life's a beach!

bobble-claw crab! mini beer bottles! palm trees! shells! beach fun barbie!

cake was so tasty! everyone was happy! no cake left! deeeelish!

wha-hoo! cake and josh rouse!

wonder of wonders, i went to another concert alone last night. i reached a point about two years ago where i said, "screw this. if i can't find anyone join me at a great show, i'm going alone!" i don't see it as depressing or anything. i can sing along and piss off strangers. i have no problem with that. (i WAS supposed to have someone with me...but that didn't happen and i couldn't sell the other ticket...so i lost some cash.)

last night was josh rouse at the birchmere. he rocks. he cracked some jokes and was in a general happy mood. they played some of my favs, too. i met him last year at an XM recording session. here's a pic from that....
i cut my coworker out because he was so far away anyway.

then i came home and continued work on the cake for the super secret going away party today.
here are the cakes, cooling.

then i trimmed them and put cherry filling in the middle. had a little accident and the top piece broke. i think i fixed it up, though.

i did a "prep" layer of frosting, put the cake in the fridge to firm up a bit, then a finishing layer of frosting so it wound up looking much better than i thought it would.

and for the beach scene...

i found this spray-on cake color at the craft store, so i used it for the sand. then yellow sugar crystals and blue edible glitter. (if you notice, i put the cake on four pieces of wax paper as i decorated. then all you have to do is slide the pieces out and you have a clean cake bottom and clean cake tray. it doesn't really look that messy. in fact, it's pretty sleek looking.)

then i put it in the box and fridge for the night with some tooth picks here and there to keep the box from getting TOO close to the cake, took it in on the metro this morning, and was surprised that it's actually in pretty decent shape now. it's in the fridge here, and i'll just have to do a bit of touch up later this afternoon. another department member is in charge of beverages and we will be making a mojito-inspired limeade and mint beverage. sure, we'd love some liquor in the middle of the day here, but that mystery bottle of scotch in the lunchroom is gone...

on another subject, i think i'm going to trim this and make a slide. going to order a whole new batch of them this weekend so if my PRINTER EVER COMES i'll be ready.

success on several levels!

allison, if you're reading this post...stop now because i talk about
you and the party you "don't know about."

seriously. stop it.

first and most importantly, the homeless man i see all the time finally got soup. we went to lunch at uno's to celebrate allison's last friday at work, and on our way out, i picked up some soup. we saw the dude on the walk back.

me - sir, would you like some soup?
dude - oh yes! (pause) what kind is it?
me - broccoli cheese.
dude - broccoli cheese. thank you, god bless you!
me - enjoy!

now, i wasn't after the thank you or anything, that defeats the purpose of giving the soup. he seemed happy.

next, we will be throwing a "super secret" going away party for allison on tuesday. uh...shhh. i was asked to make the cake. i'm going to do a bang-up decorating job, i tell you! this is what she knows so far...chocolate/yellow cake marbled together. two layers with cherry pie filling in the middle (her request) and some stuff on top. here's the secret part...she is moving south to a city mentioned in a will smith song. i bought some doll house plastic palm trees and shells to make a beach scene. i just need a doll for my main character, and i'm set. i'm going to go to toys-r-us later today to hunt for one. didn't see anything that fit my imagination while at the craft store this morning.

also, my brother wants me to make him a "blood puddle pillow" like these so i got the fabric and i'm going to work on it tonight. i have no idea about how to make it up, but it should be pretty easy. updates to follow. lots of pictures in the next two posts, i'm guessing.

stuff i made back in the day

i used to make funky cards for the grandmas and grandpas. grandmas wore "pearls" (plastic from craft store) and grandpas were bald, with just a bit of doll hair around the sides of the head. i made mc a birthday card almost three summers ago, and i still think it's one of the best. i really tried to capture a unique feature of the subject...what does mc love to do?

i got one of those wooden drawer things from ikea. saved the sunday comics for a while. found some wooden feet and sticky felt....came up with this!

i really enjoy making these photo albums. here is one i did for my mom's friend who got married in 2002.

here are two baby ones. i was surprised to get paid for the girl one. a happy customer.




on another note, this week alone i have turn two people on to his excellency, alton brown and good eats. >sigh<

small hands...smell like cabbage. bye, bye ktdid! (and, so long, eddie stubbs)

first off, so long, eddie stubbs. thanks for the great music. i have listened to you nearly every sunday for the past 6 years. here's some info on the eddie stubbs show on NPR.

i was invited to a supper club today. it was lots of fun, and i got to socialize with some lovely ladies. the theme was ethiopian food, so i asked one of my coworkers what i should make. cabbage, of course!

1 med. head green cabbage, chopped into 1" pieces
2 onions, cut into 1" pieces
2 carrots, cut into 1" pieces
potatoes (i used about 10 red new potatoes, cut into about 1/4" slices)
1 T grated fresh ginger
3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 jalepeno pepper, sliced lengthwise into quarters and seeds and veins removed
oilve oil
salt & pepper

in a large pot, sautee onions in oil on med heat until pale, add ginger and garlic. add potatoes and carrots. add cabbage and turn occasionally so all pieces cook. add salt now to help the cabbage release water, and add pepper. (i kept the pot covered for a bit so the top would wilt, then i took the top off so some of the liquid would evaporate.) add in the four (or 8, i wound up making smaller slices) pieces of jalepeno.

i was instructed to "cook until done, but not mushy." there's still a tiny bit of crunch left, but it should be mostly soft. enjoy with injera!


katie moved to ny this weekend. i'm sad that she left, but she has promised to update her blog so that we can follow along on her culinary adventures! she stopped by on friday and brought me this delicious creme egg!

maybe that's why i ran around my apartment in a hyper state of being for hours before finally going to sleep.

also, doll insisted on being treated like a queen. i gave her a crown.

my rabbit the great sphynx

here is my beautifulness...right before she had a manicure.
we are currently not on snuggling terms.


i just watched hours 5 and 6 of "roots." i've been watching it on TVONE since monday. i will add it on the right to movies when it's all finished. in case you're wondering, kizzy just decided not to get married, and george is setting out on the cock fighting circuit.

here is the front of luke's sweater. i should have this piece finished by this coming weekend. hopefully, he will fill the pockets with little boy things, like rocks, sticks and frogs. not cell phones and ben & jerry's coupons.


i tried to buy soup for the homeless guy without teeth again. we saw him on our way to lunch, and as usual, he wasn't there when we came back. i kept the soup for later and nuked it before we went home. passed his usual hang out, no dice. i decided i would give the warm soup to someone else i passed, but for some reason, there was no one there! no homeless people in the two blocks from my office to union station. how was that possible? i took the soup home and it's in my fridge now; i think i'll have it for lunch tomorrow.

i'm starting to feel guilty about my attempts to buy soup for this one particular man. partly because i keep missing him...i need to get him when he's around. i don't know what kind of appointments he has in the middle of the day, but it's always at the end of my lunch time, which i vary from day to day. i'm going to keep trying, though. maybe i'll get him oatmeal one morning. i always see him in the morning. i'm not going to give him money. i can't do that...it seems wrong to me when i can give some warm food, especially because it's still chilly out.

thoughts?

a sweater update! plus, food and sondre lerche

i'm making great progress on luke's sweater! the back is finished, as are the two inner pocket linings. i am now working on the front of the sweater. soon i will join the linings in the middle of the front piece. ("what?" you say. don't worry, i'll post pics when i do it.)


i went to see sondre lerche on thursday at the birchmere. finally! i've been waiting for him to come back to dc since he was last at IOTA about two years ago. here i am with sondre and two members of his band, the faces down. (his bass player looks a little sleepy...) i also realized i've been wearing this outfit for several days. i have, mind you, washed the blue shirt. i keep wearing different tanks with it, though. plus, you can see the paste magazine on the table. finally! all four on the cover have signed! i think i'll put sondre over there on the right in the "music" section.

i will also add willy mason to the music section. he was one of sondre's opening acts and was totally amazing. i bought his latest album. give a listen here at his myspace page.

i made tilapia on thursday for a passover dinner. here's a rough recipe for one serving. you can easily make more, as each serving gets its own pouch...
1 piece tilapia fillet (i don't know how much, enough for you...)
4 lemon slices
4 slices red onion
4-5 grape tomatoes, halved
1 large clove garlic, finely minced
1 tsp dried basil
salt
pepper
drizzle of oilve oil

preheat toaster oven to 400 degrees. cut a piece of parchment paper appx. 18" long. place two lemon slices and two onion slices on the first half of the paper. coat the tilapia with the garlic, salt, pepper and dried basil. lay fish on the lemon and onion slices and place two more slices of lemon and onion on top. add the tomatoes. drizzle with olive oil. fold the paper over and tightly fold up each side a few times to make a tight pocket. place a few staples in the paper to make sure it's secure. bake for about 18 minutes. carefully open the pocket. there will be a lot of steam. enjoy!

not craft related, blanktop cab!

i'm at my parents' house until tomorrow. i'll post updates of my favorite model's new sweater when i return to my place. until then, read this guy. he's funny. i have taken "blanktop" cab many times before. i haven't had a problem with them. seems like they have great customer service, too.

http://blanktop.blogspot.com/