Motown Baby Shower Invites

My girlfriend, Earnee, is expecting her first son this February and I am co-hosting a Motown themed baby shower for her in January. I was in charge of the invitations for the shower and had fun coming up with something cute to fit the Motown theme.

Because she is having a boy I decided to use a blue color scheme.  Since I was going to be making a lot of invitations I kept the design simple and thought that embellishing the front of the card with tiny records would fit the theme and be easy to make.

I started with blue cardstock that had a woven texture, cut it into 8-1/2" x 5-1/2" strips and then folded in half to make the base of the cards. I printed the shower detail information on white cardstock, trimmed it to 4" x 5-1/4", and attached it to the inside of the card.

For the front of the card I cut 1-3/4" x 5-1/2" strips of white cardstock and then attached it with two mini records on top. To make the mini records I punched out 1-1/2" circles from black metallic cardstock and 3/4" circles from different shades of blue cardstock. I layered the blue circles on top of the black ones and then used a 1/8" hole punch to make the record hole.

Everything came together well and by making the invitation assembly line style I was able to get them finished pretty quickly. With the invitations in the mail I'm ready to start working on other fun items for the shower.

Picture of the Day: Fishing Boat in Floripa

Florianopolis, Brazil
05.28.2007 

Kitschy Christmas Sweater

Last Saturday, my friend hosted a house warming party for his new condo with an ugly Christmas sweater themed party. I was incredibly jet lagged from just returning from Japan and was not up for going out to hunt for a Christmas sweater at the local thrift stores. I knew that I couldn't show up without wearing something festive so I decided to quickly decorate a green sweater that I already had.

I wanted my sweater mod to be temporary so I decided to use some white craft felt that had a low-tack sticky backing that was easy to attach to the sweater but also easy to remove. I drew a reindeer onto the back of the felt, cut out the design, peeled off the backing and then applied it to the sweater.

The reindeer needed a little gussying up so I attached a googly eye and then safety pinned on a red pom-pom nose and white pom-pom tail. The final touch was tying a red ribbon and small bell around the reindeer's neck.

The whole effect was pretty kitschy and it fit right in with the other crazy Christmas sweaters at the party. It only took me 15 minutes to decorate the sweater for the party and then the next day I returned my sweater to normal by just peeling off the felt and unpinning the pom-poms. 

Picture of the Day: Grand Canyon in Late Afternoon

Grand Canyon
Arizona, Unites States
09.18.2004 

Making the Easiest Bookshelf

After sharing a few items sitting on top of the bookshelf in my livingroom I thought I would share how I made the bookshelf itself.

For the shelves of the bookcase I bought two sets old bi-fold doors from my local recycle center for $5 each. I cleaned up the doors, removed the hinge and knob hardware and patched and painted over the holes left from the hardware. Alternately you could use wood boards but I opted for the cheaper route. 

To support the shelves I made columns of bricks. Colorwise the concrete bricks I bought didn't exactly fit in with my living room so I used some cream spray paint to get the color I wanted. As a tip, once you stack the bricks only three faces will show so you can conserve spray painting by only painting those faces.

For stability when building the bookcase it is important to stack the bricks in pairs, alternating the direction as you stack. It's also necessary to use some L-brackets to anchor the shelves to the walls and I wouldn't build it taller than I did (about halfway up the wall). 

All told, the project, not including paint drying time, took about an hour of hands on time and cost me about $35. Not too bad for a custom bookcase! 

Picture of the Day: Green Frog at Monteverde

Monteverde Cloud Forest
Costa Rica
05.28.2005 

Curried Apple Pumpkin Soup

With winter well underway I am constantly craving soups. There is nothing like a hot bowl of soup to warm you up after coming in from the chilly weather. It makes me feel all warm and cozy inside.  

My favorite soup in the fall and winter is my Curried Apple Pumpkin Soup which I made last night for dinner. It is rich and creamy with a great slightly spicy flavor. With a baguette of crusty bread it is a perfect comfort food meal for me.

It is a pretty simple soup to make, especially if you have an immersion blender to puree the soup. Without further ado, here is the recipe.

Ingredients List
- 1/2 c. butter
- 1 bunch of leeks (2 big leeks or 3 small leeks): white part chopped
- 1 small sweet onion: chopped
- 1 Tbsp. curry powder
- 3 apples: peeled, cored and chopped 
- 2 c. pumpkin puree
- 4 c. chicken stock
- 1 pint heavy cream
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Cayenne pepper (optional)
- Pumpkin seeds (optional)

Directions
- Over a medium heat burner melt butter in a stock pot and then add leeks, onion and curry powder, cooking until nearly translucent
- Add apples and cook for a few minutes more so that apples are soft and onions are translucent
- Stir in pumpkin and chicken stock and simmer for 20 minutes until all vegetables are very soft and tender
- Remove from heat and use a blender to puree soup
- Finish by stirring in cream and adding salt and pepper to taste

Tips and Tricks
- I like to use pumpkin puree that I made from sugar pumpkins but you can also used canned pumpkin
- For blending I love using my immersion blender (best $24 I ever spent!) since I can puree it right in my stock pot which means less clean up 
- If you do use a traditional blender be sure to only fill the blender less than halfway otherwise you could potentially make a hot, exploding mess (unfortunately, I know this from personal experience)
- If you are vegetarian you can substitute vegetable stock for the chicken stock 
- For a little extra zing try adding some cayenne pepper to the soup
- I like to reserve a little cream and use it along with some pumpkin seeds to garnish the soup

Picture of the Day: Bridge of Nine Turnings

Bridge of Nine Turnings
Shanghai, China
08.08.2011 

To-ji Flea Market Treasures

On my recent trip to Japan I had a chance to do one of my favorite things while I am there, visit To-ji Flea Market in Kyoto.  I love poking around the market looking for interesting items and bargaining for deals.

Now that I am back in the US I am having fun incorporporating my newfound treasures into my home.

I have a display of items I have collected in my travels on a bookcase in my living room and the small abacus (¥500) I purchased made a great addition. It was pretty grungy when I got it but with a little cleaning it looks great while still retaining some of the patina it has acquired over time.

Once used by Japanese fisherman to keep fishing nets afloat, the glass fishing floats are now a popular item to see at flea markets. I bought five of them (¥400 each) at the market and had fun sifting through the box that was for sale, picking out the ones I wanted.  I love how each one uses slightly different twine and has a slightly different shade of pale turquoise.  To display them I stacked them inside a narrow glass canister that I bought at HomeGoods so it was easy to see each one individually.

My favorite find from my trip was an old milk bottle delivery box (¥2000). I love milk (As a kid, I dramatically declared "But milk is my life!" when we ran out at home one time) and the green and red printing match the colors of my kitchen. After cleaning up the delivery box I mounted on my kitchen wall and topped it with a small Japanese glass milk bottle I bought two years ago at the Osu flea market in Nagoya and a tiny Fiestaware pitcher I bought on eBay. A lot of the white paint has chipped off the delivery box so I am debating if I want to do some touch ups on the paint but for now I am happy with it. 

Picture of the Day: Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu, Peru
11.09.2007