Things I Like

In the spirit of this consumptive season (not the TB sanitarium kind, the buy-a-lot-of-stuff kind - and as a tangent, there is a packaged food maker in NZ called Sanitarium and every time I would pick up some Skippy Cornflakes all I could think of was bloody handkerchiefs when I'm pretty sure they were hoping I would be reminded of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, maker of the most insipid addictive theme song ever) but anyway 'tis indeed the season of liking stuff. Isn't that what the Baby Jesus done got born for? So I like:

Podcasts for Running
You know, I've tried the Couch Potato to 5K regime before, fooling with printouts and digital watches and even buying a stopwatch - when duh, the perfect solution was in my iTunes for free all along. He tells you when to run. He tells you when to slow down. He plays annoying but somehow motivating techno music that you would never own. This is only my second week but at this point I look forward to the dark and the cold and my Nike hoody which somehow makes me feel like some kind of runner and the views of the lake and the Christmas light but I would honestly not get out of bed at 5:30 without the promise of this podcast. We'll see if it lasts.

I went to the Urban Craft Uprising which was full of other people of my demographic, which always wigs me out. If the building had blown up, where would all the knit armwarmers come from? But I did see a few things I completely coveted and that are somewhat poorly represented online. Reminder: real life sometimes trumps Etsy.

I don't wear a lot of jewelry because on me it looks wrong wrong wrong but I was mesmerized by the necklaces and earrings of Material and Movement. She makes them from old porcelain teacups and in person I could NOT stop staring. And coming back. And cursing the fact that I look awful in necklaces. And that she doesn't have an Etsy shop full of them that I can show you and buy.

Similarily, I thought and thought and thought about the Hasenpfeffer Dolls for Simone. But could not bring myself to pony up $100 and then live in fear that she would "wreck" a toy. Hands down these are the most solid, sweetest, loveliest dolls I've ever seen in person. Individually knit sweaters by a Finnish grandmother! So amazing.

There are plenty of silk-screeners out there but the Slide-Sideways booth made me pause and stay for a good long while and appreciate their gentle, interesting aesthetic. I would like the ice cream print please.

Although they are not reinventing the wheel or anything I very much wanted the kelly green bag by Snap design - just so simple and practical which is so goddamned hard to find.

I also spent a long time going through the bags of mugwhump, particularly the line she made from a Betty Crocker kids cookbook of the 60's - squee! They aren't on her site, but I assure you, people were snapping em up.

Lest you think I just like buying stuff, I also went to see the documentary Kings of Pastry and enjoyed the hell out of it. It gave me a little more of a insight into the French brains I work with and why they are so detail-oriented and pretty goddamned serious., Plus, there was lots of food. And drama. And this really lovely male respect and showing of emotions that American males would do well to study. Recommend! Also, I love the NW Film Forum for being in my neighborhood and playing excellent films.

In other news, I am failing Christmas. We only bothered with our silver tree, I'm not sure we have a stocking for Simone, and our advent is woeful. Woeful. Tied to this is how I can ONLY think and talk about work these days. It is so annoying. I swore I would never be the type of person who thinks about work all the time, but here I am, through necessity, doing just that. Even running my mind is on lesson plans. If I stay at this job, I may just morph from faintly dull to outright boring. Or have I already done that?