Flowers of Spring

We've entered a bit of a cold snap here which is sad! Fortunately the sun is due to return for this weekend. I'm having a big barbecue around here, so I'm glad to hear the warm weather is returning.



I really loved this outfit. It felt great as a late 50s early 60s college girl in spring...I tend to get really excited about outfits I feel cute in! Hah! I'm not sure it photographed as well though.



This stump in our yard grows mushroom and flowers all around it. It's kind of like a little forest! I imagine if fairies lived in our yard, this would be the perfect spot.





One more shot from our panorama shoot. :)

See you soon!

The first update!

I'm pretty excited to finally bring you the first update for the Sweet August Eyes vintage shop! It was definitely a labor of love. A good mix of dresses, jackets, and accessories. Much more to come. Enjoy!



Ocean Waves 1950s Dress



Cream Lace Blouse and 1940's Tweed Jacket



1930s or 1940s Capelet Set and White 1950s Tea Dress



Fisherman's Basket Purse

See you soon!

Gone Fishin'

Today was a great day! Early this morning we dragged ourselves out of bed for an estate sale in New Orleans. I was fearful we wouldn't get much, but it was awesome! I got a great pile of dresses and jewelry for the shop.

Speaking of! I actually have made progress on it! About half the pictures are taken and the storefront's all set, just waiting for some listings. You can be sure I will let you know when that happens. :) Soon!





This bag was one of the lovelies I got at the sale. It's probably the most awesome vintage handbag I've ever laid my eyes on. Tooled leather lid and handles with a fisherman's basket style body. And it could be yours! ;)

Hopefully my next post is the very first Sweet August Eyes shop update! See you soon!

Black Tie

Hello there! Not so cheery around mi casa the last few days, as I've come down with a bit of a bug and so has the kitty. Although his is a tad more serious then mine. He's got a heart murmur that's requiring some extra and expensive care. I'm a little bummed!







Sorry bout the bright light on my face, accidentally shot these in a form where I can't edit that as much easily and quickly.

See you guys soon!

Seeing Red

Today we went out to shoot some photos for one of Michael's projects, the panorama. I wasn't able to get any photos of the mod night outing, mostly because I decided I wasn't brave enough to take the camera to the dark, crowded bar where it was held! I should have gotten some at home, but by the time I remembered when we got back it was quite late. So I recreated the outfit for you today.





I found some great geodes and crystal-y rocks!

We shot in our two favorite places, on the levee and on top of a super high parking garage.



The last panel of the panorama.

See you soon!

Young Edwardian

This Young Edwardian dress is one of my favorite vintage pieces. It's also one of the first I ever bought, from Liebemarlene way back when I first discovered vintage clothing. I've seen tons of versions around the interwebs, in blue, in black, in forest green...they're all lovely. I dream of collecting this dress in every color. Funnily enough, I saw right after I posted this that there's a new post over at Delightfully Tacky where she just so happens to be wearing the blue version of this dress! I'm pretty sure it is anyway. :)

Midterm madness has me busy around here. I'm looking forward to a Mod Night party I'm going to tomorrow night. Pictures soon!

See ya!

Los Lagos

Sometimes it's hard to feel self-confident. I envy you ladies who know exactly who you are, because I feel like I'm still discovering myself in terms of art/style/etc, but I suppose the journey is what makes it worthwhile.





Today after sculpture class, I ventured into the bathroom and someone had stuck a zen koan on the door. Koans are Zen Buddhist stories designed to make you think intuitively rather than rationally. I like to think of them as ignition for being a curious thinker. This is the most well-known koan:

"Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?"

This is the one I saw today:

When Banzan was walking through a market, he overheard a conversation between a butcher and his customer.
"Give me the best piece of meat you have," said the customer.
"Everything in my shop is the best," replied the butcher. And hearing this, Banzan became enlightened.

After a while I thought about it again and in a subtle way I think it helped. Perhaps it means that we should look at each moment we have as the best, or each word should be our best or at each attempt we should give our all and look forward confidently that the next will be even better.



I try to stay grounded when I feel the most down. I remind myself not to hold myself to sky-high standards. I also look to the ones I love who love me for who I am, not who I wish I could be.



Hope that wasn't too deep! See you guys soon, stay grounded. :)

Banana Bread!

Hello hello! I'm here with my first "official" recipe post, and I'm pretty excited. I hope this will be the first of many original recipes as well as old favorites I've found around the web and tweaked. I'd like to balance it equally between recipes and outfits here, as I really do cook quite a lot.

This is the banana bread recipe I mentioned a bit ago in my 7 things post. The recipe is incredibly versatile...there are so many options for spicing, flavors, topping, ratios, etc. The recipe I started with is here, but you'll see if you compare that I differ quite a bit. Mostly what I'm trying for is a healthier (but still delicious) treat!

You'll have to forgive me too for the quality of some of the pics. There are no windows in the front of our apartment and the only lighting is gosh-awful fluorescents, so I'm fiddling with lighting scheme all the time with different lamps and bulbs to see what works best. This didn't turn out to be ideal!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 bananas
• 3/4 cup sugar*
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

*Sugar is one of the things in this recipe that is extremely versatile. I have used 1/4 cup white, 1/4 cup brown, and 1/4 cup honey and it was delicious. This time I used 1/4 cup brown, 1/4 cup honey, and 1/4 cup that was half and half brown sugar and honey. We are attempting to cut out white sugar wherever we can here, plus the flavors of banana and honey are divine together!

1. Preheat oven to 375. You can bake muffin-style, loaf style, or in a round cake pan like I did. Make sure to grease whatever pan you choose.

2. Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Flour, baking soda, salt. I usually just eyeball the salt because I like to live dangerously. Set aside.

It's banana time.

3. In a separate bowl, add cut bananas.

You can mash your bananas in a food processor if you like, or you can chop into slices and mash with a spoon. We have a food processor, but in the spirit of fewer dishes I usually opt to mash by hand. I add big banana chunks, then I stab 'em a bit until they look like this:

Then you keep working at them. I alternate between stabbing, chopping, and smushing. Eventually it will look like this:

It's still very lumpy, but don't worry.

4. Add the sugar/honey, egg, and melted butter to the bananas. If you want to add spices, now's a great time. Cinnamon is an awesome standard. Nutmeg is delicious. Vanilla extract? Sure! Whatever crazy combo you can come up with will probably be delicious. Beat with hand mixer until well combined. The mixer will do a great job of finishing the banana mashing process and you should get a great smoothish mix.

5. Add your liquid ingredients to your dry ingredients. Stir them together and get everything incorporated. This is a fairly moist batter and will be slightly lumpy.

6. Pour your batter into your pan.

7. Now you have this beautiful blank canvas in front of you! What will you do with it?

Last time I made this, I warmed up a little Nutella and swirled that on top. You could do any number of things, chocolate chips, fruit/jelly/jam, dried fruit, granola, the list is endless really. I decided this time to please Michael (the man)'s voracious peanut butter sweet tooth and give that a try.

I warmed some peanut butter in a bowl until it was more of a liquid consistency. I also added some cinnamon to the peanut butter for flavor.

Then I did a little swirly drizzle on top. I left a portion blank to try the plain flavor of the bread.

Then I take a spoon and do a fancy swirl so I can imagine myself a pastry chef. :)

This is the very same technique I used for the Nutella version.

8. Almost there! Now just bake this baby for 18-25 minutes. What sugar variant you use with affect the final baking time. With 1/2 cup of actual sugar and only 1/4 cup of honey my baking time was about 4 minutes less. With more liquid, it took about 25 minutes. I usually set it for 18 minutes and just watch over it the last few to get the perfect balance of doneness.

Voila!

Delish. It's so simple and I think it can be a very impressive looking dessert with the fancy swirls. I also don't feel quite as guilty snacking on it, what with the bananas and all! :D If you give the recipe a spin, be sure to let me know what you try and how it turns out!

Enjoy ladies! See you soon!

Catching Up

The black pair of my lovely corduroy 50s pants, from last week. They were great to wear! People seem pretty confused by high-waisted pants. It's kind of funny. :)



The last few days it's been a rainy, chilly mess here. In heavy rain our backyard turns into a swamp. Oh well, it is Louisiana after all!



Today we spent some of our Mardi Gras break with my dad. I really like this vintage sweater. It has great heart details.











The rain has made all the mosquito hawks come out. When you walk through the grass, 15 will fly up in all directions! I know they're harmless but they freak me out with their long bodies and floppy legs. Yuck!



A while ago for dinner, we had steaks along with this delicious mango salad. The recipe came from over at My New Roots, an amazing food and nutrition blog. It was simple and refreshing. Tomorrow I'll be making some of that Nutella-Banana bread I mentioned last post, so I will have that delicious recipe for you soon!



The kitty was so relaxed he didn't even realize it a little later when he stuck his tail in that candle and set it on fire! Haha!