Hi there. It's been a while since I've posted much of substance here. Part is summer laziness, part is stuff I'm still working on, but mostly it's because we finally got ourselves back to making our house a bit prettier. The intersection of houseguests and a plumbing emergency (nothing drastic) kick started us on the projects we'd been contemplating and we've been riding the momentum. Like, we bought a couch (Ikea, Karlstad, dark gray, with ottoman!) and we're arranging the other bits of the living room that can now fall into place. I'm also excavating my sewing room and it's, well, it's a process. Not a pretty one. We're back to the familiar cycle of going back and forth from the hardware store and having various surfaces in our house covered in paint chips and drywall anchors.

But I'm feeling lighter. Getting rid of things I no longer need, hauling things to donate, making room for a bicycle. A delayed spring cleaning, if you will. So that's what I'm doing right now and I'll hopefully emerge soon with some good information to share. Like how to not hit a kitchen sink pipe when hanging a curtain rod. For example.

I have one of those out of sight, out of mind things happening. I completely failed to mention our photo session with Mastin Studio a few months back. We were met by Kirk Mastin and his wife Robin (who happens to have a great food blog, A Chow Life) to have pictures taken at Volunteer (oops) Discovery Park in Seattle. The day was was rainy and did bad things to my hair, Scott forgot to bring his suit jacket, I struggle to act natural in front of a camera, and despite all that it was a lot of fun. Kirk and Robin are charming and made us feel completely at ease. If you're looking for a wedding photographer in the Pacific Northwest I can recommend them.

(The heat is hitting us here and we're having one of those rare 90-degree days so looking at these photos is nearly giving me nostalgia for cooler temperatures. Nearly.)

The other weekend I wanted to make cake. So I did. Two, in fact, but neither was good enough for me to offer a recipe for. I'll just have to keep working on that.

And on Saturday Scott reminded me that it was the 10 year anniversary of us packing our stuff into a truck and driving from Cleveland to San Francisco. We didn't have an apartment ready to move into, it was the year 2000, dot coms ruled the world and everything was crazy and exciting. So we put ten candles on the cake to mark the anniversary.

A few months after we arrived the dot com bust happened and suddenly nobody had jobs.

I never liked living in San Francisco.

Nobody ever seemed happy. Muni left us stranded far too many times. The city had a way of feeling too crowded and creepily deserted on the same day. A trip to the grocery store shouldn't have been as challenging as it was.

Ages ago Megnut put a story on her old site about finding a parking spot for her car that she didn't need to move out of for a while. She went back to check on her car every few days but didn't drive it. One day she found a nasty note left on her windshield accusing her of parking too close to another car, a car that the person leaving the note had actually parked near her car. I nodded my head when I read it. San Francisco was like that.

Of course there were circumstances that made our time there gloomy. The dot com party was over. September 11th happened while we were there. The Ferry Building was under construction and all I ever knew it as was of a boarded up, deserted seeming place on the water. (It was two blocks from the office I used to work in and when I think of all the glorious lunches I didn't have there I cry a little inside.) We were subletting our apartment and needed to keep off the radar of the building managers, which made doing laundry a covert operation*. The retail area of the city I walked through each day on my way home was rapidly closing up and I watched it decline bit by bit. Once we tried to take a visiting friend to lunch and couldn't find a place that didn't have a two hour wait, we drove around the city hungry and embarrassed. Nothing seemed good or easy, nothing ever clicked, I never experienced any moments where things simply went right.

I feel like San Francisco didn't want me to stay, and I'm glad we didn't try. I love Seattle.

All this said, San Francisco is an awful lot of fun to visit these days. The Ferry Building is filled with yum, that block of deserted building I used to walk past every day on my way home from work is now a very nice mall with a Bloomingdale's and a Beard Papa's. Miette has two charming shops that I wish I could visit daily. There is more and more good coffee, fabric and yarn. It's like the city was sleeping while we were there but has since woken up and found itself having a really good hair day.

* (I did run into one of the building managers once and couldn't escape a little chat. I ended up having to tell her I was the apartment renter's girlfriend, something he had requested I do. It was awkward because the building manager knew that he had recently gotten married. I'm nearly ready to recategorize this as one of those memories that is funny.)

I found three four-leaf clovers!

It's hard to tell from this picture but these marshmallows we found at the grocery store were enormous. I was delighted.

Scott made this pancake that looks like woodgrain.

I decided to make a cake, chocolate with white frosting. This is my first ever crumb layer.

Scott remembered that ten years ago Saturday we packed our things into a U-Haul and drove from Cleveland to San Francisco without an apartment ready to move into. Adventure! So we put ten candles on the cake.

We started making a new infused gin from this recipe at Gourmet magazine. So far it smells much better that my first try.

I also started watching Glee (and am hooked), took a nice slow stroll through a p-patch in a Seattle neighborhood we're contemplating moving to, got my hair cut and made chimichurri sauce for the first time.

It's been a busy few weekends around here, and I actually took some pictures. Above is a pretty show cupcake from Cupcake Camp three weekends ago. I turned up too late to eat cupcakes (apparently 5000 cupcakes were consumed in about half an hour!) but just in time to see the cupcake eating contest, the aftermath of which looked like this:

The next day I headed to spend some much needed outdoor time with Tea and Cookies and friends. Her chirashizushi pictured above was delicious and so very pretty. I am usually very sensitive to the flavor of fish in a dish, but I couldn't detect that this had a fish stock base.

Two weeks ago Scott headed to Chicago for a gig with Kirby Krackle, but I barely had a chance to miss him.

On Friday I had dinner with Maggi at Via Tribunali where they really will bring you shears to cut your pizza if you ask about them.

We walked to Molly Moon's for ice cream afterward and ran into Cakespy and her adorable pugs on their way home from work, the pugs hung out while we stood in line. I got salted licorice, it was good but very unusual.

The next morning I dropped off the cobbler in jars for the bake sale then headed out to get some product shots for the felt flower brooch. Later that day I went to attend a Seattle Food Bloggers event where Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman, came to chat with us! I practically attacked her afterward to tell her about my summers in Oklahoma and she was nice enough not to call security on me. I also butted in to get a picture, which didn't turn out!

But I feel better because she has one just like it on her site, we both forgot to adjust our cameras for the backlighting. After that I figured it would be too crazy to go back again and get her to sign my Pioneer Woman Cooks book. Ree pulled her own camera out of her bag and it was a huge Nikon that was covered with flour, which I thought was just awesome.

And last weekend we headed to a family wedding and some visiting in Pennsylvania and Ohio. After we had picked up our rental car and were on our way I got word that my felt flower brooch project had been published over at Holidash, so I used my iPhone to put up a post I'd prepared before we left to announce it. But, tragedy!, the image I had used for it was corrupted and was showing up half gray. And this is the part where I get to love living in the future: thanks to the iPhone I was able to borrow one of my own images from the Holidash site, upload it my site and republish my post with the new image. All from a rental car speeding down the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Neato.

This is my first ever time at Sonic, and my first ever cherry limeaid. It was yummy. As we were sitting at the drive-in we watched a horse drawn buggy come through the parking lot and pull into a small covered parking space meant for buggies just outside the Walmart. I realized it had been ages since the Amish were a part of my usual surroundings.

The wedding was in Hershey, PA and the menu reflected that. The beef entree was Cocoa Crusted Tenderloin with White Chocolate Mashed Potatoes. It sounds strange but was amazing. And yes, there was a chocolate fountain at dessert, I doubt they could have gone without one considering the location. It was fantastic to hang out with aunts, uncles and cousins and hear all the stories from weddings and gatherings past. My family is a bit crazy in the most wonderful way.

Somewhere along the Pennsylvania Turnpike we found a machine that churned out these unicorn souvenir pennies. I'll keep this in my wallet just in case I encounter something IRL that requires a unicorn chaser.

Then we were off to Ohio to visit more family. We got to hold a very tiny brand new nephew, walk through the model home of the sort that Scott's sister and brother in law just bought, be impressed enough with the reasonable price of houses in Ohio enough to briefly consider moving back, play tug of war with Simon (the very cute and well behaved dog you see above), and seek out a kids guitar as for a niece's birthday present. It has these handy stickers to help in learning:

And I got to use my camera to help explain to a nephew how the sepia colored crayon got it's name:

It's been so much fun, but last night we arrived home to a house that is utterly disorganized. It's time for some serious spring cleaning. But first some beer.

Today is our one year anniversary of being married, so last night Scott and I made ourselves look presentable, put on our wedding shoes and went to have dinner at Canlis.

How sweeet is this? They took the care not only to ask about what we were celebrating that night, but also to write a special message on our dessert plates. The long, thin candles that adorned the plates were anchored in a chunk of pineapple, I must keep that tip in mind.

Scott looked up the table of traditional and modern anniversary gifts and went with modern, a clock. Or in this case, a kitchen timer meant specifically for me to keep on my desk to help with all that toast burning I've been doing lately. It's even red to match my office. Thank you sweetie, it's perfect. And it's already saved breakfast.

Dear census people: Oh creepy! First you sent us a letter to let us know the census was going to arrive, then the census arrived (which we filled out and returned), then you sent a postcard to let us know the census should have arrived. And now you're in my fortune cookie. Cut it out.

p.s. Should you ever be in Seattle the hand shaved noodles at Shanghai Garden are excellent.

update: To be a bit clearer, actual fortunes were printed on the other side of these slips of paper, I knew that the Census Bureau had purchased space on the back of the fortunes, I think it is important to make sure that people know why being counted matters, and I applaud the Census Bureau for doing something with such a sense of humor. I was just surprised to be so incredibly well informed that the census was going on.

Breakfast and knitting at Curio Confections.

I like these little white scissors from Muji, the cover means I can throw it in with the yarn without worry.

And while I'm at it, it amuses me that the Muji travel sewing kit only comes with white, gray and black thread.

Then a stroll through the Arboretum to look at blossoms.

And Sunday we decided that despite how much I like my bamboo tongs*, we really should get a new toaster.

* Dwell recently asked me about my favorite kitchen item and I went on and on about my bamboo tongs.

Please allow me to be dramatic for a moment. I just found out that the Petrie sofa from Crate & Barrel is no longer available (sort of) and I'm upset. It was perfect, soft fabric, just firm enough, deep enough. Scott and I sat in a lot of sofas and it was clearly the winner for us both. People, I love this sofa and we've been saving up to buy one for two years. Just last week we talked about finally getting to place the order for it. We were excited, a milestone! We would finally ditch our futon and sit on actual furniture like real adults! (We can pretend to be real adults.)

Today I was cutting through the store and decided to visit the couch (I do this a lot, I'm embarrassed to admit that) and found a "Limited Stock" sign hanging on it. I asked about this and was told that the company that makes the fabric (the nice, soft, not scratchy at all fabric) is no longer manufacturing it, I think they might be going out of business. So now the Petrie is only being sold in the natural and brown fabric, and only what they have left in stock (we only really wanted gray, with my clumsiness white would last about ten minutes in our house, oh look I just dropped pizza sauce on the futon* and I just don't get excited over brown). They are looking for a replacement fabric, so there is a faint glimmer of hope, but with my luck the replacement fabric will be something durable but scratchy. It looks like I'm stuck sitting on this futon (which I bought in 1998 (!!!) when I had my very first solo apartment in Cleveland, that's like two thousand internet years ago) until I find new couch love.

While I'm wallowing let me also mention how sad I was to discover that Teva is no longer making the Kena style flip flops. These had the squishy rubber flip flop sole but didn't have straps that went between the toes and were the answer to my prayers. I showed restraint in not buying dozens of pairs and now I wish I hadn't shown said restraint. I have one pair and I'll have to make sure I use them well. In the mean time EileenSideways on Twitter has encouraged me to try the Olowahu style. As a fellow nothing-between-the-toes person she says she can tolerate them. I trust you Eileen.

Ok, my pointless pity party is over.

* Not kidding about the pizza sauce. Ok, so maybe I should be eating in the dining room instead.

I'm pulling images off my various picture taking devices. My current on the go camera isn't so great, so please consider these something more like picture notes:

Spiced hot chocolate from Sweet & Savory, sipped while chatting with Tea. I had also ordered a latte before remembering the hot chocolate so when we parted I was very! caffeinated!

(p.s. Her book The Butcher and the Vegetarian: One Woman's Romp Through a World of Men, Meat, and Moral Crisis is coming out soon and the book tour kick off event is Feb. 8th at University Bookstore here in Seattle.)

This is a reversible black and red fabric I've been meaning to make something from. It's expensive though so until I have a solid idea I just go visit it at the fabric store.

I bought fancy carrots for dinner one night. I'm still very much in love with tossing them with olive oil then sprinkling with ginger, cumin and chili powder and roasting them. Never though I'd like eating roasted carrots so much.

Scott playing bass with Explone at The Crocodile!

Trophy cupcakes, both coconut themed. The one with swirled icing was a Samoa cupcake, yum.

Light fixture and new wine wall at Delancey. If you live in Seattle and have not eaten there yet I continue to encourage you to do so. Seriously great.

My long time favorite drink, The Jasmine: 1.5 oz gin, 3/4 oz lemon juice (about one half a lemon), 1/4 oz Cointreau, dash of Campari, shaken hard over ice. It's not sickly sweet (despite being pink) and tastes a bit like grapefruit juice.

I got a sneak peak of a book Kristen is in, Crafty Superstar, at a meeting of Grassroots. update: You can order an autographed copy (now with swag!) from Crafty Superstar.

Olive oil, taken during some rare sunlight.

Moss growing on top of the map structure on a hike at Cougar Mountain.

The water bottles at my local market always catch my eye. This poppy design in particular is one I stop to admire.

I very deeply hooded shirt at REI that I'd like to make a sweater version of.

Amy Karol (aka. Angry Chicken) came to town with her book Bend The Rules With Fabric and I got to see some of the items in the book in person. It was great to meet you in person Amy! I also got to meet The Black Apple and ask her all about appearing on the Martha Stewart show. I also got to meet Wise Craft and ask her all about her family's Komforte Chocolates business. (Ramen Noodle! Tortilla chip and lime! French toast! You love these already.)

Silver faux birch vases on clearance at Joanns that I wish I had bought.

The pictures above are horrible, and I apologize for what they are doing to your eyes, but I really wanted to capture this detail. The skirt here is at Gather in the Columbia City neighborhood of Seattle and I loved it except for the fact that it was wool and, to my sensitive skin, unbearably itchy. So I tried to quietly take pictures of the ribbon detail, which I intend to use on a skirt soon.

A leige waffle with bacon, brie and basil from Sweet Iron Waffles. I was ready to dislike this restaurant because their website looked suspiciously slick, but the waffles are delicious and they use lots of local ingredients, including Sheherd's Grain Flour, and use the same super-huge pearl sugar that I used when I made liege waffles. Eaten while having a sanity-restoring visit with Maggi.

Me trying out new clothes for our trip to Paris during a shopping trip to REI with Scott. We were out to track down the perfect jacket for him. He switched favorites mid way through which resulted in us visiting four stores in one marathon day, but coming home with the grail, I mean jacket. (It was on clearance and unavailable on the website and the madness took hold, we couldn't stop until we had the object in our hands.)

My lesson from the day? I need to re-learn how to get out of a car while wearing a skirt.