cook, wear, create

Things that have been catching my eye.....
What a tasty dessert, like tiny Neapolitan ice cream layer cake awesomeness of an idea. I want to try this before fall really sets in and frozen desserts are no longer what I am craving all day long.

This is pretty much what I want to look like/be wearing every day. Perfect outfit once again Kendi. Not a surprise though she does thing where I just want to steal. her. closet. Le sigh.

And this crazy exciting tutorial makes me want to whip out my paper collection and whip up a couple of these cute paper teacups. Who doesn't like teacups?!

And that's all for now so here's hoping everyone has a lovely, crisp leaf crunching, beginning of fall, apple cider sipping weekend.

baking: cocktails

okay so beverages of an alcoholic nature aren't really baking, but the mixology process does feel similarly precarious and specific. And I was doing a lot of this during the summer. For my job of course. This was work after all, I wasn't just sitting around being a lush. I HAD to do this. These are just a few pictures I happened to capture but there were many MANY drinks that were concocted during the long quiet periods, and or whenever I wandered into the walk-in refrigerator and saw something that looked like it would benefit from being mixed with some booze. I will add a few recipes from my notes at the end.
Here we have the Jens kick-in-the-pants:

Pollyanna

Orange/Rosemary sparkler

aaaaaaaaand the Five Dollar Margaret. No I didn't make this last drink up, but a friend found the recipe online and I just had to try it. Cause of my name and all. And it had Kahlua so it couldn't be totally terrible right?


Five Dollar Margaret
1 oz Amaretto
1 oz Chambord
1 oz Kahlua
2 oz Cream
Shake all ingredients with ice until frothy. Serve over ice with optional cherry garnish.

Pollyanna
3 slices orange
3 large chunks pineapple
2 oz gin\
1/2 oz sweet vermouth
1/2 tsp grenadine
Muddle orange and pineapple in the bottom of a shaker. Add other ingredients and ice and shake well. Serve over ice with orange, pineapple and cherry garnish.
And of course, it goes without saying but..... please drink responsibly.

making: what I'm working on....

Been busy in the (makeshift) studio. AKA my friends converted kitchen table as my gypsy-ish nature means I currently find myself away from the, um, official studio at this current juncture. But despite my nomaticism, I am still finding myself in a creative way, and there are always projects to finish so I (to quote the glorious Tim Gun) 'Make it work!!' and make a studio space where-ever possible.

And in this case my studio is a kitchen table, and my sewing machine out of the back of my car. But I've got this big stack of cut out triangles, which were intended to eventually become pretty affirmation banners. I've been systematically working my way through the lettering, a tedious and lengthy process that involved lots of old episodes of Project Runway and various cooking shows and now that this portion was done I found myself needing to do all the prep work necessary to sew the onto the ribbons to finish the whole thing.

So that meant going through and cutting all the corners and then folding all of the pennants and cutting all of the ribbon and paper clipping all the letters together in order (this step was very important so I didn't hold them up when they were all sewn together and have a string of gibberish)and then it was time for some vrooooooooooooom power sewing!

Which resulted in all these cheerful banners! Well several of them. Takes a good 20 minutes to sew each one so I am still working my way through the pile but it was a very satisfying work day, and still a work in progress so there will be more updates as the project, well progresses. So look for more updates. I will keep working on this, in between I will be doing some baking for a friends fundraiser (who doesn't like rice crispy treats? whoever that is I just don't trust them) and squeezing all sorts of other things in as well so stay tuned!

cook, wear, create

I have been a bad blogger this week, busy with other things and not posting anything and that is very terrible of me and I apolagize to the few people who may be reading this babbling whatever-this-is but I will try to get back on the bandwagon and make up for it next week. In the meantime here are a few things making me hungry, inspired, and devoured by closet envy. Enjoy.
Yesterday was the ice cream cones 108th birthday and it is sooooo hot here this week I want ice cream all the time so I think I will be celabrating this, um, is it a holiday? a day late. And perhaps all weekend long. Found all sorts of mouthwatering recipes and eye candy, but this recipe for key lime pie sounded perfectly refreshing and delectable. Yum. I want some right now.


I want red pants. Like these. I swear I would wear them all the time.

I have a desk chair that I keep repainting and recovering but I love this super simple chair and think I will have to keep it in mind next time I am redoing my own. File on the to-do list.

So here's to a beautiful weekend, though it is the first days of fall I don't feel like it at all, particularly since I am living in shorts and sandles. I will be out enjoying the sunshine and soaking it all in while I can cause soon the time of sweaters and socks and stuffed-chicken layers will be upon us and I need to get my vitamins while I can right?

cook, wear, create

I am trying to come up with new ideas for easy things to make for a friends fundraising bake sale and came upon some super simple candy recipes with very few ingredients that seemed like they would be a good fit. I will defiantly be trying this rocky road bark first.

Looking towards fall I am starting to think about the possibility of colder and maybe eve wetter weather and this clear raincoat is so delightfully whimsical it's a great idea. Maybe some rain-boots would be a good idea too?

One word for you: AMAZING! I want to make wallpaper patterns like these. Really I just want to do beautiful gold patterns and cover, well, everything with them. So inspirational. Must. Make. Things. Now.

making: printed zipper bags

Been keeping busy here in my little corner of the world, making and cooking and other such shenanigans, but figured I would stop in and show something that recently came out of my studio.

I had all of these colorful bags cut out and ready to be assembled with their zippers and I had this sudden flash of awesomeness and decided that I should combine the cool prints with some images of my own. So I painted some white fabric paint in nice circles on the front and then printed my own images over those. It turned out really well.

And I found that having added that image of my own to the front I was more motivated to get them all sewn up and assembled. A day later and BOOM! they were all in a satisfyingly colorful pile.

So here's to finishing a project and moving on to check even more projects off the list in the future.

cook, wear, create

First off this afternoon, I need to make bacon truffles. The ones in this recipe have bacon coating on the exterior but I would like to try adding bacon to the http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giffilling. Just to see if it is as delicihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifous in real life as in my head.

I am enjoying all of this sunshine I've found and wishing I had shown up here sooner in the summer so I could have had a twirly white dress like this. Also this picture makes me want to cut bangs again, even though I've FINALLY grown mine out!!

And lastly, I miss my studio, and all that space in which to allow my creative juices to flow. If I had a studio I would want it to look like this beautiful studio redo, all clean and airy and organized.

Okay I'm inspired so now I'm off to the craft-mobile!

making: buisiness cards

I got some buisness cards made, through a free service on a lark after hearing it advertised on Pandora for the umpteenth time I figured, hey why not. However, part of the reason they are free is that they have their own info printed on the back of the cards. No good. However I am a significantly crafty lass am I not so I knew I could come up with some way to cover this up a bit. So I pulled out the ink and a box of smaller lino cuts I had done and started going to town.

And covered the table, resulting in several images, some of which I like better than others, but they definetly make the cards interesting and a little bit more..... me.

And while I had all that stuff out I made little books as well, which are just so cute, as small rainbow things will be. All in all it was very satisfying to use stuff I already had on hand to accomplish something practical. And now I no longer need to scribble my info on the back of a napkin. Ah growing up.

cook, wear, create

I am right now, as we speak, embarking on a fantastical birthday Vegas adventure, but in my absence (aka while I am poolside sipping something that has a paper umbrella in it) here's some stuff that's been getting me excited recently.
I love bread, but being unable to have wheat makes it difficult and I reahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflly don't like most brands that are out there for purchase. However this recipe sounds good and yes it would be great to have some french toast, which of course requires that I have bread.

I love this sweet outfit, two different stripes and it looks so comfortable. Would be a fantastic outfit to wear traveling. Planes are always chilly and long dresses are such a good way to look put together and still be comfortable.

I really want to try doing this to a pair of flats that I never wear. Maybe even do something animal print?

And here's to sunshine and sequins and the start of what I have decided is going to be a great year. Cheers!

making: things that are shiny

I wanted to do something with sequins. A specific color of sequins. And instead of doing what any sane and normal person would do, I took the enormous bag of mixed sequins that I already had, and decided to sort them by color.
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9aFNVpLMD8gIzN0vTeOIniYtdDL4CEPnqu8E58ZFc8ivefopXrgHyUgytkZO3FTjxvmgJYSnvDLHjSFTphEOTPcSLIS1xhsHoDj3emZhgY0HyKQlpND5geM71udE8jTPnFiUpjxRpDfBy/s1600/various+031.JPG">
It took more hours than I will admit too but in the end I had these super satisfying pile of individually colored sequins. Ah so pleasing to the eye.

I am on my way to Las Vegas tomorrow for some shiny-shiny times and I (very proudly) made all of my own outfits, including one that included my fantastically color-sorted sequins. It looks like an Olympic ice-dancer exploded all over it. In a good way. I will attempt to capture a shot of the dress in action. And Viva Las Vegas!!!!!!