photobooth update

Two things:

1. Crochet Strawberry necklace I made the other day. I don't, yet, have the balls to wear this in public. But I will, never fear, I will.

2. The newest (and possibly the most practical considering my kitchen appliance addiction) member of the family: the 6 1/2" baby cast iron skillet. Literally the perfect size for two eggs. There will be more photos of the baby in action l8r. 

Also, I finally made these babies, courtesy of this website.

Pesto on the roof

Pesto is easy to make! We used basil, walnuts, spinach, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil. I can't remember exactly what else, it was a while ago. If you sauté little tomatoes they become extremely tasty. The other thing we used were garlic scapes. They are the stalk of the a garlic plant before it blooms. They had them at the farmer's market because they are in season right around now. I expected it to taste like a chive, but when you sauté it becomes very mild and delicious. And I grew that basil leaf!

Claire and I rigged up a pulley system using the basket from Nicole's bike, and a few supplies from the hardware store. We ate our pasta on the roof!

we do other things besides eat and sleep

A bit of the eurotrip scrapbook I'm working on (currently on hiatus because of school). It will get done.... eventually.

free time

...it's not all wasted on the internet. i've been pretty crafty lately, which makes up for the fact that i have about ten books checked out from the library and i have yet to finish (or start...?) any of them. or it at least partially makes up for the fact.

i've been getting back into jewelry making, initially because i needed birthday gifts for some friends.

i made these for a friend but liked them so much i made another pair for myself.

i like the look of feather earrings but i don't like the price. i guess i just have a hard time paying twenty, thirty, even seventy (?!) dollars for something that weighs like, negative three ounces. luckily for me my local bead store sells feathers! i sort of made up how to connect them to the hook with these little doo-hickeys i found at the bead store (i think their original purpose is to attach cord to a clasp? who knows.) but it seems to have worked relatively securely, and looks somewhat professional no less. you can't really see in the picture though.

if it were 2005 this would be my myspace "default"

i made this coral-themed set for another friend's birthday. when i gave her the present she said, "nicole, you could make a living making jewelry... holders!" i guess she thought these were cooler than the actual present itself:

haha. i'm guilty of backhanded compliments too. better than no compliment at all, right?

ps. you may notice my somewhat excessive usage of seed beeds. they're so cheap! 99¢ a strand.

happy father's day, here's a pint of blood!

a couple years ago, my dad asked for a pint of blood for his birthday. and by that he meant he wanted my brother and i to each donate blood in his honor (neither of us had done so before). my dad donates regularly, but my mom doesn't because she gets queasy around needles, and so does my brother, so i figured i would be too. but then i realized that i was totally fine with getting shots etc., so i signed up for my high school's blood drive. and it was totally fine. i give blood regularly because it's a quick and painless way to help other people out, and it reminds me of my dad which is nice.

so in honor of this father's day, my dad and i are donating blood together. cute father-daughter bonding activity, no? i gave him this card. kinda ugly but hey i made it quickly.

i'm a fan of the paper-cut cursive right now.. though it's a BITCH to glue since the paper is so skinny and fragile.

except for when i gave it to him, he didn't realize it was a pint of blood, and thought it meant i was giving him a pint of ice cream. (his other present was an ice cream maker / the ice cream that i promised to make him from it. i actually just bought the ice cream maker for myself)

famiree time, sans famiree

my day was constituted by nearly every aspect of this blog. namely, i crafted, and i cooked, and at some points in time i was both crafting and cooking simultaneously (side note: studies show women are better at multitasking. fuck yeah). the only thing missing was the famiree.

home alone, i decided to spend my time making and assembling a small package for my friend. awhile ago he had asked for a collage, and i've also been meaning to send him a cd.

cd cover outside; inside. made from a colonial-era atlas page.

my dad recently did a major cleanup of his office, and he's been throwing out all sorts of fantastic collage materials, such as a huge pile of road maps, a gigantic encyclopedia, and a colonial-era atlas. all these materials make an appearance here.

you know what's fun about giving collages to two people who don't know each other? you can make two that are almost identical!

"hello"; "fête des pères"

and for dinner, i made salmon, pasta, & arugula salad. frozen salmon fillets are fantastic when cooking for one; so is pasta. come to think of it, so is salad. these are genuinely easy and quick things to prepare. so much so that i pretty much eat this stuff every single time i'm starving and need to make a meal for myself really quickly.

balsamic salmon

1. buy frozen salmon fillets from costco! they're the best. great for a mini meal when you're starving but too lazy to cook anything.

2. mince some garlic, then place it in a pan with olive oil.

3. place salmon fillet in pan, pour some balsamic vinegar in the pan too. cover with aluminum foil.

4. cook it. i am terrible at cooking fish / any type of meat, so you better not follow my direction here.

basic pasta

this stuff is the best. it makes plain pasta a little more interesting. my friends always rave about my mom's pasta, but it's actually really simple to make.

1. cook pasta according to package directions. i find that cooking the pasta for the exact time it says on the package yields the best-cooked pasta. except for today when it said to cook for 15 minutes.. at 13 minutes it was already overcooked. sad.

2. while pasta is cooking, heat some olive oil and minced garlic in a pan. i typically use 1 clove of garlic per 1-2 people. add a bit of salt and pepper to the olive oil / garlic mix.

3. watch carefully! you do not want the garlic to burn. it gets brown and crunchy and really weird. if the pasta has awhile to go, make sure to turn the heat of the oil down to low. the garlic should become fragrant.

4. strain pasta, put in a bowl (or just back in the pot). pour oil / garlic mix into pasta and stir.

arugula salad with lemon balsamic champagne dressing

you should know how to make a salad. so i'll just tell you how to make the dressing i used, which is also delicious to dip the salmon in if it doesn't have enough flavor.

1. i mixed girard's champagne dressing (my favorite; mixes well with lots of things) with some balsamic vinegar and lemon juice.

2. wait, you totally knew that just from the title anyway. this totally didn't need directions, did it..