recipe: late summer salad

First, can we all have a nice hearty chuckle at my pitiful attempt at blogger food photography? One of these days I'm going to take a good food photo. It's going to happen.

Anyway... one of my favorite eat-out foods this summer was the strawberry poppyseed salad at Panera. I ordered mine without chicken or dressing and then added shredded coconut when I got it home. SO good! This afternoon I was craving the salad something awful, but to my utter horror I got this reply when I placed my order: "we're sorry, that salad has been discontinued for the season." Noooooooooooo!!! I reluctantly ordered an iced tea and sulked for a good ten minutes before I realized I could easily whip this up at home.

I used baby spinach, fresh strawberries and blueberries, a rinsed can of mandarin oranges and heaps of shredded coconut. The salad usually came with candied pecans too, but I made this for my whole family and my brother is allergic to nuts, so I left them out this time. Personally I love having that extra crunch so I'll probably be adding some when I go back for leftovers :)



I usually like kind of plain food, so everyone in my family thought it was just Kate being Kate when I said I was serving this without dressing. But I begged them to try it as-is and they all agreed it didn't need anything else. The juices from the fruits add just enough liquid and the coconut gives each bite just the right amount of flavor. If you try it, I'd recommend just giving it a whirl without dressing first -- you can always add it later. I think something like sesame ginger might be interesting though!

It's kind of a pet peeve with me (at least in my own family) that nobody ever wants to try things the way they come. They always have to be adding heaps of salt or cheese or dressing or butter when some foods have absolutely amazing natural flavors that just get buried under all that extra goop. I don't eat everything totally plain (I'll be the first to admit I can be heavy-handed when it comes to garlic!) but I think it's nice to try foods as-is before adding anything extra. You might be surprised at how good something tastes without any assistance from the condiment aisle! ;)

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the elusive chloe

This cat hardly ever lets me take her photo. As soon as she hears me fumbling with my camera she immediately runs away or stops doing whatever cute thing she was doing that made me want to take her photo to begin with. So when she seemingly agreed to a little photo shoot on my bed the other day I was beside myself with joy. Cute pictures of Chloe! Where she is standing still! And actually looking at the camera in some of them!!!! I just had to share :D





My tiny little ham had to get in on the photo action, of course. Chloe is there side-eyeing Arrietty as usual. They get along well but Chloe is constantly suspicious of everything and everyone.

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daisy button restyle

Lately I've been toying with the idea of updating a lot of my clothes with quick easy little DIY projects. It's so much cheaper than buying new things but it still gives your wardrobe a breath of fresh air! And some minor tweaks can make a plain old garment look really special. There are some things (like big daisy buttons on a coat!) that would make me click "add to cart" in a heartbeat, when it's such an easy thing to just do at home myself!

So for my first project I bought some plastic daisy cabochons to attach to the buttons on my winter coat. It originally came with big round pink and gold shiny buttons which I didn't like, but I knew eventually I'd find the right ones to replace them. (Here's what the coat originally looked like.) These are actually cabochons, not buttons. They have completely flat backs, and no holes to attach them to fabric.



First I found some plain flat buttons to replace the big round ones that the coat came with. I sewed them into place using embroidery thread, and then used masking tape to tape off around each button, just to make sure I didn't get any glue on the fabric!

E6000 glue is my favorite for projects like this. It's incredibly strong and works on practically every surface. You just apply some to each object, let it cure for about 5-10 minutes, and then press the two objects together. I used clothes pins to hold the buttons and cabochons in place and then let the glue dry for 24 hours. One thing to double check is that the new buttons will fit through the existing buttonholes. Mine are a little snug so I'll probably have to open up the holes a bit.



The cabochons came in packs of 4 with varying sizes so I decided to use some of my leftovers on an old cardigan! I love how it turned out! This is such a simple, ridiculously easy project but it makes such a huge difference!

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hair we go

I've been pinning my bangs back for a few days and I think I'm going to stick with this for a while. I've gotten very used to hair covering up half of my face, so all the forehead I'm seeing in the mirror is a little odd but it just feels so good. I don't have to worry about wind blowing them out of place, heat making them stick to my skin, accidentally making them too short or letting them grow out too long. I love the way bangs look on me, but I need a break. Instead of putting up with them, I'm putting them up ;)

On an unrelated note, has anyone seen the news about The Little Mermaid re-release? It's apparently being released this week with a gimmick that has you bringing your ipad into the theater and participating in audience games and sing-a-longs. I was so excited when it was originally announced that it was going to be released in 3D (and very heartbroken when that was cancelled) but now I'm not sure if I want to go. I know I'm old fashioned, but I really love that movie theaters are one place you can still go to escape from constant connectivity. Will you go?

dress - c/o oasap | shoes - c/o bait footwear | sweater and belt - forever 21

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I want to believe

Today is the 20th anniversary of the premiere of The X-Files! I'm having a little X-Files marathon/party tonight (there will be sunflower seeds aplenty) to celebrate and, as usual, trying to dress on theme. When I got dressed I was thinking "oh, green for aliens" but then I realized that's actually more of a generic interpretation of aliens, not X-Files specific.. so let's just say it represents alien blood instead. Which is green.

I was too young to watch The X-Files with my parents when it premiered, but they eventually started letting me join them when I was about 11. And I've been an X-Files super fan ever since! After it went off the air (in the days before internet streaming) I used to catch re-runs on cable and repeatedly watch my season 6 (my favorite!) dvd set over and over. I was so excited when Netflix finally put it on instant -- I think I've watched the series start-to-finish at least 10 times or more since. And I started my own little tradition of watching How the Ghosts Stole Christmas on Christmas Eve every year. It's the perfect way to start my holiday! :)

My favorite non-mythology episode, hands down, is Arcadia (Season 6.) Mulder and Scully pose as a married couple in a Stepford-esque planned community in order to figure out why residents keep disappearing without a trace. As someone who's not too keen on suburbia, that particular element to the story appeals to me, but I particularly love Mulder and Scully's witty banter while they're pretending to be husband and wife ("that's right, poopy head.") They have a lot of great back-and-forth in the series, but their dynamic in Arcadia is (in my opinion) the best.

I also love Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man (Season 4) which centers on the possible backstory of CSM. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for him -- his villain isn't as cut-and-dry as most usually are. Even if the events detailed in the episode are fictional, you're still left with the impression of a frustrated, slightly pathetic aspiring author-- hardly the sinister, shadowy figured he appeared to be.



If you haven't watched the show before, I (obviously!) highly recommend it. If you like Breaking Bad, try out the Season 6 (there I go again! It's so good though!) episode "Drive" which stars Bryan Cranston and was written by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, and see how you like it!

I know a lot of people who weren't immediately smitten and eventually warmed up to the show and grew to love it. I think it really all depends on which episode you see first. Some of the monster-of-the-week episodes can probably be off-putting if you've never seen the series before (like the one about the radioactive monster that lives in the New Jersey sewers or the early internet creeper who projects spider web vomit on his victims. ewww) and some of the mythology episodes can be really confusing if you weren't already familiar with the whole alien invasion backstory. I personally think it's best -- since the whole series is readily available on dvd, netflix, hulu plus, and amazon instant -- to just start from the beginning. The pilot episode was fantastic, and 20 years (to the day!) later, it definitely holds up. If I wasn't already hooked, the pilot would hook me for sure.

Happy Anniversary, X-Files!! :)

dress- c/o modcloth | shoes - modcloth | lady tie - flapper girl

scalloped collar blouse - asos | fox mulder brooch - sweet and lovely

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saturday in new york

On Saturday I spent the day in New York with Polly from The Littlest Polly! We went to the Museum of Modern Art about an hour before closing but somehow managed to see practically every floor! We had so much fun! Polly is a huge Andy Warhol fan and got to see a bunch of his works, and I was gawking in disbelief at some of the really famous paintings they had on display (Starry Night?!?) I was an art history major in college but I hardly ever find time to go to museums anymore, so this was a rare treat.

I just had such a fun time. I'm always nervous when I'm meeting internet friends for the first time in real life, but Polly is so incredibly sweet and friendly that I forgot about being nervous pretty much instantly. I always thought she seemed like one of the most awesome girls on the internet and she's even more awesome in person! I can't wait to hang out again :)



I look like such a dork in basically every photo from Saturday but oh well!  My dress is an old one from Romwe, shoes are urban outfitters, belt is from another dress and the glasses are from firmoo. The tote bag is my Hypatia bag from sweet and lovely.



Polly is so sweet and SO fun! I'm a little (ok a lot) jealous of her posing instincts and ridiculous eye for color pairing. If you aren't already familiar with her blog, get over there right now. Seriously just skip the rest of this post. GO.



Looking like a dweeb next to Starry Night.



See what I mean with the cute posing? ah!

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oh by gosh by golly

Yesterday my room was no place for taking outfit pictures (as is evidenced below) so I took this quick mirror shot in my closet. I love red and mint/teal together but always feel a little too Christmassy (if there is such a thing) so I threw on some yellow to balance it out a bit, and I love how it turned out :) Of course, I've been playing Christmas music a lot this week so I'm sure that factored into my gravitation towards the red and green hues in my closet, despite any feeble attempts to disguise my premature holiday cheer ;)



If you ordered any dollar print sale artwork your envelope is probably in this photo somewhere! The first batch is going out this afternoon and then I'll hopefully get the rest out tomorrow :) I always feel a tad bit overwhelmed by this sale each year but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I rather enjoy packing up all the orders and seeing them all spread out like this. To continue with the whole Christmas theme, it makes me feel a bit like Santa Claus! :)

dress- modcloth | cardigan - forever 21 | shoes - urban outfitters | brooch - vintage

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