A Few of My Favorite Things
Green Door Organics. Pay $14 or $21 a week for large or larger bags of fresh, organic fruits and veggies. (My first $14 bag? Chard, two garlic bulbs, three russet potatoes, three ears of corn, green beans, three pears and two oranges.) Pick up your goodies every Friday from an unassuming Rosemary District yoga studio (with a green door, of course) and plan your meals around the produce, instead of vice versa. Green Door even e-mails you recipes based on each week’s selection. (Credit Copy Editor Megan for discovering this deal through This Week in Sarasota.)
The Ringling Museum’s Peter Paul Rubens lion’s head logo. A stroke of genius: Taking that lion’s sly grin from the corner of Rubens’ huge, cherub-filled Triumph of Divine Love and bringing it center stage. It’s a metaphor of sorts for the museum itself: wicked, captivating details in every little corner of an impressive, enormous whole. I don’t think the image is as prevalent in museum souvenirs as it was when I worked in the gift shop a few years ago (we were given lion-adorned paperweights for Christmas), but I still get a kick out of the lion’s devious smirk, especially considering it originated from a painting with so much angelic fanfare.
Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing, one of my favorite plays,available for something like $4 at Main Bookshop. Since I’m constantly Stoppard-evangelizing (how many people have a Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon tattoo?), Main Bookshop’s overrun copies of this insanely clever (and surprisingly insightful) play make handy gifts for anyone prepared to hear the power of the Word.
Kim Ang purses by Baskets of Cambodia, available at Artisans on St. Armands. I was compelled to buy this purse a few years ago even though I had no idea how and when I would use it. It’s now my go-to accessory for formal events, breaking my fashion habit of “no patterns, all the time.” Artisans is one of my all-time favorite gift shops, and a great place to go when you don’t know what to buy for upcoming birthdays/weddings/holidays. Plus, Baskets of Cambodia is a self-professed eco- and labor-friendly company.
“Sarasota: The air conditioned city” postcard t-shirt, from Jack Vinales Antiques in Burns Court. A fabulous fashion juxtaposition: equal parts hometown pride and self-deprecating ridiculousness.