Nice-to-look-at Land of Warmth

Siesta Bay Pond, Fort Myers, FL. 5/29/08.

This va-cay was exactly what a va-cay should be (but rarely is) -- actually relaxing. Mmmmm.

Fenway Goodness

Fenway Park, Boston, MA. May 21, 2008.

Roasting Peppers

Scheduled Post: I picked up a giant bag of fresh peppers for $1.20 the other day. Roasting them is the best way to get through peppers, even burn-your-ass-peppers.
Gloss those babies up with a bit of vegetable oil (olive oil has too low of a smoke temp.):

Roast at 450F on a tray or roasting pan for about 5 minutes. Keep an eye on them...flip them over when they start to blister (I'm not a big fan of the charred/black peppers). Roast for 5 min. on the other side as well:
People go different ways on this next step, but I threw the peppers in a paper bag (closed & sealed) for about 10 min. to steam them & loosen up the skins. By then, they've cooled and you can roll them a bit on the cutting board, cut around the tops to pull out the seeds, core, & stem. Rolling them a bit will help loosen the skin, so that you can peel off part of the skins (including the burned sections). It won't be perfect and keeping some of the skins will help keep the smokey flavor.It turns out that these little red guys will burn your eyes & throat. I kept them separate & saved them for Chris. The rest went on the pizza (with mushrooms & onions) for dinner.

Breathing Easier

...because the end is near. RedSox game at Fenway tonight & tomorrow we're heading to FL, to visit my still-very young parents and to chill with the elderly. Given the brutally exhausting character of this semester, Sanibel & the AARP could not be a more perfect balm. Thank goodness for vay-cay.

oh that great horizon... Sanibel Island, taken 3/10/07.

Little Pisser

Cat (how we currently call her). Taken 5/15/08.

(I love the fact that you can see where Willow has scratched the shit out of the side of this chair.)

Sending Vista back to the hell hole from which it came

My parents bought us a new computer this past Christmas--an incredibly generous gift.

Chris & I, with the cost in mind, picked out a beautiful Dell desktop designed for photos. Now we're thinking about sending it back. Vista can suck it. Vista can greatly raise your blood pressure as well.

Cigar Boxes

Found a perfect spot for these cigar boxes from the yard sale.

...buttons in one, stamps in another.

Taken 5/17/08.

West End Yard Sale Finds

Our local neighborhood association (WBNA) organized a neighborhood-wide yard sale event (we hit probably 15 homes Saturday morning, before noon. Crazy). A selection from my finds:


A few old rubber stamps:
A bunch of cigar boxes (to stash my scrapbook supplies):A Burma-Shave tin (which included the shaving kit, but I'll use it for paper): And my best find for the day--a $3 end table, perfect for this window plant:

Capital Records

Capital Records building, in Providence. Taken 4/19/08.

The man who makes me laugh almost as much as Chris

Dad & I. Taken 5/2/08 in stl.

Backyard Bunny

...behind my parent's place in stl. Taken 5/3/08.

Flying into Chicago

Flying into Chicago, Taken May 4, 2008.

A Day of Play

The fundraiser my mother and I attended last weekend in St. Louis was called Crop Camo -- a fundraising/scrapbooking convention geared to raise money for autism, breast cancer, & juvenile diabetes. The donations are raised through registration fees and through buying tickets for various giveaways (all donated from companies & individuals I assume). The fun of it is the opportunity to spread out, be crafty at a table with ladies that you may or may not know and work on scrapbook pages until your eyes fall out. We started late that Saturday (10am) and worked until around 11pm. So much time to play! Eventually I'll post what we made at the Stampin' Up class the night before, but until then, the results: This one (above), with the photos of Willow (Hasselblad photo on the right) still needs something. Not sure what yet.
"Priceless" -- I'm loving the UPC priceless stamp, esp. the typewriter font."Wintery Mix" -- another Hasselblad photo, this time a 5x5. Lettering is in Vinyl "Thickers." Gotta love vinyl. OMG, did I misspell wintery? wintry? did I just type OMG?

My Mom

My mother and I spent last weekend together being intensely crafty (including Stampin' Up classes & an all-day scrapbooking fundraiser). I had a great time -- my mom rocks.
Happy Mother's Day...and thank you for being such a great mom!

Coffee Table Roundups (selfishly personal)

I'm in the market for a coffee table (not just any old coffee table) to replace the one we currently have -- a wobbly piece of crap, whose lower shelf has repeatedly dropped to the ground sending magazines everywhere.
I'm looking for something either contemporary/Danish (1 and 2), clear (3) to open up the living room a bit, or straight-up modern (4).

I love the legs on 1 and 4.

The second, third, and fourth tables were either custom orders or unreasonably costly. The first, shamefully, is from Urban Outfitters. Ahhhh...life & death decisions...

DIY Trivets

Indie Fixx posted this DIY not too long ago...on how to make a bowl/planter with recycled magazines. Last week I desperately needed to relax...which led to me making a trivet out of last month's Entertainment Weekly (but not the Tina Fey edition -- she's too cool to be recycled). All that's required is a magazine & a glue gun. These babies are solid -- like a hockey puck. And I should warn you that making one, or even the larger project of making a bowl, may give you hand cramps as you hold the round together while the glue is drying. And if you're clutzy like me, you may burn your fingers on the glue or the gun. Otherwise, a piece of a cake. Given the clutzy thing, I probably won't use this as a trivet. Instead, I'm thinking I may string a few together with wire and hang them in the window. In the spirit of Dooce, I'll call it art.