Ace In The Hole

{attractive donut picture from here, via here}

The distinct lack of winter in these parts has left me feeling not very much like baking.

Which is a major bummer. I like winter, and I like hunkering down with the mixer in my triple layer sweats.

That's not to say that the downright spring-like temperatures aren't without benefits: drawers have been emptied (and vacuumed, because I'm crazy like that), clothes washed, line-dried, and folded. Closets have been emptied of contents, scrubbed clean, and then refilled in a slightly more organized manner. The first of most likely many donation pick-ups is scheduled for tomorrow.

There is a definite air of spring cleaning about the place.

But...something's not quite right.

So, last week, buoyed by the lack of a kitchen and too much Pinterest goodness, I tempted the fates and decided to make these donuts.

Mind you, I have never made donuts before. I had to go out to buy a donut pan (which is a tricky little bugger to come by in a land where chain donuteries rule). It was for mini donuts. I had to figure out how to fill it. And I had to do it all in bare-walled space that is only narrowly passing for a kitchen. Quite a delicate high-wire act, I tell you.

But figure it out I did. And, sure, my little mini donuts looked more like tiny cupcakes with holes in the middle than actual donuts. And so what if my glaze didn't dry the same delicious pink as the donuts in the picture (or dry at all, for that matter).

They were ugly, and they were delicious.
Balance has been restored.

xo

Hunky Dory

Now that awards season has passed, I think it can be safely said that Tilda Swinton spent the  whole of it auditioning for the role of David Bowie in the biopic of his life (possible titles being The Rise and Fall of Aladin Sane, The Thin White Duke, or Queen Bitch).

And if you think about it for half a second, you realize that she really is the perfect only choice, what with all of her lanky, alabaster-skinned androgeny.

So let's get on this, Hollywood. See above right for contact information. You know, for royalty checks and the like.

xo

Summertime

I found myself watching Summertime the other night for the umpteenth time.

It never gets old.

It's one of those rare movies that gets everything right.

All of the breathless, gasping wonder that is Venice

The sights, the sounds, the magical light that shines over Italy.

(If you've ever been there, you know the light of which I speak.)

The still shots, lingering on every statue, bell tower, and facade you yourself would stop to photograph. The movie camera panning down the city's shadowed, twisting, turning alleyways before coming upon some majestic Venetian view, glistening in the sun.

And Katharine Hepburn is perfect, absolutely perfect, as an American seeing the magic that is Venice for the first time.

Walking around in wide-eyed, smiling wonder, camera in hand, breathing in every last bit of dolce vita.

I want to go back.

But this will hold me over...for now.

xo

This Is All I Know

I am loving everything about these paintings by Portland based artist Amanda Blake.

The faces, the colors, the sweet backgrounds.

Lovely ladies, created in oils on wooden boards.

Blakes original works are available here, with limited edition prints available here.

xo

Love Is All Around

{Postcard sent by Julia Child and her husband, Paul.
Valentine's Day, 1956}

xo

Pucker Up

Get your Bonnie Bell Lipsmackers in order, kids, because The Beatles are here for your smooching enjoyment.

And just in time for Valentine's Day.

{image}

xx

Happy Weekend

{image}

Happy Weekend, y'all.

What do you have planned?

I've been living amongst the chaos of a kitchen remodel for the past week.

Everything is turned upside down. The cupboards are, quite literally, bare. Or better yet: no longer even there. It's an adventure every morning just trying to make a cup of coffee, wandering from non-kitchen room to non-kitchen room, collecting spoons and mugs and sugar. And adventure is not really what you want before you have your morning coffee.

But adventure is upon us, and it looks like it's here to stay for the foreseeable future. Make do and mend time, right?

Oh, and it's supposed to snow, which it hasn't properly done yet this winter. White stuff flying through the air, both inside and out.

Should be an adventure.

xo

In Step

I love these shoes, from recent Central Saint Martins College fashion graduate Helen Bullock.

The London-based designer fitted pieces of found wood to the shoe, creating one heck of a pair of kicks.

Shoes plus chippy painted wood.

What's not to love?

xo

The New Guard

These ladies stand sentry to the doors and portals of Melbourne, Australia.

Cut from paper and hung throughout the city, they are the work of Ukranian-born artist Stanislava Pinchuk, better known as Miso.

{images}

xo

When In Rome...

It almost never snows in Rome.
But lately, the ancient city's been donning a blanket of white.

 

A rare, lovely sight, indeed.

xo