People

Or, more specifically, people who let me take pictures of them (whether they knew it or not).

T-shirt Quilt

I have been saving up a bunch of t-shirts from junior high and high school (and even college) for some time now, and recently I decided that I had enough to make a quilt. It was a stroke of luck that all 3 of the schools had blue as their color, with just enough variation in shades to make the combination interesting, but still coordinating.
It took a long time to cut out squares from the shirts, but I learned the coolest method to marking: use soap! Those little bits that are left when the bar is just about gone are perfect for marking dark fabrics, plus they just wash right off.

I finished tying it (with blue yarn, or course) and have the edges all done but the last corner. It will soon be picnic and football game ready!

Sandwiches!

There are some things in life that are worth paying 88 cents for, and a loaf of bread happens to be one of them. (a box of saltines in another, but that's for another post)

This week I have been making a bunch of sandwiches; grilled cheese, peanut butter and jelly, egg and cheese, and, best of all, tomato! I learned that some sandwiches will turn out delicious no matter what variety of ingredients you use - like PB&J, for example. You can use jam, jelly, preserves, or just go with bananas and all will end up lovely. But with other sandwiches, like tomato, you simply cannot substitute the fundamental ingredients: bread, tomatoes, and Miracle Whip. Mayonnaise is fine for tuna or ham and cheese, for potato salad and for dips, but there is simply no substitute, in my humble opinion, for Miracle Whip in a tomato sandwich. To me, it's part of the tomato sandwich experience. (mmmm . . . and it was on sale this week)

Yay for the 8 cent sandwich (plus fillings)!

Sowing and Sewing and Muffins and More.

Or "More Than You Ever Wanted to Know about What I am Doing"

In order to waste less time during the week, my new goal is to only check blogs on weekends. It's actually been working, and I have been feeling immensely productive of late. Unfortunately, that also means I'm only going to post once a week, so you get to hear all about my life at once - say yay.

Here's What I've Been Doing:

Sowing.



I planted some very small Basil seeds yesterday (thanks for the pot Joseph & Maren!). They are supposed to sprout in 1-2 weeks, which is exiting.

Note the cute little trowel (I've been waiting for a good excuse to use it).

Sewing.


If you haven't heard the funny story about my "skinny jeans" well . . . don't ask. But anyway, the situation is now remedied and I have some sweet new shorts. I learned that altering jeans is really easy and that taking flattering pictures of yourself wearing them is really not (as evidenced here).

Light box.

I made my first attempt at light box photography recently in order to photograph some stuffed pears I have. I think I need brighter lights . . . or more of them, but it was fun to experiment. My purple bunny helped prop up one of the lamps.

Here's one of the pictures:


And, finally,

Cooking.

My dear departed roommate Natalie left us this box of butter with the instructions: "This can only be used to make cookies/muffins etc. to be shared with everyone."

To honor her wishes (and because I know she would make these if she were here) I made brown sugar muffins!

Natalie really likes these muffins, so we ate a lot of them around here. I found out that my mother got the recipe for Brown Sugar Muffins from one of her college roommates, and now I've passed it on to one of mine. I wonder how long we can trace this mother-to-daughter-to-roommate line?

If you have never had Brown Sugar Muffins, you should consider yourself deprived and remedy the situation as soon as possible. It's a beautifully simple recipe, and you really can't mess them up (although sometimes we come up with what I'll call "variations", but all of them have been good :).

Here's the recipe:

Brown Sugar Muffins

1/2 c. butter or margarine
1 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/s tsp. salt
1 cup milk
1/2 nuts (optional)

Mix all ingredients and bake in greased muffin tins at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

At home, we never made them with nuts that I ever remember, but we tried it a few times here at college and the nut-muffins are good! Plus, when I ran out of white flour, I used wheat and when I ran out of vanilla I just omitted it, and they were always delicious anyway.

Well, there you have it: my life, pretty much.

I'll post again next Friday, hopefully. In the mean time, have a good week and eat some muffins!

I can pay it forward

I've been sewing and gluing (and, in my free time, studying) for the past couple months, and now I have finished my pay it forwards! I found this way cute purse pattern, so I decided to make Christina a purse (she picked out the fabrics from the ones I had - I like the combination a lot), and I made a book for Joseph.

There is still no third claiming comment, so, if anyone wants to play . . . this is the post . . .

Yay for Pay it Forward!

(and P.S. Yay for finals being over!)

Slide Film in the Kitchen

Feast your eyes on these:

eponymous milk

potato portrait

shiny green bottle

I'm having way too much fun experimenting with different kinds of photography. Don't you just love the way slide film looks? Check out those dust specks and scratches and black borders--those are the genuine article, no filters baby!

I love the convenience of digital, but there is just something so genuine about real film. I've got more rolls to shoot and a lovely film camera to shoot them with (thank you, Daddy!) so stay posted.