Designer Envy

A few days ago a Dwell Magazine fact checker contacted me to, well, fact check something she was told about my little company. She asked if I had designed the Bertie Box for Magis. To which I said, "Who's Magis?"

Well, apparently Magis is a phenomenal Italian design company that employs only top designers to produce the coolest kids stuff on the market. I looked them up on the internet and then went to the Designed For Kids book that by sure luck, I had several designs featured. Sure enough, Magis is all over the place in that book. One of the pieces called Nido was designed by Javier Mariscal who designed the mascot for the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992. And then there's Finnish designer Eero Aarnio who designed the iconic hanging Bubble chair in the 1960's. He's created the Trioli (see photo above) chair for www.magismetoo.com. Oh, and Rosario Hurtado and Roberto Feo who, on page 122, show off their Mico. One of those insanely smart, functional playthings that is in every design book known to man.

Why oh why couldn't that one fact be true?!?! Just this once, ya know?!?!

(Psst....Magis.....Call me! :))



(Bubble chair by Eero Aarnio)

Thanks Precious Quilts All the Way from England

Thanks Precious Quilts! Since you're in England, can you tell my good friend Oonagh Delaney Gottlieb I said hi and that I miss her. She's up near Manchester. I'll tell whomever you want in LA that you said hi.:)

http://preciousquilts.blogspot.com/2009/07/christening.html

Re-post: My Husband the Guest Blogger

I was reading through some of my old posts and came across this one that I'd honestly forgotten about (good wife, I know)....so I'm reposting it. I've never done that before and it feels a bit like cheating but this post made me smile. Anyhow, I think this guy is a good writer and really has some inside scoop on the Mod Mom Furniture empire. As all 21 of you who read this blog well know, it's tough to infiltrate the inner workings of my company since I'm so closeted about it all.

Here it is.....

http://modmomfurniture.blogspot.com/2008/11/guest-blogger-my-husband-scott-hathcock.html

Dust Bunnies

Who thinks the mask works better when a.) it's on your face and b.) isn't full of sawdust? You can call me safety girl.

What's wrong with me that I don't want to wear that mask? Next thing you know, I'll be taking up smoking to clear out my dusty lungs.

Midnight Hour

Last night, my house was quiet. My kids and husband were sound asleep. And I was genuinely happy to be in my garage working away at midnight. The downside of working out of your garage is it's flippin' hot here in LA in the summer. I'm inside getting cooled off right now but will shortly return to my oven, I mean garage, for more carpentry work.

And for those of you thinking, "get an air conditioner," it doesn't work that way when sawdust is involved. I would have to buy a ventilation system and an air conditioner. And that would significantly cut into the cash on reserve for fake toenails and non-mom jeans.

So I'll push through the heat. One plus side is on occasion, without proper hydration, the temperature will bring on some strange hallucinations. Like the one where my husband buys me a book called The Time Traveler's Wife and I put down Breaking Dawn and read it. I mean, come on!!! That's just crazy talk.

Another Edition of Translate That Article!!!

While the paint is drying on a toy box, I came in out of my boiling garage to cool off. Look what I found while searching the internet!!

Get ready because this time we're going to......AUSTRIA!!!!

I love when I get to use an online translator!!!! I'm such a stealth online detective that I figured out that the article came from Austria. From what I can tell, this online site ran an article/slide show of international gear designed for kids from the 2008 book, Designed for Kids (Phyllis Richardson.) And I was lucky enough to have the Owyn included.

Here's the text...
Was tun, wenn die Kinder ihre Spielsachen in der ganzen Wohnung verteilt herumliegen lassen? Den kleinen Rabaukern nachlaufen und all das Zeug wieder einsammeln? Wenn, dann aber bitte nur in Begleitung von der Owyn Toy Box. Mit der verspielten Kiste auf Rädern, entworfen von Kiersten Hathcock (Mod Mom Furniture), macht sogar das Aufräumen Spaß!

And here's the translation.....
What do if the children her toys allow to lie around in the whole apartment distributed? To the small Rabaukern run after and collect all stuff again? If, then, however, please only in company of the Owyn Toy Box. With the playful box on wheels, sketched by Kiersten Hathcock (Mod Mom Furniture), even the cleaning out is great fun!

The link to the website http://www.news.at/channels/85/main.shtml and article/slideshow http://www.news.at/nw1/gen/slideshows/slide/show;wohnen/buecher/edition_braus/01_designed_for_kids/;template;susi/default/;kid;85

Thanks www.news.at!

I Heart Stock Lumber...and The London Hotel in West Hollywood

I just got back from Stock Lumber in Burbank (on Victory) and I just have to say, if you live in The Valley and need wood, Stock is your place. I really can't say enough about how great everyone is who works there -- and how helpful they are and have always been. When I first started out and was terrified to head to the lumber yard for fear I'd be laughed out the big metal gates, they treated me with such respect and kindness. I kinda feel like I'm walking into a local pub where everyone knows my name now. Except they don't give me booze, just plywood.

I've had my share of rude, chauvinistic encounters working in my male-dominated industry, and it's really hard to shake off sometimes no matter how much grief I give right back to them. It will go round and round in my head for days. And I'll think of all sorts of better responses I should have given. I'm again, so thankful, that all I feel at Stock is love.

Speaking of love, I tried out The London Hotel in West Hollywood for a night with my friends this past weekend and had the best time. Talk about surreal! One day I was at a posh hotel poolside sipping vodka tonics and the next, I'm at the lumber yard. A few dozen gorgeous skinny model types would walk by us at the hotel and I'd "guess" their occupation. Never once did I guess carpenter. Something tells me they weren't picking up casters and Baltic Birch today.


(Nice cabana, eh?!? And just look at that wood floor!!! Gorgeous!)

A.D.D.

This post will suffer from A.D.D. today. My brain is all over the place for some reason so I thought I'd just jot it all down in case any of it is even the least bit interesting. In bullet form, no less.

* First off, a BIG shout out to Eamonn Gottlieb and his mom, Oonagh, for thinking of me when they came across an Edward Cullen doll in a local store. I'm now the proud owner of said "action figure." I literally jumped up and down when Eam gave it to me. I was the cool, furniture building mom in his eyes. Now I'm just the pathetic thirty-something with a crush on a fictional character. But whatever. Cool is over-rated. I HAVE A FREAKIN' EDWARD CULLEN ACTION FIGURE!!!!

* Scott's parents are in town and we're having a ball with them. And they're helping me out by keeping my kids occupied while I build my ass off. We had a Palm Springs weekend complete with lounge singers, more lounge singers, playing chicken in the pool, and poolside drinks.

* Sometime this week the production team that is working on getting a show sold in that involves me and my dear friend Oonagh will be here filming a bit more. And I have to do a few more voice overs. Why? BECAUSE I WAS CRAP THE FIRST TIME, I'm sure. Why is it so damn hard to sound casual when you have a a mic and camera in your face? Maybe if I stick Edward in my pocket, I'll feel better. I could go a WHOLE lotta ways with that but I'll just leave it. There. Right there. :)

P.S. I have to make it known that my husband saw the doll in a store and was going to buy it for me when Eam beat him to the punch. Since it's (I've) become the joke of our family, he's even hung up the Twilight poster in my closet without me knowing about it.

Confession

Confession time.

I AM TOTALLY, UNDENIABLY IN LOVE WITH SUMMER CAMP.

And the freedom it brings my life. Sadly, the last day is tomorrow so I'll now be the one figuring out what kinds of summer fun my kids have from 9-4pm everyday...all day...UNTIL THE END OF SUMMER!

But before I start crying on the keyboard, I'll take a step back. To the year 2003. It was the year I became a stay-at-home mom after leaving my marketing job at A&E and The History Channel. It was one of the hardest, most depressing years of my life. I was supposed to feel so gleeful and head-over-heals happy that I was now a stay-at-home Mom but to be honest, I had a really hard time transitioning. To add insult to injury, I felt so guilty for not instantly falling in love with my stay-at-home life. I had always wanted a career and always wanted to be creative in some capacity that didn't involved glueing dried beans to a piece of paper. And yet I also wanted to be a mom who was there more than my corporate job would allow. So there I sat in my big house trying to reconnect with my son (then 5) and really get to know my baby Grace, (then 1.) More or less, I was trying to figure out who I was without my job.

It eventually got easier and we made the move to LA where I was forced to think about how to bring in an income but by that time, was SOOOO not wanting to go back to long hours and worries about daycare and all that jazz so I became a nanny to two incredibly adorable babies. It turned motherhood into a job for me so I treated it like that. We had a schedule, park dates, museum trips, etc. and I just plugged away like that for two years.

I'm now at that stage in my life where I have a full-time job working from home and for the most of the year, my kids are away at school during the day-time hours. Aside from really NEEDING time for my business, I feel like I really need time for myself.

Which brings me to.....AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Summer Camp is ending!!!! I have to plan outings, playdates, swim days, in between furniture building, client meetings, Facebook time, and rereading the Twilight series over and over again. I will somehow figure out how to work this job all the while limiting my kids TV viewing to less than 3 hours a day, so help me God. Ok, less than 5 hours a day. When would I have time to check Facebook if it was just 3 hours?