I have a treat for you today, a rich buffet of Halloween goodness. My sister and her family dress up together, as a fivesome, every Halloween. Anyone who has conceived of, organized, and executed a group costume knows the difficulty involved. Committing to this endeavor, year after year, even as her children grow into obstinate teens, even when her inner voice begs for a break to just sit out a year for land's sake, and watch that other modern family celebrate Halloween on TV, shows a strength of mind that I am proud to see in my little sis. I must publicly say how much I admire her achievement. And now you can too!
Read moreMatchmaking Then and Now
By far my most favorite aspect of this business venture has been creating the scenes for Finder Not Keeper's landing page. These lifestyle shots are important -- they set the tone and grab the attention of the visitor -- the equivalent of a brick and mortar window display. A good photograph will entice the web surfer to open the door.
For these images, I recruited a sleepy son for a model and an amiable husband to help move furniture and hang fabric panels along the patio. Then I raided the shop (my basement) for the cool Middle Eastern stuff that always attracts me.
Read moreSugar Cookies for Baba
This Father's Day, I baked a batch of rollout cookies for my dad. I cut them into the shape of letters that spelled B-A-B-A, which is Persian for 'dad'. Not only do his children call him 'Baba' but so do his grandkids, and even some friends and in-laws. I wonder how long it took before he stopped hearing 'dad' and starting hearing 'Baba' as a name of its own.
My dad prefers sweets made with honey and pistachios, but in the fashion that he has followed since emigrating to this country nearly fifty years ago, he gamely smiled and ate a yellow frosted 'B'.
Read moreSentimental Mom
In her beautiful essay "On Being Mom", Anna Quindlen writes, "If not for the photographs, I might have a hard time believing they ever existed."
After my second son left for college and with the third son not far behind, I found myself redoing this corner of the kitchen with old black & white photos, a school desk only I can fit into, and "The Rules to Always Being a Gentleman".
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Read moreEmbrace the Fear
One of my sons, leaping into icy waters in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Photo by Atticus Ballesteros.
Yesterday, Finder Not Keeper officially opened. The image above captures my feelings exactly. Exhilaration. Elation. Excitement.
But also fear.
Let's talk about fear. I'm from the school of worse-case-scenarios. I sit in a movie theater and count the rows to the exit. When my sons were in driver's ed, I made posters with news clippings of fatal car accidents. I am a defensive driver, a defensive skier, a defensive sunbather.
It stems from my own childhood, of course.
Read moreNo Smoking!
Photo by Renn Kuhnen.
Some collections come together in a very abstract way.
Not this one. It is an homage to the art of smoking. The accessories on their own are interesting but the poster with its smoke-obscured face is what gives the whole set its edge.
I found the poster at an estate sale of a deceased hippie who was also a hoarder. Those hoarder houses are always the best but they're very exhausting because you can't relax your radar for a second or you'll miss something amazing. (Really, hoarders are modern day archivists. They just lack the credentials and the proper facilities.)
Read moreDream Deferred
Dream of skateboard flight fueled by oxycodone and a lecturing subconscious. Collage by Nicholas Ballesteros.
I have been working on Finder Not Keeper for quite some time, hammering through the enormous checklist inevitable with opening an online store. The task felt insurmountable at times, but every month yielded results that gave me a sense of progress. Last spring, I decided the perfect time to launch was that fall of 2013, when the kids had returned to school and my daytime hours were my own again.
Read moreNorthernaire Ski Resort
It was a resort called Northernaire, and it was frozen in time in the 1950s. Our family went every winter to ski, sled, and skate in woodsy Three Lakes, Wisconsin. The owner, Carl Marty, loved animals. He trained his beautiful Saint Bernard dog, Bernice, to be a nursemaid to the many orphaned creatures living there.
Read moreHow a Cartier Watch Morphed into a Prada Bag and a Grumman Canoe
Collage by Nicholas Ballesteros.
It was a contest sponsored by Saks Fifth Avenue. The challenge was to write a 50-word essay that used the words from their ad campaign, "Live a Little".
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