Glamour Nailzzz

Today in Computer Patternmaking when Angélique and I should have been making patterns, we were trolling the internet instead, mostly reading each others blogs. It was during this time that Angélique discovered The Daily Nail. Basically this lady from Las Vegas has challenged herself to paint her nails in a new style everyday. Now, if you know me you know I take nail art seriously. There are some really cool ideas on here. I could never do this, not only because it would be a huge time commitment, but mostly because there's no way I could part with some of those nail stylez in less than 24 hours. Rough.

Anyways, I was so excited about all that classy expression of personal style that I came home and dug up some of my past nail triumphs...

St. Patrick's Day clover nails

Playing cards... perfect for my gaming lifestyle

Party nails for Mark and Melly's bday week (this is a bad pic but the thumbs are cake (!!!) and the others are balloons and presents and stuff)

And my most recent (and most awesome-est) miss pac man nails

they pretty much inspired my halloween costume...

Anyways, halloween is over and sadly the miss pac man nails are gone, so I am ready for some new nails... I need some ideas... Anyone?

PIE POPS!!

So I think I can safely say, this was the most excited I have been about a post so far. Last week was most definitely the most insane week i've had at school so far this semester, and after 5 days of literally no sleep and consuming nothing but bagels, soup, brownies and coffeecoffeecoffee I passed out for 10 hours and woke up ready to bake. A while back I saw an entry on Pie Pops! one of my most favorite blogs that I just discovered, Luxirare, and I was immediately determined to recreate them. However, while Luxirare's looked sooo amazing (no really, check it out here)they used store bought pie crusts and only fruit, corn starch and sugar as a filling. So, while they certainly photographed waaay better than anything I would be making, they didn't sound that appetizing.

This project actually takes quite a bit of brainstorming, but luckily my friend Rachel signed up to help since I was still slightly brain-impaired from the activities of the week. Basically, you have to use a pie filling that a. bakes in the crust, and b. isn't too runny or lumpy. Immediately I thought of pumpkin pie (duh) and perused through epicurious.com for a new recipe since I always like to try a different pumpkin pie recipe. I was clearly feeling overambitious/ hungry because I also decided on a chocolate fudge pie recipe (which was reportedly Marilyn Monroe's fave pie recipe...)

about to go into the oven. shiny and pretty after an egg white wash on top.

these first ones weren't too pretty, but they tasted so, so good! (Marilyn knows good pie!)

see all those flakey layers?! homemade crust!!

Tae approved.

Sookhyun and Tae ate like 6 each.

I wish I had taken more pictures of the actual process, but

since you only need a pretty small spoonful of batter per pop, I have about 5 tons of filling leftover and am going to make some more this week, so I will document and update...

So the recipes I used were: Miss Milton's Lovely Fudge Pie & Pumpkin Pie

I didn't make any changes to the chocolate pie at all, and it was the perfect consistency. The pumpkin pie however, did turn out to be a little too liquidy, so I baked it in the over for about 45 minutes at 325 degrees to kind of set it up. It worked perfectly. The pie crust recipe is my moms: 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup canola oil, 1/4 cup icy cold milk. One pie crust recipe makes about 10 pops. In one night I made 6 pie crust recipes. That's a lot of rolling. They only need to bake about 10 minutes!

These would be really fun to serve at a party with a big bowl of whipped cream. Definitely a possibility for my upcoming Thanksgiving get-together...

More coming soon!

Lingerie Portfolio Project

Another one of the many projects I had to complete this week was my a lingerie collection for my portfolio class. My inspiration was 1940s films, particularly "How to Marry a Millionaire" starring Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable and ***Lauren Bacall**. I really love Lauren Bacall. Anyways, I am fairly happy with how it turned out. I wish I had spent more time on the rendering though, and the flats are kind of a mess. Oh well. My hands were super shaky as a result of no sleep and way, way too much caffeine. I've really got to cut back.

** eh. these did not scan well. and i really do not have the energy to edit them. you get the idea though...

**Spider Sweater!**

This weekend I made this sweater for patternmaking class. The silhouette is obviously pretty basic, just a raglan that i made oversized (since obviously I like everything xxl!). The fabric however is amazing- super soft and fuzzy felted dark green wool/mohair combo with a tiny but of orangey-red mixed in. In an effort to put off doing my lingerie art project as long as possible, I came up with the bright idea to hand finish the hem with some of that orangey-red. Then, naturally, I thought of a spiders and tried my best at embroidering one of those on there as well. Embroidery is definitely something I want to get better at, but I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

I wore it all day Monday and it was super comfortable and warm! It may or may not sub in for my "Best Dad on Earth" sweatshirt a couple of days a week... no promises though.

Photos courtesy of Angélique. Check out her blog here. She's really good about uploading her awesome sketches all the time. Plus she's just got a great eye for interesting things.

**this was day 2 into my thus far 4 day no sleeping streak. Fashion school is rough.

High Tea in Chicago

On a recent trip to visit my sis at Wheaton, we spent the day in Chicago. After cleaning out the boys department at Ralph Lauren, we collapsed into chairs in the beautiful salon at the Peninsula Hotel for high tea. Somewhere I scribbled down the full (extensive, amazing) menu, but who knows where that is now. As soon as I locate I will add for the full effect.

My Sis, sipping some tea at the Peninsula!!

Marissa pulls off this stuff better than a male model...

First course, sandwiches!! (These were so, so, so delicious... I really wish I could remember exactly what they were!)

Scones with clotted cream, lemon curd and homemade preserves.Surprise! Coconut souffles. (Best. Souffle. Ever.)And of course... the dessert tray. By this point Marissa's RL boyz blazer was feeling a little snug and I was curled up in a ball ready for a nap in the chair next to her. We definitely cabbed it back to the train station...

Cooking With Melly

vintage pic courtesy of our photog on call: MJP

So this week marked a really depressing milestone in my life. My best (and first nyc) boo not only moved out of my apt, but OUT OF THE STATE. I've been wallowing in self-pity all week. Now, not only do I have no one to snuggle with every night, but I have no one around to whip up delicious meals for me when I reach those work-induced points where I haven't consumed anything other than bagels and coffee in days (these times are real, and very scary).

Here are just a couple of the meals she's made for me in the past couple of months:

Melly's a vegetarian, and one night she was craving one of those bean patties they call veggie "burgers". Out of consideration for me, she also picked up some BEEF, plus loads of delicious veggies and toppings.

prepping

which one looks better guys? I whipped up some mini redskins with dijon mustard, olive oil and red wine vinegar (we were missing the chives though...) These babies had avocado, cheddar, pickles, field greens, and the best heirloom tomatoes ever from the Union Square farmers market- all on a fresh baguette (!!!!)

A couple of weeks later, I had spent all day waiting for the Time Warner repair man/ trying to finish a huge art project and incidentally hadn't eaten all day. Even though she'd just finished a marathon shift of serving customers with a smile at the 'Bux, she surprised me with this feast:

Taco with scrambled eggs, cheddar, fresh salsa and avocado in whole wheat tortilla.

And a pumpkin ice cream sundae for dessert.

That's true love guys.

It's Fall!

Fall is without a doubt my favorite season. When I first moved to New York I couldn't get over how awesome it was to have four distinct seasons. Now that I've experienced a small taste of Fall in northern Michigan though, I know that what I consider Fall here is a littttle bit lame. That said, I love 50 degree weather in NYC and even though there aren't a lot of colored leaves falling, there are a lot of little dogs in rain coats... almost as cool?!

Of everything I love about Fall, pumpkins are my absolute favorite. Particularly eating pumpkins. Last night I ate pumpkin ravioli...yum! My mom sent me an amazing pumpkin themed care package with a pumpkin loaf pan from William Sonoma. I had been dying to try it out but school has been insane so it took awhile. Finalllly:

It has this pretty little leaf print on top, and I just sprinkled a little powdered sugar.

There was a ton of extra batter so i made muffins also.

Mmmm... I love pumpkin everything! In other news, I had to make a bodysuit this week. Looking back on the extreme unpleasantness of sewing plaid spandex, I don't really know what possessed me to buy it, but I am pretty sure it had something to do with the lumberjack-y feeling that also reminds me of Fall.

I like the final product, but I definitely don't think it looks as complicated as it actually was to construct. I'll credit it to the hours I spent painstakingly matching plaids, but it is really hard to see that the front is actually 9 separate pattern pieces. (Also, the lines you see underneath the mesh are just style tape on the dress form, not part of the design.)