A weekend to celebrate, Sunset style.

Olive Oil tasting!

Being from the bay area, there are always a ton of festivals going around everywhere! This particular one was at the Sunset Magazine campus in Menlo Park. Huge HUGE festival and tons to looks at. Here are some of the things that caught my eye and taste buds at Sunset Celebration Weekend 2012.

Now this is what I call glamping (glamorous camping) to the maximum!

Swing away!

HONEY tasting! I love these adorable little honey bears. :)

Me and my beary sweet husband tested out at least ten honey flavors. Oh bother. We came away with Honey oh so fresh (straight from the beehive from 3 days in-that's fresh!), San Francisco Blend (great for allergies and delicious) and Lavender honey! The lavender honey will be great for buttercream french macaron fillings! Yep, I always have my mind on baking.

Baskets from Bali. (I need a trip, stat.)

Succulents. Super trendy and hard to kill. Perfect for me, lol.

Great Idea! Succulents can make a great art display!

When pigs fly. 

 

 

 

(Fact: I did some glass blowing while I was studying Art in college. Pretty scary but super cool!)

Virgin Bloody Mary, damn it. Yeah I forgot to get my 21 + wristband.

Wristband-check! Glass of Dancing Coyote vineyard wine.

What are your favorite summer festivals?

 

 

 

French Macaron Tower

I've been itching to bake something new and French, so I was browsing the Internet and came across French Macaron (or Macaroon, however you like to spell it) Tower, which is typically made in France for weddings. See link here for more pics of amazing towers. Lucky for me, my friends bridal shower was coming up, so I thought I'd impress her with my own attempt at the tower (we share the same passion for tasty French Macarons).

For my first shot at it, I think it came out pretty well. I can only imagine what it will look like with more practice! I attempted an ombre look with the color lavendar. The theme of the event. A bit tricky but pretty darn tasty.

Step 1: Line a Styrofoam cone with wrapping paper

Step 2: Add toothpicks and work your way up the tower.

The flavor of the cookie is Lavender (made with fresh lavender) and the cream is a Rose Meringue Buttercream.

I hope this creation inspires you to bake something tricky as well! If anything, it's a lot of fun and you get to eat cookies all day. :)

Kate Spade New York meets Milkbar Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmallow Cookies

It's rare circumstance when two divine treats meet and create something beautiful together.
Take for example, my treasure hunting at a local bay area Marshall's, which to my surprise has Kate Spade New York Inventory.

Exhibit A: this Illustrated hors d'oeuvres "Cocktails Anyone?" tray. I had this is my Macy's shopping cart for about a month now. I have been collecting KSNY home and kitchen goodies since my wedding in 2010. And seeing that I love to bake and eat a lot of snackies (Yes I eat everything I bake), this was perfect!

Ok, so I had to show it off and what better way to do it than with my homemade cookie confection? Its a Milkbar recipe called Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmallow Cookie. Its kind of intense to bake, but the outcome is sooo flippin worth it. One part is making this cornflake crunch mix and baking it and later adding it to the cookie recipe. It's crunchy chewy and salty and has ooey goeey choco chips and marshmallows uniting as one.

Oh you are drooling? Here's some pics!

What shall I bake next? Crack pie? Banana cream pie? Cinnamon bun pie? :D

Liebster Awards! Who me?

 Thanks to the lovely Marina at mCubedMakeup I now am the recipient of the VERY prestigious award of the internationally known "Libester." Ok Ok, it's just a blogger award thing, either way it just gives me another excuse to thank my dear fans for reading my blog! Please do check out my fellow bloggers page which has lot's of useful beauty reviews and tips.

"So for those of you who do not know what Liebster means, it's a German word meaning "Dearest." The award is given to up and coming bloggers with less than 200 followers who deserve some recognition and support to keep blogging. Because frankly, blogging is not an easy thing to do and it's nice to be appreciated and supported by your fellow bloggers!"

Here are the rules:

1. Link the person who gave you the award in your post.

2. Put the award in your post.

3. Choose 5 blogs with under 200 followers to receive the award.

4. Let them know you awarded them.

And the awards go to:

1.  http://bakedbyjen.blogspot.com/

2. http://fashionsedation.blogspot.com/

3.  http://maskofrunway.blogspot.com/

4. http://www.tongueincheeky.com/

5. http://mexigarian.wordpress.com/

 Baking, Food, Life, Fashion and Style, I love it ALL! So my picks are all over the map! Take a minute or two,three,four and check out their pages. Baked by Jen will satisfy your sweet tooth with a recipe or two, Fashion Sedation will make you addicted to fashion, Mask of Runway will dare you to rock short shorts! Tongue in Cheeky will give you that vintage flair you've been craving in your wardrobe, while Mexigarian will inspire you through food, life and the arts! 

xoxo,

 Franci, The Fashion Palate

 

Half Yearly Nordstrom Sale: Kate Spade New York Sunnies

I spy with my little eyes....Kate Spade New York and a half yearly sale at Nordstrom!

Kind of ended up do a little impromptu shopping at Nordstrom last night while looking for the mom-in-law's bday gift. Ended up having a "Treat.Yo.Self" moment.



Oh what a glorious day.

Can you blame me? Quite a steal for more than half off the retail price! (No worries, we still ended up finding mom something pretty and shiny).

I would srsly recommend stopping by and taking a quick glance or two at the sunglasses section in Nordstrom. I spotted a very cute polka dot Kate Spade New York sunglasses as well. Polka dots are usually a major selling point for me,  but I had been craving for the cat eye style for awhile, so I had to stick with my gut.

 Speaking of cat. Meowrrr.

Here are a few more sunglasses while we are on topic, ones that I have been majorly crushing on. Hard.

 House of Harlow 1960 'Nicole' 

icat fashion sunglasses 

Tiffany & Company

Did you shop the Nordstrom Half Yearly Sale? What sunglasses are on your hit list this summer?

Meet Beauty Army & enter a beaut-tastic giveaway!

Hi Fashion Palateers,

I wanted to share with you my latest write up for MODE Bay Area since I am very excited about the Q&A I had with Beauty Army founder & CEO Lindsey Guest. For those of you who don't know I occasionally contribute to MODE, a leading Bay Area online magazine/fashion & lifestyle blog. You got to check it out. And I 'm also a big fan of Beauty Army, a beauty box sampling service that delivers 6 beauty goodies hand picked by yourself every month. (It's only $12!).

Anyways, go check out the interview HERE and then enter though MODE'S link at the end of the blog post to WIN a free Giveaway!

You can win this whole set!

CellCeuticals worth $200!

The 3 Piece Kit Includes:
Extremely Gentle Skin Cleanser® 6.7 oz retail size
CellGenesis™ Regenerative Skin Treatment® 1 oz retail size
Extreme Defense® Anti-Cell Damage Skin Treatment® 1 oz retail size

Plus Two Deluxe Sizes of:
CerActive® Active Moisture + Barrier Repair Skin Treatment® .33 oz
NeoCell® Micro-Resurfacing Skin Treatment® .33 oz

Good for any skin type!