There have been lots of fun things going on around here lately. Here are some of my favorites:
1. While my Hubby was working in China for a couple of weeks my sister-in-law and I got together to play. She is a photographer, so I baked up some props and we had great fun doing a "retro bakery" photo shoot. In my dream world I would own an adorable bakery and ride my bicycle to work, so it was fun to pretend for a few hours. Here's a little peek at our photos: (Photography Credit: missiemcgovern.com)
2. I also made a trip to Ikea with my sister-in-law while Hubby was gone, and we had too much fun there, as usual. I had to get another one of these carts, since I love the one that I have so much. The first one I bought, I use in my kitchen at our cabin as my baking cart. On the top shelf I have my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, and on the lower two shelves I have vintage canisters with flour, sugar, brown sugar, etc. as well as pie weights, biscuit cutters, and other things I use exclusively for baking that I don't want cluttering up my utensil drawers and counter space. I think the turquoise is adorable, but both of mine are the dark gray color since it matches my kitchen better. I just had to have one for our house as well.
Here are some more ideas for using these carts via Apartment Therapy: How to Use the Raskog Cart in Every Room of the House
3. Souvenir Cookbooks! Hubby is a wonderful supporter of my cookbook collection. He has been traveling internationally a lot for work lately, and he has brought me home two fantastic cookbooks. This one from France is all about chocolate. I will definitely be making some goodies from this book with the help of Google Translate.
And this one, from China, is so fun to look at. There are tons of pictures, which is wonderful since I obviously don't stand a chance of following a recipe that is written in Chinese! He got me these cute little demitasse cups from Starbucks in Beijing to add to my collection.
4. This Kitchen Conversion graphic is fantastic. It's always nice to be able to visualize things. I usually do my conversions in my head, so using this to double-check my calculations would be great. It's much more interesting to look at than my little cheat sheet graph I have on the side of my fridge. Credit: S.B. Lattin Design
5. Last, but not least, Chef (the film). I have been waiting for this movie to play nearby, and I finally got to see it with my Mom yesterday. I LOVED IT. I left the theatre wishing that I had a food truck and a ten-year-old son. The food and music in the film will leave you hungry and tapping your feet. Well done, Jon Favreau. Can't wait to buy it on DVD.
Have a lovely weekend!
~Mandy
Bonnie Eng
I love this post Mandy! I just bought a Japanese cookbook where I loved the photos but can't read any of the text! I, too, am an avid cookbook collector. Most people would wonder why I would purchase a book written in a language I can't understand, but I think you get it! =) You and your sister-in-law did a beautiful job on that retro shoot! Love those soft vintage pastels!