Alcoholic gummy bears + end of summer shopping

Ingredients:

For the rosé gummy bears:

• 1 cup rosé
• 5 tablespoons kosher gelatin
• ½ cup sugar
• dot of pink food coloring
• gummy bear molds

For the strawberries and champagne gummy bears:

• 1 cup champagne
• 5 tablespoons kosher gelatin
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon strawberry extract
• gummy bear molds

Instructions:

Note: You will use the same recipe for each batch of gummy bears. Just interchange the alcohol type.

1. In a small saucepan, add liquid of choice (rosé, champagne, or even white wine). Sprinkle the gelatin (you don’t need to stir it) and let it sit and harden a bit. This will only take a couple of minutes at most.

2. Once it looks more like gel than liquid, turn on the heat. Keep your heat at low at all times. If it starts to boil, the alcohol will cook out and nobody wants that!

3. Whisk the gelatin and rosé/champagne until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Once dissolved, add in all your sugar. Continuously whisk on low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. This takes no more than 5 minutes.

4. Once the sugar is dissolved, take the mixture off the heat and add in the extract or pink food coloring. Take a toothpick and stick it in the food coloring and add a tiny little dot. A little goes a long way in this case!

5. Add your mixture to a small measuring cup so it’s easier to pour. Pour into your gummy bear molds and use an offset spatula to scrape off any excess liquid.

6. Set in the refrigerator until the gummy bears are set up. This only takes about 30 minutes.

7. Pop the gummy bears out of the molds and enjoy!

via Lauren Conrad

STUFF TO BUY ON LABOR DAY

Doughnut Women's Macaroon Backpack (amazon)

ban.do I Don't Work Here Agenda (amazon)

STATE Rodgers Lunch Box (amazon)

Christian Dior Vernis Couture Nail Lacquer No. 769 Front Row (amazon) 

long reads i'm not going to read, week of aug 14

The Incredible Shrinking Sears - NYTimes

Imagine a retailer that began by specializing in just one product, then grew into a mammoth that redefined the American shopping experience.

Among its innovations: No matter where you lived, it shipped your order directly to you, whether you were looking for cast-iron cookware, a mandolin, the newest technological marvel, or the latest in petticoats.

Amazon, right? Actually, it was Sears — a century ago.

Annie Dillard's Classic Essay: 'Total Eclipse'

Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him.

What Music Do Americans Love the Most? 50 Detailed Fan Maps 

15 Ways to Be a Better Person

1. Wear comfortable underwear.

Vox: 20 questions you were embarrassed to ask about the August eclipse, answered.

Why the Myth of Meritocracy Hurts Kids of Color

‘My favourite salad is books’ – why the French love badly translated slogan T-shirts

Put a normal woman in a bikini. That’s how to bust the beauty myth

Those who have aged in recognisably human fashion are still expected to do the decent thing and disappear

Should you take your cat out on a lead?

“All we want cat owners to consider is that every cat is an individual,” Gaines explains. “For some, walking on a lead may be suitable, but we need to be careful that we’re not just thinking of cats as dogs.”

Horror stars, then and now

I loved The Orphan. And the actress is gorgeous!

Here's a few more:

Kirsten Dunst from Interview with the Vampire 

Jodelle Ferland from Silent Hill

Lindsay Haun from Village of the Damned

Miko Hughes from Pet Semetary

(look at his little scary face)

Christina Ricci from The Addams Family

Chloe Grace Moretz in The Amityville Horror

via msn

I READ A BOOK: The Wanderers by Meg Howrey

Before I started reading this book, I heard it compared to The Martian by Andy Weir. Aside from the whole Mars/astronaut thing, the comparison doesn't exist.

The basic plot: What happens when three astronauts are picked to live in a house ... just kidding (that's a Real World reference from the 90s if anyone is out there reading this hello is this thing on).

Helen, Yoshi, and Sergei are hand-selected by a corporation for its our first trip to Mars. Before sending this crew up though, they run them through a realistic simulation to understand potential mechanical or crew issues. The perspective shifts from each of the astronauts, their families and a seemingly young but intuitive psychologist.

The astronauts seem to skirt about what they really want to say because they don't want to say anything that might ruin their chances for Mars or annoy their other counterparts.

I READ A BOOK: Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez

Mariana's collection of short stories - THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE - give you a slice of life into the streets of Argentina. I hardly know anything about living in Argentina, but the author did a wonderful job taking me on my first journey there. But I didnt go to the touristy spots, she took me to the streets. These stories give us social commentary on the area as well. She displays good people going up against bad systems.

Most of the characters are female, young, and discontent. 

And most of the stories are dark, realistic, and horror-lite. There are no ghosts or demons or murderers, but we can't ever say they don't exist for sure in the world she builds for us. And I think that's the beauty of short stories - you don't have enough time for the author to spell everything out for you. You get the slice of life, the moment, the feeling, and then you move on.

THE DIRTY KID: a young female living in the sketch part of buenos aires encounters a homeless kid

THE INN: after her father gets let go from his job, the daughter reluctantly goes along with her friend to the inn he worked at. 

THE INTOXICATED YEARS: a group of friends grow up together through drugs and a government enforced blackout

ADELA'S HOUSE: a girl and her brother become friends with adela who is missing an arm. 

AN INVOCATION OF THE BIG-EARED RUNT: a guy runs a "serial killer tour" for tourists and becomes peculiarly engrossed with one of the stories. 

SPIDERWEB: a woman and her drab husband visit her aunt and uncle. they also go on a day-trip with her favorite cousin, who the husband dislikes. 

END OF TERM: "She was shamelessly breaking down right in front of us, and we were the ones who were embarrassed." 

NO FLESH OVER OUR BONES: a woman becomes obsessed with a skull she finds. 

THE NEIGHBOR'S COURTYARD: a couple moves into a new house and the woman tries to convince her husband something strange is going on with the neighbor. 

UNDER THE BLACK WATER: a DA investigates a case about bodies of local thugs thrown into a spooky river. 

GREEN RED ORANGE: a woman's husband locks himself inside a room of his mother's house and refuses to leave. 

THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE: women set themselves on fire to protest violence against women.

ADVENTURES IN AUDIBLE REVIEWS: IQ by Joe Ide

Patricia's review caught me because it was the "Most Helpful" on an Audie Award nomination for Mystery in 2017. She has a really cute hand-on-the-cheek pose. Notably, she's also showing restraint and only using 1 exclamation point per sentence versus !!!?!, which I completely respect. This woman throwing out words like "gritty" and "fresh!" can probably make a mean batch of cookies. 

The book she is reviewing, IQ, is about "a rap mogul whose life is in danger". And for that reason Patricia wins my Audible Reviewer Award for muthafuckin' representin. 

I READ A BOOK: I Love My Love by Reyna Biddy

Well, Valentines Day is right around the corner so if you're going through a break-up or angry-single (like me), then boy do I have some poetry for you.

I LOVE MY LOVE by Reyna Biddy

People who like this book will relate to it on a "spiritual level". Reyna definitely writes from her heart over the head. But these poems are not the ramblings of someone drowning in love; they're about Reyna and about being hurt (so perhaps it's not a gift to someone you're currently dating). They're about someone learning how to love themselves and learning other people do not have the interests of your heart at the top of their to-do list. She says it herself: "the girl who writes poems about loving too hard - and not being loved hard enough."

This book will not be everyone's cup of tea. If you're into traditional poetry, this is not traditional poetry. I think the poems were a little all over the place and don't flow together as a collection. Writing a whole book about love can be a little melodramatic. I saw signs of codependency and other mindsets that will set most people up for future disappointment. I suspect this book is geared towards a specific age range - teens to twenties.

But if you get this book, I want to know who crosses your mind while you read it!

I would recommend this book to people who are new to poetry, people who like pleasefindthis, or people who just want to get themselves their own Valentines day present. (Why not, you deserve it).
If you're going through a hard break-up, this book will *get you*.

At the end of the day, I'd file this under Tumblr poetry (as I do pleasefindthis). Before you scoff and run away though, Tumblr poetry is emotional, excitable, accessible, (and all lower-case). But I enjoy these collections - because they are emotional and excitable, because they are accessible.

And because they are lower-case. Lower-case are all the same height, not one more important than the other. Unified. Worldly. I get it, man. I'm hip with the new world order.

Check Reyna Biddy out on Twitter: DearYouFromWe