Category Archives: lovely links

crafting with seedling

fleurishing-and-seedling

kidsbeingcurious

 

I have a confession – I don’t craft with Henry and Marie as much as I’d like to. I’ll pull the twin toddler mom, small business owner, work from home card on this one. We all have our reasons, and we shouldn’t feel guilty about it. Ah, but we still do…we always do, don’t we. Which is one of the reasons why I was so thrilled to discover Seedling. Founded in 2007, they’ve grown to be a respected brand of stylish, quality children’s products that promote creativity and imaginative play. As a mother of two toddlers, I see firsthand how beneficial that is, and have a huge appreciation for it. So when they invited us to try a few of their curated activity kits, I jumped at the opportunity. The first thing we did was set out on an urban adventure in our town…how cute are these mini adventure satchels?! My adorable little explorers…le sigh.

 

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french is beautiful

paris-spiral-stairs

 

“L’esprit humain fait progrès toujours, mais c’est progrès en spirale.

The human mind always makes progress, but it is a progress in spirals.”

Madame de Staël

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Life is finally returning to a (somewhat) normal pace pour moi, and I’m able to continue to my French studies, hooray! It’s perfect timing really, as French is Beautiful Level 2 has just begun. I’ve actually been doing some research lately about learning/teaching methods (more on that soon) and discovered “the spiral curriculum“. In a spiral curriculum, learning is spread out over time rather than being concentrated in shorter periods – material is revisited repeatedly. This method describes exactly how I’ve learned French (since childhood), and it has benefitted me greatly. While I never intentionally set out to learn this way, the organic nature of the process has indeed helped me retain much more information. In my opinion, I think it also has a lot to do with the success of my tutor Carrie Anne James’ teachings. Studies show that far more information is retained by the brain with repetition of content over time, making for more successful long-term learning. I’ll spare you anything more technical and get to my point – I’m learning…slowly, but steadily.

* french is beautiful is a regular series – browse the archives here *

travelogue: los angeles

echo-park-lake-lilies

 

Please pardon the blog + social media silence…we are still in the midst of moving but I’m back with a recap of our time in LA! I’ve never actually done a typical “travelogue” before – I usually prefer to break up our explorations into individual posts. However I feel this approach works best for our CA trip, so here goes nothing. Pardon the length, as I’m covering Los Angeles all in one. Upon arrival (and after a stop at In-N-Out Burger), we checked into our airbnb rental….a modern craftsman in Echo Park. I wasn’t familiar with the neighborhood, but was pleasantly surprised at how family-friendly and welcoming it was – I could totally imagine us living there. Our first outing was to the nearby Echo Park Lake, which enticed us with it’s beautifully groomed landscape, playground, and paddle boats. The kids especially loved the paddling part, of course. Despite the heat, the lack of humidity + predictable sunshine made for a real treat for our entire visit.

 

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palais royal with kids

playing-palais-royal

 

I’m thrilled to be sharing one more of our favorite kid-friendly spots in Paris, in collaboration with Gap Kids (you can see all the amazing people + places via #littlecityguides). In case you missed them, check out our first + second spots…they are beautiful places to explore with children. Today also happens to be National Twin Day, which I somehow miss every year, so I’m thankful to be able to celebrate it with some Parisian cuteness courtesy of Henry et Marie. The gardens and architecture of Palais Royal have always been a destination for me – both visually stunning and a beautiful oasis from the city chaos that surrounds it. With a major renovation having just been completed, I couldn’t wait to take the kids.

 

henryetmarie-paris

toddlers-palais-royal

henry-palais-royal

 

The courtyard known as Cour d’Honneur is such a fun place for both adults and children, thanks to the Colonnes de Buren, an art installation that was quite controversial when first introduced in the mid 1980’s. It’s many black-and-white columns of varying sizes seem to beckon toddlers, providing the perfect backdrop for games of hide-and-go-seek, running in circles, pigeon chasing, and sitting pretty. As soon as we arrived, Henry + Marie knew just what to do, and could have spent all day doing it. The kids were looking playful + classic in their Gap duds – Marie in her favorite denim jacket + stretch jeans, and Henry rocking his skinny jeans, bow tie + suspenders. As you may have noticed, suspenders are Henry’s jam  – what was born out of necessity to hold his pants up has become his signature look, ha!

 

mariepalaisroyal

henryinparis

 

It was very difficult to narrow down my images for this post, as the gorgeous backdrop, beautiful day, and cuteness of the kids made for so many awesome shots. I highly recommend it as a spot to take your children in Paris – grab a coffee from nearby Cafe Kitsuné, let the kids get their energy out, and then enjoy a leisurely stroll through the gardens. Many thanks to GapKids for outfitting Henry + Marie and letting us share our adventures…merci mille fois!

 

fleurishing-for-gap-kids

 

Palais Royal – Cour d’Honneur | 8 rue Montpensier 75001 Paris