Kiwi Fruit
This is my favorite wintertime breakfast food, mostly because its vibrant color gives hope for warmer, greener, springier days.
Plus, each one has about 8,000,000 mg. of Vitamin C which has kept me from getting sick even once this year. Thankfully, I can get them on every street corner in my neighborhood in Seoul. Read the rest of this entry »
January = Hyacinths in Bloom
With the exception of my birthday, there are few things I enjoy about January. January equals snow, cold, frozen, horrible, dark, wet, doom, gloom. Well, except in Austin and other warmer, smarter climates where it equals none of those things. But there is one thing that January in New England has that no other month in New England has and that is Hyacinths. Their fragrance fills up a whole room and it’s like nature’s way of saying “Hang on, fear not…spring is coming. I promise you.”
And the hyacinths are totally lying because if you live in New England Read the rest of this entry »
1. Cozy new Christmas pajamas
2. Uncles (and lots of them)
3. Cousins who are as close as sisters
4. Niamh (my hellion of a goddaughter)
5. Airborne
6. Good books that keep you up all night
7. Brothers (both real and adopted)
8. Humor
9. Dansko clogs
10. Andrew Bird
1. the orange sliver of the new moon
2. Before Sunset
3. French Toast
4. D’jango Rinehart
5. Christmas Eve at Marshall’s with really good champagne
6. seeing Stevick, Christie, Chad, Kristina, Jennifer, Seth, Kristin and of course baby Olivia
7. Airborne
8. awesome hair day (and a flurry of compliments on the bangs all weekend)
9. the best nap I have ever had in the history of time
10. Radar Bros.
11. sunny afternoon of driving all over creation
12. stopping for hot wings at Blair & Chassea’s
13. shrimp, olives, yellow bell peppers and crab cakes
14. Season 6 of the Sopranos and being oddly in love with Tony
15. being away from my family at Christmas and realizing how very blessed & lucky I am to be so totally and completely exhausted by the bounty of love & family in my friends
1. long breakfast at Sugar Mag’s with Marshall
2. not getting a parking ticket even though I was an hour late back to my car
3. making Christmas cards
4. getting all the laundry done
5. Supta Vajrasana
6. the sound of my ponytail whip, whip, whipping against my jacket when I’m out running
7. all the dogs I see around the reservoir
8. the horns in Sufjan Steven’s Casimir Pulaski Day
9. crazybeautiful crimson sunset
10. Airborne
1. Supertramp
2. Supertramp
3. Supertramp
4. Supertramp
5. Supertramp
6. Supertramp
7. OxyClean
8. Supertramp
9. Supertramp
10. Haagen Daz Mayan chocolate ice cream
Forgiveness
Now please remember that I am 75 percent Sicilian and 25 percent “slay your mother and steal her cabbage” Viking. Forgiveness does not come by my bloodline easily and yet somehow I’ve managed to cultivate it into a major part of my personal make-up. Not to get all sappy here but finding forgiveness in life has been my saving grace, since more often than not the person I’ve needed to forgive most is myself. Since Vendetta is one of the first multi-syllable words taught to young Italian children, forgiveness it is not something we do well or do easily, but on the occasion when I get it right it gives me the greatest sense of peace.
Lavender
In bud form, oil form or any form I love the scent of lavender. I’m kind of a high strung kind of girl (read: Sicilian) so this little flower Read the rest of this entry »
Rosy Cheeks
I am not even the faintest fan of winter. Not remotely. I get cold when it’s 65º.
But there is nothing quite like those first very cold days of winter, when it first paints its ruddy blush all over my cheeks and nose. The sun hangs low, the sky is sapphire and you come home with the slightest sting in your skin.
Apple Pie
I enjoy the baking it more than the eating it, but I enjoy the eating it quite a bit, so that should give you a good impression of how much I enjoy the baking it.
Not to seem immodest, but I make the best apple pie ever made. I feel strongly about this. The key is the tart/sweet filling with an all butter crust, that is essentially pâté brisée. It is best warm with a large scoop of vanilla ice cream. I feel strongly about this, as well.
Which means if you are on a diet or are some wacky vegan type, you are shit out of luck.
Cyclamen
Cyclamen’s name does it no justice because it sounds like a birth control pill or something at the gynecologist’s office. Which it is not.
The thing I love most about cyclamen, other than their delicate, orchid-like flower and that they are pretty easy to take care of, is that their petals grow backward. Like a woman’s hair or umbrella being blown back by the wind. I love that.
This American Life
National Public Radio’s This American Life is probably my favorite thing on earth. It comes above all music, movies, television, or books for me. And given that fact that three out of those four are my former careers, that says a lot. It’s like all those, at their best, combined into one. It has the ability to make me laugh til my guts hurt and then leave me a sobby, tearing mess. It is what Sunday afternoons revolve around and on more than one occasion has left me and my friends stuck in a parking lot, listening until the story ends.
Not to mention my giant crush on Ira Glass.
Road Trips
I go on a lot of these.
I’ve been known to live out of the back of my car for months at a time. It is my absolute favorite way to see and experience this amazingly beautiful country. You get to watch the landscape change and transform inch by inch, from forest to desert to mountains to city to plains to ocean. You can pull over and buy jewlery from Indians or eat corndogs or get out and snap photos for a half an hour or take a wrong turn and end up somewhere completely wonderful and surprising. And, if you are me, you can give your own concert for yourself or your unfortunate passengers.
Enough said.
m.o.p. (modern organic products)
I’m a girl . What can I say?
It’s the little things, like the perfect shampoo and conditioner, that can make a girl happy.
Hotel Lights
About five months ago, Liam threw this CD by Hotel Lights at me and said, “Here”. I listened, I liked, I forgot about it. But in the last couple months it kept popping up in my iTunes when other CD’s would end and I kept liking more.
Now I like a lot. In fact, this was my soundtrack through much of my last trip to Durango. I’m the kind of girl who likes to wear out her music and this one is getting well-worn. “The Mumbling Years” and “Love to Try” are personal favorites.
Yoga
I couldn’t really write anything to express what yoga has done for my life, so I’m not even going to try. But it goes far beyond the physical.
I’ve been practicing for many years, now. And even after droughts and lack of practice, I am always surprised at the body’s ability to remember, like music. The steadying of the breath, the quieting of the mind, like an instrument I’ve always played.
Arturo Paper
They make the most beautiful paper, with torn, rough edges. Perfect for wedding invitations. Perfect for personal stationery, perfect for letterpressing.
And their boxes make great containers for stray envelopes and cards.
Welcome to 10 Things!
Enjoy our weekly posts and we hope to encourage you to create your own lists to share with us. Or the privacy of your diary. Either way, count your blessings. We’re all luckier than we usually realize.
To see some earlier lists, please visit my 10 Things set on Flickr.
10 Things: Grammy’s Glass uploaded by Stephanie
