Yes, it’s green leather. I covet them. Via the crack that is First Dibs.

You’ve been warned.

More info here.

While I don’t usually blog about food here although I’m a major food lover and cook, I wanted to share one of my favorite recipes, and one I cooked over thanksgiving. It’s a chocolate pear tart (but crustless!) — easy to make, delicious and my new favorite food. I found it in EveryDay Food, Martha Stewart’s cooking “magazine” where I always find a couple of new recipes to try every month. My two tweaks: I use canned pears (gasp! I know! but there are good organic canned pears out there that taste delicious) and raw almonds (I think it makes the tart taste more “tart” like, whatever that means, but if you cook it, you’ll understand).

And, thank you for your comments in the last couple of weeks! I always appreciate them so much and will respond this week. In a preview of coming attractions, I’ll update you on the necklace stands I ordered (one worked and one didn’t!), the massive lot of matchbook which have just arrived today and I have a mini-gift guide in the works!

This tiny sink….

… and the charming flow of this room

… and wishing this print from Rose + Radish was under the Christmas tree. How sweet is that bear?

The reliably wonderful thing about inspiration is that it is unpredictable. On an uptown bus, while taking out the trash, while coming home from a long day — inspiration sneaks itself into my frame of vision, uninvited, but welcome none the less. The table below caught my eye in Housing Works flickr photo stream and inspires me: a coffee table with a fantastic custom shadow box and many treasures inside. Look at all the treasures someone collected! I’m fascinated by the urge to collect, which I think stems both from a desire to create order out of chaos and a desire to communicate or articulate identity through objects (?). I wonder why the table has wheels and if the owner was Russian (I see Russian characters on a box). I see shells which make me think of a trip to a beautiful place (or maybe they lived on the beach). There are thimbles and needles but also a number of knives? Birds and pocketwatches. Stamps and marbles. Who was this person! Oh the stories I wish I knew.

Have a happy Monday full of inspiration and a few treasures.

Oh, boy. What a week, right? The preholiday hustle got my game this week. But it’s Friday, I might get to see American Gangster and I have lots of blog reading to catch up on.

Gosia over at BlueBellBazaar sent me a nice note earlier in the week announcing new wares for sale in her Etsy shop. What she doesn’t know is that her shop is my *favorite* etsy shop, and a daily browse for me. Her new wares have been all over blog land, so I thought I’d feature a few of the items in her shop I’ve had my eye on from quite some time instead.

So you might be wondering how to display all these matchboxes… I found this image in my files and thought I’d post it along with the news that last night my mother and I won these on ebay! We’re women on the verge I think.

In the course of scouring the web for decorative matchboxes, I stumbled upon the thriving subculture of collectors focused on vintage matchbox labels: I love the graphics, the colors, the passion of these collectors and I’m sure you will too. Here is a selection of my favorites — but this is literally the tip of the iceburg.

Via (Prik, Rocket). I think the lion is somewhere on Ebay. The bike label and lobster are in collections posted online but I can’t seem to find them again! If I find the links I’ll post them.

I love that a matchbook from a fancy hotel or restaurant is saved for 40 years, as a memento, as proof you were there, as a signifier trying to indicate you are of a certain class. Or, an”exotic”label from India might be saved by an boy in England in the 194os, and for him, it represents the world outside his immediate view.

If you are as fascinated by these labels and how people “use” them as I am check out this book from Amazon.

Finally, if you’re interested in making your OWN decorative matches boxes (yes, please!) my mom noticed that the great site ForYourParty.com does custom matches relatively inexpensively. I love these shapes they offer. Note that you don’t need to do monograms — you can do phrases, images (I think!) and really anything you’d want…