Anyone who’s ever made a pie knows they sure don’t come from nowhere. The labor involved is why it’s been over a year since I made one. But the fact that the pies in this book remained anonymous when it mattered is a big part of its charm.
Once every year or so, I treat myself to a beautiful design book. This year’s treat was Get it Together! An Interior Designer’s Guide to Creating Your Best Life, by Orlando Soria. I’ve been following him on Instagram for a while now and appreciated his use of triangles in design, his sharp humor, and his fearless vulnerability.
Orlando Soria has a unique brand. He knows his audience and his strengths and uses them well in promoting his work.
A while back, he announced his new book was coming out and that there were a limited number of signed copies. In a weak moment I clicked purchase, and then didn’t open the book for months. I brought it to Tobago and didn’t read it. You know how when you have a special treat, you have to be ready to enjoy it? Then one day in May, I cracked it open.
If you make any of your meals at home, or have gotten at sucked into the urban homesteading movement (backyard chickens, gardening, or composting?), you may have found yourself making something extraordinarily time-consuming from scratch and wondering if it was worth it. I know I have.
Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should and Shouldn’t Cook from Scratch, by Jennifer Reese of tipsybaker.com is part cookbook, part journal, and although I hate both of these words, utterly delightful.
When I was a kid, I was the girl chasing my little friends with a toad. I was fascinated by the little amphibians’ bumpy skin and soulful faces. Baby toads amazed me with their tiny details. My kids have a similar interest in natural science, although unfortunately, no toads live in our yard that I know of.
One of the things I love as much or more than toads is finding a book that either presents a new perspective of a historical event, or one that introduces a new person from history. When I discovered The Bug Girl: Maria Merian’s Scientific Vision, by Sarah Glenn Marsh, illustrated by Filippo Vanzo, it had me with the first pages inside the cover of Merian’s drawings of plants and insects.
Between the Chaplain, myself, and One’s bio dad, we are one 400 level course short of 9 college degrees (and One is the reason I didn’t finish that course), including three Masters and an assortment of undergraduate degrees.
I always figured my kids would go to college. Both the Chaplain and I are readers and we both place a high value on education.
But for One, the shoe never really fit.
