It’s got a cowl neck that is a bit playful and a bit classy. The racerback is divine! My arms feel absolutely free and yet sexy, too. I did have to go out and buy a racer back bra today (not fun, buying a bra after having 2 kids who do a number on one’s body!) but now I feel great. Boobs are up and in the right place (locked and loaded, as they say).

I’m not wearing the wrap belt that goes with it because, well, I can’t quite figure out how to wrap it so that it looks right. I know that’s a stupid thing to admit, but each time I do it, I feel silly. Maybe I’ll get the hang of it. I do have a great wide belt that will look just wonderful with it, but without a belt it’s pretty great, too.

Sarah claims that you can wear this anywhere and I was dubious at first, but she’s right on the money. Little black dress with heels. Playground frock with leggings. You could (and I will) wear this dress until it falls apart.

And, who knows how long that will be since it’s made of bamboo jersey. Talk about comfortable! Don’t quite know what bamboo jersey is, but it looks and feels luscious against my skin and I have a feeling that it’s pretty durable. And eco-friendly! We’ll see.

So, a million thanks to Sarah! Girl, you’re one terrific designer.

You can buy the Obi One dress at Sarah Reilly’s website for $198, although it’s sold out at the moment.

Yes, iTunes has tons of songs, but to me, they are like a big box store for music. I just can’t see the leaves through all those trees of new releases. Yet I happened across this song, Sabali, by Amadou & Mariam and it re-kindled my love of this Africa-based duo.

Have you heard it yet? It’s from the CD Welcome to Mali. I first heard Amadou and Mariam ages ago when they released Dimanche a Bamako in 2004. I heard on NPR that Manu Chao (I’m a huge fan of his!) produced that record (do they still call them records?) so I gave it a listen. Anyway, I fell in love with this husband and wife team but, as will happen, I over-listened to their songs and then stopped playing them.

Blah, blah blah…enough about me. The music speaks for itself. I just love their unique mix of sweet melodies and funky rhythms, not to mention the couple’s haunting voices.

Give it a listen and tell me what you think! Or, better yet, let me know what’s on your iPod.

You can buy Amadou & Mariam’s Welcome to Mali on iTunes, or if you prefer the plastic you can get it on Amazon:

My Name Is Not Isabella

What a nice change of pace this book is – emphasizing important women who were once little girls with big dreams. And best of all, it ends with Isabella inhabiting Mommy’s skin (taking a hot bath of all things!) and being the greatest, sweetest mom. When I read this to my little girl, she looked up at me eyes all a twinkle, and I could just tell she was thinking “my mom’s great too!”

My Name Is Not Isabella is truly a fun read, and if you come across a name you don’t recognize (or remember), just flip to the back and look at the biographies that are included. Nice touch!

My only quibble with the book has to do with the illustrations by Mike Litwin. They are like a mash-up of Japanese Anime and homespun patchwork quilting. I don’t get how the little mouse with button eyes works with the Anime-type faces on the mom and Isabella with the odd photo-likeness of cutlery and such thrown in. It’s just plain odd and jarring.

But overall, I think the book is a keeper. It even makes me think of my female heroes and inspires me to talk about them with my daughters.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, the publisher of My Name Is Not Isabella, for sending over a review copy. You can purchase the book at Amazon:

The same adorable, ridiculous characters, but organic, in recycled packaging and fuzzy fuzzy fuzzy. If you haven’t felt one of these, you really should. SO SOFT. Anyway, I just copped a feel in the toy store and didn’t actually buy one, but hey, that’s just me.

There’s the classic Cat in the Hat (above), and, of course, Horton (the one that hears a Who):

The miYim Dr. Seuss dolls are made from cotton that’s untreated, unprocessed, and unbleached. The doll’s colors come from miYim’s PureWaterWash process using only plants and minerals, and is tested and certified non-toxic. Which means your little one can slobber all over these dolls and you don’t have to worry.

You can check out MiYim’s store locator to find the nearest retailer that carries these plush little guys.

So I’m panicking a little here – what if I don’t get ANY summer?!? Yes, I had a brief vacation down to the depths of the Alabama Gulf Coast and, yes, it was Africa hot, but that was in early June and now it’s September and I need heat.

If you’re hankering for some homemade ice cream, the DeLonghi Gelato Maker available at Sur La Table looks awesome. The whole thing is totally automatic and it brings your icy treats to below freezing, which is the only way to make low fat ice cream or frozen yogurt. It goes for $299.95.

Well, even if I can’t get the heat I can get the ice cream. Not exactly what a chilly San Francisco summer day calls for, but one can dream.

photo credit top: D Sharon Pruitt

It’s a quilted case made of unbleached cotton – sure to keep your trusty laptop comfy, cozy. And on the cover there’s an image of, yes, a good old typewriter. You remember those, don’t you?

The Luddite Collection Laptop Case measures 11″H, 15.5″W, 2″D and is designed by Thomas Paul. It’s available at Anthropologie for $68.

Of course, if you are a true Luddite, you don’t actually have a laptop, do you?

I found this sweet tea cup key holder that hangs on the wall by Design Glut and think it might look nice placed in the kitchen. Sorta fun and functional.

This teacup holder is made by a company after my grandfather’s heart. He was the type of guy that had a sign in his kitchen that said “thimk.” He loved puns, especially visual puns. If he were still with us I think this company would make him smile.

Design Glut, by the way, is awesome. They have these candle strips that look like a power strip, switchplate covers that mess with perspective and a smoking gun cigarette holder.

Like I said, fun and functional.

The Hookmaker tea cup storage tile is made of ceramic and measures 6″ x 6″ x 3″ deep. It costs $30 from Design Glut.

Want to have an ape lounging in your herbal tea? How bout a monkey doing the backstroke? Five cute critters reach out wide over the rim of your tea cup to let a bag of herbal tea steep. Such a cute and obvious invention, I’m surprised I haven’t seen it before.

Now, the little one can join me in my ritual and we can have an honest to goodness tea party together.

And, for the grown up kids, they have other, non-critter cup hangers-on like Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplan and James Dean.

Imagine me – calling those three “hangers-on” – la ti da.

The tea bags can be purchased from the Donkey Products shop and cost 7.95 Euros for a set of five – about $10 U.S.

Prior to becoming a mother, I was a low maintenance kind of gal. I wore makeup – at 35, I pretty much had to – but I prided myself on my 5-minute daily makeup routine. A little tinted moisturizer, some blush, eye shadow, lipstick, maybe a little powder or mascara, and, voila, done! Easy peasy.

Besides, I have a rather sordid history with makeup as a teen of the 80s. All those blue-toned hues and neon pink lipstick shades on my yellow-toned features made me look like a transvestite. Sure, I eventually realized the error of my ways, but can you blame me for being a little wary of makeup? I figured I couldn’t go wrong by keeping it simple. I could get away with it.

When I had my daughter, Mira, I was lucky if I had a shower some days, much less nicely coiffed hair and certainly no time for trivialities such as makeup. But I also hated how I looked. My body, even after reaching pre-pregnancy weight, was not quite the same. I had huge circles under my eyes from chronic lack of sleep. I didn’t like how I looked, but I just couldn’t muster up enough energy to care. Besides, everybody was focused on my daughter, not me, and she was the cutest baby in the entire world (not that I’m biased or anything).

Then I decided to go back to work. No cute daughter there to take the focus off of me. My being a mother wouldn’t factor into my work life. That’s what I was going for, right? An opportunity to interact with actual adults and not use words like “poopie” or “kaboomie.” (Though, as an aside, I once did say “kaboomie” while discussing a work related issue with a patient. Ooops.) I looked in the mirror at the dark rings under my eyes and my oatmealy complexion and realized that I needed to do something drastic if I were to return to the adult world and also feel good about myself again. I needed an intervention.

That’s how I found myself at the Bare Escentuals store in Charlotte’s Southpark Mall. BareMinerals, their makeup line, came highly recommended from a number of different friends, many of them fellow mommies. The saleswomen there were more than happy to educate me, lining up a row of little jars and brushes to prep for my makeover.

The routine is definitely more complex and time-consuming than my previous routine: moisturizer (I use one with SPF in it even though their makeup technically has some degree of sun protection), primer, foundation, concealer, bronzer, blush, mineral veil, eye shadow (with or without liner), mascara, lipstick, and gloss. Each step, starting with the foundation, is in powder form, which I really like for a couple of reasons: it’s less messy (it’s not on my hands and I don’t have to mess with those stupid little sponges) and it goes on lightly without compromising coverage. By the time the saleswoman was done with me, I looked like a different person, yet the makeup didn’t feel particularly heavy. Wow.!

When I picked my girl up at daycare, the head teacher, who is not prone to compliments, told me I looked like a model. I’ll take it. Of course, that’s with the pro doing my makeup. What would happen when I tried it myself?

I’ll admit it – there was a bit of a learning curve. The nice ladies at Bare Escentuals mapped out every step on a little labeled diagram, telling me which little jar to use when and with which brush. All of the little jars (except the eye shadow, which was smaller) were the same size with the same “bareMinerals” logo on it (except the mineral veil, which says “mineral veil”), so it was easy to get confused.

I had to learn how to pour the right portion into the lid of the jar, swirl the brush around, tap the excess off, then buff in the appropriate motion across my face. My first few attempts were okay, but certainly not to the “model” level achieved in the store. But I looked better. Undeniably so.

Once I got used to the routine, I improved both in terms of the overall effect and the time it took to apply in the morning. Now, I can do a reasonable job in about 7 minutes, barely more than my prior “low maintenance” approach required. I look so much better and actually feel less made up than I did before in terms of the weight of the makeup. I like it so much that I find myself applying it on a weekend if my plans involve leaving the house (even if my only house-leaving involves going to the grocery store).

Several things impress me about Bare Minerals. It evens out my complexion with very little effort, and the concealer actually covers the majority of my dark circles – even after a particularly bad night battling nightmares or teething. As I mentioned before, it’s light on your face and doesn’t involve getting your fingers in it. In addition, Bare Minerals lasts a long time, especially with the primer (and longer if you do a better job than me of keeping your hands off of your face). Beyond all of that, it just looks good—the colors they offer just work. I don’t look particularly made up, just like I have naturally amazing skin and a light bit of makeup to emphasize my good points.

Of course, as with anything, there are some drawbacks. It did take my skin a little bit of time to fully adjust. I had some very mild irritation for the first few days that went away. I’ve been told that there are other mineral makeup brands that use less talc and are thus less irritating. I have fairly sensitive skin, though, and I did adjust fairly quickly.

The daily routine is also complex to pull off and not necessarily intuitive to a makeup novice. Their instructions help, but it’s still pretty daunting. I’ve learned to stack my jars of makeup in a particular order so I can quickly access the ones I need without having to puzzle over whether I’ve picked up the blush or the concealer.

You also have to spend a little money up-front, especially if you don’t have a lot of makeup brushes. I think I probably spent about $250 to start. Checking their website, they have a good offer that provides about half of the needed supplies (foundation, bronzer, mineral veil, three brushes, and some freebies) for a mere $60.

When I got pregnant again, I gained a whole new respect for this makeup. I have rosacea, but it hasn’t been active in a long time. Almost as soon as I got a big fat positive on my home pregnancy test, I started breaking out in red bumps on my face. Then the burning red cheeks started. Looking like you just got slapped across the face is not an attractive look on anyone.

This makeup covered it all up beautifully with almost no additional effort and without irritating my skin further. My hormones have calmed down as I have lumbered into my third trimester, but now that it is summer, I’ve developed the charming “mask of pregnancy” that I had always read about. Again, a few swirls of my brush, and the pigment imbalance is no longer noticeable. Sure, I’m exhausted, look like I swallowed a watermelon, and am barely able to waddle from my car to my office, but at least my makeup makes me look like a glowing pregnant woman.

Oh well, low maintenance is overrated anyway, right?

If you are looking for something to eat away the day before naptime, then maybe Land of Nod’s I’m Not Bored Anymore Art Jar, Jr. (they have a jar for older kids, whjich is where the “Jr.” comes in) could help. It’s like a mini activity jar. No, scratch that – it IS a mini activity jar filled with googly eyes (who doesn’t love googly eyes?), craft sticks and papers, pom poms, glue stick – heck, anything and everything to occupy tiny hands. With, of course, an eye to safety – nothing seems too sharp or small, though this is not for children under 3 years old.

Now, I don’t have one and I suppose I should test drive one before I tell you how good it is, but it really does look like fun. Don’t you think? If you do play with one, do let me know how it turns out.

I’m Not Bored Anymore Jar, Jr. is available online at Land of Nod for $19.95.

Cute – yes. Functional – yes. And, I bet if you use an Envirosax yourself, the tiny person you call your child will want to imitate you and have her own bag.

The bag dimensions when unrolled are 19.5″ x 16.5″. But you can also roll it up and pop it in its own pouch and the size goes down to 4″ x 1.5″ – handy for sticking in your stroller when extra bags are needed. Each Envirosax with Sesame Street character costs $9.95 or you can get a pack of all five characters for $39.95. Available at the Envirosax website.

You might think this would be the start of a rant about organic cereal, keeping kids away from such sugary cereals that they should be called junk food, and in general me getting on my soap box about healthy eating. It’s not. Yes, we should all eat healthfully, but then life happens and we throw whatever we can find in our mouths and the mouths of our children. Hey, it happens.

But, packaging…that’s a different story. It’s like the reports of BPA found in the lining of cans (and grocery receipts). Those are places we, as concerned mothers, don’t think to look until we hear otherwise. And if this chemical has been found in Kelloggs packaging, how long do you think it will take for it to be found in other cereal companies’ packages as well. This isn’t solely a Kellogg’s problem – it’s potentially an industry-wide issue and a big one at that.

To Kelloggs’ credit, they did a voluntary recall of certain boxes of Apple Jacks, Corn Pops, Froot Loops, and Honey Smacks back on June 25th. Why is it that the least healthy cereals are impacted by this chemical issue? Who knows?

With this discovery that cereal packaging (the waxed paper that is heat-sealed) could be off-gassing chemicals into our food, I’m feeling a little bit unsure of what is out there. Yes, I can be as vigilant as I can be about what foods do and don’t cross my baby’s lips, but there is only so much I can do. It’s not like I can farm my own Fruit Loops, now is it?

Frustrating.

They are generously offering three sets of labels you can download and print out:

Label Set No. 1: bake, brew, perk
Label Set No. 2: flour, sugar, tea, coffee
Label Set No. 3: forks, knives, pens, pencils (comes in black and white as well as red and pink)

And best of all they’re free. Thanks Poppycock!

Don’t they just make you want to organize your kitchen? Now, if I can only find the time…

photo credit: Poppycock