i have a girl crush on zooey deschanel and i love this cotton commercial she stars in. -janet

via two ellie

sometimes with buying for the shop, the two of us are not always in agreement. when stu came home from a trip with this number – next window please sign – i wasn’t so sure. i saw it sitting on our kitchen table and wondered what was he thinking? but later as we were photographing it for the site he told me his theory behind it – “see, if you have it at your desk at work and a co-worker or boss comes up to you wouldn’t it be great to just point to this sign?”

yes! i think we all have those days. next window please!

My jaw is still on the floor after accidentally stumbling upon the back cover of this really cool 1970′s cardboard press-out book (similar to the ones in our shop). We were set to put this up in the store when I turned to the back and couldn’t believe it…. Stu Rabbit. I’ve always thought that I had an unusual name – whenever I met someone new they’d either say, “I never met anyone named Stu before” or…. “I know a guy named Stu….he’s really weird”. Well, I definitely agree on both fronts. I’ve never really known anyone else on a personal level named Stu and the ones I’ve heard of were definitely…not so normal (including myself, which I’ve recently come to grips with – I guess you always kind of grow into the name you’re given). But you can throw that all out the window cause this Stu Rabbit is awesome and has given me a new perspective on my name. Not only is this rabbit named “Stu”, he’s pink, and if you attach the press-out legs to the body, they spin around like Fred Flintstone driving in his car. To boot, he looks like a kind of an amazing rejected Jay Ward cereal mascot!Okay, I just now breezed through the rest of the book and it’s confirmed. The name “Stu Rabbit” shares company with “Hattie Beaver”, “Kooky Klown”, “Packer Elephant” and “Nutty Squirrel” among others. Awesome. I love my name.

Everyone has a funny, ridiculous little dance that they do when they’re at home being silly. Stu definitely has his – that make holly and i laugh and laugh and laugh.The faces that accompany these silly dances are probably the best and when he really gets into it he strains a muscle or two. Holly has picked up some dancing tips and has some strange moves now that she does. It’s very entertaining. This photo was taken right after her birthday party.

Thanks for all the sweet comments about our bunny Gus.

Like most people, I tend to pack on the pounds during the Winter months. It’s just hard to stay away from good food and it seems like the answer when anyone ever asks “more anything?” is always…”more everything!”. So I’m trying to do my best now to get a bit better in shape so that I don’t sweat so much when I play Wii against my nephew and can actually justify our YMCA Family Plan membership – of which there seems to be no Plan at all really and in fact doesn’t involve Family either come to think of it.

So I told Janet that the better eating starts today. And despite starting the day off with Eggo French Toaster Sticks (which have become a staple lately) all was good except for when it came to dessert after dinner. We were out on a trip for the shop and stopped by the only restaurant in this small town, a place way over-fancy from where we usually might eat. If you haven’t been to this one, you’ve been to others – usually called something like the Carriage House or Carriage Inn or Inn House and you can bet on Surf & Turf on the specials menu every time. We were hesitant about going in but the only other option was Pizza Hut and having that sit low and lazy in our stomachs for a near 2 hour drive home would not bode well…for anyone, really. The dinner itself was healthy enough, but then they brought out this dessert tray. And what particularly caught my eyes, as well as Holly’s was this peanut butter chocolate thing. I’m not sure what my confusion is with desserts lately, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.

stu: What’s that one there?
waitress: Coconut Cake
(awkward silence)
stu: Okay, so what’s that one?
waitress: That’s our Peanut Butter Cup Cake
stu: What’s in it?
waitress: Peanut Butter, Chocolate and Cake
stu: Oh. So it’s like a Peanut Butter Cup?
waitress: Yes, it’s basically a really big Peanut Butter Cup
stu: So is it made from Peanut Butter Cups?
waitress: No, it’s like a Peanut Butter Cup. It’s Peanut Butter and Chocolate.
stu: So there’s nothing to do with cups?
waitress: (silence)…..no
stu: Is it good?
waitress: Yeah..I guess…if you like Peanut Butter and Chocolate
stu: I do…..I do.

So the diet starts……tomorrow.

I come from a fairly superstitious family. No hats on the bed, don’t walk over anyone who’s laying down, always keep olive oil and bread in the house, cats (ok, well, that’s just me, personally). They’re passed down through the generations, sometimes getting watered down, mixed up or just plain abandoned. But in their essence they’re all based on some type of event or occurrence in history – plagues, disease, general fear of the unknown. Superstitions are generally accepted in society and are, well, kind of fun – giving insight into our family history and the culture we came from. But what happens when these superstitions explode? Case in point – we have a good friend. She follows some “normal” superstitions in daily life, but somewhere, somehow, her superstitions and fears have taken on a life of their own. Funny to us, but not necessarily to her. Every time we meet up, there seems to be new fear, each one more and more irrational than the last. They’re mostly funny because, unlike superstitions, they’re not part of anyone’s daily life and while we wouldn’t spend more than a few seconds in our lifetime thinking about them, these are the things that keep her up at night.

Gnomes (we show her our Gnome book): “I can’t even look at that. (turns head). Seriously. Just…can you put it away? Why do you guys have that?”

“Aren’t you guys afraid of Mermaids? Oh my god. I think that if I ever saw one, I would just lay down and die”

“You guys still eat lettuce?”

“I always sleep with all the lights on, you know, because if there was like an intruder ghost, you would need every second you could get”

The best part is that she doesn’t really know why she’s afraid of these things and so it’s really easy (albeit, maybe not fair) to instill new irrational fears in her. For instance, upon telling her that my ancestry is Gnomish (to which Janet chimes in – that’s why Stu’s kind of short, but really strong)…she got really quiet and got this look like she didn’t really want to hang out with us anymore. The best part of it all is that she’s a really good sport about the teasing and takes it all in stride. The bad part is that some of her fears do tend to rub off on you and as hard as you try, you still can’t stop but think ….maybe she knows something we don’t.