There are certain things that come up over and over again in my (very small) wardrobe: Geometric shapes, black, white, grey, saturated colors, heavily textured knits, furry stuff, golds…and, of course, scarves. I have a lot of scarves. It can be 95° out, and I’m in a scarf.

My Bookhou bag and I continue to be best buddies. I’m also wearing my most favorite scarf of all here—it comes from the amazing Martha McQuade at the aptly-named Scarf Shop (GIANT size; mustard). I’ve had this scarf for a little more than a year now, and I’ve definitely worn it in every season!

And yeah, that’s a new watch I’ve got on. It’s from the Issey Miyake men’s GO line (I always wear men’s watches), and it’s the first non-Swatch watch I’ve owned. I still think Swatches are the best watches around (I have about a dozen of them that I’ve acquired over the past 25 or so years—and they all still work!), but it’s fun to have another option that’s a little bit more elegant. I’ve very very brand loyal when I like something a lot, though, so my heart will always belong to Swatch in the end.

(Is it weird that it never occurs to me to check my phone for the time? I always wear a watch.)

Oh, and? NEON PINK NAIL POLISH. I’ve had a bottle of this stuff for ages (it’s some weird generic brand), but I’d never tried it until last week. I wasn’t sure if it would look too garish or weird, but I wound up loving it. I don’t think I’d feel the same way if my nails were really long, but on stubby talons like mine, it’s pretty nice.

1. That totally incredible cape/poncho was a birthday present from Jen, and it’s from Pendleton’s Portland collection. It’s kind of the greatest thing in the world—thick and warm and beautifully made. I’ve worn it at least three times a week since October, and it’s one of those things I’m sure I’ll have forever.

2. My favorite favorite favorite earrings! They were a Hanukkah present from Evan a couple of years ago, and I’ve worn them almost every day since receiving them. They’re made by Lila Rice in Brooklyn.

3. Those rad superhero lightning bolt socks were also a present from Jen (clearly the girl knows how to give a gift), and they come from Sock It to Me. She got a red pair for Evan!

4. Ahhhh, yes, the Wookie coat. This thing is totally ridiculous but I also completely awesome. It’s basically like going out in a Chewbacca costume. (It’s surprisingly warm, too! Too warm for this Global Warming Winter™ we’re having in New York this year.)

OK, this is just silliness, but when I was thinking about the textures I love most, I realized that I’ve been a fan of superfake fur for a while now. The photo on the left is on my Wookie coat (earrings by Fay Andrada—Brooklyn ladies make nice jewelry!), and the photo on the right was taken almost exactly ten years ago. I was modeling my “nylon squirrel” muffler, which I still have and wear. And I had no bags under my eyes.

When Julie saw that I’d bought this triangle-print day bag from Bookhou, she said, “If you were a bag…” And she’s totally right. Really, “old bag” jokes aside, this is me in bag form. Aside from the perfect print (which I blogged about in tea towel form a while back), the size is ideal. I have a reputation for dragging around huge, heavy bags that make my back feel miserable, so I’ve been looking for a smaller, cotton bag for days when I expect to be walking around a lot but want something fancier than a tote. This is exactly it.

Of course, now I also want the matching loop scarf (thanks to Victoria, who knows an Anna-scarf when she sees one!), and maybe also this beautiful pouch to store the iPad I don’t have…

Speaking of Bookhou, have you seen founders John and Arounna’s Toronto home in the latest issue of Covet Garden? It’s every bit as lovely as you’d imagine it would be.

It’s a little scary, my tiny new air plant, isn’t it? I hung it by the window in my office, and I keep glancing back over my shoulder to see if it’s creeping any closer while I’m not looking.

I have some kind of weird phobia that’s sort of like trypophobia, but not really. I feel sick when I look at clusters of things like certain kinds of plant roots (leeks are horrifying!) or rice stuck in a sink strainer. It’s impossible to explain to someone who doesn’t feel the same way, but trust me, it’s real—and my air plant is doing weird things to my mind. I can’t stop looking at it, but I also want to look away…

My air plant comes from Air Plant Supply Co., and it’s held in place by its roots and doesn’t need any soil. Every week, I have to give it a bath. In other words, I’ll probably kill it in no time! Heh. No, I’m really going to try to keep this thing alive.

The hanging pod it’s in comes from ceramacist Michael McDowell’s company Mudpuppy, who I wrote about previously in relation to one of my other nightmares, the one where all of my teeth fall out. This guy has quite a knack for honing right in on the things that make me feel uncomfortable, and I like it!

Photos from Mudpuppy

I can’t decide if putting the air plant in a ceramic baby head makes it more or less terrifying! Displaying it alongside a ceramic skull definitely adds something, but then you know how I feel about decorative skulls. The more the merrier!

OH, HEY! I just noticed that the Mudpuppy plant pods are actually on sale at Fab.com right now for 30% off regular price. Full disclosure: If you use this link to sign up for a Fab.com account, I will get a credit if you buy something within a month of joining. Ordinarily that’s not something I’d put here on the blog, but there’s no way to buy stuff from Fab.com without making an account first. It’s an invitation-based, design-focused shopping site, and quite honestly I’m a little addicted.

My love for neon-hot pink continues to abound. I’ve noticed it creeping into my Instagram photos a lot over the past couple of weeks.

ONE ♡ I finally ordered a THERE IS THUNDER IN OUR HEARTS tote bag from Fieldguided, and of course I opted for the fluoro pink version. I lovelovelove Kate Bush, by the way. Her new album, 50 Words For Snow, is out next week—but it’s streaming now on NPR.

TWO ♡ Why exactly did I buy neon pink duct tape? You got me, but I was at Target and there it was, so home with me it went. I’m presently hoping for something to require duct-taping in the near future. I keep thinking about Bertjan Pot’s duct tape rug, too…

THREE ♡ I used neon orange ink for the hardcover edition of this book, but for the paperback (out next June), I went with Pantone 806—my favorite chip in the book, and the hottest neon pink imaginable. It’s not a color I get to use often in printed work, so I seized the opportunity!

FOUR ♡ I’ve been working my way through the same bulk package of neon pink highlighters for about 10 years now, and as of yesterday, I’m down to my last one. As Charlie pointed out, the classic Sanford Pocket Accent doesn’t even look like this anymore—in fact, they’ve dropped the Sanford name completely, and are now just branded as Sharpies. Apparently I’ve been doing a highlighter time-warp for the past decade.

FIVE ♡ Is there anything that doesn’t look better with neon pink washi tape on it? If there is, I haven’t discovered it yet. Lately I’ve been using it to wrap around packages in lieu of ribbon or string, and as decoration on top of utilitarian packing tape when putting something wrapped in brown paper in the mail.

SIX ♡ Despite the fact that my iPhone is basically glued to my side at all times, I still can’t give up my neon Post-it Notes. I always use the pink ones first and hope someone else will take the others! I write everything on Post-Its. I even stick them to my iPhone! And to my wallet. And to the cash inside my wallet. And all over my computer monitor. Like I’ve said before, I’ve gotta write stuff down.

This is my new affirmation banner from Secret Holiday. I haven’t found the right place to hang it yet, but it’s already making me feel good in its temporary spot. It’s pretty great, yeah? I’m not usually one for inspirational posters (I always think of the “Hang in There!” kitten), but I think this banner is exactly what I need in my life.

The word OK is hugely comforting for me. About a year ago, I wrote a post about body image and self-acceptance called “I’m OK”, and I come back to it all the time when I’m feeling down on myself. There’s a reason it wasn’t called “I’m perfect” or even “I’m fine.” The word OK implies something else—it takes into account a certain amount of shortcoming, I think, and makes it alright. OK.

I had dinner with Jenna the other night, and we talked about the practice of looking at the worst case scenario as a means to bring peace of mind. That might sound counterintuitive, but think about it—if you let yourself look at the worst possible outcome when faced with either a situation that seems beyond your control or with making a decision that feels impossible, where does that outcome actually leave you? Are you still putting one foot in front of the other? Are you still sleeping in a bed at night? Of course horribly tragic things can happen at any time, but for the most part, you’ll probably be alright—and more than likely, you won’t even have to face that worst case scenario. Accept the shortcomings, accept the negatives, and be glad that everything is pretty OK.

OK? OK!

We’ve already done camera vs camera and trash can vs trash can, so how about we do jewel-encrusted skull vs jewel-encrusted skull?

In 2007, Damien Hirst (who, I should note, is one of my favorite living artists—for better or for worse, “I know what I like when I see it”…blah blah blah, and yes, I am aware of the many reasons available to dislike Hirst and his work) spent £14 million (~$22 million) creating For the Love of God, a sculpture consisting of “a platinum cast of a human skull encrusted with 8,601 flawless diamonds, including a pear-shaped pink diamond located in the forehead”. It’s an utterly ridiculous and despicable work of art on just about every level imaginable, but I can’t help kind of loving it. And we don’t even know if it’s been sold! Assuming it hasn’t, though, the price tag on it most likely somewhere around £50 million.

Gracious. Well, as Hirst himself puts it, “the markup on paint and canvas is a hell of a lot more than on this diamond piece.” Fair enough, Damien. Fair enough!

I don’t often condone knockoffs, but I’m going to make an exception this time—assuming, of course, that you don’t have £50 million lying around waiting to be spent. (And if you do, please email me before you do anything. I’d be happy to send you a list of suggested ways to spend that money that do not involve buying a diamond-encrusted skull. Be sure to put “Help me spend £50 million” in the subject line!)

Enter the low-cost alternative: For a mere £50 (yes, 1/1,000,000th of the original price!), IARTISTLONDON will sell you their IHIRST kit so you can make your very own Damien Hirst-inspired crystal-encrusted skull! You get a life-sized plastic skull, 8,601 crystals, glue, a paintbrush, silver paint, and instructions. I personally can’t think of a better way to spend every evening for the next year than gluing tiny crystals onto a plastic skull, can you?

Your friends will never know the difference!!

I came across these photo prints by Aled Lewis (his other illustration and design work is amazing, too!) a few days ago, and I can’t stop thinking about them. I love tiny animal figurines, and I extra-love making them have conversations with each other (no, really). I extra-extra-love that Lewis took it one step further and make these great little scenes with dialogue and everything. They have a Museum of Natural History diorama-like feel to them that I really dig.

Aled Lewis on inPRNT

I mean, you can really hear them, right? I feel sad for Rhinoceros, hanging his head in shame for evolving into a lesser beast than Triceratops. It’s not his fault! And poor Wooly Mammoth, he just wants to grow his hair out and hang with the cool kids. Moms just don’t get it.

Earlier this morning, while I was searching the 13-year-old depths of my backup drive, I came across my blog header from 2002. It was collage-y and grunge-y and vintage-y and all of the other -ies that that I was into at that time, and I was immediately reminded of someone who had a huge influence on my work—artist, designer and typographer Eduardo Recife.

I love Eduardo’s use of found elements, pieced textures and patterns, hand-drawn letterforms and traditionally-set typography. There’s a roughness to his work that’s countered so perfectly by often romantic or Victorian imagery, and that contrast is so appealing to me. It’s a look that retailers like Anthropologie and Alternative Apparel have channeled with great success over the years, but never with quite the same level of artistry as Eduardo.

You could spend a year trying to emulate his work (and believe me, I’ve tried!) and never do what he does as well as he does. I’ve taken influence from Eduardo and put it into my graphic design work, the interior of my home, my personal style—everything. He just understands the balances between old/new and hard/soft so well.

Clockwise: “Dream”, “Chords”, “Love”, and “Give to Get” Giclée prints by Eduardo Recife

I was happy to discover after not having visiting Eduardo’s personal work website, Misprinted Type, for quite some time that he now has giclée prints of his work available for purchase through inPRNT. I haven’t decided which ones I want to buy yet, but I will definitely be bringing a couple into my home very soon!

One of my favorite things about Eduardo’s approach to creating is his willingness to share resources and materials with others. If you check out the “goodies” and “fonts” section of Misprinted Type, you’ll see he makes a huge number of hand-drawn typefaces, brushes, and vector elements available—many of them for free.

Make sure you also take time to look at his recent commercial work, too—the colors are so incredibly fresh and delicious-looking, and his style still looks as current and unmatchable in its coolness as ever.

“E o amor?” giclée print by Eduardo Recife

Yes, that’s right—it’s mix tape for making friendship bracelets to.

About a year ago, I was talking to Jenna and Sara on the Twitter about…well, probably about Doritos or iced coffee or something like that (roughly 90% of my tweets are about snacks and coffee), and the subject of friendship bracelets came up. I vowed that night to bring back the friendship bracelet—not knowing in my uncoolness that they’d already been “brought back”—but I never actually got around to making one.

Until yesterday.

This is the correct view when making a friendship bracelet. If you see anything other than embroidery floss safety-pinned to denim, you’re doing it wrong. Binders and tape are for cheaters. And don’t even breathe the word “yarn”.

Now, this is a view I hadn’t had in a long, long time. Like…probably about 25 years. The last distinct memory I have of making a friendship bracelet is from 1986. I was sitting on my friend Melissa’s bed, knotting away (I’d like to say I was wearing Guess? jeans, but I wasn’t that cool), listening to INXS, when a frantic phone call came in from our friend Terrill to TURN ON THE RADIO because something REALLY BAD had happened.

Yes, that’s right: It was the sad, sad day that Wham! broke up. Tears were shed. Bracelets were exchanged. Andrew Ridgeley filed for unemployment.

Friends, I am not the knotter I was when I was 11 years old. At a distance my bracelet looks alright, but up close it’s kind of a mess. I had a lot of trouble getting my knots even and tight-but-not-too-tight. Either my pre-teen fingers were just way more nimble, or I’ve become more discerning in my old age. Probably a little of both.

I’m kind of proud that I did this FROM MEMORY, though. Okay, I forgot about making a loop at the top before tying my knot (Evan reminded me about two hours in—oh well), but aside from that, I’m pretty pleased with myself. I can’t imagine ever having time to make another one (apparently I had a LOT more free time when I was 11—go figure), but for now I’ll just wear this one and be my own best friend.

There are already 9 bazillion friendship bracelet tutorials on the internet, so I won’t bother repeating the steps here, but rest assured anyone over the age of 6 or 7 should be able to make their own bracelet in a few hours. I highly recommend taking the time! It was pretty relaxing, and lots of fun. Plus, now you have the right soundtrack to accompany your knotting.

p.s. The Swatch watch is not there for effect, I swear! I’ve been wearing Swatches since…well, since the last time I made a friendship bracelet, and they’re the only watches I really like. I still have all of my old Swatches, and yes, they all still work. (I only wear one at a time these days, but you never know…)

p.p.s. You can find and follow me on 8tracks as doorsixteen. My first mix was Summertime Jams!

BONUS!!! I tried to find a picture of myself from 1986, but the best I can do is my 7th grade class picture from 1987 (dudes, Joyce in the front row is wearing a FRIENDSHIP ANKLET!!). I’ll give a gold star to anyone who can pick me out of the group. Click to enlarge!

UPDATE!! Dee has correctly identified me! I’m in the back row, fourth from the right in the oversized cardigan, black hairbow, and body-wave perm. Yesssss. That’s Terrill next to me. Rest in peace, sweet girl.

I just bought this taxonomic superpowers poster from Brooklyn-based Pop Chart Lab (“…founded in August 2010 by a book editor and a graphic designer who joined forces for one reason: to bring order to a swirling chaos, that is, to render the world as charts”) for Evan. Isn’t it awesome? I had no idea it’s even super-possible to have prehensile hair.

We already have Pop Chart Lab’s Grand Taxonomy of Rap Names poster in our hallway, and I gave my nephew the Evolution of Video Game Controllers poster (which coincidentally uses the same font as my blog header) for Christmas. Yeah, I was the cool aunt for a minute or two, believe me.

These are posters for nerds. Design-loving nerds. Like me. I’m a fan.

It’s hard to appreciate how awesome this stuff is at small sizes, so hop over to Pop Chart Lab to check out some enlargements. The level of detail in the taxonomy charts in particular is pretty amazing.

Pictured above, clockwise from top left:
+ Bill Solo t-shirt (the only thing better than Bill Murray is…Bill Murray)
+ The Splendiferous Array of Culinary Tools poster
+ Periodic Table of Heavy Metals poster
+ A Visual Compendium of Notable Haircuts in Popular Music poster

You know when something turns up in your mailbox and the entire process of opening it up and rooting through the packaging is almost as fun getting to the thing itself? Opening this envelope was like that. Thick vellum machine-stitched with pink thread, cotton string and a screen-printed label. So nice.

I discovered Zakka Nouveau (you can read about the name here) when I was writing this picnic post for SFGirlbyBay, and it was love at first sight. Beyond the obvious (it’s no secret that I’m a fan of raindrop shapes, after all!), I like how soft and feminine everything looks without being cutesy or little girlish…and while still being graphic and bold.

Store owner and designer Satsuki Shibuya also maintains a really wonderful blog for Zakka Nouveau full of both beautiful images and inspiring writings about creative expression, work, and life in general.

My beautiful new tea towel is now at home in my apartment bathroom. Thank you, Satsuki!

I’ve blogged about Atlanta-based artist Jen Ray before (her “Siempre” print was on my wish list back in 2009, and more recently her “Toro” print made an appearance on the It List post I wrote for sfgirlbybay), but after opening my mailbox to the tiny treasures pictured above earlier today, I decided I really need to post about her more recent work.

So…the mug. It is completely awesome, yes? I sort of want to buy one for everyone I know. This one is mine, though, and I promise to do my best to live as Honey Badger does and just keep eating poisonous cobras even though it’s disgusting and they make me pass out. Or something like that. Jen has a whole series of Honey Badger mugs, and you should get one or five.

In case you’re not one of the 9,711,564 (and counting) people who have viewed this video and therefore have absolutely no idea what the phrase and illustration on the mug refer to, here you go. You’re welcome.

Product photos by Jen Ray // All pieces available in Jen’s Etsy shop, Corduroy

Next up, the clay animals! Oh my gosh, SO cute. I chose the Action Mole with Mint Mittens (I love moles), but there are plenty of others, too. This little guy is my spirit animal, and he’s already made a home for himself on my work table. I love having him there! The best thing about Jen’s work is that it’s friendly. Her illustration style, penmanship and renderings of animals are so open and warm, and everything she makes immediately feels like it could come and live with you and be a good friend.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure I want to buy everything in her shop!

Product photos by Jen Ray // All pieces available in Jen’s Etsy shop, Corduroy

I do have to admit that jewelry sometimes makes me feel a little self-conscious, as though I’m trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear (what a horrible expression—and I suppose I’m the sow’s ear in that equation), but as I was looking through my favorites on Etsy earlier today, I was kind of surprised to see that there’s an awful lot of jewelry in there.

Lucky number necklaces no1 and no6 from (of)matter

Attention Major Goofball! Please report for duty! I know, I know…how much of a dork can I be? I love these lucky number necklaces from (of)matter, though, and I’m really tempted to just go for it and order the 1 and the 6 and wear them with pride. Unless of course they move around and people think I’m 61 years old. Or worse, that they stay in place and it looks like I’m trying to pretend I’m 16. (I’m over-thinking this, right?)

Coal geo earrings from A Merry Mishap

I actually just bought these like five minutes ago. I’ve had my eye on them forever, and they’re so inexpensive and simple and really just perfect. Can you believe they’re made out of polymer clay?! I tend to wear dangly earrings that are on the large side, but I’ve been wanting something a little more subdued every now and then. I’m excited. (ARE THEY HERE YET?) A Merry Mishap has them in a bunch of other colors, too, in case you need your own pair.

Medium Python Hoops and Quartz Stud Earrings from Alana Douvros

This stuff is a little more fancy-pants (anytime something smaller than a hamster crosses the $50 mark, I automatically consider it fancy-pants). Alana Douvros specifies that all of her python jewelry is cruelty-free, and that “all pythons died of natural causes”. For me, this conjures touching scenes of snakes gathered around an elderly loved-one’s bedside, holding hands…oh wait, not hands, um…tails entwined as they say their last goodbyes. I imagine the reality is much more mundane, but it’s nice to know that nobody is dying just to be made into a pair of earrings. (She does also offer sterling and bronze cast python earrings if the idea of wearing bone weirds you out, though.)

I have no interest in diamonds, and these quartz earrings come dangerously close to being TOO fancy-pants for me (those of you who like real diamonds are probably rolling your eyes out of your heads right now), but I love them anyway. They look like Real Jewelry to me. I’m not sure I could pull them off, but I aspire to do so.

Stay tuned for part two…

I’ve been squirreling away Evan’s old wool sweaters for a while now—the ones that are too nubbly or moth-eaten for Goodwill—and I turned one of them into a sweater for Bruno. I’m not big on pet fashion, but Bruno is one of those dogs who likes wearing sweaters in the winter, even just to hang out on the sofa. (Fritz, on the other hand, despite being perpetually cold, loathes wearing sweaters. Go figure.)

Making a dog-sized sweater out of a human-sized sweater is super easy. There’s barely any sewing involved, even—just a few simple stitches.

The first step is to felt a wool sweater. In addition to making the sweater toddler-sized, this will make the wool thicker and denser, and keep it from unraveling or needing hemming when you cut it. A trip or two through the washing machine with HOT water should do the trick. Don’t use detergent, and just to be safe, stick it inside an old, zippered pillowcase to protect your washing machine from shedding fibers. You can put it in the dryer, too (leave it inside the pillowcase), or let it air-dry.

You’ve probably already guessed as much, but this project is best suited to dogs under 15 pounds (unless you’re sewing together multiple sweaters, but that’s another project entirely). For a little 10-pounder like Bruno, cutting the sweater right down the center gave me just the right amount of fabric. Measure your pooch around the middle, subtract a few inches, and adjust your cut accordingly.

Cut off the arm. The armhole will become the neckhole. Don’t worry about keeping the seam or anything, just cut where you think makes sense. Try the sweater on your dog, and see how it fits. Bruno doesn’t like fabric around his front legs, so I trimmed that area back a bit and rounded off the corners. Just keep trimming and shaping until the sweater looks and feels right on your dog.

Use a section of the arm to create a belly strap. Stitch it in place on one side, check for fit on your dog, and sew the other end down. You can add decorative buttons or a Superman applique or blanket-stitch the edges if you want, too.

Put the sweater on the dog, then put the dog on the sofa. Make a cup of tea, put 30 Rock on Netflix, and snuggle up.

I almost died when I saw this. Why is Morgan at The Brick House such a genius?? She’s been blogging about fixing up her raggedy old fence, and instead of throwing away the rotted posts that weren’t fence-worthy any longer, she cut off the ends, bolted them to a couple of Eames LTR bases scavenged from a banged-up surfboard table, gave the wood a healthy dose of teak oil, and…HELLO! Is this not the most beautiful bench you’ve ever seen?

What’s really killing me right now is that about a month ago, we came across an Eames surfboard table at the DWR Annex that looked like it had been chewed on by rabid Chihuahuas and then thrown off a cliff, but it was marked down to $99. We passed it by, but we probably could have talked it down to way cheaper and then used the bases to make something awesome like this. Something we could actually use. But I’m not as smart as Morgan.

Next up is this blanket-turned-window shade from Matt at Wood&Faulk. It’s so awesome it landed him a feature in the Dec/Jan issue ReadyMade magazine! I was agog over this project when Matt first posted photos on Flickr back in April, so I’m really happy to see it (and his great blog) getting some well-deserved attention. I can’t wait to get a full set of instructions on how to make my own shade! I have the exact same door in my kitchen…

(Is there anything wool blankets can’t do, by the way?)

This is the simplest project ever, but I’d never have thought of it. Sure, we’ve all stacked up our magazines, but Suki at Varpunen went one step further and created a strap out of ribbon and D-rings to hold them all in place. The result is much more finished-looking than a wobbly stack, and it really does create a functional bedside table. I’m not yet at a point where I can get rid of all of my magazines without having a nervous breakdown, so this is making me rethink keeping a decade’s worth of copies of Dwell (those colorful spines!!) hidden away in a cabinet.

+ See also: People who made cool stuff out of other stuff, Part 1.

+ Are you planning to buy handmade this holiday season? If so, where will you be doing your shopping? (And what’s on your handmade wish-list?!)

+ As I did last year, I would like to welcome any independent hand-makers to post links to their shops in the comments. Please keep all links limited to the spirit of handmade goods from independently-run businesses.

I love this! Carnivores & Destructors is a new, limited-edition Morrissey fanzine put together by Adam Krause at Pau Wau Publications in Brooklyn. It makes me happy to know that the fanzine is not obsolete! They had a Michael Jackson fanzine, too, but it’s out of print, unfortunately.

(Did anyone else used to subscribe to the long-defunct, brilliantly-named Morri’zine in the late ’80s/early ’90s? I still have every issue.)

Now, about the changes around here…

Yes! There may be a few more tweaks over the next couple of days, but I have finally given Door Sixteen a design overhaul. Aside from the design, these are some of the new features you might have noticed:

Featured blogs. Following a discussion about the effectiveness of blogrolls on Twitter a few nights ago, I decided to do away with mine completely. By featuring just four or five blogs every month, I’m hoping to bring a little more attention to each one rather than letting them get lost in a sea of links. (Check out my October selections!)

Social media sharing buttons. I resisted adding buttons to facilitate sharing posts on Twitter and Facebook (and some other places I don’t know anything about, like Digg and StumbleUpon), but the time has come for me to give in. I use Twitter constantly, and I know I like when the blogs that I read have these buttons (URL shortening is built in!), so…there you go.

Gravatar support. If you’d like your image to show up next to your comments on blogs instead of a yellow dot, visit the Gravatar website and get yourself a globally recognized avatar. This is entirely optional, of course, but it’s fun. Your avatar will show on any Gravatar-enabled blog.

Threaded comments. I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner! Now I can reply directly to specific questions in the comments, and you can reply directly to other commenters, too.

Wow, I feel like I’m finally caught up with all of the latest features…from 2008! Please let me know if something is looking weird or not working right (and I’m not talking about Fritz).

Look! Fritz got his first modeling job!

When illustrator Paule Trudel Bellemare contacted me to ask if I’d be okay with her using some photos of Fritz for reference in a series of drawings she was working on called Girls+Dogs, I didn’t hesitate for a second. Paule’s work is gorgeous, and her drawings of dogs in particular are really very sweet. She captures the personalities of the breeds and relationship between the dogs and their humans so perfectly.

Take a look at Paule’s portfolio, her blog, and her shop on Etsy! You can buy Fritz’s portrait, as well as others from the Girls+Dogs series and a number of other beautiful illustrations.

Case in point? THIS DESK. Holy mackerel, right? Dan over at Manhattan Nest (which is a rad blog you should all be reading, by the way) made it out of a beat-up nightstand he found on the street, some knobs, a couple of sheets of MDF, legs from IKEA, some knobs, and a little paint:

Total cost? EIGHTY-THREE SMACKERS. He rented the tools and did this in an NYC apartment, too (let’s hear it for spray-painting on the fire escape!), so I don’t want to hear any crying about how you “don’t have space” to build stuff. Check out Dan’s blog for more details on the construction process.

Example #2 of making-cool-stuff-out-of-other-stuff is this amazing shelving unit from Daniel and Valeria at the always-inspiring Hindsvik blog (they have a great vintage Etsy store, too). Inspired by the Brick House (in turn inspired by the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs), they put this together using standard metal plumbing pipes and reclaimed barn wood:

There are more photos on the Hindsvik blog (yes, the cabinet opens!). Don’t you suddenly feel the need to build one of these units in your house? Somewhere? Anywhere? All I know is I’m keeping my eyes peeled for the perfect pile of discarded wood.

And all I did tonight was make popsicles (out of all-new materials, FYI).

Baby two- and three-toed sloths at the Aviaros del Caribe sloth orphanage in Costa Rica. Seriously painful cuteness happening here. Siiiiiigh.

Sloth Magnet by Berkley Illustration, $5.00 // Prints available as well!