There's plenty of reasons I love living in Montana. Looking out the window from my desk, I'm smacked in the face with one of the main ones. The scenery. It's beautiful here. But it's more than that. After going to art school in a big city and spending the first part of my career fighting the day to day grind in a metropolitan area, the mountain life called my name. And while I've never looked back on that decision, there are moments (like when flipping through the latest issue of Communication Arts) that cause me to sigh. It's sometimes too easy to stop caring about what people are wearing/driving/listening to/designing/etc. in big cities thousands of miles from here. And I'm lucky enough to have a full time job that leaves me little time to worry about whether gray really is the new black or not.

With that thought I'd like to introduce you to my best friend, Google Reader. Google Reader has become not only part of my routine, but also my pipeline to the rest of the world. While waking up, grabbing a cup of tea and leisurely checking out the latest offerings from my favorite bloggers, design, cooking, style and news sites sounds lovely, I wouldn't make it into work until noon. And that lovely full time job would quickly become a thing of the past.

Google Reader allows me to keep current. It funnels all the latest and greatest into one spot for my reading pleasure. It told me that the Pantone Color of the year is Honeysuckle. It told me what to do with all that mint that Stacie is growing. It gave me ideas about how to collaborate with Molly on that beast of a letterpress. It shows me the latest and greatest in packaging idea, web sites, the newest fonts, the best poster design.

Sometimes it even points me to the cutest new shoes. Really, it's like it knows me better than my husband.