Cubby Archive: Jun 2021

Going on vacation is supposed to be relaxing and fun. But there is always so much to worry about before you leave — and even while you’re away! You need to check your luggage to make sure you packed everything you meant to. Then when you’re actually on vacation, you are worrying about your house and your pets, hoping that they are being good for the sitter. And how many times have you stressed about turning the stove off before you left the house? Did you turn it off?

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Join us over on Instagram for more! Looking to create a resort-like backyard but can’t squeeze an in-ground pool into the plans? Worse yet: maybe your pool options have sold out already. You might want to take a trip down to the local farm supply store to check out their selection of stock tanks.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Join us over on Instagram for more! “Mama, I’ll be able to see my friends’ happy faces again!” my 5-year-old exclaimed when I told him his school planned to instate a mask-optional policy outdoors.

Family: The Halls, with two kids, aged 2 and 4Location: Flatiron District, New York CityPlayroom size: 106 square feetThis piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. As a mom of two young girls who are also wildly creative, designer Dana Waldron of Murphy Waldron Interiors especially enjoys working on kids’ spaces.

Keeping noopener target="_blank">working from homeThe pair dished on how to keep home classrooms and offices well-organized, even if those two spaces are now one and the same. Sharing work space with family at the kitchen table or in the living room means you don’t know where your stuff begins and your children’s stuff ends.

You often have to get creative with the way you lay out and allocate your square footage in a smaller home. Every nook and cranny counts, and for Ella Hall, founder of Stitchroom, the cluttered problem corner in her bedroom actually became the solution to her home’s lack of space for a dedicated nursery. “When I found out I was pregnant, I knew I needed a spot for the baby, and we have limited space in our Brooklyn apartment,” says Hall.

Amazon Prime Day isn’t the only major sale happening this week. Some of your favorite retailers and brands are getting in on the fun by offering huge savings of their own on home and kitchen essentials, TVs and tech, and large and small appliances. Add Prime Day to an already sale-heavy week, and you’ve got a perfect storm of *epic* deals. To help you find the best stuff fast, we’ve compiled all the competing Prime Day sales here.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Join us over on Instagram for more! Summer camp — it’s downright magical. The memories of sleeping in tents, racing to plunge in cold ponds, and learning to ride horses among towering pine trees are the stuff of novels. And for some reason, those friendship bracelets were more powerful at creating BFFs in IRL.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Join us over on Instagram for more! The day has arrived — a day of unbelievably good deals, especially for parents and caregivers shopping for their kids. Amazon Prime Day kicked off this morning, June 21, and will run through tomorrow, June 22.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Join us over on Instagram for more! When I close my eyes and conjure the best elements of my childhood summers, there’s one beloved activity that bubbles up again and again. No, it’s not the Slip n’ Slide. Or the waterpark (although those are totes fun). It’s fort-building.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Names: Jacqueline Mellow, husband Christopher, and Baby MellowLocation: Denver, COSize of home: 1,700 square feetEven before she became a mother, Jacqueline Mellow was a storyteller. An award-winning author of several books written under the pen name E.J.

We’ve always had a car sickness problem — would love help with that!RobinDear Robin, We’re about to head out to a wedding in Iowa this week, so your question is perfect. With plane travel and a rented car, we’re going to be logging some long travel hours and my daughter, Ursula, regularly dislikes car rides (though she’s never been a thrower-upper).

When we decided to sell our three-bedroom, 2,100-square foot ranch, my husband and I had a few non-negotiables for our next home. We wanted a two-level house and a somewhat open main-floor layout. We’re not fixer-uppers, so a recently renovated kitchen was a must. A fenced-in backyard would be nice, we decided, and so would a finished basement. One thing that wasn’t on our must-have list? More square feet.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Let me paint you a pre-pandemic picture: our family of three is walking through Disney World amidst the swell of a late-summer heat wave. We wait in line for hours to see the gliding princesses and slinking villains, all clad in their (sweaty-looking) costumes.

Cottagecore, the No. 1 decor trend on TikTok for two years running, is marked by its vintage-inspired shabby-chicness. Floral wallpaper, patchwork quilts, doilies, and other whimsical, woodlands-y accessories (think: mushroom decor and dried flowers), which a few years ago you might have only found in a Hobbit hole or a very cute bed and breakfast, are now back in the mainstream — and they can add charming, cozy, comforting vibes to any space.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. There’s a particular art to designing children’s rooms: They have to satisfy not only the paying client (mom and dad), but also the rooms’ pint-sized inhabitants.

Name: Brooke Fitts, with my partner, and my 10-year-old daughter. We also live with our two dogs, Marley and Otis.Location: White Center, Seattle Size: 957 square feetType of Home: Two-bedroom, one-bathroom mid-century house Years lived in: 1 year, owned I found my home on Redfin! I had a great real estate agent, but had a clear idea of what I wanted and didn’t want so kept a roving eye on the market.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. My couches are my constant. My pair of Room & Board André sofas have seen me through a new apartment, a new husband, a new job, and a newborn. I bought them long before I thought I would be a father. I lived with IKEA as-is finds and furniture dragged in off the street for my first 10 years in Brooklyn.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Piled among the many challenges of parenthood lie those desperate bedtime blues that leave families exhausted and just a bit defeated. Maybe you know what I’m talking about?

My son is 10 and he is messy, but I really want him to at least make his bed in the morning. When I grew up, I had to and I feel like a bad parent for not succeeding here. Got any tips?ElleryDear Ellery,I have to admit that I’m struggling with this one too with my 14-year-old, and to give you some local color, I’ve made this little video to share with you. My problems only began about a year ago and she used to be very good at this!

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. It happens each evening: I walk through a doorway and inevitably trip over something that belongs to one of the little humans I just tucked into bed. Be it LEGOs, dirty socks, pacifiers, or a half-open book, the feeling is always the same.