there is beauty

New Adventure

2010-03-09T08:19:00.001-05:00

Hi there. Come visit me at my new blog! And while you're at it, check out my new website!

Happy Birthday, Charlotte!

2008-11-18T21:59:00.004-05:00

Here's an invite I cooked up for little Charlotte's first birthday party.

Southern Vintage, Come to Fruition

2008-08-12T15:51:00.005-04:00

Remember those southern vintage inspired invites I designed for a friend? I printed them up using my gocco a while back, and here is a sneak-peek of the results.

The Girl Effect

2008-08-12T15:35:00.002-04:00

I love when non-profits and other folks doing good in the world make a concerted effort to bring good design to their promotional materials. Case in point: this video from the girl effect. The clean design of the website, and catchy typography of the video get the point across... well, beautifully.

Zinc Details

2008-07-12T12:32:00.005-04:00

I visited my folks in San Francisco about a while back, and found this great china set at Zinc Details. Swoon, swoon, swoon. Love the classic blue and white, love the graffiti, love the ice cream truck.
They also carried a very wide array of Marimekko, including these mugs, out of which I would be perfectly happy to drink my coffee each and every morning.

Easy-Peasy

2008-07-12T12:05:00.003-04:00

We live in a phenomenally small apartment, so cooking during the summer is akin to turning on the heater. On high. Thus, meals that can be prepared without the use of the stove, or meals that can be cooked in the toaster oven are summer musts in this household. Here is one of my favorite, favorite, favorite foods with a little twist that requires no source of heat to be turned on in the house. Remember, foods taste best when made with local and/or organic ingredients!

Smoky Gazpacho

Ingredients:
1 16oz. can of stewed tomatoes
1 16oz. can of fire-roasted stewed tomatoes (if you can't find these, you can always roast them in your oven a la Sr. Bittman, although this means that the whole "keeping your apartment cool" thing is negated)
1 each green, yellow, and orange bell peppers, diced
1 cucumber, cored and diced
about 2c of diced tomatoes
1/2 vidalia onion
1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped, plus stems for garnish
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 limes
dash of chipoltle pepper
salt and pepper, to taste.

Yogurt or sour cream

Directions:
Using your blender or food processor, puree together the 2 cans of tomatoes, along with the included juice. Stir in the peppers, onion, tomato, cilantro, and cucumber. Juice the limes, and add the juice. Add the chipoltle pepper, salt and pepper to taste. Chill. Serve topped with yogurt or sour cream and topped with cilantro. Preferably with quesadillas that were made in the toaster oven. Enjoy!

Southern Vintage

2008-06-12T10:06:00.005-04:00

Sorry for the hiatus. In the last month, we moved, I finished my semester, we visited my parents (hi mom and dad!), etc. I guess the time just got away from me.
On to the crafting: my friend Sarah, who you would not know to be southern until you get her all riled up about something and her accent gives her away, is having a vintage inspired southern wedding in September, where her colors are going to be whites (cream, blush, white), navy and silver. Here is the invite that I came up with for her. The grey will be printed on my trusty gocco in silver.

...and the RSVP card. We are still working on the phrasing, but the "is comin', y'all" kind of fits...

EEP!

2008-05-08T22:35:00.002-04:00

Traci and I put together some pics to send over to Abby at stylemepretty.com, which is for serious one of my favorite websites, and she posted them today- I am SO flattered. Not that our wedding is even in the same ballpark of some of the soirees on Abby's website, but I feel so honored that she put us up. Yay!

It's Official!

2008-04-21T18:06:00.004-04:00

Spring has officially sprung. I went this Saturday (very early, thankyouverymuch) to the greenmarket in hopes that the ramps had come in. There is usually one farm that has the best ramps (they also sell delectable potatoes), so I made haste to go hover by the truck. By 7:30 there were a few more people waiting with me, and by 8, there was a full-on ramp riot. In some parts of the country, I guess, there are actually celebrations of the first ramp harvest. I don't blame them- it really makes one believe that there will be other produce at the market besides rutabegas and mealy apples once again.
I scored 3 bunches, and dreamed all day of all of the ramp-y fettucine and scrambled egg goodness that I would be whipping up that evening and the following morning. Here is a recipe for ramp fettucine, inspired by the one over at tiny banquet committee. She seems to have it together enough to prep while she cooks, but over in this kitchen, that tends to lead to a lot of swearing and getting burned.
This is one of those recipes where I would recommend practicing the fine art of mis en place not only because it makes cooking less stressful, but also because you can use that extra hand that's not furiously chopping to sip your wine.
Fresh pasta with ramps
Serves 3-4.

3-4 bundles of clean ramps (you've got to get in there and scrub- take off the roots and any slimy outer layer, and rinse thoroughly and then rinse thoroughly again)
10-16oz. pound fresh pasta, any flat ribbon shape (tagliatelle, linguine, fettucine), depending on how you like your veggie-pasta ratio.
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 to 3 tablespoons butter
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
the best parmesan you can buy, grated on a microplane or the small holes of a box grater — at least 1 cup

Fill a large stock pot with cold water, salt it generously, and bring it to a furious boil. The most energy-efficient way to do this is to heat your water in a kettle and then pour it into a pot. I don't know why I can remember that but not where I put my shoes.

Chop off the root ends of the ramps and slice the green leaves in half lengthwise and (and again crosswise if they are long). Sauté the root ends in the olive oil over medium heat until they soften, 1 to 3 minutes. Season them with salt and freshly ground pepper. Add the leaves to the pan, along with the butter, and cook, stirring, until they are thoroughly wilted. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Cook the pasta as directed, reserving about 1/2 cup of the water before you drain it. You will want to keep the pasta slightly undercooked, as if it gets mushy, you and your ramps will be sad, sad, sad.

Return the pasta to the pot and stir in the ramp mixture, the beaten egg, and approximately 1/2 cup of grated cheese. Toss everything together (silicone tongs are great for this). Add a bit of the pasta water, a tablespoon or two at a time, if the egg and cheese mixture is clumping. Taste for seasoning (and to get some of the rampy goodness all for yourself before you have to serve it to other people), and serve with additional grated cheese at the table.

Enjoy!
Next up... what to do with all of that leftover pasta and extra bundle of ramps that you have hidden away...

Menus

2008-04-21T07:48:00.004-04:00

My friend Dana is getting married in a few weeks and I was super excited when she asked me to help out with the paper goods- these have been in the works for a while, but I just printed them this weekend... Dana made a last-minute call on the gold (we were going to go with black and grey), and predictably, because I love all things sparkly, I'm pretty stoked about it. More pictures to come- I am finishing the program printing today.

Moving

2008-04-19T14:15:00.006-04:00

The camera is a little wonky today, but here are some images of the moving announcements that I goccoed this morning. It was just a little doodle that I cooked up while watching an episode of Weeds (Best. Show. EVER!). I had some issues with the blue ink (namely, it was old and had separated, so it ended up being all oozy all over the place in some places and clogging up the screen in others). No matter; it's a sunny Saturday, and we all need a weekly exercise in letting imperfections go. They're shown along with the narcissus that I got at the green market from a man in a plaid hat with a bushy beard, the inside of whose van looked like the Dutch countryside.

boo!

2008-04-08T22:49:00.002-04:00

Gee, this is gorgeous. It would have been perfect for a friend's housewarming gift, but it's sold out. It's a 60/40 print from rose and radish- they invite an artist to create a limited edition print, and the profits from selling that print go 60/40 (get it?) to the artist and a non-profit. It's things like this that make me itch to get back to the Bay Area.

turning my back on the digital revolution

2008-04-05T19:58:00.011-04:00

This may not exactly the next biggest thing, but it might be the next old biggest thing. I have been using film, yes, the old fashioned kind that you can't even buy at the drugstore anymore, to take some pictures since I bought myself a lomography supersampler for my birthday. I just got back some rolls of film (one that had been in my camera FOREVER, one from this past Christmas, and one from this past Easter at Jordy's aunt's house) I gotta say, there is something about film that is just so freaking hot. It's all about the graininess and the way that light is captured - it reminds me of photos from when I was a kid, or that my parents took when they were my age. Film just reeks of long hair and salt water and late sunsets and eating outside. We shot our wedding with some vintage Super 8 film cameras (think the opening sequence of "The Wonder Years") for our video- seeing these rolls makes me want to get those rolls developed stat.
Here are some shots that I think were much better captured on film than they would have looked had I taken them with a digital camera.
This is from Greece (I can't remember where):
Here's Dexie on a beach in San Francisco:
Jack showing off his Easter eggs (taken with my supersampler):
Here's a shot of Berkeley, also taken with the supersampler (in December).
This photo might be the favorite that I've ever taken- I took it on a whim in a fish market in Istanbul:

Color-ific!

2008-03-18T07:26:00.004-04:00

So here's a cool project. These researchers showed a sample of random colors to people, and asked them what they would call them. Check out the color label explorer, where you can search by color, and see what people labeled "yellow," "green," or "army." It's especially interesting to see where along the color spectrum blue becomes green, etc. Some colors have a much larger spread than others. [via] Also, I have become more enamored of colourlovers.com- you can browse color palates and create your own. Helpful for design projects, time wasting, and perhaps wedding planning? Might be helpful for those brides over on stylemepretty.com who are looking for good color palates. Good stuff.

Ceremonies

2008-03-15T12:36:00.004-04:00

So I was reflecting today on the ceremony for our wedding, and wanted to share. I think that with the commercialization of weddings, we often get lost in planning weddings as an event, rather than planning them as a marriage of two lives. It wasn't until about 6 months into the planning process that Jordy and I realized that we hadn't given much thought to how our ceremony would flow. Our great friend JC married us, and he helped us come up with a ceremony that really suited us and our idea of what was important in a marriage. We wanted to convey in the ceremony that a marriage takes place within a sprawling, dynamic network of family and friends, and that it is not just an isolated relationship between two people. That said, we had our family members (working together in pairs or triads) come up with what they had learned in their marriages, and then, instead of a reading or sermon on the meaning of marriage, we had them stand one at a time and give us advice based on what they had learned in their marriages. It went a little something like this (along the way are pics of family members giving advice):

Jordy's cousin: Jordy, Miya, look closely at one another. This is not who you will be married to in twenty years…You will both change, in ways you cannot even imagine now. The key to a long and happy marriage is to recognize this, and to adjust to the ways in which you change separately and the ways in which you change together.

Jordy's cousin: Talk about it, whatever it is. And remember that sometimes the best time to do so is later.

Jordy's aunt: When you marry, you are very focused on each other, but as you raise children it’s easy to get tired and distracted. After our last child went to college, Johnny wrote that a good marriage is when the children have left and you look at each other and smile and say, “Now I remember why I married you so many years ago.”
Miya's cousin: Remember in years to come that many of the things that drive you crazy about your partner now were the things you fell in love with initially. Another skill worth learning is the art of selective listening.

Jordy's cousin: Encourage each other more than you criticize, and remember to be grateful that you have each other, especially when times are hard. Life is about human connections, and your marriage is now the strongest connection in your lives.

Miya's cousin: I was going to say you should be best friends, but it’s obvious you two don’t need that advice. Being with you together is like a lovely day at the beach. Always remember to be best friends, and I know you’ll enjoy a fabulous life together.

Jordy's cousin: My son Charlie says you should marry someone you know and to whose house you have been on at least one occasion. He also says if your partner gets mad at you, you should call your Mummy. If they make you mad, you should call their Mummy. The rest of us came up with these 5 things: 1. Laugh. Especially at yourself. 2. Hold hands 3. Hire a housekeeper. Now. 4. Learn to apologize well. 5. Validate validate validate.
Jordy's aunt: When you fall in love with someone, you think about them all the time and focus all your attention on them. However, as the years go by, it is easy to get buried in day-to-day tasks: your job, the children, household chores and so on. By the time all the tasks are done you have little time or energy for each other. You need to keep reminding yourself, ‘If this is the most important person in the world to you, are you giving them the best part of you?’

Miya's uncle: Six simple things we’ve learned: 1. Women love it when men are in the kitchen. 2. Expect the best prepare for the worst. 3. Be open and honest about your feelings. 4. Let go of mistakes. Don't hold a grudge. 5. Two for one isn't always the best deal. 6. Never go to sleep without kissing goodnight.

Jordy's parents: Be adventurous—life is not a dress rehearsal. You will always be there to cover each others’ back, so together you need not be afraid to do things you may hesitate to do alone. When you are dangling out there together, you will rediscover the qualities that attracted you to each other in the first place, and which may, over the years, have been obscured by the responsibilities of day-to-day life. Don't hesitate to try new things or to move to far away places because as long as you have each other you will have everything you need. Also, wear earplugs.
Miya's parents: Continue to make time and space for fun in your everyday life together—keep looking for ways to be playful, and as often as you can, do things that make you laugh till you fall over. Be courageous for each other and together. Remember that small, daily personal acts of courage build a foundation to fall back upon when life gives you a choice requiring a lot of courage. Be kind to one another. Be generous with foot rubs and offers to bring tea. Buy roses, gelato or concert tickets for no reason. Hold your tongue if you are tired and cranky. And remember that we are all just doing the best we can, even if it is hard to tell sometimes. Most of all, just continue to be your wonderful selves and continue to believe in the mystery of love as it unfolds in its various forms for you over the years!

Then, after all of the advice, we had a great reading by a friend, declared our intent to marry, and the rings were presented- then it was time for our vows. Instead of the traditional vows, we had the same family members work to craft a vow based on the advice that they had just given us. In the same order, they stood up and asked us the following:

Jordy's cousin: Do you promise to adjust and love another through all the change and surprise that life will bring?
Jordy's cousin: Do you promise to talk about it, whatever it is, even if the best time to do it is later?
Jordy's aunt: Do you promise to try to remember, in the midst of all the tiredness and distraction, that you have a good thing in each other?
Miya's cousin: Do you promise, through the years, to try to always see the things about one another that made you want to marry in the first place?
Jordy's cousin: Do you promise to encourage more than criticize, to be ever-grateful for one another, and to let that gratitude shine in hard times?
Miya's cousin: Do you promise to always be best friends, and to revel in the simple pleasure of each other’s company?
Jordy's cousin: Do you promise to laugh, especially at yourself, to hold hands, to learn to apologize well, and to validate, validate, validate?
Jordy's aunt: Do you promise to always save some of your best self to share with each other?
Miya's uncle: Do you promise to expect the best, to let go of mistakes and to always kiss goodnight?
Jordy's parents: Do you promise to be adventurous and, if necessary, to wear earplugs?
Miya's parents: Do you promise to laugh until you fall over, to be courageous, to be extravagant with small kindnesses, and to trust in the mysteries of your life and love as they unfold?

To each of these, we answered "I do" in unison. I loved this part of our ceremony, because having our family members offer our vows made them personal and meaningful, and also made us feel as if we had made promises not only to each other, but to our families. I take our vows very seriously, and keeping them in mind helps me be a better wife when I am cranky or annoyed (which Jordy never seems to be, but that's a whole different story). If you are planning a wedding, or know someone who is planning a wedding, I would give serious consideration to your vows. Though I am against hand-written vows, as I think that they can get reaaallly cheesy (I promise to ride unicorns with you through the universe of our love!), I think that making promises to do things that are actually important to you can make your ceremony all the more meaningful.

Off Topic

2008-02-22T11:56:00.003-05:00

Not to go totally off-topic, but this here is my partner in crime. We're enjoying a little hookey snow day here in the city. Happy Friday!

Such a Sucker

2008-02-20T14:07:00.002-05:00

My day-to-day deals a lot with numbers and statistics (though I would have you think that I deal mostly with looking online for pretty things and making stuff- perhaps I am just sharing my delusions with you?). One of the aspects of data analysis that is especially intriguing to me is the visual display of quantitative information. I am such a sucker for a beautiful display of data. Check out this exhibit that is coming to the MoMa. It shows how New York City interacts with the rest of the world by using telephone and internet information. Since my school is a member of the MoMa, I will be lined to see this the minute that it is up- kind of like that lady in the old commercials for the day-after-Christmas sale, where she has her face pressed up against the glass, and she's chanting "open, open, open." Well, no, not kind of like that. Exactly like that.
[via infosthetics- my absolute favorite blog on data visualization]
link to the project here.

Queenie Takes Manhattan

2008-02-19T21:43:00.002-05:00

You really gotta love food blogs. I pretty much live gastrointestinally vicariously through my friend Meg. She is every bit the foodie I wish I were, and is a really great lady to boot. Her blog is incredible- she is both a talented writer and a photographer with a keen eye- but she was recently lacking a banner. I am doing some monogrammed stationary for her, and wanted to give her a banner in the meantime. Here's what I came up with (her photo, certainly not mine).

Randy Parsons

2008-02-18T07:43:00.006-05:00

I realized that I never posted about our wedding photographer. This weekend, I put together a little montage of our wedding, and was amazed at how many of our photos are fantastic. The first 100 times I had looked through them, I completely missed a few of the great ones. We had such good luck in finding Randy. She is incredibly talented, down to earth, and went with the flow on the day of the wedding; taking charge when she needed to, and laying low when she didn't. She captured the dynamic of the event and the interactions of the guests impeccably. Her newly revamped website is here. Below is a little sample of her work from our wedding.

Presenting...

2008-02-09T16:52:00.001-05:00

...MY ETSY SHOP!

There are a few card designs available right now; be sure to check back throughout the week, as I'll be adding some jewelry and some other card designs. There will also be custom designs to come as well. Tell your friends!
(The url if you want to go there without clicking on the link is hirabayashidesigns.etsy.com.)

Etsy Store Launch

2008-02-07T08:18:00.001-05:00

Okay, so Thursday isn't early in the week. In my defense, I live on Manhattan, therefore I feel like I am entitled to live on island time. So sorry for the delay, but here is the big news: I am launching an Etsy store (which I had hoped to have up, but thanks to the less than stellar weather here, the photography conditions for my goods have been not so nice). Yesterday, I participated in a little craft fair at school. I got to meet some lovely people and sell some wares. Included were these valentine-ish cards that will be coming in my new Etsy shop. I'll also have some jewelry up, and will now be taking orders for custom stationary from people other than friends and friends of friends.
I will post later on in the week with the link when the store is up and running.

In the Works

2008-02-01T00:16:00.001-05:00

There is something kind of big (well, big for me) cooking here at casa Hirabayashi. Here's a little hint. More to come this weekend or early next week!

Homemade Applesauce

2008-01-20T11:52:00.001-05:00

I grew up eating homemade applesauce. My mom made chunky applesauce with the skin on, which was good, but my baachan (grandma) used to make skin-off non-chunky, super-sweet applesauce just for me. It always made me feel so special to have a grown-up cook something especially for me. Her applesauce came in a large Bell jar, and I can still remember the exact taste. It was the applesauce equivalent of WonderBread, perfectly suited to a kid's palate because it was sweet, smooth, and the flavors were simple. We now eat the unsweetened applesauce from Trader Joe's, but I had the urge to whip up some cold-weather goodness. Since the only thing at the market right now is apples and root veggies, applesauce seemed like a good dish to whip up. This version is fairly seat-of-my-pants-ish. The flavors are more complex than my grandmother's recipe, but lean more toward the comfort food end of the spectrum than my mom's. Remember, things taste better when they are made with local and/or organic ingredients!

Ingredients:
3-4 lbs. apples (I used Granny Smith, Macoun, and Fuji)
slightly less than 1/4c turbinado sugar (like Sugar in the Raw)- the types of apples that you use will determine how much sugar you need, so be sure to taste your apples before you use them.
1c water
3 slices of lemon skin
2tbsp lemon juice
1tbsp cinnamon
1tsp cloves
1tsp nutmeg
Directions:
Peel your apples, and cut them into 3/4" pieces. Place them in a saucepan with the rest of the ingredients, and simmer until the apples are soft and most of the water is gone (it took my sauce about 20 minutes, but it could take longer depending on the pan that you use and how big your slices are). You'll be able to tell when your sauce is ready because if you push down on the top of the sauce with the back of a spoon, only a teeny bit of thicker liquid will seep onto the spoon. The bubbling should also take on a quality not unlike fully-cooked cream of wheat, where the entire contents of the pot bubble rather than the bubbles just coming up through the contents.
Before cooking:
Fish out the lemon peels with a fork or a pair of hashi (chopsticks)- hashi are SO much better for this job, but if you don't have them around, you can use a fork.
Mush up the apple chunks with a fork, or run the sauce through the blender if you don't like chunky applesauce. Serve warm or cold, and store the remainder in an airtight container in the fridge. Enjoy!

Ginger Pear Bran Muffins

2008-01-17T14:57:00.001-05:00

I just whipped up a batch of these bad boys, and now my kitchen smells like heaven. This recipe might just be the best thing that ever happened to me. I was inspired after making this ale bread, which despite my bumbling in the kitchen turned out pretty well. I used whole wheat flour and an oatmeal stout- next time, I will use more salt and less beer. I stupidly bought too big a bottle, and then had to guesstimate how much of it to use. But I digress. The Cooking By the Seat of My Pants writer who provided the ale bread recipe linked to Farmgirl Fare in that post, and I think that I have found another favorite blog. This girl up and moved from Northern California to a remote farm in Missouri, and now farms, cooks, and writes. She's even building an artisan bread factory on her farm- how freaking cool is that? Based on these muffins, as soon as her bakery is up and running, I will be her first mail order customer. I will drive out there myself weekly to get her goods if I have to.
I made the muffins with the Trader Joe's pear halves (in a glass bottle), and used a cheese grater to mush them up. The only other tweaks I made (because I can't leave well enough alone) are to use 1/3 c molasses instead of 1/3 c of the honey, and to use a little more vanilla than called for (that's how my mom taught me to make baked goods taste better). I wish that I had used fresh pears like the recipe suggested (I was too lazy to go to the market and then wait for the pears to ripen), but that didn't stop me at all from eating a whole muffin when I was only planning to eat half. I will be happy to make these again, fresh pears or not. Holy crap, are these muffins good. The cake-y part tastes like a muffin, and not like a quick bread, which is great, and the whole grains make the texture interesting. The added moisture of the pears is divine, and the little bits of ginger are unexpected and give a whole other layer of warm flavor to the muffin. If I had a star rating system, these would get a billion stars.

Things Are Better with a Parrot

2008-01-17T09:30:00.000-05:00

As you may or may not remember from my Christmas post (it seems so long ago now), I am the proud new owner of a Gocco. One of the blogs out there that made me absolutely covet a Gocco is things are better with a parrot. She takes old images and Goccos them onto paper and fabric. Her work is classic, somewhat whimsical, and yet still manages to look modern and chic. I am working with a few friends on their wedding stuff right now, and will be sure to show them her work as inspiration for their own invitations. These peonies are perfect for nearly everything (I LOVE peonies!), and the poppies would be great for a California affair.

I would also not mind having some of her bird prints up on my wall...

Fairly Offensive Invitations

2008-01-17T08:08:00.000-05:00

I just finished these invites for a friend who is throwing a Robbie Burns Supper. I guess it's a celebration of Robbie Burns, a Scottish poet, where you have a dinner on or near his birthday, and then read poetry, wear plaid, and drink scotch; the braver Robbie Burns Supper hosts serve haggis. This girl is not necessarily known for being politically correct (though she IS known for being incredibly hilarious), so we went for in invite that would get people's attention and would also clue them in to the spirit of the evening. The kids going to this are mostly in law school, so this host and I thought that an analogy would be funny (remember those from the SAT/LSAT/GRE/etc.?).
Here's the front (I don't know if you can see it, but the letters are plaid):
...and the inside:

Use me to...

2008-01-05T18:41:00.000-05:00

Over break, we went to the graduation party for a neighbor who (finally) finished his undergrad. I thought I would make him a nice set of stationary that he could use after interviews, but also wanted to make him some cool stationary that he could use for more social purposes. I put together this set that consists of 5 designs. Each had a suggestion of ways that the enclosed cards could be used. Suggestions included:
"Use me for flattery"
"Use me for half-hearted apologies for last night's behavior"
"Use me to weasel your way onto the yacht"
"Use me for unabashed bribery"
and
"Use me to say thank you for the lovely gift basket."

2008 Family Calendar

2007-12-25T21:05:00.001-05:00

Jordy's family has a great tradition of making a family calendar every year with pictures from the year and everyone's birthdays and anniversaries. I thought that this year, having a great collection of pictures from the wedding, I would make a calendar for my dad's side of the family. I used the photo booth photos from our wedding to make a 5.5x8 calendar held together with a binder clip. After an epic battle with my parents' printer, they finally got printed out exactly right- I also included a t-pin for hanging them. There they are at the bottom, all ready to be distributed at Christmas eve.

Form and Function

2007-12-25T12:08:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas! I hope that you are having a great holiday, and that Santa brought you something that suits you perfectly. We are finished opening presents, and are enjoying our coffee and A Christmas Story. Later on, I will be found printing things, and Jordy will be found packing and re-packing all of his clothes.
for me: Photoshop CS3 (!!!); rubber stamps (!!!); and a Gocco(!!!). for Jordy: very practical socks and underwear; shirts; and a packing organizing system.

Teddy Speck

2007-12-10T14:29:00.001-05:00

All of us know one of those people who is good at everything he or she does, who can pick up pretty much any material and make that piece of clay, paper, metal, etc. into exactly what it was supposed to be all along. Meet Teddy Speck, who is my friend Speck's brother. He is already great at pottery and knitting, and has now come out with a fabulous line of earrings that he handcrafts out of wood. They are super affordable, especially for how beautiful they are. You can pick them up on etsy.

Finished!

2007-12-09T22:46:00.003-05:00

I realized that I never posted finished pics of the quilt I was working on for Emily's daughter, Charlotte- here it is, with a little company:

I decided to bind with the polka dots- this was the first time that I had bound a quilt, so it ended up not being as neat as I wanted, but there's always next time to get it even better. I did a minimal amount of machine quilting on the outer border, but kept the area inside the ruffle just hand-tied so that it would stay really soft. I got to give this to Emily about a month ago at her shower, which was a ton of fun. There were no baby games, which was a relief to everyone involved. Charlotte was born on Wednesday- a beautiful girl with all ten fingers and ten toes- both mom and daughter are healthy and happy. Yay!

Printed

2007-12-09T22:33:00.001-05:00

We just had a delicious dinner with Emma and Drew. She made an eggplant dish- I can't remember what it was called- with mozzerella, portabello mushrooms, ricotta, and eggplant- it was phenomenal. For dessert, we had a cookie plate and mint hot cocoa. If she's not careful, I might end up moving in with her. Anywho, they printed out the save the dates today and I got a sneak peek. She chose a smaller card than she had originally thought that she wanted to use, and it looks really, really good. Emma and Drew feel like the design "looks like them", and (toot, toot) I agree! It's funky, but still very vintage-y, with a great color scheme that Emma chose (I'll post about her bridesmaids' dresses here later). They also think that it looks a little like a Grateful Dead concert poster, which alludes to the fact that they both used to be hippies. I like them both a great deal anyway. Here they are printed out (again, excuse the crappy camera):

Puppies!

2007-12-04T14:01:00.001-05:00

Usually, it irks me to no end when you buy something online and are then the recipient of 12 million catalogues and 14 thousand emails every day from the company from which you ordered. However, there is a little company, Organic Style, that sends me an email once in a blue moon because I ordered some flowers from them a while back. While their other stuff is, er, a little crunchy, their pet stuff is really cute. Look at this welcome-home gift for a new puppy! How great is this little set? The blanket would surely be headless within hours, but the thought! It's the thought that counts!
Getting our dog was not the most calculated decision that we ever made, so there was not a very long time for us to prepare for him to come home with us- in fact, we made our first trip to Petco with him in my lap. However, when I sent out a "birth announcement" for our new addition, our friends sent us a basket of gourmet doggie biscuits and treats. It was the most thoughtful and unexpected gift I think I have ever gotten. If someone you know is welcoming a new holiday puppy into their lives, this would be a perfect little gift to send. Here's the birth announcement we sent out- the title of the email was "It's a boy!"- I nearly gave my grandpa a heart attack...

save the date!

2007-11-30T11:05:00.001-05:00

I love weddings. I especially love weddings when I am not the one who has to deal with putting the guest list together, which is why I am so excited about my dear friend Emma's wedding. She is marrying her charming beau Drew, and lucky me, I got to design their save the dates. Emma and Drew wanted a vintage-y seed-packet look, and I was more than happy to oblige. I perused the internet and found this gorgeous example:
This is fantastic-I love the muted colors, detailed drawings, the font, everything. However, Emma and Drew are a bit less country bumpkin, and a bit more fun and funky. So I took some inspiration from a vintage botanical exhibition poster, and came up with this:

It's a 4x6 postcard, featuring the flowers that they are going to use for the wedding (zinnias-her mom is growing all of them), along with a little picture of the church where they are getting married. They're printing them this weekend- I'll put up a photo of the finished product when I get mine in the mail! Here's a sneak peek at the back (with room for address labels and a quick note from Emma and Drew):

Up, up, and away!

2007-11-10T10:25:00.000-05:00

These are data plotted from flight patterns from designer Aaron Koblin. Originally, they were done for an experiment at UCLA where FAA information from a day's worth of flights was plotted. There is also an absolutely gorgeous video here, and lucky for us, Mr. Koblin is coming out with prints. He also has a few wallpaper designs available for your computer. UCLA's take on the project is here, and Mr. Koblin's take is here. While you are there, check out his Sheep Market project.

Willow

2007-11-08T07:51:00.000-05:00

Willow is another example of a great local store going online to share their wares with the rest of the country. Though the "real" store is in Chicago, they've opened up an online store to give us all something to drool over.
Check out this vase- it's got simple, clean lines- the epitome of great design- and manages to make monster trucks -the antithesis of great design- look sexy.

I am also (of course) head-over-heels for the aesthetic of this plate. Love the simplicity of the image, the color of the plate, and how the shape of the plate mimics the gun, but how the plate itself is not gun-shaped.

If we weren't a household that breaks a glass a week, I would be more ready to listen to the part of me that is sighing like a schoolgirl over these glasses. The delicate feathers and lines of the glasses are perfect. I would imagine that if we had these, I would only use them to drink things like elderflower italian sodas (in the tall glass), bellinis (in the champagne flute), and Campari and soda- with a twist, of course (in the short one).

Finally, receptacles for your candles- a porcelain stump or a little campfire. Both are inspired by nature, but the clean white color keeps the design from being Swiss Family Robinson. Because everyone loves candles, but almost no one likes a dirty hippie.

Bit of Wisdom

2007-10-25T16:38:00.001-04:00

Everyone who knows me knows that despite what you might think (or perhaps confirming your suspicions), I am a bit of a dork. Which would explain why I LOVE (yes, capital L-O-V-E) both Mythbusters and the Freakonomics blog. Imagine my delight when the two worlds collided today, and the Mythbusters were featured on the Freakonomics blog. This gem popped out at me from Adam Savage:

"Personally, I’m always asking myself, no matter what I’m working on, 'Can I be doing this more simply, or more elegantly?'"

I think that this is a great mantra for most things in life- cooking, sewing, running, data analysis, etc. I was planning on this really elaborate binding for the quilt I'm working on, but I think there is a much more simple and elegant solution, so I'll be finishing that up simply and elegantly.

Fall Eatin'

2007-10-20T14:36:00.000-04:00

I'm going to my friend Elisabeth's tonight for a wine and appetizer get-together- we were all asked to bring a type of wine and an appetizer to pair with it. I am bringing an oaky chardonnay, which is not necessarily my favorite, but it gave me a chance to make a nice rich veggie dish. I was thinking that I wanted to make roasted figs with gorgonzola and rosemary, but the figs aren't at the market this week. Know what there's a TON of? Butternut squash. And onions. It's starting to be fall, I guess, no matter what the weather thinks. Seeing the piles and piles of butternut squash made me feel better about giving up figs. I decided to cook up some butternut squash tartlets with caramelized cippolini onions and goat cheese. If I were a more decietful person, I'd tell you that I slaved over the puff pastry myself, but no, it's store-bought. I'm a great procrastinator on doing school work, but a batch of puff pastry to get out of writing a paper is just not worth it. Here's the recipe-ish (I don't use recipes, so the quantities are approximate).

Ingredients
2 packages Pepperidge Farms puff pastry shells (should be 12 shells)
1/2 medium sized butternut squash, peeled and cubed into 1/4"cubes
1/2 apple, cubed into 1/4" cubes
1 lb (or more) cippolini (or other sweet variety) onions, peeled and thinly sliced
2c. grated parmesan cheese
6-8 oz. goat cheese
1 bunch each fresh rosemary and sage
salt
pepper
olive oil
high-temperature oil for frying the sage leaf garnish

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium frying pan (I used cast-iron) over medium heat, warm up 1-2 tbsp. olive oil. Add onions, sautee until translucent, and reduce heat to low. Leave over heat until brown and caramelized, about 30-50 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the mixture starts to dry out, add wine, water, or stock 1-2tbsp at a time. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, combine 2tbsp olive oil, squash, apples, and finely chopped rosemary and sage (about 1 to 1.5 tbsp each) and salt and pepper to taste in a glass or cast iron roasting pan. Roast in oven until soft, about 30 minutes.
When the squash mixture is done, remove from oven and set aside.
In a bowl, mix the parmesan cheese with finely chopped rosemary and sage (again about 1 to 1.5 tbsp. each). Set aside.
Bake the pastry shells as directed, but remove them from the oven 4-5 minutes before the instructions say. Hollow out as directed (they come in these pre-cut flats that you bake and then hollow out the middle), and line the bottom with your parmesan mixture. Return to oven and bake for 5-10 minutes. Remove from the oven, and let cool 5-10 minutes.
Fill with a layer of goat cheese, then onions, then butternut squash. Top with a small dollop of goat cheese. Return to oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the goat cheese starts to brown.
Meanwhile, fry 18 medium-sized sage leaves in your frying oil (I used grapeseed).
Remove tarts from oven and garnish with a fried sage leaf (not pictured).
Enjoy!!!

Snowden Flood

2007-10-19T10:18:00.001-04:00

You can probably tell by now that unexpected patterns on dinnerware make my little heart go pitter-pat. So if you've seen Snowden Flood's work, you know that it makes me swoon. Her great line of plates, mugs, pillows, t-shirts, etc. are infused with a little bit of grittiness, a little bit of tongue-in-cheek-edness, and a lot of pretty. I saw her stuff this morning on three potato four, and fell in love with her plates, only to discover that she hand-embroiders in great color schemes and laser-cuts suede to make pillows with world-famous landmarks. You can see more of her work on her website.

New arrivals

2007-10-16T14:01:00.001-04:00

I have a little secret. I've been putting off some of my work for... more important things? Namely, my friend Emily's new baby, Charlotte, who should be joining us in mid-December. I love the idea of creating heirlooms when a baby is born, so I've been working on this quilt for Charlotte. You can see that it's not bound yet, but I'm loving the ruffle and the not-quite-perfect polka dots. I did a basic log cabin layout for the blocks, and then alternated the inside squares between this delicious Amy Butler fabric and these adorable apples and pears that I found at Purl. The ruffle is one of Heather Bailey's fabrics from her freshcut line- her gorgeous blog is here. The border is made up of random fabrics from the inside of the quilt alternating with the polka dots. I think I may bind with the polka dots as well, just because that is the fabric of which I have the most left over. The ruffle makes it hard to actually quilt, so it's hand-tied. I'll do a minimal amount of quilting around the border just to hold everything in place. I hope she likes it!
Pardon the dog in the pictures- he likes to be directly on top of whatever I'm working on...

Alicia Bock

2007-10-06T09:40:00.000-04:00

Here's some beautiful, ethereal photography from Alicia Bock. The photos are processed to showcase the minor imperfections of film, and enhanced with digital methods. The result is a set of photos that are nostalgic and warm, yet modern- a difficult balance to strike. Her website is here, her blog here, and her etsy shop here.

Traci Terrick (Violet Designs)

2007-10-01T11:12:00.000-04:00

I think that one of the things that made our wedding so great (beside the great guests and us getting married part) was that I hired incredibly creative and talented vendors. I'm hoping to get most of them to answer some questions for us here. This is the first of the vendors that I'll be featuring. Meet Traci Terrick. She has recently moved her floral business from San Francisco to Newburyport, MA, and just opened her own shop. She does art direction on the side, so she can really picture how her bouquets and arrangements are going to show up in pictures. Here is my (brief) conversation with Traci about her gorgeous work.

***

How do you describe your work?
My background in graphic design and photo art direction help me create unique and design worthy arrangements. My love for ribbon and mixing colors give my arrangements their own individuality
What made you decide that you wanted to be a (floral-although I hate to limit it to just that) designer?
I have always had a love for flowers, for mixing colors and textures and being able to enjoy them like pieces of art.
In your opinion, what makes a wedding stunning?
Beautiful, simple, stunning details. Candlelight, shimmering glass, sparkling silver, those little touches that describe the bride and groom in a subtle way.
If you only had 2 colors to work with for the rest of your career, what would they be?
White and Chocolate Brown.
What kind of flowers do you keep in your house?
Peonies are my favorite, but since you can only get them for a short time in the summer, hydrangea and tulips are always in my house.
If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you do with your time?
I would continue with my floral business and give up photo art direction and spend my free time traveling the world and exploring floral shops throughout Can you share with us a few pictures from weddings that you did that you loved?
I need to get back to you on this one!

***

Luckily, my professional pics just came back- here is some of Traci's work from my wedding (if you click on the image, a nice big version will pop up for you to peruse).

Jessica Rust

2007-09-25T20:43:00.000-04:00

This has pretty much become my go-to wedding gift. How much do you love Jessica Rust Designs? She does little drawings on ceramic plates, mugs, and bowls, and each piece is customized. When I bought this set... ...for our friends' wedding in June (you customize the plate to have their initials carved into the tree- how great is that?), I wrote an email to Jessica telling her that I hoped we got a set of her dishes for our wedding. Then, in July, a package came for us from one of my friends from school and her husband. When we opened it, there was this set...
...customized for us! My friend had ordered it without even knowing that I had been coveting anything Jessica Rust for our wedding. The whole thing confirmed for me the following: a) it really is great to have friends whose tastes are almost unsettlingly close to yours, and b) coffee really does taste better out of a mug with your and your new husband's names on it.
Ms. Rust came out with a limited edition bowl, about which she sent around a little email today. I love the brown on the white porcelain, the contrast of the hand-drawn feel with the sleek lines of the dishes, and the fact that these sets are classic wedding gifts that are neither stuffy nor impersonal. Just gorgeous.

Linoleum Stamps

2007-09-24T09:05:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking a lot about stationary and paper goods, having just bought a bunch of notebooks for my classes. I used to always carry around a little sketchbook, but lately, my notebooks have been really compartmentalized (one for this class, one for that class, etc). I tend to think that the way we organize our thoughts dictates the way we think, so I've been looking for a general notebook to carry around to let myself have some space to think outside of my classwork. But ay, the journals are just not right. Some are too big, others too small, still others too busy or too blank or too lined... It's like Goldilocks at PaperSource. Anyhow. After a nice little discussion with my friend Dan, I decided to undertake a journal-making project. I knew just the thing for the cover...
I created this stamp thinking that I would use it on the paper goods for our wedding. I wanted our wedding to have a very Californian vibe- fun, organic, laid-back, and inspired by Asian and Hawaiian elements. I liked the idea of a bold hibiscus because I thought it reflected the aesthetic I was going for pretty well. However. Faced with the prospect of stamping 200 invitations, 150 programs, save the date cards, rsvp cards, etc., I decided that while the stamp is pretty, it's not that pretty. But it's just perfect for a set of little notebooks. I'm not done with the binding piece, but here is a taste of what will become little journal covers.
While I myself am not so ambitious to use stamps to personalize my wedding stationary, using this method is a great (and inexpensive) way to add a bold graphic element to a stationary suite. Not all wedding stationary has to be delicate and floral. If you're having a fall wedding, you might consider using a silhouette of a leaf or gourd; a spring wedding might call for a bold dragonfly or frog; winter goes perfectly with a pattern from some luxe wallpaper (and gold ink on a rich jewel-toned paper); and, of course, summer pretty much goes with everything in my mind. You can also mix it up- use a unifying color (or color scheme) and use different elements on your different pieces of stationary.
And, if you're making stationary for yourself, anything goes- you can easily re-create this stationary from Linda and Harriett (featured in last month's Domino):I'll post a little tutorial later, but for now, think of the possibilities!

Photo Booths

2007-09-22T09:02:00.001-04:00

It may have to do with being raised by a super-artistic lady and a guy who will take any opportunity to make a funny face, but I love photobooth photos. I'm a sucker for photos in general, really. So when we were asked to come up with a list of what we wanted for our wedding, (seeing as how we live in an apartment the size of a suburban closet) we replied that we wanted photos. Namely, we wanted a photo booth for our wedding reception. Some people thought it was a great idea; others, not so much. Thanks to the persuasive nature of my now-cousin Emily, instead of lots of toaster ovens, we had a photo booth at our reception. As much as I love everything else that we received (some of the items I'll be writing about later), these photos are what I will save first when my house burns down. Here is a small sample of pictures from that night. I love that when there is not a photographer present, the dynamic of the people in the photo booth is completely unadulterated. Some of my most treasured pictures from the photo booth are of my aunties with my cousins' kids, but seeing as how they are kids, I want to get permission from parents first before I go posting pictures of their children on the internet. The pictures of the adults are great, too.
This is me and my little (though much taller than me) cousin/bridesmaid Molly (toward the end of the evening when people had changed into more comfy clothes). Molly and I became really close about 7 years ago- she is such an incredible person. She's in her early 20's, but is more centered than many people my age. She's a great kid, and I feel lucky to be related to her.
This is me and my parents. I think you can tell from this picture that I grew up in a really silly household. If someone were to ask about our family dynamic, I would show them this picture:
Jordy and his sister. They are both incredibly witty, though their similarities kind of end there. This series has themes for each picture. I'm not sure what the top 2 are, but the bottom 2 are "roller coaster going up" and "roller coaster going down":
And Speck and Coop (who were both groomsmen/women), Jordy's friends from high school:
Finally, me and my husband (the cardboard cutout of Jordy is a great story and one that I may share later- suffice it to say that Jordy's friends are hilarious):
If you are throwing a wedding, I highly recommend arranging for some kind of setup where people can take pictures of themselves. This can be through a photo booth rental (if you pick a digital one like I did, you avoid using environmentally yucky chemicals, and you get digital files of all of the photos), or by setting up an area with a backdrop of some kind where people can set a timer on a digital camera on a tripod. Of course, I can't find the example in Martha Stewart Weddings that I am thinking of... just think fun fabrics, a tripod, and some very happy guests.

Little Doodles

2007-09-21T15:34:00.000-04:00

Kate Wilson, who writes the Little Doodles blog, has an Etsy shop where she's selling these prints. If I were this talented, I would just take a sharpie to my walls, because I'd never be able to part with my work. Check these birds that are on sale now.
These dogs are from her online portfolio. In case you can't read the print, it says "glasses are the epitome of doggy chic." I love it.

Red Start Design

2007-09-21T09:28:00.000-04:00

There's an absolutely delicious magazine to which I'm afraid I am on the verge of becoming addicted. It's called Metropolis, and it's an architecture/culture/design magazine chock-full of stuff that would boost your cool-quotient by a million. Anyhow. Featured in this month's magazine is a little company called Red Start Design that makes this great ring:
How awesome is this? It's a level! Says the website, "The skewed curves of the piece contrast with the concept of balance. The two edges of the ring meet at a right angle, yet as a whole the ring appears anything but angular." I love it.
They also developed a necklace (with some engineering students at Stanford) that changes subtly with different noise or light levels. It, too, is gorgeous- made out of sterling and sapphires.
And, just in case you aren't in the mood to dork out (but why would you not be?), they also make regular old jewelry.

My Favorite Shelf

2007-09-20T08:07:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I talked about shelving your books by color. My favorite shelf that I put together is the black and white one.
Granted, the colors in these pics are not great due to an over-aggressive flash, but I like the way this shelf turned out. The knick-knacks (from left to right) are a baseball signed by Yogi Berra, (one of) the Super 8 camera(s) that we used to film our wedding, a series of photo booth photos that Jordy and I took when we first started dating, and a pair of birds (marble?) given to us as an engagement present by my grandpa (when he and his second wife got engaged, the people they were on a trip with gave them the birds, and he felt like he needed to pass them on to us).
Enjoy!

If Libraries Worked the Way I Think

2007-09-19T22:31:00.001-04:00

Most people who know me will attest to the fact that I am an extremely visual thinker. Give me a concept, a social theory, a political process, an equation (you get the gist), and my first instinct will be to draw it. (At some point, I will share a thought process for a paper with you that will speak to this.) I do programming for a professor at school, and need to draw diagrams of what I want the programs to do to my data before I write a word. I also remember things by color and shape. To me, different colors have a different feeling (not unusual), and the shape of numbers, and letters to a lesser extent, dictates their characters - 7, for example, is very sharp and curt, 8 is friendly and open, much like 0 (kind of unusual). Suffice it to say that if everything were organized by color (grocery stores, libraries, city blocks, etc.), then I would never lead wild goose chases trying to find a great restaurant, because I'd know to go to the brown block.
I don't remember where I came up with this idea (probably Domino or Blueprint), but when we got back from our honeymoon, I decided to organize our bookshelves by color. I'll post pics this weekend. Then look what pops up around the blogosphere just days ago!
This is from How About Orange: (via Superhero)
And the Craft Magazine blog also has a post about organizing your books by color and shares this great pic:

(This image is from chotda in the Rainbow of Books flickr group.)
I can't wait to get pictures up to share- look for some this weekend. In the meantime, pull your books off their shelves and get down to the dirty work of organizing them by color- it's great fun, and will force you to look at your books in a whole new light. Enjoy!

EEP!

2007-09-17T12:17:00.000-04:00

EEP! My wedding photos are ready! I picked an unbelievably talented woman, Randy Parsons, to photograph my wedding. She was incredible to work with, and a very nice lady, and I have to say that I have been looking forward to getting these pictures since... pretty much since the wedding. I hope that Randy will be making an appearance on this blog later, but I have to run off to school, so here is a teeny sample that Randy sent me just to tease me before the prints arrive here. Enjoy!

Sara Cihat

2007-09-17T10:19:00.000-04:00

I found Sara Cihat on Craft magazine's blog. She takes old dishware that she finds at thrift shops and gives the pieces new life by reglazing them and refiring them. The result is a funky, fun set of different patterns in bold colors and motifs, with no 2 single items being exactly the same. I think that there's something so fun about having a set of dishware that doesn't match exactly (which is why we ordered different patterns of the china that we picked). You pretty much can't throw a stuffy dinner party if your china doesn't match. And having an astronaut on your plates is pretty much a hand-delivered letter pressed invitation for your dinner guests to dance on the table and swing from the chandeliers. I can't decide if I like the anchor the best or the astronaut.
I also love that her pieces give new life to old pieces- this is the height of sustainable design. Seeing as how fashion and design are so cyclical, it makes perfect sense that you can highlight the great parts of a piece (in this case, the lines of the china), and add an element that makes it modern (the big motifs) while still keeping the item's character. By doing this, you also save that item from ending up in a landfill, and you also consume an item that does not have to be manufactured instead of one that does (I hope that last part makes sense). It reminds me of the piece in Blueprint this month about giving new life to flea market finds. My favorite was a set of re-painted frames in different shades of green (shown below): the lines of the frames are classic and hip, and painting them green adds an element that makes the frames look very modern and fresh. Maybe I'll schedule a trip to the Chelsea flea market next weekend- I'm envisioning a project involving a stencil, a can of spray paint, and a vintage briefcase...

Make Way!

2007-09-15T15:07:00.001-04:00

Here is the invite that I designed for my friend Emily's baby shower. I love the idea of a book shower, since hearing about why people chose the books they did is much more fun than playing those awful baby shower games. (Who ever decided that it is fun to taste baby food and guess what it is? There's a reason that only babies eat it.) I think that kids' books are so evocative for most of us- all of us have a book that we remember reading over and over and over as a child, and as we grow older, we associate great books with reading to the kids in our lives. One of my favorite kids' books is Make Way for Ducklings (written by Robert McCloskey, who also wrote Blueberries for Sal), so I thought it would be fun to use that as a theme throughout, since Emily lives in Boston. Enjoy!

Tord Boontje

2007-09-14T07:30:00.000-04:00

Tord Boontje has been one of my favorite artists/designers for a while now. I love the clean lines combined with the whimsical floral and nature-inspired patterns. Natural, modern, a little industrial, all beautiful. We received his "table stories" china (and garland lights which I have not yet hung) for our wedding, and it makes me happy every time I go to have a bowl of cereal. Be on the lookout for a post about the table that we made that mimics one of his.

Save it for a Snowy Day

2007-09-13T20:55:00.000-04:00

(Please excuse the crappy camera- that's pesto, not boogers.)

Today was the kind of day that makes you want to cut out of work (or school as the case may be) early to go sit in the park, eat an apple from the farmers' market, and watch the fluffy clouds roll by. Yes, folks, fall has arrived in New York City, although I like to call it "late summer" so as to not be depressing. The start of fall always brings up mixed emotions for me: more than January, September signals new beginnings- the chance to reorganize, the return to the ordinary in new snappy back-to-life clothes; however, donning those back-to-life clothes necessitates shoes (boo!). I was thinking this week about ways to prolong the summer a bit, especially since this summer has been arguably the best of my life, and then, just as I was thinking this, I walked by the farmers' market (although on this day, it was a farmer's market) at the corner of 10th street and 1st avenue. There, calling to me, was a mound of these gorgeous bundles of basil for pennies a piece.
To me, there are maybe 10 smells that evoke summer and basil is one of them. Luckily, the traditional basil pesto is something that keeps fairly well in the freezer, and is easy to make. Therefore, when I'm pining for summer in March (who are we kidding- I'll be pining for summer by October), I can defrost some pesto to cheer me up. Pesto is easy by default- you just take greens, nuts, cheese, garlic, and oil, and blend- a picture follows in case that was too complicated for you.
Here, I used (these are estimates- for things like this, I am anti-recipe) 2 large bunches of basil, 2 heads of garlic, 2c. pine nuts, 2c. grated peccorino cheese, and 1c. olive oil. Remember, things taste better if they are organic and/or grown locally!
Do your prep-work...
Next, blend your basil, pine nuts, olive oil and garlic (this was extra fun, thanks to the great hand-held blender that we got for our wedding- thanks Kim and Peter!). Then, scoop your pesto into small, freezeable containers (so you don't have to defrost giant tubs of pesto- remember, this has to last you until May or June!), and pop them into the back of your freezer (the temperature is more stable there, which prevents your pesto from defrosting and refreezing).
I saved a small bowl in the fridge for dipping veggies. You can also experiment with your pesto- in the early spring, I like to put peas in it; right now, you can make a squash blossom and goat cheese pesto (or better yet, stuff those squash blossoms with your fresh pesto and some ricotta cheese and then fry them). Also, regardless of what you've heard, you don't always have to put pesto on pasta- it goes splendidly with veggies and tofu, or for eating with a slice of bread. Jordy likes to eat his with a spoon. I'm not kidding. I take it as a compliment.
I hope that you all run out in the next few weeks (or sooner if you can- before you know it the markets will be all squash and potatoes!) to get some basil, and make yourself some pesto to brighten up your dinners (or lunches, or omlets) when it's yucky outside. Next up, figuring out a way to can/freeze peaches...
Enjoy!

And We're Off!

2007-09-13T20:53:00.000-04:00

Folks, I can't tell you what a crafty year it's been... but without any record of it. Hence the blog. I hope this will be a good space for keeping track of things I'm making, coveting, eating, learning how to do, etc. There might be some DIY wedding goodness thrown in, since I do love weddings. Here are some tidbits from mine (it was only a month ago, so the professional pics aren't in yet, but these are pretty good, too). It was a very do-it-yourself wedding, and I think it turned out to be pretty darn wonderful. Enjoy!