Make a soup.

I've been craving a hearty Clam Chowder lately and I think I found a forever recipe.

Make this in your dutch oven. It doesn't have to be a Le Cruiset. Thick metals will make the flavor incredible.

Don't underestimate the power of fresh herbs.

This is the recipe I leapt off from.

-6 slices of bacon

-A small onion (I used a red onion) chopped

-6-8 small potatoes (I used red) cubed

-1 1/2 cups of water

-1 cup of half & half

-Milk to get to your preferred consistency

-1 1/2 teaspoon salt (I almost always use more)

-pepper to taste

-2 cans (10 oz) clams

Optional: Chopped parsley, red wine vinegar, and a tablespoon of Greek yogurt.

Directions: Wash and cube potatoes and add to salted, boiling water. When fork tender, drain and set aside.

Cook bacon on stove-top till extra crispy. Set bacon aside to drain on paper towels and pour remaining grease into your dutch oven with a medium-low heat setting. Add onions when grease is hot and onions sizzle.

Stir until fragrant and losing color.

Add your potatoes and mash them with a spatula or wooden spoon until the pieces look deliciously consumable.

Add clam juice to the potato and onion, keeping the clams aside for last (they'll get chewy if you heat them too long).

Mix well and gradually add water, milk, and cream. Be sure to keep your flame low. DO NOT LET THIS SOUP BOIL. Keep stirring.

Chop bacon into tiny delectable pieces and put whatever you've managed not to eat into your soup.

Add clams.

If your soup is too thin for your liking, thicken it up a bit with about a tablespoon of cornstarch and water (mixed prior).

Add your salt and pepper to that gorgeous, steaming pot of calories and marvel at your amazing chef skills. If you're feeling up to it, add a bit of that red wine vinegar (go easy- this stuff can overpower if you're too generous).

Topping off with parsley will ensure a pretty picture.

Enjoy.

Happy New Years Eve

I did a guest post for Anne Kristine's blog 11.54 for the new year.

Just a little collection of things I put together to get into the spirit of celebration.

I'll be watching movies tonight and quietly bring in the new year with a beer or two. I've decided to make a list of easily attainable goals like to recycle more often and to relax a little more.

This song is pretty much perfect for today.

Pinned

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

I'm in an organizing mood. Everything in its right place.

Christmas Eve

Thanks for the incredible gifts and lunch, Grace. You made my Christmas extra-special with your visit.

Christmas Morning

This may have been the most perfect one yet.

It wasn't a white Christmas, but it was very blue and bright.

Christmas Loot

This is my fourth Christmas with Trent and my third in this house and it's been different each time.

This year we set a budget and gave each other free reign to buy whatever we felt we wanted or needed. For myself, I kept in my mind my love for movies, art projects to keep me preoccupied during the oncoming snowy winter, and some new additions to my wardrobe.

The ceramic to-go mug was an incredible surprise from Trent. I've been wanting one for such a long time, and this particular one is so beautifully designed and crafted. Perfect for morning commutes.

The only thing Trent really asked for this year was a new computer monitor for the kitchen, which made it very easy for me to shop for him. We now have not one, but two computer monitors on our desktop. Blogs in high definition? Worth. Every. Penny.

The laptop was also a gift for ourselves for Christmas, bought during the Black Friday madness at a discounted price.

The leather card-holder was a gift made by my friend Grace, who lives in San Francisco. Amazing incentive for me to have some business cards made someday.

I love documenting my favorites after Christmas so that I can come back and remember. We have a tendency to forget so quickly how blessed we are.

Merry post-Christmas everyone. I hope you got everything you needed and then some.

Analog

I keep having these moments where I'll go into the kitchen for an orange or to make a cup of tea and I end up cleaning something out. I know my mom used to do things like this- which makes me sort of terrified that I'm turning into her. I'm joking, of course. Sort of.

Our apartment is pretty tiny, but extremely efficient with storage. It has the ability to look like no one lives there when everything is in its right place- which is exactly how I want it to be. I'm a wannabe-minimalist with a lot of (hidden) stuff.

Anyway- I pulled everything out of the cabinets above our computer and spent a whole day going through hoards of notebooks (I've started and abandoned what feels like hundreds of notebooks) and a lot of fun things I've cut out of magazines over the last few years. The above notebook is actually my current sketch book and diary- so it's filled with a lot non-sense and angsty stories about feeling lonely or creatively constipated. Putting something fun in the pages make my trips down memory lane a little less... depressing.

I love looking at others' inspiration boards, and particularly when they're in a personal setting, but I feel like I'm seeing less of those lately. Pinterest has become so completely overwhelming with the best of everything, and I've started to find myself scrolling with eyes glazed over. Has this been happening to anyone else?

There's this overwhelming feeling to break free and go analog. There's just nothing like a pair of scissors and a glue stick on the couch with Netflix going, am I right?

Paper and Twine

Trent and I woke up super early this Saturday morning (9:30 on a Saturday is unthinkable for us!) to go to a free movie screening of Tintin, which we've had planned for weeks. We're obviously newbies at this, because we didn't have the foresite to arrive early enough to get in! They were completely full, and we left disappointed. The upside of this story is that because we were already awake, we got more errands done in four hours than we have in four weekends. We did the last of our important Christmas shopping, bought the last of our gift supplies, and got to work wrapping and packing so we could make it to the post office in time, which was so crowded I nearly forfeited.

I can proudly say that all the gifts are now on their way to their destinations with time to spare before Christmas. I couldn't be prouder.

Also- we finally made a trip into a quaint little bakery at the end of our street that we drive past every single day and have not- in the three years we've lived here- ever gone inside (this is beyond me). Probably a good thing too- because they have the most delectable donuts and pastries I've ever tasted. One of each, please.

Mid-December

Christmas is ten days away and it feels a month away. Maybe it's the lack of snow.

My to-do list is filled with things like packing cookies and candies into sparkly take-out boxes, cutting and pasting photographs, shopping, and wrapping piles and piles of Amazon boxes. A few things are still on their way in the mail. Waking up to packages on the porch is the equivalent of Christmas morning magic to me.

The past few weekends have been so filled with movies.

-Midnight in Paris (my second time in the theater and I can't recommend it enough)

-Bill Cunningham New York (A purer soul never lived)

-Last Night (Three stars. The ending completely ruined it for me, but the film was crazy gorgeous.)

-180° South (This one made me cry it was so beautiful)

-Broken English (Love Parker Posey in this)

Things of note: The sunsets in my city have been breath-taking this month. That one was taken from a moving car on the freeway.

Keeping hands warm with hot mugs of green tea.

Frosted windows and an extra cuddly cat (I suspect the cold is to blame)-- and four o'clock in the afternoon Sunday pancakes, a first of many batches by my lover. (From Martha's recipe.)

Dark Blue

The best thing is when you find someone with inspirational style- and you realize that all of the clothes consist of layered basics worn so perfectly you wonder if she's not wearing something extra special. I could not, could not pick just a few favorites.

The entire album, named Dark Blue, is just so inspiring.

Via Vanessa's pinboard.

Felted kitty vessel

Hand-felted wool cat bed by Vaivanat. Love.

A Collage

I spent my Sunday on the couch with a cup of tea and Bill Cunningham New York, which was so, so incredibly inspiring. What a cool dude. It prompted me to do a digital collage of some of my favorite Pinterest images from the past few weeks.

1. Apologies for no source // 2. 3191 Miles Apart 3. // Vintage Knitting 4. // Walt Whitman // 5. Audrey Hepburn in How To Steal a Million // 6. The Selby // 7. The Streetstyle, originally from Zara // 8. No Source // 9. Branch Candelabra From Apartment Therapy

A story about our first Christmas tree

Neither Trent nor I had ever bought a Christmas tree before now.

This amazing, skinny little thing that a burly young man will strap onto the top of your car with a ball of twine he keeps in his pocket.

A mixed cluster of gentlemen sit with hands extended towards an industrial-sized heater glowing orange and a sign with various prices and state taxes looms above. A poster advertising that tips are "greatly appreciated" is tacked to the side of a running motor home.

We make small talk about the tree farm in Montana where they're from, and he makes a joke about his long commute.

At home, I watch A Christmas Story while I wrangle lengths of lights awkwardly around thin branches. In a terrible moment of misjudgment, I cut off the towery tip. As soon as I do it, I realize that the top was the whole reason why I loved it in the first place.

It's now in our living room in a tight spot where we swore there couldn't possibly be enough room. It drinks a lot of water and it makes my home smell like a pine forest.

Cold Visuals

Darling Bonnie Barton from Flashes of Style // Jessica, on It's My Darlin'

Rachel and David's Apartment Therapy House Tour

Masala Chai latte from Yummy Suppers (this is such a beautiful blog) // Pine Cone from Wit+Delight tumblr.