Samantha Pleet - Eco Friendly Spring.

Samantha Pleet's collection for Spring 2011. So good.







The best thing is that the pieces are eco-friendly, and made in small batches in Brooklyn, NY.

I don't know about you, but I am more than ready for Spring!

An Outfit

It's been awhile since I posted an outfit. I wore this about to run errands and to go pick up some take out. My photographer was very very ill yesterday - so thanks Mar for taking the time to snap these photos!







The center piece of this outfit is the Snoozer Loser sea fan skirt. It's pretty amazing and I can't wait to style it up for warmer days.

And, yeah there is a Star Wars theme around our home. You may have spotted our statuette of Jabba in other photos.

My Favorite Vegan...

...cookbooks, that is. I couldn't really choose a favorite vegan, I love all my peeps.

I just thought I'd share some of my favorite vegan cookbooks. I assure you, that even if you are not vegan yourself there are a lot of yummy dishes in these books that you may wish to try.




1. India
This book was a Christmas gift, and while it is not technically a solely Vegan book - there are tons of yummy veggie only recipes and the ones that aren't are easily adaptable. It is a Phaidon book so it has amazing photos! So far the recipes I've tried have been AMAZING.

I made Cumin Tempered Potatoes, Eggplant Curry, Roti, Dal, and Garbanzo Bean Dumplings.

2.Vegan Yum Yum
Go figure, this book was also a gift from my sis. The recipes in this book are easy, quick to make, and hearty. The perfect book to whip out on winter evenings when you're too lazy to spend hours in the kitchen and just want some yummy comfort food stat.

My faves in this book are the Baked Mac & 'Cheese', the Hurry Up Alfredo, and the Sweet Potato Bake.

3. Veganomicon

This book is the mother of all Vegan cookbooks. It covers Sauces, Salads, Condiments, Soups, Casseroles, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Desert, Snacks, Drinks - what have you. What is crazy is that I've made almost all the recipes in this book. It's really hard to chose favorites, but the recipes that I make over and over are, the Pasta De La California, Manzana Chili Verde, Penne Vodka, and the Spinach Lasagna.

4. Vegan Brunch

From the writer/chefs that wrote Veganomicon - Vegan Brunch covers so many yummy Breakfast/Brunch - Lunch foods. There are even recipes to make our own 'sausages'.
This is such a great book for entertaining. Even for entertaining non-vegan friends.

If you end up getting this book, or searching online for any of it's recipes, try the Banana Rabanada - a Brazilian 'French Toast' - it is amazing!


5. The Candle Cafe Cookbook

On our trip to NYC in October - we had dinner at both Candle 79 and The Candle Cafe. I love both these restaurants - seriously, I wish they had a West Coast restaurant.

The best recipe I've tried so far, is for a fun light dinner, The Mezze Platter. It's perfect to share with a few people.

They also serve this at their restaurant.

***I'm hoping that once I get a bit more organized, I'll be taking photos of the recipes I try out.

OH My God! Say it ain't so! Twitter?

Yes, it is true. I'm on Twitter. Oh, I started a twitter account way way back - and then never ever used it. Why? I'm not going to lie I think it's stupid. There I said it. I mean why is it necessary to *tweet* isn't it better to read a blog? And really aren't blogs and Facebook just a better more in depth versions of Twitter? Sorry out there to all of you Tweeters that love the platform - I mean no disrespect. I just don't understand it.

So, why the change? Why am I now adding Twitter to my blog?

I've started taking an online class on Social Media and Journalism. One of the platforms we will be using/ learning about is Twitter. While I'm skeptical that I'll fall head over heels, cute flats and boots, over Twitter. I do realize that it is a platform that many people and businesses use - and I don't want to be one of those curmudgeony people that dislikes things without giving them a chance - so here I am.

We'll see what happens.

I'm curious to know if you use Twitter, and if so - for what reason?

Knots and Bows

I came across this how-to for an knot tie up-do on Refinery 29. I'm hoping to try it out as soon as I gets me some bobby pins. You can read the step by step guide to try it out here.



I know I haven't been writing as much lately. I've been spending my time hanging out with Mario and friends, re-watching Twin Peaks, making Indian food, writing short stories and prepping for getting my Etsy shop up and running.

Stay tuned for that. I have a lot of goodies to list in the shop- vintage belts, scarves, sweaters, dresses, and tops.

Hope that you've all been well. I do miss you blog amigos - but I am actually having a good time taking a break from constant blogging. It may be a strange thing for a blogger to say to other bloggers and blog readers, but I highly recommend taking a short break from the interwebs every now and again.

Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere and I will keep on blogging - but for the next few weeks it may just be less than the usual.

A night out at Golden Gate and the de Young

We finally made it out to the de Young to see the Post Impressionist exhibit. We attempted to go Friday night, but the exhibit was sold out, so we purchased our tickets early for Saturday and ended up going out to get Indian food by the park. And then having to make the trip back out again Saturday night.

I feel that the pieces curated for the exhibit were not as well picked as for the first installment (the Impressionists). There weren't many interesting pieces chosen, it's as if they just chose the more well known paintings - which I feel can be boring.

I'd seen the paintings before at the Musée d'Orsay, and I had wanted to be able to view them at leisure with Mario - but it really was just too crowded to really take it all in (note to self: avoid going to special exhibits closing weekend!)

We did get to see some Seraut pointillist paintings that I like.




And, while you cannot take photos in the museum, we did get some night time shots of the concourse outside.

Pieces of a weekend.

As usual this weekend was not nearly long enough. It has been pretty cold and that tends to make me lazy, so while we had big plans to head out to the de Young, we ended up staying home reading and watching movies. Oh, well.

Sunday I did go out for a bit with a friend which was really nice - and the hubs and I got some chores done as well.

Next weekend is a three dayer, and we will get to the de Young then. We have a day planned for a Point Reyes hike.

Here are some pictures I took just passing the time.


New Necklace


Lulas


Bailey

I also finished reading the books I started last week - plus I snuck in reading This Boy's Life. I'm on the hunt for some new reads - so if you have any suggestions please share.

New Year, new things to see...

2011 is off and running. I'm back at work, reading blogs, baking treats, in general feeling better and enjoying the new year so far.

I'm excited that the Oscar season movies are in theaters - just this past weekend we went to see Black Swan, and True Grit. Both were really good. I mean really good, after months and months without a thing that would tempt me to go into a theater, finally stories worth watching.

Natalie Portman, (though she is really pretty) I can usually take or leave as far as her acting - but not the case in Black Swan- she does an amazing job, and while I was disappointed that there wasn't any actual dancing per say (not like other dance movies for example, (The Turning Point) - the overall film was truly scary and a there was a lot in it to analyze. Years ago I took a class that discussed the topic of women and autonomy and the body. Let's just say this film would have been perfect to analyze in that forum.

True Grit was really good, as well. Definitely a great story - with strong characters - it's funny - and the dialogue is amazing. But then for me, the Coens can rarely do any wrong - this counts as yet another fantastic novel adaptation from them. I'm a bit ashamed to say I didn't read the novel before going to see the film! But, it's on my list of books to read.

Right now I'm reading two books (yeah I read several books at a time) The Autobiography of Mark Twain and Tomato Red.

This weekend we're off to the De Young to see the final installment of the Impressionist paintings on loan from the Musée d'Orsay , and maybe try Gracias Madre - a vegan Mexican restaurant in the Mission.

Many new things are underway, I'm keeping myself distracted and trying to be stress free.

That's my wish for all of you for 2011. That you have the time to take it slow and enjoy what is around you.