The last in a 3-part series of posts that resulted from ONE trip to the grocery store…

This caught my eye. Just thought it was funny…

End Trifecta.

The second in a 3-part series of posts that resulted from ONE trip to the grocery store…

Holding your Starbucks cup while shopping and pushing a cart is not an issue at Stop&Shop. No, sir. 

I’m sure many of you have seen grocery stores with the Starbucks store right inside, screaming to you as you come in, “You look tired! Come! Come over here… we have TONS of methods of postponing that mid-afternoon fatigue crash another few hours.” But this last grocery run was the first time I’d seen such synergy between Starbucks and the store itself.

It was the shopping cart. I mean, look for yourself:

I very well may just buy a Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate every time I go to the store now. In fact, I might just go for the drink and then push it around in a shopping cart until I’ve had enough time to finish it. Really, it’s that exciting.

I do expect a “WARNING: Do not place hot beverages near young children” sticker in the near future… or depending on how much they get sued for, it might say, “WARNING: Do not place hot drinks in holder!“

My sister Jane and her husband went to Berlin recently, where she took these photos of the crossing signals. Her comment was, “Every time we crossed the street it made me smile.”

I can see that! There’s much more character to them than the American versions. And another small thing to note, the little walking man is green - as in, “Go.” Makes sense.

I guess our whitish-blue version of the walking man helps separate it from the green traffic signal, but I think the light’s shape covers that base and I like the idea of being consistent. If you’re waiting to cross the street, whether your a car or a person, green = go.

The first in a 3-part series of posts that resulted from ONE trip to the grocery store…

We switched from being Shop Rite grocery shoppers to Stop&Shop shoppers recently. (We decided we preferred the fresh cleanliness of Stop&Shop to the foul-smelling, often rotting general condition of Shop Right. Such an obvious decision as we look back on it…)

There’s a parking garage under the store which we hadn’t used until our last trip. Obviously, my immediate thought upon deciding to give it a whirl was, “How on earth will they get my cart full of groceries from upstairs… to DOWNSTAIRS?!?! And will I pick up my cart now or when I’m up on the main floor?” I know… dramatic. But I really was intrigued…

Turns out they have done nothing less than create the eighth wonder of the world. It’s a giant escalator thing, sans stairs. Just incline. I call it, the Cartscalator. When you roll a cart onto it, there are little guards on the outside of each wheel that immediately lock into place. Shopping cart: immovable. (see below)

Done and done.

I thought it was black magic at first – or maybe some sort of high-powered magnet. Both of which are cool, but not nearly as practical. So kudos to Stop&Shop. Now if only there were some way to hold my Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate while shopping…

*cough*

Greatest logo for a steakhouse EVER!

This is Judson’s Steakhouse in downtown Grand Rapids. Pardon the picture – I had to use my phone to take it and they don’t have a version of it online.

As a note: while it’s hard to see here, the eye is a little X! I love it. It’s enough to get me to look past the fact that everyone knows it’s impossible to balance a cow like that, alive OR dead…

Photography can be gorgeous. And photography of food – well, shoot… one of the greatest design opportunites ever. Enter… This Week For Dinner.

The site’s description reads: “This Week for Dinner(TM) is a place where we can share ideas for weekly menu planning. Every Sunday I post my weekly dinner plan. TWFD friends can then post their menus in the comments section, providing me (and everyone else) with fresh ideas every week! I also post other fun ‘foodstuffs’ throughout the week. ”

The blogger is Jane Maynard, who is, as it turns out, my sister. And let me tell you, she does a fabulous job of taking great ideas and using photography to illustrate them. The site itself is your general blog layout, with a white background and cleanly designed logo and banner. The rest of the visual character for the site comes from her photos.

The site itself was a great inspiration for a site concept I’ve been working on at work, but that’s a whole other story… meanwhile, she had a nice posting awhile back about cutting pancakes for toddlers with a pizza cutter.

Simple AND brilliant.

And what does she use to cut her pizza? I’m glad you asked… (click the picture to read more).