closet case (Vogue-ish)

Here, the blogger and designer reveals the ten essential wardrobe items that get the heaviest rotation.

1. Dark denim wide-leg trouser jeans 

I hope dark denim never goes out of style.

2. Frye “Heath” boots (pictured above)

My brown boots are very versatile and look great with skirts and boot-cut pants. I have discovered that the Frye website is dangerous and spending any amount of time there stirs up covetous need for all manner of shoes and boots.

3. Oversized black turtleneck from Garnet Hill (pictured above)

This sweater has a marsupial-type pocket and is warm and cozy. When I wear this sweater, I feel like I’m channeling Bananarama. Those gals had a comfortable but hip aesthetic and served as my 1980s style icons.

4. Fuchsia cords

A sharp pop of color makes January bearable. These cords are, however, on their last legs (pun unavoidable). Interviews for a replacement pair commencing.

5. Black cardigan

Simply goes with everything, but in particular, I like to wear it with the swishy Boden skirts that are my summer wardrobe staples (see #9).

6. Art deco necklace

This necklace was an engagement gift from my mother-in-law and had been her engagement gift from her mother-in-law. Thoughtful and beautiful. Crystal beads arranged randomly on a silver chain, ending in a carnelian-colored pendant.

7. Momentum field watch

I have the white-face version and it is a workhorse.The best part is the newly available watchstraps in fashion-forward colors. I have a bunch in different colors (olive, nautical blue, a super-neutral bronzed pink, safety orange cordura). When I swap out band, I feel like I have a new watch.

8. Ariat baby phat boots in all-black leather

I’ve worn completely through one pair of these boots (a sweet cordovan faux alligator toe and heel with a baby blue Western-stitched shaft). These boots are one part cowboy boot, one part Doc Marten—really more urban than country. And, they’re comfortable. 

9. Boden skirts (pictured above)

I collected these skirts for a while and now have one for each day of the week. Super flattering fit. Some have fabric with a fun vintage look. 

10. thin silver hoops (pictured above)

Understated elegance that completes any outfit.

recipe: red lentil soup with lemon

I just ladled seconds of this soup for myself. And I may very well have thirds. It is insanely delicious. The ingredients are simple. The steps are easy. The results are hearty. Served over rice, you’d have a complete protein.  The recipe comes from Melissa Clark’s  In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite, which we worked our way through this past winter. There really are no clunkers in this cookbook, just lots of healthy, soul-satisfying dishes. I’ve tweaked the recipe slightly. After my friend Caryl told me she doesn’t puree the soup. I’ve stopped pureeing as well, which suits me fine because I prefer soups with chunks substance, something that resembles a meal more than a meal starter. This time I swapped out the cayenne for 1 tsp. of harissa, the potent Moroccan red pepper paste, which gave a deeper, but not overpowering, heat. Don’t skimp on the lemon. Its acidity and brightness transform a basic lentil soup into something magic.

RED LENTIL SOUP WITH LEMON

adapted from In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite (Melissa Clark, 2010)

Serves 6

4 tablespoons olive oil, plus additional good oil for drizzling

2 large onions, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon harissa (perhaps rooster sauce would also work)

1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus additional to taste

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 quarts chicken or vegetable broth

2 cups red lentils

4 large carrots, peeled and diced

Juice of 1 lemon, or more to taste

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, mint, or parsley (I prefer cilantro)

1. In a large pot, heat the oil over high heat until hot and shimmering. Add the onions and garlic and sauté until golden, about 4 minutes.

2. Stir in the tomato paste, cumin, salt, pepper, and harissa, and sauté for 2 minutes longer.

3. Add the broth, 2 cups water, the lentils, and the carrots. Bring to a simmer, then partially cover the pot and turn the heat to medium-low. Simmer until the lentils are soft, about 30 minutes. Taste and add more salt if necessary.

4. Stir in the lemon juice and cilantro, mint, or parsley. Serve the soup drizzled with good olive oil and dusted very lightly with chili powder, if desired.

OPTIONAL: Using an immersion or regular blender or a food processor, puree half the soup (it should be somewhat chunky, not smooth).

field trip: bella lana

Last night at Simon’s soccer game, I sat next to another mom who was knitting. When I inquired about what she was making she casually dropped that she’d purchased her yarn at Bella Lana in Northeast Minneapolis. These days, Northeast Minneapolis is code for cool. I have wasted no time in checking out this new-to-me store.

Everything about this store is dreamy, from the hands-off staff that lets you browse in peace to the lovely décor, which is white—whitewashed floors, ceiling, and shelves. Large white paper globe luminieres densely pack the ceiling and appear as fluffy clouds or fleece. In between, you’ll find a carefully edited selection of fibers and patterns. I want to knit everything on display, but I was particularly drawn to the Habu Textiles stainless steel wool and am scheming a use for it.

The purpose for my trip, besides scouting, was to find yarn for Winston’s cabrito costume. He’s in a classroom play that riffs on "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" where he plays one of the billy goats. Not long ago, Winston asked me to knit a cap for him that has goat ears. Thanks to the modern-day marvel of the internets, I found an easily adaptable pattern. It took about five seconds to knit the small cap, ears, and the trim for the ears, and it took another five seconds to attach everything. I’ll have a picture as soon as I can get it off Winston’s head. He wore the hat to bed last night—the highest form of praise!

A-Z movie project: B

Quick note about “B”: each of these movies was based on a novel. Just a wonderful coincidence I discovered as I did postmortem research. The movies are reviewed in the order I watched them.

Brideshead Revisited (2008)

I don’t hold the original version, a 1981 TV series, as sacred so the newer film with Emma Thompson as Lady Marchmain was very satisfying to me. The movie is a much condensed interpretation of Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel of forbidden love and the burdens of peerage. With Castle Howard and Oxford University as backdrops, I developed a strong homesickness for England. The non-action-driven plot and uncomplicated storyline made this movie easy to “watch” while in the final 27-hours push of final projects. Putting out requests for the TV series. 

Blade Runner: the director’s cut (1982)

I’ve seen this movie so many times, but as with this past time, I’ve only seen a little bit each time. Admittedly, I had Blade Runner on for background noise while working through the night. As always, Harrison Ford is pitch-perfect as a Deckard, Blade Runner, a cop that specializes in hunting replicants, human clones who serve Earth’s colonies.  In particular Deckard has a mission to kill four replicants who have stolen a ship and headed to Earth to find their maker. The cast, which includes Darryl Hannah, Edward James Olmos, Joanna Cassidy, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young, among others, is a trip to watch 30 years later. 2019 seemed so far away in 1982, but it must have seemed even further yet when Philip K. Dick wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,  the 1968 novel on which this movie is based. I am so grateful that we’re not (yet) cloning humans, but I do (still) want a flying car.

Big Sleep (1946)

Based on the Dashiell Hammett novel of the same name, the Big Sleep is a gritty mystery starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Becall, and it is a classic of both film and the mystery novel genre. Reviews of the movie refer to director Howard Hawks’ straightforward treatment of the novel and praised Bogart for bringing Philip Marlowe to life in the same way the Clark Gable enlivened Rhett Butler in the movie version of Gone with the Wind. Marlowe solves a series of mysteries, which Bogart delivers in a deadpan, nonchalant manner. Worth watching many times over.

Black Narcissus (1947)

I didn't like Black Narcissus quite as I had hoped, especially since it was based on a novel by Rumer Godden, which intrigued me. Plus, the Himalayan setting promised to be exotic. I think if I had watched the movie more closely instead of having it on to keep me company, I may have witnessed the subtleties. Deborah Kerr, who starred in An Affair to Remember, plays Sister Clodagha, the Sister Superior of a convent in the Himalayas. Here she faces challenges to the order and to her faith as she remembers an affair she conducted prior to taking up the religious life. Treatment of the “natives” struck me as racist though was probably in context for 1947. Roles played with intensity struck me as bordering on hysteria. Doubtful I will watch again.

metropolitan home-style q&a

With the halfway point of her interior design education reached and a jam-packed summer break underway, the little trooper pauses to divulge a few of her favorite things.

Hotel:  60 Thompson (NYC)

Room in the house: Studio 

"studio" is what we call our living room because creativity happens here

Ice cream flavor: Izzy’s hot brown sugar 

a caramel ice cream base studded with cayenne pralines

Sunglasses:  cheap, oversized frames from Target 

I like to use sunglasses as headbands so they have a tendency to stretch irreparably

Comfort food: home-baked cookies

I'm partial to Nigella Lawson's Monster Cookies, at any time of the year

Paint color: Farrow & Ball Stone Blue

Wine: Oregon pinot noirs from Owen Roe Winery (Sharecropper’s, O’Reilly’s)

Sneakers: P.F. Flyers Center Lo in red

iPhone or BlackBerry: iPhone with a white hard case

Sheets: crisp 100% cotton percale

school's out for the summer, 2nd year

I have officially recovered from finals week and am now on summer break! Yay.

In celebration of impending summer (I say impending because it's still pretty springlike in Minnesota...we only just got tulips last week, sheesh), I quickly pulled together a mood/inspiration board. Since my Illustrator free trial ended in late April, and I'm not ready to drop dime on my own copy, I enlisted my handsome husband's help. He is dedicated to shareware and easily found Inkscape for me. Inkscape is similar enough to Illustrator that I could import images and size them, as well as use the eyedropper tool for the color bands, but I have yet to figure out how to make swatches.

The sunflower image pretty much sums up my mood. I've got piles of clutter to conquer and skills to continue honing but I'm prepared to face the challenges. Plus, I want to knit, read, write, design, and relax this summer. And, I'm so ready to begin...so much creating, organizing, playing to do.



[photo credits: I'll give a few but I've gotta say, many of these obvious stock photos haven't been credited so I can tell you my source, but that doesn't equal a photo credit. So don't sue me. The chair stamp image comes from dezeen.com and the knitting image from  loopknitting.com.]

a-z movie project: intro and A

I have often wanted to work my way through something—book, wine, movies—starting with the letter A and following through to its natural conclusion. Recently, I stood in front of the movie section at a local branch of the library, just browsing, and found myself pulling a number of movies off the shelf. From the A section.

Now it's officially a project. A project with no rules, only a few guidelines. Start with A, only work forward. No more than 5 movies in a group, which is really the library’s limit, not mine. Simple, doable. Ideally, I will avoid movies that I’ve already seen but if it’s a classic or favorite, I may make an exception. Really, it's all about what strikes my fancy as I'm browsing the shelves. Along the way, I may offer commentary. As always, I’ll post the movies in my sidebar.

So far, I have watched A and B, thus have some catching up to do here. Plus, I've checked out a small stack for C. It bears noting that the following movies were “background” noise while I worked on my final project for studio so they were viewed with less than half an eye.

A

An Affair to Remember (1957)

I first became aware of this movie when I saw Sleepless in Seattle in the early 1990s. Meg Ryan’s character idealizes the main relationship in An Affair to Remember, though the connection wasn’t so clear to me when I finally saw the classic 17 years later. 

Here is IMBD’s synopsis (remember, I only half watched the movie): 

Handsome playboy Nicky Ferrante and beautiful night club singer Terry McKay have a romance while on a cruise from Europe to New York. Despite being engaged to other people, both agree to reunite at the top of the Empire State Building in six months. However, an unfortunate accident keeps Terry from the reunion, and Nicky fears that she has married or does not love him anymore. Will he discover the truth behind her absence and reunite with his one true love, or has fate and destiny passed them by?

Cary Grant, charming as always, and Deborah Kerr star; Leo McCarey directed.

The Apartment (1960)
 
C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) tries to get ahead in his company by lending his apartment to coworkers for romantic trysts. When Sheldrake, his boss (Fred McMurray) catches wind, the boss arranges to use the apartment rather than firing Baxter. Sheldrake’s girlfriend Fran Kubelik (Shirley Maclaine) wants more from the relationship than he’s willing to give. Predictably, Baxter rescues Fran. Baxter was a pretty despicable character, which made cheering for our hero difficult, though I enjoyed the cinemagraphic splendor of the 1960s b/w.

semester nearly over

Spring semester is nearing the end. A deep sigh of relief will be breathed. Final projects have been handed in. All that stands between me and the semester officially, completely ending is two final exams next week. I need to study for both of them, but exams just feel so easy compared to what I have tackled this semester. Also, there is no way to bullshit a 3D project. Taking short cuts on a floor plan could have disastrous results, for example. But massaging one idea three different ways to fill a blue book could get one a B+.

I’m tired. No one told me I wouldn’t sleep while in design school. In fact, as I told my friend Caryl this morning, I got more sleep when I had a newborn baby. That’s just not right. But now it’s over!!! Rejoice.

Tonight, after Simon’s soccer practice, we’ll have a belated Cinco de Mayo celebration with margaritas and Rick Bayless’ enchiladas suizas. Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day and the Kentucky Derby. Sunday is Mother’s Day. I am excited about smelling the roses and enjoying my family.