I’m flying later today – I hate flying …. but I love getting places quickly. The key is bringing along distractions, but not so many that I start to look crazy. I have a few podcasts from Grace at Design*Sponge to catch up on, plus I know I’ll need to learn all about baby Brangelina. Do I go with People for words, or US for pictures? US magazine takes all of 10 minutes to read (if you can call it reading) – not really a distraction. I’ve saved the latest Domino for a page-by-page rundown. Alas, the best time-killer, my New Yorker, has yet to grace my mail box. Perhaps today is my lucky day? What do you read or bring on a plane? Have a good weekend – I’ll catch you on Monday.
Today’s NYTimes has some great features in the House & Garden section – Garrison Keillor’s St. Paul, MN home is featured – and it’s a gorgeous house (well above average). I would love to see his home featured in a glossy magazine – better and bigger pictures would be fun to see since I like his house so well. I like getting peeks at how other people live and decorate. And while we’re discussing Mr. Keillor, I’m really looking forward to the Prairie Home Companion movie – I think it’s out next Friday. The other article that caught my eye discusses closets – and how it’s the new aspirational decorating trend. We “organized” our closet last winter, so I guess we’re on track …. although I still sigh over those perfect, everything-has-its-place closets that I see in magazines.
Let’s face it – I have a serious magazine addiction that stems back to age 12 or so, when I started to believe that Seventeen magazine was speaking to ME. I had to have my mom drive me to the local drugstore as soon as I felt the new issue was being unwrapped ….. and although I’m not buying Seventeen these days, I AM buying. I’ve moved into the “House Porn” phase of my life. (That’s my term, by the way.) So, I’m loving the shelter magazines: Domino, Martha Stewart Living,Cottage Living, Country Home, Traditional Home, Real Simple, and I dabble in House & Garden and House Beautiful. HB is featuring Ina Garten these days with her own monthly column on entertaining. Domino has really surprised me. I figured it would be all NYC apartment living and weekend Hamptons jaunts, but there have been tons of fun things featured – this month features Paper Cup Design (a favorite letterpresser) as well a shopping guide for Portland, OR – a city I simply cannot wait to visit! And that 12 year old who had to have the “freshly baked” issue? No change – I still am so eager to see what’s new. It’s the saving grace of airports for me – awesome newsstands!
Do we finally have enough magazines telling us how to parent? Cookie magazine launched earlier this year, helping us all to be better upper-income parents. Now, just weeks after Martha closed her Kids magazine, I learned Tuesday at Gawker that Bundle and Child have also announced they will no longer be newsstand titles. (Child intends to remain a webzine.) Are we all just tired of reading about what we’re doing wrong, and what we can buy to make it right? And while we’re at it – a quick gripe – a visit to Child’s website as of yesterday still gets you a pop-up with a subscription offer. Two years for $12! Thanks, but I’ll pass …..
Why another blog? So far you’ve learned “I want to blog” and “It’s hot!” Haven’t these topics been covered, elsewhere? Yes – but I don’t intend to recap the weather daily. I hope to cover a broad range of topics – my inspiration is the blogs that I read every day. Some make me laugh, like Gawker and others feature cool designers and their products, like Design*Sponge & Love Made Visible and others are just people writing about things that interest me, and I’ve come to think of them as “efriends” like Port 2 Port. Check them all out, and see if they inspire you as well.
