I sold a shirt

And it tickles me no end...

So I earlier this year I wanted to make a shirt for m or someone as a gift. It was too complicated to try and figure out how to do a diy version at home so I went with the promotional sites to see what they had to offer. Then I got sucked into hours of setting up an account and designing shirts and picking models to model the shirts and on and on. And when I was done I thought: Hey, I have a bunch of other shirts that I designed a while back. How cool would it be to finally have a product shot of those shirts?? So I loaded them up to my account and picked models and so forth. And then I left them up on the site and sort of forgot about them.

And then on Sunday I got an email from the site saying that I sold a t-shirt. Shazam! Really?

It was one of the shirts I designed for my dad's business. Dad's an 8th degree blackbelt in tae kwon do with his own business and I redesigned his logo and business materials a few years ago.

I'm not sure why this pleases me so much but it does. I do have a few issues with the promo site and their limitations (of course I do) but oh well. I guess sometimes you have to let it go. And now someone out there is wearing one of my dad's shirts. Designed by me. Coolness!

I only wish this site would let me thank my purchaser like the way etsy does. Feels like a kinder and gentler way to run a business that way. Don't you think?

If you're interested in checking out the shirts, you can look here.

And I don't normally promote my business much (much? ever?) on this ole blog, but hey man, what the heck? If anyone from my small number of readers is interested in hiring a graphic designer, I am always interested in putting together a bid for you. T-shirts aren't the only thing I design. My portfolio (designed by me, coded by my talented brother James) is here.

my chocolate lover

I call M my chocolate lover (hee hee). He loves chocolate. And yesterday was his birthday. We were both able to take the day off to enjoy it together. We ran errands (dr's appt for leftie, a stop at Target),


(my chocolate lover does not wish to be photographed)
ate an elegant lunch downtown

(I loved that chandelier)
watched An Education (please go see it, I found the trailer to be misleading. It's not as cheesy looking and esoteric as I thought it would be. It was actually quite good.)

And then I baked him a cake.

(I am a towering presence of chocolate)
It's become a birthday tradition. I offer to bake him whatever he wants for his birthday. Usually it's chocolate cake. I found an amazing recipe for one that was a white or yellow cake with a milk chocolate frosting. I wanted to make sure that was okay with him. But then he got to ruminating. Because I told him that the milk chocolate frosting is not a ganache frosting. Which is a frosting I've used more frequently in the past. And he decided that he wanted a cake with ganache. Because that's a fun word to say. So ganache it was. I followed this recipe to the letter (except I subbed a rice syrup that I found at Whole Foods instead of the corn syrup). It. Was. Amazing.


(I look innocent, but eat me and I will have you climbing the walls)
Probably should have doubled the recipe for the ganache. I couldn't help but sample it (again and again) as I was making it. While it was still warm and gooey it tasted like a really rich and heavy chocolate mousse (in the very best way). In fact, I might just make that as a dessert on it's own in the future. A-may-zing!

Anyways, I loved the ganache so much I would prefer more of it with the cake, which is not my normal reaction to frosting. But this isn't just frosting after all. It's a ganache. And it's a fun word to say. I just might have to get more supplies for another batch to go with the rest of the cake.

Recipe here.

oh. my. god.

I can't tell you how long I have been waiting for something like this!!


(saw this on Poppytalk)

Here's some more info regarding customized plates (scroll down the comments to read what Michelle the LifestyleCrafts creator has to say).

I checked out the website to get more info. And at $149.99 it's pretty affordable. Although I'm hesitant to shell  out the bucks until I can get my paws on some customizeable plates. Between this and gocco (or the other offshoots of home screenprinting that have sprung up in the last few months) I could open up my own printing+design studio! Or dream about it at least for now.

out the door

Finally got these out the door!

My aesthetic with sock bands favors handwritten/drawn ones over ones I could design on my computer. It feels right being that the band is encircling handknit goods.

I try to make the cover personal.


I always include care instructions and fibre content.


And with these socks I decided to include some Fun Facts.


Unrelated: I just discovered that blogger has a new post editing template. Fancy-schmancy! I'm still trying to get the hang of it. So far, it is annoying me. Which is strange for a google product. Aren't they supposed to be like Jedi mind readers or something? Doesn't "google" really mean "intuitive?"

Also I want my images to be as big as possible (without getting really obnoxious) and my classic blog template is messing with that. Sigh. The images are getting cut off on the right. Probably has to do with the width constraints of this template. For now you'll have to click on the image to get taken to the full image. Guess I'll have to sit and monkey around with the code for awhile to figure this all out. Stay tuned.

plain-janes

(Trying something new: blogging via flickr. Let's see how this goes... I can't figure out how to make the photo bigger so I gave up. Grrrr...)

Did I mention that I knit a pair of gloves?

I started these last Friday while waiting for dinner to be done. A pleasant way to spend a quiet Friday night on the couch with m, watching reruns of The Office (the American version), a kitty or two tucked in between us.

I was done with one glove by the time we went to bed. How awesome is that?? I love you worsted weight yarn.

For now they are functional and pretty in a plain-jane sort of way. I have some thoughts to embroider the backs with a yellow snowflake inspired by something I saw in an old issue of Martha Stewart Living.

The best thing about knitting your own gloves is that you can get them to fit just so. Seems I have kinda big hands and long fingers. Most gloves do okay on the hand-fit but the fingers are always pathetic. Kind of like when you wear tights and the crotch hangs down between your thighs? The finger-crotches of my gloves always hung out lower than they ought to have. But with handknit gloves, no more!

I'll leave you with that thought.

(Ravelry deets here.)

progress

The och looks positively terrified. But I assure you that this is her normal facial expression.

me, leftie + the och

Every time I take a progress shot of my tummy I think "sheesh I am HUGE." I looked back at my previous progress shots and thought "look how much smaller I was back then..."

me+leftie at 30 weeks

It's all perspective you know.

chimichurri

M and I used to eat semi-regularly at this chain Argentine steakhouse that was just down the street from where we lived in LA. I'm not sure how authentic the food was but it was good, conveniently close by and very reasonably priced. Most of the stuff on their menu I bypassed in favor of something healthier (yowsers but do they like to deep fry! add a side of cheese with that too). One thing that we both really liked about that place was the dipping sauce they served with the basket of bread. I learned later that it's called chimichurri sauce and so easy to make.

I used this recipe following it more or less faithfully except for the bread part. I served the flank steak as the main course with the sauce on the side for additional drizzling or for dipping the bread (untoasted). Last night was the second time I made this dish and M couldn't stop talking about how much he enjoyed it. He even went as far as to say that it was the best meat dish I had ever made. Shazam.

I should note that I consider myself a mediocre (red) meat cook(er). I'm still learning how to work with red meat. I've overcooked it a few times and was so bummed that I tend to undercook meat most of the time figuring that it's easier to fix an undercooked piece of meat than an overcooked piece. Most nights I stick whatever I undercooked into the microwave for about a minute and a half and we're good to go. I'm sure there are chefs out there who would tear their hair out if they heard this, but shhh... let's just keep it between us, k?

I think that probably the problem is that I don't have optimum tools to work with (a grill, a stove top that sits level so my pans/oils/juices don't tilt/run all to one side) and also I need more practice cooking different cuts of red meat. But since we try not to eat too much of it I don't get the practice I need. Ah well. It's a learning curve.



With last night's meal I served the flank steak with mashed potatoes and I sauteed some kale in chopped garlic and olive oil with a teaspoon of chicken stock paste. At the last minute I added a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and covered the pan to let the greens cook down to tenderness. It was really good! I've been sort of bored with my cooked greens lately. Feeling like they all sort of have the same drab but nutritionally good for you taste. I mean I love vegetables and greens, don't get me wrong. But I was getting bored. Last night's kale renewed my interest in leafy greens. I'll have to remember what I did with them.

Also I baked some bread to go with the chimichurri sauce. Had to or there'd be hell to pay. I've had some better luck with my bread baking. Although the very first half loaf I tried was the best and last night's would have taken a tepid second place. Let's not even discuss what happened with the second batch I tried to bake a week or two earlier.

I'm thinking though that bread baking is best done all in one go. I'd made up the dough the previous night letting it get one good rise before I'd punched it down and rolled it up and packed it in some plastic wrap for a sleepover in the fridge. I'd left my plastic bundle of doughy love to rest on top of the brita water filter and yesterday evening when I reached for the dough I found that it had overflowed out of the plastic and poured itself out over the filter and cascaded down next to a can of soda that was sitting behind the filter. It was kind of funny and amazing and grotesque. Go yeast! I guess. I had to pull out the filter, dough and can of soda all at once in order to carefully disengage everyone from each other. I set the clean dough aside on a baking tray after I shaped it so that it could have a second rise. But it seems that the dough had pretty much risen as much as it was interested in rising. I'll have to think about that and figure out where I went wrong.

The bread was good. But perhaps a little too doughy? And not crusty enough. The recipe I used instructs you to put a pan of water at the bottom of the oven while it's preheating and leave it in there while the bread bakes. I forgot to do that when I baked the best loaf. I remembered to do so last night and I think the crust suffered for it. Ah well. Learning curve I tell you.

turkey stroganoff, sort of

I made turkey stroganoff for dinner the other night. I used to make this all the time and then I sort of forgot about it. It shows in this meal above. Tsk, tsk, so many things I did wrong.

The recipe is something I whipped up one night and I've been calling it stroganoff but it's probably not a real stroganoff. I've never cared enough to check or correct that.

I sautee chopped onions and mushrooms in olive oil and then add some ground turkey meat to the pan and get that nice and cooked too. This last time around I used very lean ground breast meat and I think that was where my trouble lay. Next time around I'll get a small package of dark meat and sautee that up with the breast meat. I think this dish needed a little more fat in the animal kind of way. If you know what I mean.

And once the meat is mostly cooked I add a dollop of light sour cream and give it a good stir. I just keep adding more sour cream until the consistency is where I like it (runnier than a cream sauce). Then some herbs and seasoning: crushed garlic, dried thyme, paprika, a bay leaf some salt and pepper. This last go I added some dried oregano and rosemary but probably that wasn't the best idea. It was okay. But not the direction I wanted the flavor to go.

Meanwhile I had a pot of water going for the pasta. Again, I used a pasta that I'd not normally use for this dish. I think it works better with a spiral pasta or a wide noodle like parpadelle or fettucine. Oh well. It still tasted fine. Just not what I was intending. I get the pasta at not-quite-al-dente and drain. I add the pasta to the pan with the meat sauce and stir it up. If the sauce is a little thick, I'll add some of the pasta cooking water which thins it out some but not as much as adding water or milk. The glutens from the pasta will bind the sauce so it stays creamy. And at the end I added a tablespoon of chopped up tomatoes (leftover from something else I was making) and frozen peas.

So, like I said. The dish didn't turn out the way I'd intended or usually make but it was still a good dinner. Served with a side of steamed broccoli.

the walk home (fall)

Lots of changes around my office. Lots less green and a little more color these days.


The evening after I took this photo there must have been quite a bit of wind. The following morning most of the branches were bare.

You can see a lot further through the woods now with all those nekkid branches.

My camera batteries kept dying on me making photography a little trickier. Also I had a bus to catch that I didn't want to miss.


Otherwise I would have spent a lot more time trying to capture this guy on film.

socks, socks

and one more pair that I forgot to photograph... dammit.


modified "Conwy" for cousin T. I have got to get these in the mail.

And manly velvet plum anklets for my favorite circus artist. I have to wash these and get them in the mail too.


Ravelry details for the green socks here and the purple ones here. You have to be a ravelry member to see 'em (it's easy and quick to register!).

tutti frutti

Isn't this a great poster?

If you click on the image to see the bigger version you'll see at the bottom right that it finishes off the line of the song by Little Richard.

It's a hand printed limited edition screenprint by Phil Abel, Nick Gill and Rosa De Carlo available at the Keep Calm Gallery.

I think this would look great in our home... If I collected all the awesome art and posters I wanted I'd quickly run out of wall space.

wanty

I want some easy socks to knit. No more crazy patterns. Just some simple stockinette in a self striping yarn. I think these yarns from Lorna's Laces would do me just fine.

(clockwise from top left: 064 gold hill, 509 satsuma, 118 woodlawn, 808 maple grove)

indulge me

Yesterday was my 30 week doctor's appointment. My doctor likes to do an ultrasound at this point in the pregnancy so we got to see leftie up on the big screen again. I love that.

She's gotten to be such a big girl! Although, weighing in at the 53rd percentile at 3.9lbs seems awfully small. But she took up so much more of the screen than she had in previous ultrasounds.

Here's a profile shot of her.

The first thing I thought (after the ultrasound tech helped identify which angle we were seeing her at) was that she has my grandmother's chin.

Here's her chin:


And her mouth:

And her nose:


Do you see that? It's her left profile. Got that?

Now I understand that you probably have never seen my grandmother, and maybe this isn't the most accurate photo of leftie since it's just an ultrasound, so maybe I'll change my mind about it when she's on the outside, but from my viewpoint, that's my grandma's chin. You'll just have to take my word for it.

And here's another ultrasound photo of her face. Her chin's to the left and her forehead's to the right.


Here, if you rotate the photo around counterclockwise you can see it better.

Look at that! I have to admit I struggle between thinking that this is the coolest thing ever and that it's a little creepy. Is that wrong? Look at those round cheeks and that little nose! Wowsers.

I keep meaning to do another photo of my growing belly. A progress shot if you will. Now that I've got my camera worked out (just needed to buy New rechargeable batteries), I'll try to get that done. If the weather is cooperative and sunny that is.

today I am sad

I really want to take this sewing class offered in Brooklyn. Back when I lived in LA and she lived in Kansas I didn't ever think I'd have a chance to meet her or take a class from her. Now I am in Stamford and she's in NY. Dudes! How awesome would it be to take a class to learn sewing techniques from Jenny Gordy??

This morning as I was getting ready for work I said to m: I want to take a sewing class in Brooklyn and I have a feeling that I am feeling unreasonable about this. Talk me through the pros and cons.

And of course, wouldn't you know it, the cons outweighed the pros.

Anytime I say that I'm not thrilled with living in Stamford, CT because there is nothing to do, it's so suburban, it's out in the middle of no where, etc. People always say: yeah, but you've got NYC so close by!

F-you random unhelpful suggesters.

It's just close enough to present a glimmer of hope but far enough away that it makes getting to and from it a little unreasonable.

I could get a ride from my co-worker who lives in Queens each Thursday that the class is offered. That would be easy. He leaves here at 3:30 and says it takes him about 45 minutes to get home. I would carpool with him. Take the bus from Queens to Brooklyn, find a cafe to get a snack/early dinner and then head over to the class.

It's only an hour and half long class. It's only 4 Thursdays. I'd be done by 7:30. But then I'd have to take buses and trains to get back to Stamford and according to google maps that would take about 2 hours. Yikes. That's unreasonable, right? Like a little obsessive/crazy? Right?

See? That's why I'm sad. So close, yet so far...

more random and more of no photos

Wow. I have been really behind on blogging. How lame of me.

-- M and I went apple picking on Friday. We both took the day off to drive up to NH to see his parents. We decided to take a detour and pick apples. It had rained earlier and it was still gray and wet but it was awesome. Like we had the whole orchard to ourselves. Us and the people who work there that is. We picked something like 20 lbs of apples. I am in love with the Idareds (I think it's spelled all one word but I called them Ida Reds). Though let's face it. All fresh picked apples taste awesome. Except Red Delicious. Still couldn't get into that one. The farm we went to was great. I'm not sure if we'll be able to be back since I'm hoping we move away from this area next year. But I'd recommend it to anyone who is in this area. Very reasonable prices and a wonderful selection. And organic practices in their farming. Yay!

-- M and I took his mum to see Young@Heart in concert on Sunday. It was a belated birthday present to her. The show was so kick-ass. See the documentary if you haven't yet. Try and catch them in concert if you can. I do believe that their cover of Bob Dylan's Forever Young is probably my favorite of their numbers.

-- It snowed in Worcester, Mass which is where the concert took place. SNOW! I kept my cool over my excitement. The locals get a little grumpy when Californians get all excited about snow. My in-laws are no exception.

Reasons for why people get mad at my excitement over snow:

It's freaking October 18th! When does it ever snow in the middle of October? (more or less a direct quote from M's mum).

They have had some pretty nasty and/or long winters the last few winters and so they're all sort of sick of winter. Snow=winter.

Snow also = shoveling. And scraping. Angelenos and other warm climate friends: This means shoveling your car out of the snow bank so that you can get into it. And scraping the windshields and sometimes windows so you can see through them. Apparently this is not fun or exciting or magical. It's work. And sometimes you have to do it 2 or 3 times a day (before you head off to work in the morning, sometimes after work when you get back in your car to drive home, and sometimes anytime in between when you need to get to your car -- hmmm... seems to me that if you didn't have a car, this wouldn't be such an issue. Another point for public transportation, my friends.) Multiply this by 5 months and you can see why there are so many haters when the first snow hits.

-- I'm starting to freak out about the holidays already. I think I am behind on my handmade gifts. This is because I haven't started making any of them yet. And my sister-in-law has already begun her holiday shopping. Eep!