Flannel Can Suck It

Move over bacon. There’s a new sheriff in town. Wait I need one more unrelated cliche or pop-culturism. Um. There’s no business like show-business. Okay that went down a weird path. Anyway…

We are here today to talk about how flannel sheets can kiss my ass. I used to love flannel. I’ve even blogged here about the most wonderful, softest flannel sheets I’ve ever found. But after a weekend at the Russian River where the lodge we stayed in had fleece sheets on the bed I have broken up with flannel.

Fleece sheets are the greatest bed-linens invention ever! They are the TiVo of winter. (In that living without makes you a cave person. See what I did there?) I’m usually a purist when it comes to sheets. Keep your jersey, or sateen, or silk and what-not and give me pure, lovely cotton. But this a gimmick with which I am on board.

If you want to try them out, The Company Store has them on sale right now. If you decide to get them from someplace else here are two things to watch out for: 1. make sure the top sheet has fleece on both sides (yes apparently this is an issue with some brands); and 2. if you have a fat mattress, double check that the fitted sheet will fit.

Putting these on your bed will turn it into a magnet with the combined grabbing power of cookies in the oven, hot chocolate, and fresh pizza. You’ve been warned.

10lbs to Eggnog latte, 10lbs to salt carmels

Ok I have to apologize in advance for writing a REALLY geo-centric post but oh my god it’s time for Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels! These things are easily my favorite candy IN THE WORLD. That’s a big claim right? I know. But here I am standing behind it.

Trader Joe’s only brings these out during the holidays and as Christmas gets closer they WILL run out people! Two weeks before xmas last year and my local TJ’s had nothing but a big blank-shelf space that glared at me with smug humbuggery.

The thing about the Trader Joe’s salt caramels that make them superior to other salt caramels (you heard me) is that the caramel center is like a thick gooey sauce rather than a stiff chewy chunk. What you think that sounds gross? Wrong! It sounds like heaven in a seasonally available box.

To enjoy the salt caramel you must:

1. enjoy the sweet savory combo. (Do you dump m&m’s or milk duds in your mouth with a handful of popcorn at the movies like me? Trust me you’ll love these.)
2. recognize the awesomeness that is salt.

That’s it. If you do those things you are primed to enjoy the salty gooey goodness of the season. If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s near you then I am very, very saddened to hear it. Like, Tiny Tim is dying sad. The are that. good.

I suggest buying 2 boxes at a time. Four if you’re me.

Ok but it’s a reindeer!!

I know. It seems way early to start thinking about Christmas. And I really do know as I am a total belligerent hater on all stores and advertisers who break out the Christmas displays in October. Do not dilute my Halloween creepiness  with your premature Christmas cheer you bastards!!! Even now that we’re officially well into November I feel like it’s too early to discuss Christmas. Eggnog lattes (of heaven) should not appear on menus until the day after Thanksgiving. Thanks.

That said, if you do anything other than pick up a pack of holiday cards at Target, you do have to start developing your Christmas postal plan early. So I feel like I’m within a reasonable time frame to talk about these supercute letterpress cards. First let me say how much I heart letterpress. If could afford it and could talk Beth into it I’d have one living on the dining room table. Since I don’t and couldn’t though, I have to find good letterpress from other designers and there is no shortage. I particularly love these reindeer cards from Smock Paper though. As you can see they do that thing I love: old design / new life. The vintage reindeer artwork looks just like a little velveteen 1960s one that used to sit on our dining table when I was a kid.  Ah Christmas. The perfect time for retro nostalgia.

Help! Get Me WHItehall 1212!!!

Why does cool stuff keep popping up in far-freakin-away Britain? (Also Australia. Those Aussies are gonna force me to take a million-hour long plane ride at some point. And I HATE million-hour long plane rides.) But honestly, prices in pounds PLUS trans-atlantic freight fees are prohibitive! At this rate our next trip to London is going to require packing for home with trash cans, phones, dustpans, and possibly shoe trees in tow.

So these kick ass, right? I mean, there are cool old American phones around and Uncommon Goods had those neat ones from South America for awhile but wow this TRIM design just looks really different. (Also I know I used a word exchange in a title yet again but since this phone came out in 1965 I really couldn’t pass up the opportunity. And Wikipedia says that’s the number for Scotland Yard. File away the trivia, people.)

They probably wouldn’t even work in the U.S. Different wiring maybe? Phone jack? If only they actually had rotary numbers instead of the retrofitted push-buttons that reproduction phones all have. I get WHY they have them: so people can navigate computerized help-desk filtering and pre-teens can win radio contests. VERY important reasons. Here I am again cheering for the Form team at the big Form vs. Function bowl game.

I suddenly hate my Sony cordless phone.

Camping Cuteness!!

I know. I REALLY have to do better than one post a month. And yes, “one post a month” is really giving myself credit as I was all radio silent for a long while there. But spring was…you know…spring fun stuff? And then summer!!! And more…you know…summer fun stuff? Anyway. It’s still summer and I’ll hold onto it as long as I possibly can. While all the poor little niblets and jerk-ass teenagers have to go back to school I (awesomely) do not!! And that means that there will be more opportunities here in 2009 to take Jane Jenni’s rad “happy camper” set happy camping.

I love Jane Jenni’s little retro-styled spot illustrations. They are so freakin’ cute and I generally want to buy up everything she produces ESPECIALLY the coffee mugs. But it’s summer and we’re going camping this weekend so I am singularly camping-focused! (In a moment of perfect bliss today I had a little daydream about s’mores as I was getting a massage. Only actually eating a s’more while being massaged could improve that scenario.) Well, eating s’mores from this plate while being massaged actually.