this weekend

Saturday was a gorgeous day with absolute, perfect warm fall weather. We slept in a little, then dressed up in our costumes. Hub and I were John Lennon and Yoko Ono:

Easiest costumes ever. He was my best accessory:

Right? Can you even tell which one's real?

And weren't they cool together?

The kiddos wanted to wear their costumes from last year again instead of getting new ones, so we had a scary clown:

And a scary black robe skeleton face with a pump thingamajig that you use to pump blood down the mask...

much less scary when playing rock band:

We went down to a haunted house that was really pretty freaky, but not so much since it was still early afternoon. There were sections where you had to walk ahead into pitch blackness, and hubby led us fearlessly. There was also a bug room with strobe lights and roaches (fake, I think) everywhere, which for me was the scariest part. It was just us and one other couple behind us; the lady was going crazy screaming and crying and stuff which kind of added to the atmosphere.

Then we walked about downtown a little bit and had some Tex-Mex. We came home early for a movie marathon, and I have to say we picked the perfect Halloween movies. We started with Fido (rated R, but really should not be) and then Beetlejuice - fun and campy movies (with just enough to still scare the boys a touch, which surprised me).

Then we took a break for pumpkin ice cream and hot apple cider, and after it got dark outside, watched Poltergeist. It's only PG, but, man, so scary. I was hoping the boys wouldn't think it was lame (like the first time I watched The Exorcist after hearing for years how scary it was), and they didn't. They were really freaked out and said it was the scariest movie they had ever seen!

(By the way, can we talk about Marc Jacobs' tattoo? I don't get it.)

Perfect movie marathon, but if there was a movie missing, it'd be Zombieland. I love that one.

So, anyway, Happy Halloween!

Is it time to put up my Christmas tree now?

fall...

is so here! The best part about fall it is this:

Although how weird is it to have Halloween-themed eggnog?

The worst part is that it is still well over 80 degrees on most days. Which means that Halloween will be hot again this year. This floppy hat is part of my costume; I love it. It's Jessica Simpson-brand, which makes it even better, right?

this weekend...

we had nothing to do and so we basically did nothing except watch netflix movies. It was so nice and relaxing and I'm sad that it's over!

The Constellations

Wow. So, last Thursday we went to see The Constellations play at The White Rabbit in San Antonio. We've been wanting to see more music, love them, and found out they were coming and playing at a small venue. Perfect. Ordered our tickets ($12, c'mon) and took a taxi there so we could drink all we want and not worry about how to get home.

Ok. The venue was pretty sketchy, opened late and horribly disgusting bathroom, but they have a pizza shop attached with really decent pizza and beer, so we did that while we waited. In total four bands performed that night. The first, Heavy Feathers, a local band with a blues rock feel. There weren't bad, but I swear, husband and I were the only two people watching them. The only two. It was embarrassing and a little awkward, I felt so bad for them!

So then, here's the cool part, we got to meet them! The Constellations! My sweet husband asked Elijah to autograph my shirt, and he did. He - all of them - were actually really really nice. We bought a few rounds of beer (seriously, they make bands buy there own beer? How messed up is that?), talked to them for a while, watched them perform from like a foot away, because again there were so few people, maybe like 15 in total in the whole stage area, so we were right there.

Seriously?

They were so good live too, maybe even better because they really looked like they were having fun and I think his voice was even better live, really incredible. And, here's another really cool part, he dedicated a song - Felicia - to me. To me. Yep, said my name and everything. Can you believe it?

After they finished, we skipped the next bands and went back outside and hung out with them some more. By then, I was pretty drunk, (by the way, how do they perform so well after drinking like that? Crazy.), and probably a little bit stalker fan once the inhibitions went away, but, oh well, our taxi came right then so we bolted anyway. It was a crazy, awesome, perfect night.

If you haven't listened to The Constellations, go do it now. They are so good, energetic and original and the singer has a really great voice. Just go ahead and buy Southern Gothic, it's my favorite album right now. And the fact they were so totally cool makes me love them even more.

Vogue, October 2010

This was actually one of my favorite Vogue spreads in a long time. I love that it feels unexpected, but sincere. I love the beautifully done bare feet and black hats with ball gowns in grassy fields. I also love that a few full pages were of photos with Carey's face hidden, it's just not your typical actress/celebrity magazine profile.

I actually liked the article on Carey Mulligan. She seems humble and interesting and independent. I just finished reading Never Let Me Go, and can't wait to see her in the movie.

artichoke and oyster soup

So, since I've been a grown up and away from New Orleans for so long, I find myself wanting to recreate food from home. One of the things I've been wanting to cook for a while is some artichoke and oyster soup (I love cooking soups and stews, big pots of anything). I'd printed out all the recipes I could find for this, with the idea of combining pieces of them and experimenting until I found what I was looking for, but then I saw this recipe. The picture looked exactly like I remember it should, so I just went ahead with it as is last night. The result: spectacular. I threw the rest of the recipes away, and made a few little notes on this one, adding quantities, since the recipe has a lot of "to taste".

Here it is:

Oyster and Artichoke Soup

1 can Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 can Campbell’s Cream of Celery Soup

1 package (16 oz) beef broth

1 c. heavy whipping cream

1/4 tsp. tarragon

1/4 tsp. rosemary

3 (14 oz.) cans quartered artichoke heart, with juice

2 (8 oz.) cans oysters, with juice

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1 medium size yellow onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

3 tsp. minced garlic

1/2 stick butter

1/2 tsp. salt

Melt butter. Saute celery, onion, bell pepper and garlic in butter. When onions are translucent, add cans of soup, beef broth, and whipping cream.

Let warm on low-medium heat (10-20 minutes). Add artichokes to soup.

Now, add herbs, salt, and pepper. Taste. Add more if needed. Cook for 10 minutes on medium heat.

Add oysters (chopped or whole) and juice of oysters. Cook for 10 more minutes on medium heat.

Make it!

crazy ass rock star jewelry

Mine:

His:

We sort of went crazy. This was the last bit of shopping until Christmas.

new york

Wow. I usually am pretty ready to come home, especially after the crazy new york, boston, east texas, new york combo of the last two weeks, but this time I just didn't want to! I don't know if it was the amazing views from our room at The Bowery Hotel, the Bowery in general where you can just walk a few blocks to all of my favorite parts of New York, the crisp-but-sunny that was absolutely gorgeous the whole time instead of rainy like they predicted. I wasn't ready to come home, and I miss New York.

Hotel room at The Bowery Hotel:

They brought you little cookies at night:

View from hotel window:

And even better at night:

I heart n.y.

This is the view I want to wake up to every single day...

Margaritas!

What else do you do when you are stuck in an airport waiting on a delayed flight?

kindle

Photo by Gubatron.

The thought of a kindle is slowing creeping up on me. I've resisted electronic books for a while, but, hey, I also resisted iPods and iPhones and now can't imagine life the old way. Plus, instant book downloads and not needing any more bookshelves are very appealing. And, then, I could be reading Twilight in public and no one would know. On the other hand, I could be reading War and Peace in public and no one would know.

rehead

Although I don't see myself ever having the guts to really do this, I'm loving this flaming red hair:

Is it everywhere right now, or am I just newly noticing it?

New (Old) Music Monday: Pink Floyd

What can I say? Like Led Zeppelin, this was one of my dad's favorite bands when I was growing up and I just can't shake the association... even though my husband also loves them.

We listened to The Wall in its entirety on the drive, and then Dark Side of the Moon. So weird that Pink Floyd didn't sound at all like I thought they did. Some songs sounded familiar and I really liked, like Brain Damage and Comfortably Numb, but others are just too weird to me.

New York

Since we were only there for a day, we really didn't do much besides shopping (and window shopping). First, I'll show you some shopping that I did not do:

(But I'm coming back for you one day, Christian Louboutin.)

And a tiny bit of shopping that I did do:

These Alexis Bittar bangles are so amazing - silver lucite, and almost glowing translucently. I'm not too good with accessories, especially showy ones, but I really love these together with my silver Crangi Family Project bangle, and turquoise necklace. Especially since most of my outfits are pretty basic.

the rest of boston in pictures

I brought my new camera (well, the lens is new anyway) out and about in Boston. Here's a few of the things I saw.

Building tops hidden by fog:

An old jail converted into a hotel:

The insides of lots of Irish bars, plus one Irish whiskey bar:

And, for the first time, Faneiul Hall: