DIY (kind of!) superhero cakes.

At some point, into every busy mama's life falls an unexpected project. You know exactly what I'm talking about. On the week that you have every single minute scheduled, your child walks through the door on Monday afternoon, after school, and says 'guess what?!' I need to bring 30 cupcakes to school tomorrow!

Usually, I take it all in stride, pull out my baking pans and happily get to work. On this particular day? I had exactly three minutes, give or take a couple, to complete thirty cupcakes. So, I did something I never do. I went to the store and bought the simplest cupcakes I could find.

Then, my ingenious mom who was visiting at the time, made a beeline for a local bakery and asked if they had any cupcake toppers she could purchase. Since my son adores superheroes, spiderman themed rings fit the bill perfectly.

That evening, I added a sprinkle of blue sugar on top of the vanilla cakes and topped each with a ring. The kids loved them, they looked like something I was happy to share and every once in awhile a quick fix is okay (and none the less appreciated).

What have you DIY'd (kind of!) lately?

What's in my spring bag?

What's in my spring bag? by anewbohemia

This season, I'm carrying one of my fave handbags-- a Mulberry bag that I purchased in Bangkok. Here's a sneak peek of what's inside this season:

• An umbrella to fight off Seattle's back and forth mist. Hopefully more sun breaks will be in the near future.
• My ipod loaded up with a few favorite kid shows (Word Girl is a current favorite of my six year old!).
• A gift from my mom, Aveda pure fume in a custom blend featuring patchouli and a few floral notes.
• Organic veggie and flower seeds. I'm looking forward to a garden that will overflow in a few months!
• Bangles. An armful of bangles jangling around makes me happy.
• A cashmere blend beanie hat in soft gray. Perfect for loosely pulling over my hair on a misty, cool morning.
• Boxes of Sunmaid raisins. Currently a favorite snack that takes a bit of time to eat and is equally loved by myself and all three kids. 

What's in your spring bag?!

crave: leather

I've been redoing my craftsman home-- giving it an update with new wall colors and some added textures, while incorporating some items that have been in storage for years and some items discovered while traveling as well. I'll have more to share in the near future, but for right now, I'm craving some leather details. 

THAT sofa is just about a dream sofa. But, unfortunately it's a vintage 1965 piece in original condition and those aren't just floating around my neighborhood ready for me to snatch them up. As I dream about that sofa though, I thought I'd distract myself with a few other brilliant leather pieces: The MuuBaa cognac colored jacket, the Giuseppe Zanotti ankle booties, the House of Harlow 1960 zig zag chevron ring with leather insets, the Missoni belt and the Moroccan Pouf. 

What's your favorite leather inspiration? Happy craving...

happy travels. finale!

In my last two posts, I've shared a series of articles I wrote last Fall for Expat Child. If you missed the first two parts, click here (for part 1) and here (for part 2). And, please do head over to twitter and let me know what you do to keep your kids happy on a flight! Here is the final part of the series. 


Steps to happy travels with young children (no matter how long the flight)

Step 2: Discuss the near future.

Begin to involve your child in the trip’s preparations. Have them help to organize and pack their carry-on bags with a few favorite toys and a change of clothes. When my kids were a bit younger, they’d also throw in a pair of pajamas for our long flights.

Talk through the travel process and what will happen when you reach the airport – check in, security, immigration. And, depending on your child’s age, you may wish to role-play. I’ve found that playing ‘airport security’ can help to ease some of the nerves that can accompany a part of flying that is intimidating to young eyes. By role playing, they’ll see that their baggage will be scanned and returned to them. My daughter is a great flyer, but the security screening makes her nervous. Role playing has helped to ease some of her fears.

Additionally, there are some great books, at every age level, featuring the process of travel. My youngest is currently enjoying Richard Scarry’s ‘A Day at the Airport’. Adding these to your child’s reading collection is a good, easy way to introduce all that happens during travel.

Step 3: Go forth with confidence.

Your bags are packed, you’ve prepared the magic, your child is at your side and you are ready to travel. Once you are on your way, tell yourself that you can handle this. Yes, give yourself a regular pep talk and repeat it to yourself as often as needed! It will be a long day (or in the case of international travel, days!), but you will get to your destination eventually. Break down a massive travel itinerary into manageable mental chunks of time. Don’t allow yourself to count down the hours you have left. Instead, focus on one hour or leg of the travel at a time. Continue to focus on your child and react calmly to whatever the day throws your way.

Step 4: Get into the groove and ignore.

Unfortunately, every once in a while, a tired, overworked airport or airline staff member will be less than helpful. Sometimes a fellow passenger will roll their eyes as they see a child board the airplane. IGNORE these people. You are doing the very best you can in a situation that can be difficult. Again, just focus in on your child, make a happy place within your zone of the plane (albeit a very small zone!) and ignore anyone who wishes you ill in these moments. Pull out your pre-packed favor bags, play some activities, strap on the airline headsets – do whatever it takes to keep your focus on getting through the flight as happily as possible.

Step 5: Earn that bullet point.

Get off that plane and celebrate your arrival. (And, I mean, dance, jump, shout for joy, hi-five your child type of celebrating! You have earned that additional bullet point on your résumé.)

happy travels. part 2.

In my last post, I shared the first part of an articles series I wrote for Expat Child on traveling with young children. (Click here for part one of the series)

Happy travels with young children (no matter how long the flight): Part 2

Here is the first of the five travel steps I live by. Follow along and you too will have happy travels (and possibly earn a new résumé bullet point!).

Step 1: Prepare the magic.

Kids naturally love adventures, mysteries and figuring things out. Play into these aspects of childhood and, prior to your trip, do a bit of preparation.

Select a bag that your child will be able to easily maneuver through the airports themselves. The bag should be something appropriate to their size and something they can independently carry. I have found that my kids do best with a lightweight backpack style of bag, with built in rollers. With this type of bag, they are able to roll it through the airport and, also, place it onto their backs for short portions of the journey that require stair climbing or bad weather when they don’t want to expose the bottom of the bag to soggy tarmac.

I create a small ‘in-flight favor’ bag to place inside each child’s carry-on. This is a bag about the size of a gallon Ziploc bag (although I like to use fabric drawstring bags) that you can stuff with some fun treats for the trip. On every flight, this bag includes some mini-sized markers or unusual, new crayons, a small blank notebook, a package of gum, a map that shows our departure city and our destination city (and any stops along the way), batteries to replace any kids’ electronic devices, a few tiny trinket toys and a package of small candies. Create the favor bag and slide it into your child’s carry-on just before leaving for the airport. My kids know to look for the bags now and will pull them out as soon as we get settled on the plane. This little touch of magic starts the adventure out on a positive note, distracts a child from the lengthy boarding process and gives them a few new things to do once you’re in the air.

Additionally, I recommend placing several activities in your own carry-on bag. These should be items that provide entertainment possibilities for layovers and in the air. I actually don’t carry a lot of toys with me, but instead try to pack an assortment of small, lightweight activities. I take a small bag of office supplies so the kids can link paper clips, stick tiny stickers onto envelopes, use tiny rulers to measure, draw with stencils and glitter pens. I’ve found an inflatable beach ball to be great for airport layovers. Small new action figures or dolls provide quite a bit of play time too if you take turns making up stories and acting them out with the figures. If your child enjoys crafting, I’ve also had great in-air luck with homemade felt activity books (take a look at an example I made for my own kids here.). Prior to your trip, with a few pieces of felt you can cut out small monster or animal shapes and bundle them with a small bit of stuffing, a needle and thread to create small sewing kits to work on in the air.

And, I would never travel without a good stash of small sized lollipops. On the roughest of flights, a lollipop can change everything in your favor.

In the next post, I'll present my final steps for happy travels with young children. In the meantime, talk with me on twitter about what you do to happily survive traveling with your kids! 

happy travels. part 1.

This last autumn I wrote a series of articles for Expat Child discussing tips for traveling with young children. The article has been reposted on a couple of sites and I've been receiving some feedback and comments from new readers. I thought I'd post the series here for anyone who doesn't already follow Expat Child. Happy travels...

Steps to Happy Travels with Young Children 
(no matter how long the flight)

I am strongly contemplating adding a new bullet point to my résumé:

• I am a master of air travel with young children.

After the birth of my first child, I’d hop on planes for commutes to visit family. Our flights would be from Seattle to San Francisco and my daughter was the sole focus of my attention. We’d count little brightly colored snacks, read books, play with stuffed animals. Then came the birth of my first son, and he too hopped on and off the short haul flights. My in-flight attention shifted to figuring out how to entertain a toddler (my daughter had grown to two years old) while holding a baby in my arms. More often than not, I’d end up with a cramp in my side as I simultaneously nursed the baby and hunched over to pick up fallen crayons off of the plane’s floor.

Eventually, when my husband accepted a job offer overseas, we extended the length of our trips. So, my daughter, then four, and my son, who had grown to two years old, became international travelers. As is the case with many international families, I often found myself traveling with the kids on a schedule separate from my husband – which required me to travel as the solo caretaker. So, the kids and I would hop on a flight out of Thailand (where we lived), fly through Hong Kong or Tokyo and finally land into our planned U.S. west coast destination for a holiday. During our time overseas, we welcomed our third child and made another international relocation even further afield, with an increasing number of airport connections.

As the years added up (and the travel stories grew), I earned that résumé bullet point.

Next week, I’ll hop on yet another international flight with all three of my kids in tow. I, again, will be the sole caretaker on the flight. I’ll be holding my soon to be two year old, my now eight year old daughter will be beside me and my six year old son will be on the other side. And, just like every other flight I’ve taken with the kids, my hands will shake a tiny bit in anticipation of take-off, my bag will be jammed with essentials and the kids will be excited about what is to come. They’ll be anticipating the in-flight favors I placed into each of their backpacks just prior to travel. They’ll be happy to settle into their seats and experience the sights and sounds of a working airplane. And, they’ll be eager to get to the other end of our journey, after 19 plus hours in the air, where hugs from family will catch us as we stumble sleepily out of the now familiar immigration lines.

So, what have I learned during all of those flights that makes me confident enough to place my experiences on my résumé? In my next post I'll share the first step I take to prep for travel with my kids. See you then! In the meantime, feel free to hop on over to twitter and chat with me about your own travel tips...

interior style.

Per my last post, you now know that I am knee deep in boxes (and a bit lacking in my time posting blog entries!). But, what goes along with the work of unpacking and getting settled? The fun of picking out new paint colors and customizing my surroundings just a bit! While you may not be needing to balance a paint roller, three kids, wall to wall boxes and repatriation, it is still early in a new year and you might be thinking of a few fresh changes at home.

In browsing paint pallettes at 2 a.m. one recent morning, I came across some fun style quizzes for the the designer in me. I thought I'd share so you too can whittle your early morning hours away looking at swoon worthy interior pictures before beginning your next project. (And, if you're not up to the work of redoing your interiors, you can still take the quizzes. I won't tell!)

This quiz, from sproost.com, was my favorite in terms of accurate results and being fun to take. They show you a picture of a room and you click on your thoughts from 'Love it' to 'Hate it' with 'Just Ok' being in the middle of the continum. I have no idea how they nailed my style when I clicked 'Just Ok' or 'Hate it' for most of the pictures(!), but they did. I ended up with the result of Rustic Revival and the description is pretty spot on.

This quiz from stylishhome.com relies asks about seven simple questions, allowing you to click on the picture that best answers each question. According to the results, my interior style falls under the catergory 'antiquated espresso'. Take the quiz and let me know if you'll be sharing a shot or two with me!

The quiz from Home Goods offerred a completely different format. Click on five images that 'speak' to you... I turned out as 'The Traveller' (no surprise there!)

Unlike most of the other quizzes I found, this one from Sunset Magazine asks you to answer questions from multiple choice answers-- no picture clicking.

With this quiz, again, answer a series of questions by clicking on the picture that most accurately answers. The photos are tiny and the results are a bit generic. Only proceed if you haven't already gotten your fill with the aforementioned quizzes. Go to this link on HGTV's site, then scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for the link that says 'what's your design style'.

You can thank me for indulging your 2 a.m. style cravings by letting me know what quiz was your favorite!

new.

Happy New Year! The year ahead is full of change. As I write this, I am undergoing a move back to my home country and will be tackling not only all of the things that go along with a major move, but the mental challenges that go along with repatriation as well.

In my almost five year absence from the States, many changes have occurred. I've never lived in a groupon-ing, mobile phone obsessed United States. Recycling was a normal part of life when I left, but the laws in more recent years have made eco even cooler. In my new city, plastic bags are banned and any store provided paper bag will cost you. When I last lived in the States, blogging wasn't a career option and magazines on tablets were a thing of the future. Color blocking, neon and 'designer nails' hadn't yet hit the fashion scene.

My kids have never attended school in their home country-- they both began their schooling while overseas. My daughter can not figure out why a size small soft drink in her new country looks like the extra large options of her former home countries. My son is amazed at the sheer volume of television channels available ("... and the tv records!").

So, as you're reading this, we've unpacked our surface (aka long term storage) shipment. We're  celebrating the arrival of our sea shipment's arrival after it has seen the world's ports and been delayed and bobbing on the oceans for over two months before arriving in our home. We're (still) converting our house from a rental to a family home (I have too many plumbing, furnace, paint selecting, roof inspection, property management relationship stories for only a month into a new year!), rediscovering our 'new' home city of Seattle, and taking on the many tasks involved in such a move.

While my real life location has changed again, my internet address has not. I plan to be here at anewbohemia.com as the next chapter of my life unfolds and welcome the opportunity to chat with you along the way.

kids cutting.

My youngest son loves to cut. He's been in this cutting stage for quite some time and I can't seem to get him to move on. So, I'm embracing it and enjoying that he's actually somewhat helpful in the kitchen! Quite a long time ago, I posted the above picture of another of my children using a knife to cut a tomato. Over the months, I've received several emails asking what kind of knife was featured in the picture. So, I thought I'd share and also post a few ideas for younger kids that are entering the same developmental stage (24 months and on).

The knife (pictured above) is actually sold as a lettuce knife. It's plastic and, although it has teeth, cuts through objects and isn't sharp enough to hurt should it come in contact with small fingers. Keep in mind that it is still a knife and should be used under supervision, but I've found it to be a useful teaching tool for kitchen safety (and fun).

The other item that has gotten great mileage in our house is the wooden cut able toy food widely available at good toy stores. My sister gave these as a present to my first child and, although the set is now missing several of it's veggies, my youngest loves chopping through the Velcro and cutting the food to pieces.

And, while these scissors are labeled for ages 'birth through 24 months'(!), my son is just starting with these. He sees them sitting on the desk and practically drools. That's how much he loves to cut up things right now. A stack of paper and blunt edge safety scissors are the ticket to a good time at this stage!

soda.

Happy New Year!

Looking for a bit of extra fizz in 2013? Make your own soda-- super easy, super impressive.

Start by making a natural syrup by mixing 1 cup of sugar, 2 cups of distilled water and 2 cups of fresh or frozen fruit. Bring to a boil in a small saucepan and allow to simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat, cool and then strain so that you are left without any fruit pieces. Note: Depending on the fruit you use, you may need to add a bit more water in order to reach a smoother straining consistency. If you're using a fibrous fruit (apples, oranges) you'll most likely want to add a bit more water. If you're using smaller, less fibrous fruits (berries, stone fruits) you may not need to add any further water. After straining, funnel your syrup into a pretty bottle and refrigerate.

To make individual cups of fresh soda, add a bit of your syrup to a glass full of ice cubes, top off with sparkling water.