Walking Disasters.

As I sit here struggling to type this blog with only one hand. I'm contemplating how on earth I became one of 'those' people...you know, the ones that are always losing things, running late and injuring themselves. Walking disaster is another way to describe such individuals. Well, it would seem somewhere along the line I joined the ranks of all the others.

My latest disaster is a muscle strain injury to my right arm. For several days (through my own stupidity) I dismissed the pain stemming from this bruise as being 'no big deal'...

As it turns out, I've severely strained the muscles in my arm and wrist. I cannot drive or carry heavy things...and by heavy I really mean anything because even holding my iPhone hurts. I now realise most normal people would not ignore a bruise that looks THAT bad. Everyone who has seen it has been baffled as to why I didn't see a doctor sooner. In fact, I'm wondering that myself...So now, here I am, with an arm that resembles an encased sausage of sorts.

The only plus to come out of the situation is that I have been able to justify taking time off from uni to "rest" (read: catch up on episodes of Boardwalk Empire). Hope you're all having a better week than me!

Cake Boss and Cannoli.

On another food related note, one of my favourite shows at the moment is Cake Boss. The show follows the crew at Carlo's Bakery located in the heart of Hoboken, New Jersey. Let me just say, these guys are amazing. They make some pretty phenomenal looking cakes, to suit any requested theme. On the whole, the show not only showcases their amazing talents in the cake/baking department, but is generally entertaining following their (often hilarious) family dramas.

The bakery is apparently renowned for their cannoli, and so without fail every time I watch this show I think of cannoli and then crave cannoli. To satisfy my latest cannoli craving, my sister and dad kindly offered to drive out to one of my favourite little Italian patisseries to get me some of the best tasting cannoli in Sydney. The place is Pasticerria Papa and all their desserts are divine! In fact, they are famous throughout Sydney for their Ricotta Cake, which is indescribably delicious.

After 2 hours stuck in ridiculous amounts of traffic, they finally got there. My sister was worried that they might have run out of cannoli, as the place gets extremely busy on weekends (where the line is out the door) and by lunchtime most desserts are no longer available. Thankfully, they were able to get cannoli - both vanilla and chocolate - and some of slices of our favourite Pecan Pie.

Yum!

Mini Potatoes.

So a couple of weeks ago I started watching Nigella Lawson's new show Kitchen. It's no secret that I'm not a big fan and don't quite buy into this "Nigella - the Domestic Goddess" business. My sister on the other hand doesn't mind her and actually ordered her latest cookbook - aptly named Kitchen after the new series.

The main reason I'm not drawn to Nigella's brand of 'cooking' is that she has a tendency to use a lot of pre-prepared/out-of-the-packet food. I prefer to cook from scratch whenever I can (and therefore admire people like Ina Garten who encourage this way of cooking and show how easy it can be). Nigella also has a tendency to over narrate when showcasing her recipes, which I find irritating and mildly pretentious.

However, I must concede that on occasion, Nigella offers up some interesting and surprisingly decent recipes. For instance, I do enjoy her recipe for Chocolate Pear Pudding (available here). It lives up to her claim that it is quick, easy and delicious.

More recently from this new series Kitchen, Nigella promised us a quick, easy side dish of "mini potatoes". What are mini-potatoes I wondered? I had never seen such a product in grocery stores. And then she revealed that these mythical mini-potatoes were in fact a packet of store bought "potato gnocchi" fried in pan. My sister, fascinated by the whole thing, ended up at the store buying a packet of gnocchi to see if was any good.

Turns out this is a superbly delicious way to serve up and eat potato gnocchi (and they're pretty addictive... once you eat one it's kind of hard to stop). So, I must concede - despite the initial bizarreness behind this Nigella "recipe" it isn't half bad and is certainly a different way to present potato gnocchi as a side dish.

Surprising deliciousness aside, what does strike me as odd is that this counts as a recipe and gets a whole page in the cookbook. It may be a twist or a useful tip, but does placing gnocchi into a frying pan with some oil and salt really require a recipe? So here I am, back to being thoroughly unimpressed by Nigella's unique style of "cooking".

NB: On a slightly unrelated note, the post on my attempts at making a traditional Thanksgiving meal is on its way...soon! :)

The best part of online shopping...

...is receiving the order early on a miserable Monday morning. As you can imagine, I was ecstatic to receive my most recent order of books, CDs and DVDs.

I FINALLY have a copy of Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare.

It is the follow-up series (or rather a prequel series) to the New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments series. I love, love, love this series and am constantly recommending it to everyone as a good read (and once again I must thank my friend S for introducing me to the series, so thanks S!!). While it has the elements of vampires and werewolves that are quite typical of the fantasy genre in young adult fiction at the moment, it is a very well-written series that draws you in. In fact I was so captivated by the series that when S lent me the series I didn't leave my room for 2 whole days because I just had to finish the series. Needless to say, I absolutely cannot wait for the weekend so I can read Clockwork Angel.

Also in the parcel was the Season 4 boxset of Psych.

My sister and I love this show, I remember we began watching it way back when Channel 10 put on a couple of episodes one summer. Unfortunately it didn't get the ratings in Australia and was soon after taken off air. In the US however Psych is much loved and has recently been renewed for a 6th season. I can understand why the show may not be to everyone's tastes, especially with a multitude the crime shows on tv, but more particularly because of the fact that the show's fast-paced (sometimes crazy) humour has it's roots in pop culture references that some people may just not get.

On the CD front I FINALLY got around to ordering a copy of Glee Vol. 3 Showstoppers...

...And there was a copy of American Dreams: The Original Soundtrack.

It's no secret that I love all things 1960s, but it was particularly the tv series American Dreams that really got me interested in the popular culture of the '60s (and finally after many years I managed to track down a copy of the soundtrack!). Although at times historically inaccurate the series chronicled the major historical events of the decade while following the life of a typical middle-class American family. What I really loved about the show was how it re-created and depicted the popular '60s show American Bandstand and as such had an array of famous modern day musicians cover the chart-topping songs of much-loved '60s bands.

Well, I'm off to order me some more books (I really wasn't lying when I said I love books) especially with the Aussie dollar currently doing so well. Happy Monday all!

Emmys.

It's no secret that I love, love, love award shows. Whether it be the Emmys, Tonys, or Oscars I will sit there year after year, watching religiously. I love all the glitz and glamour of the red carpet - the beautiful gowns and sparkly jewels - as well as the ceremony itself...the hosts, presenters, performances and best of all the speeches. I love how heartfelt and sincere the speeches can be, making you feel the genuine joy, excitement and shock of the winner. I also love waiting for the music to kick in, signaling for the winner to wrap up their speech - and it always, and I mean ALWAYS leads to them getting flustered. And I'll admit that this occurrence is sometimes hilarious to watch.

Today I tried to resist the allure of awards shows in order to study for a test, but alas it was not to be. Instead I curled up on the couch and watched the ceremony, switching to E!'s Red Carpet coverage whenever I got the chance. Mad Men and Modern Family walked away with the top Emmy honors of the night. This makes me super happy as I love Modern Family, it being one of my favourite shows of the moment.

On the fashion front, this year it seemed that navy blue was the popular colour of choice for attendees. Now, I'm not particularly a fan of blue (navy or otherwise) but after seeing some absolutely gorgeous navy gowns I may just be a convert. That's not to say, of course, that there weren't gowns that completely missed the mark.

Some of my favourite looks of the night were:

(Image Source: people.com - Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty images)

Dianna Agron (from Glee) wore this beautiful tiered Carolina Herrera gown. I'm not sure what it is about this dress, but I LOVE it. I think it may be how the lace-overlay contrasts with the black... it is simply stunning. In my eyes Carolina Herrera's gowns are almost always perfect. The dress was accompanied by Cartier jewels. Let me just say, you can NEVER go wrong with Cartier!!

(Source: au.eonline.com - Credit: Jason Merrit/Getty Images)

The second look that I absolutely adore is this delicate Dior dress worn by the ever-stylish Emily Blunt. While the dress exudes a simplicity that makes it all the more beautiful, for me it was the elegant Lorraine Schwartz Diamond Flower Pin (see picture below) that caught my attention, and made me love this look.

(Source: people.com - Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

The pin has an air of old Hollywood glamour to it. I love jewel hair pins (and brooches), and have several of my own. It's just a pity that I have very little opportunity to wear them...in addition to the fact that I chopped my locks of into a short, sharp bob.

(Source: people.com - Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

And my third and final favourite look was that of Glee star, Lea Michele. She wore a gown from one of my absolute favourite designers in the entire universe, Oscar de la Renta. Being that I'm a fan of his work it was almost guaranteed that I was going to love this dress. The gown went with the navy blue trend, and the sweetheart neckline and ruching of the bodice is simply stunning. The look is absolutely made by the Lorraine Schwartz jewels, which I think complement the gown perfectly! Move aside Neil Lane, I think that Lorraine Schwartz may be my new favourite jewellry designer.

Pretty Little Liars

This is currently a worldwide trending topic on twitter, so I thought I'd write a post about it, since I too absolutely love watching Pretty Little Liars atm.

Pretty Little Liars is a television series that recently premiered in the US. But before that, it was (or rather still is) a young adult fiction series of books written by Sara Shepard. The story centres around four girls who lose their best friend (and 'leader') Allison one summer, tearing their "tight-knit" group apart. Three years later, the girls begin receiving mysterious messages from someone called "A". This leads to a series of events which reveal deep, dark secrets that they believed had disappeared with Allison, and finds them in the path of danger as they come together to get to the bottom of the mystery that is "A".

I cannot remember how I came to first read Pretty Little Liars a couple of years ago, but once I did I was hooked. Sending me on a ruthless quest to track down all the novels in the series - since, rather unfortunately, only books 1-4 (and possibly now 5) are available in Australian bookstores. The series strikes a good balance of mystery and intrigue, and most certainly keeps you guessing whodunnit right until the final book (at least, I never could have guessed how it would end). What else I love about the series, is that these four young characters are stylish and fashion-forward, which translates very well in the television series. I definitely recommend the series for some light reading (my sister F, ever the book snob, even managed to enjoy reading them!)...or for the less patient check out the television show!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Let's start with the good...

This is my new Longchamp handbag from the Le Pliage range. I acquired it yesterday, and I'm absolutely in love with it! While this bag has never been at the top of my must-have list, I have on occasion admired their practicality. It is made from nylon and leather, and folds out making it both cute AND compact.

It can be used as a handbag, a shopping bag, a travel tote...or in my case a bag to cart around my seemingly infinite number of books at University.

Now there is a story behind my bag. It all began with a gift of leather gloves that I was given for my birthday. Now I really do appreciate the generosity of the gift-giver but in all practicality the gloves would never have been worn (and while I love luxury items, in this case the fact that they were $145 gloves kind of alarmed me...plus they didn't fit) so I exchanged them for this fabulous bag. While I do feel a twinge of guilt about doing so, I do not regret it one bit.

Now to the bad...

Today has been a rather miserable day. I spent the majority of it returning to my second job, working at a bookstore. To sum it up my legs, feet and back ache more than they ever have (okay, well maybe not ever but the most they have in a very long time). I had forgotten how painful carting textbooks (and I'm talking 500+ page business and law textbooks) around the shop could be. While I love books I DO NOT love textbooks. It definitely makes me appreciate my theatre job.

And now the ugly...

For the past hour I've been recovering from the disgust and shock I experienced watching Jamie's Food Revolution - USA. In this series the lovely Jamie Oliver is attempting to make Americans see the error of their ways in consuming copious amounts of processed, fatty foods. The amount of fat the parents are putting into not only their own bodies, but that of their children was truly sickening. To make it worse they accept and think it's fine.

The saddest part of all was that the young children are oblivious to all things vegetables. They didn't know that their beloved fries were from potatoes, or how to use a fork and knife!!

I was sitting in front of the television gripping the remote in disbelief. It sure makes me appreciate the healthy lifestyle and values instilled in me by my parents from a young age.