The Pop Five

I could do an entire post featuring photos of my twin sister, Ann with Margaret, but I’ll refrain. Ann’s visit made me think of family more than usual.

I have great memories of my mom baking on Friday afternoons. She worked part-time at a dental clinic and she’d start her weekend early, baking rustic loaves of bread, chocolate chip cookies, or fruit tarts. When I worked at MSN, I got in the habit of taking Friday afternoons off (just after a weekly conference call), making pizza crust, and letting it rise until dinner. I have an abundance of lemon pound cake leftover from a dinner party last week, so I think I’m going to try my hand at incorporating it into a trifle. Here’s to Friday rituals and starting the weekend slow.

I know this has floated around the web quicker than the Mr. Rogers’ helper quote this week, but I love the campaign Dove is doing. It’s worth a watch.

Who is my generation’s Audrey Hepburn of style? Gwyneth Paltrow? (Even though according to Star magazine, she’s the most hated celebrity)? Kate Moss? Chloë Sevigny? Vanity Fair’s recent issue looks at Hepburn’s fashionable life and the photos are stunning.

Image: From Reporters Associati, digital colorization by Lorna Clark

Forget lullabies and kid tunes … if there’s nothing I have learned in my five months of being a parent, it’s that when we need to pull out the big guns to get Margaret to sleep, we put on Sigur Rós. It works like a charm. Every. Time. I’m pretty excited for their new album, Kveikur, slated to release in June (and not just because it’ll give us more trance-tunes to get the baby to crash).

Tuesday, I received a delivery of Chuice. Is it wrong that I promptly put it in my fridge right next to the Irish cider, beer, and half empty bottle of coke (my husband’s mixer from the night before)? I sampled one of each blend Forrest (green juice) and River of Live (red) and both are really good. I’m a nursing mama, so I couldn’t all together do as a meal replacement (which I think is what most people do), mine was more like a mid-day snack (half a bottle) then a small lunch. I honestly felt a little pep in my step with all those fruits, nuts, and veggies!

Did you read this story? The CEO of the U.K department store chain, Next, donated his $3.6-million bonus to his employees. A feel-good story amidst a hard news week. I collaborated with Next on this piece back in 2010, and they couldn’t be lovelier to work with.

Image: Courtesy of Next Media