disembaudrey'd

last night was, hopefully, the last of coming home and sitting down to work. i've got about 4 more invitations to stuff, but i ran out of rsvp cards and envelopes last night, so i'm giving myself a little bit of a break and wrapping them up on saturday. i can't do one more night of takeout! tonight i have dinner plans with some friends to hit momofuku for the first time in quite a while, so i am fasting to make room for various kinds of pork and a couple glasses of wine.

j crew's fall lookbook is out, and i absolutely adore it. i'm more of a vintage girl at heart, but as a person who pretty much coats herself in color every day, j crew's bright hues and simple patterns are perfect to mix with the vintage pieces i love. here are some of my favorites: (you can see more here)





i am amused by the fact that many of the models bear a strong resemblance to jenna lyons. i am also realizing i should stop being such a dork about wearing my glasses and just do it. of course, these girls look much cooler in theirs than i do.

but anyway! my outfit for today, broken up into little pieces because i only got one photo that wasn't blurry. i REALLY have to figure out a better spot to take these.



i fell asleep on sam, watching the wire, with wet hair last night, so i had to do some urgent hair-spray and straightener work this morning. as a result my hair actually looks better than it ever has. go figure. this necklace was yet another florida thrift store find. i'll tell you what, florda = not so much for haute cuisine or nightlife, but a thrifter's dream!



this top is another thrifted find, this time up near sam's place in connecticut. the shorts are from a j crew outlet in new jersey.



tights are from HUE, in my favorite shade; these shoes - can you guess? - thrifted in florida. i wish the light in my place was better - they are incredible 60s gold shoes with little rhinestone embellishments. new favorites.

i suppose that's all from me today. i am plotting some major baking and cooking action for this weekend so i'll have something more exciting to post than me in clothes, which i am certainly bored of my now.

thanks for sticking with me, and i promise more soon!

xo audrey

l is for the way you look at me

good afternoon! i spent the first hour or so at the office repairing a co-worker's cashmere sweater, which had sprung quite the hole. he brought me a cute little sewing kit and looked at me with puppy dog eyes and asked if i could fix it, so i happily obliged. it's funny - i'm the only girl in an office full of 20-something boys, and probably the youngest one here, but i order the groceries and make the coffee and tidy up, and sitting at my desk darning his sweater this morning, i think i felt more like a mom than ever in my life.

but i'm here now! i started a tumblr yesterday (follow me and i'll follow you!) which somehow started me on a quest to find a girl whose wardrobe remix i became obsessed with on flickr a few years ago - i couldn't remember her name, and spent an embarassing amount of time googling things like "swedish vetrinary student" and "cute swedish fashion flickr" to find her, before finally going back to the earliest days of this very blog to find i'd posted about her right at the beginning: piksi. she's no longer active on flickr, which is a shame, but you can still find lots of her cute outfits if you google her, and my outfit for today was inspired by her. i wasn't thrilled with this photo (taken immediately post hair-fluff), but decided to use it, alongside this quote from another swedish beauty, elin: "This is what I look like today, but happy of course. It’s just that my smile never looks very natural when I take the pictures myself."





top: dress from dalaga
skirt: thrifted, vintage united colors of bennetton
tights: c/o stylefind
shoes: vintage, thrifted
brooch: my grandma's old clip on earring
belt: thrifted
purse: thrifted

after spending most of my last week planning and cooking elaborate meals, my return to brooklyn has been a sad snap back to reality. when i worked at the bakery, i was always home by 4:30 pm, and being around food all day i'd spend much of my morning mentally preparing that evening's dinner as i whisked egg whites or sifted flour. now that i have a normal-person job again, my wardrobe is rejoicing, but my whisking arms ache to be used. it's just an adjustment, i guess; i get home much later now, more like 7 or 7:30, so i need to change my cooking style to be a little less, well, involved. no more do i really have time to make pasta from scratch for dinner that evening, or marinate pork belly for that supper's ramen. planning ahead is key, or just keeping it simple. on top of that, though, i've come home for the last few nights to a mess of envelopes, ribbons and cards on the table - my wedding invitations, not yet completed, have occupied my hands for the last two evenings instead of a wooden spoon or chef's knife. i'm hoping tonight i'll be able to lick my last stamp and copy my last address and be done with them, and back to fixing my man his dinner, but eating takeout the last two nights has been rough. okay, i'll stop complaining.

tonight i'm hoping after popping all the invites in the mail, sam and i will celebrate by seeing a movie. i'm thinking 8 women.

happy hump day!

xo audrey

welcome to the jungle

i came home last night and, with the help of a friend, made some decent invitation progress, and downed about 3 pounds worth of crab rangoon and chicken lo mein.






i picked up this little gold giraffe pin for $3 in a thrift store in florida, and decided to combine it with the rhinestoned one i already had and start a giraffe brooch collection; sam says he hope it doesn't interfere with his money collection. har har.

dress: anna sui for anthropologie (on super sale!)
scalloped slip: thrifted
tights: hansel from basel
shoes: rachel comey
belt: thrifted
brooches: gold one thrifted, the other two from the best of everything

my brain feels empty today. right before getting on the plane to come home sunday night sam and i chugged a beer (don't judge,) and i spent the entirety of the flight with a burp painfully lodged in my chest - so i spent the entire 3 hours tarzan-pounding my sternum to try to make it escape (which it failed to do until we landed.) i looked insane, and now i have faint bruises all over my chest. oy.

well, i suppose that's all from me for now. we're out of half and half so i'm drying to choke down some black coffee so's my eyes will stay awake for the rest of the day.

until tomorrow,

xo audrey

black & white & red all over

good morning! what a struggle to get out of bed this morning. sam and i journeyed back to the big apple late last night, leaving florida at 7 pm and 84 degrees and landing in new york at 10 pm and less than half that temperature. it was pretty brutal. we dragged ourselves home, sorted through some mail, i fell asleep with my suitcase still in the hallway. i am a weary traveler indeed.

the trip was lovely, though. it was pretty amazing to get a week of summer right in the middle of what has to have been the longest winter since i moved to the east coast - we didn't have a cloudy day, nor one cooler than 80 or so. just what we needed. a typical day in florida: wake at 10 am for bagels and fresh squeezed tangerine juice, from the tree out back; float in the pool for a couple hours while reading vanity fair; head to whole foods to pick up fresh fish and wine for dinner; come home, pour wine, float in pool some more; start dinner while watching basketball, drinking wine, and chatting with family; sit down for a feast, more wine, and more chatting. repeat. we weren't much for sight-seeing, and i think 90% of the time we left the house it was to go to the supermarket - but i got to cook every night of the week, which is my favorite thing in the world (meals included fried shrimp and fresh basil pasta with crab meat, grouper fish tacos, dijon and panko-coated rack of lamb with couscous and fried green tomatoes, homemade key lime pie, strawberry shortcake, etc, etc.) i even got a little bit of color, which is quite the accomplishment for me.







so the trip was restful and wonderful, but i'm glad to be back in new york, in my own apartment, with my own super-soft pillows to sleep on. the wedding is REALLY sneaking up on me, too, so i'm kind of relieved to be back and have a quiet week ahead to (hopefully) start to hammer out some of the little details.

one of the first days we spent in florida, sam and i tried to head down to marco island to take a charter boat out for the day - sadly, it's busy season there, and the boats were all full, so we consoled ourselves with a trip to the thrift store across the street - and it was a goldmine. i picked up a lot of great costume jewelry, and this dress, along with a couple other pieces.



black and white is usually not my bag, but i loved the simple pattern of this - and it's a perfect excuse to bust out these tights for what i'm hoping is the last time before it's too warm.

dress: thrifted
tights: welovecolors
shoes: madewell
belt: thrifted

the first day back at work means a pile of things to get through, so i'm off for now - but more pictures from florida (and more new clothes!) to come!

xo audrey

florida oranges

hello everyone! i hope you're all enjoying your weeks, although from the looks of the weather reports almost everywhere else in the country, that doesn't seem likely. just a quick dispatch from sunny florida - sam and i are on vacation with both of our families and it has been glor-i-ous - there is a tangerine tree in the backyard, so we've been having fresh squeezed juice every morning with our bagels, and i've spent most of my time floating in the pool and reading vanity fair. (you'd think this would mean i'd have a decent tan by now, but alas, no.)

i was given these nine west espadrilles just before decamping for the far south, and they are absolutely perrrrfect for this weather! inspired by my surroundings, the sunshine, and the fresh fruit we've been enjoying every morning, i put together an in totally citrus shades.





see? pasty, pasty, pasty.

shorts: j crew
shirt: lilla p
swimsuit: gifted
shoes: courtesy of nine west

anything that makes my legs appear to be something besides short little stubs is okay in my book, and these shoes are super comfy, too. once summer finally comes to brooklyn, i'll be rocking them full-time.

i am absolutely LIVING in this lilla p shirt down here - so comfy and perfect - and the winner of this very shirt is LV of food fashion and flow. please get in touch with your name and mailing address to claim your prize!

i'm taking photos and mentally blogging the days away, so there will be much more to come when i have a minute to spare.

xo audrey

green is good for you!

good morning, and happy st patricks day! yesterday was cold, windy, rainy and miserable, so i decided to forgo the all-red outfit i'd planned and take a day off - aka wear jeans and a t-shirt to work. i have to admit, it was nice to be cosy on such a disgusting day, and given how long i ended up waiting for the bus yesterday morning, i would have been miserable and probably have ruined the vintage shoes i was going to wear. but moving forward! in this week of single tones, today's was a pretty obvious choice: the brightest green i could muster. i also have a fridge full of food, and sam and i are going away to florida for a week starting saturday, so i decided to rise to christine's challenge of matching my food to my outfit and use up some leftovers. amongst the fresh ingredients that needed using were chicken, arugula, basil, mushrooms, and piles and piles of egg yolks (extra egg yolks! the plight of the macaroner. . .) so i decided to make some raviolis, to freeze and eat upon our return. i used the leftover pasta dough to make some papardelle for my dinner last night. ta-da!



basil pasta dough:

1 1/2 cups semolina flour
1/2 t salt
about 5 basil leaves, minced
4 egg yolks
2 T water
2 T olive oil

whisk together the flour and salt, then make a well for the egg yolks, basil, and water. mix them in with a fork until it's clumpy, then knead with your hands for a few minutes until it's smooth and doesn't feel grainy. wrap and put in the fridge to rest for a half hour or so.



chicken mushroom & arugula filling:

1 1/2 T butter
2 skinned, boneless chicken thighs (is what i happened to have in the fridge - you can use any chicken you like!)
about a cup of sliced, cleaned mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic
about 1/2 cup of baby arugula

start the butter in a medium sized skillet. keep an eye on it and move it around - let it brown before adding the chicken. pan fry the chicken on medium-low heat, basting it in the butter and it's juices as you go; keep flipping and checking it - you want it to be totally cooked before putting it inside your raviolis. once it's just about done, add the mushrooms and toss them around so they get coated in all that good stuff; cook them until they are soft and brown. add the garlic and cook until softened and fragrant. remove from heat and let it cool down, then pull the chicken apart with your fingers or a fork until it's nice and stringy, then add the arugula and stir it all up. add a little salt to taste.





cut off a decent piece of pasta dough and roll it out until it's at it's thinnest. brush the dough with egg yolk and then add about a tablespoon of filling at a time, kind of scrunching it up in your fingers so it's nice and compact. fold the pasta back over it, make sure it's well sealed, and then use a cutter to cut them out.



ta-da! raviolis. these freeze well (but are even better fresh, of course.) they only need to be cooked for a couple of minutes - once they start to float and look paler in color. you can test one to be sure.



and for today's outfit, which i'll call "how to wear all green and [hopefully] not look like a leprechaun." i've got a vaguely elfin quality about me, so i probably look kind of hobbity in this all jade ensembe, but whatever.







skirt: vintage, thrifted for $8!
shirt: american apparel:
tights: my mom's, once upon a time
belt: paper source ribbon
shoes: dsquared
necklace: gift from my mom

i absolutely love this color, and i've been trying to find a way to wear this skirt for a long time - i bought it over the summer - but it's kind of tricky to wear without looking like christmas. i actually think that pairing it with the same-colored shirt, to give it the appearance of being a dress, weirdly makes it more wearable. what do you think?

tonight i've got more yolks to use and lots of cleaning to do! we leave for florida at the crack of dawn on saturday, and i could not be more excited - bare legs!! freckles! drinks with umbrellas!!

until tomorrow,

xo audrey

thai yellow curry

last night i came home with a serious craving for curry. i'd been thinking about it all the way home, looking up recipes on my little iphone, so i stopped off at the grocery store (conveniently located right across the street) and grabbed a few things before heading home and getting down to business. i decided to make a thai yellow curry, and [vaguely] followed the recipe i found here. i added some stuff of my own, made substitutions where needed, and ended up with an absolutely delicious (if not entirely authentic) curry.



. . . which just so happens to match my outfit for today!











shirt & skirt: j crew
necklace: laura lombardi
belt: urban outfitters
tights: HUE
shoes: madewell

this week i'm dressing in a different monochrome every day, i've decided. yes.

until next time,

xo audrey

ps. i usually black out the background, but it matched too nicely in these photos so i decided to leave it in. this is my favorite place in my apartment - my kitchen. there is a pile of powdered sugar and almonds on the floor. i need to clean.

go green

good morning! i had a nice, restful (for the most part) weekend after the madness that was last week, which was exactly what i was hoping for. friday night i ran home, changed into jeans, and headed to the bar across the street to watch the uconn/syracuse game with sam; we made it through the first half before we decided we needed better food than our local mexican/chinese place could offer, so hurried across brooklyn during halftime to arrive at fatty cue, one of our favorite places to make complete pigs of ourselves. we planted ourselves at the bar and were probably the only people there who were actually watching the game as we gorged ourselves on two different kinds of ribs (pork and lamb,) toast with rendered fat for dipping, brisket bao, and tecate. we won our game, finished our beers, and headed home to bed.

saturday morning i woke up at a semi-reasonable hour and set about the arduous task of cleaning my room. now that i'm able to wear what i want to work every day, my floor is really suffering; the early morning try-on-and-discard is a terrible habit that i haven't been able to break in 25 years. i finally got it spiffed up, hemmed up a pair of jeans i picked up on friday (flares! for the first time since high school,) and then sam scored us a decent pair of tickets to the game that night at madison square gardens, so we grabbed a slice on the road and headed up to the insanity that is a building full of college basketball fans. i've never been super into basketball myself, but i've realized that i just like watching games of any kind, and once i start to learn about the players i'm pretty much hooked. sam graduated from uconn a few years ago, so with the knowledge he imparts about the players, i'm jumping out of my seat with the best of them within the first few minutes. they won this game too (the first team to win five games to become big east champions, if anyone's counting,) and once again we dragged ourselves home and promptly fell asleep.

yesterday we had brunch plans to meet a bunch of friends, one of whom recently moved to london; eggs benedict, about 8 cups of coffee, and 2 of rosé. sam and i headed back to brooklyn, caught a matinée, and then i finally sat down and started working on our wedding invites, which are (hallelujah) almost done!






top: lilla p
skirt: quail
tights: ?
shoes: UO with poofs by ban.do
sweater: gap
necklace: ebay

you can win this shirt! a perfect color & cut for spring. it is so comfy, so versatile - you can't tell here but it's nice and long, such a flattering cut. all you have to do is leave a comment, any comment!, AND let me know that you're following lilla p on twitter and have liked them on facebook. i'll let this contest go for a week, and announce the winner next tuesday.


today my plans include: eating nothing but salad after a completely gluttonous weekend, and [hopefully] finishing wedding invitations and starting to put them in the post.

hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

xo audrey

kitchen geek

i think i've mentioned before that i used to run a little underground restaurant of sorts when i lived in chicago. i sent out a preplanned menu, put a set number of tickets on etsy, and then made that dinner for the first 12 people to snag a seat. it was so much fun - one of the things i'm most proud of, i think - but the point of all this is to be able to post these photos, which i used way back then as background images for the menu/invitation. i stumbled upon this guy's photos on flickr while looking for some kind of funny food-themed photo, and he had so many, i had to use them.

so i post them here, purely for your enjoyment. he calls the series "kitchen geek" and they are so gorgeously and cleverly composed. i hope you like them as much as i do. you can see all of them, and the rest of his gorgeous flickr, here.









hope you're enjoying your weekend - i definitely am!