tinyprofessor

[tinyprofessor]

Everything I Want to Buy Right Now: Kids Furniture Edition

Oh the joys and horrors of moving halfway across the world. One particular problem that comes with this predicament is the need to buy everything, all over again. I mean, everything. Not just sheets and blankets but the mattress and bed too. Not just nice dinnerware but a new ladle, a new wooden spoon, a can opener. Everything.

Sure, we’re shipping some stuff over - books, some precious toys, a few pieces of special cookware. But all the mundane day to day things need to be purchased… again.

And so I find myself occasionally obsessed with hunting for the right item of that moment - towels, saute pans, televisions, coffee makers.

My current obsession is childrens furniture, and specifically a table and chairs. The kids’ Stokke Tripp Trapp high chairs will be arriving in our shipment, but I want to get them a small table to use as well, whether it be for snacks, art projects, or working on puzzles. They need their own surface. So I have been scouring the internet for the very best little table and chairs I can find - something that’s stylish enough for our living space, but still accessible and practical for the kids to use.

The budget option is the Hudson Mini Table Package from Mocka furniture. Honestly I’m not sure I can go past this option for the price, and it’s fairly inoffensive, as far as kids furniture goes. 

My favourite, non budget option would have the be the Plyroom Ko table and chairs set, which is, conveniently, currently 30% off. It’s so beautiful and I love that the various parts can be used in all sorts of ways once the kids are done with the table... although perhaps that could be said of all the sets. 

The expensive heirloom option is the Drewart table and chairs set. These sets are solid and made in Europe, in the Warldorf (aka Steiner) classroom style. As beautiful as they are, I’m just not sure that they’re... me. Too clunky.  

The other option would be to source chairs and tables separately, because I have had much more luck finding interesting, practical and accessible small chairs than I have tables. Some of my favourites include the Stockholm Spaces, todler chair, the Gonzagarredi Multipurpose Small Chair (so awesome the way it can be flipped over to make it two different heights), and even the good old Ikea Flisat stool (although none of their kids tables take my fancy and I’m still burned by the Latt table and chairs we bought which basically disintegrated with normal use). 

My favourite though, would have to be the MOOV baby tot bot stool. It’s just so simple and child-friendly. I’m not sure it’s right for my purposes though - it would perhaps work better tucked into a corner in the living room next to a book basket or in the bedroom to help with independent dressing.   

So what do you think? Should we fork out for the Plywood set of my dreams (which is actually made of Birch, just FYI), or should I get the Mocka set and fork out for a few little chairs for other nooks as well? 

[tinyprofessor]

All I want for Christmas...

... is sleep. But that’s not going to happen, so I’ll take any of the following instead: 

Pleasing potions for my face in my favourite colour scheme: pink and green. 

A festive beret. You heard me. A festive. Motherflipping. Beret. 

Merino socks to keep my toes cozy - and stylish.  

I don’t know long I can put this attractive reusable coffee (and tea!) mug on my list before someone buys it for me EVET. 

A doona cover in golden tones to lift the mood during the long, long winter.

Some high waisted undies, or some really high waisted undies.  

A book of short stories, because that sounds achievable.  

Something that might help me get organized.

[tinyprofessor]

Jump around

As the weather warms up I find myself fantasy shopping for jumpsuits. I love the utilitarianism of them: their all-in-one nature makes them feel like a uniform. Just one item of clothing to put on everyday - isn’t that the dream? 

But then if I were to choose just one jumpsuit to wear for all my days, which would it be? 

A naturally hand dyed boiler suit (by Audrey Louise Reynolds, above)? 

A classic overall shape made in detailed Indian fabric? 

A decent and affordable Pleats Please homage? Or the original? 

Voluminous and reminiscent of a pinafore?  

Made of canvas and satisfyingly utilitarian? 

Denim, zippered?

Iconic, just that little bit man repellant, and now much imitated (by Ilana Kohn, above)?  

Highly wearable in versatile linen? 

Hand made with button-front for easy nursing? 

I’m leaning towards the button front and the Pleats Please copy, but am seriously tempted by the lavender man repellers. Which would you choose? 

[tinyprofessor]

Dispatch 006

Linda Bosidis, photographed by Lisa Businovski, via Medium. 

I’m still processing Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette, which I saw on Sunday, but have recovered enough to implore you to go and see it during its NYC run, if you can.   

I’m not convinced that maternity overalls are unbearably cute, actually. 

There’s nothing wrong with your house. Thank you!

The new pieces from 69 are clever and ridiculous, as usual.   

Unhealthy eating isn’t a character flaw. Thank you!!  

Linda Bosidis, head of A&R at Mushroom Music Publishing is an inspiration. Go read her keynote from the inaugural One of One Women’s Music Breakfast, held last week on International Women’s Day.   

The Park Slope Food Coop is looking to expand. Shit’s going to get UGLY and I can’t wait. 

[tinyprofessor]

Leisurewear

Image from Jume. 

I’m currently in that weird place where I know I’m going to give birth to a human being in a matter of weeks - possibly days - but I can’t know precisely when. So instead of thinking about that... event... it’s nice to think about what lies on the other side. No, not sleepless nights and baby puke, but the excuse to laze about in what I am generously calling leisurewear. 

I’m ready to embrace the kaftan as a fashion item. I like this subtle, Frenchy grey one, but also this bolder mustard colored example, which I can more conceivably imagine wearing outside the house.

This white shirtdress by small-scale, sustainable Australian brand, Jume, seems like such an effortless way to throw on something breastfeeding friendly, and look pulled together. The fluidity wrap dress is also very lovely.  

I can’t believe I don’t already own a robe - essential for answering the door and receiving guests straight from bed. 

Some organic cotton undies, an easy button through dress, and a roomy denim shirt to throw over the top, all seem like essentials for moving from spring into summer.

This is pushing the leisurewear category, but a long stretchy dress by Pleats Please (ahem) seems like a good way to ease back into faaaaashion dressing. I can dream.    

If I’m leaving the house I’m going to need an iPhone sling. And a copy of Lunch Lady magazine to read in my spare time - ha ha ha. 

[tinyprofessor]

Dispatch 005

Image from Lazy Mom. 

I’m 9 months pregnant and going through a big food moment. I’m watching David Chang and Peter Meehan grapple with authenticity in Ugly Delicious, and discovering beautiful essays about food nostalgia.  

I have a sudden, urgent need to make chicken paprikash. 

I’m remembering, via Pete Wells’ review of the new L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in NYC, that I still have time for professional food reviewing. (I also loved his discussion of Noma Mexico last year).  

I’m watching the NY Times get on board the frugal/minimalist movement, with its case for a shopping ban.   

I’m laughing at Larry David, but this time in writing.  

I’m feeling tempted to break up with my phone - at least temporarily.  

I’m saying that David Remnick toooootally loves Jennifer Lawrence.   

[tinyprofessor]

Dispatch 004

Bamboo nipple pads as reusable make up removers. Don’t they look pretty all smeared with the remnants of the day? 

I might not have found the time (or necessary babysitter) to go see Black Panther but that hasn’t stopped me from playing the Kendrick-led album on repeat.  

Sooooo into skincare dramas. 

The case of the worst roommate ever. Screaming face emoji!!!

Karl Ove Knausgaard’s literary trip into the Russian heartlands is very Karl Ove Knausgaard: wordy and illuminating.     

The left’s politics of constant offense and what it means for democracy.   

For the love of Spam (the canned meat, not the email garbage). 

Bleedin’ for Amina: consider donating if you can.

[tinyprofessor]

Dispatch 003

“The only thing more frightening than watching a black man be honest in America is being an honest black man in America”.    

Love is for useless people. 

I get so much joy from listening to Call Your Girlfriend, and the latest episode with Cameron Esposito was no exception. But I really want to direct you attention to their recent excellent examination of the #metoo backlash. 

Simple, thoughtful things to make or do for new parents.

Leslie Jamison on owning female anger.  

Hannah Gadsby’s acclaimed show, Nanette, is coming to NYC - and Netflix (although maybe just in Australia?).  

Parents, if you balk at the idea of a routine, perhaps a weekly rhythm is a gentler option. 

Why new mothers need to pull up the drawbridge.  

[tinyprofessor]

The man scam.

Let’s get one thing straight: gendered cosmetics are a scam. For women, it usually means paying more for the same product in uglier packaging. For men, it means a limited selection and corny marketing. So what’s a man to do when it’s so cold outside that the moisturizer he rescued from the back of the bathroom cabinet just isn’t cutting it? 

Some suggestions: 

With a name like elemental facial barrier cream, Aesop’s winter-specific face cream sounds tough enough for any nasty man or woman. 

Kiehl’s ultra facial cream is a classic, and not even slightly gendered in its packaging.

CeraVe moisturizing cream is a no frills option, and as a bonus is available at most drugstores. 

In the case of Lush’s Skin Drink, the name says it all for parched winter skin. 

If you want to get sciencey - and who doesn’t? - you could try a combination from new cult brand, The Ordinary. For dry skin, they recommend a combination of hyaluronic acid and 100% Plant-Derived Squalane.  

But if that sounds too complicated, everyone could use a few drops of Rosehip Oil under their regular moisturizer on winter nights.

[tinyprofessor]

2018: Simplify

Please note this is my actual dining table, photographed January 1, 2018. This is why I need HELP. 

I love New Year’s resolutions; they’re so hopeful. Even if they’re not adhered to, I love the chance to take stock of what has been, and to contemplate what’s ahead.

So of course I’ve made a list of goals for the coming year. I try to keep my resolutions achievable, knowing how easy it is to go overboard and commit to a plan that will fall apart within a week. But even so, my goals are often aspirational as much as practical - isn’t that half the fun? 

This year, my overarching theme is to simplify, in all areas of life. So yes, just a small task...ahem. I want to clear out the clutter - both physical and otherwise - that makes life feel like (even more of) a speeding hamster wheel. 

I want to simplify my home, my approach to food, my budget and spending habits, my approach to waste and sustainability, and what I’ll broadly call my mental space.  

At HOME I want to seriously declutter the entire apartment. Yep, that’s all! I want to ruthlessly get rid of possessions that we don’t need or love and that are weighing us down physically or spiritually (seriously). 

In the KITCHEN, I want to eat more locally and ethically produced food and work to reduce our overall food waste. I’d like to cook more, and for us all to eat less processed food.

Related to the above two resolutions, I want make my consumer choices more SUSTAINABLE and create less waste - from food, to clothes, to packaging and all that... crap. 

I want to SPEND LESS, and spend more mindfully. I want to feel the satisfaction of sticking to a budget and working towards - and maybe actually achieving - budget goals. 

And I want to create more MENTAL SPACE for myself, by prioritizing my own health and well being. In practical terms this means making doctors appointments, staying on top of my prescriptions, and exercising regularly - and regularly taking stock of how I’m using my time.

So, 2018 - we’re already three weeks in. Let’s do this! 

[tinyprofessor]

Birthday Listings

A list of mostly practical gift suggestions for my upcoming birthday: 

Ok, I’m ready. Sign me up to the Instant Pot cult, and give me the cult handbook while you’re at it.  

A glass teapot, and some strong black tea to go in it. 

A cup for drinking tea or coffee on the go. I like the Keep Cup (of course - they’re Australian) and this Kinto travel tumbler. 

New mum essentials: pajamas (and more pajamas), a robe, and some slippers or slides. 

A fragrance so dreamy it’s named Dancing On the Moon.

A bright long sleeve tee from Eckhaus Latta. 

A new baggu (a girls gotta eat - but preferably from the farmer’s market where she can carry her haul home in a reusable bag).  

[tinyprofessor]

Dispatch 002.

It was reported this week that Aziz Ansari had some not-so-great, not entirely consensual sex with a woman ten years his junior, and I have found the ensuing public discussion unsettling. 

Sure, the initial article about the encounter didn’t represent a journalistic benchmark, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth listening to - which is all many victims are asking for, says Ann Friedman.  In any case, as Lindy West argues, the intricacies of consent aren’t exactly news - or shouldn’t be, to an ally like Ansari.  

Amidst all this, Barbara Kingsolver’s essay about that tricky place between likability and equality feels timely. Kingsolver challenges women to grapple with - and ultimately reject - their feminine charm as a source of power, and to risk being perceived as ugly and unlikable. Given that I’ve been obsessing over the audacious ugliness of Michèle Lamy (pictured above)... I’m feeling it.   

Obviously I want to cook all of these casseroles while I continue my winter pregnancy hibernation. 

How make the most of what you have, when what you have is an imperfect rental apartment. 

I basically want to cut and paste all these 13 resolutions to move towards zero waste in 2018 and call them my own. 

I’m just a girl, standing in front of a Spotify algorithm, asking it to truly see me.

[tinyprofessor]

Listings.

Letting go of Christmas standards, but not the perfect list.

This year, as I often do, I made a Christmas list. This wasn’t a difficult task - as you may have noticed, making lists, particularly of lovely things, is something I enjoy and do almost compulsively. 

But this year, I sent my list along with one that I had made on behalf of my two year old to my mother in law. She was surprised and delighted by my list, and much to my embarrassment, forwarded it on to the whole family.   

Turns out, my husband’s family is not big on lists. This didn’t come as a big surprise - without sounding at all ungracious, as they are some of the most big hearted and generous people I know (and are probably reading this) - they tend to be haphazard, last minute gift buyers. Now don’t get me wrong, I love their approach to gift giving. It has allowed me to relax my attitudes as a gift buyer considerably. It’s hard to say where it came from, but at a certain point I became far too fixated on my ability to give the perfect gift. I had to go the extra mile, be extra thoughtful, extra generous, and wrap like a professional. 

The Jean family taught me that gift giving can be spontaneous, light hearted and fun. Gifts don’t need to be perfectly wrapped - in fact they don’t need to be wrapped at all. Just hand over a folded bag and reveal the present in a gift swapping frenzy. Hate the gift? Laugh and fess up. Swap your gift with your gift giver, who bought it because they really wanted it themselves. No biggie. 

When it comes to letting go of my high standards... well it’s an ongoing process. But when it comes to gifts and Christmas traditions, I’m really trying. The season is for me, and many, an emotional triggerfest, bringing up so many unhelpful ideas around who I want to be as wife, mother, friend, and consumer... and that’s just for starters. But I have been making a concerted effort to notice and challenge some of my habitual thought patterns as they appear. 

What I am not willing to let go of, it turns out, is the process of writing a Christmas list. Christmas is a time of traditions, and with a new family I am going through the process of figuring out which traditions I want to keep, and which I want to ditch. This is going to be a long process, as I work through the things that I am used to doing out of habit, the things that truly matter, the new traditions that mean something to our new family, as well as modifying old traditions things that make them more meaningful to me personally. But either way, the Christmas list is something that I want to keep doing, and want to encourage my family to adopt as an ongoing tradition. Why?

The process of writing the Christmas list allows you some space to think about gift giving and receiving. It allows you to think about what you want and what you need. It forces you to think about yourself from someone else’s perspective, and to consider objects that are within a range of areas and budgets. The Christmas list is also a gift to the gift giver. It gives them a chance to buy you something you actually want, something meaningful, or at the very least useful. Who wants to buy something and know it could end up in the donation pile by the end of December? As part of my quest to cut down on unnecessary waste, this feels particularly important to me right now. Lest this all sounds too prescriptive and unromantic, the list must always be long enough to allow a range of options and choices- so you never know what you’ll actually get. This year I wrote a comprehensive list and was still surprised by what I was unwrapping on Christmas day. And the best thing about list writing - it’s fun. It’s an experience of fantasy retail therapy, which I find so soothing often I feel it doesn’t matter whether I receive any of the gifts at all. I’ve already got them.   

[tinyprofessor]

Dispatch 001.

After more than one too many flights this year, I am ready to join the revolution of the untravelled.

But then how will I ever try the celebrated pizza of Naples? (Well, in NYC, apparently...). 

Author Ann Patchett writes in the NY Times about giving up shopping, proving that frugality is indeed so hot right now.

Speaking of frugality, everything - from pantry staples to bathroom and office supplies - at Brandless costs $3. 

Among the things I have justified purchasing recently, Glossier’s priming moisturizer rich is actually quite lovely. It’s also reasonably priced and cruelty free.

My obsession with beautiful ceramics continues apace. 

Men continue to prove they cannot be trusted with anything - from running restaurants, to producing music, films, and radio. I have subscribed to the NYT’s #metoo newsletter, and while I wouldn’t say I’m enjoying it, I do find that it synthesizes and personalizes the latest horrific allegations doing the rounds in a way that makes them more digestible than straight up hard news.  

I want to master these nine Italian sauces. 

Raising sweet boys is an interest of mine, and evidence suggests they need more - not less - emotional support than girls.

[tinyprofessor]

All I want for Christmas is an escape from capitalism.

But failing THAT, these things look nice... 

For Little People: 

A charming book about urban babies getting onboard the eco movement. 

A modular dollhouse for open ended imaginative play. 

A tiny apron with tiny tools for tiny kitchen helpers. 

A beautiful wooden rainbow to bring some whimsy (and so many play options) to the every day. 

The four elements wrought in wood. 

A drum. Because I must be insane.  

Rainbow playsilks, for myriad uses. 

A baby doll. 

For Big People: 

We can always use more baggus in our house. Or better yet a zero waste farmers’ market set, which includes reusable bags for storing produce and beeswax wraps. 

Give me the womb-like glow of a Himalayan salt lamp, and give it to me now. 

A salt pig is quite different to a salt lamp, and much more practical. 

It’s the time of year for big pots of tea. In your own special mug. 

I am dying to get my paws on Rachel Roddy’s Two Kitchens, documenting her experience living and cooking in Sicily and Rome. 

I’m about to face the First Forty Days again, and honestly I could use some guidance.  

[tinyprofessor]

On frugality.

It might seem strange that I’m using this platform to talk about frugality, given that here I’ve also compiled lists of “all the things I want to buy right now”. But indeed that’s part of what led me to this topic, and those lists were my way of working out of it.

The thing is that recently, I have felt inundated by calls for consumption. These calls are not innate but habitually triggered by advertising messages that infiltrate so many areas of my life so insidiously and persistently so that I feel they are out of my control. I don’t see or engage with most ads on television or radio and I don’t buy fashion magazines, so I often consider myself outside of the mainstream advertising target market. But advertising has chased me to where I am - my instagram feed, the blogs I read, my email inbox, the Facebook groups I am part of, the podcasts I listen to - and I have not become as accustomed to tuning these messages out as I was with mass media marketing. In fact these streams are so much more niche, targeted and personal that I often find myself impervious to their savvy methods. When my favorite podcast hosts tell me that they really and truly are wearing a particular brand of undies, I want to try them. I am a marketer’s dream.

But this is not about the evils of advertising (an argument I find boring and reductive), but about something broader than that. I have noticed that I tend to think of my ways of being as best expressed through my choices as a consumer. (I have hinted at this here on the blog - LINK). This is not a new dynamic nor a new observation. However its intensity is new to me, particularly since becoming a mother. More than ever, the sort of person - the sort of parent - I am seems best communicated by a series of signifiers, all of which money can buy. The sort of crib I buy my child - is it minimal or ostentatious, designer-y or budget, will the mattress be organic - all of this suddenly matters very much because it is about my darling child, and it all comes down to an act of spending. The decisions ripple out from there. Do we buy organic produce? Ethical meat? Goldfish crackers or organic cheddar bunnies? Do we pay our nanny a living wage? Do we have a nanny? The decisions are endless.

The problem is… the problem is consumption, but that is also the most proffered solution. Right? We make bad choices with our dollars but the solution is to shop better, change our consumptive habits, be smarter consumers, rather than stop consuming. Not to stop buying new things for ourselves or our kids, but to buy the right things. Wooden toys, organic cotton clothing, lovely clean (ethically and environmentally) glass or stainless steel bottles rather than nasty old plastic.  

And this where it becomes impossible to think about frugality and its related issues - spending, consumption, budgeting, thrift and saving - without also invoking ideas of morality. To be frugal and thrifty is morally good, while consuming lavishly is the opposite - unethical, even immoral. It is undisciplined, suggesting a lack of control, while thrift and saving demonstrate the moral standing of the subject, able to control their spending, and hence, we are to assume, themselves.

But we are induced by the complex layers of our economic, social and cultural worlds to buy, to spend, to find pleasure in objects. It’s unfair to then judge ourselves and others for doing just this. If consumption is increasingly poised as the pinnacle of our earthly existence, then of course we are going to be conditioned into its habits. But it’s complicated. There are good and bad forms of consumption, specific rules around class and race, and then narratives about the rejection of consumption as something pure and wholly good.

So where do I stand among all this? I’m not entirely sure. But I am here to navigate all of these ideas as I attempt for the first time in my truly adult life to live to a budget, to save money, and to assess and (probably) change my consumption habits.

Why? Not because consumption is inherently bad. But because something has shifted in me recently in my approach to buying and spending. It’s a combination of this new form of advertising, my new(ish) status as a parent, and the almost shocking ease with which shopping is possible online. Arriving in America to live relatively recently, with literally nothing also has something to do with it - when you have to buy everything, it soon feels normal to buy, well, everything.

Lately I have felt not only like I want to buy things all the time, but also like I have too much stuff. It’s a problem. It’s the toys scattered everywhere, the bathroom cupboard full to bursting of things that I don’t even use, the piles of newspapers and magazines, the books that outnumber the shelves. In case this makes me sound like a hoarder with a serious problem, I feel it’s important to point out that I live in an old apartment with very little built-in storage. We have two closets, total. I am not living surrounded by teetering piles of things, but I do not feel like my environment is orderly, calm and relaxing. This bothers me. Again, there is nothing morally wrong with mess - though that is another commonly held belief - but it does bother me. I want to be able to make better use of my limited space, to find things when I need them, and to have less tidying up to do at the end of every day.

So what am I going to be tackling? Initial assessments of my space and spending suggest the areas I need to consider include, in no meaningful order: books, toys, clothes, food and gifts. But while I want to use this space to talk about the process of rethinking my relationship to these sorts of things, I am especially interested in the sorts of deeper issues these raise. So, stay tuned for more.

[tinyprofessor]

I monitor

How many steps I take day to day, and whether I have fallen short of 10,000.  

How many likes and messages I receive on instagram. 

Whats happening in the world, according to Twitter. 

Whats happening in a different world, as presented by Facebook. 

How many hours and minutes I spend on my phone each day. 

Where I would like to eat in future, via Yelp and Foursquare. 

The weather - including the chance of rain, the humidity and UV level.  

How much longer I’ll have to wait for my burrito bowl, ordered from Seamless. 

My menstrual cycle. 

Maps, subway times and delays, timing for future trips.  

How close I am to eating my perfect egg, according to my egg timer app. 

The progress someone else is making with my shopping list, on instacart.  

When my next order of diapers will arrive, and whether I’d like to switch up the prints in my order. 

My progress at learning Italian, according to duolingo. 

News alerts that appear on my phone - from Buzzfeed, The New York Times, The Washington Post and... The Daily Mail. 

Rent and sale prices for houses and apartments in my neighbourhood.   

How many likes and followers other people have on instagram. What people are doing with their days, according to their instastories. The lives of random strangers as discovered via the popular page. 

My neighbourhood email list, which alerts me of events and mundane as a yard sale and as thrilling as neighborhood thefts. 

My progress through books, in percentage form, according to my Kindle.