maman

i love your generous heart and your adventurous spirit.  you manage to be firm in your convictions without being dogmatic.  i treasure your mothering and mentorship.  I wish I could be there to share this special day with you. happy birthday mom!

material girl

i don't know what is it about this spring, but i have the urge to blow the bank.  here's my list.  (i keep telling myself it is totally realistic if i either win the lotto or write the next great canadian oprah endorsed novel.)

1. house: the kitchen is atrocious.  the chicken coop horrifies me.  but the floors are perfect, the ceiling beams make me swoon, and the picket fence is just the right about of cliche.

 
2. dress: before anyone goes all taliban on me, i know it is too short to wear to church on it's own. i'm thinking jeggings and maybe a belt. weigh in. worth 200 bones? (pretend i am rich)

3. art: when purchasing visuals i go by the three C's: colourful, charming and cheap.  in my book, lullie wallace hits all the right notes.

other random stuff i will probably blow mike's hard earned wages on include: 
nail polish
easter candy
organic apple cider vinegar
new books (salvage the bones, so much pretty, the tiger's wife)
a plane ticket to japan so i can spend a week buying random hello kitty crap
vitamins that make your hair grow (do you think they work?)

reckless

i cooked and ate an entire package of bacon.  thick cut and peppered. dripping with grease. my morning vitamins were gulped down with a swig from a random can of day-old diet doctor pepper. i poured an entire bottle of tinkerbell 'white citrus' bubbles into my afternoon bath.  bathing in chemicals is my fave.

clearly i have some kind of death wish.

as i write this my arteries are hardening, the lining of my stomach is dissolving and in about twenty minutes i am going to break out in shingles. 

my back is already itchy.  so just in case i croak, here are a few pearls i gathered over the weekend:

listen to this:


read this: painful in the sense that you relive the worst parts of junior high school.  beard nails it, right down to the paranoia about getting your period at school.  i liked it, i have masochistic tendencies.

eat this: cheese like butter only better.  if you like it, 'you are a genius,' or so say the experts at murray's cheese shop in NYC.  buy it in SLC at tony caputos.

lather this: worth.every.penny. so good even michael aaron carey has been persuaded to use conditioner.

March comes in

LIKE A LION!!  

Let's hope she goes out like a lamb...

P.Pink Soup

i'm sitting here wondering how the HELL people do it?  

how do people manage to:

have a job
clean a house
cook nutritious food
spend with their spouse
have some alone time
exercise
read books
spend time with friends

i'm barely holding it all together. my house is a disaster.  we've been eating peanuts for dinner because neither one of us has time to shop for food.  i have a list of friends i want to email that is growing by the day and a stack of books that i feel guilty every time i look at.  the only exercise i get is the walk from my car to my office. 

so i am feeling pretty down in the dumps about things.  i think part of the problem is that i want to be 100 percent in everything.  to illustrate: in my world cleaning doesn't mean running a clorox wipe across the counter--it means scrubbing the baseboards with a toothbrush.


but i can't do everything 100 percent. so i'm changing my expectations of myself.  one home cooked meal a week is my 100 percent right now.

so let me show you my hundred percent.  i made beet gazpacho.  i love beets and tomatoes and cucumber.  the recipe is from veganomicon, a lovely vegan cookbook if you are interested in plant based eating.

we cheated and added a little bit of feta cheese to our bowls

 

Blogger Macaron Class

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of teaching a few Utah bloggers the in's and out's of macaron making.  Our group included Shelly of House of Smiths, Jen of Tater Tots and Jello, Amy of The Idea Room, Lara of Less Cake More Frosting, Elizabeth of Dear Lizzy and Emily of Ruffling Feathers/ Bijou Market.  Colin Kartchner made this adorable little video to capture evening in the kitchen.


Mercedes White Macarons- Blogger night from Collin Kartchner on Vimeo.
     
Using my pre-made mixes we learned how to whip a proper meringue, the art of maraconage, and how to prevent pesky hollow shells.  If you are interested in trying your hand at baking your own french macarons--one of my mixes is the way to go.  I've streamlined the process and simplified a lot of the steps.  We will be selling them at Bijou Market this weekend in Provo and are also available through my online store.  

image via the lovely shelly of house of smiths

Charmed

just because i am never going to be this kind of mother doesn't mean i don't appreciate them.

watch and swoon!

(though if you are having one of those days when your uterus is swinging from the chandeliers- so to speak- maybe wait on watching it because it will make you want a little wolf REAAAAL bad). 



Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?from Lilly McDowell on Vimeo.