The Prim-Jack Hardwood Floor Jack Speeds Up Hardwood Floor Installations

If you're installing hardwood floor in a large area, it can be tedious to push or all the planks together and ensure that they don't have any gaps. It could also lead to […]

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evening in saint-malo.

On the evening that we arrived in Saint-Malo, the light made the city glow like a colorized old-timey postcard. You know the ones? Everything cast in a pale yellow or green-blue or washed-out gray. Instead of parasols and bustles the beach goers wore hoodies and skinny jeans, but the sea air filling their lungs no doubt felt nearly the same as it would have a hundred years ago.

The early evening sunlight filtered through thick clouds that would open over the course of the next day and render photographs from the second half of our trip-an adventure up through Northern Brittany and Normandy-close to impossible. Not to worry: We won't soon forget sloshing up the steps to the top of Mont Saint-Michel or scampering along slick cobblestones in Honfleur. I, for one, am grateful that a lack of photographs means that our drowned-rat dishevelment will be left out of the historical record. As I've said before: mine is an incomplete travelogue. Too busy checking out, to always check-in, as it were.

We stayed in Saint-Malo for only one night, but it jogged memories of visiting as a teenager and satisfied my reader's itch to walk the same streets as Marie-Laure.

The historical walled city, known as intra-muros, was all but destroyed in August of 1944 when Americans bombed the town in an effort to wrest it from Nazi control. The city was rebuilt over the course of 16 years and it's a sobering and fascinating experience to walk through the streets and notice new stones mashed up against the old ones. 

Here, a few shots of our visit and a few small details from our visit in case anyone's planning a wander there themselves.

For the curious:

Where We Stayed: The very lovely bed-and-breakfast, La Villa de Saint-Raphael is just a ten-minute drive from the walled city. The room where we slept was lovely and the hosts generous and kind.  (True story: I found the place by googling “simple, pretty bed-and-breakfast Saint-Malo.” Ask and ye shall receive.) The entire place is a gem, entirely restored just four years ago. (If you go, ask to see the photo album of the process!) (No pictures, alas: but in Honfleur in Normandy we stayed two nights at the very lovely at La Chaumière. Highly, highly recommended.)

Where We Ate: Breizh Café was recommended to us in Paris, but the Saint-Malo location was a true delight with nary a waiting list to contend with! We had an extremely delicious meal served by a warm and friendly staff (plus crayons!) (In Honfleur, a dinner at La Chaumière does not disappoint.) 

***

On me: My trusty Hackwith Design House overalls (limited edition – out of stock!); an Everlane heavy-weight tee; summer salt waters. 

On Faye: A genius little Mabo linen dress from last summer that's serving as a tunic this summer (like this one); equally long-lasting little pants from Red Creek Handmade (like these ones); summer salt waters. 

On James: A sweatshirt from Marine Layer from half a decade ago (like this one); linen shorts from Bridge & Burn (same style, different color).

baby proof: travel tips from a toddler.

It must be known that a two-year-old is an intrepid traveler: all gut checks and self-care and general enthusiasm for the new and unexplored. 

To be fair, a two-year-old is also a terrible traveler: indifferent to the desires of the group, unimpressed by cultural monuments, and utterly lacking in discretion or restraint when it comes to airing opinions.

We can't all be perfect all the time.
And despite the sometimes-terrible, there's still much to learn from the often-intrepid. Indeed, I think that there are a number of tips from The Toddler's Guide to Travel that we'd all do well to follow. (Note: I'm not positive that such a volume exists, but it seems to me that tiny humans must get their behavioral dictums from one place or another-and that they're certainly not always from their well-intentioned parents. The Guide to Travel is no doubt shelved not far from the Guide to Ceaseless Sing-Alongs. To be investigated.)
Herewith, the tips I've gathered from my own tiny tyrant traveler.

1. Learn a few words of the new language and employ them with great gusto whenever the proper occasion arises and even when it doesn't. If you sometimes shout “Merci!” to strangers passing you on a hike, they will smile cordially and wonder about what nicety they unwittingly extended. Please, thank you, hello, goodbye and croissant are all terribly useful.

2. Nap it off. Everyone the world over could use a little post-lunch siesta. Stop pushing yourself on to the next museum and give yourself a moment or two to rest. Your feet are tired, you're getting grumpy, and your family members love you very much but could probably use a small break from you.

3. Eat often. No one travels well on an empty stomach and a chief joy of being in a new place is to partake in the local culinary customs. It would be a shame to leave a place without sampling one of everything from the pastry shop. Begin your sampling early, return often, and leave no crumb behind.

4. Embrace the great outdoors. You might get ten glorious minutes out of an art museum, but find a pile of sand and a bucket to shovel it into and there's potential for an hour of delight. Running pell-mell through any open space is to be encouraged.

5. Revel in inclement weather. A rainy day is a chance to splash in puddles. Soggy shoes make hilarious noises. Mud is friend, not foe. Run in the rain now and laugh about it later.

Need a New Hardwood Floor Finish? Take Easy Street!

If we could use one word to describe Basic Coatings Easy Street finish, it would be…well, easy! This finish is virtually waste-free, quick to dry,  and environmentally friendly. That's a pretty powerful trio. […]

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How the Stoehr Monogram XL Flooring Collection Saves You Time and Frustration

The Stoehr Monogram XL prefinished flooring collection gives you elegance without all of the work of installing, finishing, and perfecting the floors. They're perfect right out of the gate. Here are some advantages […]

The post How the Stoehr Monogram XL Flooring Collection Saves You Time and Frustration appeared first on City Floor Supply Blog.

photographing a family vacation.

I'm not an expert of photography, but over the years I've developed a philosophy on picture-taking while on vacation that I thought might be helpful to share.

Over the course of a family vacation, it's possible to take thousands upon thousands of photographs. And facing that kind of catalog upon your return home can be overwhelming. I've come back from many a trip away to find myself daunted by the sheer volume of photographs I'd taken. Upon sitting down to make selections that might end up in a photo album or in a blog post, I'd grow even more disheartened. There'd be hundreds of photographs that I couldn't use because the lighting was awful or the subject matter boring, or the faces all a blur. For reasons unknown, I'd realize that I'd decided it was a good idea to press the shutter ten times in row in order to capture the nuance of a glass bottle sitting motionless on a shelf, but I'd snapped just one (terrible) shot of a group of a friends around a table.

Last year when we went to Maine, I made a concerted effort to change my approach a bit. Instead of lugging my camera with me everywhere we went, I brought it out only when I knew the lighting or the setting would be conducive to nice shots. I took many action photos of Faye, and fewer action photos of bottles. Heretical as it might seem, I didn't try to capture everything that happened. There were whole days of our trip that aren't documented in a single photograph. But the result of putting down the camera occasionally, and being a bit more mindful when I did pull it out, resulted in some of the nicest family vacation photographs that we have.

In case it's helpful, I've compiled a few tips on making the photos that you do take count, and on resisting the urge to document every moment of the livelong day, lest you forget to actually enjoy your time away from home.

Embrace cloudy days: For picture-taking purposes, they're bound to produce some of your best shots. On sunny days, embrace the sunshine without the camera. Turn your face to the sky, lounge on the beach, visit scenic overlooks with clear views and marvel at insane brilliance of the world. Pull your camera out on the overcast days when the light is evenly distributed and natural filter will help your photographs come to life.

Stop lugging your camera around in the middle of the day. Related to the tip above, there are just some times of day that result in nicer photographs than others. Namely, the early morning and late-afternoon (or, depending on the latitude, the early evening). For the most part I don't bring out my big camera during the middle of the day, even if it means missing out on photos from a spot we might not visit again. The shadows are so harsh under the noonday sun, but mostly I need a break from carrying a heavy camera. As much as I'm a sucker for documentary evidence of a good time, I don't want to always be doing the documenting. I try to think of my picture-taking as gathering a collection of photographs that will trigger memories, give a sense of our time away, capture the particular moment in which we traveled, but not necessarily to serve as a blow-by-blow of our vacation. 

Follow the action: Rather than commandeer the situation for the sake of a photograph, I try to follow suit. If that means I have more photographs of Faye in the middle of walking away from me than toward me, I'm okay with that. (Metaphor for parenthood, etc.) No one wants a pained photo of forced family fun, and I'd prefer a sweet candid moment any day. These are also the moments when I up my shutter speed and take a quick succession of shots in hopes that one or two might turn out.

Find a side street: No shade to the hoi polloi, but sometimes it's nice to have shots of a place minus the crowds. I love to walk on side streets and away from the throngs a bit to capture a quieter side of things without having to stand in the same place for ten minutes waiting for a stranger to walk out of the frame.

Hand the camera over to someone else: This post serves as evidence that this is something I'm still working on, but in general I try to make sure that I remember to hand the camera over the James so that I appear in a photograph or two myself. When there's a friend or family around, switching the camera to automatic and handing her over is always worth it.

For the curious, a few more details:

+ I shoot with a Canon 7D. The exact camera isn't still in production, but this one is similar and I mostly use this lens.

+ I use an ONA camera bag insert so I can tote my camera safely in whatever bag we happen to be using (for this trip, it's been this one).

+ I typically do some minor editing in Photoshop after I take photographs (upping the contrast, altering the exposure, straightening things out) and so I always shoot in RAW so that I can make edits more easily.

+ Of course you don't need professional equipment to capture lovely family photos-a phone and an editing app like VSCO can also do wonders.

+ I'm woefully behind on my own album making, but I've loved using Artifact Uprising to print photographs and compile albums in the past. 

More posts about traveling, right this way.

elderflower cordial.

Elderflowers bloom in spring and so imbibing them in the springtime seems like a wise and festive thing to do. An elderflower cordial is not an alcoholic drink. It's a glorified soda. But cordial is a far more delightful word than either syrup or soda and when given the choice between a delightful word and an ordinary one, delight wins. (If a cocktail is what you're after, you would not be wrong to mix a bit of elderflower cordial with a bit of gin, to top it off with soda water, and to bask in a bit of sunshine.) 

Elderflowers are everywhere in Brittany right now. I spotted my first bushes surrounding a gas station as we filled up the tank of the car we're borrowing from my aunt and uncle. Then I made it my mission to find another bush within easy reach and a bit further away from gas station fumes. I use the term hunt only for effect. The hunt included little more effort than driving down a country road and selecting the bush that looked easiest to clip from. My point is that you don't need to go hunting for elderflower at this time of year in France. The bushes present themselves quite willingly. (While much more abundant in Europe, elderflower is certainly findable in the US. A bush grows in Brooklyn...et cetera.)
The goal for your foraging should be to find fresh, creamy blossoms full-to-brimming with pollen that you can see with your own two eyes. You're essentially making a pollen infusion, and so don't shy away from the blossoms that look most covered in the stuff and for heaven's sake, don't wash the stuff off. When identifying elderflowers, make sure you're snipping flowers that grow on a bush and not from the ground-those would not be elderflowers. Flowers should be pungent-floral and sweet. If the bush you find does not smell like something you'd like to drink, find another spot to forage.
Pick from a bush that's filled with flowers, and take sparingly from each plant. The flowers become elderberries of course, and they're marvels in their own right and deserving of the chance to grow into themselves.

There are as many variations on a basic elderflower cordial as there are recipes on the internet. Some call for infusing the water with flowers and then adding the sugar. Others call for infusing the syrup itself. I chose to steep the flowers in the syrupy sugar water because the high sugar concentration helps prevent the flowers from molding while they steep (and because I have PTSD from once letting an entire bowl of hand-foraged linden go moldy). Most recipes that I've found yield an ungodly amount of syrup. (I'm all for drinking your flowers, but multiple liters of cordial sounds excessive unless you're planning to sell the stuff.) I used just about two cups water and two cups sugar and got what felt like a reasonable jar of syrup for enjoying over the next few weeks.

Elderflower Cordial

Here's what you need:

~ 15 heads of elderflowers 

2 cups water

2 cups sugar

1 lemon

Here's what to do:

1. Over a large bowl, remove the elderflowers from their stems using a sharp knife or pair of scissors. Pick off any offending bits or bugs, but don't rinse your flowers; you want to retain as much of the pollen as possible.

2. Use the same knife to remove the peel from an organic or otherwise untreated lemon. Place the peel into the bowl with the flowers. Slice the lemon and add the rounds to the bowl, too.

3. In another vessel, mix together sugar with boiling water. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. (Depending on the kind of sugar you use, you might prefer to do this over low-heat on the stovetop so the sugar properly melts.)

4. Pour the sugar water over the top of the bowl, cover with a towel and allow to steep for at least 24 hours.

5. Once steeped to your satisfaction, strain the golden liquid into a clean vessel and refrigerate.

The flowers will brown a bit as they steep-not to worry-just make sure that they're well submerged.

I let my bowl of syrup sit covered in the garage for 24 hours while it steeped. (Oh, the joys of a dedicated workspace outside of a tiny apartment.)

The next day, the syrup was a rich golden and the flowers a bit browned.

If you're fussy about stray bits, use a bit of cheesecloth, but I found a classic sieve to do a fine job of straining the finished the syrup.

Finished cordial, not to be confused with melted butter.

Store your cordial in any clean jar with a tight seal and keep refrigerated for maximum longevity. Like other flowery syrups, elderflower cordial is delicious on everything from buttery cakes to sliced strawberries and poured into all manner of summery drinks-alcoholic or otherwise. Tchin-tchin.

PS. Drink your lilacs.

darling.

Delighted to announced that I'm a guest editor over at Darling Magazine this month. I'll be sharing three of my favorite posts on their site in the month of June, and today there's a little interview with yours truly up on their homepage. My thoughts on minimalism, style, and summer rituals right this way. 

PS. If you're looking to up your summer reading game with something printed and bound, Darling is offering Reading My Tea Leaves readers 20% off their print subscriptions with the code TEALEAVES20. Order today and their June issue ships mid-month. Perfect beach reading if you ask me.

Summer Maintenance Tips for Hardwood Floors

With summer comes fun, but there are also a few things that can damage your wood floors. So we've put together a list of some summer maintenance tips for hardwood floors. Keep the […]

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