the spotlight is shining bright. put on your shades and meet Carla.



Carla & Alex

A beautiful, smart and insanely crafty and creative girl.  A Michigan native who now lives in Minneapolis, Carla is a designer by day and the finger tapping mastermind behind the super cute blog, Hammers & High Heels by night.  Oh, and she is also my newest cousin.  Yes, nepotism is still in full force.  Carla married my handsome cousin Alex Zidarevich, Amber's brother (last spotlight star).  Everyone welcomes new people into their familes, but you know you hit the jackpot when the fit in as if they've been a part of the family forever. I also have met her family and they are all wonderful, just like her.  Carla considers herself an "oversharer", which I love, and find incredibly charming (and very familiar).  Carla is now an honorary Croatian for life.  Welcome Carla and introducing her is an honor. 

What or who inspires you?  I think I get inspiration everywhere I look, whether it be in daily life, magazines, or TV.  My favorite place for inspiration is through blogging.  I love to read blogs, I think that is the best place to get inspiration and if you like DIY projects they are everywhere in the blog world.  I keep a tiny moleskin notebook in my purse and a pen at all times, I write down things that inspire me so I never forget what or where I saw something.

Where is your nook?  My ‘nook’ is in the historic Homewood neighborhood in Minneapolis.  I love the charm and story that comes along with a historic place.  It is also a place that is currently in revival, I love how much my neighbors care about our little community.

What's your favorite way to burrow?  My favorite way to chill is at home with my husband enjoying a glass of wine while we cook dinner together.

Please Carla, you must describe your style.  My style is sort of eclectic, I fill my home with lots of vintage finds along with things from Target or Ikea and you will find my home is mostly gray, white, soft blue, or black.  When it comes to apparel and accessories I love to be very feminine, dresses and heels are a must.  I fear really bright or patterned things (unless you’re talking leopard print, I have a strange love for it). My closet is a lot of solids in white, gray, khaki or black; I like things that are simple and classic.

List one weird thing about you.  There are a lot of weird things about me! Haha, it is hard to pick one!  I’ll pick my need to hair tease.  Ever since my roommate in college taught me how to ‘poof’ my hair I haven’t been able to leave the house without a proper hair ‘poof’, I feel like I am walking around with a bald spot if I don’t have enough volume in my hair. I was also offended when the Bump It was created because I had to deal with people asking me if I owned one.  Never have, never will. Things also got worse when Snooki came around with her terrible ‘poof’ (mine never looks like that by the way, that is a fashion don’t). So yes, I will always be with my weird big hair.

What's on your playlist?  I listen to everything, country, pop, R&B, hip hop, and alternative. I’d say right now I am listening to my playlist that consists of R&B   and pop from the late 90’s, for some reason I can’t get enough right now (SWV anyone?).

What's one of your favorite recipes?  I love my husband’s grandma’s homemade mac n’ cheese recipe, it is a family favorite and I count on having it at every holiday now.

What is your favorite place to vacation?  This is a sad one, I feel like I don’t have a place I can say is my favorite spot to vacation since I haven’t been to the same place twice. I like to go to new places every time we get a chance to travel.  Of places I have been to, I loved Catalina Island and the Bahamas the most- beach vacations are my favorite.  I did love that Catalina Island had a lot of history to it, the city of Avalon oozed a vibe from the 1920’s.

What is your favorite object in your home?  Hmmm, I love all the antiques in my home because they are one of a kind. But if I had to pick just one it would be the antique dressform my husband surprised me with last year (above).  I have never had my own dress form and I would always talk about wanting an antique, and one day Alex surprised me with one.  I use it to display (and store) some of my accessories, it makes of a nice way to enjoy and display the accessories you love.    

Where do you see yourself in five years?  WOW! No idea, haha! Currently I am very happy right where I am.  My husband and I both have careers that match a passion we have (do what you love philosophy). I feel very lucky and hope to keep growing and advancing in my career.  I love working on my home and blogging about it (our blog friends are awesome!), I hope our blog is still around and growing.  All around I hope we are still this happy in 5 years.  I’d say the one thing we are missing is our family over in Michigan (we are living in MN, moved for work).  I’d like to think in 5 years we will have found a way to have a life in Michigan with our family around us and still have the same amount of happiness that we have found here in Minnesota. 

Thank you Carla!

the spotlight is on and Amber's our girl

Amber with her love, Henri

If you have a spotlight on you, it means only one of two things.  Either you are being chased down by the police, or you are a star.  Hopefully it's the later and here at nook and burrow, I prefer to focus on the star. In my life, I find I am surrounded by people who shine, who in one way or another have inspired, influenced, educated, nurtured and/or have impacted me.  My spotlights will feature one amazing person with a bit of Q&A.  I hope you enjoy!

Anyone who knows my Croatian (Zidarevich) side of the family, they will know well that we are crazy proud, protective, love to laugh a lot, cry a lot, live a lot and are at times so full of inspiration and passion that we can hardly contain ourselves.  It's just hereditary. So, in honor of nepotism, it will come to no surprise that my very first "Spotlight" introduction is of my beautiful cousin, Amber (Zidarevich) Kilpatrick. 

Amber's father and my father are brothers and Amber has always felt more like a sister than a cousin.  Amber lives in Grand Rapids with her very handsome husband  Ryan and their crazy cute little boy, Henri.  She is beautiful, smart, spiritual, compassionate, a blogger and as far back as I can remember, she was always wanted to save the world.  When we were little, it was animals, then as a teen, it was people and now as an adult, she is on the very profound journey of the ultimate journey - teaching yoga and meditation.  Amber is saving the world, the world of her family, her friends, her students and certainly that of her baby boy's.   I need a good dose of Amber, so here we go!   

How do you serve the world?  I fill my days serving the world as a mother, wife, yoga instructor, Community Organizer and food blogger.

Who are you?  Just a small town girl living in a big wide world. Trying to live in each moment as it comes and appreciating the beauty all around.

What or who inspires you?  My family.  And anyone who pursues their dreams without apology.



Ryan, Henri and their dog, Hazel



Where is your nook? -  Grand Rapids, Michigan

What is your favorite way to burrow (chill)? - over an hours long dinner and wine with friends

Describe your style. This is tough!  I would say Yoga chic + J Crew + a touch of Jackie O.

List one weird thing about you.  I secretly want a tattoo sleeve

What's on your playlist? Jeff Buckley, Florence and the Machine, One Eskimo, Jimi Hendrix, U2, George Michael, Daisy May and Lady Gaga (purely as a guilty pleasure)

What's one of your favorite recipes? -  My favorite recipe has got to be the one I recently blogged about at Big Food Little Mamas

What is your favorite place to vacation? As much as I want to say Chicago or New York I have to resist the urge to be 'doing' on my vacations.  Therefore, Koh Pha Ngan Thailand.  An island in the Gulf Of Thailand.  Nothing to do but enjoy the paradise all around.

What is your favorite object in your home?  My dining table.  A family heirloom from my mother.  It belonged to her mother and her mother's mother before that.  I intend to pass it on to my children.

Where/what will you be in five years?  Another toughie.  I have a tendency not to think too far ahead. This question is a challenge!  Let's say, owner/operator of a yoga and surf shop in Hawaii.  Let the journey begin!

making love and dough.

Happy Valentines Day everyone!  Celebrating St. Valentine and love.  We decided this year that instead of buying something, we'd make something out of "love".  Mila, Remi & I made homemade playdough today and it was so much easier than I imagined.  Plus, if you have kids in the house who love the stuff, you can save a little money and encourage them to use their hands and create something they are proud of.  Have a beautiful day, give love and have fun!

Homemade Playdough Recipe:

Most playdough recipes call for cream of tartar. In case you don’t have cream of tarter, feel free to find our non-cream of tarter recipes on the sidebar.

Ingredients:
2 cups of plain flour
2 cups of colored water (I think you can also use food grade glitter)
1 Tbsp. of cooking oil
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup of salt

Directions:
Place all of the ingredients in a medium size or large pan. Cook slowly on medium-high and stir it until the playdough thickens. If it's a bit sticky, you can add a little bit of flour to the mixture and knead it. This recipe takes less than 10 minutes.

life and art

This was one true example where life imitates art.  A family of deer live and play in the forest behind our house.  The beautiful canvas print is by my friend and local artist, Marcy Davy. 

read with me, mama

I am slightly obsessed with finding the perfect children's book.  With two toddlers, we read a lot of books.  There are the commercialized character books (Diego & Disney) that often times my kids love and want to read over and over.  There are the crazy artistic books that I bought because I only loved the illustrations, but the kids are soo not into them.  Then, there is the place where thoughtful story and design meet in the perfect middle:  a book both kids and mama loves to read.  

My goal is to pass these books, these stories, these messages and ultimately, these memories, down to my children when they have a house full of children ready to read and learn.  There are the classics, like Carle, Silverstein and Seuss which get a lot of play but we also love picking up fun books whenever we travel.  We have children's books in French, German, Dutch, and Spanish.  Not that I can read most of them, but we make up our own stories to the illustrations.  One of our favorites is Jakkes een spinn!, a great book we found in Maastricht, Netherlands.  A story all about a spider and his human family.  A turned-upside-down point of view on family and a wonderful story about acceptance and loving even the creepies.  We read a lot of french books since we are a true Franco-American family, but one of my favorites is a book called Prout de Mammouth.  A hilarious book about how everyone farts.  We laugh so hard every time.

The Big Question, by Wolf Erlbruch, was a gift to Mila from her cousin, Oscar and what a gift it was.  This sweet book with awesome illustration covers the subject of "why are we here?", but the best part is that in the back, there is a log so that over the years, you can journal your kid's (funny and cute) responses to the question.  

Then there is the collection of books that I have on display in our family room.  They are beautifully vintage and while we do read them, quite frankly, I just love the look of them on our shelf.  The first one, Peppermint Fences, was an acquisition from my mom.  She read this as a child and after a bit of research I found the rest of the collection on Amazon from used book dealers.  I love the Internet. 

the dean of mod, owls and our nest

We've made a home (finally) here in Ann Arbor, but the man who built our house is Mr. Robert Metcalf.  A distinguished man who lives just round the corner and at 87 years young, is an architect, former Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Michigan and I believe, a local legend. 

We had the pleasure of having him as a guest at our home last spring.  The picture above was taken of our living room right after it was built in 1969.  It was so wonderful to meet Mr. Metcalf, share our home with him and hear his inspirations, motivations for using certain materials, and best of all, his stories.  Those I'll keep to myself, but I am excited to share with you an article from the Winter 2010/11 issue of Detroit Home featuring his perfectly mid-century modern home, built with the love of his wife, Betty.  I was able to visit his house and am in awe of how fantastic each and every corner is.  Although I would love to have, but could never afford every single thing in his gorgeous house, including the Nakashima, I am totally in love with those cute owls (and the story behind them) on his buffet and think a "copy cat display" here at the Gadaix home is in order!
http://www.detroithomemag.com/Detroit-Home/Winter-2010/The-Dean-of-Mod/ 

Design*Sponge and Ann Arbor

Recently, I wrote an Ann Arbor city guide for Design*Sponge, a delightful blog that I follow.  Now that I'm a proud blog owner, I would love to share it with all of you.  With the help of Nicole Ray (illustrator) and the advise of some awesome friends, I pulled together a guide for anyone who wants to explore Ann Arbor.  Enjoy!
http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/10/ann-arbor-city-guide.html