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Fashion Week Favorites
My hometown of Madison, Wisconsin is known for a lot of things. Political activity, especially during the past couple of weeks. A thriving bike culture. Great microbrews. Fashion is not one of the things we are known for. Sure, we’re got some fantastic thrift stores, and major retailer shopbop.com has its headquarters in Madison. But unless you’re shopping for a pair of Keen sandals or a new Patagonia jacket, it can be hard to find the latest styles. So I look to the the internet for inspiration. While luckily celebrities, stylists, and bloggers crowded into the tents at Fashion Week in New York last week (yep, I’m talking about you,…
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Sexy Beverages Sans Sauce
A pregnant friend of mine recently asked a waiter, “Do you have any sexy non-alcoholic beverages?” The waiter looked confused, but rose to the occasion and came back with a Reed’s Extra Ginger Brew–a strong and sweet ginger ale. The eager young server watched as my friend took a first sip. “Is it sexy?” he asked. She declared that it was. See, we preggos get tired of seltzer and Sprite (which I think basically tastes like sugar dissolved in water). It’s good to have some options to mix things up when mixed drinks are off limits. In the last few months, I have become somewhat of a connoisseur of nonalcoholic…
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Ooh La La
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and the last thing on my mind is lingerie. Nothing says sexy like elastic-waist maternity pants, right? Suddenly, my clothes don’t fit like they used to… especially the bras. For those like me, who could use a little help in the world of, ahem, undergarments, Katherine Bice, owner of La Lingerie boutique in Madison, has a lot to say on the topic: Lingerie is the hardest piece of clothing to fit. ”I am 34 what?” “This C cup doesn’t fit like the other bra. What do I do now?” According to Tracy M. Pfeifer, M.D., a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City,…
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The Great Chili Debate
My foodie friend, Amy, and I have a debate that resurfaces every winter. She’s from Texas and believes with the zeal of a Bible-thumper that chili should be burn-your-mouth hot and consist of large chunks of steak-like stew meat. Beans, to her, are sacrilege, as are any kind of carbs in the chili. I grew up in Green Bay, where chili is made with ground beef, flavored with spices of the type that sell for $0.99 at the grocery store, and served with macaroni noodes. Where I’m from, chili is also relatively mild, to suit the Northern palate, though I always put Tabasco on the table for those who want…
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Seven Secrets
Glossing Over It is thrilled to accept the Stylish Blogger Award. Thank you to The Chick Lit Bee for the nomination. I am an unabashed lover of chick lit, as well as many other kinds of fiction, so I enjoy the honest and thoughtful reviews over at The Chick Lit Bee, run by four fabulous writers. Along with the award comes the request to pay the compliment forward as follows: {1} Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award. {2} Reveal seven things about yourself. {3} Nominate ten great bloggers for the award. So here are seven things about me: (1) I tried on a jumpsuit last…
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A New Project… and an Announcement
I’m back over at Wisconsin Public Television’s website, blogging about sustainable and local food for the next 5 weeks. My posts will go up every Tuesday. Come on over and check out this week’s post about How to Eat Locally Without Lifting a Finger. I love to cook, and when I agreed to do a food-specific blogging series for WPT, I had grand visions of trolling the aisles of natural foods co-ops and the winter farmers’ markets to come up with new ways to eat squash and kale. And then came a little “bump” in the road. Literally. I’m 15 weeks pregnant and, though very excited, I’m finding it hard…
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A Winter Pick-Me-Up
When I opened my February 2011 copy of Food & Wine magazine, an unusual picture caught my eye. A band of adults and kids, all of them clad in bright parkas and clutching broomsticks, were captured mid-sprint in a game of broomball on an ice-covered lake. The scene looked like a modern Norman Rockwell painting. It also looked vaguely familiar. As I turned to the article that went along with the photo, I realized it looked familiar because it was familiar. The article featured Madison’s own chef Tory Miller, of L’Etoile and Graze restaurants, and the photo was taken on Lake Mendota. As pointed out in the article, which was…
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Commitment to Creativity
Last Friday, I attended an opening reception at Absolutely Art for the mixed media work of Madison artist Juliette Crane. Juliette is one of those people who radiate creativity. I first met her at the Wisconsin Book Festival a few years ago, when she was taking a break from art. Well, she’s since gotten back into it, in a big way. In less than two years, she’s created a vibrant and prolific portfolio of works in her unique, whimsical style. She’s happy to share her process, too. She teaches and often writes about the ideas and techniques behind her artwork on her blog. Do you ever have one of those…
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Women on Writing
I’m guest posting over at WOW! Women on Writing today, on their blog, The Muffin, about the process of searching for a literary agent and finding a publisher for a completed novel. See, it turns out that writing the novel is not the hardest part, though that certainly takes discipline. Getting the book out into the world is an even more difficult process… one that involves a lot (and I mean a lot) of patience. If you’ve never checked it out, WOW is a great resource for authors and bloggers to connect and to learn about the ins and outs of the writing world. They also have a quarterly flash…
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Vintage Advice
At a flea market this summer at Madison’s Fete de Marquette festival, I purchased a used copy of Amy Vanderbilt’s Complete Book of Etiquette, first published in 1952. How could I pass up a book that covered such wide-ranging topics as Monogramming, How to Eat a Maine Lobster, and How to Write an “Angry” Letter? Being a lawyer by profession, though, I don’t need much help with that last one. There’s even a section on what to do if you can’t remember someone’s name (Ms. Vanderbilt recommends saying “Nice to see you” or “You’re looking well.”) Although some of her advice, when viewed from a modern day perspective, is downright…
a blog on fiction, fashion, food + family