The Violet Hours

Time for Instagram Love

I am so not alone in my love for Instagram. It has definitely pulled ahead as my favorite form of social media. At this point in my life, I have time to look at pictures and not much else!

Some of my Instagram pics are among my favorite I've ever taken (like this one of my daugther Sommer at her first music class), and I'm desperate to free them from my digital devices and let them live in my world so I can actually touch them. Here are some great ways to do that...

LMNOP blogged about Origrami, a service that prints postcard-quality prints of your Instagram photos. And then packages them in that amazing box. I'm doing this. Even if I have to pay shipping from Australia.

 

I love the way A Beach Cottage arranged Instagram photos of a beach vaca on a wall in the shape of a heart. Because face it, who doesn't love the beach? And Instagram. So if you are a shutter-happy photographer on one subject, this project will visually link the imagery and colors nicely.

 

Seriously, this is a dream of mine: a huge frame with hundreds of Instagram photos. If only I had the wall for it. Found via Because I'm Addicted.

 

Young House Love framed their Instagram photos in jewel cases. Always a fabulous, photograph vehicle. (PS...I'm so proud to share a book publisher with them! How on Earth did that happen?)

Time for the Color PINK

I was driving to Michael's the other day, and heard a fascinating report on NPR. The author of a new book called Drunk Tank Pink, Adam Alter, was discussing with Ira Foster how hidden currents, from reactions to color to our attraction to certain letters of the alphabet, affect our behavior and thoughts in significant ways.

The term "drunk tank pink", I just learned from this website Color Matters, is the name that was given to the color that was used in jail cells to calm violent prisoners. It was discovered that this hue (R:255, G:145, B:175) had a calming influence, even affecting a person's heart rate, but could then create adverse effects after about 15 minutes of being subjected to it.

Then there's the story about the head football coach at the University of Iowa who painted the opposing team's locker room pink to weaken their performance on the field. Rumor has it that the visitors would cover everything with newspaper as best they could before entering the locker room to derail this bubblegum assault.

So naturally I began to think about pink in a new way...little girls clothed in pink, sleeping inside pink walls, chewing on pink plastic giraffes. Do we push this pacifying color onto them or is it a biological attraction? 

A few years ago I blogged about this project by South Korean artist JeongMee Yoon on Parents magazine's Goodyblog. Starting with her 5-year old daughter Yoon conducted a documentary-esque study of children and their possessions. She orderly arranged their belongings, from clothing to pencils to books, in their bedrooms. The resulting photographs are astounding. The diptych is of a set of twins that both started out in the pink world, and then went their separate ways to pink and purple.

I am usually not drawn to pink for my 1-year-old daughter Sommer and much of what she wears is hand-me-downs from her brother (she survived the winter being mistaken for a boy in a navy-blue coat). I'm curious to see how it all shakes out; if one day, she'll be fighting to paint her half of the room blush or bashful.

Time for a Toddler Bed (literally!)

I pinned this photo from a French blog a while ago as aspiration. This is my goal for how I want my kids' room to look. Loose, fun, casual. I'm on my way, for sure...we have a knitted bunting, a mushroom table lamp, a poppy, apple green side table, cool wallpaper from Fine Little Day...and now, we have a toddler bed.

Yes, Oliver has graduated, and thank goodness! Poor Sommer has been waiting for her fashionable, Kalon Studios Caravan crib for months now. We got Oliver the Gulliver bed from Ikea; now I just need to hack it a little bit to give it some European style. I wanted something simple that could compliment the Caravan, but at a lower price point. I plan to style it like a little day bed, and honestly, I can't wait to start pinning textiles.

Tonight will be the first night as a big boy. Must mark it down in the calendar.

Time for 10 Amazing DIY Birthday Party Hats

I find no reason whatsoever to buy a party hat. Wait, let me rephrase that. I find no reason to buy a party hat without jazzing it up! It's totally legit to buy the paper ones and doll them up, or, just download a hat template and make it from scratch. But of course that all depends on how many you need to make. My daughter's first birthday party is in two weeks and to be honest, I don't feel the need to make a hat for everyone...just for her. So, since I'm only making one, I can really dedicate some time and thought to it. Let's explore the world of homemade party hats, shall we?

1. Never would I ever make this hat from Wedding Chicks for a 1-year old baby (glitter in the eyes, mouth, ears, cake, etc), but I love love love the ombre affect! I think I would try something a little cleaner with some glitter paper from American Crafts and glitter tape from Shop Sweet Lulu.

 

2. These DIY party hats from Oh Happy Day are soft and lovely and feel so right for a darling 1-year-old girl on her birthday.

 

3. These DIY printable party hats from Chic Mother & Baby couldn't be simpler. Download the design, print, cut and glue! And they are pretty precious!

 

4. Love the bling! These homemade party hats from Glee Projects would be perfect for New Year's Eve...or in brighter colors for Sommer's first birthday party hat!

 

5. I'm all about repurposing, and these paper-cup party hats from Real Simple are totally adorable and so, so simple!

 

6. I'm kinda loving these butcher paper, marker, and pipe cleaner hats from Salsa Pie. The combo of the glittery pipe cleaners with the plain ole brown paper is genius. What a fun craft for kids!

 

7. Again, another totally unpredicable combo of silver and wood grain by Creative Jewish Mom. But it works so well, especially with those pops of pink and yellow.

 

8. I love the idea of putting party hats on the favors! Saw this today at Shop Sweet Lulu's blog! (Read this post...I love that this party centered around this orange cat from Ikea...colors, theme, the whole bit!)

 

9. A party hat made from an ice cream cone? Yes please! Made by the brilliant ladies of One Charming Party.

 

10. A classic Martha Stewart Living masterpiece, these DIY party hats are made by gluing 2 circles together!

 

Time for Toy Stories

Allenah - El Nido, Philippines

Writers, photographers, reporters, and documentarians travel the world to search for differences and similarities in all aspects of countries and cultures—food, politics, landscape, architecture, and the list goes on. The general consensus is there is very little that is universal except perhaps the basic need for necessities like food, shelter, and clothing.

Alessia - Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy

Photographer Gabriele Galimberti travelled the world, examining a very unique relationship— the connection of children to their toys. After 18 months of shooting these gorgeous photographs of children with their toys, he discovered that “at their age, they are pretty all much the same. They just want to play.” This piece by Ben Machell from The Times Magazine reveals some interesting insight into how the affluence of the kids affected how they allowed Galimberti to interact with their toys and how their homeland and parents influenced what they chose to play with.

Stella - Montecchio, Italy

Bethsaida - Port au Prince, Haiti

Of course this all made me think about my kids, Oliver and Sommer, and their relationship to their most prized toys. At almost a year, Sommer, for the most part, wants whatever her 2 and a half year old brother has, but Oliver's proclivities are a little more telling. He loves his toy New York City Subway trains, since he knows that Mommy and Daddy ride the train to work. He loves his paints, markers, and crayons; Mommy seemingly "plays" with those materials all day. And I guess for Sommer, I can say that she grabs her one babydoll (we named her Automn), enthusiastically hugging and kissing her; she is probably modeling my desperate attempts to hug and cuddle my baby girl, fearing that she is growing up too fast.

Li Yi Chen - Shenyang, China

Maudy - Kalulushi, Zambia

Do your kids' toys reflect where you live, who you are, or what you, as parents, do for a living? Do their toys bring you back to your childhood?

There is so much emotion, symbolism, and narrative to decode in Galimberti's exquisite photographs. I want to know so much more about each child, her family, and what his toys mean to him. Visit Galimberti's site to see the rest of the series, each one more captivating than the last.

Time for Keepsakes

I thought I'd just finish out this week of family/photo love with a little post about creative ways to preserve keepsakes. Right now, I have 2 boxes, one for each kid, where I toss all of the little meaningful objects from their short lives...their hospital bracelets, their Welcome to the World cards, their sonogram photos. At some point I'm going to need a new solution. Here are a few thoughts...

I'm so crazy about these lovely shadow boxes. They are just the right amount of delicate, with their soft colors and simple white edging. For the life of me, I can't figure out where they are from (if you know, leave a comment!), but I think they are pretty DIYable. Image via Pinterest.

 

Have you ever seen Darcy Miller's (from Martha Stewart Weddings) scrapbook shadow boxes? They're amazing.

 

I love the idea of this sweet book keepsake box for love letters, gift tags, or photographs. Image via One Sunny Afternoon.

 

And for the most nostalgic (read: sappy), I can't get enough of these clean and modern, enamel lockets. I'd love to wear a few together. (Husband, if you're reading, bookmark this.)

Time to Photograph Children

I feel like this is an appropriate follow-up to Monday's reflection post. I saw this on Design Mom today, and it literally made my eyes well up in loveliness. You Are My Wild is a weekly portrait project that brings together 14 photographers to document how they see their children. Here are a few stand-outs for me... (There are so many amazing ones...you have to see for yourself.)

photographer: Anje Marie

why i love it: the post-mortem joy of the celebration, the parade, the party...all taken in with studious black glasses.

*****

photographer: rebecca zeller

why i love it: you can read two different personalities of these children from above and below the table. the purple tights and the crossed feet speak volumes.

*****

photographer: brooke schwab

why i love it: this photo truly felt like a moment in the day of this family. there is no sense of performance at all. just the transference of pure love in the grasp of her ponytail.

*****

photographer: shelby brakken

why i love it: he is looking out the window, plotting how buzz will make it to infinity.

*****

photographer: kati dimoff

why i love it: the band-ade'd knees and sidewalk chalk scribble make me think this girl is a fearless artist.

As a photo major in college, I always imagined that my kids would only know me with a black box in front of my face, but little did I know that the iPhone was to be invented just 15 or so years later. So instead of the black box, there is this little rectangular, deck-of-cards sized object that can sometimes capture a moment on the fly. How lucky am I that not only do I get to preserve my kids' moments constantly, but I can also see the light of day.

Time to Plan a First Birthday Party

It's totally mind-numbing that my daugher is turning 1 in a month. I guess we as parents all have that feeling that the days are long, but the years fly by. So on top of the emotions that surround this milestone, it's time to plan a party. Fortunately, I just did this story for the March issue of Parents magazine (on stands now)!

One certainty of becoming a parent is the enormous amount of photographs that you take of your baby—from the first sneeze to the first time he stares at a toy. Riveting material. Here's an easy decor solution: use your baby's precious face to decorate the party! Find the how-to's on Parents.com. {Edit note: baby-in-hat garland is my little Sommer Alice!}

 

I don't know about you, but I have the hardest time throwing away baby food jars. Here are 3 cool ways to resuse them—favors, vases, and votive holders—for your baby's first birthday party.

 

Running 72 errands and buying 34 different craft materials is the last thing you want to do when DIYing your baby's first birthday party. I have such a crush on the crepe paper from Cartefini.com that I designed an entire party using that solo material!

 

The handprint is such an icon of babyhood. Make a stamp of your baby's hand and use it to decorate napkins. Click here to learn which ink pads are best for napkins. Plus you can watch a video too!

(Gorgeous photos by Tara Donne and genius styling by Martha Bernabe)

Time for the Love of Clotheslines

{photo via}

What is it about clothelines that feel so romantic, ephemeral, and dreamy? I totally grew up with a dryer and living in Park Slope, Brooklyn, I can't exactly string my clothes up to the adjacent building. But I crave those sweet little wooden pins, the cotton rope, the gauzy cotton flowing in the breeze...

I love the mix of 2D and 3D clothing on this line to decorate a girl's bedroom. Found via Studio Tout Petit.

A clothesline comes in handy when you need to erect a tent. Via P-olaroids.

Clotheslines work as perfect inspiration boards because they are so changeable. Found via Pinterest.

I love everything about this little artistic collage of stitching, fabric, embroidery hoops, and a clothesline. By Stephanie Kelly Clark, via Hiving Out.

 

Ordinary Parent featured this super adorable way to mark your child's month-age.

Give me a wooden ladder, a chalkboard, tags, a rusted metal urn and a clothesline and you had me at hello. Via Style Me Pretty.

 

Time to Draw On Your Placemat

If there were a step-by-step guide to teaching patience at the toddler level, I'd buy the DVD, the book, the book-on-tape, and subscribe to the Twitter feed, Facebook updates, and Instagram posts. But, no matter how hard we try, dinners out, and sometimes even dinners in, require a delicate time balance between the pre-food entertaintment, food arrival, waiting for food to cool down, and then the digestion/wait-for-the-check black hole. Potential solution? Placemat entertaintment.

I have this awesome set of paper placemats called Let's Make Some Great Placemat Art. It's imaginiative and open-ended, but still too advanced for my 2.5 year old.



I love this hand-drawn/digital take on placemat messages, but we are still in the letter recognition phase, rather than the letter creation one. Note to self: save for age 5. Or my next dinner party. Via Habitat Kid. 

Alas, sometimes the right solution is the easiest one. Just toss down some brown paper and cups of crayons and let the madness take its course. I'll do anything to avoid the dinnertime Mickey Mouse Clubhouse videos on You Tube. Photo via Country Living.