Peace, Peace.

Hope your Thanksgiving was fabulous! Here comes Christmas....

Black Friday

With everyone freaking out over the economy, how could I possibly go out and spend a bunch of money on cheesy Christmas decorations? I enjoy the Christmas season, but I personally like to keep it simple around my own house (mostly because I could be packing it all up the moment I'm offered a bitchin' job). I don't want to lug around a bunch of useless crap, so I made this little spark of cheer for $3.00, with string, white pipe cleaners and bells.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wild Turkey by John James Audubon. Ben Franklin was cheering for the Wild Turkey to be the national bird, but the Bald Eagle won. Ha, I can just picture us having a national holiday centered around roasting the national bird.

A few weekends ago we visited the Stark Museum of Art in Orange, TX. Most of their collection is southwestern, which I'm not crazy about but they did have a huge collection of Audubon's work. I'm a fan of the American White Pelican-- I think it would look perfect in my room.

Pumpkin & Ginger Cupcakes

This Thanksgiving is going to be my first with Boyfriend's family. It's not a huge deal because his family is close and I see them all the time. I will definitely feel as if I am part of their bunch. I already know what I'm bringing to the table...

The past couple of years I've been completely cupcake crazy, but the more health conscious I am, I've only baked for special occasions. I was super-pumped to find this recipe in a book my sister-in-law gave me for Christmas last year.

Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. ground ginger
Pinch of salt

1 lightly beaten egg
1/2 cup pureed pumpkin, fresh or canned
3/4 cup cat-free skim milk
1/3 cup sunflower oil
3 tbsp. chopped candied ginger
4 tbsp. pumpkin seeds

Prehead oven to 350F. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan. In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients with a spon. In a larger bowl, beat the egg, pumpkin, milk, and oil with an electric mixer until well combined. Add the flour to the pumpkin mixture, mixing until nearly combined. Foil in the candied ginger, but do now overmix.

Spoon the batter into the prepared tin. Sprinkle each muffin with a few pumpkin seeds.

Bake for 20 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the muffins and cool on a rack.

Hard to Pick...

My fascination with calendars has grown over the past few months, as I've been studying type and spending too much time on the design*sponge.

It could be argued that with the utility of cell phones, computers we don't NEED paper calendars, but I always like to have one for shits and gigs. Plus, it's always satisfying for me physically X-out days when I'm counting down to a special occasion.

There are so many talented people making fabulous calendars these days, here's a few of my favorites...



Match Calendar by Yurko Gutsulak


Polaroid Calendar by Alicia Block (Etsy: AliciaBlock)



Jellybean's Calendar (Etsy: jellybeans)




Linda & Harriet Letterpress Calendar

The new year is a'comin!

And if you're cheap-- you can generate and print out a cool paper craft calendar in any language. Mix it up with some fun paper!

Thank Heaven for Little Dogs

1. Boyfriend is back in town.. we made our first stop at Japaneiro's, always the most amazing food!

2. Went to Houston ArtCrawl, had a great time drinking wine with friends. We didn't get to too many studios, but I really liked this one. Patrick Medrano is the name. That's the sweet dog who inhabited studio TwentyTwenty. The painting in the very right hand corner of the dog picture is called Pig Toss. The full version is the sea foam green photo. It must be 10' x 7'? Massive.

3. Tried a new restaurant, Bluefish sushi in Houston. I was surprised to find that they had fried ice cream! I only noticed this as we were leaving, so I will have to go back.

4. I'm dog sittng a big hairy dog named Scout. He's going to get me back on the working man's schedule.

5. I got a LOT done with my little project. Still keeping it on the hush.

Crunchy Leaf Season

Have a faaabulous Friday.
Photo by Tim White

Tea Musings

Celestial Seasonings is kicking ass in the flavor department. Their new Holiday flavor, Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride (yes, really) is rocking my world. Bon Appetit indeed, sir or madam.

After looking at their Web site I'm falling more in love with their products. No calories, sugar, all natural ingredients, ethical trade, yada yada ya. All I know is Chocolate Raspberry Bliss and Sugar Plum Spice are calling my name.

Website Launch

Ah! Almost forgot to mention this-- Chelsey launched her website recently. If you need a photographer or graphic designer, she's your girl. Her stuff is whimsical, sweet and clean. Check it out for yourself: chelseydyer.com

Full disclosure: The picture is me at Five Mile Damn in San Marcos :)

Cozy Lux

I have been living in my pajamas lately. When I don't have a temp job, I basically hole-up in scruffy warm duds with some green tea, my laptop and hit the job hunting like a mad woman.

It'd be nice to have some gorgeous, English lounge wear such as these from Toast. And a beautiful throwback home. And vintage wall paper...and, and and.

images via toast.co.uk

Teaser...

Apologies! My blogging as been weak as hell. I have a great reason though!!! Although I cannot divulge it yet, I am very excited about it.

Chelsey came to visit me last week and we had a super successful thrift shopping adventure. Perfect for two poor college grads. Perfect for jobless ole' me. During her stay we came up with a brilliant idea that will keep us busy and creative. Again, I don't want to spoil anything until we're ready, but it's going to be sweet ( in the aw, so sweet way, not the 2001 frat boy way).

P.S. Does anyone know about ANY PR/Marketing/Design/Ad jobs available? I will move just about anywhere... Thanks!

Purple Prep

Just watched my latest Netflix selection, Secretary (2002) with Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader (my unexplained, Boston Legal crush). Yowza. How did I miss the boat on this one? The visuals are so pretty and they had the sexy/nerdy secretary look pegged way before it caught on at the Gap. Exactly, when was that? 2004, 2005? I don't know. Irrelevant. I still appreciate a good pencil skirt when I see one.

Anyway, I liked this movie. It was a genuine love story, not just a cheap chance to show some nakedness. I loved how her character's wardrobe matures throughout but still keeps it real with all the purple. And all the wallpaper, orchids, carpet.. the whole set was overloaded with color and patterns. Pretty pretty.

I looked at the credits to see what other projects the set directors and art directors were involved in and basically their only other claim to fame was something involving the Cheetah Girls. Boo! P.S. Cheetah Girls just got nixed from the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade because one of them was showing their business on the internet. Ha!

Lake House Scene

Here's what I drove away from this morning.

We had a great weekend at the lake house. I hated getting up early to drive into Houston. It was so cold. Girl has got to work though-- I'm temping right now. Still looking for jobs in the right city.

Mexico is still an option, just not as strong. Turns out I would need a lot of money or already be fluent in Spanish to live there. It's not off the table though. I'm exploring options in other cities such as Austin, Chicago, San Fransisco, Portland, Seattle, etc..

Cheers!

Have a great weekend! Today I'm "modeling" in the Fort Bend Business Expo Fashion Show. EEk, I didn't put to much thought into it when I said yes. I just thought, "why the hell not? I have nothing better to do." Ironically, I wouldn't be involved in the expo if it wasn't for my former job. MAYBE I'll post pictures later.

This weekend I'm headed to boyfriend's grandparents' lake house for a little relaxation and family time. Adiós!

P.S. That's really my breakfast smiling at you...

More SMA Food

There was so much delicious food to enjoy without breaking the bank. It was nice to be somewhere where the dollar wasn't worthless.

1. chicken drenched in chipotle pepper sauce with mango salsa-- this was my favorite meal of the whole trip. From La Posadita on the Jardin.

2. All the spices that accompanied my 70.00 peso chicken soup ( 5.32 USD). Fresh and AMAZING!

3. the chicken soup all it's garnishes

4. spicy chicken

5. gourmet chocolates in EVERY flavor: Cinnamon, coffee, ginger, chile.. you name it.

6. warm pink pastries

Fortunately we walked everywhere and burned those pastry and chocolate calories right off. If anyone goes to San Miguel and is looking for good traditional Mexican food, I HIGHLY recommend La Posadita. The restaurant has two levels, one of which is a huge rooftop terrace that will either give you a view of the Parroqia, a 15th century church or the Mexican hillside sprinkled with colorful Spanish-style buildings.

Since I've been home, I've had Mexican food approximately six times: Berry Hill, Fajita Flats, Los Tios, Chipotle to name a few. Chelsey and I decided that Mexican food is just 'regular food'.

Gold Buzz

Saw these neat gold leaf painted bottled on design*sponge via vivre.com. For a $140, you won't see these on my table-- it pains me to see something super expensive that could EASILY be replicated at a lower cost. Who are these people kidding??

Charming Velvet

Charming Velvet by

Fall always reminds me of preppy velvets... Houston weather is coming around to the point where you need a light jacket in the morning but still need to blast the AC in your car by mid-day.

Grandma's Kitchen

Here's some images of my grandmother's kitchen in San Miguel. She went a little nuts with a single tile pattern, but it worked out nicely. I should mention that our camera went on the fritz so all the pictures were taken with a camera phone.

Vitamins on the Cheap

Can you believe that we bought everything in the last picture for 4.30 USD (55 pesos)? That's some apple, starfruit or carambola, bell peppers, tomatoes, some green beans, and a giant papaya. That would have been at least $15 at our beloved Whole Foods.

Over the past year I've become obsessed with juicy bell peppers for their tangy taste, crunchy texture and high volume of nutrients. It's been rough though, sometime I can only find them at $3.99 a pop. That's why I was super happy to stock up on some bell peppers, as well as other produce while we were in Mexico. This trip may have been the first vacation where I didn't eat buttery restaurant food every day.

Ziggy Cat Dust

Um, just heard Cat Power/Chan Marshall singing David Bowie's Space Oddity for a Lincoln commercial. How long has this been around? I haven't watched commercials in the past six months because I had TiVO. I'm glad I caught it. Hearing it literally made my heart sink into my stomach. Love her.

Mexican Tile..such a delight

It's everywhere.. no need for too many words. Most of the tile is made in Delores Hidalgo-- a city 45 minutes north of San Miguel de Allende. We were lucky enough to visit one of the tile factories, a much appreciated journey after seeing gorgeous kitchens and bathrooms all week.

back back back

Okay, so we're back from Mexico. It was a very interesting trip. First of all, our luggage never made it, but we manged after rummaging through my grandparents' clothes and buying a few basics from the grocery store (white v-neck tee) and the Mexican markets. We got to know the streets of San Miguel pretty well, finding our favorite places to start the day and to end the day.

It was a blast capturing all the colors of this culture and I can't wait to share it with you guys over the next week or so. I have tons of food, flowers and interior shots.

Also.. my Grandmother's poodle had a litter of seven puppes while we were there, it really made our trip special to be able to play with poodle puppies every day!

We were also excited to come home to election night. Wow.. all of the footage from the Chicago Obama rally was completely striking. No words other than gracious could have described McCain's speech. I personally felt that either of them would have made positive changes ( at a very tough job), but I am more excited to see what Obama's going to do for our country.