Hell on Wheels

When I am stressed and need to go to my "happy place" I picture myself driving my beat up old Volvo 850 down Pacific Coast Highway on a sunny day with the windows down, on my way up north to visit a friend or love or just driving for the hell of it. Some of my best memories are in that car, and now my sis drives it. I had to give it up when I moved here, and I have to say I was relieved at first; glad to be rid of the burden of traffic, filling up the tank, and expensive repairs.

Well.... I officially have a carnow! All I have to say is WATCH OUT New York! I just purchased a beige granny style Camry and I am reeling with all the new possibilities. It even has the same dings on the passenger side as my last car. Trips upstate, estate sales, I can even go to Trader Joe's now to get rice pudding which was worth the whole price tag. I found the photos above at estate sale, aren't these two so cute, posing so proudly with their Ford?

A Very Greedy Seagull

Is what I am this afternoon. I was measuring this dress when it dawned on me that it would fit perfectly, I tried not to put it on, but it just happened and now it's in my closet. Maybe someday it will go in the shop, but not for now!

Holiday Dresses Round 2

Here is the next batch of little beauties making their way into the shop in the next couple days:

Tagged!

Lauren at DearGolden just tagged me with the following questionnaire, and I thought I would share a little about myself here.

1. Your hair? Is really black and grows ridiculously fast

2. Your favorite food? Sushi, with lots of ginger

3. Your favorite drink? Coffee, milk and two sugars

4. Your dream/goal? outdo Martha Stewart in facets if life

5. Your hobbie? Making photography, taking loooong walks

6. Your fear? Failure, and violent schizophrenics on the subway

7. Where were you last night? In bed watching Dexter

8. Something you say all the time? NOOOOOOO (in a long whiny sing songy way)

9. Something that you're not? Mean

10. Wishlist item? Eight hundred dollar Miele vacuum

11. Last thing you did? Photoshoot of black cocktail dresses

12. What are you wearing? Plaid and leopard pajamas (hey, I'm sick ok?)

13. Your pets? One 5 pound, black and tan gremlin

14. Friends? A handful of good ones that I've had forever

15. Missing someone? My sister

16. Something you're not wearing? Pretty much anything lady GaGa puts on

17. Your favorite store? Goodwill Outlet stores!

18. Your favorite color? Cerulean

19. The last time you cried? Last week. Ovulating is just not fair.

20. Whens the last time you laughed? It happens too often to remember

21. One place that I go to over and over? The Post Office, Uncle Donuts (for coffee, I swear!)
22. Where do you eat? My kitchen, I love to cook!

Veggie and Parmesan Orzo

This post is a little off topic, but I had to share. I love messing around in the kitchen and sometimes, a dish will turn out so good that it becomes a staple in my recipe box. I am halfway writing this post so I don't forget! If you have a vegetarian guest in the house but also have to feed a six foot hungry dude, this will go over really well because you can cook the whole dish and add meat in later. Here are your ingredients:

(1) 16 ounce box orzo pasta
(1) medium sized zucchini
(1) medium sized yellow squash
(1) small red onion
(1) large head of fresh broccoli
(8) cloves of fresh garlic
(1/2) cup parmesan cheese
(1/2) stick butter
(2) tbsp olive oil
(1) pound hot Italian sausage (optional)
Salt and pepper

How you do it:

- Bring 5 quarts water to a boil with 2 tsp salt. Add orzo when it comes to a rolling boil, cook for ten minutes and drain as soon as it's done. Add pasta back to your boiling pot.

- Slice zucchini, squash and broccoli into small pieces. Steam them in a pot until tender and set aside.

- While water is heating and veggies are cooking, chop up onion and garlic into small pieces. Sautee them in olive oil on medium heat until onions are translucent. Add in steamed veggies, and toss with onions are garlic. Sautee for another 5 mins. Add back into pot with drained pasta.

- If you are using sausage, cook sausage until it's well done and set aside.

- Cube butter into small pieces, and add to big pot of veggies are pasta. Add in parmesan cheese, plus salt and pepper to taste. Heat on low for a couple minutes to melt the cheese.

- Serve as is, or add sausage in and toss.

Enjoy!

* This dish goes really well with homemade garlic bread! Let me know if anyone tries this out =)

Bling Time

I have been a busy, busy bee this week. Don't know if I ever mentioned my massive, out of control, obscenely large collection of vintage jewelry? That's actually how I kinda got my name, I have a penchant for all shiny objects! I can't flood The Greedy Seagull with tons of baubles, and I just keep having good luck finding them all over so I decided to launch a separate store focused on vintage jewelry.

Eventually, I plan on adding in cool sewing notions like beaded appliques, lace, etc and maybe some depression glass and retro tablecloths. My new shop is pure sugar, and allows me to indulge the frou frou Martha Stewart homemaker in me. All the little lovely things I find that can't go in the other shop can now be found in Ava Firenze. I have tons to list, and am working on it non stop until it all goes in! Some goodies:

Holiday Dresses Round 1

Today, I woke up feeling very ambitious, ready to photograph all 30 evening dresses that I have saved up for the holidays (even though I woke up at 11am!). I wound up with a headache and only two hours of light and I have become officially OCD with my steamer after hearing from a couple people that I should iron my items better, so I only got a third done. Still, I guess better than nothing. There are some great ones in this batch, but I haven't pulled out the big guns yet. Check it out:

Enchanted New York

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, I have been very busy running around having fun and shopping for The Greedy Seagull. I took a trip to the New York Botanical Gardens on Friday and had to share some of the beautiful pictures I took. I have to say, this week was absolutely magical and I can't believe I had never been before. The pictures speak for themselves, and remind me of why I moved to the East Coast. For those of you who don't get to see this, please enjoy and know that there is an open couch in NYC if you ever want to visit!