Matchbook

It's a cold and rainy day here in Winston-Salem, but the gloom has been kept at bay in the Applegate home thanks to warm chocolate chip cookies (I've had 4 in the past hour), a sleeping baby (yay for long naps!) and this delightful surprise:

Matchbook is a new online lifestyle magazine that covers everything from decorating to fashion to cooking to travel to books to pretty much anything else that will help you lead, as they say, "a charmed life." In fact, the entire publication is dedicated to this cheerful aspiration, but not in a saccharine, "I've seen this a million times," way. No, Matchbook is clever and fresh and quite enjoyable. In addition to the expected topics such as Classics For Your Closet (which, don't get me wrong, I always enjoy and take note of) and interviews over coffee with various style makers, Matchbook also includes unique pieces such as the history of the Burberry trench coat and "10 Things You Didn't Know" about Princess Margaret (which is even more interesting if you've recently seen The King's Speech...a brilliant film, by the way.)

It's easy to get overwhelmed with the growing amount of online magazines these days and it can be hard to know which ones are worth your time. I really believe, though, that Matchbook is. Co-founders Katie Armour and Jane Lilly Warren do a phenomenal job of making this smart and relevant e-magazine stand apart from the crowd.

Just as I do with Lonny, I'll now eagerly await a notice in my inbox that a new issue of Matchbook is live. Although it's still not the same as having it arrive in your mailbox, as Domino used to, it's a great read nonetheless, full of style and inspiration (and did I mention it's free?)...so I'll take it.