It's been a while

everyone is perky and attentive on the morning of the launch of our fall 13 books

Apologies for the hiatus. I've been crazed preparing for and then making presentations at the sales conference for the launch of our Fall 2013 titles. These are books I'm super excited about working on so it was fun to discuss them with the sales team (they have some nice shoes!). Now that it's over, I'm tired. And I need to sleep. But first, here's what I've been seeing throughout the week:

Interior design:

I'm kind of addicted to West Elm as it is, and now with the opening of West Elm Market, their new shop of kitchen tools (they're calling it a community store and general market), I can tell I'll be spending way too much in there this fall.

Are you as excited about the new Nate Berkus book as I am? Just in case you haven't purchased your copy yet, head to Apartment 34 before Sunday to win a signed copy of his book along with an incredible looking lacquered box from his Target collection.

Art for your home feels like an incredibly tough process, not to mention expensive. Jenny at Little Green Notebook takes some of the stress away with this giveaway from gorgeous online art store, 20x200. Just find your favorites on 20x200, go back to LGN and tell Jenny, and voila! You'll be entered to win one $200 gift certificate and five $20 gift certificates. 

Fashion/style:

Kelly of The Glamourai and Jamie Beck are visiting Paris and I'm swooning over the images of their adventures in the city of lights.

Win $100 to spend at Shopbop through The Zhush.

My kind mother, who is staying with me for a few days while T is traveling in Europe for work, just bought me a pair of the cutest skinny red jeans with zippers from the Gap. I'm in love with them. But just as I was trying to figure out what to wear with them, I found this super helpful post from Ramshackle Glam on how to style your red jean outfit. Yippeee.

Food:

I was pretty excited to meet Yvette Van Boven in our offices last week. She's kind of a superstar in the foodie world and her cookbooks are simply gorgeous. Check out this recipe for a luxurious gingerbread with white chocolate and dates on Design Sponge.

Even though Molly of Orangette acknowledges that the world doesn't need another banana baked anything she still manages to entice with a recipe for banana cereal muffins from the always amazing Kim Boyce and her book, Good to the Grain.

People, I'm declaring it right here and now, I LOVE bread pudding! I love it cold, I love it hot. I love it to the moon and back. And then some. Now that I've told you that, I'm pointing you towards this scrumptious recipe for maple pumpkin bourbon bread pudding from the always fun Eva at Adventures in Cooking.

Maria and Josh of Two Peas & Their Pod recently traveled to Oregon and have come back with a sweet gift box giveaway from Harry & David. It has pears and lots of blue cheese, and well, that's really you need to know.


Ok, now back to tracking this hurricane barreling its way towards NYC. Baking some tea bread, stocking up on milk and eggs, and hunkering down for a windy, rainy day on Monday.

end of the day at the launch of our fall books at work