used to be one of the rotten ones

On Saturday, some of my friends from work and I had a potluck barbecue at Karlee's beautiful house. Her dad likes to garden and he did a great job! So, once I got off work I stopped by the store to get things to make lumpiang shanghai (a skinny Filipino eggroll made with ground pork and carrots), and summer sangria (my own recipe below), which is sort of my specialty, even though I've only made it twice but it always comes out magnificent if I do say so myself! We had a lot of fun making all of the things in the kitchen together.

Here's a video of us as I man the grill making burgers and hot dogs and everyone else sets the table for a homemade feast of Filipino lumpia, vegetarian Vietnamese spring rolls made with tofu, deviled eggs, chips, dip, salsa, bean salad, sangria and cherry Coke. Set to a beautiful song, "Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl" by Broken Social Scene. (I was commissioned to put my iPod on shuffle.)




Accidental outfit coordination, part 1


Woodland fairies.


Karlee had never bbq'd before so I showed her the ropes.


Accidental outfit coordination, part 2.






Nature's table! Our thighs were burning from squatting :)






Apples to Apples by lamplight!




Summer Sangria
1 small jug of Carlo Rossi sangria (you can use 2 bottles of red wine if you like it stronger, but for summer I like it less wine-y)
2 large oranges
2 lemons
2 limes
3/4 cup strawberries, sliced
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup chilled ginger ale
double (or triple) shot of cherry rum

Pour sangria/wine into large pitcher. Cut one orange in half and squeeze the juice from the half. Cut the rest of the orange into circle slices. Do the same with the lemons and limes. Add sliced strawberries, sugar, and rum (I threw in a few blueberries too). Put in fridge for at least two hours to let the flavors marinate :). The chilled ginger ale should be added right before serving so it's still fizzy.
(If you don't like red wine, use white wine, still use oranges/lemons/limes, but try different fruit additionally, like peaches, apples, grape juice. Fruit selection is really up to you!)

Cleaning up to "Absolutely Cuckoo" by the Magnetic Fields


Check out the post below for my first ever CLOSET SALE!

we two are makers, just made this mess

I know it's been quite a while since my last post, but not much has been going on except that I'm getting together some good inventory for my online vintage shop. :)

In honor of the She & Him concert I went to yesterday at the Hollywood Bowl, this entry is dedicated to all things She and all things Him (but mostly She, because I love Zooey so very very much).

Here is their new single, "Thieves", and the pretty pretty video that goes along with it.


I've had a Zooey obsession ever since she played the Who-loving stewardess sister in Almost Famous and I didn't yet know who she was. Then Elf came along, and All the Real Girls, and on and on to the mainstream crossover 500 Days of Summer. I even have the horrible movie that no one needs to see, Flakes, on dvd.

Anyway, when She & Him came out with Volume One, I tried to get tickets to their show but it was sold out in a heartbeat. This Sunday, I finally got to see them at the Hollywood Bowl, on their tour for Volume Two. We got to the venue super early so we went to the park right next to the Hollywood Bowl with some Trader Joe's provisions-- palmiers (yum!), salt and pepper chips, and Orangina, along with a copy of A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole. It's great, really funny and well written. We took turns reading pages aloud in the shaded cover of the park until we decided to head in to the Bowl.






Once we decided to go in, we waited a bit before taking our seats because it was pretty hot out, up until maybe 7:00pm. Instead, we sat in the shade outside our section and people watched/judged. Kinda. Okay, basically we tried to spot all the Zooey lookalikes and just look for people who we thought were dressed cute. There were some pretty cute contenders for best dressed, and I want to and tried to unsuccessfully take sly pictures of them without their noticing, to later post up here, but I chickened out. Too bad I wore an outfit you guys have already seen on this here blog. Oh well, I love it.



And here are some shots of the performance and the darling Zooey in action. Check out that magnificent electric uke!






Also, check back for an edit because I uploaded a video of me and my uke covering "Sentimental Heart" even though they didn't perform it that night. <3 It's taking a while to show up on YouTube, but when it does, I'll include it in this post. So check back if you want to see me embarrassing myself. It's pretty rough because I just learned it, but I plan on recording some other tunes for your enjoyment once I get better. For now, you can go to my YouTube channel and check out some old things I've recorded, back when I had long glorious hair, as well as some videos of my friends and their creative/musical/artistic endeavors. :) My YouTube Channel.

And here is the video. It got chopped off the top when exporting it somehow, so my head got cut off a bit. Oh well. Enjoy!

Later, lovelies!

memorial day

I spent most of this uneventful Memorial Day Weekend working at American Apparel, but on Memorial Day itself, I went out to Prospect Park in Redlands, which I'd never been to-- or even really heard about. We got some McNuggets (my fave!-- the one thing I crave at McDonald's; besides fries and yogurt parfaits) and drove up to munch them at a picnic table and played the Shrek card game that came with the box of nuggets. It was quite pretty up there, and there's this really great little outdoor theater tucked away. I wanted to take pictures there, but a theater troupe was rehearsing a loud and shout-y play. Next time, mayhaps.

So here is my first attempt at showcasing an outfit. I've been hesitant because I'm not all too comfortable in front of a camera-- I like being behind one best. The pictures are a bit blurry because I'm still trying to figure out my camera and also, it started getting dark out. I have a step down from an SLR camera, but it's a Canon and it's a good solid one. I wish I could have gotten a better floral detail shot of the jumper, because it's very intricate and pretty. (If you click on the pictures, you can see them full-size but I don't recommend it because then you have to see me up close).





White 3D flower mesh jumper
and khaki hight waist denim short: both American Apparel
Floral camera bag and sandals: Urban Outfitters


Also this weekend, I found a yummy yummy recipe for snickerdoodle cookies courtesy of Joy of Cooking and decided to try and make them. They turned out wonderfully delicious, and only after eating the pretty batch, I had the thought to take a picture and post it up, so you get to see the remains (and the recipe!)::


Snickerdoodles:

2 3/4 cups (360 grams) all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Coating:

1/3 cup (66 grams) granulated white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder.

Beat the butter and sugar until smooth (about 2 to 3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough. If the dough is soft, cover and refrigerate until firm enough to roll into balls (one to two hours).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Shape the dough into 1 inch round balls.

Coating: In a large shallow bowl mix together the sugar and cinnamon.

Roll the balls of dough in the cinnamon sugar and place on the prepared pan, spacing about 2 inches apart. Then, gently flatten each cookie to about 1/2 inch thick.

Bake the cookies for about 8 - 10 minutes, or until they are light golden brown around the edges. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Makes about 6 dozen cookies.