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Filed Under: ADVICE AND INFO, Daily, REAL LIFE, SIMPLE LIVING

Those Times When You Only Have One Free Hand

sandwich hands | when you have one free hand to hold 99.9 times out of ten (I know my math is a tad flawed) I don’t always have two free hands to hold my kids two little hands. There are many times in the day when the moment calls for me to hold my kids hands; when stepping into the subway, crossing a busy street, but we live in the city so in-reality “many moments” mostly means all moments. There are also many times in the day when the same moment leaves me with only one free hand, sometimes no free hands but usually I can wiggle at least one free when I’m stuck. Does this happen to you?
My bag of choice is already a backpack, and the reason is pretty much to make the whole two hands free thing, more of a possibility. But still, sometimes one hand is all I got and I have two little kids hands to hold — so the math just doesn’t work.

So we developed this system/game, called “sandwich hands“. It’s basically exactly what you see, a sandwich of hands — I just call out “sandwich hands!” when I need two hands but only have one of my own to give. It’s only good for short distances (crossing the street, getting into subways, making your way through a small but dense crowd, etc) and it often results in some kiddo bickering (but really what doesn’t?) mostly about who get’s to be the cheese or the bread.

The next time you only have one free hand to hold (or maybe you have two free hands but need to hold 4 little hands?) try “sandwich hands”. PS. I went on a field trip with Harlow’s class the other day and sandwich hands, also worked like a charm with the kiddos I was taking care of.

plus also. How To Make It Through The Day When You’ve Had Zero Sleep + Big City Living, Even If You Don’t Live In A Big City

May 13, 2015     |     written by Brandy     |     Leave a Comment



Filed Under: Daily, REAL LIFE

Over The Weekend

cherry-blossoms I’m on a bit of a Mother’s Day hangover, the entire weekend was just SO good. So while I try to get my butt back to reality, all while I try to get over a very minor case of creative burn out (this weekend was some pretty great medicine) here are some random pics from over the weekend. And oddly enough, none from actual Mother’s Day — that day was just too good, no photos were even taken (well there was probably some, somewhere). So here are a few from my iphone which are always more candid and in the moment.
We went to have a look-see at the High Park cherry blossoms, we were totally blown away by the crowds (plus the amount selfie sticks) and how silly I was to not remember just about how allergic spring time nature is to me and King.

jorts Jort season (or short season if that’s more your thing) decided to start this weekend, from winter right into summer — don’t ask, cause I don’t know either.

crowds This was a very light view of the crowd that came out to view the cherry blossoms. I was part way between being totally overwhelmed by the amount of people and totally in awe of the people watching potential.

family-photo Family picture, basically like an awkward family selfie but with feet (and not even full feet).

relaxing Her first time ever having those processed cheese bread stick dippers (well King too, but he was off throwing a ball around). I was totally eyeing it like no tomorrow, those disgusting things are my favorite and I thought it was due time they finally had a taste of yummy fake food. (my bag).
PS. they also had bubble gum for the first time this weekend, basically epic weekend in the littles books.

pretzel Not from the weekend, from the week but I love it. Those big and little loves, pretzel included.

May 11, 2015     |     written by Brandy     |     1 Comment

Filed Under: Daily, Dear Diary, REAL LIFE

Stop To Smell The Roses

stop to smell the roses It happens a couple of times a year, maybe even more? I can’t remember now. That feeling of things just not feeling like they fit, like my brain just can’t quite focus, that old burned out brain feeling. I know I am not the only one that gets that feeling from time to time (funny/not funny that it also coincides with allergy season?). This bogged down feeling tends to happen when you are constantly using your brain to churn out new content and you work totally alone — plus when you over think every tiny detail that goes into each item and every detail that follows, now that’s a recipe for a crispy brain burn out. And by you, I mean me.

I have big dreams for this space and other projects I am trying to get rolling, it seems whenever I feel like I am getting things moving, I get overwhelmed with my own thoughts and burrrrnnnn myself right out. Also since the kids both went off to school my content on the blog did a giant shift, at first it was totally unintentional when my daytime focus changed so did my content. I find the “cultivating a simple, stylish and content every day” focus (mostly general lifestyle stuff like usual, but that sounds way better), takes more from me in a different way and makes this whole working by myself at home all the time sometimes a little taxing. SO because I know this feeling is something that happens every so often I am trying my best to take this as a moment of improvement rather than a sad burn out moment (no violins).  A few things I am doing to make things feel like I’m back on track refreshed/recharged/kicked in the pants and ready to jump back in with a smile:

  • I am going to look at maybe renting a wee space inside of that bigger studio/warehouse (eeee!!!). Which feels pretty huge to me, a big step! And it will surely be a huge help to not always working on my lonesome, from my kitchen table.
  • Reach out for help more often, I just can’t do everything myself (even though I really like to try). I have an amazing network of friends and talented people, I need to use them more — but not in a use and abuse sorta way.
  • Take smaller steps towards my end goals, take my own advice and start smaller but START.
  • Stop and smell the roses, it’s okay if things are a tad quiet for a day or two — something I need to remind myself.
  • Focus on my consulting and contributing projects, I often find the best inspiration when I am helping others attain their goals and dreams — it’s empowering and totally gratifying.
  • Yoga, yoga, yoga and maybe a little more yoga then normal. Basically I plan to stay on  my everyday practice, but take things slower when I’m finished and try my best to take my yoga with me and into every single moment of my day.
  • Get the F outside and find some real inspiration, I mean it’s beautiful out there.

Do you get that brain burned out feeling every so often? What are some of the things you do to kick yourself out of it?

May 6, 2015     |     written by Brandy     |     Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Daily, Dear Diary, REAL LIFE

Why We Make Everything A Surprise

The Art of Living a Life of Surprise We are really (really) big on surprises around here, if there is a way to turn a plain old cheese and spinach sandwich into a surprise, in our house it will be done. Big surprises are our favorite but much harder to pull off; the old showing up on our families doorstep and not telling a soul we are making an across the country trip, is our favorite, it never gets old. Without ever talking about it with Chris or intentionally making it our “parenting strategy”, Chris and I have successfully turned the kids totally normal childhood into a world of surprise and wonder (insert: magical magician hand movements). In our home, we are all about making the tiniest of moments like “mom, what’s for lunch?” or “what are we going to do today?” into a surprise (jazz hands, this time).

Want to learn the art of serving up a lifetime of surprises (for your kids or just friends)? Basically just never tell anyone what you are doing, till it’s done and then sit back and look at all those smiling faces (they are so smiley, aren’t they?). Okay not literally that was actually really bad advice but I was half-joking, to be clear — but also it’s basically sorta just like that.

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April 30, 2015     |     written by Brandy     |     2 Comments

Filed Under: Daily, REAL LIFE

5 Kids Shows That I Like, Just As Much As They Do

We are right on the cusp of sometimes watching the shows geared for toddlers/preschoolers and watching the older kid shows, and wow what a difference between them. All of a sudden the wonderful educational moments are replaced with potty humor, okay this is not always the case, but generally it is. Since most of the shows that are on rotation for us, have some behavior we don’t actually allow in our home, we use those watching moments as a learning experience and talk about why “that” wasn’t a good thing to do or say (and what not). So to make everything better and easier (for us and them) we try our best to stick to shows that have only a few (or none) of these “learning moments”.
Here are my 5 favorite kid shows (their favorites are probably different), for the after toddler and preschooler age group/almost big kids. gravity falls Gravity Falls [image]
In no particular order, except that this is my new favorite. I casually suggest, “hey, let’s watch the show with the twin brother and sister” every morning (well, almost). I like this show a lot, it’s weird, cute and funny. And it’s made by Disney so no hidden, ‘teething clenching/maybe this isn’t that appropriate for kids’ moments. Also some voices you might recognize, like Kristen Schaal (Flight of the Concords fans?).

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April 28, 2015     |     written by Brandy     |     5 Comments

Filed Under: Daily, REAL LIFE, sponsored

Dinnertime Games, To Make Dinnertime Fun

dinner games dinner time games dinner time fun We try our darndest not to eat out often, but sometimes it’s just needed (or just really wanted, I mean it sure is nice not to cook sometimes). When we do go to a restaurant, we often stick to our eating out with kids tip. We are generally on team “no phones” when it comes to eating out. Mostly because we want to enjoy each others company and make the most of our eating out experience. We are mostly a tic-tac toe, stick to the kids coloring menu sorta eater, outers. games at supper befunky photos goofy photos with befunky The other evening, we went out for after dinner snacks (the opposite but still sorta the same as our eating out with kids, tip) and I showed the kids a funny pic I made with the BeFunky app. They obviously hated it (sarcastic font). We basically spent the entire time, ignoring Chris (he took some pics of us, so he was ok) and making funny pics using the accessory tool on the app (there are tons of other photo editing options, like text overlays, collage maker, photo effects and picture editing).
Sorta turned out to be like a big (3/4 of the ) family game of tic-tac-toe, but without the tics, tacs and toes. I mean it’s fun to make the people you love look really funny, isn’t it? Both kiddos now want to print all their creations (especially the one with Chris with the dog face, sorry Chris) out and hang them on the walls at home.

So back to the eating out and electronics thing, I guess phones are okay at the dinner table sometimes. It’s funny, as soon as I say or think I’m (basically) against something, my foot often lands smack in my mouth.
Electronics or not, as long as whatever we are doing helps us to enjoy each others company (and not ignore each other) while we are eating out is pretty great. So I guess we are actually on team, “whatever makes this an even more awesome time”. And clearly the BeFunky app is a dinnertime game win (which isn’t actually a game, we just made it into one).

*a little note, if you aren’t already using a photo editor on your computer (like photoshop) befunky has an online editor, it has tons of features even more than the mobile app (basically a creative editing suite, online).

befunky This post is sponsored by BeFunky, a fun photo editing app with all the features you’d want in a IOS or Android photo editor, all packed into one app.  All words and images are 100% organic and authentic. Thank you, for supporting the sponsors that help support this blog and our household.

April 23, 2015     |     written by Brandy     |     1 Comment

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