Your Custom Text Here
I’m excited to invite my local friends to a workshop at Past Basket on Thursday, May 23rd, 7 pm. Owner Linda McFadden and I are teaming up to tackle the topic of color.
Color on walls is like a teenager in your house. Unpredictable. Difficult to understand. Changeable by the hour depending on things outside of your control.
Read more
Last week I attended UntitledTown, a book and author festival in Green Bay. I gleaned so much and am continually inspired by other writers. If you need a little inspiration this week, check out my favorite procrastination links from around the web…
Read more
I follow an Instagram account called “Mothers Before.” It was started by author Eden Lepucki as a way to promote her novel, “Woman No. 17”, a story revolving around motherhood and daughterhood. Ms. Lepucki solicits old photos of mothers with accompanying captions written by daughters. Here is the caption for the photo above:
Read more
Happy Earth Day! Here’s to hoping you take some time today to set aside your phones and laptops and appreciate our beautiful outdoors. And, when you have to get back to your devices, check out my favorite procrastination links from around the web this week…
Read more
See the pic above? That’s the first day of Alt Summit, the once-a-year blog conference I attended in Palm Springs earlier this month. It looks arduous, doesn’t it? All those palm trees and the very conspicuous sunshine. One writer in attendance, the brilliant Meg Conley, joked:
Read more“My husband keeps saying that Alt Summit is what I seem to think all of his business retreats are like. But really his are him hunkered down in a corner eating a Big Mac while working in an airport and Alt is, you know… meditation cabanas and flower arrangements and dinners with women who wanna make your dreams come true.”
After waking up on Monday morning to a winter wonderland of snow, it’s hard to believe that spring is upon us. I’m looking forward to sharing with you all that spring and summer have in store for us at the farm. In the meantime, check out my favorite links from around the web this week…
Read more
A couple weeks ago, I attended Alt Summit, a blog conference held in Palm Springs, California. Last night, I wrote an excellent recap of our week in the desert, with highlights from speakers and links to some of the very inspiring people I met. Then, at 1:30 a.m., when I went to hit ‘publish’, the unthinkable happened. My computer died.
Read more
Spring has sprung and I am so excited to share the news of my new adventure in farm living at Monches Farm. My family and I do not yet know what the farm will become, but we are looking forward to the fun and hard work that awaits us. I will of course share our adventures along the way on the blog. In the meantime, check out my favorite links from around the web this week…
Read more
Shortly after moving to Wisconsin over twenty years ago, my husband and I took a Saturday drive with our friend Stacey out to a very special farm and garden center called Monches Farm. We climbed out of the car and fell instantly in love with the overwhelming beauty of the place: deep rolling furrows of field-grown perennials, stone and timber outbuildings, a big red barn with antiques and gifts, pergolas and statuary, a glass house with teetering stacks of pottery, a vast inventory of day lilies, and dozens of exotic chickens freely pecking hither and non.
Read more
I’m off to Alt Summit, a blog conference in Palm Springs, this week. I’ll be back on the blog in a couple of weeks to share some tidbits and tales from the conference. In the meantime, check out my favorite procrastination links from around the web…
Read more
I have a friend who always asks me, "Did you get the Halloween invite from blah blah blah?" or "Are you going to blah blah blah's 40th birthday party?" The first few times it happened and I responded that no, actually, I did not get that invite, she was always shocked. Which made it so much worse. "Huh!" she would say, like this was a puzzle. Like maybe I’d been on the original invite list but somehow something changed.
After this happened a number of times, my friend learned to be more discrete. Now she simply asks, "Did you get an invite in the mail yesterday?" This question is much less specific but not necessarily less stressful.
Read more
My husband is an ethics officer of a large Fortune 500 company. He regularly conducts investigations of ethical misconduct, and while he isn’t shocked by the college admissions scandal, he finds it fascinating.
Most of my husband’s cases involve smart people doing stupid things for a little extra edge or a little extra money. They risk their career, their personal relationships, their reputation for a few thousand bucks, or a roll in the hay with a subordinate. Why?
Read more
I took a little time away in Florida this past week. Nothing beats a little sunshine and warm weather! If you need a break this week, check out my favorite links from around the web…
Read more
Spring is around the corner, but I honestly haven’t minded this winter one bit. I believe April can be much uglier than winter! If you need a little break this week as the snow melts, check out my favorite links from around the web…
Read more
When I was six, I ran away from home. I packed my favorite doll, Betsy, into my red vinyl purse and hit the road.
Soon after the screen door slammed behind me, I encountered a problem I hadn’t anticipated. My parents forbade me crossing the street alone. What to do?
I asked Betsy. Maybe now is the time to mention that Betsy was a “Flatsy,” one of those popular dolls of the 1960s with the disconcerting combination of luscious, shiny, three-dimensional hair attached to a flattened head and body. Betsy looked like she’d been run over by a steam roller. She did not encourage me to cross the street.
Read more
As the cold air settles in once again and icicles hang from our roofs, I’ve been checking in on the chickens at our farm and dreaming of spring. We have much to learn about tending to chickens, gardening, and farm life, but I am looking forward to the adventures ahead of us. If you need a little break from this bitter cold spell, check out my favorite procrastination links from around the web…
Read more
Today’s post features the home belonging to my friend Amy Afsari. Amy hired me to help her with art and accessories, including a gallery wall. Before we get to the nitty-gritty on that, let’s talk about Amy’s style, which is very different from mine. She embraces exuberant color and wildly fun patterns and then tames them with English-style tables and chinoiserie. It’s an irresistible juxtaposition, especially here in Wisconsin where the piles of snow at the airport don’t melt until July. I walk into Amy’s sunshiny family room and can practically smell freshly cut grass, that’s how verdant the room feels.
Read more
I have twice now written this weekly note to readers accompanied by a coyote howling outside. Or a fox. I’ve concluded that he wants to tell you something. I wonder what? If I hear him again this week, I am going outside to investigate. To see if it’s my brother, pranking me.
If you feel like howling at the moon, do it. If you prefer to stay inside, check out this week’s procrastination links:
Read more
We’ve gotten another wallop of snow in Wisconsin, and it’s a winter wonderland outside. So hard to believe spring is only a month away! If you need a little break from playing in the snow, check out my favorite links from around the web this week…
Read more
I finished the book and because I was sad that there were no pages, I read the acknowledgments. There, in the fourth paragraph, a name: the boy who broke my heart in my youth, who sent me crying to my pillow countless nights, whose love I couldn’t hold. This boy who made me realize that life before him was all Barbies on the floor, that love was real but not forever, and when it ended, it hurt. I could see him in a Powderhorn Mountaineering ski vest and painter’s pants. Broad-shouldered, golden-haired, laughing with crinkly eyes. That boy. He had grown up to become an anatomy professor in Eugene, Oregon, and there was his name, in the back of this heartbreaking book.
Read moreWhen young, we think there will come one person who will savor and sustain us always; when we are older we know this is the dream of a child, that all hearts finally are bruised and scarred, scored and torn, repaired by time and will, patched by force of character, yet fragile and rickety forevermore, no matter how ferocious the defense and how many bricks you bring to the wall.