in training

We don't have kids yet, but you can be darn sure when we do, I'm picking this up (unless someone wants to suprise me!). It would be more affordable to get a years worth of onesies/shirts from American Apparel and screen print the same camera on all of them, but my gocco is too small to get those straps in the print. Does anyone want to volunteer to print me some in the future? Does anyone have a bigger gocco? (I promise you can copy my idea)

new work

{sneak previews}Thanks to Holly, I'm creating the identity for a lady who is opening a local organic produce market/cafe called Harbor Market. It's going to be a fast project, as she's aiming to open her store the first week of April! Logo concepts went out today and hopefully over the weekend I will finish bus. cards and signage so that next week can be spent on the coffee bar signage and custom cup sleeves, and the menu. So far, this has been a really fun project.

Holls, this rad no-need-to-water flower arrangement is from my heart to yours:

leftovers

You know how some people hate leftoevers? Not in this family. Jan is my food vacuum, and I am learning to use old things in new ways. I made some of those lemon lime cupcakes Caroline posted about a while ago for easter (so good!) and had extra meringue leftoever. I didn't have time to work w/it that night and worried that it would get too flat, which it sorta did. The next day, I threw them on a cookie sheet at 200 deg. for an hr and although they aren't peaked at all, they still turned out pretty good. And no wasted food.

the one's we love

Caroline showed me this awesome site and I look at a few new ones each day. I love the idea behind it and am thinking of making it a family project sometime.

patchwork

This is a cool idea. Find vintage rugs, cut them up and make a new pattern. This would be great to incorporate any hand me downs that are too worn in spots to be re-used.

Courtesy of Apartment Therapy

latest read

I am a big reader. And I usually can't put them down (unless they are horrible) so books don't last as long as I'd like them to over a vacation. Case in point, this book, Water for Elephants. I started while waiting for the flight home for spring break, and finished it before I landed. While browsing books at Costco, a guy walked by, pointed and said, "That's the best book I read all last year." I love people who make decisions easy! It's based in the 1930's during the depression and follows Jacob as he leaves home and joins a struggling travelling circus. Check it.

if i had big dresser drawers

ok, if i HAD a dresser to begin with, this is what i would do w/my top drawer. Thanks Martha.

kent trail

I wanted to go on a hike w/my mom & J over the break, so I looked up the top hikes in Marin and found this site. We've done one or two of them in the past, so we chose a new one and went for it and was not in the least bit disapointed. For all you SF-ers, go on this hike!! It's called: Kent Trail along Alpine Lake in Marin Municipal Water District. As you can see from the description, it starts with a lake, winds through moats, waterfalls and redwood forests, and emerges on a desert like plain that overlooks the whole valley. It took about 5 hours since we paused and played a lot, took photos, found animals, etc. The last shot is one of my favorites - I saw this great tree up on a big hill as we were driving out of the park and J was nice enough to run up to the top and capture my vision. (complete w/vulture on the top middle if you squint)

back in time

Our wedding budget was tight, so we planned to get some more photos just of us after the wedding, when the stress died down and we were more relaxed. Luckily, 8 months later the dress still fit! (barely) Unfortunately, I was away from my hair/makeup crew, so I had to do it myself in about 30 minutes to hit the desired early morning light. Plus I woke up just after 5:30 am to make those banana muffins for r&a before they left for the airport, so I was a bit tired. Regardless, Juliann did an awesome job and we have photos of that I love! I'm dropping off the medium format ones this week and will scan some of those in when they're done. Here are just a few of my fav's so far. I even arranged and wrapped another bouquet for the shoot.

It's funny to do these months later and hear all the 'congratulations!' and be amongst all the staring and honking. I've done this w/couples before so we just play along - 'oh, thank you!', waves, etc. Now, does anyone know how much it costs to get a dirty dress dry cleaned?

back from break

{k. wearing the cute sweater we got him}

First of all, it was great to be home! I miss the weather, being able to be outdoors and explore to your hearts content, the hiking, the hills, the ocean, and the food. I still have so much to share w/Jan about my favorite places growing up, so each trip, I take him to a few new spots.

I'll split these up into a few posts since we did a lot over the break. The first few days were spent with family. I took Jan to China Camp, did a photo shoot w/r&a&k before they left for NY, and we all went to Muir Woods.

our chairs!

i didn't mean to post so much today, but i was browsing on design sponge and saw this photo of an interior of a house in australia and our chairs are in it! we scored these awesome chairs from a guy off craigslist, leather with wood and a super comfy slightly loungy but very simple design and here they are in a book on 'Iconic Australian Houses'. ours have a more camel colored leather instead of black, but they are awesome and will look great in our future house when we have more room.

cool!

new projects

Earlier this week, I brought over my Lotta Jansdotter book to Mandy's and made my first ever oven mitt and pot holder out of scrap wool from the days when I thought I was going to design laptop bags. I haven't had time to finish the bottom of the mitt yet, (I'll use a strip of the brown herringbone fabric) and I have one more potholder to sew up. I will post those upon completion when we get back from California. The patterns called for wool batting, and we couldn't find any here, so I bought a thick wool sweater at goodwill for $2 and cut it up. The oven mitt takes more time, but the pot holders are really fast and easy.

Blogging will be a little more sparse this week as we are heading home tonight for spring break for the week. I get to take a spring break for the first time in years! Hurray for freelance!

banana muffs

The first thing I think of when I have leftover bananas is banana bread. I was feeling a little over the loaf thing last night and looked up some muffin recipes. Necessities were - could be made healthy, and no nuts. I found one, added and subtracted as necessary, and added dried cranberries. I actually came up with a new house favorite. I always worry that if I take out the butter or oil it will taste dry. This one is quite the opposite. Here is my new version of banana non-nut muffins:

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups mixed flour - half white, half wheat 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 bananas, mashed 3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten 1/3 cup applesauce 1/3 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon a handful or two dried cranberries

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2.	In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, and egg. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Add cranberries. Spoon batter into muffin cups.
3.	In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar and cinnamon until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4.	Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

a mini world

I was browsing on Etsy and came across Erin Tyner's shop. She shot this series using mini figurines. She does a great job making their environments look pretty real with light and styling. I like this approach to ordinary photography. It will definitely make people look twice on your wall.

cool

I saw this site called Alphabet Photography. You can type in your name and keep hitting create while it gives you a variety of photos that make up your name. Because they do it in a stock type format, every 4x6 in sepia is only $4. What a fun idea, cheap to buy, or fun to try to do it yourself for kids you know (or yourself). Sure beats those cheesy pastel wooden letters. It's a great company idea.