3.22.13

So my day started off with my friend coming over so I can measure her for my school's fashion show coming up. It's just a casual fashion show, like you can have one outfit and it's okay. So she's one of my models and I finished her outfit (sort of) today. She's wearing a coraly pink pleated sheer maxi skirt, but when I finished it, I tried it on and it like poofs out in the hip area. So instead of doing a bandeau for the top I might just turn the skirt into a dress and add a hi-low hem... but I'm still not sure. For my other design it's like a ruffly dress and I'm still debating about putting sleeves on the dress or having it like a tank top dress without sleeves. Also I was going to do a hi-low hem on the dress too but I'm not sure if it will be too much with both dresses having the same hem. My second model's my younger cousin and the dress is a beautiful bright turquoise/sky blue which will match her eyes.
After measuring my friend, I got ready to go to school for 12 but I left a little too late and I drove 1/3 of the way there and just turned back around haha. So I went to Walgreens and got a Hello Kitty notebook and folder and then I went to Ulta to get the new L'Oreal ombré dye, some burts bees face wipes (the best face wipes ever!), and two Not My Mother's products (sea spray and a heat protectant). Then I headed over to DSW because I had a coupon of course and I got these wicked cute coral keds for only $24! And of course I ended at Barnes and Noble and bought a new black moleskine notebook since my red one is now officially filled up! I also got lured into the Starbucks there and got my the amazing passion fruit tea <3. I literally can't buy anything else this month or next because before I left I bought a flower box that came with french herbes (lavender, thyme and roquette) and a mini strawberry kit to plant. I don't know how well they will do since I bought them in a bookstore, but let's hope for the best! They were after all almost $20! And then I ended up buying the Barnes and Noble membership for a year -_- haha I need to stop buying stuff. Someone take my cards!

New Moleskine and Passion Fruit iced tea!

First thing in my new Moleskine! Some pretty cherry blossoms! It took me a while sitting there in the Starbucks café to draw this.

Baby strawberry kit on the left, my French herbes kit and Coconut trying to get in the picture.

Have a nice day! 

Xx

Shopping trip!

Yesterday I had a lovely day out at the local mall with one of my girlfriends! We're both in college now so I don't get to see her, especially because she goes to school out of state. So we went for lunch and she bought a ukulele!
And then we went to Nordstrom to look at her obsession of Toms, then headed over to H&M where I found the cutest sweater! It's gray with a lace skull on the front!
Then we saw that Victoria's Secret was having their semi-annual 75% off sale! So I naturally bought a lot of stuff from there, but it was all beauty related! Have a nice Saturday!
Xx

Crab Rangoons!

Yes, another food post! Haha, well one of the older women that I work with was telling me yesterday about how she was going to make some crab rangoons for dinner that night.  So I got excited and told my boyfriend that I could make them for him for lunch, which was what I did today! Well, earlier today, or more like yesterday.  But anyway, I'm not one to cook much since my forte in the kitchen is ONLY baking but these were pretty much self explanatory!
Xx


Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese
8 oz crab meat (I used canned)
Pinch of black pepper
Small bowl of water
Package of Wonton wrappers
Soy Sauce
Frying oil


All you have to do is mix together equal parts cream cheese to equal parts crab meat, a pinch of black pepper and some soy sauce.  Once combined, get a baking sheet and put one wonton wrapper on it.  In the center, lightly spread a teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture.  Then dip a finger into the water and drag it along two sides of the wrapper so that when you fold it down it will form a triangle.  Next, fold it over so that the square or diamond looks like a triangle and make sure it's closed securely.  Now for mine I also dipped my finger into the water again and wet one side of the triangle and overlapped it onto the other side.  It now would look like a mix between a crown and a tortellini!  Repeat until the mixture is used up!  Now pour some oil into a frying pan, let it heat up and put a few rangoons in at a time (maybe 3 or 4) and when one side is a nice golden brown, flip and then put them on a paper towel to drain excess oil.  Also, while the uncooked rangoons are waiting for the frying pan, cover them with a damp towel so they do not get dried out.  You can serve these with anything you want really.  Like maybe some sweet and sour sauce, but my boyfriend and I used some plain old soy sauce with some brown sugar mixed in.  Bon appetite!

My day

My shirt from Forever21 that I got in NYC and the butter sponge cake from my last post! And some strawberries, gotta have them in here!
Xx

Julia Child's Perfect Butter Sponge Cake

So I found a post on I think craft gawker, which is weird because that's a crafting site, of a perfect sponge cake! The recipe for the cake and fillings is found on http://lulussweetsecrets.blogspot.com/2012/02/perfect-cake.html?m=1

The cake has a strawberry jam and a sweetened condensed milk layer and the "frosting" is basically a whipped cream. But don't worry, all three are on the blog post from Lulus Sweet Secrets. Also, instead of making 3 different smaller cakes, my boyfriend and I made one cake and just used a leveler to make two layers.

Bon appetite!
Xx

5th Time in the City

I'm so bad with keeping up with posts haha, but here are the pictures I took in NYC when I went last month.  It was my fifth time, so nothing was really new... but again, I still haven't been to the fashion district!  It was fun, but the man that opened the door for me at the Chanel boutique took my salted caramel mocha that I bought at Starbucks.  He actually thought I would want it back! They surprisingly did not have much in the boutique, but I'm going to save up to buy my first Chanel bag!  Or I might just go up to Boston for the day and get one there since I think I remember a Chanel boutique (which was quite large) last time I was on Newbury Street.  Oh well, Happy New Year everyone!  

xx

Baked

So today was the first time that I have baked something in so long. I literally cannot remember the last time! So my boyfriend posted a chocolate cake on his tumblr about a week ago and it looked so good so obviously because it was chocolate, I had to make it! It's called the Sachertorte, and I followed the recipe exactly until it called for an apricot glaze and in the middle of fall, there aren't too many apricots growing! So I skipped that step and I think the cake came out pretty good. I have yet to try a piece since it's really late and I was too lazy to cut a slice, but I will tomorrow! Also, this cake took quite a while. I started at around 5 p.m. and I didn't get done until exactly 8:30 p.m. The reward is great though!… well it looks great so far!

This is the final result, chilling in the refrigerator so the chocolate layer on top sets.

I also changed the name of this blog to La Brune Lavande, french for Lavender Brunette.

Edit:
I didn't want to make another post about how the cake turned out because I want to do another post today! It was a little dry and not very chocolaty, but it was very good! I recommend doing the apricot glaze or putting whipped cream on the top when you're going to eat it :)

Oh and the recipe I used was one that I found on foodgawker.com and the website is here!
Happy baking!