Dear J.Crew

While I haven't forgiven you for taking down all the free shipping codes, I am willing to entertain a truce while you send me these lovelies from your sale:

Jamie Oliver's Cucumber Salad

Work has been tough lately so I've been in no mood to cook. Tonight I made the following salad and some dim sum - fast and tasty and I don't have to slave over a stove.

Use a mandolin to slice (length-wise) three or four persian cucumbers. Add a bunch of cilantro and mint, chopped. Top with a dressing made of evoo, rice wine vinegar, dash of sugar, a thumbs worth of peeled and grated ginger (I add more to make it really hot), 1 finely chopped stalk of lemongrass, salt, pepper, and a dash of soy sauce.

Easy, doesn't require measurements and looks beautiful.

What's in your fridge?

I was running around the blogosphere and saw a bunch of people posting pics of their fridges/freezers. So here's ours, rather empty except for drinks. We're fanatical about throwing out food and condiments, we buy food for one or two days and we don't keep many leftovers. Let's see. I spy wine, beer, hard lemonade, ginger beer, ice tea, tonic, 7up, and diet coke. A big hunk of carne asade and tortillas for Cinqo de Mayo. Lots of herbs, persian cucumbers, lemons and limes, peppers, four pounds of cut-up strawberries, and a tub of blackberries. And on the right of the lowest shelf, my personal stash of Trader Joes baby beets and microwave-ready lentils. (OMG - SO good if you put s&p, lemon, and herbs. )

Our freezer is carb central. We never get through bread so we stash baguettes and ciabattas in freezer bags. In the door we have a ton of walnuts and almonds, butter for baking, my sprouted raisin bread, goats cheese, and Dulce de Leche froyo. Let's see. I also spy a bunch of chicken breasts, Trader Joes pesto ravioli (our go-to "we don't want to cook" meal), and a lone piece of kahlua cheesecake. Mmm. Cheesecake.

So I've shown you mine. Show me yours!

At work

My desk needs a little something.

Dozi paperclip holder, $21 MoMAstore

Etsy finds

I've been playing around Etsy and found two great little shops:

The Little Astronaut is full of cute cards:

But I'm really ga ga over the bookplates:

The paper peony (what a great name!) is full of beautiful letterpress. I'm still sad to this day that we weren't able to get letterpressed invitations to our wedding. Oh well, I'd rather have another table full of friends than beautiful invitations, right?

And I am completely in love with these adorable pink pig coasters. Can I get them before our next barbeque, DH?
Nautical by Nature, I thought of you when I saw these!

Jack Cards

I have just found the most genius stationary idea I have ever seen - Jack Cards. Apparently they've been getting a lot of press lately (Oprah, Rachel Ray, etc...) so I'm surprised I hadn't heard of them.Here's the premise: You import your contacts list of names, addresses, and birthdays. Jack will email you to remind you about upcoming birthdays so you can buy one of their super pretty letterpress or hilariously inappropriate cards. No biggie, lots of card companies do something similar, right? Here's where they are total geniuses. You can pre-order the cards and they'll send them to you, stamped and addressed, two or four weeks ahead of the event. GENIUS! I just spent about an hour, cruising through the cards, selecting the receiver, and know that they'll send them to me for the next year. And guess how we're doing our Christmas cards this year, hmm? GENIUS.For those of us with good intentions but short-term memories, this is convenient, clever, and a total lifesaver. Rock on.

So you may have noticed my lack of posting

I've been in Chicago this week and my internet connection at the hotel a) wasn't great b) expensive and c) not covered by per diem.


If the weather holds (please hold. PLEASE.) I'll get out of here late tonight. But the severe thunderstorms and hail are making that less than likely. We'll see.


I'm using my lunch break to run through several gift sites. I LOVE sending gifties. With Mothers Day, DH's birthday, and several overdue housewarming presents, I'm on gift buying overload.


Today's site - Heliotrope. Oh my goodness, how fun! Things I'm loving:




Kole Lug USA Travel Puddle Jumper $69

Suck UK Come In Go Away Doormat $25

Cork & Glass Hurricane Lantern $30

Lift and Shaker salt and pepper shakers $15