Photo Shop is a Festivus Miracle!

Before Photoshop

I was in NYC recently and snapped this extraordinary picture. I'm going to call it Atlas' View. It's a sculpture of Atlas looking at St. Patricks Cathedral. I like the juxtaposition of old/new/sculpture. But it was raining so the sky was so grey. Not exactly frame on my wall quality.

So I had my friend Rox who is a photo shop whiz, give me some blue sky action. Check this out.

Now, that's a nice picture.

Snuggie

Secretly, I've been wanting a Snuggie. So imagine my delight when my Coca Cola rep sent me one for the holidays. It's so awesome I can't believe it wasn't invented sooner. It's long enough to cover my feet, and the sleeves keep it from falling off the shoulders. Of course, I glanced at myself in the mirror and it was a little too reminiscent of Jaba the Hut. It's the kind of thing that would make a man cheat, so don't wear it too much.

Meanwhile, at the husband's family Hanukkah party...they do this Dirty Santa gift swap (I know the irony.) He got the "neck snuggie." I think it's called a neckie. It's a snuggie for the neck. And it has pockets. It has to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen and to me, one of the dumbest inventions. Has this conversation ever happened to you?

Wife: Honey, my neck is cold, and I need a place to put my keys. Any thoughts?
Husband: Use the neckie.

I thought not.

Next the amazing brownie pan. Now that I could use.

Candle Cookies

The holiday baking frenzy began and I'm about a week late with anything Hanukkah...but I did manage to do these adorable candle cookies that I found in Family Fun magazine last month and did it the Mrs. Personality way (i.e., easy & fast). And certainly, these work for Christmas too. My only challenge was in getting them to "stand up" to display all nice on the platter. They kept wanting to topple over even with lots of icing "glue." I'll have to work on this technique. But they were cute and yummy. The toddler loved them.

Ingredients:

• Pirouette cookies


• One bag Wilton candy melts. I used the vanilla with sparkles.


• Can of vanilla frosting (will only use about a 1/4 of it.)


• Mini orange slices cut in half, or just regular orange slices cut small.


• Any flower "ring" type cookie with a hole in it. I found these adorable sprinkled ones in the kosher section of our grocery.
  

1) Melt the candy melts over a double boiler. Spoon candy melts halfway down cookie. Lay on wax paper on tray and then chill about ten minutes till set. 2) When set, at the top, ad a dollop of icing and affix the orange slice to look like a flame. 3) With more icing, glue base of cookie to flower cookie. Note: You might want to do this part "at" the spot you plan to serve them as keeping them upright was a little challenging and I would think transporting even more so.

Flame? What flame?

The Rack Trap - A Review

Someone asked me how I liked the Rack Trap on my NYC trip. I used it to accommodate my phone as I put my money in the zipper part of my coat for safety reasons. Worked out great! So if you have a slim phone, like a BB or an I-Phone, and you have a bosum that, shall we say "blends" then this might be $10 or so well spent.

Better Watch Out and Not Cry!

For the first time in my professional career, I'm actually going to take time off between Christmas and New Years. That week that everyone in the universe seemingly always took off but me. I never did because I felt like it was wasting precious vacation days when things are usually really slow around the office. This year I have a different perspective. For one, I want to spend some time with the kid. Two, in the spirit of "throwing out fifty things" the husband and I are going attack the attic. It's to the point I can't walk around up there and I despise clutter in the spirit of living simply. But there's more to it than that. I hear things up there. I have this weird fear that someone lives in our attic and we have no idea (I know that's crazy, but when I hear bumps in the night, it crosses my mind that ax murderer lives in my attic.)

Some of this lunacy comes from the strange goings on in my house. Weird things disappear and then show up again. Recently, an entire box of cookies was gone (chocolate covered Ritz, but I digress) I never touched them, I was saving them for Christmas. Who would take a whole box of cookies? The husband wouldn't take them because he doesn't eat such things; my baby sitter wouldn't have taken them without telling me (trust me, she follows the letter of the law with the Ten Commandments and "though shall not steal" is one of them). The cleaning lady or ax man? My husband found a diamond ring a few months ago (nothing too outrageous, but still a diamond) that appeared in a bathroom cabinet. For the life of us, we have no idea who this ring belongs to or why it showed up in a cabinet that's been opened/closed a thousand times. We just assume that the toddler found it randomly and put it there. But still...weird!

Third, I plan to bake up a frenzy when I'm off and I'm so excited because I rarely have time to bake any more. A delightful blog reader (yes, I have fans believe it or not) sent me a Martha Stewart cupcake book and I plan to throw-down on that. And someone sent me the Interim mac-n-cheese recipe. I can't wait till Christmas.

The Donut Plant - NYC

On my travels there is on rare occasion that I will say..."when I come back to this city again, I'm definitely coming back here." I found such a place in NY. The Donut Plant.

I first heard of this place when I saw it on Food Network and the Bobby Flay "Throw-down" show. They are famous for these exotic flavors (tres leches, gingerbread, cranberry) but they make them naturally with high quality ingredients, with no trans fats, etc. etc.


I'm more of a traditionalist. I got the chocolate and the "vanilla bean" glazed. OMG. The best donuts I've ever had in my life. I went to this place twice. These were the freshest and the flavors were so pronounced and the best part? No greasy after taste like the ones you get here in Memphis--not sure if our donut shops use a cheap oil or just never change it--this place had no oil taste whatsoever. It's been so long since I had a "no oily taste" donut, I didn't know what to do with myself. Address: 379 Grand. Closest subway: Delancey Essex. Can't wait to visit them again and take a batch home next time I have a two-year-old that will go crazy with delight.

Valhrona Chocolate Donut. Sigh.

Thank You Mood

I'm lucky in that I have a job that takes me to cool places. Last week, I had a business trip to NYC and was able to tack on some personal time to the trip. I'm not a big shopper, but I did have to go to "Mood." Those Project Runway fans out there will know that place. My goal was to buy some cool fabric, pick up the cool bag they show on TV, and then exit by saying "Thank you Mood!" like Tim Gunn does. Didn't quite happen that way.

First off, Mood is easy to find as you can see it from the street, but getting to it (it's on the third floor) was not easy. What looked like a homeless person saw me looking upward and aimlessly and asked "are you looking for the door to Mood?" To which I replied yes, and he pointed out the entrance which is a different number than Mood itself. New Yorkers love me--they must have a penchant for lost Southerners. It's in a super old building with one of those old timey elevators that has an elevator attendant who has to manually shut the door. Sort of creepy.

At the door their Wal-Mart greeter confiscates your shopping bags and then I was completely and utterly, over-stimulated. I've never seen so much fabric in one place in all my life. Bolts upon bolts of it. There is no possible way that the people on the show can tear through there in 30 minutes. No way. Unless they somehow have the store completely memorized. Then, the bolts themselves are so heavy, even if you found something, you have to have a crane to help you lift it.

Then, the prices. This place wasn't cheap. Most of what I saw, and we're talking basic cotton fabrics, were $15 a yard. So again, how the show gives a mere $100 and asks the contestants to build full ensembles is beyond me. I don't think that reality show is all that "real" if truth were told.

Lastly, I did pick out some fabric. $50 later, the bag I got was not the Mood bag featured on the show. Just a basic black plastic bag with Mood printed on the outside. So disappointing. I wanted the panache of a Mood bag as a souvenir. Everybody else must too which is probably why they don't give those out to general customers and only for the show--as the plastic bag I got was no big whoop for TV that's for sure.

As for my departing au revoir, I didn't have the guts to say "Thank You Mood!" The attitude of the place is definitely hustle bustle efficiency...not so much warm and fuzzy. So I'll leave the departing statements to Mr. Tim Gunn who does it better than I could any day.

Felt like Elvis

The older (and bigger) I get, the more I hate to shop. Yes, that's right, I'm a female that hates clothes shopping. I remember that our Goldsmith's department store (now a homogenized Macy's of course) used to open the store special for Elvis during the holidays so he could shop undisturbed. I had a similar experience yesterday.

Somehow, and I don't even remember when or how, I got on the email address roster of the district manager for Lane Bryant. Don emails me from time to time with "special sales" and the like. I usually ignore the emails. But the last time he emailed I responded. I described how I hate to shop but am in desperate need for clothes, especially pants, which is the biggest drama for me. I asked if they offered a personal shopping service. One where I could send in my sizes, my color preferences, what I needed and then just have it all waiting for me when I got there to try on. That way, I could do all the try-on at once, and not that running back and forth for sizes to a dressing room that locks behind you each time you leave. So inefficient and frustrating for a time crunched working mom.

He never said if they offered that service, but he told me he'd do it for me. And not only that, they would open the store an hour early...just for me! So yesterday was the day. I arrived at 9 a.m. sharp, and one of the managers, Eugenia, was waiting for me. I went to the fitting room and behold no less than 8 coordinated outfits in my sizes awaited. First one, good sign, fit and was perfect. I loved it. I'm now the owner of five pairs of pants and several tops and an awesome work blazer and a holiday party outfit for a work event. Took only about an hour and a half. Normally, such an outing would be no less than 5 hours, three stores, and mass frustration and self loathing. I don't think I'm going to be able to shop any other way any more. Thank you Don and of course Eugenia. You guys made me feel (and look) like a star.