
Cohen, because his approach is laid back, and he let
us bring up Sander according to our own intuition
(although he laughed every time we told him that
Sander was still sleeping with us).
Nonchalant Mom was born from a need to find great
toys, clothes and information on natural parenting,
all in one place. It wasn’t on the internet yet and I
knew I could bring these ideals together, and make it
FUN! I also wanted to meet other parents that enjoy
these things, and create a community of “natural
parents” so I don’t feel so alone. I know you are all
out there, so lets get together!"
Nonchalantmom has posted a little interview I did with them over at their blog today. (correction: its not up yet, I'll let you know when it is) edited to say its up!
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On the homefront here, the weather turned gorgeous here in Seattle over the weekend, and we spent every minute we could outside. I spent a lot of time getting the kid's outdoor spaces ready for the warmer days ahead...putting air in delated soccer balls, repairing or getting rid of toys that weren't working...but the biggest project was getting our play structure/clubhouse/treehouse ready for some serious meeting time. The process of working on the cleanup inspired a whole string of crafts (I attribute this energy burst to some outdoor time and Vitamin D as well). I wanted to share these here on the blog, and have made a new category, The Treehouse Appreciation Society. You will see our society projects popping up in the next few weeks (many are still in the works).
