These are the blogs I've really enjoyed this year. Just in case you get a little antsy this week and need something to read...
A Continuous Lean is such a joy to read. Its focus is menswear, but it's really an education in American style.
A Crush on Every Girl and Every Car tumbles cool cars, cool girls and often the combination. Love.
Abstract City is clever, genius and hilarious. Christopher Niemann is a Blog God.
Black Eiffel is always flawlessly chic.
Dead Fleurette is a lady's style blog I quite like.
Dixie Caviar always has the most delicious Southern recipes. After I made her football sandwiches in September it was all over. This is my kind of eating.
Even*Cleveland is smarts, women's style, great music, art, everything cool. If I had to recommend one blog this year, this would be it.
Happenstance is straight-up awesomeness from Long Beach. Love everything on here.
Heart in a Cage is a blogging beauty.
Her Ribbons and Her Bows speaks to me.
Garden & Gun's The Sporting South is just a fun new read from a great magazine, and makes me feel hard core.
Stylish Bird is a great design blog by interior designer Amanda Teal. Her aesthetic is perfect.
Dec 22, 2010
>> the twelve blogs of christmas
Dec 21, 2010
Dec 19, 2010
>> white house christmas, 1983
Nancy Reagan and Mr. T dressed as Santa—a photo op that really makes the whole Elvis meeting Nixon thing look like a Disney movie.
Dec 17, 2010
>> lights
Untitled (Placebo) by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, 1990
They are the last romantics, these candles:
Upside-down hearts of light tipping wax fingers,
And the fingers, taken in by their own haloes,
Grown milky, almost clear, like the bodies of saints.
It is touching, the way they'll ignore
A whole family of prominent objects
Simply to plumb the deeps of an eye
In its hollow of shadows, its fringe of reeds,
And the owner past thirty, no beauty at all.
Daylight would be more judicious,
Giving everybody a fair hearing.
They should have gone out with the balloon flights and the stereopticon.
This is no time for the private point of view.
When I light them, my nostrils prickle.
Their pale, tentative yellows
an excerpt from Candles by Sylvia Plath, 1960
Dec 15, 2010
>> winter tee-pee scenes
Scans from my new book Tipi: Home of the Nomadic Buffalo Hunters ($15). If the tune of Eddie Murphy's 1985 song "Party All The Time" is in your head, but "party" is replaced with "tipi", then my friend, this book is definitely a must-have. 
Dec 13, 2010
>> 1943 map
There's something about the simplicity of an old map. It makes the idea of taking over an entire continent look pretty doable, doesn't it?
Dec 10, 2010
>> eating and sleeping in a wigwam
Although some of us may still think that driving across the country is an American rite of passage where Keroac-esque drum beats guide your youthful adventure that will surely and profoundly change you, the reality is you're in a below-ground room at the Days Inn in Creep Fest, Utah eating Wendy's while searching basic cable with a plastic-covered remote control. Once you crack the window, mis-ratioed chlorine wafts in from the pool and seduces the stale yet sweet cigarette smell that has been blanketing the furniture since 1977. You take a few Tylenol PMs and try and forget.
But chlorine aside, at a certain point in our country's young history, maybe this wasn't the case. Because at a certain point, there were tee-pee motels. In fact, there were seven, all built between 1936 and the 1950s which spread from California to Florida. Two remain as hotels (one in San Bernadino, CA and one in Holbrook, AZ) and they both offer FREE in-teepee WiFi.
Dec 9, 2010
Dec 8, 2010
Dec 5, 2010
>> matt's gift guide for guys!
Hi folks, it's Matt, Lizzie's husband, the guy who's personal life has been spewed all over the internet since 2006—without ever having been asked a single time if it was okay. (I love you too, Lizzie.) Year after year, holiday season after holiday season, I've been begged and pleaded by my crazy/stylish (yes, I meant crazy AND stylish) wife to put out a men's holiday gift guide; unlike prior years, currently I have bigger, more dangerous battles to fight rather than deny her request (Baja 500 here I come!), hence the first-ever possibly-annual men's gift guide has finally arrived. Alright, in the spirit of honesty and transparency, there was no begging or pestering, this is just the first time Lizzie has ever felt confident enough to allow me to grace the pages of DESIGNwatcher on my own accord. I guess after 8 years of unrelenting stylistic critique, she finally felt I wouldn't make a fool of myself. I have to preface this gift guide by saying that I'm neither a huge fan of video games nor gadgets. They certainly make great guy gifts, but I'm in no position to be giving any advice on either. Alright, with that out of the way, let's get going.
Bonobos candy cane cords ($125) are fun and only moderately flamboyant; Republic Bikes ($460) are custom fixies, 'nuff said; Fischer Space Pens ($20) are pure engineering genius, and I also like Steve McQueen's folding Persols ($310) for the exact same reason; Davidoff Special R cigars ($49 for three) great quality and a quick smoke; Wilson Surge Paddle ($99) best accessory for my new favorite winter sport; Hario coffee dripper ($25) isn't for everyday use, but ideal for a weekend morning when coffee is more about quality than necessity; Kershaw pocket knifes ($140) make great companions on trips to Chinatown; Kisses' Heart of the Nightlife LP ($25) just saw these guys live before they went to Japan, definitely worth a listen; Monster Beats In-Ear Headphones by Dr. Dre ($150) speaking of listening, I have no idea if these are good, but they travel light and look cool; Lizzie is obsessed with feathers and arrows, makes sense that I'm obsessed with Softsoled Moccasins ($38); King cube ice trays ($10) make giant ice cubes, just one is enough for any cocktail; Brooks Brother's custom dress shirts (Prices start at $130) make up the majority of my wardrobe; Burton ski/snowboard socks ($25) are perfect when neither workout nor dress socks fit the bill; Life by Keith Richards ($17) will make any dude feel cool for reading; Lizzie thinks Oban scotch ($75) tastes like gasoline, therefore I get the entire bottle to myself for once; Hartford long-sleeved shirts ($150) are comfortable and stylish, my weekend go-to; Quoddy Grizzly boots ($410) are made in Maine so they're real ass-kickers; Lizzie here: Matt has lost one of almost every pair of cuff links I've ever given to him, therefore he does not deserve these Airship cuff links ($295); Elevate tongs ($12) are good for keeping drops of "Matt's famous burgers" off the counter; when your wallet is too bulky and a rubber band doesn't cut it Leffot fold wallets ($95) are the perfect option.
