Cookie Shelf

Why have I not discovered this before? Yes, a mug. With a cookie shelf. I think it was made for me, yet nobody has ever brought this to my attention, and now they don't carry it anymore. Shame on you. And my birthday is only one month away.

'Twas found on Up To You, the kind of shop I hope to have someday. Filled with little knick knacks and ingenious industrial design.

Sadness & Madness

Summer, Highland Falls
by Billy Joel

They say that these are not the best of times
But they're the only times I've ever known
And I believe there is a time for meditation
In cathedrals of our own

Now, I have seen that sad surrender in my lover's eyes
And I can only stand apart and sympathize
For we are always what our situations hand us
It's either sadness or euphoria

So we'll argue and we'll compromise
And realize that nothing's ever changed
For all our mutual experience,
Our separate conclusions are the same

Now we are forced to recognize our inhumanity
Our reason coexists with our insanity
And though we choose between reality and madness
It's either sadness or euphoria

How thoughtlessly we dissipate our energies
Perhaps we don't fulfill each others fantasies
And as we stand upon the ledges of our lives,
With our respective similarities
It's either sadness of euphoria

This Is Intimacy

So I was standing in the kitchen this morning in a towel and a face mask eating a spam casserole. I turn to my roommate of two years, Carla, and I said to her "This. Right here. I think we've reached a point in our life-partner relationship where we can truly call this intimacy."

+ ∞

I'll be the first to admit that I have a fetish for stylish and multi-functional office supplies. Such as my loyalty to Russell + Hazel®. Last fall I was devastated when my R+H binder was misplaced and most likely thrown out. No Five Star notebook would suffice. These weren't just any binders, they were colorfully cloth-bound with a large handy rubber band attached to keep everything in place, and even slip in a few booklets in a compact little stack. The notepad within was neatly perforated to cleanly rip out and organize within the colored tabbed separators. Yes, I have a sickening obsession with aesthetically designed organizational tools. And the binder was promptly replaced by a new set that I quickly ordered.

I've also stuck by the classic Moleskine® for little notes and doodles. The durable surface has always withstood the many bags I've thrown them into. Well this summer my boyfriend and I are spending the summer ten hours apart. We've decided on sharing a journal to be sent back and forth with our daily musings and ideas. After all, pausing and writing is so much more romantic in a day and age of instant communication. But what of the journal itself? What happens when you run out of material and you come to the end of the book? That's where Start Here™ can help. These ingenious little notebooks have pocketed covers to slip into the next book. I wish I had discovered these sooner. How convenient for going back and reviewing past notes, or continuing a chronological journal, even better for organizing a series of writings. For now, they're only available directly from the website but hopefully they'll be further distributed by retailers in the future.

Apple Who?

I've always been a fan of Zune's creative advertising campaigns and push to support independent artists. So to my delight, I've discovered their website dedicated to such projects. Within you can find graphics and animations as well as interviews with the creators. And of course, oodles of downloads.

This featured image comes from the graphic design studio, iLoveDust.

As much as I would love to support Zune and stray from the rest of the iPhone 3G bandwagoners, the Zune player just isn't compatible with my dear Mac. But I look forward to discovering the next generation of emerging artists.

Reposer en Paix

Yves St. Laurent has died at the age of 71.