Thus Concludes the Nail Art Extravaganza!

Told you I had a lot of stellar nail designs to share with you all! Pretty sweet deal, right? It was also fun for me because it was like a quick recap of my summer, which, all nails considered, was a pretty darn great one!

Blue Ocean Nails!

I know I usually only post my nails if they have a pretty design, but isn't it such a lovely coincidence that I happened to paint my toenails that rich blue and then a week later go to the real live ocean? This is thanks to a super fun visit to Boston (the beach is Plum Island, about an hour north of the city) to visit my brother, and we were joined by my other brother and his new girlfriend. Such a great time! Summer is the best!

Pink, Yellow, and White Polka Dot Nails!

I kind of had a very polka dot-infused summer this year. I also got a few new colors as you might be able to tell (this pink, the blue for the sky with clouds, the gray for the chevron, all the greens and browns, etc). I felt like this pattern on top of these colors would be very fun and summer appropriate. Honestly, I wish I had a dress that looked like this! Don't you?

Puppies Rolling Down a Hill

Excellent YouTube curation here, I've got to say. This video is the perfect combination of childhood summertime nostalgia + adorable puppies:



My favorites have to be the dog who's too fat to properly roll and the golden retriever puppies who refuse to let go of their toys while they're rolling. Ah, to be young and also a dog!

[via Jezebel]

August: Chevron Nails or: Using the Tape Was a Better Idea

Before our big trip up to Maine at the end of summer, I decided to try to freehand paint some pink chevrons. We were running low on time and I didn't want to spend another hour and a half cutting up tape (Or twenty minutes or however long it was. I kind of lose track of time when I'm in the "nail zone" (Definitely TM)). This proved to be disastrous. Look at those nails - sloppy, uneven, globs everywhere. What a mess. The only one that turned out even sort of acceptable is my thumb, and that's only in a "artfully sloppyily handwritten by a Brooklyn hipster on a wedding invitation" kind of way. Also, the fact that this image is of my right hand tells you just how terrible it was - that my right hand (i.e. done with my non-dominant left hand) turned out better than my left.

Note: I always do my left hand first and then my right hand because I want to give my right hand even the chance that it will look somewhat near as good as my left hand. That's because my left hand inevitably ends up as my, "Let's try this and see how it turns out" and then my right hand is my, "Ok, now I know what I'm doing it but I'm doing with super-shaky lefty over here" so it generally turns out pretty even.

In the future, I think it would be perfectly acceptable to do chevrons freehanded if I had a tiny nail brush (OK I'LL STOP MENTIONING IT UNTIL I GET ONE IN A LATER POST!), but with your standard attached-to-the-top-of-the-lid-of-the-polish-cap brush, no dice.

Good color choice, though, am I right?

August: Chevron Toenails, or: Did I Just Blow Your Mind?

This could also be titled, "The Month I Started Doing More than One Nail Pattern A Month That was Interesting Enough to Instagram" Check out that incredible orange and white chevron (fancy word that's inexplicably popular right now "for wiggly, zig-zag stripes") pattern on my toenails. Clean, smooth lines. Sharp contrast between the white and orange. Surely this must be some sort of stick-on decal that's not even really painting your nails at all (NOT GETTING TO IT! Google it yourselves)!

Nope! I created my own nail stencil by using tape. When I first thought about doing chevron nails (Sometimes I think of these ideas DAYS in advance), I figured I'd probably use tape. 1) Paint a layer of white, 2) Meticulously cut out chevron pattern of tape, 3) Layer the tape on toenails, 4) Paint over it in orange, 5) Peel off tape to reveal incredible nails. However, just in case, I went to the internet to see what they were were doing. Although some people were, in fact, painting it freehand like ballers and others were using tiny nail brushes (GIVE ME A MINUTE AND I'LL GET TO IT), most people were using tape. And yet, they were not cutting the tape up like I thought I'd have to do. They were using pinking sheers to help them meticulously cut up the tape, since they already have a chevron pattern embedded in them.

This is when I learned that using tape takes a lot of time. At least an hour or more. This is because you first have to cut up the tape, which, even using pinking sheers, takes a while since you want to make sure the width of each chevron is the same and that the top cut of the tape matches the bottom cut of the tape. It's clearly an immensely complex process much easier to describe using a YouTubetorial (TM, why not?) than me trying to write for you. Here is one is clearly mocking how much time it actually took me to do compared to how much time this video makes you think it will take.

August: Clouds and Sun, or: When I Start Trying to Paint Stuff that Looks Like Other Stuff

Clearly, by this point I've masted the without-a-dotting-tool polka dots (CONTINUE TO NOT PANIC. I PROMISE I WILL EXPLAIN WHAT A DOTTING TOOL IS IN A LATER POST. YOU CAN READ THAT POST NOW IF YOU WANT TO AND THEN COME BACK TO THIS ONE), so I decide to try my hand (get it!?) at something more literal: clouds and a sun. Surprisingly, the clouds turned out pretty much the way I had wanted them to: mini-replicas of the clouds from The Simpsons or Andy's bedroom in Toy Story. The sun also doesn't suck - check out the way I used the flat end of the yellow brush to make the lines that for some reason we always draw on suns even though that's not the way a real sun looks. Yeah, I got a little too close together on some of them, but it's not like I had a mini-nail-brush to use (WHAT? YEAH I JUST THREW THAT OUT THERE! WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE WHAT IT CAN DO!) or something. I'd say Matt Groening would be proud, but I strongly doubt it. A) the clouds on The Simpsons are probably the least interesting thing to him, and B) he probably has never once in his life thought about nail art (a phrase I'm positive he would disagree with).

The Hairpin: Camp Series

Also, this series on camp!

I wonder if they're accepting submissions. I've got so many great camp stories.

Every summer since I stopped attending, I miss camp. It really is an incredible experience. I'm sure everyone thinks this (and why shouldn't they?), but my camp is extra special. There's just something about it that's so incredibly pure. It really shaped who I am today in all the best ways.

Plus, it is one of those magical places where I can feel completely at peace. Like a straight-up monk or something.

If you haven't been to camp before, I also recommend listening to TAL's episode "Notes on Camp" from 1998. They just replayed it this week, so you can download the podcast until Sunday.

What are you reading this summer?

I'm trying to pick some good summer beach reads. What are you all reading now?

Thank you for a Corgdial June!

Sorry, I just really wanted to post this adorable photo of two corgis in the grass and didn't really know how to lead into it.

BLAM! CORGI'D!

Also, this:

[via A Place to Love Dogs]

Laduree in New York City!

Real French macarons have landed in NYC!

Beloved French tea salon Laduree has finally (finally!) opened a store in New York, at 864 Madison Ave.   Renown for their delectable macrons, Laduree has been hinting at opening a New York branch for years, but only now have they officially opened their doors in America.

As you will recall (from the above picture), this was the bf and my's favorite dessert in all of France. We didn't know how much we would love the little almond cookies until we ate twelve in about ten minutes (after waiting in line for half an hour). The flavors are bold, the cookies crisp but yielding, and the goo holding them together is, what I believe to be, the essence of happiness.

The bf and I are still on vacation, so after a scrumptious Restaurant Week lunch (which I will describe in detail in my next post), we headed over to check out the new shop. We arrived at 2:50pm and were out by 3:15pm, so only a 25 minute wait. Not too bad for the first week. Plus, the line was entirely indoors, which made the wait much more pleasant. We got eight macarons - two chocolate, two vanilla, one caramel, one coffee, one pistachio, and one raspberry - for $23, which is insanely expensive ($2.70 per macaron is more than a Magnolia cupcake!), but worth it as a rare treat.

My favorite is the vanilla, and his is the caramel. The vanilla has the strongest vanilla flavor you can find in the United States aside from eating a vanilla bean straight up. I was amazed, but somehow they tasted just as good here in the United States sitting on a bench in Central Park as they did in Paris watching the sunset from the apartment. Unbelievable.

Serious Eats has a much more descriptive article here. They spoke with David Holder, the chairman of Laduree (he also runs Paul, the delicious bakery from our Paris adventure). He claims that we'll be seeing a Laduree tea room with a full kitchen in Soho or the Village sometime next Spring. What a treat! Although, I'm sure reservations will be incredibly difficult to get and the prices will probably be through the roof, but it will certainly be worth it.

Stay Safe in the Sun

The Hairpin has another excellent write-up, though very different from Harry Potter fun - this time all about sunscreen safety. Check it out. It's really informative.

They include this incredible infographic from informationisbeautiful all about how much sunscreen you should wear depending on your current skin tone. You can buy it as a high-res PDF on their website.

Lightning Will Blow Your Mind

I've had lightning on the brain a lot since my vacation. We were in a beach town where it rained a lot at night and had this brilliant lightning storms. Then, this past weekend we spent a night in the country and another brilliant lightning storm lit up the night. It really made me wonder about how lightning works. Well, here's all the explanation I needed. At 9,000 frames per second, this minute and a half long clip only covers two seconds of real time.



Apparently, lighting does strike the same place twice. In this case, many, many more times than twice.

[Thanks, Neatorama!]

News Flash! Climate Change Still Happening!

In what's totally not a surprise for anyone who doesn't watch Fox News, this past decade was the hottest one on record. If you'd like to read more about it, check out this Nat Geo article.

Personally, I think the easiest way to tell that climate change is happening is to compare how warm/cold it is during the day and night. Remember when there was a big difference? Now, not so much. Of course, when you live in New York City, a lot of that can be attributed to the heat trapping properties of buildings and roads, but for realsies - 90 during the day and 85 at night? That's not a big difference.

So enjoy those cool night breezes while you can, world! We ain't got much of them left.

Stew of the Week

Sorry I've been terrible in Brewing up some Stew, but to be honest, my personal stewing has mainly involved my favorite staple, the PB&J, in addition to some Annie's Chocolate Bunny Grahams (a very good snack food for those who aren't supposed to eat too much snack food), and, of course, many a Luna Bar.

However, I have just bounced back (we'll see for how long) with this wonderful dessert recipe from Emeril Lagasse over at Planet Green (yes, Emeril's gone healthy and enviro-friendly! At least in this show). Just watch and be amazed. I can't wait to try this one...

Grilled Lavender Blackberries

What a fun and delicious summer dessert.

Happy Stewing everyone!

Sundaes Take the Lead!

4 hours left - for a second there rainy days looks like it was going to take the lead but no! Someone gave the last-minute push to Sundaes!

If you're in it to win it, vote now - this is the final countdown.

** Update - Sundaes take the WIN! Let's all go eat ice cream everyone, ok?

Stew of the Week

Is on vacation due to the glory that is Restaurant Week.

Later this week I'll write a jam-packed double-header Stew to make up for it.

Cool beans?

King of the Beach

One has six-pack abs. The other a fuzzy coat and a knockout stud-walk. But only one can be: King of the Beach.

June 1, 2009: Beauty Competes the Beast.*

*Please feel free to suggest your own ridiculous catchphrases.

Stew of the Week: Mid-Week Update

My gracious sister just gave me a very Stew of the Week friendly book for graduation:



Babycakes: Vegan, Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery by Erin McKenna (owner and founder of Babycakes).

I'm totally stoked. Babycakes is absolutely delicious. Now that I live even relatively close to it, I had planned on going all the time, but now I can make their delicious treats at home, as well! And I can do fun variations for you folks in non-New York locations! It's going to be one tasty summer.

Thanks, sis!

SPF: Screen Me Up, Scotty!

This is how I've always felt about sunscreen, as well. I wish they had suggested the amount you need daily for your face, though, as that's what I have to cover all the time. I guess one of the few benefits of living in New York is that the sun isn't as strong as in other places, but I'm interested in seeing how well I fare this summer now that I'm "at-risk" (damn you, immunosuppresants!). Apparently, in addition to my sunscreen regimine, I may need to invest in some wide-brimmed hats. I'm fine with that pending the wideness of the hat doesn't encompass me entirely (with someone so small, it just might. These are the things I have to consider).

I'd also like to note that last night I had a dream that I was wearing a tankini in a completely inefficient way to hide my scar. I think it's because a friend and I were discussing how inadequate tankini's are in covering up excess pudge. I mean, they cut off right where your pudge, or in my case scar, would be. Apparently, though, my subconscious needed to confirm this discussion in dream form. Dream agreed. Tankinis are lame.