
With temps still reaching the 70s in SF lately, North and I have been taking advantage of the weather, and going for nice long walks on the weekends. You can pretty much bet that two out of three times, I'll forget to grab his pop-up bowl from my car, leaving me to buy a sports cap bottle in the nearest convenience store and play drinking fountain with it as he laps water mid-air. Although there's nothing wrong with this practice, I've found a solution I will never run out of the house without (unless I forget my wallet .

Eating off the ground . . .

Sometimes we all just need a straight talkin' to. That's especially true when the pots and pans are piling up. So beyond a bit of Palmolive and some elbow grease, perhaps the answer is the
Show Pony Do the Dishes Tea Towel ($20), a fair trade organic cotton towel with the kitchen commandment spelled out in screen printed stacks of dirty plates.

Growing up, there were a few dishes that my dad cooked, and one of them was an item that my mother taught him to make: almond tofu. In retrospect, the quasi-traditional Chinese dessert, which actually contains no tofu, sounds like it came right out of a 1970s recipe book, as it was simply canned fruit syrup, cubes of almond-flavored gelatin, and pieces of canned peaches, pears, and — my favorite — cherries. But back then, whenever Dad made that dish, my heart (and stomach) would do a little dance inside.

I've told you before that using an
energy-efficient dishwasher is the best way to go when it comes to getting your dishes clean, but let's be realistic . . .

The general rule in my house is that whoever cooks gets to sit out when it comes time to do the dishes. But it often ends up being a shared task. Who does the dishes in your house?
Source

I like eggs. I like scrambled eggs and fried eggs and poached eggs and hard-boiled eggs and deviled eggs. Omelettes and French toast are friends of mine.
Pet Fashion Week's over 'til February, but
New York Fashion Week starts soon! I can't get enough of the
Lifestyle Innovation Awards from this event, and you may recognize several of the designs from past posts on the site (like
Whiner and Diner,
Tigrito, and
Kevy K.). Even though, the grand prize winner, HugX, is stunning, if you had to choose with money as no object, which style best fits your home's décor?

My fave competition at
Pet Fashion Week is the Lifestyle Innovation Award offered to the company that has the top product design in a different category each year. This year "pet dinnerware" was displayed and this super-cute bowl won. Learn all about it in this slideshow!

Now I've been a fan of the well-designed
Wowo feeders for quite some time now, and I am totally digging the new metallic models. There's something about the tiny circles and glossy red underbelly that makes my heart pitter-patter.
The
Aluminum Wowo 2 Series HD Feeders ($165 and up) still come with removable stainless-steel bowls and in three heights, but now boast a pebbled or hammered aluminum veneer option, in addition to the four wood finishes.