I hate Martha Stewart

Not really.  Well, maybe just a little.

Why?  Two reasons.

One:  I couldn't help myself and bought her new egg dying iphone app even though I am not sure we are even going to dye eggs this year and haven't been able to find my damned iphone for about 4 days.  (it's here somewhere, I swear.)

Two:  I want a farm just like hers (minus the giant house) so bad it physically hurts, even though I'm kind of disturbed by how clean the hayloft is.

Touring

Remember all those posts I did about how amazing and wonderful our friends Rick and Toni's Wisconsin farm is?  Well, today Apartment Therapy's ReNest did a whole house tour!

Check it out!

good egg

Designer Nosigner made a lamp entirely out of eggshells. 

more info here. 

full circle

360º of cake. 

via ffffound

new favorite

Whilst waiting for Downton Abbey to make some new episodes I've found a new favorite show- Slings and Arrows.

It's a Canadian black comedy about the troubled New Burbage Shakespeare festival and it is the perfect show for anyone who ever loved an art form, hated an art administrator, or had crush a theater geek in college.

Really, it's just pretty great.

All three seasons are on Netflix.

tip top

First off, sorry for the crappy photo.  My camera is still at the fix it shop. 

Anyway, we are in a mad race to use up the last of the canned and frozen food from last years garden before the garden starts up again this year, so last night I decided to use the last of November's peas.  (I CAN'T wait for spring peas!)

After settling on making a puree because the peas have been frozen for 4 months,  I did some searching around and decided to make a recipe from Top Chef for the first time.  There were a few pea puree recipes but I settled on one by Antonia for Sausage with Cilantro, Pigeon Pea Puree and Roasted Cherry Tomato Clossoms because it sounded delicious and because she's pretty great. 

I changed things quite bit- used salmon instead of sausage, English peas instead of pigeon peas, mushroom instead of chicken broth, and less broth over all, plus I added a little butter in the puree and skipped the cilantro because I hold a grudge against that damned herb because it is such a pain in the keister to grow. 

It was delicious, which (spoiler alert!) made it all the more heart breaking that Antonia was sent home on last night's episode of Top Chef All Stars.  Oh well, we'll always have peas.  

rest in peace

Elizabeth Taylor 1932-2011

Downton Abbey

Have you seen the show Downton Abbey?  It's a classic upstairs/downstairs British period drama from the BBC.  The cast is amazing (Maggie Smith!) the sets and costumes gorgeous, and the period facinating.  They just put in electricity and installed a phone and women are starting to wear (ridiculous) pants and fighting for the right to vote.   

Thanks to Chiara, I am totally addicted.  Only bad bad thing is there were only 7 episodes in the first season, I've watched them all and the second season hasn't come out yet.  Torture!

It airs on PBS in the States, but you can watch it on Netflix too.

make the case

I don't really want an ipad, but I really want this ipad case.

Ollie love

Our friend Lisa has a special relationship with Ollie.  When we walk down the street near her shop, Ollie starts crying to go see her because he loves her so much.  Since she feels pretty much the same way about him, and it was her birthday, I put the little guy on a tee shirt for her.

Isn't he cute?

weekend!

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and crocuses are popping up in the backyard so it's going to be a damned fine weekend.  (Lisa's birthday dance party tonight is going to make sure of that.)

Hope you have a great one!

cutest baby outfit ever?  I think so. 

green pants are not just for St Patrick's Day.

mmm, salad.

I want to try these.

gorgeous!

The part of Belgium where Steven's grandmother lived did not look like this. 

Yum! 

YUM!!!

what do teachers make

image here (mine aren't blooming quite yet)

japan

Irish

 

President and Caroline Kennedy, St Patrick's Day 1961.

handmade for Japan

I am sure you all are as heartbroken by the news coming out of Japan as I am, so I wanted to let you know that a group of wonderful artists are organizing and ebay auction of handmade work for victims of the earthquake and tsunami.

The auction begins on Friday and 100% of the proceeds will go toward relief efforts. You can preview all the works and find out more on their facebook page. 


(I am sorry to be so absent these past few days, well weeks. I am installing a show and it is taking up more time than I expected. Hopefully, I will be back to regular posting and commenting at the end of the week.)

good food, good friend

My friend Lisa has a pinterest board of things she would like me to make for her, rainbow cupcakes, meyer lemon pudding, a porcelain ring etc.  Yesterday she pinned these homemade Twix bars and I almost drooled on my keyboard. 
YUM!!  must make, now! 

all things being equal

It's International Women's Day today.

Up and away

Ever wish you could reenact part of the movie "Up"?

Well, some folks at the National Geographic Channel did and with the help of a team of engineers and scientists they launched a 16' X 16' X 18' tall house into the air using 300, 8', multi colored weather balloons! 

Awesome.

More info here, National Geographic's website here.

baby g

Sorry to be so absent!  Gus had surgery to remove a benign tumor and dealing with his recovery has been a little more than I expected.   

He's doing great and seems more bothered by the tee shirt he has to wear to protect his 25 stitches than anything else.

Ollie, on the other hand, is having a very hard time.  He's really upset and has been standing guard next to Gus and glaring at anything that moves as if to say, "I don't know what happened, but I don't like it.  And if anybody tries to mess with my big brother again, I'm gonna kick their ass."