Mom's Zen

With the popularity of Mad Men has come a new found love of all things mid-century.  For those of us that have loved it all along, we found that this resurgence has brought more than just an appreciation for clean lines and hairpin legs – it has also brought a huge price increase!

With some planning and know how, you can not only long for that Baumritter, you can have it too!

1.  Don’t over-estimate the want ads!  Craigslist is a bargain hunter’s paradise for mid-century design.  I scored an amazing hutch for $20!  It is not only beautiful, but it completes my kitchen’s 1950′s vibe with style.  Think outside the box when checking Craigslist, Ebay or Etsy.  Not everyone is the best speller.  The bad part is it is much trickier to find a good deal online.  The good news is, it is still possible – it just takes some savvy knowhow and patience.  When I am the lookout for a particular item, I check daily and have lucked out by finding that treasure shortly after it posts.  My level of persistence is not to be taken lightly!

2.  Don’t knock off a knock off!  Who wouldn’t want an original Eames rocker ?  We all would.  If you have your heart set on having a vintage piece, be prepared to pay a very hefty price tag.  If you love the look but are not a purist, don’t discount the quality and design of a non-pedigree piece.  I have an Eames rocker that makes me happy and looks amazing in my home.  Do I care that it’s a knock off?  No!  I just know that it is the same design and so incredibly comfortable and such a conversation piece.  I love it on every level!

3.  Shop Locally.  Not only is this good for the environment as I am sure you have heard, your town probably has some great local shops that you didn’t even know about.  I was checking craigslist and came across some local listings, uncovering local gold mines in my own back yard!  In Columbus, Ohio, I found The Boomerang Room, one of the best local shops for mid-century modern merchandise at very reasonable prices.  There is a distinct MCM community right here in Columbus, Ohio that I didn’t even realize existed until I went out looking for it.  My point is, don’t discount shopping locally.  You just might be pleasantly surprised!

4.  Estate Sales and Garage Sales.  The kids and I have made a Saturday habit of checking garage sales and estate sales.  We have come across some real treasures.  Again, I tend to find these sales (with pictures listed) on Craigslist.  I can’t stress enough the importance of the web.  By knowing a little something about mid-century design, I know what I am looking for while perusing these sales.  The important thing is, I have done my homework so I have a fairly good idea of what is rare, and what is probably a knockoff, so it doesn’t warrant a high price tag, etc.

I scored an amazing Tony Paul table at an estate sale for a steal!  I didn’t actually know the name Tony Paul, but I did recognize the table from my Dwell and Atomic Ranch magazines.  I always loved the look of this particular small table and here it was staring me in the face!  After some back and forth with the estate sale person, I walked away with three stacking tables and one Tony Paul table originally priced at $95 that I scored for the low, low price of $35!  Score one for Kelly!

5.  Vintage Communities.  Because my husband and I both love the mid-century modern look and design, we tend to find ourselves stumbling across our local shops specializing in these wares.  A couple weeks ago, we came across such said shop.  After having an amazing discussion with the shop owner, we bought the most amazing lamp and some great 70′s leather jackets.  He also gave us a postcard for an annual 2-day sale specializing in mid-century!  How amazing that we happened across this shop when we did.  We are so going to this sale!

6.  Antique Stores.  Even though you are not shopping for your average victorian era antique, you can usually find a mid- century nugget of gold (maybe a Knoll or a Wegner) nestled back in the corner.  You have to keep your eyes open to find it though.  It’s usually sensory overload in places like that.

7.  Grandparents’ attics.  Remember when you were young and first moved out of the house and everyone was trying to pawn their furniture onto you they no longer wanted?  You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?  Depending on the household, you can score big with some of these hand me downs.  Take a gander in Grandma’s attic or basement and you might find some marvels straight from the set of Mad Men.

8.  DIY.  The amazing thing about furniture designs from this era is the craftsmanship.  We have some Lane Acclaim tables that are so well crafted, they put modern day furniture to shame.  They are not ridiculously heavy, so they are easily rearranged at will, unlike those horrible, heavy, pressed wood tables of today.  The point is, there are some items from this time period that can be recreated with modern pieces.  Simply marry an existing table top with spindle or hairpin legs and your old, worn out table takes on a whole new life for very little investment and time on your part.

9.  IKEA.  This company is known for its innovative designers and smart, Swedish design, much like the turn of the century designers and their no-nonsense, ground-breaking designs.  The best part is that Ikea has very reasonable prices.  While you may not want to furnish your whole house with IKEA wares, you can add some wonderful touches to really make your room design pop at very reasonable prices!  Check out this Karlstad sofa and their amazing hanging and floor lamps.

10.  Minimalism.  You don’t need everything in your house to be a period piece.  With some planning and a couple well placed designer pieces or knock off designs, you can accomplish the look you are trying to achieve with little investment.

Still need some inspiration?  Here are some iconic pieces from that time period that truly are timeless.  Let me know what treasures you have found to add to your collection.

For more inspiration, here are some great blogs specializing in mid-century design.  Enjoy!

http://retrorenovation.com/

http://www.tonypauldesigns.com/blog/

http://modernfindings.com/

http://midcenturyliving.blogspot.com/

http://www.nopatternrequired.com/

Happy Holidays!  I hope you all had a loving holiday filled with family and friends.

So, Santa brought us a Guess Who by Hasbro.  What fun!  Turns out Grandma and Grandpa bought one for the house, my aunt bought one for her house for the grandkids.  Cousins bought the game.  The list goes on.  We bought the version that comes with two sheets – one people and one animals.  We can then go online and download more sheets to print ourselves.  How fun is that?

We have played this game way too many times to count since Christmas day.  We play it almost every day.  This of course got me thinking of numerous other versions that currently only exist in my head.  I am working on a template where you can download your own clip art, photos or whatever you want so the “characters” would be endless!  The only thing holding you back is your imagination and your printer!  I will post as soon as we get it worked out.

We have been having so much fun with our Crayola Crayon Maker!

pouring the melted crayons into the molds

We made custom crayons for all the kids in the family as a present to them.  How cool is that?  I cannot stress how much fun this thing is and fairly easy.  The worst part is cleaning out the metal tray.  I have a wooden stick I used for my cuticles that works like a charm because of the flat end.  I get the dried, melted wax off with that and it’s on to the next color combination.  We advise using numerous smaller pieces of contrasting colors, rather than longer pieces.  Doing so will lend you a more marbled, tie dye look.  Tres Chic!

crayons starting to melt

Here are pics of each part of the process.

Start to finish takes about 20 minutes if I remember correctly.  The longest time is the cooling period, in which you cannot open the lid to remove your newly formed crayons.  This is obviously for safety reasons so that nobody burns themselves and then whines that they managed to burn themselves on a toy.

Crayons cooling in their molds

I think I speak for most everyone when I say, Christmas cards are adorable.  I love getting them in the mail.  It makes it seem more like the holiday season has arrived when I open my mailbox and there are bright, festive cards from loved ones inside, right?  Years ago, I was really on top of things and even managed to hand deliver my cards on Thanksgiving to my family.

This both impressed them (Kelly, I don’t know how you do it!) and delighted me as I saved a small fortune only having to mail to friends.  As the years passed, and apparently so did my focus, I found cards to be such a hassle!  I had long since given up on getting the kids’ pictures taken professionally as this generally ended in tears and frustration.  I would snap pictures through out the year and generally took a great picture of them that I would send as our Christmas card.  Pretty brilliant, right?

Well, yes.  IF they get out in time to be delivered before the holidays.  The last couple of years I decided that if they get it by the 24th, I am doing good.  But I always longed for the more organized, timely me of years past.  Reminiscent of the Ghost of Christmas past, I was doomed to repeat my current, lame ways unless I put forth some effort.

Years back, I was organized.  I mean really organized.  I had a packing checklist that I developed after countless trips home where I forgot something, or sometimes numerous things.  Along these lines, I typed everyone’s addresses into a label document so all I had to do was print them out, slap them on the cards and voila! my cards were ready to be sent out in no time flat.

I even had adorable clipart that I aligned so it would print on the labels.  First, you printed the sheet with the clip art; next you printed the formatted addresses on the same sheet.  I even had my own Christmas labels for return address labels.  I tried to take the stress out of a nice holiday tradition.

I panicked this year, when I realized all of my addresses were gone!  I looked everywhere in the computer and sure enough, I still had my address labels and the clip art, but none of my friends or family’s addresses.  I buckled down and retyped them, saving them for next year.

I suggest you do the same to save yourself some hassle in the coming year.  Now that I have them saved, as I get new addresses, or someone moves, I simply go into my document and either edit or add the address, save and I’m good to go!  As I receive new cards I quickly add those addresses into my document.  Here are customizable christmas labels for the clip art if you are interested.  I know it’s a lot in the beginning, but it saves so much time in the future!  It really is worth its weight in time.  This also lets you know exactly how many cards you need so you don’t have to guesstimate and inadvertently leave someone out!

Let me know if you have any holiday time savers.  Goodness knows we can all use some!

In honor of the holiday season, I am sharing some of the best presents we have experienced in our household.  These are our experience or opinions, as my daughter’s birthday is in November.  I hope this list gives you some good ideas in case you are having a difficult time deciding this year.

My kids are art fiends, so when we saw the Crayola Crayon Maker at the store, we knew it was a must have.  I also thought this would probably be one of those hard to find gifts, so I got this in early November.  My daughter got this for her birthday, so we have already played with it.  How awesome!  You put in your bits and pieces of crayons and presto, change-o you get brand new swirly crayons.  Coolest present ever!  Seriously though, this is a must have for the art lover on your list!

Another winner is the Lego Master’s Builder Academy.  We recently went to a Lego KidsFest, where the kids got to go to a session with a Lego Master Builder.  While at this session, we learned more about this cool set that .  It comes with a detailed design book with diagrams and building tips to build a model.  It also has an exclusive Minifig, which is sought after by collectors.  Kits 2-6 are available for purchase to build upon the skills learned in the last kit.

We have a lot of techies in our household.  One of the games I was impressed with is Scribblenauts.  This really innovative game is a unique puzzle/action-platforming game for Nintendo DS/DSi in which solutions to challenges faced in-game literally take shape out of the words and phrases that the player spells out.

Another game we love in our house is Little Big Planet 2.  This game allows the gamer to create scenarios that can be shared with friends and rated.  More importantly is the creativity of this game.  The adorable sackboy is the main character that can be individualized and saved.  This game is an adventure, a creative joy and won the Game of the Year for the original Little Big Planet.

A classic game that is hours of fun is Guess Who by Hasbro.  At Thanksgiving this year, we re-discovered this classic and had some amazing family memories.  I highly recommend this classic.  They have the original version, electronic versions, and even travel versions.  This game is sure to make game night a hit in your house too!

Please let me know what toys made your nice list this year.

As the holiday season is upon us in full swing, I want to take this time to say how grateful I am for my family, friends, health, my career, and all the joy in my life.  I find myself reflecting on past times when money was scarce, stress and worry were at an all time high and the general outlook looked bleak.  What a contrast to today.  While we don’t live in a mansion or have the newest cars, we are rich with blessings.  And you really can’t put a dollar sign on that, can you?  Really helps to put things in perspective and makes me even more thankful for the little things in my life that make me smile and gives my heart joy.

It’s easy this time of year to get caught up in the sales, and give in to the panic and over-extend ourselves financially and emotionally.  To quote a favorite film in our house, “How about some perspective?”  Don’t give in to the chaos.  If your cookies don’t turn out picture perfect, or you don’t get the “it” toy no matter your efforts, take a deep breath and realize it’s going to be OK.  Seriously!  I wouldn’t steer you wrong, would I?

So, go tell your loved ones today how thankful you are for their presence in your life.  Don’t wait!  Your heart will feel joy and you will share that love with the people that mean the most in your life.  Pay it forward.  Take some time during this season of excess and crammed schedules to reflect, inhale and find a moment of quiet and peace.  Just five minutes!  You can carve out five minutes for sanity, right?

I wish you all peace, joy, love and gratitude.  And Zen – don’t forget the zen!  What do you wish for?