Autumnal Table

because I’m in an autumnal “let’s go roast pumpkin seeds” mood I thought I’d post this. Gray pumpkins? Do those exist? If so, I kind of need one.

Costume Report

I rather enjoyed how my costume turned out on Halloween. Even though I did get a few, “What are you?” Oh wellll. My crafty mom helped me put together the corset top and gold wrist/neck bands while my friend Alec helped me come up with a clever alter ego.

Introducing “Rosey the Ravenger,” super power = Girl Power

The table scape didn’t turn out too bad either. It was pleasing :-)

Halloweeny stuff

Alex and I are throwing a Halloween costume party this Saturday. I didn’t really plan on having many decorations at all, perhaps an arrangement of smallish pumpkins and gourds and some tea candles. I just came across an article detailed some very Martha Stewart-esque decoration ideas. I MAY, MAY take some of the ideas into account. But that’s a big MAY. I really like the pumpkin drink cooler idea. However, I’m my father’s daughter when it comes to carving pumpkins, in that…it breaks my heart. They’re so cute and dare I say, beautiful, and cutting into them bothers me kind of. I know. weird.

Happy Halloween…pics of the party to follow. My costume pretty much rocks.

scrumptious living area

For some reason I can’t take my eyes off this ensemble of lickable furniture. Love the mid-century modern style of the sofa AND the pop of green in the chair. The color palette is creamy and fresh, much like an avocado. I can see myself sipping wine in this room and eating chocolate…always eating chocolate.

Kevin

This picture was taken of my cousin Kevin recently for a calendar being made of disabled athletes. He looks pretty fierce here, definitely wouldn’t mess with him. Love this photo, can’t wait to see the finished product!

Spooky Beautiful

My good friend sent this picture to me today. Florence is and probably always will be my favorite city…after seeing photos like this I am always reminded why.

midday snack

I stopped by my fav bakery/sandwich shop in Austin (San Franciso Bakery) for a cookie and a latte this afternoon. I love this place because they bake all their own breads, have quality/inventive sandwiches, and I know the owners and therefore, am always greeted with smiles when I go there. The chocolate chip/toffee cookie was mind blowing and right out of the oven, while the latte was rich and delicious.

Thanks to Kevin for the iphone photo and John and Phuong for the great food!

Our daughter

Yesterday Alex had his company’s camera plus awesome camera equipment including lights AND two really cool lenses. So we took a few pics of our dog. Because we love her so. This is one of my favorites!

Betty’s Best

My grandmother, Betty has been known for a lot of things…but mostly, for her cooking. She’s scrappy with a sharp, sometimes crass tongue and a love for NBA basketball. She’ll keep you on your toes for sure and will always surprise you with what’s going to come out of her mouth next.

I have sooo mannny fond memories of my grandmother, who we fondly call Nannie. I know it’s spelt “Nanny” but I have spelt it with the “ie” ever since I can remember. Most of my memories revolve around her kitchen, she’s had quite a few kitchens in her lifetime but the smells, tastes, and sounds coming out of them are always the same. I know her well for her eggs and bacon that she’d make us in the morning while she would just make herself an English muffin with heaps of butter and a cup of English tea. Other family favorites are her spaghetti sauce, eggplant parmesan (you’d swear she was Italian), potato salad, chicken noodle soup, and her holiday cherry bars.

She’d been talking about putting together a cookbook of her most well known recipes for quite some time. Finally, while out visiting her this past July I decided to help her out and created “Betty’s Best” using blurb.com. I started by copying all of her recipes that she wanted in the book by hand…we couldn’t find most of them and she had to tell them to me. There were many rounds of spelling and grammar checks, then I designed a custom cover and started using the blurb.com interface to build it. Sprinkled throughout are old black and white family photos.

The best part was all family members who were interested in a copy were able to go onto blurb.com after I uploaded the cook book to order as many copies for themselves as they wanted. She called me after she received hers in the mail and while she’s a woman that becomes bashful sometimes when it comes time to say “thank you,” I could tell that she was really touched and thought it came out great.

I’ve used the book quite a few times already. There were always a handful of recipes that I’d always be calling her for so she could rattle off the ingredients and steps to me, those include: her famous banana bread (secret ingredient: sour cream and banana extract) and her Continental Cake Frosting!

My mom is currently out in Scottsdale, Arizona taking care of her while she recovers from hip replacement surgery. As she’s old and has quite a few preexisting conditions her recovery will more than likely be on the slow side. She’s a tough woman and her scrappy side is bound to shine through soon.

Austin City Limits Festival

Alex and I really enjoyed ourselves this year at ACL. It’s one of those festivals that I don’t get pumped for until the day of…a lot of people find this weird. But really, for the two weeks leading up to it I get intimidated by thoughts of long lines, sizzling sun, and being outside all day. Then the day of my adrenaline/excitement kicks in and I’m all about it.

This was our second year to attend…and again, like back in ‘07 we only went for one day. We’re just not cut out for three days of that festival and we SO picked the right day this year. We went on Friday to see The Knux, The Avvett Brothers, Raphael Saadiq, Phoenix, John Lengend, and The Kings of Leon. It was a day jam packed with great performances and great food vendors. (of course I was always thinking about my next meal while there!)

So yeah, this year there was all of this hype about the new grass that had been planted throughout the main side of Zilker Park. This grass was planted by ACL itself and was fenced off for months, I dare say at least half a year to take root and grow into a beautiful, level surface. We got there on Friday and frolicked atop the green carpet that just happened to be alive. Once we found a spot at each show we’d take off our shoes and squish our toes around in its lovliness. THEN Saturday came, and so did the rain…it started to get muddy. THEN Sunday came with even more rain and the somewhat muddy park turned into a full on squishy mud pit that smelt like a zoo (so I hear). Why did it smell like dirty safari animals you ask? Because it was a mix of dillo dirt and treated sewage, what I like to refer to as Poop Mud. The Poop Mud was tracked all over the city of Austin. Just think about the fact that there were over 65,000 people trudging through it on both Saturday and Sunday and the surrounding areas. Not to mention the hundreds of taxi cabs, personal cars, Capitol Metro buses, and charter buses that were once clean and were soon caked in Poop Mud. oy.

A lot of people were up in arms about how disgusting and ruined the park got, stating that “ACL is ruining our parks here in Austin and next year it should be held in a parking lot.” Never once considering the fact that ACL PAID FOR THE NEW GRASS and brought 46 MILLION DOLLARS into our city for that ONE WEEKEND. Zip it people!