Laser Cut Pendants/Necklaces
I’ve added a few necklaces to my etsy shop that I made a few weeks ago with the laser cutter. They are pretty simple patterns…. that’s the way I like jewelry personally. I made a few more, but I need to finish painting them before I photograph them.
In other news…it’s supposed to be 99 here tomorrow. I am thinking of stocking up tonight on things to eat and movies to watch. 99 already? Yuck.
Apple Cake
Today is a co-worker’s 30th birthday, so last night I made the apple cake from…you guessed it…Smitten Kitchen. I’ve made this recipe a number of times (it’s really good), but this was the first time I made it in a tube pan like it calls for (I usually use 2 loaf pans). It took over 2 hours to cook…rather than the 1.5 it mentions in the recipe. It could definitely be something I did…but beware if you make this before bedtime. You could be up later than you intend!
It also gave me a chance to try out a new cake topper I made with the laser cutter. It’s too tall…but otherwise I like it!
I saved one piece for myself…think I’ll have it right now.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
I hardly ever make pretty cookies…but this time….they were perfect! I used the recipe from Savory Sweet Life per my brother’s suggestion and they turned out great. I added a little less sugar (I think? I don’t always measure very carefully….) and I liked the balance. Sigh. There are only a few left.
Pies, Artichokes, etc
25 weeks today! I’m not sure how I’m going to continue to expand for 15 more weeks, but I know it’s going to be startling every time I look in the mirror. Or try to bend over. It has been a great excuse to nap/read a lot.
Sometimes I don’t nap and I actually make stuff. Very rarely though. Last week I made a rhubarb strawberry pie and a few days ago I made banana bread. Which may or may not already be gone….
It RAINED! Not only did it rain, but it rained three days in a row! It had been almost 6 months I think. My sweet kitty Margot was very curious when it started to come down. I think she forgets what it is every year.
Our raised beds are coming along so well. We have 7 artichokes coming up. SEVEN. The tomatoes and okra are in the ground. Can’t wait for our first harvest of those. Summer foods are definitely my favorite. We let our green onion plant from last year grow wild and it has these really cool flower pods on them. I like watching things go to seed like this…you hardly ever get to see the flower it makes.
My pretty little flowers came back and I was so pleased. The color is such an intense blue/purple.
Other than that, I’ve been doing a bit of laser cutting. I’m working on some wedding invites right now and some jewelry. I hope to post about it soon…just need to finish the jewelry up first. Laser cutters are such cool machines.
Still here.
Pregnancy is kicking my butt. No one likes a complainer (who wants to read about puking and almost fainting and scaring a bunch of old people at the cardiologist?), so I will change the subject quickly. I am very thankful to be pregnant with a 20 week old perfectly healthy baby. Very thankful. But it is still kicking my butt.
When it was time to start planting stuff this year I was completely unable to leave the couch/hugging the toilet so J planted everything by himself. Before he did that, he bought a screen and screened out all the crap that came in our soil we bought last year (mostly bark) and put in some of our finished compost. It has made a big difference.
We’ve got lettuce, asparagus, rhubarb (this one isn’t going to work because of the heat, but I always have to try), potatoes, onions and a mystery squash that just came up. In the back bed we have things that we left in from last year - artichoke, green onion and strawberries. We’ll be planting tomatoes there soon. Next post I’ll need to show our community garden plots - we have two this year!
And this is what I’ve been working on (18 weeks. Two weeks ago):
Welcome
Welcome to the world little nephew. Can’t wait to meet you in a few weeks.
Expecting.
It’s true, we are expecting a little person to join us at the end of August. We are happy, terrified, excited…but mostly….I’m just….pukey.
I could turn the corner any day now (please, oh please), but the last 8 weeks have been pretty miserable. When I wrote my last blog post I was actually gagging just looking at the photos of food I posted…which would explain in large part why I’m not on here much these days. I’ve spent most of my time sleeping, laying on the couch, trying not to puke and working. The only time I feel really good is right when I wake up in the morning…and then it goes downhill from there.
The real me, the not sick me, is really thrilled.
I will try and refrain from commenting on the nausea further…but let me just say…I have been avoiding the internet like the plague most days. Do you know how much food people post about?! How many commercials for food are on tv?! It’s insane. I made donuts this morning and felt really, really proud. It’s the little things.
We aren’t going to find out the baby’s sex before we meet them..and I’m looking forward to the challenge of making neutral baby stuff. Maybe I’ll break my sewing machine out again soon. We will need to be reacquainted it’s been so long.
:)
So.
I’m here. December knocked me over this year in a way that I hadn’t anticipated. I haven’t dealt extremely well with my away from home employment…especially with all the extra hours I worked right after I started. We finished our ridiculous hours at the end of November, but I went straight into holiday parties & all the busyness December brings and I just didn’t feel like I had time to breathe. We went home for 9 days over Christmas and went from place to place the entire time (something I try to avoid every year and I always fail). I couldn’t wait to get back home and sleep. This sounds a little ungrateful - the holidays were a wonderful time with family and friends. They just were more than I could handle this year.
I helped throw two baby showers while I was home, but only ended up taking photos of one - my sister’s. I cooked a few things, and my sister-in-law (who is an interior designer) and my mom made the house look gorgeous and made the rest. Oh, and my dad made the salsa and my brother made the punch. I love showers where everyone is invited.
crumbly macarons:
Shot glasses full of sliced fruit. (sidenote: a little girl accompanied her mother to the shower and looked absolutely adorable holding the tiny glass and tiny spoon. Especially because she went back about 4 times for another one.)
We bought various sizes of onesies and had people draw on them with fabric markers. This took some encouraging, but I think in the end it was a pretty big hit.
The set up:
My sister’s son will be our first nephew and we are thrilled. He should be here in just a few weeks.
The Artist Tool Box
I just watched The Artist Tool Box with guests Isabel and Ruben Toledo. What a charming couple! I highly recommend finding out when this episode airs on your local PBS and tuning in.
Hummus, hiking and…thunder?
It is thundering outside…in December. This has been the weirdest fall. Last fall it did not rain a single drop from the end of October until almost June. This fall it has rained many times and even snowed already…crazy. I am very happy to be getting the moisture - we need it badly.
Last night we attended a party and made some food. We (okay, Josh) made hummus for the first time by following the recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and we added green chiles. We also made tomatillo salsa and some tortilla roll up things. Cream cheese, sour cream, green chiles rolled up in a tortilla and sliced. It tasted very different to me last night, in a good way, and I’m assuming it’s because I used frozen roasted chiles that we bought this summer instead of using a can of them. Ew. Canned green chiles grosses me out now.
We went for another hike today at Soledad Canyon. I’m hoping it becomes one of those places we visit often. We keep hearing about a beautiful canyon view and a waterfall and I am determined to find them. It’s only 14 miles from our house, which works well for us because we aren’t the best planners. We decided at 3:30 to go for a hike today knowing that the sun set at 5:05. As usual, it was gorgeous.
Margot was just as enchanted with the snow last week (or was it two weeks ago already?) as we were.
