• books,  fiction,  holiday

    Love Stories We Love

    Valentine’s Day has got me thinking of my favorite love stories in fiction. There are so many of them, and I’m sure even more favorites will spring to mind as soon as I publish this post. Here are just a few that stand out for me. You’ll see they are just as varied in genre as they are in publication date. What can I say? Love takes many forms. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.  This book weaves a love story through time, as Henry journeys in and out of Clare’s life. It sounds fantastical—and it is—but Niffenegger makes the time travel element both plausible and enchanting. Her descriptions…

    Comments Off on Love Stories We Love
  • decor,  design,  holiday,  modern,  retro,  vintage

    The Modern Vintage Table

    The holidays are here. It’s time to take down that platter or roasting pan you keep on high shelves or in the back of the cupboard. One of things I love about Thanksgiving, besides the license to stuff myself silly, is that it provides an excuse to use seemingly impractical, single-purpose items like gravy boats, table runners, and brandy snifters. Unique vintage items, like those pictured below, suggest a time when people didn’t eat dinner in front of the TV or lunch hunched over a desk. It’s as if they say, Sit down. Linger. This is special. Stay awhile. That’s the kind of holiday spirit I can get behind. [topcollage]…

  • beer,  fashion,  holiday,  style,  writing

    So Much to Celebrate

    On New Year’s Eves past, I’ve stood with my toes in the sand on a Mexican beach, danced on a ballroom floor in San Francisco, bummed a seldom cigarette at a Chicago bar, cozied up with Fat Tires and football in a Colorado condo, and waved my arms on many a curbside, shivering and looking for elusive empty cabs. This year, I’ll be all of two blocks away from home, celebrating with close friends and a tribe of tots aged 3 months to 3 years. The gathering will be modest, but never have I had so much to celebrate in bidding farewell to a year. In 2011, I finished a…

  • creativity,  decor,  green living,  handmade,  holiday,  seasonal,  vintage

    A very vintage holiday

    The holidays are a nostalgic time, so vintage touches fit right in with the spirit of the season. Some of my favorite tree trimmings are beaded bell ornaments made by my grandmother, and mod foil balls I picked out from a dime store when I was a kid. Nearly everyone in my dad’s family has a light-up ceramic tree like the one shown here. Starting in the late 50s, you could buy molds for them, and they were a popular craft item. Even the littlest member of the family will be in on the vintage theme this year. My 5-month-old son will be wearing the 1970s toy soldier romper shown…

  • art,  blogging,  books,  holiday,  seasonal,  writing

    Blogs to Books

    Yep, I’m that person. The person who buys books for everyone on her holiday list. What to get Dad who returns nearly everything I buy him? Books. What to get my nephew whose Japanamation jargon resembles a foreign language? Books. And what to get my niece who, like me when I was a kid, aspires to be a writer? Why, blank books, of course. One of my favorite blogs, Style Maniac, recently teamed up with independent bookseller Books & Books of Westhampton Beach, NY, to launch a month-long celebration of the art of giving and receiving books. The Blogs to Books challenge invited readers to choose one book and one recipient…

  • beauty,  fashion,  holiday,  local,  style

    Ooh La La

    Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and the last thing on my mind is lingerie. Nothing says sexy like elastic-waist maternity pants, right? Suddenly, my clothes don’t fit like they used to… especially the bras. For those like me, who could use a little help in the world of, ahem, undergarments, Katherine Bice, owner of La Lingerie boutique in Madison, has a lot to say on the topic: Lingerie is the hardest piece of clothing to fit. ”I am 34 what?” “This C cup doesn’t fit like the other bra. What do I do now?” According to Tracy M. Pfeifer, M.D., a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City,…

  • fashion,  holiday,  vintage

    Baby It’s Cold Outside

    I live in Wisconsin, where below zero temperatures for days in a row are not uncommon. Many midwesterners suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD). I have discovered that SAD has an ugly cousin, FAD. FAD stands for Fashion Apathy Disorder. It’s a disease that strikes downtrodden souls during the winter months, encouraging them to just give up on the notion of looking good because no one will see what you’re wearing under that down parka and ski mask anyway. FAD can strike anyone at any time, and is most prevalent during the dark days of January and February. There is no need to be alarmed, though. There are ways to…

  • chocolate,  farms,  green living,  holiday,  local,  nerdiness

    How I Became a Bacon Snob

    When most people think of the farmer’s market, they think about its midsummer bounty: the fresh cut flowers, the fragrant herbs, the rainbow of summer vegetables. I, too, adore the height of summer. I hoard and preserve tomatoes for sauce, strawberries for baking, and giant vats of pesto for pasta. But last Saturday, during my first trip to the Dane County Winter Farmer’s Market, I realized that some of my favorite market treasures are available year-round. Here’s what I bought last week: Jordanal Farms. This place has turned me into a bacon snob.  No, “bacon snob” is not an oxymoron. If you have ever tasted Jordanal Farms’ nitrate-free, pasture-raised bacon,…

  • food,  holiday,  recipes

    Happy Thanksgiving…and a Recipe

    If you’ve ever had the honor (and the stress) of hosting Thanksgiving, you know how important it is to have at least some dishes you can make ahead of time and then just pop in the oven before dinner. When my husband and I hosted our first Thanksgiving, we had timelines taped up all over the kitchen as to what went into the oven (or, in the case of the turkey, the fryer in the backyard) at what times. Yeah, we’re both a little Type A. The following recipe has become a Thanksgiving favorite in my family and, as an added perk, it’s easy to make and can be prepared…