I’m back from a trip to England! And Wales! We drove on the other side of the street and walked along the tops of bluffs on footpaths and saw the Dr. Who Experience and had cream tea and got really familiar with a few stops of the Underground and saw Book of Mormon and opened Kinder Eggs and gawked at cheese in Cheddar and watched the path emerge from the water from the top of Saint Michael’s Mount and looked the wrong way for traffic before crossing the street. But mostly our group spent time passing around a bad cold, which I was unlucky enough to have for the days we were in London where it was cold enough to snow and yet there was no way I was going to take a whole precious day to sit and be warm and still indoors.

Since we now have Uniqlo and Lush and Muji shops and Boots aisle in Target here in the US it’s harder to find new and fascinating things in the UK, but we succeeded! Behold something called “Mansize tissues”, shown above next to a regular sized tissue. The Mansize tissues are big, almost hanky sized, and I love them and I wish we had them here in the US. So, who knows somebody in the tissue industry and how quickly can we get these things here in the US and can we rename them something less sexist but still offensive like Texas Tissues or Supersize Tissues? Anyhow, they made having a cold slightly less miserable.

Happy new year! I hope your celebration is sparkly.

Above:

Gold polka dot garland at BHLDN. (It’s on sale!)

DIY Gold-Leaf Polka Dot Ceramics at Vitamini Handmade.

Three DIY cocktails for New Years at Refinery 29.

Edible star glitter decoration at Fashionably Bombed.

Bubbly Champagne Flutes. (No longer available, sad trombone.)

DIY styrofoam and toothpick decorations at The Sweetest Occasion.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I hope you’re somewhere cozy and surrounded by people you consider family. And I hope you stuff yourself until you cannot do anything more than sit on a couch and drool at the television. We are hanging with family in a large rental house near a lake where we are scouring the shore for acorns and skipping stones. I hope you are similarly happily situated!

Later this week I’m headed to Camp Mighty. This will be my second year and I’m excited to see the people whom I met last year, I’m happy to revisit the hot tub at the Ace Hotel, I can definitely use a little shot of sunshine and I’m anticipating what things will come into my attention that I never new were there before. I was terrified to revisit the Life List that I submitted last year because, honestly, I have not focused on it very much. But you know what? When I reviewed my list I was able to cross off six things. None of them were huge or contributed to big world changes but being able to check them off was so thrilling. And then, of course, I added six new ones and I tried to make them a little bigger. This upcoming year I’ll schedule time to step back, take a look through my list and see if there are any connections to those things I want to do and the with people I know that can point me in the right direction that might normally go overlooked or shuffled away in a haze of routine.

Part of Camp Mighty is raising money for Charity Water. Last year the camp as a whole got word that we’d reached our fundraising goal in the middle of the weekend and we all cheered, it was a moment. Earlier this Autumn we got the photos, some shown above, of just what our fundraising managed to do. Our funds went into buying a drilling rig called Yellow Thunder which will bring 40,000 people clean water each year. Wow, people.

The people behind Camp Mighty also very recently announced the opening of Go Mighty, a site where people can share their goals, view those of others and connect to get stuff done. Registration is open so go, go on!

Bicycle-delivered pie ala mode popsicle with pie crumbs, from Six Strawberries who biked in to serve guests at a wedding at Gasworks Park. It was perfect.

Approaching magic hour at the Seattle ferris wheel.

Turtle fruit salad, at the same wedding mentioned above. (There was also a serendipitous Blue Angels fly over, knights fighting for the bride, rice krispies cake and beautiful paper bouquets. It was pretty darn great.)

Looking up at the three brick monoliths on the UW campus.

Next week I’m saying goodbye to my wisdom teeth. Nothing drastic, it’s just time. In preparation I’ve been reading wisdom teeth advice and a few horror stories over at Ask Metafilter. I particularly like the question about the Tooth Fairy for adults. Here are my plans so far:

• Smoothies, green juice, ice cream, mashed potatoes and jello.
• Regular tea bags to chew on and peppermint tea to refresh. (Apparently my mouth won’t taste so good, surprise.)
• Bags of frozen peas to press on swollen chipmunk cheeks.
• My mascot, pictured above, of a plush Monster Tooth made by Sew Dorky that I bought a few years back knowing that someday it would be needed. I will hug or pummel it depending on how I feel.
• Journey on the PS3 and the awesome Amanita Design games from the latest Humble Indie Bundle.
• And to read I’ve already started Game of Thrones. I was afraid that I’d get all the characters confused but so far it’s been no trouble.
• The ability to sit on my couch feeling sorry for myself for a few days.

More information always makes me feel less nervous about new things like this. Did you have your wisdom teeth out? What do you wish somebody had told you before? Any advice on something I should have ready to go just in case?

I’ve found myself in the middle of some lack of inspiration and I decided to give into it. Recently it feels like nothing I try really works out: my very cool Easter project idea failed spectacularly (but I still have hope that I can do it for next year), I bought a pair of really comfy shoes I wanted to tell everybody about only to find that they squeak loudly when I walk, I cannot seem to capture what I want in my photographs. Graaah! Feel the power of overlapping small frustrations add up!

As part of my downtime I’ve decided to declutter the house, Spring cleaning for the house as well as my brain maybe? Shown above is a collection of keys that both Scott and myself have somehow collected over the years. With the exception of one we have no idea where any of these keys might work. There was a Nissan key in there and neither of us has ever driven a Nissan. That padlock was from my high school years and I couldn’t remember the combination even back then. So I’ve tossed the keys and my house became that much literally and figuratively lighter. High five, it’s working.

I’m making slow progress because I’m a very lazy person at heart. It’s overwhelming because this is the first place I’ve lived in for more than two years at a time as an adult and, predictably, I’m finding the amount of stuff you can shove into closets and forget about is incredible. Turns out I’m way better at shedding stuff when faced with the imminent threat of having to carry it all to a new home. These days it’s easier to pull everything out of a closet, toss a couple things and put it all back in, only a little more orderly looking this time. All the work and sense of satisfaction with none of the desired results!

I really need to get motivated, like Hulk Smash! style motivated. So far my plan is:

• Highbrow: Watch and re-watch this TED talk by Graham Hill on less stuff equaling more happiness. I found this though a article by Jessica Adamiak that I will revisit when I need to remember bullet points.
• Lowbrow: Watch episodes of Hoarders because nothing will inspire a craving for minimalism in me faster. Maybe I’ll write a prescription for myself to watch one per week.
• Read Dinah Sanders’ Discardia. It’s in Kindle forrmat as well as good old fashioned book. Something I like from the first chapter: “Your first Discardian act should be to let go of feeling bad about what you haven’t gotten done by now.” Done! (I know Dinah from way back, hi Dinah!)
• Rearrange my digital life as well. I need to set up a schedule (shudder) for backing up my iPhone, computers and cameras. And back up those back ups somewhere not in this house. I also need to rearrange and weed my bookmarks, Google Reader lists, Twitter lists, Gmail labels and be a better Facebook citizen. My hands feel heavy just thinking about all these things, but I know they’ll break me out of my current “I wonder if The Hairpin has posted anything new?” form of comfort surfing. Or at least I hope.
• Remember that trash and recycling pick up is early on Friday mornings. Remember that on Thursday afternoons.
• Acknowledge that crunchy snacks are a vital part of the process for me. Trader Joe’s Crunchy Curls are on the top of my list.

But I also could use help! Do you have any good motivations? Resources? Playlists? Scare tactics? Share, I beg you, if only so that I know I’m not alone in my sea of half-emptied closets.

In January I was lucky enough to get to speak at the Altitude Design Summit and though I didn’t get to see Karen Walrond there she came through Seattle on her book tour for The Beauty of Different so I got to give her a hug anyhow.

In February we had a relaxing visit to Guemes Island and I got to have a spend lots of time visiting both a hot tub and a fireplace.

In March I made a Leprechaun Trap cake with a secret rainbow, I got to see how the Flying Hippo Brewing Company does it’s thing and I met with a group of really wonderful bloggers here in Seattle.

In April I made Easter Surprise Eggs and Stars In Jars for a bake sale at Cakespy. Somewhere in there was a weekend trip to Portland.

May held a month of giveaways to celebrate the 10th anniversary of this site, thanks again to everybody who participated.

June held an amazing trip to see the Wilton headquarters and Posterous sent Scott and I on a road trip. I also made red velvet cupcakes in jars for a few bake sales and I was taught the secret of peanut butter cup s’mores.

In July I met Marie from Make and Takes for the first time, I got to visit with Kelly and do a little podcast about Summer, I made lots of grapefruit tarragon infused vodka but got no photos of the finished product. We went on lots of bike rides and saw this giant jenga game at a street fair. I also got into a minor car accident (other party’s fault and thankfully the insurance people agreed) and spent a few weeks driving a rather large car around and missing my little Golf.

In August I went on lots of picnics and HP invited me to play along with Project Runway and I got to show Whitney from Ugly Green Chair and her mother some of my favorite Seattle spots.

In September I took an incredible trip to NYC to see the Project Runway finale taping (thanks again, HP!) I spoke at the Schoolhouse Craft conference with Molly from Orangette and Blair from Wise Craft, I got my nails done for the first time, I went apple picking, I made pie crust lattice cookies meant to sit over a mug of cider, attended the Design*Sponge book tour crafting event (so much fun) and my house had a major water leak leading to a new water heater, new furnace and new flooring.

In October I made Zombie Head Cheese, got to meet Jack Bishop from Cook’s Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen (what a thrill!), I visited an Alpaca farm, got to see a bunch of local bloggers at a dinner sponsored by West Elm to celebrate the opening of the Seattle store (hi everybody!) and thanks to Yolo Colorhouse I had the opportunity to redesign my bedroom. It’s still my very favorite room in our house.

November was all about visiting family and learning about boiled omelets, visiting new and old friends at Camp Mighty, and visiting other websites to offer a few projects.

In December I made 3D Gingerbread Trees, created a cocoa customization kit, got to hang with some fabulous Seattle bloggers and got to see Debbie Stoller while she was in town on the book tour for Bust DIY Guide to Life, I got to show Whitney a Seattle that was considerably gloomier than her last visit, and the amazing oil painting arrived from The Commission Project which made for a wonderful Christmas.

My mascots for this year include Portal 2, Biscoff spread, Pliny the Elder, the Mia, Glitch, many, many hours of podcasts and the comfy new padded dining room chairs where my butt is currently planted.

Happy New Year everybody!

three good ideas:

Instead of paper plates we used these smaller fast food containers, which I loved because I always manage to flip a regular sized plate over at picnics. These fit in one hand so there was no dramatic flinging of foods. At least not accidentally.

Two La Petite Ecole dark chocolate cookies used for a s’more. Delicious!

A layer of sour cream is used as an oxygen barrier for the guacamole. Brilliant. Also, sour cream!

two strange cookies:

The Triple Double Oreo. Three layers of cookie, two double-stuffed layers of white and chocolate filling. I came to the same conclusion as Serious Eats, that it tastes pretty much like an Oreo.

Keebler’s Coconut Dreams caught my eye because, hello, Samoas anybody? They definitely tasted a bit different because of the milk chocolate, but if you are really craving Girl Scout cookies in the off season these might be satisfying.

and a dog on a paddle board:

and a sunset:

Stuff is going on! It’s very exciting.

I contributed a project to 10 Simple Sunday Afternoon Crafts which is published over on the shiny new Kirtsy, whose redo launched earlier this week. Lookin’ good ladies. Huge thanks to Blogstar for inviting me along. I showed how I use woodgrain contact paper to repurpose various tins to use around the house. Yes that is a band-aid on my finger and it got there due to a paper cut unrelated to my project and the various sharp edged metal things I had been wielding for it.

Make Grow Gather had me on for an episode of Lazy Summer Radio and I talked about how much I like to find four leaf clovers. (The one pictured above was found in my front yard just last week.) Thanks again Kelly, come back soon!

For the next few weeks I’ll be participating in a Project Runway challenge thanks to the good people at HP, who sent me a TouchSmart computer! I’ll be doing my own version of the challenges the contestants are given, at least in digital format. I’m completely underqualified to do this so the results might be, well, let’s just go with interesting.

I’ll also be keeping an eye on the Project Project Runway girls (Just Crafty Enough and Craftroom) who recreate the challenges on dolls. I loved what they did last season and I’m glad they are doing it again.

I have a list of good stuff over at Supermarket. Narrowing it down to 10 items was very difficult, I have about a hundred more bookmarked. Seriously.

I’ll be speaking at Schoolhouse Craft here in Seattle. I’m doing a panel on blogging with Blair from Wise Craft and Molly from Orangette. We’re doing Blogging 101 on Friday, Sept 23rd at 12:30. The conference will be a collection of great people talking about the business of craft. If you need a recharge this will be where to do it, I came away last year feeling more inspired than I had in a while.

My husband Scott has a few notable shows coming up. He is 1/2 of Kin to Stars, the other half is the very awesome Jerin Falkner. Their very first show is coming up in over a week at Egan’s in Ballard (Seattle) on Saturday, August 6th at 9p.m. More details on their Facebook events page. See you there? He also plays with Explone and among their upcoming shows is a benefit to help cover the medical costs of a great girl who needs some help: We Heart Tracy Dart at The Bridge, 7pm on Sunday, August 7th.

I’ll also mention that School House Craft is still offering 20% off for any ticket combination to the conference. Enter notmartha when you buy your tickets. This will be good up until the event (in September!).

And finally there is a pretty neat thing happening here in Seattle this Thursdsay, June 16th:

Moveable Type coming to Seattle’s Central District!
June 16th, 5-8pm
at Miss Cline Press shop
2370 East Cherry (cherry & 23rd ave)

Join us for a printing party to welcome the Moveable Type national tour on its first stop in Seattle.

Moveable Type is a mobile print shop built into the back of an old delivery truck. The truck is owned by Kyle Durrie, the proprietor of Power and Light Press in Portland, Oregon. Kyle is starting a 9+ month tour across North America. The idea is to combine her two passions of traveling and printing. Now, the truck is ready and the adventure is just beginning. Her first stop in Seattle will be in the heart of Central District at Miss Cline Press shop.

During her trip, Kyle will be visiting schools, art spaces, city parks, music and arts festivals, craft shows, parties, and anywhere else that has an interest in learning about printing the old fashioned way.

Moveable Type will be setting up its mobile print shop outside Miss Cline Press on Thursday, June 16th for an evening of printing demos, studio/truck tours, and tall tales about life on the road. This event is free and open to the public, and participants can expect to get their hands dirty and make a few prints to take home with them.

A priceless opportunity! Hope to see you there.

More info and tour dates:
www.type-truck.com
www.missclinepress.com

• Heidi Swanson, 101 Cookbooks
• School House Craft
• Kirby Krackle
• Moxie
• Tea Weaver, Tea and Cookies
• Wendy McClure, Pound
• Hellimae’s Salt Caramels
• Schmancy
• Susan Beal, West Coast Crafty
• Rakka Deer
• Gayla Trail, You Grow Girl
• Matthew Porter Art
• Crystalyn Kae
• Joy the Baker
• Jessie Oleson, CakeSpy
• Juniper Moon Farm
• Dave Sheely Designs
• Shauna and Danny Ahern, Gluten-free Girl and the Chef
• Alicia Paulson, Rosy Little Things
• mirror mirror
• Product Body
• This Charming Candy

And I’ve got a few offers and announcements for readers if you’d like:

School House Craft is offering a 20% discount to readers for any ticket combination they buy for the conference here in Seattle in September. Enter notmartha when you get your tickets.

This Charming Candy is offering 10% off of items in their Etsy shop, enter NotMartha10years at checkout. Good through Friday night, June 3rd.

Product Body is offering 15% off through June 15th (one use per customer). Enter NOTMARTHA15 when you’re checking out.

Crystalyn Kae is holding a studio sale here in Seattle this Saturday, June 4 from 10am to 4pm at 5611B Phinney Ave N, Seattle WA 98103. There will likely be a few things that won’t have appeared in the regular collection.

Whew, ok, thanks everybody!

Hi, hello, hi there. This May marks the tenth year of Not Martha, ten years! A whole decade! To celebrate I’m holding giveaways each weekday in May filled with stuff I love from people I know. It’s gonna be fun.

Looking back at the archives I see the first post was on May 22nd, 2001 and I only posted six things that month. The very first post to this site was about a kit that helps you put gifts inside of balloons (sadly, a dead link), the second post was about a long time love of mine the Meathead (miraculously it’s still there, it’s a plastic skull covered with red jello then layers of cold cuts to be served at Halloween and the reason I called my meatloaf hand the Meat Hand), my third post was a list of stuff I liked including retro video games, cookbooks and dishes made of sugar. Posts four, five and six are regarding Fluevog shoes that leave hoof prints, gasses that preserve a half empty bottle of wine, and the article in Salon that mentions a magazine that would be published sometime later that year, it was called “Readymade”. Taking just the first six posts into consideration I’m gonna go ahead and say this here site hasn’t changed much in the past decade. It really doesn’t seem like that long.

Each giveaway will take entries for about 24 hours and the first one will be tomorrow morning. Good luck everybody!

A few quick links to places Not Martha is showing up elsewhere.

The April 2011 issue of Family Fun magazine has a version of my Easter Surprise Eggs, shown above.

Delish shows my Chocolate Easter Surprise Eggs in their list of Awesomely Decorated Easter Eggs.

Parent Map magazine has both versions of Easter surprise eggs in their round up of fantastic ideas for dyeing and decorating Easter eggs.

Not Martha is #19 on the list of Top 150 Makers Blog List, so a huge thanks to all of you who come visit me here, we’re # 19! (I guess it doesn’t make a good chant.) We’re in good company, and there are a whole bunch of site that are new to me there.

Here is Gabrielle Blair wearing on of my felt dahlia pins while introducing Mondo and Seth Aaron from Project Runway. Thrilling! I can hardly believe she was one of the organizers for this conference, a tremendous amount of work, and weeks later moved her whole family to France. Her tour of the amazing house that they’ve rented have been fantastic.

Project Runway’s Seth Aaron (a WA resident!) and Mondo. Awesome.

HP was showing off some of their computer designs and I loved this double happiness symbol on a netbook designed by Vivienne Tam.

My feet while sitting on the floor at a panel (I crept in late and all the seats were taken).

Amazing sunset #1.

Tequila and beers!

I like how the butter matches the menu. This is just before getting to hear DJ Spooky speak.

Amazing sunset #2.

The entrance to the Girls With Glasses and Kate Spade party.

The Girls With Glasses and Kate Spade party bag, we got fun fake glasses and a Tassi and a sample of Kate Spade’s new fragrance Twirl.

For some travel and behind the scenes photos, click more.

This is a Flexicord mini iPhone cord. It’s flexible but stays put so it works as a stand, as well as a USB cord for your iPhone. The Good:I love it for travel as it’s compact none of my other iPhone stands hold my iPhone at an angle for movie watching while in an airplane seat. The Bad: I used one as an iPhone cord in my living room for a while and it didn’t stand up to more than three months of use before the wires became separated. (To be fair, it’s no more or less than the wear and tear on the cord that came with the iPhone before that split as well.) One Flexicord lives in my travel case and so far so good.

I always pack too much food for travel, I like having a quick breakfast that I don’t have to leave the room for. I’m cranky in the mornings and taking away the detail of finding food in the mornings takes away a lot of the stress of travel.

I might or might not have stayed up late the night before my panel making a small felt flower pin using scissors I packed and the room’s sewing kit.

Yesterday Scott and I set out in search of a banana split. Since we were hungry and Po Dogs* was nearby we stopped for a hot dog first. And suddenly our day turned into A Quest for Phallic Foods. While eating we discussed other phallic foods and up with categories for processed (sausage, corn dogs), natural (asparagus, cucumbers) and sweet (twinkies, eclairs). There are many more foods but my attempts to force them into a cohesive meal failed.

When we ordered the banana split (I won’t identify the location, see the rest of the sentence for the reason) it came with banana chunks, ice cream and toppings layered in a cup. In a cup! That, my friends, is not a split. I didn’t take a photograph though I do wish I could have captured the look on our faces as we first saw the cup. Apparently The Quest for Phallic Foods will continue.

Here is to wishing for you that the people in your life are unfazed by a not entirely successful quest, and that you have so much fun questing that you hardly even notice.

* The Dub-T Dog (nacho cheese sauce, crushed potato chips, ketchup and mustard, like a drunk-hungry late night trip to the 7-Eleven) is delicious. As is the Texas Dog. However, given a choice of only one hot dog I go fairly traditional and order the Chicago Dog (celery salt FTW).

Thing #1: a new frosting. The other week I made a cake. I used a boxed mix (Alton Brown once said it was ok on Good Eats and I have at least one other person who can back me up on that) so I could concentrate on trying out a new to me frosting recipe.

I’m normally a chocolate cake and vanilla frosting sort of gal, but loved this frosting from the start. I had it first at, I think, our Cookbook Club’s gathering for Cookin’ With Coolio. @gfrancie (Twitter) made it and a bunch of us demanded the recipe. She sent us to this entry over at Au_Gout, that’s the recipe I used. Turns out it’s a recipe from Joy of Cooking, gosh I love that book and must get myself a copy soon. (I have a copy on cd, back when I got my first computer I thought it would be all fancy to have my favorite books on my computer. Once I moved into a larger place and the walk from my desktop screen to the kitchen was longer I saw the error of my ways as I started needing to print out recipes.)

(Hey! Look over here! The Chocolate Mousse Frosting recipe from Joy of Cooking is viewable on Google Books.)

My first try at the frosting was good, but not quite the unbelievably fluffy result I remember. I think I need to whip it longer, which means I’ll just have to try it again and make cake after cake until I get it perfect. Oh darn, that sounds just awful doesn’t it?

Thing #2: a new cake server. Above is my new cake server, I’ve needed one for years but never seem to remember until the point at which I’ve just cut a wedge out of a cake and find myself trying to pull it out while balancing it on a knife. This time I was prepared, yay for small victories.

Thing #3: a new laptop. This is the first blog entry I’ve created on my new laptop. Hello world. It’s the first new laptop I’ve ever owned, and only the second new computer. (My first new computer would be a then-zippy but bulky desktop I bought from Gateway for my first apartment. I had the computer and a desk, a futon and a ficus tree happily for a year but never got around to buying a dining room table for that place.) I’m used to having machines that are cobbled together from corporate cast offs and bits scavenged from Re-PC, I’ve happily waited for downloads that take ages no battery life whatsoever. But I recently realized that a good laptop would make a lot of sense so I talked myself into spending the money (some slow breathing was necessary) and I now have something fast and light and it’s so very delightful, if unfamiliar. I’ll tell you more about it, and the process of learning all about all the new fangled computer talk, when I get back from the Altitude Design Summit.

The above is a photo of the hot dogs Scott and I split at Po Dog here in Seattle last week. We had a Chicago Dog (all sorts of traditional toppings and yum), a Seattle Dog (cream cheese and chives, better than you might suspect), and a something dog with bbq sauce and crispy onions (interesting but not my thing). They were having an anniversary special so all the hot dogs were $1 each, a happy surprise. But the hot dogs is not why this particular Sunday night was neat.

Quick set up: A beloved Seattle restaurant, Canlis, has been celebrating their 60th birthday by hiding menus with 1950s prices ($4 broiled lobster, $4.25 filet mignon) all around Seattle, one per day for 50 days, and putting hints on Twitter. The person who finds the menu gets to eat cheap. (p.s. Canlis was were we went for our first anniversary.) Ok, back to the hot dogs.

We were sitting there checking Twitter (not our normal MO but we’d spent all day together on an epic area rug quest and we’d mutually and contentedly agreed we had nothing more to talk about, also the music was very very loud, also I was hangry) and the Canlis hint appeared on Twitter. It said “Annie Reed follows her heart. 1:07:22″. So I Googled Annie Reed and IMDB informed me it was the main female character in Sleepless In Seattle. Obviously the numbers are a point in the film. I thought we were done for but then we remembered that we have Netflix streaming on my phone. So we loaded the movie, fast forwarded to 1:07:22 and found the scene where Meg Ryan is fake-driving into Seattle then turning a corner at Western and Broad, which was of course where the menu was hidden. We’d found the menu without even getting up from our booth at the hot dog place! Yay for living in the future! By then the menu had been found by somebody living really close to the hiding place. The $1 hot dogs were a nice consolation prize.

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.

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.

It was fantastic to meet the ladies on the panel in person after talking with them in a few conference calls before: Erin from Design For Mankind, Kathryn of Snippet & Ink and Joslyn of Simply Lovely, who was a fantastic moderator, thanks Joslyn.

The hotel was comfortable and so huge I got lost. Three times. I nearly got lost in our room. My roommate was Gayla Trail from You Grow Girl whom I’ve talked with via email for years but had never met in person. I got to look through her new book Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces (coming out February 2nd). That’s her on the cover! For the record Gayla is a most excellent roommate.

Here is part of the view from the room:

I had been on the fence about getting a better point and shoot camera (I’m not dedicated enough to lug my Canon XSi, which is one of the smaller DSLRs), but after this weekend I have declared one is necessary. My current camera is disappointing with indoor light and I didn’t find myself bothering to pull it out often. I’m still leaning towards the Canon S90, though I plan on taking a look at the cameras recommended in the comments there (thank you, everybody!).

This is me in the elevator on the way down to do the Designing Your Community panel. Before the panel I was a mess of nerves, but somebody (Gayla, I think) told me that after ten minutes I would calm down and it would feel normal. She was right. The next morning I treated myself to a room service breakfast. I look much calmer no?

I was really excited to meet Maxwell from Apartment Therapy, Grace from Design*Sponge and Heather from Dooce (who was sweet enough to sympathize with my nervousness even though she was getting ready to announce her deal with HGTV the very next day) and to get to sit and talk with Jean from NOTCOT (whom I’d met before at the Broad Summit). They all put on an informative and entertaining keynote, no small feat at 8 a.m.

I hear there is going to be an Altitude Design Summit next year, and if you’re interested in going I can say it’s well worth it. I learned a bunch and met a whole lot of people I’d been hoping to, it was positively thrilling.

The goodie bag for the Alt Summit was fantastic, those girls really know how to find sponsors that will treat the attendees well. Everything came in this lunchbag, and they included a luggage tag:

I heard the guys cases had a man on the keychain:

There was an entire bottle of laundry detergent among the things inside:

The bag for a Jimi wallet came stamped with a message:

There were some things from Chronicle books, including a reusable shopping bag:

And some good smelling things from Cambria Cove:

I keep a grocery list on my fridge, after doing some post-Altitude Design Summit grocery shopping and tearing off an old page I came back to find Scott had added an item and included this note. He couldn’t help it.

Last weekend Buick loaned me a car for the weekend* to drive down to Portland and attend the Northwest Food and Wine Festival. Scott was busy being a rock star with Explone so I took my friend Maggi, I couldn’t have had a better partner in crime for the weekend!

We ate so, so very well. Buick put us up at the Benson Hotel which has a beautiful lobby and a very comfortable bar in the lobby that invited a little lingering. We checked in and headed to Fenouil for a hosted Tweetup. Fenouil is fantastic and and full of energy, and the upstairs has a nice view down overhead the kitchen. The front of the restaurant has a patio just off of a small city park and I wished it was warm enough to sit outside, it must be amazing in the summer.

That night we had a late dinner at El Gaucho, which is connected to the lobby of the Benson by a secret door. We ate steaks and one delicious Caesar salad. We got to watch some very dramatic presentations of kebobs brought out on flaming swords, very entertaining and probably will be a destination for us in the depth of this upcoming winter when we are desperately needing some distraction from the cold and the gray.

The next day at lunch I had the pleasure to meet Brett, the man behind Food Carts Portland, and Valerie who keeps The Wine Dog Review and gave us some tips on what wines to make sure we sampled at the festival.

We had a few hours to explore in the afternoon and made our way to the Waffle Window. Yum, and the indoor seating was most welcome on the chilly afternoon. We happened to stumble across the Yarn Garden and couldn’t help but go in for a little look around.

The festival itself was a lot of fun, there was an overwhelming amount of things to sample and nibble. The standouts for me were the estate pinot noirs from Johan Vineyards. I also took note of the Phinny Hill Vineyard Carmenere from Tertulia Cellars that has an interesting story. Apparently it was thought mostly lost when it was rediscovered being grown in Chile and sold as Merlot, you can read more here at Wikipedia.

Amazingly we managed to find ourselves hungry later that night and walked a few blocks to Chez Joly, whose food we had sampled earlier at the festival, and had a lovely meal. Our waiter mentioned that they had a sparkling wine made from raspberries that night so we both ordered a glass. It was so lovely that we both ended up buying a bottle on our way out (and the waiter was sweet enough to comp us both a second glass, which made our walk home a bit tipsy!). The foil and the label are pink and it’s almost too cute to stand. I’m not normally a sweet drink type of girl but this was lovely, and has an alluring fresh raspberry flavor.

On Sunday we visited Pine State Biscuits. I ordered the grits sampler and was shocked to find it came with a piece of fried chicken, a very happy shocked. The food was amazing and very welcome on a cold dreary morning, but the process of ordering and waiting was quite a challenge on a Sunday as the very few tables are up for grabs. I’m glad we opted to get our food to go, even though all the patrons were perfectly nice I couldn’t have coped with vying for a table.

You’d think we would never be hungry again but on the drive back we needed an excuse to use the On Star service that was in the car, and which we’d been encouraged to take advantage of. The only thing I could think of was where the nearest Burgerville might be. (I couldn’t handle the idea of eating a burger, but a milkshake for lunch sounded quite nice). We were given the miles and exit number of the next one and milkshakes were acquired and enjoyed.

And how was the car? People, it was nice. I was driving a 2010 Buick LaCrosse and it was quite the experience. The drive to and from Portland is a familiar trip to me and often feels unending but this time I we were arriving well before I expected. I even found excuses to keep driving around after I dropped Maggi off at the end of the weekend.

* Being offered a car to try out for a weekend? Totally not something that happens to me. My thanks to Buick for giving me the opportunity.

and

plus

or

and

Slightly longer that would be: working out two to three times a week with the 30 Day Shred DVD and/or my Schwinn 430 elliptical machine while watching Gilmore Girls (or How I Met Your Mother) and eating carefully.

The Exercise Bits

I don’t want to be outdoors, running makes my knees hurt, it rains a lot here and it’s dark in the winter. I’m cranky and ugly when I break a sweat. I’m not motivated by competition or by being around people so a gym was not an option. I know I cannot be the only hermit who needs some exercise, so I’m writing about everything I’ve done in the hope that it will help somebody else. You can do it! Alone!

30 Day Shred was an easy choice, it’s 18 minutes of exercise with a bit of warm up and cool down. By the time I get to the point of either being exhausted or bored it’s over. It wasn’t easy, and I remember being able to do little more than standing and gasping for air during more than a few sessions, but once I got used to knowing it would be over sooner than later it made me work harder. It’s a good mix of strength and cardio and while I frequently swear at the television screen I still use it as my primary work out. I ignored the “30 days” in the title altogether and just did level one until I could get through it without stopping (which was a good long time). Then I’d do the next level and start all over again with the gasping. Levels two and three involve larger motions and are less repetitive, and to me feel like they go by faster. So if level one is making you nuts try level two.

I’ve written about this before so I’ll be brief, I love my elliptical machine. The big point for me about this particular one is this: After trying out a bunch of models I found that the Schwinn 430 (as well as the newer Schwinn 431) have foot pedals that are closer together and create a much more natural stance for me and my short legs. We’ve had ours for almost two years and we still both use it regularly.

[Click to read much, much more:]

I worked out two to three times a week. I fully intended to work out five days a week but that never actually happened despite my best efforts. On most days I did 30 Day Shred and about twenty minutes on the elliptical machine (or, half an episode of Gilmore Girls). On days when I was particularly sore I would just use the elliptical machine, on days when I was pressed for time I would just do 30 Day Shred, and on days when I was feeling oddly energetic I would race a 22-minute episode of How I Met Your Mother to see if I could do 200 calories before the credits rolled. Note: the calorie counts on elliptical machines are notoriously high, in my case I started thinking of it as just another unit of measure. My machine will display various things and I find it less distracting when I’m not staring at a timer counting down.

I’ve also come to appreciate how helpful having the right stuff can be. Good shoes, I like New Balance, with these brilliant, heat moldable inserts from SOLE for my fussy feat and arch support needs helped a whole lot. I also use 2, 3 and 5 pound hand weights (using heavier ones when it gets too easy) and a yoga mat for push up and crunches. Most important, though, is a good sports bra. I personally require one that zips up the front because nothing will get me to put off working out more than the prospect of tweaked nipples while pulling on a bra without any closures. Yikes.

The Food Bits

The bits involving food slowly sorted out into simply eating in moderation. Previously I had tried low carb diets and counting calories or keeping track of what I’d eaten in a day. And you know what? All that being aware of food all day drove me crazy. The result was that I grew resentful and obsessive and felt hungry all the time. And then I would eat a whole bag of Doritos. So instead I decided to try to just not think about all that hard. I ate more carefully, more kale less Annie’s Mac and Cheese, and smaller meals with more snacks. I started eating breakfast, something I’m not inclined towards, to keep my metabolism going. Slowly I learned how long it takes for me to get rid of sugar cravings (two weeks), and that bagged baby carrots make me ill, and that I really like farro and kale, and that a little bit of olive oil used to cook a meal makes it far more satisfying than when using one of those olive oil mister things. I cut down on sugar and white flour and beer and eventually started avoiding those things knowing that they would only make me hungry later. Apples and almonds and light Baybell cheeses are surprisingly satisfying snacks, a mug of green tea in the afternoon helps a lot. I ate more carefully during the week and less on the weekends.

Somehow this all worked out into a happy balance, I’m not desperately tempted by a second cupcake because I’m not otherwise denying myself food. I tend to not overeat at one meal because I don’t have sugar highs and lows, or when I do have a low sugar moment I don’t run straight for the nearest Twinkie. It’s still not easy, mind you, and I don’t do this all the time. But, I know that I can eat carefully without hating it completely, which makes me feel much calmer.

Evening, post-dinner sugar cravings do get me, though. I found that a single Dove miniature ice cream treat, 60 calories (small but effective), and a big mug of tea will squash it sufficiently that I don’t go to bed dreaming about cheesecake. Fruit works too but, well, chocolate is good.

The Weight Loss Bits

It was hard to figure out that I don’t have to lose weight at a miraculous pace. Forgetting all about trend/miracle/cleanse/easy diets, I still somehow had it in my head that if I didn’t lose a pound a week I wasn’t doing enough. I did lose a pound a week for a while and it made me miserable, and circled back to thinking about food too much. At some point I stopped trying for it and eased up a bit and discovered that I could lose half a pound a week without wanting to smash expensive things or sabotage myself. I’m perfectly happy losing weight slowly, it’s the pace that works out for me, and once I ditched the one pound a week idea I found I was much happier all around.

I’m a girl so I know my weight fluctuates wildly based on things like the time of the month or if my hair looks good that day. So I weighed myself once a week, before breakfast. People, even with it being gradual the weight loss didn’t seem to correspond with anything at all. I have notes that read “WTF?” and point to a week where I knew I ate pizza every day but lost a pound and a half, right next to a week where I did everything just right and gained half a pound. So now I don’t pay too much attention. I still keep weekly track but only because it’s sort of thrilling to look back at my weight in January as proof.

It feels strange to talk about how thrilled I am with a comparatively slow pace of weight loss in our culture of searching for effortless and miraculous slimness, but I keep in mind that even at this rate I was able to lose weight far faster than it took me to put it on.

The Motivation Bits

I let upcoming events for which I wanted to look good motivate me, I’m not going to claim I’m not vain that way. This year I got married and had pictures taken and saw a lot of family, and went to conferences and saw a lot of friends and people I knew but hadn’t met in person and had more pictures taken. I set goals but I didn’t set them too high (as in: the conference is in two weeks and I can definitely lose ten pounds by then!).

I also used the old trick of only watching certain shows while on the elliptical machine. I feel twisted about this but it’s true: I started looking forward to working out because it’s when I got to watch Gilmore Girls. Whatever, it works for me.

Also motivating? Reading about Sundry Mourning losing weight, having a second child and losing all that weight and starting up Bodies In Motivation, all while finding I was still sitting on my couch eating corn chips. I follow a few exercise blogs but unlike those I have no desire to up my exercise routine and train for a race or, damn girl!, finish a triathalon. Nope, I’m happy spinning the hamster wheel on my elliptical. I’ve run out of Gilmore Girls so I think I’ll have to find something new. What do you suggest? I’m leaning towards racing against episodes of Secret Diary of A Call Girl.

I had a great time at BlogHer Food this past weekend. It helped a lot that all the events were located in my old stomping grounds so I (sort of) knew my way around. I stuck to the photography classes for the day since I have this very nice DSLR that I, shamefully, still don’t know how to use properly. I learned a few new things, and heard the phrase “read the manual” in all three classes. (I did! None of it stuck.)

I was grateful to the people in the audience who pushed the question – what is a good light source for those of us who live in places where it is dark in the winter months? The answer was these Lowel EGO tabletop fluorescent lights. They stand on their own and cast light that makes everything look nice. This tip comes from Jaden at Steamy Kitchen, who talks about them and shows off some photos taken with one Lowel EGO and two lights on either side (which she prefers). She also points us to this set of two Lowel EGO lights with a seamless background sweep and set of background papers for $200.

I want to say hello to people met and ran into at the conference. I saw a whole bunch of Seattle people including Gluten-free Girl her husband The Chef and their adorable daughter, Tea and Cookies, Not Without Salt, Savory Sweet Life and Cook & Eat. (Lara taught the Advanced Photography class with Matt Bites and the notes are up right here at Still Life With.)

It was really lovely to run into a few people I’ve met before: Patricia from Brownies For Dinner and Carrie Oliver from Oliver Ranch. And I was pleased to bump into Recipe Girl, The Food Librarian, Just Jen Recipes and Inuyaki. (I know I met more people, but my ailing memory fails me, please email to remind me!)

I was completely overwhelmed to meet Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks whose site I’ve been reading forever, and has been an internet presence longer than that. (Did you know she was one of the people who started ChickClick? Memories!) I practically attacked David Lebovitz in the hallway when I managed to find him in a moment when he wasn’t mobbed by fans. I had a few too many Silver Fox cocktails when I finally got to say hello to Elise of Simply Recipes at the after party. I wish I had found Ree of The Pioneer Woman because I wanted to tell her about my summers spent on my uncle’s ranch outside of Amber, Oklahoma.

A huge, huge thanks goes out to Ugly Green Chair for spending all weekend with me, shuttling me to and from the airport, shopping for emergency jeans, eating at Town Hall, witnessing a girl fight outside of the W (?!), regaling me with tales of Burning Man until late into the night and amusing me on Sunday when we were both too cranky to wait in line for brunch (the brewery was a good idea!). It was so very awesome to finally meet Formation of Me and Shutterbean and it was a huge awesome surprise to meet Joy the Baker. It was a pleasure to get to accidentally rename a cocktail with all of you.

I’m so very tired today. Scott and I returned from our wedding reception in Ohio yesterday, went to bed really early and slept for a solid twelve hours. The week was a blur of planning and prepping, the party went really well and all the usual things applied (we didn’t get to spend enough time with anybody! we didn’t get enough pictures! I didn’t get to eat dessert!) A huge, huge thanks to all the far flung friends who came, especially Steph and Ryan (miss you guys!) and Cinnamon and Andrew, whom I’d never met in real life and was very honored to have attend (we’ll have to make up for the missing breakfast soon).

I don’t have pictures back from family and friends yet, but here is what I pulled off of my cameras:

We had lunch at Sokolowski’s with my mom and stuffed ourselves on perogis. (Oh perogis how I love you.)

We stayed in the secret and fabulous upstairs apartment of a member of the recently reunited Waynes. Wish we could have seen the show.

Laurie took us to the most amazing breakfast in Tremont where we ate outdoors at Lucky’s and lingered as long as we could, it was a lovely morning.

There were a few places in Cleveland I was hoping to get to but we ran out of time. I really, really wanted to grab another Ramos Gin Fizz at the Velvet Tango Room, wanted to have dinner at Lola’s (last time I went there they were still in the Tremont space and we stumbled in there by mistake not knowing right away how incredible it was that we had a table without a reservation), the best corned beef sandwich at Nate’s Deli in Fairview Park, and the new (to me at least) Greenhouse Tavern, the first certified green restaurant in Ohio.

update: The New York Times published this travel piece just after we returned, 36 Hours in Cleveland, and they mention a few of the places I like. In the slideshow they also recommend Big Fun (think, what Archie McPhee used to be).

Scott and his dad helped me assemble the favors including the letterpressed cards from Iron Curtain Press, caramels from Curio Confections (Brie Vanilla Bean, Espresso Hazelnut, and Goat’s Milk). The favor bags are from Martha Stewart, but we discarded the paper tops and used handmade tissue paper flowers instead.

We gave people staying overnight bags of snacks and water. I was second guessing this option after reading this thread at Ask Metafilter, but considering we all stumbled back to our rooms around 2 a.m. I suspect everybody else appreciated having a bottle of water and some pretzels as much as we did.

Our reception was at the Salt Fork Lodge, held in a tall open room with a view of the sunset. Afterwards we all moved outside to a private bonfire area and had smores. I hadn’t seen the lodge or the grounds before so I was thrilled with all the spaces, the lodge was very comfortable and accomodated our crazy group of family and friends with seeming ease.

Since we were decorating from afar the Martha Stewart pom poms were a great option, I assembled them at home, shipped the flat to Ohio and all we had to do was open them up. The ceiling of our reception room was too tall to hang things from so we used them as centerpieces. They are lit from inside using a few little LED lights. We took these outdoors later on. More pictures and details soon, I shed my camera before we moved outdoors so I’m hoping somebody else got good photographs of the ourdoor decorations, I am looking forward to telling you how we did them.

Sadly, I also sold some buttons I didn’t mean to. If anybody knows the lady who bought my bag of buttons could you have her get in touch with me? My grandmother’s buttons, which have a lot of sentimental value, were mixed in with them. I’m a fool, I know, and should have kept them safer. I’m heartsick over this.

Basil peach sangria currently chilling in the fridge. We have four BBQs this weekend (yay!) so I’m making a lot of sangria, these are the two for today.

Despite seeing them everywhere I still love the large tissue paper poofs, you can find instructions for how to make them here at Martha Stewart (also here).

Hello from my dining room!

I could have each link in it’s own post, in which case the post would retain a tag (aka food, shopping, crafts) or I could have all the links I gather publish all together once a day or so, in which case they wouldn’t be tagged or categorized.

So, which is less annoying for you to read?

• going to the Punk Rock Flea Market
• getting a free scoop of frozen custard from the just-opened Old School Frozen Custard
• attending a good old Midwest style cookout in a friend’s yard (this one stings the most)
• going to the rock show Saturday, 8 p.m., at the Comet for the film True Adolescents that here showing with SIFF. The film has it’s last showing Saturday at 1:30 and I encourage you to see it, it’s set here in the PNW and Seattle and was funny and touching and filled with excellent Seattle music. It was made by Craig Johnson whom I had the pleasure to meet at a meetup with Adam (Amateur Gourmet) when they were in Seattle a few years back.
• going to see Orangette, Gluten-Free Girl, Roots and Grubs and Cook & Eat talk about food writing at the U Village Barnes and Noble, Saturday at 1 p.m.
• getting to each brunch at the Corson Building for the first weekend it’s offered

Roslyn, you better make it worth it.

We’re headed off to be married this week. I had hoped to have a full week of posts for you all but of course I underestimated how much time I’d need to get ready. I’ll be back soon.

Above is a copy of the wedding portrait given to us by Jessie Olsen, the genius behind Cakespy. We love it, thank you Jessie!

Yesterday morning I took Scott to the emergency room with what we thought was some food poisoning and by that afternoon he was in surgery to have his appendix removed. He’s home and doing well (should be considering the painkillers he was sent home with). The hospital experience was great, the doctors, nurses and staff were unfailingly helpful and kind and I learned you can get room service when you’re in the hospital. But now we’re both tired and I’ve become overwhelmed with the desire to wash every single thing in the house.

Here is to wishing everybody good health and a great weekend. Drink ‘em if you’re not on antibiotics!

And I’d like to let you all know that I’ve decided to sell my own sponsorship space. If you’d like to advertise on Not Martha please click here to learn more.

Scott and I are getting married! We’ve been together for ten years so this comes as a surprise to absolutely nobody. Still, we’re outrageously happy. The ring above is my engagement ring, the story involves a late night search, a bubblegum machine and a single quarter.

And of course I will be keeping a separate blog about our plans, if you’re interested please join me over at Planning To Elope.

The other weekend we had the opportunity to go digging clams with friends. We drove down to Aberdeen Washington and out to a large beach at low tide. The beach seemed endless, and we could drive right out onto it. There were a huge number of people out there but there was so much space it hardly felt crowded. Digging clams was a lot of fun, it’s part treasure hunt and part brute force. Thanks so much to Mary, Dave, Tiffany and Chris for the fantastic day!

I didn’t take any pictures of the process of cleaning the clams, for those you can take a look at Mary’s Night of the Living Clams post over at Shelterrific. Let’s just say it was creepy and fascinating. She also posted about making the clam chowder recipe taken from the State of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. We have not yet cooked any of our clams, I’ll be sure to post if we do anything good with them (or at least anything successful!).