eight sixty-one

For Cara-Mia

2009-11-17T12:35:00.000-05:00

This shop has a lot of cute vintage 5.5 shoes.

Sunday Evening Cozy

2009-11-15T21:26:00.000-05:00

Sunday Afternoon Tea

2009-11-15T21:25:00.000-05:00

Doug brought me back this beautiful tea set from Japan and today we decided to actually use it (too delicate to use?) and we made some buttery coco blanc from the Leland Tea Co. in San Francisco.

Lounging in Bed

2009-11-15T21:21:00.000-05:00

It's Sunday morning, Sunday morning, Sunday morning.

New Tumblr Account

2009-11-15T21:12:00.000-05:00

I've started a tumblr account to post all of the wonderful inspiration that I find for my upcoming wedding. Feel free to follow me on a wonderful adventure though the next eight months to find the perfect outfit, decorations and paper ideas to make this day the happiest (and most stylish) of my life. Follow the link below to tumblr.

Kim & Doug

Holiday Decor at Anthro

2009-11-06T07:57:00.002-05:00

Holiday shopping is here! If only I had money.

Fall Walk

2009-11-05T20:26:00.001-05:00

SEPTA is on strike which means I have to walk to school. The walk takes about an hour and this morning was so sunny that I had to take pictures on my walk. There really are a lot of pictures so here are some highlights. I also took pictures on my walk home when it was cloudy and started to rain. THis is at 4 pm... the sun is really setting much earlier now.

Pumpkin Cupcakes!

2009-11-05T20:18:00.000-05:00

I don't really like cupcakes... but I bought the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book for Doug's birthday this year because he really likes red velvet cupcakes. I've been looking to make something with pumpkin in it so I chose these pumpkin cupcakes with brown butter frosting because they didn't seem too sweet. Boy was I wrong! They were incredibly delicious though.

LA County Jury Duty

2009-11-04T13:08:00.000-05:00

I hate you. No, I will not serve on a jury during Christmas break.

Projects Book

2009-11-04T10:54:00.000-05:00

Finally finished these title pages made out of construction paper for projects I worked/am working on. Was thinking of doing a (somewhat better) paper scene for wedding invitations, what do you think?

Google?!

2009-11-04T08:19:00.000-05:00

I figured out why my images weren't being displayed as I would like them. PicasaWeb! For a few months now (when??) Picasa has downgraded their image uploading so that pictures aren't as crisp, aren't as colorful as they should be. I thought there was something wrong with my camera. So until this is fixed, or maybe even forever, I shall be using flickr. Even the pictures I uploaded last year have seen a sharp decline in quality. Very disappointing.

Assembling Furniture -

2009-11-04T06:32:00.000-05:00

So easy an idiot could do it?

I get why this was written, to be cute. Sometimes DailyCandy writers are so utterly obnoxious, especially in Philadelphia. Why do I keep subscribing anyway? So when I saw this email I had to post, somewhere, about how idiotic it is.

Roots Inc. Home Boutique Opens

Photo: Eneida Cardona from DailyCandy website

Furniture you assemble won't fall apart unless you put it together incorrectly. This includes furniture from Ikea. (Alina, that chair that broke when you sat on it is a good example - I put it together wrong). Not only that, the people at Roots Inc (I'm sure it's a fine store!) used "easy to assemble" furniture in their boutique.

Quality Meats

2009-11-02T20:02:00.002-05:00

and in the meantime..

2009-11-02T19:48:00.005-05:00

Fall happened and then disappeared.

Mike and I finished our Rocky MovieTour

2009-11-02T19:45:00.000-05:00

Phillies went to the World Series

2009-11-02T19:41:00.002-05:00

On the last night of Charette and Broad St. went crazy.

...and that's just for GOING to the world series.

We had Charette.

2009-11-02T16:17:00.000-05:00

Our program gives us three days to create something. This year, our theme was Swine Design and my team focused on quarantine. We came up with a garment called the "Scrunch" heavily based on the Snuggie.

Lilla has been sleeping on stuff...

2009-11-02T16:13:00.003-05:00

namely me.

Why I've Been Away...

2009-11-02T15:45:00.002-05:00

The last few weeks have been so hectic, so now I will try to explain my absence... First off I had to take a tour of Rocky filming locations for one of our projects.

Wish I Had Money

2009-10-12T13:09:00.000-04:00

I want this sweater coat from Anthro. Maybe one day I can knit it (yeah right).

Herbal Blendz

2009-10-12T13:05:00.001-04:00

The herbal blend from Old City Coffee (I go to the retail location in Reading Terminal Market) is so good. I bought the blend when I was sick with a cold in early September and have been enjoying it often since then. The blend has some mint mixed with chamomile and hibiscus adds a little tartness. I'm loving discovering new places all over the city.

First Yarn

2009-10-12T12:21:00.002-04:00

I bought yarn and needles for my first ever knitting project. The people at Loop were so helpful! I saw a few project patterns I would love to do once I get past novice stage. One of them was this great hat:

$7 from the loop website.

Apple Pocket Pies

2009-10-12T11:37:00.002-04:00

I bought some apple and pumpkin pocket pie cutters from Williams-Sonoma and decided to try out the apple shaped pies using the cortland apples I bought earlier this week. Not as beautiful as I had hoped but I'll have to work with them over the season. They were pretty delicious though.

How Cute is This?

2009-10-09T12:11:00.000-04:00

from Powell's

Amish Hoard

2009-10-09T12:03:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was an Amish filled day. I had a delicious half-chicken lunch in Reading Terminal Market. Then on the way home I stopped at the Fairmount farmers market where I picked up these beautiful marigolds from my favorite Amish florist plus some good veggies from his neighbors. I also picked up a 1/2 peck of cortland apples for some planned baking this weekend. The smell of these apples makes me want to eat one right now.

I Miss My Dog Friends

2009-10-08T21:51:00.001-04:00

Dogs Rule Day is coming up and I really miss all the dogs I know in LA. Three of them have moved to Monterrey with the rest of their family and I can't wait to see all of them this Christmas.

B-Scotch:

Zoe:

Zoe Dog from Kim Forsythe on Vimeo.

The Dudes: (I hope Mary Kay doesn't mind that I've included this photo, but it's a great picture)

(Joey)

(Ben)

(Chewbacca)

Lusse Te

2009-10-05T18:20:00.002-04:00

I just made some Lusse Te (special blend for Santa Lucia in early December) from Tehuset Java in Lund. It is reminding me of just how delicious saffron buns are and of last year's Nobel dinner (in our korridor) of saffron pasta. Tehuset is also where that Gotland blend and the Lund blend came from. They have some great blends on their website, especially this kärlekste (love's tea):

Mike and Kaity Got Married!!

2009-10-05T17:38:00.001-04:00

Congrats to Mike and Kaity who had a beautiful wedding last week in Alaska (I was waiting to post a picture). We will see you both soon!

(I stole this picture from facebook.)

Livin' Room

2009-10-05T13:19:00.000-04:00

Mostly pictures of stuff in bookcases.

Kitchen

2009-10-05T13:16:00.001-04:00

New kitchen island in full display.

Bedroom

2009-10-05T13:13:00.000-04:00

Our apartment is looking so much better. I need to work on why all of these images have terrible resolutions when they upload.

Raggmunk Dreams

2009-10-05T13:03:00.003-04:00

Last night Doug and I made Raggmunk from a cookbook that my friends Daniel and Lisa gave me before I left Sweden. I hadn't had Raggmunk since last year's Malmöfestival and I was happy to finally put this great cookbook to use. Unfortunately, I couldn't find raw lingonberries so I had to substitute with lingonsylt, too sweet for the traditional recipe. This food is usually served with beer so we thought it would be appropriate to break out the Dogfish Head Sah'tea we bought from The Belgian Cafe. The Finnish style proto-beer was delicious!! We sat down to eat our delicious feast while watching the last episode in season 1 of Wallander. We rounded out our night of Finno-Swedish extravagance by eating those cinnamon and cardamom buns in the previous post.

Kanelbullars Dag!!

2009-10-04T20:40:00.016-04:00

Today is cinnamon bun day in Sweden, so to celebrate I made these delicious cinnamon and cardamom buns from Falling Cloudberries. A little too crunchy for my tastes but the spices were delicious. I also made Mexican hot chocolate, a perfect pairing because of the hints of cinnamon.

Dala Hästar

2009-10-04T11:24:00.000-04:00

Had some friends over last night so I decided it would be the perfect time to make rice krispie treats. Also the perfect time to use my new Dala Häst pans that I bought from Ikea. I think Doug loves these pans more than me.

Sleepytime

2009-10-03T11:30:00.001-04:00

Buh-leah

2009-10-03T11:19:00.002-04:00

Sup with my ms paint style graphics?

These are better.

It is Late

2009-10-03T01:47:00.002-04:00

And she's sleeping on my legs.

StudioNEXT

2009-10-02T11:37:00.001-04:00

UArts Farm, what are you doing??

Working From Home

2009-10-02T10:40:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday Doug and I did a mostly "final run" to Ikea where we bought a desk for myself (yay!!) which meant we could finally put away all of the stuff in our final boxes and we also bought a kitchen island which meant we could have a lot more room in the kitchen! Our apartment is really coming together. Once I have the time to actually clean tomorrow I will post pictures of how our apartment is looking. For now, here are pictures of my work space:

RabbitRabbit

2009-10-01T18:43:00.001-04:00

Since today is October 1st I changed the month on my Fårö calendar. It has also been blustery so I decided that in keeping with the theme I would make some Gotland tea. My friend Ellen got me both of these things because she knew I really want to visit and I miss her! I also put the tea in my Moomin mug since we both love those trolls.

From At Home

Pawin Stuff

2009-10-01T17:04:00.001-04:00

Ok. So I don't want to be the kind of person who only talks about her pets or her kids but I'm going to indulge in this a lot I think.

From Lilla

Having Fun

2009-10-01T08:49:00.001-04:00

Lilla is finally playing with a few things we got her. Though she seems to be trying to kill the tunnel instead of playing with it.

From Lilla

She never touched the catnip filled pumpkin until today. She really attacked it too:

From Lilla

Ravelry

2009-09-30T10:33:00.000-04:00

Just joined Ravelry.com on Cara-Mia's recommendation in anticipation of my new knitting hobby. Be my friend if you're on there too.

http://www.ravelry.com/people/kimforsythe

Infographics

2009-09-29T15:29:00.003-04:00

I ignore basic graphing principles.

Alina and Keith Visit Philly

2009-09-29T10:25:00.003-04:00

My good friends Alina and Keith came down from New York to visit us. Unfortunately we gave Alina swine flu but she said it was all worth it. Here are some pictures that she took.

Ahhh.. the Rocky Steps

Doug and Keith "the Doctors" in front of a statue of Samuel Gross (made famous in Thomas Eakins' "The Gross Clinic") at Jefferson.

Monk's!!

The apocalypse?

2009-09-28T17:03:00.001-04:00

I jut turned around and the weather drastically changed.

Anthropologie Trap

2009-09-27T21:38:00.003-04:00

On the walk to TJ's from school I decided to stop into Anthropologie to see what they had on sale. Then while buying a favorite-color-blue pitcher I came across this notebook in Swedish. I have way too many blank notebooks and it wasn't on sale but I couldn't resist.

Update: I found this online. So apparently it's a new thing for Anthro? The annoying thing about this is no one actually knows Swedish unlike all those annoying notebooks that have French sayings like le fleur du printemps or some other nonsensical "musings" for wanna-be Anna Karinas.

Christmas in September

2009-09-27T21:19:00.000-04:00

Ikea is now selling julmust and other delicious Christmas foods. Now, I love Christmas and julmust more than most but even I think Christmas in September is a little early (see earlier Phillies game post for Christmas in July). Lowe's and even Target were also breaking out the Christmas decorations... right next to the Halloween decorations. When will it just be year-round Christmas? I did buy some knäckebröd and julmust and just had some delicious holiday soda with dinner. I can't wait until it is actually Christmas time so I can break out all of the stuff I bought in Sweden last year.

More Lilla

2009-09-27T19:04:00.001-04:00

The cuteness won't end.

Cute Awakenings

2009-09-26T10:54:00.002-04:00

It's difficult to sleep when she crawls all over us.

North Bowl

2009-09-25T23:51:00.000-04:00

After a potluck with my department, we all (including Melissa and Graeme!) went bowling at North Bowl in the Northern Liberties. Supposedly, Lebowski Fest was going on but the only evidence was that they were showing the film on a screen. There were no nerds dressed up as Jesus and no one peed on my rug. But in the spirit of things a few of us had Lebowski inspired names (Kim Jammin of course) and we ordered white russians. After that and a few pints of watered down beer I started doing weird things:

That would be Melissa and Giacomo.

Here is Doug as The Nihilist while Julianne Moore keeps her legs up:

...and no new post would be complete without a picture of Lilla:

Lilla is Home!!

2009-09-25T16:31:00.018-04:00

We finally went to pick up our kitten from the Fairmount Pet Shoppe. She is absolutely adorable. We thought she would run under the couch once we opened the crate but she just started sniffing around and before we knew it she was right at home. Lilla is Swedish for little. Here are some adorable pictures of her helping Doug while we put together some stuff we got from IKEA yesterday (how appropriate).

Why are we both cross eyed?

Lilla in a drawer

Waiting For the Bus

2009-09-23T19:15:00.002-04:00

Twilight is a good time in this city except for the fact that city
hall hasn't turned on its clock light yet.

UArts Farm

2009-09-22T16:40:00.005-04:00

Trying to figure out just what we're doing in our StudioNEXT team.

Red Wine Caramel Apples

2009-09-21T22:13:00.002-04:00

This month's Gourmet cover is looking delicious!

Staking My Claim

2009-09-21T14:06:00.003-04:00

In the studio. Finally.

Autumn!

2009-09-20T18:34:00.002-04:00

I love this season. Doug and I have been walking to the Fairmount Pet Shoppe the past few days to look at the kittens that they have for adoption and every morning has been extremely crisp! It's apple picking weather. Speaking of, I have a bunch of apples I need to figure out what to do with. Today we finally decided to bring home a black and white kitten. We are deciding on names and are liking a few. We do have a front runner at the moment... I think we'll be the 92nd adoption this year! We bring her home on Friday and there will be many pictures.

(There is a band that practices around our neighborhood that I hear every weekend. They are currently doing some jam with what sounds like slap bass. They also play an Incubus song at least three times during every practice.)

Kurt Wallander

2009-09-20T18:30:00.001-04:00

This series was filming in Ystad and Skåne while I was there last summer. Kenneth Branaugh plays Kurt Wallander in this BBC series which I have to say is extremely good. The British people in Sweden supposed to be Swedish, Speaking English but reading Swedish takes a bit of getting used to but the filming and acting is so good and the landscape is of course beautiful!

...from meetatthegate.com:

Banana Bread

2009-09-20T18:24:00.001-04:00

Baked some banana bread last night. Got the recipe from Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros. It's a delicious recipe that's a little more brown sugar and vanilla than banana. I maybe will add a bit more cinnamon next time but the amount of bananas was just right and we enjoyed it while watching The Chicago Ten. We had some for breakfast this morning and it will probably only last until tomorrow.

Fall Coming

2009-09-17T15:16:00.005-04:00

It feels like 2pm winter time in Sweden but it's actually 2pm and fall in Philadelphia. Why is it so dark?!

Sick Movie

2009-09-13T19:19:00.003-04:00

Tom Hanks as The Man With One Red Shoe

Sick Times

2009-09-13T15:51:00.001-04:00

Sick Movie

2009-09-13T10:49:00.006-04:00

Harrison Ford as The Fugitive!

Inaugurated the Fireplace

2009-09-12T18:16:00.002-04:00

We are both at home with the swine flu (Doug brings home all his hospital diseases for me) and because we are achy and it has been rainy we decided to start a fire in our amazing fireplace. Doug was a trooper trying to get it to stay lit and we had it roaring for a while but we need to stock up on supplies.

The Back Posts -- Baked Goods

2009-09-12T18:12:00.003-04:00

I've been baking a lot this summer too. I failed to take pictures of the red velvet cupcakes I made for Doug in early July as well as a peach pie I made when we moved into our new place with peaches from the Fairmount farmers market. However I have baked a bit since then so here are the pictures of what I remembered to photograph.

Peach Cobbler from Real Simple's August issue.

Brown Sugar Berry Cobbler from Gourmet.com

Apple Blackberry Pie from Rustic Fruit Desserts

The Back Posts -- Our Neighborhood

2009-09-12T18:04:00.003-04:00

I wish I had taken more pictures when it wasn't completely gloomy outside. We live in what we call the Sunset of Philadelphia (for all you SF folks). We are right by the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Rocky steps), Fairmount Park and great neighborhood stores like Bookhaven. If only we had a dog to take to the park!

The Back Posts -- Phillies Game

2009-09-12T17:59:00.001-04:00

Aimee's boyfriend Tom was nice enough to invite us to a Phillies game in late July. Citizens Bank Park is great and even though it was an extremely humid day, we had so much fun. I love visiting new ballparks.

The Back Posts -- Moved to Philly

2009-09-12T17:45:00.004-04:00

Moved to Philadelphia at the end of June and was staying in Doug's old place until we found our amazing apartment near the Art Museum. We love our home and can't believe we got so lucky.

It's Started

2009-09-12T15:56:00.001-04:00

I have decided that because there is so much going on in my life I need a place on the web to tell everyone what's new (I've recently moved across the country, started a graduate program and become engaged). I'm always finding new things and starting new projects and I hope this will be the place to share what I'm doing. It may only be interesting to me but I hope someone out there finds this and learns something new or just enjoys it for what it is: a self-indulgent internet 'blog.