Okay, nice mice. I need your help. I am notoriously impatient. Who has good tricks for very very very long plane rides? (Multiple ones! Overnight! Redeye!)

Mouse needs a room like this. Isn't it lovely? It's a room for lounging around with bare legs and bare feet, for reading trashy novels and drinking iced tea. It clearly comes with nearby swimming, since there are stacks of towels everywhere, so I am going to imagine a calm and warmish lake with the kind of swimming you want on the first hot days of summer.

Bet you a dollar this house smells like tomato stems. I'm ready for spring now, please.

From Skona Hem, via the fantastic Style Files.

Um, okay.

1. Mouse really likes this tiny cottage on Tybee Island, Georgia.* It was built in the 1920s, when the road to Tybee was built. It has a "roost" in the back, for guests or kids or whatever. Also, it's for sale, and it's also on sale, which means it's a lucky thing Mouse doesn't have $500k lying around or she would have to explain to Boyfriend about a really pink impulse-buy.

2. The lady who renovated this tiny cottage, Jane Coslick, makes a living renovating tiny cottages. How cool would this be? Somebody sign Mouse up, please.

*Photo, sadly, is not from Mouse's recent adventures. It's from the clearly lovely Jane Coslick.

Thanks for all the moisturizer ideas, nice mice. I think I've found it! Avalon Organics Daily Moisturizer: cheap, not sticky, not too heavy to wear under sunscreen. Smells like lavender (which made me hesitant), but the lavender smell dissipates within an hour. It's comparatively inexpensive (about $16 for 2 oz.) and heavy enough that you don't need to use very much. Hooray!

Have you been reading this whole umbrella stand thing over at wonderful Design*Sponge? In theory, Mouse really likes the idea of an umbrella stand. For instance, this one (from that Georgia flea market again) is pretty damn cute, and would be even cuter if I painted it teal. But here's the thing: Mouse has a phobia of giant umbrellas.

This comes from going to school in a very very very rainy city, where a) you always need an umbrella handy and b) if the wind turns your giant umbrella inside out it could cause major head injuries. So Mouse usually carries the collapsible, teeny umbrellas.

Which don't work in umbrella stands. Right? Hm.

Squeak!

This is an artist's and writer's retreat in South Africa, where Mouse is going next Tuesday. It's a cottage that might actually happen. Seriously squeak! They have other cottages, too. Some of them are even tiny.

Maybe Mouse will hang up her backpack and spend a couple of days in the big, quiet, empty space of the Karoo and write some things down.

Hey nice mice, do you have butter-keepers? That one up there is hand-thrown by my lovely potter friend in Georgia. You fill the piece on the left with about two inches of water, fill the piece on the right with butter, and turn the butter-filled piece upside down and set it in the water. The water makes a seal that allows you to keep your butter fresh, but at room temperature. 

In other words, if you have one of these, toast becomes much easier and much more buttery.* Mouse might be coming late to the party, or might be announcing a cool thing. Who knows? Apparently this is an old French crockery trick. Mouse and Boyfriend are ordering one in cobalt blue for our kitchen. 

*Mouse hearts butter.

(If you would like one, send me an e-mail and I will send you the information. She does several sizes that run about $25-$49.)

Hey! They make bowls that look like logs! Maybe Mouse will put some log bowls around in the camp-out room for spare change, bobby pins,* and jewelry that doesn't fit in her tackle box. They also make log boxes...

Via cool feature on Apartment Therapy. Which are your favorites?

*Mouse has a Problem with bobby pins. It's sort of like an addiction, except that they fall out of my pockets everywhere and frustrate Boyfriend. "I FOUND ANOTHER ONE," he will say, pointedly. I look at him and blink, thinking, "What's so unusual about a bobby pin on the floor?"

Mouse has unreasonably high expectations of cookies, especially oatmeal cookies. They are supposed to be chewy, not too dry, complex, comfy, and satisfying. And big. These cookies are my favorite recipe so far, although eventually I want them to taste a bit more like caramelized sugar. They're excellent out of the oven and regain chewiness if left at room temp or microwaved for thirty seconds. They have the right balance of oats to dough, are neither too sweet nor too salty, and make a nibbly Mouse feel at ease.

My Friend Catherine’s Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies
Makes about 20 large cookies
Prep Time: 5 minutes Total Time: 40 minutes plus cooling time
(Quick-cooking rolled oats can be substituted for the old-fashioned oats here; however they will have a little less flavor.)

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp nutmeg and ¼ tsp cinnamon
16 T (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 ½ cups raisins

• Adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 325º.
• Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl and set aside.
• Beat the butter and sugars together in a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes.
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl and beaters as needed.
• Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly mix in the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Mix in the oats and raisins until just incorporated.
• Working with ¼ cup of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls and lay on two parchment-lined baking sheets, spaced about 2 ½ inches apart.
• Flatten the cookies slightly using your palm. Bake until the tops of the cookies are lightly golden but the centers are still soft and puffy, 22 to 25 minutes, rotating and witching the baking sheets halfway through baking.
• Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to wire racks and let cool completely

P.S. I had one of them for breakfast. It's sort of like oatmeal, right?

Mouse's jewelry box crisis continues. I like the idea of this old dentist's case, but it was $250 (at that damn Georgia flea market again, which I'm lucky I left without bartering my shoes for something). Also, putting your earrings where the tooth-scraping thing sat? Little bit ew.

Then, I was thinking: camp-out room, right? Maybe a tackle box, because a tackle box is about camping and has lots and lots of little compartments, and the metal ones are cute and sometimes colorful (like this or this or this). Also, some of them have character. I think the compartments could be lined with cloth.

How do you buy an old metal tackle box that doesn't reek of fishies? Thoughts?

I'm almost done with my YeeHaw rave, don't worry. I just wanted to show you the space (Mouse being a sucker for studio spaces), and to let you know something:
YeeHaw does wedding invites, save-the-date postcards, and personalized thank-you notes. They are letterpressed, colorful, funny, whimsical, current, and lovely, AND they are way below market price for custom work. The guy said, "I love throwing these things together for cheap!"

Mouse encourages you to check it out, as she may some day in the very distant future. My favorite is that "Cath and Shane" invite, which says: "Cath and Shane are celebrating Getting Hitched with their nearest and dearest--This Means You, Dummy!) 

I love YeeHaw, and I also love Cath and Shane, whoever they are.

Grr. Mouse has used this Clinique lotion every morning and every evening since she was twelve (a long time ago). It has nasty parabens and so she must switch. So far, though, I hate all other lotions, including but not limited to: Aveeno, Eucerin sensitive skin, Jason Red Elements, Clinique Moisture Surge, and something from Whole Foods. Help, mice! Anybody got one that won't feel all skeevy?*

*I think dimethicone is what makes me feel skeevy.

P.S.--I wear this sunscreen every day on my face and neck, so for me, SPF is taken care of. SPF 15 works for some people, but Mouse will burn at SPF 70 or lower. In eight minutes. Literally.

Mouse saw these old yellow chairs at a Georgia flea market and fell in love. Sadly, our car was too full to take them home with us. I briefly considered booting Boyfriend for the chairs, but I don't drive stick.

Lovely Kate over at Love You Big (which rocks) sent me these photos of vintage kitchen things. Don't you love eggbeaters with handles? I could hang around and twirl one all day. They are even more fun than an egg bouncer. Also, YELLOW! They are at Etsy, here and here. Should I or shouldn't I?