I wonder which one of these amazing necklaces from Petit Pois wants to come home with me? I can’t decide, they’re all so great.

via Design Is Mine

One good/bad thing about our new place is that it gets some great airflow due to all the windows. Great for the warmer months, but oh so bad for the colder, which is rapidly approaching. I need a warm blanket to wrap up in on the couch in the morning while I check emails. I love this swiss army blanket. It reminds me of the blankets they put on the beds at the Ace Hotel in Portland:

I think an army surplus visit should be in the works!

swiss army blanket via every eskimo, who has a great blanket post.

Trust Your Instincts, originally uploaded by ashleyg.

This is kind of an embarrassing post, but I took down the FAQ post because while a lot of you asked some wonderful, wonderful questions, my inkling that I might be misunderstood and that mean comments would come my way was completely correct. I’m still making the section, and the questions asked will be answered, but I took the post down because it sucks to have an awful feeling in the pit of your stomach every time you check your email.

I try very hard to not let mean comments get to me, but the truth of the matter is that I’m just terrible at it, they eat away at me. I wanted to make an FAQ section for FUN and for new readers to get to know me better, and because sometimes I’m busy and I feel bad for not getting back to people right away. (I say BUSY because I have a full time job on top of this blog and my shop, not because I’m busy answering hundreds of emails that come my way with questions – that is not the case.)

You can always, always ask me questions in any of my posts and I never want to limit the dialogue that I have with my readers. I’ve met some of the most amazing people I know through blogging, and if one of us hadn’t reached out to the other, those relationships wouldn’t exist.

I guess this is another case of me learning that I need to trust my first feelings and my instincts. Oh and that I need to get my own gang to beat up mean commenters. For Me, For You gang, who’s in? Actually I know a lot of bloggers who need that, so let’s start a mean commenter blog gang! (really annoyed I can’t embed that)

I figured after the popularity of my tweet about the Single Serving Pie, it deserved its own post, especially after Andrea sent me a second example.

So, I present to you the most awesome recipe ever: The Single Serving Pie in a Jar! (photo above) I fell over at the sight of these beauties over at You Are My Fave. They are perfect for little gifts.

And then there is this other similar recipe Andrea sent me from Eggs On Sunday, but the pies are made in muffin tins! Apple Cup Pies! This is nice if you are too lazy to buy little jars (points at self) or don’t need the fanciness of the jars.

I’ll have one or 20, please!

How is it possible that I haven’t heard of Laura Gibson until now? I was just listening to NPR’s All Songs Considered, and this song was played – Shadows On Parade – and I’ve decided it’s quite possibly the most gorgeous song I’ve heard in ages. I can’t wait to go home and buy this album on itunes.

I can’t get over how amazingly cool the Copenhagen apartment of Mette from ungtblod is. There’s a tour of it at Dos Family, with loads of eye candy photos. She just became even cooler to me, if that was even possible.

When it first opened, I wasn’t completely sold on Madewell. It was touted as being J. Crew’s more affordable, fun line, but I was initially shocked by the prices and I also felt like the style was a little bit awkward, like they hadn’t quite found the look they were going for. I’m not sure if they’ve improved on the prices and style, or if my quest to buy less and invest a bit more in higher quality clothing and expand my style a bit more beyond grey t-shirts was it, but a few months ago I gave it another chance and I fell in love. It’s still not super affordable, but the quality is great and they have both really nice staples like t-shirts and jeans, and more fun and unique pieces. My favorite part of their collection right now is that they have Fall clothing down perfectly – the colors, the fabrics, the boots.

In similar news, I finally got around to going to Topshop (which is right next door to Madewell in NYC) and I was not impressed. Everything seems so cute online, but the prices were insane for the quality, and the store gave me a headache. Major let down! The shoe section was the only thing that might have me return.

group, originally uploaded by imstilldrawingallday.

I wanted to post about this last week, but ended up drowning in other things. Eric Smith, the talented guy behind the Live Now project I collaborated on, was in a great show based on childhood friendships and dreams. Being no stranger to the subject (my first inspiration for my necklaces!) I love this show. See all the images here, buy prints here, and t-shirts here.

A weekend to organize more (things are coming together in the apartment, as you can see!), explore the neighborhood, the Art Book Fair (overwhelming! So. Many. Books), Deitch Projects LIC down the street from us (you must go if you get the chance! Look at that view! Amazing show up right now), a lovely union of two friends, waaay too much free-flowing wine at said union, an Ikea hack project, The September Issue and burgers with Jenny, and a night of bonding with my studio. A nice weekend that flew by much too fast.

College Building, originally uploaded by micah micah.

Things got so busy for me today that I completely forgot to wish you all a wonderful weekend! Please, do. This weekend I’m looking forward to The NY Art Book Fair, which is conveniently located at PS1 this year, just a few blocks from my new place. We’re planning on a big brunch, a stroll over there, and then a visit to the Deitch Projects LIC location. I’m excited to get to know the neighborhood better, and even though it’s supposed to rain I think my Ikonflex needs to come out again!

See you Monday, friends!