If one is in possession

of a shiny new red mac which matches one’s adored wellies with cherries, then it is absolutely de rigueur to wear it, with the hood up, absolutely all day,

 

 

 

 even if, unusually for Seattle, there isn’t a drop of rain to be seen.  Non?

 

 

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SAM I am

A very wondrous thing happened in, and to, Seattle this weekend.

We are currently lucky enough to have a view looking out over the newly-constructed Olympic Sculpture Parka branch of the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) – and on Saturday it was finally opened to the public.

The Minx and I have been taking a keen interest in its construction, as we are able to walk there very easily and she is fascinated by the proliferation of diggers which can be observed from the perimeter fence.

It truly is a marvellous space.  The landscaping is superb and wonderfully integrated into the urban environment, with a path zig-zagging down over a busy road and railway (the Minx and I are both entranced by the incredibly long freight trains which trundle constantly to and from Canada) over a bridge and past a fountain which are works of art themselves, down to a small beach.  There is a lot of immature planting as well, and it will be great to watch the park grow and mature through the seasons.

The sculptures themselves are fascinating and have been sited to create fabulous vistas against the backdrop of the Sound and the mountains, or the Space Needle and the downtown cityscape.

The park is also a magnificent example of urban renewal.  The land used to be a fuel dump and was heavily contaminated, and it has taken a huge act of will and a huge amount of money from private benefactors to create the park and to save the space from being turned into yet more soulless apartment blocks (like the one we’re currently living in). 

So Seattle also threw a party to celebrate the Minx’s ‘birthday’ and we are so looking forward to exploring (and photographing) every nook and cranny together over the next few weeks while we still live in this apartment. (Househunting is proving er, interesting and will be blogged about forthwith).

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Clifford the Big Red Cake

I’ve been swearing at this all evening, the kitchen looks like someone’s been murdered, my hands are stained pink – apparently indelibly – and I’ve spent far too much money on icing equipment and a ridiculously expensive discontinued cake tin.

Tomorrow is the Minx’s ‘official’ birthday and I’m hoping that she’ll remember that a week or so ago she requested a ‘Clifford cake’ (goodness only knows where she got that from).

At least it ought to taste lovely.  I’ve used the chocolate cake recipe from the Macrina Bakery Cookbook (Macrina is the most incredible bakery just up the road from us here in Seattle) and the bits I trimmed off the bottom were very, very delicious indeed.

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The Ornamented Life

Oh, how I subscribe to the philosophy behind these products.  Why do things have to be functional and ugly when instead they can be beautifully designed and a pleasure to look at?

Washing up would be so much more fun if you could peer down at a pretty lace drain.

 

And why bother with disguising screws when instead you can just use decorative ones?

And carving the roast would no longer be the Husband’s job if I had a chopping board with floral gutters to catch the meat juices.

 

 

 

 

And many more cakes would be made in the ‘mirrormirror’ household if I had these four beautiful ornamental cake tins, which can be arranged in all sorts of different ways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All images from The Ornamented Life.  Sorry, I can’t remember which blog I first found these on.

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Oh dear

So it’s back.

I always get completely addicted to this show in its later stages but am getting sick and tired of the long drawn out ‘bad audition’ stages.

In fact, more than sick and tired – tonight’s programme felt a bit like an end-of-the-pier freak show, and at times made for uncomfortable viewing. 

But view it we did, because tonight’s auditions took place in Seattle.

Suffice it to say that I doubt very much whether American Idol will ever return here.  Blog readers in the UK, if you watch the ITV2 highlights show you’ll start to understand what I’m up against here.

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Golden Globes

Living on the West Coast means I finally get to watch awards shows as they happen and not in the form of 40 seconds of highlights at the end of the news.

So this evening I was to be found on my sofa with a tub of Haagen-Dazs Dulce de Leche icecream to revel in watching the Golden Globes.

It was a fab night for British actors who won tons of awards and gave all the best acceptance speeches – Sacha Baron Cohen did us particularly proud (you need to turn up your speakers to hear this).

The ‘mirrormirror’ horriblest dress awards go to Cameron Diaz, who had come dressed as the Sugar Plum Fairy with too much lipstick;  and Sienna Miller, who was wearing a strange armour-plated affair and hadn’t bothered to wash her hair before putting it up in a peculiar German milkmaid ‘do’.

I appears that this is not the first time that these two have been fugly together.

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Birthday girl

Shhhh.  Don’t say anything,

 

but it’s the Minx’s birthday today.

The thing is that we’re pretending that her birthday is next week, to give us time to organise a little get together for her here in Seattle (we already had a little birthday gathering for her in London) and to make sure that she doesn’t explode from present overload.

So I have of course been feeling like the world’s worst mother today because it was her birthday and she didn’t even know.

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Resolve

Feeling all New Year-ish at the moment.  

I’ve read somewhere that this is not a particularly good time of year to be making resolutions, but the bleakness of the weather and the emptiness of the spaces where previously there were decorations seem appropriate for taking oneself firmly in hand.

And so here are my resolutions for 2007. It’s the first time I’ve ever published resolutions for all the world to see, and it’s making them seem a lot more big and scary. You are very welcome to call me to account come the end of the year.

  • Lose two stoneNew Year’s Resolutions just wouldn’t be the same without the obligatory weight loss one, but I’m getting really fed up of not being able to find clothes I like.
  • Double ‘mirrormirror’s’ revenuesNo idea how we’re going to achieve this quite yet, though we managed it last year.
  • Learn to dance obscenely wellTo which end I have just attended my first salsa class.
  • Take more time out to enjoy myself.  Am hoping this parenting malarkey might become a bit easier this year.
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2006 – A Year in Sentences

Inspired by Moxie, here are the first sentences of the first posts of each month of the last year, accompanied by the pictures I chose to illustrate said posts. The links take you to the actual posts in question.

I was hoping that this would provide a neat and comprehensive summary of my year.  Instead it is merely apparently that I generally write a load of old bollocks.

I have resolved to begin the first post of each month in 2007 with a witty, pithy and insightful remark.

January

SchielenudemirrorI’ve been thinking of doing this for some time

 

 

 

 

 

February

Purplecow

Just back from our madcap trip to the West Coast

 

 

 

 

 

March

Afternoon tea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

April

I’ve decided that I need to learn Russian.

 

 

 

 

 

 

May

I wasn’t feeling very inspired by Vogue this month until I came across these glorious summery images by Tim Walker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

June

The second mirrormirror Commenter of the Week is my very good friend and yummy mummy ‘Camilla’.

 

 

 

 

July

I’ve decided that there are very few greater pleasures then seeing the team you support win the World Cup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

August

Apologies for lack of recent blogging, but I’ve been laid low in recent days by a mystery virus.

 

 

 

 

September

Go and say hello to the lovely Joanna at Atelier 455.

 

 

 

 

 

October

So on Friday I had a bit of a dilemma.

 

 

 

 

 

November

In between the packing boxes, we managed to have a little Hallowe’en fun.

 

 

 

 

 

December

The Christmas decorations are starting to appear all over town, and I’m starting to regret the fact that our Christmas decorations are currently somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic.

 

 

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