Today on Fashion Friday, Roman Polanski (who I am morally opposed to) directs A Therapy. A short film starring Helena Bonham Carter and Ben Kingsley. You couldn’t get much more talent together for a promotional video if you tried.
I’m off traveling around the country with my university friends who are here. We’re having a blast and I can’t be bothered to update this blog while for the next week. Have a great one! xx
I love jewelry and I’ve been feeling lately that all of the crazy chunky stuff that is in is SO DIYable. Often I part with my money only too happily for jewelry but I feel wrong spending 300 dollars on some chains that were welded together, even if they were welded together quite beautifully. I had been admiring this necklace (sold out, sorry) a while ago from Maison Martin Margiela:
So I put together my own.
(Here, here, here, here and here are some similar necklaces)
You’ll need:
2 or 3 lengths of chain in progressively smaller sizes. You can find them at your local hardware store, just ask the nice man to cut them into the lengths that you want. As you can see I only did 2.
Ribbon for a closure
A subtley colored, strong thread or floss to hold the chains together
A lighter (optional)
Hex or other nuts (we only had quad lying around)
Find the middle of the biggest chain which will go around the neck. Weave the medium piece of chain through with your floss. Do the same thing with the third piece, or hex nuts or whatever you’re using.
I used a lighter to carefully ‘fuse’ my knots. Be careful though because you can burn through it if you’re not careful and you’ll have to start over, which is terrible.
Tada!
We live across the street from Tasha’s (a healthy-ish chain restaurant) that makes the BEST salads, in particular the butternut salad is to die for. I tried to recreate it at home to go with my green bean soup. It was simple to make, healthy, and freaking DELICIOUS. I even created a little diagram using Adobe CS6 to show you how to assemble the ingredients.
You’ll need:
A bed of your favorite leaves, preferably a few flavorful ones. I used rocket, swiss chard and spinach.
Butternut Squash, 1/2 per person
Goat’s cheese, 1 oz per person
Cherry tomatoes, 6-7 per salad
Pine nuts, 1 tblspoon per salad
Microgreens, 1-2 tbspn per salad
1/4 avocado per salad
1 slice of lemon per salad
Vinaigrette:
Enough for 6, keep the extra in the fridge
2 tbspn whole grain mustard
2 tbspn white wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 shallot, chopped (optional)
Heat your oven to 180 degrees celsius, put your squash in there whole without poking any holes, in a baking dish for 90 minutes. In the mean time lay out your salad leaf beds, sprinkle the goat’s cheese on them and mix your vinaigrette (add water if it’s too strong for your liking). For the last 15 minutes of the butternut, add the cherry tomatoes in a separate dish to the oven and allow to roast. Slice your avocado and place on the side of each plate, along with a lemon slice. After the butternut is finished cooking, carefully cut them in half and scoop out the seeds. Peel with a vegetable peeler (it’s much easier to cut and peel after the squash is cooked!) and slice into long strips. Layer on to bed of leaves and chevre, surround by roasted tomatoes. Sprinkle with pine nuts and micro greens, and drizzle some vinaigrette when you’re ready to eat and enjoy the most DELICIOUS salad. Et voila, my diagram:
Making yummy food and sharing it with our friends is a popular past time among the residents of our humble abode. We usually end up entertaining at least once a week, and that’s when I THANK GOD for our helper who toils mightily against the spoils of our dinner parties so that we don’t have to. This week I made a green bean soup that’s yummy enough to remind me of spring and a lovely green.
Instead of my usual pictures I used some Photoshop actions to give them the look of Instagram pictures. I also had some fun with the Text function. It’s becoming apparent to me that I need to invest in some fonts because Desdemona and American Typewriter are becoming a bit tired.
Right. Back to the recipe:
Ingredients for 8 people (first course):
900 grams green beans, topped and tailed
Water enough to cover the beans, to parboil them
a touch of olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4-6 garlic cloves, chopped
2.5 litres vegetable broth
Chives, 2 tblspoons, chopped and more for garnish
1 cup greek yogurt
Juice of 2 lemons
Pimente pepper, for garnish
Chevre, a dollop for each bowl
Salt and pepper, to taste
First parboil the green beans for 5 minutes in rapidly boiling water with enough water to cover them, then strain. At the bottom of a big soup pot with a little olive oil, sautee the onions and garlic until translucent. Add the broth and green beans and chives and bring water to a boil. The water may not cover the green beans now. After a a few minutes, using an immersion blender, puree the green beans (that are underwater) , which eventually will allow for all of the green beans to be under water and eventually disappear. At this point, check the consistency of the soup. Is it too thick? Add some water. Is it thin? Let water boil and reduce. Add greek yogurt, and lemon juice and let soup continue to simmer for 45 minutes. Check the salt and spice levels, adding garlic and salt as needed. Serve with a dollop of chevre, pimente pepper and chopped chives for garnish.
I came across this adorable bracelet at Anthropologie and realized it was easy enough to make!
All you’ll need is:
Metal findings (I used a part of an old necklace as well as some pressed separators)
Embroidery floss, or a type of cord you’ll feel comfortable using
Dexterity
First knot your cord on each side of your metal finding using a slip knot. Maybe you want to spray paint your metal finding first for some color.
Measure your bracelet to the right length, and make a closure sliding knot or perhaps you would like to add a real bracelet closure.
Wear several on your wrist. Voila!
*Bottom picture from Anthropologie.
Last Thursday P and I had the privilege of attending the opening of the new Wits Art Museum in Braamfontein. It’s exciting to finally have a proper art museum in Joburg! The first exhibit is called ‘WAM! Seeing Stars’ and is filled with works ranging from bronze statues by Sydney Kumalo, to charcoal drawings by William Kentridge to wooden masks from Nigeria and beadwork from the Eastern Cape.
It’s housed in what was a former petrol station and re-designed by Nina Cohen, Fiona Garson and William Martinson into the current modern beauty, with a lovely view of the Nelson Mandela Bridge. My favorite pieces were a photo of the inside of the Ponte City building and a charcoal piece by William Kentridge that is the left pane of a tryptich. It features a the Businessman from his animations, and on the bottom is noted “London is a suburb of Johannesburg.’ Ha! Indeed.
Scroll your mouse over the picture to get the address and opening hours of WAM, which opens to the public on May 19th.
**For my WAM image I layered three pictures I took of the opening to get a multiple exposure effect, and used the gradient tool to get the pink ombre, as well as the Super Braggadacio font to create a clipping mask in Photoshop, and some html/css code to create the image rollover. The entire(ly tiny) scope of my Photoshop knowledge is entirely because of the lovely blog Pugly Pixel, and how to do all of these things can be found on her generous and helpful blog.
Today’s Fashion Friday is a necklace a I picked up from Dokter and Misses. They design great modern and minimalist home and office furniture, which is beautiful and sleek. I grabbed this industrial necklace that goes with everything, and I’ve been wearing it like it’s my job (and to my job).
In other exciting news I bought Adobe CS6 and had my first foray into Photoshop, the fruits of which are displayed above. I used this handy tutorial and purchased these vintage label shapes, both from Pugly Pixel. I should have made the back layer a darker grey, since you can barely see it. I’ve decided and P has very enthusiastically and kindly agreed that it would be worth my while to take an evening class some time during the upcoming months for Photoshop and then Illustrator. Before I do that I’m going to use the internet and teach myself so I don’t go in completely unprepared.
Last night we went to the opening of the new Wits Art Museum and it is grand to have a proper art museum in Jozi, another great stop for our visiting guests. It opens to the public on May 19th and I’ll write about it next week.
Have a great weekend!
Doktor and Misses SHOWROOM CO-OP44 STANLEY
tuesday – friday 10 – 5
saturday 10 – 4 sunday 10 – 3
monday closed
With Mother’s Day coming up on Sunday in the US and South Africa I did some digging around for some lovely Mom presents. Maybe you have a good friend (or a good daughter?!) that’s a new mom, or your partner just gave birth and deserves something extra special, or you want to find something incredible for your mom this year (and surely you do, with all of the blood, sweat, and tears she put into you).
From the top:
*Tiny gold staple earrings by Kathleen Whitaker at Alder & Co.
These are usually sold as single earrings, and I thought it was more mom-appropriate to give a pair of earrings.
*Linen Whale by Tamar Mogendorff at Alder & Co
This is not a gift for a child but for a mom, maybe a mom that's really into decorating her baby's nursery. Because for 295usd there's no way I would let a child play with that thing.
*Ancienne Infinite Love Ring by Elisa Solomon at catbird
This is an extra special gift, but it's a Mother's Day gift that can one day be a {very stylish} family heirloom.
*White and Gold container by Mark Braun at Alder & Co
Perfect for storing those rings on a dresser or night stand, or just something pretty to look at in the living room.
As part of my pan-asian dinner party featuring pho bo, I also made some spring rolls. Spring rolls are easy (though repetitive) to make and you are free to experiment with whatever tantalizes your palate.
You will need:
Rice paper
Fillings:
Rice vermicelli, 2 oz per 8 you want to make
Shrimp (I used three halves per roll)
Avocado, cut into small slices
Cucumbers, julienned
Thai basil, cilantro, mint chopped
Lettuce
A few dabs of sriracha sauce
Cook rice vermicelli according to directions on package, then rinse in cold water to stop cooking. Fill a bowl with warm water, and dip each rice paper in prior to using. Lay desired filling in the middle of the rice paper. Fold over the two sections next to the short sides of your filling rectangle. Role the other two sides, starting from one and rolling over the filling section all the way to the end. You’ll get better the more you make. Here is a video on how to properly roll one. In the beginning mine were loose and lumpy, and by the end they were smooth and compact.
Dipping Sauces:
Sriracha, straight from the bottle
Peanut sauce from Honest Cooking:
1/2 cup of crunchy peanut butter
1 tblspn hoisin
2 tblespn water
1 tspn sriracha
Mix together ingredients thoroughly in a bowl, adding water or sriracha as needed.
We have visitors throughout the winter (summer) coming from the States and one of them will have the duty to mule me a new bag that I have decided I surely deserve. I had to go to Pretoria for work and on the train ride I couldn’t think of anything to sketch on my iPad (since I got a new stylus to use with Paper by 53) so I sketched the bags I’m deciding between. I’m leaning towards the Chloé. I also experimented with the bunting, fabric strip, and circle badge free PNG downloads from Pugly Pixel to make my drawings and blog a little more pleasing to the eye. I’m pleased with the results, considering it was quite a rough attempt. I would like to get into some amateur graphic design. I think it’s time I bit the bullet and bought Adobe Photoshop CS5.
Chloé bag via farfetch
Alexander McQueen via farfetch
YSL via farfetch
3.1 Phillip Lim via farfetch
