Mad Men and Me

This was a rather silly diversion, but I couldn't help myself.  Although I'm not a completely devoted Mad Men viewer, I do love to tune in and stare in awe at the costumes and set design.  Sometimes the storylines get a little too soap opera-y for me.  Then I discovered this Mad Men tool on their site that allows you to create your own personalized Mad Men character, and well, I just had to try it.  This was is what I came up with.  I think she's a bit more Peggy than anyone else.  -S

Dr. Seuss aka Dinosaur aka Strawberry Lemonade Cake

Here's our spontaneous crazy cake that we sisters made a few days ago.  It all started with a box of strawberry cake mix that Tom was pressuring us to make one evening.  Leiza then went a little wild with her creatively decorated lemon flavored frosting.  In the end, it was very sweet and yummy, but we still can't decide what it should be called.  It seems to look like a dinosaur egg or something straight out of a Dr. Seuss story but also cute as a glass of pink lemonade.  It is quite the conundrum!  Well, I guess the most important thing is that it looks sooo darn pretty!  As we try to hold on to the last bits of summer, I'm sure we'll continue to make summery confections that we will be mighty obliged to share with y'all.  - S & L

Knitting Inspiration: Island at War

I was recently re-watching one of my all time favorite BBC series called Island at War. I have a little bit of an obsession with WWII related stories. They can be very sad, but also completely inspiring. Besides the stories themselves, I am always in awe of the lovely costuming done for those series. While I was watching this one, I couldn't help noticing all of the amazing knitting going on! This is just a sampling of the beautiful knitted work. I especially love the girl's blue sweater and beret. I wish I was a good enough knitwear designer to recreate them... sigh. I can at least try to make her oh so cute beret! -S

Pretty Pink Soup

Guess I'd better catch up with my sister and finally add something to this blog of ours! So here's what we had for dinner tonight. I used up the last remaining veggies left in the garden and whipped up a batch of my favorite soup. Yummy! I don't use a recipe, I just try to make it taste like my Russian mamushka's soup. I started by sauteeing onions and garlic in olive oil, added chopped carrots, celery, a little bell pepper, potatoes, cabbage, a little zucchini, beets, tomatoes, and lots of fresh chopped dill. Add water and boullion, salt, pepper, a splash of balsamic vinegar, about a teaspoon of caraway seeds and about a tablespoon of brown sugar. Cook it all up until the veggies are just the right softness. You can't tell from the photos, but the broth is a lovely shade of pinky-magenta, due to the beets. Along with the soup, Stephanie made a pan fried pioneer bread and Tom made a salad, also with veggies from the garden and a tasty vinagrette. Mmm, I'm getting hungry all over again! --L

Something to feast your eyes on...

I'm finally posting pics of the lovely cupcakes my sister & I made for our little Labor Day shin-dig.  I have to say, considering we whipped them together mighty fast, they turned out DELICIOUS!  I really wanted to incorporate raspberries into them, but I knew I needed chocoalte too.  The solution:  Chocolate Raspberry frosting!  All I can say is "yum".  In fact, I was a little bummed when I realized our guests ate them up so fast that I only ate 2... guess we just need to make more.  -S

Pin Curls & Clara Bow

Here is my first attempt at vintage style pin curls.  It wasn't quite as laborious as I would expect, but I'm not sure if I will attempt it every time I shower.  I went by Strawberry Koi's tutorial which was very helpful.  The results:  CURL MADNESS.  I tried to tame it down by brushing it out and adding some bobbypins to pull it back.  Although it was rather crazy, I did love the results.  I'm one of those straight-haired gals with curly-hair envy.  sigh.

When I was messing around with my new curls, I was reminded of some of my favorite 1920's film sirens, in particular, Clara Bow.  I don't know if it's our redhair that we have in common or her amazing performance in"It", but she has always been my favorite 1920's stars.  Here's a little tribute to her:

By the way, I hope all of you lovely viewers like Vogue Vigilante's new look!  I've been messing around with how to make it look a bit more pro.  Still kind of working on our header, it's a work in progress.  I have many more posts in the works, including some amazing cupcakes made for Labor Day celebrations.  See ya! -S