My Silent Scream....

Yesterday was the absolute last day I could do something with my about-to-expire American Airlines miles. Since I only had about 7,000 or so miles, the company offered me a bunch of complimentary magazine subscriptions. "There's absolutely no cost!" the flyer reads. While I love reading magazines (other peoples' particularly), I don't like having them all over my apartment. If they're on the floor, I end up slipping on them. They're like paper bananas, I'm telling you! Otherwise, they sit in a stack where they grow upwards, almost as fast as a 5-year-old boy going on six (that would be one of my nephews, although I forget which one right now). However, I can't stand to pass up a good deal. This feels like one, although I can tell you right now my daily trip to the mailbox downstairs is going to look like one Buster Keaton silent film with me opening the tiny, slender little box, and magazines spilling out onto the floor. I'll pick 'em up, simultaneously flip through them, drop a few, pick them up AGAIN, drop them still another time. Slip on a page or two on the way upstairs. Balance a couple of magazines on one arm while I unlock my apartment door whereupon I dump everything on the entryway rug. Watch Hamlet cock one ear, and settle back to sleep.

Honestly, all I really wanted was Lucky Magazine (pegged as 'Ultimate Shopping Guide'). That's it. I don't care as much for Elegant Bride (no imminent wedding plans); W (that tall magazine won't fit into my mailbox although I do like reading it) Travel + Leisure (also too big - where are the slim little periodicals when you need them?). Since the pickings weren't slim, besides Lucky, I chose Condé Nast Portfolio, Condé Nast Traveler, the aforementioned Travel + Leisure and some other business pubs. I wish I could send a few subscriptions to family members for Christmas or a birthday. However, American Airlines didn't offer that option. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised given it's battling high gas prices, cutting staff and adding fees.

I'll probably end up cancelling the subscriptions on all but a few. I am really looking foward to getting Lucky, probably my favorite source of fashion inspiration if the all the tearsheets piled on my daybed are any indication! But I also like getting ideas from (don't laugh!) Victoria's Secret, Anthropologie, Free People and Nordstrom's catalogues, which also sneak into my mailbox sometimes. What magazines inspire you to sew or knit?