minimalism is a bummer

I've long been a fan of Jonathan Adler's whimsical pottery (his Candid Canisters crack me up!). His genius manifesto makes me like him even more.

whoa there hoarder...

Despite the belief these days that everything is online, I still find myself looking at a fair amount of print material. As much as I love Pinterest, I'm an old fashioned girl that loves paper, and I'm not about to start scanning things to put them online. I still subscribe to magazines, and I can't seem to stop a handful of catalogs from arriving in my mailbox every month. Some issues are easy enough to throw in the recycling bin after leafing through them, but the ones I like I tend to hoard. When those combine with the postcards, programs, greeting cards, and other random bits of paper I save, the situation can get dangerous. 

We've been doing some spring (or I guess now its summer) cleaning lately, and my husband suggested that maybe I should do something about the towering stack of magazines next to my bedside table that had been threatening to bury me alive. Of course, I tried to explain to him that I needed to keep all of them, but he just gave me a look that said "I'm going to turn you in to Hoarders".

Luckily, I had also just found my old image file from my fashion school days. One of my teachers had suggested we use an accordion file to create a filing system for all the magazine tear sheets we were collecting. When filed by category, the magazine tears are more accessible and therefore more useful as inspiration. Instead of trying to remember which issue had that beautiful floral arrangement, I can just look under my "florals" tab and find a whole stack of flower photos I liked. 

The accordian file I had was already pretty full, so I started a new one with categories that are more relevant to my interests now. Coming up with the categories is probably the most fun part of this project. The categories only need to make sense to you, so you can make them as random as you want. Like squirrels? Make a "Woodland Creatures" tab. Love the color blue? Start saving snippets under a "Blue" tab and you will always have a swatch to explain exactly the shade you are looking for.  Its great to make files for things like planning a wedding, or aspirational photos for your dream home. Then when the time comes to actually pick out invitations, or paint your kitchen, you're not starting from square one. 

The sorting process took some time (because of course I had to go back and reread the interesting articles and lustfully gaze at the Anthropologie catalogs again), but it was fun to do in an OCD kinda way. And now that my system is in place, it will be much easier to keep the magazine stack in check. Whenever I finish with a magazine or catalog, I cut out the articles/photos I like and file them under the appropriate category. Then the rest of the issue can take a trip to the recycling bin. Its amazing how much less space this takes up. Even with all the random paper I've saved over the years, I still only have two accordion files in the corner of my bookshelf.

Now if I can only figure out what to do with all those half-read issues of the New Yorker that I haven't been able to part with...

dip dyed cake

Doesn't this dreamy cake make you want a Creamsicle?

I've been wanting to try David Lebovitz's recipe for orange ice cream inspired by the classic popsicle. 

Find the recipe online here.

[cake photo taken by Michael Pieracci and styled by me. cake by Oakland Bakes.  popsicle photo by pastry break]

beehive envy

I kinda always wanted hair like Patsy from Ab Fab. 

She always seemed to be pulling a bottle of vodka or a cigarette out of it.

Who knows what else she had hidden up there...

magical pink lake

Must get a pink boat to sail here, stat!

Situated north of the Cap Vert Peninsula in Senegal, northeast of Dakar, Lake Retba, is pinker than any milkshake you’ve ever come face to straw with.

Experts say the lake gives off its pink hue due to cyanobacteria, a harmless halophilic bacteria found in the water.

If the color weren’t enough to make you smile, it should be known that Lake Retba has a high salt content, much like that of the Dead Sea, allowing people to float effortlessly in the massive pink water. In fact, Lake Retba has an almost one and a half times higher salt content than the Dead Sea.

(via bangstyle)

what's for dessert? a miracle!

Want to mix things up a bit the next time you serve dessert?

Pass out some Miracle Fruit first!

Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum) is an awesome West African berry that temporarily modifies taste perception. Once it binds to your taste buds, you are only able to perceive sweet tastes. 

You can order it as tablets from Amazon: Miracle Frooties

The effects can last anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours, so I recommend preparing a selection of foods for your guests before taking the tablets. 

I recently had a Miracle Fruit party and we served an assortment of fruits, dark chocolate, baker's chocolate, black coffee and unsweetened 100% cranberry juice. 

It takes a few minutes for the tablet to dissolve on your tongue before the "miracle" takes effect. We were unsure how we would know when it had started working, so we began by drinking the unsweetened cranberry juice. With the first sip, there was no question it was miracle time. This juice is usually so sour it is almost undrinkable, but under the magic spell of miracle fruit, it tasted sweeter than Ocean Spray!

By far the most interesting things to taste are the foods that are usually the most sour. Lemons, limes, and grapefruits were incredible. Slightly sour early summer blackberries were transformed into the ripest, most delicious berries you've ever tasted. Some of the naturally sweet fruits like oranges were almost too sweet to eat. The chocolate and coffee were interesting, but everyone agreed they were not as delicious as the fruit. At my next miracle fruit party, I want to try goat cheese or some dark beer (apparently it tastes like a milkshake!). 

[Photos courtesy of Michael Pieracci]

watercolor ombre

The watercolor effect on these vintage crepe paper balls is gorgeous! Why do I always find things on etsy after they've been sold?

[were available from ethanollie. via Frolic]