Category Archives: magpie

Ceramics Saturdays: Jun Ware

In homage to Tiara Thursdays, I thought I would start a series about ceramics, a minor obsession of mine I’ve previously written about here and here. We’re starting with the Five Great Kilns of the Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE), each of which produced wares that were collected by emperors, scholars, and aristocrats as soon asContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Jun Ware”

Friday Favorites: Vlogs (Calmtainment and Lifestyle)

I became a pretty serious consumer of YouTube vlogs over the course of the pandemic. Naturally there was a strong escapism factor, but I also just appreciated these folks who were going to the emotional effort of sharing their stories and lives with the rest of us who were starved for community. Here are theContinue reading “Friday Favorites: Vlogs (Calmtainment and Lifestyle)”

Letter of Recommendation: Tiara Thursdays

Do not underestimate a tiara: it is really the Platonic ideal of jewelry. Unlike other pieces that can “wear” you rather than you wearing them–necklaces, etc.–a tiara places that issue entirely to the side. Because wearing a tiara is an event in and of itself. The entire raison d’être of a tiara is to dignifyContinue reading “Letter of Recommendation: Tiara Thursdays”

Friday Favorites: Watch These on Netflix Before They’re Gone

I actually had a different list planned for today but then realized after I recommended it last Friday that Monkey Twins had been on Netflix for long enough it might go away soon. So, that prompted me to get this list up. These are the best things I watched on Netflix over the last yearContinue reading “Friday Favorites: Watch These on Netflix Before They’re Gone”

Letter of Recommendation: Kimchi Storage Container

I love making kimchi: I use a combination of a recipe my Korean friend Hyunsuk gave me and this recipe. But it was always a bit of a struggle because I only had quart canning jars for fermentation and storage—which worked but were a hot mess (or, technically, a cold, bright-red mess). And then thereContinue reading “Letter of Recommendation: Kimchi Storage Container”

Friday Favorites: Feedly Clean-Up

I save things I find that I like and/or that I need more time to read/check out in my Feedly, a news aggregator I described in this post. But my Read Later folder tends to get backed up, and so recently I’ve been going through it watching/reading things and cleaning it out. Here are 10Continue reading “Friday Favorites: Feedly Clean-Up”

Friday Favorites: Food Blogs

I get a lot of questions from friends about where I find recipes, so I thought I’d start a list here. See this post for how I curate feeds from these blogs and organize the recipes once I find them: Serious Eats. This is the site I’ve consulted most frequently over the years. The olderContinue reading “Friday Favorites: Food Blogs”

Letter of Recommendation: Baskets

I’m stealing this title straight up from the New York Times’s excellent column. I’ve been into baskets since I went through my Victoria magazine period in late college/early grad school—when all my furniture was wicker and all my upholstery white (what a great idea with two dogs, a tendency to knock over mugs of tea,Continue reading “Letter of Recommendation: Baskets”