Decorating with medical textbooks might not be everyone's idea of high style, so I thought I would save this post for around Halloween so that everyone was more open to skeletal inspired home decor.  Medical textbooks and anatomical drawings are a fascination for me, and there is no shortage of stylish options if you are like minded.

If you have old medical text books collecting dust, why not use them for coffee table styling?  Shouldn't your coffee table say something about you?  I like visiting people's homes and ringing something unique about them being featured.  Makes it feel less like we all bought our lives from the same store, haha.

A Netter's Atlas makes a great coffee table book because the illustrations inside are so colorful.

This is a great collection of short stories about love that I actually really enjoyed reading.  But yes, the cover art was the initial motivator.

via

Music posters are a great source of anatomical drawings turned art.  This one is a win-win because I love the Avett Brothers, and the concert advertised was in Raleigh.  I'm in the market for a poster from the Cary Koka Booth Avett Brothers concert if anyone has leads! via

There is an entire beautiful collection of nature-infused anatomical illustrations by artist Travis Bedel.  To me these are the perfect mesh of that life and death juxtaposition that made Barcelona and Gaudi's architecture so intriguing.  A wall of Travis Bedel's illustrations may be happening at the house if I can convince my other half that it isn't too morose. via

What this recipe should look like if you are better than me at blog-worthy food via

My half of the marriage is definitely the South part of the East Meets South name -- my family tree goes back to a German immigrant who came to America in 1754 and eventually settled in what is now Rowan County, North Carolina.  By the way, it is incredibly fascinating to be able to trace this history--I even know the name of the boat that my ancestor came to America on!  Thank you, internet.  I've found that most people from this area of North Carolina have a strongly German heritage, but when anyone asks me about German food I am totally lost.  It's been a few hundred years, people.  I don't know anything about German food past movies like Beerfest (and a recent trip to Guglhupf in Durham).  Then I realized that most of the food that we think of as traditionally North Carolinian has a strong German stamp -- vinegar based barbecue? saurkraut?  If I am cooking I will put vinegar on almost everything, which I soon realized was less than tasty to someone with a love for asian flavors (my poor husband).  But in small limits (and with bacon to sweeten the deal), I have found one North Carolina approved/German friendly recipe that translates to my East Meets South household: Sweet and Sour Cabbage. You can find the original recipe on Spicy Southern Kitchen!

With the bacon -- looking good

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 4 slices bacon, cut crosswise into ½-inch pieces  Feel free to add more!! I did
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 medium green cabbage, cored and cut into 1-inch pieces
• ¼ cup cider vinegar
• ¼ cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce