regardless of season this man can do no wrong. loving all this grey, black and white, it's like he can read my mind *sigh* <3
broken heel=broken heart
finally the week i've been waiting for since my last vacation ended is here. and i find myself sleeping 20 hours a day, actually, i guess i'm catching up. the fact i now have two cats under my motherly wing doesn't help either, when one is finished cuddling up beside me, the other one comes along. it's beyond sweet and it makes me so happy but seriously, what have i become?! i try to squeeze in a trip to the gym here and there, of course staying away from the malls and doing my boxing week shopping online instead. do i ever have a fantastical package coming in the mail sometime soon, i can't wait to show you. right now i am waiting out the post christmas shopping madness to get a chance to go back and return this halston dress. i walked by it everyday for a week (by default, i just so happened to be at the mall every single day...) and i loved the pattern, then i found out it was 40% off the already marked down price so i ended up paying $173 for a $600 dress - deal! BUT when i tried it on it was just kind of meh! it isn't sawn very well, the zipper bunches up in weird places, which you can't see because of the sleeve, thank goodness, but even with this super deal i can't justify keeping it. ever since sarah jessica parker became the spokesperson for the brand i really took notice but i just can not make it work. one day, halston, we will rule the world together, until then i have a broken heel. oh yes! walking down the stupid stairs to take the photos i actually fell and broke my heel, on my brand new pair of highly sought after red boots. i cried, then i put myself together, took photos, cried some more, consulted google on the survival chances for my shoes and now i have to wait until tomorrow to find out. waaaaah! i am in torment. zara better be getting their versions sooner rather than later because red boots is all i want, especially now that it became out of reach once again. haunted by mixed emotions between pissed and upset, i probably won't be able to sleep till i find out. (halston heritage dress, luxury rebel boots, h&m headband)
from me to me, i shouldn't have
this year, my family opted out for a consumer-less christmas. no trips to the mall, no useless presents that just take up space because you feel too guilty to throw them out. new policy: buy what you like for yourself. this way nobody is disappointed (not to blow my own horn or anything but i usually give great gifts so it's always me who ends up being disappointed), usually i tell people what i would like to get to avoid all this but this year the problem was eliminated entirely. and yes, it did feel a lot less like christmas without the pile of presents under the tree, but in the end we had a wonderful dinner with people we love, my mum made such great food we are still sleeping it all off. it might have felt a lot less like christmas also because my brother and his family and rob's sister are all away this year for some reason during this time and what kind of christmas is it without your whole family around to celebrate it with. i'm definitely thinking about them as i'm ordering bakugans and stupid silly bandz for my nephew on ebay (whoever came up with the idea of selling rubber bands must have been a marketing genius). for now i'll just admire these gorgeous ash cowboy boots i got at this years' holt renfrew sale. such great great deals this time around. so happy i didn't end up with the pair i originally wanted from forever 21. phew!
julia & julia moment
in the last few days i got really into playing the house wife kind of role. so out of character. but i got obsessed with making these nanaimo bars after one of the models brought it to our christmas party at the agency. they were so delicious. i have long forgotten the taste, i'm not much of a sweet tooth but these really are the exception. it's the coconut i think. for those of you that don't know, nanaimo bars originated in ladysmith, vancouver island, south of nanaimo in the early 1950s. mabel jenkins, a local housewife from cowichan bay submitted the recipe to the annual ladysmith and cowichan women's institute cookbook. this cookbook was sold in the early 1950s in the region as a fundraiser. it became popular in many of the province's households, especially in company towns, and was sold in many of the coffee shops on nanaimo's commercial street. tourists in the region, especially us tourists on pleasure boats came to refer to these as "nanaimo bars"(courtesy of wikipedia). for those of you who don't know also they are primarily made of sugar. mmm. after making my first batch, this being very very apparent i didn't have any. i have since then perfected the recipe, being such a kitchen genius that i am and so proud as a peacock here is the recipe that worked so well for me. this is probably going to be the last time in a couple of years that i make these. i will become transfixed with making something else by the time another opportunity presents itself for me to stand by the stove...
BOTTOM LAYER
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
7 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg (beaten)
1&1/4 cups graham wafer crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
1 cup coconut
melt the first three ingredients in a pot. add egg and stir it in to thicken. add the egg while the pot is off the stove, while mixing add a little bit of milk to make the solution a little more viscous. in a separate bowl mix in crumbs, coconut and almonds, add the mixed solution, stir well. press firmly into an ungreased pan (i used a 36x23cm pan, the recipe i found calls for 23x23, but the only difference is that your bars will be thinner... pfff big deal)
SECOND LAYER
1/2 unsalted butter (melt entirely in a pot)
2 tablespoons & 2 teaspoons cream
2 tablespoons vanilla custard powder
2 cups icing sugar (the recipe says 2, but the sugar bomb that this already is i prefer more like 1&1/2)
cream (aka. stir) all ingredients together until light (which if you melt the butter won't take long at all). spread on top of first layer with a spreader. some mixing of second and bottom layer will occur. you won't even notice after the bars are ready. and if you are a super perfectionist good luck trying to figure out a workable way to do it otherwise.
THIRD LAYER
4 squares semi-sweet chocolate (1 oz each. i used 5 oz of chocolate chips)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
add some milk when melted to make more viscous, but you still want it to be creamy
melt the 3 above ingredients in a pot, while still liquid pour over second layer. it's nearly impossible to spread this over the already liquid second layer with a spreader. what i figured out (and i pat myself on the back for this) is i pick up the pan and just move it around to get the chocolate to spread. i like the top layer to be thin so any excess chocolate after everything is covered i pour out of the pan. the bars are really the best when the top layer is thin, otherwise you really get an overload of sugar.
you're done. no baking involved! now put your pan into the fridge and let it sit overnight. when you are ready you can cut into even squares or whatever you like to do, you can even attempt to eat it as one gigantic nanaimo bar (and then curl on the floor from the pain). good luck! what a contribution to my womanhood, seriously.
a good old fashioned north american christmas
leather leggings take two
here i am, trying something different but at the same time, not venturing too far from what i did before with the leggings. new scenery perhaps, new shirt (which is desperate for some love by the way). i discovered this place when we did a shoot here with wilkosz & way back in october, i would love to come back during a warmer day and do a fun outfit too. i am actually starting to look out for spring clothes already. with the sales claiming the final days of the season new things will start coming in, which is fantastic because i was starting to get bored already. it's funny that i say this because i'm usually quite boring with my clothes, all black, white and grey, and on that note i stumbled upon a great pair of fully leather leggings at club monaco, however, weary of whether or not overpriced (the answer to this question is always yes) i will wait until i have a chance to go to h&m and scope out the choices they have there, which i know for a fact are (or were) much better. i shall keep you posted. i am actually trying to find a pair of cool red leather leggings ala isabel marant. another item on my list-elizabeth and james sweater. i think that's what i need to do- a christmas wish list/post christmas boxing day hunting list. better late than never, i'm already obsessing over yet another wang bag. such a one track mind. (zara jacket and blouse, club monaco leggings, h&m booties, chanel earings, alexander wang bag)
the rounds
sometimes the most unlikely of outfits are those that everyone loves. i shot this one about two weeks ago when it started getting warmer but never got around to loving it that much, so it ended up sitting on my desktop for the longest time, then i loaded it up to lookbook and trendtation, weardrobe, and all the other outfit posting sites you can possibly think of. it turned out to do a lot better than many of the previous posts. on december 20th it got chosen as the look of the day on trendtation and today it was featured on a polish fashion site lamode.info (for those of you who can read polish here is the direct link: http://www.lamode.info/moda-uliczna/articles/moda_uliczna_ania_b.html) yey for me! but i guess this just shows that inspiration can be found in the most unlikely of places, maybe that after looking at something long enough i can love it too, and possibly accessorize (?)... a lesson i refuse to accept. (h&m head scarf and shoes, robert rodriguez blazer, tallulah tanktop, zara pants and bag, cc skye leather chain bracelet, michael kors watch, assorted bangles, house of harlow 1960 rings)
sick of seeing red yet? speaking of which, i am really drawn to anything with red lately. not to say that red is the new black, because black will always and forever remain the new black for me, but the colour has something about it that makes it especially perfect for winter don't you think.
remember: ania is always right
just a day after i posted the vogue covers i received a message from annie who attempted to recreate the effect on her own using some of my images, he above results look pretty good to me. i said in the post that you can probably do this with anything but i was not expecting for anyone to go and try it out, i just love that she did though and i can see this being highly addictive, expect to see some of this from me (once i figure out the process that is) for now you can check out annie's post here.
vogue on vogue
just stumbled upon these great images on topshop this morning. fashin took every vogue cover from 2010 and layered them on top of each other for this crazy antique dated kind of effect. here are my three favorites: nippon, china and paris. what a great idea, you could basiclaly do this with anything. i'm impressed.