I’ve been posting gift ideas as I come upon them for the last month. This one covers a lot of ground; from survival gear to the tech-y to the perfect gift for your mother-in-law. For whatever I lack in depth, I hope to make up for in breadth. You have my sister Tate to thank for this edition; she’s been at me for the last week to publish this.
1.While this may not be for everyone, this survival backpack full of survival supplies ($99) would make my Christmas, as I’m an erstwhile survivalist. To each their own. [click to continue…]
It is grey and overcast in NYC today. This glassy canal in France is making me think of long summer days and picnics on the grass. Found in this month’s Elle Decor.
I just noticed that Etsy seller Clip and Pin is selling a sweet Advent Calendar. Or, if you want to go my paper bag route, she also sells the mini paper clips. PS are you on the Etsy mailing lists? I signed up a few months ago for the Daily Find email newsletter and they always full of great products and a nice way to navigate the Etsy universe. The sign up is in the My Account section, under emails.
I don’t know about you, but I feel hung over from the retail discouting onslaught of the past few days. It seems so desperate. We’ve been practicing living with less in the last six months and it has given me a new prespective on consuming, especially days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Barbara Kruger has always been a favorite of mine and I thought this Selfridges Campaign was particularly great. While acknowledging the irony of this next statement, I keep hoping one of these signs will pop up on Ebay.
I’ve been spread thin this past month and haven’t been doing as much reading as usual. However, here are two recent favorites.
NewYorker.com: Famous Names Fascinating look at how products get named (from the October 3rd issue).
Slate.com: The Death of Titles All about why movies have terrible titles like “Snakes on a Plane” or “Tower Heist”
These images of “shelfscapes” were taken by Ray Eames. I found these images on the Library of Congress website — as part of a great microsite (is that what they are still called?) on the Work of Charles and Ray Eames. Lots of great images, but, I found the most interesting bit was this:
Multi-screen slide shows were perhaps the Eameses most effective method for presenting everyday things in new ways and relationships. Encompassing an enormous breadth of subject matter, the slide shows were assembled for school courses and lectures as well as for corporate events. For these elaborate presentations, the Eameses drew upon their meticulously catalogued collection of approximately 350,000 slides: their very own “cabinet of curiosity.”
I translate this to mean Charles and Ray would have been great bloggers.
Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, The Work of Charles and Ray Eames, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-E21-P564-B]
We got our Christmas tree last night (!! I’ve never gotten a tree so early and I LOVE it !!). For those of you who don’t live in NYC, they sell trees on every other street corner. The same hippie guys come every year to our corner — they literally live on the street corner in a van for the entire six weeks before Christmas. They are so sweet and a dose of country in our chaotic city. I love this photo my sister took of the three of us. Ashely and Aron recently posted about how nice it is to have someone take a photo of your family — so true! My smile is so genuine it makes me realize how fake most of my smiles are in photographs.
We had a nice Thanksgiving in New York — we checked out the Parade and had an amazing Korean-American Thanksgiving in Brooklyn with our oldest New York friends. I still have a little glow from the warmth of their family and the delicious meal.
Our Thanksgiving plans changed at the last minute and instead of being in Boston with family we’re staying in NYC. This is our first Thanksgiving in New York in all the years we’ve lived here. It’s more peaceful than I would have thought.
I’ve been thinking about a Barbara Pym quote Stephanie sent me: “The small things of life were often so much bigger than the great things … the trivial pleasure like cooking, one’s home, little poems especially sad ones, solitary walks, funny things seen and overheard.”
So, today I’m thankful for all the small things in my life. I’ve been doing some letterpress printing at The Arm in Brooklyn. The quote “All is not yet lost” hangs on the wall as you enter and I find it so reassuring, especially in these troubled times we’re slogging through. Then, I stopped yesterday to take this photo of how beautiful the yellow ginko leaves are against the rainy dusk. Happy Thanksgiving!
I found this table setting yesterday in a November 1955 issue of House Beautiful — I was inspired by the simple use of leaves (magnolia?) and oranges. And, of course, the huge fruit and rooster arrangement is pretty awesome. I hope everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving, complete with lots of pie, of course!
I’m not one for food hype — in fact, nothing depresses me more than overhyped food (Eatly as a notable recent example). However, I am confident that I’m not overhypeing the chocolate layer cake at The Chocolate Room in Cobble Hill when I say it is the best in NYC. It is everything a chocolate cake should be, which is moist with a good ratio of not too sweet frosting to cake. Tim’s birthday was on Sunday, and we made a special trip to Brooklyn just for this cake (much to the amazement of the nice man who took my order).
PS It is also an amazing date place for Brooklynites — a movie at the Cobble Hill Cinema followed by chocolate cake at The Chocolate Room.
Thanks to amazing M for introducing me to these and many other NYC delights — you light up my life!
I’ve wanted to blog about this building on the way to the Brooklyn Ikea for years — like every time we drive by I think “I should take a photo and blog about that” and by the time I get my camera out the moment has passed. However, this past weekend I managed to anticipate my desire and snapped this one photo as we cruised past. It was only when I went to post it that I realized I’d captured a cranky Alex and my oddly disembodied hands too. While I know that snapshots with rearview windows in them are a clique of the snapshot oeuvre, there is still something about this photo pleases me; it captures an amazing cultural sign — I mean I always think about what 99 cent dreams must be and it also perfectly captures the chaotic energy of heading to Ikea with a 2.5 year old in tow.
As the dark afternoons start to get me down I turn to two things; buying amaryllis plants (I love watching them grow and bloom in this darkest season) and planning my advent calendars. Before I had a kiddo I’d make them for all the ladies in my life. Now, Alex is the sole beneficiary of my Advent love. Last year I made an advent calendar from stripped paper bags from In The Clear — Alex loved it (so did Martha Stewart!). I’m gearing up to do it again this year. The hardest part is finding cheap toys — last year I scored at a used toy sale in Westchester. This year I’m going to use stickers and some Etsy finds plus some small $1 toys from my favorite West Side Kids.
If Alex was a little older, Garnet Hill sells a set of 25 stocking stuffers that would be perfect for this project for $36.
I saw this awesome Star Wars themed Advent Calendar and thought of an older kid I know who would love this!
This weekend is all about lots of freelance work and birthday planning for Tim (whose birthday is tomorrow!!). This week’s pins all about the kitchen can all be found here.
