currently coveting

I was doing my daily scroll through the internet the other day and I stumbled upon this book called “Nothing Fancy: Unfussy Food for Having People Over.”

Need I say more? I don’t have my own space to entertain quite yet, but I do dream of days where I can invite my friends over and share my latest and greatest favorite recipes with. One day.
Hopefully one day soon.

So anyways, I found this book and it looks amazing. It’s all about making and creating food for people who really don’t love cooking but love entertaining. Me! That’s me! I read through the preview that Amazon provides and it seems life the writing in the book is extremely quick and witty and the photographs are gorgeous. An aesthetically pleasing and fun combination that my brain can’t stay away from.

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Because I don’t yet own this book and don’t know all of it’s greatness for myself, here is Amazon’s write up on the book:

“An unexpected weeknight meal with a neighbor or a weekend dinner party with fifteen of your closest friends—either way and everywhere in between, having people over is supposed to be fun, not stressful. This abundant collection of all-new recipes—heavy on the easy-to-execute vegetables and versatile grains, paying lots of close attention to crunchy, salty snacks, and with love for all the meats—is for gatherings big and small, any day of the week. 
 
Alison Roman will give you the food your people want (think DIY martini bar, platters of tomatoes, pots of coconut-braised chicken and chickpeas, pans of lemony turmeric tea cake) plus the tips, sass, and confidence to pull it all off. With Nothing Fancy, any night of the week is worth celebrating.”

So yeah, I’m currently coveting this book and thought I’d share.
Have a happy Wednesday!

xox
chloe

stop trying so hard

I think there’s something special about embracing our messy sides. So often, we put up this front of perceived perfection. We want people to think we wash our sheets weekly, consistently write in our planners, and keep extra stamps around for all the thank you notes that we’re writing. We want people to think we have it all together. We want them to think we’re put together and always happy and always doing the right thing. 

But, let’s face it, we’re not perfect. 

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Not a single one of us. 

Sure, some people, seemingly, have it more together than most. But they have their flaws too. I guarantee the person you admire most doesn’t floss twice a day. 

I think we should all embrace our messiness. We should all lean in to our flaws and embrace them for what they’re worth. My list of imperfections contains a multitude of weaknesses, of negatives, of weirdness. You know what? I don’t care. Sometimes, when I make my bed, I don’t pull my top sheet up. I don’t floss. I sometimes wear a pair of dirty leggings. Twice. I drink wine out of the bottle so I don’t have to clean another glass. If my dog poops and you can’t see it, I don’t pick it up. I laugh when I’m uncomfortable or nervous. I sometimes laugh when I’m not supposed to. I make inappropriate jokes. I talk with my mouth full. I’m messy.

And you know what?  It’s ok. 

I’ve talked about it on Instagram before, but I think we all need to stop trying so hard. The people that I love surrounding myself with the most are those that know how to laugh at themselves. They know how to let loose. They know how to not take life so seriously. And I love that about them. I love that they can just be without worry. They just let life happen and they embrace it. I love that. 

So yeah, we all have to do our part to be a part of society. I get it. But let’s stop stressing about the little things. No, I take that back. Let’s stop stressing about the little AND big things. Let’s just live. Let’s just let life happen and flow with it. Let’s do what we have to do and stop stressing about the things that we can’t control. 

Let’s live, together. 

xox
chloe

saturday to saturday 4

Another Saturday. I missed the last two thanks to Thanksgiving and then just having a very un-photogenic week after that. But don’t you worry, I’m back and better than ever.

Keep scrolling to see what I’ve been up to this past week.

My grandfather and I went out with two of his friends this past weekend to an amazing restaurant in Birmingham. If you ever happy to be visiting the good ‘ole south, I recommend this place times infinity. It’s called Bistro 218. I feel like you know it’s a good place when you can’t stop eating the amazing bread + butter before you even get your meal.

If you didn’t know, I’m Jewish, which means that I’ve never had a Christmas tree. Also, if you didn’t know, I’m living with my grandfather currently. That being said, we were in the most festive of moods and decided that a little winter ice tree couldn’t hurt. My grandfather’s friend actually gifted it to us and I’ve been loving sitting in the sun room with the lit tree. Festive vibes. Happy vibes.

This past week two of my cousins and I went to an axe throwing place with some other people. It was actually super fun even though I was nervous about combining my uncoordinated abilities with an axe. I threw a bulls eye and then I tapped out because I knew that it would only go down hill from there.

I’ve decided that I want to start running again, so instead of taking Izzy on walks in the morning I’ve been doing a little walk + running combo. I went at sunrise the other day and I realized how nice it is to start my day early with a workout. It really changes my attitude and mindset for the day.

I’m going to a few holiday parties with my grandfather this weekend and next week so I needed something to wear. I found this jumpsuit at Anthro and it was on sale so I swooped in and bought it. My mom usually hates when I wear jumpsuits but she responded to me asking if she liked it with, “First jumpsuit I’ve really liked on you. Not crotchy and not too tight,” so that’s when you know it’s a good one.

I found this quote this past week and really fell in love with it. You know when you read something and you’re like “wow, I really needed to hear that at this exact moment.” That’s how I felt when I read it so I wrote it in my journal so I could remember it forever. I also Instagram-ed it because I loved it that much.

I finally found an old disposable camera that I took with me to NYC last year and the film finally came back. The next few pictures are from that. I was kind of upset though because, out of 30 or so pictures, only 7-ish worked out.

These crackers are the best things ever. I don’t even know how to describe them besides that. If you have a Trader Joe’s near you, run don’t walk.

Alright, that’s all I have for today. Thanks so much for reading. Hope you have a great rest of your weekend.
xox
Chloe

cheese platters

If I could drop everything and go down one career path right now I would be a Cheese Platter Connoisseur. I’ve been on such a cheeseboard kick lately it’s ridiculous.

My grandpa had some guests over a few weeks ago so I whipped out a cheese platter. My cousin finished a hard exam and I whipped out another one. 
 I love entertaining, celebrating the little things, and cheese so the obvious combination of these three loves is a cheese plate. Right?

Absolutely.

I don’t know if cheese plates have always been a trendy thing, but lately, I’ve been seeing them everywhere. From my favorite influencers making them for their Friendsgiving festivities to entire cheese board Instagram accounts, they’re wherever I look. So instead of running away from the trendy, I’ve been leaning in.

If you’re into them too I inspire you to check out the Instagram account called “Cheese by Numbers.” They walk you through the creation of different types of plates, from fruity to salty to sporty to girly, they’ve got it all. While I’m sure there are rules on what cheese to pair with what fruits or crackers or nuts or whatever, I kind of just make them however I want. Sometimes I do it by color, sometimes I do it by what I have in the pantry. There’s really no wrong way to make one and I think that’s what I love about them most.

Here are a few pictures I snapped of the one I made for my cousin.
We demolished it embarrassingly quickly.

Thanks for reading!
chloe

saturday to saturday 3

Wow! It’s Saturday again. Crazy how time just… works. To be completely honest with y’all, this week has been rough. Nothing has happened, but that’s the problem. I’ve been busy applying for job after job, and I continue to be rejected again and again. I’m truly trying to keep spirits high and remind myself that it’ll work out when and how it’s supposed to, but the waiting game of hearing back (or not hearing back) from the places I’ve applied to is very frustrating.

However, I’m trying to stay positive. So on that note, here’s what I’ve captured on my iPhone in the past week. No photo left behind.

My grandpa had me send a picture of these shoes to his friend. He has great style if I do say so myself. These shoes are no exception.

I went to the bookstore to pick up the next book that Natalie and I are reading together and I saw this sign and had to take a picture to remember the book. I LOVED “Where the Crawdads Sing” so anything that’s close to it I definitely want to read.

I snapped a picture of this book as well because I’ve heard great things about it, and potentially might pick it for Natalie and I to read eventually.

Some influencer that I followed posted about this YouTuber so I screenshot her Instagram so I wouldn’t forget to watch one of her videos. I still haven’t watched if you’re wondering.

The coffee shop that I frequent is so cute on the inside. The Matcha Lattes are unreal. Also extremely expensive but you win some you lose some.

I took a picture of this outfit because I couldn’t tell if I liked it or not. I changed, but in hindsight I think it’s cute. Maybe? Still don’t know.

My grandfather had some friends stay with us this past week so my cousin and I made them a cheese board for when they arrived. It was a HUGE hit and now I think I want to start selling cheese platters for events. Like how fun would that be?

Yet another coffee shop picture.

Alrighty, that’s all for this week. Hopefully next week will have some fun pictures since I’ll be with my family for Thanksgiving. Hope you all had a great week!!!

xo,
chloe

100 pictures of cake

I graduated college in May, but I still miss some of my professors and classes. I also miss a lot of the projects that I was assigned. My major was special because, most of the time, we had big projects due at the end of my classes instead of exams. This worked out magically for me because I have, maybe, the worst test anxiety possible.

So one of my projects in one of my classes was a visual project. We had to pick one word, a noun, and represent that word in 100 pictures. The catch was that it had to be a word that had multiple meanings. Our challenge was to visually represent it in 100 pictures.

It sounds easy, but picking the word was extremely difficult. It took me two weeks just to figure out what word I would use. I played around with tons of words, but finally landed on “cake.” This word, to me at least, can mean cake in the literal sense (i.e. a round sweet dessert covered in delicious frosting), booty, “caked” as in “plastered” as in “too drunk to function,” or “cake-y” as in “too much makeup.”

I also liked that all of these different meanings of cake fell in the same color palette. If you know me, I’m obsessed with colors, so making my squares fit the same color scheme was necessary for me for this project.

Here’s the visual:

So yeah, I miss college. Not just because I miss living with my friends, and going out, and having fun, and being carefree, but also because I miss my classes and projects. I feel like not many people can say that either so I feel lucky to be able to.

stay creative,
chloe