zero 7

we had our second visit to the house of blues on saturday night, marking my second live showing of zero 7. it wasn't until we had our redbull and beer in hand, (un)comfortably leaning against an iron railing that i decided to look at our tickets and realizing that they said "right balcony". we quickly scuttled over to the door girl, and asked what that meant. we got ushered up to the third (?!) floor, seated on the right side where NO ONE else was sitting for 75% of the evening. and enjoyed the show from an oscillating club chair. sweet.

ombre nails

i'm a little obsessed with nail polish. i'm comfortable admitting to it. i just HAD to have the $125 set of rescue beauty lounge polishes last year for christmas.
everytime i go to ULTA i can't say no to the newest Essie colors or buy 2, get 1 sales. Pastels, darks, purples, i love them all !

when i saw these ombre nails, i fell in love. i even bought a cheapo palette to mix my own colors in! i just need to buy some nice opaque white and some extra brushes and my painting experiment will be good to go.


i even love these multi colored nails. i did this once, with shades of yellow and orange. it was a little extreme, and i only left it on for a day or two. but these colors? Love love love! totally not juvenile at all.

le french macaron

oui oui.

i've been admiring these little cuties ever since spying them in a super cute candy shop in san francisco last spring. pastel colors, four ingredients, wrapped up cute, who could resist, really?

yesterday while perusing the always jaw-droppingly amazing Anthro at the burlington mall, i spied this book: i <3 macarons


this evening, after brunch at soffra (again!) with emily, working on my freelance job, doing laundry, making dinner, making more candles, i decided to try my hand at the macaron! don't confuse this with the macaroon, mon amie. see here

the result? a definite fail. but, the book says it'll take more than one try to get it right. i haven't lost hope! the batter is delicious :)

h-mart

mauricio and i are slightly obsessed with ethnic grocery stores. or maybe i am? and i drag him along? really? anyway, we heard about this new korean grocery store that opened in burlington. at first i couldn't believe it was any good. burlington? of all places? so on a rainy saturday night, we grabbed the tom tom and a couple reusuable shopping bags and typed in the address. and got lost. but ended up finding it ! it's right behind the plaza with market basket and old navy. it was SO crowded, finding a parking space was a challenge in itself. my master parking skills got us in quickly, and my mouth pretty much dropped to the floor. it was an amazing store. huge, nicely organized, every single asian grocery item i could ever want, EVER. our shopping highlights included: three kinds of mushrooms, jumbo udon, three kinds of mochi, seeing like 25 kinds of whole fresh fish. it was amazing. definitely going back soon.

if there's a pot big enough...

over the weekend, after talking about it all summer long, we finally had a shrimp boil. it's a great concept; a perfect one pot meal. it's all about timing: add some cajun spices. then the potatos, then the corn, then the veggies, then the meat, then the eggs, then the shrimpies. then viola! everything is cooked, you drain, you eat! it's so fun, hands-on, delicious, and totally healthy.

fun in the park

it was a lazy sunday afternoon, warm and mushy from the rain. the dog (and the humans) needed to stretch her(his) legs. so we walked to the park!




my two favorite bums.


(click on this for the larger version! i swear, it's worth it)

sewing and more sewing

reupholstering is 95% done. i just need an hour or two more to do some finish work.




NOW: action shots! staple gun! glue! oh boy! get excited! or get scared (of my hair). your choice.

candle making

so we channel martha stewart's creativity in our free time. most recent project? candle making! i could go into the details, but i don't want to bore you. let's just say it involved about $75 worth of supplies from the art store, a silicone rubber mold inside of a PVC pipe, and soy wax. so far, we've made three.


the candle was molded after a piece of driftwood we found on the beach in provicetown last winter on one of our first vacations together.



(this is me holding the mold open. see the cool detail??)

busy weekends

weekends seem to come by so quickly... they usually last a long time, feel much longer than 48 hours, and end leaving me with a sense of accomplishment. lately, we've been doing so many fun things! new things! eating different things!


we finally tried Berryline in harvard square. i think z enjoyed it the most. very tart, just like plain yogurt.(it's ok that the three of us shared a spoon, right?)



browsing used books.


making cutouts in the crazy colored leaves.



new fall boots.


breakfast at soffra: pistascio croissant, almond pastry, homemade greek yogurt with grano and preserves.


first attempt at cooking clams: with fuscilli (jerry), shrimp, little necks and watercress. steamy and delicious. and a big success!
RECIPE: fuscilli with clams
boil pasta.
in separate large covered skillet, boil one bottle of clam juice with several coarsely chopped cloves of garlic. once boiled, place clams in juice and cover. clams are cooked once they open. add fresh thyme and marjoram. add sauteed shrimp. add watercress. cover pot until watercress wilts. add cooked pasta. mix all together. eat!

moving out

i daydream about what my new apartment will look like. the colors i will paint the walls, the cool carpets i will buy, my big dining room table that will have craft and art projects spread out on it when i'm not having friends or family over for delicious homecooked meals. i'm a little obsessed with design blogs and snapping screenshots of my favorite room layouts and furniture designs. ack. when am i moving? who the heck knows. a girl can dream, can't she?

spain + america

wowsa, the last year has flown by!

we've gone on so many vacations, i've lost track: new orleans, san francisco, provincetown, vermont.... and soon, spain and morocco!

we've laughed so hard we've cried on pretty much a weekly basis.

we've cooked SO many amazing meals together. we've filled our time doing awesome stuff, like road trips to art museums and swedish furniture stores and with the usual stuff, like walking down mass ave poking into all the usual shops and stores. it never gets boring.

smuggling hot dogs in the movie theatre, sharing yogurt with the dog, poking around paper stores, finding new vegetable markets and ethnic grocery stores, dance parties in the living room or in the car at a red light...

i can't wait for years and years more of random fun.

i got some awesome flowers today, and we're going to Oleana tonight to celebrate.

xoxo

upholstery, halloween, and other things

1. I am almost at the final step of the upholstery project. My couch is naked and ready to be covered! But, the combination of working long hours and the fabric store closing at 5:30 pm is preventing me from buying fabric. Maybe this weekend I can fabric shop?
Last weekend I spent a great deal of time ripping off the remaining fabric (i think the neighbors could hear me grunting). I thought i had survived the hardest parts of the process- getting the darn thing home, and sanding off the stupid finish! but, alas, i was tricked! and getting the inside arms and back seat fabrics off (where they meet- stuck in the corners) was actually the most labor-intensive task to date. With that being said, I haven't even begun cutting and applying fabrics, so i may eat my words soon enough! oh well, i'm having fun :)
these pictures show the wood after the sanding was just completed. the stain went on so nice and easy- i used a stain and polyurethane in one! i applied two coats and voila! good as new. i did notice, however, that the couch is made of different kinds of woods. this wasn't noticeable before sanding. it now looks kind of rustic and worn, which i'm totally into.




2. halloween was kind of a laugh riot. our costumes were very last minute. i'm actually kind of glad there aren't any pictures of me. i dressed up as mauricio, in his favorite clothes, complete with mustache and beard. the morning of halloween, we carved pumpkins, roasted seeds, raked leaves. we were SO fall! it was so much fun. oh, can't forget to mention Z and her amazing costume. she was such a good sport and let us dress her up one last time, just long enough to pose in her (un)natural habitat for a photoshoot. it was beyond hysterical. since it was unseasonably warm, that night we had dinner (finally!) on the rooftop at Daedalus. i guess it has to be november (or nearly) to not have to wait to sit on the roof. it was pretty empty, and we had a great time. the rain started as soon as we licked our plates clean, so we skee-daddled and went home to costume-Up and met julie and jason at Sacco's to bowl the night away. we met a couple of their friends, Hal and Tara, who were pretty cool. overall, a great halloweenie!