altered project/birthday project

for ciara's birthday i made her a key/mail holder. i have made a few of these. i sold one at a art show, i have a couple at home, and i have given a few away. this last few weeks i decided to make one for ciara. the gist of what i do, is take a drawer from dresser and invert it and wire it so that it hangs on the wall.

here are two i did over a year ago:


and here is ciara's birthday present:

as you can see i have made the newer one more busy, but also more more functional, with the hooks on each side for keys, and other things that dangle.

i will get this in the mail tomorrow, so obviously i will be late, since ciara's birthday is tommorw, but late is better than no present at all. so happy birthday ciara and also amie!

brayden fun, pt. 2 & some food stuffs

brayden came over again today!
we watched harry potter & the amazing panda adventure, played cars, ate some lunch, and hung out. it was totally rad, & brayden likes peanut butter sandwiches almost as much as i do!



before he got here i did a lot of prepping for the week. i made a whole loaf of whole wheat vegan french toast to freeze, chopped veggies for stir fries and the like, prepped for our vegan sushi night, & was going to make veggie dumplings (i even went as far as to make the filling!) until i realized my wrappers were bad =(

today has been a productive day to say the least! now i'm just relaxing, checking out some things online, & waiting for the rynobear!

Al's Pizza!

last night was wonderful. i picked up al's pizza for jess and my mom, and we ate like starved animals. nothing is better than looking forward to food like you have never eaten before and getting together with the people you love and scarffing it down. we sat around and made numerous trips to the pizza box until there were merely scraps left. i of course ate the bulk of it, being the scavinger that i am, but no one was left hungry i can assure you! we watched the tv and talked and enjoyed eachothers company. it was fun and simple, warm and cozy. occasionally having to deal with a hyper puppy trying to jump up or lick our faces. why the hell do dogs like licking faces so much!??!?!?! anyway, the day begins, and i wish for the coming home part to begin. oh goodness....tonight we are eating vegan sushi though! WHHHOOOO HOOOOO!

panda evenings

evenings in the panda home are typically pretty laid back...
usually, ryno looks at his music sites and plays scrabble blast & i read my food blogs and cookbooks.
most of the time the kids are pretty crazy as stated... but sometimes, like tonight, they like to get their cuddle on. i bet panda's pretty good at scrabble blast!
so tonight we're watching some law & order svu cuddled up under blankets with tons of pillows and our laptops. it's a good life.

snow, shovels and recovered reminders

today i woke up way early and took on the task of braving the early cold weather to get to my mom's house to shovel her drive. she is on her own this week. now shoveling snow is actually one of my most favorite things(REALLY, it IS!)...but on sunday jess and i thought it would be a good idea to jumpstart our exercise life, and i decided to do so by doing stairs. not an exercise machine, but the stairs of our apartment. oh, and our apartment is 19 stories high. ummm...and i went up and down 4 and a half times.

[^actual polaroid of our apartment^]


30 minutes of torture. self induced or not, i have been regretting it ever since i woke up monday morning.

now back to today. bright eyed and bushy tailed, i got to my mothers, and shoveled and shoveled and push snow until my calves could feel pain again. which all in all isn't a big deal, especially since my mom made me a breakfast afterwards too!
while i was there i also was able to locate a missing necklace i had made jess.


i made this for jess about a year and a half ago. and she wears it everyday, but for a few weeks she was necklace -less.

so yaaay! for snow, and for a abnormally large accumulation. so much so that our governor has declared a state of emergency in 17 counties because of cost to clear it. well it sure beats a tornado or a earth quake. yaaay! for finding things that are worth more there weight in gold. worth far more than money. silly beautiful things that mean the world to us. like love, like care, like hope. like a necklace from a nine volt battery. yaay! for the tangibles made more beautiful because of the intangibles.

tomorrow night brings the best pizza in the world. al's! whoa warrenviile!

quick dinners, crazy kitties, & snow days

ryno & i had a pretty productive weekend, if i do say so myself...

we did a ton of food shopping (which is always super exciting) and picked up some fun things like dumpling and spring roll wrappers, brown sushi rice & a sushi mat, and a few different asian noodles! i foresee lots of experimenting and playing in the future!

today i'm having a snow day, letting our new crock pot handle some yummy tempeh chili, and cuddling with the crazies... and i do mean crazies!



we got home pretty late sunday night and we threw together a quick dinner... bare bones, no rice.. no bread.. ! just aloo gobi (indian potatoes and cauliflower)


ingredients :
1/2 head of cauliflower, chopped
2-3 medium sized potatoes, cubed (i prefer red for this dish, but used russet because it's what i had.)
2 green chilies, diced
2 bay leaves
1 T canola oil
pinch of hing
1 T fresh, grated ginger
1/2 t cumin seed
1/2 t tumeric
1/4 t red chili powder (more for a spicy dish, obviously)
salt to taste
1/2 t amchoor (mango) powder (optional)
handful of chopped cilantro leaves (optional)

01. combine chilies, ginger, tumeric, & red chili powder and add water to make a paste.
02. to a heated pan, add canola oil. to test that oil is hot enough, drop 1 or two cumin seeds into the oil - if they sizzle and rise to the top quickly, the oil is ready.
03. add hing, cumin seeds, and bay leaves to hot oil. fry for minute.
04. add spice paste to the pan and fry until fragrant (about 3-4 minutes).
05. add cauliflower & potatoes to the pan, as well as a little bit of water. stir to coat vegetables with spices. add salt to taste.
06. cover and let cook on medium heat for five minutes. after five minutes, check vegetables, stir, and add more water if they seem dry.
07. cover and cook for another 10 minutes, stopping to stir half way through. at this point the potatoes and cauliflower should be tender.
08. sprinkle with mango powder and stir to incorporate. garnish with cilantro and serve with brown basmati rice.

oh whoa!

last week for valentine's day i got jess the best present of all. a valentine's rap from none other than rap master maurice.

being a finance has it's pressures, especially getting her one of the most amazing gifts ever. i feel i have outdone myself here. there is no where to go, but down. i mean getting her a kitchenaid mixer for christmas, and it's like where do i go from here?

being in love has more to do than wonderful raps and kick ass
baking /cooking machines, or shiny rings, it's about ummm. . . the intangibles.

brayden fun, pt. 1

today brayden came over! we had a birthday party (we really just ate cupcakes and called it a party) & watched some simpsons. ryno & brayden walked me to work, and then spent some quality uncle-nephew time together!

when you feel like you're alone...

obsessions are fun. especially when you are not the only one
i recently joined deadformat, and it is so fun and torturous to look and see what albums are coming out, and what others have that i don't. although there is plenty that i have, that others want, HA!
this is my account.
and here's what they look like in the flesh:







oh goodness records.

muffin?

the other day i made these muffins... yummy, & fat free so i don't feel so bad about heating them up with a little earth balance.

what do you want to eat tonight ryno?!

new career?

two days ago, i was driving into work, and i saw an advertisement for this company on a pick-up

doocare! i have been considering scooping shit for a living. but to finally have this opportunity so boldly presented to me, it is obviously fate.

on the flip side, i am overwhelmed by how lazy people are. maybe this is why i prefer cats. but if i can't wipe my own ass, and the asses of the pets i own, then what good am i? or maybe we should all give up, and just pay people to pick up after us. maybe we need services like this. i mean after all the automobile plants move to mexico, we may need more and more service jobs like this. more blue....errr, brown collar jobs.

palak tofu

i made some palak tofu and jasmine rice for lunch before work... yum yum!

ingredients:
10 oz package of frozen spinach
1/2 lb extra firm tofu, cubed
2 T canola oil
pinch of hing
1 T ginger paste
1/2 t cumin seed
1/2 t tumeric
1/2 t red chili powder
1/4 t red pepper flake
about 3/4 c tomato puree
2 T cornstarch mixed with cool water
soy milk

01. lightly pan fry cubed tofu in canola oil. remove tofu from pan and use remaining oil to cook in.
02. add pinch of hing, ginger paste, cumin seeds, tumeric, red chili powder, and red peper flake. fry until fragrent.
03. add tomato puree and fry until well combined and darker in color.
04. add spinach and stir to coat with spice/tomato mixture.
05. add cornstarch/water mixture and stir spinach until well combined. add milk to desired thickness.
06. cook on medium-low heat for 6-7 minutes covered.
07. stir spinach and add tofu, stirring until well combined. continue cooking on medium-low heat for 5 minutes.
08. stir well before serving, and plate with steamed rice and choice of bread.

engagement!

wednesday, february 13 was the day ryno & gesso got engaged!

there was a heart shaped pizza...


some lovely art...


&, of course, an even more lovely ring...


it was a lovely night, and a lovely week. we may not be getting married tomorrow, or even within the year but it will be perfect when it happens!