eighth st. — just another girl’s favorite things.

Came home from work today and found my dad waiting with a box for me. I opened up and he had bought me those shoes from Naughty Monkey I wanted! Best. Dad. Ever.

If you were to page through my house binder (a thick binder of magazine and catalogue tearsheets, separated by room), you’d notice a theme: I’m attracted to rooms filled with books.

There’s something homey and appealing in a stack of books or wall of bookshelves. I think I’m going to create a new section in my binder devoted to ways to display books and organize bookshelves. We’ll debate later about whether I agree with the trend of organizing your shelves by book color. A graphic statement? Yes. A pain in the butt to find what you want? Yes. Are my books even organized anyway? Not really.

[Image courtesy of Pottery Barn.]

Top 5 Things I Loved About This Episode:

5) Meredith being the face of rabies

4) Michael running over Meredith and then telling the office that he ran over Meredith

3) Jim and Pam’s little stop at the estate sale

2) Jim and Pam, fingers entwined

1) Jim saying, “It’s going really great.”

I and about 10 other guests (many of us with “I Love Jim” mugs in hand) will convene tonight to watch the premiere of The Office. Don’t miss it and watch for reactions here.

And now a quick break to go over a few items that I dislike, nay, even loathe.

Crocs (Oh good, rubber shoes! How lucky that I can smell like sweaty feet AND be fashion forward at the same time!)

Tacky lamp bases. You may have a fetish for bloated pineapples with sores, but I don’t want to know about it and I sure don’t want you to call attention to it by making it a light source.

Felt crafts. My apologies to the crafters. You craft many other crafts that I enjoy. But really, felt? It just reminds me of Sunday school storytelling where baby Jesus always fell off the felt board. And that’s just sad.

And the number one thing I don’t like right now? Folk art. I just don’t understand. And, after some research, I’ve decided it’s really just too ugly to picture on my site. Consider yourself spared.

P.S. While we’re on the topic of ugly, here’s a series of lamps that I would file under “Hideous, Nothing Less Than.”

Couldn’t wait to share these adorable shoes from Naughty Monkey.

They have that easygoing flower print and oh-so-trendy metallic accents and I swear if I got them, I would wear them with everything, the way I do my brown Steven Madden flats now.

I found them on Zappos for $73.95.

P.S. Mom, Dad, don’t actually spend this much money on me for my birthday.

…I encountered these new curtain panels at Urban Outfitters, which I LOVE (both the site and the panels for you grammar Nazis out there). My only quandary: I have two enormous bay windows and I’d have to buy about 8 panels to cover them. At $30 a panel, that’s a sizable investment for this barely post-college girl.

Still pretty, though.

You know the bird motif that’s been running rampant through the world of home design lately? Well, I love it and I’m predicting peacocks will be the next step. Pretty soon you’ll see them all over Target, I promise. Just give it 8 to 12 months.

The way-too-cool people over at Etsy are already figuring it out. These amazing screen-printed notecards (10 for $12.50) are from Etsy user MichelleBrusegaard.

My sister and I spent some quality time today making personalized stacks of Tiffany celebration rings. If you haven’t already wasted considerable amounts of time creating your own stack, I suggest you do it now.

Here’s one of Jill’s creations. She’s totally set on the sapphire and I agree, it’s lovely.

I think I’m in love with the color yellow. It’s so bright and fresh and cute in that, “I’m sweet and innocent, but I’m actually pretty hot, too” kind of way.

Here, in wallpaper form, is yellow.