dress shopping

what do you think of this dress?



be honest, should i spend my xmas gift certificate on it?

soon to be very very rich...

i blatantly stole this from billy's site.
we were featured in this new york times article today.


i love that the article is spun in a way that makes billy a bad guy. "and i said, 'no'."

i guess we were too good looking for them to publish our picture.

kelly kapowski

100% inspires my fashion sense.

i just watched the episode where zach and kelly break up outside of the costume ball because she likes her boss, jeff from the max. maybe i cried. but then i remembered that they got married in vegas.

christmas evakkuh

on christmas eve, my family and i ordered delicious chinese food from genghis cohen and opened gifts from our "holiday bench" (no tree this year.)



my mom's gift to me: a gift certificate to my favorite store, some odd rubies, with a tiger tied around it for my chinese new year sign.

Tigers do not find worth in power or money. They will be completely honest about how they feel and expect the same of you. On the other hand, they seek approval from peers and family. Generally, because of their charming personalities Tigers are well liked. Often, failing at a given task or being unproductive in his personal or professional life can cause a Tiger to experience a depression. Criticism from loved ones can also generate this type of Tiger reaction. Still, like all felines, Tigers always land on their feet, ready for their next act in life, pursuing it with unyielding energy and hunting it infallibly.

according to the site, i'm a fire tiger:

THE FIRE TIGER 1926 AND 1986

Eccentric and dramatic, Fire Tigers are aglow with passion and verve. They are outgoing, expressive and look on the bright side of things. They have the Tiger’s natural ability to lead others and are able to excite others simply with their own gift of enthusiasm. They can be funny and have great senses of humor. Tigers are powerful speakers and have the ability to command and persuade crowds through speech. Their own seemingly endless supply of energy can make them appear a bit dramatic, and it may make them more sensitive to cautious or down-to-earth approaches in others.

all of my gifts:


a beautiful dries van noten scarf, the gift certificate, a lucky porcelain rabbit, some shmancy hair product, the floral tights i've been wanting, some incense and a holder.

hannukah party

my mom had a beautiful table set up of hanukkah goodies for when my friends arrived.


we had delicious sufganyot--jelly doughnuts



and potato latkes. here's the gourmet magazine recipe we used:

Potato Latkes
Makes about 32 Latkes
* Active Time:1 hr
* Start to Finish:1 hr
It's no secret that kids go crazy for crisp, fried potatoes. Serve them these classic latkes and you'll be giving them exactly what they want.
December 2007

* 2 lbs large russet (baking) potatoes (about 4)
* 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
* 1 large onion (1 lb)
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
* 1 cup vegetable oil

*Preheat oven to 250°F with rack in upper third.
*Peel potatoes and coarsely grate into a bowl using large teardrop-shaped holes of a box grater or in a food processor fitted with medium shredding disk. Add lemon juice and toss to coat.
*Coarsely grate onion into same bowl. Transfer to a kitchen towel (not terry cloth), then gather up corners to form a sack and twist tightly to wring out as much liquid as possible.
*Wipe bowl clean, then return potatoes and onion to bowl and stir in flour, eggs, and 1 1/4 teaspoons salt until just combined.
*Heat oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Fill a 1/4-cup measure halfway with latke mixture and carefully spoon it into skillet, then flatten to 3 inches in diameter with a slotted spatula.
*Form 5 more latkes in skillet and fry until undersides are deep golden, 1 1/2 to 3 minutes. (If latkes brown too quickly, reduce heat to medium.) Turn over and fry until deep golden all over, 1 1/2 to 3 minutes more. Transfer to paper towels to drain briefly, then transfer to a metal rack set in a baking pan and keep warm in oven. Make more latkes.

























then we played a lot of rock band in my little brother's play room. everyone looked really cool with their instruments, like real musicians.

gilda!

during gift shopping, i be-gifted myself the best of gilda radner and have been bouncing around the house imitating her all afternoon. (i've also had an excess of caffeine today, so am unusually CAFFEINATED!!) i'm in love!

this photo looks like such a great moment, the two of them at the premiere of hannah and her sisters:


watch candice bergen break:

psh

here's an incredible article on philip seymour hoffman and the art of acting from the times' sunday magazine.

dressed in black part dos

stopped at the fairfax flea market yesterday, bought a handmade dress. reminds me (again) of the sound of music and lederhosen. also bought a nice pair of black flats at my favorite store for shoes, american rag.

(please excuse me for the poor quality of these photos. my mom isn't the greatest with cameras and paddywacks.)

depression-era america

my younger brother bought my dad a copy of obama's first book, dreams of my father for the holidays, and i've been enjoying it's pre-gifted presence around my house. i especially liked the images evoked by this passage:

...and the childhoods they liked to recall for my benefit portrayed small-town, Depression-era America in all its innocent glory: Fourth of July parades and the picture shows on the side of a barn; fireflies in a jar and the taste of vine-ripe tomatoes, sweet as apples; dust storms and hailstorms and classrooms filled with farm boys who got sewn into their woolen underwear at the beginning of winter and stank like pigs as the months wore on.

this image reminds of the farm that graces the cover of the criterion collection's days of heaven, one of my all-time favorite movies.

six random things

uh oh--i finally got this post together!

last week, my dear friend jessica of sacatonjune tagged me in a "six random things about you" post-game-thing. it took me awhile, but here goes.


1) i have a soft spot for war stories.

i love oliver stone's platoon (willem dafoe does it for me!) and adore the hbo miniseries band of brothers.

one of my favorite books is hemingway's for whom the bell tolls. it was one of the first books i bought on the street when i moved to new york, along with a beautiful, old copy of anna karenina. the novel is prefaced by a poignant epigraph from a john donne poem:

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every
man is a piece of the continent, a part of the
main. If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory
were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or
of thine own were: any man's death diminishes
me, because I am involved in mankind, and
therefore never send to know for whom the bells
tolls; it tolls for thee."

i am also a big fan of tim o'brien's the things they carried. i highly recommend this book if you're interested in war literature or literary journalism, since the book was based on o'brien's own experiences. you can read some of the stories online, too: "the things they carried" and "how to tell a true war story".

2) i am mildly obsessed with flowers.

see here and here and here.

i recently tried to instate a law that guests to my apartment have to bring flowers as a gift, or a sacrifice, or a... whatever. i just wanted more flowers. it didn't really work, though. or i maybe i just wasn't enforcing my new law firmly enough.

i gaze at the flowers on this site for fun and check out their blog religiously for more flowers to look at.

on ebay, the dresses i bid on are usually floral prints:


i would say that 70% of the dresses i own have a floral print. see:


3) i have a standing relationship with the sound of music.


sometimes, i not-so-secretly go on youtube and watch clips from the movie for fun. and by sometimes i mean, today, yesterday, and the day before. like this one:


and i really, really like this one.


i recently dug up video footage of myself as a 4-year-old, dancing around in circles in front of my t.v. playing this film. i have to say, i did a pretty good rendition of "i am sixteen, you are seventeen." if i can, i'll put it up on youtube and it will be a sensation.

4) i hate lentils.

5) i think it would be really awesome if someone, as a birthday gift, let me go back to being a 5-year-old for a day. or if for one birthday, i could spend the entire day in the 50s, like in that movie peggy sue got married.

will time travel make this possible? stuff was just cooler back then. i could carry my books to school and wear cute little capri pants and dance to doo wop while drinking a soda pop at the diner after school.

but if this doesn't happen, i'll settle for being in a movie set in the 50s.

i want to be the girl in the red dress:


or i should seriously be singing this song:


6) i secretly think i'm a mermaid.

and these are my brethren:

(great song, raffi. thumbs up!)

but seriously, have you seen that movie splash with daryl hannah? that's what i'm talking about.

i mean, i'm a really good swimmer, i love swimming. i am afraid of fish because i don't want to hurt them. i didn't eat seafood for 20 years in fear of being a traitor. and, i am part virgo whose icon is...the mermaid!

try googling "real mermaid". i'm having a lot of fun with it right now. to confirm my mermaid-ness, i bought a sticker book full of mermaids today. if that doesn't say something, then i don't know what does.


i tag songsintokyo, miss lauren cerand of lux lotus, and billy (just for fun)!

The 'rules' - don't mind if you follow them or not:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag new people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

this morning

in l.a. this morning.

listening to this song:


playing with this puppy:




hopefully going to go to this restaurant for lunch.

loopy lou

sometimes

my

cat

won't

get

off

my
lap
when
i
am
trying
to
type
at
the
computer.

slow and steady

found on style rookie

i want these shoes for christmas. even though i'm jewish.

anything and all slow and steady.