Recommendation of the Week

Cute Blog/Artist Alert

I haven't posted a recommendation in a while (I might have to rename these "Sporadic Recommendations"), but I thought I'd share another Etsy artist I like who- surprise, surprise, also has a cute blog.

The artist is Sophie Blackall and she does illustrated scenes based on the Missed Connections postings on Craigslist. They're really clever- she takes what people post as Missed Connections and interprets them in a way that makes them really quirky/ funny/ cute. I'd seen her work on Etsy one or twice, then a while ago I found out that she has a blog too. The other day I visited it and noticed that one of her recent posts has a video about her work that's kind of interesting.

(I know this is a boring post with no pictures, but I'm tired...)

Atlantic City

I seem to end up going to Atlantic City once a year or so, not to gamble but to go to the outlets there or, like last Friday, to see the new movie version of A Christmas Carol in IMAX 3-D (verdict- the movie itself wasn't that great, but the IMAX and the 3-D made it fun to see). It's easy to look down on Atlantic City (it's probably deserving of most of the jokes that it's the butt of), but there's also something that I find kind of fascinating about the place. I think it's the fact that it's such a combination of juxtaposing things....

The insides of the casinos are all gaudy and over-the-top (like this Christmas display), but outside most of the area is kind of seedy and run down.

When you're on the boardwalk, look one way and you see the row of bland casino buildings, mixed in with some older buildings that make it easy to imagine what the city looked like back in its golden era.

Then you turn in the other direction and it's pretty beach. ocean, and clouds for miles.

It's an interesting place, to say the least.

(There I am!)

Turn, Magic Wheel

Turn, Magic Wheel by Dawn Powell is the latest book that I'm reading with my "rogue book club", the little offshoot of my main book club. I finished it two days ago and am still trying to decide what I think about it.


It's the story of an author who uses a friend, the jilted wife of a Hemingway-like figure, as material for his latest novel. It definitely wasn't a book that really pulled me in or kept me reading it nonstop, so in that sense I can't say that I loved it. There were a few times when I thought "this is it, this is where it's going to pick up and get good", but then it would slow down and my interest waned again.

On the other hand, I really liked the way the author develops the two main characters and their feelings toward each other. I especially loved the way that, during the last few chapters, she sets them up as parallels of each other and shows how the way they approach their lives is more similar than it initially seems.

In the end, I think I liked more than I didn't like about this book, and found some parts to be really intriguing. I can't wait to see what the rest of the club (okay...the one other member) thinks!

Vintage Find

I don't pretend to be great at thrifting or finding vintage clothes like some of the bloggers that I like to read, but I do finally have a vintage find to report on. (Disclaimer- I say "find" in the broadest sense of the word, since this involved no active searching on my part.)

Anyway, this find is a vintage Coach purse that my mom found when she was cleaning out her closet. It's a pretty classic shape and color, so it still looks appropriate. I normally don't go for long, cross-body bags that much, but I think this one has a similar look to some of the equestrian-inspired saddle bags that are trendy right now.

Thanksgiving

Yesterday my mom hosted Thanksgiving dinner for our relatives. As usual, she made the house look very festive:

Here's the turkey...I never have any involvement in its preparation....

...but I did make a bunch of side dishes:

Creamed Corn

Cornbread

Sausage and Apple Stuffing

Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows

The entire feast

Here's the "after" picture of the sweet potato pie that used the crust I baked last week.

I also tried one new dessert from a Paula Deen recipe: Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake. It was very rich, very sweet, and very good.