Non-cheesy first anniversary present?

I get that buying a present for your spouse is deeply personal and you can't really give someone advice, blah blah blah. But I am looking for inspiration for a non-cheesy first anniversary present for my husband.

I like the idea of following the traditional gifts -- paper for year one, but the best ideas on the internet are 1) buy tickets to a sporting event so your man will remember you totz get him, 2) make a dumb craft project with maps of places you have lived, or 3) write a love letter every day of your first year of marriage (too late, and where would you hide 365 love letters in a studio apartment anyway?).

There must be something better. Thoughts?

*****

Is he a word person? A visual person? A food person?

What is his very favorite object?

*****

He is a serious word person. Mostly history but also comic books (he got some unlimited online subscription and is now working his way chronologically through esoteric old series). Loves food, especially barbecue. 

Favorite object would probably be a tie between his grandfather's Danish rocking chair and our spherical ice cube molds.

*****

So basically he's awesome. And (irrelevant here) a whiskey drinker.

I say find a first edition of a book he loves. Does anyone know where to shop for such a thing?



Pink Package by Maira Kalman

If you like Miranda July….

You'll love Sheila Heti.

I hoarded this book. Though it's a quick read, I eked it out slowly, renewing it from the Los Angeles Public Library* twice because I didn't want it to end.

Raw and honest and dirty and funny, it's billed as "a novel from life" but it doesn't feel like any novel I've ever read. Feels like its very own thing.

(I'm pretty sure it was Meghan who turned me on to S.H., though I can't find the link on her blog.)

______________________________

*Shout out to the LAPL. Did you know you can request a book from anywhere in the system and they'll deliver it to your branch for you? I'm harboring a small fear of bedbugs (which have apparently begun traveling via library book, and have been found in Los Angeles -- who knew?) so I try to stick my books in the freezer for a week or two before I read them. It was definitely firstmilk who turned me on to this idea.

From the librarian's mailbag

(Did you all know I moonlight as "the librarian" over here? Cevd can't be bothered to answer emails from crazy people.)

7:47am

to librarian:
Your widget appears on a block called “F*ck Yeah! Book Arts”  (I added the asterisk for the filters) and it really reflects badly on your brand.

*****

8:14am

to marketing know-it-all:
Are you fucking kidding me?? That blog looks fantastic.

Thank you for alerting us.

*****

8:26am

to librarian:
Well, I won’t be sharing it with my hundreds of Facebook fans and PInterest followers, because I don’t want them to think I hang with juveniles who think it’s cool to say “fuck” as many times a possible. Grow up.


Image: Alicia Martin, Contemporaries (2002) via Fuck Yeah, Book Arts!

It Chooses You

A book review from one of my favorite readers:*

Hello fellow Miranda July lover/person I've never met,

I just read her book It Chooses You, a book she wrote about finishing the script for The Future. It was incredibly sad, inspiring, and comforting. I highly recommend it. 

I found it to be a great meditation on process and discipline and distraction and muse-chasing.

I bought it at Skylight at 2pm and just finished it now. And I went to the spa and the grocery store with my husband somewhere in the middle, so it's not much of a commitment. 

Also, I cried.

*Who am I kidding? You are all my favorite readers.

GREETINGS FROM BAJA

A few people (okay, Tonia) said "less wedding talk, more vacation updates!!!!" so I thought I'd give you a wee update in bullet-point form.

↣ The Whales, Amazing. The word "amazing" doesn't even begin to describe. I petted a baby whale, people. I rubbed it under the chin.

↣ La Paz, Cute. Dusty. And full of dogs. Between 1 and 4am they all go into a barking FRENZY. Never again will I complain about all the barking dogs in Echo Park.

↣ The Food, Delicioso. Tacos, Sopes, Huaraches, Vampiros. Muy Muy Delicioso.

↣ My Husband, Working Too Much. Which, I knew he would be. A client brought us down here, so what do I have to complain about?

↣ Me, Aimless. Spending too much time on my iphone in btwn chapters of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test/taking myself for walks.

↣ Tomorrow, WHALE SHARKS. No idea what they are, but I'm pretty sure I need to write a comedy about them.

(Photo of Hembra by H-town. Hembra lives in the crazy, dusty, terrific house where we're staying. Or in the courtyard, to be precise.)

Hippie-Inspired Buddhist Wedding featuring a GENUINE VINTAGE Dress

Hi East Side Bride,

I am a California girl trapped in Pennsylvania where I moved for a job. I am a writer (my novella California was published by LA record label Teenage Teardrops) and teach creative writing at a small liberal arts college. I love what I do, and jobs are scarce, so here I am. 

My parents got married super hippie style on a cliff in Arcata, CA where I was born in the 70's and that has always been my idea of perfect. My dad wore a cape. We wanted to do something in California and something in Pennsylvania where my husband Neil is from, something super intimate and as stress free as possible, and something later where all our friends and family could be together. We decided to have a small private ceremony in December in Marin County at Spirit Rock Meditation Center with three witness, and have a reception for family and friends in May 2012. It worked out great. 

My meditation teacher offered to marry us while teaching a retreat on a hillside on this incredible preserved land -- rolling golden hills, wild turkey, deer, live oak trees, bliss. Her hair just happened to match my bouquet that day. We were lucky on a lot of counts: great weather, all three witnesses were talented photographers, we didn't have to deal with any one else's input, or go into massive amounts of debt. I've never been excited by traditional wedding gowns, and it turned out my mom had saved this old vintage dress of hers that I think I wore for Halloween one year in high school. Luckily I didn't mind that it had holes and had yellowed over the years, and amazingly enough it still fit. 

We spent four days in San Francisco with friends, I did a reading the public library there, got an incredible bouquet of ranunculus, peonies, and thistle at Bell & Trunk Flowers, and then we headed over the Golden Gate. We stayed at the Olema Cottages which couldn't have been more charming, and had a knock out meal at the Olema Inn. We splurged on rings designed by my incredibly talented pal Kathryn Bentley, and I bought some hooker-y red suede platform heels that I wore for only about 20 mins because I needed to keep my boots on for scaling the hills. All these photos attached were taken in a quick 15-minute rush to catch the light. 

Needless to say, we were really happy with our choices.

Thank you for having the only decent wedding blog. The rest of them make me barf.

♥

(Photos by Eugene Ahn and Joanne Kim)

Hooray, I'm taking notes!

A super cute hipster (no, really) just sent me a set of these notebooks for book readers, and they are fantastic.

I honestly can't decide whether to keep them or give them to my niece. Would she appreciate them or would they just feel like a homework assignment? Could I actually get myself to take notes the next time I read a book??

Last time I tried it was years ago when I decided to make a list of all the words I had to look up while reading Infinite Jest. I wish I had that list NOW.

Okay then, it's settled. I'm keeping the notebooks.


p.s. READ THE PRINTED WORD, YOU GUYS

fuck the kindle



etc.

While we're talking Gatsby.....

How gorg is this penguin classics edition designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith?

It's sold out all over the place (FUCK YEAH, PRINTED WORD!) but I did find a few copies for you guys over here.

Victoria, you're the cat's meow.

Review(ish): Spousonomics

Two months ago, I was in the middle of a ridiculous snit about dirty dishes when I landed on this essay in the New York Times.

Jenny Anderson wrote: "I used to take the fairness temperature of my relationship every day. Were we splitting the chores? Were our careers progressing equitably or was I being shortchanged because I relieved the nanny more? If I picked up his socks today, would he expect me to pick them up forever?"

WAS SHE INSIDE MY HEAD?

I immediately wrote to Random House and asked if they would send me a review copy of Spousonomics, the new book Anderson has written with Paula Szuchman.

It's a revelation.

Anderson and Szuchman frame ten different marital dilemmas in economic terms, demonstrating, for example, through the principle of Division of Labor, how it isn't economical for two people in a relationship to divide the household chores down the middle. Instead, if each person does the chores she is most efficient at, everybody benefits.

So. I have faced the fact that I'm a more efficient dish-doer than H.* And I've realized how much stuff he does around the house (gardening, plumbing, endless car + computer maintenance) that I never counted as "housework."

I've also learned (from the Incentives chapter) that if I trust H instead of nagging him, he will actually do the dishes or make dinner or go to the grocery store a lot more often. HALLELUJAH!

If you are engaged or married or IN A RELATIONSHIP, you need to read this book.**

My only complaint is that Anderson and Szuchman try a little too hard to be hip. Or flip? They repeat the phrase "Exhaustive, Groundbreaking, and Very Expensive Marriage Survey" no fewer than thirteen times in the book, which is exhausting.
______________________________

*Please don't tell him I said that.

**It's not all about dishes, I promise. There's plenty of sex in there too.

check this shit out

The very first bit of printed paper has gone out into the world representing Read The Printed Word.

Stack America, a terrific curatorial service that sends beautifully made independent magazines to its subscribers every other month, invited us to create a print.

What we gave them was a bookmark, or, rather, MAGMARK, that cevd designed and printed by hand on her letterpress. Because nobody wants to fold over a corner or crease a page in a magazine, especially not one that's beautifully made.

Kat's Travel Staples

1. J.W. Hulme co. Sporting Originals luggage - no rollers

2. Dubarry Boots

3. White jeans - you can dress up any outfit with these

4. No. 7 Illumination lotion

5. Rosebud Salve

6. llbean Camo Tote - washable

7. Calypso Celle Dale Top

8. Santa Maria Novella Honeysuckle - my only fragrance

9. Chanel Red Lipstick - again, dress it up in a pinch

10. Barbour Quilted Jacket

11. My Kindle - I read The Atlantic Monthly on it as well as The Trad

12. Kick ass heels preferably red - these are from TOAST UK

Even though there's a pretty strict read the printed word mandate around here, I'm willing to forgive Kat the kindle for travel. I mean she's got to keep up with the blogs. Speaking of blogs, Pierrepont Hicks has a rad one, with much groom style inspiration to be had.

Unplug for Earth Day.

C'mon. If I can do it, you can do it.

I plan to spend Thursday offline prepping a script for a film shoot I'm helping with this weekend. And then maybe I'll go for a run* before I dig into the stack of library books that's collecting dust on the coffee table.

*I don't want to brag...but yesterday I clocked a 14-minute mile. 

(Image via FFFFOUND!)

wishing you some of this for your weekend

Mkay, the knee socks are optional. But do consider wearing knee socks while you lie around the house reading the printed word.

I will be revisiting The Catcher in the Rye. Duh. I also plan to crack Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union, which H-town has been urging me to read ever since he finished it three weeks ago.

p.s. Cevd and I are overwhelmed and touched and elated by how many people have taken the pledge. Readers of esb and ppp were early adopters, of course, but now the badges are popping up all over the place.

Photo by Pamela Hanson via Oxford and Beyond

Review(ish): The Paper Bride

When I received my copy of The Paper Bride,* my first reaction was "Great. Another one." The image of the little porcelain cake topper in the upper right hand corner threw me off. I thought to myself, "Why does every wedding planning book have to have a bride and groom on the front? Or a fucking diamond engagement ring? At least it's not an engagement ring." Then I tucked it under a pile of papers and forgot about it.


This weekend, I unearthed the book (I have pledged to read the printed word, after all) and I was pleasantly surprised. When I looked closely, I realized the little porcelain bride on the front was carrying a bouquet of red and orange paper flowers and the groom had a big paper boutonniere pasted on his lapel. Esther K. Smith is making the point that you can personalize your wedding with paper, in both traditional and unexpected ways.

Smith offers several how-tos for making paper flowers (obv), along with many more rather advanced projects. Do I like the idea of a handmade Paper Pocket Planner? Or a Liquor Shower cocktail recipe book? Yes. Would I ever attempt to make these things? No. She lost me at awl. I do not own an awl, nor do I have any desire to go buy an awl.** I am, however, intrigued by the notion of a bone folder, which is recommended for the construction of the Garland Guest Book (pictured below).

The instructions for the garland went over my head the first two times I glanced at them, but when I took a third look something clicked. Now I'm antsy to give the project a try. Why don't I own a BONE FOLDER? (You can visit Smith's site to download pdf instructions for the Garland Guest Book. But do not attempt to crease your paper using a butter knife, a pencil, or a chopstick.)

I'm also intrigued by the templates provided at the back of the book, for, among other things, an art deco envelope, a curvy Parisian coaster, and a v. sweet little box (hello macarons!).

Tomorrow night, Wednesday, Jan 20, at 7:30 pm Esther K. Smith will be at WORD Bookstore in Greenpoint (126 Franklin St. Brooklyn, NY 11222) demonstrating some of the projects from THE PAPER BRIDE. Will someone please attend and report back to us? Maybe awls are more fun than they look.

*Sent to me for free by the lovely people at Random House, I AM REQUIRED TO TELL YOU. I believe I am also required to tell you that I was not paid to write this review.

**Fun fact: When he was three, Louis Braille accidentally gouged himself in the left eye with an awl. Both eyes became infected, and he was blind by the age of four.

a pledge to read the printed word

More than a year ago, I started to notice that I was reading fewer and fewer books. The New Yorkers lay gathering dust on the coffee table. My newfound love for blogsblogsblogs, fancy iphone apps and twitter were/are interfering with my capacity to focus on words printed on paper. Words you can't click on. Words that don't link to other words. Words that are meant to be read in sequence.

Inspired by adfreeblog.org and buyhandmade.org, I decided a new kind of pledge was in order. A pledge to read the printed word. I emailed cevd, who I knew to be a fan of books as well as my kind of minimalist graphic designer, and she quickly got on board, creating several versions of a little banner. Then I proceeded to sit on my ass for 14 months.

But. Finally. With a little help from H-town, our wee project is launched.

Take the pledge and add a banner to your page. Because tweeting should not take the place of reading.

WARNING: Please do not attempt to tweet while reading a book. To avoid distraction, the librarian recommends that you place your iphone face down. In the other room.

Photo by Peonies and Polaroids