Making Me (Really) Happy... (in no particular order)

The giant bag of grapefruits I bought at the Whole Foods for $6.99... resulting in the luxury of getting to enjoy a (crazy sweet/delicious) grapefruit every. single. day. for the past week and a half. Good stuff.

The two lovely, thoughtful, smart "magazines" that arrived in my mailbox this week: the 3191 Winter Quarterly and the new Anthology.

Man I love print...

Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt. Addicted. It's a bad scene.

image via this tumblr (which, I have to say, sports a pretty hilarious name)

The fact that both girlies told us excitedly over dinner last night that it was Theodor Gisel's birthday today...That they knew that fact and they knew that Dr. Seuss' real name was Theodor Gisel made Bryan and me immensely happy to say the least...

The salad bowl that Bryan's mom bought me for Christmas (that glass number above). I use it all the time, and I have to say it is a perfect salad bowl...it's just the right size for a big salad, and it's wide so all the good bits (like the cheese and the nuts) don't all sink to the bottom.

The musical stylings of Cake (the girlies are obsessed...they especially love the horns and the clever lyrics). But specifically the musical stylings of Cake playing on our iPad in the kitchen.

Music in the kitchen is a total game changer.

The fact that my sister Jennifer and her sweet baby Josie are flying in tonight from California for a visit. This one is making me happiest at all, so I suppose there was a bit of an order to this after all.


What's making you happy today?

Some Happy Makers...

an intensely happy spot... (the home of Valentin Loellmann in Maastricht via Pia Jane)

Every once in a while I go back and re-read this post just to make sure I'm following my own "prescription" and, well...doing the things that actually make me happy. And I should note that going back to that "happy makers" list is an especially helpful tactic when I'm feeling on the brink of a little funk. (Which quite frankly, might be my situation of late between the mid-summer heat and blahs and being a bit under the weather -- never fun.)

Here's the actual list in case you're wondering ;-)

Cooking a great meal / Riding my bike / Listening to music / Road trips / Reading / Seeing art / Spending time with inspiring women / Making things with my hands / Being fully unplugged...

So late last week I did just that, and so far it seems to be working... I've tried to hit everything on the list in the past few days (with the exception of riding my bike, due to the aforementioned heat wave/being sick), but I thought I'd share a few highlights...a few major "happy makers" if you will.

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In the music category, there's Feist's Paris performance of "1234" and "Mushaboom"... Bryan sent this to me a while back. It's utterly genius and lovely. You must watch...

There's also this trailer, which, yes I know, has been all over blog-land, but it's on my list not so much for the movie (which does indeed look fantastic) but for the song in the trailer (again with the music) -- “I’ll Try Anything Once,” a low-key demo version of the 2006 Strokes song “You Only Live Once"... again genius + lovely...another must watch.


In the reading category, I've just started Willard Spiegelman's book Seven Pleasures -- Essays on Ordinary Happiness. Spiegelman explores the idea that there are seven core practices/activities that (for him) lead to sanguinity: "reading, walking, looking, dancing, listening, swimming and writing." I like his thinking...I'm digging this book.

Finally Christine and I are taking a batik class later this week, and we're in the midst of planning a fun event together in September...so check and check on "spending time with inspiring women" and "making things with my hands."

I've yet to unplug though, and I'm feeling the need (desperately) to do it, as I've been pretty tethered to my computer of late. I'm thinking I'll go completely tech-free this weekend. We'll see how that goes...

So anything making you particularly happy these days??

Just A Few Random Bits...

This is the sweetest video ever (thank you Lucia!) Audrey and I have watched it countless times... Speaking of Audrey's Paris obsession, I told her I was taking her someplace special this weekend (more on that later) and her immediate response was, "You're taking me to Paris?!"

You gotta give it to her, that girl dreams big.

One day Audrey, one day...I promise.

I can't stop listening to the new Vampire Weekend. Particulaly "Run", which reminds me a bit of all the best New Wave songs... (I swear there's a New Order sample tucked into that tune.)

How awesome is this pillow from SeeSaw vintage? Seriously those ladies have the best taste.

Case in point...the lovely image below (via SeeSaw) from the April Elle Decor. L.O.V.E

Thursday's Tunes

Since it IS Thursdsay, I thought I'd join in S. Krishna's weekly blog post Thursday's Tunes.



I don't have speakers at work so I hope this turns out ok. I usually star things on Google Reader with sound and look at them at home. But I was listening to my iPod on the subway this morning on shuffle and this song came on.

Artist: The New Pornographers
Song: Challengers
Album: Challengers

I love love Neko Case's voice. She does her own solo albums as well as belong in the band The New Pornographers.

I just found this video now and think it's beautiful and slightly creepy. I can't wait to go home and check it out with sound. Enjoy!

Music to Match the Decor? HUH.

Okay, make me a soundtrack!

In my usual reading of my favorite section of the New York Times, Home and Garden, there is a new trend of matching music with your interior design called Audio Architecture. Here is the article. You can hire someone to to take a look at your space, style, interests etc and they will create play lists for you that will play throughout your house. Houses are now coming with ipod docks built into them so you can control the music in all part of your house. I definitely love to put on music while I clean, but is this a little bit much? Undecided. Some music interior designers charge up to $250 for an hour of music and you can purchase as many hours as you would like. They will design it for different times of day as well! One of the companies is in New York, called Audiostiles. You can have this done at home and in the office! Will it help with productivity?




A client says, "I love that I don’t have to think about what to put on. It’s already done for me." Doesn't this sort of take all the fun out of making a mix? Are we now paying people to make what I grew up calling a MIX TAPE?? I wonder what sort of music someone would choose for me? People walk to work with ipods, there is music at work, and now at home. Is our life being made into one big soundtrack? Something to think about I suppose. Wow, that got deep at the end.

Alicia B.

Good Music Good Food

As summer wraps up I am starting to read less and get a bit ansy. I know it will go away once fall and winter set in. There is nothing better than curling up at a favorite coffee shop, watching the snow flakes wisk around outside, and read a book.

So I will try and post some of the fun NYC things we've been doing in the meantime.

A few weekends ago my husband and I met a couple friends out and headed to the Blues BBQ which was at Pier 54 and W. 14th Street. It was fun walking past some of the old meat packing district shops. As it was a hot and sunny day, I couldn't imagine the place as it was back then...all stinky with butcher shops. Now they are all designer clothing shops and funky little bars and clubs. But it's got a great old-time industrial feel for it. Here's the entrance to the pier and Blues BBQ fest:
Up and down the pier there were stand selling yummy smelling BBQ. There were stands for the following yummy NYC BBQ joints: Brother Jimmy’s BBQ, Dallas Jones Bar-B-Que, Dinosaur Bar B Que and Mara’s Homemade. Here's us standing in line for the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. I love the guy sharpening and cleaning his huge knife:
Mmmm....and here's our haul. The ribs were my husband's while the brisket sandwich was mine.
It was a beautiful night and I loved watching the colors change as the sun went down.
And I had to get a picture of the pig hanging in this stand. Don't worry it wasn't a real pig:
With our bellies full and satiated we maneuvered up to the stage and sat and watched an awesome performance from the Alexis P. Suter Band. Boy she can wail and put on a good performance. She had the whole crowd riled up and clapping (some dancing) along.

I snapped one last picture before we headed home. That's the Empire State Building all lit up in the background.
Hope you enjoyed our little BBQ/Blues fest! For other good NYC BBQ events, check out my post on the Big Apple BBQ.

iPodding Along...Long Way

Moral of the Story: buy your iPod at the store

I know everyone loves their iPod and I'm no exception. I have a iPod video that I can't commute without. But I decided to buy my husband and myself iPod shuffles for working out and running when I saw and ad which stated free shipping! How cool! Two iPod Shuffles, two silly "free" engravings to motivate us to run, and poof...they are shipped out. All was fine until I noticed where they were shipping them from: SUZHOU CN. Hmm...Connecticut?? Nope...CHINA. Wow. I should have just walked my butt to the nearest Apple store. So how many miles am I going to have to run or walk to offset the carbon footprint on this purchase?

Study Night Failure...More Power!

Ok...so last night we were going to do study night at the library. Well, I had to work until six and I checked and the library only stayed open until 7:30. For a town that "never sleeps" they sure do close libraries early around here. So we decided to grab some sushi and got home before our dog walker arrived. So no harm done. My husband did some homework and I procrastinated and watched a bit of "Gone with the Wind".

Tonight though we get to go to a concert!!! Back when we lived in Las Vegas I took the bus to and from work for quite a few months before I got a car. I used to walk to the bus stop listening to my then favorite CD The Greatest by Cat Power (click the link to hear the CD). So for Christmas my husband bought me one of her CDs and two tickets to her concert for tonight. It was so sweet. I don't really know many people yet who would go yet so I have to drag along my husband to see it. I know he'd probably rather be doing something else but he is being super sweet and being great about going with me.