EvY at HomE

A friend brought her daughter over on a Friday night when my niece and nephew were spending the night and she remarked that our home was a place where kids could be kids. And nothing could have been a bigger compliment.  I love seeing the little evidences of her everywhere. Her fingerprints on my laptop screen. Her toys in the bathtub. Even the former inconveniences are now smiles and reminders that I keep the coffee table top clear for her to put her coffee set and naked butt on when she runs around after bath time. I don't want to hide her presence in any way. Nor of any child who enters my home. Lyla left her mark on chalk "I love you Tia. You are my BFFF."  I don't find any of her things ugly. They are hers and she likes them so they are treasure. Here she pretends. Here she puts on a tiny glove then knows where in the kitchen the big ones are. Opens and closes doors. Moves and spreads everything around in the day and mom tidies at night. N...

I dunno if we've mentioned that we have had a young woman staying with us for the past few months while she finds a more permanent living situation. We've housed people in our home since we were kids and throughout our marriage Matt and I have been the intermediate home for a few friends and family so it's nothing too out of the ordinary. The only tricky part has been that I've lost the office to work out of and do my lady things like watching my stories and painting my nails. I've been working from home for a few days and tried working in the living room to a major fail what with Alice constantly pawing at me and then I set up a desk in the master bedroom which works out mostly but it's hard to work with her knowing I'm there. You try just ignoring a sweet little voice jiggling the door handle and saying "mama, mama". So...it's been tricky. It's very clear what time are office hours when I'm literally in an office but when I'm ...

We are currently going through a magical perfection phase with Alice. It's a burden, I tell you.  I seriously wonder if it's because I had a pregnancy full of barfing longer than normal and gestational diabetes coupled with a long natural labor that ended in a c-section with a brutal recovery that the good Lord granted me clemency and said you know what, I'm gonna give you a pretty easy kid, you've suffered enough. Because seriously, we do not deserve this child.  She's still a great sleeper and naps once a day for 1-2 hours (sometimes 3). When she's awake she is happy and fun and sweet and cooperative except for diaper changes and is a picky eater. She is so freaking cute. She has the most adorable little sounds for things that just kill her father and I. We text each other what we think the sounds are and they never fail to cheer us up. When she's asleep we talk about her like "can you believe this cute thing she did"? Smitten we are. ...

Alright so first thing's first. Let's get real and hit you where you live: your home. Does it have a big front yard? Big backyard? No yard? Is it a small apartment? A big apartment? A dorm? You laugh at the dorm part but we definitely hosted even in our dorm room days. What are the most comfortable spaces to host people and get to know your capacity. Could you comfortably fit four? Eight? Twelve? Twenty? Then work around that area because you can easily setup for people if you work within your space's limitations and your own creativity.    When we first were married Matt and I lived in a one bedroom apartment and since I had all these wedding presents I wanted to throw a dinner party. I was a married grown up now and I had to prove it. Using my trusty 'Barefoot Contessa at Home' cookbook and with zero faith from my friends that the food I made would be edible, I hosted a dinner party: the first B&W Christmas Party. I estimated we'd be about 8 total (Amb...

My friend Milena and I are in talks of starting a party business. I won't say too much about it just yet as we're still fleshing it out but we do know our goal is to equip the modern hostess with the right tools to make party throwing both fun and easy. On Tuesday we were gonna have a few friends over for our frequent movie nights and since I was making food, Matt asked if we should just invite them over for dinner. I have been plotting dining outdoors since it's unofficially summertime with just us and not minding the extra company I said sure invite them over and then proceeded to setup the backyard for guests. Luckily, we've been pruning and cleaning up after the pooches much better now so the backyard wasn't in a state of horrible embarrassment to begin with and it just needed a few things to take it up a notch. I had read an innocuous article in Domino about how rich people run their households and the types of tricks they've learned in regards to e...