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Gift Guide For Love Seekers

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My sister recently reentered the dating world and I found myself vicariously reliving her first kiss, first love, first embrace moments. And then I remembered the other firsts. The first fight, first awkward moment and the first heartbreak and realized I’m quite content to be her armchair guide to love. Her backseat romance driver.

And so I’ve compiled the best dating and marriage advice I can find via a selection of handmade gifts to give. Perhaps you have a friend or family member poised on the diving board and ready to plunge into the sometimes icy, sometimes refreshing dating pool too?

The best advice I could possible give anyone heading into potential coupledom is “You Must Be Present To Win”. Be your best self and get out there and try! The man or woman you are going to pair socks with for life isn’t going to walk into your living room. (Cable television doesn’t count.) Lulubug Jewelry (featured here and here) has cast that sentiment into a fine silver necklace on a drawn cable chain.

Sometimes the best counsel has been around for years, as is the case with Kurt Vonnegut (one of my favorite authors) and his quote, “There’s only one rule that I know of babies – God damn it you’ve got to be kind.” Captured by Ragamuffin Press on scrumptiously thick paper. Be kind to those you meet, date, and most of all to yourself.

MetalandMud has captured essential advice on simple, upcycled, white plates. The one I would share with my single friends is “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” Let yourself flounder, grasp and stumble in the dark while you look for love. And when you find your mate you’ll see that you also found yourself a bit along the way.

And when you are ready to commit to your love, consider these wedding invitations created in the form of a vintage train ticket by LetterBoxInk. Because my dear, it’s going to be a ride. A beautiful, bumpy, roller coaster of a ride. Buy your ticket, climb aboard, hang on tight and enjoy.

Love,
Lotta

Subversive Chore Chart

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Dear Reader,

Ask my children to clean something and it’s necessary to anchor yourself to the nearest door frame, lest you be blown away by the gale of whining. But put a poster board chart up on the wall with the promise of stickers for tasks finished and they knock each other over to Swiffer the family room.

In fact, I’ve discovered that stickers make manipulating children so much easier. Put a Dora the Explorer sticker on a banana and suddenly it’s super delicious. “Quick eat the brown, mushy part before Swiper swipes it! Swiper no swiping!” Put Barney on the toilet brush and they’re singing about how they love everyone while they clean the crapper.

I Did A Good Job Chore Chart

But it occurred to me the other day that while placing chores like, “Clean your room”, “Use your manners” on a sticker reward chart was all well and good. I was thinking too small. Surely, there are far better things we can train our children up to do? We need to take advantage of this Pavlovian sticker training and create The Subversive Chore Chart.

  1. Go out and buy yourself a big old sheet of poster board. Everything feels more official to a child if it’s on poster board. Remember when you used to get nervous because the teacher might write your name on the blackboard? Certain items possess magical qualities to children. Chalk, poster board, etc.
  2. Find some crayons or magic markers that haven’t dried out. Baring that, grab some eyeliner or lip pencil to write with.

    Hand Poured Marbled Crayons

  3. Make a big deal about drawing up the chart. Act as though you don’t want your children to see it. “Whatever you do DON’T come watch me make this chart!”
  4. Now get yourself some stickers. There are two ways you can go with your adhesives. The sparkly over the top character stickers that burn your eyes. Or, my personal favorite, odd scratch and sniffs. My kids are out of their minds with curiosity as to which smelly sticker I’ll put on their chart next. The scratch and sniff horse stickers perhaps? Because who can resist a horse’s ass that smells like cotton candy? Not my kids. Scratch Santa children. What does he smell like? Credit card debt and peppermint.

    Scratch and Sniff stickers from Everything Smells

  5. Now have a glass of wine and really think about what you wish your children did or said during the course of the day. Not what you think they are supposed to do – what you wish they would do. Legally. Start filling in the blanks!

If I may suggest a few:

Ask mommy, “Have you lost weight?”

Claim to be fed only organic fruit picked by vegans wearing sandals made out of rope and newspapers while in public.

When daddy asks what you did today do not say “cartoons”.

Brag about mommy’s cooking while at Grandmas house.

Challenge daddy to a floor scrubbing match. “Dad, betcha can’t scrub this floor as fast as I can!”

Fetch cold beverages for grownups.

Talk about how flipp’n awesome your mother is while at play dates.

The list is endless really. Have fun!

Love, Lotta

Happy Campers Tutorial

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Dear Reader,

Every summer my family and I go camping in Door County, Wisconsin. We meet up with my folks, and my sister and spend our days on the beach and nights sleeping in a tent. Tent camping is an adventure unto itself. It can be relaxing at times, laying on an air mattress and watching the stars through the zip up screen. Pretending to mind having to go lie down early with the kids, but actually feeling cozy and safe listening to the buzz of conversation and smelling the campfire while I lie there.

Felt Campfire by SweetiePieBakery

Other times, not so relaxing. Like when my son was teething and woke up with an arched back screech of pain. I could tell immediately that the wails were going to be unending and loud so I scooped him up and ran for the minivan. Jumped in and let out a chortle of victory. We made it! We would not be waking up the other campers again tonight! Until my son arched in pain again, stiffening his legs into an unbending position that pressed his feet down directly onto the horn.

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Gift Guide For Sharp People

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While trying to pull together this week’s gift guide I found myself stumbling upon this fantastic peanut knife by Contrary. I wanted to build a theme around it because it amused me so much. It’s a peanut. It’s a knife. It makes no sense and that makes it instantly covetable.

I also found this secret leaf knife necklace in Contrary’s shop and knew I had to include it as well. But what would my theme be? Cuts Like a Knife? Secret Sharp Spyware? Really Clever Cutlery?

I tried to look around at other shops too, I honestly did. But Contrary also has a knife, that’s a pistol, that’s a necklace, that has a vintage patina, that really couldn’t be more perfect.

When I finally tore myself away to look at other jewelry artists I was rewarded with this pretty mermaid knife necklace by Lanyapi.

And these pocketknife earrings by YOU gNeek, for those that like their shiv a little shinier.

Still..the theme? I guess I’ll take a cue from my Dad who would always say, “Now that looks sharp!” when he liked the outfit you had on. So this is the gift guide for sharp people. And people who like bacon.

Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you aren’t the sharpest knife in the drawer,
Lotta

Darling Dioramas

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Dear Reader,

When I was in the third grade we were asked to create a diorama that represented a climate, or geographical setting of some kind. The tropics, perhaps a frozen tundra or a mountainous region. Honestly, I wasn’t paying all that much attention. I had just started reading A Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder and there wasn’t anything more riveting to me than reading about Laura and her Pa having to grind up wheat in the coffee mill. Or Ma Ingalls making ice cream out of some snow and maple syrup. Really, these people were geniuses.

The day before the project was due I decided that I would make a Desert scene. Tents, sheiks and the whole shebang. I would use whatever I had on hand – just like the Ingalls. I took out a rusty cookie sheet and filled it with scoops of sand from our sandbox. [Read more…]