spring healing

With the changing seasons come a changing focus on organs, and with the arrival of spring the focus switches to the liver and gallbladder. On my website my sister wrote a story about the ginger compress and springtime is a perfect time to try out this energizing technique. When the seasons change I tend to take a look at one of my favorite doctors website, Dr. Warren King. When things are out-of-wack for me, I am certainly happy to know this man... unfortunately he is located in Minnesota, so when I go there to see my family I never miss a visit with Warren King to balance things out. But for now, check out this link for more detailed information on the ginger compress and there is also information on healing for children, he has two sections that are really informational; herbs for children and homeopathics for children. I just browse through his website from time to time and I always find interesting information.

sweet juniper

I just found this blog through design*sponge (my favorite blog, it's my homepage) and I just can't stop reading it...sweet juniper! it's so funny, I was laughing out loud, with tears in my eyes...don't miss the post from April 17th, it's about dogs and kids and poop and well, I just couldn't stop laughing. Besides being funny, these two have a seriously amazing house in Detroit, Michigan, it's by Mies van der Rohe and listed on design*sponge. a visit to sweet juniper makes me feel warm, and comfortable with my parenting, and it gives you a sense of everyday life and the sparkling things that you find in each day with your kids. I always talk about parenting in a way that feels right to you and not to others and I think that wood and dutch speak easily about that every day in their blog...bravo! If you click on some of their categories that suit your interest you can find more wonderful information on the lives of Wood, Dutch and Juniper! I love them...

happy earth day!!

As much as I think that every day should be earth day, I think that today in particular we should look outside our box (our own yard) and help clean up or plant in a place that is needed. Just today I saw a man, alone on the side of the road picking up garbage...nice guy! It's also a great day to spend with kids and reminding them that our earth needs us to help keep it clean and working right! I found this article by Paul Hawken and with all this earth crisis talk, it's good to hear someone with a positive attitude:

"The great thing about the dilemma we're in is that we get to reimagine every single thing we do. In other words, there isn't one single thing that we make that doesn't require a complete remake. And so there are two ways of looking at that. One is like: Oh my gosh, what a big burden. The other way to look at it, which is the way I prefer is: What a great time to be born! What a great time to be alive! Because this generation gets to essentially completely change this world."

-Paul Hawken

(artwork above from velocity art and design - by Heather Amuny Dey

nume...simply the most beautiful kids furniture

whenever someone asks me about furniture for kids rooms I send them to the nume website...ok, modern is great, but nume will make your kids room warm and cozy! plus I think there is a little bit of fairy land thrown in there, to spark your kids imagination! Their things are pure forms without added decoration...pure and simply the best! visit their website to find out more about what they are doing, and check out "who they are" to find some interesting information on the philosophy of kids rooms....and see more wonderful images of their furniture and accessories!

hhhmmm, I didn't know this...

did you know that you are supposed to dump the poopy doopy from your babies diapers into the toilet? ...somehow my husband came to me the other day and asked me if I knew this, now I think of myself as a pretty in-the-know kind of mom, but "what!?" Here is how it reads on the side of the Seventh Generation diaper pack "flush the waste, not the diaper! When you're throwing away a used diaper, empty the waste into the toilet, wrap the diaper tightly, and throw it away. Keeping human waste out of the landfill is safer for all of us." There is also some good information on the "'bad things" of chlorine...don't want to bum you out so I will leave it to you to read up, on your diaper packaging! There is also a step further you can take and look into G diapers! I think they sound terrific, (but I'm a little nervous about our rickety old septic system). send me your comments on what diapers you use...the good, the bad and the ugly!

birthday parties...

I hate to even touch on this subject for fear of treading on the martha stewart waters, but we recently had a "green birthday party" for Sander (his favorite color!). we asked everyone to wear green and everything at the party was green, including the donkey in pin the tail on the donkey, the cake, and all the balloons and more. I thought it was a fun idea and there are lots of ways to do it, I got the idea from Karen...she did a wear your favorite color party! it's a good way to get everyone involved (without spending a million bucks on clowns etc..yikes!)...just an idea....

scents...

sometimes the scents in your house with a baby (and kids!) is less than pleasant. there are thousands of tricks (like steeping cloves, anise and other ingredients on your stove) but certainly a much safer way is with scented candles. just be careful that candles don't have that wire in the wick or anything else artificial, and beeswax is the most desirable (one secret is that swedish candles are the absolute best!). I recently came upon le labo candles, and they are wonderful! they actually also make a baby perfume that is really adorable! Ambrette 9.. (can a scent be adorable...well you know what I mean!). their shop is on Elizabeth Street just about at Prince in NYC, so go in and see for yourself! Le Labo!

more safari...

Since we are talking about safari I thought I should write about my absolute favorite fabric and I think it would work perfect for a safari room as karens above. When in stockholm you can't miss the store Svenskt Tenn, if you want to bring home a bit of stockholm, this is where you would get it! (that and also all things Josef Frank!). This elephant print is by Estrid Ericson and comes in gold, green, red, or black, for some reason it is only listed on the Svenkt Tenn swebsite in black but I bet if you write to them you can get all colors. I have plans to make window shades for the kids room in red and green (if I ever get around to it!) and then we have the gold pillows... I also found this zebra rug from Svenskt Tenn (by josef frank) which is maybe a little more playful than a real zebra rug (yikes!)

rockabye baby music

Just in case you are tired of the "baby mozart" side of lullaby music, baby rock records has brought us "rockabye baby"! Now you can listen to your favorite Led Zeplin tune in lullaby version. My friend Wayne turned me onto this, and he is a complete music nut, he has by far the most complete (and also the most sophisticated) music selection of anyone that I know, (if you are in music trouble email me with "wayne" in the subject and I will pass it on to him). In the meantime, the beatles, bjork, U2 and more have a rockabye baby lullaby version and you can purchase them at babyrockrecords.com ...these records are no jack johnson, as in you might go a little crazy after awhile but it's funny to hear stairway to heaven in ding dong lullaby music!

Ida's safari room

You are going to hear a lot from my friend Karen, she is kind of a partner in crime with me...we egg each other on an push each other to do interesting things, everyone needs a "Karen" in their life. She has an amazing store in Switzerland called kdeco, I will do more on that later, but for now...this is the room that she created for her new daughter Ida (boy is she a lucky girl!). This is what you get when you cross an amazing stylist with a new baby! Karen styles furniture catalogs for the likes of Italy's most chic modern furniture makers. She decided to do a Safari room for Ida and she went all they way, what I love about this baby room is that it is anything but the traditional kids room, dark and rich colors, 3-d wall murals, dragonflies, it's all in there, and when Ida grows up the room will easily grow with her... if you want more tips from Karen on how to create your own safari room for now you have to email to me and I will forward them, but soon she will have her own website and also guest blog on nonchalant mom! (YAY!!)

amsterdam forever!

One of my favorite blogs is Bloesem (it's my homepage)! She has such great postings and inspiring ideas that I always end up being hooked on her blog for hours...I actually have a half-hour hourglass that I have to use as a timer so that I don't spend the whole day there! Recently she posted a trip to Amsterdam and we were immediately talking about moving there! At the same time my husband snuck a trip there while in London and came back with some of the best second-hand shop toys I've seen in a long time! So go to Bloesem and don't miss her "weekend reads" on Amsterdam "Amsterdam on my mind"...thanks Irene!

umeboshi for your kidneys

Do you see dark circles under your eyes, this could mean that your kidneys are not happy. I started to notice after I had Franny that I had dark circles under my eyes and I couldn't use enough concealer to cover it up... and obviously I just thought I was tired, but a year later I realized there might be more to the case than that when I was talking to a macrobiotic friend and she said, "oh, your kidneys must not be in order" and the light bulb went on! "bing" I got a bottle of "ume plum balls" (by Eden) and started taking as much as five a day (it suggests on the bottle as many as 10-15 a day so this was mild), they taste pretty wicked but within a week my dark circles were gone! Now every once in awhile I put an umeboshi plum in my kukicha tea and I am set. Umeboshi will make you more alkaline, which with all the sweets and bad food many of us eat today we swing to the acid side of things. If you have excessive dark circles you should see your doctor or even an acupuncturist.

nonchalant kids at bubble in NYC

In the beginning of March at the Bubble show in NYC, we launched the Nonchalant Kids collection for next Fall! It was wonderfully fun and a big success. We just felt it was the right time and we did it, the collection is simple, unisex and above all colorful and I love it! Many of the fabrics are from Ikea...how about that! (just to show you that you can do it too!) I was in NY for days looking at prints from all over and didn't really find my groove in anything, and on my way home stopped at Ikea, and there they were and the tone was set! You will see the collection in select stores and obviously at nonchalantmom.com in late July....hope you like it as much as we do!

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