Our boy Reeve is home from Scotland for three weeks, and once again the house is filled with the pitter patter of . . . double kick pedal drums. (Although studying classical voice these days, Reeve is still part metalhead.)
And, despite the fact that he can now fix his own dinner and launder his own clothes, some other things remain unchanged. I came home last night to find Reeve and his longtime (since third grade!) friend Evan sitting at our kitchen table, COLORING.
Life is good.
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It’s no secret that I don’t like to cook. However, I do love to bake—especially with enthusiastic, energetic people . . . like kids.
While I was in Ohio a couple of weeks ago visiting my sister and her gang, we made our family’s favorite Christmas cookies. My nephews, Ian, 9, and Graham, 4, did most of the work, but we managed to get my sister to help when it came time to “paint” the cookies.
Here that top-secret family recipe and some photos of our baking team in action.
Laura’s Mom’s Roll-Out-and-Paint Christmas Cookies
½ c butter
1 c sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
2 c all purpose flour
Cream sugar and butter together. Add egg and vanilla. Beat well.
In separate bowl, mix dry ingredients well. Fold into sugar and butter mixture. Chill for one hour.*
Roll out dough to a thickness of approximately ¼ inch, cut out shapes with cookie cutters.
Bake at 400°F for approximately 8 minutes.
Let cookies cool on baking racks. Once they’re cool, grab a clean paintbrush and go to workl
Makes 4 dozen.**
*The dough—but it’s OK if you kick back, too.
**I usually double the recipe (but use just one egg)
I usually make this up as I go along, but here’s a place to start—just adjust to taste.
3 c powdered sugar (maybe more)
1 T butter or margarine
vanilla or lemon juice to taste (probably 1 tsp) (sometimes I use powdered lemonade
if I don’t have juice)water
Work butter into sugar. Add water until mixture becomes fluid. Add vanilla or lemon juice.
Continue to stir until mixture is smooth and the consistency of thick paint.
Paint the icing on cooled cookies. (We use clean paintbrushes.)
Let icing dry; then serve, and enjoy!
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Tags: baking, christmas=, cookies, nephews, ohio, paint
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The bird has flown home. Got in Saturday night, and there was jubilation.
Photo here of Reeve carrying home the Christmas tree we picked out yesterday (his dad’s on the other end). His old friends Evan and Justen joined us for what was a really festive day.
Now, finally, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. . .
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PS Am also including a photo of our fake fireplace, just to share the festive fun.
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Tags: christmas=, fireplace, reeve, tree
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A bit more about the redesign. One element of the magazine’s look that underwent an overhaul was the color palette, that virtual box of crayons we pull from when designing anything Mothering-related. (Although we make occasional seasonal adjustments to the palette, we try to stick with the same family of colors for continuity and to create an association of the colors with the magazine.)
In updating the palette, we knew we wanted to make at least one big change: we needed a RED.
When I first started at Mothering five years ago, I felt that the palette should be lively but not too contrasty. It seemed important for the overall feel of the magazine to be one of quiet—a haven for harried parents trying to grab a few minutes of reading time. As I’ve grown more familiar with the philosophy of magazine and its readership, I’ve realized that, while I still think there’s a need for its pages to elicit a sense of calm, there also are times when we’re putting out a call to action—or, more accurately, a call for activism. We needed more red.
So Melyssa Holik and I pow-wowed about colors, met with the editorial staff, and discussed the idea of Peggy as the essence of the magazine. We played with hues and tones in layouts and logos, cutting the colors into little swatches and playing with various combinations (kind of like paper dolls) (well, kind of!), finally arriving at a palette that we felt good about. We handed it over to Peggy, who playfully named the swatches for things one might find at her house and in her garden.
The result is above. Click on it to enlarge and see what you think!
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Tags: colors, palette, red, redesign
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Throughout our 33-year history, we’ve made periodic changes to the design of the magazine to reflect Mothering‘s evolving identity and to keep in step with the changing tastes of the world around us. (To get what I’m talking about with the latter, check out our very first cover, at right.)
Several months ago, feeling the need to freshen up, we began the magazine redesign process anew.
In my design training, I was taught that the “look” of an entity should reflect the essence of that entity. In other words, before doing anything else regarding a revamp, we needed to take a closer look at the question: What is the essence—the identity*—of Mothering magazine?
So, in addition to visiting newsstands, poring over other magazines in the market, reading up on design and color theory, and looking at lots and lots of typefaces, Mothering Editor and Publisher Peggy O’Mara and I met with our editorial staff to grapple with that not-so-trivial issue of identity. (Photos here are from one of those meetings.) Brainstorming, we arrived at a list of descriptive words to use as guidelines for the new feel of the magazine.
In doing so, the edit staff and I realized that Peggy’s spirit and personality—her fierce independence and integrity, appreciation for the up-and-coming and respect for the tried and true—are a key part of the essence of Mothering. Seems like a “no duh” now, but we discovered that Peggy, the heart and soul of the magazine for decades, was at the heart of the magazine’s identity.
We turned to Peggy’s personal style for further design direction. That kicky red wool jacket she wears, her curvy pumps that hint at the1940s, the jaunty way she sports that cream scarf. . . We thought about the casual elegance of her cabin home in the mountains, the natural choices she makes, the beauty with which she surrounds herself. . .
This essence, then, is what we aimed for with the new look of the magazine. Check it out for yourself and let us know what you think!
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*Quick word-geek aside: I just noticed that identity = id + entity!]
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Our new design—and new logo—debuts on newsstands January 1 and should be in subscribers’ mailboxes next week.
Here’s a peek at the cover. . .
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Our January-February issue each year includes a feature we call Backstage, a photo introducing the people behind Mothering. For this year’s Backstage photo, our staff gathered at the Santa Fe Railyard on a frigid November morning while staff photographer Melyssa Holik snapped away.
Here are some behind-the-scenes shots from the behind-the-scenes shoot. Our invigorating morning in the cold air: rosy cheeks, warm laughter, and much-needed hot apple cider . . .
For a better look at the Santa Fe staff, click on the Backstage image (top right). Shown here are (clockwise, from left): Lisa Mora, Ashisha, John McMahon, Candace Walsh, Simone Snyder, Melissa Chianta, Peggy O’Mara, Todd McCoy, Shirl Ervin, Laura Egley Taylor, Melyssa Holik, Cara Evans, Ellie Evans, Lally O’Mara McMahon, Kristina Morris-Heredia, Elizabeth Carovillano, and Noelani Carovillano.
To see a larger version of any photo, just click on it.
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Tags: backstage, cider, Santa Fe Railyard, staff photo
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Well, Uncle Laura is hangin’ with the nephs in Ohio, and it occurs to her that our society’s current-day practice of just two parents living in a household is not practical. (This hit me the other night, as my sister and her husband were each helping a child bathe and get ready for bed and I was making lunches for the next day and washing socks and answering the phone and checking homework.) The idea of extended family makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, it’s not as common as it once was.
What we seem to have as a norm in our corner of the world these days is the overextended family.
Since I can’t download any of the really cool family-related photos which I shot this week, here’s a completely (or almost completely) unrelated one I grabbed a couple of weeks ago en route to work.
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Tags: bumper sticker, extended family, nephews, ohio, overextended, uncle laura
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I can’t believe how off-balance I’m feeling since my camera suddenly stopped letting me download photos. Meanwhile, to cheer me up and along, here’s an old photo of Reeve holding a box of apparently foreign-made crayolas labeled “4 Positive Crayons.” He’s coming home for Christmas, and I am so eager to see him.
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Tags: camera, positive crayons
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Those of us with straight-up, not easily manipulated given names tend to be either thrilled or annoyed when we find ourselves nicknamed or otherwise referred to in a way that’s new. I’m in the first camp—usually overjoyed to have some new nomer* to wear. One of the monikers I’m most proud of is the one given to me by my nephew Ian years ago. Not sure why it happened, but when Ian was 2 or so, he started calling me Uncle Laurla. I loved it—made me feel kooky and adventurous and like I had permission to be rowdy and loud. Five years later, his little brother, Graham, came along and the name lives on.
Ian is now 9 years old and knows better but continues to insist on calling me Uncle Laura. Thank goodness!
Avuncular greetings, y’all. . .
*Not a word (but it should be). Which makes this usage a misnomer, I suppose.
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Tags: graham, ian, names, nephews, nicknames, uncle laura
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