Update: This giveaway has ended. Congratulations to Elisa T, who entered via Twitter! If you are anything like me, you would probably agree that most baby books out on the market are crap. They are usually pretty cheesy and most do not have anything extra special about them. This is the primary reason I was thinking about forgoing the baby book route when I was pregnant with Claire. (That, and the fact that I'm a complete idiot when it comes to scrapbooking.) And then I read about L'album des trésors de bébé on my friend Kelly's blog...
Continue readingIf you tried to visit this site yesterday or earlier today, you were probably met with a big fat error message. :-( I thought that the problem had resolved itself by Saturday evening, when the site briefly came back online after my web host reset the server, but the reprieve only lasted a couple of hours. This was the second time in less than a month that this had happened. (Third, if you count the reset on Saturday.) Add this to the consistently sloooow loading time I had been experiencing in the past half year, and we had a problem on our hands. It wouldn't have been half as bad if my host's customer support: Hadn't taken seven hours to respond to my first email, then...
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How would fairy tales look from the lens of architecture? This is precisely what Fairy tale author and editor Kate Bernheimer and architect Andrew Bernheimer sought to find out. Rapunzel, designed by Guy Norden and Associates: As structural engineers we were instantly drawn to the "tower that stood in a forest and had neither a door nor a stairway, but only a tiny little window at the very top" featured in the Brothers Grimm version of "Rapunzel," and we looked to our previous design for the Seven Stems Broadcast Tower for inspiration. We were able to meet the Grimms' strict design requirements by employing a slender tower design of vertical cylindrical stems that are joined by intermittent outrigger beams with a reinforced space at the very top for Rapunzel's...
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As stated in an earlier post, 2011 was not the best year — financially — for my family. This does not only apply to my parents. While J and I are by no means poor, we have been on a very tight budget. Yes, we were able to hire a part-time nanny for a few months. Yes, we are able to dine out once in a while. But these luxuries do not come easily, as we have made numerous sacrifices to achieve them (e.g., not purchasing clothes for ourselves for the entire year). And as much as it pains me to not be able to afford toddler classes for Claire, or not be able to immediately afford a new couch despite the...
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French macaron company Ladurée is delving into the world of cosmetics, and the packaging for each makeup item is just as pretty and delicate as their existing branding. The collection includes blushes, foundations, and lip colors inspired by their sweets, while the name is derived from the Merveilleuses of 18th century France, who were known for their extravagant, decadent behavior, and fashion styles inspired by the ancient Greek and Romans. The line places an emphasis on blushes with three different formulas, as during the age of the Merveilleuses, blushing the cheeks was the main means of playing up one's feminine allure. There is no word yet on the quality of the products, but judging by the exquisite packaging — as well as the quality of...
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