[blog.leslieruth.net]

Apparently today is National Feral Cat Day! Feral For Life will be throwing a fundraising event today in Prospect Heights. I’m not going to be able to make it, but I’m definitely going to have to purchase one of these to add to my cat lady t-shirt collection. The proceeds go towards helping feral cats in Brooklyn.

This is probably the cutest commercial I’ve ever seen. What can I say, I’m a sucker for baby animals. Every time I see it, I want to wander on over to CuteOverload.com.

And an update! I just noticed this second ad, which is almost as adorable as the first one (though it lacks piglets in pajamas).

Apparently DDB is the agency responsible for all of this cuteness.

Made these very tasty Halloween cupcakes for the Cupcakes 4 Charity Event at the Roger Smith Hotel. A fun event, although I went into sugar overload dipping my finger in the leftover frosting afterwards. But hey, what better way to go about raising money for charity than to bake and eat cupcakes?

The icing is hands down my favorite icing recipe I’ve found. Here’s the recipe, which I altered from a Martha recipe (surprise, surprise). (more…)

Monday we had a somewhat-impromptu Labor Day barbecue that turned out to be rather tasty! I was in charge of making peanut butter whoopie pies and carrots, Daniel made the barbecue chicken and Angela brought potato salad and beets. Lara and Angela’s boyfriend Michael brought us the pleasure of their company (and some drinks). It was a little nippy outside… fall is definitely here. But it was nice to put in some time hanging out on the roofdeck, as fall will surely turn into winter all too soon.

Aaaanyway, onto the recipes! (more…)

I’ve been in need of headphones for a while, and I was happy when these arrived in the mail! I’ve had some pretty shoddy luck with my iPhone headphones. Pair after pair had the same problem – the side with the microphone on it stopped working, leaving me with only one good ear bud. That’s no way to listen to music! So after the fourth pair broke, I didn’t really want to spend $30 on yet another pair of headphones that would only last a few months.

These are the Matador model by Aerial 7. For $40 I get high-quality sound and it works with my iPhone – microphone included. You can buy them on the company web site for $50, or on sale at Urban Outfitters. They come in a variety of color schemes, if you aren’t as inclined towards bright colors as I am. Time will tell if they last longer than the Apple headphones, but hey – a girl can dream.

Just noticed the Filter Mag cover posted over at WeLoveYouSo.com, a site related to the upcoming Where the Wild Things Are movie.  Love the style, and seeing it brought a wave of nostalgia as I thought back on some of my favorite childhood books. When I first learned how to read, I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic. My mom was disappointed that I wasn’t excited about reading and decided to give me incentive to read by giving me money every time I read a book. I can’t remember how much she gave me – a nickel? a dime? a quarter? Whatever it was must have seemed like a lot to me at the time. (Never underestimate the power of pocket change on a kid – how else could my parents have gotten me to pick up those spiky sycamore balls by the hundred each fall? Eventually I wised up.) I started reading book after book, asking for my money when I was done with them. But soon enough I forgot about the money and just kept on reading.

One of my favorite’s (and my mom’s favorite) was Love You Forever, which upon rereading as an adult is kind of a bummer, as it’s about the cycle of life. Kind of like revisiting The Giving Tree:

What are you guys trying to do to me! How do parents get through these books without getting weepy, either over the mortality of their parents or of themselves as parents or your own mortality? It’s strange to look back on these things at this age, the age where you start to see your parents not just as parents, but as people; when you start to think about having children of your own some day and feel bad for being so bratty and slamming so many doors. (Oh and by the way mom, if you are out there, in regards to Love You Forever – please don’t grab a ladder and crawl through my window at night if you want to see me! Just give me a call and use the front door.)

Some of my other favorites:

• Any Spot book
• The Poky Little Puppy
• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
• Lost in Dinosaur World – a predecessor to another childhood favorite, Jurassic Park. I had Dino World on tape and would listen to it repeat at night. I’ve always been a night owl. My mom would say, “I can’t make you go to sleep, but I can make you go to bed!” and this is what I listened to in bed.
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which is so visually beautiful! It was written back in 1969 and has been followed up by many other animal-themed books, illustrated in the same collage style that made Caterpillar so visually striking. Fun fact: the author, Eric Carle, started out as a graphic designer. He also currently writes a blog!

My favorite modern line of children’s book I’ve encountered recently is the Pigeon Presents series by Mo Williams. It is, like all good children’s books, entertaining to read as an adult, as well. He wants to stay up late, he wants a puppy, he wants to drive a bus – a very curious pigeon indeed! I found it while poking around at the Strand and found them very endearing. Won’t someone let that pigeon drive the bus? Come on, guys.