Today feels like the perfect Fall day. Woke up to temperatures in the low 60s, and the high temp, as predicted by my fave, Rusty Lord, will be near 75 degrees. What a way to usher in Labor Day Weekend!
Do you have big plans for the holiday weekend? I have nothing on my calendar yet, but I’m hoping that will change. I do not want to sit around on my bum for three days, sulking because J isn’t home. This is exactly the reason why I like to make plans in advance — I love having something to look forward to! Blank pages in my calendar make me sad. Do you agree?
On to the list:
A new source for affordable art — plus a giveaway! (via Please Sir)
Emily and I have the same desk. So why doesn’t mine look as stylish as hers? (PS: I want a Ghost chair!)
If I had an extra $1,000, I would buy a Satomi Kawakita ring in a heartbeat. (via Unruly Things)
Briscoe would never do what Uki did.
I need to look for some eggplants at the farmer’s market this weekend.
Oscar has the most adorable handmade denim trousers.
Would you wear two belts at the same time?
Joy’s dining room is a work in progress, but I already love it.
Kate Spade Publishing.
Truthfully, I think J and I are a pretty cool couple.
(image of gorgeous allium flowers via)
No, I’m not talking about the Sicilian delicacy. I’m talking about the paint color by Benjamin Moore. Check out my pick for bedroom paint over on Elizabeth Anne Designs Living.
Anybody want to place a bet that I’ll change my mind again before the paint goes up on the walls?
(bedroom inspiration via House Beautiful)
Our house came complete with window treatments in each room, thanks to the previous homeowners. I happen to like the off-white Roman shades; they are simple and clean and work with my style.
The one exception is in my bedroom. In that room the young couple from whom we bought the house hung the same Roman shades but in maroon rather than off-white. I have a love/hate relationship with those maroon shades. I loathe the color, but I appreciate how dark they keep my bedroom. They block the sun almost completely, making sleeping in, one of my favorite things to do, oh so easy.
Too easy, perhaps. I am not a morning person and will routinely hit the snooze button 2-3 times before dragging my sleepy self out of bed. At 8:30am. Not necessarily an outrageous time to wake up, but it’s so dark in my room that I could probably sleep straight through til noon and not realize I missed half of the day.
As you know, I’m in the process of redecorating my bedroom, and I’m seriously considering replacing my light-blocking shades with sheer curtains thanks to this bit of wisdom from the September 2010 issue of Whole Living:
Let the natural light be your morning alarm clock. Trade the blackout shades in the bedroom for more translucent ones; it’s a gentler wake-up call. “When your alarm goes off, your first feeling is resistance, which creates stress,” Miller says. “The rest of the world awakes with the sun–why don’t we?”
Are you addicted to the snooze button like I am or are you a morning person? What gets you out of bed?
(image source)
If I had to pick my favorite beauty product, it would definitely not be lipstick. Or lipgloss. My lips are teeny tiny, and I constantly forget to reapply gloss or lipstick after my initial application. I can certainly live without lip coloring.
What I can’t live without, though, is mascara. I’m obsessed. It’s amazing how much brighter your face can look after darkening your eyelashes.
For a million years I used Great Lash mascara by Maybelline in the iconic pink and green tube. Then I moved on to Cover Girl’s Lash Blast and Lash Exact. While all three looked fantastic in the morning, by evening they would dry up and flake. I’d have bits of mascara scattered underneath my eyes. To make matters worse, I got in the terrible habit of picking the clumps and flakes out of my eyelashes while watching TV at night. Inevitable I would pull out several eyelashes while doing so.
Then I heard about tubing mascara. Simply put, tubing mascara forms tiny tubes around each lash that refuse to smudge or flake. Cosmetic consultant Yoram Fishman told O Magazine in 2009 that “most mascaras are oil- or wax-based; they’re essentially paints. [Tubing mascara] formulas are water-based and contain polymers that form a solid film around each lash once the product dries.”
Before splurging on a tube of tubing mascara by Blinc, Too Faced or Stila, I decided to test out L’Oreal Paris Double Extend Mascara, which I picked up on sale at Target. The verdict: LOVE. Love, love, love. No clumps, no flakes, and I’m convinced my already-long eyelashes look even longer. The formula literally lasts all day. It washes away strangely (the little tubes sort of melt off of your lashes) but easily. (They say that water will wash them away, but I found it more effective to use eye make-up remover.)
My question for you: Have you tried tubing mascara yet? What do you think?
Also, what’s your favorite beauty product?
(image source)
When my sister was in Omaha a couple of weekends ago, we went on a shopping spree at Whole Foods. She loves to cook but finds it challenging to do in her New York City apartment; her kitchen is literally the size of my coffee table. She was excited to roam the aisles of Whole Foods, picking up ingredients to create culinary masterpieces in my “huge” kitchen.
Unfortunately, my sister had to leave before she had the chance to teach me how to make homemade hummus. But this weekend, I was craving hummus and pita chips, and, knowing I already had all of the ingredients, I decided to attempt it myself. One caveat: my sister was going to use plain yogurt instead of tahini for a low fat hummus.
Using Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything (thanks, Alice!) as a guide, I quickly and easily whipped up hummus in my blender. I simply replaced the required amount of tahini with the same amount of yogurt. I’m not sure if that was the “right” thing to do… my hummus, while tasty, was a bit runny.
Later, while browsing the web, I came across this recipe for hummus with yogurt, which is very similar to the recipe I invented, except I did not add peanut butter (weird!) but did include cumin.
Would I make it again? Probably, but first I would test it out with tahini.
Do you have a favorite hummus recipe?
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