Okay, I realize not everyone celebrates Easter – I myself attend my future mother-in-law’s Passover dinner every year – but what I really want to talk about this week is not Easter itself but candy. Ooooh the candy! When I was little we dyed eggs and had an Easter egg hunt, but the highlight was the positively enormous basket of sweet treats the Easter bunny would bestow upon my sister and I. I’m far too old now to be getting a basket, but the Easter bunny (a.k.a. my parents) still get me an obscenely huge amount of chocolate each year, since I always eschewed the jelly beans and other non-chocolate stuff (see above picture as proof – thanks, dad!) So, instead of the usual mishmash of things I liked from this past week, I’m bringing you my candy favorites.
– I’ve already mentioned the amazing (and very pricey, meh) Vosges Mo’s Dark Chocolate Bacon Bar, and the company came out with a special “Bacon and Eggs” set this year. It has 5 dark chocolate eggs containing bacon-infused caramel cream. To die for, although a bit sweeter than the bacon bar.
– My favorite place to shop for chocolate is Ma Petite Shoe in Hampden – they always have the latest and greatest in chocolate. Thanks to that little store, I found these delicious sea salt and dark chocolate bars. There is so much salt the bars are grainy to the touch, but somehow they manage not to be too salty. Mmmm.
– I always come back to good ole’ Cadbury cream eggs. Much as I prefer dark chocolate, these are the ultimate Easter candy which I can never say no to!
– I don’t like to eat Peeps, but boy do I enjoy blowing them up in the microwave. The Washington Post, however, has a much less abusive use for them – each year they challenge readers to make a Peep “diorama”. You can check them out here.
– My husband-to-be is a peanut butter fiend, so his favorite Easter candy involves peanut butter and chocolate. In addition to the traditional Reese’s peanut butter filled eggs, there is now an entire “Reester bunny” – I have to admit we bought him for the hilarious name alone. He was delicious crumbled over peanut butter ice cream. 😉
– Finally, City Girl got me hooked on Lake Champlain chocolate bars a year or two ago. I love all the dark chocolate ones, but my top 2 are the raspberry and mint.
I’m off to have a glass of milk and some of the treats mentioned above (or maybe some of the wonderful Trader Joe’s dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds – another one of my faves.) Feel free to share your favorite candy in the comments section!
Well, not quite…while the end of March is supposed to be gentler than the beginning, we've had some nasty weather here, which is sad considering how lovely it was last week. Oh well. Been kind of a bad week but there were some bright spots, like these:
– Awesome exhibition of Curious George drawings by Margaret and H.A. Rey at the Jewish Museum in New York. I've always loved monkeys so Curious George books were among my favorites when I was little.
– Speaking of monkeys, I was browsing watches at Nordstrom when I stumbled across this little guy. How cute!!
– I was so excited to read this interview with a member of my all-time favorite band. I nearly hyperventilated when I read they might re-form to come out with a record "sometime in the next five years." OMG OMG OMG!!!!
– Thought-provoking post on makeup application as gender performance, via Feministing.
– BellaSugar looks at lipgloss rings. I always find the intersection of makeup and jewelry to be a little gimmicky, but still fun to look at.
What were you digging this week?
YAY!!! Spring has officially sprung! I mean, it really has – the last few days have been sinfully gorgeous, with temperatures in the 60s and 70s and nary a cloud in sight. And I actually saw robins before today, which was great. Here are some things to put the “spring” in your step.
– I’m not really into floral prints, but H & M’s Garden Collection is so cheery!
– I think the thing I love most about spring is that yummy fruits and veggies come back into season. Asparagus seems to arrive first at our farmer’s market when it re-opens after its winter hiatus. This is a great recipe for this stalky vegetable.
– Daylight savings time means lots more light, which is awesome, but it also means more of the sun’s harmful rays. I wear sunscreen day in and day out no matter the time of year but in the spring/summer months it’s especially important to slather it on. I love La Roche Posay’s Anthelios Ultra-Light Fluide SPF 60 for my oily skin.
– You can listen to my “spring anthem” which I play every year on March 20, courtesy of the Beatles. 07 Here Comes The Sun
– Finally, check out this pic my husband-to-be took of the monument – don’t the trees look pretty?!
I’m happy to have made it through another long winter. Happy spring!!
(robin image from cm.nhpr.org)
Things that caught my eye this week…whew, it's been a long one.
– A nice joining of cosmetics and typography.
– This is the perfect spring dress – such a gorgeous ripe cantaloupe color!
– Interesting new book on visitor participation in museums.
– Woohoo! March is National Women's History Month.
– A bit of cosmetics history from BellaSugar and Beautiful with Brains.
– Finally, meet MM's newest staff member, Secret Mission Babo! He procures cookies quickly and stealthily, which is making him very popular with the Museum's Advisory Committee.
Things from around the interwebs I liked this week, along with a delicious treat I found at Whole Paycheck (err, I mean Whole Foods):
– Via ArtDaily I learned that not only is there an entire museum devoted to shoes (!! – the Curator's other passion besides makeup) in Toronto, they currently have a fantastic exhibition on European 16th and 17th-century ladies' footwear. How cool is that?!
– BellaSugar has an interesting quiz on how much cosmetics used to cost. I didn't do so well (I only got 2 out of 5 correct, eek!) but I did learn that Ivory Soap used to cost a mere 5 cents back in 1926.
– Bacon and chocolate? I know it seems weird, but I am totally hooked on these Vosges chocolate bars. I'm very sensitive to caffeine, which is unfortunate for a chocoholic (especially one who loves highly caffeinated dark chocolate) but in this case it works in my favor - I can only eat one or two squares at a time so I'm not awake the whole night, which is good since these bars are expensive! But a necessary luxury.
– The planning for our nuptials is coming along nicely, but I have to say it would have been cool to have our celebration at a doughnut shop.
– A big thanks to Britishbeautyblogger for introducing me to the positively adorable cosmetic bags by Kate Garey.
What were you into this week?
(image from batashoemuseum.ca)
I cannot wait for spring. The massive piles of snow are starting to melt but I want them gone NOW! Besides wanting spring to start, here are some things I've been into this week.
– Karen of Makeup and Beauty Blog shares some great information on Chanel's new Rouge Coco lipsticks, which I can't wait to get my greedy little hands on.
– How gorgeous is this condo in D.C.?
– Lipstick Powder 'n Paint has an interesting post on strange beauty products. Soaps made out of breast milk? No thanks.
– NEED this top from Anthropologie, if not for the name alone – the "curated tee"!! I'll take it red, please.
– I didn't think it was possible, but my love for Kathleen Hanna grew ever stronger after watching this interview with Laura Flanders.
– Loving Bobbi Brown's new Cabana Corals collection, especially the Nectar shimmerbrick.
I had an easy week on account of all the snow here, which I have to say was pretty sweet. Too bad I didn't get more done blogwise, but at least I got a lot of decluttering done – as a beauty addict, I am constantly drowning in samples so I finally had a chance to weed through most of them. Anyway, here's what I'm liking/coveting/generally interested in this week.
– LUSH Magic Mushroom bubble bar – If you like bubble baths this is a must-have, plain and simple. Get it now before it's gone!
– New book on music in the 90s that prominently features the Riot Grrrl movement, a subject that's near and dear to the Curator. Will definitely have to buy!
– Even more exciting, I found out via Slate that there will be an entire book devoted to Riot Grrrl due out in October!
– Finally, along those lines, an online Bikini Kill archive has been created. It says your experience with the band doesn't have to be "fancy" but I do want mine to be compelling, so I'm not sure whether I should contribute…my story isn't all that interesting.
– Another book I would snap up immediately if it wasn't so darn expensive!
– Cool Arshile Gorky exhibit opened this week at the Tate Modern.
– Roundups of amazing Valentine's Day cards from Oh So Beautiful Paper.
Hope everyone had a lovely V-day!
Hold on to your hats, I decided to try a new feature on this blog o'mine to spice things up a bit. Or not. I do know that the other weekly features, Couture Monday and Friday Fun, aren't exactly…well, weekly, so I was hoping to start another feature that I could actually keep up with. (What I didn't know when I started those two is that it gets very difficult to post couture-related cosmetics since there are only 5 or so couture houses that actually have makeup lines, and it's sort of the same with Friday Fun – truly fun or kitschy packaging is a little hard to come by. The only way to have it every single week is to discuss individual items from the same "fun" lines – Benefit, Too-Faced, TheBalm, etc. – over and over again!) Anyway, after some careful consideration I'm going to start a weekly round-up of things that catch my fancy. Surely you want to know a bit about what the Curator is digging this week in addition to beauty items, right? Right?! Well, too bad if you don't since I'm going to do it anyway. You never know, you may end up liking some of these things yourself!
Here goes:
– My new food obsession: Trader Joe's
dark chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds. Two of my very favorite
foods brought together at last! I've convinced myself they're a health
food since as we all know pomegranate seeds and dark chocolate are
chock full of antioxidants.
- Great tutorial on washing brushes from Makeup Minute.
– Awesome blog I stumbled across while researching something for a museum inquiry (yes, I actually got one!)
– Who else wants to see Shutter Island?
– Loving Stila Pomegranate Crush lip and cheek stain.
– Oh, if only I had $1k to burn. These Louboutins are the hottest sandals I've seen in a while.
– Excellent summary of cosmetics in ancient Egypt from Beauty With Brains.
– In honor of the Superbowl: a friendly wager between the directors of the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art.
– It was a snowpocalypse here in B'more! Here are some pics.
This poor little tree split right in half under the weight of the snow:
Someone built a snowman to keep the statue company:
I loved walking right smack dab in the middle of the normally-bustling Charles St.:
Feel free to post any comments or opinions below! 🙂