Baby Doll in Red and Black
29 Sep 2011
My besfrinn gave me this sweet dress over the summer, and I have been wearing it a lot these past few weeks! (Semi-related bit of excitement: said besfrinn and her husband are expecting! I’m going to be an auntie! Yay!)
These are my same beloved $1 boots from the thrift store, and, while I can’t recall exactly, I am sure that this belt is of the same provenance. I put it up high, continuing my little experiments in that arena.
These earrings are from the Depot in Oakland, home of countless treasures! The purse is from the Bargain Barn too, and always makes me giggle: the first time I met my husband’s hilarious brother, I had just made a trip to the thrift store and bought this purse and an enormous hot pink belt. I was telling Eric’s brother, who also loves a bargain, about my awesome haul, and he decided to model the belt and the purse to express his enthusiasm! He cracks me up!
Oh man, some of these photos are really poorly lit, and that’s an ongoing project of mine–I mean, to make them better. Our house is full of challenges, but the biggest one, as I’ve mentioned before, is that we get absolutely no natural light. Eric and I are working on a couple of fixes for this, about which I am really excited! I am so grateful to have a husband who is truly my partner, who is concerned about everything that concerns me. He is a gift in more ways than I can enumerate. So, while it makes me sad to post photos that aren’t really there yet, he makes it easier to see this as a work in progress. 🙂
I have been wanting to try this bread for ages, and now I finally have all the tools! There has been buzz for a long time over 
One of our wonderful friends gave us Jim Lahey’s cookbook 
I love bread and always have (what did I ask for for my 16th birthday? A bread maker. I was thrilled when I got it, and I used it until I broke it!) A few years ago I decided that it was time for me to learn to bake bread (in all the fervor following a crazy year spent studying for quals). I started with 
It’s not that I mind any of this, but I am having fun experimenting with new ways of doing things. I tried making dough in the food processor (brilliant, brilliant invention, and I love that it is called “robot culinaire” in French! Yes, a culinary robot!), and that was great. And then I tried it Jim Lahey’s way. Oh, wow.
It’s so easy to mix the ingredients that you don’t even need the food processor. It takes 30 seconds of stirring, no more, and then you get to take an 18-hour break, during which time the dough rises and ferments, and any dry bits of flour are drawn in and moistened.
Then you just spend about 30 seconds shaping it into a ball and give it a few more hours to rise. Heat your Dutch oven, throw the bread in, and that’s it!
And, of course, the bread is completely delicious. Since I baked it, I have been eating nothing but tomato and cheese sandwiches. I will be sad when it’s gone! But then I will just start again, since 60 seconds is definitely something I have to spare, especially in exchange for such deliciousness! Happy baking!
Our awesome friends Steve and Amy gave us this vintage slate chalkboard, salvaged from a school last used in the 1920s, for our wedding. We loved it and couldn’t wait to put it up in our kitchen! Because of the way our kitchen is shaped, there was only one wall we could use, and, because that sucker is heavy, we had to hang it on the stud. My only sadness about it was the broken intercom box you see in the picture above. To add insult to injury, it’s not even hung straight! So I had to come up with an artful way to hide it.
First I thought I’d cover it with paper, but I didn’t think it would be too sturdy. Then I thought maybe I could cover it with a box of some kind…but how to make it pretty? The answer came in the mail–my awesome hermano sent me a box full of gifts from 
I decided to cover the box with the pretty paper, and to make a whole wall of paper-covered boxes. I have been so inspired by 
I used small boxes that we happened to have around the house: some that came in a goody box Eric’s parents sent us (yay!), and some that I scrounged up in drawers and cabinets. My boxes were things like check boxes, pen boxes, shoebox tops (ones I’d done some practice painting on!) and plastic baggie boxes, but you could use just about anything. Kleenex boxes? Sure! Cereal boxes? Perfect! The best thing about this random assortment of shapes is that it really gives a great texture to a flat wall.
So, I set about wrapping my boxes with the pretty wrapping paper and with some sturdy brown paper of my husband’s. You could use any kind of paper, really–from grocery sacks to wrapping paper to pretty things you’ve cut out of magazines, and you can make your box cluster themed however you like: food, sports, flowers, whatever floats your boat!
After I covered the boxes, I put them up in a slightly haphazard manner, and, voila! The wall is rescued from the evil clutches of the interxom box! This project is so cheap and easy, making use of stuff you might have thrown away otherwise, and I had tons of fun playing with it. If you try it, drop me a line or send some pictures–I’d love to see it!
This is what I wore on our date Friday night. The weather was pretty perfect, so I wanted to wear a dress, and this is one of my faves. It’s from my most beloved thrift store in Memphis, where it cost $1.49…per pound! So it was probably even cheaper than that:)
The belt came from my favorite 
These big lavendar earrings came from a matching set that my mom bought me at Jun Lee in one of our annual pilgimages. I have the best mom in the universe! And not just because she buys me things, but because she is such a great partner in crime, is completely hilarious, and inspires me on a daily basis with her love and creativity. I am one grateful girl!
Eric and I haven’t spent much (okay, any!) time in LA since we moved to Pasadena, so I wanted to head over to Los Feliz, which is not so far away, for dinner. I went to 
Afterward, we took a stroll through the neighborhood (at which point, I have to admit, it was cold, and my first time going out at night without a sweater left me shivering) and landed at the wonderful 
Last night Eric and had our first red carpet experience! It wasn’t exactly Hollywood, but it was so much fun–Caltech was screening the premiere of 
We met some really nice people while we were waiting (at the front of a line of about 1,000 people!), and we loved the movie. After the screening, there was a live band and party out in front of the gorgeous
Aside from being a really fun evening, the movie was definitely provocative of a few things I’d been thinking about lately, mostly having to do with work and writing. I won’t spoil the movie for you, but I will say that one of the main ideas is that no matter how much you love your work, you have to find some kind of balance in your life; not only will it make your life better, it will make your work better.
This has definitely been a hard-learned lesson for me. When I was an undergrad, I was working something like 4 part-time jobs (not because I was so hard up, but because they were amazing teaching/tutoring opportunities that I really enjoyed), taking a full load of courses, applying to grad school, and writing an honors thesis. It. was. a. LOT. I used to live in my little scholar study in the library, and my sweet and persistent friends would skateboard over and throw rocks at my window every night at midnight to get me to come home and watch Naruto and eat Oreos with them. I don’t know what I would have done without them.
Ironically, when I got to grad school I left some of this way of life behind. Maybe it was being in new surroundings, or maybe it was learning that if I didn’t get enough sleep, I’d get migraines. I still worked hard, but it slowly became a part of my life (a big one!) instead of my whole life.
When we moved to Pasadena, I’d been wanting to start this blog for a long time, and Eric and I had been discussing layouts and strategies and content for months (because he is the best and most supportive partner ever), but I wondered if I should wait until I filed my dissertation (December 16th!) before I started working on it. Wouldn’t it be too distracting? Wouldn’t my committee members think I was a slacker?
Thankfully, though, I decided to go ahead and take the plunge, and it has seriously been the most fun thing I’ve done in a long time. And I feel like I am slowly re-learning that lesson about balance again. I do really feel happier (about my work, and in general) when I am doing something in my free time that is fulfilling. It really does make everything seem more fulfilling. As of right now, I am somehow magically about 2 weeks ahead of the schedule I set for myself this fall for finishing my dissertation (not that difficult times aren’t ahead, but any kind of momentum like that just really makes it easier to tackle the hard parts when they invariably present themselves).
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about writing, and writing about writing, in the various ways it is present in my life. Because, as of right now, I’m blogging almost every day, I feel like there’s more of a macro mode to my writing, and I want to make sure I get some nice landscapes and panoramas in every now and again. I am settling in to the really nice practice of writing, both professionally and personally, on a daily basis, and I am really unspeakably grateful for that. It was only about a month ago that I was crying to Eric that I didn’t see how I could ever finish this dissertation, and he asked me what we could do to make it easier, what strategies we could come up with. I told him I thought I needed help in setting immediate and daily goals, and ever since then, he asks me every day before he leaves for work what my goal for the day is. Last week, he came back a few minutes after he’d rushed out the door, and I thought he must have forgotten a notebook or something, but instead he took my hand and said, “What’s your goal for the day? I forgot to ask you.” I feel like all the wisdom I have about writing has been slowly learned, and has to be continually re-learned, but I do really highly recommend daily goals, a supportive partner, and a creative or personal outlet to balance things out. I will probably be learning these things for the rest of my life, but it’s good to take a step back and consider them every once in a while. 🙂
I know that some of my friends and fellow bloggers are also grad students (
One sunny day a few years ago I headed to North Berkeley with my friend Steve. We went to 
While we were at The Cheeseboard, I picked up a corn cherry scone, which I thought sounded slightly odd…and then I ate it. It was the best scone I have ever had, and that is saying a lot, given my great love for this particular pastry. Eric laughed when I told him, a few years ago, that scones are my most preferred breakfast, but it’s the truth!
In spite of this great love, I had never actually made my own scones until a few days ago. A transformative experience! Two stars aligned to make this endeavor possible: 1) We have all kinds of awesome new tools, like our 
And there on page 46, what should I see but my beloved corn cherry scones! So I broke in the Kitchen Aid mixer and our new 
I have been so happy to have a little taste of Berkeley here in Pasadena, and I have become a little obsessed with this cookbook–I also made one of their pizzas this week, which I will write about soon!
Corn Cherry Scones
When I lived in the Bay area, I would wait longingly for the first day warm enough to open my windows and let a cool breeze come in. After months and months of wind and rain, it always felt like a small miracle to have a bright and sunny day, and it was. Now that we live in Pasadena, I find myself in the opposite position: waiting for a day that is cool enough to open the windows. It has been pretty unceasingly hot since we moved here (and I’m not complaining–hot is where I come from, and it makes me feel at home, and gives me a reason to jump in the pool!), and yesterday was the first truly cool day. It was gray and cloudy when we got up, and cold enough that I pulled on a sweater.
Fall is absolutely my favorite season: I love the colors, the sweaters, the brisk breeze, and the promise of pumpkins and spice in the oven, perfuming the whole apartment. So I threw on my boots and went out to greet it! One of the great things about our neighborhood is that there are so many beautiful places to take pictures. The building behind me, a lovely 1954 design, is just a block from our place.
The pretty skirt is from my Besfrinn, who regularly passes her treasures on to me. Both tops are from clothing exchange parties, and the boots ($1!) are from my most favorite thrift store. The belt is from the suit I wore to my PhD exams–I love how delicate it is. I hope you are all enjoying fall as much as I am!
When I saw this delicious-looking soup over at 
It’s the perfect thing for late summer (even though summer seems to be ongoing here in Southern California…I am not complaining!) and is pretty quick and easy to throw together.
It also involves what I am considering as a new triumvirate: avocado, lime, and chives. (And the fact that our little kitchen garden is producing chives in spades made it all the sweeter!)
I loved the spicy and almost smoky flavor that developed when the onions were sauteed with a bit of red pepper flakes. We would have gladly eaten this soup for days, but alas, we totally devoured it the first night! Next time, maybe I will double the recipe!
The title of this post really refers more to me than to anyone else–this was my first project using RIT dye, so it’s 101 for me! I have been wanting to try working with it for a while now, ever since I saw Marisa Lynch work magic with it. Marisa Lynch is pretty much my hero–she takes crazy thrift store garments and turns them into amazing outfits with her sewing, a little RIT dye sometimes, and tons of creativity! She has some great 
So, I started out with this old white tablecloth, which was beloved for many years (although I adore bright colors, I like to use white a lot in living space and bedroom linens because it really brightens the space and actually makes it look bigger, I think), but which now has accumulated some stains. I decided to try dyeing it a deep purple (since the stains are mostly from wine anyway!)
The process is really pretty simple. First, fill a bucket with hot water (I put mine out on the balcony, on some plastic, just in case of spills). Then, dissolve the dye in 2 cups of warm water. It might need a stir here, so this is why it’s good to have 40 more pairs of wooden chopsticks than you really need. 🙂
I’ve been wanting to play with these stripes for a long time! The three main pieces are beloved ones that I got from three different clothing swap parties, in what might be considered as a time-lapse bonanza!
Eric and I were heading over to our second library of the day (long and ridiculous story, I promise!), so we decided to take some pictures as the sun was starting to set.
I love the little ruffles of this sweater, and its cute button hooks.
A dear friend of mine gave me this sweet magnolia necklace many Christmases ago.
Eric just bought me this new purse a few weeks ago (best husband ever!) to replace my battered and dying standby of the last four years or so.
You can’t see the earrings too well, but they are little turquoise cowboy boots:)
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