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Ok. Maybe not quite. But my work was featured on laurenconrad.com today and that's pretty much the same thing :) There you'll find a great post about being the best bridesmaid ever. Naturally my temporary tattoos are a must.
Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm celebrating by wearing these lovely green gems which were my late grandmother's Evelyn Rose McGillivray. Also looking forward to a release party of my friend, Jacob's new beer cocktail book at Bull in China Shop where he'll be serving a Porter and Irish Whiskey punch.
Feel ambitious? Check out this great corned beef recipe.
Hope you're all gearing up for a great weekend! I'm off to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday! He happens to be big fans of Porter and Stout; both my dogs and the suds. So I printed up these cute little cards and presto: instant gift!
DIY floral crowns, cotton, candy, temporary tattoos, and your besties. Now that's a bachelorette party!!! Party Love Birds styled this fabulous soiree for latest issue of A Low Country Wedding. Check them both of for lots of fun bachelorette and wedding inspiration and you can find the pink diamond tattoos here.
Packing has always been a pretty daunting task for me. In the past I'd find myself with widely inappropriate clothes (because hey, maybe I'll need my little black dress while in Glacier National Park) and/or completely lacking essentials like enough underwear for the trip. Several years ago on that camping trip, I realized I was miserable because I didn't properly pack and had nothing I needed or wanted. So that's when I decided I needed to create a comprehensive travel checklist for every kind of trip I might take and have it on hand to tailor it to be my packing guide for any upcoming trip.
When I got home from that failure of a trip I created a running list of everything I could possible need for travel. I thought about what I would need for roadtrips, flying, extended vacations, traveling with my dogs, ski vacations, everything that typically do and then listed out everything I would possible want for each trip. I like to include everything since it can be deleted or crossed out for each trip but nice to think about all the same, like do I need to bring tweezers for a weekend trip? Probably not. But two weeks and I'd be looking like Friedo Kahlo. So I like to start big and whittle the list down.
The other key for me is mapping out my outfits for each day of the trip. I edit the document to reflect the days I'll be traveling and then build the outfit from the ground up; listing my shoes, socks, underwear, bra, top, bottom and jewelry. Although some things like shoes may be repeated I still find it helpful to check off each element and avoid not having the right undergarment or shoes for an outfit.
Here's my packing guide. Feel free to use it as a jumping off point for creating your own guide.
Happy Travels!
Man! Is it already December 23rd?!? Ugh. How'd that happen? If you're like me, today (and let's face it, tomorrow) is for rounding up last minute gifts. Have you been out there today? It's kinda crazy.... Nothing like waiting to the last-minute. Oh well, we'll do better next year...
But chances are you have all the materials and ingredients you need to put together a totally thoughtful Christmas gift that's actually completely last-minute! Just open up your liquor cabinet and bottle a batch of your favorite cocktail! Even if your bar is less than well-stocked, your neighborhood liquor store will have everything you need and should still be open. God bless 'em. When I happened upon this idea, I realized I actually happened to have a 5 liter oak barrel of a favorite cocktail barrel-aging already. Man, this is easy. But even if it's not as simple as pouring directly from a barrel to a bottle for you, the cocktail I had on hand, A Long Week, doesn't need to be barrel-aged (but it's cool; stay tuned for more post on that process) and is a very simple recipe: it's equal parts El Tesoro Plata Tequila, Cynar and Carpano Antica. To serve just stir the cocktail with ice in mixing glass, serve up in coupe, add few drops of mole bitters, garnish with orange peel (and you could totally get away without bitters or the garnish if you need to). So A Long Week is definitely a great option for this last minute gift, but Manhattans, Negronis and anything that doesn't contain perishables (like citrus or diary) will also work perfectly for your bottled cocktail christmas gift. So just choose your favorite; the recipient will loved that you love it.
So all I did for this last minute gift was fill a bottle with the cocktail, fill up an eyedropper vessel with some mole bitters and grab some oranges from the grocery store. Then I printed the ingredients and serving directions on kraft paper and used my tag punch and hole punch to make gift tags which I tied on the bottle with baking twine. Boom! Done! A hand-crafted Christmas cocktail gift.
Materials/Ingredients:
Extra credit:
Plenty of people are turned off by eggnog, but I personally think it's because they've never had a good one. Most people's first (and therefore only) experience with eggnog is the sickeningly sweet substance in the grocery store dairy case. No question about it: that stuff is nasty. But trust me; with very minimal effort, an absolutely delicious eggnog can be made. There's lots of great recipes out there; the more traditional recipes call for brandy although rum and bourbon are very popular (and good!) options too. But my absolute favorite to make is the version Jeffrey Morgenthaler created for Clyde Common. This now classic Portland holiday drink calls for two unusual spirits: tequila and sherry. Pretty unheard of for eggnog but let me tell you it's perfection and become a bit of a holiday tradition in our house. I can't imagine not making it at least once each Christmas season. You can find more information about eggnogs on Morgenthaler's website.
This recipe makes 1 gallon so you may want to adjust depending on your needs. Either way you'll probably need to blend in batches unless you have a crazy big blender. I found that a 1/4 of this recipe worked best for keeping it manageable in a standard blender. So to get started, first beat the eggs on a slow speed; make sure they're well mixed but don't over do it or else you'll end up with scrambled eggs. Next slowly add in the nutmeg and sugar until incorporated and dissolved. And then it's just a matter of slowing adding the remaining liquids, so add in the sherry, tequila, milk and cream. Refrigerate the nog overnight as well as the glassware you'll be serving them in. Then the next day you can pour the nog into the chilled glass and grate nutmeg over the top. And then bottoms up :)
I had a really ambitious goal for my holiday "card" this year: I want to create a stop-motion animation video. I envisioned a jazzy few seconds of me decorating the tree, hanging stockings, frolicking with the pugs. And while I did successfully make a video, it wasn't quite as quality as I was hoping but it was a good time nonetheless and I definitely learned a few things that I'll be applying to the next attempt. My first realization/recommendation would be to use a remote. I did set this up on a tripod (which is a must) but you'll notice that it still jumps around a bit each time I click the button. The other big issue was lighting. I shot this during the day due to time constraints but if I had it do over again I would have shot at night so there was not such dramatic shadow play (Another option would be to flood the environment with artificial light). But all in all, making a stop motion animation video is pretty simple and can easily be edited in iMovie or the like afterwards :)
I don't know about you but I can't help but think about getting my Christmas shopping taken care of. I like to get it done as early as busy for sanity reasons but it's also nice to spread it out over a few months so it not a huge financial blow all at once, right?
Lately I've been really digging all the gold geometric jewelry out there. So I had a lot of fun pulling together some inexpensive pieces that would make great stocking stuffers for your lady friend, bestie, mom or with prices like these you don't have to feel guilty about buying yourself a little somethin-somethin. I bought a set of midi rings last week and was a great little refresh to my wardrobe without buying a single article of clothing. And how cool is number 3? It's a septum/ear cuff. Think I'll wear it as a septum ring to Thanksgiving dinner with grandma and the gang :)
