Go read the Tiny Art Director blog, where the illustrator's four-year-old daughter tells him what's what. Yeah, she's a toughie. Like P said, it's really funny.

P.S. Isn't Purple Gatorade a great name for a fish?

P.P.S. Country Mouse: please keep your impressionable and incorrigible blonde four-year-old away from Tiny Art Director. The two of them could easily destroy the world before lunch.

Speaking of sturdy and calm tiny houses, Mouse thinks this earth house would be very nice, too. A good burrow, no?

Also from the Tiny House Blog, which is addictive.

When it's too cold and grey to dream about staying in a tiny cottage in Ireland or Oregon, Mouse likes to think about heading south for the winter. This tiny casita is in Terlingua, Texas, and is made out of adobe. Mouse likes adobe houses. They feel solid and calm.

I would like to hang out in this casita (which, by the way, is also sustainable and off the grid) and eat a lot. I would like to lie in that hammock over there and read, and swing myself lazily with one toe on the ground.

(As featured on the Tiny House Blog, which is pretty cool, by the way.)

Questionnaire to see whether Mouse, who is working at home today, counts as a grown-up:

1. Are you wearing pants that fit and are not pajamas? (No. -1)

2. Did you wake up before 9:30 a.m.? (Yes! +1 and +2 bonus because I woke up at seven.)

3. What was for lunch? (Hot wings. -5)

4. Did you open Word? (Yes. +1)

5. For work? (Yes. +1)

6. Is it still open? (No. Uh oh. -1)

7. How long was the actual work document in front of you? (Less than ten minutes. Uh oh. -1)

8. Are there disturbances between you and working for which you are not responsible? (Yes! Epic, monsoon-like rain and also dark dark clouds. +1)

9. Are you blogging instead of working? (Um. Yes. -1)

9. Get to it, then. (Right. Off I go. +1)

Mouse is not a grown-up today. C'est la vie.

Things which Mouse thinks are nifty:

1. Flickr Design, the new part of Flickr where graphic designers are posting cool stuff.

2. Stevie Nicks.*

* I could go on and on about why, but I have "work" to do this afternoon. It has been a Bad Mouse day, so I should really get to it. Or eat a cookie. Mmmm, cookie...

("Edge of Seventeen" poster by Rodrigo Muller, here. Flickr Design spotted here.)

Oooooooh. See this chair? It really wants to live in Mouse's house. Don't you think? Mmm.

(From Honora's neat Habitat spread over on By Its Own Design.)

Have you seen these little acrylic float boxes? You could put nearly anything in there. Mouse likes this idea for modern display of the weird family collections she has inherited. For instance, I can think of hardly any other way to deal with the porcelain shoes that belonged to my grandmother and my mom. They're cool, but they're also only one breath away from drowning-in-tchotchkes. Right now they live in a shoe box (ha ha) in my dresser. But in little acrylic boxes, one shoe per box, maybe they can come out of hiding. Well. Some of them, anyway.

Little boxes here, with a cool view of them being used to display old model cars here (page 44).

Mouse loves Shaker chairs. They're so simple and elegant and they remind her of her mother's sewing room. And suddenly they're everywhere! I'm such a nerd, but seriously, even looking at a Shaker chair in a catalogue brightens my day. We have the black ones in our dining room and I love them--the right balance of modern and classic, they are graceful and small without feeling wobbly or uncomfy.

(From left: Shaker chairs at Design Within Reach, Room and Board, and CB2)

P.S. Every time I hear the name "Design Within Reach," I think "Pff! Whose reach? Not my reach." But they do have a great chair sale every once in awhile that made those chairs happen for us. Keep an eye out.

Oh dear, Mouse has been cranky and tired for the last few days. After a nasty vaccination that really hurt her arm and made her nauseous, about ten trillion unforeseen and urgent things to do landed on her desk. And they are attached to things like making enough money to afford food next year. Relaxing, yes?

So I bring you a mantra from Country Mouse, my sister, who has an even more complicated set of obligations (two of whom are running fevers right now in their tiny little bodies). Facing an impossible, gut-wrenching, unendingly sad situation, Country Mouse just frowns slightly and says, "Hm. That's tricky." If you blew up her car and then told her she needed to get to, say, Alaska--by tomorrow--she'd say, "That's tricky," and then she'd put on her hiking boots.

Listen here, pile of obligations: you are tricky, not impossible. It is going to be difficult, and it is going to require an inventive approach, but I am going to finish all of you. WITH GRACE, DAMMIT!

Ta.

This cheese grater could totally beat up Mouse's cheese grater. I have one of those old, four-sided rectangular ones with a wobbly handle on top. Problems with it include, but are not limited to: 1. cheese goes everywhere, 2. Mouse grates her own fingers on a regular basis, and 3. nearly impossible to get it all the way clean.

This one comes with a handy box to catch the cheese, only one sharp side to cut down on finger injury, and comes apart for cleaning. Bloody good idea! Plus, extra points for sustainable bamboo.

From here, via Mighty Haus (as usual).

Have you seen these lovely stamps from Paperwink, mice? I am oohing and ahhing over the one with stars--it looks like Hatch Show Print or something. I wonder if they could make me a book stamp. Boyfriend and I are taking a big step and commingling our books--on the same shelves. This is a very big deal for Mouse, who is more than a little territorial about her books. Hence the stamping, just to feel safe. Do you use book stamps?

Um, so, Mouse is much to impatient to watch awards shows. I really love the dresses, but I can't stand the dialogue on the red carpet. And then I can't stand the waiting, and the overproduced music, and the part where they show a close-up of the person who almost won. I much prefer to look at all the photos the day after. Which is TODAY. Hurrah! My favorite is Penelope's dress. Did you know it's sixty years old? You have to love an actress who can pull that off.

Image from here.

Lovely weekend! (Although I want Boyfriend to get his cute butt back here right now.) I hung out with my bestie, and we had our favorite sort of evening: vodka tonics, chick flick, and appetizers for dinner. We've been making mozzarella caprese since college, and I swear, it only tastes right when we make it together. I recommend it for munchies when you're hanging around and dishing with a good, old friend.