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I can see clearly now

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:04:57 PST

I broke my glasses a couple weeks ago. I quite liked these glasses, so I was sad. Also, they were my only pair with the correct prescription.

I spent several weeks either glassesless or using an old prescription (from a terrible eye doctor that told me I needed bifocals when I really did not - my new eye doctor said old eye doctor must have been nuts), both of which gave me headaches. Today I am less sad, however, as I now have four new pairs of glasses. Hooray!

One nicer pair, partial thanks to my vision insurance, and three cheapo pairs, thanks to Zenni Optical. They all happened to arrive today and I can't decide which pair to wear first.

If I get a green pair and a purple pair I could make a rainbow. Now that I can see again I need to get sewing.

pizza party

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 13:59:00 PST

Is it really a party when it's just you and your husband and your kid making pizza? Well, we had fun, so I say it is. And our friend Ian came over to partake in the eating of the pizza, so sure. It was a party. Dr. Pants made up some dough, then we went to Trader Joe's to pick up some toppings while the dough was rising. Then Mr. Poop and I sat at the kitchen counter and talked about the things we'd bought. Mr. Poop really enjoyed saying "goat cheese."

Dr. Pants spread the dough out on the pans. Mr. Poop helped a little (and tried to eat a little of the dough). Then they spread the pesto on, and then we started in on the toppings.

spreading the dough out

"Hey guys, I totally put those tomatoes on that pizza."

Mr. Poop quite liked tossing the artichoke hearts on...

However, nothing was as exciting as the throwing of the cheese.

Our finished product:

pesto pizza with roasted red peppers, seared asparagus, and prosciutto

pesto pizza with sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, goat cheese, and prosciutto

It was super delicious. Man. I could bathe myself goat cheese. Except I won't, because I might not want to eat it afterwards. And it would be pretty expensive. Anyway - awesome. Go make some pizza.

I don't think Dr. Pants was planning initially on pizza being a family affair, but couple of days ago I watched this video. It's okay if you don't watch it, it's long (but awesome, so maybe you should watch it). But at one point Jamie Oliver (who I love, and whose cookbooks never steer me wrong, and I'm not big on cooking) shows a clip of this video where he's showing elementary school children various vegetables and none of the children know what any of them are. It was strange and surreal. Seriously, they couldn't identify a tomato. Anyway, it led me to want to involve Mr. Poop more in cooking, and we're both glad we did - we all had a great (if messy) time.

Hooray for pizza! Clap clap clap!

P.S. The pizza dough recipe was from the Pioneer Woman's cookbook. It was sent to us by my brother-in-law, but I'm sure it's online somewhere. It was pretty tasty.

12 on the 12th

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:01:49 PST

Last month my sister-in-law, Miranda from Narrating Life, participated in a little bloggy meme thing where you post 12 pictures on the 12th. We had an unfortunate incident in the parking lot of our hotel at Bazaar Bizarre that resulted in the demise of our last camera lens. Let us not speak of it. My father-in-law generously loaned us his old camera, which was very nice, but which I never quite figured out how to use well enough to take a decent picture. But our new camera lens arrived this week, so I figured I'd join in. Except I kind of forgot about it until about 6:30 last night, so most of these pictures are from the evening. I'll do better next month.

1. Mr. Poop played with his barnyard friends.
2. I went to the eye doctor, who subsequently made me The Terminoisy
3. Dr. Pants made beef stroganoff for dinner.
4. Mr. Poop and I made an Olympic podium with his duplos. I'd like to know which sport includes pigs, horses, and little girls. Whatever it is, the pig totally won.
5. Mr. Poop had the blues.
6. Mr. Poop played with his stuffed poop (an awesome handmade present from his Aunt Miranda).
7. The cats were sleepy.
8. We watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics, and were pleased to see our wedding venue on TV. (Peace Arch Park, at the border of Washington and Vancouver.)
9. I was moved to sing along to O Canada.
10. Mr. Poop also sang along to O Canada. Kind of.
11. Dr. Pants continued to make dinner.
12. Someone stayed up two hours past his bedtime to watch the opening ceremonies.

P.S. It's been awhile since I blogged consistently. I'll share the reason why soon. It's a reasonable one, I think.

Craft Hope for Haiti

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:18:34 PST

I had plans for blogging about our Christmas break and visiting my brother- and sister-in-law, but this takes precedence. I'd like to request that you go shopping over at the Craft Hope for Haiti shop. I've donated this vinyl & cloth clutch, and there are loads of other wonderful products for you to buy.

All your money (minus the Etsy seller fee) goes directly to Doctors Without Borders to support their work in Haiti. They've already raised over $20,000, but there's so much more to do, especially with the aftershocks that keep coming. Please help if you can.

If you'd like to read more about Craft Hope for Haiti, click here.

If you'd like to learn more about Doctors Without Borders, click here.

Bazaar Bizarre SF wrap up

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:21:02 PST

First things first: You have less than 26 hours left to save in our first ever sale! Go! Shop! You can still get it in time for Christmas! Come back and read the blog later.

Now, on to Bazaar Bizarre. We remembered to take pictures this week! We had an awesome booth near the entrance, behind the fabulous Jaime Zollars, and across from Craft Magazine. Seriously, it doesn't get any better than that. The booth size was a little smaller than the booth at Unique LA, so we had to get a little creative with the rack for the tote bags, but I kind of like how we did this better - it was a lot easier for people to browse the bags, and we sold more of them. Win win!

Here is a picture of our entire space, sort of. It was hard to get a shot of everything, so I drew on this picture to give you a better idea of the layout.

The entrance was just to the left of the Chronicle Books booth. Also, Chronicle is so awesome.

Here's the vinyl/knit purse/mailing list sign up side of the booth. Note the new rack!

Kitchen stuff/knit clutch side of the booth. Note the other new rack! People saw the oven mitts as they walked in and a few made a beeline.

And here I am setting up the aprons and knit clutches. Being near the door was great for traffic, but it was also freezing. I was glad I had my wool coat.

We did a lot of Christmas shopping at the fair, but I'm reluctant to post about all the awesome things we bought until we've given them out as gifts. I will let you know the vendors we bought from, in case you're looking for some shopping ideas.

Mediums to Masses - We were next to this booth, and the jewelry is absolutely gorgeous. She'll be at Renegade SF this weekend, if you're in the Bay Area and need to do some last minute crafty shopping!

Tiny Sparks Design - Screen printed artwork on wood. We were next to Tiny Sparks at our first Bazaar Bizarre in May, and it was their first craft show too. We were so pleased to see them again, and even more pleased that we had an excuse to buy!

Craftster - You may know them as the awesome crafty community, but they also sell some sweet t-shirts. You should check them out.

Recover Your Thoughts - Old library books hand-crafted into one-of-a-kind journals. Even the journal pages are made from paper that was going to go to waste.

Fiftyseven-Thirtythree - Awesome t-shirts made in Oakland. We found the perfect gift for someone here. Dr. Pants saw it, ran back to our booth, and I ran over, looked, and bought it immediately.

Hamburgerpanda - T-shirts and papergoods. I love her characters so much.

Jaime Zollars - Artwork. Okay, maybe I bought myself something here. Maybe it was one of the Bazaar Bizarre prints. Maybe it was because she put penguins on it based on my business name. Maybe because it's adorable. I love her work, it manages to be sophisticated and childlike all at once.

WilloToons - Eco-friendly t-shirts with funny slogans and sweet designs. I would have bought Mr. Poop so many t-shirts here if we had unlimited fundage.

Cynically Delicious - Cupcakes! Okay, so you're not going to buy Christmas gifts for your friends here, but how could I not mention the delicious cupcakes we ate? And the decorations! Tom Selleck mustache cupcakes! Crapcakes with flies on them! Angry Santa cupcakes with lumps of coal on top! I'm in love.

I think I got some cupcake in my mustache.

We had such an amazing weekend. We were surrounded by some wonderfully talented vendors, we saw some great friends, and we had our best craft show yet. It was 100% worth the drive up from San Diego. The Maker Faire/Bazaar Bizarre in San Mateo is five months away. I'm already looking forward to it.