I stumbled across this German cover for The Bright Side of Disaster this morning! At first, because of the cake, I thought it must be Everyone Is Beautiful. But there’s nobody pregnant in Everyone Is Beautiful — not really, anyway — so I think it must be Bright Side! The German version is extra-fun because […]
One of the most perfect, delectable, romantic movie scenes ever. Happy holidays.
I can never find the phone. Ever. I spend about half my day circling the house, looking for a ringing cordless. But it’s not there. It’s buried under something. But I don’t know what. I don’t know why I can’t remember to put it back on the base when I’m done talking. But I can’t. […]
Down here in Texas, we have to work hard to create winter. It’s not really a season in Houston, exactly. It’s more like a series of fronts that blow the heat away for a few months, a couple of days at a time. So holiday decorations have a kind of make-believe quality. Like we’re pretending […]
I have one of those moms who’s a superhero. There is nothing she can’t handle. She should have been the President, and I’m not kidding. But then I never would have gotten to see her. And I love to see her. So it was a good deal for me that she wasn’t the President. But […]
I’ve been feeling feisty lately. The brouhaha over Publishers Weekly’s Top Ten books of 2009 — which had no women authors on it — has left me thinking a lot about women’s place in our cultural conversation. And, as I’ve been driving my carpools and snaking the grocery store aisles, I’ve been composing an essay […]
I stumbled on this little moment in our old home movies over the weekend and couldn’t believe how sweet it was. And so I made this video. (I’m the little blond sister, by the way…) [BlueTube]04u0RTAxLn8[/BlueTube]
It’s my 9-year wedding anniversary this week. (Nine years married, fifteen together.) And so, a nine-best ode to my awesome husband. Here are nine great things about him — though, really, I could go on and on: 9. The mustache. 8. The pants. 7. The way he is so completely stoked to have a wife […]
I spoke on a panel last weekend at the Texas Book Festival with the very charming Jancee Dunn, who has a baby. Fellow panelist and Houston author Gwendolyn Zepeda and I wound up giving her parenting advice. And while we were talking, I heard myself say something very true. It can be so easy to […]
Here’s another before and after. A really awesome mod chair from my grandfather’s building materials company that I snagged from my mom’s garage a few weeks ago: And now, in my living room, freshly back from the upholsterer’s: I’ve kinda fallen in love with this chair, but it didn’t happen until after it got its […]
Last spring, the amazing Mary Swenson took these photos for me in response to a quote I sent her from Everyone Is Beautiful. She broke the quote down by sentences, and took a photo for each one. Then we ran the photos in sequence and made a video. But the photos are so amazing, they […]
For the record, I’m all for store-bought costumes at Halloween. We’ve had many at our house. But this year, I got inspired to create. My son said he wanted to be Fire Man, and my daughter instantly said, “And I can be Water Girl!” And I just thought those were such rockin’ superheroes for my […]
So, as you know, when you have kids, you acquire a lot of kid art. And a huge amount of it is completely awesome. And the fact that your child made it makes it even more awesome–even if it’s only, like, a scribble that you’ve been told is “a weasel.” Last spring, I decided that […]
A few weeks ago I fell into crazy love with a chair. Like, I actually gasped when I saw the picture of it on Craigslist. Gasped. And then I drove across Texas with my mom to find it, buy it ($15!), and cart it home. Things seize me like that. In fact, that’s how I […]
I’m taking a little time off from writing. Not a lot of time off: just a couple of months. I just need to be creative in different ways for a little bit. Like sewing kinda creative. And re-covering old chairs kinda creative. And cleaning up our house creative. To the extent that you can call […]