Friday, December 30, 2011

Short boots with tights

I got a new pair of short brown boots during J. Crew's before-Christmas sale (hello extra 30% off) and am wearing them today with tights and a short skirt. I've previously worn both tall boots and booties with tights and skirts, but I'm not sure if I think I can pull off the short boots with tights.

What do you think, does it work, or does it make my calves look huge? Can I only pull it off with a pair of boots with a heel? There are some other examples of it on various blogs, like here, here, here, and here.

{Boots: J. Crew, Tights: Target, Skirt: J. Crew (old, but similar to this)}



Thursday, December 29, 2011

Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know

Gotye is a Belgian-born, Australian musician, whose third album, Making Mirrors, came out this summer. You can stream a bunch of his music over on Sound Cloud.


This song keeps popping up and is a nice little jam. He's touring this spring, and a bunch of his shows are already sold out, so go buy tickets if you want to see him live.


Album cover image from here.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Winter Vegetables

I've been craving warm winter vegetables in the cold weather, and after not cooking much in the last couple of weeks, I finally buckled down and made a couple big dishes to eat on this week.

This savoy cabbage gratin is so so good. While it may not be much to look at, I always get so many compliments. I've made it with a bunch of different kinds of cheese too, so don't worry too much if you can't find a triple-cream cheese.

Savoy Cabbage Gratin, from Orangette (originally from Molly Stevens, All About Braising):


This was the first time that I made these roasted root vegetables, but I love the flexibility in the recipe to use whatever you have rolling around in your pantry or fridge. I didn't happen to have any beets on hand, so mine weren't quite as colorful, but I used a delicata squash and some sweet potatoes, in addition to the carrots, parsnips, and celery root, to add some color back in.

Roasted Root Vegetables, from Tea & Cookies:

My mom's family always gets together on Christmas eve to celebrate. Since she's one of six, and there are now 15 grandchildren, it's quite a crew. To make it less burdensome on whoever is hosting, we all bring a dish, and this year I was tasked with bringing creamed corn. While I had to make it from frozen corn (since it currently isn't in season) and triple the recipe to make enough for the whole family, it turned out really well. (I also added some butter, with the olive oil in the first step.)

Creamed Corn, from Design Sponge (originally from Harold Dieterle):

Images from 1, 2, 3

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Little Dragon - Twice



I've been listening to a bunch of Little Dragon recently. Their album Ritual Union came out this summer. The title track is really, really great and introduced me to the band, but I've been enjoying Twice, off their self-titled album from 2007, which has a great video. It also gets a really great shout out in this kind of inappropriate but really funny video, Twice is my jam!


Tour poster from here.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Holiday Accessories

I'm going to see The Nutcracker tonight with my sister!

I'm going to have to leave straight from work though, so I wanted to wear something a little festive. I have recently bought some fun new accessories and thought I would show them off a little. I thought the tights plus suede pumps might be too much, so I kept the rest of my outfit really simple, just a black pencil skirt, gray t-shirt, and black cardigan.



Bracelets: Rhinestone - Christmas gift, Spotted Bangles - Bauble Bar, Tortoise Bangle - J. Crew (old)

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Youth Lagoon - Montana

While at first I thought this song was too slow, after a couple of listens I'm hooked. It's crazy to think that he's a 22-year old dude. His album, The Year of Hibernation, came out in September on Fat Possum, and is available on CD, LP, cassette, and mp3.

The whole album is really great and has recently made a couple of best albums of the year lists.

He recently covered John Denver's "Goodbye Again" on a Sirius Radio XMU session.

He's touring again starting in January, so hopefully anyone interested will have a chance to check it out.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Christmas Baking - The Lineup

I try to send out tins of cookies each year for some of my gifts. The lineup has changed, and some years I don't manage to make any. I thought this year that might be the case since I was seriously behind, but my mom, sister, and I had a marathon baking session over the weekend. I'm going to try and get them packed up and shipped off tomorrow.

You might be able to tell that I have a fondness for slice and bake cookies. Most all of these cookies doughs can be made in advance and frozen for up to a couple of months, and then simply sliced and baked off. They help spread out some of the work when you're making so many.

I had a tragic camera accident last week, so I don't have any pictures of the cookies I made, but I've pulled and linked to pictures from the websites where I found the recipes.


World Peace Cookies, from Dorie Greenspan (online via The Splendid Table):

IMG_1300


Meyer Lemon Sables, from Orangette, (originally from Amanda Hessner):



Cardamom Pistachio Cookies, from The Wednesday Chef, (originally from The L.A. Times):



Cornmeal Cookies, from David Lebovitz, (originally from Carol Field):



Chocolate "Blocks" with Fruit and Nuts, from Orangette, (originally from Gourmet):
(I used pistachios, almonds, dried cranberries, and crystallized ginger.)


Images from: mine, 2, 3, 4, 5

Friday, December 16, 2011

Polka dots & cap toe pumps

Those Zara pumps and a new Equipment blouse showed up in the mail, and I wore roughly the following outfit to work and then out to dinner and a concert on Wednesday night.

It's been getting dark at around 4:30 pm here, so I haven't managed to get a picture of any outfits yet, but hopefully there will be some time for that over the weekend, during the daylight hours.

I wore the blouse with my J.Crew wool capris from a couple years ago, kind of like these, but the Alexander Wang capris were the closest thing available on Polyvore. Also, I wore a lovely pair of earring by a local Portland jewelry artist, Lulu, kind of like these, but with black stones instead of turquoise or pearl.

The blouse is so oversized, I felt like I needed the skinny capris to offset the silhouette. What else would you pair with it?

Thursday, December 15, 2011

tUnE-yArDs - Bizness

I've been watching this music video on repeat, it's just so good! And the kids in the beginning are so cute.

Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs has such a brilliant voice. She has some other great songs, but this video is just so weird in the best possible way.


If you get a chance, take a look at some of her live videos too. She lays down and then loops vocal and instrument tracks, and it's pretty cool to see one person make such a full sound.

Her album w h o k i l l came out back in April, and if you sign up for her mailing list you can get a free mp3 download of Bizness.


Picture from here.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Travels: Turkey

I went to Turkey in early November with my best friend from grade school (and frequent travel partner-in-crime) to visit one of our friends who has been living in Istanbul for about a year and a half. I could only make it over for about a week, but we had a really great time. We had one major sight-seeing day, hitting the Grand Bazaar, Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace & Harem, Spice Market, and Istiklal Caddesi.

Laura in front of Hagia Sofia
{In front of the Hagia Sofia}

Spice Market
{Spice Market Teas}

Spice Market
{Spice Market Spices}

Of course, I was most interested in the food. We ate so well while we were there. One of my favorite parts was the availability of pomegranate. On almost every street corner you could buy a cup of fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice (or orange or grapefruit or any combination thereof) for only a few dollars.

There are also tons of baked potato street carts all over, called Kumpir, that you can get with tons of toppings. I think we chose just about everything to be put on our Kumpir.

oranges and poms
{Pomegranates, Oranges, & Apples}


Kumpir
{Kumpir, aka Baked Potato, with all the fixings}

All too soon my trip came to an end, and I jumped back on a plane to head home.

Plane tip home
{Flight Home}

I took all photos, save the first one, taken by my best friend.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Trend Following: Cap Toe Pumps

I've been craving some cap toe pumps since seeing a whole variety of them on red carpets, although these pairs were definitely out of my price range.


{Red Carpet Fashion Awards}

Then I saw this pair from Zara:
{Zara}

And shortly afterwards saw them on a number of fashion blogs this fall. I finally ordered them the other day and so have been eagerly awaiting them in the mail.


{Atlantic-Pacific}


{Sterling Style}


{This Time Tomorrow}


Images from: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5

Thursday, December 8, 2011

The Lumineers - Ho Hey


While perhaps sheepish to admit this, I am totally loving the new show Hart of Dixie. It's totally absurd but has a good sense of its own absurdity.

It makes fun of itself, by having characters call each other out for thir most ridiculous wardrobe choices, like Rachel Bilson's vast wardrobe of formal shorts and Jaime King dressing like she just stepped out of the 1950's.

Also, The Fug Girls have been writing highly entertaining recaps.

Finally, they played an awesome song (Ho Hey) on the episode this week by a band I hadn't heard of before, The Lumineers, out of Denver, CO. (And generally the music on the show is pretty good.) The Lumineers have their first self-titled album coming out in March 2012, but until then, they have a Daytrotter session, and here's the song from Hart of Dixie:


Thursday, December 1, 2011

Let's get this started

I feel like I've been thinking about doing this for so long, and the time has finally come.

I was quite reticent at first, because how self-important must I be to think that anyone cares what I think about clothes or food or music or travel? (Because I'm not really a fan of self-important people.) But I want to start writing about the things I'm interested in, and this seemed like the best (read: only available) venue in which to do so.

And I really have no expectation of any readership, so that takes me a peg down on the self-important scale, right?

So here's what I'm doing, or going to be trying to do:
This is my space to write about the things that are currently inspiring me, whether they are fashion, food, travel, or music-related. A place to catalog that really great outfit I put together from individually unassuming pieces, or the cake that everyone loved at the most recent dinner party, or where I've just been, or that really great band that I wish I had heard of way earlier. My hope is that it can become a resource, probably just for me, of all my favorite things, while at the same time getting me to be more mindful when getting dressed in the morning or planning meals for the week.

I've been feeling for the last year or so that I need better creative outlets in my life, so hopefully this can be that, with a smidgen of accountability thrown in there too. I plan to post once or twice a week, because that feels manageable, and now that I've said it here, maybe I can keep it up. Although having my mother announce in the Christmas newsletter that I was going to run a marathon or hike Kilimanjaro didn't make either of those things actually happen, so we'll see.

And there it is! We're off!


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