yummy little almond sandwich cookies

Today I stumbled upon Pillsbury's flickr photostream (ahh! Pillsbury has a flickr photostream!) which is just page after page of mouthwatering photos accompanied by the recipes to bring those lovely photos to life in your own home. Perhaps the most yummy-looking are the aptly named Yummy Little Almond Sandwich Cookies. (I mean, come on, it has yummy in the title!)

***

INGREDIENTS

Cookies
1 roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated sugar cookies
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Filling
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
4 teaspoons milk
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 drop red food color

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, break up cookie dough. Stir or knead in flour and almond extract until well blended.

2. Shape dough into 180 (1/2-inch) balls. Place balls 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Press bottom of glass dipped into granulated sugar on each ball until 1/4 inch thick; prick top of each with a fork.

3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes until set but not brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, in small bowl, beat filling ingredients with electric mixer on low speed until smooth and creamy. Spread about 1 teaspoon filling on bottoms of half of the cookies. Top each with another cookie, bottom side down; press gently. Store in refrigerator.

old age

I found a really awesome vintage shop on etsy today, Old Age. It seems like mostly 60's and 70's dresses... really terrific dresses. The third one down reminds me of something Barbara Eden would wear in a later episode of I Dream of Jeannie when she was out in public with Major Nelson sans the pink genie costume.

Vintage 60's Lace Illusion Formal Cocktail dress

Vintage 60's Blue Mod Party Mini Dress

Vintage Mod Floral/Brown Mini Dress

Vintage color block Angel Sleeve Grecian Mini Dress

Half Awake

Sometimes

Outskirts

May

**
Photography by Erin Tyner,
from her Half Awake series.

{etsy}
{website}

A couple of things I really want to steal, er, um, BUY!

Herringbone Tweed Jacket from Charlotte Russe ($38.39)

Trista Stripe Dress from dELiAs ($44.50)

Of course BOTH are too much for me to afford, but I still WANT them...hmm, now here is where I would put my plans to break into the warehouses. But, of course I am an honest, law-abiding citizen and would never even THINK to do that!

...I'll just continue to pine after them FOREVER!

-Millie

*Tomorrow, midnight, wear dark clothes, bring a chisel!*

Find it Cheaper {Miss Darling Dress}

Urban Outfitters - $98.00
Modcloth - $79.99

Okay, so $80 still isn't quite a steal (at least not with my bank account balance) but it's a heck of a lot better than $100! Hey, I just realized this is the first time Modcloth was on the cheaper end of Find it Cheaper..

flying sofa brooch

I think this is one of the most fabulous things ever.
Flying sofa brooch by HairySock - $39.99

Find it Cheaper

The Hopleaf dress - Modcloth - $62.99
The Plumfield dress - Modcloth- $62.99

This find it cheaper is kind of tricky... it's not really easy to get these dresses at a discount, but the effort is really worthwhile because of the ridiculous amount of money you would save.

I found the dresses available wholesale at Theme Clothing for $23.00 each. At Modcloth they are $63. You need to have an account to view them (just having a wordpress account works) and -- here is the tricky part -- you have to buy 2 smalls, 2 mediums and 1 large. Eek. BUT if you have friends who all love these dresses and fit these sizes you get the dresses 60% off of what Modcloth asks! If you want them desperately & don't have friends who do- you could always leave comments on this post stating what size you'd like, and if we get the right amount of people for each size you could do a collaborative order. I for one think it's worth it for the savings :) Or if you have the ready cash, you could just buy the five dresses & sell the four you don't use on your blog or ebay. You could even make money by just marking it up $5-$10 a dress, and it would still be 50% off of what Modcloth is asking.

FYI though, you might want to check out my previous post on this dress style, and how it isn't meant for the curvy figure...

I promise the next Find it Cheaper will be a lot easier to buy!!

a furry subject

As an animal lover, vegetarian and animal rights activist, I have always been vehemently opposed to fur and leather. So when shopping, I always made sure that anything resembling leather was 100% man-made. No real leather for me! But for some reason I drew the line at faux fur. The mere fact that it resembled animal fur kept me from buying it.

But last year, when stores started rolling out more faux fur coats & accessories I started to re-think this decision. Early last winter I was shopping at Kohls, when in the jewelry department I saw an old lady walk by in a floor-length fur coat. Obviously real, I thought to myself, and gave her a really dirty look. Not minutes later I saw a girl my age (early 20's) walk by in the pajama section, wearing a cute pea coat with fur trim. Awesome coat, I thought to myself, and admired the obviously faux fur lining.

When I snapped out of my clothing-envy-daze I realized that both of these women had on something resembling fur, but I automatically assumed the old lady was wearing real fur & the young girl was wearing faux. The same would hold true, I think, for two middle aged women -- one wearing huge diamond rings, a Prada bag and a perfect coif (obviously real fur) and one wearing flats, leggings and a non-designer bag (obviously faux fur) If you're old or rich, I think the fur is real. If you're young or not rich, I'll tend to think it's faux. Obviously there are many rich old people who have qualms with wearing animal fur & go with the faux. Obviously there are young people who splurge on a real mink hat. But for the most part, this is my perception.

Perhaps all of this reasoning was just my brain's way of convinving myself it was o.k. to wear faux fur. (After all, I do wear faux leather!) But aside from its relevance to my own personal decision to wear faux fur or not, I think it's an interesting thought. Now that we know where fur comes from, and what the process does to animals, is it a consensus thought that most young people nowadays will only wear faux or vintage? When you see young people and old people wearing fur, do you have the same inclinations to think what I did?


Here are some examples of some really nifty faux fur options available online, really gorgeous clothing and not one animal was harmed in the process of making them.

Luxurious shag jacket
F21 - $32.80

Jealous of Fame stole
Modcloth- $59.99

Motel Leopard Faux Fur Short Coat
ASOS - £65.00

Snow Leopard Faux Fur Coat
Urban Outfitters - $124.99

Faux fur swing jacket- brown/black minx
Target - $39.99

Faux fur hat- grey
Target- $14.99

Adorable!

I'm not a photographer, but even I am in love with this ring! I can't help but think how cute it would be if it took mini photos too, but that's probably asking too much for $7.99

Camera ring from Ruche.

It'll look so much better on you...

When I'm doing online clothes shopping, I often forget (or subconsciously ignore the fact...) that I am not a sprite, petite little thing like this:


No, instead, I am (albiet not nearly as drop-dead-gorgeous) assembled more like this..


I know, I know.. curves are great, embrace your hourglass figure, yadda yadda yadda... but really it STINKS to be curvy when all you want to do is wear a cute little number like this:


During one of my "I am petite and flat-chested like Audrey Hepburn" fantasies, I slurged on this adorable dress from Modcloth. Well, it came in the mail today and basically I looked like a stripper raiding her 12 year old daughter's wardrobe. It just looks so dumb on me.

So anyway, long story short-- the dress, as beautiful, cute and lovely as it is (even more lovely in person than it was online, and the fabric is gorgeous!!) just doesn't fit my figure. I was going to just send it right back to Modcloth, but the dress is totally sold out on their site. So I figured I'd offer it up to anyone who wants it here, first, before packing it up (since, if you wanted it, you wouldn't be able to buy it from them anymore)

If you're interested, just drop me a line at kategabrielleart@yahoo.com

You can view the specs here -- I'm charging the same price as Modcloth (since I'd get that money back if I return it anyway..) but shipping is free. It's a size Medium.