1 Easy Trick To Glam Up A Dinner Party

In theory, I love these.

-         Burlap?

-         Cute font?

-         Message preached by placemat instead of mother? (They sport sayings like "put your napkin in your lap" & "elbows off the table".)

All things I love. The trifecta of good.

And then I looked at the price.

$69 for a set of 6.

$69 for placemats that will need to be dry cleaned once anyone uses them.

Shoot. At my house they’d need to be dry cleaned once anyone looked at them. (And yes by “anyone” I mean the 7 year old ;)

So the manners placemat is off my “gotta get” list, but here’s what’s on it instead: paper placemats. So cute! So clever! So disposable!

 

They glam up Chinese takeout and make you shrug when the 7 year old makes a beeline for them, markers in hand. (I'm not saying use them every day but for a big dinner that you want to make a bit more swanky? These are the ticket!)

Gives new meaning to the phrase “try it, you may like it”, doesn’t it? A set of 50 goes for around $24 on amazon.(Click this link to see the Italian scroll placemat pads on amazon.)

Happy dining, guru girls & guys!

 

The Challenge Of Parenthood

Sometimes it’s fall break and you spend lots of extended time with your children. And you become desperate enough to play the “quiet game”, which they are still young enough to believe is really a game and not a desperate parental attempt for peace.

So they play.

And they are quiet.

For the first time in 4 days.

And then the littlest one hands you a note.

That looks something like this.

 

Here is what the note says:

“I would really like to speak. Is there a prize for the winner? Why? YAY! Are you in a bad mood? Ok, is this bugging you? Well, I’m sorry but I’m not stopping.”

And you realize the 7 year old has captured a truth about the parent/child relationship, indeed all family dynamics. “Is this bugging you? I’m sorry but I’m not stopping.”

You have to laugh. Because otherwise you’d cry and become one of those people who goes to the Alaskan frontier and lives with grizzly bears.

Because at least cubs can’t write. Or be sassy.

But they also can’t make you laugh so hard it hurts.

Happy end-of-fall-break, guru girls & guys!  

Steal Of A Deal Furniture: Overstock.com

I love free shipping. Especially when it concerns furniture. So imagine my glee at finding a company that ships for free, most of its merchandise, stuff that’s also really cute.

I just turned my mom on to a site that does this exact thing. It is great news for Mom that she now knows about overstock.com. It is less good news for my dad as I see redecorating – lots of redecorating – in their future.

I recently helped my mom purchase a coffee table from overstock.com. It turned out great! Just like the fantastic metal stools I got from this outfit last year.

It’s a little nerve wracking to buy furniture, sight unseen, from a website. Especially a coffee table where the quality of wood could be sketchy. Happy to say Mom’s coffee table is decidedly non-sketchy and pretty fab.

It looks Restoration Hardware-y, but she got it for a song. Which means grandkids and dogs and life can happen to it without my mom breaking a sweat. Not that Mom sweats. Like me, she glistens.  

Restoration Hardware stuff is beautiful, but every time I’m in that place I feel like I’m in a reverent museum. If I got a Restoration Hardware coffee table the only thing I’d be putting near it would be holy relics, not juice boxes and dog bones.

If this sounds like your approach to life and furniture and shipping costs, click on over to overstock the next time the dog can’t find the bone and chews on the furniture instead. (Click this link to check out overstock.com.)

 

Photo credit: This is a photo, of a chair, from Restoration Hardware. Bet my parents would be happier with the dog if the chair was from overstock.

2 Organizing Tips For The Ages

I have recently learned 2 hard truths about organizing. Okay, make that 3.

#1 – I myself am not that organized, despite obsessively reading any and all magazine articles about the topic.

#2 – Cute baskets and gizmos from the Container Store are not the key to organizing success. In fact, it is likely they will impair organizing success because in buying these items you are just adding to the clutter.

Want to be organized? Throw your stuff away, say organizational experts. Or donate it. Everything but the items you use and wear all the time.

What you must not do is keep all your stuff and go on a shopping spree for cute baskets. Or else you will end up like me the next time you move – drowning in a sea of stuff and cute containers!

The secret to organization is elbow grease, not wicker.

#3 -- Closet organization is easily achieved if you hang your clothes by outfit. Don’t organize it by color or type of clothing, i.e. shirts, jeans etc.

Instead hang entire outfits together. So you drape your zebra stripe cardigan over the white tank you always wear it with and hang your black pants and zebra belt just behind it. Do this for all of your favorite outfits and you’ll drastically reduce your “I have nothing to wear” days.

I just read about this tip and plan to implement it immediately! As soon as I make my way out of this pile of storage. Happy organizing, guru girls & guys! I promise more "gotta buy it", "gotta read it" tips are on the way. Just have to find my magazine stash!

 

3 Easy Steps: Conceal Your T.V. Remote

As a committed fan of both DIY and clutter busting, you’d think I’d be all over the project Country Living magazine labeled “Fresh Plotline For Used Book”. It’s basically the old-cleverly-conceal-the-t.v.-remote-in-a-book ruse.

But no, I am not into it. In fact, I am the opposite. I am actively against this project. Because this plan seems like a perfect way to lose the remote control forever.

And I need no help with this. The guru crew loses the remote regularly. In fact, the remote is currently lost – I mean, cleverly concealed – in a box. The problem is… which box?

 

Once I find the damn thing you can bet I am not going to willingly hide it again, anywhere, ever, even in an antique book, whose presence on my coffee table makes me look readerly instead of junk-television-addicted.

This disguised remote project doesn’t make me as mad as some of my other pet peeves (see getups in the Sundance catalogue). But it gets me a little bit riled up. Clearly, I need to relax with some mindless television.

Except I need the remote to do that.

If you are not as bitter as I am, and you want to tackle this project, google for instructions. Or go to the library for the May 2013 edition of Country Living.  

Happy remote-control concealing, guru girls & guys!

Yoga 101: How To Move Your Body*

Yoga 101: How To Move Your Body*, When You've Moved Your Stuff Badly & Need Some Peace 

I misplaced the computer. And the toothbrushes of the Dynamic Duo. So for a day they brushed their teeth with their fingers.

Clearly, the move is going awesome. And I'm not in need of anything. Except for a computer, some toothbrushes and a whole lot of inner peace. This state is what's finally driven me to take a yoga class. Because my friend Ashley, who teaches yoga, says that's the ticket to serenity. And if I can't have great dental hygiene, at least I can have great inner calm about it.

Read on for Ashley's words of wisdom about yoga. I am signing up for a class later today!

Yoga Wisdom: Or Here's What Ashley Says... 

"Here's what I think.  Yoga is not just a trendy new exercise.  It's a thousands-year-old system for reaching enlightenment.  The physical aspect (asana) is just one of the 8 limbs of the path of yoga (this is just one website that explains it, not a particularly good one, really, just the first one I clicked on):

http://www.expressionsofspirit.com/yoga/eight-limbs.htm

That said, most people start with asana because it's easiest - your physical body is right there, and you can see and feel it.  Working on straightening your spine in a forward fold is more straightforward than "cultivating inner perceptual awareness", for example.  But the crazy thing is, if you do asana every day, and you do it mindfully and with awareness of your breath (because otherwise it's just exercise), the other stuff starts to happen.  You find yourself being kinder and more patient (because you are living in the moment, not thinking there's something better you could be doing than standing in line at the grocery store), you find that you eat healthier food (because you start to notice how your body feels when you eat junk), etc., etc.  

So here's what I'd recommend for a start.  I think you should do yoga every day, but at a minimum 4x a week.  Even if it's just 5 minutes.  Consistency is more important than endurance.  Yoga is a practice, not a theory, so you have to do it.  It's better to do it at the same time of day, and you can do the same set of exercises every time.  I usually do about 5 minutes of breathing exercises, and then a few sun salutations every morning.  Takes maybe 15 minutes.  Then I chant (maybe 10 minutes) and meditate (maybe 15 minutes) before bed.  And I try to go to class a few times a week.  

In my personal experience, it's much easier to do yoga with other people.  There's just a nice energy that it's hard to get on your own.  Plus if you are a beginner it's good to have a teacher to make sure you are doing things safely.  Then I think it's fine to move to a video or maybe better, podcast.  I can't imagine really being able to do "yoga" (concentrating on breath, body, etc. while watching a DVD, you know?)  Most yoga studios have what the call "community classes" where their teacher trainees teach, and the class is free, or a $5 donation.  It's a good way to try out different studios and teachers for cheap.  

Some of my favorite yoga books:

Not for complete beginners, but offers some theory and a guide to seeing up a serious home practice:

http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Power-Yoga-Levels-Practice/dp/0684855267/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373564590&sr=1-1&keywords=beyond+power+yoga

A great restorative yoga book, easy to follow routines for home, office, etc.  Would be great for before bed:

http://www.amazon.com/Relax-Renew-Restful-Stressful-Times/dp/1930485298/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=IV8Y132L3VUO&coliid=I1DEZ9G8KBV6YB

Kundalini is its own crazy type of yoga.  This book is a nice introduction and has great "kriyas" (little yoga routines) you can do at home:

http://www.amazon.com/Kundalini-Yoga-Shakta-Kaur-Khalsa/dp/0789467704/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373564800&sr=1-1&keywords=kundalini+yoga

Not an "asana" book, but an accessible, easy to read overview of the theory:

http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Yoga-Reasons-Theres-Nothing/dp/0060533390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373564563&sr=8-1&keywords=happy+yoga

A meditation book that is quick and no-nonsense and teaches you to meditate in your real life, not on a cushion in some Zen monastery:

http://www.amazon.com/One-Moment-Meditation-Stillness-People-Go/dp/0982374607/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373565145&sr=1-1&keywords=one+moment+meditation

Really nice mindfulness exercises to work into your everyday life:

http://www.amazon.com/Shortcuts-Inner-Peace-Everyday-Serenity/dp/B0085S08TM/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373565182&sr=1-1&keywords=shortcuts+to+inner+peace

Also, there are a lot of mindfulness apps for your phone.  I have one called The Mindfulness App.  It has some guided meditations, and silent meditations that it can remind you to do at certain times or certain locations.  And an app for your computer that combines mindfulness with some of the best spiritual teachers around today is https://www.stillnessbuddy.com/.  "

Thanks, Ashley, for the yoga primer! Now if you could just send some kid toothbrushes my way ;)