glamour and grain.

It only took about two years, but Brixton is finally taking naps on his own. That means I can actually step away for a minute to jump around in our hallway and take grainy iphone photos of myself. My life is so glamorous.




Shirt: Vintage/ Shorts: Vintage Levis/ Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell

Tuesday Muse Day: Kendi Everyday

Is it sad that at least once a day I start a sentence with the phrase, "This girl who's blog I read..."? I can't help it. There are just so many people out there who are constantly inspiring me with their blogs, and it's just too easy to make their stories, projects, and lives a little part of my own day with a few simple clicks.

I thought I'd start a little weekly series called Tuesday Muse Day. The idea is to highlight a special muse-worthy someone each week. I think this would be a great series for me to do, because I don't really see myself running out of material.

Today's muse is Kendi. Is she not drop dead gorgeous?


I started reading Kendi's personal style blog a year or so ago. Not sure how I found her, but once I did I was hooked. My favorite things about Kendi are her style, her ability to make normal, affordable clothes look like a million bucks, and possibly most of all, her adorable, sarcastic and witty personality that gleams in every entry she writes. If for some reason, you're not one of the 10,000 people or more that follow her blog, you should. You will love her.

Months ago, I was reading her series on how to create a working closet. For two years, I was limited to nursing tops and before that, I was pregnant. Weaning Brixton reopened my closet doors to a wardrobe full of clothes I hadn't worn in almost three years! With Kendi's wise words, I was able to slim it down to a closet I'm pretty happy with. The clothes I didn't want were sold on Ebay or to consignment shops, and I made a decent amount of money that was spent on things I actually want to wear.

Something else about Kendi is that she can remix like nobody's business. I guess remix is a little word that fashion bloggers use to describe all the different ways to wear an article of clothing. Take for instance that vest Kendi's wearing in the photo up there? She rocks it all the time.


If I saw that vest just hanging in a store somewhere, I wouldn't normally give it a second look. But when I was at one of the consignment shops selling my clothes, I came across an army green sleeveless vest that reminded me of Kendi and of course, I had to have it. So have it I did.

Our teenage neighbors were staring at me while I was taking that photo. So the eyeballs to the side thing was me glaring back at them!


I bet you're totally digging my messy ponytail bun look I've got going on. It's called the "my toddler likes to yank my hair" style. It was all over the runways during fashion week. Get into it.
Dress: UO/ Vest: Thrifted/ Necklace: DIY

Montessori Monday: Mud Pie Kitchen.

We're pretty big fans of Maria Montessori's method here in our family. Brixton will be two next month and maybe I'm biased, but I think he's quite bright and I believe a lot of what he knows is due to the way it was presented to him- the Montessori way. I mentioned in an entry a while ago how my interest for the method began. The last few years, I've stumbled across some wonderful blogs written by Montessori moms that have really kept me inspired as a mother and full time caregiver to Brixton. I decided that I too would like to share how we use the Montessori method in our home, and I don't know, maybe someone out there might find a little inspiration from our experiences. So here begins Montessori Monday.

When I was a kid, my mother never really let me get dirty. Playing outside all day meant that I would come into the house smelling like I played outside all day and my mom wasn't totally into that. With Brixton, we've taken the opposite approach. We try to do lots of nature activities with him in hopes that he'll learn to love the outdoors, appreciate all living things and discover so many amazing things about the world that surrounds him. I think it's important to give children lots of freedom to explore nature and Maria Montessori did too. She called them "little scientists".

A couple of weeks ago, with some inspiration from Rythym of the Home, we set up a mud pie kitchen for Brixton in our backyard. He took rocks, leaves, sticks and some unidentified fruits from our trees and used them all as ingredients to create the perfect soup.

I used the RAST nightstand from IKEA for the stove. I bought it a while ago with the intention of setting up a handwashing station for Brixton, and then I realized he really loves dumping water everywhere any chance he gets. So it's been sitting in his closet waiting for him to get over that phase. I painted the black burners on the top and set out his pots and pans from his play kitchen. I filled the big white bucket with water, gave him some topsoil and he was ready to cook.

He played and splashed and I took pictures and did the occasional pretend taste test. It was such a fun summer day activity for us, and it's definitely something I can see us doing again and again.

I think he'll love it even more when his cousins, who are little older than him, come over and really show him how to have fun with it. When that happens, I will make sure to take lots of photos and share again!

Hello and Welcome!

I'm starting over with a new blog. I needed something fresh to get my creativity flowing again. By summer's end there'll be a new shop with lots of new old things to love and covet.

I am so excited for this little corner to be a home for all my ideas, memories, rants, raves and thoughts. I hope you'll enjoy it here too and visit often!

Xo. Bea