TGIF for realzies

This has been the longest week I can remember. After being hit with numerous snow storms, a busted pipe in my office (causing a flood) and going stir crazy in my apartment – I’m very glad to see it’s over.

Since I wasn’t able to post around the chaos, I thought I’d leave you with a video that truly made me smile.

I may have found a new love in the artist, Olek. Who is responsible for this on Christmas day on Wallstreet



The video of how she accomplished such a feat is still making me smile. You can see it HERE (via Honestly...WTF)

Also if you need more of a street art fix, watch Banksy’s “Exit through the Gift Shop”

Seriously, it’s on Netflix instant, don’t miss it!

Let’s hope next week is a little less calmer. Especially you, snow storms!

Neat shit worth sharing – resolution edition

I didn’t make any official resolutions this year, but if I had to come up with it one, it would definitely be to read more. Its been pretty easy so far with all the snowfall to want nothing more to sit next to my window with a good book and a cup of coffee.
And these adorable bookmarks from the Spoon Sisters would be a fun way to mark my progress.

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If you are the kind of person who makes resolutions, I can think of no better motivator then seeing a reminder when you reach for your phone. Artist Chris Streger felt the same way, so he had his artist friends create art work with their resolutions that can be used as a phone background. He called it The Resolve Project.
Like I said, I didn’t make resolutions, but if I did…

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Last summer I bought a bike and found that I didn’t take it out on any of the great bike paths near me. That needs to change this summer (ahhh, summer) and definitely would if I had a sweet ride accessory from Eungi Kim

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I hope if you made any resolutions that you’ve been successful!

Recipe of the week, 1/17/11

The topic of conversation that comes up every time I hang out with my friends is our incessant wanting of Summer.

Sun, warmth, the beach, outside activities. Sounds so much better than the slip-and-slide sidewalks I encountered endlessly during my walk to work this morning.

To help with this wanting, I decided to go tropical with my meal this week with a copycat of Red Lobster’s Coconut Shrimp and Pina Colada dipping sauce.

Believe it or not, there are no Red Lobster’s in New England. Or Bob Evans. It’s not a tragedy but it was a funny thing to realize.

Back to the topic at hand, here’s my cast of characters for the sauce:



Just mix and refrigerate so it’s nice and chilled while you prepare the shrimp.

Then onto the main course:



I accidentally cut off my flour in the picture. I also forgot that all I have is wheat flour in my apartment, I didn’t notice a difference though.



I butterfly-cut my shrimp by cutting them from end to tail. This let the whole area of the shrimp be coated. Leaving the tails on. It also gave me a good excuse to use the awesome new knife set I just purchased from Gilt.

Then I prepared my batter stations:



Dip your shrimp (starting left to right) and I would recommend coating all of your shrimp before deep frying.



I had a lot of left over mixture after I dipped all of the shrimp, as you can see



I would recommend cutting the recipe by at least a 1/3rd. I would especially decrease the amount of breadcrumbs, but that’s just because I like more coconut and found that it seemed to have a hard time clinging onto the shrimp.

Once fried, plate with the pina colada dipping sauce

Nothing like a taste of summer while it’s snowing outside.

Recipe of the Week, 1/11/11

When I was home for the holidays, I kept seeing these cookies everywhere. I know I had tasted them before, probably at some long ago school christmas-party function, and they just looked to good to pass up!

After I got back to Providence, I was checking one of my new fav blogs, Sweet Paul, and he had THIS recipe in which he donned these delicious cookies the name, Snowcaps. I knew then that fate wanted me to eat these cookies.

This was my cast of characters:

I hadn’t baked in a really long time and realized that I didn’t have any cocoa powder. I looked up whether you could substitute hot cocoa mix and the results where, “Better not.” Just an fyi.

I always get a little bit apprehensive about melting chocolate in the microwave (I’ve had too many disastrous run-ins) so I did the double boil technique and this really did work out perfectly

While the chocolate melted, I mixed up all of the other ingredients except the powder sugar. Then mix in the melted chocolate

blurry gooeyness

I followed his suggestion in the comments section of letting the batter refrigerate for a 1/2 hour, then form your cookie balls, then refrigerate for another 1/2 hour.

I can’t speak to whether this is actually easier or not, but it certainly still was a mess. Chocolate dough was all over my hands and the smell really let me know what I was dealing with – these were going to be good.

After your poop chocolate cookie balls are refrigerated, coat them in powder sugar.

snowballs!

Cook, transfer to a cooling rack and enjoy!

They’re so so tasty and so so rich. The perfect way to start off ruining of any “eat better” resolutions.

Weekend projects

It’s my belief that the first weekend back from a long stay away should be productive. For practical reasons, you have to put away your Christmas decorations, do some laundry and a bit of cleaning – but I also found myself doing small projects and a lot of cooking (recipes to be shared!).

One post holiday project that I wanted to do is sort of silly, but necessary! I remember seeing or reading about making a holder for your credit card that you sewed up, so that if you wanted to use it, you had to literally cut it out of its holder to use it. Which will ensure, of course, that you actually need to use it instead of just splurging on yourself at anthropologie….or, you know, wherever.

I had some left over fabric from my card catalog project and thought that this specific fabric would be great to use:

My original plan was to cut out “EMERGENCY USE ONLY” and sew or glue it to the other side, but after cutting out 3 letters, I decided to not bother.

However, I think the next time I reach for my credit card and I see this face staring back at me, I’ll think again.

Not the best craftsmanship I’ve ever done, but for a 10 minute project and hopefully a bit of debt relief, I think it’ll do.

I also got around to finishing an embroidery that I started over three months ago! I found myself getting frustrated with it almost immediately when I started, then I picked it up last night and finished it within an hour

It’s a companion piece to my other embroidery. I’m creating a small collage on my wall along with a print that my BFF gave me for Christmas (the peacock) and a print from a RISD craft show (artist: Alli Coate).

I think it needs just one more small item. I’ve been eyeing this print from OldSchoolStationers that I may purchase. I also need a frame for the peacock print, but the clip works for now.

Hope you all had equally enjoyable weekends!

Neat shit worth sharing

I’m hesitant to even post this because I really, really want to send one of these to someone and surprise them. I’ll have to keep this gem in my back pocket when my mom turns fifty this year!

A slice of cake postcard! How excited would you be to see a slice of cake in your mailbox wishing you a happy birthday!?! I can see how it might be a let down for some people (it does look delicious), but not being a big cake fan myself, I’d be overjoyed with a card like this.

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I’m a pretty cheap frugal person. I continue to be shocked how much some items sell for – I’m looking at you $5 for a box of cereal! Pillows are another item on that list – I mean, you take some fabric, stuffing and some time and you got yourself a pillow. I don’t need to pay $50…until now.

I can’t put into one word how great, fun, unique, versatile, uber-awesome these pillows are! And you can order them in brown log or birch tree. I’m seriously considering devoting each paycheck to buying one of these until I’ve amassed a collection that can one day sit next to my (hopefully to be had one day) fireplace.

I just want to throw these in a log holder next to my fireplace and say to my guests, “Do you need a pillow? Just grab one of the logs.” Blowing everyone’s mind. I’ll calm down now.

And the seller graciously offers you the opportunity to buy a kit to make a pillow yourself at half the cost, but I just love the look of these as she makes them.

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I don’t know what the Curiosity Group is all about, but I’m willing to learn. They are offering a DIY (!) pop-up (!!) calendar (!!!) every month (omgwtfbbq!!1!).

Just look at how darling January’s calendar is:

Bookmark this site and plan on having 10 minutes of fun putting it together on the first of every new month. I can’t wait for February!

DIY HOLIDAY GIFTS

Back from holiday hiatus! I had such a blast with all of my family and friends! But I’m definitely feeling the effects of having to get up at 6am again. Back to the ole routine!

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This year I decided to make some DIY gifts. And I’ll admit, they didn’t turn out exactly to my standards of perfection, but I liked them anyway.

I had to post this after the holidays because the two friends I made these for are readers, so I didn’t want to ruin any surprises!But if you’re inspired to follow the same gift idea, these are simple and would work for any gift idea.

All you need is a tote bag, iron transfer paper, an iron and a unique design:

I purchased the canvas bags and transfer paper from cheaptotes. And as the name implies, the items are really affordable and decent quality. The items also shipped really fast which was great.

I made three of these bags (one for myself, of course!), but I’ll show you the process for my ingenious Lady Gaga lyric design.

Start by printing your design (on regular paper, don’t waste the transfer paper) and making sure that it fits and is arranged the way you want it. It’s also important that you flip your design so that it transfers correctly.

Then heat up your iron to it’s highest setting but DO NOT use steam. Iron your tote bag so it’s nice and wrinkle-free.

You have to love old apartments, I have a built-in ironing board in my kitchen. I suppose it’s so I’m able to cook a full meal for my family and get the ironing done at the same time.

Anyway, then you’re ready to iron on your pieces. For a full sheet, you can just arrange it and iron across the entire length of the paper for 3-4 minutes. Although in hindsight, I wish I would have cut around the design more because you 1) have more paper to use later and 2) you won’t get that transfer excess on the tote bag which is sort of noticeable.

Since these pieces are cut up, I decided to iron them one piece at a time keeping the previous pieces down until I was ready to remove them all at once.

After you’ve ironed over each piece and applied a small amount of pressure with the iron, you should be ready to take the paper by one corner and removing it slowly. I was worried I would have a lot of trouble with this part, but it was relatively easy. If it started to tear, just move to another corner. If you find that you left some paper that’s not ironed down, take the tip of your iron and smooth it down. Very simple!

Then, you have your finished products! The Farmer’s Market tote is for my (I blurred out my last name in the picture for at least some internet anonymity).

I think my girls liked them! I meant to take pictures of the awesome gifts they got me, I’ll have to post those later!