The Shadow Project

As an omage to Brooklyn,(and cause I'm missin' it this morning),check out this adorable project started by Katie Sokoler who taped shadow people onto the walls and sidewalks all around Brooklyn. She then waited for people to walk by and took a picture at the exact moment they matched up with their the shadow! How cute!


Check out more photos here!

A big round of thank you's!

I'm back from Brooklyn and had the most amazing time I think I've ever had in NYC. I wanted to say a big round of merci beaucoup's to all my wonderful guest bloggers! How fun it was to get home late last night and see all of my favorite bloggers posting on LPC! I feel so honored! I also had the opportunity to meet with Ms. Lisa Butterworth (my total blog crush!) of One Hot Child in the City at a little coffee shop in Union Square. We discussed all things LA/NYC and had a lovely time! If you haven't already had the chance, please stop by my lovely g.bloggers websites to take a peek!


Ms. Lily of Big Bang Studio
Ms. Caroline of The Space In-Between
Ms. Marie-Eve of Lake Jane
Ms. Melanie of You are my Fave

An unexpected Halloween brunch is my fave

Well hello, hello. I'm Melanie and I love a good party and any excuse to throw one. Although I'm not the biggest Halloween fan (I have a husband who refuses to dress up and no kids to force into costumes that make them look like a cuddly animal) I thought it would be fun to think of a Halloween party with a little twist. Since Halloween night is the time for festivities, what if you threw a brunch in the morning?

Instead of going with the black and orange color scheme you could go with white, green and a deep purple. White pumpkins, figs and other little colorful touches. A little bit of metallic gold would be nice too.

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Then you could treat your guests with brunch goodies like doughnut holes, pumpkin muffins and french toast kabobs. Can you tell I love sweet breakfast foods?

colored doughnut holes

pumpkin muffins

french toast kabobs

And don't forget to give your guests a little something on their way out. You can download the pretty designs for these sachets here and wow your guests. Maybe you could fill them with something unexpected like clementine oranges. Or would that make you like the house that gives out toothbrushes while trick or treating?

Thank you for letting me visit for the day. You can read my thoughts and ideas daily over at You Are My Fave.

The classics

Hi there! My name is Marie-Eve and I write a blog called LAKE JANE. I have several things in common with La Petite Choue, including a profound love for the city of Montreal, so I feel right at home, guest blogging here this morning!

Lately I've been thinking a lot about how to spruce up my closet for Fall and Winter. It's not that I lack fashionable pieces but rather that I lack staples. I seem to always buy trendy pieces but have no basics to pair them with. I remember when I had the opposite problem so I switched it up and went way over board and now the trendy pieces have overtaken all the basics I had accumulated. Apparently I have an issue finding a middle ground. So now I'm on a mission to add in all those pieces which I deem to be "true cold-weather classics"; the kinds of pieces you invest in because you know they'll never go out of style. Here's my list but I'd love to hear yours too!

(N.B. -I've left out shoes, bags and t-shirts because this list would be wayyyy too long)

A good trench coat (this one is by APC)



















A pair of black leggings (I like American Apparel)

















A great pair of blue jeans like these by Current Elliott


A crisp white shirt (Banana Republic)


















A solid black skirt like this one by Filipa K

















A long sleeved striped shirt (Gap)


A black leather jacket ( I dream of this washed leather jacket by Mike and Chris)


















And finally one long cuddly sweater (I love the Boyfriend cardigan by Steven Alan)

I Like Them Bones

Hello there, since Kate is out on vacation, she kindly asked me to guest blog for her. I'm Caroline and I blog over at "The Space In-Between."

So since Kate mentioned Dead Man's Bones in her pre-vacation entry, I must HIGHLY recommend it as well. I am a dire fan of Ryan Gosling and in all honesty, its not the reason why I'm recommending the band. They are actually REALLY REALLY good. A mix of a children's choir, some baritone, and some really great drum beats and you've got a fairly unique sound.

We just went to see them play last night and it was pretty awesome. The children's choir were dressed as skeletons and the choir leader head on a skeleton hoodie. Both Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields were dressed white button ups and vests.... pretty hot. i mean, i'm just sayin.'

(You can see me gushing more over Ryan on my blog, here and here.)

and thanks kate for giving me another venue to gush!

You Salty Thang

Hello pumpkinettes! This is Lily from bigBANG studio. While Kate's zipping around the big apple I'm guest-blogging at La Petite Choue for the day. Don't worry, my little crumpets, she'll be back later this week, but in the mean time she has a string of wonderful guest-bloggers lined up while she's away.

Kate's been my best friend since we bonded over a bag of Terra chips in the middle of a thunderstorm freshman year of high school. (Any gal who relishes a good thunderstorm over a bag of sweet potato chips is A+ ya-ya material in my book.) As most of you know Kate is a woman of many talents, but one of her supreme gifts (much to the glee of everyone around her) is her ability to make the *perfect* chocolate chip cookie. I've attempted to recreate it for you, this time adding a little sea salt for some pizazz. Kate's with me in thinking that chocolate + salt = a divine combination. Happy almost-weekend!

BEST-EVER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES with SEA SALT:

Preheat the oven to 375. Grease or line 2 cookie sheets.

Whisk together:
1 cup plus 3 Tbs all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda

Beat in a large bowl until well-blended:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

Add and beat until well combined:
1 large organic egg
1/4 tsp fine salt + 1/4 tsp fancy sea salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Stir in the flour mixture until well-blended and smooth. Stir in 1 cup chocolate chips.

Drop the dough by heaping teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets and sprinkle a few course sea salt crystals on top. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until the cookies are just slightly golden on top and the edges are brown, about 8 - 10 minutes. Let stand briefly, then remove to a rack to cool.

Bon appetite!

Don't be an accomplice

This past Saturday I spent four hours running up and down the dirty streets of Hollywood Blvd. looking for ransom money to bail a Hollywood starlet out of a really intense kidnap situation. I took money from a homeless man on the street, got my picture taken by an Asian tourist and chatted with Perez Hilton at a cafe. No, I am not making this up. These things really happened and guess what? They can happen to you TOO! Accomplice is a Hollywood interactive crime mystery game and it's the most fun I've had in a long time. If you've ever seen the movie THE GAME (one of my favorites) it's like being in the smack-dab-center of it! You can have up to a group of ten friends participate with you and when you begin you are given a tape recorder, a unmarked map and a black bag with a combination lock on it. WHAT?!? Check out the youtube clip below to get more information and grab some friends and try it out yourself! You'll have a blast! P.S. Did I mention that Neil Patrick Harris aka Doogie Howser started this whole thing? Classic!



P.S. Thanks to Nigel for getting us all together to participate!

Raindrops on Roses

Bon Voyage, mes petites choues! I am Brooklyn bound today for a week of much needed and highly anticipated vacation time! I am sad to be leaving the first Los Angeles thunderstorm of 2009 behind me (hence this adorable picture) however I look forward to kickin' it back Rent style on the streets of alphabet city! There will be some *surprise* guest bloggers visiting LPC while I am away so enjoy, and have a fantastic week! p.s. If you have time, check out Ryan Gosling's (I ain't playin') bands' self titled album Dead Man's Bones. It's the perfect rainy day/it's almost Halloween/I want to be cozy kinda music!

Photo Shootin'

I have never been much a take-my-photo kinda gal, however, I am in love with photography, graphic design, fashion and magazine photo shoots. A couple of friends and I came up with the idea to do a Nylon (aka the essential to life magazine) inspired photo shoot of our own. We didn't really know how it would pan out but we ended up having a great time and learning a lot too. I've had a handful of people ask me how to create their own on-the-cheap photo session, so here are the things I learned, found helpful, and hopefully will inspire you to create your own!

1) Pull pictures for inspiration. Decide what look you are going for; choose a theme, a specific location or specific costume piece. This will help streamline the process and keep you focused. We chose dirty punk rock ballerina. Here is one of our inspirational photos below!


2) Ask your friends to help out. I had a friend bring men's dress shirts and help photograph and another friend was in charge of hair and make-up. This allowed us a lot of time to concentrate on other things like clothing choices and props.

3) Pull out your dress up box! My apartment looked like an explosion of tutu's, converse sneakers and sparkly dresses!

4) Do not spend a lot of money. Here was our bill for the day:

- 5 Large Ice Soy Vanilla Lattes ($19.00)
- 2 Bottles of Andre Champagne ($9.00)
- 1 bag of dark chocolate m&m's ($2.99)
- 2 medium pizza's ($16.00)

Share clothes, props, everything! We didn't spend a penny on new clothing or fancy make-up. Using what you already have will take less pressure of getting the perfect picture and you will probably have more fun anyway.

5) Listen to music to set the mood! Our staple soundtrack was a mix of the WHIP IT soundtrack, Metric and the Yeah Yeah Yeah's.

6) Use (or borrow) a trusted friend's GOOD camera. In our case we used a Nikon D70s. We ended up taking about 1,000 pictures. After you're done taking them use iphoto or photoshop to play with colors and texture. Here are some of our finished ones below!







Many thanks to Colin & Taylor for all their help and to the people at Nicky D's for making our mid-afternoon pizza snack!

Whip It Soundtrack Give Away Results!

Congrats to the lovely and talented Ms. Lily Stockman (aka BigBANG studio) for winning the WHIP IT soundtrack give-away! Lily's name was chosen by an online random number generator.