bake again, cut side up for 15 min's (we turned them at 15 and did 5 more on the other side)
voila! biscotti with semi-sweet chips, dried cranberries & plenty of orange zest
and into little bags w/red string for office gifts
i've been swamped with so much design/illustration freelance work lately that my photography is lacking! i shot a few things for Blush over thanksgiving, but want to make some new goals in the new year to shoot consistantly. i just ordered the new canon 50d, as i have to wait for the husband to graduate and make some $ before i can go full professional with the 5d mark II. i found these images on flickr, by Akihiro Futura. I have felt creatively stumped in the past with family portraits, because in my mind, people sitting or standing together seems a little boring, even with a more creative backdrop. These images sparked some great inspiration, for creating creative portraiture with props, matching clothes, gestures, etc. Matching outfits (ie women's dresses) was so outdated, but I think w/a modern twist it might come back and be pretty rad. These are some of my favorites. Email me to schedule January/February family portraits.
1. five pepper blend from williams-sonoma
1. a tea kettle (w/my discount)
2. stockings with this style of design,
3. slippers (i know i live in LA, but my feet still get cold!)
4. vintage ornaments from thrift stores/flea markets
5. old archie comic books (i've read/collected these since i was a kid)
6. wicked tickets (the show is over in january!)
7. ground cinnamon from whole foods (seriously, amazing).
i also told his family i would love a small lemon tree (around $20) or a citrus press - the vintage kind that you push the handle down on.
i am always facinated with creative photography collaborations. the site i found these on says,"Art director Willi Dorner and Photographer Lisa Rastl have collaborated on a project combining humans in odd formations and unusual locations. ‘Bodies in Urban Spaces’ sets out to explore the “relationship between body, space and architecture”. The urban based series was created as a set of human sculptures. They are currently spread throughout the city of Philadelphia." images and text found here. i would love to have a print of the first one.
i love my nephew. his laugh is infectious. he ate his first lime, and kept eating! he tried on women's shoes and looked adorable hobbling around macys. he loves to honk your nose and show you his tongue. i'll post a few other pics from my big camera later this week - we didn't have much time. the last photo is of both of my sister-in-laws. i love them. we had a mini shopping spree w/mom at WS to pick up some christmas gifts w/my discount.
Someone dropped a loaf of this bread off at our office. It's Italian christmas bread, sprinkled with powdered sugar. A sweet egg type bread. Delicious. Ours has chestnuts (i picked them out) and raisins, but my favorite is just simple and plain. It's great toasted with a little butter, and amazing as french toast. It usually comes in a big tin and can seem intimidatingly huge, but you won't regret it.
The season for gifts is coming, and I saw these boxes on the onion that are gag boxes that you put your real gift inside of. They are cracking me up. The bottom box says: "Introducing two new attachments, because debris is always in season." This would be hilarous for someone's dad.
we have a pendant light from ikea that we used in the small box but haven't put up yet in the new place. i came across this amazing ikea hack. looks like felt circles cut out, then glued in the middle onto the lamp. pretty great in the day, but amazing at night. looks like i'm going to have to get some felt this weekend!
1. plan a side dish for thursday
there is a woman who writes a blog called grosgrain. she sews the most stylish outfits for kids, and then gives them away. how amazing is that? this week, she is giving away these sailor pants, jacket and matching hat. i don't even have a kid but i want it for my future girl. and photoshoots. and one in my size? she has great photography skills and adorable little girls. post a link from your blog and you can win too! and then call me and let's do a photoshoot. you have until dec. 2 to enter.
we just bought a tie rack for jan that we have to bolt into the closet (nothing special). i think this idea is much more his style, and one of the (very) few ways i would accept a dead animal in my home. images taken by james carriere, via sfgirlbybay. i'm going to keep an eye out for a plaid tie now.
There is one bed frame out there that j & i both love. we even contemplated getting it when it went on sale for 20% plus free shipping. but it's still really expensive, and although we would have it for life, we want to get into a house first. so..the next alternative is making one ourselves or hacking a craigslist one for less than $100. We figure if we are spending $3-500 on an ikea/west elm bed that we mostly like, but not love, then we should just put the money into savings for the one we do love. i found a few on apartment therapy complete w/how to instructions. I also found some using photography, stencils, old doors, etc. Do you think an actual headboard is necessary? Could you make do with just a stencil or block of paint and no physical wood/cushion?
by this image, titled: Girls in the Windows by Ormond Gigli. again, another great idea for a family portrait recreation. that would be a rather large family though, so maybe a family reunion?
i picked up a pretty plant at trader joes. these tubes w/curly grass in front. i thought it looked hard to kill and would look pretty on our dining table. when i got to the checkout stand, both guys said - hey, you got our favorite plant! it eats things! huh? turns out i got a cold blooded killer. "the pitcher plant is a carnivorous plant whose prey-trapping mechanism features a deep cavity filled with liquid known as a pitfall trap." Who knew? I can't find a photo of the curly grass, but they said that ants crawl deeper and deeper into the curls and get trapped. j's excited to find some bugs and try it out.
i am working w/a company to do illustrations in a vacant store front in beverly hills - very posh! this is my most recent submitted draft. the requirements were - one illustration, 2 color schemes, holiday feel & incorporating their colors for this season of burgandy and silver. what do you think?
i just went on my lunch break to quit pb. i have a lot of freelance on my plate now, plus the full time gig and i can't give up spending time w/family over the holidays for a part time job. they're usually pretty adamant that if you work, you have to help through the holidays and busy season. so i figured i'd have to quit before thanksgiving. only, the manager said no. no? no. she'll let me work one or two sat's a month, help w/floorsets in the evenings every few months, and other than that, i can just call in when i have free time. 'and you can keep your discount.' i think that the black cloud that followed me while we were moving has morphed into a lucky charm. image via
look at this photo from orange beautiful. doesn't it look VERY similar to wallpaper #2?? it is very cute in real life! my pattern repeats itself every 20", so it's pretty big which makes it not so crazy on the eyes. if you click on the post there is an additional close up. thoughts??
when i tried to post #3 below, the link wasn't working so I had to use the front page of the book and write in a description. So these are now up for voting, #3, and #3.5. (as of today, i'm leaning towards one of these or a b&w one. the wall color to the right will be a lighter to medium grey. really pretty)
saw this great print today on orange beautiful from etsy. it's currently sold out, so i hope they print more. doesn't it just make you smile to read? simple happiness is how life should be. j was saying how he saw a few black people walking around town, who, when they saw another black person said - hey, congratulations or it's a great day isn't it? i think it's great. O seems calm and collected and hopefully will do a good job leading our country out of war and a recession. (not an easy task). Maybe he needs this poster?
I don't approach dating much on my blog. I am afterall, a year and a half into marriage with my best friend. But, i had to date a few to get to this one. I never admited it at the time, but a few moon's ago a friend sent me this book after I dated Nordon (not his real name). I tossed it out of embarassment to have it on my shelf, but what it said made sense. See, Nordon and I were great. Everything was great. Week 2, he said he loved me, wanted to marry me. And then one day, 6 months later it was over. It just wasn't working. He needed sometime to work on personal goals and then we would reasses. (worst line ever). So I waited. Patiently, then not so patiently. I kept the old hope up and it was hard to break that down. I didn't eat, sleep, lost weight (def. not a bad thing), and cried a lot. Then in time, I moved on. To the next guy who didn't work, and then to my husband. Why do we do it? Why do we hold on to the best that we've had even if they didn't want us back? Even if they were great, the mere fact that they are unwilling to push on and work on things because they like/love you that much means that they're just not that into you. Which is fine, it's just hard to swallow.
I downloaded CameraBag on my iphone. It gives me the option to do different filters one of which is very similar to my Diana/Holga. I took these this morning while I waited outside the pretty Culver Hotel to vote. 2 hours in heels. Waiting, waiting, waiting, voting, a quick stop at Noah's (best bagels ever) then off to work! It feels good to take part in history. Did all of you vote absentee or did anyone brave the lines like me? Prop 8 is a big issue out in California, but it was nice to see some other good CA propositions for better schools, transportation, etc. 
last weekend it felt like a black cloud was following us. we submitted in my job contract later than planned and barely got approval on a single vs double deposit on our new place. (if they had said double we would have found a new place, which i spent hours on fri. looking for 'just in case'.) we got a late start to go get the uhaul sat. am and while j was taking care of it all, the battery in the truck died in a very ghetto part of los angeles. we got a jump 40 min's later, and even though pep boys said the battery seemed to be ok, j installed a new one. 4 hrs AFTER we had planned, we loaded up the uhaul and it started pouring on our way to the new apt. it hasn't rained this much since we moved here in may!! just when we thought things couldn't get worse, the rain cleared, our friend showed up to help us move and i caught this sunset off our back patio. things went smoother from then on but man are we tired. the indiana stuff shows up tues., so by this weekend, we should be a little more relaxed.
moving all weekend into our new place in marina del rey. no time for blogging. more boxing and packing, working in the day, packing in the evenings. blech. it's amazing how much STUFF adds up over time. this is how i feel. photo via
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