I love magazine subscriptions. In part, this is because I love magazines--my attention span is just about magazine article length and I like pretty pictures. The bigger reason, though, is that I love love love mail. And reoccurring mail is my very favorite. I've been a Columbia House used-to-be-Record Club subscriber at least a dozen times. I'll sign up for a sample of just about anything. I just like it when something comes in the mail for me.

Turns out, I'm not alone. Lots of us love receiving mail, and when it's good mail, something we picked out, or, even better, a surprise that was curated for us? (Curated, in this case, just meaning selected based on our likes/dislikes by some sort of authority.) We're sold. That's what drew me to the independent business sample boxes I've reviewed here before, and to Birchbox more recently. And I'm so enamored with Birchbox, I started nosing around for more things like it.

And I found far more than I'd expected I would. Turns out, these "curated subscription services," wherein you receive periodic shipments of something that was either picked for you, or picked by you from options picked for you, are sorta the next big thing. They're popping up everywhere, for all sorts of products, and they're hot hot hot. I found dozens of them. And I did not find any sort of comprehensive list. So, I thought I'd try to fill that space and provide a list.

Please realize that I have NOT tried all of these, or even most of these, services. This list is not an endorsement; it's simply an overview of what I found in this space. And it is, but necessity, a work in progress--most of these companies are new, and some will fail, and new ones will pop up. So please, if you see anything I omitted, or anything that is here that doesn't, as you are reading this, exist anymore, let me know and I'll update.

Now, for what I found:

(A note on pricing: many of these services have a price cut if you sign up for several months at once. For the sake of simplicity, the prices I am quoting are their highest prices, generally for a single month.)

Beauty

This is the biggest category, by far. Tons of people are hopping on the Birchbox train. The ones I found are:

United States
Birchbox: 3-5 deluxe makeup/beauty samples each month, curated, $10 including S&H. This is one I can vouch for--I've had a subscription for nearly a year, I love it, it's more than worth the $10/month.

Julep Maven: 3-5 nail polishes and treatments each month, curated, $15 including S&H.

Yellow Box Beauty: "Makeup of the Month Club," curated full-sized makeup and beauty items, monthly, $34.95/month + $7.95 S&H.

Beautyfix: 8 full-sized makeup/beauty products, selected by you from a group of options, sent quarterly. $49.95 including S&H.

New Beauty Test Tube: deluxe makeup/beauty samples, some full sized, curated, sent quarterly. $29.95 + $8.95 S&H. I'm going to try this one, so I'll let you know how it turns out.

Smallflower Bath of the Month Club:curated bath products, sent monthly. $85/3 month subscription.

Added 9/21: GoGoGirlfriend: Similar to Birchbox, trial-sized beauty products sent monthly. $12.99/month for monthly boxes or $6.98/month for bi-monthly boxes.

Added 10/17/11: The Little Black Box: This is one of several monthly sample boxes for independent/handmade beauty products, as well as other things like candles and edibles. Boxes are $20/month including S&H.

Added 10/17/11: Out of the Box Sampler: Out of the Box sampler is another sampler of independent and handmade businesses. It is available for $22/month including S&H.

Added 10/17/11: Makeup Monthly: Makeup Monthly offers clubs for nails, makeup, or beauty care. The clubs are $20, $30, and $35/month respectively, including S&H, and subscriptions are available for 3, 6, or 12 months.

Canada
Loose Button Luxe Box: 4-5 curated deluxe beauty samples, sent monthly. $12/month including S&H.

Glymm: 4-5 curated deluxe beauty samples, sent monthly. $10/month including S&H.

Added 10/17/11: Sweet Delight Divalicious Sample Box: Sweet Delights Divalicious box focuses mostly on handmade/independent beauty products. Boxes are $26 Canadian including shipping to Canada or the US.

Australia
Little Red Box: deluxe beauty samples, sent monthly, not yet launched

Haute Box: deluxe beauty samples, send monthly, not yet launched

Added 10/17/11: The Lust Pack: The Lust Pack is a monthly 5-6 deluxe sample delivery. The cost is $14.95/month including S&H.

UK
Glossybox: 5 curated high-end beauty miniatures, sent monthly. £10.00/month + £2.95 S&H.

Bonbon: monthly artisan lip balm, £5.00/month, delivers throughout Europe. Not currently accepting new members.

Added 10/14/11: Amarya Beauty Box: For £10 per month, Amarya sends at least one full-sized product, along with multiple samples or trial sizes.

Added 10/14/11: Bourdoir Prive: Works just like Birchbox-- £10/month including S&H and they send 5-6 deluxe samples.

Added 10/17/11: Carmine: Another one in the Birchbox model, Carmine sends 5 "deluxe product miniatures" to subscribers each month. The price is £10/month plus £2.75 postage.

Added 10/14/11: FeelUnique Beauty Box: Offers a monthly subscription to 5 deluxe beauty samples for £9.95/month including S&H.

Kids/Parenting
This seems to be the currently fastest-growing category. I'm intrigued by it, especially as a gift option.

United States
Citrus Lane: 4-5 curated baby products, tailored to baby's age (newborn through 18 months), sent monthly. $25/month including S&H.

Bluum: 4-5 deluxe baby-related product samples, sent monthly, $12/month including S&H.

Little Passports: information about and "souvenirs" from a different country sent every month, geared towards kids. $11.95/month plus S&H. I really, really love the idea of this one. If anybody out there does it, please drop me a message--I'd love to run a review.

Babba Box: curated monthly box with all supplies needed to do 3-4 projects with a 3-6 year old child. $29.99/month including S&H. This is another one that really intrigues me, and I'd love to run a review if anybody has used it.

Added 10/11/11: KiwiCrate: much the same model as Babba Box, KiwiCrate is a monthly delivery of supplies for craft projects suited for a 3-6 year old child. It is $19.99/month including S&H.

Added 10/17/11: Tiny Tots Sample Boxes: These boxes focus on indie/handmade items for children. Each box has 15-20 samples. Boxes are $23 in the US, $33 in Canada, and $58 in other countries, including shipping.

Added 10/17/11: Fluff of the Month Club: Cloth diapers! For $22.50/month including S&H, you receive a cloth diaper delivery. Subscriptions are available for 4, 6, or 9 months, and you choose the style and size of diaper you want.

Added 10/17/11: KraftyKid Craft Clubs: KraftyKid offers lots of different options, with basic clubs, deluxe clubs, and clubs for teachers. They have clubs available for 3-6 year old kids and 7-10 year old kids. Prices vary.

Green Products

Another large and growing market! I have to admit, this one is counterintuitive to me--what's green about sending packaged products through the mail? Still, I'm intrigued.

Blissmobox: you choose between curated monthly collections of eco-friendly and organic products in several categories (this month had a beauty box, a tea and snacks box, and a romance/sex box, other months have had cleaning/laundry boxes, summer snack boxes, etc.) $19/month + $3 S&H. This is another one I'm planning to try out, so watch for a review in the future.

Eco-Emi: curated green/natural product samples delivered monthly. $15/month including S&H. Available outside the US for $30/month. Currently has a waiting list for new customers.

Goodebox: curated monthly samples of green beauty, health, and wellness products. $15/month including S&H.

Uncover Me Naturals Soap of the Month Club: monthly delivery of six bars of natural soap. $25/month including S&H.

Added 10/12/11: Conscious Box: a curated monthly collection of various environmentally conscious products, based on a monthly theme. Products include food and health and beauty offerings. $19/month including S&H.

Added 10/20/11: Herbaria Soap of the Month Club: A smaller scale soap-of-the-month offering, Heraria sends 1 hand-crafted bar each month, for an $88 annual subscription cost.

Food

There are a ton of these--everything from the ubiquitous "Beer of the Month" to the more interesting "Bacon of the Month" or "Cheese of the Month." For the sake of brevity, I'm only including the curated ones I found here.

United States
Turntable Kitchen Pairings Box: This is a cool concept. Each month, they deliver a food and music pairing--a limited edition 7" vinyl two-track along with a downloadable digital mixtape, and the recipes and ideas for a dinner party to go along with the music, along with 1-2 premium specialty ingredients to make them. Not exactly up my alley, but fascinating. $25/month including S&H. Not currently taking new orders.

Foodzie Tasting Box: curated monthly delivery of 6 gourmet food samples. $19.99/month including S&H.

Lollihop:monthly box of 8 single-serving healthy snacks. $22.75/month including S&H.

Healthy Surprise: monthly delivery of curated healthy vegan snacks. Prices vary by package size: $33/month + $5 S&H for 5-10 snacks through $250/month including S&H for 70-80 snacks.

PaleoPax: monthly curated selection of 5 paleo snacks. $20/month including S&H.

Steepster Select: 3 2-3 oz pouches of curated premium loose leaf tea each month. $19/month including S&H.

Craft Coffee: 3 12 oz bags of coffee, curated from different small roasters, each month, along with tasting notes. $24.99/month including S&H.

Added 10/14/11: Black Box Dessert Club: High end desserts, varied based on your region, right to your door! This club is not cheap--a single month is $65-$85 depending on the box--but contains 6-8 full size artisan desserts.

Added 10/14/11: Foodiholic: For $39.99/month including S&H, Foodiholic sends your choice of a ready-to-eat or ready-to-prepare food box. The first contains 4-6 new ready to eat items and some celebrity chef ideas for enhancing them, the second contains ingredients and recipes for a memorable meal. The selections are personalized to your diet and taste preferences.

Added 10/17/11: Adagio Tea of the Month Club: Adagio makes really good tea. Their tea of the month club, available in 6 or 12 month increments, and in flavored, herbal, black, decaf, and green & oolong varieties, sends two bags of loose tea (enough for approximately 80 cups) every other month. Prices are $39-$49 for six month and $69-$89 for twelve month subscriptions.

Added 10/17/11: Kettle Chips Chip of the Month Club: For $74.99 for a 3 month membership, Kettle Chips sends monthly deliveries of 5 4-oz bags of chips, including classics, hard-to-find flavors, and sneak peeks of unreleased flavors.

Added 10/17/11: Pasenella & Son, Vitners: Vino & Cookbook of the Month Club: This one is interesting--each month, they send a white wine, a red wine, tasting notes, and a cookbook. Price is $49.99/month, plus S&H.

Added 10/17/11: Citizen Bean: Every month, Citizen Bean sends a pound of sustainable small-batch roasted whole bean coffee, along with extras. The cost is $79.99 for three months, $129.99 for six, and $219.99 for a full year.

Added 10/17/11: Anchor Chip of the Month Club: Every month, Anchor sends regional, unusual potato chips. Subscriptions are available in 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 month increments of various sizes, starting at $13/month.

UK
Graze: Nutritionally balanced single-serving snack boxes, however many days/week you'd like. £3.49/box including S&H.

Added 10/17/11: The Chocolate Tasting Club: The Chocolate Tasting Club charges £18.95/month including postage, for which you get a box of 32 hand-selected chocolates. The selections are different every month, and recipients can choose between Classic, Dark, Purist and Elements boxes.

Clothing/Accessories

United States
Jewelmint: Jewelmint is the big player in this space right now. For $29.99/month including S&H, you pick a piece of jewelry each month from a collection curated to your taste by celebrity entrepreneur Kate Bosworth. This is club to which I subscribe and I am very happy with it so far.

Stylemint: Stylemint is from the same parent company and uses the same business model as Jewelmint, only it's t-shirts, not jewelry. $29.99/month including S&H gets you a t-shirt of your choice. The celebrities behind the style and curation are the Olsen twins.

Shoedazzle: Shoedazzle is another big player. It works the same way as the previous two programs, with the recipient making a monthly selection among a curated field of choices. This one is $39.99/month, though, and the selections are shoes and handbags. The celebrity name is Kim Kardashian. Shoes only up to size 11, though!

In the Mood Intimates Gift of the Month Clubs: Several monthly options, all curated, including Panty-of-the-Month, Camisole/Bustier-of-the-Month, and Bra-set-of-the-Month. Prices range from $18-$90/month.

MeUndies: Not-yet-launched subscription service for both men's and women's underwear.

Send the Trend: Similar to Jewelmint, only it includes non-jewelry accessories. Clients pick from among a curated set of options. $29.99/month including S&H.

Threadless 12 Club: I kinda love this one. Every month, you get a handpicked t-shirt from Threadless! Think of the variety you could amass! $200/year for US participants; $250/year for international, including S&H.

Added 10/14/11: Sole Society: Basically the same model as Shoedazzle, Sole Society charges $49.95/month including S&H for your pick from a curated selection of shoes.

Added 10/17/11: Solmate Socks Sock of the Month Club: This one amuses me. Available for adults or kids, you get a pair of funky mismatched cotton socks each month. There are 3, 6, and 12 month memberships--the 3 month is $65 including S&H, and kids' socks are a pair-with-a-spare.

Added 10/20/11:Stitch Fix: Stitch Fix sends a shipment of clothes, based on your personal style quiz, and you keep and pay for those you like and send the rest back.

UK
StylistPick: Similar to Shoedazzle, a curated monthly selection of accessories and shoes, based on our style profile. You select what you want to have sent your way. £39.95/month including S&H.

Canada
Panty by Post: monthly curated pair of deluxe panties. $18.50/month plus S&H, international available.

Books and Magazines

Books are another area that has been doing of-the-month clubs for a long time, and there is no way I could list them all here. However, I'm going to mention a couple.

United States
Indiespensible: I absolutely love Powell's Indiespensible book club. Every six-to-eight weeks, they sent a first edition of a new, independent book, along with some other "goodies," typically thematically connected to the book in some way, or local to Portland. The cost is $39.99/shipment, including S&H, and international shipping is available for $12 more.

Just the Right Book: Coming from another independent bookseller (yay!), R.J. Julia Bookseller in Madison, CT, Just the Right Book is a curated book club that has options for kids, teens, and adults. The selections are curated to individual tastes and get this--they guarantee you'll like what they send! The service can be purchased on a monthly, every-other-month, or quarterly basis. Prices vary depending on specific program, but average about $24.99/month.

Stack America: This one I'm excited about. Every two months, you receive a curated collection of indie magazines. Lots of it is likely stuff you aren't going to find in your Barnes & Noble. You get at least one magazine, plus extras, every two months. Subscriptions are annual and cost $75.99 in the US, with options for international shipping at higher rates.

Added 10/20/11: Chin Music Press Books Rx: Billing itself as "mail-order medicine for your mind," this club sends a curated quarterly collection of independent literature and art, all chosen to fit a given theme. The cost is $40 for each shipment, including S&H to the US and Canada.

International
Stack: Stack is the international version of Stack America. The basic service is the same, but the magazine choices and shipping options are international, and monthly or annual services are available. Prices vary depending on where you're located.

For Men

The subscription model is traditionally more heavily marketed to women, but a whole lot of man-specific services are popping up. A few of them:

United States
Hiskit: Birchbox for dudes. 3-5 luxury samples, delivered monthly, $12/month including S&H.

Manpacks: This one is about convenience, more than curation--men can sign up to get quarterly shipments of necessities they choose--shirts, socks, underwear, shaving cream, condoms, etc. Prices vary based on what's in your pack.

GuyHaus: GuyHaus is the same basic model as Manpacks, except that it's just for toiletries. Men pick what they want and how often they'd like to have it delivered. Prices vary depending on what the client picks.

Sababu: The Undershirt Club: Set to launch in December, Sababu Conscious Clothing sends two ethically made undershirts quarterly, for $20.

Trunk Club: Trunk Club is all about curation--they send a complete "trunk" of clothes, including 8-12 items. Prices vary depending on what is in the specific trunk. The subscriber keeps/pays for what he wants and sends the rest back.

Added 10/19/11: His Black Box: His Black Box offers a personalized selection of 5 travel sized products each month, based on a survey of age and tastes. The cost is $12/month including S&H.

Canada
Added 10/14/11: Bread and Butter: Bread and Butter is a monthly men's skincare subscription, based on a natural product and minimal packaging ethos. Kits are customized to the client and run $35-$49 Canadian each, with free shipping to the US and Canada.

UK
Added 10/14/11: Wibba: Wibba is a curated monthly delivery of "man stuff," further described as "toys, gadgets, games, or gizmos." It's £14.95/month.

Germany
Mansbox: Though I can't read the German site, I believe Mansbox is the German equivalent of Manpacks, offering a subscription service for undershirts, underwear, and socks.

Art & Craft

I am more than a bit fascinated by the art-by-subscription model. I had no idea it existed, and there are several price points and options.

United States
Alula: sends limited edition original textile art quarterly. $300/year.

Papirmasse: monthly delivery of a limited edition print by an unknown artist. $5/month in the US and $10/month internationally.

Little Otsu: Another one by which I am super intrigued. For $15/quarter, you get two original "art books." The books are gloriously illustrated mini-books about anything in the natural world. This would be such a fantastic collection to start.

Tota Press: A handmade letterpress card-of-the-month subscription! Each month brings two cards and costs $13 including S&H. International subscription is available for an additional $2/month.

Sunrise Fiber Co. Yarn Club: Each month brings a skein of hand-dyed yarn (you pick the weight), a goodie of some sort, and a dessert recipe that ties in with the yarn colors. Subscriptions are available for 2, 4, or 6 months, at $22/month.

Added 10/14/11: Mercier Beaucoup: Mercier Beaucoup offers 3, 6, or 12 month stationary subscriptions, each month with 3 assorted handmade cards. The cost for the 3 month option is $36, plus $5 flat rate shipping.

Added 10/17/11: Three Irish Girls Pick of the Knitter Club: If you know a dedicated knitter, you probably know about the amazing yarn from Three Irish Girls. The Pick of the Knitter club offers your choice of weight and number of skeins each month, in either a solid or a handpainted colorway. Price depends on the weight you choose and subscriptions are available in three month intervals in the US, Canada, or internationally.

Added 10/17/11: Three Irish Girls Sock Yarnista Club: As the name suggests, this club is for sock yarn. Each month, members get a selected high-end sock yarn, a pattern, and possibly extras. Membership is available in 3, 6, and 12 month intervals, in the US and Canada and internationally. 3 month US membership runs $94.

Added 10/17/11: The Irish Girls Stash Menagerie Club: This is the 3IG variety club, sending a selected type of yarn each month, along with extras. Membership is available for 1, 2, or 3 skeins a month and in 3 or 6 month increments. A single skein 3-month membership is $72 in the US.

Miscellany

I have to tell you, this is where my heart lives. The subscription programs for things that seem only very vaguely subscribe-able. this is the market I want to see grow and flourish. And I think these are a good start:

United States
Lost Crates: Couldn't love this more if I tried. Lost Crates is a curated stationary subscription--each month brings a new crate of pens, pencils, paper, and associated etcetera. It's $38/month including S&H. This is one I'm trying, so stay tuned for a review later this fall.

Quarterly Co: This one baffles me. You choose a "cultural icon" and receive a quarterly box of physical objects curated by that person. I'm intrigued, however, by the tagline "each shipment tells a story." Sadly, there are no current subscriptions open, or I'd try it. Subscriptions are $25/quarter.

Toys4Tails: Dog toy of the month club, curated based on your dog's breed/size. Several subscription tiers are available, starting at $14.95/month.

Added 10/14/11: Good and Lovely: The business model for Good & Lovely is a period pampering pack. On your selected date each month, they send you a box of your selected variety of pads or tampons, as well as whatever extras you request (Midol, heating pads, wipes, etc) and a selection of soothing treats (chocolate, tea, bath products, etc.). The base price is $19.99/month, with more for add-ons.

Added 10/14/11: Feliz Box: Feliz Box is basically the same thing as Good & Lovely, but with less customization--you simply choose tampons or pads and they decide the rest. The cost is $14.99/month.

Added 10/14/11: Swuni: Similar to Good & Lovely and Feliz Box, Swuni is a monthly menstrual product delivery. However, you simply receive and pay for the product(s) you choose--no curation.

Added 10/14/11: Ohco: Like Swuni, Ohco is a monthly delivery of whatever you select. They do, however, include health and beauty samples with their shipments.

Added 10/14/11: Umba Box: The Umba Box is a monthly delivery of a surprise handmade item--accessories, home goods, jewelry, bath products, stationary, etc. It's $26/month including S&H and subscriptions are available for 3, 6, or 12 months.

Added 10/17/11: Z Box: The Z Box is a monthly collection of items sold on Zibbet. Two sizes are available--for $8.75 you get 8 samples, for $18 you get 15-18. Both prices include S&H.

Added 10/17/11: Lighter of the Month Club: This one is odd and possibly brilliant. For $32.95/year ($8 more internationally), you get four stickers each month with which to customize Bic lighters.

UK
Not Another Bill: Probably the most clever of the programs I found, this subscription promises something in your mail each month that is NOT a bill. It could be just about anything, but it'll be something that the curator, Ned, is surprised and excited by. The price is £15/month including S&H in the UK, £18 in the rest of Europe, and £20 in the rest of the world, all including S&H. Couldn't resist this, so I'll be reviewing when mine arrives.

Jangneus Design: This one is delightfully quirky. Each month will bring a colorful, Swedish-designed cleaning cloth--you pick your color scheme. Subscriptions within the UK are £25 for the year, including S&H. International subscriptions may be available, they ask prospective international subscribers to contact them.

Added 10/17/11: Finally, I have to point out Global Giving Project of the Month Club. This is a truly great idea. You choose a monthly donation amount, and each month a charitable project is selected for your money. You receive an email each month telling you about the project. How great an idea is that?

In doing my research for this post, I was very indebted to:
Subscription Commerce (#SUBCOM) Matrix by Sean Percival
Boxing Up Social Commerce: Hot Opportunity? by Paul Marsden
Blissmo Launches Monthly "Blissmobox": Delivering Curated Eco-friendly Products to Your Door! by Priti Ambani
What Will The Big Winners in Subscription Commerce Look Like? by robgo
Several articles at Springwise

Added 10/14/11: Subscription service startups are the hot new thing by Harrison Weber

Added 10/14/11: Directory of Subscription Commerce Clubs by Paul Marsden

Silly magazine cover courtesy of BigHugeLabs.
I've recently re-discovered my love of magazines. I've long been a magazine lover. My subscriptions to Sassy and Rolling Stone were lifelines when was a preteen and teenager in Elkton. I even wrote my senior thesis at Reed about Ms. magazine. In the years immediately post-college, I remember working the "free trial" system to get months of free issues, then canceling as soon as I started getting charged for them. I'd read anything I could get for free--Maxim, Catholic Digest, Runner's World, it didn't matter--and if I couldn't stomach reading it, it was always good collage material. It was at that same time that I discovered the magazine recycling bins at the public library, where you can get old issues of all kinds of weird things for free.

In recent years, I've been flush enough to actually pay for my subscriptions, and happy to do so, as the magazine, like the newspaper, is threatened by online competition. Mark, too, is a lover of magazines, and visiting his family has shown me that he came from a magazine loving people as well. So, I decided to share with you a history of our lives in lists of magazine.

Magazines that were around my house when I was growing up
Time
Reader's Digest (I still miss the Word Power feature)
Sports Illustrated
Ladies Home Journal
Field & Stream
National Geographic (my grandmother used to read this to my infant brother)

Magazines that were around Mark's house growing up
Sunset
Proceedings
Better Homes & Gardens
The New Yorker
The Economist
Newsweek

Things haven't changed that much--I'm pretty sure I saw all those titles at Mark's parents house this visit, along with Vanity Fair, Wired, and at least two floral design titles. My folks still get all the old favorites as well (besides maybe SI, they may have let that lapse), and have added a couple more outdoorsy titles and Every Day with Rachael Ray.

As for Mark and I, we run a magazine heavy household as well. It started with a flurry of more indie titles, most of which aren't even around anymore (anybody remember Nervy Girl?). Slowly, we've built up an arsenal of favorites, and a list of titles we've tried that just don't work for us. As I'm doing annual re-subscriptions, I'll share our lists.

Stuff we have previously subscribe to but don't anymore
The Economist
Travel + Leisure
Gourmet (RIP)
Cooks Illustrated
The Atlantic (formerly Monthly)
Food & Wine
Real Simple
Mother Jones

Stuff we get now
Bitch
Bust
The New Yorker
This Old House
Ready Made
The Bark
Martha Stewart Living

Stuff we're going to try or re-try this year
Real Simple
Make
National Wildlife
Portland Monthly (that oughta make me nice and homesick)
Anthology (I'm really excited about this one)

Finally, a list of titles I've loved and lost (because they don't make them anymore)
Blueprint
Budget Living
Domino
Sassy
No Depression
ID
Craft

So tell me--what do you read religiously? Pick up on occasion? Miss ferociously? Let's hear it for magazines

For a couple of months, I've been reading along as Karen Walrdond works on her Life List. As someone who is already really into goals and the importance of writing them down, I've always wanted to make one myself, but never actually done it. So, yesterday, I started.

I'm not finished. This list should have at least 100 things on it. But this is a start, and I'll amend it as I think of more.

Do it. You'll feel better.

1. Skydive.
2. See a Klimt painting in Austria.
3. Sit for a portrait.
4. Run a dog rescue.
5. Be someone's mother.
6. Write a novel I'd want to publish.
7. Visit Freida Kahlo's house in Mexico City.
8. Ride in a hot air balloon.
9. Do a major art installation project.
10. See the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in all four seasons.
11. Throw a wine-tasting party.
12. Go to a barn-raising.
13. Learn a new sport.
14. Attend an artistic or spiritual retreat.
15. Be a godparent.
16. Speak at my alma mater.
17. Visit the Elephant Sanctuary.
18. Get a Ph.D.
19. Volunteer for disaster relief.
20. Have a rose garden.
21. See the Northern Lights.
22. Sail on a sailboat.
23. Teach someone to read.
24. Eat 100 local foods in the regions to which they are local.
25. Tuck my hair into my waistband.
26. Go on a trip with my mother.
27. Organize a major charity event.
28. Work with a dog visiting elderly hospital/hospice patients.
29. Throw a surprise party.
30. Have a dress custom made.
31. Got to a dog show.
32. Attend the birth of a child.
33. Visit the sites of 5 revolutions.
34. Have a cocktail named after me.
35. Ride a motorcycle.
36. Stay overnight at the Chelsea Hotel.
37. Visit Rogue brewery.
38. Observe the Supreme Court.
39. Be in a movie.
40. See the sun rise in Spain.
41. Drive an American muscle car.
42. Go zip lining in Costa Rica.
43. Have a beignet in the French Quarter.
44. Take Mark to Crater Lake.
45. Attend an EPL football game.
46. Write a collection of short stories based on the old women I've known/heard stories about.
47. Stomp grapes.
48. Take a road trip alone.
49. Attend the Sundance Film Festival.
50. Host a big family holiday celebration.
51. Write a song.
52. Have a non-canine or feline pet.
53. Publish an article in a national circulation magazine.
54. Plant a tree and watch it grow.
55. Embroider or cross-stitch a sampler.
56. Collect over 100 bottles of wine.
57. See an animal being born.
58. Visit Jim Morrison's grave in Paris.
59. Do 108 sun salutations for Globa Mala.
60. Take a trip by train.
61. Learn to make doughnuts as amazing as my mom's.
62. Go to thrift stores in/around every major U.S. city.

Strange, in light of my last post, but this is my annual pre-birthday stuff I want post. What can I say--I'm an enigma.

• Sandmaiden Bamboo and Organic cotton jersey pj set: I know paying $100 for pajamas is insane, but I'd love a handmade-to-my-measurements set like these.

• Prep bowls by Lynn Cardwell pottery: I absolutely love these small, vibrant prep bowls. I think I'd use some of them as candle holders and some to corral jewelry on my dresser top. But I might cook with them, too. You never know. I really like the cereal bowls as well.
• Water color painting by Jennifer Comstock: Though we have a growing art collection, we're bereft of watercolors. I'd like one for my new office. Hard to choose a favorite, but I think Sun Scorched Tomato might be mine.

• Florence Nightingale necklace: Tell me you don't love this necklace from Mod Cloth. I love it. I want it.
• Modica three circles wood and resin necklace: Modica's wood and resin jewelry has been on my wish list for years. I love the way they are sort of natural meets manmade, and I particularly like the blues and greens and the linear setup of this one.
• Gothic curiosities locket: I love this antique locket--it's so big and bold and plain. I'd probably try to use it as a scent locket.
• Original Tree illustration by Carambatack Design: More office decor I'd love to have. I loved mixed media. Especially with re-use of words. This is such a great piece.
• The Gazette Dress: I have no idea if it would fit me, but I so love this dress. it's got that whole updated retro thing that I like, plus it's in my favorite palette.

There is so much great indie stuff out there. I want to hug it all.

My good friend and mistress of all thing blogging Skye just sent me a list of search terms that have led people to my blog. Quite a few of them are obvious or make sense, but some are too damn funny not to share. A few of my favorites:

• man hating songs: this actually brings people here all the time, to my great joy
• erotic stories/making love ata drive in movie: this one took me a minute, but it must be the "ata" that does it
• girly badass tattoo: hell yes!
• short brown curly haired actresses from 1930's: specific! I like it!
• in 'girl interrupted' 1999 what song do susanna and lisa sing to polly outside her door
: Hrm...Downtown, I think?
• disney's belle is a whore: I'd say she's more a rape victim with possible Stockholm Syndrome, actually
• where can i buy malibu musk: good God, why would you want to?
• is reed college stressful? Haha! Yes. But worth it.
• evil beagle tattoo: this just makes me laugh
• every single god damn disney movie ever made: again, hysterical
• smith college vagina: this is one that probably shouldn't make me laugh, but does anyway
• what place in shreveport bossier louisiana deals with stories walruses hills and rainbows? Again an odd and specific question.
• why do i drink more when i get my period: reasonable question. I do, too.

Since I wrote this post about my addiction to fancy bath stuff and perfume, I have had it in my head to write something about the smells I prefer and why. Obviously, since I make my own essential oil scented products, as well as spending an embarrassing amount of time picking out the smells I want from other people's stuff, I have preferences. There are a set of smells I love and a set of smells I can't stand, and some of it is probably just random taste, but a lot of it does have to do with the feelings that those smells invoke in me. I don't know if I really believe in aromatherapy or not, but it seems undeniable to me that smells do have bearing on your feelings. Bad or overpowering smells are distracting and irritating, while subtle and pleasant smells are calming. Smells can make you nostalgic, obviously, but also tense and troubled. Smells can help you to relax or energize you. But not all smells work the same way for all people, so please don't think of this as instruction or advice. This is just what works for me.

Smells I Love
Lavender: For me, lavender is probably the most overall useful and pleasant scenting agent. I use it everything from bath stuff to cleaning supplies, combine it with nearly everything, and it is almost never wrong. My laundry soap is lavender lemongrass, with a lavender dryer sachet; there is a lavender and sweet orange spray near my cat boxes; and if I am making bath products for myself, they are more likely to contain lavender than any other single smell. Lavender makes me feel calm and relaxed, and it also gives me the sensation of being clean and fresh (which is why I love it so much for laundry and cleaning).

My favorite lavender products: There are a ton to choose from, but the first two that come to mind are Aveda's Balancing Infusion for Sensitive Skin (which contains lavender, patchouli, geranium, and rose oils) and EO's Lavender and Sweet Orange Room Spray, which I believe is found at Whole Foods.

Orange: Like lavender, I find orange to be a versatile and almost univerally pleasant smell. It has to be a natural orange smell, though--the kind that smells like an actual orange, not like orange candy. Many people find citrus smells invigorating and energizing, but I don't particularly (probably in large part due to the blends I choose). For me, orange, like lavender, invokes feelings of calm and cleanliness.

My favorite orange products: My own orange and clove bath stuff has to be up there, but I like other people's orange products as well. One I've been enjoying lately is the Orange Sherbet Bubble Bath Dough from Red Leaf. It's a nice warm orange scent with a little bit of vanilla in it that smells very natural and I find both cheerful and soothing.

Fig: Though it is slightly more esoteric than the first two scents I mentioned, I'm nuts about fig scented products. I love fig because it's a natural, fruity smell that has some earthiness to it and isn't too sweet. For me, it's a very grounding, centered smell. In particular, I love bath products with a fig element.

My favorite fig products: The product that introduced me to my love of fig was Lush's Figs & Leaves soap, which is made with actual figs as well as orange and ylang ylang and is my hands-down favorite thing from Lush. More recently, I have been crazy about Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's Carnal scent, which pairs fig with mandarin.

Rose: It took me a long time to warm up to rose, mostly because there is so much badly done rose stuff out there. Nicely scented rose products should smell like an actual rose, not your grandmother's underwear drawer. There is a weird underlying power or talculm scent in some rose stuff that I just cannot get behind. Real rose, though, is a pure, beautiful scent, and not just a floral but also an earthy, almost spicy note. I like to wear it because it makes me feel not only feminine, but somehow more mature and confident.

My favorite rose products: Once again, BPAL does an amazing job with rose. Their The Rose perfume is probably the perfect pure rose scent. I love the blends with rose even more, though, particularly Catherine, which is rose, rosemary, and orange blossom; and Mata Hari, which is a five rose blend with jasmine, vanilla, fig, tonka bean, mahogany, and coffee.

Clove: The more I experiment with scents, the more I realize that I strongly prefer "warm" scents to "cool" ones. I like spicy, rich scents. And nothing adds spicy and rich to a combination faster than clove. I mix clove with nearly as many things as I do lavender (though I do not mix them together!). I love orange and clove, rose and clove, vanilla and clove...I could go on. The smell of clove makes me feel warm and safe and at home.

My favorite clove products: Once again, I am awfully fond of my own clove blends, but nothing I've made can hold a candle to Villainess' Embargo. Embargo is a complicated scent, "Indonesian Patchouli spiked with imported spices - cloves, sandalwood, and cedarwood, and a drop of perfume - Tunisian jasmine, tuberose, lily of the valley, grape and Tahitian vanilla," but mostly, to me, it smells like a warm library. BPAL's Madrid is another great clove scent, mixing clove with red wine and mimosa.

So tell me, what smells do you love? Why? How do they make you feel? Do they invoke specific memories, or just general feelings? How important do you think they are in your life?

Remember the other day when I was going on about how great it is that everyone's blogs are full of resolutions and goals this time of year and we're all bright and shiny-eyed and committed to bettering ourselves in 2009?

Well, I'm kind of over it.

I'm all about betterment of the self. I probably write more about my own efforts at self-betterment here than about anything else. I'm goal-oriented. But I'm 100% sick of my goings on about it right now, and of all of yours as well. Not because I don't think we should all be committed to being better people, but because I'm starting to freak out about our collective need for perfection.

So today, I'm going to tell you a few of things that are wrong with me that I'm not trying to fix. This is the stuff I'm not working on, the stuff that you are just going to have to accept about me as is if you want to be friends. If you want to do the same, either in the comments or on your own blog, I encourage it. I think we could all use a little time out to embrace our flaws.

1. I have zero hand-eye coordination. Seriously. It's pathological. I had to take a special class in elementary school for what was then referred to as "physical retardation" or something like that. Basically, it was three half-hours a week of trying to get me to learn to throw and catch. I hated it. My coordination hasn't improved much since then, either. I can drive adequately, but that's about the end of what I've learned. I am bad at all sports. I bump and bruise myself daily. I can't even play Tetris.

2. I don't floss. Ever. And I'm not going to start.

3. I can't sew. I've tried, I've failed, I'm done.

4. I only finish what I start about a quarter of the time. My follow through is severely lacking. I am a much better plan-maker than plan-doer.

5. I am not above picking fights to entertain myself when I'm bored.

6. If I don't like you, I probably won't bother to hide it or even be civil to you if I don't have a pressing reason to be.

7. I have a strong tendency to think things are not worth doing simply because I'm not able to do them.

8. If you grew up wealthy, I'm likely to take an unfair automatic dislike to you.

9. I bite my nails, and my cuticles.

10. I'm incredibly lazy and will sleep 12 hour stretches if allowed.

11. I drink, often to excess, and I'm a lousy drunk.

12. I quite regularly don't answer my cell phone just because I don't feel like it.

OK. I feel better now! You?

My non-sucky Christmas play list. It is still under construction, but I've been listening to it.

I'm in a bit of a mood today, so I am going to make a Christmas list of items from Etsy that I wish lived at my house. Feel free to use any and all ideas. And not just this for me--it's all about supporting handmade this Christmas!

Editing on 12/5/08: This list is in progress. I keep adding to it every day. So I made categories. To make it easier. Because I'm retentive like that.

Jewelry/Accessories

• oktag XL Frame Pouch ($47): I'm not really a clutch-carrying type, but I swear if I had one of these I would be. I like them all, but the pears on gray are my favorite.


• Modica single circle wood and resin necklace ($35): I love how simple and stunning this is. I think I'd want one of the warmer, red-toned colors, to compliment the wood. I like some of the more intense stuff on the site too, but keep coming back to this basic necklace...though I really dig the three circle one as well.


• Bluevivor Altered Ephemera Dangerous Cowgirls pendant ($5): Again, I love all of these. However, this cowgirl one speaks to me.


• Lillyella Lily of the Valley Brass Necklace ($18): This necklace would be a departure from my nearly all-silver jewelry, but I really love it. It's so chunky and yet so fragile looking. Nice price, too!


• Polarity Grace Recycled Magnetic Locket Set ($16): These magnetic lockets are SO cool, and how much cooler to have different interchangeable faces? And that they're made from recycled materials? And that this one is my name? I want.


• Everdreamdesigns Multi Color Glass Bead Wrap Bracelet ($8.99): I want this in my stocking! I don't usually wear bracelets, but this is so gorgeous and unusual, I'd make an exception. I love that it's flexible and made with memory wire, too. And what a great price!


• Javagaldesigns Brew Bags - Hawaiian Flowers - Upcycled Burlap Coffee Purse ($50): Cool bags made out of burlap coffee sacks! Is it just me, or does that rule? My favorite is this colorful mid-sized Hawaiian one.

Visual Art

• Mt Joy School Mixed Media Painting/Collage ($46): Isn't this beautiful? And, unlike my usual taste in art, it's decidedly happy. I want it to be in my house. Maybe in my bedroom.


• Swallowfield A Room of One's Own Archival Print ($18): Honestly, there isn't a single thing in this shop I don't covet, but I *think* this is my favorite.

Dada Dreams "Why Buy The Cow When You Can Get the Milk for Free?" original collage ($20): Again, I love just about everything on this site, but this I reaalllly want.

• Dogartstudio Custom Watercolor Pet Portrait ($250): I would so love to have one of these done of Leo. I love this style, and to have it be a watercolor would be fantastic. Maybe one day.


• Yumiyumi Wild Garden (kaleidoscopic) print ($20): Do you think maybe I have a thing for brightly colored prints?


• Matteart Charlie Bird Print ($35): Question: do I ever get sick of quirky prints? Answer: no. This is another artist whose work I can't get enough of, but Charlie Bird is my favorite.


• Dazeychic "I Love Your Utensils" Prints ($75): I feel very strongly that my perfect kitchen will be built around these prints. I just need my cohabitant to buy into that dream.

Household

• Artgoodies Block Print Bird Towel set ($85): Yes, I know, $85 is too much to pay for a half dozen kitchen towels. But these are so, so gorgeous.


• Skinnylaminx Borrowed Spoons Tea Towel ($12): Like prints, I seem to have a thing for kitchen towels right now. I love the mod look of this one.

Stationary/Office

• Dozi 2009 Pocket Planner ($11): So lovely, so minimalist, so useful, and not too expensive, either!


• Bill O'Neil Surfer King Mod Abstract Mousepad ($15.95): Isn't this just cool? I actually have a custom photograph mousepad that I love at work, but this would be great for home.


• Annacote Botanical Note Set ($18): I'm such a sucker for stationary. And for minimalist prints inspired by the natural world. And for saturated colors. Can I just have these, please?


• oiseaux Personalized Blue Bird Vintage Bookplates ($15.25): I love the idea of book plates. I have no idea if I would actually use them if I had them, but I think I would if I had these ones.


• 3SistersLove 2009 Desk Calendar ($20): Isn't this letterpress calendar beautiful? I want one on my desk.


• SimplyEmbellish Botanical Block Print Wall Calendar ($15): Yes, it's another printed botanically inspired calendar, but this one is done with wood block printing. Isn't it just completely gorgeous? I'm in awe.


• Sugarskull7 Roots hand-carved rubber stamp ($8): I'm really into the idea of stamps lately. I don't actually own any, so I don't know if I'd like them in reality or not. This shop has some great ones, but this tree is my favorite. I feel sure that if I found it in my stocking, I'd stamp up a storm. Other fantastic ones are the Happy Monster ($8), Dewey the Corgi ($10), and Mason jar ($6)

Bath and Body

• MoonsHarvest Bath Bomb Gift Set ($22.75): I realize I am supposed to take care of my own needs in this area, but I'd so like someone else to do the work for once, and these are particularly fetching and VERY well priced.


• ShopRed Leaf Women's Spa Gift Set ($48): ShopRedLeaf is the Etsy store I wish Crushworthy was. The packaging is so beyond gorgeous. I want. And I especially want to try their "bubble bath dough," which is included in this nice gift set and also sold separately. I do wish the ingredients were listed, though.

That was fun! I'm in a much better mood now!

And in honor of all of those bloggers who regularly use Friday to list things they love (and make all of our days brighter), I give you a playlist of songs I unabashedly and completely love. Enjoy.

I've been thinking for several days about what I want to write about poverty for Blog Action Day 2008. I started writing a personal story about poverty at least 10 times, but honestly, that doesn't feel the right thing to do today. I want to actually offer a resource, rather than just talking about myself like I always do. So, being as I've had some success in the past offering lists of recommended books, I thought maybe I'd use my Blog Action Day platform to offer a brief poverty studies book list. Hope it's helpful.

1. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
   No surprise here. A lot of people consider Steinbeck's 1939 novel about the Joad family's journey to California during the Dust Bowl the best book about poverty ever written, and I can't disagree. This is a fantastic book, trite as it may be to say that, and I think it should be required reading.
2. Homecoming and Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voight
   These are children's novels about four children, the Tillermans, who, led by eldest sister Dicey, make their way across the country to find their grandmother after their mother abandons them. Homecoming gets them to their grandmother's house, Dicey's Song is about them living with her. Both books are, in part, about living in poverty, and even though I read them in elementary school, they've stuck with me. I can still remember the passage in Dicey's Song about Dicey and her grandmother eating at a restaurant and Dicey's concern at the meal's expense. Excellent stuff.
3. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
   Though this book was widely acclaimed, I know a lot of people who really didn't like it, saying Ehrenreich, even after her experiment, doesn't actually understand the working poor and makes stupid decisions and assumptions in her book and the experiment she writes about. I don't 100% disagree with this assessment, but I still think this is a brave and important book. The fact is that most people who have never themselves been poor have no idea what it's actually like, or why poor people might make the decisions that they do. Ehrenreich gives some explanations. Would I like it better if these explanations could come from someone who has actually lived in this situation and isn't just trying it on as a journalist? Sure. Do I think people would listen as well as they listened to Ehrenreich? No.
4. The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler
   Shipler's book has much the same task as Ehrenreich's, but instead of building a fictional life in order to have "working poor experiences" himself, Shipler extensively interviews a bunch of working poor families and mixes their first-person stories with an academic analysis of the life of the American working poor. The only really bad thing about this book is that it is outdated (it was published in 2004, but even since then things have changed radically, and the research was done for years before that). I'd like to see an updated version.
5. Don't Call Us Out of Name: The Untold Lives of Women and Girls in Poor America by Lisa Dodson
   This is another book built much like Shipler's, mixing first person accounts of poverty with academic analysis. What makes it more interesting to me, though, is that it addresses the interplay between poverty and gender. Again, the book's major failing is being out of date, as it was published in 1998.
6. Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
   Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina is one of the most amazing and most difficult novels I've ever read. Poverty is only one of the things its about, but it is in many ways the most salient. Just as Bone's tale of the violence of men is a call to feminism, her tale of the violence of poverty is a call to class activism.
7. The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
   Jeannette Walls' memoir is mostly about her childhood, growing up very poor with negligent and unstable parents. Walls' family was at times homeless, often hungry, and usually without running water or electricity. She recalls middle-of-the-night dashes from collecting landlords and page after page of experiences that make the reader's skin crawl. It's a hard book to read, but a good one. I only wish Walls' discussion of how it feels on the other side of that poverty, as an upper middle class adult with a world of both gratitude and guilt, was more prolonged.
8. Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell hooks
   bell hooks as written a lot about the intersection of race, class, and gender. This book is a conflation of memoir and social theory, and although it's a bit tough to read, it's completely worth it.
9. Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood by by Jay MacLeod
   Ain't No Makin' It is one of those books that I read and never forgot. I read it for intro pol sci my first year at Reed, and I've come back to it in my mind often since then. MacLeod wrote it about the kids he encountered while working as a counselor in a program for low-income youth. It focuses a lot on way poverty is spirit-crushing even at a very young age, and on the obstacles the kids have stacked against them. Once again, this book is out of date (and out of print), but it's still a good read if you can get a copy.
10. Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class edited by Michelle Tea
    The final book on my list is an essay collection written by women who grew up working class. The topics of the pieces range pretty broadly, from discussion of class jumping to explorations of how much worse poor people are treated in day to day life.

Obviously there are a lot more books about poverty that are worth reading. These ten are just the first best ones I could come up with. Please feel free to leave other suggestions in the comments, and thanks for reading my Blog Action Day 08 post!

Got this over at Frog's. These are 75 must-read books, as per Jezebel. The ones in bold are the ones I've read. The ones in bold italics are the ones I actually liked.

• The Lottery (and Other Stories), Shirley Jackson


• To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf


• The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton


• White Teeth, Zadie Smith


• The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allenden


• Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion


• Excellent Women, Barbara Pym


• The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath


• Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys


• The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri


• Beloved, Toni Morrison


• Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert


• Like Life, Lorrie Moore


• Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen


• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë


• The Delta of Venus, Anais Nin


• A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley


• A Good Man Is Hard To Find (and Other Stories), Flannery O'Connor


• The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx


• You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down, Alice Walker


• Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston


• To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee


• Fear of Flying, Erica Jong


• Earthly Paradise, Colette


• Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt


• Property, Valerie Martin


• Middlemarch, George Eliot


• Annie John, Jamaica Kincaid


• The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir


• Runaway, Alice Munro


• The Heart is A Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers


• The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston


• Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë


• You Must Remember This, Joyce Carol Oates


• Little Women, Louisa May Alcott


• Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill


• The Liars' Club, Mary Karr


• I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou


• A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith


• And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie


• Bastard out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison


• The Secret History, Donna Tartt


• The Little Disturbances of Man, Grace Paley


• The Portable Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker


• The Group, Mary McCarthy


• Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi


• The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing


• The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne Frank


• Frankenstein, Mary Shelley


• Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag


• In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez


• The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck


• Fun Home, Alison Bechdel


• Three Junes, Julia Glass


• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft


• Sophie's Choice, William Styron


• Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann


• Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford


• Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell


• The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin


• The Red Tent, Anita Diamant


• The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera


• The Face of War, Martha Gellhorn


• My Antonia, Willa Cather


• Love In The Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez


• The Harsh Voice, Rebecca West


• Spending, Mary Gordon


• The Lover, Marguerite Duras


• The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy


• Tell Me a Riddle, Tillie Olsen


• Nightwood, Djuna Barnes


• Three Lives, Gertrude Stein


• Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons


• I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith


• Possession, A.S. Byatt

Yikes. Not terribly well-read, am I?

It's been a long time since I have posted a list of things I am currently loving. And it's that kind of day, so...

Old Navy Ruched V-Neck Tees. I am trying not to buy any new clothing (thrift only). However, plain colored tee shirts are hard for me to find in my size and in good shape. I think they're just something people hold on to, and they are made so cheaply that they don't last long. So, I sucked it up and ordered some shirts from Old Navy, and I love them. This style is very flattering, they come in tall so they are long enough, they are super lightweight but not transparent, and the colors are fantastic. They were also on sale for I think $7.50 each when I bought mine, so I got one each in hyper blue, French violet, bright guava, and brown earth. Sweet.

Weight Watchers. I never thought I'd be saying this, but the program works. I've lost 18 lbs in 9 weeks, I'm not feeling deprived (at least not very much), and I feel better about myself every day. I am not going to meetings, just using the online function, but it's amazing how helpful the points system is. Somehow it is easier and more intuitive than following calories on Fitday, even though it's based on the same stuff. I got a three month initial membership, which means I only have about a month left. After that, I'll have to decide if it's worth paying for more months, or if I should try to lose the rest on my own. So far, it's been very worth it.

English Premiere League Football. The English Premiere League season started last weekend (soccer-football, for the uninitiated). Mark's been following it for a few years, and recently I've gotten very into it as well. It's a great way for us to bond, and I am really looking forward to months of Saturday mornings sitting on our couch, drinking coffee, yelling at our respective teams (Arsenal and Liverpool).

Sabra hummus. Mark and I are both picky about our hummus, and we agree that Sabra with the roasted pine nuts on top is the best you can get at a store. It's also widely available and inexpensive. Can't beat that.

Audubon Birds. I got a bunch of these little guys at the bins for $0.25 each the other day. They are stuffed birds that make natural bird sounds when squeezed (from real bird recordings). The dogs LOVE them. They aren't the world's best dog toys, as they have plastic bead pouches inside, so the pets have to be supervised when playing with them in case of disembowelment, but to watch the perplexed look on their faces when the birdies sing is worth it. The Purple Martin is my favorite.

Hope Solo. The USA Women's national soccer team goalkeeper who saved the gold against Brazil. I will never be as cool as Hope Solo. My heart still belongs to Abby, but I don't know that I've ever even seen anything as cool as Hope Solo. Just her name is cool. Hope Solo.

Hearthsong Under the Sea Hideaway. I thrifted one of these little babies for $3 and it made me $61 on EBay this week. Love that kind of profit margin.

Chipotle. They're giving free burritos to all the employees of the university where I work today. Good promotion! The line was too long and the points too high, though, so I passed.

And so ends my list of cool stuff for now. What have you noticed being especially cool lately?

For reasons too boring to go into, I no longer have a blog roll on my blog sidebar. I do, however, love to read other people's blogs. I use a feed reader (Google) to keep up with them, and try to read new entries every day. I'm also working on making more comments, so the folks I'm reading will know that they have me as a follower.

Periodically, I'd like to share the blogs I am reading with you all, since I don't have them up full time. The point here is two-fold: first, maybe I can introduce you to a blog you haven't been reading and will enjoy; second, maybe you can suggest some things to me in the comments that are missing from my list?

Here are the blogs in my feed reader:

Craft blogs

• allsorts


• angry chicken


• artsy-crafty babe


• Bella Dia


• betz white


• cherry tomato


• Constant Dreamer


• Craftapalooza


• Crafting a Green World


• disdressed


• Echoes of a dream


• HELLO my name is Heather


• hoola tallulah


• little cotton rabbits


• Making Good Use


• Molly Chicken


• not martha


• Posie Gets Cozy


• Practically Necessary


• Ravenhill


• Sew, Mama, Sew!


• soozs


• SouleMama


• Susan B. Anderson


• tiny happy

Thrifting blogs

• Apron Thrift Girl


• Living Without Money


• Secondhand Nation


• The Shopping Sherpa


• Thrift Shop Romantic


• Thrift Candy


• Thriftaholic: A Tale of Two Addicts

Shopping blogs

• A Girl Must Shop


• The Windowshoppist


• Want Not

"Mommy" blogs

• Attack of the Redneck Mommy


• Breed 'Em and Weep


• chookooloonks


• Confessions of a Pioneer Woman


• dooce


• Finslippy


• Fussy


• I, Asshole


• julia {Here be Hippogriffs}


• Mighty Girl


• Noble Savage


• Peter's Cross Station


• Suburban Bliss: Birth Control Via the Written Word


• Superhero Journal


• the adventures of leelo and his potty-mouthed mom


• Woulda Coulda Shoulda

Misc blogs

• 10Notes


• beauty that moves


• LaurieWrites


• linkateria


• Live Lightly Tour


• megfowler.com


• My Wardrobe Today


• Pound


• Red Stapler


• The Hathor Legacy


• Vegan Lunch Box


• Waiter Rant


• Walk Slowly, Live Wildly


• Wardrobe Oxygen


• We Don't Buy It


• Whedonesque

Friends' blogs

• Biblelicious


• Bomboniera


• Ceci n'est pas un blog


• Fjordward


• flooded lizard kingdom


• frogblog


• Gray Goose Watch


• It's a Candice thing


• Name that Mama


• Nyarlathotep's Miscellany


• One Good Thing


• Our House


• Rant-o-Rama


• the future spinster librarian manifesto


• The Coracle and other small crafts


• The Edit Barn


• The Gimp Parade


• The Summer Chronicles


• Triumphantly Jenny


• Yeah, but Houdini didn't have these hips

This is from Suebob.

Accent: Not much of one, but whatever the PNW sounds like when it lives in Texas

Breakfast or no breakfast: Breakfast, these days. Yogurt and granola is the staple. And always, always coffee.

Chore I don't care for: I will not, do not, cannot vacuum.

Dog or Cat: Both in my house, but dogs are first for me.

Essential Electronics: I currently have a Mac laptop through work that I lurve. I want one of my very own.

Favorite Cologne: I got Mark Burberry's' Weekend for Christmas, and I like it a lot on him. I don't usually wear perfume/cologne.

Gold or Silver: Silver, though I think gold is better for my skin tone.

Handbag I carry most often: From here.

Insomnia: Almost never.

Job Title: Not something I find to be all that important.

Kids: I love other people's.

Living Arrangements: With Mark and the packpride

Most Admirable Trait: I am really, honest-to-God, trying

Naughtiest Childhood Behavior: Too many to name--I was really awful

Overnight hospital stays: Never happened.

Phobias: Too many people in too small a space

Quote: "The degree to which you resist in the degree to which you are free."

Reason to smile: The pets

Siblings: Two, one XX and one XY

Time I wake up: Theoretically 6:45. In reality, between 7 and 7:15

Unusual Talent or Skill: Picking dog show winners

Vegetable I Refuse to Eat: Beets. Don't even talk to me about beets.

Worst Habit: Endless navel-gazing

X-rays: Chest, feet

Yummy Stuff: Rum cocktails

Zoo Animal I Like Most: Monkeys and elephants

Over on the future spinster librarian manifesto, there's list up of Entertainment Weekly's 100 "New Classic" films. How many have I seen? They're in bold.

1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)
3. Titanic (1997)
4. Blue Velvet (1986)
5. Toy Story (1995)
6. Saving Private Ryan (1998 )
7. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
8. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
9. Die Hard (1988 )
10. Moulin Rouge (2001)
11. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
12. The Matrix (1999)
13. GoodFellas (1990)
14. Crumb (1995)
15. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
16. Boogie Nights (1997)
17. Jerry Maguire (1996)
18. Do the Right Thing (1989)
19. Casino Royale (2006)
20. The Lion King (1994)
21. Schindler's List (1993)
22. Rushmore (1998 )
23. Memento (2001)
24. A Room With a View (1986)
25. Shrek (2001)
26. Hoop Dreams (1994)
27. Aliens (1986)
28. Wings of Desire (1988 )
29. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
30. When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
31. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
32. Fight Club (1999)
33. The Breakfast Club (1985)
34. Fargo (1996)
35. The Incredibles (2004)
36. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
37. Pretty Woman (1990)
38. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
39. The Sixth Sense (1999)
40. Speed (1994)
41. Dazed and Confused (1993)
42. Clueless (1995)
43. Gladiator (2000)
44. The Player (1992)
45. Rain Man (1988 )
46. Children of Men (2006)
47. Men in Black (1997)
48. Scarface (1983)
49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
50. The Piano (1993)
51. There Will Be Blood (2007)
52. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988 )
53. The Truman Show (1998 )
54. Fatal Attraction (1987)
55. Risky Business (1983)
56. The Lives of Others (2006)
57. There's Something About Mary (1998)
58. Ghostbusters (1984)
59. L.A. Confidential (1997)
60. Scream (1996)
61. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
62. sex, lies and videotape (1989)
63. Big (1988)
64. No Country For Old Men (2007)
65. Dirty Dancing (1987)
66. Natural Born Killers (1994)
67. Donnie Brasco (1997)
68. Witness (1985)
69. All About My Mother (1999)
70. Broadcast News (1987)
71. Unforgiven (1992)
72. Thelma & Louise (1991)
73. Office Space (1999)
74. Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
75. Out of Africa (1985)
76. The Departed (2006)
77. Sid and Nancy (1986)
78. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
79. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
80. Michael Clayton (2007)
81. Moonstruck (1987)
82. Lost in Translation (2003)
83. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)
84. Sideways (2004)
85. The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
86. Y Tu Mamá También (2002)
87. Swingers (1996)
88. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
89. Breaking the Waves (1996)
90. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
91. Back to the Future (1985)
92. Menace II Society (1993)
93. Ed Wood (1994)
94. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
95. In the Mood for Love (2001)
96. Far From Heaven (2002)
97. Glory (1989)
98. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
99. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
100. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999)

Yeah. I see a lot of movies.

OK, next step. These are the books from the man's list that I'd put on the woman's list as well:

1. The Republic by Plato
2. Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
5. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
6. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
7. Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
8. The Politics by Aristotle
9. Hamlet by Shakespeare
10. A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway
11. The Stranger by Albert Camus
12. The Bible
13. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

My friend Jenny sent me a link a few days ago to this blog post, "100 Must-Read Books: The Essential Man's Library." Challengingly, she wrote, "care to try a female version?"

Oh do I.

But, to begin, let's have a look the books that post lists as "the top 100 books that have shaped the lives of individual men while also helping define broader cultural ideas of what it means to be a man."

Third week in a row!

This week, I've learned:

• The first two Indiana Jones movies are indeed as racist and sexist as you'd expect


• Many Waldorf schools have dress codes forbidding the children to wear specific clothes, including anything synthetic or black


• I really do like some of the t-shirt styles from Old Navy


• How to felt wool (though I can't actually do it)


• The soundtrack to Juno, which worked great in the film, is really annoying outside the film context


• It doesn't matter if I hang up my clothes outside at night or during the day, the birds shit on them either way

Yesterday, I had occasion to have lunch with a group of people who are a lot different than the people I generally choose to spend social time with. This group was mostly older than I am by a generation or two, mostly had kids, and was mostly fairly "mainstream." During the course of the lunch conversation, it really began to feel like I had nothing in common with them. They talked about the rising price in groceries and which of the two national chains of grocery stores we have locally is better (Mark and I buy the bulk of our groceries at the local co-op). They talked about how to get toddler stains out of upholstery (we use natural cleaning products). They talked make-up (which I don't wear) and sitcoms (which I don't watch). Mostly, I kept my mouth shut unless asked a direct question--as I felt like anything I could say on any of these subjects would sound self-involved and holier-than-thou. Even so, the conversation ended with one person exclaiming that she had no idea I was so virtuous.

Virtuous? Me? As if. I know some absolutely virtuous hippies, people whose consumption actually matches their morals, who are really living lightly on the Earth. Me not so much. So, a list.

Ways in Which I am NOT a Virtuous Hippy

1. I like fast food. A lot. And I don't just nostalgically look back on it, either. I eat it, frequently, generally while driving alone in my SUV.


2. I may not have ever seen Lost or Desperate Housewives, but there is a flat screened TV at my house that cost more than my first car, and we have extended cable. No lack of TV watching.


3. Gallons, tankard trucks, absolute rivers of Pepsi.


4. I love modern medicine. If there is a shot or a pill that will make something unpleasant go away, I'll take it. If I ever have a baby, I want to do it while high as a kite on the best painkillers they can give me, and I want that baby to be fully and completely vaccinated.


5. I don't exercise. Ever. And I cannot and will not ride a bike.


6. I eat meat. I don't plan to stop.


7. I believe that violence, while never pleasant, is sometimes necessary. I also find cinematic violence extremely entertaining.


8. I have really really tried, but I don't like yoga.


9. I consider my period an annoyance.


10. I am scared of Waldorf schools.


11. My dogs can't leave the yard without a leash.

OK. I feel absolved.

Second weekly edition!

This week I learned:

• Season 3 of Buffy really is as good as I thought it was.


• No matter how many times I wear them, my cute high heels give me horrible blisters.


• Three lemon bars in a row is too many.


• There is a cute US-made alternative to Crocs (thanks, Krup!).


• Etsy is a great place to buy cards.


• The Duggars are having another one.


• Gilmore Girls ended well.

So. Are you more bored by my Etsy obsession or my Buffy obsession? Don't worry, I'm back to watching 2-4 eps of Buffy a night, so I'm sure those posts will be back soon.

In the meantime, I've been looking for plus-sized clothes on Etsy. And I've been pleasantly surprised at what I've found. Take a look:

Sutara sells handmade clothing, including lots of hippy-style skirts with drawstring waists fitting up to 48" and wide-leg pants. My favorite of her offerings are the custom hippy patched pants show here, which she collaborates with the customer on in terms of size and style. They're $38 plus $7 S&H.

From the Fig Tree offers clothes made from mostly recycled materials (other clothes). Again, most of the clothes are drawstring "size free" affairs.

Cinnascents has a whole section of plus sized aprons, which (God bless her) look just like her other aprons, only bigger. I like the sunflower blues apron shown best. It's not a bad price, either--$19 with free shipping.

Sandmaiden makes sleepwear and lingerie in a wide size range, from 02/-18/20. It's a bit pricey but SO cute.

Jane at Bon Bon is an actual plus-sized designer! She stocks some dresses in plus sizes, but most of her stuff is made to order (you send her your measurements), and it's the same price regardless of size. She's got a wide range of prices, depending on the piece. The amazing sun dress shown here is $89 plus $7 US shipping.

Miss Bombshell offers up super-cute vintage inspired duds, all of which are available from XS-XXL. Again, not cheap (most dresses are around $85).

YodaMoon says that her clothing is "sized for real people." Things run from XS-XXL. I'll admit a fondness for her flannel bloomers--I think they'd make great lounge/PJ pants. They're $35 plus $6 shipping.

Panda Sewing is another site offering custom sized clothing, particularly dresses. Right now she has a couple of sun dresses available, up to size 24, for $46-$69 (depending on dress pattern, not size).

Six Gun Sally has a plus-sized section, mostly featuring shirts. This belted tunic is a 1X. It's $34 plus $3.50 shipping.

Someone on a message board I frequent posed this question today, and it seems like an excellent blog prompt. Maybe I'll start trying to do it every Friday, a la the Friday Love Lists Meg Fowler does.

Things I've learned this week:

• Some people are actually annoyed by receiving paper thank you notes
• If you piss Illy off, she'll bite you and draw blood
• Garden of Eden blue corn tortilla chips are sadly salt-free
• My new clothes lines hold more than one, but less than two, loads of laundry
• My stimulus check should come in a couple of weeks
• I don't mind drinking coffee black anymore.

What did you learn this week?

Have you ever thought about what was on the radio the year you were born? I was actually born into kind of an interesting musical moment--disco was still king, but it was failing, there was still a punk undertone, but Sid Vicious died. And some legendary country songs were released, too. It's fascinating. I had no idea, until I started making this list, that 1979 gave birth not only to me, but also to London Calling and The Wall.

What about you? What was playing the year you were born?

This one is too funny not to share. I'll admit it, I love hair metal ballads. Love to sing 'em at the top of my lungs. You should try it. I know you remember the words.

So inevitably, when I go on that rant about how great TV is, someone asks me what I mean about quality television. No, I'm not talking about Discovery and the History channel (though you can find quality shows on both of those networks). I mean that there is quality fiction on television. Television literature. It's even on the networks occasionally. And so, yet another list. These are only shows I have personally experienced as "television literature" at some point--I'm sure there are others.

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (duh)
2. Joan of Arcadia
3. The Wire
4. Gilmore Girls
5. M*A*S*H
6. My So-Called Life
7. Roseanne
8. The Shield
9. The Sopranos
10. The West Wing

Once again I am too addled to actually write. But here are some recent Etsy covets:

1. Skip To My Lou Clothing has the cutest outfits for little girls. Shirt and skirt sets are in the $25-$30 (plus $5 S&H) range, which isn't bad for full handmade outfits! My current favorite, shown here, is a set with a chick motif in size 3/4.

2. It took me a while to start appreciating the apron craze, but I'm on board now, and there are some fantastic vintage-inspired ones at Boojiboo. They aren't cheap (the dog print one shown here is $23.75 plus $3 S&H), but still, so adorable!

3. Matte Stephens' Brainiac art just kills me. In both subject and style, it's just wonderful. Limited edition prints run from $35, for an 8.5"X11" (plus $4.60 S&H) to $60 (plus $10.60 S&H) for a 13" X 14" print. Most are available in both sizes. I particularly love this owl.

4. Hey Peanut makes soft toys and shoes for babies, some with vintage fabrics, and they fantastic. For the most part, the booties are $18 plus $5 S&H and the stuffies are $25 plus $5. I really want to think of someone to gift this vintage plaid baby elephant toy.

5. I really want a lunch kit from Glue and Glitter. For $40 (with free shipping!) you get a handmade, machine-washable tote, a stainless steel lunch box, five tote-coordinated cloth napkins, and a set of reusable utensils. How much does that make bringing your lunch to work?

6. Simple Song Designs is definitely on my list of potential gift sources in the future. The custom stationary products are classic and gorgeous, with just enough of a twist. This set of ten custom-made mod-style cards with envelopes is $12 plus $1.50 S&H, and for another $3 you can get your return address printed on the envelopes. Looks like Mother's Day to me...

7. Finally, I have to call your attention to the genius that is Courtney Courtney. Last time I did this, I featured dressme, a shop that makes one-of-a-kind tees and dresses for little ones out of recycled garments. Courtney Courtney is similar, with "entirely new, partially new, partially repurposed and recycled pieces" for kids and adults. The adult stuff doesn't really work for me, but the kids' stuff is fabulous. My favorite pieces are the embellished recycled tee shirt play dresses, like the one shown here. A 5T dress made out of a recycled Thai beer tee and custom screen printed sleeves? How could it get cuter than that? This one is $25 plus $2.15 S&H.

I got this meme from Sarahlynn:

Not necessarily accurate, but funny anyway. And made me think, what are my favorite dog breeds? If I have to hold it down to say, 10, which ones do I choose? Thus, today's list.

Grace's Top 10 Dog Breeds
10. Akita
9. Rottweiler
8. Beagle
7. Otterhound
6. Great Pyrenees
5. American Staffordshire Terrier
4. Anatolian Shepherd Dog
3. Mastiiff
2. Bernese Mountain Dog
1. Irish Wolfhound

Gee, do you think I maybe have a type?

We are a cranky bunch around my house tonight. I don't think the dogs or cats are actually cranky, but the humans definitely are. Mark is having a back issue, and I'm just so tired and not quite not-sick yet.

So I am hard pressed to think of a list. Instead, I'll share with you the things that are on my "43 Things" list (broadly, my list of goals, which is always in flux).

1. Get out of debt.
2. Travel.
3. Get a Ph.D.
4. Get Lasik surgery.
5. Keep in touch with friends better.
6. Get lots of tattoos.
7. Learn to knit.
8. See Gustav Klimt's art in person.
9. Remember birthdays and send cards.
10. Blog every day (hey, I'm doing that--sorta).
11. Stop buying things I don't need.
12. Keep my house cleaner.
13. Save money.
14. Watch more movies.
15. Learn boxing.
16. Pay off my student loans.
17. Donate more to charity.
18. Stop biting my nails.
19. Publish writing.
20. Develop my own style.

That last list got me thinking about great songs featured on TV shows I love. Here's a list of a few. Do you know what shows they are/were from? Put guesses in the comments. Shouldn't be too hard to guess--there aren't/haven't been all that many shows I like.

1. "Way Down in the Hole" by Steve Earle (originally Tom Waits) Theme song from The Wire, last season's version (Kelly Cat)
2. "L.A. Song" by Christian Kane
3. "Goodbye to You" by Michelle Branch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Tabula Rosa episode (Amanda)
4. "Keep Me in Your Heart" by Warron Zevon
5. "Woke Up This Morning" by A3 Theme song from The Sopranos (Melinda)
6. "Out Of This World" by Bush
7. "I Wanna Be Sedated" by The Ramones My So-Called Life (Kasia)
8. "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley (originally Leonard Cohen) The West Wing, the episode when Simon dies (Frog)
9. "Teardrop" by Massive Attack Theme song from House, M.D. (Melinda)
10. "Have a Little Faith in Me" by John Haitt

I love covers of songs. Love them. Never met one I didn't like. Here are some of my favorites:

1. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Tori Amos (originally Nirvana)
I don't like most covers of this song. I like this one.
2. "Tainted Love" by Marilyn Manson (originally Gloria Jones)
3. "Wild Horses" by The Sundays (originally The Rolling Stones)
Gah. The prom scene in Buffy. Always.
4. "Hurt" by Johnny Cash (originally Nine Inch Nails)
Still my pick for best. video. ever.
5. "Mad World" by Gary Jules (originally Tears for Fears)
And I bawl and bawl.
6. "Come On, Eileen" by Save Ferris (originally Dexys Midnight Runners)
This is just silly.
7. "Angel from Montgomery" by Bonnie Raitt (originally John Prine)
This song reminds me of "Into the Wild" now.
8. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by Cat Power (originally The Rolling Stones)
9. "Hazy Shade of Winter" by The Bangles (originally Simon & Garfunkel)
10. "Helpless" by k.d. lang (originally Neil Young)
I actually like Patti Smith's version of this song as well if not better, but I can't find it online.
11. "It Ain't Me, Babe" by Lucy Kaplansky (originally Bob Dylan)
I like her cover of Lyle Lovett's "God Will" even more, but I can't find it anywhere.
12. "He Was a Friend of Mine" by Cat Power (originally Bob Dylan)
13 "King of the Road" by Rufus Wainwright (originally Roger Miller)
From Brokeback Mountain. All the best covers are from movies or TV, seems like.

There are so, so many more...some of which I have told you about before (Patti's Smith's covers from Twelve, all the great Dylan and Leonard Cohen covers...). What are your favorites?

Same meme as Wednesday, only with song lyrics. These aren't my favorite, though, just the first lyrics from each of the first 10 songs to pop up in my iTunes. Guesses?

1. "I pulled out of Shaky Town, goin' up-country, sinking down."
2. "I walked into a honky tonk, just the other day." "Juke Box Blues" by Reese Witherspoon (originally June Carter Cash) (Delia)
3. "If I have to go, will you remember me?"
4. "Because I love you I get tongue-tied around you." "One Dance" by Dan Bern (Jenny)
5. "Life in the circus ain't easy." "Freakshow" by Ani DiFranco (Chips)
6. "Mamma Svetlana, I know you wanna, shriek at what your daughter done done."
7. "Well my friends are gone and my hair is gray." "Tower of Song" by Leonard Cohen (Chips, Nella)
8. "What is that you're saying, you roulette girl?" "Roulette Girl" by Mary Prankster (Melinda)
9. "Well it's early in the A.M. and I'm feeling kind of blind."
10. "Last night I stood at your doorstep, trying to figure out what went wrong." "Long Walk Home" by Bruce Springsteen (Amanda--close enough!)

I am home sick today and not really up for thinking of a new list. So I'm stealing this meme from Bomboniera.

The rules

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. Looking them up is cheating, please don’t.

My movie lines:

1. "Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of Raymond K. Hessel's life. His breakfast will taste better than any meal you and I have ever tasted." Fight Club (Noble Savage)
2. "...never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!" The Princess Bride (Marta)
3. "Sand is overrated. It's just tiny, little rocks." Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Jess)
4. "And then there were the crypto-homo rockers: Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, David Bowie--who was actually an idiom working in America and Canada." Hedwig & the Angry Inch (Jenny, Bomboneria)
5. "I'm the most dangerous man in this prison. You know why? 'Cause I control the underwear." American History X (Howell)
6. "Anybody not wearing 2 million sunblock is gonna have a real bad day." Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Skylanda)
7. "If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking and you beat love down." Romeo & Juliet (Melinda, Noble Savage)
8. "Speak for yourself. You may be a sinner, but I ain't yet had the opportunity." Brokeback Mountain (Ganymede)
9. "I'm just trying to be honest about being a misanthrope." Dazed and Confused (jaysee)
10. "I've always known I was meant to dominate your sex and avenge my own." Dangerous Liasons (Bomboniera)

OK. Guesses?

Have you heard of Six Word Memoirs? The concept is pretty simple--tell your life story in only and exactly six words. Some of my favorites:

1. I slept through most of it.
2. I asked God. He said nothing.
3. Hoping for just one extra day.
4. I'm beginning to think it's me.
5. Dotted i's, crossed t's, now what?
6. Inspired hired fired tired retired expired.
7. Suddenly, something happened... No, false alarm
8. Suggestions wanted for new interesting vices.
9. 78. 45. 33. 8-track. MP3. Next.
10. THIS IS JUST MY DAY JOB.
11. God Called, you have 1 message.
12. Being a grown-up is more fun.
13. Zoloft daily, beer often, fuck yoga.

I am trying desperately to think of a clever one of my own, but coming up totally blank.

1. It is raining.
2. I haven't done a list yet today.
3. I haven't done a play list in a bit.

So, of course, a rain songs list. Now, rain is a pretty damn common trope in music (so emo, you know?), so I limited this list to songs about rain I actually like. Hence no Gene Kelly (I'm sure he's very upset). Please note my (judicious?) use of hair bands.

1. "I Remember You" by Skid Row
"Woke up to the sound of pouring rain..."
This was my oh-my-God-very-favorite song for quite some time in my teeny bopper years. Sebastian Bach was just. so hot. in the video! I'm happy, actually, to see that Sebastian Bach is at least kind of still around, and not so skinny anymore. And I still like the song. Sometimes, only a power ballad will do.

2. "It Can't Rain All the Time" by Jane Siberry
"It won't rain all the time/the sky won't fall forever."
From The Crow soundtrack! And at this point, I become a goth. For you kiddies, that's what we used to call emo. ;)

3. "Purple Rain" by Prince & The Revolution
"I only want to see you laughing in the purple rain"
The best line in the song, though, is "I don't want to be your weekend lover." I am not actually old enough to truly appreciate Prince for when he was hot, but I still love him. As a side note, Ani used to cover this song every now and again, which was fantastic.

4. "I Can't Stand the Rain" by Tina Turner
"I can't stand the rain against my window/bringing back sweet memories"
This song rules just for the way Tina sings "rain."

5. "Have You Ever Seen the Rain? by Credence Clearwater Revival
"Someone told me long ago theres a calm before the storm,/I know; its been comin' for some time."
CCR is probably one of those bands that proves my dorkiness. Oh well.

6. "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain" by Hank Williams Sr.
"Love is like a dying ember/Only memories remain/And through the ages I'll remember/Blue eyes cryin' in the rain."
Doesn't get much cooler than Hank Sr. Usually, though, I think of Willie Nelson when I think of this song.

7. "November Rain" by Guns N Roses
"Nothing lasts forever, even cold November rain."
Another one from the power ballad period. I can't help it.

8. "I Wish I Never Saw the Sun" by Beth Orton
"I wish I never saw the sun shine, then maybe I wouldn't mind the rain."
This song makes me bawl. Seriously.

9. "Rush Hour" by Ani DiFranco
"Rush hour/at the day's dawning/the rain came/and pushed me under the awning."
I love the sound of this song, it's intensity. And the very basic guitar line.

10. "Raining in Baltimore" by The Counting Crows
"It's raining in Baltimore, 15 miles east, but everything else is the same."
Another sad one. Surely I've mentioned before how much I LOVE this album?

11. "You Never Even Call Me By My Name" by Merle Haggard (and others)
"I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison/and I went to pick her up in the rain/But before I could get there in my pick-up truck/She got runned over by a damned old train."
This is a favorite of my mom's. She sings it. Often. Not this version, but the live Steve Goodman one. But I couldn't find that one online. And this one is pretty amazing. The perfect country western song.

12. "I Think It's Gonna Rain Today" by Nina Simone
"Human kindness is overflowing/and I think it's gonna rain today."
This song reminds me of Beaches, when Bette Midler sings it. This is Nina Simone's version, though. The whispered "lonely" just kills me.

13. "It's a Hard Rain Gonna Fall" by Bob Dylan
"And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard/And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall."
Another uplifting one. This is Dylan-as-poet though, and it's so lucid and beautiful. ("Saw a room full of men with their hammers bleeding.")

14. "Done Wrong" by Ani DiFranco
"It's a hard rain, it's a cold rain, the kind that you find in songs/Guess that makes me the jerk with the heartache, here to sing for you about how I've been done wrong."
I love the sound of this song, but it's the self-awareness and meta-ness of it that really kills me.

15. "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor
"I've seen fire and I've seen rain/I've seen sunny days I thought would never end/But I always thought that I'd see you again."
This song is cheesy and reminds me of Running on Empty and I love it.

16. "No Rain" by Blind Melon
"All I can say is that my life is pretty plain/I like watching the puddles gather rain."
I know, 16 is a weird number. But there wasn't one I wanted to leave out. So there you go.
Incidentally, I used to have a flannel with "Blind Melon" stitched into the back. Rad.

Stealing a page from Eden's book today and listing my previous jobs.

Age 14-15: Arlene's Cafe. Started as busser/dishwasher and moved to waitress on slower shifts, or second waitress on busier ones. I worked only once in a while during the school year (my freshman year in high school) and I think four days a week over the summer. The job ended explosively in August when the boss man screamed at me and called me a very, very bad name for spilling some salad dressing, a story I've told here before.

Age 15-17: Tomaselli's Cafe & Pastry Mill I started just a couple of months after quitting my previous gig. Better food, better atmosphere. I had a lot of fun at this job (and sometimes it was a total drag too, obviously). Again I started as a dishwasher/prep cook/pastry maker and ended up waiting tables. This cafe still says family to me, and I am warmly greeted by the owner whenever I make my way back into it. Here I worked 2-3 days a week during school and full-time over the summer all through the last three years of high school, until I left for college.

Age 18: Reed Residence Life. My first year at Reed my work study job was in the office of Residence Life, which oversees all the dorms. I mostly filed and made copies, answered the phone when the full-time admin was taking a break, that kind of thing. It was part-time, but I can't remember exactly how much I worked there. I recall very clearly that I didn't like it--it was boring.

Age 18: North Douglas Parks Community Pool. The summer after my first year at Reed, I lived at home and worked at a public pool in the next little town over. I don't know what my title was, but I did a little bit of a lot of things. I worked the early shift, getting there to open the doors at 5:30. I took money and scheduled swimming lessons at the front desk, cleaned the locker rooms (ew), and was done every day in the early afternoon, which left ample time for sunbathing and moping, which were the other two activities I engaged in that summer. Towards the end of the summer, I took a class and became a certified lifeguard, and then I worked a lifeguard/swim lessons shifts before returning to Reed.

Age 19: Reed College Pool. I spent what seemed like the majority of my second year at Reed sitting at the Reed College Pool, sniffing chlorine, watching people swim laps. It couldn't have been that much time, but it certainly seemed like it. I had a radio, I remember, and listened to the bulk of Clinton's impeachment proceedings on NPR. Still, it paid better than other campus jobs, and you could read if there was nobody swimming (which happened sometimes), so it wasn't too bad.

Age 19: Multnomah County District Attorney's Office. The summer after my second year in college, I interned at the DA's office. At the beginning of the summer, I got very, very sick with what turned out to be a pelvic/ovarian infection, and I missed three weeks of work, so it got off to kind of a bad start. It was a cool job, though in retrospect it was clearly more charity than work. I got paid well (for that time in my life, anyway), had to dress up, and had my own office. I helped misdemeanor trial lawyers with prep work and wrote briefs on new research in minority relations in DA's offices. I also created a promotional booklet about the history of the DA's office in the county. It was the first job I had where it became clear that this whole getting a degree thing was a really, really good idea. And I also learned that I definitely did not want to become a lawyer.

Age 20: Reed College Pool. Repeat age 19, only with $.25/hr more for my "experience."

Age 20: Reed College Annual Fund. I did a brief stint my third year at Reed of calling former students and their parents and asking them for money. I have seriously never done anything I hated as much as phone solicitation. And I SUCKED at it, too. I think it was politely suggested that I quit.

Age 20: Reed College Conference and Events Planning: The summer after my junior year, I stayed on campus and worked as the "summer conference coordinator" for Reed. It wasn't a bad job, though being on-call sucked. I basically coordinated between outside groups who wanted to rent Reed facilities for their conferences or meetings and the Reed offices that they'd need to deal with (janitorial, food, AV, etc.). It was the most responsibility I'd had to date, which I enjoyed, but event planning was and is clearly not my calling.

Age 21: Reed College Prospective Host. Not wanting to lifeguard again my senior year, and also not wanting to co-habitate with my boyfriend again, I wrangled my way into a job as a prospective host and got a free dorm room. Basically, I babysat prospective students, picking them up, taking them to dinner, showing them around, and having them spend the night in the other half of my split freshman-style dorm room. I averaged less than one student per week, so it really wasn't bad. I was pretty terrible at it, though--by that time I was so down on Reed and becoming so anti-social that I can't possibly have been any fun, or much information.

Age 21: Adjunct instructor I graduated into a really bad economy (2001 in Oregon), so the first job I could find was a two nights/week gig teaching business English at a technical/business college. It was a job for which I was way too young and completely unprepared, and I was worse at it than almost anything else I've ever done. To say I am not proud of that performance would be a vast understatement.

At this point we start jobs that are actually on my resume, and so I get a bit less specific...

Age 22: Art Museum. My first real post-college job. For the princely sum of $17,000/year, I scheduled school tours of the museum's collections, assisting in managing the docent program and the teen program, assisted in creating and distributing educational materials, etc. I worked with great people, with whom I am still in contact, and learned a huge, huge amount. I also learned that $17,000/year is not enough to live on.

Age 23: Medical School. My first and last true administrative assistant job. A huge pay bump (up to almost $30k, if I remember correctly) led me to take the job, and that was the right decision, as I really needed the money. The job itself, however, sucked in such a huge way I can barely articulate it. I spent a lot of time entering procedures performed by residents into a huge tracking database. I also typed dictation notes, made copies...the real admin stuff. Once I was there for a bit longer, I got to do a little more interesting stuff, including research for a breast health education project, but it was mostly pretty brain-numbing, and I was happy when we were leaving for Austin so I could quit.

Age 24: Non-profit. I started at the non-profit at about the same time I started graduate school. I was a "Research and Policy Intern." The work itself was fabulous, really interested and I learned a ton. And I met one of my best friends, The Princess, there (she was my supervisor!). There are downsides to working for a small non-profit, though, and some of them definitely came to my attention during my year there. Suffice it to say that I think I am finished with non-profit work.

Age 25-26: Contract company. This is the job I temporarily left graduate school for. It was a very well-paid (the most I've ever made) gig as a technical writer, working on a contract basis with a technical team at a state agency. One of the easiest jobs I've ever had. Never asked much of me and didn't give me much to think about, but it wasn't a totally unpleasant experience. The most frustrating thing about it, I think, was just the going-nowhere feeling it gave me. I just couldn't see what would be next from there.

Age 26-28: University. This brings us to the present. I work at a University, managing grants. For the most part, I like my job. I've learned a lot and gained what I think is a very useful skill set. It's not my passion, but it doesn't bore me too much. I'm earning a very decent living, and next month I will have worked in the same position for two years, which (as you can see) is something of a record.

As I've mentioned, I've been spending some time lately with Disney princesses. And wow, they piss me off. I mean, them pissing me off is why I started the subversive boxes in the first place, clearly, but now that I am looking for them I see them EVERYWHERE, and I really, really hate them.

Here is a list, chronologically, of the Disney princesses and why they suck.

1. Snow White (1937). Disney's first princess. Stock story--wicked stepmother, Garden of Eden-style poison apple, handsome prince. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Then there's Snow White's turn as a subservient house maid for the dwarves, the racism implicit in the good character being "white" and the evil character "black"...What bothers me the most about Snow White, I think, is the sick emphasis on her "purity." It makes me want to retch.

2. Cinderella (1950). My guess is that Cindyrella is Disney's most popular princess. You know the story: another wicked stepmother, this time with sisters to boot, another beautiful maid, another handsome prince. With freaky 50s class implications! The thing that pisses me off the most about it, though, I gotta tell you, is the conflation of big feet=ugly horrible woman and small feet=lovely perfect princess. Gah.

3. Aurora (1959). Princess Aurora, also known as Sleeping Beauty, has the distinction of being the Disney princess who takes the longest nap. The wicked stepmother becomes an evil witch, but once again we get a wake-up kissing prince, this time one to whom Aurora was betrothed at birth! And requisite sexless protector women (the good fairies), whose vanity over whose signature color will reign ends up getting Aurora caught--they are the most irritating part, I think. There's also a weird class aspect here--Aurora has to give up her class/crown in order to be safe, and there's a feeling of "noble poverty" that bothers the shit out of me.

4. Ariel (1989). Ariel is the Little Mermaid. I have no idea why Disney decided to pick the princesses back up after a 30 year hiatus, but when they did, they put her underwater. Possibly just so the princess could wear a bikini. Again we have a handsome prince and a stepmother/witch, and talking animals (they're a must in the previous stories too). Ariel is a bit different from the previous princesses in that she's more headstrong and has a bit more agency, but the script is really still the same. And still annoying. The man who saves Ariel is her dad and not her prince, but the stupid trope of falling in love with a handsome prince reigns supreme.

5. Belle (1991). Ariel was so successful Disney had to follow her up, so they kicked it old school with Beauty and the Beast, which is possibly the single most irritating and horrifiying Disney movie ever made. Belle isn't actually a princess, she's just a girl, and she is trades herself for her imprisoned father and is held hostage by the Beast. With whom she, of course, falls in love. Falls in love with her captor--yay. Then of course she "breaks his curse" and he becomes handsome and lovely. Because there ain't nothing worse than being ugly. Gag.

6. Jasmine (1992). Not only did Aladdin give Disney the chance to feature another navel-revealing princess, this time she got to live out basically the same story while being non-white. Yeehaw! Like Ariel, Jasmine is a bit spunkier than the early princesses, and she gets herself in all sorts of trouble. Jasmine's rescuer, Aladdin, is a commoner not a prince, and she never takes a big nap. The film also continues a trend away from female villains (the stepmother role), with Jafar. Which is all well and good, but it's still a racist piece of shit.

7. Pocahontas (1995). How excited were Disney execs when they realized how profitable non-white princesses could be? So excited that they followed Jasmine up with Native American princess Pocahontas! The story line does change up some here, with no evil older man/ugly dude/stepmother and a princess who doesn't get married and live happily ever after in the end. However, Pocahontas still bugs me, because it's racist and reactionary and historically inaccurate. It's almost progress, though.

8. Mulan (1998). Disney continues its run of non-white princesses (and inaccurate co-opting of other people's legends) with Mulan, about whom I have lots to say over at Heroine Content. Again, there is almost-progress here, but not quite.

Apparently, the next Disney princess will be Tiana, from The Princess and the Frog, upcoming in 2009. Unsurprisingly, Tiana will be the first Black Disney princess. My hopes were low to begin with, and only got lower when I saw Tiana's picture. I'm sure Disney will pat itself on the back for its cultural sensitivity (that's four non-white princesses in a row!), but will she possibly be anything other than another horrible stereotype (now with gender AND race!)?

For the purpose of the boxes, I am also making a honorary Princess of Peter Pan's Tinkerbell, just because I hate her so much. Disney released their version of Peter Pan in 1953, and in it Tinkerbell was jealous, mute, and possibly stupid. Gah. To go along with the revenue-generating Princesses, Disney has built a Fairies franchise around Tinkerbell. Interestingly, the other fairies are new characters, young hot fairies from Neverland. The company didn't chose to incorporate its old fairy godmothers from Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Can't think of why that would be...

You can take a quiz to find out which princess you are here. I honestly wasn't sure which one to hope for when I took it. I got Pocahontas, which I guess is about as well as I could hope to do.

So even though I've stopped taking and posting pictures of my clothes every day, I am still thinking a lot about style, about dressing in a more put-together way, and about reducing my wardrobe to fewer pieces that I feel better about. I'm still reading Allie every day, and taking her advice. One of the best posts she's written, to my mind, was not on her daily style diary, but on Wardrobe Oxygen, where she wrote a couple of years ago about staples for every woman's wardrobe. After reading the post, along with her updates "Wardrobe hints for warmer climates" and "Updating your wardrobe for spring 2008," I made a list (word of the month!) of things I wanted in my wardrobe, especially with spring/summer approaching.

In November, I posted about I Live Here, I Give Here, which is an Austin campaign to make people aware of local charitable organization and non-profits and increase giving. As one of my giving goals for 2008 was to increase local-level giving, it's a great resource for me. In honor of NaBloPoMo: The List Edition, here is a list of some places I'd like to give to this year, many of which I discovered through I Live Here, I Give Here:

So I have all this stuff to tell you! And, in honor of NaBloPoMo's March list theme, I'll try to do it in list form.

1. Remember those odd princess things I said I'd justify purchasing? Well, they are fodder for my new crafty project, Subversive Princess Boxes. My favorite one so far, the blue Cinderella box, is at left. It's actually part of a set, with the green Cinderella box, that I made for a swap. I've also made a purple Tinkerbell box and a larger pink Cinderella box. They get nicer with each incarnation. Making them is labor intensive, but fun. They may at some point be available for sale, but for right now they are for swapping/gifting only.

2. Speaking of sale, that brings me to my second new project, Crushworthy (huge nod to Turtle for the name!). Crushworthy is the Etsy shop I've opened to sell the homemade bath products I am churning out like a mad woman lately. I have no idea if this venture will ever be profitable, but it's fun and I think worth a try. Right now, all I have up is oatmeal bath. As soon as I get pictures taken, I'll add bath melts. Those are the only two recipes I have right now that I feel confident enough in to sell. I'm experimenting with making other things as well, though, including bath bombs and bubble bars. We'll see.

3. Last night, I made amazing curried chicken salad. We had it for dinner on toasted pita and will be having it for lunch today (and tomorrow).

I think that's all I've got. For now.

Top 5 things I love about Sunday morning:

1. Not having to get out of bed on a schedule.
2. Extended pajama time.
3. Really good coffee, consumed at my leisure, out of an actual clay mug.
4. Watching soccer on the couch with Mark.
5. Knowing that I have the whole day in front of me.

Okay, it's March 1, and that means it's time for my first list, as per this month's NaBloPoMo theme. Since I spent the better part of the day today hitting a string of thrift stores with my good friend The Princess, seems natural that my list should tell you where we went and what I thrifted!

1. Goodwill South Lamar was our first stop. This isn't a store I frequent often, since it's way out of my neighborhood, but it's a nice store and usually has something to offer. Today wasn't any different--our first stop was the most worthwhile, at least for me. My best find was the two tin recipe boxes you see here, for $.99 each. No idea what I am going to do with them, but aren't they great? I also came home with a brand new Bodum French press for $1.99 (and we don't really need another one right now, but given my propensity to break them, it doesn't hurt to have a spare), a shirt for Mark for I think $4.99, two of these great calendars for $.99 each (and again I am not totally sure what I am going to do with them), and a princess book for a project I'll tell you about later for $2.99.

2. Our second stop was Savers South Lamar. I am not a huge Savers fan, but it was very much worth my time to stop there today. I found the cat condo you see here being enjoyed by Atticus and Illy, which is brand new, for $25. I thought maybe I'd overpaid until I looked for something similar online and found prices around $90 for something not so cute. At the cats love it so far. I also got a couple more princess books and an Easter Seals calendar (I needed flower pictures for a project I'm working on), for $.99 each.

3. Stop #3 was at Thrift Town. I've reviewed this store before. Nothing there for me today, though I considered buying a big bag of cat toys for $4.99.

4. Next, we hit another Goodwill, the Cherry Creek one. I've reviewed this store before as well. Today it was better than last time, though still lacking in the organizational department. I picked up a bunch of princess valentine's for $.49/box (again, I will explain why at some point in the future), some chi-chi bath sets from Target for $2.99 each, and the world's cutest salt and pepper shakers, new in the package, for $.99.

Then The Princess had to go home and tend to her wee one. Boo hoo!

5. On the way home, I hit the Norwood Goodwill, a store I haven't visited in some time (though I did review it a while back). Like last time, the store was very nice, but didn't actually have anything I wanted. The only thing I even considered buying was a plastic ladle for $1.99.

6. Finally, I went by my weekly stop gold-standard store, the Goodwill at MacFarlane. There wasn't anything there for me today either, but that's not surprising as it's been less than a week since I last visited.

All in all, a very good day. Had a wonderful time, got good stuff, and didn't spend an exorbitant amount. I really like visiting the stores that are off my usual beaten path. Looking at the GW website, I remember my plan to visit every GW in the area. I still haven't been to the Balcones location or the one on Brodie, or any of the ones in the burbs. Maybe next weekend...Princess, are you up for an adventure?

So there's good news.

1. Eden has taken NaBloPoMo monthly.
2. There are themes.
3. March's theme is lists.

So the idea, then, is to post a list every day for the entire month of March.

I could not possibly be more in.

For reasons I will disclose in a later post (possibly even later today), I have been poking around Etsy a lot recently. And, of course, I've come up with no fewer than a zillion things I want. But I'm not gonna buy them. For real. I'm not. Instead, I'm going to share them with you.

A fantastically named store, GracieDesigns, has lots of super-cool fabric products I am coveting, but none more than the cup cuddlers. The one shown here, in "At the Spa" pattern, is my favorite, but there are lots to choose from. At $6 each plus $2.50 U.S. shipping, it's not too spendy, either. Cute Easter basket addition for a coffee lover?

caughtredhanded sells fabulous resin pendants and other lovelies. I can't pick just one as a favorite, but the pink teardrop shaped one shown here surely is lovely. It even comes in its own little tin (but with no neck cord, so be forewarned) for $12 plus $3 shipping.

elfrida makes gorgeous patterned gift tags. As well as the spring green shown here, they are also available in yellow, pink, red, powder blue, khaki, and brown. For $3.50 plus $1.25 shipping, you get 18 tags. Each is a 2" card stock circle with a small hole already punched in it. I'd love to put these on packages.

I really want a print from studio mela. The one pictured here is called "I Love Your Egg Beaters," and it would be so great in my kitchen. She's also got "I Love Your Forks," "I Love Your Spoons," and "I Love Your Spatulas," as well as many non-utensil themed ones. The egg beater print is 8"X10", signed and numbered, for $20 plus $5 shipping.

Some day, a child in my life will get a gift from dressme. Each piece is totally original, made of recycled clothing. Now there is a premise I can get behind! The shirt here, made from recycled t-shirts, is size 6-12 months. It is spendy, at $21.50 plus $3.50 shipping and handling, but for one of a kind wearable art, I think it would be worth it.

BirdNerd makes collages and linocut prints on bird themes. She is extremely talented, and offers several sizes of prints, as well as postcards and note card sets. The set of five note cards shown here, which are prints of BirdNerd's collages featured birds on cherry bossom branches, are $15 plus $2.50 shipping.

electricboogaloo has more potential small friend gifts, including the fantastic nerdy ABC flash cards shown here (A is for Atom through Z is for Zoological Oddity!). The full set of brightly colored 5"X7" printed cards is $18 plus $5 shipping. I'm so there.

Reach for the Sky Designs is another fantastic Etsy jewelry maker, with the interesting twist of using Scrabble tiles as the basis for her pendants. I like several of them a lot, but this one, made from a $.04 stamp with a ship on it, is my favorite. It comes on a 18" silver plated chain for $11.50 plus $2.50 shipping.

Ahpeele makes limited edition screenprinted t-shirts, and they are so damn cool. I'd wear just about all of them, but the pine bonsai one shown here is my favorite. The shirt is a longfit v-neck, available in sizes xl-xxl, for $28 plus $5 S&H.

Finally, one more necklace. I've been eyeing the lovely pendants at Ling Glass for months, particularly the stained glass ones, like the the spiral one shown here. The price, $17.50 plus $3.50 shipping, is for the pendant onlly, but the store also sells cords and chains for between $2.50-$4.

There. I feel better now.

I do so love a project...

As I was watching the 80th Annual Academy Awards last night, I realized that there are a whole bunch of "Best Picture" films I haven't seen. Hard to call myself a film buff when that is the case! So, I decided to embark upon a new project (because really, what do I love more than a project?). I'll watch all the Best Pictures that I haven't seen, all the way back to 1929.

This list is off all the winners, with the ones I have already seen bolded:

1927/28: Wings
1928/29: The Broadway Melody
1929/30: All Quiet on the Western Front
1930/3: Cimarron
1931/32: Grand Hotel
1932/33: Cavalcade
1934: It Happened One Night
1935: Mutiny on the Bounty
1936: The Great Ziegfeld
1937: The Life of Emile Zola
1938: You Can't Take It with You
1939: Gone with the Wind
1940: Rebecca
1941: How Green Was My Valley
1942: Mrs. Miniver
1943: Casablanca
1944: Going My Way
1945: The Lost Weekend
1946: The Best Years of Our Lives
1947: Gentleman's Agreement
1948: Hamlet
1949: All the King's Men
1950: All about Eve
1951: An American in Paris
1952: The Greatest Show on Earth
1953: From Here to Eternity
1954: On the Waterfront
1955: Marty
1956: Around the World in 80 Days
1957: The Bridge on the River Kwai
1958: Gigi
1959: Ben-Hur
1960: The Apartment
1961: West Side Story
1962: Lawrence of Arabia
1963: Tom Jones
1964: My Fair Lady
1965: The Sound of Music
1966: A Man for All Seasons
1967: In the Heat of the Night
1968: Oliver!
1969: Midnight Cowboy
1970: Patton
1971: The French Connection
1972: The Godfather
1973: The Sting
1974: The Godfather Part II
1975: One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
1976: Rocky
1977: Annie Hall
1978: The Deer Hunter
1979: Kramer vs. Kramer
1980: Ordinary People
1981: Chariots of Fire
1982: Gandhi
1983: Terms of Endearment
1984: Amadeus
1985: Out of Africa
1986 : Platoon
1987: The Last Emperor
1988: Rain Man
1989: Driving Miss Daisy
1990: Dances With Wolves
1991: The Silence of the Lambs
1992: Unforgiven
1993: Schindler's List
1994: Forrest Gump
1995: Braveheart
1996: The English Patient
1997: Titanic
1998: Shakespeare in Love
1999: American Beauty
2000: Gladiator
2001: A Beautiful Mind
2002: Chicago
2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2004: Million Dollar Baby
2005: Crash
2006: The Departed
2007: No Country for Old Men

The question, then, is whether to start at the beginning, with Wings, or whether to start at the most recent end and work backwards. The benefit of the latter is that it will give me time to acclimate to watching older films. The benefit of the former is that it will take me much longer to get to Titanic that way. What do you think?

(This is the final installment in the blog carnival hosted by the OTHER mother.)

C'mon, something blue? Of course I'm going to do a play list. It's just too easy. Especially if you happen to actually LIKE classic country.

1. "Blue" by Leanna Rimes
Remember when this came out? She was like 12 and sounded like Patsy Cline? It was amazing.

2. "Blue Suede Shoes" by Elvis Presley
This one is a gimme.

3. "Looking for Blue Eyes" by Jessi Colter
I love this song. I used to listen to it on the Outlaws album. Heh. I thought Jessi Colter must be SO cool, since she was the only girl in that bunch.

4. "Blue Hotel" by Chris Isaak
Chris Isaak has a lot of "blue" songs. Goes with the depressing wish-I-was-Morrissey persona, I guess.

5. "Pale Blue Eyes" by The Velvet Underground
This song gives me the creeps. The way Lou Reed says "make me mad" chills me.

6. "Blue Bayou" by Roy Orbison
Another gimme. This song always reminds me of the movie "Steel Magnolias," even though it wasn't actually this song in that movie.

7. "Tangled Up in Blue" by The Indigo Girls and Ani DiFranco
This is, of course, a Bob Dylan song, but like Chris Isaak, Bob Dylan has a lot of "blue" songs, so I decided to use a cover of this one. Always best to use a Dylan cover when you can anyway, I think. Plus I LOVE The Indigo Girls on this song. Can't you just see Amy Ray working for a while on a fishing boat just outside of Delacroix?

8. "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain" by Hank Williams, Sr.
Do you like this version better, or Willie Nelson's?

9. "Blue Skies" by Frank Sinatra
Heehee.

10. "Blue Highway" by Billy Idol
Mostly I just like the Frank Sinatra to Billy Idol transition.

11. "Blue Moon of Kentucky" by Patsy Cline
God I love Patsy Cline. This is not her best work, granted, but wow, I forget how amazing she is.

12. "Almost Blue" By Elvis Costello
An awful lot of my play lists seem to include Elvis Costello.

13. "Devil with a Blue Dress On" by Paul Revere and the Raiders
Remind me sometime to tell you about going to see Paul Revere and the Raiders at the county fair when I was a kid. It's actually one of my first really really clear memories.

14. "Famous Blue Raincoat" by Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen is another artist for whom I'll usually pick a cover, but I really don't like the available covers of this song.

15. "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" by Crystal Gayle
Oddly, this is the first song I thought of for this list. Does Crystal Gayle still have super-long hair?

16. "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" by Bob Dylan
This would be the other Dylan song. Don't love it, frankly.

17. "The Grass Is Blue" by Dolly Parton
If you don't have this album, you should get it. Period.

18. "Bullet the Blue Sky" by U2
Apparently this list just wasn't depressingly pretentious enough.

19. "True Blue" by Madonna
OK, there goes the depressing pretention.

20. "Blue" by Joni Mitchell
Nice to bookend both ends with a song that's just "Blue," don't you think?

Clearly there could be 100 more songs on this list. What would you include?

In honor of my kittens birthday today, I give you cat songs.

1. "Everybody Wants to be a Cat" from The Aristocats

2. "Cats in the Cradle" by Cat Stevens

3. "What's New Pussycat?" by Tom Jones

4. "Mean-Eyed Cat" by Johnny Cash

5. "Cat Scratch Fever" by Ted Nugent

6. "The Siamese Song" from Lady & the Tramp (as performed by Hilary and Haley Duff)

7. "Stray Cat Strut" by The Stray Cats

8. "Cat in the Window (Bird in the Sky)" by Petula Clark

9. "Leave My Kitten Alone" by The Detroit Cobras

10. "Cool Cat" by Queen

11. "An Cat Dubh" by U2

12. "Cats Without Claws" by Donna Summers

13. "All Cats Are Gray" by The Cure

14. "My Cat's Name is Maceo" by Jane's Addiction

15. "The Love Cats" by Tricky

I'm going to have something more serious to say about this later, but in the meantime, here is my response, through music, to the claim that I hate men. Why on Earth wouldn't I?

1. "Letter to a John" by Ani DiFranco
"Women learn to be women/and men learn to be men/and I don't blame it all on you/but I don't want to be your friend."

2. "Goodbye Earl" by The Dixie Chicks
"Well it wasn't two weeks/after she got married that/Wanda started gettin' abused/She put on dark glasses and long sleeved blouses/And make-up to cover a bruise/Well she finally got the nerve to file for divorce/She let the law take it from there/But Earl walked right through that restraining order/And put her in intensive care."

3. "Polly" by Nirvana
"Polly wants a cracker/I think I should get off her first/I think she wants some water/To put out the blow torch."

4. "Ballad of Yvonne Johnson" by Eliza Gilkyson
"I didn’t have a language for the pain I suffered through/escaping into marriage, but your past just catches up with you/until I had three children and a ragged family/a desperate urge to keep them from the wolves that got to me, boys/wolves that got to me."

5. "Cell Block Tango (He Had it Coming)" from Chicago!
"He had it coming/He had it coming/He took a flower/In its prime/And then he used it/And he abused it/It was a murder/But not a crime!"

6. "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman
"You got a fast car/And I got a job that pays all our bills/You stay out drinking late at the bar
See more of your friends than you do of your kids/I'd always hoped for better/Thought maybe together you and me would find it/I got no plans I ain't going nowhere/So take your fast car and keep on driving."

7. "The Thunder Rolls" by Garth Brooks
"She's waitin' by the window/When he pulls into the drive/She rushes out to hold him/Thankful he's alive/Through all the wind and rain/A strange new perfume blows/And the lightnin' flashes in her eyes/And he knows that she knows/And the thunder rolls."

8. "Janie's Got a Gun" by Aerosmith
"They said when Janie was arrested/they found him underneath a train/But man, he had it comin' Now that Janie's got a gun/she ain't never gonna be the same."

9. "Luka" by Suzanne Vega
"They only hit until you cry/And after that you don't ask why/You just don't argue anymore."

10. "Behind the Wall" by Tracy Chapman
"And when they arrive/They say they can't interfere/With domestic affairs/Between a man and his wife/And as they walk out the door/The tears well up in her eyes."

11. "Caleb Meyer" by Gillian Welsh
"Caleb Meyer, your ghost is gonna/wear them rattlin' chains./but when I go to sleep at night,/Don't you call my name."

12. "Me and a Gun" by Tori Amos
"Me and a gun/and a man/On my back/But I haven't seen Barbados/So I must get out of this."

13. "Only Women Bleed" by Lita Ford (originally Alice Cooper)
"He lies right at you/You know you hate this game/He slaps you once in a while and you live and love in pain."

14. "Ladykillers" by Lush
"So he talks for hours about his sensitive soul/And his favorite subject is sex/I don't think he even wanted it/But, Christ this guy's too much."

15. "I Hate Men" from Kiss Me Kate
"But I hate men./Of all the types I've ever met within our democracy,/I hate most the athlete with his manner bold and brassy/He may have hair upon his chest but, sister, so has Lassie."

With some help from some of my online friends, I've been putting together a list of resources for buying clothes that are organic and/or fair trade. Thought now might be a good time to share them.

American Apparel: Probably the best known U.S. "sweatshop free" clothing manufacturer. They also have a pretty good sized line of organic cotton clothing. Unfortunately, they are also a horrifically sexist organization (as well as being union-busting?) and not one I am much into supporting.

Bamboosa: Made in America bamboo clothing and baby products. Selection is not huge, and it's really basic, but the stuff isn't terribly expensive. I like the super lightweight long-sleeved v-necks. They are available in a variety of colors, xs-xl, for $26 (regular price).

Today's play list is inspired by Ash Wednesday, and by the first song on the list, which is, to my mind, hysterical. All the songs contain ash references/imagery.

1. "Mary Catherine's Ash Wednesday Journal Entry" by Christine Kane
"Easter's just around the bend/Once again it is Lent/And my face is smeared with ashes/And either I will run away/Or I'll stay and sit through/Another hundred million masses."

2. "Ashes to Ashes" by David Bowie
"Ashes to ashes, funk to funky/We know Major Tom's a junkie/Strung out in heavens high/Hitting an all-time low."

3. "Ashes by Now" by Leanne Womack
"Baby, I can't go through this again/I don't need to go down more than I've already been/Just like a wildfire, you're runnin' all over town/As much as you've burned me baby, I should be ashes by now."

4. "We'll Sweep Out the Ashes in the Morning" by Gram Parsons
"We know it's wrong to let this fire burn between us/We've got to stop this wild desire in you and in me/So we'll let the flame burn once again until the thrill is gone/Then we'll sweep out the ashes in the morning."

5. "Northern Star" by Hole
"They run to the pines/It's black in here, blot out the sun/And run to the pines/Our misery runs wild and free/And I knew, the fire and the ashes of his grave."

6. "Ashes" by Rufus Wainwright
"But now there's ashes, from exquisite eyelashes/So far away, past the border, past the turnstyle/And even I know, and I do believe, and I do believe that there was a morning/I saw your true love burning next to me."

7. "Smoke and Ashes" by Tracy Chapman
"I've got a red hot heart/And your heart's as blue as the blood in your veins/I say there's fire down below/You say it's only smoke and ashes baby."

8. "All Apologies" by Nirvana
"Find my nest of salt/Everything is my fault/I'll take all the blame/Aqua seafoam shame/Sunburn with freezerburn/Choking on the ashes of her enemy."

9. "Ashes to Ashes" by Steve Earle
"And someday even man's best laid plans/Will lie twisted and covered in rust/When we've done all that we can but it slipped through our hands/And it's ashes to ashes and dust to dust."

10. "Ashes" by KT Tunstall
"Everyday, like a power station/You know it isn't good/I know you're burning too much wood/Oh, and you burn out/The twisted irony is/Your ashes come home to me."

11. "So Tonight That I Might See" by Mazzy Star
"Come up crash with the muses fells dust into ash."

12. "Ballad in Plain D" by Bob Dylan
"All is gone, all is gone, admit it, take flight./I gagged twice, doubled, tears blinding my sight./My mind it was mangled, I ran into the night/Leaving all of love's ashes behind me."

13. "Mexican Wine" by Fountains of Wayne
"He was killed by a cellular phone explosion/They scattered his ashes across the ocean/The water was used to make baby lotion/The wheels of promotion were set into motion."

14. "Self Evident" by Ani DiFranco
"Even as the blue toxic smoke of our lesson in retribution/is still hanging in the air/and there's ash on our shoes/and there's ash in our hair."

What did I miss?

In honor of Super Tuesday, and by suggestion of my friend Frog, today's play list is Super Songs:

1. "Superhero" by Ani DiFranco
"I used to be a superhero/no one could hurt me/not even myself/You are like a phone booth/that I somehow stumbled into/And now look at me/I am just like everybody else."

2. "That's Really Super, Supergirl" by XTC
"Hurt like kryptonite/Put me on my knees/Now that I've found out just what you're doing.With your secret identities."

3. "Superman's Song" by The Crash Test Dummies
"Superman never made any money/For saving the world from Solomon Grundy/And sometimes I despair the world will never see/Another man like him."

4. "Superstar" by Tegan and Sara
"Hardcore superstar by far/You're the ultimate star/Hardcore superstar by far/You're the ultimate star/Do you wanna be a superstar?"

5. "Super Duper Love" by Joss Stone
"Your love is super/Are you diggin on me coz im diggin on you/I'm just trying to tell you/Oh this love is super duper."

6. "Super Hyperspastic" by Sugarcult
"I'm super hyper spastic, yeah.I lost my sex drive and I'm holdin' out on you."

7. "Superfreak" by Rick James
"That girl is pretty wild now/The girl's a super freak/The kind of girl you read about/In new-wave magazine."

8. "Superman (It's Not Easy)" by Five for Fighting
"It may sound absurd/but don't be naive/Even heroes have the right to bleed/I may be disturbed/but won't you concede/Even heroes have the right to dream/It's not easy to be me."

9. "Super Trouper" by ABBA
"Super trouper beams are gonna blind me/But I wont feel blue/Like I always do/cause somewhere in the crowd theres you."

10. "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" by David Bowie
"Scary monsters, super creeps/Keep me running, running scared."

11. "Super Disco Breakin'" by The Beastie Boys
"Money Makin Money Money Makin Manhattan Super Disco Disco Breakin'"

12. "(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman" by The Kinks
"I need you, but I hate to see you this way/If I were Superman then we'd fly away/I'd really like to change the world/And save it from the mess it's in/I'm too weak, I'm so thin/I'd like to fly but I can't even swim."

I haven't done this in a while, but got the urge today. Go here to listen to my special Monday morning play list. Note that these are mostly songs that appeal to me as an office drone, not labor songs.

1. "9 to 5" by Dolly Parton
Doesn't get any better than this, ever.
"Its a rich mans game/No matter what they call it/And you spend your life/Putting money in his wallet."

2. "Manic Monday" by The Bangles
C'mon, like I wasn't going to lead with this one?
"But I can't be late/'Cause then I guess I just won't get paid/These are the days/When you wish your bed was already made "

3. "I Don't Like Mondays" by Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats
Not strictly about work, but hard to resist. At least I'm not using the Bon Jovi cover. Don't think I didn't consider it.
"Tell me why/I don’t like Mondays/I wanna shoot the whole day down."

4. "Take This Job and Shove It" by Johnny Paycheck, as covered by The Dead Kennedys
I love The Dead Kennedys covering this. Opens up a whole new world of funny for me.
"You better not try to stand in my way/As im a walking out the door./Take this job and shove it/I ain't working here no more."

5. "Come Next Monday" by K.T. Oslin
Again, not strictly about working, but I love this song and have since my mom had the 80s Ladies CD. Can't help it.
"Come next Monday/I'm going to bed early/I won't talk dirty for a week or maybe two/I'm going on a diet/Just like sugar, honey/Come next Monday/I'm gonna give up on you."\

6. "Welcome to the Working Week" by Elvis Costello
A classic.
"Welcome to the workin' week./Oh I know it don't thrill you, I hope it don't kill you./Welcome to the workin' week./You gotta do it till you're through it so you better get to it."

7. "Work is a Four-Letter Word" by The Smiths
I'll go on record not being a Smiths fan. Still, though...and ode to a lazy woman? How can I not dig that?
"I don't need/A house that's a showplace/I just feel/That we're going no place/While you say that/Work Is A Four-Letter Word."

8. "Rainy Days and Mondays" by The Carpenters
Could someone who actually LIKES folk music really leave this one off? Plus, it's actually a song about depression, which I'm all for (all for songs, that is, not so much all for depression).
"Talkin' to myself and feelin' old/Sometimes I'd like to quit/Nothing ever seems to fit/Hangin' around/Nothing to do but frown/Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down."

9. "Blue Monday" by New Order
Again, a shoo-in, even if it's not so much about work. Plus I need something to cheer me up after The Carpenters.
"Those who came before me/Lived through their vocations/From the past until completion/They will turn away no more."

10. "Except for Mondays" by Lorrie Morgan
I hadn't heard this for years before I made this list, and yet I still get it in my head regularly. I don't know what that means about it, exactly, but I had to include it.
"Except for Monday which was never good anyway/Tuesday I get a little sideways/Wednesday I feel better just for spite/Thursday and Friday take too long/Before I knew it,Saturday's gone/But it's Sunday now you can bet that I'm alright."