I am laughing more than bragging, but yeah, I’m bragging too: 360 pencils imprinted with the simple sentiment “MY FAMILY IS DRIVING ME CRAZY” have sold out in the first 6 weeks of Shadowshop.

A bunch more are on the way, so if you want any, they should be there in a week or two. Not just for the holidays!

It should come as no surprise that I have a soft spot for illuminated manuscripts. So how happy am I about all this digitization & posting of amazing collections?!

Check it out.

I am head-over-heels in love with the arugula in our garden. I just keep throwing handfuls of it on top of everything I eat. When I think of all the winters that I’ve lived without it… well, let’s just say I intend to keep growing this amazing stuff as long as I live.

I know I’m a mercurial blogger, but I do try to stay at least somewhat on top of our thriving local ice cream scene. So: after a most tantalizing slow tease of a build-up over the past several months, Scream is open & scooping 6 flavors of sorbet, all vegan. They will over the next few weeks work up to 18 flavors at a time, including some sweetened with honey, maple & agave, for y’all who may be averse to processed white sugar. They’ve also got sorbet sandwiches (the cookies are not vegan—yet) & prepacked sorbet to go.

I homed right in on the lemon shiso flavor, but dude behind the counter was making sure I sampled my way there, with very pleasurable stops at satsuma, grapefruit, cranberry orange, pistachio, & Askinosie chocolate. All of them were as good as they possibly could be, except for the grapefruit, which had an odd pithy flavor that went sadly astray of its mark—& I’m speaking as an avowed grapefruit fanatic. The chocolate, on the other hand, provoked me & the customer sampling beside me into an incoherent contest of descriptions: insane, crazy, mmm & oh baby were some of what we uttered before he bought a pint of the stuff to go & I (so disciplined) returned my attentions to the lemon shiso, which was all that I had hoped it would be.

$3 will get you a tiny cup, which may not sit well with you value queens out there—I know because I am one myself, but when it comes to my white sugar quota I actually don’t mind a small portion. I was more than happy with my perfect little scoop of acidy-perfumy sweetness, which I ate sitting on the window bench watching the last bit of sunset.

Oh, & the dairy? You won’t even think about missing it.

Hours: 11am to 9pm every day except Monday. Next to Bakesale Betty in Temescal, with the very charming old-skool vertical neon sign proclaiming SORBET. A most excellent & necessary addition to the hood. Much as I hate to speak ill of any ice cream shop, this is Tara’s final cue to just give up already.

Sorry no pictures; that’ll teach me to leave the house without my camera.