Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Dress up box

I was looking through winter garage sales for an old chest to store Miss C's dress up clothes. 
 She doesn't want a dress up chest.  Her reason: "I like the clothes in the middle of the floor so I can just see what I want to wear without having to open a box."


While I haven't found an appropriately sized box yet, I did find this in my in-box, from the wonderful Brian Andreas.  Maybe Miss C told them to send this one today to remind me not to inconvenience her dress-up by organizing it.    Because opening a box is highly interruptive to the creative process.


this is a dress-up box for the future...

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Breaking it down

“It did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relievable by purchase.”
― David Foster Wallace


Here's a game Miss C and I sometimes play, to make maneuvering through the grocery store a little easier:


How do I feel when I see this?
What does this ad/display want me to feel?
Did it work?
What does the feeling make me want to do?


Most of the time it works. 
It makes me feel: I want. 
It makes me want: to buy now.


I don't know if playing the game helps her, but it helps me.  She reminds me, "We came here for blueberries, remember?"   And I put back the two utterly unnecessary things that are not blueberries.  Then promptly forget that I needed them as soon as I exit the store. 
We go home and eat blueberries and they are utterly delicious.