November 28: Windows open, with rain pouring outside on a finally crisp day Christmas tree is glowing “Winter” candle is burning, my absolute favorite scent of all time (Bath & Body Works, worth every cent of $20) Pot roast is slow-cooking in the crock pot, my first attempt at making one (and it looks darn [...]
Peter Hessler, former English teacher in China and author of several books on Chinese life and people, both historical and modern, is a 2011 MacArthur Fellow and long-form journalist. In his interview in reception of his prize, he spoke on what it is to write about China and Chinese life, to him: “There’s always been [...]
This week I have finally been able to open my October and November issues of National Geographic and I was awestruck by the November story on the Sami people of northern Sweden. Their wardrobe and striking faces radiate against the harsh landscape of the region where they live–blanketed all in white snow. Even the reindeer [...]
I can finally post pictures of the gift I made for Elodie Watson’s first birthday, since her party was yesterday. She has two math teachers as parents, and so I was struck one night (literally, while driving home around 1 a.m.) that I should make numbers in the same way that I have made oversize [...]
Bill Saporito’s October 31 Time article said it best: “Consider the cosmic irony: wobbly Western economies are depending on the Chinese Communist Party to save their capitalist bacon. Likewise, the Chinese government’s grand scheme to rebalance its economy hinges on Western-style materialism.” “Shop ’til you drop” probably isn’t what Mao Zedong had in mind during the years [...]
In the few spare moments I sometimes have to peruse something that is not project- or homework-related readings, I have been absorbing Grace Bonney’s wonderful new home and DIY and all-around inspirational book, based off the blog she created and edits, Design*Sponge. I told her I love the headboard she made for her own room, [...]