The much anticipated September catalog dropped this week, and in my eyes it’s the perfect depiction of fall – my favorite season. I can’t get enough of activities like apple picking, the smell of crisp air, jumping into piles of leaves…and the clothes, oh the clothes…
I love fall fashion. It’s chunky knits, cozy fabrics, jackets, scarves, and ankle boots. It’s plaids and flannels – furs and fairisle. The September catalog falls nothing short of what I love about fall fashion. I can’t wait to get all cuddled up in these clothes with a good book and a mug of something hot. Which outfit will you all be wearing to enjoy autumn delights?
I’ve been waking up really early, and rather than lay there tossing and turning trying to fall back asleep, I’ve decided to put my mornings to good use. Like a crazy person I’ve been getting up and putting in early morning workouts. It’s great to get it out of the way, but it definitely leaves you wanting a good recharge with breakfast. As a solution, I’ve put together a great post-workout morning meal that is full of healthy energy and protein. The combination of nuts, seeds, and fruit helps rebuild those muscles, and gets you set to conquer the day.
Ingredients:
2 Slices of Flax Seed Bread
½ Banana
Almond Butter
Honey
Flax Seeds
Directions:
Spread almond butter on one slice of bread
Cut banana lengthwise into three slices and lay them on top of the almond butter.
Place both halves into a toaster oven (or regular oven) until both slices of bread are toasted.
Games are a great thing to have in one’s artillery. On my recent trip to Hong Kong I realized why.
Firstly, getting there and back involves an extremely…long…voyage… After a while, you’ve finished the book you brought, you get sick of the movies and you’re left to your own devices. Luckily, the man next to me (we had been chatting back and forth) asked if I wanted to play a game. It was a simple word game – fun – and a godsent gift to make the time pass. After we got sick of one game we moved on to a new one, and before we knew it the plane was landing at our destination. Without our library of games, I don’t know how I would have stayed sane.
My second recent experience which taught me the power of games happened while I was out at night with two Chinese individuals – neither of which knew more than two words of English. We ended up playing a Chinese game that involved two cups, four die, and your hands – no words necessary. After that I taught them the old American hand slapping game that everyone used to play as a kid. They thought it was hysterical, and loved it. The exchange of games was fun and allowed me to connect with two people that I would otherwise have had no way to communicate with.
So I’ve come to appreciate the simple life pleasure that games provide. They introduce people, make memories, bring friends together, and help pass time. It’s always fun to learn a new a game, so try to pick up a new one. You’ll have it in your repetoire to pullout the next time you’re bored or in need. Whoever you’re playing with might be very grateful…
This week’s style-file girl is one of our employees from the NYC showroom. She’s the fun loving girl behind wholesale sales to specialty stores which means that any time you see our brand in a specialty store, she helped get it there! Here’s a bit about her life and the style she lives it with…
This week the office has been very full! All of our store managers have come into town for workshops and meetings that are going on at the home office. As they rotate throughout the building you can’t help but notice the beautiful fashions they showed up in. Many have on Free People pieces, and it’s so fun to see how they interpret the items for themselves. True to Free People spirit, there’s a lot of flowing bohemian looks, gypsy-like patterns, and intricate crochet/lace. It’s not often that we get to have these ladies around, so we snapped their style while we could. Enjoy!
Plaid is totally in right now (okay, it’s pretty much always in), and we have tons of it on our site. It’s the perfect print as we’re moving into fall since it has a warmer, cozy feel. Which plaid piece will you be getting for your wardrobe?
Well, it’s almost September now. Aside from cooler air, I’ve been looking forward to this month because tons of great bands are set to play in Philadelphia. I’m really excited to see Grace Potter and the Nocturnals whoI’ve listened to for a long time now, but have never gotten the chance to check out live. Read More
In reference to our Venetian theme this month, this week’s recipe is another of my favorite Italian-inspired recipes. Growing up my family made traditional potato gnocchi. It was always a huge production. My father and I would spend hours, rolling out hundreds of little gnocchi, preparing three different sauces, and, in the end, having a gnocchi fest with family and friends. Every person had to try the gnocchi with each sauce, falling in love anew with every bite. In the end, everyone was stuffed and happy…or uncomfortable from overeating – but – still happy…
Now that I’ve grown older and expanded my cooking experimentations, I’ve started making gnocchi with sweet potatoes. They’re a variation on the traditional version – a little healthier, and a little spicier. I don’t make hundreds, so it’s a bit less time consuming, but it still takes a while to make them. The following recipe will yield enough for 4-5 people – depending on how much you can eat. I made a homemade tomato sauce to go with them (I’ll can give you all this recipe another week if you’re interested), but they’re also good with butter & sage or any tomato/diavolo sauce you have.
Ingredients:
2 Large Sweet Potatoes
1 Baking Potato
1 Egg
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
½ Tsp Red Pepper Flakes
½ Tsp Dried Oregano
Pinch of salt
All Purpose Flour
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375˚F
Peel and dice sweet potatoes, then mix with olive oil, red pepper, and oregano in a roasting dish.
Cover dish with tinfoil, and then place in the oven to cook until potatoes are extremely tender (approx. 1/2hr)
Place baking potato to boil until it is also extremely tender (approx. 1/2hr)
Let both potatoes cool. Once the baking potato is cool enough to handle, peel and dice it. Then throw both the sweet potatoes and the baking potato together into a large mixing bowl.
Using a hand blender or rice mill blend both together until fairly creamy
Using a wooden spoon, mix in egg & a pinch of salt.
Still using a wooden spoon and working quickly, mix in flour until mixture reaches a doughy consistency. Towards the end I usually ditch the spoon and work it with my hands. It should still stick to your fingers a bit, but be thick enough to roll out once you’ve reached the right texture. It’s important to work fast so that you don’t have to add too much flour which will result in heavy gnocchi.
You’re now ready to roll out the gnocchi. Set yourself up on a table, or with enough counter space. You’ll need flour and a fork. Pour some flour on the surface, and cover your hands so that the dough doesn’t stick.
To roll out the gnocchi you first toll the dough into little logs about ½” thick. Then, using the fork, cut them into approx. 1” segments. Once you’ve done so, press the fork lightly on top to make little ridges. This is a little trick passed down through my family to help them cook just right, and it also makes them pretty.
After you’ve rolled them out, you’ll want to place the finished pieces on a towel until you are ready to cook them.
To cook the gnocchi you’ll want to set a pot of water to boil. Once it has reached a boil, drop in about 8 gnocchi at a time. Once they are cooked they will start to float, and you can scoop them out with a spatula or something with holes to let the water through.
Each serving is about 15 pieces. Drizzle with your desired sauce, garnish, and serve!
I’m in love with our new August lookbook that just dropped this week. Titled, La Dolce Vita, it literally means “the sweet life” – and it is exactly that. The rich colors, elegant details, and luxe fabrics make me want to escape to a chateau in the brisk cool of fall. Once I was there, I’d put my feet up and munch on elegant sweets just because I could. If you were able to pull together any one of these looks, what would be your outfit for living La Dolce Vita?
With this month’s catalog shot in Venice, I thought I’d give you all a recipe for one of my favorite Italian foods – gelato. This is a recipe that my grandma or aunt will whip up almost every time I visit them in Italy. I never really make it at home, so it’s earned a spot in my heart as one of those special treats I get whenever I visit my favorite place in the whole world. It’s made with hazelnuts and chocolate, like the Italian candy, Baci, from which it gets its name. More familiarly, it has a nutella-like flavoring, but whatever you relate it to, it’s a dream that melts in your mouth. Now that I have a vat of it in my fridge, it’s been really hard to stay away.
Try it out for yourself if you dare =P
Ingredients:
1 Egg
1 1/3 Cups Whole Milk
100 Grams of Dark Chocolate
¾ (generous) Cup of sugar
¾ Cups of ground hazelnuts
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
Directions:
Beat egg, 1 cup of milk, and vanilla extract together in a large bowl.
Place sugar, chocolate, 1/3 cup of milk, ¼ cup of hazelnuts into a pot, and place over a low flame. Keep stirring until chocolate is fully melted and sugar is dissolved.
Pour melted chocolate mixture into milk/egg mixture, add remaining hazelnuts, and stir vigorously until fully blended together.
Pour into a bread pan, and let cool for a bit. Once it has reached room temperature, stick the whole thing in the fridge over night.
After a night in the fridge to freeze, it should be ready to serve nde
I first met this week’s style file girl when she was still an intern. We had one of those classic intern moments with a broken copy machine, ten different types of toner, and too many blinking arrows. We ended up figuring it out while chatting back and forth a bit.
She has now been promoted from intern, to merchandise assistant for knits. She loves her job, but admits that she didn’t always know that she wanted to work in fashion. Her career began as an international business major in college from where she went to teach English in Japan for three years. She traveled all around Southeast Asia and fell in love with Japan and fashion while she was there.
In talking with her, she gave me interesting perspective on what it is about the fashion there that interested her so much – no matter how funny or different it is, the people really dress however they want. They stick out as an individual, which is an interesting thing to see expressed in a society that is so strongly community based. To further explain, she shared two of her favorite Japanese street fashion blogs with me: style-arena and Japanese streets. I’ve added the blogs to the list of blogs that I follow I found them so interesting. The style is far out, but totally cool and inspirational.
As is her own fashion! She’s a bohemian queen, but mixes in quirky vintage pieces that at times give her outfits a sense of humor. Check out her personal style and what she wore this week ;)
This week at work she was scrambling a bit because her buyer was out on vacation which left her to cover duties she’d never dealt with before. Her department (buying) serves as a central coordinator for planning, design, wholesale, and production, which means there can be a lot to do. On the day that I caught up with her to hear about it she was entering in orders with an archaic looking system (although it’s not) to be sent to our producers. This is a highly detailed process involving lots of codes. When placing an order everything is considered from cost, color, and fabric to delivery method, ship date, and unit count. It’s amazing how fast she can do it at this point. Any one of the components can get messed up at anytime, anywhere in the supply chain, and a lot of her job also involves cleaning up the mistakes to make sure that the customer gets what she wants when she wants it.
I know you’re already intrigued by how interesting this girl is, but to further interest you – here is her survey. (How cute are her doodles? They made me smile (= )
It’s no secret that Free People has some of the best jewelry around. Unique, ethnic-inspired pieces are aplenty on our website. I love the small curated collection of jewelry, Cup of Tea, that is live on the website now, but as usual with Free People jewelry, I’m a bit overwhelmed by the amazing options, and cannot chose one. What do you all think?
