Cupcake competition

On Monday, I help my friend make 'Pomegranmarnier Cosmo' cupcakes (lime cupcakes with pomegranate/cranberry, grand marnier and vodka frosting). They were delicious, I knew because we kept 'taste-testing' as we went along. They were for the Iron Cupcake competition held at the Alliance Francais in SF - more photos and info. here - where bakers of all sorts create cupcakes based on a theme (this month's theme was ALCOHOL *wink*wink) everyone is put into groups of 4 and receive one cupcake of each kind (there were 25 entrants this month) and after tasting the cupcakes you get to rate them on taste, appearance, and creativity. As cupcake #25, there was no way we would place (by cupcake #12 it feels like too much already) - but it was fun to see how creative people could get. Margarita won, and Irish Carbomb placed, someone even attempted a Dark and Stormy (it's much better as a drink), Sex on the Beach, Sangria, the Hangover, etc. all in all a fun time.

Henna

It's paul the octopus!

namaste.

Last night at my friend's birthday party (yes, it's birthday month!) we had food, wine, and henna!
It was a lot of fun doing henna tatoos and waiting (impatiently) for the results. I did a paisley and flower blossom design on my forearm and also a little octopus on my pinkie finger. If that took several hours I can only imagine how long it takes to do the traditional henna for Indian brides! Tip: if you want the henna to last longer, wait for it to partially dry, then squeeze on some lemon juice and sprinkle with sugar and wait for it to dry again before removing the henna.
Next time we do henna I suggest popping in a hindi movie :)

today's motto

I love...

In no particular order:

wedgwood fine bone china

fabulous shoes

baby animals

champagne + macarons

french bulldogs

Paris in springtime

pretty makeup

bows, bows, bows

fabulous fashion ads

j.crew

beach vacations
most of all: being fabulous!

Bulgari Fall 2010

Actress Julianne Moore in the Bulgari Fall 2010 ad campaign

I think the lion cubs are very cute, didn't even notice the handbags really.

This ad campaign made me think of the Ingres paintings of the odalisque I once saw at the Louvre in Paris - the inspiration (composition, color palette, etc.) is rather apparent, non?

La Grande Odalisque - Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1814)

Les Filles en Vogue

Carine Roitfeld in 'Les Filles en Vogue'

A generous friend gifted me with the June 2010 issue of French Vogue, purchased on a recent trip to London/Paris, that came with a bonus DVD - 'Les Filles en vogue' which was a great documentary following five top models and revealing their day-to-day lives during Paris fashion week where they go through the grind of castings in the hopes of getting booked for the big runway shows from Isabel Marant, to Lanvin, to Christian Dior. I loved seeing behind the scenes footage with commentary from Carine Roitfeld, editor in chief of French Vogue.

Vogue et Paris Première présentent "Les filles en vogue" : un documentaire de 52 minutes dans les coulisses de la vie de cinq tops : Sasha Pivovarova, Freja Beha, Natasha Poly, Constance Jablonski et Sessilee Lopez.

Freja Beha in the Bergdorf Goodman fall catalog

Freja shot by Terry Richardson in Vogue Nippon

Sasha Pivovarova

Natasha Poly on the cover of Vogue Russia

Natasha Poly in the Gucci Spring campaign

Constance Jablonski in Harpers Bazaar enjoying the finer things

Sessilee Lopez in Allure

What I ate today...

Rocher (meringue with almonds) from Tartine Bakery

clearly I need to go back to Tartine!

osha thai - in the mission, SF

lunch: chicken satay from osha thai (not pictured: yellow curry and brown rice)

dinner: lots of banchan at Mugu boka - Korean restaurant post cupcakes from the iron cupcake competition (will post later)

needless to say, so fulllllllll.

I love...Cute little animals

this is vincent, the dutch rabbit born healthy but sans ears

so, I'm officially blogging - about all the random things I love and fun events. I love cute little animals - hence, the name of this blog :)

her name is Barbie (french bulldog puppy)

Birthday Wine & Cheese Party

For a friend's birthday party we had plenty of vino and frommage and - of course - s'mores in another friend's back yard decked out with candles, tiki torches, and a fire pit. I brought a bottle of vino verde (sparkling white wine) from Portugal - naturally because she is a big fan of C.R. (Cristiano Ronaldo). Here are a couple of the photos of our fun night...

Vino Verde - muy delicioso!

we're under an umbrella

photos by S.