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Friday, April 10, 2015

Puzzled

I'm looking for a new flash for my camera.
And I don't know what to buy.
This is a n° 1 on Amazon and am very inclined to order it asap but I could also invest that money in a new pair of jeans (ahhh...re/done - insert drooling action here).
I do need a new flash. I also need to show you guys my new haircut. :)
But...re/done.




Any suggestions?

Kiss and Peace
Puzzled Miss Sinister

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Do you ever feel "culture bound"?

Best darned thing I read since starting the Delta.

Made my day.

Kiss and Peace
Culture Bound Miss Sinister

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Coachella Calling

Cochella Calling


Coachella isn't in the plans unless it moves to Italy too, but if I was going this would totally be what I would wear.

Kiss and Peace
Aztec Miss Sinister

FKA Twigs or what you need to do to be noticed 2.0 style





I get extra excited by new up and coming artist since I am an underdog junkie. About a year ago I started checking out FKA Twigs music and abruptly decided she had insane video, contortion and make-up skills, and absolutely no music skills whatsoever. Again, I stress this is my opinion, the profane opinion of a music listener that couldn't play an instrument or carry a tune if her life depended on it.

But according to my iTunes bill, I am a music connoisseur and the internet allows for free speech.



If Madonna, Grace Jones, Italy's Renato Zero (if you don't know who this is , google him up) and Lady Gaga would indulge in an orgy, FKA Twigs (how the f do you pronounce that and I wonder if her parents call her FKA or Twigs or both) would be their spawn.

I get that 2.0 (or maybe 3.0 or 4.0, I've lost count) people need to be constantly surprised and entertained by their chosen modern-day Gods of Olympus, but really?



I watch this video and all I can think is: Is this a trailer? When is the show/movie/exhibition coming out?



Maybe I'm too much of a prude. I bet I am.



Kiss and Peace

Prude Miss Sinister

Monday, April 6, 2015

Gluten-Free Rainbow Checkerboard Cake + Easter talk

Easter.
I finally got to unveil my Checkerboard Cake.



A cake in the making

Gluten-free Rainbow Checkerboard Cake part 2




Gluten-free Rainbow Checkerboard Cake part 3


I had so much fun making this and honestly, apart for the decorating part, I found this to be very easy recipe.
You can find the recipe over on MyCupcakeAddiction and it's pretty much the ingredients in the first picture at the top x 2 for a full 6 layer cake.
Some worthy advice:
1. Use a pre-made cake mix. Trust me, trying to get a cake just right, rainbow and checkerboarded is too much for any holiday.
2. Mix the batter in a Kitchen Aid. Don't go crazy an play the perfect 50's housewife that can do it all. Also, mix one batch at a time. This should produce 3 layers.
3. Bake the layers three at a time. Remember they take less time to bake because they are thin.
4. I used a simple simple buttercream for the filling (250 g butter + 500 g sugar + about 100 g of cream cheese - all lactose free), put it between the layers a day before serving the cake and wait a hefty 6 hours before thinking that the cake will never hold and hence panic (this is basically what I did)
5. Cover the cake with either whipped cream(Chantilly cream) or buttermilk cream and/or fondant like I did. But make sure you know which one you are using beforehand and be prepared for double or even triple layers before the cake actually is covered. I wasn't hence I panicked yet again.
6. Decorate with simple, potentially pre-made decorations or be prepared to curse every Cake Boss episode you've ever seen. I did that but in the end the cake looked nice.
7. Don't give away the surprise! That's the best part!



I have to say I was super duper proud of myself for pulling off a difficult cake and actually making it gluten-free AND lactose-free much to the surprise of my family.
Mission accomplished I might say.

Easter was fabulous. Lots of Italian food, artichokes in particular, I have been cultivating a deep relationship with this oh-so-Italian vegetable. We had a wonderful time and missed my mom terribly because she couldn't join us. Next week will be Easter Part 2 especially for mom.

Easter was also "Unveiling the New Shoes Day" so tada!
Cue leather lace-ups with a bright white wedge that make me feel like Gulliver in Lilliput, but I have to say they are beyond comfortable. So you should get used to these shoes because you will be seeing me in them quite a lot.

The little monster got in some pics either directly participating or distracting me.






Pink Marylin Monroe print T-shirt
Bershka white jeans
New wedge lace-ups (I have to remember to put the name up)
Little monster

Kiss and Peace
Rainbow Miss Sinister




Thursday, April 2, 2015

The paper cup theory


I used to be a lot more philosophical about life. Somehow, in the middle of of my mid-twenties existence, I forgot all about that. I wrote things down, I thought about why I did something or why one of my friends was suffering like an abandoned puppy because of some dog-like boyfriend. No insult intended to dogs here.
And I wrote.
And I haven't done that in the longest of time. Just sit down with a blank piece of paper/blogspot and pour my sinisterly philosophical heart in it.
Today I went to McDonalds for a cup of tea. Ignore the fact that I have to go to McDonalds for take-away tea, that deserves another post in itself.
Yesterday I went to McDonalds with my friend, Miss Mob and we had tea.
I'm guessing you're wondering when I'll cut to the philosophical part.

Yesterday I had tea in a porcelain cup. Today I had tea in a paper cup.
Bam! My neural synapses exploded.
Paper cups don't allow for an easy dispersion of heat. Porcelain cups do.
I'm a freakin' porcelain cup.
I don't hold on to things, I completely misplace everything and anything left in my possession. I am bad with finance, and no, not the theoretical part of it, I was actually quite good at it in college, I'm bad at keeping money in my pocket and out of [INSERT random fashion website/famous brand/new designer/expensive food/Mr. Mystery gifts/flowers/shoes galore HERE]'s pockets.
I can remember the freakiest, most useless things possible read on a magazine, on a train, 5 years ago while standing on my suitcase, but I completely forget team meetings that happen every month on the same day.
I buy perfect t-shirts and awesome shoes only to find I have the exact same model (potentially same brand) in my closet already and have already worn and discarded it from my fashion existence.
I remember birthdays like my life depended on them and I forget to pay my phone bills so when I have to call the people on the afore-mentioned birthdays I discover I have to argue on the phone with some Italian operator on the other side of the world explaining I am a porcelain cup.

And they don't get it. Because that's the thing. I'm surrounded by paper cups. I'm a lonely porcelain cup in a sea of perfectly built paper cups that allow for the dispersion of nothing. They keep their content warm until you just want to scream at them. They will always burn your tongue and never apologise because that's what they do. They keep things warm.
They will always make us, porcelain cups, be late (or at least seem like we.re always late because they're always freakishly on time) because they never allow their content to get cold.
We get cold aka lose something - a job, an opportunity, a shoe, our car keys - and they never do that. They make it to the final tongue-scorching mile and that makes me, or us, porcelain cups go crazy!
That's the paper cup theory.
We're all paper cups or porcelain cups, carrying around our content, more or less scorching, in an endless cup competition.

Considering all of the Starbucks and McDonalds and Costa Coffee and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in the world, with all their perfectly engineered paper cups, we've got our work cut out for us.

Kiss and Peace
Porcelain Miss Sinister


Later edit: My perfect Mr. Mystery just said the most perfect of things: "But porcelain cups also absorb the heat...that's why they make everything more manageable."
So maybe I'm just partly dispersing and partly absorbing.
It's on paper cups, watch your recycled behinds!

How about you?


Do you like pyjama pants?

Wednesday Magic

Wednesday Magic by greenvogueglam featuring patterned pants

Everywhere I look nowadays I see pyjama-style silk pants fluttering on every type of body imaginable and in combined wildly with the most unthinkable accessories. And I love it!
Ever since I bought my first light blue and white linen pyjama style pants two years ago in Positano (mental post-it:must take a pic and post it here), I have been secretly wishing everybody would just get on board with wearing pyjama pants.
And low and behold, everybody had been craving and wishing for the same thing because last year and this year more than ever, long, flow, unflattering yet totally fabulous pyjama style pants are everywhere.

I haven't yet pulled my linen ones out from the summer boxes and yes, I have boxes to store summer attire because if not, I would wear everything all the time and people are weird about doing that here in Italy. You're supposed to wear winterables and then summerables and don't mix them or they'll stare you down with their innate, unattainable fashion sense right back to whatever foreign country you came from. Gotta love'em!

Yesterday I woke really early (damn you Wednesday), grabbed my brand-new, bought on sale Bershka black and white pyjama-style pants, a crisp white  Dolce&Gabbana shirt, my worn-out purple Converse sneakers and a very old H&M jeans jacket that I refuse to part with.
No make-up (it was either the make-up or the yoga, I chose the latter), took 5 pictures and went to work asap.







Last evening I got inspired to create the set at the top of the page.
It's a slightly different take on what I wore yesterday but I love it. I should have posted this yesterday, but I had dinner with Mr. Mystery and got sidetracked by his adorable self.
It also made me think I need to get a pair of white sneakers, like yesterday.

Kiss and Peace
A Late Miss Sinister