226 Results for: pop of color

DIARY

Almost There

May 9, 2016

It's 7AM on Mother's Day, and I'm writing this from a Southwest flight somewhere over...Colorado, I think. I was originally scheduled to fly home from St. Louis this afternoon, but yesterday morning I was on set and called my kids to FaceTime with them, and that one call ended up changing my plans. I hadn't seen their faces in a couple of days because I couldn't get my FaceTime to work (discovery: restarting one's phone more than once a year is apparently a good idea) - and when they finally popped up on my phone screen my heart started pounding and I started feeling like I might cry (which is not a thing I want to do on a set, ever). When we hung up, I went straight to my computer and started hunting for a flight - any flight - that might get me home even an hour or two earlier.

Decor

That Time I Glamorously Lived Abroad Except Didn’t

April 12, 2016

Aerial beach print in a simple white room

{ Coogee Wave, by Gray Malin (from the A La Plage collection) | Lulu & Georgia Lamp }

For a little while in the summer of 2002, I lived in Coogee Beach, near Sydney. Well, technically it was
"squatting," and technically it was only for two months, but it sounds much more glamorous to say, "Oh, I spent the summer living in Austraaaaaalia." My college boyfriend had done his semester abroad there while I did mine in England, and my school year ended earlier than his, so when I finished up I hopped a quick 26-hour flight (via Japan, where I accidentally spent two hundred dollars on a sushi dinner because I couldn't read the menu and thought what I was getting was one roll, not a boat of rare fish the size of a piano bench) to spend some time reconnecting - because semesters abroad are many things, but "good for relationships" is not one of them.

My boyfriend had to go to classes every day, and it was wintertime in Australia so it wasn't quite warm enough to spend hours at the beach, and the house was...well, there's really just no other way to say it: it was fucking disgusting, in the way that only a house inhabited by nine 20-year-old boys and a rotating cast of female companions can be. Boxed wine, flies, dirty dishes, someone threw up in the bathtub, et cetera. It was fun for a party (and that happened basically every night), but not exactly a relaxing place to spend the day.

Lifestyle

An Ode To The BMF

March 21, 2016

Mother's Day is one of those holidays that, the second you give birth to a human being, becomes ENORMOUSLY important. Mostly because it means that you get to sleep in, and then maybe someone delivers you a mimosa.

(Seriously, this is a day that I look forward to all year long. F Christmas; I want breakfast in bed and I want it yesterday.)

{ BMF Mother's Day Cards }

Lifestyle

Links & Love & Stuff

March 4, 2016

Laura Ricciardi's stay gold painting from xolaura.com

On a recommendation from a friend, I tried out a wine delivery service called Wine Simple: it creates customized boxes of wine based on your specific tastes, and is a great way to branch out beyond your default picks. How it works: you answer a (fun) series of questions about your tastes in everything from coffee to cheese, are given your "Taste Profile," and get sent a selection chosen just for you. I ended up with three bottles that I wouldn't necessarily have chosen myself, but that I totally loved (all three came to the desert with us, and none returned home).

You know how Mother's Day cards are usually on the cheesier side? Not these. These are for your mom friends, and they are the best.

Obsessed with this drop-waist mauve dress.

Eat

In The Night Kitchen

January 19, 2016

Ruth Reichl's cider-braised pork shoulder recipe

Two of my favorite things: puzzles + cooking memoirs

I remember the first book of Ruth Reichl's I ever read - it was Tender at the Bone, in theory a memoir but really an expression of her passionate belief that your meals (and the making of them) shape who you are in a very tangible way, starting even in the earliest parts of childhood. I loved it so much that I read her other books as soon as they came out: first Comfort Me With Apples, then Garlic and Sapphires, about her stint as the New York Times' food critic and all the subterfuge and drama (really) that job entails. Now I'm on to her latest, My Kitchen Year, about the shuttering of Gourmet when she was the magazine's editor-in-chief and her subsequent depression.

I don't always love Ruth Reichl - she can get a little treacly - but I can't stop reading her. And the biggest reason why I go back to her, over and over again, is the recipes; she essentially pioneered the memoir-peppered-with-recipe format that's so popular today. Granted, the recipes I've made from these books haven't always been the best ones on the planet - the matzoh brei was, in a word, a disaster - but when I'm reading her descriptions of how a dish didn't just exist in her life, but explained it somehow, giving her something that she hadn't even known she needed, I'm always desperate to try it for myself.

Lifestyle

Links & Love & Stuff

January 15, 2016

A couple of days ago I shot a news segment about makeup apps and whether they're actually useful. As part of my research I played around with a whole bunch of them, and...I mean, maybe I'm just super late to the party and everyone already knew how amazing they've gotten nowadays, but WHOA. (The one I used to create the three looks pictured above is called Try It On.)

Every once in awhile I do a search to figure out what the most popular items out there are (meaning the things that the most people are clicking over to check out, not necessarily the ones with the highest sales), just so I can stay up to speed. And right now, this chunky cardigan is apparently the most clicked-on item on the search engine I use (ShopStyle). Huh. I'm mildly confused, but maybe it's been really well...advertised? I dunno.

I didn't watch the Golden Globes because I needed to prioritize my new obsession (Making A Murderer), but this roundup of celebrity reaction GIFs is making me really regret this decision.

Lifestyle

Links & Love & Stuff

January 5, 2016

Comfortable grey Kale sweatshirt by Suburban Riot

I prefer my kale in sweatshirt form, thanks. (You can get one of your own here.)

No matter how many hours you spent on the phone with Comcast today (oh, was that just me?), this cocktail tray is here to remind you that at least at the end of it all there was wine.

Anthropologie is having a Winter Tag Sale and it's really good. (I love this shawled cashmere wrap and these Citizens of Humanity overalls. And on the home decor front, these dipped sisal baskets.) Take an extra 25% off of sale prices using code TAGTIME.

Lifestyle

Behind The (Blogging) Curtain

November 23, 2015

A silver cup of pink, red and yellow flowers on a white background

Photographing holiday cocktails...on my bed. Of course.

(Recipe coming soon!)

Whenever I see bloggers post their beautifully framed shots of food or their jeans arranged just-so against white bedsheets on Instagram or wherever, I like to imagine what the scene *really* looked like when they were shooting it. Especially the food shots, because you know that they're literally standing up on a chair in a restaurant to get that perfect top-down angle - but really: it's interesting to imagine pulling back on just about any photo.

Lifestyle

Links & Love & Stuff

November 17, 2015

I discovered this bronzer-and-blush duo on Francesca's makeup table and fell in love. Mostly love that you can get it at the drugstore (or here) for around $25.

Madewell's gift guide is a good one, if you're looking to get an early (well, earlyish) start.

I've been following Yale's Halloween Costume Drama obsessively. It highlights so much of exactly what's wrong with activist culture today. (The New Intolerance Of Student Activism, via The Atlantic.)

Entertaining

Upgrade Your Autumn

November 13, 2015

Green and gold holiday entertaining setup with rose gold lamp

Summer entertaining is all about keeping things simple - plastic utensils, easy recipes on the grill, et cetera - but once the weather cools down and the party moves inside, more focus gets placed on the food, the décor and all those small-but-significant details you add to make your guests feel special. But that doesn’t mean you have to get all fussy. (I can’t do fussy.)

So I thought I’d show you some pictures I took of the setup for an intimate dinner I held for a few friends. The party wasn’t for any especially good reason – just that I wanted to give them an evening of good food and good drinks. But I also wanted actually spend time with my guests and not messing around with a stove, so I made sure that everything I set out was not only one of my all-time go-to (meaning unscrewupable) recipes, but also something I could make well in advance.