Daily Eye Candy

Just popping in for a quickie:Jonathan Adler can do no wrong. This is manly enough for an XY cave, but I would really like it in my kitchen so I can start fires with the greatest of ease...$42.

Among other things...

As an amendment to last week's Glee post, I do have to give them props for breaking out "Conjunction Junction." I forgot about this hilarious addition in the midst of all of all the heady horror.

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Last week, two separate couples that we love produced two beautiful, bouncing boys in two successive days. All mamas and all babies are doing well, and we wish them the best. We were able to visit the hometown couple and their little Owen in the hospital the day after he was born!And I didn't drop him or anything! It's unbelievable how tiny and perfect babies are, and that one day they will grow up to be whole entire people that will go to work and drive cars and eat steak. How ridiculous is that?

Is it getting hot in here, or is that just baby fever?

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And finally, my parents (unofficially) sold their house. They close sometime in the next thirty days, and I'm feeling a galling mix of both sadness and relief. I am happy that they won't have to worry about the home's maintenance anymore, but how can I say good-bye to my childhood home? I find it impossible to get rid of old birthday and thank you cards, but a whole house? It's going to be hard.

Friday Fashion: Someone's in the kitchen with Dina

Certain people in my life who shall go unnamed have been clamoring for a Christmas list of late, which I've found quite difficult to compose this year. I just can't think of anything I need. Really! Until I saw these:I KNOW, RIGHT? INDIVIDUAL CUPCAKE PEDESTALS. No, if you were wondering, nothing in life is more adorable than these. Set of 6, $42. I read somewhere that they are on sale for $35.

So the adorableness started me thinking about warm holiday baking, and then I started contemplating aprons again. I know I've covered aprons before, like in this post, but they are just so darn cute, especially the aprons from Anthropologie! I want to wear one as I gently place a freshly baked apple pie to cool on an open windowsill while leaning out and hollering to the well-muscled farmhands that, "Suppa's redday!"
Three-Star Apron, $32.Trousseau Apron, $38.Winter Iris Apron, $32.

The only problem with these aprons is that they are far too pretty to actually wear while I bake! No matter how hard I try to be neat, I inevitably end up with food coloring stained fingers, flour dusting my front, and icing smeared on my pants. How could I subject these beauties to that horror?

The most recent Glee-tastrophe

So, here's the thing. When I was a little girl, I wanted to grow up and marry Gene Kelly.

I would sit down on the couch with my dad and lose myself in classics like Singin' in the Rain, An American in Paris, and Brigadoon. If I couldn't marry him, then at least I wanted to be Cyd Charisse so I could taste his sweet, sweet, entirely heterosexual kisses. Later, when I watched an aged Gene Kelly in Xanadu, I knew he still had the magic, even if the movie was awful (awfully, unintentionally hilarious, that is).

I remember listening to the news in 1996 and learning that he had died, and it was tragic.

He is a legend. And I will unabashedly pronounce that Glee shat upon his work in their most recent episode by mashing up "Singin' in the Rain" with Rihanna's "Umbrella." And Gwyneth Paltrow, for God's sake.

And so I ask you, Glee producers, plaintively, beseechingly:

What. The. Fuck.

Daily Eye Ear Candy

Enjoy this Daily Eye Ear Candy. I just learned about The Mountain Goats from an article on mental_floss.com.

Awesome.

Frustration

Of late, not a week goes by that Husband and I do not receive numerous mail solicitations from charitable organizations. This in and of itself is not troublesome. What gives me pause is that several months ago, after the Gulf oil spill, we donated to a few respectable organizations that do good, important work in the world. And then we were sold.

I realize that selling donor information is a viable source of income for some organizations. The buyers are likely from causes in a similar vein of interest, so it makes sense to buy the names and cold contact the people. What bothers me is the volume that we receive; I would estimate at least five pieces of solicitous mail per week, if not more, often intermittently from the same organizations over and over again. And it is the "over and over again" that really has started to get under my skin.

The amount of our original donation has surely been doubled, tripled, possibly even quadrupled by the cost of all of these organizations' mailing pieces. I am certain that our money has done no good but to buy reams and reams of paper and many gallons of fuel in order to solicit more donations (so that more mail may be sent?).

Donating to charitable organizations is important. Everyone should give what they can. But it is also good to have a plan in place, laying out the organizations that you support. For me, all the cold solicitations create is more recycling.

So, Smile Train (for example), I absolutely admire the work that you do. You make disfigured children whole again, most certainly bettering their future social and professional lives. But I fear that if I send you my pennies, you will only use them to print more leaflets with weeping children.

Daily Eye Candy

Today's Daily Eye Candy will take a few more of your moments, but will be so worth your time. Enjoy E. B. White's short story "Death of a Pig" from The Atlantic. It is both macabre and delightful, so skillfully written as to make me weep with envy.Pig image from here.

Daily Eye Candy: King's Daughters Inn

I journeyed to Durham, North Carolina for a week-in-residence recently, and I was put up in the King's Daughters Inn, a completely renovated home built in 1911 that originally provided subsidized housing for single, elderly women. I am neither single nor elderly (just ignore my previous posts about "Murder, She Wrote"...), but I adored this gorgeous inn. The renovations joined several single rooms into suites, and the interior is both contemporary (with vintage touches) and unique. No two suites are alike, and when you make your reservation you can go online and pick exactly which room to stay in!

I chose the Tyree Suite, which was feminine and very, very pink:The bed was actually ridiculously comfortable. I've never experienced such a comfortable bed away from home. When I arrived, the proprietor carried my luggage to my room, and the proprietress herself served me a complimentary breakfast every morning in a stunning dining room (eggs, toast, bacon, and sausage, made to order). The bathroom was small but just enough for one girl with too many beauty products.There was a nice writing desk and mounted television (I had forgotten how much I hate commercials!). Plus, each room is equipped with a Mac mini. Srsly. (However, I will confess that I have no idea what to actually do with a Mac mini and never touched the thing. But still. Very cool.)A sweet little bottle of wine was left for the guest's enjoyment (though at $13 per bottle, this guest did not partake).But who needs wine when you get this for free? Each night I returned to my room and was greeted by the warm lights turned on, my bed turned down, and an evening glass of port and dark chocolates. Such a wonderful touch!The building is exceedingly lovely and beats a Radisson or Marriott any day. I highly recommend this inn if you are traveling in the Durham area. I would love to return for a pleasure trip with Husband sometime! The city and Duke campus are beautiful, and to have a place to return to each night that was such high caliber was a pure treat.

Daily Eye Candy

I've been away, and now I am back. Pictures are pending. In the meantime...oooo...Pantone!Pantone 4 Pack, $44.