blah to TADA!: The Design Sponge Newspaper

Did you have a wonderful weekend? I hope you did in spite of the scorching heat. I did have a good one with a relaxing barbecue with friends.

When I was working on my "Shopping Tour of New York City", I found this special edition newspaper from Design Sponge. If you're not familiar, Design Sponge is an awesome blog featuring beautiful home tours, unique handmade products, easy cooking and craft ideas, fun city guides, as well as home-based business advice.

Last year, founder Grace Bonney launched the book "Design Sponge at Home". The first Design Sponge newspaper was launched alongside the book. I made a mad dash all around Manhattan and Brooklyn for a copy, but I went home empty-handed. The free newspaper was so popular, they were wiped out immediately.

So you can imagine the little happy dance I made when I saw this newspaper! It's no longer free, but the $5.00 I paid was worth it. If you want to get a copy, here's how. I think the editors plan to make this newspaper a summer tradition. Yippee!

The theme of this newspaper is "Summer Camp" -- a tradition for many young Americans, and a tribute to the 100th year anniversary of the Girl Scouts.

Swimming/Making S'mores/Bunk beds

I was a Girl Scout, but I never went to summer camp. But who hasn't seen "camp life" in the movies -- the buses that shuttle everyone to the property, the fond goodbyes to mom and dad, the bunk beds, thrilling outdoor activities like canoeing and archery, swimming in the lake, and gathering around the campfire to make S'mores.

Inside the newspaper, there are lots of "things to make". Isn't that one of camp's lessons -- to create things with your bare hands? The tent in the photo reminds me of the tent my brother and I made when we were little. We tied three ends of a thin blanket to our bedroom windows. This served as the "roof", while the droopy end was the "door". Inside, we'd lay a sleeping bag and lots of pillows {blah to TADA!, right?}. When the lights were turned off, we pretended we were sleeping outdoors. That was our imaginary camp experience.