I will let you in on a little secret… here is what Alex is getting for Father’s Day… The Trunk Club.

But WHY I’m giving it to Alex requires a little bit of backstory…

After reading the terrific compilation of THE best Father’s Day gifts out there by Mommy Shorts readers (to which I even contributed, see NYC subway token cufflinks), I thought hmmm… What to get the perfect Dad?

Alex doesn’t wear cufflinks anymore… he wears jeans to work every day now, one of the perks of living in California and being your own boss.

So this Father’s Day, in addition to the obligatory paper maché picture frame and adorable photo made by the kiddos, my gift to Hubby was SUPPOSED to be an organized closet, actually two of them.

My friend who is a professional organizer suggested we barter: her organization skills for a download of whatever technology and blogging knowledge I have to offer.

Clearly, I am making out like a bandit in this transaction.

So this past Sunday, while Alex was at an off-site all day and all night, the plan was to rip apart our closets and finally purge 16 years of wardrobes, then spackle, paint and rebuild a gorgeous beautiful closet.

Well, we did – most of it.

He was supposed to come home to a perfectly finished closet. A newly organized way of life. A winner all around.

But then life threw in a little curve ball. You know, the one you are never expecting? And I was unable to finish it in time.  So instead of a perfect and beautifully organized closet, he came home to this:

And this…

Long story short… our bed is still COVERED with clothing and there is stuff EVERYWHERE. He had to sleep in the guest room because there was no room in our bed.

Nightmare right? Happy Father’s Day! Welcome home to your trashed house!!!

The good news…  he was still super psyched that the closests were finally going to be organized.  He didn’t let on that the giant disaster that was our bedroom was giving him palpitations. Did I mention that Alex is borderline neat-freak and compulsive organizer?

So even though he took the surprise in stride, I would like to surprise him for Father’s Day for real and I think I just heard about the most awesome gift ever to give him. It’s totally up his alley.

After purging his closet of all his old investment banking suits and tattered golf shirts, it became VERY clear to me that poor Alex never buys himself anything. And I guess I don’t really buy him clothes either. But he NEEDS clothes and he deserves new threads – desperately.

So… enter Trunk Club, the outfitter for men.

My friend, the organizer, just told me about it and this is COMPLETELY something for Alex. A sort of mail order personal shopper except they don’t have to actually go anywhere or commit to buy anything.  Sounds good right?

You sign up. Send all your measurements, style preferences, tastes and then briefly chat with a personal stylist. Next, they send a FedEx box of outfits to try on. The model is simple: keep what you love, return what you don’t using the prepaid shipping.

Never step inside a mall again. Pretty cool right?

I think he will love it because it definitely combines the technology world with the idea of looking sharp. Something I know if he had more free time he would invest in.

You can choose from some styled looks too:

Or this one:

So darling,

For Father’s Day in addition to this closet fiasco I’ve created in our bedroom, there will be a box, of hip stylish clothes from Trunk Club for you to try on.
Thank you for being the most awesome Dad to our two wonderful kids. Now you will be the best dressed, most organized Daddy on the block.

Love,

Wife

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Last month I told you about a blogger and designer who I find truly inspiring, Dayka Robinson and her team over at Room Service Atlanta. I hope you’ve had a chance to see their team’s amazing transformations of the the rooms at Nicholas House. If you haven’t yet, click here, then come back and read on.

This week I was inspired by a short film I saw on helping to feed the homeless.

It was made by a 7 year old.

Um… yeah…a 7 year old…so, I think I was a clown in the ice skating pageant at age seven.

At a PTA lunch, the group honored the local second grader, Zevin Acuña for his original and untitled film.  It was the district and state award winner for the PTA’s Reflections Program, an arts recognition and achievement program for students.  Each year the program has a theme, this year it was “Together We Can.”

While Zevin’s film is untitled, he did add the following:

“Together we can save the homeless. Together we can save the world.”

Here’s his film:

So yeah…. after seeing that I was pretty inspired.

I mean, I talk about doing stuff like this with my kids but these families make this happen with their kids every month.

Source: Polls Boutique

I saw one of the dad’s featured in the film at teeball the next day and asked him about it.  He told me the first Sunday of every month they get together, taking turns in who does the Costco run for supplies, who hosts and who delivers. The kids all have their jobs and it takes about 45 minutes max to assemble the bag lunches. The kids then have a giant playdate.

I absolutely LOVED this idea and was truly inspired. They made it obvious that is truly easy to do something meaningful and have your children be involved too. Something I’ve managed to make excuses for in the past.

Thank you Zevin for your film and for showing my family how together we can come together and make a difference.

FYI – the organization that the Acuna family takes the sandwiches to is the:
Open Door Mission
92 7th Street, Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 451-7924 ‎

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Yesterday was 78F and glorious here in Cali (sorry East Coasters). I left the house before the sun was up and headed to the famous Alameda Point Antiques Fair. I arrived at 6:30am and didn’t leave until 12:30pm.  It was a long and amazing morning!

If you haven’t been – you MUST, MUST, MUST go to this market. It’s only open the 1st Sunday of every month and it is simply incredible.

At the fair, I found a match for my thrift store chair, well sort of… It’s not a perfect match, the front legs are a little different but I really like that about them. Yay!!

My "matching" chairs." Thrift store chair on the left for $20 and Antique Fair on the right for $50.

Close up of chair legs

As you can see the Antiques Fair chair had been ‘Shabby Chic”d and I will probably be changing that.

Can’t wait to work on them!!! Stay tuned….

Here are some other photos from my trip to the market:

The fair is held on an old abandoned Navy runway down by the cargo shipyards in Alameda (near Oakland). The fair and parking take up the whole runway.

Look into my crystal ball... These crystal balls were calling to me as an accessory for the living room but they were too expensive and the vendor did not want to sell the stands. Then I kind of got the heebie jeebies buying a crystal ball so I passed.

Absolutely loved this grapevine(?) sculpture thingy on this fantastic table. This vendor is pretty pricey so I passed.

If I could have a chicken coop - this is the one I would want! That fire hydrant was for sale too.

Alex had a cool project for me while I was there. He wanted vintage staffing firm antiques, like a timecard clock, time card display, etc. I didn’t find any of those but scored this awesome check payment machine from Paymaster for $2. They originally wanted $8 for it but couldn’t get it to work on demand (it just needs to be unlocked). Still very cool!

Vintage Paymaster check writing machine

And finally on the way out I saw this guy – with a creme brulee cart. Genius!

Creme brulee from a cart - how awesome!

View of the Oakland hills and the crowds walking back the runway back to find their cars

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I made my first thrift store purchase today! I think I did really well. Scored the chair on the left for $20 and the one on the right for $10! Both need to have the fabric replaced but over all are in really great condition. I was very proud of myself.

My search is only 1/2 over though because I still need to find a match for the one on the left or 2 new matching chairs. Get this… apparently there had been two originally but they broke up the set! ARGH!!! I figured one *new* chair was better than none and I’ll do anything to get rid our Ektorp Ikea chairs that have seen better days.

Stay tuned for their transformation (but maybe give me a few weeks)!

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