Month: July 2008

Elsewhere

I’m doing some copy writing for JC Penney’s Home Style Guide blog, and they just put up my post about how we collect clocks that don’t work. I also put together an alarm clock shopping guide at the bottom, so if you need one, go have a look.

Haus Warming

Today is a very good day. Today, my friends, we are a launching a new Mighty!

Cut to me assuming various pseudo martial arts postures, and then flexing my spellbinding muscles.

Welcome to Mighty Haus:

Many, many dozens of you took our polls, and it turns out the thing you wanted most was a house site. And so, Mighty Haus is our shopping site for nesters. We’re focused on designs that solve problems for you, and mundane objects made beautiful.

Also, the new site has a couple of new features available on Mighty Goods and Mighty Junior as well. First, you can now sort objects by price! You’ll find the much-requested View by Price link under the “Looking for a Gift?” header in the left column. Second, we’ve added Kirtsy this buttons to our posts and articles, for ease of Kirtsy-ing.

Anyway, how are you still reading? Go look! Go look! We’ll wait here.

Julis Rothman and Caitlin Keegan at Rare Device

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My fun thing for yesterday was stopping by the Julia Rothman/Caitlin Keegan opening at Rare Device. There were so many women there who I’ve admired at a distance online but had never met in person, and every one of them was exactly as charming as I’d imagined them to be. Strange, no? You’d expect at least one of them to surprisingly catty, or awkwardly silent, or falling over drunk — something. But no! They were just fun, and well scrubbed, and generally happy with life. It was nice.

Among the pleasant run ins was Elizabeth from Browner Brown and Apartment Therapy San Francisco, Natalie who makes beautiful things for her shop Miss Natalie, and Evany who always makes everything better than it was before she got there.

I was especially thrilled to see Grace of DesignSponge, who was out from Brooklyn for the show. I’ve been wanting to meet her for years, and it turns out she’s aptly named. I refrained from grabbing her by the shoulders and cheering, because I’m so excited about everything she’s done in building her business. I held back mostly because I was wearing shoes that made me four feet taller than her, and I thought yelping in her face might be a little much on first meeting. Perhaps next time.

I also ran into Shoshana, the founding editor of ReadyMade Magazine, whom I’d never met — despite working on the ReadyMade blog, exchanging emails about cool old houses for sale, and having lots of friends in common. We started talking because I was making faces at her baby, and it took us a few minutes to figure out that we already knew each other.

All that, and I was in bed by 10:30. What a great night.

Mighty Update

This week, Design Mom and Kirtsy Founder Gabrielle Blair is our genius Guest Editor at Mighty Junior. She really went above and beyond, so check in to see what she’s coveting this week.

In other news at the mighties, Melissa just finished up the Go Play Outside! Backyard Guide, and I’m working on aWedding Guest Dresses for Under $100 feature at Mighty Goods. Which, by the way? Was harder than anyone expected. Why are dresses so expensive? Yikes.

Overheard: Drugs, Women

Scenario: A young man in his mid-twenties talking on his cell as he walks home from work.

“I know what you’re saying. I hear you. Willpower, homes. It’s gonna be hard to go out, have a good time, have some drinks, and not hit that. But that’s where willpower comes in.

Flea Market Finds

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Excellent finds from Sunday’s Alameda Flea Market:

-A little yellow dish for keeping hair bands and such on my dresser
-A black and white ruffly hair cover, which I’m going to pin up and wear as a collar
-An incredible Bill Blass ball gown ($14!). I think I may cut it off at the waist and wear it as a shirt, because I’ll get so much more use out of it that way.
-A little yellow silk shift with a bow at the waist
-A small blue cashmere sweater, which has hooks on the waist, so you can wear it as a solid waist band, or have little meal-accommodating slits on the side.
-A pink silk cami, which looks like a reproduction of a ’30s style.
-A pretty handpainted silk scarf to wear over wet hair, Grace Kelly style.
-A Pendleton Blanket to add to my collection for the cabin.
-A Villeroy and Boch glass hedgehog.
-A collection of little trucks for the little guy, all of which passed the lead paint test.

Satisfying! Time to throw some things in the donation bin to make room.

Cleaning Out My Wallet

For the sake of efficiency I’ve removed all the fortunes, tiny scraps of artwork, receipts for indecent things, currency from other countries, cowboy business cards, pretty leaves, and notes to myself to help me remember all the important things I no longer remember. And now, my wallet is tiny.

I feel less interesting.