bake.

I am so far behind on this.  

That being said, the idea to "redesign the recipe" came from the witty people over at GOOD.  I took a slightly different perspective than most of the other entrants, who seemed to focus on cooking for adults.  Maybe because I already love to cook, when I read the original call for submissions [ here ], my thoughts immediately traveled to a young generation of cooks who knows little of being involved in the kitchen; much less in the preparation of their own meals.  And how to get kiddos to cook? I imagine this way enticing with tasty ingredients (and results!), seducing with silliness, but still challenging with ordering directions and measuring.  

You can see the brilliant submissions from artists / designers / foodies all over the place [ here ], and even vote for your favorite thru April 4th. I am still kicking myself for not making the submission deadline (especially since there were only 22 submissions!), but nevertheless, I had a blast playing and imagining the excitement of a 7 year-old boy reading a monster comic while enjoying his brownies. 

(If you love illustrated recipes as much as I do, have a look at "they draw & cook" a blog full of 'em!!)

tease.

Just a teaser (minus the text)....    This is another fun little monster project that I'm working on for a competition of sorts.  Hopefully it will be up by the end of the week, I have other things I want to do!

imagine.

The first in what may turn into a series of "exercises."   Since we moved into our little apartment, this is the view that greets me every morning.  The random assortment of furniture conglomerated in the backyard can be nothing short of a supernatural "meeting of monsters."  Or maybe it just makes work more fun to imagine so...  

Despite our loving relationship, it's been a long time since I've used Adobe Illustrator to create anything, so don't hate on the skill level. This was more or less a warm-up to get back into the flow of shortcuts, manipulating, and layering that Illustrator supports.  I even attempted to do a few things the hard way, just to make sure that I still knew how.

It's been awhile since I stretched my imagination and this really was a fun thing to play with. These old houses really are full of monsters.....

protect.

: A reto-post.

I knitted (purled, technically) these covers about a year ago. It was my first experience knitting in-the-round, and a happy accident. Since it's snowing very hard today, and I'm contemplating which flavor of tea I'm in the mood for, another knit project seems appropriate.  I have a stash of old projects that I'm finding as I clean off my hard drive, and I think I'll try and spread them out a bit as creativity is moving slowly.  I can't wait for this bout of forced hibernation to come to an end! 

knit.

Just the beginnings of a scarf I'm working on...  One of the first stores I visited when we moved was Joann's fabrics, to get new buttons for a coat (necessary.) Obviously, I couldn't pass this up, It's navy and sky blue, wool, and super-chunky and it was on sale.  I'm knitting it with 10 1/2's. I've never used the super-thick yarn before, but I'm loving it because it makes it go so fast! 

I'm also trying to teach myself to handle ribbing better.  I get all lost in the yarn in front/ yarn in back thing, but it's coming along.  Soon I'll be able to attempt my leg warmers (hah!) and the dorky dog sweater that's going to make Turk into a hipster-dog. Ha ha.

embark.

A short update: 

The last 6 months have flown by!! As 2011 begins, we find ourselves 1,500 miles away from 2010, embarking on a new chapter of life.  About a month ago, we were offered a job in central Pennsylvania (seemingly in answer to our deep desire to adventure outside of Texas for a bit.) Within 5 days, we were packed tight into two vehicles driving across the United States. We left most of our belongings in a storage unit in Texas, and we are now exploring this corner of the world, just us and the dog. 

Since I have traded my wide-open work space for a four-room apartment on the second story of an old victorian home, the size of projects will definitely be decreasing.  I think this is a good opportunity to push my limits and re-discover the vast boundaries of digital media.  I have a few projects in mind, but it may take a while before I feel comfortable enough to share. On the flip side however, the never-ending snow on the east coast this winter is creating an awesome background for cozy knitting projects.  More to come soon...  

forge.

Meet our newest addition; the coal forge. Now technically, I shouldn't be posting this here, but I just couldn't help it.  It's really my husbands toy; I've never forged anything in my life, (though I'm hoping to learn now...) but it's such a neat thing, and it's a part of my family history.  

Since we moved in October, my husband has been talking about the forge.  It was sitting among my grandpa's clutter, that my grandma just adores, might I add, and I'm sure it was just calling out to him "please, please, take me home!" A couple of weeks ago he finally got his wish.  We now have added to the rest of our creative endeavors a Champion Blower & Forge Co. Model # 400 coal forge. It's pretty old... what I'm assuming are the patent dates read "April 15, 1902 and July 30, 1901." I believe it was probably my great-grandfathers, if not my great-great-grandfathers. Neat, right?!  But despite it's age, it still works like a dream.  When he really got it cranking, I got some pretty great pictures of the sparks flying.  So far, he's been experimenting with flattening a railroad spike, to get the feel of things, and hammering on an old piece of i-beam.  If you've got an anvil just lying around, or know someone who does, we'd be happy to take it off their hands! 

sit.

New project: Chairs!

If you remember, a while back, I posted about the two part-er table project.  Step one was the napkin rings, while step two was fixing up the set of 4 chairs that goes with the table.  I'm finally getting around to the second part.

Since there are 4 chairs, all in different stages of being, we'll separate them.  A and B used to be finished, until the puppy decided to teethe all over B's legs. So, A gets a few touch-ups and B gets all kinds of sanding, and a few more touch-ups.  C is half-way there.  Once upon a time, when I was home from school, I decided that I wanted four chairs in my efficiency apartment rather than just two.  So I dragged C down from the attic, and sanded away.  Then I got tired and abandoned it. Now C just looks like a molted green and yellow mess. And D.  D is officially in "before" state. So there's your comparison...

So far, A and B are touched up, re-glued and happy, and after a long afternoon of work, C only needs one or two more coats of fresh paint.  D is re-glued and slightly stripped.  D needs some help. 

Hopefully this will be just a two-update process.  We'll see!

stain.

After forever, the desk is finally finished! Thank goodness, because I really don't get anything done with my computer set up in the living room; I'm ready to move back to my kitchen corner! 

All that's lacking now is the hardware, which I'll add in the morning when the top coat has completely dried.  After all of the hard work, I'm really proud of myself.  For anyone out there who has qualms about re-finishing furniture, don't worry! It's really not as scary as I thought it would be, though you should be ready to put in a lot of hours with some sand paper if the finish is in bad shape.  The staining went very smoothly, I used a rag to rub the stain into the wood and just let it dry.  For the varnish, I used a foam brush (grand total of 96 cents at home depot) and made very long strokes. 

I think, in review, that the color was a good choice, even though it still doesn't match much of our furniture.  It was a cleaner version of the original color, and it stays true to the natural wood, which I believe is pecan.  I can't wait to get my hands on the other pieces in the set someday so that I can clean them up too! What a great bedroom set it will make!

grind.

Just checking in... It's job hunting week and that means that from about 6:30 am 'till I fall asleep I'm scouring the web for my new home.  As an update, we're looking to get out of Texas (fingers crossed) just for the fun of it.  We're really (really) hoping for Boulder/ Denver area.  We'd settle for Phoenix / Dallas / Austin, or gee, if we had to, San Francisco / Portland / Seattle or overseas. (:  It's a fun time in life where the doors are wide open, we have no ties and we can just see what happens.  Or, worst case scenario, doesn't happen.  Then we end up right where we're at now moving just a hop down the street. Ugh. Please no.  So, shameless plea, if you know of anything even remotely interesting going on in these areas job-wise for an architect or a ceramic artist please contact me! Thanks!

For now, back to the grind......