Things inside purses...

Anthropologie is out this month with a catalogue featuring pictures of stuff inside purses. Why am I so fascinated by this? I love blog posts, photos, stories, etc. about the things people keep in their bags. (Is there a flickr group on this?) Anyway, here are a few shots from the Anthro campaign:

Sorry I haven't been posting much...I've been busy working, and -- alas -- I'm not going to Paris. Maybe next year...

UPDATE: I just discovered there is a flickr group called "What's In Your Bag." It has more than 20,000 members. I'm not alone!

Christopher Hitchens on how to make a decent cup of tea

Christopher Hitchens over the weekend wrote a story for Slate on the proper way to make tea.

"It is already virtually impossible in the United States, unless you undertake the job yourself, to get a cup or pot of tea that tastes remotely as it ought to," he complains. "It's quite common to be served a cup or a pot of water, well off the boil, with the tea bags lying on an adjacent cold plate... The drink itself is then best thrown away, though if swallowed, it will have about the same effect on morale as a reading of the memoirs of President James Earl Carter."

Hitchens relies (mostly) on George Orwell's tips for tea making.

They include:

*Always use Indian or Ceylonese—i.e., Sri Lankan—tea.
*Make tea only in small quantities.
*Avoid silverware pots.
*If you use a pot at all, make sure it is pre-warmed. (Hitchens adds: do the same thing even if you are only using a cup or a mug.)
*Stir the tea before letting it steep.
*MOST IMPORTANT: "Take the teapot to the kettle, and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact."
*If you use milk, make sure it's the least creamy type. ("And do not put the milk in the cup first—family feuds have lasted generations over this—because you will almost certainly put in too much," Hitchens says.)
*A "decent cylindrical mug" is best.

Finally, Hitchens believes brown sugar or honey are "permissible and sometimes necessary," even though Orwell would probably disagree.


And there you have it.

(Photo by Le Portillon.)

Inspiration Journals

I love these simply fashioned inspiration journals by Victoria at the blog Inmost Light.








The paper and clippings are held together with two simple silver rings.

Lovely.

Out with the old...

Happy New Year, friends...Here's to a better year!

(Illustration by the fantastic Kelly Reemtsen.)

Kodachrome rolls into history...

Maybe a new project for Impossible?

Snowflakes, stardust, dreams...

...New images on my Tumblr page...


(Photo, called "One Mississippi," by Anastasia Volkova.)