karen karch

my friend julia, who lives in nyc, works for karen karch in nolita (north of little italy.) i haven't been there, but i have visited the website and fallen in love with their (overpriced) jewelry! this my favorite ring. i also love their lapis lazuli collection.

chevy. chevy. chevy. um. um. um.

i don't know why, but as i drove to work this morning, i thought of chevy chase. not really the man, but his name. who the hell is named chevy? where did that name come from and it sounds so weird when said alone. i, of course, had to wikipedia him and i found out his real name is cornelius crane chase. that's weirder than chevy.

also, um is a very weird word. it's not really a word..but a filler. and it's weird. say it to yourself a few times. 

2 days in paris

this is by far one of the funnier movies i've seen in a long time. i saw it when it came out and i think i need to watch it again soon. july delpy directs and stars in the film alongside adam goldberg. they make a smart modern couple who have real conversations..it's pretty refreshing. 

that's right, i like sarah brightman.

i loove this song. and i want to hug all the animals in the video. watch for the hugging zebras at the end. so cute! 

fortune cookies, part deux

since we were on the subject of fortunes inside fortune cookies, this is by far the coolest one i've gotten. it was a couple years ago. alex and i had chinese food somewhere which was rare cuz we never eat chinese. then our fortune cookies came and this is what mine said:

front:

back:

i just thought it was weird cuz since when do fortune cookies have french fortunes inside them? and i thought it was quite fitting. :)

mmmmm...

not too long ago, my mom started watching a turkish soap opera called "gumus"..it's been dubbed in arabic so the arabic title is "noor." soon, i heard that all her friends AND their husbands were watching it. my DAD even watches it now and guess what? i've been sucked in as well. it's not the story line that does it for me, nor is it the mediocre acting..it's this turkish god, kivanc tatlitug. how the hell is he real, can someone please tell me this???

excerpt

from the short story "unaccustomed earth" from the same title book by jhumpa lahiri:

"With the birth of Akash, in his sudden, perfect presence, Ruma had felt awe for the first time in her life. He still had the power to stagger her at times--simply the fact that he was breathing, that all his organs were in their proper places, that blood flowed quietly and effectively through his small, sturdy limbs. He was her flesh and blood, her mother had told her in the hospital the day Akash was born. Only the words her mother used were more literal, enriching the tired phrase with meaning: 'He is made from your meat and bone.' It had caused Ruma to acknowledge the supernatural in everyday life. But, death, too, had the power to awe, she knew this now--that a human being could be alive for years and years, thinking and breathing and eating, full of a million worries and feelings and thoughts, taking up space in the world, and then, in an instant, become absent, invisible."

what?

that was my lame fortune after my chinese takeout dinner. 

also...

...i need a tan.

let me eat cake!

i was checking out one of my favorite sites i visit daily called thekitchn and i came across an article on wedding cakes. this cake was pictured and i thought, hey, that looks familiar. well, that's because it's my friend elinor's cake from her january wedding in san francisco. i am IN LOVE with the way her and her husband went about their wedding. everything was really intimate and oozing with creativity. i wasn't there, but she showed me pictures and i think i drooled a little bit. 

i love this song

just let it go

melting words by kotama bouabane.

phyllo is a bitch!

i bought a package of phyllo dough months ago with the good intention of making something with it for the first time soon after. well..forward a few months to today. for the past couple of days i've had a hankering for that flaky goodness called phyllo and decided to tackle it. for those of you who may not know, phyllo dough is kinda tough to work with because you have to work fast or else the dough will dry out and crack. also, each sheet is thinner than paper and can easily tear if you're not careful. i have a new respect for those old women who make the shatila baklawa..or the little arab elves..whoever is back there--they're awesome.

i ended up making mushroom phyllo purses. i just put everything together without a recipe or measuring..it was pretty easy. i sauteed some chopped shallots and threw in a few handfuls of chopped cremini and baby portobello mushrooms. i added salt and pepper and let them cook together for a few minutes then turned off the heat. i transferred the mushroom mixture to a bowl and added some tofutti vegan cream cheese. i mixed everything together until the cream cheese melted into the mushrooms. then i laid out my phyllo, sheet by sheet, buttering each sheet (with vegan spread.) so after 5 or 6 layers (i lost count) i took a pizza cutter and made 3 cuts to make 6 large squares. i put a tablespoonful of mushrooms in each center:

i then took each opposite corner and brought them together and pinched them a little so they looked like this: 

i popped them into a preheated 350ºF oven and baked them for about 15 minutes until golden brown:

and guess what? they're delicious. i ate two already and i'm trying to convince myself not to eat a third one.

bonjour, madame! comment ca va?

i drove chris to the airport yesterday and instead of listening to music on the way there, we listened to my "berlitz french guaranteed" cds (well, disc 1.) it was pretty funny. for about 25 minutes we repeated greetings and asked monsieur albert what he would like to order at the bakery. chris thought he had to change his voice for these french conversations. he became somewhat of a muppet.

when we arrived at the entrance to the spirit terminal, chris took his bag out of the trunk and we exchanged goodbyes. it went something like this:

au revoir, frere! bon voyage!

bonsoir, mademoiselle! oui, oui..bonjour! 

omg!

i'm in love with this apron!!! i would buy it if i didn't have an awesome anthropologie one that renee bought for me right under my nose! visit jessiesteele.com for more cute aprons.

bonjour, vintage vixens!

there's a new vintage online shop in town (or in the world wide web) called nastygal. albeit a little overpriced, their pieces seem to be in great shape. plus, unlike other vintage shops, their clothes are styled really well. i love the above pieces. oh and i just ordered these glasses: 

relax, michelle, i'm kidding. for more great looks, go to shopnastygal.com. 

it's a free country

hey fellow bloggers. i just wanted to share that i'm glad i don't live in china. the bbc reports that since 2003 there have been 64 blogger arrests mainly in china, iran and egypt. these bloggers got in trouble when they exposed human rights exploitations and shared their political views w/ their worldwide audiences. the average jail sentence is 15 months and the longest reported was eight years!!!

i'm glad i can get away with saying that george w. is a blubbering brat.

george w. is a blubbering brat!!!!

i see right through you

(snatched from apartmenttherapy.com)

wilbur

how adorable is this piglet??? her name is cinders and she has mysophobia, a fear of dirt! she refuses to join her siblings in the mud so the owners of the farm made her little wellies and now she happily stomps around in the dirt! 

loverrrrs...

i heard this song on the radio today...i hadn't heard it probably since the 80's. but, i love it. :)

d to the f to the t

bridget bardot in "contempt" by jean-luc godard (1963.)

yesss...the new detroit film theater schedule is up. i'm ready.

blah.

i want to be myself again. i know i have been lacking in the jolly mood department lately, but i just don't really feel like myself. i used to be able to shrug things off so easily, but lately i am so irritated by that it seems to consume me. i hate to sound unappreciative, but i feel like life recently has featured a string of disappointments. i'm grateful for my family and friends..so i'm sorry if i've been snappy or moody. 

congrats narmeen & john!

i stood up in my friend narmeen's wedding last night. it was nice, but guess what. i'm so over being a bridesmaid. i felt bad for feeling that way because i did honestly feel honored that she chose only me to stand up for her, but i just wanted to be in the background. and the gaggle of arabic women that were asking me when i was going to get married was really pissing me off. i knew to expect it, but that doesn't make it less annoying. 

the wedding was really nice, though. it was at the roostertail and so we saw the crazy rains and winds that blew cocktail tables down from gigantic picture windows. the hors d'oeuvres were supposed to take place outside but that obviously didn't happen. those little nuggets of deliciousness were my favorite culinary part of the night. there were spinach stuffed baby portobello caps, shrimp cocktail shooters, orange chicken bites and my favorite, really freakin' garlicky bruschetta toasts. i ate one and knew that my breath wouldn't be the same after that, so i just ate more. :)

(the pictures are from the limo. the flower girls ((hannah and alexa)) and i were having our own party since we had the gigantic stretch limo basically to ourselves. they were having a blast..imagine being 8 years-old and parent-free in a limo w/ adults.)

i stole something.

relaaax, i just stole this lovely picture from one of my favorite sites, thekitchn.com. fish are fascinating. i think every color we've ever dreamed can be found on a fish somewhere in the sea. i wonder what species we have no idea even exist. since we're on the subject of fish, i encourage you all to listen to one of my favorite recent radiohead songs, "weird fishes/arpeggi." (if you don't have it, youtube it!)

japon

look at this cool invention by a couple japanese designers (of course.) they're blinds that simulate natural light...there's no window behind it! 

bush still sucks.

i just received my "2008 economic stimulus payment" in the mail...yay! i'm putting my 600 bucks in the bank. what is everyone else doing?