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No one said Fashion needs to be restricted to what we wear.
With Houston Fashion Week coming up, and all the designers and models coming into town - it got me thinking about getting new clothes. Of course. But instead, I found myself baking, and then thinking of ways to pretty up my cake. Hmmm... new clothes will have to wait. Cake always takes priority.
And thus begins my love affair with the shop Kiki La Ru.
The lovely Dawn stocks her adorable shop with whimsical Cake Bunting.
Her store began when she googled "Cake Bunting", in search for pretty adornments for her baked yummies, but alas, nothing existed to suit what she had in mind. Luckily for us Dawn decided to make her own and share it with us in her lovely shop.
Just like fashion, Dawn stocks bunting to match all different personalities and seasons. After all, seasons are her inspiration - she moved from Northern California to the Austrian countryside where she is getting to know "the miraculous cycle of the four seasons." And having been to Austria and lived in California myself, I know what Californians are missing out on!
Dawn enjoys leading a creative life - from painting to cooking to reading - she thrives on learning and exploring, and her newest hobby is creating Treasuries on Etsy. Her favorite colors are white and brown, she loves how both can either be humble or luxurious. Another one of her favorites would be a fluffy yellow cake with buttercream frosting, with chewy homemade chocolate chip cookies coming in a close second. 
Dawn is generously giving one of her bunting lovelies to a lucky reader! To enter, let me know which of these four styles you'd like to win (Autumn, Savannah, Wednesday or Morticia), and what flavor cake you'd want to decorate with it. I will announce the winner next week.
(PS. The winner of the Sarah Anntiques Typewriter is Amy. Congrats!)
As you all know, I love to cook and bake.
But what you don't know is that if I am by myself, I enjoy cooking to music.
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If you don't do it, you should try it. It definitely helps me to be more creative with my cooking. Here are some of my favorites to create to:
DESSERT PLAYLIST:
I Can't Help Myself (The Four Tops).... for cute, playful desserts.
La Valse D' Amelie (Yann Teiersen)..... for detailed, beautiful pastries.
Viva La Vida (Coldplay) .... for rich layer-cakes.
SAVORY PLAYLIST:
Say Na Say Na (Aneela Mirza).... for experimenting with exotic dishes.
Fly Me To The Moon (Frank Sinatra).... for cooking comfort food.
Mambo Italiano (Dean Martin).... for yummy Italian dinners.
And here are some of the results from over this weekend:
If you like pairing food with music, you must check out Write, Click, Cook, Listen.
For the recipes, meet me after the jump.
We all have weaknesses. Those things that even though we say "NO!", we eventually turn around and say yes.
Here are my Top 10:
1. An extra hour of sleep - I always set my alarm an hour before I really need to get up, and then when it wakes me, I set it to go off again when I really need to wake up. I trick myself into thinking I am getting an extra hour of sleep.
2. Brian's goofy dancing - No matter how hard I try not to laugh, there's this particular dance Brian does when I am mad at him, and I ALWAYS burst out into laughter. ALWAYS.
3. Cheese - Particularly Pecorino Romano cheese. I can't resist it. I hate it when we run out, so I always buy a new block just before our current one runs out.
4. Desserts - I can be REALLY full after a big meal, but if there's dessert, I somehow make room for it.
5. Weekend Breakfasts - During the week I can go without breakfast if I don't have time, but on weekends - I love making a big breakfast.
6. Lattes (with and without ice) - I am a sucker for lattes. Any time I go out to eat, along with water, I like to have a latte to complete my meal.
7. Pretty plates - Probably my biggest impulse buy item.
8. Anthropologie - my favorite store. I love their products, their styling, everything!
9. Ruche - I would say that at least half of my clothes are from this store. I LOVE it!!!
10. Cooking Reality TV Shows - Brian and I have a few shows that we watch together on Hulu. 4 out of 7 of them are cooking shows.
What are your weaknesses?
(PS. My latest Meylah article is up. It's all about being an effective blogger. Check it out here).
I used to write a LOT of letters. When I first moved to the US from Australia I wrote at least 5 letters a week.
But as the years rolled by, letters turned into emails and then emails turned into facebook comments...
But I found something that would revive the art of letter writing....
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I LOVE typewriters.
The sound of the clacking keys, the inky impressions on the paper... It's such a romantic instrument, isn't it? Someone who loves typewriters even more than me is the lovely Sarah from Sarah Anntiques.
Her lovely etsy store is a gorgeous collection of vintage goodies - from cameras to typewriters to books. Such a lovely little alcove on the internet. Her inspirations come from yesteryear. She started going to auctions years ago and began decorating with her vintage finds. Then of course when she found etsy, she fell in love with it and knew that she had to share her awesome finds with the world.
Sarah's love for typewriters began when she was a small child, playing with an old Underwood #5 typewriter, and then her mother's electric one. But her favorites were always the manual ones. She loves to rescue them from old attics and garages, and takes great joy in cleaning, oiling and caring for them, along with installing new ribbon and tuning them up for the next person to enjoy. 
Hobbies for Sarah (when she isn't looking for vintage goodies) include growing wheat, corn, sunflowers and other produce on her family farm. Cooking and canning are favorite pastimes, along with making jewelry - she is even creating her own line specifically for other typewriter lovers! She will make them out of sterling silver and photographs of typewriters, trying to reduce the amount of typewriters that are destroyed just for their keys.
Sarah is being AMAZINGLY GENEROUS and is GIVING AWAY A TYPEWRITER to one lucky reader. You'll win your choice out of the two typewriters pictured in this post! To enter, leave a comment here saying what it is that you love about typewriters, and what the first thing you would type with it would be. This particular giveaway is open to US residents only. I will announce the winner next week.
Do you consider yourself a Grown-up?
Remember when you were a kid and days stretched on forever? School vacations seemed to be years long, and in the middle of the year Christmas seemed soooo far away. Now that I am older, everything seems to be zooming by. I feel like if I blink, I'll miss something.
When I was little, I considered Grown-ups to be anyone old enough to be finished with high school. Basically it was determined by age. I imagined that they didn't like sweets and they read the newspaper all the time, and stayed up for hours having fun while all the children in the world had to go to bed early.
The 6-year-old me would look at the 29-year-old me and call me a Grown-up. But I won't tell her that I LOVE to eat sweets all the time, and that I haven't picked up a newspaper in over a year. She wouldn't believe me if I told her that I LIKE going to bed at a reasonable hour.
When you were little, what do you think Grown-ups were like?
I want to redecorate our apartment.
For the last few weeks I have been visiting furniture stores and antique shops in search of the perfect find. I didn't realize how time consuming it could be. Sometimes I see a piece that I like, but I am not 100% sure on it. I wonder if furniture shopping is anything like clothes shopping. You know how it is, you might find a dress that looks just average on the rack, but then when you try it on it looks like a million bucks. I wonder if the same goes with furniture?
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I am also on the hunt for lovely wall hangings and pretty prints that I can frame. That's why I am smitten with the Vancouver-based Etsy store Field Trip. I really do feel like I am going on a field trip when I peruse Amy's lovely collection of love-inspired prints. It's obvious that she is inspired by words, you can see that a lot of her work is derived from typography, and I love it!
Amy's favorite colors are shades of blue and green, along with pink and grey. Calming colors that look great on your wall! She sees a lot of these colors in her city of Vancouver, Canada, where she is surrounded by natural beauty, prompting her to go on hikes every weekend.
In addition to hiking, this talented artist enjoys chocolate. Whether it be in the form of a cake, a hot fudge sundae, or gelato - Amy's weakness is undeniably the cocoa bean :) And with her love for chocolate, she also has aspirations to cook. She tells me that she believes there's a great cook lurking somewhere inside her just waiting to come out. And if her cooking is anything like her art, I know she'll be awesome!
Amy is generously giving one reader their choice of a print from her shop. Not only that, Amy is also offering all City of Dionne readers a 10% discount in her store, all you have to do is use the code "I love Posters." To enter, please leave a comment here telling me which one you'd pick if you won, and what hidden talent that you hope you have lurking inside of you. I will announce the winner on Tuesday next week.
A house smiled at me the other day.
Another one tipped it's hat to me and said "have a nice day" as I walked past it on my way to the store.
I love old houses. Layered with character and stories and charm. Houses that wink at you because they know more than you do. Houses that quietly nudge you and say "i told you so", when you park too close to a stop sign.
Houses that need a trip to the dentist because they're missing a few teeth - but that toothless smile makes you warm and fuzzy inside.
While I love the apartment I live in now, it's a new one, so it's been painted the same as all it's friends - in a monochrome uniform. I can't wait for the day that I'm a homeowner. My friends Kate and Peter recently bought their first home, and I am so excited for them!
What kind of face does your house have?
(PS. The winner of the Indobay Textiles giveaway is AMKreations)
Soak it all in. Make sure to let every minute count.
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Let your weekend be a celebration of all the wonderful things that God has placed in your life - your family, your friends, the beauty of the outdoors, the simplicity of a slice of cake. Don't waste your weekend by treating it as just a gap between each workweek.
Draw, dance, take photographs, eat! Leave your work emails alone this weekend. They'll still be there when you get back. Live this weekend to the fullest and grab each opportunity to marvel and celebrate.
