thank you!

I'm excited - I won a $20 Target egiftcard! A giant thank you to the blog Stuff Under Twenty for the giveaway! I will probably be buying shoes with it :)

project etsy: photography

Especially loving Charlie and the Eiffel Tower.

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project etsy: food

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Why yes, my stomach is growling like a mad thing. How did you ever guess!

project etsy: ceramics

What would the world be like without Etsy? A heck of a lot less amazing, that's for sure! Etsy never fails to astonish me with its creators' talents! Over the next several posts I'm going to be putting up items that just leave me drooling after them...

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polly mellen

Polly Mellen is such an inspiring lady. I find it amazing that even at 84, she's healthier and more energetic than women decades younger than her! Vogue has a new article out on her that you can read here.

an illustrated life

via Yes Please Mademoiselle

I have a mad crush on this children's book. The pictures and colors are so whimsical and appealing, and I'm definitely a bird lover! The thing is, this book costs - wait for it - $200! I'm kind of really flabbergasted at the price, but I'd buy it in a heartbeat if my budget allowed me to.

tgif!

Have a lovely weekend!

caught my eye

A few things that caught my eye today...

via The Morale Agency

via unruly things

via Ill Seen, Ill Said

via Stuff Under Twenty

broken africa

I came across the article Aiding Is Abetting by Dambisa Moyo today, and it gave me a completely new outlook on the a possible source of some problems in Africa. Moyo is a Harvard graduate, and she writes about how, ironically, all the aid that we send to the region might actually be hurting its economy more than helping it; "tyrants like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (three hundred million dollars in foreign aid was sent to Mugabe in 2006 alone) often pilfer the money and buy foreign goods, or stow it in foreign bank accounts where it does nothing to help the country". Systematic western aid, she argues, has essentially turned Africa into one giant welfare state, and she gives the following example: if we send over 100,000 mosquito nets, this act of generosity could actually put a prospective mosquito net seller/maker out of business.

Surprisingly, she also adds that her view is actually very common in Africa...while we've heard nothing about it in the West. If we reduce the amount of aid we give to Africa, will its development and economy suddenly spike up, or is the process more complicated than just that?

stuff under twenty

I've been checking Stuff Under Twenty nearly every day since I started following a few months ago - it's an amazing blog! They (N and S) update several times a day on different things you can buy for under $20, and post great deals on houseware, and clothing!

happy april fools!

Hope you all had a fun day! :)

I'm taking a French course right now, and in France their April Fools' custom is called Poisson d'Avril - people try to tape paper cutouts of fish on the backs of unsuspecting people!