iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 04/10/2026

Small UX improvements to Kitschy app: * Swipe to quickly mark item discarded or exhausted on mobile inventory table * Simplified meal card UI when you’re not actively editing, removed meal type icons for cleaner table

Mobile screenshot swipe to exhaust or discard

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 02/10/2026

Messaging for America.gov Product Hunt listing is a little clunky Tagline is missing a specifier "plain language" instead of "natural language" smells like they wrote "plain English" first and then remembered the app also works in French, Spanish "AI" here and "SI" on the live site

Tagline: What you need from government, start here.
America.gov is the simplest, fastest way to get information from the U.S. government. Instead of hunting across agency websites, just ask a question in plain language and get a clear answer. Built by the National Design Studio with the General Services Administration, it brings every federal agency together in one place. Available in English, French, and Spanish. Coming next: apply, enroll, and track progress right in chat.

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 01/10/2026

oof. gut punch! But this blog post is worth a read and a think

Secondly, and more… interestingly, a lot of people are making their applications accessible because if a human cannot navigate a website, an agent might not be able to either.

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 01/10/2026

Significantly better My sofa is still buried under summer dresses that need to rotate into overflow storage but we’re getting somewhere

After photo closet with rattan baskets, shirts hanging, shoes tucked under a shelf. Hodor door stop.

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 30/09/2026

Favorite task this morning was going back under the shelf to paint the baseboard, laying on my belly like a beached fish Many people would skip this part (nobody’s gonna sit on the floor in front of your closet!) but I’ve got the sort of brain that would lose sleep knowing the work was undone

A ripped Hefty bag as a makeshift drop cloth on a closet floor

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 30/09/2026

Decided to leave the electrical box door unpainted because I’m sort of into the colors on this ripped sticker

A white metal electrical box door with a ripped sticker that says Danger

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 29/09/2026

Got a suspicious login attempt on the other microbloggin' app Logged in to reset my password "Something went wrong, please try again!" Trying again renders blank modal 😑 WE USED TO HAVE NICE THINGS 😤

X says Choose a new password but Something went wrong, please try again!

Attempt to try again renders completely blank screen

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 27/09/2026

Kitschy app updates: * Add household members to your account profile * Add multiple meal plan cards and indicate whether a meal is for multiple household members or just one * Improved UI for table actions with options to update more fields on inventory items (location, purchase date, tags, etc.)

Kitschy meal planning calendar shows dot system on each meal plan card

Inventory table with multiple items selected and field to change location

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 24/09/2026

"you need to read this important article because journalism" but the article is on substack

Gavin the meme kid has the most concerned eye-watering fake smile and is also staring off into the distance like he's seen a disaster that's about to happen

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 22/09/2026

Genius or big mistake throwing balsamic-roasted figs on top of the mushroom risotto…? 🍽️

White bowl filled with risotto and mushrooms and figs and thyme

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 18/09/2026

Pasta puttanesca 🍽️ Not traditional to include the handful of parmesan… but I’m not a purist about the cheese | anchovies partition

Bowl of pasta puttanesca with a heaping pile of parmesan and parsley

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 16/09/2026

Confession: I let ChatGPT plan this weeknight meal 🍽️ Well, sort of. I fed chat a list of my kitchen inventory and it suggested black beans and quinoa Human creativity realized I had ingredients for chipotle crema But AI reminded me I had a cup of pseudocereal available in the back of the cupboard

Bowl of black beans, quinoa, cilantro, sweet potatoes with cotija and chipotle crema

Screenshot of Kitschy planner with dinner recipe for Tuesday today

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 09/09/2026

They almost got me with the Communi-grater but I looked twice and thought better

Communicator device from Star Trek with tactile buttons

Star Trek themed cheese grater with buttons I guess

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 08/09/2026

Three tomatoes painted at home after the neighborhood cookout 🍻

Crude watercolor of three better boy tomatoes in various stages of ripeness from green to red

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 05/09/2026

Small improvements to Kitschy app this morning: * Meal plan types now include events * Meal plan cards are color coded based on type * Drag and drop a meal plan card to a different day, time * New "homegrown" value for inventory items 🍅

Screenshot of Kitschy meal planner with color coded meal plan cards

New homegrown option for inventory items

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 04/09/2026

Sarah Jean’s does not skimp on the scoops

Inside of an ice cream shop with a train mural and a model train on a track suspended from ceiling

Absolutely enormous scoop of Black Cherry ice cream on a waffle cone

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 01/09/2026

Added product price tracking to my Kitschy kitchen inventory app 🤑 These new analytics let you track price history for your favorite products and compare prices across stores and brands for similar items 🍌

Screenshot of Kitschy analytics with price tracking for a single product Kombucha

Screenshot of Kitschy analytics with tracking in aggregate for similar products across brands

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 31/08/2026

The most luxurious aspect of working from home might be the freedom to eat smelly sardine toast for lunch 🍽️ Better boy tomatoes plucked right off the vine! Oregano from the window box and polenta sourdough from Spring 🌸

Tomato and fish on bread basking in speckled sunlight

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 30/08/2026

Testing new Kitschy app features on the go tonight Import receipt from photo Scans and asks for review Adds your impulse buy peanut m&ms to the inventory

Photo of Kitschy app scanning a Walgreens receipt

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 29/08/2026

cw: suicide, mental health Nextdoor REALLY needs to improve their moderator tools for reporting posts containing suicidal ideation or threats of self-harm Docs say you can report a user but none of the canned options are adequate If neighbors post comments with resources, do you keep the post up?

Posting problematic content what type of content is your neighbor sharing? Personal fundraising, Spam, Personal attacks, shaming or harassment, Controversial issues or non-local politics, Illegal content or misinformation

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 28/08/2026

A few lunch break feature updates to the Kitschy app - New favorite restaurants list with dropdown on Planner - Jump to top, current week or focus Planner - Add new grocery store without leaving Add item form

Add new favorite restaurant on Kitschy Planner view

Jump to Week 1, Current Week or Focus on Planner calendar

Add new grocery store from Add item form

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 26/08/2026

Reject AI slop flyers Embrace Sharpie art signage

Photo of hand-crafted signage Flu Vaccines Now Available scribbled on paper and stood up in plastic

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 26/08/2026

There has never been a better time to build. So… where are all the cool new companies?? A lot of the creative unlock with AI is happening in isolation. We need to get people back to building on teams instead of building alone. Come build with us at Hack ITP in Atlanta next month hackitp.com

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 25/08/2026

Dolly meant generosity, audacity and confidence Humor and ambition, wisdom and storytelling Rest now Cousin Dolly, you were too sweet for this, surely we know you have made it safely home! 🦋

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 22/08/2026

Now every Saturday morning meal planning session also includes some work on my Kitschy app New this week: * Easier UI for linking to recipes * Copy week of meal plan in progress, handy for pasting into ChatGPT for suggestions, ideas * Planning new feature to estimate prices for shipping lists

Screenshot of updated Planner view in Kitschy with past days muted, links and new copy button for data

Example of copied data from Kitschy in ChatGPT asking for recommendations to fill in part of the meal planner

Work in progress concept for estimating prices on shopping list, pending access to Kroger API

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 21/08/2026

I see your AI logo that looks like a butthole and raise you one AI logo that looks like full-on ass 🍑

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 21/08/2026

Help, I’m trying to figure out who the blonde man from King of the Hill reminds me of and I think it might be Patrick Wilson

Patrick Wilson is not holding a beer but he is wearing a black t-shirt like Jeff Boomhauer

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 20/08/2026

Staring at the ceiling waiting to get in trouble

Spongebob Squarepants is laying on a bed and starting up into oblivion

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 19/08/2026

This is a digital billboard Somebody needs to vibe code ship 10x fast fix to prod for this typo

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 19/08/2026

My spidey senses make me feel like this is a funny reference to a quote from a movie or something (??) but AI Overview is letting me down (see attached) Either way, you could add items "snack 1" and "snack 2" and then immediately mark them "Exhausted" upon successfully devouring the snacks

AI Overview says: The phrase "Snack 1" and "Snack 2" typically refers to scheduled or tracked mini-meals within a daily diet, fitness, or baby-feeding plan. It labels the first and second light bites eaten between main meals to manage nutrition, energy, or macros.Diet and Fitness PlansMacro tracking: Splitting daily food into precise blocks (e.g., Snack 1 and Snack 2) to hit specific protein or calorie goals.Pre/Post-workout: Timing a specific snack before or after exercise for energy recovery.Calorie distribution: Spacing out food intake evenly across the day to prevent overeating at main meals.Child and Baby CareFeeding schedules: Outlining routine food milestones for infants or toddlers.Daycare packing: Differentiating between a morning fruit or cheese bite (Snack 1) and an afternoon cracker or yogurt portion (Snack 2).If you saw this phrase in a specific video, book, or app, tell me the context so I can give you a more precise answer.Instagram·taihoochieTonight's dinner - InstagramJul 22, 2026 — Save this post so you always have it when you're planning your baby's meals. Comment “EBOOK” and I'll send you the link to a compl...ScienceDirect.comWhat Is a Snack, Why Do We Snack, and How Can We ...May 15, 2016 — Although several different definitions have been proposed in the literature, in this review “snacks” will refer to eating foods or...Show all

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 19/08/2026

Went nuclear on the CSS, asked the agent to use Bootstrap for inspiration That seemed to clear out the serif front Claude smell problem Although, I had to manually color-pick a button color to match my AI-generated refrigerator icon. ChatGPT couldn't detect the colors it used in its own "art"

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 17/08/2026

I got some of these in my last grocery order and they’re ok in smoothies but bleck Any other ones I should try next?

Screenshot of Google shopping results Vita Coco from Instacart

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 17/08/2026

For fun I converted my long-running kitchen inventory spreadsheet into a simple app Added benefit is ability to import receipts from things like Instacart, automatically parse what's in my pantry with estimated use by dates More specificity for my first in, first out system

Screenshot of inventory app "Kitschy" with table filtered to peppers

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 16/08/2026

lol prompted so vaguely my AI coding agent said "ugh"

Ugh. "Ginger" is in the Yogi Tea name but the product is tea. How do I know the product is tea? The name contains "tea" as a word. "Ginger" is a flavor modifier.

Maybe: if the CSV item has 1 word, and the existing name contains that word, check if the existing name ALSO contains a "category/form" word that indicates the existing item is something different from the CSV item's category. E.g., existing name contains "tea" → the item is tea, not ginger. Existing name contains "powder" → garlic powder, not garlic. Existing name contains "extract" → lemon extract, not lemon. Existing name contains "balsamic" or "vinegar" → Meyer lemon balsamic, not lemon. Existing name contains "pepper" → lemon pepper... but "Jalapeño Pepper" contains "pepper" and SHOULD match "Jalapeno"!

Hmm, "pepper" is itself a product. "Lemon pepper" is a spice blend. "Jalapeño pepper" is a fresh pepper.

OK, I think I'm overcomplicating this. Let me step back and think about what the user actually wants.

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 15/08/2026

Stray markdown? Or a typo to indicate this piece of writing was written by a human?

In The New Yorker article Online _“_I’m not a robot” tests date to the earliest forms of a protocol that came to be called a CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart), first imagined in 1996 by an Israeli cryptographer named Moni Naor and developed at Carnegie Mellon by Luis von Ahn, who started work on it when he was only a graduate student. (Von Ahn also came up with the name.) “How do we prevent computer programs from using systems designed for human use only?”...

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 14/08/2026

oooo these are some pretty oil paintings allisonhorststudio.com/recent

An Allison Horst original "Mount Lamborn from Barrow Mesa" depicts gradients of light on a mountain face with black and white cows in the foreground

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 14/08/2026

Ok, so I gave this a try and it's nice but feels so backwards, disruptive to my muscle memory Chat with Netlify agent prompts to create a PR Then you can hop over to GitHub, see the code, merge it in, and then it's back over to Netlify to confirm successful deploy

Screenshot of Netlify chat with agent with call to action button to Create pull request after checking out a deploy preview

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 13/08/2026

This app UI looks like somebody accepted the challenge to fit every possible icon onto one viewport 👍✨🤖🌐⚠️✨⚙️📎💬⭐️

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 12/08/2026

Diversion away from Americasmart for Glide pizza and ranch

Triangular slice of garlic bread topped with pepperoni and jalapenos

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 12/08/2026

Tania demo’ing Agent Runners in Netlify I always vibe code in my IDE and push up through GitHub but this looks like a chat to code experience that bypasses that completely?

Demo of Netlify Agent Runners at
RenderATL expo hall

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 12/08/2026

I don’t think New Relic is trying to do comarketing with Superhuman here but every time I see this slogan on a screen, shirt, banner I’m thinking about that email tool

This is your superhuman era on a conference screen

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Melanie Crissey @melaniecrissey.com · 12/08/2026

Strong opening panel here on RenderATL main stage

RenderATL opening panel with Angie Jobes, Donnie Beamer and Scott Hanselman

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