Lady Paget as Cleopatra, 1897

[via The Storque blog]

Captivating...

I love this hallway...

I love the paper lanterns, I love the magazine collection serving as shelf space.  I love the high ceilings.  I love the white.  I love the airy, sunny breadth of the whole thing.  The owner started life as a tailor and then moved to interior design.  Somehow, the 'construction sense' that you need for tailoring shows through in this room.  Don't you think?

[via]

np:

The Sounds of Science, The Beastie Boys

 *69, Pica

I'm Blaming it on Your Heart, Elissa Lala

Pescatore, NYC

 [via cell 2nd and 51st]

Okay, so I am totally completely loving my dining experience.  Mother grilling her son about his job on my left, senior execs talking about online dating to my right.  Taxis, dogs and strollers whizzing in front of me.  The waiter can tell by looking at my martini that it is not dirty enough, but it tastes fantastic anyway.

np:

Our Transformation, The Joy of Disease

Tangambara, Ali Farka Toure

Oh Yeah, Can

How to pronounce the Icelandic volcano

I figured this out and then forgot to post this week.  Late, but still a little cool.  Drum roll...

Eyjafjallajokull is pronounced:  "ay-yah-FYAH-plah-yer-kuh-duhl" 

However, this breath-taking picture is more than cool.  Collisions of volcanic dust cause lightning over the formerly unpronounceable volcano.

[via dailymail.co.uk]

np:

Bring Me to Life, Evanesence

The Thief Who Came to Dinner theme, Henry Mancini

The 10th Victim, Clifford Gilberto

Drink in the Spring

A few summers ago, a friend (who is an amazing baker) brought this incredible drink to a picnic.  She called it a 'beerista' [pronounced: beer-EE-stuh].  I'm sure we can come up with a better name.

The original recipe was:

• 2 Coronas
• 1 can of frozen limeade
• 1/2 can of vodka

You can't taste the vodka, but it is essential.  Without the vodka, you only have beer and limeade.  With the vodka you have an amazing lime drink with the beer as a spice. 

DIRECTIONS:
Pour 1 can of limeade into a large pitcher.

Use the same can to measure vodka.

Add the vodka.
Add beer.
Stir.

Serve very cold with some nice reading material at sunset.

I've tweaked this recipe a few times.  Some tweaks have worked and some have not.

• Any style beer will work if it is similar to Corona.  Do not try to use any dark beer.  The result is quite bad.  Any pale lager (e.g., Land Shark) will be fine.  Bell's Two-hearted Pale Ale also work very nicely.
• I don't like things to be too sweet, so I use from 4 - 6 beers instead of two.  Adjust the vodka to make up for it, but don't use any more than 3/4 of a can.  I have no idea why, but a full can has always screwed up the alchemy for some reason.  (This is what bakers understand that mere mortals do not.)

I leave the pichter in the freezer until the last possible moment before serving.  Once, when I discovered that I had left a batch in the freezer over night, I scooped up some slush with an ice cream scoop, put it in a rocks glass and splashed some vodka over it.  I have no words to express how refreshing this is.  Of course, I can't drink too much.  Well, actually I could.  Very easily.  Vodka really is a wonderful thing.  But I digress...

What are your favorite drinks for summer?  Alcohol or no alcohol?  I'd love to try some new ones!

Very beautiful post...

[My house, which I am selling, is a complete mess.  The first showing is tomorrow at 2:30p.  Of course, I have decided that looking at pretty pictures on the internet is a far better use of my time.]

I just saw this spread on Lace & Tea.  I love the hair styling.  Click here for the whole gorgeous post. 

 

np:

Voice of the Dead, Controlled Bleeding

Educating Pagans, The Christal Methodists
14th Street Break, Beastie Boys

The Martini Diet by Gin Sander

I picked up this book because I deeply heart martinis  [and I was waiting in GCT for my train].  While this book has more flowery extra phrases than it needs, I think we can all benefit from the concepts in this book.

First of all, the subtitle is:  The Self-Indulgent Way to a Thinner More, Fabulous You".  Calling a diet book 'self-indulgent' is quite brilliant, IMO.  In a nutshell, Ms. Sander advises eating only the very best food you can afford, and then, practice some restraint by eating a little less of it.  This book is about eating real food -- just the way Julia Child intended.

To make this work, you must become the biggest food snob on the planet.  Do not lower yourself to consuming whatever cardboard is lying around the house.  If you like macaroni and cheese, make it with the very best ingredients and savor every bite.  If you take the time to really savor your food, a smaller portion will satisfy you.  And she does pay homage to the Slow Food Movement.

The second idea in the book that I appreciate is that exercise can also be self-indulgent -- even elegant. The activities that Sander recommends are quite glamorous, but certainly rigorous.  Why watch TV in a gym when you can be ice skating or horseback riding?  Picture Jackie Kennedy riding English style, with the tailored blazer and excellent posture.  That's a pretty powerful image to me!

Dressing up in beautiful clothes is an indulgence that doesn't come to us very often.  But what if you take up ballroom dancing?

Other (less expensive) indulgences are hiking, ballet lessons and swimming.  [I quite love swimming laps.  Swimming laps in a pool is about the most quiet and heavenly experience I can think of -- an incredible respite.]

This book has much more information -- including 'Cinnabon avoidance techniques', but the above two are the ideas that really left an impression on me.   I refer to this book all the time.  I even pick it up if I need a little emotional comfort. 

What do you think?  Do you have any books that you turn to over and over?  Pop me a comment and let me know!

np:

I Should Know, Dirty Vegas

Complicated Shadows, Elvis Costello

Clouds Up, AIR