misosouper, a shopping blog

I love Ez; she adores beautiful stuff, she makes beautiful stuff, and she offers it up to us on a daily basis.  Plus, she turned thirty a couple of weeks before I will, so that makes her my (ever so slightly) older, wiser birthday buddy.

Like me, Ez loves the free; her lovely downloadable paperie is full of objects like labels, library cards, and notebooks, including this sentimental bird card that I’m sending straight to my mama.

Let me begin by saying that I like getting a hand-calligraphed, letter-pressed, wax-sealed note in the post just as much as the next design whore.  But I am certainly not one of those e-card snobs who sneers at anyone who doth descend to such depths.  Hell, the older I get, the happier I am to just be remembered, and if it’s on my birthday, then all the better.

So imagine how happy I was that a thoughtful, adoring friend passed this card along (and my birthday isn’t even for another two weeks!), thus reminding me that a) my birthday is December 23rd (my family celebrates Christmas eve, so it’s really the big suck); b) this year I turn thirty, which is the black fly in my Chardonnay, or some other Alanis Morissette metaphor that’s more deplorable than ironic; and c) that someone, somewhere cared enough to both coddle and amuse me with this, so I should really STFU with all the complaining.

This week’s giveaway (can you feel the love, people?) is sponsored by the awesome Ten Bills, purveyors of really great, really affordable artist-designed t-shirts.  Each tee is printed in a limited run, which basically precludes the possibility of running into your t-shirt twin on the street (Jesus is your Homeboy?  Yeah, you and everyone else, but thanks for playing).

To win three t-shirts of your choice, go to tenbills.com and select your favorite design, then return to this post.  In the comments below, list your pick, then tell us why you love this tee in ten words or less.  (Ten bills, ten words.  Keepin’ it simple.)

Good luck, and tell them that Omar sent you.

P.S.:  Congrats to MaryAnn, the latest winner in misosouper’s avalanche of amazing.  Like these giveaways?  We like them too.  Keep on supporting misosouper, and we’ll keep you clothed, liquored, and manicured.

the fine print:

Comments will be closed and entries will not be accepted after 11:59 pm on Saturday, December 13, 2008.  The winner will be selected on Sunday, December 14, 2008, and notified by e-mail.  Results of the giveaway will be announced on Monday, December 15, 2008.  Multiple entries will not be accepted.  Misosouper, a shopping blog reserves the right to disqualify entries that are considered spam.

Today is your last chance to enter our giveaway for six sweet and snarky wine gift tags, courtesy of our friends at popptags.  All we need from you is to sign up for misosouper’s RSS feed, then leave a comment here noting that you’ve subscribed.  (If you’re already a subscriber, just leave a note to that effect.)  The contest closes at 11:59 pm EST.

And that’s what we’re all about at misosouper:  encouraging you to encourage others to drink more wine this holiday season.  Cheers!

An old friend of mine is marrying next weekend, and I’m feeling melancholy.  Not for her, certainly, because she’s happy and I’m happy she’s happy; but for the passage of time, for the fact that I used to run through her backyard sprinklers and drive her to school after her sister moved away, and the vertiginous sensation that we are now the mothers and not the daughters playing outside.

Then I remembered this ring, so bright and witty and honest in its transparency, consecrating you as both seventeen and thirty, both ages fused on one finger.  I wanted to e-mail it to her, to shout “Wear this instead!,” but I realized that she might prefer diamonds.  It’s just as well.