cuter caffeine

When i think of cute coffee, i think of ceramic cups and latte art. In the boring world, that's not always an option. But a simple way to make your takeout coffee cuter is to order a "short" size. If eight or ten ounces doesn't have enough caffeine for you, you can always add a shot or two of espresso. Anyway, the best lattes i've ever had, the Alaskan lattes, were double shorts. And they came in plain white paper cups i could decorate however i wanted, and cute stickers to cover the hole in the lid. And you buy them from tiny little roadside huts, each uniquely named and decorated. (Or, of course, at your favorite car wash.)

If you must have a bigger coffee, get a cute travel mug. My friend Julie got one from Target for my birthday -- it's white ceramic with a pink silicone lid and "sleeve." Really cute and simple.

crafts for our closets

Last spring, padded hangers really caught my attention. Wouldn't it be dreamy to have a closet full of clothes on gorgeous, padded hangers? I think that'd be good for my wardrobe too, since my clothes would really have to live up to their hangers. Also they take up more space, so i'd have to simplify a bit.... not that i have enough room even now!

I bought a bright yellow jacket at a neighbor's garage sale because it was on a silky padded hanger; i'm not even sure the hanger was for sale, but i insisted. When Hannah was on vacation, she got one for me at an antique shop as a souvenir. That brought me up to me to two lovely hangers and dozens of boring plastic ones -- plus a few supermarket-style hangers with the size marked, several ancient wire hangers, and one nice wooden one for taking sales photos.

Now I can't remember if i decided to actively look for a way to make padded hangers, or if i just stumbled across the idea, but i did find this at notebook magazine. I think i may have stumbled on it while actively looking for a particular photo associated with that magazine. And from there, i found another idea -- beaded hangers.

The padded hanger recipe requires sewing -- not much, but plenty enough to discourage me from getting started on making some right away. The beaded hanger recipe seemed much more suited to me. Plus, i already had wire hangers. I would have had to buy the type needed for padded hangers.

I had to buy a few things after all. More glue. And a lot of the beads i had wouldn't fit over the curvy part of the hanger, so i had to get some that did. But i love the way they look! I never thought i'd actually want MORE wire hangers, but i'll need them if i'm going to have a closet full of these.

I have seen them on Daiso before, but you have to buy them by the case. They don't seem to have any right now, except kids' size.

Hannah's Cute Style

From time to time other various Cookies Club members will write articles for our blog! Our first dear guest is a surprise Hannah ♥ If you want to write for our blog, let me know in a comment or email me.

I, like Melissa, have different styles. I label these "Sleepy Style", "I'm in a Band Style", and "Subtle Sparkle Style".

1) Sleepy Style.

Ever since I started college this past Autumn, my new friend is yoga pants. I refuse to wear these outside, except for yoga class and maybe run out to get the mail. So while I'm around the house, I usually wear yoga pants and t-shirts/sweatshirts. I don't really want to admit to people that I dress in Sleepy Style, but I suppose we all do.

2) I'm in a Band Style.

This style is pretty basic. This is a cozy, but more put together look than Sleepy Style. This style consists of jeans and big knit sweaters or t-shirts I've picked up at various shows. I try to make this style cute by wearing lots of jewelry (my signature, you could say), cute shoes, and various accessories. I'm not a particularly daring person, but I love to accessorize.

3) Subtle Sparkle Style.

This is what I wear when I'm not sitting in classes or at my house. This consists of jersey dresses, tights/skinny jeans, and cardigans mostly. My style isn't that different from everyone else's, but like I said before, accessorizing is my specialty.

Things that make me feel special and lovely are mascara, heels, and nail polish. Besides mascara, I’m not very good at making these a part of my regular wardrobe. I only wear heels once a week or so and my nail polish is always chipped. So I think to make my style cuter, I should practice using those items more. I also want to be more daring with my hair. I’ll do multiple different styles when I’m at home, but as soon as I’m ready to walk out the door, it’s just normal Hannah-hair.

I also think I should splurge and buy more new underwear, but I promised myself I wouldn’t talk about underwear on the internet. (*cough*but I love it*cough*)

JELLYBEAN SHAKE

Introducing the JELLYBEANS SHAKE! It's sweet, and appropriately named, but it's as healthy as salad.

This morning i was flipping through a dessert cookbook i have. In the back there are some smoothie recipes. The "Green Veggie Shake" called for celery, but i didn't have any. I did have fennel stalks, which LOOK like celery... and i had no idea what to do with them. (I already roasted the "bulb".) Maybe i could substitute them for celery in the smoothie?

It worked just fine! Don't be scared by the spinach; this is really the best way to eat it, since all you can really taste is apple and honey. It's very springy, the color of a maccha frappe. And the fennel has a slightly licorice-y taste, just like black jellybeans -- hence the name. And as i took my first sip, Grandma was sitting at the table looking at the big container of jelly beans she bought today. I tried to use those as a garnish but it just looked weird. Oh well. Spring is coming!

JELLYBEAN SHAKE

• 4-5" fennel stalk, trimmed and chopped
  
• a handful of spinach leaves
  
• 1 small apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
  
• 1 Tablespoon honey
  
• 1/4 cup milk, or however much you need to blend it nicely
  

Put everything in a blender and blend it really well. Pour it in a pretty glass and garnish with jellybeans (if you can figure out how to do it cutely), a violet, whipped cream, or a fruit slice.

Now what am i going to do with the fennel leaves?

cute food, in general

There are books, magazines, websites, and blogs upon blogs about cute food.

To me, fashionably photographed food usually looks cute no matter what it is; the cookie doesn't have to have to look like a darling little penguin in order to be cute. I have a cookbook full of recipes for penguin cookies and panda oatmeal and stuff. It's very fun, but cookies can be cute enough just by being cookies.

Fruit is already cute. All you have to do is slice it neatly and arrange it with a little cute intention, or use it to BLINGIFY pretty much any other food or drink.

I don't automatically think of vegetables as cute, but why shouldn't the fruit principles apply? Like fruits, they're fresh, colorful, and unique. Lately, i've been making a mighty effort to eat not just more vegetables, but a greater variety of vegetables (and foods in general). I've been trying to eat five different veggies a day, so when i shop sometimes i just pick something i've never cooked or eaten or heard of, and after i get home i go to my cookbook indexes and the internet to figure out what to do with it. These are like small VEGETABLE ADVENTURES. (This week it was fennel and kale.)

A while ago i got to eat a vegetarian meal prepared by Buddhist monks, and it was delicious but also really lovely to look at. That got me really interested in all the different ways to prepare vegetables, especially the ones i'm not as comfortable with -- plus i get bored with the same old lettuce and tomatoes.

Bento box recipes (i have this book) have helped me with this. They're usually simple but just a little different from what i'm used to, and presentation is inherantly important. I also have a handful of bento recipes from a magazine i bought years ago that i'm working on translating and trying. They're very simple, tiny portions.

This Mollie Katzen cookbook doesn't have any glorious photos (and i have bought cookbooks solely to look at the pictures...) but it's full of cute drawings and very handy ideas for vegetables. I've also enjoyed A Midwest Gardener's Cookbook. It's organized by season and i learned from it that i can eat violets. I just get these out from the library.

I love fresh herbs right now, too -- i've been buying bunches of them and putting them in a vase on the counter. They're so green and bright, and much cheaper than fresh cut flowers! AND fresh cut flowers don't turn into tabbouli or pesto.

Now protein is another story. Little beans, nuts and seeds -- okay. But when it comes to meat, i'm going to have to say that vegetarianism wins the cuteness contest. I'm not a vegetarian right now but meat just isn't cute.

Except maybe sushi.

And then there's dairy. "The most popular and fashionable foods... were soft, sweet and milky, including ice-cream, cakes, milk drinks and soft deserts." [Kinsella] I happen to get most of my dairy by drinking lattes.

I haven't given much thought to making whole grains cute. My initial thought: onigiri. And there's the aforementioned animal-themed oatmeal.

But as for bread... loveliness abounds. Bread of course comes from dreamy French bakeries, where it's organized by shape in rustic baskets with handwritten signs by a cute girl in a pretty apron with a romantic boyfriend drinking espresso at the patio table near his bicycle with flowers for her in the basket. It's also closely linked to muffins, cake, and by extension pastries, ice cream, candy, and of course there is no question about the cuteness of sweets.

But really, even plain old toast with jam is kinda cute.

handwriting... oh...

Everything should be cute. Lovely girls write letters, and love notes, and dreamy entries in secret diaries.

Well, that ideal image is ruined a bit if the lovely girl has ugly handwriting.

I always loved to draw, even before i learned to write. As a toddler i didn't know there was a right or wrong way to hold a pencil, and just did what seemed natural -- as long as i could waste reams of paper by covering each sheet with a large smiley face. I soon moved on to drawing Funny Bunny and Friends, the Happy Mobile gang (the Happy Mobile was our big green truck), and by first grade I'd finally stopped drawing Dad's mustache above his nose. And by then, i was also learning to write. But alas, it was too late to change my well-established grip on my pencil, even with the special three-sided pencil clutch my teacher made me use for practicing penmanship.

I can hold a pen the correct way and write fine, but i never do. It's uncomfortable and I certainly can't draw that way. I can't see any benefit in changing that habit now. I already have callouses in all the right places.

I don't know if the way i hold my pen has anything to do with the neatness of my writing, but it's always been difficult for people to read it. When i rush, even i usually can't read it. I've envied people with beautiful handwriting. On the computer i like to be vicariously cute and use fonts like "Catholic School Girls," neat and bubbly, each i dotted with a heart.

Still, when i take my time, my writing's not that bad. I sometimes even get compliments. Once a friend shocked me and confessed that she envied my handwriting; over the past few years, I've grown to like my (neater) writing too.

It still probably wouldn't hurt to tweak it a little. Last year i decided i was going to learn how to write with my left hand, and i was surprised how well it came along after a bit of practice. I'm slow and it looks like a very old person's writing, but it's legible. So i feel like if i want to adjust my handwriting a little, i can do it. Here's a webpage that seems helpful. I think i will go to the library and look at some handwriting books too, mostly because it sounds interesting.

Last night i made a very profound diary entry that reads "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" about half a dozen times. After examining my several different styles (i'm most inconsistent) and flipping through previous pages, i decided i'm happy with both my print and cursive. But i picked out a few things that mean the difference between cute and anti-cute:

• no slant - when i make my letters straight up and down, cuteness is increased.
• no hurry - i simply have to take my time, or it looks awful.
  

Some articles i've read about cuteness in Japan, including the one i linked to in the previous post, mention a style of cute handwriting that became popular among teenage girls in the 1970s. Apparently the handwriting predated, or almost caused the widespread interest in cuteness that took over the country for the next few decades. It's strange to think of handwriting as being so powerful!

By all accounts, the girls used mechanical pencils and wrote horizontally, using rounded characters mixed with little pictures and English words like "happy!" It was described as difficult to read, which made me feel a little better about my own writing at first. But after more reflection, i realize there is difference between "so cute it's no longer functional" and "just plain sloppy."

I looked briefly for some examples of this cute handwriting and couldn't find any; but i'm starting to suspect it may have become the norm, rather than the 70s fad i thought it was at first. In fact, except for the "difficult to read" part, it sounds very similar to the handwriting of some Japanese friends i've had. I'm going to have to dig for some letters from a girl named Tomoko, whose writing i remembered first when i thought about that description. But here are some excerpts of other friends writing, who may have been influenced in their grade school years by the very powerful "cute handwriting."

cute research

I came by the article "Cuties in Japan" by sociologist Sharon Kinsella a while ago, i think through a fashion site. The article doesn't have that much to say about fashion actually, but plenty on how cute culture in Japan started and developed over twenty years or so (the article is 15 years old now). It's academic and so not particularly positive (or negative) about cuteness, but i find a lot of inspiration in it.