Things I Love

Ring Master MomDecember 2, 2013Leave a comment

Christmas ideas for a 4 year old

I love finding a good deal, unique clothes, or creative toys for kids. A few of my friends have asked me to create a gift guide for my kids, and I’m happy to share. I am not purchasing all of these things for my kids – some are coming from Grandparents or others – so please don’t think I’m dropping cray-cray money on my little ones. I also know a good bargain and have bought most of these on sale earlier in the year.

One of Patrick’s big presents are Tegu blocks. My kids love creating, and I love how these are different because they’re magnetic. So many reasons to love this toy – well made, safe, and sustainably sourced. And, I got them 60% off which makes it a fantastic deal.

Grandma and Grandpa love playing and creating cities with Patrick. These blocks will be perfect for many creations.

And to add to city play – a creative and incredibly cheap background

Patrick looooves Minecraft. I cannot describe his love for this game. I had to add this to his list.

Fournier had a great Black Friday sale which worked out perfectly since I’d had my eye on this Ring Master for several months. We have a cute circus set, and the Ring Master is the first thing that Patrick grabs when we set it up.

I found these at a local shop and think they will make the perfect stocking stuffer

Books are my favorite present for kids and I have not totally finalized this part yet. Slacker!! Also, I’m trying to figure out if I divide the games like Hungry Hungry Hippos or make that a joint present from Santa. Any ideas as to what works the best with games and sharing with your kids?

The share present from Santa will be this with paint, brushes, and lots of paper

Both kids are getting slingshots. Too cute to pass up!!

And the most important present I get for my kids that my Grandfather used to get for us Grandkids for Christmas is the gift that will help others through http://www.heifer.org/. I loved getting a goat donated in my name as a child and hope my kids do as well.

That wraps up my 4 year old gift guide. Hope this helps give you a few ideas for shopping for little ones.

Now it’s time to wrap!

Ring Master MomDecember 2, 2013Leave a comment

Christmas gift ideas for a 2 year old

One of Alice’s big presents are Tegu blocks. My kids love creating, and I love how these are different because they’re magnetic. So many reasons to love this toy – well made, safe, and sustainably sourced. And, I got them 60% off which makes it a fantastic deal.

A present I bought almost a year ago now I think I’ll finally give to Alice as she’s finally spending more time playing and thinking as opposed to a year ago. They’re quite famous now, and I’m really excited to play with her and this set.

Fournier had a great Black Friday sale which worked out perfectly since I’d had my eye on this elephant for several months. Alice looooves elephants and I love that this is handmade and supports artists in other countries. Bonus – their goodies are 30% off today.

Alice is into doll houses too, so this is coming courtesy of Grandma – it’s big which I love for little hands. Someone may never leave her room.

She’s also big into playing “Mommy” right now and loves tucking her babies in for naps. This was too perfect to pass up at The Land of Nod. And of course about a million great stocking stuffers there as well.

Leggings are almost the only thing Alice wears every day. Candy Kirby Designs had a great sale a few months ago, and I stocked up on these in addition to a few others.

Another great company that makes their own items is Freshly Picked and of course I had to get these cuties with a great Black Friday discount.

Alice has a globe already in her room, but I thought I’d add another

I found these at a local shop and think they will make the perfect stocking stuffer

The share present from Santa will be this with paint, brushes, and lots of paper

Both kids are getting slingshots. Too cute to pass up!!

That wraps up my 2 year old gift guide. Hope this helps give you a few ideas for shopping for little ones.

Now it’s time to wrap!

Ring Master MomDecember 1, 20131 Comment

Beautiful calligraphy

I had the opportunity to take a calligraphy class recently and needless to say, I am obsessed with writing and doodling now!

I attended with my friend Katelyn who blogs at Love, Luck, Kisses, and Cake.

The class was held at The Makery which still has the best tagline

It also included snacks

and champagne

so let’s not kid ourselves – it was 3 hours of relaxation and creation.

We received a started kit in addition to other calligraphy goodies

and I have to mention that I was quite nervous when we started as all of the other ladies had done calligraphy before and I had no idea how to even hold the pen! After lots of practice, I felt more confident and started creating tags for Christmas presents

If you’ve never done calligraphy before it’s hard to explain how hard it is to actually get your letters to look normal, let alone pretty. Our teacher, Diva Pyari, made every stroke and flourish look effortless as she taught. But, she also went incredibly slow and every movement was deliberate. Three hours went by quickly as we got lots of practice writing and doodling

I love the style that Diva has, and she sells these at Anthropologie, so she’s pretty legit.

Three hours was not enough time to learn everything so I get to practice practice practice at home. And, hopefully I can get a little creative on my Christmas cards this year!

Ring Master MomNovember 30, 2013Leave a comment

Thankful

One reason I love holidays is because it reminds me of being together with my family, making memories, reliving hilarious things we’ve done, and crafting and baking together. This was the first Thanksgiving I’ve not been around my Mom and it was tough on me. She’s in isolation now for her treatment and while we talk on the phone every day (okay okay, several times a day – sorry Mommy!!) it’s hard to not have her here in person to help chop, stir, read to the kids, etc. As James put it, the spark was not present on Thanksgiving dinner. She and my Dad shared Thanksgiving dinner together which must have been lovely and quiet.

We hosted dinner to my brother, sister in law, nephew along with a friend visiting them from China. My Auntie and cousin attended along with a friend of James’ from Australia who just moved here a week ago. I love sharing traditions with others, and it was great to explain Thanksgiving and share dinner with two new friends who hadn’t experienced it before.

I have to share this pic of Patrick from his preschool “dinner”

He’s descended from Myles Standish so to see him all dressed up like this was really special.

I am obsessed with flowers and wish I could have fresh blooms in every room every day. I try hard to always have something in the house, and was excited to order an arrangement from the local florist. I ask for a small one, and hello, anything but small. Just breathtaking!

I love the small touches like mini pinecones, the different textures, and colors. It is still so gorgeous sitting on our dinning room table.

For holidays or dinner parties, I always set the kids table with kraft paper and crayons. It’s a great way to get the kids to sit down right as I serve and I love what they create. I got some great white chocolate turkeys in NYC for favors, so the little ones also got a special treat in their bags.

The adults received these bags filled with tangerines and chocolate caramel treats.

This was the second year I made my veggie-turkey.

Appetizers included a giant cheese platter and goodies

along with some huge shrimp. I don’t know why but this is always the crowd fave and demolished the quickest.

I served lots of beer, wine, juice, and cranberry cocktails (and mocktails!) Love the frozen cranberries to keep the drinks cold!

James was in charge of the turkey and he’s chopping in this shot

This was by far the juiciest turkey we’ve ever eaten. We found a few recipes online, and then pulled from that. We cooked a 16 pound turkey upside down, tied with twine. Covered the top with a small amount of melted butter, lots of garlic, and fresh herbs at 450 for 30 minutes, then down to 350 until it had cooked through.

While James carved, I finished the gravy, stuffing, and brussel sprouts while the mashed potatoes got finished and the carrots were roasted.

I am not a fan of brussel spouts on their own and had to add bacon to make them edible. I sliced bacon, cooked it, and transferred the bacon to a plate. Then added shaved brussel sprouts to the bacon grease and cooked that on a high heat for several minutes and added the bacon. Too easy!

Little Marcus woke up right as we all sat down so James got to soothe him while Marina ate.

Games after dinner are a tradition, so the kids and I played a little CandyLand together.

I tried so hard to not nibble these little thighs and was unsuccessful. He’s sooo nibble-tastic!!

And I’m feeling very blessed to have my youngest cousin Ruthlyn cuddled up with my babies.

Although I was without my parents this Thanksgiving, there’s still so much to be thankful for and I hope we can all be together very soon. How was your Thanksgiving? Did you start any new traditions this year?

Ring Master MomNovember 22, 2013Leave a comment

Land of Nod Toy Shop coming soon!

Last night I attended a holiday party + trunk show for The Land of Nod hosted by the fabulous crew at The Makery. The Land of Nod (TLoN from now on) is my absolute go-to place to get toys for kids. From storage solutions to design to the creative toys, I cannot go through a catalog without calling my Mom and getting excited about what’s new.

Imagine how thrilled I was to be invited to a trunk show for a pop-up Toy Shop for TLoN coming to Los Altos in early December! It was a great event to preview a few toys I had my eye on and also get my craft on at The Makery! To get in the holiday spirit, one of the crafting rooms was used to embellish your very own elf! The Makery had tons of charismatic vintage elves, and the holiday nerd in me had my very own two elves stashed in my purse. Tulle, gold ribbon, and bells were what I used to go to town on my little guys.

And in true Makery fashion, their fabulous events cannot go without just a little bubbly. And some St. Germain – my fave!

Since TLoN store hadn’t opened yet, there was a setup to place orders for the evening. Dangerous because I now had a cocktail and Christmas shopping to complete.

And I may or may not have bought 27 things at that point. Let’s not kid ourselves – it was 27.

I had a blast doing some shopping for my kiddies and their friends and you bet I will be there when the store opens on December 6 in Downtown Los Altos.

Ring Master MomOctober 18, 2013Leave a comment

Halloween Party

As those who know me well know that I’m a big Halloween fan. When James and I got married, we thought it would be fun to host a Halloween party each year. We’ve done it every season – even when we were in Australia. This year was great as the kids are getting a little older and into games and hanging out.

I didn’t get as many pictures as I wanted this year. My Mom has been in the hospital for the past month (but out again, yay!) and I was finally able to see her for the first time the morning I threw the party. I spent a few hours with her, then raced home to shop, cook, and decorate!! I was thrilled to have been able to give my Mom a hug and catch up and was floating as I prepared for this party. When my friends arrived, I spent a lot of time catching up with them and giving everyone updates that I did not get a chance to be the photographer as well. I have a few shots, so I’ll share here along with details of what I didn’t get to shoot.

We have to start with the candy bar

I love a good candy bar at a party despite not enjoying it much myself. I enjoy colors and themes and seeing what people pick out.

I had candy corn, candy pumpkins, giant malt balls, and a Halloween mix of fruit gummy bears.

Sugar cookies and a Fall M&M mix

Gingerbread cookies from Williams Sonoma, chocolate covered caramel and marshamellows. Also some Autumn colored lollipos (love the black and white!) and some Halloween shaped sprinkle cookies

Halloween oreos, candy corn oreos, licorice, caramels, and my favorite – a giant licorice rat

Cupcakes and vintage toppers

I put the sugary stuff in the kitchen away from the regular food and make the kids ask their parents if they’re allowed to have any if/when they find the stash. For games, I had a pin the tail game, Halloween twister, and a bean bag toss. I also set up a craft corner on the small table with stickers, crayons, pipe cleaners, and paper.

I am big into paper straws for all my parties, and had fun putting a Halloween collection together for the milk and juice bar for the kids.

On the big food table I had a carrot jack-o-lantern

with clementine “pumpkins”

“Spider eggs”

Mummy pizzas, chili bar, and a 7 layer dip “graveyard”

And treat bags for the kids filled with glow in the dark bracelets, Halloween pencils, glow in the dark fangs, stickers, and silly glasses.

The fun part about throwing this party every year is trying to mix up what I’ll serve. I think we’ve done Mummy pizzas every year for the fact that they’re simple to prepare and you can make a ton at once. What are your favorite Halloween recipes or treats?

Ring Master MomOctober 8, 2013Leave a comment

Things to do nearby Mountain View – Pumpkin Patches

Even though I am a Bay Area native, I had a hard time finding a local pumpkin patch in Mountain View with Patrick and Alice. Two years ago we went back to my childhood patch in Fremont at Ardenwood Historic Farm for my lack of finding anything in Mountain View. Last year I located one closer to us in Sunnyvale but it being on El Camino and next to a Jack in the Box wasn’t having me excited to return.

We grew 4 pumpkins this year despite not planting any seeds last season. I’m thinking they were dropped by squirrels that run across our back fence and just so happened to plant themselves nicely and appear!

Since I love a variety of pumpkins to display during Fall, I had to look elsewhere. The Botanist in Los Altos has the best selection of the non-orange pumpkins. I got these two and can’t wait to go back and get a few more

How great is the contrast on the pink one? Girly and pink & warty and gross!! And since there’s another pumpkin patch just down the road from The Botanist, we stopped by to pick up a few small ones. I love this picture of Alice. She’s eyeing a giant skeleton behind me.

This patch also has tons of creative classes on how to carve or paint your pumpkin, story time, and face painting. There’s also a cool corn pit filled with bones

Oh, and fresh popcorn.

Also a cool haunted house through the windows

I love Halloween as most of you know, and am jumping with joy for great local activities and ways to celebrate.

Ring Master MomOctober 1, 2013Leave a comment

Real Housewife of Mountain View

I am often asked how I came up with the tagline/slogan for this blog. When I married James, I took his last name – Ring. I’ve heard all the jokes, “Oh, that has a nice RING to it!” and “Are you the Ringmaster now?”

On a semi-related note – I am a huge Real Housewives fan. Fun fact about me: I’ve seen ever episode of every Real Housewives show ever. I DVR ’em so I don’t always watch them right away, but I’ve been watching since the first season. I don’t know what it is about these ladies, but it’s so unlike my life that I really love watching. If you haven’t seen an episode, it begins the same way. A quick flash of one of the ladies along with a horribly cheesy line about themselves.

I had asked my friends on FB a year or two ago what their tagline would be if they were a Real Housewife and NOBODY ANSWERED. Fail. I have tons of friends who watch the series, so they knew exactly what I was talking about, but maybe I asked during a busy time or nobody was feeling creative that day. That’s when I felt like I had to embrace the teases about being a Ringmaster. Yes – YES – I am the Ringmaster, and for a most fabulous circus, daaaaah-ling.

What about you? What would your tagline/slogan be? Even if you can’t think of anything right now, come back when inspiration hits!

Ring Master MomSeptember 29, 2013Leave a comment

Quotable kids

Both Alice and Patrick are at the age where a lot of the things that come out of their mouths crack me up.

I was lacing up Patrick’s soccer cleats a few days ago and he was leaning on me for balance. I told him, “This is what Moms are for” while making a bow. He replied, “No, Mom’s aren’t 4! They’re 58!”

To make sure I don’t forget any hilarious moments like this, my Mom bought these books for both of my kids. They sit in their bookshelves and are written in about every few days.

One helpful hint – if you’re not near your book when your kid says something funny, grab your phone and send yourself an email of the quote. That way you’ve got it to write down whenever you’re home.

What quotable things do your kids say?

Ring Master MomSeptember 23, 20136 Comments

Garage organization

My guys were gone for almost a month and I knew it would be time to finally tackle the garage to get it organized. When James and I got married, we lived in a one bedroom apartment (small!) and then a two bedroom condo (a little more space, but not a lot of storage) and when we bought our house last year, I was thrilled to finally get to store all of my holiday items in one spot rather than scattered throughout closets. Problem when we bought our house – we had a major renovation – like had to replace ev-er-y-thing inside along with pulling out the overgrown juniper bushes and white rock in the yards. Our $$ priorities were on other things, and I was happy that it was time to clean up and organize our garage.

When we moved in, we didn’t have any bookshelves in any rooms. And as a family of readers, we acquired a lot of books. I unpacked all of the books for Alice and Patrick, but it left an awful lot of boxes in the garage. Along with a few odds and ends. Extra clothes. Holiday items. Did you know I L O V E holidays?? As the kids get older, they get more outdoor toys, scooters, bikes, and my storage quickly turned into the black hole.

First picture: oh the shame!

Fun fact about our garage and others on the street – they don’t actually fit a normal sized car! We can put our car into the garage and shut the garage door, but can’t actually get around the car and into the house. Also, there’s only about 10 inches of room on either side of the garage door. I figured since we weren’t getting a car in (and neither do our neighbors!) I might as well make the most of the space I have.

Other half of the horror:

I started off by hanging bikes on these

and Swiffer/brooms on these;

I was able to locate 7 empty growlers of Pliny, 2 lawn mowers, 2 extra long orange extension cords tangled and knotted (how does that even happen when they’re sitting in a garage?), 1 unused refrigerator I thought I’d use for booze for parties, 1 giant roll of extra carpet, 5 alan wrenches, 3 levels, 6 spiders that were taken out of the garage, and a dart board. That loot along with a few other items and a giant purge of all the closets in my house netted a donation of 10 bags of clothes, toys, outside bikes, 1 lawn mower, 1 giant mirror, and a few holiday decorations. Phew!

I then was able to order some shelves and a mallet for building! I ordered 3 of these

and one of these

and got building! I have built most of the toys/chairs/bookcases in the house and when I saw the reviews for these shelves, I thought I was in heaven! Sturdy shelves built in no time – what a dream! I’d like to tell you that my dream came true, but I couldn’t get it to line up and had a little boohoo about it. I was finally able to recruit my Dad who helped me build one. Word to the wise – it doesn’t have to line up perfectly – it will work itself out as it’s built. Mah bad!

Here’s the completed unit:

The bottom shelf has our emergency backpack/first aid kit along with water (don’t worry, I have a lot more I hadn’t placed on the bottom shelf yet!) and hand turbine/solar radio and smartphone charger along with extras from Costco that don’t fit in our pantry.

My nearby friend Katelyn offered her husband’s help after hearing my sob story, and built the other two:

Tools, gardening items, and all outdoor toys are now easy to locate!

Since so many holiday items had never been properly stored together before, I bought these storage bins

and made an assembly line of my holiday items sorted by holiday finally!

And to be extra organized, I used some extra chalkboard paint to label the storage bins:

While I did have almost a month to complete this project, I didn’t start right away with some last minute hot summer days keeping me out of the even hotter garage, then letting my broken toe heal properly, trying to dislodge a huge splinter/piece of glass from my heel for a day or two. Also, Alice has been very clingy with her favorite boys gone so I didn’t tackle it as hardcore as I wanted. But it looks better than I thought, and now I have lots of room for a secret surprise for the boys when they arrive.

James told me that Patrick was really enjoying table tennis and since we aren’t using our garage to store cars, I thought it would be a fun surprise to have this inside when they return:

What do you love/hate about storage in your garage? Share your organizing tips or garage/storage horror stories here!