I took a little time away in Florida this past week. Nothing beats a little sunshine and warm weather! If you need a break this week, check out my favorite links from around the web…

• E.B. White's farm in Maine, where he was inspired to write "Charlotte's Web," was for sale not long ago. PETA suggested it be turned into a “pig empathy museum.” Take a gander at the lovely photos.

• These are a must for the people in your life who love needles and fabric.

• Two very heartwarming stories this week that illustrate the power of social media: here and here. 

• A beautifully-written short story set in LA with a character who might have been Harvey Weinstein in his early days. 

• This sofa -- here and again here -- is worthy of its own Instagram hashtag. 

• This portrait of Jackie O by outsider artist Earl Swanigan.

• Lololol: The Runaway Bunny rebooted for Felicity Huffman et al. 

• And on the subject of reboot, how about this bottle of Chanel No. 5?

• Can you wallpaper the inside of a barn? Because I would with this wallpaper! 

• Karl Lagerfeld's runways through the years. (My fave was the ocean liner.) 

• Tory Burch's place in Antigua is schweet!

• Maybe this will be Sweaty Betty next winter. (Thanks Wendy!)

• This Instagram account has the neatest before and after interiors.

And, a great reader comment from Chris McLaughlin on my post about helicopter parenting:

It’s true my mother’s generation COULD have hovered a lot more, had they any desire to, but they didn’t view us as projects. Their obligation was to keep us alive, give us some survival skills, attitudes, fear of the Lord and consequences, and set us forth.

It was antibiotics and vaccines and good sewers and water — and the movement away from child labor in rural areas — that kept us alive, not their hovering. Education was the job of the schools, not theirs. Kids played with each other, mostly, and in intramural sports: the school districts hadn’t ceded the play areas to for-profits, and the parents hadn’t ceded their kids play to professional adults either. Everyone believed in boredom or usefulness.

So my pet theory is commodification. Schools are brands, education is a consumable product. And so, alas, are kids, both brands and consumable products. I was not inclined to hover and as a single parent I didn’t have much opportunity, though that is really an excuse. I trusted (and held my breath) that my kids’ lives were theirs to make. I hadn’t done such a stellar job of making my own, so what was I going to tell them?

Thanks for the soapbox!

Photo by Sebastien Gabriel via Unsplash.