Some flash cards purchased when we were living in Chinatown. At some point in our tenure I tried (and failed) to learn to read Chinese characters. I did figure out how to say hello, thank you, and several variations of happy new year. I also added to my vocabulary the words for a smattering of fruits, vegetables and dumplings. And, if you ask me how to order a beer, I have your back.

Along with Muhammad Ali (“Don’t Do Drugs!”), the Keep America Beautiful campaign to stop littering (“Don’t be a litterbug!”) and President Jimmy Carter urging us to turn down the heat and put on a sweater, Smokey the Bear factored in quite prominently to my formative years. Thanks to him, to this day still I have an outsized paranoia of unwittingly setting the forest on fire. This sign is posted on the side of the firehouse in Jeffersonville, NY. The last I knew it had been removed to make way for a more contemporary mural. I was so happy to see that he’s back in place. And don’t you just totally dig his pants!

I know next to nothing about this Swedish soap, except that it’s very very pretty. More than most. It’s been in production since the early 1900s. And it barely has a fragrance which, in my book, qualifies it for purchase. For more history on this soap go here.

Hello…and Happy New Year!! I took a little internet vacation, but am now back online.

There are certainly other ways to prop up one’s tacos. Goal for 2013 is to eliminate superfluous items from my life. I think I will be happier for it.

Something a little happier and lighter today. Oh, what it would be to live with such gloriously patterned floors! Alice Bernardo is the proprietress of the very lovely and engaging Portuguese blog: Noussnouss. She is also the brains and brawn behind Saber Fazer, a multidimensional project that seeks to create a narrative for time-honored Portuguese methods of fabrication, on both an artisanal and a semi-industrial scale. She highlights such things as basket making, shoe making, weaving, spinning, needlework, etc. The bicycle baskets are my personal favorites. Alice says she “likes beautiful things and wants to know how stuff is made.” Don’t want to argue with that. These photos are hers.