July 2

Hello, and happy summer! A few things to share…

We have a Vitamix blender that we use daily, but I recently bought this Zwilling personal blender that is perfect for smaller tasks like grinding flaxseeds, making dips, salad dressings etc…

Until I can get to la pharmacie française this fall and stock up on all the sunscreens recommended by Charlotte Palermino, I have been using the fantastic Korean Isntree Hyaluronic Acid Daily Sun Gel (which I also learned about via Charlotte). It blends like a dream, doesn’t smell or feel like sunscreen, and is all around pretty amazing.

The Isntree Hyaluronic Acid Airy Sun Stick is equally great and especially useful when you have to apply it to the faces of small children…

I don’t really wear much makeup, but I have strong brows and never leave the house without grooming them. I’ve tried so many brow gels, soap brows, you name it, and nothing holds a candle to Half Magic Grippie Brow Scultping Gel…

For some reason I greatly dislike trimming and filing my fingernails, but I like to keep my nails short which means I have to do the task quite often. These thin Deborah Lippmann eco nail files make the job less tedious…

I’ve been enjoying the occasional iced latte at home with Blue Bottle Craft Instant Espresso. One teaspoon, 1oz hot water, lots of ice, and your milk of choice…

I just added this Bug Bite Thing to our first-aid kit…

I’m a constant note-taker and always have at least one notebook with me. These Japanese Maruman Mnemosyne notebooks are my favorite:

These Jennifer Fisher Puffy Heart earrings have captured my attention…

I’ve had this excellent bit of wisdom from James Clear on my fridge since February. It has become my mantra and keeps me moving forward in the direction I want to go…

1% Better Each Day

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

It turns what we have into enough, and more.

It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. It turns problems into gifts, failures into successes, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events.

It can turn an existence into a real life, and disconnected situations into important and beneficial lessons. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

- Melody Beattie

With the latest business restrictions I had to close my studio again last week. Last spring during lockdown I created Pilates Everyday to post videos for my clients. But once I was able to reopen again in June, my plate felt full and I stopped posting. And my own Pilates practice became neglected.

This time around I decided to use this extra time afforded to me to reinvigorate a daily practice and have been doing at least a basic Pilates mat workout every day and live streaming for anyone who wants to join in. I am not doing any instruction or have any set routine planned – I’m just committed to moving every day and will see where the workout takes me…

At one week in, it’s noticeable how much better and stronger I feel and I’m enjoying myself immensely. It feels good to embody what I’m constantly espousing - that small efforts done repetitively every day lead to big change. When done intentionally, even a 7 minute workout is effective as proven in my workout on day three…

If you'd like to work on your own daily Pilates practice but don't know where to begin, start here: 

I am not at all surprised at the benefits I’m noticing already from having a daily personal practice. But what I didn’t expect is what posting my workout LIVE would deliver: the incredible feeling of being truly accountable to myself. I am accountable to many others - my son, my husband, my friends, my clients…but I can’t recall a time when I showed up only for myself, every single day…

I will leave you with the inspiring Chris Nikic who exemplifies what can happen when you focus on making small improvements and striving to get 1% better each day…

Zack Wittman for The New York Times

“To Chris, this race was more than just a finish line and celebration of victory,” his dad told the BBC. “Ironman has served as his platform to become one step closer to his goal of living a life of inclusion, normalcy, and leadership.”

May we all be inspired by Chris and continue to do the work and strive to be our best selves.

Apart But Not Alone

What a time we are in.

It’s hard to articulate so instead of fumbling for the words I will give you this from the ever-wise Brené Brown…

This is truly a both/and moment: both frightening and formative. Both uncertain and hopeful. And despite the legitimate troubles for so many unsure when they’ll be able to work and earn a paycheck, there is still so much goodness if you look for it.

We watched the Seattle Symphony livestream Mahler Symphony No. 1 all together curled up in bed last weekend. Metropolitan Opera has nightly free streams for the duration of the Met’s closure. I have never seen an opera before and I’m so thrilled for the opportunity to see some of the best…

Yo-Yo Ma is playing music for us…

So is Ben Gibbard, live every day at 4pm for the next two weeks…

Donald Robertson is giving these fantastic quick art classes…

Ryan Holiday wrote a great post on the Daily Stoic a few days ago Remember: You Don’t Control What Happens, You Control How You Respond.

“The single most important practice in Stoic philosophy is differentiating between what we can change and what we can’t.

Use your time wisely: don’t let the possible weeks or months of isolation be for nothing. You can’t control how long you’ll need to engage in social distancing, but you can control if you spend that time productively. The version of you who steps out of quarantine at some future date can be better than the version that entered it, if you try.”

Experiencing hardship has the power to nudge us and give us “strength in the places we’d never thought to develop, spaces we didn’t know we’d occupy, room to reach beyond ourselves.”

I can’t work from home teaching my clients like I’ve always done. But I am finding a new way to be useful and share what I know.

“We think the future is something that happens, rather than something we make.”

— Ryan Holiday

I started a YouTube channel Pilates Everyday. The first video is a 5 minute basic Pilates mat that my clients are to do everyday. If you have never done Pilates before, start there and keep it simple: Prioritize repetition over perfection. It isn’t going to be good right out the gate. Don’t worry, just keep at it and do your best. Through repetition and deliberate practice it will start to come together. Just move. Pay attention. Don’t rush. Enjoy yourself. Repeat.

Take care of yourselves. Practice self-discipline. Be kind. Look for the good.

October Recap

After several weeks of rain the sky has cleared and the temperature has dropped. If the forecast holds, we are looking at pretty perfect conditions for trick or treating this Thursday…

With the drop in temps I’ve been craving a bath at the end of the day. I love a straight up epsom salt bath or Dr. Singha’s Mustard Bath…

Beanies are back in the mix and I’ve been wearing my favorite Everlane cocoon coat, Clare V Midi Sac and pink Nike Blazer sneakers on repeat…

I love this Nordic Ware skull cakelet pan and I’ve been playing with different glazes. The perfect chocolate cake recipe comes from Simple Cake…

Our little studio project is also progressing!

I’ve been making chicken stock and big batches of soup weekly. This crazy easy tomato soup and this celery root, cauliflower + fennel are still two of my favorites. I store the soups in wide mouth mason jars with these new leakproof lids from Ball…

Both soups mentioned above are also pureed which means they are perfect for sipping out of a mug (which comes in handy if you want to deliver something hot to your rad construction crew on a cold day)…

I have a pair of black patent leather Loeffler Randall boots from a few seasons ago that I would like to put into more regular rotation. I just ordered these white Everlane straight leg crop pants to create the look below…

One of my clients told me about this No. Green deodorant from Corpus which is my new favorite. It smells amazing, works like deodorant should, and has no white residue…

These little Mighty Patch hydrocolloid patches are amazing. If I have a blemish that needs extracting (or I pick at my face more than I should) I put one of these on the "wound” before I go to bed. They prevent unsightly scabs from forming and they speed the healing process…

Those little patches work so beautifully I added these hydrocolloid bandages to our first aid kit…

I’ve been creating more time to read these days and recently finished Deep Work by Cal Newport. I first learned about Cal several years ago when he was an MIT student and wrote about deliberate practice on his blog. Deep Work is full of well articulated ideas that you’ll want to write down and think more about like this one…

“People who multitask all the time can’t filter out irrelevancy.”

I also just finished Esther Perel’s Mating in Captivity and cannot recommend it enough. I mentioned Esther here after listening to her On Being conversation. Her podcast “Where Should We Begin?” is incredible too…

Immunity Boost

Well that didn’t take long. The shift in weather and the start of school brought the first cold of the season to our house. Along with going to bed early and eating well, when I’m trying to keep myself healthy I’m a big believer in immune support. My current staples:

We take this Host Defense Mushroom Comprehensive Immune Support year round. My son takes the liquid version in a bit of juice each morning…

If you can take a high dose of zinc at the very first sign of a cold, you have a good shot at stopping it in its tracks. If I feel even a tinge of a sore throat coming on, I will take two dropperfulls of this Eidon liquid zinc in a small amount of orange juice at least twice a day until symptoms disappear…

I’ve mentioned black elderberry before. This is also something we take daily during prime cold/flu season as it is antibacterial and antiviral and it tastes amazing. I love this Gaia Black Elderberry syrup…

Jarrow Colostrum Prime Life is another one…

I still make my own ginger juice but I love how convenient these Trader Joe’s No Joke Ginger juice shots are. (Sidenote: these are also delicious added to my favorite Bee’s Knees cocktail (decidedly not for immune support)…

This Health-Ade Kombucha in ginger lemon is wonderfully potent and now available at Trader Joe’s…

I also double up on my usual Vitamin D dose…

And I always make sure to take a high quality probiotic. My favorite right now is this one from Visbiome (formerly VSL3)…

You can also find most of these at Thrive Market, Pharmaca or your local PCC or Whole Foods.

Simple Pleasures

We are enjoying a quiet long weekend at home before getting back into the regular swing of things with school starting this week. Like last year, I am taking the first part of September off to not only help ease us back into school life at home, but to spend two weeks recharging myself and gearing up for the new year ahead. To me September feels more like a time of renewal than January 1st does. 

I have a few house projects on my list, like repainting the hallway,  and lots of purging/organizing endeavors. But I'm also finding time just to think and work on an upcoming creative project that I'm really excited about.

I've finally started an Instagram account for the blog so you can also find me here.

The weather this weekend has been stellar. Comfortably warm but with a bit of a chill in the air that seemed to happen as soon as the calendar flipped to September 1. These are perfect conditions to spend time in the garden.

I harvested the last of my cucumbers and my Row 7 potatoes which were a  huge winner. I'm devoting an entire bed to them next year. I also started moving plants around and cleaning out crops past their due and cutting back the blackberry vines that take over my front slope this time of year. 

I wrote about Floret Farm's book at the end of last summer and followed through and ordered Dahlia tubers from her in the spring. These giants are lighting up the front yard right now...

I've been making watermelon juice that is even more refreshing than the gazpacho I've been downing the last two days. If you don't have a juicer, simply blend up the watermelon in a blender. Strain it through a fine mesh strainer and let it chill until it's good and cold. When you're ready to drink, squeeze half of a lime in your glass and a pinch of salt.

It is summer in a glass...

I have loved watching All or Nothing: Manchester City. LOVED. Go watch it.

I also just finished reading Attachments which was recommended by my mother-in-law (Hi Pierr!). It is such a perfect summer read - great dialogue, smart and incredibly funny. I couldn't stop reading and read it all in one go...

My hair is the longest it's ever been and after a summer of playing in both the surf and sun the ends are bit fried. I love Weleda products and just discovered this rosemary hair oil. I've been putting it on my ends (and even my scalp) before bed and washing it out in my morning shower. It has made a world of difference.

I've also been using this wonderful salt scalp scrub shampoo (say that three times fast) the last two months. You use it just once a week though I really want to use it daily I look forward to it that much...

Also in need of a little TLC after the summer heat and constant sunscreen, my skin needs a little decongesting and I super love this new Squalane + Glycolic Renewal Facial from Biossance...

I'm looking forward to testing out their new deodorant...

I bought a few of these air-purifiers recommended by Wirecutter this spring during allergy season and the difference was immediate. After one night, we all woke up with cleared sinuses. Fast forward to last month when Seattle was hit hard from wildfire smoke. We were so grateful to have these in our house. I also bought one for my studio...

I'm really liking these twin-line flossers. They are also helpful for teaching my six year old how to floss...

And I have a new pair of favorite jeans. These relaxed boyfriend ones from Everlane remind me of my old 501s from high school. I have the vintage sky blue wash below...

But I have my eye on the washed black ones as well...

FATHER'S DAY

My son and I are getting ready to celebrate the #1 Dad in our life tomorrow. Breakfast will include a frittata with yukon golds and lots of herbs from the garden and per my son's request, "A LOT of bacon" (presumably so he doesn't have to battle his dad for it). If you need a good frittata recipe Pamela Salzman has some great ones. 

Father's Day or not, here are some good gifts to celebrate the great husband, brother or father in your life...

This beautiful low-profile wallet from Grovemade in Portland...

A pair of Allbirds...

Jim Olson's gorgeous new book...

I LOVE the Marie Veronique skincare collaboration with Kristina Holey. Marie just released a new line for men, though I would happily use it myself. I have my eye on the shave prep + daily wash as well as the shaving oil as something we would both enjoy...

This razor would be a nice upgrade to go with it...

If you're in need of more inspiration, check out Huckberry which always has a stellar collection of great stuff. I dare you not to find something there whatever your price range.

How to Break Up With Your Phone

I'm not sure where I first saw the image below but it resonated strongly with me. Often when I have a break teaching and walk down to the coffee shop I pass person after person looking down, only to open the door to a room full of people again looking down, and stand in line to order my coffee behind a handful of people each one, again, looking down...

Our lives are what we pay attention to.

I hope this slim and life-changing book by Catherine Price becomes as ubiquitous as another slim and life-changing book I love. Read more about it here and also here.

At home we follow a 24 hour "tech sabbath" beginning Friday at 8pm until Saturday at 8pm (which Price mentions) which has been a game changer. I first learned about the idea of a "tech sabbath" from Tiffany Shlain and her converstation with Krista Tippett.

Do yourself (and your kids) a favor and read this book.

Summer

Today was a perfect summer day kicking off the long holiday weekend. We lounged around home and I accomplished pretty close to nothing. And I plan to do the same tomorrow, and the next day. In good timing, these two books I've been waiting for just arrived at the library...

I take it back. I will accomplish something this weekend! Reading! A huge feat for someone with a young child. (And I might be sipping on Vinho Verde.)

A few more things adding to my summer mood...

I just bought these jeans from Zara and am in love. They are the perfect summer wash with a cool 70s vibe. I took a pair of fabric scissors and cut them down to size leaving the seam raw. Get them now on sale for just $20!

These water balloons are epic. Not only do they fill in seconds, but they self-seal and are biodegradable. Heads up, I hear you can find them at Costco (in bulk of course) and half the price.

We also finally found the perfect outdoor umbrella stand that will last more than one season and looks great...

I keep this affordable rosewater spray with me and mist throughout the day during the summer. It helps keep my skin hydrated plus it smells divine. Find it locally at PCC or Whole Foods as well...

And the most recent addition to my wishlist are these Marais sandals...

Happy Fourth!

Beat the Heat

It is hot and sunny in Seattle and it looks like it's going to stay that way for a while...

A few things I will be relying on...

Good sunscreen. My favorite for the body is this one from Beautycounter. It's a great mineral sunscreen with zinc oxide that is lightweight and rubs in easily, never white or chalky. Good mineral sunscreens can be expensive and this one is also one of the best values. 

This stick is especially good for getting little necks and faces covered as they duck and dodge anxious to get back to playing. 

And this tinted face sunscreen from Suntegrity is really amazing. It provides great non-toxic protection from the sun but also acts like a medium coverage foundation and beautifully evens out your skin tone. It comes in five shades. (Plus zinc-oxide has anti-inflammatory properties that help skin conditions like acne and rosacea.)

Next up...deodorant.

A good natural one that actually works can be tough to find. I've used this one from Soapwalla for the last three years and it's the best deodorant I've used natural or otherwise. I've only used the original but when I'm ready for a refill I'm ordering the new citrus version.

It is also important to have a good ice cream shop at the ready...if you can, get to Kurt's Farm Shop on Chophouse Row. You can get two flavors in your single scoop. I opted for Flora's Cheese and Tomato Jam which were out of this world.

And yet another mention of rosé. It just exudes Summer to me. I'm currently enjoying this super affordable one (around $10 at PCC).  And don't forget the ice.

Finally, if you are still in need of a fan (seeing as most Seattleites do not have A/C) we continue to love this one that I wrote about last summer.