pink rickshaw

trend: ear cuffs

"It is not the voice that commands the story; it is the ear."-Italo Calvino

  

Although the 90's revival has been in full swing for a while, it's still a little surprising when yet another 90's staple gets a chic update and is on trend. Case in point, the oh-so-90's ear cuff. The ear adornment is back with a bold new look and has been having quite the fashion moment. If you were over the age of 11 in the mid-nineties it's very likely you remember the 90s grunge version. I remember my ear cuff distinctly. It was from Claire's. Small and simple, made of brushed silver with some odd etching. It, along with my 90s ear crawler, (aka how my mom and I mutually agreed not to get a second piercing in middle school) were by far the two coolest things in my caboodle.

The 2014 ear cuff started popping up prominently on red carpets at the beginning of the year. The look can be glam and ornate but a simpler piece can be elegant but still add a bit of edge. The trend seems to be more simple for the ear crawler and more elaborate for the ear cuff. So, first some vocab:

Ear cuff: Worn higher on the ear usually at (or up to) the ear cartilage. The 90s version was much smaller whereas the updated 2014 version is more elaborate and dramatic and can cover the whole outer ear.
Ear crawler: Elle  perfectly described it as "less aggressive" than the ear cuff. An ear crawler basically starts at the pierced hole and goes up or "crawls" creating the faux look of multiple piercings.

Cuffs and crawlers featured above:
Top row: Bauble Bar/ Rosantica / Jules Smith / Dannijo / Bauble Bar
Bottom row: Bauble Bar/ Topshop / Smith+Mara / Jacquie Aiche / Bauble Bar
Left: Zara / Club Monaco
(Asos and Forever 21 also have budget friendly options under $10 to just see what all the fuss is about.)
The accessory is versatile enough for any hairstyle and can add some major glam to your new year's eve outfit. Definitely a fun trend to try. It will be interesting to see if the 90's stick around in 2015.  Let's just hope I'm not posting about scrunchies soon . Happy New Year!

images: Freida Pinto (Getty Images), Rita Ora, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Alba and Nicole Richie from WireImage.

-SD

 

apple cider donuts

"Donuts. Is there anything they can't do?"-Matt Groening

Around this time last year, I had the pleasure of visiting my brother when he lived in Hartford, Connecticut. One of my fondest memories of the trip (besides periodically pestering my brother by asking him if we could visit Stars Hollow*), was enjoying delightful apple cider doughnuts at a road side stand. The cider doughnut is a harvest tradition in the northeastern United States and can be found at cider mill stands along with mulled apple cider. Ask a Northerner and she will likely speak quite fondly of enjoying a nice apple cider doughnut after a day of picking apples.  As a cider doughnut newbie, I was surprised that the doughnuts do not have a strong apple taste. They have a light, subtle sweetness, a bit of tang and a hint of delicious spices like nutmeg and cinnamon. Since I would not be visiting a stand this year, I thought what would Sookie St. James* do? Well, try a homemade version, of course. And I  have to say, they may actually be better than the ones at the stands. I used this recipe from pastry chef Lauren Dawson that was printed in the Washington Post several years ago. It seems to be the go-to recipe for these doughnuts as they have been adapted multiple times on various recipe sites.

oh my blog: serial

"When I first proposed the idea of a serial show that you couldn’t binge on and had to wait for every week, some people thought I was insane. I might still be insane, but at least all my listeners are now crazy with me."-Sarah Koenig

Are you listening to the Serial podcast? The extremely popular and critically acclaimed spin-off podcast from NPR's This American Life is not only the number one podcast in the United States but is also listened to by millions globally. Thursday, episode 10 came out after a Thanksgiving hiatus and it seemed like right before it was available, the internet was about to explode in anticipation.  Like most listeners, I was hooked after episode one and like most I have numerous burning questions that I relish discussing with anyone that listens (I usually spend a few hours each week discussing Serial with my husband. The discussion starts after he spends approximately three minutes saying "Mail Kimmph?" You have to let him get it out of his system.)

The rest of this post assumes you have already started listening to the podcast or someone has already spent a few minutes telling you either how riveting the investigation is or how exceptionally well done the narrative is. But in the off chance you are not listening, here is the basic summary. The podcast presents journalist Sarah Koenig's investigation of the murder of a high school girl named Hae Min Lee in Woodlawn, Baltimore in 1999. Her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was convicted of the crime and has been in prison for it the last 15 years. Sarah Koenig spends each episode slowly peeling back another layer of this giant onion of a case.