Following Rabbits Blog

This is one of my favorite recipes! So easy to make, and you get great little desserts. There are a few options on the chocolate. I prefer to use Baker's brand dipping chocolate because it comes in little tubs that you can pop in the microwave. You can always melt chocolate over a double-boiler, but I don't have one and would rather not deal with the mess. I couldn't find Baker's, so I used Nestle Tollhouse chips and added a little vegetable oil to make it smoother and thinner. 

White chocolate is my favorite. So I wasn't disappointed when a couple of the stems fell off while dipping the white, making it difficult to dip again in the semi-sweet. I solved that problem and ate them. 
 

Dipping the semi-sweet chocolate is a bit more difficult, since you want to dip at an angle and leave some white showing. I was using a pretty small bowl, making it a little harder to get them dipped all the way. Once they're all double-dipped and lined up on your foil, put the rest of the melted chocolate into a ziplock and trim off a little bit of the corner, making a one-time-use pastry tube. I make my bowties by making little figure-eight shapes then filling 'em in with 2 dots of chocolate, but do whatever is easiest for ya. They look most impressive when they're done, and they're super delicious! Just be sure to refrigerate them, and eat 'em up within a few days or the strawberries go soft. No one wants a leaky tuxedo. 

Everyone is swooning around Bryant Park and various nightspots in celebration and preparation for New York Fashion Week. The tents are up, the invites are out, and everyone's flocking to the city to see what's the latest on the runways. I, on the other hand, am a jeans and t-shirt girl to the bone (helloooo Johnny Cupcakes!). Don't get me wrong, I absolutely have a fondness and appreciation for designers and fashion, I'm just a very low-maintenance chick. That said, I've been dressing especially casual lately, given the wintry weather and feeling a bit down. So imagine my surprise (I was ecstatic, really) when I came home after work and had an Alice in Wonderland t-shirt in my mailbox?! My Aunt Jane recently saw my new blog and sent this to me! (Complete with rabbits, no less!) Aww, SO nice!! It's absolutely adorable, and you can pick up your own at Wet Seal if you wanna.

My bathroom was hurtin' when I moved in last week. The shower curtain rod looked like it was used to joust with 10 years ago then hung back up, all busted and rusty. The walls weren't painted between the last tenant moving out and me moving in, and the ceiling was yellowed and had mold spots... not good. We recently painted our offices at work, so lucky for me there was a bit of white paint left over that I used to paint the ceiling. Then I headed to Home Depot. My bathroom has tiles that go up most of the wall, so that saved me on having to buy a lot of paint for the walls. I picked a tropical green color from the color samples, and got a quart with a semi-gloss finish. I bought a kit for $9.95 that included a paint tray, rollers, a paint can opener, and a 2-inch brush and picked up a sandpaper block for a few bucks. I also bought a pair of yellow rubber gloves to scrub the bejeezes out of the tub, toilet and tiles. Finally, I got a new shower curtain rod, since the last one obviously gave me the willies. Grand total: $43.68. Time to get to work!

I started with the ceiling, cutting in around the edge with the brush then rolling the middle. I let it dry overnight, then taped the perimeter and around the window with painter's tape to paint the walls. The green I chose was pretty intense... I feel like I always realize paint is going to be darker than you think  once it's on your walls. It's probably a good rule to always go one shade lighter on your color chip than the shade you're choosing... that's been my experience anyway. I painted the green in 2 coats, while standing on a swivel stool (not a good idea) talking to my mum on the phone the entire time (really not a good idea). But it came out pretty good, if I do say so myself. And looks MUCH better than it did a week ago, thank goodness.

Allie and I went out Saturday night to celebrate my being in NYC for 2 years. Last year for my one-year we hit up Lilly Coogan's to check in on a boy I had a crush on, and then went out dancing to old school hip-hop til 4a, drinking on the DJ's tab (cause that's how we roll). Anyway, this year we opted for a more sophisticated route. We met at Caffe Falai for dinner and promptly toasted with Bellinis. We always have the best, silliest conversations (as evidenced by Saturday night's tweets). We also analyzed, critiqued and fawned over their decor, as mentioned in my last post.

Allie got an avocado salad and I had a bowl of minestrone soup to start. For my entree I had Ravioli Di Spinaci-- very delicate spinach raviolis with ricotta cheese on a bed of fresh diced tomatoes with burrata cream poured over the top. Was so good! Allie had a pasta infused with cocoa with a brown butter sauce and shrimp (I don't do seafood, but she said it was good). I totally wish I had room for a pot of black tea and a piece of flourless chocolate cake, but that was a no-go. (Especially not when we had a night of dancing planned!) We followed up dinner with drinks and dancing at Katra, where they were playing good music and had really great decor and atmosphere. YAY for living in NYC for two years. I freakin' love this place.

Allie and I had dinner at Caffe Falai on Saturday night (post coming soon) and were admiring their decor: white walls, at least a dozen white-framed mirrors in all shapes and sizes, lucite chairs, white table cloths, crystal chandeliers and lots of candlelight. We talked about decorating a bedroom that way, and the mirrors made me feel like it would be a very Alice-in-Wonderland kind of place. (At the moment, my bedroom in my new apartment is storage for boxes that still need to be unpacked. I've been unpacking very slowly, thinking much more than I normally would about where everything is going to go and making sure everything is just right.) I love Allie's idea of translating Falai's decor into a bedroom theme so I browsed IKEA today to see if I could copy-cat the look on a budget. Here's what I found:

Leirvik bedframe - $100; ludde sheepskin rug - $40; kristaller chandelier - $40; various mirrors - $10-$30. 

I'm really starting to love the idea! Add a white vanity with another mirror, some white vases with daisies that will add a pop of color, white pillar candles in different sizes... would definitely be quite a retreat at the end of a long day. I think I could even position some of the mirrors so that I can see the Manhattan skyline out my window from my bed on the opposite wall! I better start saving up for the impending IKEA shopping spree.