winter toast

a bangle after my own heart
sweet cozy pink slippers


lovely photo


scrumptious pjs



perfect outfits

all from TOAST.

perfect wooden toy

The perfect toy from letterbox.co.uk.

merry christmas eve

Merry Christmas eve to all and to all a good night!

our tree

tree on wall

This clever christmas tree is by Dutch graphic designer Jane Schouter of All the Luck in the World. She created it with “useless but pretty objects” she’s collected over the years. LOVE it and adore the chair.
via wee birdy & Lobster and Swan.

the snow globe family

Thank you Annie for telling us about this sweet book for children. It's our new favorite! Buy it here.

spitting evergreens

I took this photo yesterday and thought of our sneak peek on Design Sponge.....There was a painting of bees flying around a woman's head above our family room couch. My other half Andrew, really can't stand it and we did get one comment about it on the sneak peek....someone else didn't really like it. I like it because my good friend Mark Gleason painted it....oh well. I hung this up instead...we found this taxidermied fish in our studio dumpster...the children painted it all shades of green then they doused it with silver glitter. It's been hanging at the studio and I JUST brought it home and waa laa....now it's spitting sprigs of evergreen and a star ornament...for the holidays!

my jar o'tea

Here it is! My jar o'tea. I'm so happy.

jar o'tea

I love hot, cozy cups of tea throughout the day and eve before bed in winter. This photo from this sneak peek on design sponge inspired me to go to Target today to buy this exact jar and fill it with all kinds of tea. I was so happy to find that Target also has a great variety of tea. My new jar o'tea is on my kitchen counter right next to the stove. I'll try to get a good photo to post later. Now if only I could find that wallpaper......

pooped

We wrapped a super week of cookie workshops and Greenwich Country Day School field trips and I'm pooped! The studio will be closed until January 12th. I hope to now get ready for the holidays...decorate the house, visit with friends, visit a museum and best of all....play with my boy, Everett!

I found this photo ages ago and I'm sorry I don't know who to credit

good holiday music

My friend Mae turned me on to this new holiday music compilation. It's super good. If you love Fiona Apple, Jesca Hoop, Brandi Carlisle & KT Tunstall then you will enjoy these winter songs. Click here to learn and hear more.

happy wreath, happy me

I don't think this photo does my wreath justice. It is the one and only outside holiday decoration I have going on. I have been coveting this variation of the christmas wreath for decades and then Penny Carroll granted my wish....she gave us this very special plump wreath from some secret place in Maine. I adore it...just as is...no bow please. I wish I could freeze it for next year or better yet...plant a field of them.

god bless jayne & leslie

Jayne Sutton is THE BESTEST baker I know. Her cookies and cakes are not only the most delicious sweets I have ever tasted...they are the most beeyouteeful. Her signature treats are teeny weeny cookie creations...ones that you just pop in your mouth in one little bite. I was so lucky today to see her in action in my own kitchen. She and Leslie, her daughter and my dear friend, were kind enough to come help me make royal icing for our upcoming cookie workshops....this task consisted of 63 pounds of powdered sugar! THEN they insisted on helping me bake 4 dozen of my holiday cocoroons for a cookie swap. I LOVED seeing Jayne in action! Thank you Jayne and Leslie for all your help today!

Rhythm

The Wednesday 5-9 year olds created this amazing mural.  These are colors I normally would not have put together but the end result is WOW all around.

tree ornaments

The 2 year olds are wrapping up their tree ornaments as I type. Aren't they sweet?

happy keychains

First, the children dyed big wooden beads. Then they threaded the big colorful beads on leather laces.....

waah, laah...HAPPY KEYCHAINS....big and not to be lost!

neato calendar

I think this is such a wonderful idea. It's a custom calendar. You send the photos and kiki and polly create the colorful drawings for each month. This photo doesn't do it justice....visit the site here.

simple ornaments

These sweet and simple ornaments are from filzfelt.   They also make thick felt that comes by the yard in fabulous colors, pillows and more....check out their site here.

thanksgiving

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

It turns what we have into enough, and more.

It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order.

Confusion into clarity...

It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing and mistakes into important events.

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates vision for tomorrow.

-Melodie Beattie

Photo by polgaroid

see our home in design*sponge

So exciting...our home was posted today as a sneak peek on the design*sponge blog. Check it out here!

eye candy

That anthropologie...I always am blown away by the displays and web images, graphics and color choices. Click here to see this display in action....so clever!

rex ray 2009 wall calendar

Rex Ray is one of my favorite artists/designers. I am so happy to have found this 2009 wall calendar. It's big and bursting with color...oh and it comes with a great 13 x 16 inch poster. Click here if you need one too.

1-2-3

Right this minute I have 3 books on my bedside table: The Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics by the lovely Ina Garten, Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth and ABC's a la Charley Harper.

I could hardly wait for the new Barefoot Contessa cookbook. Some of my most favorite meals come from her older cookbooks: TURKEY MEATLOAF & STRING BEANS WITH SHALLOTS. I'll start flagging recipes from this newest book while cozy in bed with a cup of tea.

I adored Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies and look forward to this collection of short stories in Unaccustomed Earth. A short story is about all I can read at the end of the day....

And the last is truly my newest favorito: a board book of the ABC's illustrated by the late Charley Harper. Charley Harper was a Cincinnati-based American Modernist artist. He was best known for his highly stylized wildlife prints, posters and book illustrations. It's Everett's new bedtime book fave too.

Fat Cat Pizza

Our favorite pizza joint is the FAT CAT PIE COMPANY, 9-11 Wall Street, Norwalk, Connecticut. PH:(203)523-0389. Everything is organic. The pizza is thin and crispy. The salads are delish. The wine list is vast. Go early!

fresh face

Repair and Restore....Oh I hope! My face has been so dry and it's not even the dead of winter. I tried a little sample of this face balm by FRESH and it made my face feel really good....I'm sold. Oh and it smells great!

right here, right now

Oh we love our LATHE. For the first time ever we used good old crayola crayons...the 4 year olds went bananas!
This is the HUGE structure Michele so creatively constructed. It has many layers of different paint....our work in progess...this is how it looks this afternoon!

Larry

Gretchen took this amazing photo of the studio Halloween week. We wrapped Larry, our tin man, in tissue like a mummy.

The children then took pipettes (big eyedroppers) and made Larry a tye dye wrapped man.

Brilliant!

our new president elect in watercolor

I LOVE this watercolor of our BARACK OBAMA. It's by EDITH DORA REY a painter in Canada.
Check out her site!

art show

Paper Scissors Oranges has a colorful collection of art at THE HEALTHY CHILD, pediatrician's office in Darien, Connecticut. The acrylic paintings on canvases were created by children who attended our summer 2008 art program.

A genius poster by Casey Brooks. Don't forget to vote tomorrow!

Happy Halloween!

Clementine Art Kits

I am so happy to announce that we will have all 6 of the CLEMENTINE ART KITS for sale at the studio for the holidays. These kits are close to my heart for several reasons. Reason #1: My friend since 6th grade, Diana Mercer created these kits. She started off with a studio just like Paper Scissors Oranges in Boulder, Colorado. She then dreamed up the art kits, sold her studio and is now REALLY eating and sleeping play dough, soy-based paints and pompoms. The coolest part of all this is that all the kits are organic, eco-friendly and ECO-CHIC....reasons 2, 3 & 4. Reason #5: ALL the kits are super great for children because they are all about the PROCESS of creating art just like Paper Scissors Oranges...so think of it as Paper Scissors Oranges in a box! If you are not local, you can order from the CLEMENTINE ART KITS website.

THE LITTLE YELLOW LEAF by Carin Berger is my new favorite AUTUMN book for children. It is beautifully illustrated. The story is sweet and simple. It makes me cry.

Silver Hunter Wellies

'So I just got these (metallic silver hunter wellies) in the mail....I sent a pair to my friend JOJO and she sent a pair to me. We can't decide if we love'm or hate'm. I so want to love'm...I'm giving them a few more days. What do you think?

Weleda Wild Rose deodorant

My first new favorite thing post! This Weleda Wild Rose spray deodorant smells great...think roses meets dirt in a good way. The best is that it's all natural and it really works!