Month: September 2012

Oilily

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Friends,

Here is the last fall collection I would like to share with you. Oilily has been an inspiration to me for years and years. They are a dutch company and have made mismatching, colorful clothes hip. What I appreciate about them is their commitment to art. Their catalog pictures are so good that  you can frame them and hang them on the wall.

I love their colorful, carefree, comfy style. It inspires kids to be creative and have fun. Their pieces are roomy and allow for running and playing. What do you think? Too colorful? I think in a country where it rains a lot it would brighten your day.

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Sofija

Oilily

Bennetton Kid’s Fall Collection

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Hi there,

It was so much fun doing the fashion shoot with my friend Emily. I noticed I am on a roll as far as fall fashion goes. Largely because the collections I have seen are just so good this year. Also because there are some European companies I would like to introduce you to you might not be familiar with. Benetton from Italy is one of them. If you grew up in Europe, Benetton is an old hat. Frankly, I haven’t always liked them. At times they were too poppy for me, and too much the same year after year. However their kid’s fall collection won me back. I appreciate the art they put into it. And I guess I like the Italian take on British style. Take a look:

What do you think? I appreciate when a company understands that not every parent wants their tween to look like a rock star or a skater.

Have a great day!

-Sofija

Bennetton Kid’s Fall Collection

Tea Collection: School Aged Kids

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Here is the second part of the Tea clothing photo shoot my friend Emily and I did with our kids. First we have my friend’s  8 year old Eirik. He is all boy. On most days you can find him catching lizards, digging in the mud, riding his bike, and pouring over field guides. He is wearing Tea tops, not sure where the jeans are from. The snake top is my favorite, because it is so him.

Next we have my 6 year old Ella on the left, Siri in the middle, and Hanna on the right. Hanna, and Siri are my friend’s daughters. I don’t have a any Tea clothing size 6 for Ella, so she is wearing a dress size 4. Tea clothing is so versatile, you can use them as dresses or as long tops over leggings, thus giving them a longer life. We layered with a cardigan from Next, to make the outfit more suited for fall. Her clogs are from Gymboree. Siri in the middle is wearing a top and skirt from Tea.The skirt is from 2 years ago. Hanna is wearing a complete Tea outfit from the Asia collection last year.

The stuffed animal the girls are holding is a pig from “If you Give a Pig a Pancake”. It goes everywhere Ella goes, so naturally it made it into the shoot.

My two year old Natasha wriggled her way into the shot. She is wearing a tea dress from last year.

Next we have Siri with her little sister Aida. Siri’s top is one of my favorites, from the Eastern European collection two years ago. Aida is wearing a Tea dress purchase in January.

This concludes our photo shoot. This was so much fun, I hope to do it again. You can find the first photo shoot we did with the little ones here.

Have a great weekend!

-Sofija

Tea Collection: School Aged Kids

Tea Collection Fashion Shoot: Pre-School and Toddlers

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Friends,

I’m so exited to share a recent project my friend Emily and I did. She and I both really like buying children’s clothes from an American company called “Tea”. Their clothes are so comfy and timeless. Between the two of us we have 10 kids, so we both have acquired quite a collection. I thought it would be fun to do a photo shoot to introduce you. Emily set up the the shoot, we dressed the kids up, gave them some toys to play with, and my friend started clicking away. I must warn you, this is cuteness overload….

Above we have Emily’s  little 17 month old Aida in a Tea dress purchased in January. My  23 month old Natasha is sporting a Tea top from last fall. Her pants are from Carters, and the shoes are from the Children’s Place.

This is my favorite shot of Natasha holding on to that monkey. The monkey really belongs to my husband. Really. Purchased at Target.

Here is my 4 year old Lucille with the monkey. Her grey Tea top is actually a size 2T  purchased this summer. I’m pretty sure this won’t fit Natasha for some time to come, so Lucille might as well enjoy it for a while. Her pants are from Nano, the ballet flat from Gymboree, and the pink hoodie  from REI.

Here she is waiting for the monkey, she threw in the air, to come back down.

This is the pose she has been practicing for the photo shoot.

I bought this Tea top last fall size 3. So it is a little small but still works. The great thing about these tops is that you can wear them as dresses or as long sleeve tops over leggings. They have a longer life that way.

Ha, little Aida got a hold of the monkey. Her Tea dress was purchased in January. Aren’t her red shoes adorable? I wouldn’t mind owning a pair myself. Natasha’s top was bought last year.

Here is 3 year old Hanna on the right with an complete tea outfit. The pants match a lot of tops; we own a pair, too.

On Hanna: Tea outfit and Hanna Anderson clogs. Lucille’s Tea outfit was purchased last year.

This concludes the pre-school toddler session. I’ll be back next with some outfits for school aged kids. Stay tuned.

-Sofija

Tea Collection Fashion Shoot: Pre-School and Toddlers

Family Mountain Biking Outside of Albuquerque

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Friends,

We like to Mountain Bike. That is, my husband loves it and he is getting us slowly into it, as well. Last week we all piled up in the car and went to the East Mountains, outside of Albuquerque to go for a ride. It was a rather spontaneous thing, so I was surprised that our 6 kiddos could have fun without the usual snacks, gear, extra clothes, etc. Take a look:

We put as many bikes as we could fit on the bike rack (everyone except the baby had a bike), and the rest we piled in the trunk of our suburban.

David and I took the 4, 6, and 8 year old on the bike path. While my two oldest stayed back to watch the baby. The baby is almost 2 years old, but we call her the baby, and probably always will…My 4 year old can’t really ride yet, so we put her on a scoot, the kind of bike that does not have pedals.

She got tired pretty quickly going uphill on her scoot, so she decided to take a rest and do a pine cone dance.

Here is my man in action after the younger kids were done and heading back to the parking lot.

Natasha had a great time walking around the picnic area with no one stopping her.

Lucille taking a much needed rest after her 10 minute bike ride.

At the picnic area I wanted to shoot some action shots of my husband jumping off a ledge on his bike. This turned into everybody jumping off and having a really fun time.

I think we are on our way to becoming a mountain bike family. I so hoped we could find a sport that we can all enjoy on different levels, and this might be it.

So, if you are ever in the area, bring a bike!

Have a great day, I’ll see you back here soon with a kid’s fall fashion shoot I did with my friend. So exited to share it with you.

-Sofija

Family Mountain Biking Outside of Albuquerque

Writing by Hand

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Friends,

Lately I have been drawn to fountain pens, handwritten letters, and simple desks that invite you to grab a pen and write. Since school started my two oldest have been doing a lot of their work on the computer. I appreciate all the cool things you can do, like taking a virtual tour of Ancient cave paintings for your history class. But it also makes me nostalgic for those simpler times when all one had was a fountain pen, desk,and paper. Maybe even handmade paper.

Well, I will keep pinning pictures of handwritten letters, leather journals, and antique looking pens. And maybe I will start writing my Christmas cards early. That is the one time a year you might get a handwritten letter from me.

-Sofija
Sources top to bottom: via debbiehodge.com; via roguemarch.tumblr.com; third picture taken by me at castle Ronneburg in Germany

Writing by Hand

Fall is in the Air

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Friends,

The air is getting crisp, and I am so exited fall is here. It is my favorite season. Probably because I grew up next to a forest. Here are some pictures I wanted to share with you, paired with the perfect outfits:

Fall happens to be my favorite season for fashion, as well.

Hope this gets you in the mood. Pinterest is great for that. I started a whole board just for fall pictures. Oh by the way, the first and last pictures were taken behind our house by my neighbor Emily. Enchanting, isn’t it?

Have a great day,

Sofija

Sources: Top and bottom picture via Lonely Mountain Photography; second picture from the top: via Sunday Corssbow; 3rd pictures: via the.fashion.diary; 4th picture: via nemoi memo; second to last picture: via Indigo Crossing.

Fall is in the Air

friday grams

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Friends,

How was your week? Our week was kind of long. Still adjusting to this new (to us) online school we are doing. New things can be hard. Sometimes it is difficult to figure out if it’s good hard or bad hard. Tell me, have you encountered something hard lately? What did you do to make it easier? For me, it helps to take breaks, get out and have fun. Yesterday we were all overwhelmed with the school load. When it came time to get ready to go to the first home-school co-op (parents taking turns teaching classes) of the school year, no-one wanted to go. But we went, and it proved to be a welcome break, and a good time with old and new friends. It was refreshing.

Here are some pictures I took the last week:

My husband and I took our 4 year old shopping. It’s fun to just take one of the kids sometime. It is like a date.

I took the two youngest Antique shopping. That was quite a unique experience. You enter a world of long ago. The girls had fun sitting on kid’s rocking chairs, and playing with antique toys.

Have a wonderful, relaxing weekend.

See you here next week.

-Sofija

friday grams

Teaching German

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Friends,

Today I’m going to share with you how I have taught my kids to read German. Understanding and or speaking wasn’t good enough for me. I really want them to be able to read German and ideally write as well. The challenge for me was to find the right material. They are not native speakers, so they are missing some vocabulary and grammatical nuances that are assumed in German school textbooks. However they are beyond the level that  might be available here to kids that have no prior knowledge. So you have to improvise. Personally I always wait until my kids are solid in their English reading before I would teach them how to read in German. However bilingual schools show that it is possible to do both at the same time. Thankfully German is much easier phonetically than English so it doesn’t take that long to teach. Above I have a German reader that is used in German schools. They are easy to understand even for non native speakers. Once we work through that I have them read simple books like the Max und der Keks series to give them the opportunity to read on their own.

For the next level I use the second grade reader above left. I also use different grammar and writing helps.

Above are German readers. They are called Leseloewen or Lesemaus.

After the second grade level I have them read books like early readers. Once they are at a 4th grade level they might be able to read Pippi Longstocking, or similar books.

I bought most of these books in Germany, they have great sales around August. Another great resource is Alphabet Garden, an online store; they have quite a bit of text books and refer you to billingual websites. Amazon.de is also a great option.

My oldest just started high-school. He is pretty fluent and a decent reader. However his grammar and writing skills are lacking. Therefore I enrolled him in German. I want him to start from scratch with Grammar and relearn some of those things he has missed.

In my experience immersion is not enough. If you don’t have a strong grammatical foundation you will always be guessing as how to built your sentences. I was immersed in Croatian all my life. I was taught grammar in elementary once a week but it was assumed that I was a native speaker. I would have benefited relearning it in high-school as a foreign speaker to fill all those gaps I have.

This is just to show you what we have done. I’m sure there are better options out there. If you know of any do tell. I’d love to hear from you.

-Sofija

Teaching German

Bookcases

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Happy Memorial Day!

Are you enjoying this long weekend? Any big plans for today? We got to visit with dear friends yesterday, but today is all business. My kids are doing school today. We trying to get ahead so we can take time off in October for a family trip.

Organization is on my mind. We spend Saturday going through piles of toys and clothes and organizing them into rubber maids. Rubber maids have got to be the cheapest way to make a closet look organized. Thanks to my husband, who has some crazy organization skills, we transformed two rooms that have been overflowing with toys, junk, and random plastic things, into serene spaces. It has taken a weight off my shoulders to say the least.

However we are not done. I have several boxes with school books I would like to put into a bookcase. Here are some favorites I wanted to share with you. Lately I have been drawn to the lawyer bookcase look and library style bookcases. I paired expensive ones with cheaper ones in each row.

Top row: I like the glass doors on these, no more dusting. The left one is from IKEA and costs $135, the right on is from Crate and Barell $349.

Middle row: The left one is from World Market and costs around $600. The one on the right is from Sundance costs $1,895.

Bottom row: I saw the one on the left at Costco for under $200. The one on the right is from Pottery Barn and costs $1,199.

It would be so great to have all my school books so easily accessible.

I have to wrap it up, my 8 year old has been waiting to get on the computer to play his game.

See you back here soon,

Sofija

Bookcases