My Name is Eileen

Yoga Challenge

2012-01-16T00:21:00.000-08:00

You might have seen the 21 day Yoga Challenge floating around on the internet, and I'm here to recommend it. I'm on day 7 of the intermediate series and it's great. I've already learned multiple new poses and stretches, and since my hips have been bothering me for a while now, I really loved the hip opener series on day 4. There's also a meditation that accompanies the challenge. You can sign up for it to receive a daily email reminder along with a daily recipe to try out. I don't know if it will still be available online after the challenge is over, but the website has a bunch of videos to try out.

Go ahead, stretch and de-stress a little bit.

Side note: I love pedicures and hipstamatic.

Winter Tea Party

2012-01-06T15:57:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to you all!

After a month of daily posting, I took a small break to travel back home and regroup. Some of you may remember that I wanted to make French macarons before the year was out, and I did! These were made on Dec. 29th for our winter tea party the next day. I am totally deeming these a success, they're really not as hard as I was expecting them to be from all that you read about them.

Mini-macs for the kiddos.

The (kid-friendly) tea party menu:

The cucumber sandwiches are cut out in flower shapes with flower bread toppers.

Cucumber sandwiches (whole wheat bread with a spread of hummus and cream cheese topped with thinly sliced cucumber)
Ham, muenster and butter on sandwich thins
Egg salad buns (these were a little big, the plan was for my sister to make some tiny ones, but she fell ill and these worked in a pinch)
PB&B's (peanut butter and banana on cinnamon raisin bread)

Chocolate chip scones
Cinnamon scones
(served with jam, homemade lemon curd and homemade clotted cream)

From Nadler's Bakery

I'm in love with all of the silver trays.

macarons
mini cheesecakes with strawberry santa hat's
Vanilla and chocolate petit-fours (bought from a local bakery)

Christmas mocktail (green sugared rim, fill glasses with sparkling cider and pour in about a tablespoon of grenadine)

Various teas and hot chocolate

After eating, we cut out snowflakes and then played outside with some party poppers and T was our stand in prop (as termed by one of the girls).

Loving the fancy dresses and fascinators

We got 4 hats on him the next night

Recipes used:

The scone and clotted cream recipes from Tea Party by Tracy Stern

Basic Scones

2 c. all purpose flour
3 Tbsp. plus 2 tsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. chilled, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg
1/2 c. plus 1 Tbsp. light cream or half and half

(I made a double batch and added 1 Tbsp. cinnamon, 1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice and 1/2 tsp. cloves. Then I split the dough in half before kneading and added 1 cup of chocolate chips to one of the halves)

Preheat oven to 400 F
Combine flour, 3 Tbsp. sugar, powder and salt. Cut in the butter.
In a separate bowl, whisk egg and 1/2 c. cream. Add egg mixture to dry mixture until moistened.
Turn dough onto floured surface, knead until smooth and then roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into desired shape and arrange on parchment lined cookie sheet. Brush on cream and sprinkle with remaining sugar (we used sanding sugar).
Bake 12-14 minutes until golden brown, cool on wire rack. Best served warm with clotted cream.

We prepared the pans hours before baking and they were just fine.

Clotted Cream

1 c. heavy cream
1/2 c. sour cream
1 Tbsp. powdered sugar

Whip heavy cream to soft peaks, whisk in sour cream and powdered sugar. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
(I actually did this by hand and it didn't take that long, so if you don't have a mixer, you'll be fine)

Lemon Curd
We were visiting T's family right before this and his dad grows Meyer lemons, so that's what we used. Can I just say, "homegrown Meyer lemons, wheee!".

Parisian Macarons (I added red food coloring during the folding process)
My piping was not very accurate, but I could pair most of them up really well (in terms of size/shape) before filling them.
The one thing I noticed is that you have to leave them in the oven long enough for the foot to happen, sometimes it took longer than the recipe called for, but once they had the foot and looked right they were done.

Chocolate Ganache Filling
I popped it in the fridge for a few minutes to thicken it up before spooning the filling onto the cookies.

For the cheesecakes, I stole this idea from my cousin, who found it on Pinterest, obviously. I don't remember which cheesecake recipe we used, but any will do. And we used whipped cream instead of icing for the hat's fur trim.

Day 31

2011-12-31T17:52:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

Where do you hope to be on Jan 1, 2013?

Next year, I hope to be healthy and content, but I also hope to have passed all of my licensing exams and have figured out a bit more of my career.

And can I just say, woohoo, December is over.

Happy New Year!

Day 30

2011-12-30T21:55:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

Were you happy with who you were in 2011? Who do you want to be in 2012 and beyond?

Looking back on 2011, I'd have to say that I am content with who I was. I may not be content with my employment, but I am content with how I handled the situation. I think I'll always believe that I could have done more, but reflecting on who I am is definitely positive. That being said, in 2012, I would like to be more proactive about ways to earn an income. Whether that means pursuing more freelance work or making some things to list on etsy, but I can't wait around trying to find someone to employ me.

Day 29

2011-12-29T12:44:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

Begin to create a plan for “My friends day out 2012″ – tell us what you envision.

I'd love to go and visit my friend in London, but she usually comes home to Austin at least once a year, and it often coincides with one of my trips to San Antonio (much cheaper scenario). So I head up to Austin and our friend, located in Houston, comes over as well, and we hang out, get Amy's ice cream and queso (different times of the day) and just reminisce about our time at school in Austin. We play with her mom's dogs and visit with her mom (who is awesome), we act silly, relax and just have a great time.

Now, if I could just get my Seattle friends there too...

Day 28

2011-12-28T22:47:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

Describe a random act of kindness that you benefited from in 2011. How will you pay it forward in 2012?

Feed an expired meter

Goodness, I feel bad that none come to mind. Something 'random' must have happened, and I just can't remember it. I can think of plenty of kind acts that I benefited from, but all from people I know. In 2012, I will try to do more of the small things. I've always volunteered and tried to be helpful, but the completely random and small acts are the ones that seem to really brighten someone's day. Something like any of these stories.

Day 27

2011-12-27T21:30:00.001-08:00

Today's prompt:

Where did your money go this year? Where do you want it to go in 2012?

Besides bills and the standard expenses, a lot of my money has gone to tests. Between the study materials and testing fees, it's been quite an endeavor.

Next year, I'd love my money to go towards travel, it's always the best use.

Day 26

2011-12-26T16:16:00.000-08:00

Today's prompt:

Share a favorite photo from the past year. What was happening behind the scenes? What were you thinking or feeling? What could you smell, taste, see, hear at that moment?

Acrylic

This photo was taken on our 2nd wedding anniversary. We spent the weekend out in Malibu and visited Point Dume, the beach where we were married. This is one of my absolute favorite pictures of T. In fact, I already sketched it earlier this month, but this time I painted it as a gift for his parents. It's not perfect, but that's why I'm practicing.

We went out to the beach and had a picnic (baguette with Irish butter, cheese and meat), we read and I sketched and the weather was great. I was excited, because we were using our new beach chairs. I usually have about an hour max attention span at the beach because I get uncomfortable, but those chairs stretched it out to at least 2 hours, which T loved, because he could spend all day there. It was just a lovely, relaxing day. And, even though we weren't too far out of town, going to a hotel is a big mental shift that helps you to unwind.

Day 25

2011-12-25T18:25:00.001-08:00

Today's prompt:

What did you celebrate in 2011? Are you looking forward to any celebrations in 2012?

Charcoal

This year, we celebrated our 2nd anniversary, birthdays, holidays and a few milestones. T and I make a point of celebrating eachother's accomplishments. When T got accepted into his MBA program and made all A's his first semester and when I passed my tests we went out to dinner to let the other know how proud we were. It's great to have someone to share those moments with. Next year, I hope to be celebrating licensure.

Day 24

2011-12-24T10:35:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

What did you finally let go of in 2011? What will you let go of in 2012

I do enjoy a certain amount of control overthings, but this year has taught me that certain things are out of mycontrol. In 2011, I finally let go ofknowing my path. I guess one can neverreally know the path that their life will take, but mine had followed the pathI set for quite some time before the economy decided to meltdown and takeforever to recover.

In 2012, I’d like to let go of some not sopleasant feelings that are still lingering about my move to California. I still miss Seattle a lot, but Los Angeleshas a lot to offer if I’d just go for it.

Holiday Cheer!

2011-12-23T22:29:00.000-08:00

I love wrapping presents, maybe a bit too much. Here are some pictures of this year's batch. I used white kraft paper, acrylic paint, lots of tape and ribbons.

All wrapped up

I played with crinkling the paper and dry brush acrylics to add texture.

Poinsettia closeup. I just painted some crinkled paper, cut the leaves, folded them down the center to create the 'vein', taped them all at the center and then taped on that wad of paper with a little yellow paint for the center.

But white-on-white looks pretty too.

Presents piled up under a tree are the best.

Day 23

2011-12-23T15:53:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

Describe something that you actively engaged in learning to do this year.

I love to learn in all ways. Whether it's knowledge or a skill, I want to acquire it, so I've done a few of these this year. My uncle has been teaching me how to turn wood, I've been actively trying to get better at painting, drawing and photography through my blank-a-day projects and I've been spending many hours studying for my architecture licensing exams.

Day 22

2011-12-22T22:33:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

What is one thing you want to do before you bid adieu to 2011? How will you make it happen?

Charcoal pencil

Not much time left, hmm. I'd really like to make those macarons on my thirty-before-thirty list before the end of the year. My sister and I are hosting a tea party after Christmas, so I guess I better buy some almond flour to make this happen.

Day 21

2011-12-21T14:49:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

The butterfly effect posits that a small change can ripple across whole ecosystems. Who do you credit for the small action that made all the difference in your life this year?

Acrylic

One small thing that made a big impact was simply meeting someone through volunteer work. I volunteer every couple of weeks with the West LA Burrito Project and I've gotten to know some of the regulars pretty well. One of those regulars passed my name along to a friend of hers and now I'm a freelance drafter for that person. This is great, because it's actual architectural drafting, which I haven't done since I left Seattle. It's been great to think about architectural concerns and use that part of my brain again. It's a pretty standard story about putting yourself out there and something good happening.

Day 20

2011-12-20T21:49:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

How has technology affected your life (positively or negatively) in 2011? Do you want this to continue for 2012?

Acrylic on gift wrap

Hmm, one might say I'm addicted to certain forms of technology (ahem, iPhone). It's normal to wake up and reach for your phone, right? And I just got a 4S yesterday, so that obsession will probably continue into the new year, but as far as a favorite thing from this year, I'd have to go with Google Reader. Though I occasionally spend way too much time looking at blogs, I subscribe to mostly visual blogs and scrolling through it all helps keep me inspired.

Next year, I'll continue to use Reader, but I'm going to try and concentrate on more artistic blogs and be sure to implement the ideas that come from the inspiration, rather than just think of great things to do. And in the future, I just need to limit myself to a certain amount of time at my computer, my worst habit is just clicking over to check 'one thing' and then noticing that half an hour has gone by.

Day 19

2011-12-19T21:44:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

Tell us about your biggest belly laugh in 2011.

My funniest moment would have to be the Great Cookie Face Race of 2011. I volunteer with the West LA Burrito Project a couple of times a month. We make burritos from scratch to pass out to the homeless, and we always have a bit of time to kill while things are cooking. We decided to try out a cookie face race one evening and had a blast. There is a video of our race, but I'm not showing it. Just imagine about 15 adults with cookies on their faces all yelling at each other about strategy. The gist of the race is that you lean your head back a bit, place a cookie on your forehead and wiggle your face around until the cookie gets into your mouth.

Day 18

2011-12-18T23:22:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

What lesson or advice were you able to pass on to others this year? Why was it important to share this information? (Or… what lesson would you like to pass on to others that read this?)

It's just paper

This year, I learned that you have to just keep making, creating and producing. You can't fear a blank page and be upset that whatever you're attempting to make didn't turn out as expected. It's important to know, because that fear can be incredibly stifling.

Day 17

2011-12-17T21:53:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

What did you discover (big or small) in 2011?

Charcoal pencil

This year, I discovered that you have to do things other than running to become better at running. You have to do drills and strength training and yoga and eat properly and get enough sleep. Seems like common sense, but sometimes you just like to keep on running, and then you get injured and have to come up with another idea.

Day 16:

2011-12-16T19:22:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

Describe something that disappointed you in 2011 and how you persevered.

Charcoal pencil of that light at the end of the current tunnel.

God, I sound like a broken record... Losing my job was a definite disappointment, but even more disappointing was failing one of my licensing exams. I've passed a couple, but I failed one and was totally devastated. I still don't know what I did incorrectly on the drawings, because there is no way to know with the testing process, but you have to wait 6 months before retesting, so I can put it out of mind a little while longer. To persevere, I simply redoubled my study efforts and took another test, which I passed.

Day 15

2011-12-15T21:51:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

What event of 2011 affected you in an unexpected way?

Today, I'm calling gift wrap and ribbon sketch materials.

This year, I suppose the unexpected event was my 5+ months of unemployment. It certainly wasn't what we were planning on, but it's had some advantages. Concentrating on art and architecture has been a wonderful side effect.

Day 14

2011-12-14T17:36:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

How did you make space + peace for yourself in 2011?

Patterns in pen

The best way that I add a hint of peacefulness to my life is a long run. My route takes me to the Pacific Ocean for a beautiful view at my halfway point. Escaping with some music and the rhythm of my feet as they propel me just can't be beat.

Day 13 & Ira Glass

2011-12-13T12:35:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

What article or book changed your outlook on an issue or life?

Charcoal pencil sketch of iterations

sorry the drawings have been lackluster the last couple of days, I have a big test tomorrow, more time will be spent on them soon

That's funny, my friend just posted this article, covering the 30 things you need to stop doing to yourself, on her facebook yesterday. And, while I'm not guilty of all of those things, I'm certainly guilty of a few and I need to work on that.

There was also an Ira Glass quote floating around the internet a while back that really spoke to me and has invigorated me, creatively speaking. In fact, it's sort of been an impetus behind my daily projects. I'm just trying to create more and often, knowing that my skill level will eventually match what I am envisioning and what I know to be good.

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
― Ira Glass

Day 12 & Diet/Exercise Update

2011-12-12T11:55:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

What was your healthiest habit of 2011? What would you like to change or do differently in 2012?

Charcoal sketch of real food for breakfast.

My healthiest habit of the year has been changing up my diet and exercise with the help of Ali at Complete Physique. I'm not perfect at the diet, but I do my best and I like that I have some accountability. The exercises have been an awesome change up from my standard running routine, and have made me faster. This past Saturday, I shaved 3+ minutes off of my 10K time. And, in 4+ weeks, I've lost almost 4". I feel stronger and leaner, which is awesome. I don't have a picture right now, because my current lens doesn't have auto-focus and I can't get my tripod photos to turn out right, but I'm getting a new one for Christmas, so it's coming. In 2012, I'd like most of what I'm doing to just be a habit, and not part of a program, I also want to start training for triathlons again, when I concentrate too much on running, I just get injured and don't really see progress.

Day 11

2011-12-11T09:35:00.001-08:00

Today's Prompt:

What 12 new things do you want to do/accomplish in 2012?

Pencil sketch of those macarons I'm going to make.

Instead of 12 things to do in 2012, I'm going to revisit my thirty before thirty list. I've got until March 5th, 2013.

Run a half Iron Man
Run a half marathon in 2:11 (10 minute miles), my most recent attempt was 2:13
Run a full marathon in 4:45 (I never said I was a fast runner), so far, my fastest is 5:01
Complete my ARE (architect's registration exam), 2 out of 7 exams passed
Make croissants from scratch, tried and they were bad, must try again
Make a new quilt for our bed
Go to New York
Develop remaining black/white film
Make a legitimate wedding album
Go to either Central or South America
Make macarons from scratch
Sell something on Etsy, I've made more than a few prototypes
Design and purchase fabric from Spoonflower
Get my IRA into a proper mutual fund
Add something every month to my IRA for at least 6 months
Paint something worth framing, working on this one
Ride a century
Fill a sketchbook with drawings, not to do lists, just about done
Learn some French
Help and encourage T to make a short film
Have a vegetable garden, I had an herb garden, I'm counting that as done, there was a fennel bulb in it
Get licensed (the architectural variety, I can already drive)
Learn Revit
Learn how to use manual settings on my camera, learned a few in October, I'm counting it as done
Make 2 new dresses
Make a pair of pants (or shorts)
Read 20 books, totally done
Blog every weekday for a month, if my photo-a-day counts, then yes, I'm counting it
Write a short story
Photograph something every day for a month, done, that was fun

I've made some progress, but there's still a lot to be done.

Day 10 & Woodturning

2011-12-10T17:31:00.001-08:00

Today's Prompt:

Share a creative project you undertook this year (art, writing, DIY, cooking, home decoration, crafts, photography … whatever comes to mind). How do you use your creativity to express yourself?

Acrylic and gold leaf

This year, I've been trying to do a lot of creating. I've been drawing, taking photos, sewing, baking, turning wood, blogging, and painting. I always get spurts of creativity, but since I've been unemployed, I've been trying to make a daily habit of it. I would say that my favorite projects this year have been my photo-a-day series on the blog and the turned objects I've made with my uncle. During the photo-a-day project, I was working on getting better at a hobby of mine that's been around for a while. With the woodturning, I was learning something that is still very new to me, which is always fun.

For the vase, we started out with this chunk of wood.

Then there was a good bit of time that looked like this (man, my hand cramped up). And I occasionally used the grinder to sharpen blades, whoa!

I added some gold leaf and polyuerthane and ended up with this. We made the bowl earlier this year.

Doing the vase was so fun, because I could actually smooth it out by myself this time (the bowl required a bit more help from my uncle) and I love gold leaf on wood. I am now looking for other things to add some shine to.

Day 9

2011-12-09T10:31:00.001-08:00

Today's Prompt

In which moment did you find yourself flooded with gratitude? How will you rally around gratitude in 2012?

How could you not be grateful for this guy?

Pencil sketch

Both of the times I passed a licensing exam this year! I always come out of those tests drained and totally unsure of what just happened. Now, gratitude wouldn't normally be associated with studying for and then passing a test, but I think it's applicable in this case. There are so many random questions that are never in the study materials and end up on these tests, that I'm thankful for whatever divine intervention or random recess of my brain is responsible for allowing me to come up with enough correct answers.

I'm also extremely grateful that my husband has been so supportive throughout all of this, and that my mom has been graciously paying for my random plane tickets home, recharging in my hometown has been entirely therapeutic.

In 2012, I hope that I can be grateful for all of the really simple and basic things that I take for granted. It would be a great way to stay focused on the positive.

Day 8

2011-12-08T11:20:00.001-08:00

Today's Prompt:

What was the biggest choice you made in 2011? What caused you to choose what you chose?

Charcoal pencil sketch of Shigeru Ban's Curtain Wall House

Ever since design school, this has been a favorite building of mine, and Shigeru Ban is amazing, his work with paper is breathtaking and beyond belief.

The biggest choice I made in 2011 was how I chose to handle this bout of unemployment (this would be bout 3 in 3 years, oh, and it's totally the longest). But part of that is by design. This time around, I've decided to concentrate on architecture as a career path. I will not accept a position unless it is employment for an architect. In order to become a licensed architect, I have to have that work experience. I'm also using my time to take my licensing exams. The exams are fairly intense, so it feels a bit like being back in school, which is something I'm very comfortable with.

Day 7

2011-12-07T11:59:00.001-08:00

Today's Prompt:

Where did you travel this year? What was your favorite part? If you didn’t get to travel, where do you want to go next year?

Charcoal pencil sketch of a detail from a New Orleans cemetery

This year, I went to Seattle in June, San Antonio in August and October (with a side trip to New Orleans). I went to Seattle to run my second marathon and see all of my old friends. My mom also flew up from Texas for this trip, because she misses visiting me in Seattle. Seattle is quite possibly the most beautiful place in summer, but my favorite part was definitely getting to see old friends and eating at old favorite restaurants. Ruining my toes in the marathon was my least favorite part.

I went home to San Antonio a couple of times this year, just because it seemed prudent to take advantage of all of that free time I have these days. It seems pretty rare to have the opportunity to just go home and hang out for a couple of weeks, so I decided I should do that while I can. Again, my favorite part was the people (and breakfast tacos). It was great to see my family and friends. The timing even worked out so that I got to see college friends living in London and Houston on a day trip to Austin, perfect.

While home in October, my parents and I took my grandparents to New Orleans. My grandma grew up there and I'd never been. I wanted her to show me the places she grew up and tell me all of her stories from growing up in and later visiting New Orleans. My favorite part was sharing some of my grandma's history with her.

Day 6

2011-12-06T11:06:00.001-08:00

Today's Prompt

What was your favorite month of 2011? Why did it beat out all 11 other months?

Okay, I cheated. This pastel sketch is actually from this summer, but I didn't like anything I drew today.

The best month of 2011, for me, would have to be August. It was the first month of no job, so I went to Texas for a few weeks and had a great time with my family. Plus, the early part of unemployment can be awesome. I got to unwind and let go of a schedule. I studied for and took my first (of seven) licensing exam, which felt personally enriching.

Day 5

2011-12-05T15:00:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

Did you meet any new friends this year? How did they impact your 2011?

Just playing with some pastels

I've been branching out, in terms of activities, this year and have met many new acquaintances, but I think it takes time and lots of shared experiences to really count someone as a friend. That being said, some of the people I've met in recent years are now becoming friends and it's been great to see that. We moved to Los Angeles almost 3 years ago, and luckily, we already had some family and friends here, but we've been trying to build our community. It's rewarding to see those efforts coming through. I've also had the opportunity to travel back to Seattle and San Antonio this year and see old friends. In terms of impact, I would just say that friends bring joy and variety to your life. They also help you make vital connections to your surroundings.

Day 4

2011-12-04T10:45:00.000-08:00

Today's Prompt:

Sum up your year, via haiku.

Lose job, woe is me
Question, study and create
Flourish, hopefully

Someday, I will stop talking about this damn job loss. I did other stuff too, I swear, see below.

Baked many a cake
Hundreds of miles were run
Travel to two homes

Day 3

2011-12-03T11:13:00.001-08:00

Today's Prompt.

What lesson did you learn in 2011 from “The School of Life” rather than a classroom?

Pencil sketch of how I choose to define myself (by my awesome bedhead)

In 2011, I learned that my career cannot be my definition. In times like these, I simply can't count on it as a source of my identity. It's been a hard lesson, but I've tried to be open to new experiences and I'm finally feeling positive enough about other things that I'm less upset about the fact that I can't find a job. I've also learned that my career may not end up looking very standard. Lately, I've been cobbling together random freelance work and that may be what the future has in store for me.

Day 2

2011-12-02T11:13:00.001-08:00

Today's WEverb11 prompt is about music.

What song did you listen to in 2011 to completely change your mood? Think about ways you can add more music to your life in 2012.

Charcoal pencil drawing of some type of aloe plant

Agh, how to choose just one! I'm going to choose 'Lost in the World' by Kanye West featuring Bon Iver. It's upbeat and dancey, but with a slow, pretty part at the beginning. My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy is a great, but totally explicit, album. And, yeah, sometimes Kanye is a bit ridiculous, but there are so many songs that are great to dance/work out to.

In 2012, I'd like to add more live music to my life. I don't even remember the last live show that I went to.

WEverb11 and Sketch-a-day:1

2011-12-01T11:42:00.001-08:00

I loved my Photo-a-day project in October, so for December, I planned to do a Sketch-a-day. Then WEverb11 came along, and I decided to combine them.

Day 1 Prompt:

Choose one word.

Encapsulate the year 2011 in one word. Explain why. Imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2012 for you?

Thread, pastel, pen, wire, gold leaf, pencil, acrylic, charcoal pencil

For 2011, I chose 'Discover'. Since this summer, I've been unemployed and I've been using the extra time to try and discover what it is that I love to do. I like doing and making lots of things, but I am still trying to find that one thing that I love. The one thing that I can spend so much time with that I become amazing at it. If anyone can tell me how to make a career out of being pretty good at a lot of things, please share.

For 2012, I hope that 'Doubtless' will be an appropriate term. I just want to be back to the point where I am absolutely sure that I'm on the right path. I lived that life until 2009 and it was pretty sweet.

Hope you enjoyed Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T15:11:00.001-08:00

Because I sure did! We had Thanksgiving brunch and dinner at my Aunt and Uncle's place in Redondo Beach, and then we headed down to his Aunt and Uncle's place in San Diego for the rest of the weekend.

My Aunt Jeanne set a beautiful table for our meals. Gourds, pumpkins, nuts, berries and candles.

Uncle Jim headed up the cooking (with a couple of people assisting), with this beautifully brined turkey as the main. The starter was butternut squash soup with creme fraiche and olive oil on top. For sides, we had two kinds of stuffing, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce

My Aunt Peggy was the mastermind behind the pies. Pecan, pumpkin and apple. We used Trader Joe's frozen pie crust for all of these. It's fantastic and we all heartily recommend them. There's already so much going on in the kitchen on Thanksgiving, so a pre-made crust makes things a bit less hectic.

We used another crust to make the leaf decorations. My Aunt Peggy and I just cut the pieces out by hand and placed them on the finished pie after they had been baked off. We had minor supervision on placement from the engineer who was present, something about equally covering the whole thing. But then, I informed him of the importance of negative space in a composition and the leaf placement was decided upon.

Apple pie is the hubs' favorite dessert, but I hate it so I've never made one for him. Well, I helped a lot on this pie, so we'll just say that I've finally made an apple pie for him. Tip for apple pies: we doubled the crumb topping recipe for this pie. Who doesn't love extra crumble?

To use up the the leftover pie pastry, we brushed on melted butter and sprinkled on cinnamon and sugar (you need more than you think). Then we cut it into strips before twisting, braiding and rolling them up. Simply bake them off at about 400 degrees until they brown.

So, that was our meal, and it was fantastic. On Friday we headed down to San Diego to visit T's family. We had a lot of fun relaxing, hanging out and eating more. The highlights were a hike at Torrey Pines with T's cousin.

And a walk around the Balboa Park with T's Aunt. There's so much to see. Some of it's free, but you can also buy a day pass for entry into all of the museums. You could bring a picnic lunch and make a whole day of it.

Two Years!

2011-11-21T17:37:00.001-08:00

Two years ago today, this happened.

T and I celebrated this weekend by spending a full day (OK, almost a full day, I had a volunteer thing in the morning) hanging out with each other, something we rarely get to do these days.

We started out horseback riding, something I've never done before.

And, I only fell off once. I'm about as lame as they come when it comes to things involving coordination. Luckily I fell into pretty soft dirt and was able to get back on and finish up. Oh, and make fun of those helmets all you want, but some other girl fell off of her horse and got a gash on her head. Always, better safe than sorry.

Then we went to Umami Burger for dinner. We'd never been before and heard so many great things that we decided to try it out. I broke my camera lens after we parked the car at Umami, so here's an iPhone pic. We had a steak salad to start (fabulous) and we each got the Umami Burger and fries for dinner. The burger was juicy and great, but the toppings were a little sweet for my taste, so I think I'll have to try something else on the menu one day. The bun was super yummy and the fries were pretty darn good. I'd definitely recommend it.

We took a little break at home before heading out to see George Clooney's new movie, The Descendants (great) to end the day.

All in all, a pretty full day. But I think the best part was that we enjoyed each other and the day even though I fell off of a horse and we broke a $200 lens (so glad the body didn't break). And what they say is true, new experiences with your partner are a great way to stay connected.

New Orleans: French Quarter

2011-11-18T14:37:00.001-08:00

It's why we all go to New Orleans, and with good reason. The architecture, colors and vibe of the place all mix up into a magical experience. And I think that's all that really needs to be said.

Saint Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square

Windows in the Louisiana State Museum in Jackson Square

Just a few pretty buildings from around the French Quarter

Part of the band in Jackson Square, music is sort of ever-present there

Some of the great iron work

And, the always useful, hitching post

One tip; Grandma says Royal St. is the pretty street and that Bourbon St. is well, you know. I'd have to agree, scantily clad women giving the come hither look to my grandpa at 7:30 p.m. made me want to leave that street A.S.A.P.

New Orleans: Food

2011-11-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick food rundown for our trip to New Orleans this fall. As you can see, we ate our way through the town.

Cafe du Monde beignets, Gumbo Shop chicken and andouille sausage gumbo, Dorignac's grocery store for Creole Cream Cheese and Nectar Syrup along with other New Orleans classics, Mondo is a Susan Spicer restaurant where we had a fabulous meal, New Orleans School of Cooking pralines being made, Afternoon tea at Windsor Court Hotel with the salmon and caviar upgrade.

Places not pictured: Refuel has the best grits in town and the friendliest owner ever, Camelia Grill is a classic for breakfast and we heard that they have the best creme pies, Deanie's has nectar cream sodas and great boiled and fried seafood, Acme Oyster House has great oysters, if you're into that, but I just had a wonderful piece of fish.

Stopping the Sugar Rush

2011-11-07T16:07:00.000-08:00

Lately, I've been thinking I shouldn't eat so much sugar, or cereal. It gets bad y'all, multiple bowls of cereal per day. So I'm starting a new 12 week diet and exercise regimen that has been personalized for me by Ali at Complete Physique. So, for the sake of accountability, here's the 'before'.

Not too bad, but I'm hoping that the strength training will be a nice change up from my usual running and maybe even get me a little bit faster. I also have the most pathetic upper body strength around, so, there's that. But what I'm really hoping is that a set menu will keep me from eating sugar bombs every day. Day 1 has been good so far, but we'll see how far the will power takes me.

In other news, T has proclaimed himself a handyman. He fixed his 'vintage' iPod using a kit from iFixit. He was supremely pleased with himself.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-31T22:03:00.000-07:00

Pumpkins!

Just a display at the store, but I'm liking the colors and shapes available these days.

October is over, I have successfully taken (and posted) every day for a month. I learned a few more things about my camera and I just took it more places, therefore getting more pictures. It's definitely a fun exercise, that I'd recommend to others.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-30T21:40:00.000-07:00

Today, I played around with light-painting.

This is a 15 second exposure; I held the light on my face for 5 seconds and then started making the star shape with the light. Felt a bit silly in my mom's yard, but it was pretty fun.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

From a walk around the neighborhood.

Just a little bokeh for the weekend.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-28T23:23:00.000-07:00

Playing more with manual settings and some editing. Probably should have polished the silver, but at least I dusted it.

f/5
1/3 second
ISO 800

Used Pioneer Woman's Action Sets for the editing.
Used sepia toned and slight lighten,

Photo-a-day

2011-10-27T19:51:00.000-07:00

Today, I started playing with Inkodye, and I'm hooked. My little cousin and I made these.

It's a really fun process and surprisingly, not that messy. They dye doesn't have much color until it gets in the sun, so clean up isn't a huge problem. And it's so fun to see the color develop and surprise you once it gets in the sun.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-26T23:30:00.000-07:00

On our way home from New Orleans, we stopped at Nottaway plantation to see a bit of the Old South.

This is some of playful wickerwork from a ladies' parlor.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-25T19:43:00.000-07:00

Today, we went to Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 in the Garden District. I really wanted to see all of the raised graves. It might be the best place to play hide and seek in all of creation.

Then we headed over to the French Quarter to see the Old Ursuline Convent. The oldest building in the Mississippi River Valley. This is a picture of the door to the adjacent church, it was built later, in the 1800's.

We leave tomorrow, so much left to see, but I'll be glad to get back to San Antonio.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-24T16:52:00.000-07:00

Another day in New Orleans. This pic is from day 2 of the WWII Museum, yesterday was the movie, today was the exhibit. Grandpa has thoroughly enjoyed both days.

A knot that was displayed on the Higgins Boat.

And here's a pic of my awesome Grandpa, he was a medic in the war.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-23T18:37:00.000-07:00

Today was a full day in New Orleans. Afternoon tea, WWII Museum, walking around the French Quarter, the Gumbo Shop and pecan pie. I couldn't pick just one picture, but I judiciously kept it to two.

We saw this Mardi-Gras costumed man near Jackson Square.

And this was the underside of The Royal Praline Company's porch. Fairly iconic of New Orleans, in my opinion.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

Day 1 in New Orleans. Here's a shot of Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter.

I can't wait to see it all during the day.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

Today, I decided to start messing with semi-manual settings. I used this article on understanding aperture.

This picture uses an f-stop of 13, a 1.3 second shutter speed and an ISO of 800. I manually focused this one and had the camera resting on a stationary object.

This picture has an f-stop of 5.6 with a shutter speed of 1/25 of a second and an ISO of 800. It was on automatic focus and still resting on that stationary object.

I finally have a grasp on how to create different depths of field. Maybe I should have played with the manual settings back when I took that photography studio in college.

And thanks to this gal for leading me to the tutorial website.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-20T16:54:00.001-07:00

The weather has been cool and lovely here in Texas.

Perfect hammock weather.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-19T21:41:00.000-07:00

Today, my sister and I made this cake.

It was almost perfect, but I think we messed up our water bath. We placed the pan directly in the water and I think it's supposed to be placed directly above the water on a rack. The bottom turned out denser and the top was light and airy perfection. Definitely going to try again.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-18T19:17:00.000-07:00

Here's today's photo...

It's the table at the local Chili's here in Texas.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-17T23:49:00.000-07:00

I was in Austin today visiting college friends. None of us live in Austin, but we occasionally have a chance to meet up there.

This is a wall of the patio cover at Home Slice on SoCo.

I'm happy to report that the weather was fine and the pizza was delicious.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

My grandpa won this piano in a church raffle. It's a player piano from 1924.

I can remember turning it on and dancing to it when I was younger, watching the paper roll spin and the keys magically move all by themselves. Neatest thing ever.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-15T19:03:00.001-07:00

Went to a family reunion today! Fun to see all the kiddos playing.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-14T21:36:00.000-07:00

I'm visiting family in Texas, so today's picture is my little cousin...

being awesome!

Photo-a-day

2011-10-13T23:09:00.000-07:00

Today's picture is of the husband. I was showing him the picture before posting for his approval and this is what he said...

"I can see why an architect would like my face", to which I replied, "yeah, your face has planes in it".

Photo-a-day

2011-10-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

I went out for a little walk tonight and caught these fall leaves with a streetlight beyond.

Then a bug got stuck in the neck of my sweater and I raced back home.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-11T23:09:00.000-07:00

Today was farmer's market day again, and I spotted this setup at my favorite fruit stand.

Got got some great stuff!

Photo-a-day

2011-10-10T23:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my aunt and uncle took me to a bead show in Santa Monica. Here's some of my loot.

I tried to backlight, but I don't have a lightbox. So this is a glass baking dish with paper in the bottom and Christmas lights underneath. Not ideal, but it helps to show some of the patterns in the agate.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-09T16:40:00.000-07:00

I was up at 4:15 this morning to make it for a 7:00 a.m. race start. The upside to this was that I got to see the sun come up.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-08T20:58:00.000-07:00

Today's photo is brought to you by a palm tree on the LMU campus.

Loving the texture.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-07T17:30:00.000-07:00

I headed down to Long Beach today to pick up my race packet for a half marathon this Sunday, and I have to say, it was kind of nice. I haven't made it down to LBC yet, and with clear, crisp air all around, I had a pretty great walk around the marina.

I took a lot of fun pictures down there today, but I settled on this one. It was just cute.

And I have to throw in one more. The air in SoCal has been amazing after it got cleaned out by a day of rain. Unfortunately, the street drainage has also been cleaned out...right into the ocean. This is where that stuff that gets thrown out in the street goes, bleh.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-06T22:38:00.000-07:00

Today's picture is brought to you by The Wall Project. The Wende Museum puts pieces of the Berlin Wall up around Los Angeles, and this piece is on Wilshire in the Museum District.

In other news, I had an ice cream sandwich from Cool Haus for dinner! Bourbon pecan pie ice cream, with a chocolate chocolate chip cookie.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-05T18:42:00.001-07:00

It rained in So-Cal today...

That is all.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-04T23:23:00.000-07:00

Today I headed to the Culver City farmer's market to pick up veggies for this week and I came across this guy.

Culver City downtown has officially been INVADED!

I love public art.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-03T23:50:00.000-07:00

Let's just call this one a placeholder. It's not very inspired, but I liked the light through the cup.

And neon pink never hurt anyone.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-02T21:24:00.000-07:00

Today's photo is brought to you by the new California Design exhibit at LACMA. Lucky for T and I, today was free day at the museum.

This brooch was made by Margaret De Patta and it's beautiful.

The exhibit had everything from toys to architectural drawings, and all of Charles and Ray Eames' living room. I highly recommend a visit.

Photo-a-day

2011-10-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

One item on my 30-b4-30 list is to take at least one picture a day for a month. October 2011 is going to be it. Here's October 1st:

I volunteered at the opening of Eames Words today. It's the new exhibit at the A+D Museum, here in Los Angeles. It's got some great insight into their thoughts on the beauty of function.

Seattle: Part 2

2011-08-28T23:34:00.000-07:00

The next day, we had lunch at Matt's in the Market with another Seattle friend. I had never been to this place when I lived in Seattle, vague memories of renovations and a reopening seem to be there from right before I moved away. But it was really great, the space was nice, with neat windows and the food was yummy.

After lunch we picked up a few more things from the market and headed back to Pauline's to start preparing for the dinner party. As with almost every dinner party I throw, I didn't take pictures, but here's a shot of Ben and I enjoying the festivities.

It was great to see most of the old gang and to get to hang out with Davey (a friend from architecture school who moved to Seattle after I left, what gives?).

The next day was pre-race day, so it was all about taking it easy. I met up with my old co-workers for lunch and then Mom, Pauline and I roamed around the market for a bit before heading back to Pauline's for a nap.

Then we headed out to my all-time favorite Italian restaurant; Machiavelli's. They were sadly out of bresaola (quite possibly the best cured meat on the planet), but the rest of the meal was fantastic. I always love the conchiglie de la casa, but this time I tried the veal milanese, both are great. There is always a wait at this tiny space, but it was worth it. I can think of no better way to load up on race carbs.

Then it was race day! Pauline did the half marathon and I did the full. We got to the start line an hour late, but the weather was pretty good and I was just happy my foot wasn't too messed up for me to run.

Please don't judge, it was so early.

Obviously, napping happened after this, but then it was time for a victory dinner at Kingfish Cafe. This fancy-ish soul food place in Capitol Hill has got to be one of the best places to get a hearty meal. Their cornbread, fried green tomatoes, hushpuppies and fried chicken are all standouts. And their cakes are gigantic, 1 slice is easily enough for 4. The owners and staff are awesome and the decor is laid back and rustic.

The next day we hobbled into breakfast at Salmon Bay Cafe in Ballard. Fishermen eat here, I think that should tell you all you need to know. Then we did some strolling around the Ballard market and a little bit of shopping on the main drag. If I hadn't been so exhausted from the race the day before I would have found my way over to Cupcake Royale for some yummy cupcake time, but I wasn't myself, I apologize.

That evening took us to dinner at Claire and Ted's house. As always Ted made a feast (bacon anyone?), and as with every dinner party (works for those I attend as well as host) I didn't take any pictures.

Which brings us to Monday, and time to go. Ted and Davey met us for breakfast down near the market and then it was time to say our goodbyes. Mom and I headed to the airport to take our separate flights and it was back to L.A.

Goodbye, Seattle.

Seattle: Part 1

2011-07-18T23:24:00.000-07:00

I just spent a fabulous week in Seattle. My mom flew in for the visit as well and we stayed with a friend in Capitol Hill, which is, in my opinion, the best neighborhood. The trip was mostly about friends, running and food (at glorious Seattle restaurants).

We were picked up by Ben downtown and headed to Fish Fry for dinner. After plenty of fried halibut and fried asparagus it was time to go and settle in at Pauline's place.

Day 2 was Pauline's birthday and started off with a trip to Bainbridge.

First, we had Green Eggs at Streamliner Diner,

all of the food comes on Fiestaware!

Then, we shopped for fabric at Esther's

an example of some quilting they had on display.

And followed that up with yarn shopping at Churchmouse

Mom bought some amazing yarn that she will be making into a tank for moi.

We rounded out the day with ice cream at Mora and the return trip on the ferry.

The Birthday Girl!

Some Bainbridge tips:

know your ferry times, there's nothing more frustrating than just missing the ferry
get to Streamliner first, it's a tiny place and one of the first stops on the main road, so it fills up fast, and they close from 2:30-5:00
when ordering at Mora, you will be in flavor overload, they keep 48 on hand, just try a bunch and know that any scoop can be split into two flavors
we didn't on this trip, but riding a bike around Bainbridge is awesome, bikes get to enter and exit the ferry first and you feel like you're about to ride into Puget sound when you get on, it's a fabulous feeling, you can spend a whole day riding around the island and hang out on a beach or two, if you like

For dinner, I took Mom and Pauline out for their June Birthdays. We went to Olivar in Capitol Hill. It is a smallish place in what was originally a Russian restaurant. The space was built in 1931 and the murals and stained glass are original and fantastic. They were restored once, about 12 years ago, according to the waitress.

Olivar is fantastic! The menu is made up of small and large plates, but the small plates are a bit larger than one might expect. We started with a cured meat plate and some grilled asparagus. Then it was gnocchi time, Pauline had been raving about it for days. Their gnocchi is seasonal, light and delicate. Our version had smoked trout, pea vines and fried capers.

Next up was the special of the night, duck confit served over lentils. The duck fell apart with the lightest touch and the lentils were perfect.

For dessert, it was flourless chocolate cake with creme anglaise and berries. Always a favorite.

Yay! Getting to celebrate birthdays!

Are you sensing a theme here? I was in Seattle to run the marathon, and you can bet I was going to make up for those burned calories.

Internet Ephemera

2011-07-01T17:02:00.000-07:00

I found my absolute favorite printable from the internet today on Apartment Therapy. It's a calendar of miniature scenes made from paper for each month. Simple: just print, cut and glue (or use double-stick tape, as I did).

You can also take a gander at all of the work they've created for their marketing clients.

I Heart Farmers' Markets

2011-06-15T21:44:00.000-07:00

Just look at the summer happening on my plate.

Delicious and stunning organic blackberries.

And lovely jewel toned organic pluots. I remember pluot season in Seattle being one of my favorite times of year. I can remember tasting these things for the first time and just being so happy. I don't particularly like plums or apricots, but pluots are magic. Some are more magic than others, the ones above are my favorite. They go by different names, these above were labelled watermelon pluots, but I've also seen them called dinosaur egg pluots. The key is that they have a mottled, reddish green skin and that the insides are the variegated red shown above.

Sometimes, California is pretty great, like when I was jogging along the beach this weekend. Yeah, that was good too.

Sadly, fennel is just now out of season. What is a girl to do?

Simple Summer Meal

2011-06-06T21:33:00.000-07:00

My apologies for the iPhone pics below, I've been too busy to edit actual pictures. Summer hasn't fully hit it's stride here in SoCal yet, as evidenced in this view from our late afternoon bike ride along Ballona Creek yesterday.

But, there is still plenty of sunshine most of the time, and I've even logged some time laying by the pool, so it's almost here. The best sign of summer has been the yummy looking produce at the farmer's market. All of this combined with an effort to up my protein and vegetable intake has led to this being summer's staple dinner for the hubs and I.

Sauteed white fish with some sort of raw (except the corn) vegetable (must include fennel) salad on the side. It started with this sole meuniere recipe from Ina Garten (love her). A light dusting of flour, lots of butter, some lemon and some lovely sole and you're done. So good. I think I've probably prepared white fish with this method just about every other week recently.

The iteration shown in the picture above is catfish with some cumin and chili powder added to the flour. The salad is tomato, fennel, bell pepper and roasted corn with a vinaigrette made with olive oil, lemon, salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder.

I've also tried out tilapia with this method. I'd have to say that the sole is my favorite, with tilapia coming in second and catfish coming in last, but still good. The sole ends up simply melting in your mouth like butter, it is more difficult to keep together while cooking, but it's worth a try. The tilapia is firmer, making it easier to keep together while cooking, but it's firmer and meatier. The catfish falls somewhere between the two texture wise, it's a bit more delicate, but the filets I used had a large vein down the center and the flavor didn't seem as clear as the sole.

Fennel seems to be the common denominator in all my vegetable sides. It just has such a refreshing flavor. One side is lightly sauteed fennel and snow peas, they're simply cooked in butter or olive oil with salt and pepper. Another favorite is raw beets, fennel and carrots with roasted corn. I use a balsamic mustard vinaigrette on this combination and it's a favorite all on it's own around here. This slaw/salad is great because it's full of hearty things that keep well for a couple of days in your fridge even though it's already dressed.

So, go out, get some veggies and fish and feel fantastic about your quickie dinner.

Explore: Mishe Mokwa Trail

2011-05-17T23:59:00.000-07:00

My aunts and I went for a hike in late March, it was right after some heavy rains and everything was green and lush (our shoes were muddy, but the hike was gorgeous). And with the rain we've been having the past few days, I'm betting there will be some pretty hiking available to SoCal residents in the near future.

We did the Mishe Mokwa Trail in the Santa Monica mountains. I chose this hike solely because of Casey Schreiner's recommendation on his blog, Modern Hiker. Um, he is really good about having things like directions and maps, so go over to his site if you want information that will actually get you to this place. We didn't do the Sandstone or Tri-Peak trails because I didn't fully warn my aunts about the length of our hike and they vetoed any additions.

What I loved most about this trail is that it goes around a peak, it's not just 'go to the top, see a pretty view and go back down'. You get a new view at every turn of the trail.

The trail was about 6 miles and it's never too steep (it's a hike so there are obviously some steep parts) and large sections of the trail are relatively flat.

We got to see Balanced Rock from a few angles, and there were some awesome formations that remind me of Easter Island statues.

There were trees over part of the trail, a few flowers and some mossy rocks to look at.

And since it was a beautiful, clear day we could see quite a ways.

This was the highest point that we got to, there was another trail up to Sandstone Peak (I believe it's the tallest in the range) but this was high enough for us.

Then it was back down the trail and off to Marix for some Tex-Mex (we're all from San Antonio, chips and salsa are like Mother's milk).

So, I encourage everyone to get out and hike before it gets too hot and all the green gets burned away by the SoCal sunshine. Your feet might get muddy, but the air will be clear and the views will be green.

Springtime = Eggs!

2011-05-01T23:31:00.000-07:00

So, I made a lemon cake with lemon curd filling for Easter, but since I took too long to write about it, I'm just calling it a springtime cake. And I've got something fun to do with all the eggshells being used. If you're from San Antonio, you know what that fun thing is, but if not, you might be in for a great way to surprise your friends.

I got a lot of compliments on this cake about how 'perfect' it was. It wasn't perfect, but it is one of the most technically excellent cakes I've ever made. Wanna know why? I followed all of the instructions to the letter. I used cake flour, I sifted, I measured carefully and, I guess, I'm getting a bit better at baking. I mean I've been baking since I was about 9, so I hope I'm getting better at it.

Now, onto the cake. I'm so excited that I got to steal some lemons from my friend's tree for this cake. There is lemon extract and zest in the cake, homemade lemon curd for the filling and I mixed a bit of lemon curd into the buttercream to make a lemon icing. The curd was the part with real zing, I decided to keep the cake and icing subtle so that it wouldn't be overwhelmingly lemony. I didn't want any one to look like the lemon babies.

Bake the cakes according to the recipe below, be sure and line your pans with parchment, it's the only surefire way to nicely remove a cake from a pan.

Make your curd according to the recipe below while the cakes cool. You have to watch the curd carefully, mine stayed the same consistency for a while and then turned into a thick lovely curd in an instant. Let it cool.

Make a standard buttercream frosting and add a few spoonfuls of curd to the icing. You only need enough curd to make 2 layers of filling.

I stated off by leveling the cakes a bit, there was a little dome on top and I just used my bread knife to remove most of it. To fill the cakes, I piped a rim of icing as a 'curd barrier' so that it wouldn't seep out. Then I filled each layer with the remaining curd.

After they were filled, I stacked them up and did my crumb coat. Pop the cake in the freezer for a few minutes and then get on to the final coat of icing.

I added a little yellow food coloring to my remaining icing and used a star tip to pipe a border. Done and Done.

Now, what to do with the eggshells? From this cake and curd you will end up with 7 eggshells and if you make a quiche you'll get up to a dozen eggshells. You might even save your eggshells for a few weeks to get yourself a few dozen. The important thing is to crack these eggs correctly. Strike the top of the egg against your counter and then head over to the sink and remove a half inch sized circle of shell with your hands. Dump out the insides and rinse out your shells.

After you've acquired all of those shells it's time to dye them. Dye them like you would any Easter eggs and then let them dry out overnight. I popped mine in a low oven for a few minutes to really get them dry.

Then you fill them with confetti and top them with tissue paper. Plain old Elmer's works, but I couldn't find any so I used my hot glue gun.

These are called cascarones. I grew up in San Antonio where these things are ubiquitous for Fiesta and Easter. Every year our school tried to ban these to save the janitors' sanity, and every year we brought them anyway.

Now for a little lesson on cascarone etiquette. Break the egg in your hand over someone's head and then smash the confetti into their hair. It's important that you not actually smash the egg on someone's head because that kind of hurts. It's best to to do this outside and use confetti that is made of paper, not shiny mylar or plastic. Paper will disintegrate. It's also polite to pick up the largest pieces of eggshell that are going to stay glued together with the tissue paper top. Everything else will return to the soil fairly quickly.

Recipe Time!

Four-Egg Yellow Cake
adapted from The Joy of Cooking

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease, flour and line with parchment three 8 or 9 inch round cake pans.

Sift together and set aside:
2 2/3 cup cake flour
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Combine in large measuring cup
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. lemon extract

Beat in large bowl until creamy
1 cup unsalted butter, softened

Gradually add and beat on high speed until light
1 1/2 cups sugar
zest of 1 large lemon

Beat in one at a time
4 egg yolks

On low speed add flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with milk mixture in 2 parts.

In another large bowl beat until soft peaks form
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

Gradually add, beating on high speed until stiff peaks form
1/4 cup sugar

Fold 1/4 of egg mixture into remaining batter, then fold in remaining whites.

Divide batter between 3 pans and bake 25-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Set aside and let cool.

Lemon Curd
from Baking Illustrated

1/3 cup lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
2 eggs plus 1 yolk
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp. cold, unsalted butter cut into small cubes
1 tbsp. heavy cream (I used half and half, worked fine)
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Heat lemon juice in small saucepan until hot, but not boiling. Whisk eggs and yolk in separate bowl, gradually whisk in sugar. Continue whisking eggs and slowly pour in hot lemon juice. Then pour mixture back into saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture is 170 degrees or is thick enough to cling to back of spoon. (I really didn't need the thermometer, the curd just turned and it was pretty obvious that it had thickened). Immediately remove pan from heat and stir in cold butter until incorporated, then stir in cream, vanilla and salt. Finally, pour curd through a fine mesh strainer and cool. Place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap (let plastic wrap touch the top of the curd so that a skin doesn't form).

There were lots of notes in this recipe about using non-reactive bowls and pans. I believe that glass, plastic, wood and stainless steel are all fine. I think the main thing with acids is to avoid the aluminum.

Lemon Icing

Make a standard buttercream, I used 2 sticks of butter, some vanilla and enough powdered sugar to reach the right consistency. Then add a few spoonfuls of your yummy lemon curd to taste. Et Voila! Lemon icing.

The ABC's of Me

2011-04-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

My computer had a meltdown last week (and I along with it). So I'm just going to do this thing, because it seems fun.

A. Age: 28

B. Bed size: Queen, and T wants to upgrade to a King. (I have no idea why, I'll still burrow next to him for warmth)

C. Chore you hate: Bathrooms! Yuck.

D. Dogs: Not so big on the animals.

E. Essential start to your day: iPhone checking, it's kinda sad.

F. Favorite color: super deep teal

G. Gold or silver: I've recently embraced all forms of sparkle

H. Height: 5’10"

I. Instruments: I played piano in 3rd grade.

J. Job title: Interior Designer with an Architecture degree

K. Kids: none, and it will stay that way for a while

L. Live: Los Angeles

M. Mom’s name: Mary

N. Nicknames: Leenie

O. Overnight hospital stays: No overnight stays, just a few day surgeries on my eyes

P. Pet peeve: How hard is it to close the door on a kitchen cabinet, I'm just saying

Q. Quote from a movie: I'm so not the kind of person that pays attention to movie quotes

R. Right or left handed: Right

S. Siblings: One brother and one sister

T. Time you wake up: 9:00, I love that.

U. Underwear: Gap Body cotton that covers everything

V. Vegetables you dislike: Green bell peppers, I think that's it

W. What makes you run late: My intense love of sleep

X. X-Rays you’ve had: lower back and teeth

Y. Yummy food you make: cakes, and more cakes

Z. Zoo- favorite animal: Not much of an animal person, but maybe a gorgeous, brightly colored bird

Update: The Brown Sugar Caramel Fro-Yo and Lace Cookies Won!

2011-04-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

I won the first NoshGirl Chef Challenge! All I have to say is yahoo! And a big thanks to Serena for hosting the competition.

In other news, Magnum Bars finally made it to the United States last month. If any of you have ventured over to Europe, you've probably sampled these amazing ice cream bars. They're so good, and I was overcome with excitement when I saw them in the grocery store the other day. So overcome in fact, that I bought some.

And I was glad that I did.

Brown Sugar Caramel Fro-yo and Lace Cookies

2011-04-03T12:32:00.000-07:00

I was so excited when Serena of Big Apple Nosh let me in on her new challenge idea. I signed up right away and am so excited to help break this thing in. The chosen ingredients are plain yogurt and brown sugar, and I decided to make a recipe that really starred these two things.

It's funny that brown sugar was an ingredient because in the past few weeks I have just come to realize how different 'good' brown sugar can make a recipe. I'd always bought the standard stuff that you can find at any grocery store, but recently I've been buying the organic kind. The texture and flavor are more different than you'd expect and I've really enjoyed trying it out in some of my standard recipes.

For these recipes I went full out and got organic dark brown sugar, this was going to be a punch of brown sugar, rather than a hint.

My first instinct was to bake something super moist with the yogurt, but I've been baking a lot lately and it's been a bit warmer here in SoCal, so I decided to try making some fro-yo instead. To make it less of an L.A. cliche, I made it with full-fat yogurt.

The dessert has three components, the fro-yo, the brown sugar caramel sauce (used in the fro-yo and as a topping), and the lace cookies that are my homemade replacement for a waffle cone.

Start by straining the yogurt, because thicker yogurt equals a creamier end result. I used a quart of yogurt and over a half cup of liquid was strained off. It's kind of impressive.

Now, the hard part, making the caramel sauce. Start with the brown sugar in a skillet over medium heat. Stir it a bit as it melts and make sure it doesn't burn.

Once, it's nice and smooth, I added the heavy cream, butter and vanilla.

It will bubble like crazy, just stir until it calms down.

Now, there may be people out there that are amazing at melting sugar and can mix in the cream and butter without making little lumps of hard caramel, but I can't figure it out. So, I just strained it.

And the end result was a lovely, dark, smooth sauce.

Next, I took the strained yogurt and added the heavy cream, vanilla and salt. I whisked it smooth and then added most of the caramel sauce.

I added the maple syrup, stirred it, then put it in the fridge to cool.

For the lace cookies, start by melting the butter in a medium bowl. Add the sugars and stir. Then add the milk, flour, vanilla and salt and combine. Finally, stir in the oats and the batter is ready.

I started out, by trying to fit 12 on a pan, no dice. These things spread like crazy.

I could comfortably fit about 6 of the cookies on there. Let them cool on the pan, because they will fall apart otherwise.

Ah, that's better. A little breathing room.

Now that your yogurt has chilled, it's time to freeze it. I have the KitchenAid ice cream bowl that you use with your stand mixer and I don't love it. It brings the temperature of the yogurt down, but it never gets super thick. So eventually I just stuck it in the freezer and gave it a good stir every half hour to an hour, so that it stayed scoopable.

After all of that, it's time to dish the fro-yo up with some of the remaining sauce on top and a cookie stuck in the side.

Maybe a sprinkling of some nice salt on top? Yeah, that would be nice. Do that.

I'm not going to lie, this has some pretty intense molasses flavor, so if you're not a fan of that, then I'd go with light brown sugar, and maybe sub in some white sugar.

Now, on to the recipes.

Brown Sugar Caramel Sauce

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 stick (8 Tbsps.) unsalted butter (if you have salted, just omit the salt from the rest of the recipe)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt

Place sugar in skillet over medium heat. Once it starts to melt, stir occasionally until it is all melted.

Lower the heat and add remaining ingredients. Stir until the bubbles calm down. Strain the sauce.

Yields about 1 3/4 cups sauce.

Brown Sugar Frozen Yogurt

32 oz. tub of plain yogurt, strained
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cup Brown Sugar Caramel Sauce
1/2 cup maple syrup

Whisk heavy cream and vanilla into yogurt until smooth. Add caramel and syrup and stir until smooth.

Chill for a couple of hours. Then follow the instructions on your ice cream maker.

Yields a little over a quart of frozen yogurt.

Brown Sugar Lace Cookies

1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. cinammon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup rolled oats

Combine melted butter and sugars. Stir in milk, vanilla, flour and spices. Add the oats and give a few stirs.

Drop by rounded 1/2 teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with a silpat or parchment. Bake at 375 degrees for 9-11 minutes. Let them cool on the pan until set.

Yields about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

Pacific Half Marathon

2011-03-27T16:48:00.000-07:00

I ran in the Pacific Half Marathon this past Saturday, and while I didn't meet my goal of 2:11, I can't feel all that bad about the 2:13 I finished in. The corresponding trail run got rained out and there were twice as many people on the road as expected. This resulted in a nice leisurely walk for the first quarter to half mile. And there were some pretty good hills. So the new goal is to find a nice, flat, fast, uncrowded course and try again.

Not all was lost though, I got to run for a few miles with a woman from my running club, that definitely helped break up the monotony, and the landscape was gorgeous. T and I also decided to get a hotel in Calabasas and took some nice drives throughout the area. We went through Malibu Canyon and ended up on the PCH. With all of the recent rain, everything is so much greener than usual and it's great.

In the end, we had a great time. If you want a pretty run with some fresh air, then this was a great race.

Patty Cake

2011-03-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

My sister and I had a little cross country bake-off for St. Patty's Day and this is what I came up with. I used this recipe for a Guinness Chocolate Cake. And the frosting is just a standard buttercream. I decided to make a hat fit for a leprechaun.

The only thing I'll say about the batter is 'don't worry about the weirdo foam'. You have to melt the butter with the Guinness and it looks super weird during the process.

But it ends up lovely and smooth, like so.

This cake is a pretty good size, I used 3 - 9" round pans and 1 - 10" springform pan, because it's what I had, and I wanted the bottom layer to be larger to act as a brim of the hat.

After the baking, I assembled the top 3 layers and popped them in the freezer for some later carving. Then I iced the bottom layer.

I set that aside and started carving the top of the hat. I wish I had a some 8" pans on hand, but I didn't, so I started out by making the whole thing a bit smaller, so that it would be noticeably different from the brim of the hat.

Once that was done, I started taking wedges off of the outside, trying to angle the sides down to a smaller circle. I ended up with a huge pile of leftover cake.

Then I set the carved part on top of the brim and iced the whole thing in green.

Afterwards I piped on some black icing for the band, and then I added a white chocolate buckle for the finishing touch.

Don't forget about your freezer.

This sucker was tall and didn't fit in my cake tin, so I rigged a protector for it, but cutting up a cereal box and wrapping it around the sides.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Ubiquitous

2011-03-12T14:59:00.000-08:00

With the recent passing of my 28th birthday, it's time for my Thirty Before Thirty list. Yes, we've all got one, I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to blog and turn 30 without one, so here's mine.

Run a half Iron Man
Run a half marathon in 2:11 (10 minute miles)
Run a full marathon in 4:45 (I never said I was a fast runner)
Complete my ARE (architect's registration exam)
Make croissants from scratch
Make a new quilt for our bed
Go to New York
Develop remaining black/white film
Make a legitimate wedding album
Go to either Central or South America
Make macarons from scratch
Sell something on Etsy
Design and purchase fabric from Spoonflower
Get my IRA into a proper mutual fund
Add something every month to my IRA for at least 6 months
Paint something worth framing
Ride a century
Fill a sketchbook with drawings, not to do lists
Learn some French
Help and encourage T to make a short film
Have a vegetable garden
Get licensed (the architectural variety, I can already drive)
Learn Revit
Learn how to use manual settings on my camera
Make 2 new dresses
Make a pair of pants (or shorts)
Read 20 books
Blog every weekday for a month
Write a short story
Photograph something every day for a month

So, there you have it, my random and, I think, reasonable list of things to do in the next 2 years. Wish me luck.

Mozza for my Birthday!

2011-03-07T11:53:00.000-08:00

I'll just apologize now for the crappy iPhone pics, but I couldn't bring myself to use a big camera at a 6-course family style dinner at Mario Batalli's and Joe Bastianich's restaurant. But everything looked just as good as it tasted and way better than the pictures below.

We went to Mozza2Go's Mangiare in Familglia (family dining). It happens on Friday's and Saturday's and the menu changes monthly. This month was 'Seeds & Grains' and Friday night was the first serving of the dishes we ate. It's a separate room with a long table and a view of the chefs at work on the fantastic meal. Reservations are required and the menus have your name on them, kind of fun.

The first course was wheat flat bread with tabouleh, Greek yogurt cheese and a white bean hummus. The bread was wood-fired and had a generous sprinkling of salt and olive oil. The spreads were all great, but I have got to try straining some Greek yogurt into cheese, it was so good.

The next course was homemade couscous with mussels, clams and oysters in broth to spoon over. I had never tried any bivalves and was determined to give them a go. Not my favorite thing in the world, but they were good and the broth was great, but the couscous was awesome, so light and flavorful.

Up next was a faro risotto with robiola and thyme. Robiola is an Italian cheese that seemed similar to brie, but I only tasted it cooked. The risotto was creamy, but because of the faro it still had some tooth to it and I loved the thyme.

After that came a hard winter wheat garganelli (like a mini canolli shape) with a rabbit ragu. It was my first time trying rabbit as well, and though I was pretty full by this point it was another great dish.

The final savory course was a grain and greens salad with chicken 'al mattone' served with it. Chicken 'al mattone' is chicken under a brick and it was crispy, salty and fabulous. Definitely my favorite chicken preparation that I've ever tasted. And a bite of the salty chicken with the vinegary salad was a perfect combination.

For dessert there was a whole grain bread pudding with rye whiskey gelato (super boozy) and vanilla cream sauce. Then there was an assortment of goodies on the side: a sesame and pumpkin seed brittle, sunflower nut butter cookies and anise seed chocolate truffles.

The final result; a very happy birthday girl in a very 'grainy' picture (hehe).

Thanks, T, I loved my birthday present.

My First Time: Piping

2011-03-02T16:38:00.000-08:00

I've always been slightly wary of piping, it's always seemed daunting to me, but I decided it was time to give it a try. My tip: try it with the same icing that's on the cake. I messed up the first time or two and just wiped it off and started again. I used one of the little icing kits you pick up at the supermarket. I used the larger star tip for the border and the plain tip for the letters. I think that icing consistency was pretty important. Mine was pretty light because the whipped butter was holding it together more than just adding powdered sugar.

Our friend requested a chocolate cake for his birthday, and I delivered. Devil's Food Cake with chocolate icing coming up.

Devi'ls Food Cake
(adapted from Baking: Illustrated)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, butter and flour 3 8-inch round cake pans, line with parchment.

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate broken into pieces
1/4 cup of cocoa
Prepare an espresso and add enough boiled water to make 1 1/4 cups

Put chocolate and cocoa in a bowl, pour water and espresso over and whisk until smooth.

1 1/2 cups of sifted all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Sift flour, soda and salt onto a sheet of waxed paper.

2 sticks of softened, unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat butter until creamy, add brown sugar and continue blending. Add eggs one at a time, blend until smooth. Add Greek yogurt and vanilla and blend until smooth.

Add 1/3 of flour mixture to butter mixture, blend, add 1/2 of chocolate mixture and blend, repeat until all ingredients are blended.

Divide batter evenly between 3 pans, bake for 20-23 minutes.

Chocolate Icing:

2 sticks butter (softened and whipped until lighter in color)

2 cups of sifted, powdered sugar

3 tablespoons of buttermilk

1 teaspoon of vanilla

2 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled

Not bad for my first time with icing letters.

And it tasted great, the cake was almost brownie-like and the frosting wasn't overly sweet.

Traveling: Philippines (Part 3)

2011-02-24T17:04:00.000-08:00

While I was in the Philippines I picked up a disposable underwater camera to play with for snorkeling purposes. The pictures didn't turn out great, I remember the fish and sea being much more vivid, but they give you an idea of what I saw...

While rocking this awesome get up.

As the water got deeper, the sea floor just got to be a more amazing aqua color.

I saw a lot of these striped little guys. I have to say the fish coming so close to touch me kind of freaked me out, even though they were tiny and harmless a bikini offers very little protection from the sensation of things brushing up against you.

The coral was so interesting, different forms and colors abound.

So much is going on underneath the surface of that big, blue sea.

Explore: Griffith Park

2011-02-21T11:35:00.000-08:00

My friend, Hale, and I headed up to Griffith Park Sunday evening for a night hike. We met at the bear statue at the corner of Los Feliz and Fern Dell.

I believe the handiwork above is the work of the Knotty Girls?

I just liked the bark on this tree, it looks like most of it had been removed in some way and all that was left was this patch of bark that looks like a topographical model.

We hiked up to the observatory and made sure to check the view periodically along the way up. I love pink and purple sunsets, so painterly.

Then we followed the ridge line up to the top of Mt. Hollywood.

You could see to the water, downtown, Burbank, Glendale and many more places. It gets a bit cold at night, but it was a beautiful hike and a nice workout.

And since Griffith Park is surrounded by urban areas, we walked a few blocks over to Thai Town for some noodles to warm us up.

Handmade: Romantic Dinner

2011-02-16T10:00:00.000-08:00

For Valentine's Day, I decided that the way to T's heart involved a giant buffalo sirloin steak. I used this steak au poivre recipe from the Pioneer Woman. I didn't have brandy or heavy cream, so I used red wine and buttermilk, it was just fine. The sauce was fantastic, and browning the steak on the stove and then throwing it in a hot oven is the only way I've ever been able to cook a perfect steak.

I topped the steak with some bacony red wine mushrooms. I cooked a few pieces of bacon in a skillet, drained off most of the fat, added the mushrooms and cooked them for a couple of minutes. I added some red wine to deglaze the pan and let that simmer and reduce. Then I put the mushrooms in a bowl and set them aside.

For the asparagus, I used the same pan, added a bit more bacon fat and cooked the asparagus. Then I crumbled up the cooked bacon on top.

I also made some crostini with pesto and mozzarella di buffala for extra credit.

And to finish off dinner I tried to go healthy with some beautiful berries, but who am I kidding, I made a chocolate fondue to dip those berries in and threw in some leftover cubes of red velvet cake that I had in the freezer from my Valentine's baking extravaganza. Chocolate fondue is fantastically simple, I grabbed a double boiler added about a cup of chocolate chips, 1/4 cup of half and half and a splash of vanilla. After some melting and stirring it was done and super yummy.

Handmade: Heart (lips) Cake

2011-02-14T14:50:00.000-08:00

My boss sent everyone in the office the picture of the heart cake from I am Baker and I instantly knew that I had to give it a try.

So, I did, and it didn't turn out perfectly, but it sure tastes good and it was fun to make, and it kind of looks like some great red lips, so that still works.

I used this white cake recipe and this red velvet recipe (this has to be my favorite red velvet recipe that I've ever tried). For the icings, I used basic cream cheese frosting (1 package of cream cheese, 1 stick of butter, vanilla and powdered sugar) to mix into the red velvet cake and basic buttercream frosting (2 sticks of butter, vanilla and powdered sugar) to assemble and ice the cake.

I only had three 9" pans, so I used my springform pan for the 4th cake and used some foil to bring down the size a bit. It worked out pretty well.

I sort of glanced at the tutorial and then gave it a shot. I did some things slightly differently.

I made a parchment paper target instead of making a twine and toothpick compass.

I made a cake crumb and frosting cone for the indentation of the heart because I wasn't so good at carving the cake that intricately.

I marked the top layer with a toothpick.

And I trimmed up the sides just to neaten everything up.

After some more time in the freezer (freezing cakes is so much more important than I ever thought) I crumb-coated and frosted the cake.

Then to decorate it, I took this powdered sugar idea from Pioneer Woman and adapted it a bit. Though, in hindsight I absolutely should have used chipboard so that it would have been easier to avoid extra sugar flying everywhere.

I used an x-acto and some parchment paper to make a random heart template for the top.

I mixed powdered food coloring into powdered sugar for some color.

I placed the template on the iced cake.

Sprinkled on my pink sugar.

Then I tried to carefully remove the parchment paper, but it got stuck to the icing and a little extra sugar got everywhere, but the hearts were still legible.

And for the big finish, here are the 'hot lips' that ended up inside.

And I had enough leftover red velvet cake to make this little guy for my Valentine's Eve dinner party.

I took a 6" round template, cut the cake out of the 9" x 13" pan, froze it and sliced it into three layers. I added a bit of cream cheese frosting and dusted with the pink sugar.

Handmade: Easy Prettification

2011-02-07T21:50:00.000-08:00

I can't pipe and I'm not very good with icing, so I do things like this...

Ice a cake as neatly as you can (in this case not very) and ring the edge of the cake in chocolate chips.

Handmade: Dad's Christmas Quilt

2011-02-04T07:00:00.000-08:00

My mom, siblings and I made a quilt for my dad this Christmas. Now, Dad is about 6'-5'", so this is a king-size quilt. There is no way I could have made this myself, but it was really fun to help out on it. It was a perfect way to feel very accomplished without having to do a ton of work.

Mom and I discussed the pattern and fabric choices, she raided her stash, cut out all of the blocks and mailed them to me neatly packaged with some instructions.

I spent a couple of weekends sewing blocks together and laying them out.

My living room floor was not big enough for the whole thing, but I got creative and finished the top. Then I went home about a week before Christmas and we raced to finish by Christmas Eve. Mom sewed on the binding and we all helped set it up and quilt it on her gigantic quilting machine. And Grandma saved the day by hand sewing the binding on that we could finish with about 12 hours to spare. Score!

The pattern was simple; 9 squares each direction and the squares are just 3 different sized squares centered inside their borders of various widths. Dad loved it.

Quilting tip: Batik (hand dyed) fabrics are the easiest fabrics to sew with. They are kind of stiff, they don't unravel too much and they sew together easily without a lot of excessive pinning. And they're gorgeous.

Welcome!

2011-02-02T15:55:00.000-08:00

Hello to those joining me from Weddingbee. I hope you find something you like and for now I'll leave you with some links to last year's Valentine's Day posts since this year's V-day is just around the corner.

Cookies, Candy & Cards

Handmade: Chocolate Peanut Butter Birthday Cake

2011-02-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

I started out with a rich Devil's Food Cake recipe from Baked Explorations, but I baked it in a sheet pan lined with parchment, so the cooking time went down to 20 minutes. I'm not going to rewrite their recipe, because I didn't change anything, but you should get their book. It's definitely my favorite baking book.

Then I cut out the layers (3-6" layers and 3-3" layers) and started carefully removing the excess cake (to be used later, but you can nibble on a bit now).

I just guessed at the frosting, but I'm sure it's been done before and it came out tasting exactly like the inside of a Reese's Pieces.

1/2 c. natural creamy peanut butter
1/2 c. unsalted butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Whip the heck out of it, until it's light and fluffy.

Slowly add in 2 c. of powdered sugar, it'll be too dry and get kind of crumbly.

Add in milk 1 tbsp. at a time, until it's perfect (I think I used 2-ish).

Then I dumped in 1/3 c. of mini chocolate chips and started assembling.

Cake, icing, cake, icing, dowels, stacking... whew, almost done.

The small layers

The big layers

Then I made cake balls with the remaining cake and icing, and a little extra peanut butter because I was out of icing.

I dipped them in chocolate and let them set up and added a little gold luster dust.

I stuck in the varied size balls at various heights and called this cake done. I really wish I had some more of it right now.

Faves: Compression Tights

2011-01-30T19:07:00.000-08:00

I love compression tights (no, not the kind your great-grandma wears) the athletic kind. My much-more-fit-than-I-could-hope-to-be cousin told me about them last fall and I decided to try them out as I was increasing my running mileage. I bought the Zoot Recovery and Travel tights.

source

They're like magic, for real. There's some sort of science behind them that talks about using compression to increase blood flow and speed up recovery, but the long and short of it is that they feel really good if your legs are tired.

This is what I consider my ultimate test. The Sunday that I left for the Philippines (late night flight) I did a 16-mile jog in the morning, took a nap, did some packing, put on my compression tights, did some other stuff and then got on a 13-hour flight. When I got to my hotel room in Manila on Tuesday morning (22-ish hours after completing 16 miles) my legs were fine. They were slightly tired, but they weren't sore and nothing hurt! In my mind that one day made this purchase totally worthwhile.

So, I suggest that any active folks out there get some of these things, they make voodoo on your sore muscles.

Traveling: Philippines (Part 2)

2011-01-19T22:02:00.000-08:00

Next up was a flight to Cebu. Now for a side note; everyone in line to board the flight got a pat down. There was a women's line and a men's line, you stood on a little platform and got patted down, back of the hand under the boob and all. It wasn't a big deal and Americans need to quit whining.

Cool machinery

We headed to factories straight from the airport and by the end of the day I was ready to crash at my hotel. Luckily it was pretty great, it was a resort on Mactan Island and I was greeted by a girl in a pretty dress with some yummy fruit beverage and sent up to my room.

View from my room

The next day had a lot of factory tours and the beginning of me being sick. I have never loved proper sewage/water treatment more than when I came back from this trip. Let's just say I was very familiar with the hotel clinic by the end of the trip.

Another factory

The next day I had a fairly free day, and it was super unfortunate that I wasn't 100%, but I did get to snorkel, and lay by the beach and the pool for a couple of hours.

The beach at the hotel, white sand, warm water, amazing!

Remote control picture at the beach in the morning

Wow, check out that awesome cell phone self portrait, yeah sunny squinty face with random lines on my face from snorkel gear, rock it.

What the hell is this thing? They put a child inside, inflate it and have a handler walk them around on a string so they can play around in a hamster ball. Has anyone seen this before?

Then I went to my room and after laying in bed for a while I rallied enough to walk to a nearby plaza. I was determined to see something outside of my hotel.

There was a lovely tower in the center

A beach with some locals hanging out

An abandoned boat on the shore

And some place that I assume is used for festive occasions

Nice

And if I ever get my underwater camera pics developed from the snorkeling I'll put those up. But that was pretty much it for the Philippines. The next day I hung out on a delayed plane for a few hours praying that I wouldn't miss the flight from Manila to LAX. Luckily (?) the plane with the engine problems that was flying from Cebu to Manila was the same plane going from Manila to LAX, so they couldn't leave without me.

Traveling: Philippines (Part 1)

2011-01-16T21:50:00.000-08:00

Mabuhay! (That is the only tagalog I was able to pick up, and it's a very formal version of 'welcome'.)

Back in October I was sent to the Philippines to check out some furniture manufacturers (not a bad gig). All I can say is that it was quite an experience. It's the poorest country I've ever been to, and the traffic is unimaginable to me, even though I live in Los Angeles, but there is some lush, tropical beauty as well and the people are as nice as can be.

It started off with a 13 hour flight over there, oh and there was a typhoon happening while I was flying over, but it was fairly cleared up by the time I landed. Needless to say, parents were calling and telling me to cancel my trip. I left late Sunday night from LAX and arrived early Tuesday morning in Manila. It was grey and rainy, but the worst of the storm had subsided, so I just crashed at my hotel room until I had to meet our buying agent later in the afternoon.

Views from my hotel room in Manila

Afterwards I went to the furniture show (Manila FAME show, meh) and met up with our buying agent so that we could go around and meet some of the manufacturers.

Then we headed to a showroom in Manila, it was in an old house and the courtyard was fantastic.

The lush greens and that blue door slay me, I was so in love.

The next day we headed north to some of the factories, and I got a full of idea of just how crazy traffic in Manila can be.

Lanes are completely an option

And there are so many modes of transportation: horse and carriage...

Trikes (motorcycles with a sidecar, up to 6 people can be on these, I swear I saw it)...

The jeepneys, are old American jeeps that are elongated and turned into a jitney, Philippines style...

And, of course people just walking around amongst the cars, motorcycles, bikes, trikes, jeepneys, and...

The funniest looking armored car I've ever seen. This thing seriously looked like it was made in someone's backyard metal shop, but it gets the job done.

Then I saw some countryside on the way out to the factories, it was pretty and tropical, but slightly flooded from the typhoon in places.

One of the manufacturers took me out to dinner with another buyer (might have been where I got sick, but oh well) and I had the best drink in the world. It was some sort of cucumber, celery, apple, parsley and a-bunch-of-other-green-things drink and it was amazing. It wasn't thick like a smoothie, it was juice-like and I wish I could replicate it.

The next day we saw more of the furniture show in the morning and then I had a massage, body scrub and facial that evening at the hotel. It was fantastic, and though not cheap because I was at a nice hotel, it was totally within my price range and I went for it.

Then I flew to Cebu (on a Cebu Pacifc flight, the ones who created this, but I sadly didn't get to see it), and I got to stay at a beach resort. Stay tuned.

Faves: The ArchAndroid

2011-01-09T20:46:00.000-08:00

I don't claim to know a lot about music, but I'm in love with this album. Easily my favorite of 2010, Janelle Monae's The ArchAndroid is awesome. There are so many genres on there, from dance pop and orchestral moments, to Simon and Garfunkel-esque folk songs, and a collaboration with Of Montreal that is just fun.

source

And the fact that it's partially based on the German Expressionist film, Metropolis just adds to the awesomeness.

Handmade: Spritz Cookies

2010-12-17T08:34:00.000-08:00

Some time ago (when I moved to my first apartment), I stole the cookie gun shown below from my grandma (love you Grandma). And now, every Christmas, I make spritz cookies at least once over the holiday season.

The worn pink box and the shiny, aluminum glorified-caulking-gun inside make me super happy every time I look at them.

I use the spritz recipe from Williams Sonoma: Cookies but I add some food coloring and peppermint extract (I tend to crave all things minty during the holidays).

Spritz Cookies
adapted from Williams Sonoma: Cookies

1 c. unsalted butter, room temp.
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
3-5 drops red food coloring
2 1/4 c. flour
1/4 tsp. salt

Colored sugar or sprinkles for decoration.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In large bowl, cream butter and sugar on high speed until sugar is no longer grainy.
Add egg, extracts and food coloring, stir until blended.

Sift flour and salt together onto waxed paper and add to butter mixture by spoonfuls until blended.

Follow your cookie press directions to place cookies onto ungreased cookie sheets (I use silpats on mine).

Sprinkle with colored sugar or sprinkles.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until edges are golden brown.

Let cookies cool on pan for 1-2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies, keeps well for a few days.

Handmade: Throw Pillows

2010-12-10T20:45:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, some of the girls from my office came over so that I could teach them how to make pillows. We all got some pillows made (after figuring out how to work with zippers) and below you can see my end result. I made 2 of each kind and now I've got an itch to make some more. Such a simple and fun project.

Mmmm, shiny.

My First Time: Framing

2010-12-02T23:03:00.000-08:00

Until now, I've always used pre-matted, cheap frames from places like Bed, Bath and Beyond or Pier 1, but now I've dipped my toes into the (expensive) world of professional framing.

While heading home from a business trip in Europe I happened to be on the same flight as David Lynch, who happens to be one of T's favorite directors. The only reason I knew what he looked like is T decided on a documentary about David Lynch to watch sometime before that. Well, since I'm an amazing wife, I went up and told him how much my husband loved his work and asked for an autograph. He was very nice and obliged me.

So our anniversary came around (November 21st) and I thought that framing this autograph would be a fantastic first anniversary gift (paper, check).

I also had some lovely nudes done by a friend of mine in Seattle, she wanted to find some good homes for her artwork and I was more than happy to take some off her hands.

I went to FrameStore in Culver City, because it was convenient, but I was really happy with the quality of the work and the assistance from the shopkeeper, Nancy, in helping me pick out so the frames and mats.

Here's a close up of the autograph with a snapshot of the director that I took at the Charles de Gaulle airport. It's sort of floating in a shadowbox frame with a black suede mat. T loves it.

And here are the nudes by the lovely Heather Haws. They are the perfect amount of sketchiness and softness, and the colors are just amazing. They're our first 'real' pieces of artwork and I can't wait to add more to our home.

After getting over the sticker shock of custom framing, I have to say I'm hooked. I think I'm going to have to try and keep myself in check by only framing things that are important to us, but I keep thinking about what I can get framed next. The one tip I've got if you're going to get something framed is to give yourself some time at the frame store. There are tons of mats and frames to choose from and it takes a little while to pick something perfect.