as promised, here is an 'after' spring cleaning picture (before). there is still a lot of stuff, i know, but at least almost everything is in a logical place and semi-easily locatable. there are also still individual areas that need to be addressed (kitchen cabinets, a few more boxes of paper/photos/stuff to sort through) but i'll tackle these a little at a time, not necessarily immediately.
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i haven't been crafting as much as i wanted to, but am still taking a photo.a.day and spent much of the week doing some spring cleaning. i'm very much a pack rat, it's so hard for me to throw things away and/or stay organized and be able to find stuff when i need to, but i think i'm getting a little better (probably hard to tell from the photographs!). it actually looks much better now than what you see in the photo, and i hope to post an after picture soon. i think the process of taking photos of my stuff before i throw them out or put them away helps me.
also, here are some miscellaneous photos from the past week:
 psychics |
 thai new year |
 rice cooker cartoon |
 bus stop |
 salton sea |
 mint lemonade |
they include pics from a thai new year festival and a day trip to the salton sea (links to sets).
for my photo.a.day today, i decided to participate in the youngme/nowme photo contest. the idea is to start with a photo of yourself as a young child and try to recreate the same photo, but of yourself now. the most important factors should be your pose and facial expression, but other things to consider are clothing, colors, lighting, environment, props, composition, etc.
i was unable to mimic my surroundings exactly since my patio looks nothing like the one from the original photograph and also couldn't recreate the composition of the original photo because my patio was too small to place the camera anywhere else and still fit myself in the photo. i also didn't have clothes that looked similar, so i just wore my current day choice of lounge/sleepwear. the colors were pretty different/distracting, so made both photos black and white, adjusted the levels a little, and added some grain to the new one to try to match the original better.
i made some soup for dinner last night. i sauteed chopped onions, carrots, and celery until the onions were clear, then added chicken broth and rice and boiled everything for about 20 minutes. then i added some frozen (fresh would be fine too, probably better) baby spinach at the end with a little salt and pepper to taste. it was very simple, but tasted yummy and healthy too...
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i'm continuing to try to take a photo a day. it's hard to keep up---some days i feel like doing it more than other days. i ordered a camera bag to replace my purse and plan to carry my camera with me most of the time... i hope that will make it easier...
my friend told me about these awesome ham and cheese sandwiches from a restaurant in pasadena---they are made with ham, gruyere (my favorite!) and pineapple, and then served on homemade hawaiian rolls. we tried them, and they are as good as they sound. i'd like to try to make some soon...
today i made a stuffed pig. it's the 2nd stuffed animal/object that i've made, the first being a football. i think that i have a hard time picturing what something will look like in 3d as the piggie turned out to be very oddly-shaped and not at all like i pictured---supposed to be a round ball w/ 4 feet sticking on the bottom, and a tail behind him. instead, he is a little angular, lopsided, and oddly proportioned, but that's ok, i like him anyway. he will eventually be attached to a baby mobile (other people will be making other animals/shapes) and will be given as a gift to a friend who is expecting in june. he is about 4"Wx3"Lx4"D.
yesterday, i had afternoon tea with some friends. we each made one or two dishes, the menu was:
* scones (orange pecan and date)
* clotted cream and jam/jelly
* banana chiffon cake
* matcha cupcakes
* chicken salad sandwiches
* cucumber dill cream cheese sandwiches
* egg salad sandwiches
* sesame squares
* strawberries, plain and chocolate dipped
* meat buns
* mini quiches (mushroom and spinach)
yummy!
i made mini quiches and egg salad sandwiches by combining recipes that i found online:
****** mini quiches ******
from this recipe, i found advice on making mini quiches in the comments section:
Reviewed on Oct. 12, 2004 by hope03
These might be okay appetizers, but these are not quiches. To make PERFECT mini quiches, use the Cream Cheese Tart Shells recipe on this site and also the Basic Quiche by Shelley. Use a mini muffin tin. I placed a tiny cube of pepper jack cheese, a tiny piece of canned mushroom and a tiny tear of frozen spinach (defrosted) in each cup, then filled with the egg mixture. Baked at 350 for 15-20 minutes until edges were beginning to get golden. Ah, they looked and tasted very professional!
here are the recipes that she refers to:
recipe: cream cheese tart shells
recipe: basic quiche filling
i pretty much followed hope's instructions, but i added tiny cubes of pepper jack, havarti, and mozzarella cheese instead of just pepper jack. i also used baby chopped spinach. i think i added the specified amount of salt to the quiche mix, but it maybe could've used a tiny bit more... i baked them for longer than 20 min, more like 25-30 min.
****** egg salad sandwiches ******
i combined these 2 recipes:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Egg-Salad-I/Detail.aspx?prop31=3
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Egg-Salad-III/Detail.aspx?prop31=5
and added the following:
8 eggs
2 T country dijon mustard (a little bit sweet)
4 T mayonnaise
1 t dill weed
1 t paprika
1 T minced red onion
1 celery stalk chopped
1 T pimento stuffed green olives chopped
salt/pepper to taste
i think i added a little too much salt but was otherwise happy with the egg salad. also, i followed these instructions to boil the eggs---a couple of them cracked a little, but it seemed ok otherwise. does anyone have better/different advice?
 | subway |
 | mandarin fetus |
 | ganesh |
 | jars |
 | bike rack |
 | bcam |
 | date scones |
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