A Knitted Muse Who Drives

March 17, 2016 mithra ballesteros

Last week, I took a class on Skillshare. I've written about Skillshare before. For $10 a month, I get access to free classes taught on many subjects, some by some very famous people like Seth Godin. In fact, if you are interested in trying it, please email me here and I will forward you an offer for 3 months at $0.99.

Anyway, this particular class, led by Andrew Knapp, is titled Photograph Your Muse: One Subject, Endless Possibilities. Andrew's dog, Momo is his muse. That dog might also be an early iteration of the 23rd century's Dalai Lama, as he is the most peaceful, friendly creature and allows himself to be posed in ridiculously adorable compositions. Go here to follow Andrew and Momo.

Hot Oil, Raw Meat, and Spears

February 5, 2016 mithra ballesteros

Around Valentine's Day, they crop up: photos of happy couples gazing at each other over a fondue pot. I've never understood this form of marketing because in my opinion, fondue is tailor made for kids, boys in particular. Look at this party. We had raw meat, sharp spears, open access to hot oil, oversized appetites and BLAM! it's like we time traveled back to the Paleolithic era. Everyone crowds around the pot, the fight for the meat is real, and there's at least one burnt tongue and some singed arm hairs. My friend Rachel is in the corner of the photo, marveling at the romance unfolding in her kitchen on Valentine's Day. So wonderful.

Adventures While Traveling with Children

January 22, 2016 mithra ballesteros

I'm in Salt Lake City this week, attending a blog conference. On the airplane yesterday, the couple in front of me spent the entire four-hour flight attempting to entertain and pacify their antsy two-year-old. They had not a single rattle or toy. The mom sported gorgeous long hair and got angrier and angrier that her little girl wanted to pull it. Well, what else was the child to do?

Dr. Zhivago and Dr. Sharifi

January 15, 2016 mithra ballesteros

Brrrr. Temps here in Wisconsin are low low low. In Shakespeare's words, "Tis cold as a dead man's nose." Get thee under a blanket, make thee a cup of hot coffee, and let us talk Dr. Zhivago.

The film was released in 1965 but it was in the '70s when I sat up late one night and watched it on television. I loved Omar Sharif. He reminded me of my father. Not just his handsome good looks and his sophisticated charm. Dr. Zhivago was a physician who wrote poetry and loved Lara, a fair-skinned nurse. My dad was a physician who painted watercolors and loved Maryann, a fair-skinned nurse. Omar Sharif was born in Egypt in 1932 and my dad was born in Iran in 1932. Only one letter separated Sharif from Sharifi.

Wishbones for 2016

January 1, 2016 mithra ballesteros

I buy things for strange reasons. There isn't really a rhyme or reason. Is that wrong-headed? Time will tell. Today I'm listing some cufflinks in the shape of wishbones. And here's why:

It’s Christmas vacation, and I’m fifteen years old, the self-conscious age when I cringe hourly at my family’s annoying behavior. On this evening

From the Bottom of Our Wooly Hearts

December 18, 2015 mithra ballesteros

Look at them, an idyllic family, frolicking hand-in-hand-in-hand through the grass on a breezy fall day. I spent an afternoon photographing them for their holiday card and let me brag for just a moment about their stellar qualities. They are very low-maintenance. No one worried about hair or clothes or the cold. They seem to really like each other. Seven people crammed together and not one nasty word was uttered. And talk about patient!

The Mother of All Get-Ups

October 23, 2015 mithra ballesteros

I am back again this October with another installment in the popular series called "My Sister is a Halloween Costume Ninja". (Part One is here.) That's my sister in the photo above, dressed as Morticia Addams, surrounded by Cousin It, Lurch, her darling husband Gomez, and Wednesday.

Weekend Listicle // Love is in the Air

September 21, 2015 mithra ballesteros

My husband and I celebrated our wedding anniversary yesterday. We spent the day with our son and his fiancée, planning their wedding celebration. It will take place next summer on our patio, and yesterday, a fair amount of time was spent discussing the weather. Whether the weather would weather the day. (Apologies to readers whose first language is not English.)

It sprinkled on our wedding, which was held on my parents' patio. It poured on my sister's wedding, which was held on my parents' patio. So I advised my son and future daughter-in-law to expect rain on our patio too.

Rain on a wedding day was once thought to be a good omen. But so was virginity, so to hell with that.

Here's this weekend's listicle loosely categorized around my weekend of l-o-v-e:

This podcast about a Persian marriage and its twisty-turvy journey kept me in the car for 45 minutes despite a very full bladder -- that's how good it is. (Sidenote: the Iranian couple's daughters are shocked and dismayed by the unexpected outcome. We listeners are thrilled.)

Erica Weiner is a Brooklyn jeweler with a vintage obsession. Her Instagram is full of stunning antique wedding bands and engagement rings. Next year is our thirtieth anniversary and I'm bookmarking th is band, a reissue of an antique pattern. Very simple and pretty.

Last night, we watched Cutie and the Boxer, an independent documentary about two free-minded artists whose complex marriage and working arrangement are costly to the wife and beneficial to the husband. The first-time director won Sundance's Best Director award, among others.

Food trucks are a popular feature at weddings these days, and yesterday, we went in search of Yellow Bellies Food Truck. Milwaukee peeps, these guys book out at least a year in advance. Their food is to-die-for. Here's their schedule. Hint: they're in Cedarburg every Friday at lunchtime.

No fancy dinner reservations for us last night. Instead, I cooked the best chicken enchiladas ever. I served them with Persian saffron rice, crockpot beans, and a spinach, avocado, corn, tomato, jalapeno pepper salad. I recommend doubling the mole sauce. Divine!

Last but not least, you cannot enter into marriage until you do this.

Campy His and Hers Mugs available here at Finder Not Keeper.

Regardless of your marital status, if you are interested in a vetted list of top notch links, consider subscribing. You'll get an email every Friday morning chock full of good stuff.

Weekend Listicle // Feeding Frenzy

September 7, 2015 mithra ballesteros

It's Labor Day and on this subject, I have been trying to figure out how to adequately describe the importance of the food supply in my house of men. Due to the number of man-boys (five) and their unusually high rates of metabolism, I always felt like my single most important job as a mother was "gatherer of groceries". I once snapped a pic of the third son home from high school, standing in front of the open fridge with backpack, jacket, gloves, and snow boots on. That's how desperate he was to confirm his snack.

This weekend, we all traveled together up north. My parents came too. My mother, who survives on Tic Tacs and vodka tonics, was freshly shocked at their locust-like behavior. She unloaded the dishwasher twenty times in three days. By the year 2200, someone will have developed a quick test to measure rates of metabolism and I will finally get my due as the woman who fed the five highest metabolisms for twenty years without losing her marbles.

The Rooster in My Kitchen

August 14, 2015 mithra ballesteros

In a rather small corner of my rather large kitchen is this framed needlepoint rooster. It is one of my most beloved possessions. My Persian grandmother stitched it when she was a young girl living in Hamadan, Iran, probably sometime in the 1920s.

Her name was Zarrin and she was very talented with a needle. After her father died, she supported herself and her mother with her own handiwork. Then, in 1927, she met and married my grandfather. I think this is a piece she did before her marriage.

Making Peace with an Urge to Sell

June 26, 2015 mithra ballesteros

What would Grandma do? I ask that question all the time. She is gone but her voice is in my head, and whenever I'm in doubt, I hear her loud and clear.

I'm in doubt a lot these days. It comes with the territory of selling online. Opening a business is like embarking on a home improvement project that seems straightforward until you tear down a wall and find 3000 brown bats roosting between the joists. (Read about that here.)

When I walk into my basement storage room and see the boxes of inventory, staring at me with an accusing look, like I'm not doing enough to make people love them, I get a pit in my stomach that all small business owners can understand. It even has a name: the "Trough of Sorrow". (Paul Graham, world famous internet start-up investor, came up with that.)

A Room for Read's Reading

June 19, 2015 mithra ballesteros

To my loyal readers who prefer to click on a post with photographs of humans, let me urge you to stay a moment, and look again. Because indeed a human is hidden in the image above. He is there amongst the stacks of titles. Those are his books, you see, and his daughter, my friend Alice, has turned her dining room table into a living library in his memory.

I remember the day I glanced at Alice's dining room and came to the easy conclusion that the space is stunning: the antique carved Spanish furniture, the gorgeously colored wallpaper, the wrought iron Rococo chandelier, the sunny window seat -- a favored perch of Alice's trio of dogs who keeps watch over the comings and goings of her large family.

What a Snapshot Reveals

May 8, 2015 mithra ballesteros

Today I planned to hit you over the head with an ambitious do-it-yourself project. It involves taking an old slide or negative and turning it into a sentimental masterpiece worthy of prime wall space in a soulful home. The image I’m using for this project happens to be of a woman and a child sitting on a horse in a desert. The woman is my mother, I am the child, and the desert is in Iran. Which is frankly a lot more fun to write about than pixels and filters. So the Photoshop step-by-step will have to wait for another day. Let’s talk about my mom.

Caption Help Please!

March 27, 2015 mithra ballesteros

I'm working on captions for my April Fool's photos. These photos will live for twenty-four hours on Finder Not Keeper's home page on April 1. Above is one of the photos I'll be featuring. I'd love help from you clever people to supply a caption. Make fun of the bunnies. Or the flowers. (The whole collage will be available for sale next week.)

There's only one rule. Don't hold back. Leave your suggestion in the comments below. For examples from last year, scroll to the bottom.

Be aware that swear words don't bother me. Because I am modern. Like my mom. One evening a few years ago, she called me on the phone.

Happy for Sadness

March 5, 2015 mithra ballesteros

This weekend marks one year since Finder Not Keeper opened for business. I thought about an image of a birthday cake or a champagne bottle, but if I am being completely honest, the real impetus to open a shop came from watching my children leave home. Thus, the image above.

Today's Post is About Loneliness

When my oldest child left for college, I really struggled. I cried without warning, and had trouble sleeping. It felt like the loss of my identity as a mother. I'm quite ashamed to admit this even now, because it was such a first-world problem, to be sad about the natural progression that everyone wants for their children. How shallow and selfish.

Heavenly Bogotá for the Holidays

January 8, 2015 mithra ballesteros

Instead of packages under the tree, this year we decided to take our children along with their grandfather to visit Colombia, their grandfather's homeland. It was a dream vacation. The kids met the South American branch of the family and they embraced us with enthusiasm and warmth. At our first event, great aunts and uncles literally pulled us into conga lines of dancing. From then on, it was one big bouncy lovefest. We are all glowing.

Our first day, we joined pilgrims and tourists making the steep trek up to Monserrate (10,341 ft.) where Christmas Day services were held in the lovely open air Catholic church. Many Colombians wept as they ascended towards the peak.

Crab Legs and My Christmas Tantrum

December 25, 2014 mithra ballesteros

Merry Christmas from The Bubble Joy! When you are a child, Christmas is magical. When you are a parent, Christmas is magical. But for those who are neither, Christmas can be tricky. It requires more effort to capture the spirit of the season. This, my husband and I learned together during our first Christmas back in our salad days. And the manner in which we learned this lesson inspired a collection in the shop.

Side note: I come across quite badly in this story. My mother-in-law, who recently started subscribing to this blog, is going to read this post and then spend the afternoon whispering to herself, "I knew it. I knew it!"

Santa and His Reindeer Need a Shave

December 18, 2014 mithra ballesteros

This was our holiday card last year -- a reincarnation of the days, sixteen years earlier, when my sons actually did what I asked. By which I mean they donned antlers and Irish knit sweaters and lined up by age.

We took the original photo the year that we moved to Wisconsin. The boys loved how deer, foxes, even coyotes would meander through our woods and the idea of dressing up as reindeer delighted their innocent little imaginations.

They don't really do what I tell them anymore. Because at this point, what can I tell them that will be heard? To match their socks? Those days of parenting are over.

Our Video! Of Pond Frogs, Pizza, and Passing Years

November 27, 2014 mithra ballesteros

Happy Thanksgiving Friends! I have for your Black Friday enjoyment a little ditty of a video for Finder Not Keeper. If you enjoy it, I hope you "like" it and share it. After watching, scroll down below for a few fun tidbits about the making of "Shelf Life."

Thanksgiving with Two Lovebirds and Three Roasted Birds

November 21, 2014 mithra ballesteros

I talked to my parents on the phone this morning and my mother had just returned from the grocery store where she had purchased a turkey for Thanksgiving. She is such a pro, she calls them ‘birds’. She usually roasts three birds, so why she came home with only one was a mystery to me. Evidently, the grocery store is running a turkey promotion limited to one turkey per customer per day. She will be going back tomorrow and the day after for two more birds. I said that was a lot of gas and time and trouble to save ten cents a pound.

I could hear her shrug over the phone. “What else do I have to do?” she joked.

Welcome! I'm Mithra (pronounced Mee-thra). I'm an interior stylist and a writer. I'm also a vintage and antiques lover. I have an online shop, Finder Not Keeper, where I sell my best finds. (That's a white lie. I keep the best finds.) Read more about me and the blog here.

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A few days back in the ‘Quon. All of February is the price I’m willing to fork over for one week in September.

Latest blog post about our new outdoor shower and the differences of opinion between this guy and his mother (me) on how it should be used. #linkinbio

Brainy, brave, kind, genuine, indefatigable, funny, patriotic, fair, hard working, gentle, strong, iconic.

Those aren’t my hands forming baguettes. But I took the pic. @heat_her_all_a_man has it down and I’m ready with my salted butter and honey. What do you eat with baguettes?

Surveying the herb garden after a good weeding session. Basil took a hit the last couple weeks but everything else is flourishing like summer lasts forever.

First restaurant account for @littlelaurentide! Also first time eating out since the snow was flying. Really really fun night. (Not to mention that building’s white with black trim paint color scheme is 💯)

Surprise lilies, also known as naked ladies, fit in well here at the farm for reasons we will let you ponder.

This is son #2, the farmer. Walter is working hard to turn this place into a sustainable organic farm. Follow us @littlelaurentide for the latest on how mother and son align, clash, argue, hug.

On the blog today, the newest bachelor at Little Laurentide. Will he draw viewers or is he a train wreck along the lines of Juan Pablo Galavis? Read the latest blog post to find out! Link in bio.

On the blog today: a tour of the best places on the farm to sit for a spell. And I write a bit about what it’s like to cohabit with a son who used to give me every kind of gray hair. He could teach a polar bear how to be grumpy and I could teach a grizzly bear how to be grumpy. It’s a new world for the two of us, farming together, and can you guess how it’s going??

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