(this was actually last week's "illustration friday" theme) :)

today was supposed to be a 0% chance of rain day. i wonder how it feels to strike out as a weatherperson. haha oh well. we need the rain so i won't complain. i actually like this kind of day. it makes me want to curl up and drink coffee and read a good book.

speaking of a good book, i'm reading, Mr. Darcy's Daughters right now and am really enjoying it. i think the author makes it apparent in a few ways that she is definitely not a contemporary of Austen but it is still a fun idea. it is over 20 years since 'pride and prejudice' and the Darcys have girls of their own. it's the "I wonder what happened next" answered. (i tend to feel this when i finish a good book.)

well, i'm off to face the day! hope yours is blessed. :) :)

(i like this site: miemiko atelier!)

my feet. i love them but right now my ankle pretty much does NOT love me back. sadness.


(i told you i was inspired by all the old illustration friday themes! :))

"e is for"...another illustration friday moment.

i drew these on my quest to do keri smith's 100 ideas. :) it was actually kind of therapeutic but my roommates thought i was nuts.

ah well.

my favorite chair in college was rescued from a dumpster...it was so tiny--perfect for curling up in with a good book. unfortunately, though, it wasn't tiny enough to fit in my bag to go home when i graduated...i miss that little chair!

"my sister's cat waits patiently in the tub for someone to turn the water on for him--his preferred form of drinking water."

i really like trees. the really old ones have seen so many things. they've been climbed in by children. they've been shelter for little birds and squirrels. they've watched as the hills and fields around them have given way to homes and malls and then fields again.

i love to hear the wind in the trees. when we lived in french gulch (in northern california), we would sit under this huge redwood in our backyard and drink sun tea. my sister and i sat under that tree and played the guitar and sang. we stretched out under the tree and read our books and worked on our gardens. it was a nice tree.



the other day i passed the perfect climbing tree and for a second i wanted to climb over the fence and sit up in its branches. it was a funny sensation since i haven't done that since i was really little, and let's be honest, when i did climb trees as a kid, i stayed as close to the ground as possible.

still, it would be nice to climb one sometime.



they seem so wise. maybe this is because they are quiet.

beautiful emma wearing the "little bird" t-shirt i made for her. i'm so proud! :) what a sweetie! :)

i don't know what it is, but something about making fun of the lord of the rings books/characters kills me. don't get me wrong, i love those books. it's like loving your little sister but teasing her like crazy. or something like that.

(of course, we weren't "allowed" to tease, so i wouldn't know...hehe)

one week later...an update on the blog! :)

well, this was the week that i rediscovered illustration friday. not that i had forgotten about it, i just haven't made the time. maybe tomorrow (monday, tuesday) i'll upload all the little sketches dedicated to such fine things as feet, speed, and the sea. :)

in other news, i discovered a book on saturday that is rapidly changing my life. it is called "zingerman's guide to good eating" and it is simply the best thing ever. the book blends food history, technique and recipes all into one easy-to-read volume. from olive oil to goat cheese to tellicherry peppercorns...i'm becoming terribly smart (and more probably, jaded...haha) seriously, though, i went out and bought my first jar of real extra virgin olive oil (was always too confused by the huge variety at the store), sea salt (yumyum, much better than the other stuff!) and WoW...fresh black pepper. i have always like pepper, but where have i been living? under a rock? the fresh, tri-color stuff tastes completely different.

after reading the chapter on goat cheese, i even went out and bought some. me?!!! goat cheese?! what is happening to me?

this is why i have to be very careful with what i read.

zingerman's even has a mail-order service. oh. my. goodness.

tv. i love it and i hate it. i love it because it offers a glimpse into worlds i might have never known (i LOVE the travel channel), i love learning things from the food network (which i'm sadly becoming addicted to), and i admit it, i have "my shows" that i enjoy watching each week.

but then i also hate it. it is a rare moment indeed when our tv is not on. i live with four other women and so someone is always at one point or another, sitting in front of it, and i'll be honest, i just get sucked in. for the last two nights, i've pulled my butt off the couch at 10:30 wondering what in the world i did in the interim between getting off of work and coming home. "i made dinner! i went on a walk! i...err...kind of straightened my room! so there!" (my mind says) but then the other part of my mind chimes in about how i should really consider using my time more wisely.

tv's great fun BUT...

oh, martha! what will you think of next? my mom and i were talking last night about the upcoming family & friends baby shower for emma. after making a pile of stuff for christmas and for emma's birth-day, i was running low on ideas of what to make her. of course, i could help start her book collection or buy a 'learning' toy, but i wanted to craft something for her as well. well, leave it to mom to find something. these felt shoes from martha are just adorable! i want to try them asap! :)

and if those weren't enough, here are some brag books that are equally adorable.

At lunch today, I was looking at an ad for Pick up Stix' Orange Chicken. It looked so amazing and even though I was having a delicious lunch and even though I have rosemary garlic chicken marinating in the frig, I really wanted to have some for myself. So, after a little thought to how limited my international foods wares are in the cupboard at the moment, I came up with this recipe that should satisfy the craving. Any other day, green onions and water chestnuts would be preferable for this recipe but I only have yellow onions and nothing even resembling a water chestnut so I'll have to deal with it. haha

I'm going to try making this tonight, so I'll let you know how it turns out.

Here's the recipe:

Jennie’s “Orange” Chicken (Makes One Serving)
2-3 TBS apricot jam
2 TBS lemon juice
1 clove garlic, chopped
salt
pepper
¼ onion, chopped
1 dried red chili, chopped (optional)
1 chicken breast

In a small bowl, combine: 2-3 TBS apricot jam, 2 TBS lemon juice, salt, pepper, 1 chopped clove of garlic and chili. Set aside.

Grill one chicken breast until cooked through. Take off grill and set aside for a couple of minutes to cool. Meanwhile, spray a skillet with olive oil and place over medium-low heat. Add onion and grill until soft (approx. 2-3 minutes.) Cut chicken into chunks and add to onions. Add apricot mixture to pan and cook for about 30 seconds over LOW heat so mixture doesn’t burn and everything is coated. (constantly stir to avoid this!)

Serving suggestion:
Pour over brown rice or as an alternative to rice, pour over cooked vegetables. Yum!

--the verdict--
delicious! the sauce was actually not as much as a glaze, however. next time i could add olive oil to the glaze mixture to make it a bit more so. this recipe is light and didn't leave me feeling bleh after eating it. :)

and it saved me room for eating the chocolate chip oatmeal cookies i made later that night! mmmmmmm!!! ;) :)

and now for a cooking post!

i went to henry's this weekend which is a wonderful, buy-in-bulk kind of health food store. i love the smell that smacks into you when you enter these places. eucalyptus seemingly being the strongest of them all. mmm, i love eucalyptus.

anyway, the best part about henry's (or any place where you can buy 2 oz of yogurt-covered pretzels and 1/2 lb. of organic wheat flour) is it inspired me to try some new things which i usually avoid because of having to buy all the expensive ingredients.

so this weekend i had so much fun making things!

breakfast on saturday:
cinnamon raisin mochi, free-range eggs sprinkled with nutmeg, and banana. YUM! (oh, and of course, soy milk and coffee too) i had never tried mochi before, but it was sooo delicious! it is basically sweet rice and when it bakes up, the interior is chewy and yummy and the exterior is more dry (so it's easier to handle, hehe) i'd recommend them to anyone...

then for lunch i made a salad that was incredible. the dressing was inspired by rachael ray's 30-minute meals that morning. basically, the salad was simple: romaine lettuce with carrots and firm tofu cut into chunks. and the dressing was sweet, slightly tangy, and WONDERFUL!!! i highly recommend it if you are wanting a change from using the same old, same old dressing all the time.

strawberry dressing
whisk together: 2-3 TBS strawberry jam
2-3 TBS lemon juice
taste to make sure it's not too sticky sweet or too crazy tangy. (add more jam or lemon juice until it's perfect, then...)
add extra virgin olive oil and whisk until dressing is a pourable consistency.
add a bit of pepper and drizzle over salad. toss salad and serve.
YUM!!!!

(rachael ray used apricot jam, which is good too! she also suggested using marmalade...)

i'm having more of this fantastic, quick, and filling salad today for lunch. :)

have a great day everyone!

(from the 52 figment project. "illustrate your superhero self")

don't know if this was a superhero design more than an expression of who i am at the moment. :) i especially like the books on the top of this piece. they inspire me to go out into the garage and unpack all my books and put them on the shelves in our family room. i really should do that.

every time i move (and as i mentioned before, this is usually a yearly thing :)), i groan at the amount of books i've accumulated over the years. i tell myself that i will never ever buy another book and that i will forever use the library for all my reading needs.

admittedly, since november's move, i have been strangely good. at least i thought i was being good until i realized that my book money was going into magazines. i KNEW there was a way i was getting my media fix! haha (isn't that like swearing off chocolate just to realize a couple of months later you're addicted to sweet tarts? hehe)

ah well. i love books. what can i say?

when i met up with my mom a month ago to see emma, she immediately showed me two new books and a couple magazines she had bought that she was so excited to read through...so, you see, i come by it completely naturally. i'm a product of my environment. :)

a GOOD book to read: Blue Like Jazz by Don Miller. if you've read it, let me know what you think. i'm curious to hear other people's reactions.

my absolutely beautiful niece.

work has definitely picked up in the last couple of weeks. seems every meeting i've had as of late has left me walking away with a new pile of clients. craziness. i'm learning the benefits of running first hand in that it just lets me let go of all the day's troubles. i'm also learning to work my tail off. haha

that said, the crafts and makings of things have been not put on hold. oh no! quite the contrary! with the advent of emma came a whole new world of baby toys and hats and blankets. but then i realized that there are only so many thousands of hats a newborn really needs and that brought me to a crisis. why make a bunch of stuff that will only be tucked away in a little drawer somewhere? so i looked around the web a bit at what other crafty people do and there is a huge community of artists who donate their wares to hospitals and pregnancy/adoption clinics and such. good thing, 'cause these little things are so fun to make! (and fast, too, which is probably the real reason why i like to make them.) i've actually wondered if i should even mention this 'cause i don't want it to sound self-righteous or "oh, look at me and how good i am" (bleck). rather, it is meant to be more of an encouragement to all of you out there to be bold and give your art away. :) and a reminder for myself to do the same!

here are some wonderful sites for the week:
all sorts--i love this woman's spirit and her endless creativity

ervilhas --i love the beauty of her creations. they look like lovely layout pages from a european magazine

hop skip jump --makes me want to make more things!

lumpia!

last night my roommates and i rolled lumpia while we watched american idol and 24. although ester insists they are NOT eggrolls, they are at least cousins to eggrolls. mine were lacking in the precise and perfect little packets of goodness that ester was rolling but oh well. the ugliest ones i made were fried up and eaten by us because, really, they all taste the same. :)

last night i thought how crazy delicious and crazy bad the german version of lumpia would be: nutella and banana. oh my goodness! yum! :)

(of course, my heart is hurting just thinking about this. haha)