xmas list

 I don't really need anything for Christmas, I'm pretty much just so excited to see my family and be in Mazatlan again,  but I decided to make a list anyway just in case someone was trying to shop for me and was at a complete and total loss for ideas.

I actually do kind of need a new purse, mine was $20, I've had it for 3 years, and it is basically being held together by super glue and hope at this point, but I can't find anything I like nearly as much.

The bag on my list is gorgeous, but I would probably get it and keep it in my closet for a few more months until my current one finally gasps its last breath. We've been through a lot together, even casually glancing at other purses feels a little bit like cheating.

Forever 21 cardigan / Forever 21 jacket / Zara dress / Paige Denim skinny leg jeans,  / MICHAEL Michael Kors leather satchel / Benefit lengthening mascara, / Bobbi Brown Cosmetics eyeshadow / Learning Italian with Rosetta Stone

rtw

I've been looking into an Around the World ticket for a few years now, I've had friends that used them and honestly, it seems like the best thing you could ever spend your money on (I've been trying to remember that when I see a new shirt or pair of shoes that I think I need to have). You can spend as long as you want in each place, and then move on to the next one when you're ready.

We've been saving money for a big trip for a couple of years now, we're planning to go next summer. I'm getting excited because it's creeping closer but also a little bit nervous. There are so many places I'd like to go, and it scares me sometimes because I'm worried I won't be able to go everywhere I want to.

I think people put things off sometimes because we keep telling ourselves we have lots of time, that we can always do it later. But the truth is that none of us really knows how long we have. If something is really important to you, you need to make it a priority, and do everything you can to make it happen now.

There are a few different companies that offer RTW tickets, I've been looking into this one and this one so far.

An example of my dream itinerary

brittle

My love for pomegranate is both legendary all encompassing, during pomegranate season you can find me eating one almost every day. I was recently the recipient of a gift of the best kind, a box full of huge, juicy pomegranates.

After gorging myself every day for a week, I still had a few left and decided to do an experiment combining my two favourite things. I melted two bars of good dark chocolate, and stirred in half the seeds from a pomegranate.

I spread the mixture onto wax paper, then sprinkled the remaining seeds on top, and threw it in the fridge for about an hour, and at the end I had pomegranate chocolate brittle.

It was delicious, ridiculously easy, and it looks beautiful with the bright red seeds against the dark chocolate. I'd like to try it again with milk chocolate, since pomegranates can be a bit tart and the extra sweetness might be a good contrast.

 

loveliness

A little bit of loveliness, because it's Friday.

lost in translation

One of the great things about the university I attended was it's multiculturalism. There were students there from over 100 different countries, so we were learning just as much from the other students as we were from each other.

In one of my international communication classes we had a lot of interesting discussions about the ways that different cultures communicate differently, not just in terms of speaking different languages, but also non-verbally, and in the way that we hear sounds.

Babies in different countries cry differently, based on the language in the country where they are born. When asked what sound a dog makes, the students from North America answered with some version of "ruff ruff", while a girl from Thailand described it as a completely different sound.

While it is possible to generalize words from one language to another, there are many words from other cultures that have very precise meanings that there is no English equivalent for. I always love to learn about words like this, even if I can never remember them later.

favourites

A few things that are making me happy right now:

This book excerpt about Marilyn Monroe's personal effects. She was very un-materialistic, and very slender, apparently. I don't know why everything about her is so interesting, but I'm obsessed. It's easy to look at all of the glamorous images of her and forget that she was a real person, so I love learning more about what she was really like.

This: Bulletproof Weeks by Matt Nathanson. I can't stop listening to it.

When your husband goes to Mexico for a week and knows just what to bring you home as a present. Flavoured tequilas for shots, adding to coffee, and as a tequila maker once told me "putting on your kid's waffles before you send them off to school." Solid advice.

This amazing miracle in a bottle. I've tried a lot of frizz fighting serums in my day, and they usually leave you with that slicked back yet puffy look that is so equal parts chic and attractive. This one can go on wet or dry hair, and make your hair shiny and frizz-free, but never greasy. It is my new favourite product, we are best friends.

gotham

Life in SF has basically ground to a screeching halt today, because of Batkid. It seems like everyone knows about it, but maybe that's only because I'm in the Bay. It's a pretty great story no matter where you live.

A little boy battling leukemia told the Make a Wish Foundation that his only wish was to be Batkid, and to help save Gotham City. San Francisco rose to the challenge, with more than 12,000 volunteers helping to transform the city into Gotham, complete with bat signal.

Batkid has been all over the city today, battling the Riddler and the Penguin, saving damsels in distress and also the SF Giants mascott, Lou Seal, from certain death. He's been riding around in the batmobile, AKA a black Lamborghini with bat adornments, accompanied by Batman, and Batkid's little brother, who gets to be Robin for the day.

Batkid has been sick since he was 20 months old, so most of his life has been spent in hospitals getting treatment, and today he got to be a superhero. Wishing to be Batkid is pretty creative, as far as wishes go, and all of these people rallying to help make it happen is really amazing.

The bat symbol in a building across the street from my office

You can learn more about batkid here.

chocolat

Probably since the first time I watched Chocolat I've harboured a secret belief that I was the main character in a previous life and that given the right set of circumstances,  the inate talent that I possessed would emerge and all my dreams of being a master chocolatier, dating Johnny Depp, and wearing my hair in a sassy bob would come true.

Nobody likes chocolate more than I do, and I firmly believe that (I am eating some even as I write this), but a couple of weeks ago I signed up for a chocolate making class with Rachel Dunn chocolates in Concord, and let me tell you, if anyone likes chocolate more than I do, it is Rachel.

Rachel has been making chocolate since she was 17, her chocolates are world famous, and she owns her own company that does nothing but make chocolate every single day. They say if you want to be successful in business, you need to do what you're passionate about, and Rachel is passionate about chocolate.

She stood up in front of the class and introduced herself, and you could tell that she was thrilled, absolutely elated, to be sharing the art of chocolate making with a new group of people.

She could barely contain herself as she lamented the lost art of candy making, shared every single thing she knew about chocolate and candy making, and expressed the fervent belief that we would leave the workshop and share what we had learned with all of our friends and family. She truly loves chocolate, and wants other people to get the same joy from it that she does.

The class itself was great, it was 2 hours long and we made about 15 different kinds of candy, including truffles, chocolate dipped strawberries, English toffee, peanut butter cups, and a ganache tart.

It was really fun and informative, and the candy we made was delicious. The best part is that she sends everyone home with recipes for all of the things we made in class, so you can make them at home for your friends and family. Or eat them all yourself when your husband is gone to Mexico for a week. There is no judgement here.

World famous candied applies

I may have gotten slightly carried away with the peanut butter in my peanut butter cups

I am practically a professional strawberry tuxedo applier. That's probably a real job.

is your red the same as my red?

I've wondered about this for years, and then I saw this video. I had to share.

may I quote you on that?

A few things that have been stuck in my head lately:

"Film noir gave us a term for the low-maintenance cheap-date type of woman, as personified by Ingrid Bergman and the other cool blondes. They were, in the gruff parlance, Class Acts. A Class Act does not bombard you with whimpering phone calls to the effect of why are you out with your mates watching the footie when you could be choosing sisal floor mats with me?

A Class Act does not take a split badly, or if she does, does so without so much as a peep. A Class Act is the silhouette disappearing into the night that you will no doubt remember-but will never talk to again. A Class Act will spend a lot of time alone, drinking spirits. A Class Act will never emerge from a local church in a shower of petals. A Class Act will never be a mummy, yummy or otherwise.

A Class Act will never have a husband who visit prostitutes. Forget I mentioned it."- Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Love that book.

"Summer left and no one said a word."- Matt Nathanson

"You are arguing that the fragile and rare thing is beautiful just because it's fragile and rare. But that's a lie, and you know it."- The Fault in Our Stars

"Fuck that, I say if I'm beautiful. I say if I'm strong ... I will never apologize. I stand here and I'm amazing for you, not because of you. I am not who I sleep with ... I am not my weight. I am myself."- Amy Schumer

“There is something absolutely divine — I mean, literally, the breath of God — in the ability to put someone else in your heart, to think of them first. But from the time of the greatest pornographer who ever lived, Shakespeare, we’ve demanded that love be something more. No, fuck Shakespeare — since the Song of Songs! And what happens is, the utter grandeur and magnificence of what love actually is gets overshadowed by this disappointment that it’s not the way we fantasized it should be.”- Jim, 55

burlesque

I've been into burlesque for a long time now, I always find myself watching documentaries and reading books around it, so when I was creeping around on the internet and found out that there was going to be a burlesque show at the Fillmore, I was so excited.

After about 3 weeks of begging and wheedling my husband to the point where he began to lose the will to live, he eventually gave in and bought us tickets (he LOVED it, by the way). I loved it too, it was really fun to watch. The girls were beautiful, and amazing dancers, and a few of them were really curvy but still gorgeous.

They had different "numbers" including a Star Wars dance, and a Planet of the Apes dance where all the girls danced and stripped wearing gorilla masks.

One really neat thing was when they brought up some of the girls that had been a part of the show in the '80's, to talk to them and see if they had any advice for the new ladies, you could tell that it had been a really enjoyable time in their lives, and they were still a part of the act so many years later.

The troupe I saw were called the Black Heart Burlesque, definitely check them out if they are in your area.

The Fillmore is so gorgeous

Band posters of all of the musical acts that have played the Fillmore. It's almost like going back in time.

Another accidental gif from my phone. I don't know how it happens, and I couldn't make it take a gif if my life depended on it

shark

I'm off to my first Sharks game of the season. This is about to be me:

Luckily I look amazing in Kelly green spandex

Nothing takes me back home as fast as the smell of a hockey rink, the snap of the cold and the sound of a blade cutting into the ice. The second I walk in the door I'm five years old again, and I'm eating old rink burgers (a truer delicacy has never been found) and fries with salt and vinegar, with gummy cobras for dessert, and then running around through the entire rink, under the bleachers and back to the zamboni playing tag with my friends.

I don't think I went on a single date that wasn't to a hockey game until I was 18, and let's be honest, why would you want to go anywhere else? Plus they serve Canadian at the Shark Tank, and to be honest I'm not much of a beer girl, but I'll take my Canada where I can get it, and I haven't found anywhere else in California that serves it.

Plus he plays for the Sharks. Enough said.

Dibs.

makai

A few more picture from my trip. Ok a lot more pictures. I literally can not resist taking a billion pictures, it's so beautiful there. Even when I lived there, my phone was just full of pictures of the places I saw every single day.

You would think it would get old, but it really doesn't. Just when you think you're immune, it sneaks up on you and takes your breath away again.

cromwells

I have this dress in black and white, and it's a bit of a struggle to wear anything else, ever

Brandy Melville

these trees make me happy

Ocean House in Waikiki. Almost too beautiful to eat, best served with a POG mimosa

hello lover

brunch with my second family