Farmer’s Market

I went to the farmer’s market by my new apartment for the first time today.

OH MY GOODNESS.

So much joy.
So much wonderment.
It was a bounty!

Sigh. So happy.

At first I was overwhelmed. There was just so much to see and eat and touch… my senses were on overload.
A sampling of what I got:

Fava beans, mint, live basil, baby purple artichokes, baby red carrots, kale, spicy radishes, a mushroom assortment, corn, dates, apples, shallots, onions, yellow and red tomatoes, sprouts (radish, onion and clover), pesto jack cheese and peppercorn jack aged cheese. I also got pumpkin cheesecake, which I don’t have a picture of because it was too delicious to last.
If you’ve never been to a farmer’s market, it is the best thing ever.
Although, I think that among farmer’s markets, this one probably rates at the top of the scale. But I’ve been to smaller ones and they are just as good. Go find out for yourself!

OMG new yarn!

My Grandma took me to breakfast today and afterwards bought me some yarn!
It is fabulous.
It’s called “Fun” from Ironstone Yarns and we got it at this awesome yarn shop in Encinitas called The Black Sheep.
>VISIT THEM!

All of the yarn is on the expensive side, from 6.00 to 36.00, (maybe more) but it is all so LUSCIOUS and AMAZING and I want to buy it all, pile it in a room and roll in it and knit from dawn till dusk.
*eye twitch*
Yarn obsessions.

What should I make with it?

Let them eat cake!

Hello everyone!

So I’ve been a little M.I.A. but I’ve resolved to post at least twice a week.
So if I’m slacking, have at me!
I’ve got a bit of a backlog of projects I need to take pictures of and post, so I’ll get to that ASAP.
In the meantime have a gander at the Dr. Seuss cake I made for my sister’s birthday!

Inside was swirled colored vanilla cake, and the filling was strawberry cream cheese.

It took a really long time but it was fun!
And we had that cake’s leftovers in our freezer for weeeeks. Sooo much cake..

If you want to try one of your own, I used this video from http://janellscakes.com/
I warn you, this is a labor-intensive endeavor though… I think it took me about 4 hours.
And I cut corners.

..Ha.Haha. Cutting corners. On a cake. Ha.

Rollin’ Out the Storefront!

So I’ve been meaning to start an Etsy store for a long time.
I accumulate piles upon piles of vintage clothing, most of which don’t fit me, but I can not let go.
The perfect solution?
Vintage store!

Now I can support my thrifting habit.
(Hi, I’m Sam, and I have a problem.)

Check it out! (I only have one item in it as I post this, but throughout the week I’m going to be adding things)

So now I’m deciding whether I need to start actually writing in the Grassroots Vintage blog that I started a billion years ago, (not even going to provide the link, it’s too pathetic.) or to merge store stuff with this blog.
That entails some renaming and remodeling.
But I’m so lazy!
Eh.

I’ll get it done!

On another note, Picnik image editor is my new favorite thing in the world.
It fills the void left by MS paint when I got my Mac.

I am the Bane of Ebayers Today

I found some SPECTACULAR shoes on ebay yesterday.

And as of 9:40 this morning, I am the proud owner of them!!!
I feel a little sneaky because I out bid 6 people with 47 seconds left..
BUT, do you know how hard it is to find vintage shoes in my size???

In speaking of which, I have a few pairs of shoes I thrifted that don’t fit me that I’ve been meaning to ebay.
I like how the ones I just bought are like a vicarious combination of these two.
The brown leather ones are amazing in person, I tell you.
After I thrifted them I started trying to find ways to drop three shoes sizes!
Oye.

Ebay intimidates me a little though and I’m only really good at buying.
But maybe I’ll put these up this weekend. I’ll update the post if I do.

In other news, I’m going to UCSD Open Studios today!
It’s where all the art department graduate students showcase their work.

It’s from 2-8 in the Visual Arts Department, stop by if you are in the area!

Adorable Apple Caramel CupPIEcakes.

Friday was a very happy day.
I finished my last final, got into spring break mode, annnnnnnddd…
got tons and tons of veggies for free from our campus food coop!!
They aren’t open during spring break, and instead of throwing out, or letting the veggies meet their impending rancid doom,
they gave them to me!!

So fast forward to this afternoon.

I’m looking at about two pounds of organic apples that are going mushy and I realize there is no way I am going to eat these all before they get all brown and spotty.

Solution?

PIE!!!!

I was so excited. It was pie time! But…
oops.
I guess I DON’T have a pie pan?
Hmm.

Never fear! A little thing like not having an actual pie pan wasn’t going to stop me from achieving pie-y greatness.

So I scraped together the two things I DID have, a bread pan and a cupcake pan.

After Frankensteining together a few different pie recipes, the result was these:

ZOMG SOOO CUUTE!!!! !(>.<)!

Here are the cuppiecakes with their mama:

The crust is super flakey and delicious and the caramel is the perfect touch.

Make them! I dare you. Every day is special enough for a Apple CupPieCake.

Note: Once again, this recipe is super Frankensteined and I’ve never posted a recipe before so, I apologize for it being long and not easy to read. I’ll work on that.
Also, I’m not exactly sure how many apples to use because I had a billion of the small organic kind, and because my goal was to use them all, I ended up with CupPieCakes, the Pie-in-a-Breadpan, and almost two cups of apple left over for applesauce. I suggest maybe 3-4 large ones. I suggest if your goal is just to make delicious pie and not to use up a plethora of apples before they go rancid, then get more than you think you’ll need. You can always make more!

Adorable Caramel Apple CupPieCakes

(Use vegan versions of ingredients of course.)

Pie Crust

-(from http://www.almostvegan.com/archives/2004/06/pie.html)

2 1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Salt
3/4 Cup Vegetable Shortening (like Crisco)
4-5 Tablespoons ice water

1.) In large bowl mix flour and salt. With pastry blender or 2 knives used scissor-fashioned, cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
2.) Sprinkle in ice water, 1 Tablespoon at a time, mixing lightly with fork after each addition, until dough is just moist enough to hold together. (the less water you use, the flakier the crust)
3.) Shape dough into 2 disks with your hands, one slightly larger than the other. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.

Filling

Thinly Sliced Baking Apples. (I used the yellowy-greeny-tinge of red kind)
Cinnamon
Caramel topping: (based on http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=22283.0)

    1/2 cup vegan margarine (the stick kind)
    3 tablespoons flour
    1/2 cup sugar
    1/2 cup brown sugar
    1/3 cup water

In a saucepan, bring “Caramel” topping ingredients to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.

Assembling

1. Take out your refrigerated pastry dough. On a floured surface, roll it out as thin as you can. Don’t worry too much if it tears.
2. Tear off square pieces of dough approximately 2 inches bigger on each side then the diameter of your cupcake pan holes.
3. Lay the pieces each over the hole and then push gently down so it lines the pan. Cut off any overlap.
4. Take your apple slices and break them into pieces to fit your cupcake pan, fill each hole with apples to the top. Shake some cinnamon on top.
5. Take the caramel sauce, and fill each mini piecake with sauce until it reaches the top.
6. Top the piecakes with pieces of whatever dough you have left over.
7. In an oven preheated to 425 degrees, place your piecakes on the middle shelf and bake for 15 minutes.
And here’s where it gets iffy again because I can’t remember if I baked them longer then that.
I know it was at least 15 minutes, but it could have been as much as 25.
So check them out at 15 minutes, if the crust is golden and the filling is bubbly and looking like if you leave it in any longer it’s going to Pompeii all over the place, it’s time to take them out.
8. Let them cool!!
9. To get them out, run a knife in between the pan and the edges of the piecake. If it starts spinning, then it’s loose enough. Using two knifes on either side, kind of shimmy the piecake out carefully.
10. Dig in!! No fork required.

I suppose you could make an ACTUAL pie out of this if you have a pan, but that is just not as fun.

Lowbrow/Pop Surrealism

Lowbrow and Pop Surrealists make some of my favorite stuff.
I love the philosophy behind lowbrow,
that you don’t need to go to art school or receive recognition from the so-called ‘art world’ to make awesome shiznt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowbrow_(art_movement)

http://www.marionpeck.com/index.html

Public Art

Know to some as graffiti. 

Found in a corridor at UCSD Mandeville Center

DIY Leggings and Knit for Charity!

I was just think about how much I want customized leggings.
Then I happen upon this tutorial!

Also, 

Do a little something for someone in need (as well as your karma!) and try knitting for charity.
This organization, Knit-a-Square  puts together 8×8 squares knitted by charitable knitters like you from all over the world into blankets for children living in poverty in South Africa.
It’s such an easy way to make a difference in a child’s life, and as the ladies at Knit-a-Square say;
“A dollar lasts a day, blankets are for life.”

Crayon Letters and Heart Stuffies!

I promised myself I would write at least one post a week when I started this blog. I sadly haven’t been living up to my promise.

BUT, things are changing. I’ve had like a super-nova of midterms and school-related things, but I have been working on something that I’m really excited about, and I’ll probably get it done this weekend!

Here’s my belated Valentine’s Day Crafts, in my attempt to make up for blog-procrastinating… Blogcrastinating.  (Um.. can I trademark that?)

It was all pretty experimental.
The crayon letters were kiiinnnddaaa alot of trouble. They turned out pretty cool, so I think they were worth it, but there is probably an easier way of going about it.

• First I took cheap air-dry clay and carved our letter shapes, so that it looked like a little letter-shaped bowl.
• I let those harden overnight, but they were still a little wet when I used them as molds, which turned out to help me in the end.
• I heated water on the stove, then in a double-boiler-like fashion, I melted each color in a separate bowl resting in the hot water. (All my colors were generally the same so I didn’t have to clean the bowl in between crayons, but you should consider it if you are melting really different colors)
• Next, I poured the melted wax into the molds and let it harden. (take about 5 minutes)
• After it was dry, I carefully cracked off the clay mold (kinda like an archeologist!) 
• There was still some clay bits attached so I soaked the crayons in cold water and rubbed off the wet clay. 

And that’s all!!

The heart plushie was super simple
 I just knitted one side of this heart pattern: http://mochimochiland.com/weblog/2007/02/free-pattern-hearts/  
(Didn’t felt it) Then sewed it to some cute fabric (leaving a hole), turned it inside out, stuffed it, then sewed up the whole.
I was trying to embroider it, but my only needle broke.