A long time ago

These fine-looking people are William Innocent and Wanda Marie Euscher Innocent, and they are my great-great-grandparents. I love knowing the name "Wanda" is a family name and can justify naming my kid that.

Cool, huh?

Reis's Pieces

I made these Peanut Butter-Cup Cookies from Real Simple last week for a study motivation package for Rachel and then was sad when I had to give them all away since they came out so great. They are basically chocolate chip cookies, but coarsely chopped peanut butter cups are used instead of chocolate chips. In real life the cups melt in the oven and don't come out looking quite as picturesque as in the magazine, but they are still peanut buttery and great.

Fall reading list

There are a couple of heavyweights publishing new books in the next few months. I was excited to find out about

(Nov. 17)

(Oct. 27)

(Sept. 29)

Bathroom pretty-making

So the whole kitchen cabinet facelift is likely not happening in this place. But last weekend I did prettify my previously quite ugly above-the-toilet storage shelves. I removed the fake frosted "glass" panes, covered them with some toile, and replaced them. I also lined the shelves with snazzy polka dot contact paper.

Sign of the apocalypse?

As a follow-up to my last post, I just want you all to know that Beverly Cleary (she of Ramona's namesake creator) is on Twitter.

And she tweets adorable things like

Had a relaxing day, now am re-reading "Little Woman" for what seems to be the hundredth time! I may even know a couple chapters by heart! :) 4:40 PM Aug 20th from web

I am sipping some chamomile tea, curled up with my great-granddaughter, reading her a story. 3:26 PM Aug 15th from web

How is everyone? 6:07 PM Aug 12th from web

Back in the day bookshelf

I don't know why, but today I was thinking about Judy Blume. Does this look familiar to anyone?


(I was Rachel Robinson, okay. The character detail that I remember most about her was that she obsessive-compulsively covered all her notebooks with wallpaper.)

These are the books I lived on when I was in around fifth, sixth, and seventh grade, along with other favorites like Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Sharon Creech, and Paula Danziger. They're the ones that are still in cardboard boxes at my parents' house because I wouldn't ever give them away (although I did briefly flirt with the idea of selling my Babysitters Club back catalogue on eBay) and the ones that I spent a lot of time leafing through in the stacks of the YA section at the Pollard Memorial Library in Lowell.

That's why it's weird to look them up on Amazon now and have this cover pop up:



It's kind of weirdly dislocating to think of these characters in the present day. Despite the fact that this book was actually published in 1987, to me these girls will always be eleven-year-olds from the 90s, just like I was.

And let's not even talk about the fact that The Babysitters Club now exists as a graphic novel.

Stop and smell the roses

Or eat them, if that's what strikes your fancy.

That's my buddy Ramona, making her blog debut.

Currently freelancing

Currently freelancing

T-shirts that are awesome: seen on the street

I saw a girl wearing this on the street today and almost did a "BWAH!" right then and there.

Cabinet Rescue

My kitchen cabinets could really use a punch-up. They're eyesores, and I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to paint them or replace them. And it furthermore drives me crazy that the bottom cabinet doors (all two of them) are different that the upper ones.

Below is some inspiration from Apartment Therapy. The cute map setup definitely looks easier to execute than the wallpaper one. I'm currently weighing the pros and cons of the planning and the follow-through on such a project versus the fact that I may not be in this apartment long enough to make it worth the time and energy.

Fashion forward.

So there's been a lot of gab in the past year about The Fashion of Michelle Obama. Things reached new heights of ridiculousness when whole segments of The Today Show were devoted to the fact that she--horrors!--wore shorts (on vacation. in Arizona.)

But I'm not going to lie and say that I'm not fascinated by the lady's style. If you're like me, you should definitely hop over to Mrs. O, a blog devoted to her fashion choices. It certainly crosses over into fawning territory sometimes, but there are great pictures and information on the designers she wears.

Also, how cool is it that the White House uses Flickr?

Nails for fall!

I'm not really sure what it says about me that I have a tag in my blog for "nail polish," and that I have more posts tagged with it than I do with "culture"? Just something to ponder.

In any event, I am currently coveting this plush mauve-y shade, Angora Cardi (on essie.com, it actually looks a bit more mauvey-gray, and you know my thing for grayish things), but I can't find it in stores yet. Also, does anyone have any thoughts on the matte-finish nail polish trend, which I saw at Sephora today? Is anyone jumping on this?

T-shirts that are awesome: by special request

On Tap

What's on the schedule for the month of September:

Brooklyn Book Festival, where I want to see the authors of

and

So You Think You Can Dance, brand-new season!


Giving blood


Finally taking a quilting class at Purl Soho


Signing up for New York Cares


and perhaps a wee less freelance, seeing as how it is kind of taking over my life. . .


. . . leaving more time for cooking some real meals, which hasn't so much been happening around here lately.

Bright Star, starring Abbie Cornish (she whom Ryan Philippe left Reese for) and Ben Wishaw

Love Happens, starring Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart

What up with all the generic movie posters lately? Time spent on subway platforms keeps me real on top of all the new movies that come out, but what is the deal with these two? Maybe it's because I saw these posters before having seen any commercials, trailers, or articles about either movie, but they're are just so bland and uninspired (insipid, anyone?) and leave me completely uninterested in finding out what these are about . . . although I am talking about them here on my blog. So there's that.

Currently (Constantly) Freelancing

100th post!



The quality of this stuff, I tell ya. It kind of is starting to make me sad that this is what I come home from work and do.

What Freelancing Looks Like

Guest-starring my pretty new laptop, and Rory Gilmore. There is a lot of freelancing going on here, people. Currently it's The Time Pirate by Ted Bell, which is the sequel to this book: