Courtesy of Apartment Therapy: Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola's Swingin' Stella Ad

I am so in love with Stella Artois' new ad campaign by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola! Apartment Therapy recently did a blog post on it with more in-depth coverage. You can read their full post here.

Watch the video:

Very Cool: Chillout Sessions XII

I came across an album cover art project for the Ministry of Sound Australia's Chillout Sessions XII designed by Andrew van der Westhuyzen of Collider a few days ago. Not only is it a very clever concept, but I love the way that its shot and the design of the model (very california 1960's modern).

Project statement from the Collider's website:

A homage to Frank Lloyd Wright and Neutra and the lifestyles their buildings accommodated, Chillout Sessions XII takes us to a fusion of time periods somewhere between the 50s and the 80s in the filtered light of California.

All images courtesy of Collider.

Lazy Sunday

Looks like I'm not the only one having a lazy Sunday afternoon.

My sweet girls, Little Abigail and Madame Martha having a nap.

Bombardment!

And apparently now that I was in hiding the last week or so, I've decided to bombard you all with awesomeness.

This video, called "Bottle" by Kirsten Lepore is adorable.  Watch it. Now.

Bottle from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

October is here!

It's officially one of my favorite months of the year. So many wonderful things about October: sweet hubs' birthday, beautiful crisp weather, leaves changing, wonderful smells of wood burning and earth in the air, visiting my favorite parks (Bryant Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn) and getting to wear sweaters - I simply adore fall and especially October.

I've been a little out for the count lately - I managed to catch that nasty cold that's been going around, but I'm back to the real world now and playing catch-up.

I need to post my October mix - It's been finished since last week, but being under the weather, I just haven't had the concentration to post it. Sorry folks! It'll be up soon, I promise.

Lots to look forward to in the next few months: birthday celebrations, mine and sweet hubs 2 year wedding anniversary and our anniversary trip (a cruise!), Thanksgiving, and then its the holiday season! (I love the time of year from September through February!)

That's all for now, just wanted to let everyone know I wasn't dead.

Some Examples of Beautiful Motion from and for HBO

I've been seeing some really beautiful promos and advertisements lately on television - mainly from HBO. Out of all the premium movie networks, HBO still ranks my favorite for original programming.

Has anyone caught Boardwalk Empire? I LOVE it - even though there's only been one episode so far (Episode 2 airs tonight) - I was instantly charmed. The set design, the vintage signage and the costumes and of course the cast - are all perfection. If you haven't caught it or don't know what I'm talking about, here's the series promo:

Boardwalk Empire Series Premiere Promo (HBO) from you_want_elvis on Vimeo.

Here's a beautiful and very elegant promo, again from HBO, for their 2010/2011 Upcoming Programming. I love the visual effects on this one:



And one more HBO goodie: This one was a concept for a new brand identity for HBO titled "Unexpected", which was created by a VFX/design studio called Umeric and directed by Ash Bolland. This one is very organic but at the same time has a very whimsical and magical quality to it. It's simply stunning. I would love to see this one make it onto HBO. Beautiful job, guys.

HBO 'Unexpected' from Umeric on Vimeo.

Post Ranch Inn - Big Sur, California

Today I was perusing some travel websites and came across this gorgeous hotel in Big Sur, California - the Post Ranch Inn, which rests on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  I've never been to California, but hope to make it there one day and if I ever do, I'd love to stay here.

If you're looking for a hotel that screams serenity (as much as serenity screams? maybe a better term would be whispers), this place is perfection. Just looking at the photos of the property put me at ease from the amazing views, to the beautiful infinity pool and the rustic design, its simply stunning. The property also offers a spa and a restaurant which serves farm-to-table cuisine, and don't miss the nightly stargazing.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves.  All photos are courtesy of the Post Ranch Inn website.

For more information and to book: http://www.postranchinn.com/

Blog Consolidation? Organizational issues? Yep. That's me.

Ok, so I don't REALLY have too many organizational issues.  I'm actually pretty anal retentive when it comes to organization and whatnot.  One thing I do have an issue with currently is the amount of blogs I have, which are sitting there, sadly neglected.

Last year I'd started a travel blog for sweet hubs and I since our parents are always asking to see photos of our past, present and future journeys, which I'd started with full force but then got busy.  And then it fell to the wayside and I haven't even looked back.  I love blogging and I really need to focus to be consistant.

Hence my post today.

So... I think I need to incorporate my other blogs.  When I say other blogs, it sounds like I've got 65 roaming the web, when in reality I have two others: my travel blog and my recipe blog.  It's really not THAT out of control.  Not really...

I'm going to do some back posting - hopefully this will not inundate and annoy my readers (hello?  is anyone out there?  Just kidding.) but if you see random posts (ie: "Sweet Hubs and I Travel to Montana! circa 2002"), don't fear, things aren't wonky, its just me organizing.

That's all for now, folks!  Enjoy any older posts that may show up in your reader feeds, etc.

And in other news, my cupcakes from last night went over quite well at work.  Don't you wish you worked with me so you could have treats brought to you?  ;)

Cupcake Bakin'!

Today I decided it was time to break in my kitchen in my new apartment and bake some cupcakes.

For a long time I've been holding onto a recipe for "Irish Car Bomb" cupcakes (Guinness cupcakes with Jamison's Whiskey ganache and Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream icing).  I'd set out to make them today, but failed to pick up two of the major ingredients - Bailey's Irish Cream and Jamison's Whiskey.

Since it was rainy and gross out and I was feeling lazy and just wanted to start baking, I decided to wing it.

I was a little hesitant to try this recipe at first because I am NOT a Guinness drinker, but I'd heard such amazing things about it that I figured I'd just go for it.

Anyhow, since I was missing the Bailey's Irish Cream, I figured I was going to just go with my standard vanilla whipped topping or a basic vanilla buttercream once I saw how heavy the Guinness flavoring was for the cake itself.  If it was too "dark" tasting, I figured a sweeter topping (the buttercream) would be the way to go.

20 minutes after I popped the batter into the oven, I tasted a little bit of heaven.  Holy cow those little cakes came out amazing.  The flavoring came out delicately rich, light, and moist.  A perfect, not overly sweet cupcake.  Since the flavoring ended up being very delicate, I decided to go with the whipped topping - I think the buttercream would have been to heavy.  Obviously this is a personal taste choice.

Once I started on the topping, I felt like for such a lovely flavored cupcake, the topping needed to have a little more flair than just simple vanilla.  I still had 3/4 of a bottle of Guinness from the cakes themselves, so I figured why not add a little and see how it tasted.  I didn't add much, but it made just enough of a difference to give it the flair I was looking for.  I also added in Bailey's - but a bit at a time - I didn't want to overwhelm it.

Being a design nerd, of course I wanted them to be pretty too, so I wanted a little something extra for the top.  I had some caramels on hand that I heated up and figured a little drizzle would be the perfect little tasty aesthetically pleasing finish.

RECIPE:

Cupcake Batter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups baker's sugar (superfine sugar)
3/4 cup cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda1
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons shortening
3/4 cup of water
3/4 cup of Guinness Stout
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs

1. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Stir to combine. Add shortening, then use an electric mixer on medium speed to blend shortening into dry ingredients. Mix until no chunks of shortening are visible. This is your cake mix, which you can keep in a sealed container for several months until you are ready to make the cupcakes.

2. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans. Batter will make approx. 24 to 30 cupcakes.

3. Blend dry cake mix (from step #1) with water, Guinness, oil and eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer at low speed until moistened. Increase speed to medium and beat for 2 more minutes.

4. Pour batter into lined cupcake pans and bake for 19 to 22 minutes.

5. Allow to cool for 1 hour.

Topping
2 cups heavy cream
2 tbsp powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 small pkg vanilla instant pudding mix
Guinness Stout (to taste)
Bailey's Irish Cream (to taste)

Beat heavy cream on high speed until soft peaks form. Turn speed down to low and slowly add in sugar, vanilla, pudding mix and Guinness (to taste). Turn back up to high until stiff peaks form. Keep in a chilled environment.

Print recipe here.

A New Apartment Calls for an Inspiration Board! (Part 4: Living Room Design)

Gosh! Mid-August into the beginning of September has been pretty busy! I've been slacking on my apartment updates!

Anyhow, without further adieu, here's the fourth installment of inspiration boards and design for the new apartment: the living room!

Here's what we're working with:

We've sort of gotten to the point where we are in a little bit of a holding pattern with actually FINISHING the apartment - we still need to purchase 2 pieces of furniture, acquire 2 awesome chairs for the living room (which are kindly being donated by sweet hubs' great aunt), and get some organizational tools for the closets. We can't finish hanging things until we get one of the two pieces of furniture and we've just gotten a little lazy since we've both been incredibly busy.

Regardless, here is our inspiration board for the living room. We've got a great space to work with - it's a sunken living room with an adorable wrought iron railing and steps off of a very generously sized foyer, which really lives up to the whole 1960's mid-century modern style that the building has going for it. I love it.

We figured that since the living room is such a large space (I believe its approximately 20ft x 10ft), we could go a little bit darker on the walls - not too dark though.

(Clockwise: Behr "Marina Isle" - 2 qt. of paint, West Elm Sunburst Wire Wall Art, Ikea Barometer
Floor Lamp, Corduroy Rug in a Bag, Ikea Expedit Bookshelf, vintage lounge chairs (photo from a
similar chair on Ebay), West Elm Modern Media Console (no longer sold), Room and Board
Lenox sofa (no longer sold).