a little obsession

Plants. Container Gardens. Wishful thinking. Growing things has always appealed to me, but I had a streak of killing plants in college, and living in this current apartment, I had been really hesitant to do much because of the lack of direct sun. Our living room and dining/kitchen area have a big expanse of windows facing out onto an open walkway which let in a lot of light, but it only really gets direct light in the spring and early summer. Maybe a year after we moved in to this apartment, we picked up a lucky bamboo which now takes up a good chunk of space in our tiny bathroom, and a lipstick vine which we were convinced we had killed only to have it spring back to life after a good trimming. The bathroom feels like a jungle, and we have planted two more lipstick cuttings which are doing really well. We've also picked up a begonia cutting/baby from a coworker, a dancing bones from a plant store, and a trio of succulents from a friend's wedding decor. Cilantro, Italian parsley,lemon balm, lobelia, lavendar and thyme are growing from seed, but the last two I think are growing on wishes. It's so easy to let your fears get in the way of what you want to do. For all my fears, our plants have turned out OK for the most part, I might even say just fine. There's no point in telling yourself it can't be done because the perfect conditions aren't present. With enough research and resourcefulness, you can find a way to have your own garden. I could have been experiencing the joys of the garden sooner if I had only been brave enough to try. Good life lesson that. All this obsessing over plants has me thinking that maybe I might just write about them for the benefit of myself and anyone who cares to learn from the mistakes of others. Perhaps you'll see more posts about plants in the future. In the meantime, I strongly recommend you to check out some gardening videos on the internet. Any of the following would do you good: How to be a Gardener, Fork to Fork, Around the World in 80 Gardens, Year at Kew, Gardens of Italy, Gardens of France. Enjoy!

googleplussssss

Google+ has pulled me into posting another item using this old thing. So... Hi. Feel free to read my not very well written journaling below, and please note that yes, I'm sure it sounds pompous and affected. My excuse is that I haven't found my voice as a writer yet, but really, that's just a load of BS. I kind of hate the fact that I have this thing, and now I'm a little worried that other people I know will see this. Not that I recall having written anything extraordinarily personal, but thinking about it is a little embarrassing. Anyway, please enjoy the below scribbles and feel free to laugh in my general direction.

and suddenly a fat neck

Getting fat is one of those things that slips up on a person, or at least in my case. A person can get up every morning, take a peek in the mirror and see the same shiny face they saw yesterday. Perhaps there are some differences on the canvas, but for the most part it's the you you know and love. Then one day you're touching your face, and suddenly you notice you can't feel a tendon or your jaw as sharply as before Christmas. Hmm, you wonder, when did that happen? Days, weeks, months in the making, one has to come to terms with the fact that the chub is there and something must be done. Oh, why can't eating donuts, lattes, mochas, cakes, cookies, pasta, pasta, and more pasta, come without consequences? Dearest metabolism, I beg you, please come back!

Metabolism or no, it's probably best to reign in any unscrupulous eating habits. Who wants to find themselves unnecessarily hobbled at an early age because of a weakness for butter and sugar? All of this in mind, I'm experimenting with cutting some foods out of my diet, as in meat and dairy products. After eating enough apples and oranges, I actually started to like and look forward to them. To my great surprise, soy milk is great in a latte! Vegan waffles are just as delicious as the standard recipe. I'm in my first week, and although the adjustment has been a bit difficult, I feel far more enthusiastic about eating nutritious foods I habitually turned my nose at. A friend, Hope, stated the benefits of this path quite well: "once I became a vegan, I finally chose the apple over the Snickers."

What helps is that you really have to read the ingredients for the foods you buy (if prepared) and think outside the box when cooking. As a cook, I definitely tend to reproduce the same dishes with no real thought to their nutritional benefits. Now I have to consider how to cook a wide range of veggies, and I'm glad to have the challenge.

fuck you, credit card.

This is a warrant for your arrest. I will henceforth be on the hunt for you, not to bring you to justice, but to kill you in cold blood.

Oh, don't mind me. That's just me psyching myself up to clean up my credit card debt. I've been carrying this thing for way too long, and rather than letting myself appease the spender in me, I've decided to get this over with so I can move on to better things.

The tough part is that I am not good at sticking to budgets. I let myself cut corners here and there, which really just hurts me in the long run. What I need is a solid plan, and a way to remind myself that every dollar spent on something frivolous counts against me.

Looking over my spending patterns, thanks to Mint.com and a healthy bit of time staring at bank statements, my number one unnecessary purchase is the purchase of coffee drinks. There are dozens of coffee shops in the area, and some of them serve the most amazing coffee I've ever had. Not to mention the fact that they all carry delightful pastries to go with the three dollar java. That adds up quickly, especially with the temptation on every corner.

Other spending pitfalls include alcohol & food. No big surprise there, and I probably spend less than a lot of people. I don't really look down on the purchase of alcohol since that normally includes some socializing, which is a good thing in this dreary town. The food, though... I have got to find a way to lower my costs effectively without eating horribly processed foods in the meantime.

One of my inspirations (aside from the whole getting out of debt thing) for feeding myself cheaply are the few $30 a month challenges I've read about where people try to spend $30 on groceries for an entire month. It sounds really intimidating, and like a lot of hard work, but if they can do it (and they did) for $30 a month, I can definitely do it for $100. If I can avoid buying lunch downtown, I can save myself at least five dollars a day. My main challenge with that is the fact that I'm not good about making lunch ahead of time, and I don't give myself time enough in the morning to eat breakfast. Hello, expensive pastries and overpriced sandwiches. This will change.

I started looking at weekly sales adds for the area grocery stores, and also looking over online coupons for household goods. The store nearest my home is marked up a lot, so really finding deals there can be difficult. I'm open to branching out to different grocery stores, but I just have to keep myself motivated.

There it is - my dirty financial secrets laid out. Now that I've made my confession, I can carry out my mission to eliminate this needless debt. Watch out, Credit Card. I'm coming for you.

June Gloom

It's June 20th, the day before the first official day of summer, and we're all bursting with impatience to have a bit of sun come out. I wish it were more summer like, but thus far the weather has only to disappoint. We've had a few hours of sunshine here and there, but it only lasts for so long before it starts to get gloomy and cold again. What's a girl to do?

Well, as they say, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. So I made lemonade. With vodka.

Making homemade lemonade isn't too hard, providing you don't have any cuts on your fingers and don't mind getting a little sticky. We halved several lemons and a few limes, and squeezed hard to get every last drop out like our lives depended on it. We added simple syrup, ice, and vodka in varying quantities, and sat down to enjoy a drink in honor of the absent sunshine.

The sunshine doesn't stop there. We made a blackberry peach cobbler to go with the lemonade, and served vanilla ice cream on the side. The ice cream melts slightly and mingles with the warm berry juices, creating a delightful contrast. Cobbler a la mode, with lemonade? Can't get more summery than that!

Here's to you, summer! We hope to see you soon!

Mansfield Park, you've been wronged.

I just finished Mansfield Park, and in my post-Austen flurry, I scrambled to find the movie version which I loved so much more than any other Austen adaptation. I remember falling completely in love with it, even though my sister, the Austen expert, didn't enjoy it as much as myself. Let me excuse myself by mentioning that before that movie, I had never read any of her books, so I had no idea that they were doing it completely wrong.

Are there any good Mansfield Park adaptations out there? Patricia Rozema's film totally changes her character, the 2007 Billie Piper also tweaks her character, and the 1983 Mansfield Park is so old it's almost impossible to watch. I say this after watching maybe 40 minutes of each version, just because the faults of each were so overwhelming I couldn't watch anymore at the time.

Fanny Price is a weak character in the beginning, and I didn't enjoy reading about her poor health and timid manners, but after having dealt with the dramas of the Crawfords, she really turns out to be very strong and iron willed. That resolve of hers is what I love about Fanny!

Let the creativity flow!

You might remember watching this Mr. Roger's segment when you were a kid. Remember how exciting it was to work with crayons, and most particularly, all the different colors? It was so much fun! As an adult, I've been trying my hand at watercoloring in an attempt to relax and work my artistic muscles. I'm not very good at all, but I enjoy playing with colors and composition. People look at my work and don't really say anything terribly encouraging, but I laugh at myself anyway and keep working.

We've had a few get-togethers in the last couple of months loosely centered around crafty projects such as watercoloring, mostly because it's nice to see what people come up with, and because artistic projects should be undertaken by everyone! Some people are generally gifted and talented at art, and, sadly, lack of talent makes others feel like they shouldn't even try it at all. I try to do away with that nonsense by providing some all-purpose lubrication in the form of booze. Wine loosens up inhibitions just the slightest bit, and even the most reluctant artists take a stab at putting something down on paper.

A friend of mine recently shared an idea for an event involving Bob Ross and The Joy of Painting. The idea was that the group would watch an episode of Joy of Painting, and while watching, would follow along on their own using whatever art supplies were around. I guess the outcomes are pretty interesting! Haven't been able to pull this one together yet, but hopefully we can arrange it in the future.

The plus side of having people come over to paint/draw/whatever is new art to put on your walls! I am tickled every time I look at my friends' art on the wall, mostly because I remember the good times we were having. It really has been fun seeing what other people can do with art, and I hope that it inspires them to spend a little more time on art in the future. All you need is a little practice!

Oh, Jane, what shall we do?

At last, my good friend, we meet again. My apologies for my neglect, but I have been quite busy doing nothing, thank you! Actually, that's not entirely true, but my ambitions have never been very great to begin with, so we shall settle on that point.

We haven't been going out quite as much, leaving me without bar reviews or interesting restaurants to share, but I've been exposing myself to a bit more culture thanks to Netflix, Jane Austen, and the theatre. I enjoy literature, film, and theatre, and each medium really kicks my imagination into overdrive. I can't help but think about throwing together parties and soirees that focus around, or are influenced by, art.

I just finished a reread of Pride and Prejudice, and I'm now going through Mansfield Park for the first time. Reading these stories, stories about women in society, really fuel my need to put together some manner of outdoor party in an extravagantly lush park somewhere. Dear neighbors in Mansion Land, I may need use of your lawns! I can see it now, a tent set up in the middle of a field with linens flowing in the twilight, and luminous lanterns strung about providing a warm glow. One large table, or a rug with pillows strewn about, would sit there waiting for guests to arrive via a winding path. The idea would be to create a sense of wonder and ease, to take everyone from their mundane cares for the enjoyment of an evening among friends old and new. We would serve refreshing cocktails, light food, and mirth would flow! This isn't easily achieved, but I'm hoping to recreate this moment. I have a notion that I will be able to recreate it in my living room!

I suppose I've come across a project here, to recreate my Austenesque park dinner party in my living room. Here's to a challenge!

jimmjamjamjam

January is over. Fini. Done. Gone. Never to be heard from again in 2010. So that means February is here in all its cruel ferocity.

We left January with a birthday celebration for Jason. I made a chocolate peanut butter concoction which was absolutly amazing. I used a chocolate cake mix from a box (how mundane, but you can still have fun with mixes), but I made the frosting myself from a recipe I found over at Smitten Kitchen. It was delicious! Cream cheese frostings have always put me off, simply because I was unfortunate enough to be force fed cream cheese frostings on costco cakes from age 9 through 16. I like being the one to make birthday cakes because I get mad props from my friends, but it's all trickery. You can't go wrong with sugar. Most people love it, dream about it, crave it. Making any dessert, I think, is an automatic win.

my, my, does time fly!

It sure does, Roger. I started this blog knowing that I probably wouldn't do much with it, really, and here I am, several months and a gym membership later, posting my third entry!

A lot has happened in the last few months. I baked a lot of buttery, sugary, delicious treats which helped contribute to a big tip in the ol' scales. Not unexpected, but as I am rounding out my 26th year, I feel that I should probably get a handle of the situation before I landslide into scales not previously known. I got on board with physical fitness after a several year hiatus, and I now sweat if off at the gym semi-regularly. My favorite torturous exercises include laboring over the stair master, the elliptical thing, and hefting weights around. I can assure you I look like a complete idiot, but I love feeling tired after working out so I plan to continue. I have been toying with the idea of doing a triathlon this year. We'll see about that!

Now, that's enough about working out and being healthy. Let's talk about the drunk part of the last few months. There just so happens to be a fabulous German bar across I-5 from my apartment, called the Feierabend, and we've been spending a lot of time and money there. They boast the largest selection of German beer on tap on the west coast, but that is thus far unverified. They also have what they call a Mug Club, where they have a series of punch cards to complete for different items. The first punch card (filled after about 25 liters of beer consumed) warrants you a t-shirt reading "Ich liebe deutsches bier", the second a patch (unverified), and the third your own personal stein which you can either keep at the bar or take with you. We're almost done with our t-shirt cards, and it has been a delicious process. My favorite selections include the Franziskaner weissbier, Hacker-Pschorr dunkel-weisse, and Kostringer. It's a lot of fun to hang out with a bunch of friends for an afternoon and make fun of each other as we get more intoxicated. What's even more fun is walking up the steep ass hill after drinking two liters. Stumbling and merry-making ahoy!

The rest of our boozing adventures over the past few months include our holiday party. Rather than give our friends presents for the holidays, we decided to give them the gift of booze, thus hosting an event we called Merry Boozemas. Really awful event name, but it got the point across (and it was definitely a boozy affair). We intended it to be a cocktail party, but since neither of us are bartenders, we pretty much just bought a bunch of booze, mixers, and garnishes, and let people play around. While people were boozing it up, we had old Fred Astaire movies playing in the background (Top Hat, and Funny Face), and some other old jazz blaring on the laptop. Glenn Miller is my new favorite artist in the world.

In preparation for Boozemas, I went on an adventure to Ikea, where I purchased some cheap cheap cheap glassware and other things I didn't really need but wanted. You know, like you do when you go to Ikea. We made several trips to the liquor store, and subsequently had awkward conversations with the friendly staff which may have made me seem like an alcoholic. I will say that I am not an alcoholic, just a binge drinker. I openly admit that, and, I'm sorry, Liver, this is only a phase. I checked out a bunch of music and movies from the library for ambiance, and I'm still riding my Glenn Miller/classic movie phase. The event was a success, apparently, and people seemed to enjoy themselves. It looks like this will be a regular event, and I do not mind at all!

New Year's was fun, but had an unfortunate end due to complete shitfacedness. New Year's Day was painful and long. I must have spent a good part of the day bent over a toilet, or in misery on the couch. I finally saw Fargo, rewatched the Lord of the Rings movies, and eventually felt good enough to enjoy some of Seattle's goodl ol' terriyaki! Note to self: mass quantities of cheap champagne is a no-no.

That's about all the update I can do today. Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!

Peach-Raspberry Crostata, via Pittsburg Needs Eated.

A few weeks ago, J picked up some raspberries and peaches at the Farmer's Market with the idea that I would make something tasty with them. I've recently been on a baking binge that produced cranberry-orange scones, blueberry cobblers, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, cakes. After stumbling around the internet looking for ideas for my next project , I discovered the most amazing food blog in the world, Pittsburgh Needs Eated. She's got some really great recipes, and awesome pictures to boot. I spent a good long while looking over her postings, and now that I'm thoroughly jealous of her ability to bake, I feel the need to cook just about everything I read on her blog.

The recipe I ended up using for the peaches and raspberries was her Peach-Raspberry Crostata. The results were, I am pleased to say, quite delicious! I didn't follow the recipe exactly, and I subbed in the regular iodized salt for the sea or kosher salt, and I used nutmeg as a sub for the ginger. Those changes aside, it turned out pretty well! The recipe made eight little tarts of varying size (my rolling skills have much to be desired), which really were delicious. I ate one fresh out of the oven, and man oh man, I about died. The crust was perfectly flaky and buttery, the pairing of the fruits really did well. I baked them late at night (2 AMish) so no one else got to eat them fresh when they were at their best. They weren't so awful out of the fridge, though. I think everyone enjoyed them! The only issue I had with the end result was some burning from spilled over juices. I would like to think it added some character to the pastry.

I also decided to bake a birthday cake for a house guest this weekend. The cake was not remarkable by any means, other than the miracle that despite the fact that I ran out of ingredients (flour, sugar, chocolate), the cake turned out okay. I was expecting something slimy and alive to crawl out of the oven (Swamp Thing, perhaps?) but I was delighted to find a perfectly moist, light chocolate cake with a touch of raspberry jam flavoring. I ended up eating most of the cake myself, just out of pure joy that it worked. The next birthday cake I produce will be better.

Thanks to my new favorite food blog, Pittsburgh Needs Eated, for sharing her recipe!
I didn't snap any pictures while I was working on the recipe so I don't have any pictures, but, I promise next time I will provide some pictures.

Introducing Fiddlesticks

Well, hot damn, I've done it again!

I'm taking up blogging again after a few years of absence due to an increasing desire to improve myself in various ways through various means. My intent here would be to share the outcomes of any creative projects I undertake, or other mundane chores I feel like sharing. My audience at this point is solely myself, but I think I can entertain myself fairly well!

Starting up a blog is really tiresome and trite, so my apologies to the peanut gallery. The last time I really attempted blogging wasn't really blogging, I suppose, as people think about blogging now. It was more or less the self-indulged hell that makes up the better part of LiveJournal. Yes, I was young and driven to share my emotions with the world. Thinking about those LJ years feels a bit like looking at all my fashion mistakes from 1997 to 2005. Ouch. Don't be afraid, I will not be repeating those mistakes here!

Onwards and upwards! What I really want to do with this is develop some creativity which has been a bit dormant recently, share things I like or find interesting, and put some of my ideas out there.

I've got some ideas for projects, which include:
-Straightening up my home and adding a bit more style.
-Whipping up some delicious treats in the kitchen. (I love baking a bit too much.)
-Pulling myself out of the frumpy/ill fitting depths of my closet.
-Doing some simple crafts.

Thanks for reading this far. I look forward to sharing some ideas - and hopefully laughs - with you!