hoarder

A peeve of mine is that you can't get some of the brands I love where I live. No color-happy Kate Spade store to drool over. No anthropologie windows I wish I could DIY. And certainly no Tory Burch or Marc Jacobs to day dream about. So when I travel and do get a chance to buy something, if the bag has an interesting print or design, I usually save it! Back home all of them end up either in the trash or just stashed away in my closet, but a great idea for saving them and remembering your purchase is to frame them! Some people frame posters and photographs, but I just might frame my shopping bags. Yes, sometimes I get emotional when I buy something I've been coveting for a long time........

image via made by girl

"mischief managed"

Today, I watched the last Potter movie and I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with nostalgia... Few things have made me feel as passionate for such a long time. To me, they are more than just books and movies.

Mind Reader

There's something about saturday mornings at the office. From monday through friday my brain works just fine, but on saturdays it's like it gives up. I have to make a conscious effort to think about work and concentrate. *think brain think* Luckily, my personal email inbox is very entertaining during the weekends and it gives me the necessary ten minute break to power through my morning. This is how I found out about Gojee, which claims to be the Pandora for foodies. Once you've signed in, you can find recipes writing either an ingredient you crave or an ingredient you have available to cook with. I took it for a spin with my favorite ingredient: chocolate. The selection of recipes Gojee came up with was HUGE: from chocolate chip cookies, to truffles, cake, muffins... A little bit of something for any craving and any skill. You can narrow down your choice by providing more ingredients along the way. Once you've found what you crave, you follow a link to an external website which has the recipe (I found that it's mostly blogs). 

"Eat Me"

Gojee also sends you weekly suggestions of recipes it thinks you would like, based on the ingredients you search for frequently and the ingredients you list that you don't like. So the more you use it, the better the recipes get! 

If you are hungry, this will only make it worse

An added bonus: the website is visually stunning. Pictures of the food take up most of the screen space, letting it be the obvious center of attention. It's simple, and it makes you want to lick your screen! As if I needed more excuses to eat or surf the web... I definitely need a faster metabolism. 

Steve Jobs should come up with a mac that let's you eat what you see on screen

Now licking the screen

perspective

Optimists, rejoice!

brainfarting

Sunday mornings how I love you and all the time to do all the nothing that I want. When I have nothing to do, brainfart important questions always pop into my head. Today my neurons can't stop pondering why can't toes move individually?! At least mine can't, believe me I've tried and the best I've been able to do is move my big toe and my pinky toe, but not without a great deal of concentration. Not that I need to move my toes individually, it's just that damn it, it's my body and I want to move it the way I want to! 

And so I googled. Turns out that evolution is to blame for toe movement. Humans are tipically not wired to be able to move toes separately, with the exception of our big toe. Go ahead and try, this is the only toe you should be able to move independently without a lot of effort. It is of no use for us right now, but humans used to use their feet for grasping. Since I have you looking at your feet, check out how your big toe is even built differently than the rest (it has one less joint than the others, I wasn't talking about its size Captain Obvious). Our big toe also has more nerves and muscles dedicated to it, making it possible for it to move independently. The rest of our toes move together because they share flexor tendons, unlike our hands. 

However, if you're stubborn (like me), it is possible to learn how to move your pinky toe individually. You can do that here. You can now laugh maniacally in the face of evolution! Happy Sunday!

hay comes before Chanel, before everything

"I love hay"

I was browsing my usual blogs and read a story about Elle Fanning's first runway show: Chanel Haute Couture. Did you know she's only thirteen? Cue jealousy... When a Vogue reporter asked her what had most struck her about the show, she mentioned a "really really old lady" she met backstage, who helps make the incredible couture gowns. In my mind I pictured someone entirely different than the old lady pictured above. Her name is Mademoiselle Pouzieux, and she makes braids by hand. She is the ONLY one who can make the braids Chanel uses in their couture. She doesn't have any fancy schooling, nor a fancy studio. It's just her on her farm with her horses, her hay and her loom. Many have tried to learn her craft but so far, no one has succeeded. It's interesting to see the story behind the making of clothes so beautiful, the effort and pain the seamstresses have to go through to make these works of art come alive (M. Pouzieux's  hands are full of arthritis and her back is hunched from braiding). She is an example of why I love fashion so much: it goes beyond the utility of the clothes and high prices, it's about the heart and passion so many people put into each garment. 

Chanel Haute Couture Fall 2011

You can watch M. Pouzieux and all of the effort that goes into making couture gowns on the french documentary Signe Chanel, a behind-the-scenes of the making of a Chanel Couture Fall '04 Collection (link here).

dark chocolate truffles

So, I'm still sick. Stayed home from work today because I felt so bad, and to cheer myself up I decided to daydream about my favorite things Sound of Music style. Chocolate inevitably made it into my thoughts, and I remembered these dark chocolate truffles they sell at a bakery nearby. I love them, but don't eat them often because they are so expensive, almost a $1 a pop. This IS the third world, so that's way too much money to pay for a tiny piece of chocolate. What to do? I've decided to make my own (once I'm no longer a walking death source), and with a little help from Google, I think I have found the perfect Dark Chocolate Truffle recipe. To make the ones pictured above, click here! I think I might coat mine with coffee powder and walnuts. 

the queen of hi-lo

I just LOVE Olivia Palermo, she has the best style, catch a video of her below.

cheesecake in a jar

I can't stop craving sweets. Ever. No matter how full I am, even if I just had an entire cow for dinner, there is ALWAYS room for dessert. Today, it's one of those days I can't stop craving sweets. The problem is that I'm home with the flu, and sweets make my throat itch too much. Since I can't eat anything sweet, I decided to look up a recipe to try once I'm better... something to look forward to. 

I stumbled upon this recipe for cheesecakes in a jar and have decided to make it sometime during the weekend if I'm feeling better. I love cheesecake, especially the soft kind that melts in your mouth and has a tartiness to it to offset the sweetness from the toppings. Cheesecake also tends to be hard to mess up, and the jar presentation just looks adorable.

CHEESECAKE IN A JAR

yield | 4-6 servings depending on size of jars used

Ingredients
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
zest of one lemon
2 packages cream cheese, 8 oz each; room temperature
2 large eggs; room temperature
¼ cup heavy cream
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Topping
1 cup fresh berries

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
3. Combine the sugar and lemon zest and mix until the sugar is moistened. Add in the cream cheese andcream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream and vanilla and mix until smooth.
4. Pour batter into canning jars until about ¾ of the way full. Place jars into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the sides of the jars.
5. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, the edges will appear to be set, but the center will still have a little jiggle to it.
6. Carefully remove the cheesecake jars from the water bath and place on a cooling rack to cool completely. Once the cheesecakes are completely cooled, place them into the fridge for at least 5 hours. Top will fresh berries and serve.

Recipe taken from www.mybakingaddiction.com

true that

I don't know if I qualify as a "mature human", but I can surely relate to these... except the mapquest one because we still don't have that here.

my first pancake

Ever heard about The First Pancake Theory? It's about how the first one never turns out quite right or as good as the rest. Well, this is my first blog ever and quite honestly I never thought I'd have one, but after toying with the idea for a while I decided to have a spot where I could share any interesting things I'd read/seen on any given day. So with a little optimism I leave you with my first pancake! I hope it's not so bad, enjoy! 

Damn, now I want to eat actual pancakes...