Absenteeism and the BBG

Hello there...I've been a bit lax about posting lately, for which I have some good reasons and bad reasons for:
Good reasons -
1. The BF and I went on a whirlwind trip to Arizona and California for my spring break in which we managed to visit every family member and friend living in the Southwest area in the span of 7 days.
2. Related to the above, I have just now caught up on everything that fell behind while I was gone.
Bad reasons -
1. I have been a complete grumple grommit about the photos the BF has taken of me lately, always exclaiming that they either make my head look too big, my face look to red, or both.  In fact, I have been so traumatized by this new impression of myself as a red-faced big-headed person that I ran to Sephora this week to by some redness-reducing facial products.  Unfortunately, they do not have head-size reducing products.
2. I am lazy about taking pictures.

All of the above has led me to believe that I should start focusing my blog on other areas of my life that don't necessarily require me to post "fashion" pictures of my outfits.  Now don't misunderstand me, I will still be posting pictures of myself in various outfits, big-head and all, but I'm also going to add some posts around non-fashion related stuffs.  So, in light of this new decision, I am posting a TON of pictures I took at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens today during what was a simply perfect Sunday.

Cheers!
Elle

Mint green is a neutral

I am addicted to Project Runway.  The BF and I don't have cable but I, resourcefully, utilize the computer to watch the Project Runway episodes on Lifetime.com.  You should as well, if you don't already.  I only say this because Project Runway All-Stars is wrapping up, and, if you haven't met Austin Scarlett, you really are missing out on one of the great joys of life.  Austin Scarlett is the fair and fancy-free finalist with better hair and eyeliner skills than any other human being I know.  That man can achieve a flawless face in less time than it takes me shovel my breakfast into my face before I dash out the door for work because I never leave myself enough time to eat in the morning.  He is flamboyant (he regularly wears a captain's hat with requisite ascot as "daywear"), divalicious (he has the best shriek in the business), and, most of all, believes that mint green is a neutral.  I couldn't agree more folks.  Per an earlier post on mint green loafers as required nerd wear, I have made a vow to wear my seafoamy footwear at least once a week from now through summer.  I am actually ahead of the curve as I wore them twice last in the past six days.  Carry on, Mr. Scarlett!

Cheers,
Elle

Outfit breakdown: top Everly/pants & belt J Crew/
shoes ASOS

Limits...and the Power of Positive Thinking

I woke up this morning in a foul mood because I didn't get enough sleep.  I am one of those people who craves sleep...I've been known to take 3 naps in one day.  After putting in 10 hours of sleep the night before.  Anyhoo, I was up too late last night plowing through my RSS feed on Google which only made me more furious that I was underslept because it was basically my fault and I couldn't blame it on anything/anyone else.  As a result, I decided to place a moratorium on electronics in my life after 9 pm.  I am allowed to do other things, of course, such as knitting, reading, sewing (all of which I also love to do), just nothing that requires an electricity source.  And my laptop counts as it requires, from time to time, electricity (dammit).  So here I am, proud of myself for setting this "limit", even though this is the first night I am trying it, I am on my laptop, and it is 18 minutes 'til 9:00 pm.  But I believe in the power of positive thinking!!! I will be done with this post on time and shutting my computer promptly at 9 bells.  I won't sully your hopes on my ability to exercise some personal willpower with the sad tale of the Cadbury Eggs.  That will have to come another day.

Cheers,
Elle

Outfit breakdown: jeans Gap/belt Diesel/top Converse/
cardigan Modcloth/boots Etienne Agner

Mac n' Cheesy Goodness!

I am living up to my claim of starting a weekly post of recipes.  A few ground rules on this and then we are ready to rock:
1. I cannot be held responsible for how shockingly good these recipes are, thus causing anyone to gain weight due to over-consumption.
2. I cannot be held responsible for getting lazy and forgetting to post a recipe on those "off-weeks" when I  have about as much motivation to clean my Pepto-Bismol pink bathroom as I do to post something.
3. I basically cannot be held responsible for anything...let's here it for personal accountability!!! : )

Okay, so Mac N' Cheese lovers rejoice.  Here. We. Go.
Ingredients
4+ blocks of cheese, preferably two extra, extra-sharp cheddar.  One of the other two should be havarti for the creaminess
5 1/2 cups of whole milk
6 tablespoons of unsalted butter
Dijon mustard
Hot sauce
1/2 cup of flour
2 teaspoons of salt
1/4 teaspoon each of nutmeg and pepper
2 pounds of macaroni or similar pasta

Put the pot on to boil for the pasta with a couple of shakes of salt.  Put in the pasta once the pot is at a roiling boil.  Put the milk in a double boiler and heat it up.  Melt the butter into a high-sided saucepan.  It should be a big one as you will be making the cheese sauce in this same pan and you don't want it to overflow.  Once the butter is melted, add the flour and stir over medium heat until it forms a paste.  This shouldn't take too long, maybe a minute or less.  Add the milk to the paste and whisk constantly until it starts to thicken up.  This will take much longer than you think it will!  I always get tired of whisking, walk away to do something else, and come back to find it thicker, but also with a few tiny lumps in it.  So I think this could be avoided if I just stayed and whisked until it was ready.  Once it is thickening up, add the 2 teaspoons of salt, nutmeg, pepper, and add hot sauce to taste if you like. Then add in the cheese...slowly.  If you dump it in all at once, it is kinda hard to stir, so I add about one cup worth of cheese at a time and wait for that to melt down before adding more.  While this is happening, the pasta should be done so drain it and return it to the pot you were cooking it in.  Dump all the cheese sauce over the pasta, add a couple of spoonfuls of dijon mustard (I usually start with 2 and then add to taste) and stir...stir....stir.  Once everything is mixed together and a gooey mess, you're done!

Cheers!
Elle

A Case of the Mondays...

Okay, so I'm a bit late with this post, since I meant to post it yesterday.  Hence the title.  I can be a bit myopic about certain things, and once I get an idea in my head, it can be hard to let it go.  So I had this great idea for my "Monday" post, being that I love Office Space and all, and feeling quite proud of myself for being so witty *cough*.  Unfortunately, I realized this morning that I didn't get the post out in time and wrestled for a grand total of, say, 10 seconds on whether or not to change the title to something a bit more calendrically appropriate.  No way.  I have too much tunnel vision for that.  You'll just have to pretend that today is Monday.

Mondays are actually great days for me...I get to wear jeans to work!  I take my students out for a class on field research for a few hours in the afternoon every Monday so the teacher dress code gods cut me some slack.  You can call this the "country-western-riding-a-horse-but-really-dragging-a-bunch-of-kids-through-the-park" look.

On an unrelated note, I have decided to start a regular recipe post every other week or so.  This week it will be macaroni and cheese.  Wow, you think to yourself, that's not very exciting.   Well, first off, you have never tried MY macaroni and cheese, which involves an unreasonable amount of cheese (it's a four brick minimum around here), cayenne pepper, nutmeg, and Dijon mustard.  And second, I am not the fancy cook in this household.  That would be my lovely partner in crime, the BF.  So until he starts his own blog, you are stuck with just lil' ol' me.

Cheers,
Elle

Outfit breakdown: jeans Gap/shirt Lands End Canvas
belt Diesel/boots Etienne Agner/necklace & watch gift

Elephants are cute

Who Knew...J.Crew!

The J.Crew March 2012 catalog arrived yesterday and I just had a chance to peruse it today.  What can I say?  Actually, I can say a lot.  I am transformed.  T-R-A-N-S-F-F-O-R-M-E-D.  Every single page elicited a schoolgirl squeal of delight followed by a frantic mental inventory of my closet to see if I could put together any one of their amazing looks utilizing my existing wardrobe.  Keep in mind I was also listening to the 80s pop station on Pandora while all this was happening, which only served to whip my euphoria to heretofore unseen heights.  I feel like a birthday cake has exploded in my heart.

Now all this is really saying something considering that a year ago I used to be not only a negative Nancy when it came to J. Crew, but also towards color in general.  I was quite fond of black, grey (which is basically light black), and more black.  In my prior, non-colorful life, I used to scoff at people who would say "navy is the new black" or "khaki is the new black" with the gently stated yet uncompromising reply that only "black is the new black".  And to this day I still love black.  Fall and winter were always my favorite seasons to dress for as I could literally dress in head-to-toe black and no one would think it anything out of the common way.

But one peek at any of the photos below and I'm sure you will agree that my change of heart is well-deserved.  Who knew that J.Crew could transform this raven into a peacock.  Who knew???

Cheers,
Elle

Welcome to Lazyville, Population: Me

I had an epiphany today while heading home on the subway.  I usually have a lot of time to think on the subway as my commute takes roughly an hour, door-to-door.  I was thinking about the pictures the BF took of me this morning for my blog and the fact that I only have three and they are ALL THE SAME.  This is mostly because I loathe waking up early so I make sure that I have just enough time to get ready for work and get out the door in order to maximize sleep.  Obviously, I have not re-calibrated to take into account morning photo shoots.  But everyone else's blogs that I follow feature such lovely pictures that include close-ups of details like shoes and jewelry and such.  And I had such cute shoes on this morning and you can hardly tell from the photo.  Crap.

Sooooooooo, this means I need to move out of Lazyville and into Geturbuttouttabedtotakemorepictures Town.  I have to be honest that my chances of this are not the best given my track record of whining when the BF tries to get me up earlier than I am normally expected to.  He has even expressed some concern over this recalcitrance towards the wee hours of the morn as being a bit of a barrier to our eventual goal of parenthood.  Whatever.  Technology has advanced enough to give us ladies a break from being the ones to wake up for the first feeding of the day so I don't ever have to wake up that early.  Just kidding!  Sort of.  : )

Cheers,
Elle

Outfit Breakdown: blouse Everly/skirt and cardigan
J.Crew/tights Hue/shoes Chelsea Crew