The Old Switcheroo

After reading this recommendation from Nigella Lawson for Chanel lipstick in Mythic, I visited the nearest Chanel counter to give it a whirl. The salesperson thought it was a hoot that I was accepting make-up advice from a cookbook author, but then proceeded to tell me her husband's recipe for chili.


P.S. - The lipstick is fabulous.

Double Win

Mr. Lime and I enjoyed a double header of new recipes from The Kitchn last night, Chilled Gazpacho Andaluz

and Zucchini Butter on a split baguette.

I highly recommend both. Two successful, new summer recipes that involve minimal, if any, stove time. Double win.

The Grand Unveiling

I finished my sweater last night. Which is to say, I finally attached the buttons. Forgive the terrible picture. The heat has apparently affected my eyesight. Or my camera.

Catbird

I'm a little bit in love with this ring at Catbird.

Also with these stitch markers.

See? I'm not all diamonds and pearls.

Tiny Buttons

I'm on the hunt for sweet buttons for my little sweater. Here are some contenders from Etsy:

Wooden buttons from Overspill's Shop


Butterflies from Wholeport's shop


Birds from stefaniexu's shop


Or these darlings from appleandeggs shop

Too many cute options! I don't know how I'm going to decide.

More Baby Knits

I got to do some more work on the sweater over lunch and I just started the placket. I'm really nerding out because I haven't challenged myself knitting-wise in quite a while.

On a knit baby goods note, I'm oddly taken with these two Blabla Kids rattles:




They're named Ukelele and Octavio! Too cute.

Baby Sweater

I'm knitting my first baby sweater, Purl Soho's Child Placket Sweater, and it's so much easier than I ever thought it would be! The whole process has me scoping out baby clothes sothat I can pick out my next project.

I'm oddly in love with these Bon Point pants. I wish I could wear them myself:

Actually, I wish I could wear the whole ensemble:

Wedding Dress

I'm told that, at some point during the first year after your wedding, all brides encounter "the dress". The perfect dress. The dress that would have been the one, but didn't exist, or at least didn't exist in your awareness, until it was too late.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present mine:

To be fair, I really enjoyed my actual wedding dress. And, in truth, I'm just not a wedding dress kind of girl. So this is not a big deal at all. I just think it's pretty & wanted to share.

Travel

It's hard to believe that so much time has passed! Mr. Lime and I have been on the road a lot during the past two months; visiting places that begin with the letter "P".

Like this:

And this:

And this:

And I'm delighted to report that we're also planning a trip here:

Box of Fun

Got to work on the Cellular Blanket last night and just giving myself those hours of relaxation was enough to bump me out of my grad school funk. I've been working myself ragged and have consequently been losing perspective on the big picture.

BB & I are celebrating his little cousin's first communion this weekend. I'm so excited for her! Because she'll be receiving about 1,000 bibles and crucifixes, we decided to give her something a little less traditional. We've put together a "box of fun" full of erasers that look like hamsters:


Scented pens:

A diary with a lock:

The obligatory savings bond and a host of stickers, garland, etc.

So much fun!

The Booby Prize

So, I've been accepted into the graduate program that I've applied for. Traditionally, the program accepts four a year, but they've decided to accept me as a fifth. Which means that, if I decide to accept, I will not be offered financial aid. I don't see that there's any way that I can attend given these circumstances. And I suppose I should be flattered that they want me at all, but it does feel like a bit of a booby prize.

Drinking the KoolAid

I stumbled into the Saks friends and family event today while picking up a replacement bottle of foundation. And could I leave well enough alone and simply enjoy the savings on my foundation? No. Instead, I also picked up a bottle of their Particuliere nail polish, just like hundreds of ladies before me.


Why am I so on the bandwagon? Because the bandwagon is so darn pretty this spring!

Blankets & Visitors

BB's Mom is coming for a last minute visit and we're so excited. I'm on tidying duty tonight and am mentally assembling menus that I think she'll like. We're lucky because Boston is in bloom and looking particularly pretty. So all we really need in the way of entertainment is to step outside.

I've been hit by the crafting bug again lately and am a mere two rows away from completing the monster, cabled baby blanket that I started well over a year ago. And I already have my next project queued up. Another baby blanket! ( I swear I'm not expecting.) I randomly checked Erika Knight's Natural Nursery Knits out of the library last week and am completely entranced.


It's the Cellular Blanket that caught my eye.

Pax super totum sanguinarium globum

We survived having the tea party and she-who-must-not-be-named in our fair city, but I must confess that the whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth. Boston doesn't quite feel the same to me after the madness. Is there any place in this world left where a body can get some peace?

Returns

Had to return the Steven Alan shirt. I ordered it in Large, because on the hanger all of his shirts look teeny tiny to me. But when it arrived, the large was just too large. (Hooray!) So I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of the shirt in Medium. Let's hope I didn't make a mistake.

I also indulged & ordered a tube of Chanel's Rouge Coco in Mademoiselle, the shade that's been taking the blogosphere by storm:


I'm not generally one to be swept up by a make-up trend, but the mania over Mademoiselle has reached such a fever pitch that I figure there must be something to it. None of the stores in Boston have it in stock, but there were plenty available on the Chanel website. Plus they offer free shipping, so it's much cheaper than going through saks.com or bloomingdales.com.

BB & I are home this weekend and I'm hoping that we'll be able to spend it getting our lives in order. The house is a wreck, we have no food and our library books are all overdue. In short, our life is in tumult. Time to take it back.

Yellow

I think that all of the daffodils and forsythia have gotten to me. I ordered this yellow plaid shirt from Steven Alan yesterday:


BB has two yellow plaid shirts that I really like, so I'm sort of copying him. We'll just have to make sure we never wear our yellow shirts on the same day.

NYC

Hey strangers! Our travel marathon is over & the house buying hysteria seems to have passed as well. Phew. BB & I are just back from NY and Boston is feeling mercifully quiet, if a bit small. We saw A Little Night Music on Saturday, which was not as good as I expected for all of the hype, but still very nice.


After the show we enjoyed a very late sushi dinner at Shaburi, which I've been referring to as A Little Night Sushi.

On Sunday, I spent a wonderfully sunny day in Soho and Nolita. I hit Purl just before the big move and finally visited Le Labo.


Gimmicky, but I don't care. I still love their Rose 31 and their Bergamote 22.

And I finally found a well cut pair of military pants! APC is the best, but I never feel comfortable buying anything from them without trying it on first. Their sizing can be so inconsistent.

Possible New Place

So, unexpectedly, we may be purchasing a condo. It's a long story, which I'll share if it all works out. But for the moment, I'm just going to decorate it in my mind. I'm thinking black and white tiles for the kitchen, just like this:



And maybe the bathroom floors as well. And Marais stools in the kitchen:



And I'll paint the whole darn place white.

Good Mojo

As I mentioned earlier, BB & I are considering a move. Well, we finally saw an apartment online that looks just about perfect. It has a second room, it's well maintained, in a good location, has character. (I spent last night arranging our furniture in it in my mind . I can really see us there, starting a family.) The difficulty is that the realtor can't show it to us until tomorrow. And, in Boston, apartments have a way of slipping through your fingers. So I'm going ask all of you out there to send some good apartment mojo our way. I would really appreciate it.

The other difficulty is that, regardless of when we move, we're going to have to break our lease. I don't think that we'll have a hard time renting our current apartment becaue the location is great, it's gigantic and the rent is very reasonable. Also we keep it clean and cute, if I do say so myself. But the idea of taking on a new apartment before we've found renters for the old one makes me feel a little ill. (Ok, a lot ill. I'm a worrier.) Does anyone have any advice about breaking a lease? I could certainly use it.

Not Great

Last night I tried making Ina Garten's Zucchini Pancakes from her Barefoot Contessa At Home book.


They weren't great. They were pretty bland actually. Which surprised me, as her recipes are generally so reliable. I think that, if I make these in the future, I'll add some garlic or maybe some red pepper flakes. I suppose that you could make larger pancakes and then roll them around a mixture of ricotta, feta and mint. Anyway, the lesson is, be prepared to dress this recipe up.

Highsmith

I've spent the past two weeks devouring Patricia Highsmith's Ripley novels. BB has been trying to persuade me for years that I would like them and I resisted. And, true to form, I was wrong to delay and then felt compelled to catch up on a wildly unrealistic time frame.

I've enjoyed them so much that the next book on my agenda is Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith.



I need to know more about the woman who created Ripley. (I'm a bit alarmed by how much I enjoy him and his morally bereft wife, Heloise. Their sociopathic tendencies don't bother me a bit.)

Maintaining

I'm back, cherubs! Sorry for the mini-break. BB & I are looking for a new apartment and I've been really overwhelmed by the whole process. 1) Because all of the apartments available right now are basically student housing and are, consequently, really awful. 2) Because the very thought of moving has made me realize how much crap we have. And I don't want to move it into another apartment. So the apartment and our wardrobes have been undergoing what I refer to as The Purge. Just like on "Lost".

The upside of The Purge is now that I've finally thrown away my tattered and coats and shoes, I get to buy new ones. Hooray! Here's the Club Monaco Nori Trench that is replacing my collection of every spring coat I've had since I was 22:

Believe the Hype, Part 2

So I picked up the Malin + Goetz Peppermint Shampoo and I have to say that it's worth it's weight in gold.


Between this and the Cilantro Conditioner, my hair is stronger and healthier than I ever believed possible. We're talking Rapunzel strong. And it happened in just matter of days.

When I bought the shampoo, the salesgirl and I chatted a bit about the shocking difference in results between the Malin + Goetz hair products and other schmancier products. (I've used Kerastace for years.) And what she basically told me was that when you use Kerastace, you're paying for the name. It was a solid reminder that price point and brand recognition do not necessarily equal quality.

Fabric Stamping Admiration

I've spent this morning admiring the heck out of HomeSweet's beautiful hand stamped products.


Her results are truly inspiring. My screen printing has come a long way, but my fabric stamping skills are dreadful. I wish I could be a fly on the wall in her studio and pick up some tips!

Staycation

Much though I wish I didn't have to use the word "staycation", that's exactly what I had over the past few days. And what I learned is that I'm not so bad at cleaning, chores, etc as I thought I was. I'm actually pretty great at it when I have the time. Unfortunately, I have to take days off to have the time.

So I did the big Spring clean, purged a ton of stuff that we don't use and cooked and crafted my little heart out. For example, I finished making this little mouse:



And found a home foe this Shaker tray:


And finished little Julian's socks:

I even baked muffins and refrigerator pickles (documentation to follow). Sigh. I need more days off.

Feeling Better

Apologies for the lack of posts. I've had a rotten cold/bug for the last few days and was down for the count. But I'm feeling much better today and am really appreciating the unexpected sunshine Boston is getting.

Sweet BB brought me a peony and some ranunculus (my favorites) on Wednesday to cheer me up.

And during an ill advised bout of cabin fever, I lined the new blanket chest. Probably not the best thing to do when sick, but at least it's done.

Soaking Beans

So, this may sound a bit silly, but I've never cooked dried beans before. I've had a bag of great northern beans kicking around for a bit, so last night I measured out a cup of them to soak overnight, as an experiment. Except that I forgot about them this morning and skipped off to work without giving them a thought. Here they are last night:

I shudder to think what they'll look like when I get home. Apparently, they're losing their texture and structural integrity due to over soaking. Oh good.

On a brighter note, check out this apple shaped fireware that I picked up this weekend. I'm using it to store my garlic!

Blanket Chest

As promised, here's a shot of the new blanket chest. I'm still not sure that I like it at the foot of the bed.



Although it doesn't actually lock, it has a little key for a little, non-functional keyhole. I don't care that it's strictly decorative. I just love it.


And here's the little drawer on the bottom. If we keep it in the bedroom, I'll store pillowcases in here. If we ship it off to the dining room, I'll use it for napkin storage.

Pub Crawl Resulting in Antique Purchases

BB and I survived the James Cameron Pub Crawl on Friday (barely). BB was the Titanic and I went as the Unforgiving Sea. Needless to say, we had a s-l-o-w rest of the weekend. We ate more La Tur, watched the Nova/Syracuse game and strolled around Beacon Hill. We actually wound up picking up an early American blanket chest and litho of Harvard at Upstairs Downstairs Antiques on Charles St. It's a great place, with good product, good prices and a really helpful staff.

I'll post pictures of the blanket chest in its new home tomorrow. I'm trying to decide of it makes the bedroom look too crowded.

Believe the Hype

Yesterday, I tried two things that have been receiving a lot of attention on the blog-o-sphere lately. Malin+Goetz Cilantro Conditioner and La Tur Cheese. I'd been holding off because I felt that they couldn't possibly live up to the hype. I'm going on record officially as admitting that I was wrong. Brothers and sisters, believe in the conditioner and cheese!


First the conditioner... I only had to use about a quarter of the amount of conditioner that I usually use. (I have long hair.) And I could tell as I was rinsing it out that it had done something to my hair. Even soaking wet it felt noticeably softer and smoother. But my hair dried, I was amazed. My hair is thick, with a fairly rough texture, but this miraculous stuff made my hair feel soft and light as a baby's. I'm going to seek out the Peppermint Shampoo next.


And then the La Tur Cheese... Where to begin? I think that angels may have invented this cheese after humanity did something really, really good. I can come up with no other explanation for how amazing it is. Unfortunately, it probably undid all of my good work at the gym this week. But, honestly, it was worth it.

Socks for Julian

What's this peculiar looking thing? Why it's only the cutest little baby sock in the world for my friend's new baby, Julian!


Ok, it's probably not the cutest baby sock in the world, but it's the first one I've ever attempted & I'm feeling proud. I'm using the Striped Socks pattern from Debbie Bliss' Cashmerino 2 book, with a few modifications. It knits up super fast on two needles. I knit this up over the course of two hours last night. (Full Disclosure: I knit really slowly and I was watching Lost. I'm sure the pattern actually knits up much more quickly.)

You just sew up the back of the piece to make it sock shaped. Plus, it doesn't have a ton of ends to weave in because you carry the alternating yarn colors up the side. So far, I'm a big fan of two needle baby socks. I'm actually mentally designing a pair right now...

Heather Ross on Spoonflower

Some of Heather Ross' classic designs are now available for order on Spoonflower! Squee!





The palates have been reworked, so they're not identical to the originals. But I think they're grand! And isn't Spoonflower just about the coolest thing you've ever heard of?