Still need a costume...?

Aren't these great? You can find all of them over at Speckyboy Design Magazine.

The R2-D2 mask is fabulous ... but I do love Christopher Walken!! Which one is your favorite?

Brooklyn-ites ... I am so jealous

Seriously. I'm jealous for so many reasons. But this is the most recent. APC is having a "basement sale" in Brooklyn over the weekend.

Image via APC

Mine. All mine...

Seeing Double (above)

Medal of Honor (below)

Look at my latest Etsy purchases!! I'm beyond thrilled with these beautiful necklaces from Hannah at Yes You Maigh. And no lie, when I pulled the package from the mailbox, I was giddy with excitement ... ripping into the package before I had even stepped into the house. I found her shop last week - I think while I was browsing treasuries. (To be honest, her pretty little avatar made me click. Loving the hair. Aren't I lame?) She had them packaged beautifully in little craft boxes tied with twine - with some extra, handcrafted goodies thrown in - and mailed in a recycle-able mailer (made of 90% recyled content and plastic free).

By the way - you have to read her descriptions as well. They are very storylike, with a wonderful bit of humor. (Read Medal of Honor here, and Seeing Double here.)

By the way, Hannah has an equally delightful blog: Yes You Maigh (be sure to click on the link for her gorgeous wedding photo's!)
and a vintage housewares shop on Etsy, too: Mother Maigh I

The gorgeous, portrait style photo's (top of each collage) are by Jon Chandler Photography (or find him here on facebook, or here on flickr).

Recipe Alert: Chicken Creole Soup ...

I made this soup/stew over the weekend - and it is FABulous! Seriously. I am a soup snob. This is great! It has just enough "heat", plenty of body and lots of chicken. I'd even serve this to guests with some cornbread and a salad. I picked up this little mini-cookbook from Walgreen's the other day, and I have about two dozen recipes I'm dying to try.

Anyway... here's the recipe (fyi, anything with an asterisk means I veered from recipe):
Chicken Creole Soup
2 T butter
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)
2 medium celery stalks, coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)
1 medium green bell pepper, coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)
2 t finely chopped garlic
2 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1" pieces
1/4 c all purpose flour
2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes, undrained*
4 c (32 oz) reduced sodium chicken broth*
2 c water
1 c uncooked regular long grain white rice*
1 t salt
1/4 t ground red pepper (cayenne)
2 dried bay leaves

1: In 5 to 6 quart Dutch oven, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic and chicken; cook 7 to 9 minutes, stirring frequently, until onion is softened.

2: Stir in flour. Cook 5 to 6 minutes, stirring constantly, until flour is light brown.

3: Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover; cook 15 to 20* minutes, stirring occasionally, until rice is tender and chicken is no longer pink in center. Remove bay leaves.

*CHANGES*
...I used one 14.5oz can seasoned (for chili) diced tomatoes and one can 10 oz can Rotel (all I had in the house)
...I used regular chicken broth
...I used brown rice instead of white, which also meant I needed to adjust the simmer time to about 40 minutes to allow the brown rice to fully cook

I also let it sit on the stove, with the burner off and the lid off - to let some of the liquid evaporate -- I like it more like a stew.

(And I swear, I can't find the booklet for sale online... sorry.)

Snow ... and cookies ...

After returning home from a weekend in the Black Hills, we woke up this morning to our first real snowfall of the season! (Setting a record for the earliest, significant snowfall - no less.) It was made all the sweeter because the kids don't have school today.

After throwing snow around for a couple of hours over at the neighbors house, the boys returned home with these!

Made. from. scratch!

No lie... they melt in your mouth. Crispy on the edges, soft on the inside... completely, utterly, delicious! (...and they were STILL WARM!!)



Thank you Natalie, Aaron and Noelle!! :) (fyi... I'm working on finagling the recipe...!)

Top image via Josh (busychild424) on Flickr - beautiful, isn't it?!
Bottom image, Natalie's Chocolate Chip Cookies on my counter!! :)

President Obama ...

Although widely debated throughout the media ~ I must say that when I heard that President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize, my heart just swelled with happiness, inspiration and joy.

Huffington Post's coverage
New York Times coverage

Sessùn ...

Oh my ... such lovely inspiration over at Sessùn. (and isn't the model gorgeous? I love her hair...)

all images: Sessùn

Good golly, it's Lonny ...

Over the summer, I had gotten woefully behind on reading my "blogroll" favorites (...I guess three boys will do that to a gal) ... so I had not heard about the launch of Lonny magazine. I nearly hyperventilated when I stumbled across it last night. Seriously. It's gorgeous! Created by some the same folks who had helped bring us our dearly beloved Domino magazine - it's a lovely, beautiful online magazine that is full of inspiration. (Take THAT, Conde Nast!) The layout is very user friendly -- there is a "scrolling/preview" function at the bottom that lets you skip around easily. And each image is "clickable" to take you to the product/person's website. After feeling completely deprived for months after Domino was shuttered, I'm more than happy with this wonderful new alternative. I love it!
All images via lonnymag.com

XM 73 ... how I love thee...

So this morning I had a bunch of mundane errands to run - you know, dry cleaning, groceries, miscellaneous little stops. It's a gray, drizzly, rainy day and I just didn't feel like running around in it. Anyway, I've been listening to my Nat King Cole and Dean Martin Christmas CD at home, in part because I love Christmas music (I know, it's a bit early) and I just plain love that era's music. So... I'm in the quiet car when I think - hey, XM - you got any of that Frank Sinatra type music? That's when I discovered XM 73 ... Frank's Place! I could have run errands all day listening to Beverly Clooney, Bobby Darin, Harry Connick Jr ... Nearly heaven, I tell you.

Image via New York Public Library's Digital Gallery

Weekend update ...

No... not as in SNL Weekend Update. But here's a bit of what was added to the shop over the weekend.
top set: deadstock cotton bath towels, nostalgic vintage lamp, Vera linen napkins
bottom set: handmade granny square afghan, industrial gooseneck desk lamp, lot of kitchen towels/washcloths, faux leather burgundy clutch with chain strap

Weekly goodies ... the free Dover Sampler

Halloween samples ...


a Vector image sample ...


and an Art Nouveau poster sample ...

This is one of my favorite emails in my Friday Inbox ... the weekly Dover sampler! It's like a grab bag of goodies ... they email you links to sample a variety of their products (historical images / children's puzzles / origami how-to / etc) some of the samples are so-so, but there are always a couple that are fab. u. lous! If you like something, be sure to save it to a disc or harddrive/etc, because the images are available for that week only. So... here's my tip of the day: if you'd like a free surprise every Friday, go sign up over at Dover Publications.

(P.S. I first heard about this a few years ago from the lovely Jessica at How About Orange. )

Unfussy and refined ...

Loving this new line - Harvey Faircloth. The pieces are unfussy and somewhat relaxed, yet refined and incredibly classic at the same time. (how is that possible?) The website is fabulous, the images are playful and happy, and you must read their "About Harvey" page - the writing style is absolutely entertaining and engaging... actually makes me love the line even more!

(found via Joanna)

So stinkin' cute!

This little guy is so adorable! Found via Kristen @ Pretty Little World.

(P.S. Image credit unknow. Kristen wasn't sure where she had found this little fella, so if you should happen to know, please feel free to pass it along.)

Shop additions...

Just a few of the vintage pieces that were just added to the shop this morning ... more to come this afternoon. (btw, that three piece suit has a reversible waistcoat!! hot damn!)