what are you doing this weekend?

happy friday, friends! i hope you had a good end of february and first bit of march. it's been exceptionally beautiful here in sarasota -- 75-degree weather, lovely breezes, longer days, gorgeous light -- and it looks like that pattern is going to continue into the foreseeable future, or at least the weekend, which is a happymaking thing, indeed.

speaking of happy, that's an emotion i've been feeling lots of lately, too. i've been eating well (and cooking lots), walking/exercising a ton, and just generally feeling good. i don't think that's a sign of spring -- i've been feeling this way since january -- but i do think it's continued proof that putting yourself in the path of positive, healthy things (in my case, work i'm loving and equally happy, supportive people) is never a bad thing.

also, speaking of work, meeting martha stewart last week was a pretty big deal for me; i'm so inspired by her business and the work she does. i'm still working through everything i'm feeling -- it's way more than just the i-met-a-celebrity adrenaline rush -- so when i get those thoughts together, i'll post them here.

and this weekend i'm going to a press event on saturday night, then to an outdoor festival here in town, and i also want to keep up the exercise (maybe some yoga?) and the good eating. sleeping in is always on my list, of course, and i'm thinking about whipping up a batch of these brownies for a friend -- hopefully they turn out well; my last brownie attempt was a big-time fail. (sadness.)

what about you? what are your plans for the weekend? no matter what you do, i do hope you have at least a little time to stop and smell the flowers -- literally or metaphorically.

xoxo

i am seriously swooning over this color lately: lovely photo by marie zucker

seriously loving: mila kunis' academy awards dress.

it's a two-blog day!

i know you probably don't want to see any more posts about the academy awards, but i can't not post about my best-dressed pick of the night: mila kunis. i love everything about this entire look -- her hair, her makeup, but especially the dress. i need to incorporate more of that shade into my everyday wardrobe.

who was your best-dressed at the oscars?

baked!: buckeyes

this may sound sacrilegious, but until the end of last year, i'd never had a buckeye -- you know, those little round peanut butter morsels dipped in chocolate to resemble buckeye nuts. lucky for me, a friend magnanimously gave me one from a tin she'd received, and i was immediately hooked. i mean, chocolate and peanut butter? c'mon.

so when the super bowl rolled around and i was invited to a house party, i immediately volunteered to bring a dessert item and chose to make a batch of buckeyes. turns out they're ridiculously easy to whip up, and though the amount of sugar, butter and peanut butter required to make them practically forces you to turn a blind eye to your measuring cup, they're totally worth it (i had several people ask me for the recipe after eating them). for some reason -- as you can see in the photo above -- i was apparently rolling these with my eyes closed, so they're kind of, um, ugly, but i've seen them turn out way cuter, and i have full faith that yours will be more aesthetically pleasing than my own. and again, no matter what, they're delicious.

so, without further ado, here's the recipe!

buckeyes
1 1/2 cups (about one jar) creamy peanut butter
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
4 cups confectioners' sugar*
4 cups semisweet chocolate chips


in a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, butter, vanilla and confectioners' sugar (the dough will look dry). roll into one-inch balls and place on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet.

press a toothpick into the top of each ball (to be used later as the handle for dipping) and chill in freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.

after the peanut butter balls have chilled, melt chocolate chips in a double boiler or in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. stir frequently until smooth. dip the frozen peanut butter balls into the chocolate, holding onto the toothpick. Leave a small portion of peanut butter showing at the top to make them look like buckeye nuts. put candy back on the cookie sheet, and refrigerate until serving.

*the recipe i based this version on originally called for six (!) cups of confectioners' sugar -- you can definitely use that much if you want, but i found that four cups was more than enough, particularly when coupled with the already-present sweetness of the peanut butter.

scenes from sarasota + catching up

hi, guys! i feel like i should be writing my happy monday post today, but it's wednesday. it's weird, even though i posted yesterday, it felt kind of...abrupt. is that odd to say? i don't know; i feel like my monday posts start off the conversation for the week, in some weird way, and missing them makes me feel strange. (or maybe i'm just strange.)

anyway, before i start really babbling, the reason i didn't post on monday, and why you're getting way more words than you would from a normal scenes from sarasota post, is because i got a nasty computer virus (aaaaand cue a whiny "i miss having a mac" chorus). thankfully, my friend/co-worker's boyfriend works in IT, so it took him a whopping 20 minutes to fix everything, but the day and a half i was without my laptop was...hard. which, honestly, makes me think i need to unplug more often.

in other news, i've been cooking up a storm this week -- so far, i've made shrimp curry (again), homemade granola, buttermilk pancakes from scratch, and tomorrow i'm going to whip up some chocolate two-bite cookies as a thank-you treat for my friend's computer-saving boyfriend -- and it's been great. going to try to keep the homemadeness up.

i've also been listening to adele's new album, 21, and oh my gosh, it's amazing. like, heartbreakingly so. i'm the kind of person who thinks in stories, and i can imagine a story for every single song on this album, even if it's not my own. there are big, swelling, movie-soundtrack-worthy songs, and then there are songs that literally hit so close to home they make you squeeze your eyes shut and take a deep breath. my favorites of the moment are "rumor has it," "turning tables" (which makes me think the most of the aforementioned movie soundtrack) and "someone like you," which kills me. go. listen. enjoy.

oh, and on a completely unrelated and random note: i ran out of my beloved lancome mascara last weekend and replaced it with cover girl lash blast (orange tube, non-waterproof), which i was tipped off to by a tweet from anna at door sixteen, and i love it. possibly even more than the lancome, if that's possible. (i need to write a makeup post soon; i've been using a bunch of products that i absolutely love and think you might, too.)

so that's what's been going on so far this week. and here are two photos from one of my favorite places in sarasota -- the top of the ringling bridge. (not the most perfect shots, obviously, but i still love them.) i took the first one, with the city views, from one side of the bridge, and couldn't get over how pretty the lilac-colored sky was, and i took the second one when i was walking back up the other side and the sun had sunk even lower -- i love seeing the progression of the light. the bridge is one of my happy places -- it's awesome for a jog or a power walk, but it's also a great place to think and listen to music and look out over the water. i'm really glad it exists.

i hope you're having a great week so far -- see you tomorrow!

kitchen love.

you guys, can we just pause and smile at this bright and cheery kitchen for a moment? it belongs to martha stewart living design director james dunlinson, and i think it's pretty much perfect (not surprising since we all know how much i love yellow). hooray for colors, and also hooray for this image inspiring me to start my own collection of colorful cafe au lait bowls.

image via martha stewart