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Friday Five
- Christopher Hitchens died this week. Despite not agreeing completely with everything he said, I did love that he didn’t tell us what to think, but taught us how to think. He asked of us that we DO think, that we DO question, that we DO love, that we do LIVE. Himself to the end, his words and the fires he lit will burn brightly for a very, very long time. (Photo via Vanity Fair for reference only.)
- Lumps of coal for all my co-workers and friends. Because I’m quite sure they’ve all been naughty at some point this year. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be my friends :) Make your basic “Rice Crispies treat” recipe but instead use a chocolate cereal and peppermint-flavored marshmallows. Add some black food coloring and scoop irregular-sized lumps onto waxed paper to cool. Package up and then warn everyone that it tastes delicious, but WILL dye your mouth and teeth black while eating. Well, only warn the friends who deserve it :) (Idea for packaging design from here.)
- Love my new Vessel drinkware. Double-walled, glass, 16 oz., with a removable strainer. You put loose tea inside, add water, replace the strainer and drink. The strainer keeps all the loose tea in the bottom, just letting the tea through. I’ve gone through a whole box of Oolong in a week with this cup.
- This week was our cookie exchange at work. How awesome it is to bake ONE kind of cookie and magically turn that into SIX different kinds of cookies, each equally delicious. Can we have cookie exchange once a month? (I made these ones.)
- New friends (and new parents) Greer and Brian welcomed sweet baby boy, Bryce, earlier this Fall and I am the lucky girl they asked to photograph their new little family. Thank you!
- We recently got a new couch, which led to a bit of a reorganize of the living room that exposed MORE WALL FOR HANGING ART. Yay! I was running out of wall space. This is a decent sized piece (13x25) listing my all time favorite music artists. The ones I've loved for years and imagine I always will. I'll be that grandma still listening to Eminem.
- Had a two-family back-to-back mini-mini session last weekend. Quick way to get a few "Christmas card photos" without all the time requirements of a full session. I've shot both of these families before and it's always nice to see everyone and be amazed at how big the kids are getting!
- Did you hear that this new Coke can, which donates part of the proceeds to helping Polar Bears, is being pulled because people complained it looked too much like the Diet Coke can? Are you kidding me? An absolutely gorgeous design that is being used for good, for the benefit of such an amazing creature that can surely use our help and that's all being scrapped because it confuses all the poor coke drinkers? I LOVE Coke -- grew up on it and think it kicks Pepsi's ass, but if it takes me a whole second longer to PAY ATTENTION and grab the right can to benefit something besides myself, then I'll do it. I'm equally pissed that people are so self-centered that they complained about their inability to read the can and also that Coke caved in and pulled the cans. Sure hope they still donate an equal amount without people purchasing the official can. (And I also think it's stupid that an organization capable of donating big money only does so if we jump through their hoops. You wanna' help the Polar Bears, just help them already.)
- Have you heard of Pinterest? I'm sure you probably have, it's like a virtual bulletin board, where you can "pin" and categorize anything. Anything you find or see on the web, or that you can upload from your computer. The pin links back to the original site, so you can always get back to that information for later reference. Love the convenience of knowing "I saw it somewhere...." really is somewhere I can find again. Yummy recipe? It'll be in my "I want to taste this" board. Awesome DIY? It'll be in my "I want to make this" board. Easy-peasy. I've been on Pinterest for quite awhile and have quite a few boards -- so if you want to see them, just follow me.
- I tried to make these adorable rainbow cupcakes for Indie's birthday this week. (Found them on Pinterest!) From the get-go, I had problems. But, I kept going and...ended up with a LOT of half-assed looking cupcakes. I wanted perfectly flat tops, not the domed, rounded cupcake tops I usually get. First batch were hugely rounded. Made a second batch, using my own brain to try and solve the problem. They were about half as round. Went to the internet to try and solve the problem and ended up with a third batch that was pretty flat, but when I tried to make them totally flat, using one of the tips I found online, all the tops ripped off. Sigh. Started a 4th batch, no kidding, and they weren't much better. I finally gave up and we had a TON OF CUPCAKES all over the kitchen. Fine if we were having a huge party. However there are only 4 of us here to eat them. Went to frost them and about half-way in realized I didn't have all the ingredients. So I winged it and the frosting, while tasting pretty good, had an odd consistency. The next day I added the white frosting "clouds" and went to the the store to buy the rainbow candies used for the rainbows. And after several stores, realized I was not going to have rainbows. I bought some "Fruit by the Foot" fruit snacks, because they were the closest things I could find. I quickly discovered they were too flimsy to hold the arc shape. But still, I soldiered on. Finished ALL THOSE CUPCAKES only to wake up in the morning (the actual birthday day) to find all the rainbow-fruit-by-the-foots had collapsed and the colors had bled into the blue frosting, which had also turned into an even weirder consistency. I can bake, really, but I do not know what gremlins were afoot in my kitchen this week. Luckily the taste-good gremlins still allowed them to taste REALLY GOOD, despite their ridiculous appearance (much worse than the in-progress photo here, because I refused to take their picture after they got so silly.)
- This girl turns 13 early next week. I would be telling the truth if I said it never even entered my mind that that made her a teenager -- until my 20-year-old reminded me, “mom, she’s gonna’ be a teenager, duhn. duhn. duhn…” Egads! Does saying “egads” show that I am a long ways past being 13 myself? She’s my baby, the youngest in the house, and 13 is far too old for her to be!
- A little personal mini-goal set and reached. I joined a gym this past summer with the goal to eventually lose 100 lbs. Yup, that very big number is daunting, but I am really good at short-term challenges so every 5% bodyweight lost or every 10 lbs. or every size-smaller pant is what I aim for. And when I hit one, I aim for the next small goal in line. Currently down 25 lbs. and four pant sizes. Last Friday I stumbled out of bed, late for work, (it was the day after Thanksgiving, after all,) and pulled my jeans on from the floor where they’d landed the night before. They seemed a tad short, but being in a rush and still sleepy, I pushed it aside and headed to work. Later that morning I realized I was not wearing my jeans. I was wearing one of my daughter’s jeans. Jeans that were a size I hadn’t worn in years. And they were skinny jeans. Not that I really have much business wearing skinny jeans, but this was huge for me because they were skinny jeans from the normal-size section of the store, not the plus-size section. Being as they were her favorite jeans, she wouldn’t let me have them, boo, so I bought my own pair. I own a pair of normal-sized skinny jeans! Baby steps.
- This pillow from Ikea, the 365+ Fast, is for “side-sleepers and back-sleepers.” It’s really firm, but made of some kind of memory foam, so it’s soft, and is nothing short of life-changing. Well, sleep-changing, which IS life-changing in my book. Only $20 and I have slept great every night since. No more constantly shaping and plumping and punching and pushing to get my pillow comfy. It just fits, right next to your shoulder and the roll is the perfect size to support your neck while your head cradles in the center. The two sized rolls are for side or back sleepers, one for each. When I roll over, I just roll over. I don’t have to start the pillow dance again to get comfy.
- This is a very cool site I stumbled upon. It lets you enter either a stride (Beats per minute or BPM) or speed and then it returns a playlist of music matching that tempo so you can keep your pace. GENIUS! You can further narrow your search to just a specific genre of music too. And add any or all of the songs you want into your own playlist. You can hear samples of each song too, and there are several links to purchase the songs individually from multiple vendors (iTunes or Amazon, for MP3s.) I knew I was on the right track when I entered 8:00 mile and several songs on the list were ones I already listened to on the elliptical. I added a few more from the playlist and now have lots of stuff to keep me motivated. I do MUCH better with music
- This is a new patterned illustration I made and added to my Society6 shop. A graphic interpretation of my Grandma’s blanket. I grew up always having at least one of these chevron crocheted blankets on the couch and always think of both my grandmas when I see it. One taught me to crochet and the other always made the blankets. Love in every stitch, right?
- My daughter and I were lucky enough to be two of the eight lucky people to participate in a CreativeLive workshop in Seattle. Holiday cupcake and cookie decorating featuring Lucinda Larson. Had fun, learned cool tricks and we came home with this assortment of gorgeous, delicious cupcakes that WE MADE OURSELVES. Fo' realz!
- Same daughter (the pastry culinary student,) made dessert for Thanksgiving (her first ever "from-scratch".) A pumpkin-pecan cheesecake that was ah-may-zing! Can't wait for another piece tonight!
- My daughter and a friend rescued a homeless baby rabbit and my mother-in-law fell in love with him, so now Peter rabbit lives at her house. So cute, oh my, maybe we should have kept him ourselves?
- So grateful I DON'T participate in "Black Friday!" It's ridiculously crazy, full of rude, pushy people, overheated (over-smelly) and the total opposite of the compassion for fellow humans that this season means. I think a much better idea would be 'Giving Friday," where we all try to donate as much as possible to organizations like the Goodwill. Everyone needs to admit we have TOO MUCH UNNEEDED STUFF and surely someone else would appreciate it.
- A little print I made that is available in my Society6 shop. "If you know how to swim, an ocean's depth doesn't matter." Teach your kids to swim, literally and figuratively, and they will be better prepared for whatever life throws at them.
- My dog, who eats apples like a human. He holds them down, takes his time, and when done, leaves the core and stem. Which is good because apple seeds are poisonous to dogs (and can build up in their system.) Apples are a good snack for your dog, but if they are inclined to eat the whole thing, make sure you cut them up first to remove the seeds.
- I have a love/am-sometimes-disappointed-with relationship with Keen shoes. They are a high-quality brand, stylish, long-wearing and (usually) comfortable. I love this pair that I just got for the impending winter and they are super comfy. Once. you. get. them. on. The opening is just a bit small, so it takes some work to get them on. Once you do, love, LOL, so, they only rate: :/ I will say that shopping at Zappos, where I go them, is the absolute best of the best for online shopping. Overnight shipping, free returns and a huge selection. I've never been disappointed with them.
- Love the work of Austin Kleon. He is a writer and artist and is the author of Steal Like An Artist and Newspaper Blackout. I love the messages that reveal themselves in his work and I also love the graphic starkness of the black and white and words.
- Yep, winter is coming. This was a shot of the first snow this season, which was Wednesday. I love that we have 4 distinct seasons, but I really don't love snow. Well, I don't like snow the day after it snows. When it's slushy and icey and grey and inconvenient. When it's falling though (and I'm not driving!) it is magical.
- I'm headed to Seattle again this weekend to be an audience member at the CreativeLive Decorating Holiday Cupcakes and Cookies course. I was originally taking a Scott Kelby photoshop course, but this fell in my lap and they were at the same time. Since my daughter is a pastry student in culinary school, I thought this would be something fun we could do together. Plus, it's CREATIVELIVE! Hello! I have watched (and bought) so many of their courses. Jasmine Star, Zack Arias, Tamara Lackey, Bambi Cantrell, David duChemin, Jeremy Cowart...the big names just keep coming. Even though this course isn't necessarily photographic in intent, it will be good for me since I love to bake and photograph those items. Check it out, it's LIVE and FREE on Monday from 9 am-12 pm at CreativeLive. (This "Seattle" image is one of my prints available at Society6. There are quite a few cities and states, and I can create a custom one if you don't see yours.)
