the Saltbox: salutes

Showing posts with label salutes. Show all posts

Thursday, November 24, 2011

A last minute list for Thanksgiving day

Happy thanksgiving! I hope you're all cozily snuggled on your couches watching the big parade. But if you're anything like my family, you're probably busily making a schedule for oven use or being sent out to the grocery store with a last minute list in your hot little hand. So to help with these eleventh-hour errands, I've compiled a short list of items that never hurt to have around this capitol of all cooking days. You can view it after the jump. Hope it's helpful and have a great holiday! -hil

Dreams of snow, show jumping bunnies, and a salute to pet lovers everywhere

Last night I had a most glorious dream. I was walking in the snow at the end of the street I grew up on and I had with me three trained bunnies. Yes, bunnies. And they were spectacular. I'm not sure what exactly I had trained them in, but they were very well behaved and followed me everywhere. I taught them to burrow through the snow drifts and race up the hill and back, like it was some sort of obstacle course. When I woke I was quite disappointed that my little dream rabbits weren't all nuzzled up against me in my bed. So naturally I YouTubed "bunnies in the snow." Wowza, there's a lot of boring footage of rabbits snuffling around frozen backyards. One video from Germany even edited in little thought bubbles above the rabbit's heads as though you could understand what they were thinking out there in the snow. Lucky for me I'm semi-proficient in German so I could understand the thought bubbles, which said things like, "What's all this white stuff?" "It's fun, but cold on the feet." Let me tell you, I really would have been on the edge of my seat if it weren't for that German minor back in college.

My dream did bring to mind a video I'd seen years ago, one that was actually pretty impressive:

Bunny Hopping, as it's called, is a pretty serious sport in Sweden and Denmark, where it's grown in popularity since it's advent in the 80's. Now, I know this all seems a bit out of the blue, but it made me start to think about the fanaticism of pet owners these days. Let me tell you, if I had one of these rabbits I'd spoil them rotten, and I have a couple friends who are cat moms and they'd do about anything for those felines. There's actually some pretty sweet stuff out there for pets of all sizes these days so here it is: your holiday gift guide for pet lovers. View it after the jump!

A salute to my natal occasion

In almost exactly one month I will have existed for a quarter century. That's correct, my birthday is right around the corner and I will have the power to rent a car! Every year my mom asks me to send her a wish list and every year I forget. This time I decided to take the time and make a visual assemblage of my birthday wishes. So here they are, folks. The collection of things I'd like, practical and frivolous, to rip balloon-patterned paper off of next month:

Read on for details after the jump!

salute to boots

Part of the reason I get so excited when fall comes around is that I finally get to dig my sweaters, scarves, and, most importantly, boots out of the closet. I love dressing for cold weather and tend to get a hankering for a new pair of boots this time of year. Here are the top ten on my list this autumn. -hil

1. Cole Haan Air Kennedy Buckle Boot $398 2. Luxury Jones Boot $438 3. Sorel Tivoli Plaid Boot $110 4. FRYE Owen Crepe Tall Boot $298 5. Keen Snowmass Low Waterproof Boot $129.95 6. Rebels Strada Ankle Boot $59.99 7. Plenty by Tracy Reese Gilda Pump $128.61 8. Sorel Mackenzie Holiday Lace Boot $84.67 9. Capped and Cuffed Booties $158 10. Groundhog Duncan Ankle Boot $145.72

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

an autumnal salute

Today, though it may not have been the official equinox, felt like the first day of fall. It was about 60 degrees fahrenheit all day and it got me inspired and so excited for fall! So here is my ode to Autumn: cozy beds, scarves and boots, and anything woodsy. Enjoy!

1. London Duvet $137 2. HunterGatherer Sleeve $59.95 3. Lolling Blazer $128 4. Natural Tree Stump Side Table $199 5. Deer Letterpress Print $15 6. Knitted Tweedy Boyfriend Cardigan $42 7. Streetcar Tour Dress $47.99 8. Waterproof Rickshaw Messenger Bag $110 9. Steve Madden Banddit Boot $169.95 10. Hooded Scarf $95

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

To Register or Not To Register?

Registering for gifts is one of the strangest customs I have encountered during our engagement. For the first time in your life you get to tell all your friends and family, "buy me things!" and you don't even have to be ashamed about it. What's more, you get to tell them exactly what to get you so they don't even have the excuse that they just weren't sure what you needed. AND you get to run around department stores with little price zappers in some deranged grown-up version of laser tag. So what's not to love?

The downside is this: as with all great privileges, this can be abused. Sean and I, in addition to Target and Crate & Barrel, also opened a registry on Amazon.com for the express purpose of using their Universal Wishlist feature. That means nothing is off limits for your registry. Maybe you want to register for that one-of-a-kind wine opener hewn from ancient acacia trees and blessed by a shaman but it's only sold on some obscure import enthusiast site. Thanks to this feature, that's not a problem. You can rope in any items from any site and compile them into a registry on Amazon. This opens a world of possibilities, but in the words of Solomon, an increase in knowledge is an increase in sorrows. No sooner had I started poking around the internet for cool, one-of-a-kind items to add to our registry than I realized that this feature made it really easy to go overboard. I've seen plenty of couples get married and register for items they use once and then it becomes another thing that takes up space. I'm sure Sean and I's first place won't be Versailles, and whatever space we have we'll need to use economically.

Still, it's hard to hold back on some of this stuff, so I've compiled a list of my Top Ten Things I Wish I Could Register For, just to get them off my chest. Some things got the boot because they were too impractical or too expensive or the fatal combination of both. Seriously, what good would it be to have a historically accurate working Gramophone if you have no plates to eat dinner off of while you listen? Better to stick with the necessary objects, I say. Also, some items snuck their way in because they were just selfish wishes: things I'm not sure register etiquette allows for, I just don't have the funds to buy them for myself. Finally, the most difficult to veto were things like rugs and furniture that belong on a registry, we just don't know where we'll be and if those things will fit wherever we end up. But hey, maybe I'm being too practical. Anything on here you think I really should put on the registry? I'm standing by...