Artist Caroline Z Hurley is the founder of the eponymous design studio that offers beautifully crafted textiles for the home, dedicated to the handmade, the personal and the artistic love of process and craft. The Brooklyn by-way-of Memphis designer is also mom to Penny, wife to Alex, and pregnant with baby number two, which makes for some pretty fun balancing work in trying to care for herself, her business and her brood.
Here, Caroline shares the in’s and out’s of her day, complete with early wake ups, breakfast reading, quality time with the hubs and how she takes her penchant for the cozy lifestyle she designs at work into everything she does at home.
4:45 – 5 am: Penny starts making noises in her crib. I walk to our kitchen past Penny’s room to warm milk hoping that in that time period she magically puts herself back to sleep which hardly ever happens!
5 am – 5:30 am: I walk into Penny’s room, pick her up and give her a squeeze and a big kiss and compliment her on sleeping through the night if she does happen to do so. I carry her to our bedroom where Alex and I sleep and we all get cozy while Penny drinks her milk. She flops around all over our bed (and our faces!) and makes the funniest little sounds that really get me in the right state of mind for the day.
5:30 – 6 am: I walk to the living room with Penny and let my husband Alex sleep for a bit longer. Penny and I make my coffee together – she is shockingly good at it now. I scramble some eggs and pop some She Wolf bread in the toaster for a penny.
6 – 7 am: Penny and I graze on breakfast together while peeling and sticking scratch and sniff stickers on everything in sight. Then, we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar followed by Here We Are by Oliver Jeffers. We go to our new baby’s unfinished room and jump on the single mattress that sits on the floor (lots to do before baby number two!).
7 – 8 am: Alex wakes and takes penny while I shower, I have a photoshoot for our new fabric by the yard collection that will take a lot of my focus.
8 – 9 am: Our nanny arrives and tidies up the mess Penny and I made. This is one of the greatest luxuries to me. I have such a hard time thinking clearly when there is a mess around! (I will have to get better at it though as I am sure with two it will be pretty impossible to keep anything tidy). I pack up Penny’s bag for the day filled with chicken and veggie soup, snacks galore, diapers and extra warm layers.
9 am: Penny, Alex and I all walk out the door, Penny goes to the park with her nanny, Alex goes to his office and I go to the flower district to pick up fresh flowers then head to our location in the West Village for our photoshoot. I am styling today as our creative director is out sick.
10 am – 12 pm: I arrive on set and start styling and get to work on setting up all our shots from our shot list. we get through things quickly and I’m feeling good about our new collection!
12:30 – 1 pm: I order the team Tacombi and we break for lunch. I facetime Penny while she eats her soup in the park with her nanny.
1 – 2:30 pm: Penny’s nanny strolls with her in the park while she naps while I finish our shoot and wrap things up.
3 – 3:30 pm: I am back home with Penny and we dance on the couch to the lion king (her new favorite obsession). she likes to be lifted like Simba in the circle of life song, which is getting harder and harder to do with this belly I have. We run around the house and play hide and go seek another one of her favorite things to do
3:30 – 4:30 pm: Penny and I walk to Green Grape Provisions to get some fresh beef and veggies for dinner. We talk all along the way about what we see in both Spanish and English. I’m so incredibly shocked at how many words she knows in both languages. mind blowing!
4:30 – 5:30 pm: I set Penny up in her kitchen ladder with a cooking station where she peels the garlic while I chop the onion. We cook together which is so fun because she is actually starting to be helpful. At a certain point she gets bored and I move her to the sink where she plays with measuring cups and other kitchen tools while I finish cooking.
5:30 – 6 pm: I sit with Penny while she eats. She likes to move around while she eats. She starts in the high chair and quickly asks to get out so it’s generally a pretty messy situation. Apparently my mom tells me I was a very active eater too! I would only eat when I was on the move.
6 – 6:30 pm: Alex gets home and I let Penny and her father have quality time together while I clean up the kitchen and get her room and bathroom ready for bath.
6:30 – 6:50 pm: I give Penny a bath which she is finally super into. She really luxuriates in there now. We have this really funny blow up bath that sits inside our bath because I realized at a certain point that Penny likes to be in small containers and our bath is quite big for her still. we sing and laugh a lot then walk to her bedroom where we put on pjs and her sleep sack.
6:50 – 7:15 pm: Alex reads to Penny then puts her to sleep while I get our food ready for dinner. We try to always have a pretty strict lights out policy in our house – no later than 7:15 pm! We didn’t do the whole sleep training thing so we found that if we are consistent with the timing of bed she’s more likely to go down without a fuss.
7:15 – 8 pm: Alex and I have dinner (usually a mix of what I fed to Penny plus anything else I feel like making).
8 – 9 pm: Alex and I are watching the Bridge of Spies but we have to break it up into parts because we are both too tired to stay awake any longer!
9 – 9:10 pm: We brush our teeth, wash our faces and I put on a thick layer of Egyptian Magic on my face and hands. I am SO dry this winter.
9:15 pm: Lights out! night night!
