Things I Will Buy When Allowed.

I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel of my self-imposed moratorium on new clothes purchases. I've got 10 more pounds of baby weight* to go before I will allow myself to buy anything new. But, when I do...debit card watch out. I will burn you to smelly, plastic ash.

Gray & yellow are one of my favorite combinations in the world. That and jack & coke and toast & honey. This dress from Martisse is perfectly professional yet not stuffy.

For this ring, the term "things I will buy" is used very loosely. In the sense that I would never in a million years spend $9k on a ring. Nor do I wear gold except in a ghetto fab kind of way. But, it's lovely.

Now, I would not hike this dress up over the tips of my underwear. But, I would wear it, and wear it and wear it again. From Matthew Williamson's collection for H&M. Not that we have an H&M anywhere near us. But, we travel. Occasionally.

*Can you call it baby weight when your "baby" is three years old?**

**Yes you can when it's the sweet little bunny's fault you're so fat.***

***Not that it's her fault that I ate like a starved pig while pregnant with Her Sweetness than laid around like a retired, arthiritic sloth after she was born.****

****Although, it's only fair to note that I never craved a hot fudge sundae in my life until I grew her. Just sayin'.

Ready, sketch, SHOW!

When I first spotted the sketches from Atelier Versace's spring line - courtesy of TLo - I was enraptured. The dresses are breathtaking. The shoot was alluring. The sketches are stunning. I couldn't wait to see them making appearances on the red carpet. And they have. Some good, some bad. I'm not sure any of the red carpet looks have lived up to the promise, yet. But, let's take a look at them anyway, shall we?

The Met Costume Institute Gala hosted a ton of pieces from the collection. A ton. Emma Roberts wore this fantastic sequins-on-steroids bubble dress.

This China red silk organzamazing was one of my favorites. Jessica Biel (srsly!) totally shocked me in this. Beautiful. Claudia Schiffer wore the shit out of this three dimensional and intricate gown. I know Allegra Beck is pretty young. But, she's not that young. I wish she hadn't toned this dress down so much with the undershirt. Or whatever the heck you'd call that. Penelope Cruz wore the grecian to an Oscars after party. I actually thought this particular dress was the most boring design in the group. But, the most boring design in a poetic collection isn't the worst thing a dress can be.

You can see the lovely roped detail better below.

And the only one who just did. not. pull. it. off...? Eva Longoria. I'm thinking they had to take it up at least 4 1/2 feet. She's tiny. The dress is colossal. No Cannes do. (Ok, that was lame.)

I would rock in Paris.

I'm prone to ridiculously early lunches. What can I say? I'm starving by 10:30 most days. I've lamented this lameness on Twitter long ago. (Well, a month ago.)

Trying to hold out to a more reasonable time for lunch. Feel like a senior citizen busting out the mid-day meal at 10:30. Followed by... No real breakfast, early lunch...that's BRUNCH. Why the shame? I should own my brunch.

And now, I do. AS DO PARISIENS. According to the NY Times, anyhow. Of course, they are eating actual brunches (bloodies and all), in chic cafes, à dimanche. But, in all other ways, virtually the same.

Me.

Them.

C'est la même chose!

This is not a bento blog.

Seems like I'm heading in to all bento, all the time territory around here. Just to break things up a bit, check out the coolest fucking mirrors I have ever seen.

A pirate's life for me...

Ok, Frank. Let me be Bullwinkle.

Wherein it becomes a sickness.

Ok, now I just can't stop myself. I usually pack little man's bentos in the morning but I was all fired up, didn't want to dirty any extra tupperware, yada yada yada. I already packed tomorrow's lunch - leftover taco stuff, monkey full of hot sauce - which means I get to "sleep in" an extra 15 minutes. Wahoo!

Gooooooooooooooooooooooal!

After spending the better part of the last week admiring dillions of bento photos on Flickr, I've been inspired to push on. I've also noticed some tricks of the trade - a bed of lettuce works wonders! Here's the little man's Monday Tuesday lunch - homemade chicken nuggets, rice, soy sauce, turnip kim chee, carrots and grapes. Those carrots are shaped like giraffes and an elephant. No joke. I freaking love them. They're a little frosty because I froze them. Sunday Monday night, I thought freezing them would be like putting mini blue ices right there in his bento. Monday Tuesday morning, I realized this was inane. I also realized that these organic carrots are not going to cut it. Give me some GMO, steroid fueled giganto-carrots to cut silly shapes out of, please! I was SO unbelievably thrilled to have finally turned out a bento I could be proud of, I could have let loose with a cartwheel right there in the kitchen. My excitement was met with a nonchalant "I'm probably not going to eat the lettuce, Mom." Ha! No sweat, kiddo, Mom's high on bento. ADDED: Whew, this is going to be a short week. My brain is convinced it's Monday. UPDATED: The child is charmingly weird. The carrots, grapes and half the chicken nuggets came home. The turnip kim chee? Gone, baby, gone.

Gettin' a little better...

Still nowhere near awesomesauce, but gettin' better all the time...

This one was actually for me - salmon croquette, cauliflower, carrots, a tiny monkey bearing hot sauce, a bitty fish filled with soy sauce and FAIL furikake on rice.

I used a stencil for the furikake, but when I lifted it off, all the extra little bits fell right down around the cute little bunny head shape. Oh well. Saved me from the embarassment of co-workers noticing a cute little bunny head in my lunch.

On a journey to find myself.

I completely forgot that I had a photostream on Flickr. I wonder what other long forgotten traces of Jen there are out there on these here interwebz.

Also made me realize that I really need to take more pictures. And go to more pretty places.

I think those are two of my favorites. I also think I just figured out how to hotlink a picture from Flickr. I love it when I figure out something that everybody else already knows and then briefly feel an overinflated sense of accomplishment succeeded quickly by acute embarassment. It's like a mini emotional roller coaster. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Serving Up Some Lame for Lunch

I've made myself late for work the last two mornings in a row, trying to put the Japan into lunchtime for the kiddo. Frankly, I blame it on the bento. The whole point of bento is to create a portable meal that's as attractive as it is tasty. Therefore, I am utterly missing the point so far. Go me! My first two attempts have been full of fun stuff but also woefully pathetic (not to mention, kind of unhealthy). I figure it should only take me a little while or a good 43 years to build up to this kind of amazing. But, whatever. Here goes. Day 1: Anthropomorphized musubi (i.e. rice balls), fried bologna, turnip kim chee, bananas, grapes and all kinds of ugly. Day 2: Slightly more colorful, no less unhealthy. Nutella pinwheels, half-fake sausages (wannabes), a car shaped boiled egg, radioactive goldfish and Hershey kisses.

Sorta pinwheels anyway.

As I predicted, I'm way more excited about the whole thing than he is. Now I just need more stuff! Real bento boxes! Veggie cutters! A new kitchen to store it all in!

If you can't be with the lamp you love, love the lamp you're with.

This morning, I headed out to Cameron, NC sans kiddos and the man for what I thought was a little Antique Fair. Turns out it's HUGE. And awesome. Apparently something like 15,000 people show up for this thing. 14,999 people and me. Insanity! I got off to a rocky start, thinking I could pick up some cash when I got there. I asked about the nearest ATM, and was directed to Vass. An entirely different town. Like 20 minutes away. The heck!? A town without a single ATM is a serious anomaly. But, hey I'm quick on my feet. I stepped into the post office, bought some stamps and got cash back. Resourceful! I'm telling you, we could kill that Amazing Race. I stepped into an adorable little shop with antiques and a tea room and spotted the most amazing lamp I have ever seen.

My only question was: Right after I snapped that picture, the two proprietors came sprinting into the room and asked me if I had seen a flash of light. Apparently, they had had some sort of lamp related incident earlier and were convinced that a lamp had exploded and possibly killed me. Or maybe they weren't concerned about me. In any event, I explained that I had taken a picture of the fabulous lamp but no, I wasn't interested in purchasing it, thanks anyway. Also, terribly sorry about scaring the bejeesus out of you. Awkward. So, I moved on. I ran into the cutest couple selling some vintage jewelry and taking it way back. I asked if I could take their picture and he insisted on first grabbing his dapper hat and then started posing. I wasn't sure how to gracefully clarify that I wanted to take both their picture, so I just went with it. Fun stuff all around, but it was time to get serious. I was looking for a kitschy cute salt and pepper shaker set for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. After about a thousand pairs of those boring old Cape Cod, crystally glass shakers with silver tops, I finally spotted a bunch of really cute sets. And then I saw this. I don't know. Maybe those aren't weird and kind of racist. But, they certainly weren't kitschy cute. Fortunately, these so were. Score! All in all, a wonderful way to pass the morning in a very quaint little town with beautiful houses lining the main street.