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October 29, 2009, at 10:00 pm
If you hadn’t noticed, I have a preoccupation with insects:
When this popped up on Billion Dollar Babes, my other go-to online trunk sale besides Editors’ Closet, I knew I had to have it. I’m careful about ordering solid bracelets because I have large hands that can’t squeeze through those cute Indian bangles that come in stacks of a dozen for dirt cheap, but the provided measurement suggested that this would be no problem.
Of course when I received it, I could not get it over my right hand to save my life. Miraculously, it somehow fits on my left. Good enough.
(Want a Billion Dollar Babes referral? Email me! You can sign up without one, though.)
October 27, 2009, at 9:43 pm
Last year my parents sent a dead bug for my birthday:
It’s a cicada, my favorite insect! The cicada is a symbol of Provence, thought to bring happiness. Maybe there is truth to that, as the 17-year Magicicada hatch during my childhood is one of my fondest memories. (I might have been a strange child.)
I’m still a little obsessed. We discovered some molting cicadas during a summer visit to our favorite Texas Hill Country retreat, and I took a couple dozen photos. Or maybe a little more than that.
That’s a ceramic bud vase, also a gift from my parents. It hangs on the wall (or it did in our last house; we haven’t quite finished decorating since we moved to Texas). I even had a pretty tablecloth with a white cicada design, but I sent it away with the table that it fit.
I have a couple silly cicada items as well, including a vintage cicada keychain that makes a horrible noise and flashes its green LED eyes when you squeeze it. You’d be surprised at how difficult it is to find such treasures anymore. I’m just glad someone out there shares my obsession.
October 25, 2009, at 7:44 pm
I got the recipe for this from the Kwik Kar where I last got my oil changed:
Really. The waiting room had mostly sports magazines, so I picked up the Bon Apetit and this caught my eye. We love fish and we eat a lot of broccolini, but we’re often too tired to cook. Putting everything in one pot makes dinner seem much less daunting.
Don’t make my mistake of using a pot that looks like it is probably big enough, because having to switch everything to a bigger pot in the middle of the process negated the one-pot convenience and complicated the cooking time. But other than that, easy!
I do prefer the way I usually cook broccolini, but even that requires two pots. You almost can’t beat this for healthy convenience when it’s the end of a long day and you have already exhausted your weekly burrito allowance. There is a little bit of prep with the limes and the shallots (and the cilantro, but it tastes like soap to me so I skipped it), but you’ll be done with that by the time the oven warms up.
That oil change a couple weeks ago was so fast that I didn’t even get a quarter of the way through the magazine. After trying this, I almost want to go back and find out what recipes I missed…
October 22, 2009, at 9:32 pm
I was looking for an inexpensive, sparkly cocktail ring and this popped up one day in my size at Editors’ Closet:
I love the simple shape that won’t snag my clothing (or poke my eye out when I do something clumsy) and the sparkle. Plus I’m a sucker for zebra print and the design reminds me a little of that. I paid a third of the normal retail price.
I learned something interesting with this Editors’ Closet experience. I had also ordered a beautiful pair of earrings from the same sale, and assumed everything was good once my order was placed. About a week before my order arrived, I received an email that said there had been an inventory error and the earrings wouldn’t be coming. I was disappointed because they would have been perfect with a special dress that I already own, but for the inconvenience I was given a free $25 credit toward a future purchase. That’s a pretty sweet compensation when you consider how many items Editors’ Closet sells for about that price — it’s easily a different pair of earrings or another ring!
October 20, 2009, at 9:16 pm
I’ve been sitting on this recipe for over six months and finally got around to making it:
(Martha suggests a leaf shape, but it’s almost Halloween so I used a bat!)
Mark described them as ‘adult cookies,’ which I would have to agree with. As soon as you pick one up, you can smell the butter, but the taste is more akin to the green tea ice cream that you get in a Japanese restaurant. There is not a lot of sugar in these.
Best of all, they can be made very quickly and don’t require a counter full of ingredients and measuring implements. The one specialty item you need is matcha, powdered green tea. I bought mine at a local shop where we buy all of our loose tea, The Path of Tea. They sell their teas in 2oz increments, which is enough for several batches of these cookies.
Mark and I once went to a Valentine’s Day taping of Martha’s show, where the audience consisted of couples who had met online. We weren’t really Martha watchers, but it was a lot of fun. We were all asked in advance to wear red, and when they finished taping that episode, they asked us to cover our red clothing so they could tape a segment for a future show. This was done with limited success, so if you’re ever watching a rerun and most of the audience seems to be wearing red for no apparent reason, now you’ll know why!
October 18, 2009, at 8:37 pm
You’ll recognize this necklace from the header:
I picked this up for a song through one of my favorite online shopping haunts, Editors’ Closet. Editors’ Closet runs daily private, rotating online trunk sales where you can save serious money (how does 40-80% sound?) on whatever is being offered that day — usually accessories, clothing or skincare, but occasionally linens or fragrance.
The sales typically last 24-48 hours, and when they’re over, they’re over for good! The first time I tried to buy from one of these sales, I did too much online comparison-shopping and the item sold out before I could check out. That’s not unusual for the bigger-name sales like Kooba or Adrienne Vittadini; when you get the weekend email alert about upcoming sales, you’d better make sure you are ready the second the sale for a brand you like comes online and be prepared to make a decision quickly when you see the goods. Then comes the hard part: waiting. Shipping usually happens a couple weeks after you place your order.
As far as comparison shopping, you can be pretty sure that you are getting a good deal. With the smaller brands, you probably won’t find the exact same item elsewhere online. When recently debating whether to buy something from a well-known brand, I was surprised to find that the trunk sale price was better than the manufacturer’s clearance price.
The key is putting your order in while your color/size is still available, so I find the best approach for something you can’t live without is to ask yourself a) ‘do I love this item?’ and b) ‘is it worth that price to me?’
You can register for Editors’ Closet by submitting your email at their site and waiting for approval (a few days at most), or you can send me your email address and I’ll refer you, which gets you in immediately and nets me a small credit. Happy shopping!
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