Best Beard Ever

So, Design for Mankind is doing this really cool project, where people submitted phrases of encouragement, and now they are asking people to illustrate these phrases. Yeah! There are over 400 phrases (and most are kinda a bit too lovey and directed at a specific person), and I wrote down a bunch that I dug that I was interested in making something with. I know this phrase will be popular and all (beardsbeardsbeards), but I had an image come to mind right away and couldn't resist. I'm going to do a few more, I think, as the deadline is Feb. 1st.

Oh weekend: I love you

I took a Letterpress class last sunday at The Arm, a letterpress studio near me. So much fun!! We got to spend the majority of the classtime working on the presses and I have some cool things to show for it. I'm working on some pieces that I want to print of my own on the presses. I think I am going to have some of my artwork engraved on a copperplate and then print from those. I'm still deciding how best to do it, I guess. I can't wait to do some new bookmark/business cards too on one of the smaller presses. Also, typesetting takes FOREVER! Ha. Here are some things I printed:





I scored a super-cheap loaf of Kalamata Olive Bread at the closing of the farmer's market after work yesterday, so I made some grilled cheese and fakin' bacon (leftover from quesadillas earlier in the week) out of it. SO GOOD. I let the FYH Cheddar get all melty by putting the burner on super-low and covering the pan. I had a healthy smoothie with it, to counter the greasiness of the sandwich.


I haven't had eggplant in awhile, and I was craving some sort of eggplant parm action. I salted my eggplant slices and let them sit to sweat out the water for a good 25 minutes. This makes them tastier, not chewy, and able to absorb more flavors. If you can wring them out with your hand without it breaking in half, they are salted and sweated to perfection. I breaded them with a flour/panko/italian spices mixture and panfried them in some olive oil. The sauce! I threw a can of fire-roasted tomatoes, a can of cannellini beans, and 4-5 cloves (what!) of garlic, and some basil/thyme/parsley/pepper in the vitamix and it made a damn tasty sauce. I sauteed some red onions and threw them in when heating the sauce. Hello yummers.


I tried making sushi the other night, using quinoa instead of rice. I'm always trying to eat more quinoa, but the boyfriend hates it, so I made separate sushi for me. It was a little messy and didn't hold together as well as rice, but it worked well enough and was yummy! I marinated some tofu in tamari sauce, garlic, and some lemon juice. Filled sushi with the tofu, red onions, and avocado.

Inauguration Day 2009

It was a bit cold (i.e. REALLY FRIGGAN COLD), but I did manage to snap a few pictures.


An awesome satellite image from CNN


So many people!


In the wee hours of the morning, walking around. View of the big house.


Trying to reactivate those handwarmers.

brrrrrrr


Waiting. They were showing sunday's concert on the jumbotrons, in the mean time.


Hee-hee, "Cheese"


After Inaugural speech.


Trying to get out!

No more Bush!

My bus leaves for D.C. in two hours!!! *super-mega-excited*

Should be back in 24 hours. Haha, quickest trip to D.C. from NYC ever!

Time to go pile on the layers and prepare!

V-day Cards and coooookies!

Here is the final card that is including the notecard set, now in my shop

And I've been a mega-cookie-monster lately. I made Isa's chocolate chip cookies the other day ('cept I didn't have enough choc. chips, so I slightly melted a tablespoon of peanut butter and put it in the batter also. I also didn't have any more veg. or canola oil, so I used coconut oil.) Sooo yummy.



Some impromptu snickerdoodles friday night:

I puffy heart you

So this is another sneak preview to a new card set in my shop. You know, for that barfy-lovey holiday coming up. I like to send cards to friends, but I'm not really into the whole "romantic" aspect of V-day, so I keep it on the lighter side in my hearts and love paintings. I actually associate Valentine's Day with V-day, meaning "The Vagina Monologues." I was in the play back in college and that meant a whole, whole lot to me (I don't even know how I got involved in that; I am SOO usually not brave enough for public speaking, let alone in an acting sense!) College and a good cause makes you braver I guess.

I hope to list the cards on Saturday! I'm hoping for some natural light to take pictures in, and I always get home when it's dark out during the week *grumblegrumble*

It's Pizza Time!

So, I attempted to make homemade Pita bread this past sunday, and while they came out quite yummy tasting, they weren't so functional in a pita-type way. They kinda half puffed up (some not at all) so they really couldn't be split in half, and they were on the smaller side, so folding was no good either. So pizza is was! I made some homemade olive hummus (mmmm, so tasty! ), using two cans of chickpeas, one can of black olives, a bunch of olive oil, one onion, and 2 cloves of garlic (salt and pepper to taste). I used the beanball recipe from Vcon, but subbed chickpeas for the kidney beans, lemon juice in place of the steak sauce, and used thyme, dill, and mint for the spices. They made some yummy falafel-like balls of yum. I used the pan-fry method. This was a really fresh tasting pizza and my mouth was dancing from the mix of flavors. Woo!




I had all these leftover pitas (recipe made 12!), so I decided to make a more traditional pizza the next day. I made a pesto with some broccoli rabe I had frozen from one of my CSA pickups a month or so ago, and I made the Cashew Ricotta (which I am madly in love with!), from VCon. Peppers and Shiitake mushrooms on one pizza, and leftover beanballs and peppers on the other. Yum! These made really good pizza crusts and I will probably try this mini-pizza thing again, as I liked making a few varieties. It also reminded me of those personal pan pizzas that I used to get from Pizza Hut, when I was younger, for "Book-it" or "Books across America," or whatever that was called. I wish I could still read for pizza!! I wonder if they still do that.

Welcome Mister Bird

When I was at my parent's house, over xmas, I was doodling a whole lot of birds. This one was my favorite, so he became a painting. Silly, I know.

Watercolor on heavily gessoed paper
about 9"x10"

I'm baaack

Ooof. I know I went blogger-MIA for awhile there. I'm sorry! I got sick and then I got better, but was crazy-busy, and then I had to go out of town on thursday until last night for my friend's wedding. Blahblahblah, I know. :) This weekend was a blast, and I was super-happy to see old and dear friends of mine. But anyways, things have settled and I'm back into the swing of things!

I made dino-shaped biscuits (from VWAV) last week and had them as a lovely breakfast with some raspberry jam on them. Yummy and simple! I ate them with a super-berry smoothie.



I bought a yummy bread from the farmer's market last week and made some Tempeh-hijiki sammiches. I think I'm going to start trying to make my own bread on the weekends.


I finished a painting tonight, and I'll scan it tomorrow for a new item in the shop!

I've been watching a Big Love marathon tonight; I can't wait for the season premiere next week! Flight of the Conchords too!!

New Prints in the shop!

Some new cuties in the shop!




I'm working on more paintings this weekend, and they will also be included in a new card set with these, as well as in print form.

And I'm going dancing tonight! It's been so long!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Today was a great day for the new year. Nik and I went out to dinner last night and stayed local at a bar nearby to ring in the new year. So much fun! I slept in superrrrr late today and made a fabulous brunch of chocolate chip pancakes and a tasty smoothie (1 frozen banana + 9 frozen strawberries + 1 orange + 2 tbs. of pineapple juice concentrate + a couple tsp. of flax seed + enough soy milk and cold water to fill 3/4 of the mixture in the blender=the PERFECT amount for two people. mmm). I spent most of the day making Isa Pizza, from VWAV. I made my own dough, pesto, cashew ricotta, and pizza sauce ALL in the new vita-mix. Fantastic! I like how it keeps dishes to a minimum too. And I've never had a good enough blender to make pizza before! So exciting! And it makes it in like 2 seconds! Okay, I'll stop talking about it now. I'm sure the novelty of it will wear off soon (no it won't.) I used the new pizza stone and it made some to-die for pizza. Nik proclaimed this "the best pizza ever." nom nom.





I've been painting most of the night, so I shall have some new goodies to scan in and share with everyone tomorrow! Happy night!