Thursday, April 28, 2011

A Taste of the Islands (Mon)

Imagine the quandary.  One digs the industrial aesthetic, but one has limited options.  Then one gets two catalogs back to back.  Exhibit A:


This is West Elm's interpretation.

Exhibit B:
A disconcertingly similar offering from Crate & Barrel

The difference?  Two Benjamins.  As a sidenote, I would love to have the specs chart in B.  Which would you prefer?  I'd take every seating option shown in both pictures, too.

What's a boy to do?

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Tip for the Day

Let's just put it in plain terms.  If you can do something for someone else (no matter how small or large), please do it.  This could include donating to a charity, smiling at someone as you walk by, or pulling your car up so that someone else can get around you.  It's just going to make the world a better place.  Trust me. 


Spoons?  Well, sure.  Why not?  This picture is from Real Simple.

Monday, April 25, 2011

How Did You Get This Number

I thought I had posted about Sloane Crosley's first book (I Was Told There'd Be Cake), but I guess I'm mistaken.  In the vein of David Sedaris, Crosley has made a name for herself by composing books of short stories/essays.  I read her first book with reckless abandon because it was just so darn funny.  She's roughly my age, so I can relate to a lot of her references of cartoons and foods and the like.


I was pumped when her latest book, How Did You Get This Number, came out last year.  It took that long for me to be able to check it out of the library, but I'm glad I did.  There are stories about running into one of the 'mean girls' from her younger days, scoring some discounted homewares, and taking a solo international trip. 

While there was at least one good laugh for each story, it was nowhere near as endearing as her debut collection.  With that one, I could not put it down.  Nope.  Not at all.  This one was a bit less consuming, if you'll allow me to say so.  Well, of course you will.  I think that there was just less overall nostalgia in this book, to be honest, but it's still worth a read...after you get her first book.  Here's a notable passage from page 152:

"When your classmates move away, it seems impossible that they could ever come back.  As if the world's events since have happened to you but not to them.  It's the reason you can look at your middle-school yearbook and still see your peers.  But someone else's middle-school yearbook looks like a bunch of thirteen-year-olds."

Monday, April 18, 2011

More Nummy/Specs Milestone

Well, well.  I'm a little behind, aren't I?  All I can say is that work has been bonkers.  I was on call the last week/weekend.  And it's like a prison sentence.  The weekend before that I made some peanut butter/chocolate chip cookies.  Again, I used the recipe from Smitten Kitchen (minus the rolling sugar).

Tah dah.  It also passed me by that my last post was # 200 on the ol' Specs Appeal.  Yay!

How have you been?