Finally... A Sprinter!!

I have the best husband EVER! I was away overnight for a friend's birthday celebration and I came home to THIS in front of the house. EEEEEKKKK!!! I've wanted a Sprinter forever. It's a total Dugger style people mover (12 seater!) and bare bones basic, hose-it-out inside.... and I LOVE IT! We finally decided it was a warranted purchase to help with business stuff and flea market shopping, and Heff surprised me for our 7th anniversary present :) I am soooo excited! Going to put some good business logo car wraps on this thing and might never drive my Suburban again!!! THANKS HEFF!!!

The Botanist

The Botanist is the newest addition to The H & H :) (and for a good long while - hopefully the last new addition!!) Marisa Lyssand is the official "Botanist" and has such an amazing eye for all things flowers and garden. She and her sister Alicia, who is Director of The Makery, have been helping me with a bunch of projects around work and home. Our little town flower shop just went out of business and a space opened up - so we put our heads together and came up with The Botanist!

It's a beautiful store for all things floral and home... succulents, air plants, orchids, cut flowers that are local and seasonal and lots of awesome one-of-a-kind flea market and vintage finds. We've been scouring the fleas for months and will continue to do it to keep our stock ready for buying! Come check us out at 363 State Street in Downtown Los Altos.

Arrangements - small to large for $45-150

Photo of The Week Project Update!

A little update on the Photo a Week project to document Tess' year one! We are still going strong at week 44, trying to have a little fun with weeks that we travel or fall on a holiday :) Full photo project here

44 weeks - how Tessa feels about a 12 hour road trip

43 weeks - Oregon Family Reunion! My little hipster :)

42 weeks - just looking cute

41 weeks - Happy 4th of July

40 weeks - chewing on those thumbs getting more teeth! (she has 5 now)

39 weeks - after we caught a baby rattlesnake in Red Bluff!

and the rest of 'um here

A Land of Nod Shoot!

It's no secret I LOVE Land of Nod and everything they do. The catologue is like candy! When we moved into this house - I knew I wanted the girls' rooms and spaces to be bright and cheerful and full of toys that would stand the test of time (as in four little girls who play tough)

Over the past few years, I have stocked the playrooms at PLAY and Bumble with Land of Nod adorableness and I had so much fun picking pieces and accessories to fit our "new" old home with lots of character... and COLOR!

Then one day... my new friends from Land of Nod CAME OVER TO OUR HOUSE! I was so thrilled to met the people behind the genius. I had sent them some photos of my girls' rooms (aka land-of-nod-obsession) and they wrote me back and asked if they could do a feature in "real families || real kids" - ummmm... YES! So we picked two days in April and had so much fun sprucing up the rooms even more and sharing creativity. They added a bunch of touches I never would have thought of and really completed the rooms.

They even raided my closets to pick outfits for everyone- my sister was thankful someone else brought some fashion sense to the table :) It was a really relaxed, easy shoot and we got some family photo opportunities too, pretty rare these days.

First was the girls' bedroom. We wanted the three oldest to share a room as long as they can and it was a perfect fit for three Jenny Lind twin beds and sweet night stands in between. We mixed up the bedding in yellow, teal and purple on each bed and the pink chevron rug brought in our household favorite color ;)

I love all the garlands from Land of Nod but sleeping beneath the stars can't be beat. They added these silver and gold garlands to frame the headboards - and they are all still up today!

(and no they NEVER jump on their beds. ever. yours do? ;)

Sweet Maisie in the middle - I love all of the personal touches on the nightstands - one of my favorite things about Land of Nod is that even all the new stuff feels a little vintage!

Then there is a big, square closet next to the girls' room that wasn't built out for shelves yet and by some miracle we had enough storage for linens etc (since they are always alternating between laundry and the kids beds!) so we turned the closet into a reading nook - something I had always wanted to do. We kept it simple with book shelves along three walls and my FAVORITE hot pink tiny chevron chair from Land of Nod - that and a pouf was all it needed. Janie showing her favorite "lady pose" reading Goodnight Moon while sisters were at school.

through the keyhole - it's a closet? No, it's a reading hideout! (and yes the Q is missing - did you notice? Every quilt has a mistake and our alphabet wall just likes to keep people on their toes)

The playroom was a small "half room" on the side of the house that was just like an attic space I had off my room growing up in an old farm house in Menlo Park that my parents restored (we were lucky this old Craftsman was meticulously restored by the previous owners!) but I knew my girls would love the hideaway feel of the sloped ceiling just like I did. I painted and stenciled one wall with a fun "tribal" stencil and tried to keep the furniture sparce to leave room to play. I picked the colors for the stencil from one of my favorite Land of Nod floral rugs that fit perfectly in the space!

before:

after!

the stencil was a tribal chevron from Cutting Edge Stencils - I was planning the whole wall but quickly realized that was a little aggressive! So a Charlie Brown stripe did the trick :)

Maisie was loving the camera moments - which is usually unlike her!

Francie

and there was a "bonus" room off this room that was used for storage but a little chalkboard paint and a pink-on-pink chevron rug turned it into the Secret Clubhouse! We painted the frames in white paint so they don't erase and then the girls can chalk in whatever they want. The stars on the ceiling are paint too - can you tell I am slightly obsessed with sparkly stars and lots of COLOR!?

SO after a few months wait... the July issue is out! It hit the east Coast first and my friend Sherry in Florida texted me these photos before I saw it in person, I was so excited to see us in print!! (full catologue online here soon)

We got to play around the the backyard too - and toured our new Land of Nod friends around The Makery and our businesses downtown Los Altos. It was pretty flattering the most creative people I can think of were loving all the DIY creativeness there too! Hope you guys all come back sometime and thanks for such a fun experience!

Thanks for reading! Love The Heffernans, Mary, Brian, Francie, Maisie, Janie and Tessa.

Outstanding in the Field

We went to an "Outstanding in the Field" dinner Marty cooked for at the beach a few weeks ago. It was a blast! My parents had been to a few of them - it's an organization that takes "outstanding chefs in their field" to a dinner out in the middle of a field or on the beach - the chefs use local ingredients and cook out in the field and you sit communal style with a big group. Great wine and a bon fire round out the night - it was a great evening to enjoy some California weather and food!

We borrowed a Sprinter (still my dream car) to haul 10 adults over the hill to the beach - and so we could consume some adult beverages on the way :) It'd been a long time since any of us had enjoyed a little party bus action!

Arrival at the beach! (always 10 degrees colder than you think it will be!)

Date night - with great friends - the best!

This was the view as they prepped us for dinner and introduced Marty - there cooking on behalf of The Alley, which was cool to hear it so official! (and we are sooo lucky to have Marty's amazing talent)

Heff got behind the "kitchen" with Marty to check out the grill - they did a pretty good job feeding 160 people with a makeshift kitchen

This heirloom tomato, mozz and crouton salad was amazing!

Dinner - table for 160!

You bring your own plates to the dinner which makes the table really eclectic and fun!

cheers! and thanks Marty and for our friends for coming along for a great night!

OUTER SPACE - with The Novogratz Family!

We just opened a pop-up gallery in Los Altos called OUTER SPACE in collaboration with Bob & Cortney Novogratz from NYC and it was really 'out of this world'! I have been a big fan and follower of the Novogratz for a long time - I went to college with Bob's brother and traveled with his sister Jacquline. I followed their shows "9 by Design" on Bravo and "Home by Novogratz" and love their books, their style and their kids names :) They have 7! Wolfie, Bellamy, Tallulah, Breaker, Five, Hollader and Major. They are pretty much my idols (I mean SEVEN kids in NYC and they do all this uber cool stuff?!)

So when a space in Los Altos came available for a short pop-up during the summer street closure - and next to the newly opened Botanist - my wheels started spinning (Heff hates when they do that :) I contacted Bob to see if they had any interest in a West Coast gallery to showcase a curated collection of art they love. They were excited about the idea so we started working together remotely for a few months to bring it all together! Here is a sneak peek at the final result!

They came out last week to bring it all together and it was a super exciting week/weekend. We had deliveries coming everyday from the floors from London designer Richard Woods to the art on the walls to some of their own collection from CB2 like the FAMILY light boxes (sold out online but we have 2 for sale!) and the Breaker chair. Francie helped me unbox with them one afternoon and got to meet Cortney

They arrived on opening day of The Botanist and we were excited to show them our hard-earned flea market finds... they love a good hunt as much as we do!

We had dinner at our house Thursday night - Bellamy was so sweet to entertain the girls half the night. They were enamored with her (until Breaker and Holly stole the show with the skateboard lessons)

Marty cooked some burgers up for the crowd since it was our weekly Thursday night Alley tasting anyway! Everyone LOVED the lamb burger this week.

we showed them a good California backyard BBQ style

I tried not to take too many photos and be annoying - but I kept looking over thinking "Is that really Cortney Novogratz at my house holding my baby?!" eeeeee ;)

and the boys gave us a skateboard show - what's the only thing more dangerous than skateboarding down a hill? trying to jump a stool while doing it!

tiny tess got a front row seat and was cracking up :)

probably thinking "are these kids CRAZY?!"

Francie setting up Holly for the jump... success!

cool dudes Friday before the big opening!

we made up some t-shirts for the opening at The Makery! I was a little star struck to see my logo on a shirt with theirs :) they are way cooler but certainly fun to work with!!

people were gathering out front to check out what was going on in this bright colored, beautiful new space!

the floors are my favy. and that baby too ;)

and last minute spray paint duties... we had these "twiggy things" in Heff's old office no one really ever liked except me :) We called them the duck blind! But needed some barrier for the last minute parking lot patio we made for the party - so white flat paint with pink tips spruced up the duck blinds! (and covered my arms, legs, hands and HAIR in paint, oops.)

and photos of our opening night party - coming next post!

Skater Girls

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The girls have turned into little skater girls :) Their new friend Breaker taught Francie and Maisie how to skateboard last Thursday night when we had dinner - I came out in the cul de sac and the girls were crusing from the top of the hill down where the boys would catch them. I almost had a heart attack but they looked like they knew what they were doing!

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At the end of the night Breaker GAVE Francie his skateboard to keep. For reals it might have been the best moment of her life to date :)

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Francie slept with her skateboard all night and when Emmy came over she opened the door and said "EMMY. A 12 year old boy... named Breaker... GAVE ME his new skateboard." 

and we were the first ones in line at Skateworks in Downtown Los Altos Friday morning for skate helmets - they used their 100 bonus points, hard earned helmets!

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Dad and his skater chicks (oh JJ always got to be the joker)

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Skating the afternoon away with Dad

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CrayCray JJ

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and one afternoon we went to the park so they could skate around and around.... Tess and I had time to catch up on the swings

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Then Friday they had their first official skate lessons!! Skateworks has a half pipe in the back and gives lessons - all three at the same time!

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Maisie taking it seriously - J not so much

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Francie looking like a pro

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and Tess is happy to watch from the sidelines!

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Go skater girls! Now let's hope we don't end up in the ER anytime soon...

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New Photos, New Header!

After the Land of Nod shoot (which is still so fun to hear from friends and family who see the girls in the catalogue!) one of the photographers asked if she could come take some portraits of the girls. Her name is Lisa Wiseman and she came to hang out with us one afternoon while there were about a million things going on in the house! Marty was cooking up a tasting for Alley burgers in our kitchen, things were getting delivered for work and people were coming and going. She was really easy going in the background and got some beautiful shots of the girls just hanging out in their swim suits on a warm summer night. Great pictures to cherish those memories, thanks Lisa (and photo credit to Lisa for 3 of 4 photos on my spruced up header :)!

A Land of Nod Shoot!

It's no secret I LOVE Land of Nod and everything they do. The catologue is like candy! When we moved into this house - I knew I wanted the girls' rooms and spaces to be bright and cheerful and full of toys that would stand the test of time (as in four little girls who play tough)

Over the past few years, I have stocked the playrooms at PLAY and Bumble with Land of Nod adorableness and I had so much fun picking pieces and accessories to fit our "new" old home with lots of character... and COLOR!

Then one day... my new friends from Land of Nod CAME OVER TO OUR HOUSE! I was so thrilled to met the people behind the genius. I had sent them some photos of my girls' rooms (aka land-of-nod-obsession) and they wrote me back and asked if they could do a feature in "real families || real kids" - ummmm... YES! So we picked two days in April and had so much fun sprucing up the rooms even more and sharing creativity. They added a bunch of touches I never would have thought of and really completed the rooms.

They even raided my closets to pick outfits for everyone- my sister was thankful someone else brought some fashion sense to the table :) It was a really relaxed, easy shoot and we got some family photo opportunities too, pretty rare these days.

First was the girls' bedroom. We wanted the three oldest to share a room as long as they can and it was a perfect fit for three Jenny Lind twin beds and sweet night stands in between. We mixed up the bedding in yellow, teal and purple on each bed and the pink chevron rug brought in our household favorite color ;)

I love all the garlands from Land of Nod but sleeping beneath the stars can't be beat. They added these silver and gold garlands to frame the headboards - and they are all still up today!

(and no they NEVER jump on their beds. ever. yours do? ;)

Sweet Maisie in the middle - I love all of the personal touches on the nightstands - one of my favorite things about Land of Nod is that even all the new stuff feels a little vintage!

Then there is a big, square closet next to the girls' room that wasn't built out for shelves yet and by some miracle we had enough storage for linens etc (since they are always alternating between laundry and the kids beds!) so we turned the closet into a reading nook - something I had always wanted to do. We kept it simple with book shelves along three walls and my FAVORITE hot pink tiny chevron chair from Land of Nod - that and a pouf was all it needed. Janie showing her favorite "lady pose" reading Goodnight Moon while sisters were at school.

through the keyhole - it's a closet? No, it's a reading hideout! (and yes the Q is missing - did you notice? Every quilt has a mistake and our alphabet wall just likes to keep people on their toes)

The playroom was a small "half room" on the side of the house that was just like an attic space I had off my room growing up in an old farm house in Menlo Park that my parents restored (we were lucky this old Craftsman was meticulously restored by the previous owners!) but I knew my girls would love the hideaway feel of the sloped ceiling just like I did. I painted and stenciled one wall with a fun "tribal" stencil and tried to keep the furniture sparce to leave room to play. I picked the colors for the stencil from one of my favorite Land of Nod floral rugs that fit perfectly in the space!

before:

after!

the stencil was a tribal chevron from Cutting Edge Stencils - I was planning the whole wall but quickly realized that was a little aggressive! So a Charlie Brown stripe did the trick :)

Maisie was loving the camera moments - which is usually unlike her!

Francie

and there was a "bonus" room off this room that was used for storage but a little chalkboard paint and a pink-on-pink chevron rug turned it into the Secret Clubhouse! We painted the frames in white paint so they don't erase and then the girls can chalk in whatever they want. The stars on the ceiling are paint too - can you tell I am slightly obsessed with sparkly stars and lots of COLOR!?

SO after a few months wait... the July issue is out! It hit the east Coast first and my friend Sherry in Florida texted me these photos before I saw it in person, I was so excited to see us in print!! (full catologue online here soon)

We got to play around the the backyard too - and toured our new Land of Nod friends around The Makery and our businesses downtown Los Altos. It was pretty flattering the most creative people I can think of were loving all the DIY creativeness there too! Hope you guys all come back sometime and thanks for such a fun experience!

Thanks for reading! Love The Heffernans, Mary, Brian, Francie, Maisie, Janie and Tessa.

Red Racer is OPEN!

Last week we opened Red Racer Hobby Shop! It's so much fun!! When we moved PLAY's entrance to the back we had a great little retail space in the front and wanted to do something that would tie into The Makery - Heff had lots of great ideas for a hobby shop!

pulling the window paper off - one of my favorite all time tasks :)

We have a custom built slot car track where we can race

and a construction zone to build your own creations and enter our monthly contest for free pit passes

and lots of really cool retail like rockets, models, kites, race cars, building sets... and tons more

Now let's get RACING!

Canton Texas Trip - First Monday Trade Days

We are back from an awesome trip to Canton, Texas for the July First Monday Trade Days... with a U-Haul full of flea market finds! It was the first time Heff and I left the kids for a few days (what a good sport - I asked him if he wanted to go to a flea market in the middle on nowhere and he was game :) Canton is east of Dallas and it's 23 miles of walking paths of booths. Lots of junk but some really cool gems mixed in if you dig hard enough! Alicia is Director of The Makery and Marisa is Director of The Botanist so they came along to find some cool stuff for the shops.

We preflighted Wednesday and Thursday and then Heff joined Thursday night and was on "logistics" helping us rent the U-Haul, get it packed up, make the final decision on all the "should we?" finds we had hidden and find a driver to get it all back. 4 days, 23 miles, 107 degrees... and a whole bunch of cool stuff!

Arrival in Dallas - we rented a truck and of course it's cherry red!

tractor ride from the parking lot. We were practically the first ones there

ready to dig!

#ilovetexas

made some new friends

we filled these carts every few hours and took them back to the cart rental station

Friday morning back at it!

Heff was the braun we needed :)

we made time for one dinner out in the Big D! Nothing fancy- just a burger joint to "test" burgers for The Alley ;)

and this was my favorite sign ever. #restaurantownerproblems

high class

my dinner dates!

and then when we thought we were done... we found the secret warehouse behind the warehouse! Hand carved wooden fabric stamps we had been SEARCHING for!

U-Haul with random bat facts? Thanks for the knowledge U-Haul

and that's a wrap

BBQ breakfast and Fried Pies on the way to the airport (I voted Applebees but Heff made us eat somewhere authentic ;)