Literary Inspiration: Shades of Grey

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

I have loved everything I've read from Jasper Fforde, and I've read everything he's written. His work is witty, hilarious, smart, and fast-paced, and Shades of Grey is no exception. As with the Thursday Next series and the Nursery Crimes series, Shades of Grey takes place in a sort of alternate reality; the world is ours, but the society is not, and we never really find out what happened to our society other than it is gone.  This new society is all based on color:  people are born being able to see varying levels of only one natural color--or sometimes no color at all, in the case of the Greys--and how much of their color they can see gives them social standing, decides who they can marry and what jobs they can hold, etc.  On the surface it all seems like a pleasant place to live, but of course, all is not as it seems, and both intrigue and hijinks ensue.

All of the images below are inspired by parts of Shades of Grey.  Because the whole book is about color, there was a ton of visual inspiration; it was really hard to choose just a few things!

{top row from left:  Pantone Mugs, available from Pop Deluxe;  Round Color Stickers from SilvermintSupplies on Etsy;  Lapis Lazuli necklace from PoleStar on Etsy;  Baby Giraffe No. 3 by Sharon Montrose, available from The Animal Print Shop;  Risk by Parker Brothers Games}

{top row from left:  Superior Servers from Ladies & Gentlemen;  The Milkmaid by Jan Vermeer;  Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island, BC;  cute rabbit;  Elderflower Cordial}

Literary Inspiration: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry

*This post is the first in what I hope to be an ongoing series: Literary Inspiration. We'll have to see how long I can remember to keep this up!*

One of my favorite pastimes is reading. I love getting lost in a good book, and my list of books to read is miles long. After a one-year stint on the list, The Elegance of the Hedgehog finally made it into my shopping cart at Target and then onto my nightstand. It is the story of two lonely souls, Renee Michel, the unappreciated but highly intelligent concierge at a posh Paris apartment building, and Paloma, a 12-year-old resident of the building who is searching for true beauty in hopes that her faith in humanity will be restored. It is a touching read that is both laugh-out-loud funny and grab-your-hanky bittersweet. Full of references to food, gardening, literature, art, music, and cinema, it made for a very interesting read!

top row: 1) florentines, photo and recipe at foodnetwork.com; 2) Still-Life with Oysters by Pieter Claesz; 3) leather-bound journals from Kate's Paperie

bottom row: 1) variegated camellia by Kristina Simms via flickr; 2) Paris courtyard; 3) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

For Jozen {Oh Hello Friend's Collection Trade}

Several, several months ago I signed up for a Collection Trade sponsored by Danni of Oh Hello Friend. My sweet partner Jozen and I seemed tailor-made for each other, from our love of baker's twine and cute packaging supplies to our tendency to procrastinate and our complete disregard for the swap deadlines! Luckily, months later, Jozen has finally received her package from me, and my package from her is on its way (although possibly stuck in Canada due to the Canadian postal strike).

Here's what I sent to Jozen:

baker's twine; striped straws; pink polka dot balloons; white circle labels; tiny kraft bags; colored tags; toothpick flags (not pictured are a yellow teacup, a tiny wooden scoop, and some sweet vintagey notecards)

everything got these cute white paper lace and kraft paper tags (and I do mean everything)

these notecards were too cute to resist--not to mention they were the right color--so they got a tag too

it was all packed into the little wooden cigar box; somehow, everything fit (except the teacup, which was lovingly wrapped in lots of not-cute bubble wrap)

Teacher Appreciation Gift--Last Minute (Is there any other kind?)

We were at Costco this afternoon for what has strangely become a new family tradition--Monday lunch at the Costco snack bar. We ran into lots of people we knew, and one friend mentioned that she had just come from dropping off a teacher appreciation gift at preschool. And that is where I smacked myself on the forehead because I once again forgot teacher appreciation day! I do this every year. Luckily, we had a couple of packs of those oh-so-delicious Costco muffins in the cart, and about as quickly as I smacked myself for forgetting, I forgave myself because I came up with a plan for an easy, last-minute-but-sure-to-please gift for our preschool teacher and teacher's aide.

Here are the directions: 1) After buying the muffins, go to Starbucks on your way home from Costco and buy a $5 gift card for each teacher. 2) Place a Costco muffin--any flavor--in a small bag and tie bag shut with ribbon, baker's twine, etc. 3) Make sure the gift card is taped into the totally not secure Starbucks gift card envelope, then close up the envelope and punch a hole in one corner. 4) Tie the envelope to the muffin bag with the aforementioned ribbon or twine.

So this entire gift, which I happen to think is pretty darn good, took about 10 minutes of effort total. And who doesn't like Costco double chocolate muffins?!

Mini Spinach Dip Bread Bowls from Picky Palate

Back in January, right around Super Bowl time, Jenny from Picky Palate started posting finger foods and appetizers in anticipation of the big football game. One of her new creations was these amazing little baked bread bowls filled with homemade spinach dip. They looked delicious, so I made a mental note to make them sometime. And then I never made them! But I kept thinking about them a lot, pretty much every time an occasion came up that would at all call for party foods. I considered making them this week for bookclub, then decided to make something else. And then two days before our get-together, they popped up on Oh Joy!, and I took it as a sign from the culinary gods that I was not supposed to ignore these babies any longer!

They are super simple to make, and taste heavenly. I think I probably ate a fourth of them myself! They are delicious as an appetizer or finger food, but if you served them with a salad and some fruit, they would also be great for brunch. Instead of making full-sized muffins, I followed Joy's lead and made mini muffins. I followed all of the directions from the original recipe, but cut each piece of dough into three smaller pieces before pressing them into the muffin cups and obviously used a smaller scoop to add the filling. I'm getting hungry just thinking about them; if only I hadn't eaten all the leftovers when I got home!

Visit Picky Palate to get the recipe!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

So far, we've feasted on Lucky Charms for breakfast, and kiwi, green applesauce, pickles, and sandwiches for lunch. The kids and I are wearing our brightest green shirts and a few green plastic bowler hats, we delivered potted shamrocks to our friends, and we have plans to watch Darby O'Gill and the Little People this evening (as soon as it arrives from Amazon). And we can't wait for our traditional St. Patty's Day dinner, an Irish Fry (fried eggs, home fries, toasted english muffins with butter, breakfast sausage, and baked beans), accompanied by watergate salad (simply because it's green) and a delicious--if not entirely healthy--green punch concoction. What are your St. Patrick's Day traditions?

Birthday Cake Boxes

I turned another year older a few weeks ago, and to celebrate, I delivered slices of birthday cake to a few of my friends. Last year, my friend Marcelle took slices of her favorite cake, flourless chocolate cake, in chinese take-out boxes to some of her friends. Such a fun idea to give friends a little bit of celebration on your big day (especially when you are a grown-up and no one is throwing you a huge birthday bash every year)! And last Fall, I spotted adorable DIY slice-of-pie boxes on Stephmodo that I knew I had to do something with. At some point it occurred to me to combine both ideas, and voila! Birthday Cake boxes!

I came up with a quick template (well, it should have been quick, but I'm a dunce when it comes to Illustrator, so it took a while!), printed a bunch out on my kraft cardstock, cut, and taped. I made a really good, vanilla buttermilk cake with vanilla frosting and rainbow sprinkles, boxed up the slices, and delivered them! It was so much fun! Happy Birthday to me!

Click HERE to download the template. The assembled boxes will fit cake slices from a 1- or 2-layer 8" round cake that has been cut into at least 12 pieces. And click HERE if you'd like the recipe for the Vanilla Buttermilk Cake!

Print out as many boxes as you'll need on cardstock.

Cut on the solid lines.

Fold on the dotted lines. A bone folder would work nicely here, but I can never find mine when I need it, so I just used my fingernails.

Use double-sided tape to attach the overlapping flaps to the sides of the box.

Do this one first, then wait until you've slid the piece of cake into position to do the other two. Just trust me on that one. ;)

All done!