Peanuts for the next generation (review + giveaway)
When I was taking this picture of C, I told her the book would help her with counting 1-10. She pointed to the 1-2-3 on the cover and said “One … Two … Ten!” Um, we have some work to do!
Enter to win a $30 Movie Gift Card so you & your family can see The Peanuts Movie!
Winner will be notified on November 2.
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The Most Dramatic Flu Shot Ever, and Why Older Kid Tantrums are the Absolute Worst
Just when you think you’ve moved into a comfortable stage of life when no one is likely to start shrieking in the mall or make a sudden pee-puddle on the floor of the grocery store, a whopping dose of parental embarrassment will smack you in the face.
At this point, I don’t think there is anything more mortifying or unexpected than The Older Kid Tantrum.
We were going for our annual family flu shot date last week, and it’s always gone pretty smoothly. Our doctor is friendly and everyone chats as we roll up our sleeves, and then we get the needles one after another — from oldest to youngest. The littles get to choose a treat on the way out, and then it’s done. No biggie.
This year, though, I was nervous it wasn’t going to be so easy. You see, our eldest had a major freak-out — and that’s an understatement — when I’d taken him to get his five-year needles in June …
Continue reading in my weekly parenting column, “The Mom Scene” …
Upholstered DIY headboard
If there’s one thing you should know about upholstery foam, it’s this — it’s crazy expensive. Like, honestly, it’s so much more expensive than you think.
I’d been wanting to make an upholstered headboard for years now, but every bed in our house had a headboard that was worth keeping. So when my sister moved into her new apartment in September, I pounced at the chance to make her something special.
It’s quite fun to do a project on someone else’s dime, especially when the upholstery foam alone costs more than you’d spend on two restaurant dinners for your family of four.
We decided to make an extra-tall, super-plush headboard covered in textured charcoal grey fabric.
Once we’d picked up the supplies …
- $30 on fabric
- $50 on wood
- A staggering $90 on five 24×24 pieces of three-inch foam
… Michael got to work building a simple frame. He constructed a plywood back that measured 52” wide and 48” high …
DIY upholstered headboard
If there’s one thing you should know about upholstery foam, it’s this — it’s crazy expensive. Like, honestly, it’s so much more expensive than you think.
I’d been wanting to make an upholstered headboard for years now, but every bed in our house had a headboard that was worth keeping. So when my sister moved into her new apartment in September, I pounced at the chance to make her something special.
It’s quite fun to do a project on someone else’s dime, especially when the upholstery foam alone costs more than you’d spend on two restaurant dinners for your family of four.
We decided to make an extra-tall, super-plush headboard covered in textured charcoal grey fabric. Once we’d picked up the supplies ($30 on fabric, $50 on wood and a staggering $90 on five 24×24 pieces of three-inch foam), Michael got to work building a simple frame. He constructed a plywood back that measured 52” wide and 48” high, and then added removable 2×4 legs to make the finished headboard 60” tall.
When it was time to attach the squares of foam, I realized it would have been a good idea to make the headboard exactly the size of four squares. Alas, we did not do that. Oh well. I used a serrated bread knife to slice the fifth piece into slivers for the gaps. We secured the foam with a bit of contact cement so nothing shifted when we put on the fabric.
(Confession time: We actually had to purchase a second piece of fabric because the first piece wasn’t quite wide enough to wrap around the massive squares of foam. There may or may not have been a tired late-night adult tantrum.)
Upholstering a giant headboard is really no harder than tackling a little project, like a bench, except that it’s heavier and more awkward and … generally much more difficult.
Continue reading in my weekly DIY column, My Handmade Home … 
Five enemies when you work from home
I love, love, love when people ask me where I work, and I tell them I work at home. Mostly because they all have a flash of surprise and say “Oh!” and then you see their eyes flicker a bit as they wonder if that explains the stained yoga pants and general lack of social skills.
There are a lot of misconceptions about working at home — so much time to clean the house! so much time to relax! — and I enjoy shattering those. Yes, working at home is awesome. But it’s also awful, too. It’s the best and worst of both worlds.
And, just like a colleague who brings fish to work and stinks up the office microwave, we have enemies, too …
1. Snacks. The kitchen is right there, and you’re not limited to a small drawer of office snacks or whatever you packed for lunch that day. The world (kitchen) is your oyster. I always seem to feel hungry when I’m working, and I don’t know if it’s boredom or distraction or reward or if I’m legit hungry? I’m hungry right now, as I type this. I’ll be hungry this afternoon. The only saving grace is that you can’t eat while you’re on a call, because crunching is rude.
2. Laundry. You’re either spending too much time on it or not enough time. I can’t seem to get this right, even though my desk is about 20 feet from my washer and dryer. I’m terrible about putting a load in the wash and forgetting about it completely until, like, the next day. I don’t think I’m any better at laundry than someone who works outside of the home, despite being THISCLOSE to it all day long, and it makes me feel guilty.
4. The internet at large. I know some people who close their Facebook tab and refuse to allow themselves to browse anything that’s not work-related, but that’s … not me. When you work in a “real” office, you have to be cautious of colleagues/supervisors/boss-types catching a glimpse of what’s on your screen. When you’re home alone in a basement office, you can watch Drake videos while online shopping instead of working on that article that’s due soon. You intend to pop over to Thesaurus.com for a second and suddenly you’re typing U-S into the browser and USWeekly is automatically popping up. There is no one to stop you! But yourself! And basically you don’t want to stop yourself, so …
Work-at-homers! (Not Homers) Tell me — what are your enemies?
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Heather's Handmade Life 