Happy Autumn!

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree 

Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.

- selection from "After Apple Picking" by Robert Frost

Maybe it's because he grew up in New England and enjoyed many crisp October days, but no one seems to capture the beauty of autumn quite like Robert Frost.  Read the rest of the poem here, although the tone becomes increasingly downhearted past the selection above.

On a lighter note, Happy Fall.

Cutesy music videos? Think again

Happy three-day-weekend Friday!  Labor Day is just about here along with the conclusion of summer and the end of white being an acceptable color to wear...or not?  DC Goodwill Fashionista offers some great tips for keeping the crisp neutral season-appropriate.

In case you're needing a quick distraction on this long workday, check out these zany music videos, which manage to combine a Disney-like cuteness with Tarantino-style violence.  Don't worry: it's nothing too gory, and this is coming from the woman who closes her eyes during Jurassic Park. 

The first video is Neko Case's "People Got a Lotta Nerve," from her latest album, Middle Cyclone.  The paper-doll look of the little girls and animals makes me think of a Victorian Children's Safari Guide gone terribly awry.  Lesson learned: Never groom a tiger.




Second is She & Him's "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" from their debut album, Volume One.  The retro-pop tune is tempered by the multiple demises of songstress/actress/fashion icon Zooey Deschanel while M. Ward strums along, looking both confused and amused.  Moral of the video: Zooey can pull off just about any style (cowgirl, nightclub piano player, etc.) even amongst a horde of ghosts and a series of decapitations.




If you like what you heard, listen to more songs from Neko Case and She & Him on their respective MySpace pages.  In the meantime, have a great Labor Day Weekend!

Reading Round-Up: Names, Vampires and Potato Peel Pies

The last book I reviewed was New Moon from the Twilight series nearly three months ago (see post).  Needless to say, it's time to catch up on which books I've been reading.  In lieu of long, tedious critiques, here's a quick round-up of my latest adventures in literature (including some light lit as well).

1. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri: In a word, wonderful!  Lahiri is a master storyteller who has an eye for detail and quirky observations.  The story of Gogol Ganguli feels very real because it mixes the right amount of humor, heartache and cultural confusion.  I highly recommend The Namesake, which is Lahiri's only full-length novel (her other two books are collections of short stories).  The film version staring Kal Penn is quite good, but not as great as the novel.

2. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris: Book one of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, which spawned the hit HBO series, "True Blood," is a wonky combination of sci-fi and mystery.  Although Harris' writing reads like your typical paperback novel, the plot— a telepathic waitress falls for the lone vampire in a small Louisiana town amidst a string of grisly murders— is enough to keep your interest.  Will I read any more Sookie Stackhouse books?  Maybe.  Will I tune in for the second season of "True Blood"?  Definitely.

3. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows: A novel written as a series of letters— brilliant!  Set in 1946, the story follows a London writer's correspondence with residents on the island of Guernsey.  At first the sheer number of letter-senders and recipients is confusing, but it soon becomes apparent who the main characters are.  This book has all the warmth and sweetness of an English tea party: overall, a cozy little novel.

4. Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer: It's hard for me to give an objective review of the third book in the Twilight Saga since I've become one of their starstruck fans.  The unexpected plot twists of the previous two novels give way to a more introspective story in Eclipse, which focuses on relationships.  What the book lacks in climactic tension it more than makes up for with character development and romantic tangles.  No wonder it's many readers' favorite.

Alright, that's my two cents on these four books.  In case you missed my new gadget on the left, I'm currently reading Salman Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence.  It took about 60 pages for me to get used to Rushdie's writing style, but now I'm enjoying it.  I'll give you the final verdict when I finish.

An overdue introduction

Today, the blog is four months old.  And while that's not an impressive feat, it made me realize that I've neglected to write an introductory post...whoops. With the new banner and design format, I think now is as good a time as any for the preliminaries. 

What's with the blog's name?
Sometime around 2 a.m. a few months back, I had a slew of possible names scrawled down including such kitschy titles as "The Neverending Nautilus" and "The Night Writer" — don't ask. I couldn't think of a unifying theme for the blog since my interests are all over the place, so I turned to something more general, like my favorite color. Tiny problem there: Blogs with "green" in the title are typically eco-friendly in their content. While I'm all for conservation and green living, I'm no expert in the field.

On a whim, I pulled out Hailstones and Halibut Bones—one of my favorite childhood books that explores colors through rhymes. The poem dedicated to green includes the following lines:

Green is a grasshopper
Green is jade
Green is hiding
In the shade

Sure it's simplistic, but it works. Plus, I get a plant for a mascot.

What's J&S about? Your posts are all over the place.
If the posts come across as disjointed, I can only credit that as a reflection of their creator. My interests are so across the board (books, movies, travel, fashion, food, satire, music, science, sci-fi, coffee, etc.) that there's no telling what the next post will be. In college, I was one of those students who declared her major as undecided for as long as humanly possible, before picking one and then changing it twice. Ultimately I graduated with a degree in journalism— a popular choice for us indecisive folks who love writing— but that doesn't mean I'm any less scattered.

Expect more disjunctions.

And who exactly are you?
Ciao! My name is Nicole and I am a 23-year-old writer who dreams of getting published, visiting every continent at least once, owning a Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress and having a coffee named after me (do I ask too much?)

I grew up in a small city named Spartanburg in South Carolina but have no Southern accent; go figure. I moved four hours northeast to North Carolina in 2001, graduated from high school and made a beeline for the wonderful UNC-Chapel Hill where I had the best four years of my life (so far!) In 2008 I graduated and landed an internship with a magazine in DC. Due to the economy and iffy job market, I moved back home after the internship ended. Cue quarterlife crisis and trailer to Post Grad, i.e. my life, more or less.

Up next on my agenda: working overseas.  As a friend so eloquently explained, "People who have midlife crises buy sports cars; people who have quarterlife crises go abroad." Should all go according to plan, I will be moving to an international city this January. No details on where I'm going since it's not definite yet, but I'll blab as soon as possible.

In the meantime...
Thanks for stopping by Jade and the Shade!  Feel free to ask questions or leave remarks in the comment boxes.

Merona borrows from Madden

Notice a similarity? Last month I hit Target at the perfect time and walked away with two pairs of ballet flats for $13 each. One pair is a silken leopard print while the other, more quirky pair (above right) have some funky buttons and sequins. Imagine my surprise last week when I was in the illustrious shoe department of Nordstrom and came across its designer influence (above left).

It turns out these adorable ballet flats aren't the only Steve Madden style to influence Merona. My cousin bought these lovely sandals (below right) from Target after coveting their expensive Madden counterparts (below left).

Bottom line: I'm going through the Fall Steve Madden catalog with a highlighter and then making a beeline for Targét.

Ellie Krieger's new cookbook

The blog is still under construction, but I had to share news about Ellie Krieger's upcoming book. Last summer, I bought my first ever cookbook, The Food You Crave (also by Krieger), which has helped bridge the gap between my fancy foodie appetite and my ability to cook. And while I'm no Julia Child (or Julie Powell for that matter), I have managed to whip up several recipes from The Food You Crave while learning a thing or two about healthy eating. Krieger has a masters in nutrition from Columbia University so the book is chock-full of helpful hints to improve your daily diet without skimping taste.

Her newest book, So Easy, will hit bookstores October 26, but I'm already drooling over some of the recipe pictures they're promoting.

In the meantime, if you decide to invest in her first cookbook, I highly recommend the following recipes:

Pumpkin Pie Muffins
Energy Bars
Hummus and Grilled Vegetable Wrap
Grilled Thai Beef Salad
Pork Medallions with Cherry Sauce
Carrot Cupcakes with Lemony Cream Cheese Frosting (see my pic!)

Bon Appétit et Bonne Santé!

Jade and the Shade gets a makeover

Hello out there?

Dear readers,

Yes, I know it's been well over a month since my last post, but never fear: the blog is not dead, well at least not yet anyways.

Jade and the Shade is undergoing some big changes— both in appearance and content— so just sit tight and we'll be back ASAP....

assuming I don't break anything.