Happy Holidays!

Things have been quiet on this front for a while - lots happening, and excited to share it all in the new year. Hope everyone has a lovely & gold holiday!

Some Old Favorites

Fall Holga Photos

It's been a while since I pulled out my Holga. And even longer since I got prints and scans. I love film! Lots of juicy light leaks in this roll.



BOO house in Twin Peaks, Mika on Halloween, Fall in Twin Peaks

Lucky Jackson & the 365 Days Project

If you spend more than 5 minutes on this blog you'll be able to tell I have a thing for embroidery, I love doing it and I appreciate the highly skilled embroiders I wish I could emulate. So Lucky Jackson is sort of my hero right now. She's started a project called 365 Days where she has committed to creating one original piece of art every day for a year. And lucky us she's posting each thing every day on her blog. As far as I can tell each piece of art is embroidered (so far) and I'm amazed at the detail she's able to accomplish in a day.



She also has an Etsy shop full of her great art.

Grace...

...has always been my favorite word.

sunday lovely sunday

The entire weekend was lovely. Sunday was especially epic. Picnic in the park and a photo of the moustache cake I made for Tara's birthday.

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trick

I adore this Halloween Wreath that Polly created for Easy Crafts. Full instructions can be found here.

stick with it.

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Polly brought over two delicious cupcakes from Miette today. We've been shooting a series of video tutorials for Easy Crafts and today was our last shoot. Sad but sweet. Will post the videos from today as soon as they're finished.

Tomato Pie!

A friend at work sent me a link to the recipe for this Tomato Pie on Monday. It sounded so delicious and easy and I couldn't wait to make it. Next time I'll cook and season the onions a little before adding them to the pie shell, and I think it would be fun to try this with cherry tomatoes. The cheese, bacon, and basil topping is kind of amazing, I probably could have spooned it all off the top after this came out of the oven but I refrained. I'm definitely making this again and playing around with the ingredients.

Tomato Pie

This recipe is from Farm Fresh To You, an organic produce delivery service in the Bay Area

Ingredients
• 1 9-inch pie shell
• 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 3-4 tomatoes, roughly chopped, excess juice removed
• 2 cups grated cheese (combo of sharp cheddar, Monterey Jack, Gruyere or mozzarella
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tsp hot sauce or Tabasco
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 5 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
• 1/4 cup chiffonaded basil

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 ° F. Place pie shell in oven and cook for 8-10 minutes or longer until lightly golden. If you are starting with a frozen crust, you’ll need to cook it a little longer. If you are using a homemade crust, freeze crust first, then line the crust with aluminum foil
and pre-bake it for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and bake an additional 10 minutes.
2. Squeeze as much moisture as you can out of the chopped tomatoes, using either paper towels, a clean dish towel, or a potato ricer.
3. Sprinkle the bottom of the pre-cooked pie shell with chopped onion. Spread the chopped tomatoes over the onions. Sprinkle the sliced basil over the tomatoes with the bacon.
4. In a medium bowl, mix together the grated cheese, mayonnaise, Tabasco, a sprinkling of salt and freshly ground black pepper. The mixture should be the consistency of a gooey snow ball. Spread the cheese mixture over.
5. Place in oven and bake until browned and bubbly, anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes.

Serves: 6
Difficulty: Easy

Christmas in September

One of my favorite qualities in a person is when they remember things you tell them. And I totally recognize how lucky I am that I have a boyfriend who remembers the most random things I tell him. Granted we both forget stuff a lot, but it's the little things he remembers that always surprise me. Last night he told me he had an early Christmas present for me and gave me The Supremes Christmas album. I completely forgot I mentioned I wanted this when it appeared on the screen for about two seconds during an episode of CBS Sunday Morning months ago. I think it's a super power of his, remembering random things like this.

My brother is usually the one who dorks out on holiday music, but I am so excited to crack this open and get in the holiday spirit.

Happy Monday

I wasn't nearly as productive as I thought I would be this weekend but I had loads of social time catching up with friends. Sometimes that's a lot better than 'getting things done'.

breakfast.

I made the poor choice of getting breakfast at HRD this morning, which, while delicious, is sort of like a bomb in the belly for breakfast. My hung over head thought it was a good idea. It was worth it for this photo.

eggplant parmesan pizza

Lately my favorite thing to make with the extra fried eggplant from when I make eggplant parm is a homemade pizza. This one is layered with lots of sauce, fried eggplant, mozzerella, goat cheese, and tomatoes from Alison's garden. It was pretty delicious.

Jennifer Collier’s Paper Devices

Spotted these amazing creations on Craft and had to post them here.



Amazing work by Jennifer Collier.

Words from Pinterest.

Sharing some of my Pinterest favorites.




All links to these can be found on my word board (sorry being lazy).

Something New

I started a new blog. It's over here. And it's all about reading. Kind of. I'll still be posting random thoughts and things I love here!

food like mom used to make

This weekend we had a little get together where we all brought food from our childhood. It was a fun night and a great way to do a pot luck - which usually causes some stress. I loved all of the rich, unhealthy food we ate which included spinach dip with fritos, chips & french onion dip (made with liptons soup mix), some sort of amazing cream cheese log roll wrapped in dough, hot dogs, baked beans, eggplant parm, and grilled cheese made with kraft american cheese & wonder bread.

Another Adorable Plant Project

I guess I have succulents on the brain lately. Saw this sweet project over on Mod Podge Rocks and just love the idea.

Full tutorial can be found on What Lauren Loves.

almost friday....

Plant Bombing

What a great idea. Via Tree Hugger.

How To Make a Fabric Chandelier

One of the things I am working on in my new job is a series of video tutorials. This is a pretty low budget operation and we're shooting everything with a flip camera. The videos are getting better, because Polly and I are learning as we go, but I've definitely had my eye out for other craft tutorial videos. This one from 100 Layer Cake is beautiful. It makes an intimidating project look easy. I don't need a fabric chandelier but this video makes me want to create one.

DIY Fabric Chandelier from 100 Layer Cake on Vimeo.

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Stole this from Design Crush (who always manages to post poignant quotes I love).

Reminds me of my dear friend Sellers who first told me about Pema. Also reminds me that I have her book on my nightstand which I still need to read.

Peanut Butter Pie for Mikey

This post makes me want to make peanut butter pie. It also breaks my heart and makes me wonder if we ever realize what we have before it's gone. I hope so. I hope so much so.

Dozens of peanut butter pie recipes here.

Happy Monday

After a long, sweet weekend today might be a little rough. But the summer-like weather here in SF will make things a little more bearable.

No-Sew Applique

I've been having great fun shooting a series of craft videos with the lovely Polly Conway. This latest one may just be my favorite so far. Check it out, spread the word, and let me know what you think! We're not video experts and we're mostly experimenting so we're completely open to suggestions.



Check out the full instructions for this project on Wikia Easy Crafts.

Do!

After attending and speaking at CCE this weekend I was reminded how inspiring and motivating conferences can be. I need to get out there more to recharge and motivate myself.

This conference called The Do Lectures looks amazing - too bad it's so spency to attend...

Do Lectures Trailer from The Do Lectures on Vimeo.

via SwissMiss.

posters for everyday events

love these.
via design taxi (and my awesome guy who sent me the link).

Mornings in Yerba Buena

I've started walking through Yerba Buena Park in the mornings on my way to work. I'm loving the little calm it offers me before my work day starts. There are people spread out all over the park meditating and praying, most of them older and Asian and I'm sure this is some sort of ritual to their day. There's also several groups of people dancing with fans. It kind of fascinates me. How do they know to meet here? Do they bring the fans or is someone leading this? And how long does it last? I've been wanting to take some photos since I first saw them but it's always felt a little disrespectful. Last week I couldn't resist and I'm so happy I captured these two moments.

hell yes please.

by olly moss.

first summer bbq and a recipe

It's finally starting to feel like summer around the Bay Area, of course that could change in two days. But today we acted like summer was here to stay for a while. It helps to get out of the city and over to the East Bay where it's always warmer. Some pics and a recipe for the chocolate chip cookies with pretzels, peanut butter chips, and sea salt that I brought to the BBQ. They are pretty delicious and super easy to make.



Chocolate & Peanut Butter Chip Pretzel Cookies

(Originally spotted on Pinterest which led me to the original source of the recipe.)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/4 tsp. of baking soda
1/2 cup of butter at room temperature (I forgot to do this and just melted my butter in the microwave)
1/2 cup of tightly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup of granulated sugar
1 egg (beaten)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup broken up pretzel pieces
Sea Salt

Directions:
Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a larger bowl, beat the butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy. On low speed, slowly add the beaten egg and vanilla extract. Beat to combine, scrape down the sides of the bowl. (I didn't have a mixer and did this step by hand, the cookies still came out delicious)
Add the flour mixture and combine. Stir in the chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and pretzels. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 350F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper (or use a non-stick cookie sheet). Scoop out well rounded tablespoonfuls of the dough and sprinkle with pretzel salt. Leave about 2 inches between each ball. I pressed my cookies down since I had read that they don't spread too much while baking. Bake for 10 minutes. If you prefer crispier cookies increase the baking time by 1-2 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before removing.