Howdy Stranger! April just zoomed past me, and there it is well into May with nary a peep from me. I’ve mainly been busy over in the garden – if you hadn’t noticed it’s my current obsession. This past weekend, I was working on an arbor I’m building and I looked up and saw that there were people walking around my yard looking at the flowers. It was such an odd moment. People. In my yard. Why are there people in my yard?
It turns out that they were from the Buddhist temple next door. They were celebrating the birthday of Buddha on Sunday and I gathered from one of the women that she saw my tulips and apparently just HAD to get closer look. I say apparently because she was Vietnamese and didn’t speak much english. She had one word down however, and that word was “tulip”.
She was particularly enamored with the ones in the picture above.
Then I showed her the Queen of the Nights that are currently blooming.
Once I got over the initial shock it was actually a very endearing experience. Her friends were on the other side of my fence, near the new garden yelling at her to get the hell out my yard. Actually, I have no idea what they were saying, but it seems like that was the jist. It also brought to mind one of the reasons I love to garden, and that is to share the beauty. I love walking past people’s yards and seeing what they have done and what they are growing and it made me feel great to know that someone is appreciating what I am creating.
May
11 |
Another batch of cupcakes!
The cupcakes were for a joint birthday celebration with friends up in Seattle. We spent a beautiful weekend up there and stumbled into criterium bike race a Volunteer Park. Jefe was in heaven.
It was also “free Saturday” at the Seattle Asian Art Museum where they had and exhibit of Central Asian Ikats. Erica was in heaven. I’ve been spending every spare moment working to get the garden created. The rest of the yard is jealous of the new kid and is a looking a little dandelion ravaged. Not enough time!
Apr
17 |
Well hellllooooo there! How is your March going? Out like a lamb? Ours is a soggy, dreary, rainy lamb. Jefe and I were on vacation last week, spending most of it in Portland. Our Lulu Bird was SO happy to see us when we came back. We got lots of snuggles intermixed with angry “why-did-you-leave-me?” bites.
Our trip was sort of a pre-birthday treat, but I just HAD to treat myself to something I’ve been lusting after for ages:
I can’t wait for these babies to arrive. I hope they fit. They are a part of my grand plan to start going to work NOT looking like a 13 year old boy. Good bye, my Chuckie All Stars, it’s been fun.
Mar
28 |
Another round of lemon cupcakes! This batch was much better, but I still have more research to do before I declare an ultimate winner.
I bought some leather paint because Dharma Trading had it on sale. What am I going to do with it? I don’t know but I have a few ideas.
We’ve had some beautiful weather this week, which is sadly gone, but it gave a promise of what is to come. Hopefully. If we have another dreary Spring/Summer like the past two years I might go crazy. CRAZY.
A little preview of what’s to come over in the garden. Pre-sproutin’ ma peas.
Mar
09 |
There has been a lack of activity around these parts and the reason is that I have been sucked into the Stephanie Plum Number books by Janet Evanovich. When I read, I READ and do absolutely nothing else. I’m on book fourteen out of eighteen so I should be done by the end of the week and back to my regularly scheduled program.
One thing I want to tackle is finding the perfect, basic cake recipe. I made these lemon cupcakes this past weekend and the cake was SO dense and dry…I didn’t much care for the frosting either – too gooey. The lemon curd, however, was awesome. I am going to go all crazy and try to make a gigantic batch and can it.
I’ve been wanting to make this Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake recipe by The Cupcake Project for a long time so I think it will be a good place to start. I also want to explore the vegan cupcake arena, as I have found they are soooo moist and delicious and irresistible.
I’ll also need to figure out a better basic frosting as well. I’ve tried the magic flour one and while the texture is awesome, I felt like I could *taste* the flour. Blech. I think it’ll end up either being a swiss or italian buttercream. I don’t like overly sweet frostings and I don’t mind the fussiness involved with the bain-marie and sugar syrups. Yay! Cupcake Bandwagon!
Feb
28 |
