military prep: the tutorial

I recently posted an image from HonestlyWTF that had planted an image in my mind and a friend gave me a treasure trove of vintage odds and ends, so over the weekend I finally got around to making my mental image a reality. Image a few of these brooches on a blazer or

All of the lovely jewels seen above are now available at the Blue Elephant on Strawberry St. I also have posted a tutorial after the link if you want to attempt your own.

fashion week debrief

[Spring/ Summer 2011 trends, worn all together]

From Wallpaper*

"Artist Erwin Wurm tasked his architect Gregor Eichinger to model the season's big trends for Wallpaper*. It seems that things are looking a little, well, layered for Spring/Summer 2011."

Click on the image or here to see what designer created each piece on the model. I wish they had also identified the 'trend' the piece represents since it's hard to get much of a view of each item.

military prep

Inspired by this image from HonestlyWTF, I have spent the weekend finishing a set of military-inspired pins. I'm leaving now to drop some off at the Blue Elephant, so stop by there to grab one (or several) of your own. I'll also post a tutorial and have them up in the Etsy (now on vacation mode) soon. Test drove one last night and it was adorable on a romper, looking forward to pinning several on a blazer.

a year in an image

I could have sworn I posted about this earlier, but perhaps I only meant to. Vogue covers from 2010 overlaid on each other. Interesting how Vogue in different countries styles itself. Some, like the US have a very consistent format, allowing an image to form in the center of the overlay with the text stacked neatly on the sides. Others, like Vogue Paris, seem to take more risks from cover to cover. All 14 covers together form a very clear image.

[Vogue]

See more images.

weekend review: eclectic weekend in the bay area

[ragazza. potato pizza. also try the chicken with polenta]

[bellydancing in the haight]

[taxidermy jewelry. the skulls are too much for even me]

[chinatown]

[the Pub Albany. tobacconist and pub of sorts]
Side story: the Pub wasn't crowded but all the tables were full. We ended up sitting at one whose patron had gone outside for a smoke, the cigarettes being a main draw of the place. When the middle aged man returned, he immediately reminded me of one of my design professors, Jack, and, in fact, his name was Jack. After discussing cameras and photography, I told him I was from Virginia. Turns out, he is from Williamsburg and while he is not a professor, his wife is an architecture prof. We exchanged tips for places to visit in Richmond while he tried to persuade me to move to San Francisco and inspired wanderlust in both my partner-in-crime and I with his tales of living overseas.

[vintage window shopping]

[graffiti]

[memorials in a book shop window]

[oh, just a pirate shop]

[fried chicken skins and ramen soup at Ippuku]

[you can take me out of the South but I'm still ordering chicken and waffles. 900 Grayson]

year of the rabbit

This weekend in San Francisco I went to the Chinese New Year Parade. This year is the year of the rabbit (and since I'm turning 24, I'm a year of the rabbit, or a rabbit, or however it is described.) My favorite part was the numerous groups of schoolchildren dressed as bunnies. I kept referring to them as bunny-children. It was a bit of a gloomy, rainy day so the crowd was pretty low and we eventually headed out early due to frozen toes, but saw most of the parade.

Here are some favorite shots, taken on a borrowed camera that I now covet (taking donations...)

recipe: preserved lemons

A few weeks ago I posted a recipe using preserved lemons. You can purchase preserved lemons, but they are often very expensive and are simple to make. I used this process from Alice Waters at 101Cookbooks.com and added spices from the Moroccan method, adding whole cinnamon sticks, multicolored peppercorns, cloves and a bay leaf. Store for 3-4 weeks in the fridge then the lemons are ready to use.

quick pic: up up and away

[San Francisco]

I'm gone for an extra-long weekend in California. Here's to hoping the weather isn't too rainy!

recipe: wagon wheels pasta

A picture instruction for dinner in twenty minutes and five ingredients:

[End of two salamis]

[Cubed, then sauteed with red pepper flakes in olive oil]

[Add 1.5 cups of half and half over the crispy salami, simmer 5 minutes.
Pour over 1 lb pasta]

[Enjoy!]

music of the day: lissie

[Lissie- In Sleep (live)]

quick pic: skip the eggs

but I want these.

[Heavy on the bacon and potatoes, please]

Originally found on Kitchen Travels.

the return of the candied bacon

At times I wonder if I should have named this blog "Bacon and other things I think are okay" considering the number of times bacon appears. My roommates tolerate my obsession (okay, they usually are glad to see the bacon) but one friend may actually challenge me for my title of Most Bacon Obessed.

Sadly, this friend has an exciting move across the country planned so I wanted to send her off appropriately. We met this morning for brunch at The Empress, a favorite of ours for the great gluten free food (for her allergies.) I brought her a present of Candied Bacon Fudge.

[Sweet and salty in one package]

Making the fudge is simple. For more details, check out this link at TheKitchen. But basically, make candied bacon, while it's cooking make the fudge. Pour half the fudge into a 8x8 pan, layer in the bacon then pour the rest of the fudge on. I used just over half of the bacon and my roommates got to eat the extra. Extra fudge is getting taken to a gather of lovely ladies tonight.

music of the day: florence and the machine

[Florence and the Machine- Cosmic Love (live)]

quick pic: old + new

[new + old necklaces]

The old necklace is one my Mom bought me at Ten Thousand Villages. I love the dozens of red strands but it was too tight. Today I got around to extending it by adding silver chain in the back.

The longer necklace is a new one I bought today while dropping new jewelry off at the Blue Elephant. Stop by the store starting tomorrow to check out the new items I'm selling there. I got it for a song too.

ultimate super bowl cookies

As you may have been aware, there was a very important football game on Sunday. I'm not much of a football girl (but just try following my Twitter feed in March) but am not one to turn down social events that call for arriving with freshly made treats. Earlier in the week I found a recipe for Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies. Perfect.

I'm not great at following recipes, but tried to replicate this one according to the directions. Of course, I couldn't find the vanilla when I needed to (I know it's around here somewhere) so a quick search on the interwebs suggested using vanilla flavored liquor. Luckily my roommate has vanilla vodka so one tablespoon of booze went into the cookies. Starting out the dough looked really dry, I even added some water midway through rolling the cookies. Next time I would definitely consider adding a tablespoon or two of milk. Only major change I would make to the recipe.

[Cookie dough. With mini chocolate chips.]

[Key ingredient]

[Assembling the cookies]

The cookies were scarfed down too fast for me to remember to take a photo, so drool over this images from Picky Palate:

[Yum]

Now go make these cookies. But have lots of friends to share them with because you won't want to eat more than one in a night.