New media

I'm not one to join every social network there is - I never had a myspace and I don't twitter....Okay maybe those are the two main ones I didn't join.

HOWEVER, after looking around at my friend's tumblrs, I realized this might be a great way for me to share without having to be so wordy.

My tumblr site is http://redheadextinction.tumblr.com/

Below is what I've posted in the (quite literally) hour that I've joined:

content deleted because it kept updating. I suggest you visit MY TUMBLR



small obsession. 

So if your reading this blog, please feel free to follow, bookmark, hate on this new site as well.

Recipe of the week – well, not so much…

I’ve been a terrible blogger. And to be honest, I don’t actually see myself getting back into it anytime soon. I started blogging when I was at a pretty low point in my life; when I really, really needed to capture some inspiration.
Now life has gotten 300x better, maybe 543x better, and blogging is just more of a bother than anything else.
Recipes especially have been hard as this winter, I was completely uninspired to cook anything. I don’t even want to tell you how often I went with a frozen bag of pasta for dinner. Shameful.
But as the season changes, so does my excitement over food. I realized with happiness that I need to start planting some herbs soon in my kitchen and that farmers markets will soon be popping up again!
One thing that can certainly help with my cooking-inspiration is this fantastic site They Draw and Cook. They take the blandness of recipes and combine it with fun art. I was especially excited to see a recipe that I was already planning on baking this weekend, Beer Bread. Although I will be eliminating the cheese part.

While I would probably never in a million years make this, I love the illusion.

And in honor of the day after St. Patty’s, a recipe you may need

I love a good feasting for the eyes and stomach. Happy weekend!

Neat shit worth sharing – Hedgehog edition deux

You may or may not remember NSWS – Hedgehog one, so here’s A LINK to remind you of how popular they were and still are.

Instead of showing you all of the new great products out there, I thought I’d share what I’ve purchased of the hedgehog relation as of late.

  
Not only is this an adorable trinket but it is (more importantly) a bottle opener!



I purchased this from Anthropologie  back in December and finally, after multiple backorders, was sent it two weeks ago. Obviously, a hot commodity.

I also found this fantastic print on etsy and then was shocked to find it being sold in a store in Providence. Obviously I had to buy it


The card that came with it from the artist reads:

Not only did this hedgehog win the "Most Popular" vote his senior year but he also won the "Most Artistic", "Cutest Smile", and four other categories! This is his portrait for the "Best Dressed" win.

How cute is that! The shop, BerkleyIllustrations, is stocked full of these fantastic animal prints and stories.

So are you saying to yourself, ‘I thought she said she was on a waitlinglistorsomething to get one. Was that all talk?’

The answer: No way nay-sayer!

I just put one on reserve with the breeder yesterday!  Here he is at 2-weeks old. 

Unfortunately, I don"t get to pick him up until he's at 7 weeks. I can’t believe I have to wait 5 more weeks before I get to meet him/take him home and love him forever!

Don’t worry, pictures of his homecoming will be coming!

Also that blue spot isn’t a light trick, she marks them to tell them apart for reservation purposes.


I. Cannot. Wait.

Neat shit worth sharing – school edition

Hi all, long time no write.

As with all bloggers who experience a prolonged absence, life just got kicked into overdrive. Fortunately for me, overdrive meant very, verrry good things.

I might have mentioned that I was applying to graduate school and right now we are in the midst of interview season. I went on one and I have two more next week.

Well, I’m happy to say I got in! I’m going to enter a PhD program in the upcoming fall!

Which means a couple of things: 1) I can finally not stress about my fate being determined by admissions committees any longer and these next two interviews are completely stress free since the school I got into was my top pick and 2) I get to do back to school shopping again! YAY!

So while I wait for the Lisa Frank online store to get back into working order so I can buy a new trapper keeper, I thought I’d focus on my favorite item, the back to school bag.

I have been on a never ending search for the perfect tanish/brown, leather, messenger bag that I think may still be out of my reach for reasons like this:

$1,250.00! For that amount of money I want more than just free shipping – I want it shipped and delivered to me by a shirt-less, male model riding a horse.

This almost makes this bag at $450 sound reasonable.

Such a cute style and color! But alas, no amount of saying “I’m worth it” is going to convince my credit dog.

So here are some more wallet friendly options – what do you think?

Happy weekend everyone!

TGIF for realzies

This has been the longest week I can remember. After being hit with numerous snow storms, a busted pipe in my office (causing a flood) and going stir crazy in my apartment – I’m very glad to see it’s over.

Since I wasn’t able to post around the chaos, I thought I’d leave you with a video that truly made me smile.

I may have found a new love in the artist, Olek. Who is responsible for this on Christmas day on Wallstreet



The video of how she accomplished such a feat is still making me smile. You can see it HERE (via Honestly...WTF)

Also if you need more of a street art fix, watch Banksy’s “Exit through the Gift Shop”

Seriously, it’s on Netflix instant, don’t miss it!

Let’s hope next week is a little less calmer. Especially you, snow storms!

Neat shit worth sharing – resolution edition

I didn’t make any official resolutions this year, but if I had to come up with it one, it would definitely be to read more. Its been pretty easy so far with all the snowfall to want nothing more to sit next to my window with a good book and a cup of coffee.
And these adorable bookmarks from the Spoon Sisters would be a fun way to mark my progress.

*******

If you are the kind of person who makes resolutions, I can think of no better motivator then seeing a reminder when you reach for your phone. Artist Chris Streger felt the same way, so he had his artist friends create art work with their resolutions that can be used as a phone background. He called it The Resolve Project.
Like I said, I didn’t make resolutions, but if I did…

*******

Last summer I bought a bike and found that I didn’t take it out on any of the great bike paths near me. That needs to change this summer (ahhh, summer) and definitely would if I had a sweet ride accessory from Eungi Kim

*******

I hope if you made any resolutions that you’ve been successful!

Recipe of the week, 1/17/11

The topic of conversation that comes up every time I hang out with my friends is our incessant wanting of Summer.

Sun, warmth, the beach, outside activities. Sounds so much better than the slip-and-slide sidewalks I encountered endlessly during my walk to work this morning.

To help with this wanting, I decided to go tropical with my meal this week with a copycat of Red Lobster’s Coconut Shrimp and Pina Colada dipping sauce.

Believe it or not, there are no Red Lobster’s in New England. Or Bob Evans. It’s not a tragedy but it was a funny thing to realize.

Back to the topic at hand, here’s my cast of characters for the sauce:



Just mix and refrigerate so it’s nice and chilled while you prepare the shrimp.

Then onto the main course:



I accidentally cut off my flour in the picture. I also forgot that all I have is wheat flour in my apartment, I didn’t notice a difference though.



I butterfly-cut my shrimp by cutting them from end to tail. This let the whole area of the shrimp be coated. Leaving the tails on. It also gave me a good excuse to use the awesome new knife set I just purchased from Gilt.

Then I prepared my batter stations:



Dip your shrimp (starting left to right) and I would recommend coating all of your shrimp before deep frying.



I had a lot of left over mixture after I dipped all of the shrimp, as you can see



I would recommend cutting the recipe by at least a 1/3rd. I would especially decrease the amount of breadcrumbs, but that’s just because I like more coconut and found that it seemed to have a hard time clinging onto the shrimp.

Once fried, plate with the pina colada dipping sauce

Nothing like a taste of summer while it’s snowing outside.