How to Cut an Onion

Chop off one end of the onion (leaving the other end untouched). Slice the onion horizontally and diagnally, as shown below:


Then slice it!


And most importantly, watch those fingers!

Happy New Years!

Knit Bow

I saw a sweater today that had the most adorable bow on it. I didn't care much for the sweater itself, but the bow really did something for it, I just had to try to make the bow. Luckily I had all the materials I needed at home: a sweater and some matching yarn. The yarn I used is from a skeen I purchased in Japan last year and have not used yet. I bought a few skeens from this particular trip, waiting to make a special project, but the color was such a perfect match to my sweater, so I just went ahead and used it. Luckily, the bow is small, so there's a lot left!





I'm not really sure how happy I am with it, I'm still thinking. I might experiment with other sweaters and other yarns.

Yet Another Pizza Post

This time it's actually round, like pizza should be!

Merry Christmas

Oh, the simple days.

Strawberry Cupcakes

I know Christmas time is all about sugar cookies and gingerbread, but for some reason I felt like making strawberry cupcakes instead.

In the oven:


Sometimes I feel bad frosting them, because they're so cute on their own! Here they are fresh out of the oven:


I decided to be semi-festive with them, adding green sprinkles:

Red and Green Low-Fat Enchiladas

I have to admit, I'm not sure if these enchiladas even qualify to be called enchiladas, but the sauce, the cheese, and the tortillas are there... so we'll just call them enchiladas anyways. This has been a favorite dish of mine to make eversince I found La Tortilla Facotry tortillas at Trader Joes. Sometimes finding one good ingredient inspires me to cook a whole meal around it. I love enchilada sauce, so I just drown my cassorole dish with it, and end up with a kinda soupy toritillay thing which tastes pretty damn good.

I cut the chicken in bite size peices and grill them until cooked. Then I just pour them into some green enchilada sauce:


Right before the oven:


My friend finished her bowl, but I got full on the sauce.


Red and Green Low-Fat Enchiladas
1 chicken breast (I usually use 1 big one, but you can use 2 small ones)
4 tortillas (I use La Tortilla Facotry tortillas, but you can really use anything you want)
1 can red enchilada sauce
1 can green enchilada sauce
sour cream (to taste, I usually use approximately 1 tbsp./tortilla)
salsa (to taste, I usually use about 1/2 cup)
cheese (to taste, I usually use about 1/2 cup)
Olives (I don't really like olives, but you can throw a few around if you're into that sorta thing)
toothpicks

1. Cut the chicken into peices and grill until cooked.
2. Simmer some of the enchilada sauce (either green or red, whichever you prefer) and put cooked peices of chicken inside (see image above)
3. Preheat oven to 350
4. line the bottom of a cassarole dish with salsa
5. spread sour cream onto each tortilla, then add some chicken, each color of sauce, salsa and cheese
6. roll each tortilla and secure them with a toothpick
7. pour the remainder of sauces on top of tortillas and sprinkle with cheese
8. cook at 350 until the tops of the toothpicks start to look black (about 30 minutes or so)
9. serve hot in a bowl, with lots of sauce

Chocolate, Walnut, Coconut Bars

Tomorrow at work, my department is having a dessert party. I decided to go with the dessert that I usually end up making every Christmas:

Here is start of my creation, Graham cracker crust.


Right before she went into the oven:


And fresh out of the oven, not too shabby!


Chocolate, Walnut, Coconut Bars
I don't really measure for this reciepe, so everything is approximate:
-Half a box of Graham Crackers
-Most of a bag of Milk Chocolate Chips
-Most of a bag of White Chocolate Chips (if you don't use this, do the whole bag of Chocolate chips)
-1/2 bag Walnuts (optional)
-1/2 bag of shredded coconut
-1 can sweetened condensed milk

1. Grease a 9" pan (I use pyrex)
2. Crush the Graham Crackers and spread the crumbs at the bottom of the pan (see image above)
3. Preheat oven to 350
4. Sprinkle some chocolate chips, then walnuts, then most of the chocolate chips, then some cocunut,
then more chocolate chips (do this part however you want, really)
5. pour the can of condensed milk on top of your layers and let it sink through to the bottom
6. bake at 350 for about 30 minutes

Two Cheese Pizza

My super easy cheesy pizza!

I always let my dough bake a little first...


Then I add the toppings: sauce, mozzerella, feta. Then I bake a little more...


It was tasty!

Definitely For My Savings

My booth yeterday:



An arial view:



I sold out of the record bowls, and sold half of the record boxes. Sold a pillow, some prints, and gave a bunch of stuff to OCMA for consignment. All in all, I made back my costs and enough for a very expensive pair of shoes.... I mean, for my savings..

Tomorrow

Don't forget....



Bazaar Bizarre

Saturday, December 16, 2006
Shrine Auditorium Expo Center
700 West 32nd Street, Los Angeles 90007
11am-7pm, $2 at the door, ATM on-site

Come find me and say hi!

Shangri-Llows

Here is my outcome.. expirimental pillows. Expirimental, because as much as I love to sew, I'm really crooked at it. I never liked to measure, I'm like my mom, I eyeball things. Plus, I just came home from a Christmas party and had a few drinks, which may have contributed to my crooked sewing technique (but probably not, I'm just a crooked sewer, unless I really put my mind to it).

Shangri-Soup

I've been trying to decide what to do with all of my test prints from the tote-bag screenprinting session. I'm still not sure, but I think I might make them into little pillow-doll type things. Originally they were on a light brown piece of fabric, so I decided to dye them pink/red to make them prettier:



Who knows, maybe I'll end up throwing them away... we shall see how they turn out dyed pink.

Polka Dots

My brother and sister-in-law are having their first baby in February. Being the only person who went to art school in the family, of course they called me to paint (you know, the "you went to art school... you can paint, right?" discussion).

We started with a zillion paints:



And we went polka dot crazy:



I hope my future little neice likes it!

The Last Day of Class

It was chaotic today. People I had never seen before were in class, printing their little butts off for our final day in class. I was one of them. I had a 2 color job with a black keyline:



I was practically running around the room trying to finish up, but in the end it was worth it:



I finished the poster that I had been thinking about doing for a month or 2 now. The orange still isn't the perfect orange I had dreamed of, but I was short for time. I'm really happy with the end result. I expirimented on canvas too, which came out pretty nice. I will photograph it some day. I'm not sure yet, but I may be selling these next Saturday at the Bazaar Bizarre too.

LA Art Girls

At 2:00 I'm going to a lecture:



LA Art Girls, a progressive collective of contemporary artists, discuss the evolution and negotiation involved in the collaborative approach. In the process-oriented spirit of the Getty's Works in Progress series, sixteen members of LA Art Girls venture beyond the "doing" or the "making" of their art to examine the debates, strategies, values, and relationships embedded in their individual and collective artistic practices.

Presenters: Stephanie Allespach, SE Barnet, Allison Behrstock, Sydney Croskery, Catherine Daly, Karen Dunbar, Angela Ellsworth, Anoka Faruqee, April Friges, Anne Hars, Micol Hebron, Dawn Kasper, Nancy Popp, Ambika Samarthya, Felis Stella, Elizabeth Tremante

Respondent: Jill Dawsey, curatorial associate of painting and sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and visiting professor in the department of art history at the University of California, Irvine.

Works in Progress Focuses on Contemporary Artists
For the last decade, the Research Institute's annual Works in Progress series has covered topics ranging from "Questions on the Death and Life of Images in Africa" to "Holy Persons, Human Passions." A renewed interest in the program was sparked in 2004–2005 when the focus was placed on contemporary artists in relationship to the GRI's research theme "Duration." The series spotlighted practicing artists and was conceptually developed by Miwon Kwon, associate professor of art history at the University of California, Los Angeles. Guest artists included Mary Kelly, Simon Leung, Barbara Kruger, and Michael Asher. In 2006–2007 Kwon continues this focus, pairing artists as presenters or respondents with scholars in the arts and humanities to cast a variety of perspectives on creative practice as it unfolds.

Can you believe I'm actually getting paid to go to this lecture? Icing on the cake!

Acid = Bad

I finally started taking photos out of the old albums. As I was going through them, I came across this photograph of my mom that made me so sad:



She looks so pretty, and because no one bothered keeping negatives, this one of a kind photo is ruined. I'm going to keep it anyway, if anything, it will remind others who look through the acid-free album to only do acid free albums!

The Great Banana Bread Scandal

Oh dear. Sometimes I go a bit overboard when experimenting with baking. I have the tendancy to use the low-fat option more than I probably should sometimes, especially in this case. The original receipe was for a low fat banana bread, and I thought I could even make it more healthy with a few substitutions...





Below is the original recipe, with my changes in parenthesis...

Lower Fat Banana Bread
2/3 cup white sugar ( 2/3 cup splenda)
1/4 cup margarine, softened (1/4 cup zero calorie butter substitute)
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
1/4 cup water
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray one 9x5x3 inch loaf pan with a non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the white sugar and margarine or butter until smooth and creamy. Beat in the eggs, water and bananas with the sugar mixture until it is well blended.
3. Mix in the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder just until the mixture is moistened. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl to blend all ingredients.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degree C) for about 60 minutes. Bread is done when the top is firm to the touch and a golden brown color. Time will vary according to loaf size and oven type. When bread is removed from oven, allow it to cool on it's side for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and let cool on a rack.

Well... it wasn't bad, it was actually extremely moist and fluffy! I think even with my changes, there is hope... maybe next time I will add an extra banana and possibly some cinnamon... I might make a compromise and use half real sugar, and half real butter. I think this receipe will return within the next month or two...

Where I Will Be Tonight

Oh yea! Everyone go to the Gallery Revisted tonight! They have an opening called "Retropia" where they will be selling some handmade journals of mine!



3204 Sunset Blvd., in Silverlake

Out in the Screens

Thanks to my friend, Davina, I have been enrolled in a screen-printing class for the past semester. Every Saturday morning, while everyone is still asleep, I sneak away to class and really get my hands dirty.

Last night's homework... working with my negative to create an amberlith background. I am going to be doing 2 projects with my image: tote bags (shown below) and a poster (will be shown next week, if I finish). The work below is for my poster next week...


Here is my screen attached to the textile machine, doin' it's thing...


And here are the 4 totes I made. I actually did a t-shirt too, which I'm probably going to sell along with these totes at Bazaar Bizarre.. though, I might keep a pink tote for myself!


A virtual high-five goes to anyone who can guess who these lovely ladies are....

House of Records

I havn't been posting as often as I would like to, but I have been crafting. I got a lot of things done today...

Records before...


Records after...

The fumes almost killed me. I managed to survive and make 50 bowls. But, that's not all...

Records before...


Records after...

I made about 40 or so boxes. I'll have to take a few pictures of my favorites soon.

I'm getting ready for Bazaar Bizarre alright!