Archetypal Stand Mixer in Turquoise

My love of baking probably stemmed from my immense love of baked goods. Or rather, I needed to bake in order to create a layer of cake-like substance from which to eat large quantities of frosting. I love frosting. Or icing. But not the gourmet type. I like the generic Dunkin Hines, Funfetti, and fudgy chocolate from plastic canisters. I'm sure many of you don't approve, but I'm just being honest.

Sometime around third grade, my mom taught me to use the oven myself (with supervision of course). I'd spend an entire Saturday baking and decorating sugar cookies. The recipe was actually from an old Sesame Street book, called Cookie Monster's Cookie Dough. They were delicious, and I can't believe it took me until just this minute to look for it on the internet. Oy!

My brother would help me decorate, we'd roll the dough out with our grubby hands, working the dough into worms, hat cookies (so I could decorate with flowers and rainbows of color), monsters, airplanes, alien starships...you name it, we made it. We'd take over the entire kitchen table and cover it with flour, would get dough smeared everywhere, and frosting in the remote places that the dough hadn't contaminated.

I don't know how that got all cleaned up. I'm sure we did a bit, but I'm sure my mom did a lot more than I remember. Another reason to love that woman...

I'm not a girl who needs a lot, kitchen appliance wise. I use my immersion blender (from Aunt Marty) for everything. So much that I got rid of my hand mixer, blender and a waffle iron for good measure. But the KitchenAid Stand Mixer. I lust after it. When I first started learning to cook, it stood out as an archetype for being a real baker or just knowing my way around the kitchen. Plus I saw one online with flames painted on the side, and you don't forget that too easily.



My mom bought a white one off of a friend, that she says I can have next time I go home to Florida with my car. I may just have to take her up on this! But I wanted to draw the turquoise one that is part of the Martha Stewart collection at Macy's because you know how I love pretty colors.

How about you guys? What's the one material thing that you thought would make you feel like a grown up, or that you want even though you may not need it? Uh, this and the Franklin Covey planner in 2002 are obviously mine!

Gouache and Karma

Jess reminded me that I need to play with my goauche set, after I saw she had been using the extra set I sent her. I hate throwing things out and am so glad when you can pass something along that someone else can use and enjoy. It's also money in the karma bank, in my opinion!



I reminded myself to just play and not worry about the end result.



I've obviously had these colors on my mind. Perhaps it's the beautiful dahlias and flowers I saw in San Jose?



Or the gorgeous vintage scarf that Shona (one of my most favorite crafty friends that I haven't met yet) sent to me as a little surprise. Good grief! I guess that karma stuff really works! (wink wink)

Bliss List

Jessica Gonacha Swift started a sweet creative mission (I'm not sure what to call it...) over at Treasuring today, and I felt compelled to participate. So I made a quick "bliss list. I'm thinking of good and positive things that I have to look forward to today. Okay, I read it wrong, it's from the past week, so I can add extras. I think I'll cap it off at 8 for today.

1. I'm attending a lecture tonight entitled "Trends in Sustainable Design and Construction". The people over at Onion Flats are speaking, and I'm really looking forward to it.

2. The slowly building rat's nest atop my head got a much needed haircut this Saturday. It was only a trim, but I feel like a new gal.



3. I bought a new lipstick, mascara and painted my nails. I feel like Operation Dress Like an Adult in the Workplace is working for me. Don't google it, I made this one up.

4. Gorgeous weather and getting out of the office at lunch. Where I scored a Phillies Phanatic foam hand at the rally at City Hall. I'm not even that into baseball, but am proud of Philly!

5. The show 30 Rock. Wow. I'm actually glad I waited so long to get hooked, since I just finished watching all episodes this past weekend and have a total girl crush on Tina Fey. She's phenomenal!

6. The amazing entertainment at the Laundromat yesterday. Instead of dreading laundry, I took advantage of the crisp / sunny weather to sit on the stoop and read a book. (#5 of the Sookie Stackhouse series...I'm hooked). Two teenage boys came in (approximately 12 and 14). They were ribbing on each other over a girl one of them liked, and making fun of each other's mamas...but all in good fun. The one boy was so silly, that he was cracking himself up. At one point, he pretended that he was receiving text messages and phone calls from the practically obsolete pay phone. When he said the words, "Hey! I just got a text from this pay phone! Your mama wants to go on a date with me!" I was the one who lost it. I was trying to be normal while folding clothes, but started laughing so hard I could not stop. I walked over to the dryer to get a hold of myself, but to no avail. This lasted for 3 straight minutes. It made me miss my brother (in a good way), since he would have thought this was just as silly as me.

7. I just saw the photo (that everyone on the internet has probably already seen), of graffiti that someone wrote on an electric hand dryer. Someone changed the directions to read: 1. Push button. 2. Receive bacon.

8. Knowing I have a great guy in my life makes the list. He's pretty special, and I really appreciate him.

How about you guys? What's good with you?

Home Sweet Home!

Not for me, mind you! I'm stuck in the apartment with no washer and dryer or dishwasher until the end of time...but enough about me!

A friend of mine recently purchased her first home, and commissioned an illustration for a moving announcement. I think it will be pretty cute! Home portraits are really fun to do.

Pencil first.



Inked.



And a bit of color.



(Photos were taken at night, so they're looking a bit peak-ed, but you get the gist...)

Two Coasts + A Mountain Top

Correct grammar will not be utilized today. I want to document, but girl is dragging!

Some space planning to help a friend who just bought a beautiful new house! Friend's band playing in town. Helping a friend with kitchen planning, and got yummy food from a Greek Festival in exchange. (Thanks, Clara!)



Friends in town from Louisville. Reading Terminal. Eating our way through Philly. The usual historical sights. The Philadelphia Museum of Art. More food!



Oh, and they wanted to see the Atlantic Ocean! We built a big hole and watched it fill in with water. Way too much fun!



Subway, Amtrak, 2 Subways, 1 bus, 1 taxi and a rental car with friends to make it to my best friend's wedding in Shenandoah National Park. (Mike would arrive later, so thankfully I only had to take this crazy route once to make it to the rehearsal dinner!)

The wedding was amazing! One of those weekends where you get to spend lots of time with old friends and new friends, work together and enjoy everything! The view wasn't half bad either (wink).



Two days in Philly. Quizzo. Flight at the crack of dawn to Las Vegas to San Francisco to visit 3 of my favorite cousins who were visiting from the Philippines. They're the children of my mom's twin, so that's pretty special in my opinion.

Seeing Lake Mead and Las Vegas where I spent a wonderful summer at the age of 22 and got a huge scar from a cactus.



San Francisco. Getting accused of trying to steal a breakfast sandwich from Burger King due to a bacon / sausage discrepancy. Uh, not quite. Sausolito. Napa Valley. More new Filipino friends! Picnic in Napa from their "7-11" aka Dean and DeLuca. Not a cheap picnic! Haha. Wine tasting. Beautiful California light. I think I'm a California Girl stuck on the East Coast, but am okay with that. Breathtaking views on the drive and sunsets on the way home. Filipino food at a real Pinoy restaurant! Complete with my favorite Ube Ice Cream.



Helping the economy with our shopping for gifts to bring home to the Philippines. My cousin buying a pair of Converse and realizing they gave him 2 left shoes! More laughter than you could imagine in 4 short days. So much love for all of my cousins. Filipino and American.



Flight home last night at midnight. Cab ride home. Bike ride to work in the chilly weather. This girl is ti-red. But oh so happy!