MWMH :: Cerise, baby

It's Wednesday! And that means it's time for some Mid-Week Magic, in the time span of one hour or less. So here's what's up: Red Shoes. I might have red (haha pun intended) this on some blog, or maybe I overheard it, but nevertheless, I have been enlightened: Red shoes go with nearly everything. Even if the rest of the outfit is of a color that usually doesn't look too hot with red, red shoes will probably still look quite foxy.

It's true! I need a pair, and I would like them to be suede, since I am currently in love with suede pumps.

What's up there::
Nº1 ~ Franco Sarto Amenity
Nº2 ~ Fitzwell Carlina
Nº3 ~ Nazer Heel by Toast [£165.00]

Oh yes, foxy indeed.

Anyways, I am fast approaching a 5 day weekend!!! Holy cow. I am excited!

Here's what it (my weekend) hopefully will involve: cupcake party, visiting a friend, renting the 4x5 large format camera with a friend, buying stuff for my upcoming sewing-related sculpture project, dinner with my dad, and homework. This last item is not so great. Oh well.

By the way, this is who I am going to be for Hallowe'en:

Jean Seberg in Breathless/A Bout de Souffle!
I'm cutting my hair short again!

Post Wedding Post

Hello everyone, and Anne, who I think deserves a special shout-out because she checks out my blog like I check out cute boys walking down the streets of NYC. That was a hideously awful joke that should neve have been uttered, and I want to kill myself for thinking/writing/posting it to the world. You must excuse me, it's been a weird night; basically I've been fighting with my computer because its acting out in all sorts of strange ways. I don't want to talk about it, it depresses me.

So, I went to a wedding this past weekend. It was my cousin's and it was really beautiful, especially because there was gorgeous fall foliage in the Massachusetts trees, and you know how much I love autumn. This is my first real autumn since I was about 6, and I don't remember those early ones, so as you can tell, I'm quite excited. I'm really getting into it! The next thing I need is a pumpkin for the dorm.

Anyways, my cousin's daughter (see above) and I played with my camera during the rehearsal dinner, and took lots of flattering pictures of each other:

Endless entertainment. These were pretty much the only digital pictures I took during the trip, but as soon as I figure out how to use the scanners at school, I will be uploading lots of my color film prints and contact sheets! Get excited!

Sorry, this was a little bit of a lame post, but there is this girl who reads my blog, her name's Anne--I mentioned her earlier, remember?--yeah, and she's sorta been getting on my case. So I had to give her SOMETHING to procrastinate with. Okay, until Wednesday my friends.

A Successful MWMH!

Okay, I think this is the first legit Mid-Week Magic Hour! I beginning to think this is just an incredibly dorky idea, but I'm going to go through with it until someone tells me so to my face. (Please, I won't be offended.)

Anyways, I just need to express my love of autumn once again. Right now, the weather is just perfect, more or less, here in the city. It's breezy, 70 degrees, perfect. I can wear a coat or a scarf or a sweater or a t-shirt or a dress (although the latter might blow up due to the gusty winds) and I'll feel great. And in the evening it gets cool and perhaps, dare I say it, cold. So, what better way to celebrate devastatingly perfect evening weather than by curling up in the perfect P.J.s and tea and everything like that? I will choose a coziness over mayhem any day:

What's up there::
~Tregaron Blanket by Toast [£95.00]
~Wool Felt Slippers by Toast [£49.00]
~Dhuggie by Toast [£45.00]
~Cashmere Bedsocks by Toast [£39.00]
~Betty Teapot by Toast [£25.00]
~Lavender and Peppermint Body Lotion by C.O. Bigelow Chemists [$4.00]
~Marvis Classic Mint Toothpaste by C.O. Bigelow Chemists [$10.50]

Yeah, so you can definitely see that I'm on a little Toast kick, to say the least. Seriously, if I had lots of money, that would be one of the stores very high on my list to shop at. But in case you hadn't noticed, there is not a way in the world that I could afford that stuff. Because the prices are in British pounds mind you. Ugh, oh woe.

Yep, that's that! Go MWMH! I don't know if I will be able to post on Saturday exactly because I am going to my cousin's wedding, but I will probably be able to on the bus ride back, because the bus has WiFi and I have a surprisingly small amount of work to do. Oh, I am quite excited to go to this wedding because not only will I get to see a lot of extended family, but I will get to see my mom and dad and brothers too, whom I miss lots! I've only been away for a month, which at some points seems like not very long at all, but at other points seems like an age.

I hope that at the wedding I will get to take some really great pictures because I am renting out a large format 4x5 field camera! I am so excited, I can't even tell you, but I'm pretty sure that my first round will not turn out because the camera is quite cumbersome and difficult to use. And the film costs $2 per frame, so it's not like this is going to be a common thing. But I have high hopes and am feeling quite inspired. More to come, to be sure!!

Until next time...

Lentil Soup: A Tale of Two Attempts

Hello! How are you? I'm doing quite well. It rained all weekend! But not that hard, so it wasn't a total inconvenience, fortunately. However, I didn't get any rainboots, like I had planned, and my clear bubble umbrella hasn't arrived yet, so I had to use my crappy little black one. That aside, since it rained, I drank lots and lots of delicious tea and Kedem Tea Biscuits, which was a great idea.

Today, the only thing that could make my rainy Sunday even nicer, would be if I had some delicious hearty soup. Problem solved!

Please excuse the lousy photograph; I didn't think to shoot the soup until after it was packed away neatly in some tupperware.

Funny story, which relates to the title of this post: So, I followed diligently the recipe, and I boiled the water (no problem) and I added the lentils. I left them to boil and bubble and all that, and when 20 minutes rolled around, I checked on them. For some genius reason, I thought that they weren't done yet, so I went back into the living room with my friend and watched some more T.V. (it was House...I'm so easily distracted by medical dramas, especially ones that are so deliciously predictable). And then, BAM, "OH NO! THE LENTILS! I FORGOT!"

And they had transformed into a mushy, pasty, stuck-to-the-bottom, burnt mess. And it smelled terrible. So my roommates and I decided to open the windows (good idea) and open the door to the hallway (probably a good idea, but offensive to other kids in the dorm). People were walking up and down the hall sayin' "Woo it stinks! What's that smell?" Ha-ha, mortifying sort of. I'm sorry!!

As a result of this minor/major catastrophe, I had to run out to the supermarket and buy more lentils and salt. Second time around, I was very very careful to keep an eye on the lentils, and it all worked out splendidly. Devilishly good soup, and so spectacular with a dollop of yogurt on top! And since I made the whole recipe, I have a bunch for leftovers during the week. Excellent!

Hope everything is going well with you. See you on Wednesday, lovelies!

Oops!

Uh...I don't know what happened, but it seems that I sort of missed Mid-Week Magic Hour!! Ahh!! I'm so terrible. I posted on Monday, and I was thinking, hey I'm so ahead of it that I don't have to worry about MWMH for a while, but how wrong I was. It's still kind of this middle of the week, right? Maybe?

OK, well I'll give it a go anyways. So I was browsing around the internet for neat finds, and I came across this fantastically multi-use super cool way of relaxing...TO THE EXTREME.

So get this: it's a candle, right, but you can use the warm wax for massage oil. Oh my god, is that neat or what?? It even has a low melting temperature (thanks to some physicist no doubt!) so you don't have to worry about scalding hot wax. It's sexy...possibly.

Yeah, I had to share that with you all. (All=?? how many of "you" are there? 2?) Anyways, I feel like sharing.

In other news, it is blustery and cold today, and it's supposed to start raining in the evening and not stop until Sunday! So I simply must go out and buy some wellies. Oh, and I ordered the umbrella that I've wanted for a while:

It's one of those darling clear bubble umbrellas! I am so very excited, but unfortunately it won't arrive until after this weekends approaching rainstorm. Oh well, I am sure this won't be the last that I will be seeing of Mr. Rain. Since I've arrived in NY it has already rained like 5 or 6 times, which is completely incredible to me, since it rains about that much for the entire year in California.

So, until a later date, I bid you adieu.

First Day O' Fall!!

Hello!! I know I just posted yesterday, and here I am today, and it's not Wednesday, and so it's not Mid-Week Magic Hour, and yes I know this. But I just discovered Polyvore and I can't get over how cool it is! So instead of writing my essay, which needs to be 6-8 pages (the first draft of which is due Wednesday), I'm shopping and oogling and oggling all the pretty things.

So let's play a game. A game called, what outfit would Lizzie compose if she had an infinite amount of money and it needed to be under an autumnal theme. Well, this is it:

Oh ho ho how cute and fun! Go to Polyvore, and you can make one of these neat little magazine-like spreads and look very professional and cool.

Here's what's up there::
-Oscar de la Renta Cable Knit Sweater
-Burberry Kentisbury Coat
-Donna Karan Moleskin Riding Pants
-Marc by Marc Jacobs Crazy Bow Hairband
-J. Crew Ombre Washed-wool Scarf
-FredFlare Pine Cone Candle
-Hunter Wellington Boots
-Target Bubble Umbrella

Total Cost: $3,600 even

I know you want to buy me all of that. See you Wednesday...

Success in the Dorm Kitchen!

I did it! I made something in the dorm kitchen, and it worked! Granted, I did make brownies before, and they worked out, but this was the first legit dinner that I've made using our mini/fake stove. It's more of a hot coil with an Easy Bake Oven underneath it, which is funny because I always wanted an Easy Bake Oven as a kid, and I never got one, and now that I basically do, I hate it.

But, enough complaining!! The food was successful and tasty and I had leftovers too.

[NOTE: Thanks to a very astute reader named Taylor, i just realized that I forgot to actually write what I had cooked! It's once again the Big Bowl Quinoa from 101 cookbooks, which I made before, and simply had to make again because it's so easy and so delicious.]

So I cut, and I chopped, and I stir-fried, and it smelled like grilled onions with garlic and everyone in the dorm room/hall said that it smelled good. Score! Food for me, not for you! Ah-ha-ha!

In other news, I was quite productive this weekend. I went to the Union Square Farmers Market again on Saturday and I took a lot of photographs, which I got to contact and print today. I should scan them in and post them here...when I get around to it. We actually have a nice scanner or two in the darkroom, but I digress. While at the farmers market I watched this band from Santa Cruz perform, and they were quite good, so I bought their CD! Check Blackbird Raum out; they're a little like Gogol Bordello and Beirut and all that alt-folky-gypsy-hippie stuff. And one of they play washboard, accordian, musical saw, wash-tub bass, mandolin, and banjo. Cool.

And now I am watching the Emmy's and I swear, I always think that these award shows are going to be entertaining, but they are really boring and disgusting. It's just so nauseating having a bunch of vapid Hollywoodians all in the same room patting themselves on the back. Eck...

Okay, see you on Wednesday for Mid-Week Magic Hour! (Yessss, so excited)