Tagged

I didn't want to post without a picture, so here's a 9 foot mirror ball at my work.

I sure took my sweet time to fill this out, but here it is. Anna sent it to me a while back and I've finally got around to doing it (sorry!). I feel a little self conscious tagging anyone, but I guess that's how it works. If you don't want to fill it out, that's ok too...

4 jobs I've had:
Cashier - Cody's Books
Japanese Language Tutor
Game Advisor - EB Games
Office Manager - Impact Lighting

4 favorite movies:
Star Wars
Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
....

4 places I've been:
Slovenia
Rome
Kansas
Belgium

4 places I've lived:
Berkeley, California
Tochigi, Japan
Hangzhou, China
London, England

4 favorite tv shows:
(This is an "at the moment" kind of list for me)
The Office
Lost
Home Movies
30 Rock

4 favorite radio programs:
1Up Yours
This American Life
Radio Lab
Japan Talk

4 favorite foods:
Oyakodon
Pudding
Cake
Things with pastry cream in them (like these)

4 places I'd rather be:
Japan (duh)
Puerto Rico
Hawaii
At home

Tagging:
Unraveling
Food Counts
Girl on the Rocks
Lovestitches

Pretz Vs Stix

Has anyone else seen these new Pringles Stix? Having been a longtime fan of Glico Pretz, I was a bit surprised to see some so-called "Stix" at the grocery store the other day. I wonder if Pringles paid for the rights to market Pretz in the states, or if they just stole the idea, packaging, and appearance of the snacks. They come in the same little individual bags inside the box. I hope Pringles has some kind of overseas marketing deal with Glico. If so, they could probably get access to around 7 billion Pretz flavors to sell in the US. I'm serious. The ones I'm holding above are Meets Wine, kind of a roasted cheese flavor, and Melon Bread, a tasty sweet cookie-ish one from their new "Bakery" line. Yum!

In other news, I'm planning a trip to Japan in July! I arrive in Tokyo on Sunday, July 6th and I'll be there until the 13th. I bought a moleskine and I've been putting together my own travel book by copying down directions, printing out maps, and looking up the operating hours of store I want to visit. Expect craft debauchery when I get back. I'll only be in Tokyo two days and then I'll head up to Tochigi to stay with my host family for the remainder of the trip. I can't wait! I have a pretty comprehensive list, but let me know of any Tokyo Craft Shopping suggestions you might have.

Passport Cover

I made this passport cover for my mom's birthday.



I think I got the fabric from Superbuzzy and you can find the tutorial for the cover here. So simple! I need to make one for myself ASAP. Reasons why in the next post.

UPDATE: Wow! Thanks to Karrie for letting me know!

Puerto Rico Trip

I've been back from Puerto Rico for a while and have got lazy about posting. I didn't want to let myself post about anything until I got the PR post out of the way, for purposes of documentation. The only things is, our visit was so frenzied that I wasn't able to take many pictures. And the time that we were relaxing, we were at the beach (sans camera). So I'm going to whizz through what I have and get it over with!

Beans came with us and was fairly well-behaved on the plane ride back home (we will not speak of the plane ride to PR). It seems like air travel has put car-anxiety into perspective for her.



We went to Guavate to get real Puerto Rican food, which involves a lot of rotisserie pigs.



A trip to Puerto Rico would not be complete for me without a trip to Gaby Mini Donas outside the Humacao Walmart. They are tiny donuts that they fry right in front of you.

Omar got a giant egg, ham, and cheese sandwich for three dollars that he did not stop talking about for two weeks.


When we got home we made BBQ'd oysters, salad, and grilled baby zucchini for dinner. We also got these gigantic oysters from Berkeley Bowl that were bigger than my hand!



As you can see, when we weren't swimming we were mostly preoccupied with food.

The END! Now, to post new things!

A Beany Dress

This was one of those things that hit me at around 11 o'clock at night where I absolutely have to start it right now. I was just lounging around and thinking about getting ready for bed when I realized I really needed to make Beans a dress. Like, right NOW. I'm sure there are some of you that can understand this crafting bug.

So I pulled out a couple of doggie patterns I snagged the last time Joann's had a 99 cent sale. There were some cute jammies, dinosaur costumes, etc. But I think you'll agree, Beans needs a dress. The problem was that all the dress patterns were hideous pink things covered with lace, sparkles, and fluffy petticoats. No. Beans is scrappy. She doesn't do lace.

I usually can only picture my craft projects very literally and I am very open to suggestion. This means that when I see some things I want to make, I have to make it exactly like the picture or else. But I decided to "wing it" and pick out whatever that hell fabric I damn wanted for Beans' dress and I settled on some cute Bear fabric from Japan. I think I got it from Superbuzzy, but I can't find it anymore on their site.

I picked out the least complicated dress pattern and eliminated the sheer overskirt (I mean, PLEASE). The pattern also calls, of course, for lace on the sleeves, neckline, and skirt hem. This is not going to happen. I almost stopped there, but I pulled myself together and instead fashioned a plain ruffle from some yellow remnant fabric. I put a ruffle on each sleeve and on the hem of the dress, eliminating the one along the neckline. Then I topped it off with a matching sash around the waist! (Actually, I had some difficulty sewing the bodice to the skirt and the resulting stitches weren't very straight, so the sash is really a handy cover up). Here's a close up of the sash:


At one point I sewed on some snaps to close the dress. I kind of already knew that wouldn't work, but the closure was the only thing left and I really wanted to be finished. Of course, the dress totally didn't stay closed while Beans was wearing it, so I sent Omar out on a velcro-errand while I was at work.


Voila! Beans in her Bear dress!

Cooking Out of Everyday Food

Oh, how I love that magazine. Omar and I are on a diet for a week and I am H-A-T-I-N-G it. So much. You do not even understand. We went to the corner store to get lunch and I walked past a display of 50% off morning buns. Half-off, people. The swirly cinnamon-bun-esque kind with sugar all over. And I walked out with some carrots and an onion. Sigh.

So I decided to take a look back at the past few weeks, which were filled with good eats. I got all inspired by last month's issue of Everyday Food and had to make almost everything out of it.


I made Lemon-Ginger Bundt Cake for the office (and also snagged a sizable chunk for myself in the process). I am so not good at remembering to take pictures before slicing things up and eating at least half of what's there.


Portobello, Broccoli, and Red Pepper Melts. These can't be that bad for you, besides all the bread. The Gouda we used was really not about the melting, though. It kind of ended up like little cheese-mochi squares. Not bad - but not really very melty. Interesting fact - according to the Blogger.com spelling dictionary, "melty" is not a word.


I made use of my new King-Size Muffin Pan with the very tempting recipe for Banana Cupcakes. This was actually kind of disappointing. The frosting was OK, but not stellar. As for the muffin/cupcakes themselves, I really have way better recipes for banana bread that would have worked fine and I would rather have eaten. Also, do not waste you money on the custom baking cups for this pan. They are the worst baking cups I have ever used. I seriously think that half of the cupcake ended up on the paper and not in my tummy. Also a LOT of the paper ended up on the cupcake, which is much worse. Next time I will be greasing the pan itself, even though it's a pain.


This here Apple-Cinnamon Upside-Down Cake is actually from a previous issue, though I forget which one. I could seriously eat this whole cake by myself in one sitting, it is so good. I guess that's why I'm on a diet...

Panna Cotta and Old Crafts

I made the BEST PANNA COTTA OF MY LIFE the other day. I topped it with some homemade berry sauce. Delicious! It may not look like much, but the lighting in my office isn't that great for blog pictures. That's right, I took this for lunch. I mean, buttermilk is good for you, right? It was perfect, with only a hint of gelatin, and really simple to make. So good. I found the recipe here.


Also, here is an Arrested Development inspired pillowcase I embroidered for a friend recently.


Detail: