My skin is a mess. I am under some kind of stress right now, and the first place it’s decided to show itself is my face. My jawline this morning? Connect-the-dots. Gross, right?

Actually, I saw this coming nearly two weeks ago, and so ordered a Kate Somerville kit from Sephora and seriously, I love you Sephora, but your shipping leaves something to be desired. Yes, I did receive your email about the big East Coast snowstorm, but come on! If it didn’t take you three days to get shipments out of your warehouse in the first place? I would not be sitting here in silent misery, looking like a very unhappy teenager! So yes, my fault for waiting until I was completely out of my magical potion before ordering replacements on everything, but ugh. Help a girl out!

I am desperate.

This stuff works that well. The line is genius.

Coco and I took our bi-monthly trip to Costco last week and scored big with a Julius! Matching Game. For under $10. There are so many pairs in this box, it’s nearly overwhelming. But so adorable and a worthy replacement of our beloved and dog-eared eBoo version. Which we can now put to rest. Pea loves to play memory games and was thrilled with this one when she saw it on the kitchen counter after school. I don’t know if all Costco stores around the country carry the same stock, and I can’t find the game on the Costco website, but it’s worth a look at your local store- we found ours in the book section for about $8.

So my darling four-and-a-half-year old did it. She cut her own hair. About one month ago. When her best friend was over. Side bangs, anyone? That’s what she gave herself. Claims there was gum in her hair. Which is odd. Since chewing gum is expressly forbidden in my home. I think it’s disgusting. But there you have it. My kid had something in her mouth that I don’t approve of and it somehow ended up in her hair and instead of coming to her mama – her safe place – she did what any rational person under four feet tall would do. She found a pair of scissors and chopped off a hank of her hair. And then left it on the kitchen floor for me to happen upon, all innocent-like. “What is this? Pretty blond hair? From a doll? Wait, is that… gum? Oh my God! Shit! What the…?”

So, let me tell you something about my kid. She has hair down to her bum. No, we’re not talking Crystal Gayle here, but we’re getting there. So I get it. She was due for a trim. Okay, a cut. Since I’d actually given her a trim. Myself. All weepy and barely noticeable as it was. So I did what any good mom would do. I made no thing of it. It’s only hair, right? We went about our play-date. Went to our baking class. Then off to the salon. For something – anything – that would fix the whole side bang situation. And?

Nothing.

After a 30-minute consultation between myself, the stylist and the manager, two of the three of us were still at a loss as to how to fix it and unwilling to move forward with the shears. (And I was not one of the three. Myself? I was thinking Penelope Cruz, circa “Vanilla Sky.”) So I took control. Barked some orders. Called the shots. Did everything short of grab those scissors and do the deed myself.

And?

Eh…

Let’s just say that my girl did indeed finally get that couple of inches cut off. But the side bangs? Well…

We’re working the accessories angle right now.

I like accessories, as it turns out.

Some favorites: anything named after John Coltrane and made of feathers has got to be good. Right? Right.

Anything from Emerson Made.

And bobby pins – you just can’t go wrong with bobby pins when it comes to holding back errant bangs, right?

And for my girl who’s finally moved on from the world of Disney princesses to Hello Kitty, these adorable ponytail holders. Of course, they don’t actually help with the crazy side bangs, but they make my girl who gave herself her first official haircut smile. And that’s enough for me.

Does anyone else have young kids who are into Starfall? My older (junior kindergarten) daughter’s teacher told us about the website at the beginning of the school year, and it’s become a pretty incredible form of ‘entertainment’ over here. Pea thinks it’s fun; we think it’s amped up her learning substantially. And if you can get past the little songs that are going to run on repeat in your head ad nauseam, the site’s pretty awesome.

In our perfect world, my husband or myself set aside a chunk of time to sit with Pea (and now Coco, too) and work the site, but since we actually reside in reality most of the time, we are digging on the site because it’s something Pea can do by herself. And you know what? I have no guilt over that. What’s better? A half-hour in front of the boob tube? Or a half-hour learning to read? Because that’s what she’s doing. Learning to read. And that’s not an overstatement. I promise.   

The girls and I are back home from our trip up to visit Daddy in Vancouver. And although the trip was cut short by a few days, we had a great time. And honestly, if you are looking for a really family-friendly city to visit with little ones, I don’t think you can do much better than Vancouver. We had so much fun.

We drove up from and passed the border via car with no issues. We stayed in Yaletown, which was so perfectly situated for our little walks around the city. (This was simply the luck of the draw, it’s where NBC chose to house my husband during the Olympics. I’d say he got mighty lucky, indeed.) You couldn’t take one step without hitting the front entrance of a Starbucks (crucial when traveling with little ones!) And we took several morning trips via water bus to Granville Island, which has a place called the Kids Market, which was a total life-saver on several rainy days. We ate at fantastic restaurants (Indian, Middle Eastern, pubs). We met local moms and their kids. We bought out the kids department at H&M.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to do as much as I would have liked, but we’ll be heading back up there again in late February. Second chances, you know? But until then, thanks to Vancouver for being so kid-friendly, so clean, and so friendly! We had such a great time and are looking forward to our next trip up…

The girls and I are in Vancouver now. We drove up over the weekend to join my husband who is here for six long weeks. It was a beautiful drive, through much of Utah, into Idaho and then finally on into Washington state, one of my absolute favorite places. Even though I’ve only been there a couple of times before. But I swear, if someone held a gun to my head and said you cannot live where you live now and you must choose one place to live and it cannot be anywhere in the entire country of France, I would definitely go with Washington state. Definitely.

But the weather is an adjustment. Rainy and cold.

At least the girls and I get to put our collection of rain boots to good use. Finally. Because we never get rain here in our neck of the mountains. So on the one day a year when it slightly drizzles, it’s a little overkill for me to break out my reliable English Wellies. But here in Vancouver? No one looks at me cross-eyed. Yay.

And the girls? Pink and horses. Of course. But they wear theirs all of the time at home. They never get a cross-eyed look. Ever. Oh, well. I suppose it helps to come up to a grown-ups knees and have blond curls and giant blue eyes.

Always working on our home – how to mesh our love of chic design with our love for our kids. There is not a single place in this joint that our girls are not welcomed into with open arms. Which perhaps drives hubby nuts sometimes, since I can often be heard muttering under my breath, “jeez, is there no where for me to go where I’m not stepping on Polly Pocket shoes?” But I suppose I really wouldn’t have it any other way. Ours is a family home. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to find plastic tubs filled with toys in this home.

Which is why I’m dying to make the Charles Storage my next purchase, for our great room. It doubles triple duty – toy storage, chalkboard, side table. I’m all over it. Something to hide the sins of the little ones but the big ones? None the wiser. Too bad it’s out of stock. Guess some other parents are also onto the cleverness factor. Bunch of smarties out there.

I never have the right bag for a night out on the town. Never. I’ve always had ‘clutch’ on my Wish List. Just never found one that I liked, that didn’t feel too dainty or prissy for me, or make me feel like I was a little girl playing dress-up in my mother’s collection of vintage beaded handbags again. Because I have to face it: I am not dainty, prissy, and never really liked to play dress-up, or in fact actually dress up, in the first place.

But I’m so sick of either asking my husband to ’stick this in your pocket, please. And this. This, too. Oh, and just one more thing…” Or leave the house without. So, here’s my short list:

This one.

Actually, it’s the only one on my list. I think it’s perfect. Perfectly me, that is. For the girl who’s idea of dressed up is a great pair of Frye boots, a pair of Citizens skinny jeans, a white tank and an Inhabit NY wrap sweater with a pair of Melinda Maria gold earrings, this is just so me. Functional, simple and timeless. No trends here, thank you very much. This clutch is onlygoing to get better each and every time I pull it out.   

Love these ballet flats on little girls. If you like them, too, place your order quickly. These cuties fly out of Mini Boden’s warehouse like you would not believe…

Happy Birthday to me.

Hint, hint, honey…

Coco has a hook in the ceiling above her bed. I’ve never hung anything from it before. I don’t even think I’m the one who drilled it into the ceiling. I admit it: I’ve never really been one for mobiles. Not even when the girls were babies. The ones that appealed to me were not the ones that were “appropriate” for little ones. And by that, I mean they weren’t primary colored and sure to send them on the fast track to Harvard.

But I am tempted to hang the Lady & Gentleman above my little girl’s bed. I am so completely smitten with this charming couple. How could you not be?

And then there will be the Galloping Garland for me. Somewhere in this house, and in the soul of the little girl in me who fell in love with Dusty Baron all those years ago, this stampede will find a happy home.

I am a complete sucker for paper products: thank you notes, personalized correspondence cards, return address labels. So it goes without saying that our girls have their own stationery, too. And have had their own since they were tiny little bambinos.

I’m always looking for cards that are whimsical without stepping too far into the overly-childish. My newest favorites are these flat cards which are completely customizable, from Sarah + Abraham, an adorable Etsy shop. I ordered an individual set for each of my girls, with a single silhouette and their respective name, although I also think it would have been charming to order them just as they are shown in the link, with both girls names and a silhouette of two little girls on it. Particularly because my girls are so close in age and do everything together.

And then, of course, I had to do the customizable return address labels because, well, why not?

There are also fantastic gift options in the shop, like these bookplates. An incredible teacher gift, I think…

I want to plan a trip with the kids back to NYC just so that we can spend an entire week at Moomah.

Ever since my daughter’s teacher sent me a link to this place, I can’t get it out of my head. Every little detail about this place is just perfection. From the concept to the projects to the design to the location to the website. I just want to crawl back into my childhood and walk into this place and start over…

Next best thing? Taking my girls there the next time we are in New York visiting my dad. It’s going to be our first stop.

Sorry, dad.

We’ve had so little snow here, it’s pathetic. I keep having to remind myself that we live in a ski town. A winter resort town. With barely any snow! It’s depressing. But I wouldn’t dream of leaving right now, what if we get that big snow? And I miss it?

Friends of ours just returned from a family vacation to Mexico. They are all tanned and relaxed and pleased with themselves. But I am not a beach person. I prefer the mountains. The snow. And clothing. I’m just not much for bathing suits these days. They seem so… cruel. But I’m hoping to change all of that with the help of the Tracy Anderson Method. More on that later, though. For now, suffice it to say that I totally want to buy this bathing suit from you’ll never guess where and hang it on the outside of our pantry door as inspiration. Summer isn’t that far away, after all.

The you’ll never guess where? It’s Lands’ End! They have a new line, Lands’ End Canvas, and it’s younger, fresher and definitely looks to be cut much more stylishly than their more staid and ‘grown-up’ line, and I am digging it. The prices are phenomenal, but the style! It’s classic all-American but with a nice little twist. A modern edge, I think. It kind of reminds me of what J Crew once was, before they became over-priced and low-quality. I can’t stop looking at the line. Particularly the striped turtleneck sweater and the shirtdress and my gosh – the boyfriend shirt. Perfect.

Lands’ End has figured it out. Kudos to them!

So the end of 2009 brought all kinds of change for us. And after a year where change was kind of the theme, I’m over it!

We sent Nici home. Back to Austria. Never to return.

Remember Nici? She was our au pair. She was with us for 14 weeks. She was supposed to become one of our family, bond with our girls, enhance our lives and just be all-around awesome.

She did not and was none of those things. In fact, she became so far the polar opposite that after a particularly gnarly ride to the airport to drop her off for a trip home to visit her family for the holidays wherein I had to listen to her raise her voice, be beyond disrespectful to my husband and then remind her to say goodbye to my girls, the entire reason she was even here in the United States, I turned to my husband and told him, “I can’t do this with her anymore.”

And that was that.

Our household is back to the way it was. I’m figuring it out. But the darkness of living with someone – a stranger – who so obviously didn’t like us? It’s gone. It’s light and happy and Nici? Her name is never mentioned by the girls, even now, three weeks after she’s been gone. It’s like she was never even here.

So I hope you all had a wonderful and joyous holiday season and that 2010 brings all kinds of excitement and adventure for you.

Myself, I am hoping to get back on schedule, back on task, back to the things I enjoy… skiing, cooking, blogging.

Happy New Year!