Friday, April 29, 2011

Say Yes...

...yes to catnaps in the sun.
Yes to milkshake dates.
Yes to remedies for rainy days.
Yes to one more midterm...
...ever. (Now curling up in fetal position).
Yes to befriending people you never spoke to during high school.
Yes to springtime in Chicago!


[photo cred to here via Modern Hepburn]

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Lightening Up

I'm always one for the classic black and white pairing, but my favorite way to update it for the summer? A sandy taupe and pale cream, à la Madewell:


It may or may not already be in my shopping bag on the site...

...but let's be real, it totally is.

[photo cred to 1 and 2]

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Seven Things

When one of my favorite bloggers, Christel of Captivated by Image, gave me my third Stylish Blogger Award (thank you!), I realized that I had to fulfill at least one of the rules and spill seven things about myself. It's all rather embarrassing:

Seven Things
1. I once hit myself in the face with a tennis racquet and chipped my front tooth. Fortunately, both of my parents are dentists, so my foray into the "hick" look only lasted an hour.

2. At home, my hiding place is an empty bathtub with the lights off. Everyone is so busy checking behind couches and under desks that they completely miss the bathroom when they're trying to figure out who watered down the Grey Goose.

3. I successfully wedged an SUV into my garage... having forgotten that we'd attached an enormous luggage carrier to the roof in preparation for my brother's move to college. My parents would've killed me, so my brother yelled and sighed before he took the air out of the tires, weighted the car with various objects, and held the luggage carrier down while clinging to the back as I slowly, somehow, reversed the car out of the garage.

4. I have a soft spot for really nerdy boys, the kind who spend the night in the engineering building because they have a presentation due the next day. I'd might as well narrow this down to engineering students. I love engineering students. Law students? Eh. Business majors? Eh. Biomedical engineers? Ding. Ding ding ding. We have a winner!

5. I went to nerd camp for four summers. It's where I met three of my closest friends and countless others, as well as my first legitimate boyfriend (which only lasted three years; he declared himself a finance major, boooo). It was cultish but SO AWESOME. But cultish.

6. I'm incredibly close with my family, but especially my mother. The way to my heart (what's up, biomedical engineers?) is to impress my mom. I could write for pages about how much I love her.

Lucky Number 7. I'm half Chinese and half Italian. Not only did my Chinese ancestors invent pasta, the Italians perfected it.


[Note: it took me two hours to write this because I spent the better part of the evening mesmerized by Inslee's fantastic illustrations (including the photo used here). I'm obsessed!]

Monday, April 25, 2011

Pink Blossoms and Chocolate Mousse

Ahh, the buds on the trees are this close to bursting into whites and pinks, and walking under the canopy of new blooms always makes my stroll to class delicious. From time to time, I take off my headphones and just try to soak it all up: the shimmering puddles, the teensy green buds, and that biting Chicago wind on my face.

What are your plans for this week? I can finally eat cheese again(!), so I'm buying ingredients to make a spinach and strawberry salad with goat cheese as well as orechiette with broccoli rabe, sweet Italian sausage, and parmigiano reggiano (the easiest recipe ever, and so, so yummy). And pizza, I'm definitely making myself an enormous pizza with gooey mozzarella, mushrooms, and onions. I've slid into this awful habit of eating frozen chicken patties with a side of frozen onion rings, and I feel like this is the perfect opportunity to stop.

I also found this spectacularly simple recipe for chocolate chantilly!
Chocolate Chantilly
(by Herve This and Heston Blumenthal, via Cafe Fernando)
9.35 oz bittersweet chocolate (ideally 70% cocoa) chopped
1 cup water
4 tbs sugar, optional

1. Fill a mixing bowl with ice and cold water. Place a slightly larger mixing bowl on top; be sure its bottom touches the ice.
2. Melt chocolate, water, and sugar over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
3. Pour melted chocolate into the top mixing bowl and whisk with a wire whisk (or electric handheld mixer) until the mixture thickens. Over-whipping will make a grainy mousse, in which case you can put it back on the stove, partially re-melt it, and whisk again.
4. Divide into cups and serve immediately; serves 4.


[photo cred to 1 via Dress Design Decor, 2 via Patterson Maker, and recipe via Oh Joy!'s pinboard]  

Friday, April 22, 2011

Say Yes...

...yes to quiet mornings.
Yes to a cheerful Easter brunch with my little sister and close friends.
Yes to my older brother, who sent me a present so I'd stop sulking about not being home for Easter...
...and to the present in question, Beauty and the Beast.
Yes to savory tomato and pesto crostata.
Yes to the kind barista who gave me a free cup of green tea...
...when I needed it the most.

Have a lovely Easter weekend!

[photo cred to here]

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Pinned & Tucked


I love when hair has that rough, un-done texture that looks as though you pulled your hair into a tight braid, twisted it over the crown of your head, and then took a fast ride in a little red convertible. The curls framing her face (Mary Kate's? Ashley's? Neither?!) are so sweet, while the little tail of the braid pinned on the side gives it a bohemian feel. I don't use a hairbrush (is that weird?) because I like that my hair's coarseness helps it stay in place when I pull it back into a low, haphazard bun. I might just braid a few strands of my hair and tuck them behind my ear — it's such an easy (read: lazy) way to get a similar look.

P.S. Ahhh, and the v-neck! Sigh. Please style me, Mary Kate/Ashley/neither.


[photo cred to Summer Polaroid Memories via Musings in Femininity]

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Bits of Poppy

A dash of red can make all the difference, be it in the form of a silky blouse or a new bloom. Especially that blouse pictured above, for which I'd do anything. I love that it's slouchy and carelessly sensual, how it just slips off the shoulder ever so subtly. The poppy-red shade is really just a bonus. Maybe this top by Madewell would do? (There's a zipper on the back that could alter the neckline):


What do you think?

[photo cred to 12, and 3]

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