Small Delights and inanimate objects I LOVE. Peripherals Edition

Today I want to introduce you to some small delights that make me happy, but first, I'd like to share a LARGE DELIGHT.

Over the course of my adult life, I have published 13 books.

2 for adults (The Long Haul and Little Panic) written under my own name.

2 for young adults "You are SO Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah" and "We are SO Crashing Your Bar Mitzvah" written under the name Fiona Rosenbloom.

9 for kids aged 6-10 called "Frankly, Frannie" written under the name AJ Stern, about a little girl obsessed with having a job. Each book follows her as she tries out a different career.

(While I am loathe to send you to Amazon for some of these books, the bookshop I normally direct people to doesn't carry a single one of my books!!)

The Large Delight that fell on my lap:

Thank you Adam Sandler and Netflix!

I'm chuffed, delighted, stunned and will be inviting EVERYONE to a virtual viewing when it comes out.

Now onto the main event...

Below, please find a small taste of an added incentive you get when you upgrade.

I have ALWAYS wanted to do The Strategist, "What XX Can't Live Without" Series, but despite wanting, I have never been asked. So, I am taking matters into my own hands, and making my own version.

Today's Small Delights theme is "Peripherals." These are things that I could live without but choose not to.

1.

I understand that Patchouli is a VERY SPECIFIC smell and not everyone can get down with it, but this soap smells good to even the staunchest anti-Patchouli-ites.

I buy this at Andrew's Honey, but it's made by Goatboy Soaps, and you can buy it there also. They have TONS of other soaps scents. This is the only soap I use, and will continue to use until the day they stop making it.

2.

Okay, I'm at it again. YES, I really do love Andrew's products. This is delicious and I eat a spoonful every morning to help ward off allergies. Does it help? Who knows, but it sure is delicious.

Andrew's Honey

3.

I grew up in Greenwich Village and was kicking around Soho galleries when Keith Haring was becoming big. He was really sweet, knew me by face, and even drew me a couple of pictures. I've always had a soft spot for him, which is why I have decals of his dog drawings on my living room wall.

But I also have other decals, ingenious decals! These hang over my desk and I keep notes on them because they are DRY ERASE DECALS OH MY GOD WHAT THE????

Dry Erase Decals | Blik

4.

I'm a person who takes a ton of notes, but the problem is, I don't have one central notebook or place for all these notes I take. This means I spend too much time trying to locate them.

So I went on Ebay and bought this beautiful catch-all.

And no, I have not yet sorted and typed up all those notes––leave me alone.

5.

Ask anyone in my family, if you give me a present that is for, about, suggests or mentions my dog Busy, I start to cry. I know, I'm a weirdo.

Naturally, when my niece Maisie gave me this extraordinary self-embroidered Busy-art I wept like someone who missed their long-deceased dog.

But here's the thing (and not to get too maudlin) I cry not just because I'm genuinely touched (I am!) but because of my front-of-mind awareness that Busy won't be alive for my entire life, and that these gifts will be what get me through during those dark, barbaric-feeling days).

6.

Oh no, I bummed you out. Sorry! I'll lift you up now.

Not sure how to lift you up over a waxed canvas bike tool bag except by confessing that I do not use it for a tool bag and my bike has never worn it as part of any outfit.

I use it for the tangle of cords that have threatened to overrun my apartment. It's, dare I say, the most handsome cable + charger storage I've ever seen.

They don't sell these anymore, but check out the store because they have a ton of other amazing things.