love forever

Loving {Forever}: New Year's Glitz and Glam

I don't know what it is this year but getting dressed up is more fun than ever. There are few fun aspects of the aging process but one of them is that I care less and less about what other people think of my get-ups. Now the going out part: that's getting to be a little less fun, but who cares? Even if you're just hanging out with a couple of friends on New Year's Eve, give yourself a crazy manicure and stick a feather in your cap. It's a new year and this is not the time to play it safe.

So, why don't you...

...don a wild hat and some serious party lips. My two favorites are Funny Face and Schiap by Nars.

...wear a party dress with bedazzled kicks. Or make your own.


...tease your hair, pile on the sequins.
(image from Numero #129 by Sebastian Kim)

...throw some ballons in the air (or under your skirt).
(image by Sølve Sundsbø for Vogue China)

...be the hit of the party with the most ridiculously awesome cake ever.

...cover yourself in glitter from head to toe. I'm going to do my nails with this magical Holographic polish.


...bust out some Sophia minis. And drink them in the can! They're cuter that way.

...party like it's 1958.
(image from the Time Life archives)

...make your own confetti and streamers. Throw them everywhere!

And don't forget to kiss someone at midnight!

Cookie Time

I can't believe I haven't mentioned the word "holiday" on my blog and Christmas is only one week away! Even though it doesn't seem like I'm in the spirit yet, festive things are starting to happening around the Loveforever house, we are just firm believers in some good holiday procrastination. Basically we talk about how much we need to get started on holiday preparations for a couple of months and finally spring into action around December 10th. Over the last week, wrapping paper was made, presents were crafted and of course, cookies were baked.


We were invited to a co-workers cookie party this weekend and I wanted to try a few new things. Last summer I went to Blue Bottle Coffee in Brooklyn and had parmesan fennel shortbread with sea salt. It was sublime, buttery, salty goodness. I couldn't find the recipe for it so I doctored this Ina recipe a bit, adding fennel seeds, a sprinkle of cheese and pink himalyan sea salt on top. Oh and a tiny bit of sugar to the dough. Mr. Love Forever said they tasted like tiny pizzas. I believe this to be a great compliment.






Another cookie I dream about is the TKO cookie (that's Thomas Keller Oreo) from Bouchon Bakery. Thankfully this recipe is very easy to find on the internet. The cookie is incredible: salty, crumbly and rich with chocolate and the filling is just like an Oreo but without the waxy shortening aftertaste. I made also made a peppermint variety, adding a few drops of peppermint oil to the filling and rolling the sandwich in peppermint candies crushed into sparkling minty dust. Oh. my. gosh. They are so good. Like tempted to not go to the party and spend the day in bed with a plate of cookies good.

Wanderlust: Three Days in Providence, RI

I've talked about my intense wanderlust instinct before. It's definitely a bit of a grass-is-always-greener syndrome- I spend three days in a cute town, city or hamlet and I instantly want to move there. But I swear, I could actually live in Providence for reals. When Squam friends Elizabeth and Christine invited me to spend a few days in their adobable city, I jumped at the chance.

Providence rolled out the perfect fall weekend for me with crisp sunny days walking through leaf strewn sidewalks and lazy brunches nibbling on pastries and drinking tea. Elizabeth and Christine were perfect hosts- that just right combination of lots to do and see but no hurry to do it in.



On Friday I hopped the train (I love train rides don't you?) from NYC and got into Providence very late but luckily Christine's house has a separate entrance so I snuck in to find a gigantic king size bed piled with pillows just for me and note telling me that there were homemade muffins and butternut squash soup in the fridge. What is this magical place? My personal heaven?












Saturday we walked all over the city, stopping for a delicious, local and somehow still inexpensive lunch at the art collective space AS220. My favorite part of the day (and possibly the month) was a visit to the Edna Lawrence Nature Lab, part of RISD but open to the public. Artists of all kinds can peruse the thousands of specimens, rocks, shells, feathers and animals there and then sketch, sculpt and paint them at the giant tables there. I think I could go there every day. They also had a beautiful exhibit about the geometry of plant life and nature. Just the kind of nerdiness that I go for.







We had dinner at La Laiterie, another local type retaurant. I had steak with mushroom gnocci and sunchoke fondant. It made my head explode with happiness.











Sunday started off with the aforementioned lazy brunch at Elizabeth's beautiful light filled house (and her vey own mini- Nature Lab). Seriously Providence, why are you hogging all the sun? I like my house fine but let's be real, it is a dark South Philly cave. After that we took another walk, did some shopping, followed by dinner at Christine's (why didn't I take pics of here house too? Dang!) and dessert at Pastiche.

And Sunday I took a walk with Elizabeth then headed home. Even the adorably cute train station had good food: I got myself a grilled cheese on sourdough bread from the local bakery with avocado and bacon. Take that Penn Station.

Good eats and pretty scenery aside, the best part of the trip was the talking. You know when you are with people that just get you, regardless of how short or long they've known you and the conversation is just effortless? I came home inspired and happy, ready to start lots of new projects and dream lots of big things.

In my world, everyone has cotton candy hair.

Kenzo fashion show finale

So, I am taking this online life coaching class called the Declaration of You (run by these two super-duper ladies), which is fantabulous and making me think like a mile a minute about my life and my future. I highly recommend it to anyone feeling like they need a good kick in the pants on the “realizing life goals” front. This week, our topic was “Success”; the first part of the exercise, we were asked to meditate/daydream in our own fantasyland, just getting lost in your perfect place. Of course, the only things I found frustrating about this exercise was giving myself five minutes alone to think.

But once I did, it was amazing: I let my mind completely wander and here's what I found in my fantasyland...
the city is painted a riot of different colors and patterns. People just sort of float around right above the ground and their hair is colorful like cotton candy. My job is to constantly reinvent what the city looks like, repainting and wallpapering buildings and streets (hey, that's a little bit like my job right now!).

Then you take this fantasy and start translating it into reality and find your definition of success.
I determined that I feel successful when I am wildly creative and free to play, when I am collaborating with others and when my job is able to make me and others more happy and fulfilled. 

In honor of my fantasy-land, a few candy colored inspirations...

 
Editorial from Dazed and Confused

Jonathan Zawada


Three photos by Tim Walker

Biscuits in a line by Joel Penkman

Lush Bella photograph. via Nest Pretty Things

via.

Will Cotton painting

pom pom factory. via oh joy.

What do you think your fantasy land would be like?

 

Pretty Preserves Tied Up With String

Remember these jams I made a couple of years ago? Well, the lovely people over at Instructables asked me to write up the instructions for the packaging as a featured project so you can make them too!
I made mine for the holidays (an absolutely perfect gift by the way-it was a huge hit!) but these jams would be a perfect hostess gift for any time.

Fine & Raw

I'm two weeks into my cleanse and though I'm slowly allowed to start adding some "bad stuff" back into my diet, I've really been taking my time. It's hard to explain just how good I feel, sometimes I'm positively brimming with joy. That's not exactly my usual MO.

What I've really loved is finding all these new good-for-me snacks. Things like kale chips and almond milk ice cream and raw chocolate. About two weeks ago, the words "raw chocolate sweetened with agave" would have made me turn up my nose with . "Sounds like carob", I would have thought. Well, I will very happily eat my words. On Saturday, I bought three Fine & Raw chocolate bars at the Brooklyn Flea and they are to die for. Seriously, this is just good chocolate, plain and simple. The sea salt is my favorite I think but I plan on eating my way through their inventory so I'll keep you posted!

Cleanse

This smoothie, or something very closely resembling this smoothie has been my breakfast for the last seven days. I'm on a month long cleanse. This means: no alcohol, no gluten, no dairy, no processed sugar, no caffeine, and no assorted other things. It was really tough at first. So tough that I thought I had a fever the second day, which turned out to simply be all the toxins in my body desperately escaping through my pores. Ew, I know.
But as the days have gone on it's gotten less and less tough. I feel great, have tons of energy and I never thought I could love a smoothie as much as I do. There are some downsides: I am soo not fun right now. My idea of a Friday night out was going to the gym and I spent Saturday night happily sewing and watching Law and Order reruns while most of my friends were out living it up.
I've also been thinking a lot about my relationship with food, namely, why do I reward myself with things that are bad for me? That makes no sense at all. I mean, I absolutely love a good dinner out but why do I think I deserve a good dinner out three nights a week?
Have you ever been on a cleanse? How did you feel? Were you able to keep up the "good behavior" even after it was over?

Pumpkin Patch

So the Mr. and I have this new thing where we try to actually leave the city a bit on the weekend. It's a new thing for me, this free time. Lately, we have been going to farms and picking things. I can't say we've found our perfect farm yet, mostly they have been a little more on the touristy/cheesy side and less on the picturesque/pastoral side of things but who are we to complain? We're not farmers so we certainly don't get to complain. Anyway, it's always fun and we keep coming back for more!

This weekend, a couple of friends came down from NY to go pumpkin picking. We went on a hayride, got a few pumpkins in the process and picked up fresh ingredients to make a veritable locally grown feast. The buffalo burgers, the squash and the apple pie was delicious. The corn, not so much. The moral of the story here: no matter how local, when it's out of season, just don't buy it!

One more moral of this story: Kayte, stop being so lazy and bring the good camera with you! Please note the difference between these photos and the apple picking photos. Um, night and freaking day. I've learned my lesson.

Teeny Tiny Tomatoes

 

We had a farmer's market today at work (amazing! glorious! I hope it's every week from now on!) and I bought some very pretty teeny tiny tomatoes.

Mr. Loveforever is in NY for the night so I was flying solo and, in a great departure from my usual "single gal for the night" behavior, cooked myself a delicious meal using this recipe from the New York Times. The tomatoes were so yummy that I actually don't recommend the cheese (and that's something I never do).

A perfect celebration of the end of the summer, a season I only tolerate for tomato season.

Art: Objects of My Confection

Hah! These photos made me laugh out loud.

By Ammiel Mendoza, a project created out of a combined love of insects and candy.