I’m interrupting my slow NYC retelling to bring you a public service announcement:

In case you forgot that Valentine’s Day is next Tuesday, I’ll remind you. And…..just in case you haven’t purchased anything, here is a cool idea.

Paloma Pottery.
I’ve ordered from them before and they have really pretty stuff.

Exhibit A:
They have a new white glaze that looks gorgeous. It takes a little time, but if you show your S.O. a picture of the gift, I’m sure it is worth the wait…..or buy it for yourself. You’ve been a good kid this year, right?

Exhibit B: There is an option to order a ring packaged with some chocolate truffles!


Exhibit C: My personal favorite, this charming red necklace.


They also have ring holders and trivets and super cool recycled glass tables and gifts under $20. Take a look!

Ps. If you are Paloma Pottery and you’d like for me to take these images down, pls just let me know.

A couple of years ago, I was in Colorado and bought a couple of small handmade pottery dishes that incorporated recycled glass into the design. TH was a fan of the two I brought home and I’d been looking for them again ever since. I’d exhausted the Interwebs. They make nice ring dishes for next to the sink or a place to keep safety pins in the bathroom, etc. Then, last week, I ran across what appear to be the very same dishes at a local store! Here’s the one I got.

So, if you’re looking for a unique gift in Austin. I recommend swinging by Originals in the Arboretum area near Michael’s this holiday season.

Ps. I’ve had jewelry repairs done there also; he does nice work.

I bought two pumpkins to carve. Turned out the first took a little more blood, sweat and time than I was planning, so I decided to paint the second one. There were grand plans for stencilling green shimmery leaves all over this pumpkin and how it was going to look magical. Lisa said, “I don’t have good luck painting stencils on round surfaces; you should pencil in all the leaves and go back and paint.” I scoffed at that, mostly because there was no way I was contributing that much time to my second pumpkin project this fall.
So, early Saturday morning, I got up and began to paint the first leaf with the stencil. Saying it looked a hot mess would be putting it mildly. It was unrecognizable as a leaf. Super. The nice thing about being wrong more than I care to admit….oh wait, I blog about it a lot…..is that I’m really good at recovery and coming up with a plan b. I had a pumpkin and some shimmery green paint…..hmmm.
I decided to stripe it. Overall, the number of sections worked out perfectly. I only had to do two coats and I was pretty happy with how it turned out. When asked for comment, TH said, “It looks like a gourd.” with a shrug. Behold – my second decorated pumpkin!

Ps. I enjoyed the most recent Harold and Kumar movie and I catnapped during the Rum Diary. If Johnny Depp can’t keep me awake, I cannot think I missed much.