The Modern Venus Blog

Some video fun with Chanel

I was enjoying reading through one of my favorite blogs, Now Smell This (it's all about perfume, yum) and they had the brilliance to post a couple of great Chanel vintage commercials starring Vanessa Paradis, Carole Bouquet and, of course, Catherine Deneuve.  I remember then from my youth (sound so weird to say that!) . . . I now re-post them and a couple more here. Notice how it is so clear that Calvin Klein obviously borrowed the Catherine Deneuve advert as inspiration for his various campaigns (I'm thinking particularly the one for Obsession perfume) . . .   How I love You Tube for enabling this!

Happy Holiday Weekend - here's a bonus for WIN and from Town & Country

Happy pre-Christmas weekend!  I hope you all are very warm and cozy this weekend.  As many readers of this blog know, I am a huge fan of the charity Women In Need, an incredible nonprofit that provides services to the thousands of homeless women and children here in NYC.   They continue to seek support for their programs, including programs to provide holiday meals to their clients.   So here's a big plus - if you make a donation here, and donate over $25.00, not only do you help needy New Yorkers but you get yourself a free year's subscription to Town and Country Magazine.    So please make a generous donation!  Thank you!

   

Last but certainly not least . . .

Just a few more Bergdorf's windows for your viewing pleasure (notice the fringe all over the polar bears!) . . . have a great week! 

Weekend Glitter

More Bergorf's holiday windows - is this not stunning??  Happy weekend!

More Bergdorf's

Here are some pictures of Bergorf's mini-windows . . . I love the first one posted - one thing I particularly loved it is that the artist who made the window wrapped twigs with newspaper.  If you look very very carefully you can see "Brussels spr" - I love that there is a reference to brussel sprouts!   I found that so fun.  Can you see it, too?

 

Happy Weekend! A Red Velvet Window to Kick It Off

Each year Bergdorf Goodman has, hands-down, the most beautiful holiday windows.  There are no live-action displays that have some kind of commercial tie-in or some other such gimmick, they just do drop-dead glamorous windows that are created by true artists.   For the next few posts I'm going to simply let the windows speak for themselves (I also posted a couple of pictures from last year's windows, check out this blog's archives to see them). 

I'm leading off this window tour with what is truly an incredible window - a red velvet fantasy of sorts where we are looking down into a card game with chess pieces, a roulette wheel, and lots of sumptuous satin, velvet and faux fur.  How amazing is this?  

 

What Do Cats Do All Day?

If you ever wondered . . . so funny . . . from the Huffington Post:

LOS ANGELES — What do cats do when their owners are away? There was one way to find out – "cat cams."  

Fifty house cats were given collar cameras that took a photo every 15 minutes. The results put a digital dent in some human theories about catnapping.

Based on the photos, about 22 percent of the cats' time was spent looking out of windows, 12 percent was used to interact with other family pets and 8 percent was spent climbing on chairs or kitty condos. Just 6 percent of their hours were spent sleeping.

"What surprised me was how active the cats were. I believed my three cats were sleeping during the day," said Jill Villarreal, an animal behavior scientist who collected the data for Nestle Purina PetCare's Friskies brand of cat food.                                    

The 777 photos studied by Villarreal showed the cats looking at a television, computer, DVDs or other media 6 percent of the time and hiding under tables 6 percent of the time.

Coming in at 5 percent was playing with toys; eating or looking at food finished at 4 percent.

Will the cats get movie cameras next? "We are in the think tank now," Villarreal said.

Happy Hannukah Chihuahua!

I can't believe December is already here - I'm in a bit of shock (and have a vague sense of panic with Christmas approaching!).   Maybe it's just the stress of seeing the enormous shopping lines at the famous Park Slope Food Coop which we just joined.

In any case, I do love the festive decorations that are popping up everywhere.   So here is a cute picture to enjoy for today!  I'm such a sucker for dressed-up animals . . . I LOVE that Hannukah Chihuhua!

Perfect Cranberry Sauce (and super-easy, too!)

Cranberry Perfection

I post this recipe every year.   I insist you make some yourself - because when you do, you won't know why you ever bought the store-bought jellified stuff before!  Blech.

The Perfect Cranberry Sauce

You'll Need:

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup Grand Marnier (or to taste)
4 cups cranberries (organic, preferably), rinsed and picked through for icky ones
Handful or 2 of pecans

Handful or 2 of raisins

Cinnamon and/or nutmeg to taste (I love lots of cinnamon!)

Some orange zest grating (I prefer grated zest to orange peel, but do what you wish) 

To do:

Bring water and sugar to a boil, stir it so the sugar dissolves.  Once the water is boiling, add the cranberries and bring the mixture to a boil again; once it boils, reduce flame to simmer.  Simmer for about 10 minutes or until all the cranberries break open.   Then add the Grand Marnier, pecans, raisins, orange zest, etc. .  . . once it's all a nice mixture, you can put aside to cool and then refrigerate for 2-3 hours . . . .  

I post this recipe every year.   I insist you make some yourself - because when you do, you won't know why you ever bought the store-bought jellified stuff before!  Blech.

The Perfect Cranberry Sauce

You'll Need:

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup Grand Marnier (or to taste)
4 cups cranberries (organic, preferably), rinsed and picked through for icky ones
Handful or 2 of pecans

Handful or 2 of raisins

Cinnamon and/or nutmeg to taste (I love lots of cinnamon!)

Some orange zest grating (I prefer grated zest to orange peel, but do what you wish) 

To do:

Bring water and sugar to a boil, stir it so the sugar dissolves.  Once the water is boiling, add the cranberries and bring the mixture to a boil again; once it boils, reduce flame to simmer.  Simmer for about 10 minutes or until all the cranberries break open.   Then add the Grand Marnier, pecans, raisins, orange zest, etc. .  . . once it's all a nice mixture, you can put aside to cool and then refrigerate for 2-3 hours . . . .  

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!  I will be spending it in an adorable cabin in the Poconos enjoying wine in front of the fireplace, raking leaves, and eating yummy food.  What are you going to do?

One of my favorite childhood memories was always watching "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving."  I have toyed over the years with having a party along that theme serving ice cream sundaes, popcorn, toast and jellybeans.  Wouldn't that be cute?