Thursday, December 30, 2010

recipes from the past

I've always enjoyed organizing other people's stuff. As a kid, I remember organizing the linen closet and kitchen cabinets. Not too long ago, I organized all of my mom's beads into plastic cases by color. Heck, as an librarian/archivist, I basically organize for a living! Unfortunately, this interest does not translate very well to my own home - but we're working on that one. :)

On a lazy afternoon this past week while we were hanging around my parents' new home, I sorted through my mom's recipe cards and categorized them. I loved the retro recipe card designs, recognizing the handwriting of many family members and old family friends, the evidence of use (the card for mom's favorite cranberry cake is barely legible - see below), and the quirky names (i.e., "mighty muffins"). There is a lot of family history in those cards - Grandma Diehn's German potato salad, Grandpa Croker's baked beans, and so on. In some ways, it's unfortunate that most shared recipes these days are e-mailed links, but it's still great that we share favorite foods with each other.

A selection of my favorites.

Mom has made this cranberry cake a time or two, as you can see.

This is one I wrote out as a kid.

My dad's pancake recipe.

Grandpa Croker's recipe for baked beans, written out on a piece of notebook paper.

This one is in my mom's handwriting and is written on my favorite recipe card design. Love those retro strawberries!

A recipe for rhubarb jam from my Aunt Jan.

Organizing piles.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

unique LA 2010

Last weekend was our third trip to the Unique LA Independent Design and Gift Show and I really enjoyed myself. I think I checked out nearly every booth of the several hundred and was thoroughly entertained. I may have left with a couple fun, new things too, so that doesn't hurt.

I picked up business cards for all of the artists/designers that I really liked, and the next night I went through them and bookmarked a lot of the websites. I realized that many of them do not sell all of their products online, or if they do, they often charge more. It's really great to have the opportunity to go to shows like this and see the kind of creative activity taking place in this city. This year, I was particularly captured by the designs inspired by childhood - one of my purchases was a robot necklace. I also liked all of the creative re-uses of vintage objects (old couches made into purses!) and the pieces utilizing lots of color and pattern.

And now for a few of my favorites!

Cookie and the Dude: http://cookieandthedude.com/
So cute! Loved these little earrings. Loved the way they were displayed. So sad they don't sell them online because I would buy MORE. You can check out all of the varieties here, and then feel sad that you can't buy any. :( The website says it's under construction, so maybe one of these days they'll be available for sale online. Yay for fun colors and patterns!

These felt necklaces are so charming and trendy. I love felt. :)

HeatherKent: http://www.etsy.com/shop/heatherkent
These aren't entirely my style, but I was pretty impressed at how well-done and fairly inexpensive these are. Each piece of jewelry is an original watercolor painting. Some of the images are pretty basic, but some are really creative. Of course the librarian must feature the books necklace!

Collisionware: http://www.etsy.com/shop/collisionware
Fun patterns for the kitchen!

Roscata: http://www.etsy.com/shop/roscata
Tiny hot dogs, hamburgers, creamsicles, ice cream cones, snow cones, slices of cake, pickles, pretzels and beer...all as jewelry! This booth made me so smiley. Ever since living in Japan, I am pretty obsessed with tiny things. Kawaii! I didn't buy anything, but I stopped by a few times to check it all out. The quality seemed really good, so I would recommend these for sure.

I'm always attracted by the clean lines of these plastic accessories. Check out the cassette tape on their website!

This group features jewelry made from cracked cymbals formerly used by Southern California bands. You can even choose which band's cymbals you want used for your piece of jewelry!

From Dust Design Co.'s "vice" line of jewelry. Even if I couldn't pull these off, I think they're really creative and I love how pretty the pieces are.

Urban Octopus: http://www.urbanoctopus.com/catalog/
Jesse has bought a couple of t-shirts from this crew. They're a little wacky, but that's the fun of it.

Please note: all pictures are from the linked websites.

I've excluded my personal pictures from this post, as well as any of the many beautiful letterpress artists that were exhibiting. I'll try to catch those in another post!

Monday, December 13, 2010

pretty-much-perfect weekend

This weekend was...

Unique LA

Robot necklace

80 degrees

Farmers' market

Strawberry lemonade

Dolphins playing

Shoop's on the beach

Listening to the waves with my feet in the sand

Clean laundry

Picking up a Christmas tree while wearing flip-flops (still so weird to me!)

Moroccan-style stuffed acorn squash

Tree-decorating

White Christmas

Hot chocolate with Bailey's

Monday, November 22, 2010

we're home!

Jesse and I just wrapped up our move to our new apartment this evening, and we're super excited. Of course, there is still a lot to do to get settled in, but so far it has gone very smoothly. Since we've been married, we have never moved within the same state, let alone within the same city. So moving within the same building was almost fun.

The back doors for both of the units exit on to a back stairway (that is seriously falling off the side of the building, but it's still standing for now) so we could carry nearly everything that way - a distance of about 30 feet. We used laundry baskets for a good deal of the move, so we basically loaded them up, moved the stuff over, and unloaded it where it belonged. The end result...very little unpacking!

After we moved all of the obvious stuff over, we then took some time in the old apartment to go through the leftovers and were able to find quite a bit of stuff to take to Goodwill. It was so much easier to go through it in an empty apartment.

Now we're getting settled in and it's been really fun to plan our new space. The wood floors are beautiful, and having a second bedroom to use as an office/guest room will be really nice. The kitchen, on the other hand, is soooo small, but we have some ideas to make it work. Hope to have pictures soon!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

philly

I'd never been to Philadelphia before this year, so I was pretty excited to head there in June for a conference, although I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time to sight-see. When I got off the plane and ended up at the hotel in Center City, Philly, I headed straight back out to see as much as I could before the conference started the next day. One of my favorite things is exploring a new city, so after a long day of travel, I felt pretty great to be wandering down a random street in the general direction of our nation's history. For about 20 minutes, I walked by little shops and alleys, wishing I had not changed into jeans (apparently Southern California is the only place where you need jeans and a jacket on a late June evening).

And then...I looked up...and there was the liberty bell on one side and Independence Hall on the other.
It was pretty thrilling. Of course, nothing was open. But I still wandered around those sites and many others in the area for the next hour or more.

I really, really wanted to see Elfreth's Alley too, mostly because my friend, Bekah, had been there the week before (what are the chances?). She actually keeps up on posting photos online, so I had already seen her pics, and knew I would want to get there. After making it there just at dusk, I got dinner at a very fun martini bar (where I was the only person eating alone, taking pictures of my drink).

The conference started the next day, and there was less time for sight-seeing, but we still visited the American Chemical Society and the Union League of Philadelphia, where I got to read a first-hand written account of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. For lunch one day, some friends and I walked to the Reading Terminal Market.
And on the last day, I joined a tour to the Barnes Foundation, which was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The Barnes is an art gallery just on the outskirts of Philadelphia. The collection's focus is on Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early Modern paintings (all favorites of mine). But probably the most fascinating thing is how the paintings are displayed - not by time period or style, but all integrated in a visually colorful, sometimes overly symmetrical, almost cluttered style, according to the vision of founder Albert Barnes. The Foundation was established as an educational institution, and the intimate layout of the gallery space was meant to facilitate the courses in visual perception. It was a very unique gallery experience. The museum is soon moving into central Philadelphia, so I was very grateful to have the opportunity (just in time!) to see it in its original, unusual setting. There is also an arboretum with a "teaching collection" of trees - also very interesting.


One of the most memorable Philly experiences was having dinner at Chifa, a restaurant featuring a blend of Peruvian and Cantonese cuisines led by Chef Jose Garces (one of the iron chefs). I don't even know what to say about it. The food was incredibly delicious. One of the best meals I have ever had.

Photo from:
http://www.mainlinemag.com/CMS/uncategorized/hail-to-the-chifa

The real reason (of course) for going to Philadelphia was for the Rare Book & Manuscript Section conference, and I can honestly say that as much as I loved experiencing a new city, the conference was the best part of the trip. Seeing old friends and colleagues, meeting a lot of new people, and getting so many new ideas and much sound advice was really, really wonderful.
Saddest thing about the trip to Philly: no chance to get a philly cheese steak. :( Now I must go back.

Monday, November 1, 2010

san diego

A few weeks ago, work had gotten really hectic while I finished writing a grant proposal. I hoped to have it turned in on a Monday, but it wasn't totally completed until Thursday afternoon (just hours before it was due). In the meantime, I had already agreed to attend several other activities, which did not work out so well since I had to keep stepping out to deal with last-minute issues on the grant. By the end of the week, I was totally drained and really excited for a getaway weekend in San Diego. I had been to San Diego about a year ago with a friend, but Jesse and I had been meaning to go back ever since. It's only 2-3 hours away. There was a lot more to see than we had time for, but we still had an awesome time.

Breakfast at a really cute cafe called Cafe Chloe.

Sea World! The shows were a little dramatic, but I always love watching sea animals.

We were pretty excited to try a new San Diego wine bar where the wine is dispensed in 1 oz portions. It's pretty great because you can try really expensive wines without forking over a bunch of money for a bottle (or even an expensive glass). Plus, you get to try lots of new things. A couple of weeks later, we finally got around to trying a wine bar that is a couple blocks from our apartment. Wouldn't you know, it has almost the same set-up. Not that we're disappointed, but it was a little funny to be so excited to have this experience in San Diego only to find out that we could have experienced it around the corner. Oh well.

YUM. Need I say more?!


On Sunday, we walked around Seaport Village on the waterfront before heading home.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

glow

Jesse and I walked down to the beach last Saturday night for "Glow Santa Monica." The event is held every other year and, this time, featured 20 temporary art installations on the Santa Monica Beach that were on display from 7pm to 3am. There was quite a variety of projects but the best ones were interactive and drew in the crowd. Here are some pictures and videos!

A little weird, but fun to watch - the soap suds were coming out of the top of the lifeguard shack at a rate determined by data gathered by the movement of the crowd...or something. I just hope the suds were environmentally-friendly. :)

Bella Luna - you can see a girl's face in the "moon." She was in a little tent singing karaoke songs about the moon.

Dinner at the India Jones food truck.

Images of dogs projected on the side of the "Hot Dog Stick" food stand. Whaaaat?!

A glowing (of course) tunnel from the boardwalk to the beach.

A video of the tunnel and Bella Luna, as well as of a different installation with giant hands projected on the sand. Oh, but I would turn down the volume for the first one - screaming kids.

Monday, September 13, 2010

art in laguna beach

A few weeks ago, Jesse and I went to Laguna Beach to check out the art festivals and the Pageant of the Masters. Laguna Beach has been a haven for artists since the early 1900s, and I believe the first art festival was established in the 1930s. Today, there are three art festivals that last for the whole summer, as well as a lot of art galleries. The downtown area is right on the ocean, and there is a very nice beach in town. There are beautiful coves on either side of the town, but I haven't had a chance to see those yet (next time). This time, we were focused on the art festivals.

We went to the Sawdust Art and Craft Festival first. It was casual and accessible. The prices were great. The art? A little mediocre. Later on, we went to the Festival of Arts. There was a lot to love here. But the prices reflected that (of course). There, it was more about enjoying the creativity and skill of the artists who were represented.

We ended the night by going to the Pageant of the Masters - a theater performance that involves the re-creation of artistic masterpieces using elaborate sets and live performers. The first two displays, I swore there were no real people on the sets (there were). It was pretty unbelievable. Next time, I think I would get closer seats. And dress warmer. One of my favorite parts of the event was that it was held in a beautiful amphitheater in a very pretty wooded area, but being that close to the ocean, it was a bit chilly.

Sawdust Festival

Festival of Arts

The beach in town

By Mia Moore (one of my favorites)

By April Rader (Jesse liked this piece a lot)

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

ojai

Jesse and I have gotten to do a lot of fun activities since we moved to California, but it's been a year now and we don't want to get complacent and start taking our residence here for granted. There are still so many new things for us to try. So, with that in mind, we decided to drive out to Ojai for the afternoon last Saturday.

Ojai is a little town in a valley surrounded by lovely mountains and hills, not too far from Santa Barbara. It was supposedly photographed to represent the legendary Shangri-La in the 1939 movie The Lost Horizon. Now it's home to a number of interesting festivals, and at other times is just a nice, historic town with good shops and restaurants. And spas too, I am told. (We'll check those out next time.)

We didn't arrive until mid-afternoon (after a really pretty two-hour drive up the coast). The first thing we did was stop in a winery for a wine tasting. I hadn't eaten much all day, so from then on, things were a little fuzzy (but pleasant!) until we made it to dinner. Probably the three highlights for me were: the drive up on the Pacific Coast Highway and back down on the 101, Bart's Books (great outdoor bookstore, see photos below), and dinner (no shocker there).

A couple of pretty views on the edge of town.


We ate an early dinner at Osteria Monte Grappa, and oh my goodness, it was amazing.

Still a little fuzzy...need food!

Jesse with the duck linguine and a fresh-from-the-garden salad. Also had some incredible bruschetta.

A lot of the little shops were along this stretch of the main downtown road.

The rest of the pictures are from Bart's Books: