Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Petit Pennants Pour les Filles

Girly pennant cards this time.


I loove it! *high kick*

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Petit Pennants

I've been meaning to make a pennant for months now, but never really get around to it. While I have finally started making a real one, I was looking for a little more instant gratification today.

(that one little flaggie doesn't want to lie down...I'll iron)

I made this little celebration pennant card in about 5 minutes. I used scraps, of course, and some plain greeting cards from Michael's.


While I was futzing with the card, I accidentally hit something on my camera and it took this photo:


Kinda cool! Now if only I could figure out how to get rid of it....and how to make it do that again, that would be so useful!

Such an easy makeshift greeting card. You could probably throw it through your printer before sewing on it and write, "Hooray!" or "Yay!" or "It's a boy!" or something celebratory like that.

Ooh! Ooh! I'm getting wedding invitation ideas as I write!! Mwahahahah!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Piggy Potholders

Several months ago, D and I happened upon a fabric store in Berkeley. D selected this Echino fabric for me to make "something" out of.


Finally, today I crafted these little potholders while D made us pizza for dinner (which was delish, by the way).

Now they hang on our new pot rack and accessorize our kitchen with a little pop of piggy potholderness (that's alliteration).

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Design Within Reach Airstream

It's decided. I definitely want this. Like, really badly. REEEEEEEEALLY badly. This is not just an ol' Airstream trailer - this is the Design Within Reach Airstream, and it comes with an awning and chairs and nice linens and a ball clock and sustainable flooring, and ooooooh, I just want it!




So, if any of you feel like buying me this as a belated birthday present, or a Christmas present to last me the rest of my life, I would totally accept your offer.

Doesn't it make you want to take a year (or many) off and just travel around the country?

Did I mention I want this really badly?

*photo from airstream.com

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Personal Watermelon


Who ever heard of a personal watermelon???

So silly.


But now I am the proud owner of my own personal watermelon.

Mine!!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Birthday Cake Y'all

Look at this beautiful coconut cake my sister (and mother of 3) found time to make for little ol' me! She asked me what kind of cake I wanted, and the nice thing to say would have been, "funfetti" or "a betty crocker cake mix", but I didn't....bad Sara. But look at the cake!!


I can't figure out how to take a good photo in the darkish...so you get to look at my crappy photos. Trust me, this cake from Paula Deen was scrumptious, decadent, & beautiful. Wasn't that so nice of her? With all she has to do, she made me this cake. Aw, shucks, Monica.

And I have to show you this photo of my niece, Maile. Refuses to take a nap in her own bed, but boy, can this girl nap on the go. Here she is at Costco with a chip sample in her hand snoozing away. I wanted to just eat her up...

Monday, September 21, 2009

Happy Campers

I've been on vacation all week, and it has been so great! I love my job, but I also love my life, so a little break now and then is very welcome.

D and I went to Yosemite on a whim. Well, sort of. We were going to go to Sequoia but at the last minute changed our minds and went to Yosemite. Fortunately, we found a camp site (the last one available!!) and set up shop.


The first thing I noticed was how quiet the campsite was. Aaaah, serenity now. The second thing I noticed was THIS in the next campsite over:

SO JEALOUS!! Someday....Anyhow, despite my jealousy we had a wonderful time.

We made some yummy supper (it's called "supper" when you're camping, fyi) over the fire:


relaxed a bit:


And made our coffee and tea. Do you love my little Goodwill kettle?:


We did a little hiking and a little bicycle-riding through the valley. The weather was warm and summer was barely hanging on by a string. I would like to go back when there is a little water in the "falls." :)

Although not captured on film, mostly because I have already exhausted the s'mores discussion, there were many s'mores enjoyed this trip. Because, camping just ain't camping without s'mores....or jiffy pop popcorn, but that's another discussion.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Passionfruit

I love my sister very much, but MAN am I jealous of her passion fruit vine! I hope it's written in her will for me... Remember how obsessed I said I was with them? Lucky for my, her vine is huge and prolific.

If you've ever wondered what a passion fruit actually looks like, here it is.

the outside:


the inside:


If you've never tasted one, they're tart, the pulp a little slimy, the seeds a little crunchy, and oooooh so good and you can get one at my sister's house. Her address is.... just kidding.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Plus Macarons

(that's supposed to say "more macaroons" in French)

I'm always pretty awesome about thanking my friend for doing my taxes in a timely fashion. Last time, I thanked her in November, so "repaying" her in September is like - Whoa! I decided that it might be a nice, unexpected surprise to give her something a little indulgent, yet consumable. It's the new black.


Paulette kept calling me back to buy more macarons, and I thought this the perfect occasion. Oh, and Blue Bottle Coffee, of course. I had to keep them in the trunk of the car to keep myself from eating them during the 4 hour drive home. Ooh, they were so beautiful and tempting!

(She, by the way, ALWAYS completes my taxes on time. I could learn a thing or two from her)

Friday, September 11, 2009

20 Minute Tee


I have been wanting to do this for a while now. I keep buying shirts with the hopes of "embellishing" them, but never really get around to it.

So, I bought this shirt last week for this purpose at Banana Republic and embellished it this morning in about 20 minutes. I have ADD, so I was really in the middle of another project when I thought, "Hmm, a 1" strip of leftover fabric. I'll bet this will make a nice little flower on my shirt." And so it went.

Two cream-colored flowers and a yellow, because I'm all about green and yellow these days (eventhough we're approaching fall - and since when do I care about this?!).


The awesomely blurry self-portrait. I still have to wash it, so hopefully it will be nice and wrinkly and lay a little flatter. You like?

Oh yeah, today's my birthday. I hear 26 is a tough age...

Thursday, September 10, 2009

New Favorite Thing: Macarons

There are some rare occasions at work that we are overstaffed. So, in the event of overstaffing, you can put yourself on a list to get "called off". First on the list, first to get called off. You don't get paid, but you don't have to work either! :) I liken it to winning the lottery...

So, I was called off yesterday and with my free afternoon, I walked down to Hayes Valley to score me some macarons. I thought about it, and within a 1 block radius, there are 3 different places where you can procure such beauties. There's La Boulange, Miette, and Paulette.


These are from Paulette. The colors were so vibrant and beautiful! I bought a lemon and a passionfruit. I am obsessed with passionfruits, so I'll buy anything with pasisonfruit in it. They were both SO scrumptious - fluffy and soft on the outside, juicy and tart on the inside.

I gotta learn how to make these bad boys. They're definitely my new favorite thing.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Letterpress Class

I recently took a letterpress class in the Mission (this is my new favorite blog, by the way). It was kind of awesome and when I have a giant house with a crafting studio, I'll probably buy one (maybe).

The class was geared towards people who want to learn more about letterpress and those who might one day want to buy a letterpress. I was just going for general interest.

Ever wonder why letterpress cards are so expensive? They're a lot of work, that's why! And you couldn't really ever make your own letterpress, because most of the work involved requires you already have the letterpress. It would be easy to show up and crank out your own cards, because all the hard work has been done in the set-up.

Anyhow, there were about 7 of us, and we each submitted a design for a "business card" (I don't have a business, so I made a "calling card"...except I didn't put my phone number on it, so maybe it's just a "hey look at me!" card, or "oh, hey, yeah, I have my own card....jealous?" card). Whatever....we all submitted a design, and they were all combined into 1 8.5 x 11 plate. We letterpressed (not sure if that's the correct verb) them as one and cut them out.



So cute, right? I was inspired by Kate's awesome cards, but I needed more information on mine.


(my photos have been rad lately, I know...)

Monday, September 07, 2009

Nicey Bicycles!



Ok, I have to explain this phrase. "Nicey bicycles," is something that my friend's foreign exchange student used when he really liked something. It sort of stuck, and oh, how I love this prhase (clearly, since I went as far as to embroider it on a pillow).

Remember that bicycle I free-hand "drew" with my sewing machine? Well, with the purchase of our new sofa, I was inspired to turn it into a pillow.

I made the seat red to match this guy:

Are you a little bit sick of the white cross? Well, this white cross was the original prototype for the quilt. But, as you see, it's much bigger than the one I end up using. And so it hung on my inspiration board until this week...when I decided it would be the perfect "pimiento" on our new "olive" sofa.

So the pairing of the bicycle and the cross were unplanned, but I think they are a perfect little pair adding the pop we needed.


I even put zippers in them! I conquered the zipper again!!

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Jamming at Eat Real

The Eat Real Fest was awesome - a foodie mini-mecca.

It was HOT, so we thought it only appropriate to sample some cold beer. How rad that they served the tastings in a mason jar?


The jam competition was fierce. Actually, I have no idea, but there were about 50 other peach jams, so mine didn't stand a chance. Next year, I'm making my pickles, fo shiz.

the competition table


The canning exchange was a little lame, mostly because everyone participating decided (before I got there) that you should do a 1:1 trade with another canner. Here, you take one of mine and I'll take one of yours....instead of putting them all in a "pot" and if you bring one, you can take one. So everyone sort of stood around the hay bail waiting for someone to budge. Eventually, someone said, "Well, I'll tade you your peach for mine." Which makes me giggle a little. I suppose nobody who brought lavender quince preserves wanted to go home with plain ol' peach. I wouldn't either. So, next year I'll up the ante and bring something a little more exotic and trade-able. I did end up with someone else's peach jam, a pineapple mango chutney (woot!), and a peach-raspberry jam. So silly.

the swapping goods


The food booths were *awesome.* Check out this little unnecessary treat I indulged in - a souped-up s'more.


Hello! We watched this guy pull our mozarella right in front of us. It was still warm!!

A pickle platter


And a gazpacho cone (in my opinion, the greatest snack of all time).


Probably one of my favorite days living in the Bay Area.