Black Friday

I know, I know, this is almost a week late, but I've been really busy!

I had such a blast on Black Friday. My mum and I go every year, but this time my boyfriend decided to join us for his first Black Friday experience! We decided not to go out at midnight as we were absolutely knackered, and instead we slept and then went out at 3:30. We headed straight to Macy's first. It was pretty empty in there which was nice. Damien bought me silver Nine West little hoop earrings for Christmas and my mum bought some stuff for my Grandma. Afterwards we went to Gap, where we found nothing, and quickly cabbed it to the Urban Outfitters on 6th and 14th for the 5 AM opening. We got there just in time and headed in with the mad rush. I came away with about 5 bags, two shirts, t-shirts for Damien and a whole load of presents for my friends (so cheap!). After this we continued on to Anthropologie, Forever 21, H&M, Joe Fresh and Best Buy (I got Away We Go on DVD for 99 cent!). We stopped at 8 AM for a breakfast at The Coffee Shop, one of my favorite restaurants in Manhattan. Before heading home though, we went for one last stop in Sephora, and I ended up spending all of the gift cards I have been saving us since 9th grade on new make-up! I was exhausted when I got home, but I had so much fun.

Here is some of the stuff I bought:

(Sorry for the terrible quality, per usual. My camera is broken, but the Canon 7D will be here for Christmas!!)

A British Thanksgiving

My family never knows what to do on Thanksgiving. We always feel that we should have a turkey, but none of us ever want one; British people eat turkey for Christmas so it always seems, just, wrong, I suppose, when we have it twice in the course of one month.

This year we invited over my boyfriend Damien and his mother Leslie. This complicated things even more since Leslie is a vegetarian and Damien is not a big fan of meat, vegetables, seafood, and a whole host of other things (love him though anyways!)

After hours of formulating various meal plans, discarding them, starting new ones, and finally, food shopping (Trader Joe's and Whole Foods!) we finally decided on our meal plan.

hors d'oeuvre

• Trader Joe's cheesy tortilla chips with mild salsa
• Mini toasts with giant bean spread and sundried tomatoes

first course

• homemade asparagus soup (just asparagus, onions, garlic, carrots, celery and either chicken/vegetable stock, and then pureed... honestly one of my favorite things my mum makes)
• challah bread

second course

• penne alla vodka
• healthy potato salad (new/baby potatoes, nonfat sour cream, low-fat mayo, scallions)
• simple mixed greens with a homemade dijon-honey dressing
• insalata caprese

third course

• crab legs
• fresh shrimp

dessert

• moist chocolate cake (see recipe below)
• apple pie
• creamy gorgonzola and brie with Carrs crackers

Obviously, we did not eat all of it, it was a more like a take-a-little-bit-of-this-and-a-little-bit-of-that kind of deals. Everything was delicious though!

After eating we watched True Grit. I was reluctant to enjoy it, but I actually kind of did!

As for what I wore, I wore a Quail dress, Silence & Noise sequined sweater, Calvin Klein tights, Jeffrey Campbell wedges.

A Little Bit of Failure Then A Lot of Success...

So I tried making a chocolate cake today. It was a pretty standard, basic chocolate cake recipe, and not at all hard to make. However, the middle never rose, my mum split it in two whilst trying to get it out the band, and it tasted like absolute shit--salty shit, to be exact.

After much debate with my family as to make a new chocolate cake or to buy one, we decided to make a new one out of one of my mum's recipe books, Jane Pettigrew's Tea Time: A Complete Collection of Traditional Recipes. Mhmm, very British!

We chose to make the Moist Chocolate Cake, sounded simple enough. We made a few changes and almost forgot to add in the chocolate (yeah, we're not fantastic bakers in this house), but it came out lovely!

So here's Jane Pettigrew's recipe, with a few little changes ;):

(Oh, and FYI, you have to measure everything out with a scale. Yeah, it's a little old fashioned, but what do you expect from a woman named Jane Pettigrew)

• 100g/4 oz semi-sweet plain chocolate
• 150g/5 oz butter (softened), plus ~2tbsp to grease the pan
• 150g sugar (I used brown)
• 3 medium eggs
• 15 ml/1tbsp milk (I used 2%)
• 225g/8oz self-raising flour, sifted
• Pinch of salt

For icing:

• I used Milk Chocolate Duncan Hines icing because I'm lazy, and these cute cocoa balls from Trader Joe's
• I guess you could make your own though... If you're not lazy like me.

1. Heat the oven to 350F and grease and line 2 x 18 cm (7 in) round cake tin
2. Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water
3. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
4. Beat the eggs in, one at a time
5. Stir the milk into the melted chocolate and add to mixture, beat thoroughly
6. Using a spoon, fold in the flour and salt, mix well
7. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 35-40 minutes until firm and well risen
8. Remove from over and cool in tins for 15 minutes before turning out on to a wire rack to cool completely
9. Ice it once cooled

Snakeskin

I am loving this new snakeskin trend I am starting to see. I feel that a lot of people are not so into it, as a lot of the snakeskin I'm seeing is in the sale. However, I am, and I absolutely love these boots. So more snakeskin for me!!

sweater- H&M, skirt- Ikram, tights- Calvin Klein, Boots- Deena & Ozzy.

California!

I love California, seriously, love it! People often find it surprising that I love California so much as I am rarely described as relaxed, hate/fear the beach and tend to wear black all the time.

The summer of 2009 I spent a majority of it living in California with my family due to work my father was doing out there. I haven't been back since then but I knew, because of that summer, my favorite places I need to hit up this time around!

My Dad and I arrived in LAX at 11AM on Thursday morning, picked up a car at Dollar Car Rental and then drove off to Melrose Ave. My Dad met some friends at a cafe nearby whilst I went shopping. I went into American Vintage, Japanese Pop, Wasteland, Crossroads and a few small independent boutiques. I absolutely love Melrose. At Crossroads Trading Co. I bought a pair of Current/Elliot jeans for $22.50 that had originally been $250 (unworn, tags still on), an Alexander McQueen shirt that was $11, and a J Park white button down ($22.50) and the buttons are off kilter and absolutely fantastic. I really liked Wasteland too and it was my first time in there but I couldn't stay long because I had to eat lunch before meeting up with my Dad. I did manage to sneak into the Japanese Pop shop and buy a Santa Hello Kitty ornament! I ate at a place called Kamin Thai and it was super fast and super tasty. I ordered the Baby Corn with tofu lunch special which came with a side of brown rice and a little salad with crispy wontons and a chili viniagerette.

After meeting back up with my Dad we drove out to Claremont and he dropped me off for my overnight at Pitzer. I went to a fantastic show whilst there and you should totally check out one of the bands, Galanis.The Pitzer campus is ultra modern, environmentally friendly and beautiful.

In the morning my Dad and I met back up, did some college shit, toured Pitzer, I had a (surprisingly) fun interview, and then we headed to one of my favorite places on earth, Santa Monica. Again, my Dad met up with a friend and left me to shop! Woo-hoo! I started off at Ye Olde Kings Head a brilliant store/pub that sells yummy British goodies for a very reasonable price. Afterwards I went to Brandy Melville (a store that Amelia had previously told me about as one has just opened in SoHo) and bought the cutest pair of dark grey frayed super short shorts and a pink oversized sweater with big skulls on it. I'll definitely be visiting the one in SoHo to get more goodies. I also went to Urban Outfitters, XXII, Kitson and Crossroads. When my Dad and I met up we headed to a restaurant in the new outdoor mall in Santa Monica (it's so cool!) called Ozumu. The service was shit, the food was pretty tasty (I had 2pc salmon sashimi, 2pc yellowfin tuna sashimi, 2pc shrimp sashimi, a miso soup and a bite of my father's blackened miso cod and a few of his udon noodles) and the bathrooms were OUTRAGEOUS (darn, I should have taken a photo- there was a sliding door that looks like a mirror until you walk at it...it is so cool). Aftweards we headed to Pasadena and checked into our hotel.

In the morning it was one last college visit and then off to the airport! Bye bye Los Angeles.

It was a fun weekend. I don't know if I'm ready to go all the way to college in California as that is sort of a big deal (...to say the least), but I am really considering it! I love it out there!

Superfly-Group M-Life is Good Party

Last Tuesday I attended a party hosted by Superfly, Group M and Life is Good. My Dad works for Group M, so basically it was me and a bunch of industry people, but it was really fun regardless. There was a bar set up in the lobby, delicious food provided by the Brindle Room (mini sliders, caramel fried sticky donuts, potato chips covered in beef and cheese...) and even an auction (guitar signed by My Morning Jacket, VIP tickets to Life is Good Festival and Bonnaroo, signed posters and even more of the like). My father began the speeches for the night and concluded by inviting up Rich Goodman, creator of Superfly and Bonnaroo, to make his speech. Rich Goodman spoke in depth about his creation of Bonnaroo and the new Prospect Park Festival that will debut Summer 2012 (can't wait!) After Rich, the creator of Life is Good, Bert Jacobs, spoke about his life, the start of Life is Good, their mission, and collaborating with Superfly to create the Life is Good festival. Everyone who spoke--even my Daddy!--was really interesting. My Dad won the Life is Good VIP passes too which is cool. Money was collected at the door and through the auction and all that money goes to Life is Good, which is fantastic!

(Oh and I was also hired as a photographer for the night)

After all the speeches, this killer band, Oberhoffer, played. Seriously check them out because they're really great and I think they're going to be huge!

Anyway, I'm off to California at 5AM so, I think it's time I sleep.

A little bit late... HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Life is so busy. I can't wait until second semester when hopefully my life will start to slow down a little!

Halloween was fun. On Monday my boyfriend, Damien, and I dressed up as characters from The Walking Dead: He dressed up as Rick Grimes (although the hat did not fit his head, so the costume was not as obvious) and I dressed up as a zombie. It was pretty fantastic to say the least. Monday night we went trick or treating with my friend's Hannah and Amelia and surprisingly, although we're all almost eighteen, no one denied us candy! Woo-hoo! In fact people actually took photos of my costume ;). I was proud since the make up took me 5 minutes in the school bathroom...

And yes I made that stylish shirt all by myself too, whilst watching The Walking Dead ;)!

Now that I've updated you all, I must go and study for my math test tomorrow, yuck!