What's in YOUR Clare Vivier bag?

Here's what's in mine:
burts bees color chapstick (three different colors!)
fresh - rosé lip balm
himalayan institute neti stik (aromatherapy inhaler-love this!!)
lively up your breath (100% natural breath fresher)
glee gum (multiple packs)
CB I hate perfume - at the beach 1966
a piece of cedar that a friend cut off his tree
herban essentials - lemon towelette (just in case...)
sharpies (I usually end up with about 8-10 but today is was just the two!
nonchalant mom postcards (in case I see kids in need of new clothes - ha!)
tatoos - you never know when these might come in handy
chopsticks
erica tanov wallet (I dropped mine in the ocean, but it still looks great!)
not pictured: iPhone & baggu bags! (always!! at them moment of the photo they were full of groceries!)

favorite green baggu bag!!! (green and neon poppy)

Tell us what's in YOUR Clare Vivier bag!!

Get your own Clare Vivier bag by clicking here

4th of July in Newport, Rhode Island

FIREWORKS! in Newport, Rhode Island

 
We had a last minute opportunity to be aboard a boat for the Newport fireworks tonight and I can't believe the photos I got.. so I had to share them right away with you!! These are amazing!

HAPPY 4th of JULY!!

before the works started this was the sunset from the boat

finale

It was the kids first fireworks, we usually just go on our roof and watch them in the distance. I forgot how tiring it can be for them.. but what a show.. it was terrific! Sorry but I had to post them all, the pictures just came out so good!

yay!

MORE... on SALE at Nonchalant Mom!

 
I just marked MORE on sale and took additional markdowns on what I had already marked down... which equals a whole bunch of SALE going on... If you have been watching things, now's the time to jump in the pool and shop!

Speaking of jumping in the pool, I have heard of heatwaves all over the place, we are relaxing in perfectly sweet weather at the moment, yes it finally warmed up, 75 and sunny! The beaches here in Rhode Island couldn't be better... so here are some of my favorites from the sale! Soft is everybody's favorite right now so I will make sure of focus on that...

shampoodle - air jumpsuit (for kids or adults!)

shampoodle - fuego top in red or pink (also adult or kids!)

shampoodle air dress (kids or adult!)

nico nico - circle dress

wovenplay - posie dress

wovenplay - posie dress

wovenplay - moth costume

bakker san tropez bikini

bakker - silk tie dye dress

have fun and happy 4th of July!!!!

shop nonchalant mom by clicking here

new and good :: prtty peaushun

It certainly has a funny name, not exactly catchy, but I think I really like this product. It has a lot going for it and vegan and great packaging to boot! Check out the website for the list of what it doesn't have (all the bad stuff), but what it does have is lots of the good stuff! Plus it has the added greatness of looking terrific too! Prtty Peaushun is a body lotion that you can buy with a slight tint to it light-medium-dark (or not-plain)... nice... it feels light and cool going on, but use it sparingly otherwise it's a bit weird, but nice and glossy.

It has a delightful shimmer, not a big shimmer just a bit and it looks totally natural, just more... smooth and gorgeous. I think it's a perfect summer creme, when I happened to wear it out a bunch of people commented that I have such nice skin (this doesn't happen usually so I thought I would say it...) - the package says: "look good in your birthday suit" nice idea, right? It claims to make your body look better and more 'well defined'.. whatever... I like it!

Now here is the part that I like about this stuff.. there are some wonderful things in here like; arnica, japanese green tea (with caffeine, whatever that means?), calendula and rosemary, there is more but check the website for all ingredients. My favorite is really the arnica, what a great idea... when it comes to my body I feel like I always need a bit of arnica! And what there is NOT is a good healthy list too: no toxic ingredients NO DEA, GMS's, parabens, petrochemicals, pthalates, propyl alcohol, propylene clucol, sulfates, synthetic dyes or frangrance, talc, toluene, triclosan, not animal by products and not tested on animals. It also happens to come in a terrific package, which was the original reason I bought it since I am looking for packaging for a product that I am doing... a pouch, so that you can squeeze out every drop, what a great idea!

click here to visit the PRTTY Peashun website

ready for 4th of july?

taken by my friend Manon on way from NYC to NJ beaches 1999

When you live in a vacation spot like we do it's all everyone is talking about, but maybe it's just the same for everyone, because especially this year its been our first good weather of the summer really... Our kids just finished school yesterday, a late finish due to all the snowstorms this past winter, so we are adjusting ourselves to the new schedule (wait, what are you guys doing here in the middle of the day!?) I keep thinking it's Saturday!

I think that more and more people are keeping it simple, which has always been our life, but as a family we are trying to stay more simple in our daily meals and especially dinnertime. We got rid of large plates, and instead use smaller ones so that we don't have the feeling that we have to fill them up. Normally I do the macrobiotic plate style of cooking where I have at least three 'piles' (for lack of a better word) various sides and then a main protein. Lately, I am only doing one or two. So our dinner might be steamed kale, brown rice and condiments like sesame seeds or sunflower seeds and a slice or two of tofu or a meat. Or kinpira (see recipe here) and brown rice with sesame seeds and then cheese for desert. You get the picture and summertime is the perfect time to do this as our bodies do not need so much now.

So when it's time to have people over for summer weekends, I have also cut back... keeping meals simple and light, and maybe just granola for breakfast and coffee ready at the table and for dinner it's simply salads and corn and a few other small things.. We tend to get crazy as Americans and expect to lay out these giant meals (also in restaurants with their giant plates of food! crazy!) -- I think we should take a cue from our European friends and scale it back a bit, there is far too much waste.

Anyway, try it for a week and if everyone hates it you can blame it on me, but I think everyone will come to the same conclusion... it seems smarter this way!

That said... I wanted to remind you of my strawberry cake recipe (click here), it's perfect for 4th of July parties! (with a little whole milk greek yogurt!?)

Happy Fourth!

hostess gifts - summertime favorites

It's summer and time to visit friends and let kids play together! Throughout the summertime we have friends coming and going and when that's not going on we take off and visit friends all over the place as well! It's the best part about summer right!? So when the time comes it's best to be ready with some hostess gifts at hand... so here are a few of my favorite suggestions for this year.

items from nonchalant mom left to right: 1) aleishall girard maxon necklace ($158) 2) atsuyo et akiko pillow ($68) 3) atsuyo et akiko JE TAiME bag ($58) 4) julie rofman bracelet ($75) 5) rosenberg cph tea or coffee cozy ($48) 6) kit+lili zip pouches ($24) 7) Lucky Fish tea towels for the Edible Schoolyard (proceeds go to the edible schoolyard) ($24) 8) kit+lili tote bags ($68) 9) Britt Beautiful Skin System ($36) 10) erica tanov gold leather zip pouche ($110)

1) Chemex coffee maker (it would be nice to give coffee beans as well) - $65 2) his + hers coffee cups by Johnathan Adler ($24) 3) proud mary textiles pouche ($36) 4) for kids, a set of melamine plate/bowl/cup by Thomas Paul ($26 each) 5) Thomas Paul melamine plate set ($40) 6) everyone needs a good brush, love this one! horse hair hand broom ($14.95) 7) Duluth Pack canvas perfect tote bag ($95) 8)  CB I Hate Perfume CB I hate perfume outdoor spray a natural and nice way to keep bugs away ($19-$110) 9) Americana puzzle ($25)

I hope you like all of these ideas... but it's also nice to make something... just about anything, potholders, pillows made from scarves, granola (see my recipe here its delicious)... you know whatever you can make that is good... !!

Have Fun!

GLåD Midsommar!

 
Today is Midsommar in Sweden, which means Dancing, Fun, Flowers, Friends and Food! Traditionally this is the day to celebrate the summer solstice. My friend Gunn says that it is thought that the water from the springs could bring good health and herbs picked at midsummer were highly potent... sound great to me! I also think that it is a day to celebrate the harvest, dance around the Maypole (to ensure a good harvest), pick summer flowers (more on that below) and have lots of fun with friends and family.

In Rattvik, where my family is from, we used to visit various raising of the Maypole with dancing and music in villages surrounding my mothers farm. We would dress up in our traditional Rattviks costume (so did my mom and dad). We made crowns with birch branches and flowers and wore them and when we were kids we even put on a summer show, we made a stage and put on skits and sang songs... so much fun! We stayed up very late because it just never seemed to get dark and had hot dogs at midnight! In the evening the girls would run out and pick seven different wildflowers in a bouquet, run around the well seven times and then go to bed (I think there may have been something else but I can't remember?). The idea was that we would dream of who we were going to marry! I loved this idea...

GlåD MIDSOMMAR!!

hot dogs! (again)

I will always remember my Uncle Hasse making these wonderful hot dogs, I was reminded the last time we were in Sweden he made them for Sander and I thought they were such a delicious memory. Now we make them at home like this and when kids come over they are always curious about how the heck we do it!

Anyway, if you are sick of getting buns for your dogs, then try this and add a whole new fun to hot dogs! We like to use tooth picks just to make the whole endeavor more festive! Just cut hot dogs into three pieces and then cut a cross down the middle half way and toss around in a cast iron skillet and then make these wonderful flowers! Yum! love them!

I also thought of this post because at midnight (or even 1 or 2 in the morning) on Midsummer, in Sweden, my uncle usually fires up the barbecue (he loves the Weber grill) and makes hot dogs..... because you know, it's light until 3 or 4 in the morning on Midsummer! Which is celebrated tonight in Sweden!! Dancing, Festive parties, great food and drink... oooohhhh how I wish I were there!

Have Fun!

jewelry

plastic necklaces crossed in front (makie dress)

how the back works

I don't know about your kids buy when Franny gets into my jewelry drawer I am usually delighted that someone is actually wearing the stuff so I can't get mad! Lately she has been wearing necklaces like this... crossed in front and I actually kind of like it and wanted to pass it on!

okay so this is how you wear them... really

I also wanted to explain it because she did it while we were photographing the Makié collection and I thought it looked... well pretty neat! So I did want to explain to you that the dress does not come with the cross of beads in front... that's my jewelry she is wearing! I collect these necklaces from flea markets, they are cheap plastic beads, I first found them in a junk shop in Amsterdam and bought a pile of 10 of them for $5... I wear them all the time and then realized they exist here too (I feel like they are a cross between plastic and melamine?), I have lots of rich colors but these are my favorite. I am sure that someone has the details, maybe they are from the 70's but I love them!

So wear them how you will but bead-up and jazz up any outfit! (sorry, that is not such a with-it word but whatever...)

Have Fun!

with new makie dress.. coming soon to website!

good answer!

In the latest issue of Vanity Fair Bill Moyers answers the Proust Questionnaire, I can't imagine a better set of replies than his, and manages to be thoughtful and oh so right! (yes, I love him!)

One of his questions is:

If you could change one thing about your family what would it be?

his answer: I wish we weren't always in such a hurry.

Isn't this the truth and it speaks volumes. It makes me think of our own lives (ha! isn't that what a Proust Questionnaire is supposed to do...) and how much we rush from one moment to the other and with kids I find myself trying to figure out what we are going to do with our time. Our best moments together are really when we just sit and do nothing! That's when we hold each other, that's when we listen to each other and best of all, that's when we just sit and stare at each other (well maybe it's more of me just dreamily watching them).

When you work at home as both my husband and myself do, you almost tend to work in every moment you can get, and you forget to shut off. It's times like these when I read something like this that I re-evaluate my life and figure out how to slow things down and keep my mind separate kids vs. work. I think that many of us are under a tremendous amount of pressure these days, to make it work. Make our jobs work and make our life with our family work, and with the pressure of the economy it's just another variable that keeps our minds away from the kids. Well, at least this is the way it's been in our family... maybe you can relate and this will help you to find the time, to keep your mind clear and just BE with your kids.

And just in case you are interested, when I was researching to write this blog I came upon the REAL Proust Questionnaire, you know there is a real one... (I didn't know it) it's actually where the Vanity Fair one came from, his answers to these similar questions posed to him at age 13 and then again at age 20, the answers are thoughtful and beautiful. ENJOY! (I found this online, it's kind of a weird link but - here is the link)

Proust did not invent this party game; he is simply the most extraordinary person to respond to them. At the birthday party of Antoinette Felix-Faure, the 13-year-old Marcel was asked to answer the following questions in the birthday book, and here's what he said:

• What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
  
  To be separated from Mama
• Where would you like to live?
  
  In the country of the Ideal, or, rather, of my ideal
• What is your idea of earthly happiness?
  
  To live in contact with those I love, with the beauties of nature, with a quantity of books and music, and to have, within easy distance, a French theater
• To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
  
  To a life deprived of the works of genius
• Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
  
  Those of romance and poetry, those who are the expression of an ideal rather than an imitation of the real
• Who are your favorite characters in history?
  
  A mixture of Socrates, Pericles, Mahomet, Pliny the Younger and Augustin Thierry
• Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
  
  A woman of genius leading an ordinary life
• Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
  
  Those who are more than women without ceasing to be womanly; everything that is tender, poetic, pure and in every way beautiful
• Your favorite painter?
  
  Meissonier
• Your favorite musician?
  
  Mozart
• The quality you most admire in a man?
  
  Intelligence, moral sense
• The quality you most admire in a woman?
  
  Gentleness, naturalness, intelligence
• Your favorite virtue?
  
  All virtues that are not limited to a sect: the universal virtues
• Your favorite occupation?
  
  Reading, dreaming, and writing verse
• Who would you have liked to be?
  
  Since the question does not arise, I prefer not to answer it. All the same, I should very much have liked to be Pliny the Younger.

What is fascinating about this questionnaire is that it was considered so great an amusement to very young people in Proust's time. It is hard to imagine a party of 13-year-olds in these times being quizzed about their favorite virtues, painters or characters of fiction and history. If the questionnaire were not to smack of exam, it would have to ask "what's your favorite TV show?" or "what's your favorite band?"

Seven years after the first questionnaire, Proust was asked, at another social event, to fill out another; the questions are much the same, but the answers somewhat different, indicative of his traits at 20:

• Your most marked characteristic?
  
  A craving to be loved, or, to be more precise, to be caressed and spoiled rather than to be admired
• The quality you most like in a man?
  
  Feminine charm
• The quality you most like in a woman?
  
  A man's virtues, and frankness in friendship
• What do you most value in your friends?
  
  Tenderness - provided they possess a physical charm which makes their tenderness worth having
• What is your principle defect?
  
  Lack of understanding; weakness of will
• What is your favorite occupation?
  
  Loving
• What is your dream of happiness?
  
  Not, I fear, a very elevated one. I really haven't the courage to say what it is, and if I did I should probably destroy it by the mere fact of putting it into words.
• What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
  
  Never to have known my mother or my grandmother
• What would you like to be?
  
  Myself - as those whom I admire would like me to be
• In what country would you like to live?
  
  One where certain things that I want would be realized - and where feelings of tenderness would always be reciprocated. [Proust's underlining]
• What is your favorite color?
  
  Beauty lies not in colors but in their harmony
• What is your favorite flower?
  
  Hers - but apart from that, all
• What is your favorite bird?
  
  The swallow
• Who are your favorite prose writers?
  
  At the moment, Anatole France and Pierre Loti
• Who are your favorite poets?
  
  Baudelaire and Alfred de Vigny
• Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
  
  Hamlet
• Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
  
  Phedre (crossed out) Berenice
• Who are your favorite composers?
  
  Beethoven, Wagner, Shuhmann
• Who are your favorite painters?
  
  Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt
• Who are your heroes in real life?
  
  Monsieur Darlu, Monsieur Boutroux (professors)
• Who are your favorite heroines of history?
  
  Cleopatra
• What are your favorite names?
  I only have one at a time
• What is it you most dislike?
  
  My own worst qualities
• What historical figures do you most despise?
  
  I am not sufficiently educated to say
• What event in military history do you most admire?
  
  My own enlistment as a volunteer!
• What reform do you most admire?
  
  (no response)
• What natural gift would you most like to possess?
  
  Will power and irresistible charm
• How would you like to die?
  
  A better man than I am, and much beloved
• What is your present state of mind?
  
  Annoyance at having to think about myself in order to answer these questions
• To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
  
  Those that I understand
• What is your motto?
  
  I prefer not to say, for fear it might bring me bad luck.

click here to read the full Proust Questionnaire with Bill Moyers

SUMMER SALE :: starts today.. Baby/Kids/Mom... 15% - 50% off!

 I just posted a summer sale last night... Sale on most collections: Nico Nico, Kit+Lili, Makié, Tuss, Matta, and more.... Visit Nonchalant Mom and get yourself and your kids some summer goodies, and save a bit of cashola! (prices as marked)

nico nico - organic and super soft t-shirts that your kids will LOVE and so will you! Shorts that you can't beat for summer all priced $28-$40

kit+lili - if your little girl doesn't have her summer dress yet, you better get your act in gear and jump over to kit+lili and get yourself one... pronto!

makie dress

makie gingham top

Makié - nothing is better than Makié for a european summer look, completely put together and sharp! (but I happened to photograph it with cut-off jeans which looked pretty smart too... very american!!) I am already getting some things for Fall from her so I am excited to add her things to the SALE!

tuss - The Ultimate Simple Solution... and great for summer. Impeccably beautiful kids clothes from Sweden that are perfect for all the time and any time!

shampoodle fuego top and bollywood pants

shampoodle air dress

shampoodle - This summer shampoodle created a the perfect play collection, with clothes that are easy to wear and take care of.. if you are packing for travel, look no further!

and for Moms: Lucky Fish, Matta, kit+lili and shampoodle are all on sale too!

click here to shop Nonchlant Mom now!

remember cut offs?!

nico nico cloud t and cutoffs

I know this is not re-inventing the wheel here but I was inspired to cut off these crazy bell bottom jeans that I got for my son (okay this was years and years ago so don't shoot me) but we cut them off for Franny and they looked great... Just thought this might inspire you too! have fun with old stuff... we do it all the time!

here's the how to (but you know how to do this.... maybe you just forgot!?)

cut off one leg where you think it will look nice

fold that leg over and cut the other leg at the same point

these extra pieces make great knee patches!

HAPPY SUMMER!