What color orange are you?

A question you've been wrestling with, no doubt. Me too. After taking this quiz, I've learned that I am Clay Pot: "You are down to earth and well connected to all your senses. For you, life is about the simple pleasures— like going to a great concert or enjoying a bottle of wine. Your warmth and zest for life tends to make everyone feel connected with you." Hmm. I might be this. Sounds nice, anyhow.

I'm taking a blogging break until October 1, so in the meantime, I encourage you to find out what color orange you are.

Arrange your books by color... maybe

This photo from Superhero is taken in a San Francisco bookstore where an artist named Chris Cobb rearranged all 20,000 books by color. Not sure if this helped the owner sell more books, but it looks pretty cool. Read more here. The photo is part of flickr's Rainbow of Books pool. Take a look to decide if you want to do this in your own house. I don't think I could stand not being able to find my books, but my friend did it a year or so ago, and it looks nice at her place.

DIY projects

Learn how to distress a picture frame by Lara Berch
Learn how to decoupage a chair by Apartment Therapy:San Francisco
Learn how to make your own bubble mailers by 27 Things
Learn how to cover a lamp shade with decorative fabric by Lara Cameron

Here's my bike!

Not really. I don't have it; I just like it. It's Trek's urban Lime bike. Designed to have broad appeal to non-bikers (like moi), it hides all those nasty, intimidating gears and sprockets and cranks and levers and pulleys. Good. I don't want to see that stuff. I also never go bike-riding, but this could be the machine that gets me to start.

(Image from Trek.)

Sneak peek

I've been working on some patterns for a client, and we've decided to offer a glimpse of where we're at in the process. I can't tell you what these are for, but if you'd like to offer any feedback, feel free! More details to come in three or four weeks.

Make some chai

A couple weekends ago we visited a friend at Yale and spent a day in New York City. After exhausting ourselves in Manhattan, we stopped at a Japanese tea house to rest, and I had an excellent glass of iced chai. Ever since then, I'd been dying to make some. So I tried this recipe: Verdict: loved it. (I doubled it but due to a shortage of ingredients, I didn't double the honey or cardamom. And I thought it was perfect.) I want to experiment with some others, too. Browse this site for more recipes.

Nice couch.

I really like my couch, but if it spontaneously combusted and I needed another one, I'd pick this Chet Sofa from CB2. My downstairs neighbor Elizabeth (art history teacher with classic taste who likes toile, fine china, and anything blue) and I (graphic designer with modern taste who likes graphic prints, stainless steel, and anything orange) found it while browsing CB2's site. And we both loved it. Unheard of.

(Image from CB2.)