Groundlings t-shirt contest

I put together this design for a Groundlings t-shirt contest. Wish me luck! The show is (I hope obviously) called "Live Nude Groundlings," and the shirt could be three colors (and couldn't contain anything offensive). The blue shape is the Groundlings building. For those of you who live in LA and haven't seen a Groundlings show, I highly recommend checking one out!

Donuts! (Doughnuts?)

Which spelling do you prefer?

If you're in Toronto and a fan of doughnuts, check out Hot Beans!

Grilled tempeh sandwich

I've grown surprisingly fond of tempeh. Our first few meetings were a bit rough, but now that I know how to wrangle it better (and have had many tasty tempeh dishes cooked by others), I'm a fan.

Cupcakes!

Cupcakes! These are less than an inch wide. I'll probably turn them into fridge magnets.

Veggie pride!

Juice

After years of deliberation, I decided to order a Vitamix! I've had it for a few days so far, and have used it more than once a day for juices, smoothies, and salad dressing. How did I live without this thing?

In case you've been considering getting your own Vitamix, I got one through their factory reconditioned special (it looks brand new and seems to work perfectly, plus it comes with a 7 year warranty in case of any problems, and I think the special is only available in the US).

How does my garden grow?

Here's a pic from May 27...

...and one from today, June 24th.

Things are coming along!

Pictured are soybeans, celery, basil, beets, spinach, watermelon, squash, thyme, chives, green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, oregano, parsley, kale, and rosemary. Let's hope it all keeps growing! You can also see the progress of the grass in back. There are some tomatoes and more squash growing in the front, along with some tarragon, cilantro, and sage.

Elephant

Gray creature

I crocheted most of this little guy on a nice day at High Park. I'm not sure exactly what he is, but I like how he turned out.

Furry cat

Obese cat

Surfboard-inspired creature

The jumping off point for this drawing was this post on Faces in Places.

Bugman

I've been imagining bug-like creatures that would make fun 3D Sculpey/Fimo creations.

Me new eye patch (Arr!)

I'm going to the NorCal Pirate Festival tomorrow to celebrate a friend's birthday. I'm a bit short on piratey clothing, so I crocheted this reversible eyepatch. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! (Again, please excuse the poor quality iPod photo.)

Carrot cake

This is a carrot-beet cake that I've made twice so far. Still fine-tuning the recipe, but pretty happy with how it turned out both times. The (Tofutti) cream cheese frosting got a little too melty, so I need to tinker with that, too. Apologies for the poor photo - I took it with my iPod after we'd already eaten half of the cake.

Quilt - stage 1

The denim pictured in the background of the last three posts was a section of this, a quilt which has taken me many many hours of work so far and is still not finished. After seeing the quilts of Gee's Bend on a visit to San Francisco a few years ago, I decided to make my own quilt out of our old jeans. I ended up making one more regular than theirs, so it doesn't have nearly the same charm, but I'm happy with how it's turning out.

It's very wrinkled right now, because I have all of the middle part done but need to go get some fabric to do the edging, and I haven't made my mind up about exactly what kind of fabric I want to use, so it's been sitting folded at the foot of the bed.

This quilt has been Charlie-approved.

Brown guy in pink pants

Again, I'm not sure what this guy's name is or exactly what he is (an overweight mole of some kind?). Any suggestions are welcome :).

I'm also debating as to whether to give him ears. I ran out of the brown yarn so I'll either have to give him ears of a different color or go buy another skein of that brown.

High-necked leotard

This little creation is wearing a high-necked leotard. As you can see, Charlie wanted to get in on the photo action.

Gray creature

This is a little gray creature I crocheted. I'm not sure exactly what he is or what his name is. suggestions?

(He has a little tail which I neglected to photograph.)

I made grass!

Ok, so this post may not be a particularly good example of creativity, but it took a lot of time and effort, so onto the blog it goes!

This grass used to be a mostly bare, weed-covered patch of dirt that took up about a third of our backyard space. After some failed attempts at growing vegetables there last year (too shady), we decided to install some grass instead. We dug up the dirt, broke up the clods, ripped out roots, cleared it of weeds and debris, leveled it, amended the soil, sprinkled seed and fertilizer over everything, layered more soil on top of that, and watered it diligently, and a couple weeks later, grass began to sprout! It's a bit patchy now, but I'm working on laying down more seed periodically. It's seriously like magic, and way more satisfying than laying down expensive sod.

Septopus

Blue Bear

Torso-free

Pensive Boy

Girl in a red coat

This one was inspired by this post on Faces in Places.

Squark

This one was inspired by this post on Faces in Places.

Rabbit

Terrifying monster

I didn't think this guy was that creepy, but Sean says it may give him nightmares. The face was inspired by this image on Faces in Places.

Animation

During my absence from the blog, I worked on an animation that'll be used in a series of videos on sustainability for NPR's Marketplace.

You can see one of the videos by clicking this link.

Slipper monster

This monster's face was loosely based on this post on Faces in Places.

Iron Chef

Sean and I thought it would be fun to do kind of an iron chef challenge. Since he doesn't do a whole lot of cooking and likes to joke that cooking for me will lead to divorce or illness, for his "iron chef" challenge he's allowed to use recipes. For mine, we decided that he'd choose a mystery ingredient, and I'd have to use that ingredient in an appetizer, entree, and dessert without referencing recipes.

He chose pistachios, which I've never really eaten. I've eaten pistachio ice cream before, but it's been at least a decade since then (and possibly two). When I was very little, I used to like to take roasted, salted pistachios and put them in my mouth, shell and all, and then spit them out when I'd sucked all the salt off of them.

I decided to get raw shelled pistachios, and made a sambar/dal-type appetizer with red lentils, and added whole raw pistachios toward the end of cooking. They ended up swelling up a bit and getting slightly soft, and were quite like cashews.

For the entree, I decided to make tempeh-pistachio patties, encrusted with ground pistachios and almonds. I served them on a bed of wilted spinach along with tempeh bacon, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, and a creamy cilantro/pistachio sauce.

For dessert, I made a green tea pistachio "cheesecake" with raw cashews, pistachios, tofu, and agar as the base, and a layer of ground pistachios between the crust and the cake. I also made some mango coconut ice cream (or sorbet, I suppose) and served the two with fresh blueberries.

I didn't take a proper photo of everything, but here's one from Sean's phone.