Design*Sponge reviewed Brooklyn Modern which looks great! Photos by Yoko Inoue.

Ever since I started to read Julie and Julia, I have been really wanting to pick up a Julia Child cookbook. I don’t know that I’ve ever really had all that much French cuisine, but still this fascination stands. I’ve been looking for a used one and finally found one this weekend! It was one of two great flea-market finds!

More books on my wish list… these are not new by any means, but I’ve always been a bit behind the trends anyway!

Recycled Home by Mark and Sally Bailey. Reviewed by Pia, here. And I want one of those sewing model-things (what are they called?)… wouldn’t use it most likely, but love them!

Simple Sewing with a French Twist by Celine Dupuy. I have checked this out of the library and loved it so much I would like to buy it… I’d recommend it… it’s up there with Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing.

Cooking Outside the Box by Keith Abel. I haven’t had the opportunity to thumb through this, so I am completely judging this one on the cover… yeah, I know. I did read the reviews, though. :)

Barbara Bestor put together one of my all-time favorite house books… Bohemian Modern: Living in Silver Lake. Love. It. The thing about it is all the houses look lived in… I hate looking at magazines or books with images of homes that look too perfect or too pristine to ever be anyone’s real home. This one pictured is my favorite house in the book.

I love, love Amy Butler’s studio. White walls, old wooden floors, well-worn objects, what’s not to love. I’m interested to check out her new book Midwest Modern, both because I love her studio space and her fabrics (me being in the Midwest is just a bonus… I’m not sure how, but I feel somehow it is). :)

I realize that this is going to sound bad, but I do love presents! I am excited for both the giving and the getting of Christmas, but truth be told, I do love pretty little packages just as much as the giving… the giving is fun (making is the BEST), but presents are just… exciting! I like to see what people think to get you… it’s so nice to get things you wouldn’t normally think of for yourself… it expands your horizons and leaves you with little reminders of the people you love.

The shopping in stores makes me anxious… Remember the Goonies where Chunk says, “I’m not all alone in the dark. I like the dark. I love the dark. But I hate nature! I HATE nature!” Me during the holidays: “I’m not overwhelmed in the holidays. I like the holidays. I love the holidays. But I hate shopping! I HATE shopping!”  I digress.

Since last Christmas I went overboard with asking for house books, this year I didn’t ask for any… and I’m feeling a little askers-remorse. Severe askers-remorse. My all-time favorite is Barbara Bestor’s Bohemian Modern: Living in Silver Lake, but I’m also really fond of Judith Wilson’s Harmonious Home, and Amy Butler’s Found Style. I just wish I had had some forethought to think of house books when asked for my Christmas list. Instead I just clamored on and on about a finished house and a camera (no no no no regrets there!) and said there’s not anything I want (not true!). I know I have a hard time thinking under pressure, but next time, think brain, think!