Happy Memorial Day!

I don't usually post recipes in this blog, but it's a holiday. Straight out of the Betty Crocker Cookbook (which my mother gave me when I set up housekeeping):

Peanut Butter Cookies
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened (I use margarine for this recipe)
1/2 cup peanut butter (I prefer smooth for cookies)
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon soda

Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Scoop a generous teaspoon amount, roll in granulated sugar, and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flattened slightly with a fork dipped in sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for 9-10 minutes.

Variation: Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies
Substitute 1/2 cup Nutella for the peanut butter and decrease cooking time by one minute. These cookies will be slightly larger, thinner, and crisper (more crisp?) than the peanut butter version.

Out of the Blue

I just received an email from a milliner on Etsy from whom I had bought a hat a while back. She was convinced that she owed me a free hat, because I wasn't happy with the hat I bought before. I wasn't unhappy; it just wasn't exactly what I expected.

It happens.

Anyway, she's offered me my choice of one of her fascinators, $25-50, for free! I'm not going to accept, of course. But if I was, I'd take this one:



It's called Ladies of the Night. :-)

ETA: Belle insisted that I choose one. I caved. Soon, Ladies of the Night will be mine.

I have my issues with "Sex and the City"...

...but these photos by Annie Leibowitz of SJP and Chris Noth in Vogue are fabulous:

Are these not the most amazing photographs?

Melvin Sokolsky, Bubble on the Seine, 1963









I discovered them over at All Things Bright and Beautiful.

FYI

You can now sign up over at amazon.com to be notified when the American DVD of "Blood Ties" becomes available.

Monday Morning Pic Spam

Here I am, sitting inside Honor Harrington, with my boyish new haircut.



My hairdresser BTW gives really great shampoo. If he wasn't gay and half my age, I'd marry him.

Here I am in yesterday's church hat.



I'm standing in front of my fireplace, and the pottery on the mantelpiece is part of my collection of vintage McCoy pottery. I collect mostly the white, although I have a few colored pieces.

And this is privet.



I have had two privet bushes come up wild in my yard. I was charmed, at first, because they're pretty, and they smell nice. But then I learned that privet is a non-native, invasive species, so the privet's got to go.

Another Steeplechase Pic.

Tracy and me with the track in the background. She borrowed one of my hats to wear, and it looks so much better on her than on me that I may give it to her for her birthday.

They killed Moonlight! The bastards!

It's official...CBS cancelled Moonlight. Granted, I didn't love Moonlight the way I loved Blood Ties, but I liked it very much. And the story arcs were just starting to really get interesting.

Rats.

Iroquois Steeplechase

Here I am, looking somewhat goofy in my hat. It was sunny and breezy, and it made me squint a little:


The horse I drew for this race, Dreadnaught, is in here somewhere:

BTW, he won the race and won me $16 in the betting pool. Good horsie!

The traditional running of the hounds around the track. No fox. Just hounds and horses:

Chic, petite.

I was stopped at a light in front of the Rachel Jackson building (you can tell the Rachel Jackson building from the Andrew Jackson building, because Andrew Jackson is very tall, and Rachel Jackson is short and squat), when a young black woman crossed the street in front of me. I immediately noticed her shoes, which were black/white zebra striped flats. Adorable! She had her short dreads pulled up, and she was wearing a fitted black shirtdress and carrying a metallic shoulder bag. She looked so casually chic that I was envious.

I got tagged.

Sorta. Une Femme posted a meme which asks me to share six of my unremarkable quirks.

1. I wear hats. Frequently. Like you all didn't know that. ;-)

2. I don't want my party guests to help me clean up after a party. I would prefer that they all just go home and let me clean up my own kitchen in my own way on my own time.

3. I hate flipflops. Hate them. They're both unflattering and cheap as streetwear, and, by wearing them, the wearer essentially says to the whole world, "I either don't know how to dress myself, or I just don't care."

4. I eat one thing at a time on my plate (unless it's rice and beans...those I mix together), usually starting with the foods that will taste worse if they get cold.

5. I don't like tattoos or piercings and will never have one of either. I find something incredibly barbaric in the act of punching a hole in your skin for ornamentation purpose.

6. I have a deal with God. I pray from the time the airplane starts to taxi from the hangar to runway until the airplane lifts off, and He doesn't let the plane crash. :-)

I'm so tired.

I had a hearing go until 10 p.m. last night, after which I had to drive 3 hours to stay in a hotel, so that I could speak at a private college this morning at 9:30 p.m. After speaking for three hours straight, standing the entire time in my fabulous, but not-very-comfortable-after-three-hours Aldo pointy-toed pumps (bought them in Toronto several years ago), I drove 3 1/2 hours back home.

I'm beat.

But I had to post that I wore one of my vintage hats to the hearing last night...a black cellophane straw pillbox. I had on a darling little black suit (fitted jacket with 3/4 sleeves, knee-length trumpet skirt), carried a small black leather purse, and wore my black pointy-toed Aldo pumps. The older ladies in the audience at the hearing were simply enchanted. :-)

My Virtual Derby Hat

These pics are for Jill's Virtual Derby Day.



This is a vintage Mr. John turban that I bought on Ebay several years ago. It served as my Easter hat four Easters back, and the suit I'm wearing was my Easter suit, at the time.

You can see the asymmetrical bow in the back a little better in this pic:



And as is obvious from both pictures, I really need a haircut. :-\

Thursday

I am wearing a new skirt today. No, I did not break my Vow of Frugality. I bought this weeks ago and never wore it. It's very cute...a sheer georgette pleated skirt in a black/gray/maroon leopard print. It falls just below the knee and flutters very prettily when I walk. I added a black knit sleeveless tunic, black patent leather and leather flats, and a vintage 70's pendant. The ensemble looks exactly like something I would have worn in 1972. :-)