Sing the praises of your clients

Number 1, originally uploaded by sarah_gardner.

Everyone loves a little pat on the back now and then, so recognize the little things that your customers do that make you happy, from the quirky song on their answering machine that makes you smile to the timely payments that you've come to count on.

To all of my friends, colleagues and customers out there, I'd like to wish you a happy Thanksgiving. Eat lots of turkey and know that I appreciate you!

Fashionable radiators

It's getting cold again, and you probably have a whole new appreciation for that ugly radiator sitting in your house/apartment/box/etc. For you design junkies out there, check out these ideas for fashionable radiators. It almost makes me wish I lived somewhere other than Texas, where it's currently 87 degrees outside my window.[via If It's Hip It's Here]

I'm currently loving...

...this color palette. I've been dreaming of redecorating my house with these colors, but that requires new floors and furniture and repainting and everything else. But a girl can dream...

Time's a Wastin'

Eeeek! This is so the story of my life right now. I suppose it's better to have too much work than not enough, but time is literally getting the best of me at the moment. This calendar by by Susanna Hertrich would provide some necessary motivation to not waste a single moment, lest it be shredded into pieces and used as packing material in a shipment.

Around the world in 80 days...and other famous expeditions

I'm not much a history buff, so when I found this Wanderlust map in Good Magazine I spent hours brushing up on some of the most famous expeditions of all time.

Wordle fun

Every once in a while, I discover something so fun that I want to hug its creator. That's how I feel about Worldle, a free website that pulls words from a blog, RSS feed, or text that you provide, and creates a "word cloud." The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. As you can see from the Signatures blog clouds shown above, I obviously couldn't stop playing with it...

God Bless Texas (particularly Houston)

I love Houston. Those of you closest to me are probably scratching your heads, considering I whined about living here for a long time, complaining that I just didn't fit into this Texas mentality and that I would be more acceptable in a place like New York or Chicago.

But I've come to love this place, and am now very defensive when I get that, "Houston? Ick." response that so many people give us Houstonians. What they fail to realize, and what I once failed to realize, is that this thriving metropolis is more than a country-loving haven for oil tycoons. It is rich with arts and culture and incredible architecture and some freaking cool people. Here are some pretty pics of the city I love so dearly:


our beautiful skyline, by Jeremey

proof that not everyone votes Republican, via Marco

more skyline shots, by Stuck in Customs

downtown sculpture, by nip2655

boot artwork for the 2007 Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, via ShootHouston

Anunciation Greek Orthodox Church, by Neal1960

downtown mural, via cybertoad