Inspiration for Rife Society Kids

I love it when kids look well dressed.  Trademarked characters are my enemy and I have sworn to never dress my kids in them.  Classic looking clothes are my favorite and it's even better when the outfits make kids look like little adults. This is the basis of the clothes that I sew. They have to have some childish qualities to be right for kids, but they need to look chic.

I prefer to work with fabrics made of plants or wool. Fabric blends that are made with a plastic material are not cool! They seem so disconnected from the natural world. And they can be "un-breathable" and sweaty for little bodies. Heck even for older bodies too! Obviously I know that sometimes these kinds of fabrics work best, like for sports-wear, but I don't make those kinds of clothes so I try not to use those types of fabrics. I like peter pan collars on shirts and dresses, pleats,  and a small amount of ruffles. I like button ups and suspenders, quilted jackets, and little loafers.

Patterns can be so sweet and classic for kids, but they have to have a certain sophistication to them. Like there can be kittens, or flowers, or triangles etc, but they have to be drawn or designed the right way so it looks more chic than Disney! I adore textures, like chunky sweaters and hats, but for now those are just accessories since I don't knit! If you do knit or crochet I commend you your work! 

What do you think? Are you into dressing kids the way I am? These pics are all from my Pinterest board Kids Style. Check it out to see what else I like and what else inspires my work for Rife Society. And stay tuned because I will soon post pictures of some of the clothes that I have made! 

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White Brick FIreplaces

This type of fireplace is so visually attractive. It has several of my absolutely favorite characteristics of home design: white!, bright!, and light! Plus the wooden mantle adds a richness and a warmth to all of the white. The top picture is styled by Emily Henderson, one of my all time favorite designers. Check her out! PLUS by extending the mantle to the left of the fireplace she de-emphasized the fact that the fireplace is awkwardly positioned in the first place. I really like that because our fireplace is also oddly placed. Why on earth do home designers do that??! It's really annoying.

Check out the unusual fireplace below. It looks like they chipped away the sheetrock to reveal the brick underneath and left it messy, BUT it works, it looks cool!

 

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Gardening: A glimpse ahead

     Gardening has been a love of mine for a long time. Not that I've ever actually made or had a proper garden. My mother worked ceaselessly on her gardens while I was growing up. She had many hardworking and practical vegetable and fruit plants. And purely for the enjoyment and feasting of the senses, flowers scattered here and there. Fragrant roses and irises to meet us as we walked to the front door and a lilac bush outside a window, so the wind would carry it's scent to our indoor lives. I've spent many hours in her gardens, and although they haven't been extensive or professionally planned, they were thoroughly enjoyed by me and my whole family.

A break from work

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    Working with kids is never very easy. They constantly want my attention. Actually I find that the younger they are the easier and more likely they are to entertain themselves. And babies! They are the best in my experience. Feed them, change them, lay them down and they are good to go for a few hours. Jude is periodically coming in to ask me to play with him and Teddy takes care of his own entertainment, more or less. But work I must. I am more and more grateful that Naaman can work right now so that I don't have to. I've never held a "real" job, as in been an employee to a company and for that I am also grateful and happy. We've created our own business's and jobs and it's kept us way more interested in working for Us rather than Them, whoever they are.

Headbands, Swimsuits & A Touch of Whimsy

Photography is a love of mine! And these pictures are a shared fruit of my labor. This past summer I had the fun of taking pictures with my friend Michelle, of some very whimsical headbands made by a local artist. We also modeled the headbands and took turns shooting. I gotta say, it was one of my favorite shoots and I think they turned out fantastic! 

Lighting is everything in photography and we were lucky/smart enough to do these around the golden hour of the day. You know, just before the sun sets, it lets out its last and most beautiful sun rays that light up pictures so so well. I really love these shots, they look so happy and care-free, a bit bohemian maybe?? 

Skuut

The weather has been ridiculously nice lately, at least in the evenings, and Jude has had a lot of chances to practice riding on his Christmas present, a Skuut balance bike. It's a toddler size bike without pedals and a very small turning radius. The idea is that the real difficulty in learning how to ride a bicycle lies in balancing it not pedaling. So this bike is supposed to teach the kids how to balance first and balance well, before they try pedaling anything. It's wood body makes it really light and easy to maneuver for little humans. And the small turning radius keeps them from veering off too far in one direction and crashing. Like all balance bikes, this one doesn't have any brakes to confuse the rider, instead the child drags their feet to stop.