Serendipitous sangria

We had a fabulous weekend-- with some lovely friends, yummy food and a little bit of serendipity. It started on Thursday when we accidentally bought this box of wine from Target. We meant to buy the cab-shiraz blend, but mistakingly bought this:


As you can see, it says "red table wine." It was pretty much terrible.

You might be thinking, wait-- didn't you join the Zagat wine club? Yes-- we totally did. But the brilliant thing about wine in a box is that you can have just one glass with dinner without having to polish off the whole bottle--better for the diet, better for building our lil wine collection. Wine in a box also keeps remarkably well-- something about the air-suction system (a technical term).

So, Nathan had the spectacular idea to make the crappy, overly-sweet red table wine into lovely sangria!
Here's what we (Nathan) did:
1. Put all the wine into a large container.

2. For each bottle, 3 tbl of sugar, 1/8 cup triple sec and 1/8 cup amaretto (or dark rum or brandy). Mix well!





3. Slice up lots of yummy fruit-- including strawberries, citrus fruit (we used oranges and lemons), peaches/nectarines and plums. The plums are very important.






4. Let it sit in the fridge for about 24 hours. Remove the fruit. Pour over ice to fill 3/4 of a glass. Add a bit of lime juice and top with club soda to make it bubbly. Delish!



P.S. This was another great chance for me to practice with a 55mm prime lens. I think I'm in love.

Monday Dose of Cuteness, vol. 14

For a while, Nathan and I went through this phase where we watched America's Funniest Home Videos (which I think is now called America's Funniest Videos? Eh.) For the record, this phase took place in the last five years-- not in the late eighties.

The show is still pretty hilarious, except for all the painful videos, of course. Those aren't funny. They're just painful. (With the rare exception of videos like this, which are both painful AND funny.)

This one is not painful. It's funny and also, it's really, really cute.

Friday Favorites, vol. 31

1. sailboats







2. honeycrisp apples





3. blonde braids







4. cute creamers






5. gigantic bubbles






BONUS: popping bubbles

"Love's greatest gift

is its ability to make everything it touches sacred."

Barbara De Angelis

Really, there are no accidents.

Really, Canada? Really?



Just in case you wondered what a Public Service Announcement in Canada is like. Ours are usually about the danger of drugs or the importance of literacy.

In lieu of your Monday Dose of Cuteness,

I'd like to present the launch of the Austin Street Style Blog, The Style Co-Op! My ever-fabulous friend Sandhya is my partner in crime in this little venture.



When I first met Sandhya at a blogger group organized by Grechen, I mentioned that I was interested in starting a street style blog, sort of an Austin-esque The Sartorialist meets Copenhagen Street Style meets Urban Weeds. What makes our street style blog a little different than most is that it's co-operated by two of us AND we welcome your submissions of photos you see on the street as well. That means you're a member of the Co-Op. (Not to mention, we're unique because Austin style is so unique!)

Go see what you think and if you like it, feel free to follow us and comment.
Have a lovely, stylish day!

A photo an hour: Saturday, October 2, 2010

9:00 a.m.


10:00 a.m.


11:00 a.m.


12 noon


1:00 p.m.


2:00 p.m.


3:00 p.m.


4:00 p.m.


5:00 p.m.


6:00 p.m.


7:00 p.m.


8:00 p.m.


9:00 p.m.


10:00 p.m.


11:00 p.m.


12 midnight

Here's to a dreamy weekend.

What are you up to this weekend? We are staying in, for the most part. Nathan is hard at work on editing, and I'm sprucing up our little place, reading, and reorganizing our closet. Again!

Tomorrow... I'm heading out to shoot for the new street style blog I'm launching with my sweet friend, Sandhya. I can NOT wait to share it with everyone.

Have a lovely day!