:type travel tuesday: {the elite, waco}

Brandon and I ate at "The Elite Circle Grille" for Valentines Day. The food was alright but the story and signage are pretty cool. The restaurant was frequented by Elvis in the late 50s when he was stationed at Fort Hood, and it's situated on one of the first (and "famous") "traffic circles" in the US, which is right near our house in Waco.

"The Circle" in the 40s (maybe).

The Elite Cafe in 1941.

elitecirclegrill.com

:type travel tuesday: {BD window, paris}

Window shopping in le quartier latin, Paris we found a BD!

Happy Birthday babe!!!

the wind in the willows

We just finished reading "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame in book group. It's a really fun ever-so-English story of the adventures of four proper little animals, which reminded me so much of life river-side in the English country-side.

The illustrations by E. H. Shepard are beautiful and perfectly capture the characters and feel of the stories. I love them.

sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

before & after: jewelry box

I've been looking for a flat-file slash apothecary-esque jewelry box with long shallow drawers for years. This one is rather small and needed a face-lift but it is otherwise what I've been wanting.

Here are the before and after's of the refinishing I did on it. I painted it, replaced the knobs, and covered the inside of the drawers in fabric.

Now I just need to fill it with jewelry!

g & g dahm visit

Grandma and Grandpa Dahm came for a visit this Wednesday on their way down to the Gulf Coast for a winter getaway. We had a great time spending some one-on-one (or two-on-two, I guess) time with them! We had some good 'ol Texas BBQ, explored Baylor and Waco and enjoyed the perfect day  in the high 70s.




Thanks for visiting!!!

type detective

I recently saw the trailer for the new Wes Anderson movie "Moonlight Kingdom." It looks campy (literally and stylistically) and interesting as ever. The most striking thing to me, however, was the beautiful type that had a starring role. 

After a small bit of investigation I learned that (not surprisingly) the type is hand-lettered by the ever-talented-and-amazing Jessica Hische. She also happens to be a design-crush of mine. You've probably seen her work without realizing it. And appropriately for Valentine's Day, she designed the romantic 2012 LOVE stamp.

:type travel tuesday: {le plomb du cantal, paris}

A romantic script from the city of love, for a Happy Valentine's Day!

Le Plomb du Cantal - 14ème arrondissement - Paris

tea for two

I am in LOVE with this clip of Anita O'Day from "Jazz on a Summer's Day," which Brandon discovered last year. Especially the song, TEA FOR TWO.

It's so awesome to hear this classy dame sing her lungs out and also to people watch. It's like a little window to peek through into 1957, unscripted and un-styled. I wish everyone still dressed like that at the fair.

Watch the whole thing if you have time.

BUT, if you skip ahead to 4:30 you can hear the song "tea for two," which is insanely good. Home girl can SKAT!

Jazz on a Summer's Day, is streaming on Netflix. It's really good for background music slash occasional-glance-viewing.

everlasting pumpkin

We've had this pumpkin by our front door since before Halloween. The thing hasn't aged A DAY. It's still hard and orange and happily promoting a season come-and-gone. I suppose I should get rid of it, now that it's practically spring, but I just can't bring myself to it. He's just thriving so far past his lifespan and I'm curious to see how long he will last.

Approximately 3.5 months and counting...

:type travel tuesday: {gare du nord, paris}

A classic-yet-modernized train station flip board in Gare Du Nord, Paris. and here's a video of the action!


 

....which was the context to our joyful reunion with Dan and Meg after months and months of being away! They encountered much trouble getting to us because of the VOLCANO in iceland but finally made it two days late, and we were re-united in Paris!!! We greeted them with hugs and tears and their FIRST pain au chocolat!

interactive illusion

I saw this on Black Eiffel yesterday and thought it was SO COOL! It's an art installation consisting of the facade of a building which is on the ground and an adjacent mirror reflects the illusion that you're crawling all over and hanging from it. I want to go! and not just because it's in Paris.

By Leandro Erlich, on display at Le 104, Paris.

Here's a video about it too.

more winter, please

Happy Groundhog Day.

Punxsutawney Phil predicts six more weeks of winter! If THIS has been winter...bring it on!




A snapshot of today's events by.....
Meghan:


















by Dan: (drawn on his chocolate touch cell phone!)

and by me:

(image source)

culinary quest: chicken dumpling soup

Over Christmas break we had dinner at the quaint and fabulous Amboy Cottage Café, which is owned and run by one of my mom's childhood friends, Lisa. I highly recommend it if you're ever in South-central Minnesota.

She has amazing food which changes all the time. This visit included a hearty and intensely flavorful Chicken Dumpling Soup which she adorably served in a teacup. I really wanted to try recreating it at home.

I made homemade and hearty chicken stock and added veggies and dumplings to it. It was delicious. I cooked the dumplings in the soup which made the broth thicken up a lot. I liked that but I think I will try to cook them separately next time to keep it more true-to-the-original.

Here is my attempt: