Almost Over

Like most people in Philadelphia, I can't believe summer is almost over. The past two days have been a cool glimpse of weather-to-come and I'm missing the heat already. I have to say though, it was a very summery summer. Just for fun, I've put together a little bundle of things that helped make my August a special one:

1. GORGONZOLA DOLCE I've mentioned this cheese in my last post, but I think it deserves repeating: gorgonzola cheese. From Downtown Cheese at Reading Terminal Market.

2. JULIA CHILD My grandmother came to visit a few weeks ago and she, my mom, and I went to see Julie&Julia, and then the three of us spent the rest of her visit talking about food, haha. Julia Child's story is so enchanted, I really recommend it! I also watched a whole episode of The French Chef where she handled raw chickens the entire time...what a lady!

3. STRIPED SHIRTDRESS Bought this on a whim, and boy do I love it! (No, that's not my body, haha.) From Target.

4. GOLD AVIATORS I actually bought these a few months ago, but I just recently was reunited with them. I happen to really like aviators.

5. GLADIATOR SANDALS Wore these at the beach all week. Strike that, wore these at the beach when I left the rental house, and therefore could no longer acceptably be barefoot. Speaking of barefoot, I bought these at BareFeet.

6. Tomato Gorgonzola Soup Yeah, I really like gorgonzola. I also like tomatoes, which is why I wanted to make a tomato soup from scratch with the homegrown tomatoes my parents gave me. I'd share a recipe, but guess what? I totally improvised! Maybe I'll type it up someday.

7. HOTEL LORRAINE After much deliberation, I bought this postcard at a stamp show I went to last weekend. It was a little pricey for a postcard, but the Divine Lorraine is 10 blocks west on the street I live on, and I'm completely obsessed with old buildings. Worth it.

8. TAX STAMPS Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em. I got two others at the stamp show, but this is the only one that matched my color scheme perfectly. Which, by the way, I didn't alter or pick-and-choose accordingly, it really just turned out like this! So summer.

Bad sandwich!

You know how, if you're a wimpy critic, you might employ the "sandwich" method of criticism — say something nice, then something harsh, then something nice again to round it out.

Well, my day has been exactly the opposite of the nice sandwich.

I woke up this morning to the sound of chainsaws (never a good sign) and realized that our neighbors were cutting down all of the amazing foliage in their backyard...gorgeous ivy on the fence, and a beautiful tree! This unfortunate occurrence is compounded by the fact that since we are refused outside space in this apartment, gazing longingly into the neighbor's backyard is the closest to greenery I can get. I have always been overly emotional when people cut down trees (it makes my insides hurt!), which is infuriating because it seems like no matter where I live people are always cutting them down. In fact, just a few months after we moved into our current apartment, the tree directly out front was cut down...an error on the part of the glorious city of Philadelphia, who were asked to merely TRIM the tree...NOT cut it down!!!

Anyway...I evacuated my apartment echoing with the sound of dying trees to go to Reading Terminal Market to pick up some groceries — it was lovely. I rode my bike with my new rear basket; I bought an iced coffee to cool down and wandered around, checking out which vendors I would patronize; I bought food from the Fair Food Farmstand and felt great about it; and I bought a chunk of gorgonzola cheese and I want to eat it all right now. It was truly a good time.

Then on the way home the temperature was surprisingly cooperative and I was in a great mood...UNTIL MY CHAIN POPPED OFF...THREE TIMES WITHIN LIKE 5 BLOCKS. I ended up having to walk it home from 3rd and Callowhill. What a bummerfest.

This was never intended to be a rant blog, so here are happy pictures of my food: a pattypan squash and mutant zucchini from my parents' garden, and the best-looking red pepper I've ever seen (from the FFF):

Mojitofest

I finished another illustration for Grid this week. The issue doesn't come out until August, so I'm showing just a snippet for now. If you want to see the whole thing you'll just have to find a copy for yourself!

Peacocks! on Etsy

I'm not typically obsessed with peacocks, but when I went to look at some of my Etsy favorites, I realized how many of my bookmarks were peacock-related. Here's a buncha good ones:


So luxurious! The outside fabrics of these clutches are so swanky, but I honestly think the best part is the colorful punch of the lining inside. Mmmmmm. Peacock palace, from Red Ruby Rose.



Elegant! Peacock Feather Necklace, from Skylark Studio.



I think this print is charming. Zukzuk Peacocks White, from Zukzuk.



YES! Peacock Melon Crate Label, from Labelstone.

Cookies!

Even though I check etsy pretty much every day (and often MULTIPLE times a day) this has so far been my first and only purchase. I adore these. So much so that when we had a holiday dessert party at work I decided that I needed to use ALL of these cookie cutters. We were each assigned a random country, and I got the USA (boring!) so I made four different kinds of Girl Scout cookies (thin mints, samoas, trefoils, and do-si-dos). Tadaaa—NOT boring, and tasty!

Thanks to sweetrice for making it all possible.

Inverted Jenny

When I collected stamps with my dad when I was younger, we used to joke about finding an Inverted Jenny like it was the Holy Grail. Just now as I was looking up some of its history I honestly started tearing up. A million dollars for a postage stamp! It’s amazing what value people can affix to something like a sticky little piece of paper.

Seriously though, how cool is this stamp? THE PLANE IS UPSIDE DOWN!

it's a blog

Before anyone makes fun of me for doing this, let me just say that since I'm freelancing now and no longer working in an office, I think blogging is going to help me stay connected with other humans.



Anyway, I'm gonna kick this sucker off with this photo from our kitchen. Shaun made the table for me years ago to increase the amount of counterspace, but as you can see I just keep piling it with plants. And fresh flowers, which I've recently fallen in love with. These particular ones are ranunculi and they're amazing (even though this picture doesn't flatter them too well).

Those potted plants are sitting on top of a recipe box that Shaun made for me last Christmas, which I'm still working on filling with recipes. If you have any good ones, send them my way!