simple stuff

  • simple stuff: beach toys.

    SOS. SEND OUR SHOVELS. By all accounts, we have not had a terribly spendy summer. Staying almost entirely out of the city means that the usual slow-drip from our wallets directly into those of…

    August 17, 2023
  • take a bike ride.

    The year we moved to this beach town, I turned six and my big sister Cait turned nine, and I learned to ride a bike sharing her perch on a banana-seat bicycle. She sat…

    July 18, 2023
  • simple stuff: a movie projector.

    We don’t have a TV. Like other radiantly aging millennials, not having a TV doesn’t mean we don’t watch TV or movies, but it probably does mean that the *way* we watch them is…

    June 27, 2023 11 Comments
  • simple stuff: a toaster.

    James, who is more often on breakfast duty than I am, has been wanting to invest in a larger toaster since Calder started gumming bread in the morning, which was, notably, not yesterday. These…

    July 5, 2022 46 Comments
  • simple stuff: a stainless steel water dispenser.

    It’s a habit shift, it’s apartment progress, it’s baby proof in a family where the youngest baby is a walking, talking two-year-old calling her dad…Jimmy. It’s a stainless steel water dispenser, otherwise known as…

    June 16, 2022 18 Comments
  • simple stuff: window treatments.

    I’ve often said, “life isn’t always simple, but the curtains can be,” and then I moved into an apartment with six whole windows soaring to heights that aren’t reachable without a ladder and realized…

    May 20, 2021 25 Comments
  • simple stuff: toothbrushes.

    What I’m after here is admittedly niche and of small consequence in the grand scheme of things but then so are lots of things that wiggle under my skin and stay there. I am…

    March 15, 2021 27 Comments
  • simple stuff: a butter dish.

    Of all the things to send me over the edge, you might not suspect that the greasy waxed paper around a crumb-covered knob of butter would be the thing. Or perhaps you’ve been around…

    February 24, 2021 20 Comments
  • simple stuff: a kitchen trash can.

    I have purchased a kitchen trash can. It’s a 4-gallon can that may or may not be considered the proper size for a family of five, but it’s clocking in at about 4 times…

    January 21, 2021 35 Comments
  • simple stuff: china markers.

    By now, you know how I feel about labels. When made by someone else, that sucker’s most likely getting ripped off the minute after it comes in our house. But even when made by…

    November 4, 2019 28 Comments