natalia ilyin

He's throwing his considerable media weight behind this house that floats.

http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/10/06/brad-pitt-unveils-floating-house-for-make-it-right-foundation/

So we are told that Thomas has found a gift suitable for the discerning typophile:

http://www.fredflare.com/customer/product.php?productid=5056&cat=254

Apropos of this and his previous find, the "dirty mug" (see the "merch" page) I believe Thomas needs his own boutique here on nataliailyin.net. It is ".net" after all. And I throw mine wide.

Recently he found a guy who makes fabulous cookies and sends them to one's home.
If we clamor maybe he'll tell us the cookie person's coordinates.

Why doesn't Pyrex make an iced tea pitcher? How hard could it be. Big, rounded.
I do not CARE how heavy it is. If this small dream of mine were realized, one could brew large amounts of fresh morrocan mint, peppermint and lemon balm in said big pitcher and go back to the desk and not hear that inimitable ping which means the pitcher has cracked because one forgot to put a silver spoon in it.
I could just weep.

Ok. I admit it. I went away to write on my current manuscript. To a place with trees and birds and water and no phone. A dock for walking on. Small creek running by. Away from the business for a few days. No “ I’ll write later because I need to work on these people’s branding program.” No,“ I’ll just do this load of laundry." Just me and my writing sister in a cabin with trees and birds.

Two things were made clear to me at this cabin. First, while I wasn’t noticing, American TV screens quadrupled in size and now hang like huge black bats in the corners of otherwise cottagey rooms.

Second. Coffee-making apparatus inflated along with the American economy in the last few years. An enormous Melitta stainless steel vat with stainless steel carafe turned out only to house 10 cups of coffee. Huge. Looked like a portable missile silo. Many LED this's and that's. The most over-designed piece of American ridiculity I have seen since buying a dryer.

Fun facts: A lip on the carafe made it impossible for a left-handed person to pour water into the tiny aperture on the right side of the water silo. Once plugged in, with water heater sucking energy from the wall and filter dripping determinedly, the little drip-stop thingy got hung up and coffee spread in a big puddle over the granite counter. Three times. After that my sister got out her little plastic filter holder and we heated water on the stove. Easier. Quicker. Less prone to accident.

The coffee silo was bad, but the Mr. Coffee coffee-grinder was somehow worse. Huge. Plastic. A coffee grinder with programmable features. Seriously. A delay-grind feature? Who is going to fill the grinder the night before and have it grind at a pre-set time? It’s RIDICULOUS.

I, of design background—I, who have given advice to innovations engineers about gizmos many a time—I….well…I couldn’t figure out how to open this coffee grinder. Neither could my sister. Programmable features gave no clue. No instructions. Twisting only removed plastic grinder from housing. We both took turns fighting that big plastic coffee grinder. Separately, we took it on and grunted in silent combat. Both of us tried and both of us failed, surrounded by creek-gurgle and trees.

Living out here on the Island, we don't exactly stand on the whetted cutting edge of fashion, unless it's fleece-related. However, I have a secret weapon. (The key to Island life is the acquiring of secret weapons having to do with cultural change.) On the fashion front, which I quitted in about 1992 due to unforseen aging, I have my niece. She's 15. She knows. (more…)

Here on our island in the Puget Sound, winter skies stay pearl-grey from October to May. In order to fight "Rock fever," we work in bright light, and at home we knit, we sew, we quilt, we cook, we stare into light boxes and remember those good days in Antigua. To combat the grey-scale world, I often walk down to Esther's and poke around. Esther's is our small-- yet fabulous--fabric store, nothing like the big mall ones. It has real people working, and they're all smart and funny and have lived real lives. The current owner is part punk and part Holly Hobby. She went to FIT and then worked as a clothing designer in NY, but came back to the island after the Trade Center blew up. Now she owns the store.
Anyway I went down yesterday and ran smack into Denyse Schmidt's book, Denyse Schmidt Quilts, which shows you how to make thirty brightly-colored quilt and patchwork projects like the "Eye Will Revive" eye pillow and my favorite quilt, the "Drunk Love Two-tone," which reminds me of my misspent youth. (more…)