he first time I ever heard Brian Regan was in my VW Beetle on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge with my hubby, Nate. I was laughing so hard at this part, I failed to function as a safe driver and had to pull over on the side of the road and listen to the entire CD. The following excerpt is about the famous "I before e except after c" rule, and even after hearing this a thousand times - still hilarious. Warning: do not drink milk.

hat you don't know about me is that I have sat on John Lennon's lap. It's a fact. When I was less than two, my hippy parents were at some outdoor restaurant in Ojai. As they sat to enjoy a hoobie-doobie meal consisting of freshly juiced weeds and organic whatnots, John & Yoko were seated nearby. The famous couple demanded to hold me, because I was so damned cute. Later on in life, I had this cat named Yoko that I used to carry around in a bag.

he Haikus are in and ready to be rated. One lucky winner will win this month's trophy- the smitten pendant.  Click here to vote, and please read the rules. Voting booth will stay open until Feb 28th!

Good luck to all who entered!

eriously, look at how they FLOAT on the wall! Whoever is behind LittleFishFurniture at Etsy is a genius.  I don't care what you say, there is not a cooler bookshelf in the universe than this upcycled smartness. There just can't be. When I buy my next house I will own at least one set. I love the Wordstruck shelf, and am so tempted to grab it now... AWESOME. It is hard to look at these and not say to myself, DAMN IT! Why didn't I think of that?

hen Valentine's Day rolls around, here's an amazing way to say "I love you." These handmade tiles by TileSmile make me want to do a wordy backsplash in my dream kitchen...in my dream house. (Though I'm not sure if "You're my woobie" would make the cut.) This is a small sampling of their love-themed tiles, but there are a whole slew of other wordtastic wall plates to drool over. And, I'm pretty sure she'll do custom tiles if you visit the shop! Which you should! Right now! Go!

ive years ago yesterday, I met my hubby at The Red Room in San Francisco. In a wiley scheme involving this

red hat named after yours truly and my friend Emily from Moe Sew Co. my husband arranged for this hat to arrive on time to celebrate. Someday I will tell my kids: 

 "Your mom was so amazing, they named a hat after her."  And then I'll probably tell them it's a magical hat that makes unicorns and fairies come to life, and makes money grow on trees.

very child needs a set of alphabet blocks. But what to do when you are molding that child into a Mad Scientist?

Enter xylocopa's ingenious Mad Scientist Alphabet Blocks!

Finally, you can rest assured that your little overthrower of the universe will not get his dirigibles confused with his goggles, will know how to coerce useless peasants into becoming his henchmen, and he will have the know-how to secretly build an ex-ray equipped freeze-ray gun with robotic tentacles and a laser. All in the safety of his underground lair.

A - Appendages
B - Bioengineering
C - Caffeine
D - Dirigible
E - Experiment
F - Freeze ray
G - Goggles
H - Henchmen
I - Invention
J - Jargon
K - Potassium
L - Laser
M - Maniacal
N - Nanotechnology
O - Organs
P - Peasants (with Pitchforks)
Q - Quantum physics
R - Robot
S - Self-experimentation
T - Tentacles
U - Underground Lair
V - Virus
W - Wrench
X - X-Ray
Y - You, the Mad Scientist of Tomorrow
Z - Zombies

ear Readers,

As soon as my juicy new typewriter ribbon arrives with my special "screw you" wax seal, I will be offering to you, my devoted readers, the option of hiring me to do your dirty work.

That's right, I will transcribe or even craft your special hate mail and hand type it onto a nice sheet of cream parchment paper, seal it in a lovely envelope with a fancy "screw you" seal, and send it anonymously (or not-up to you!) to the deserving recipient of your choice. 

On the flip side, I will also be offering a hand typed love letter service with optional "screw me" wax seal.  I'm also still on the lookout for the most perfect, romantic, vintagy stationery known to mankind. If you see it, let me know.

I'm really quite excited about this new service; I hope you will be, too. Look for it in my Etsy shop. Might take a couple weeks, sadly not in time for V-day. But neither love nor hate come around but once a year do they? And everyone loves to receive a good letter, no matter the date.

Yours Truly,

t's true. I am married to an artist. So you'd think that I could just snap my fingers and say, "Hey, hubby! Make me some playfully bookish art!" Not so. Despite his amazing talent, he does not produce on command. Darn it. Therefore, I went a-looking and I found some fun art shops on Etsy. Here are some playful wordy finds for your wall, artfully executed:

Reading is Cool by Studio Mela:

Love is in the Air by Carambatack

Candy, Backwards by Copper Inc.

Knowledge Speaks by vol.25

y handbag collection (the one in my dreams that is so vast it requires a walk-in closet of its own, right next to my shoe rooms) includes these fresh finds: 

I wish it was a self-teach Italian book, as I have been learning Italian, but since the pages are missing anyway to make room for my wallet, lip gloss and car keys, this will do. A lovely book purse by Etsy shop PrettyTheory. I adore this book bag for the amazing attention to detail and the quality craftsmanship. This is a beautiful, useful bag that is smart enough to give any outfit an instant IQ boost! 

For those of you who prefer fine lyrics and sweet song to curling up with a good book, I give you Groovebag's ultra super hip upcycled record bag, made with vintage fabric and oodles of style. This particular Groovebag is a perfect birthday gift for someone turning forty this year! (I've still got a year to go, thank you. That's not my bag, baby!) Karen is not only the coolest Canadian EVER, and costume seamstress to TV shows and ballet productions, she makes some cool stuffs for you to deck out the inside of your Groovebag too. Check out the cassette tape zippy cases, upcycled album sleeve checkbook covers, and I heard a rumor she's working on a new design for a clutch made from 45's? (Correct me if I'm wrong, Lady K!) For the record, I adore Karen's clever bags, and have been coveting them for eons.  

Here's a buddy for Juniper! (Juniper is my new MacBook). Behold the Crow by Brokesy. I waded through the plethora of laptop sleeves available at Etsy, and this was by far my favorite. Especially when you toss in the cord pouch (sold separately, but designed to match). What I like best about this sleeve is that you can keep your MacBook in it while you type, while many of the other, fancier designs don't seem to offer this feature. Maybe it could use a sturdy handle for carrying, but the design just plain rocks. 

I love this clutch by UrbanHeirlooms, who was recently an Etsy featured seller. I've been diggin' her unique leather accessories for quite some time. I like the way she incorporates antique skeleton keys into her designs. Sassy!

Okay peeps! Time to bust out your Haiku chops and get to fightin'. Someone is about to become the first Haiku Kung Fu Champion, and the proud owner of a sassy new pendant featuring the word of the month: smitten. You know the drill: use smitten in a haiku and post it in your comment. Want official rules? Read them here.

In two weeks submissions will end and the haikus will be moved to the voting booth where you all will be able to rate them from one to five stars. The highest rated haiku will win, so long as I don't smell any foul play.... if so, I will choose the winner. In the case of a tie, there will be a showdown, you'll get to vote again, and then the champion will be crowned.

Hiiiiiiyyyyyy- KU!

P.S. If you flipped out over the Chuck Norris vs. Godzilla artwork, it's by Jeremy at Jkoob13. (Thanks Jeremy!) Now go get yourself a postcard and write a haiku on it. Let Chuck inspire you, or scare you into the Haiku Kung Fu Hall of Fame! Do it!