Strip Quilt!

I started my first real quilt!  I got one of those jelly roll things where you just sew a bunch of strips of fabric end-to-end, then it magically becomes a big beautiful stripey rectangle!  So far I have that piece, a bit of cool Japanese-style print for a border, and this amazing succulent fabric that I bought on Spoonflower for $20 fricken dollars a yard.  Check out what I have so far :)

Potential Pinterest Fail

Have you ever seen those "Pinterest Fail" photos?   I find them particularly hilarious, since I often try to make things from Pinterest and they often turn out nothing like I had imagined.  Here's one of my favorites from the Google archives for those of you that haven't seen any Pinterest fails until now...

Anywho, pottery just started up again last night, so I decided to get some ideas for what to make!  Here are the pictures I found that were the source of my inspiration:

Once I'm done attempting to create these cute little things, I'll post the actual photos!  Hopefully no Pinterest fails but at least it will be entertaining if they do happen... right?

A bicycle built for 2!

If you know Bryan and me, you probably know that Bryan is a VERY avid bicycle enthusiast!  He loves bikes, riding bikes, fixing bikes, looking at bikes, talking about bikes - you get the picture :)  We both ride our bikes to work, but we only go on bike rides together every once in a while.  Mostly because he is super fast and extreme and I'm... well, not!  So we've been dreaming of getting a tandem bike for a while now, so that we could bike together and easily hang out and stay at the same pace.

The thing that Bryan likes the second most in the universe after bikes is browsing Craigslist... so we were bound to find a tandem at some point!  Last week we found the bike we wanted and headed over to the guy's house to check it out.  He was a really nice old man who had toured on the bike a lot in the past with his wife.  We entertained him for about 20 minutes trying to ride the thing, and decided to go for it!  It was only $500 which is pretty awesome for such a nice tandem.  After bribing our friend with a mini van to drive the bike up to our house in Goleta, we were ready to go for a ride!

Our first ride on the tandem was pretty awesome... it was a gorgeous day and we even survived the extreme downhill from our house to the main road, with only a couple minutes of screaming from yours truly, lol!  The actual ride was surprisingly easy, and we had some really good speed going.  We passed a bunch of other riders on the road that I'm sure were super jealous :)  We'll definitely be doing some longer trips on this thing... can't wait!

My First "Quilt"

I've been feeling guilty about neglecting my awesome new-ish sewing machine.  When I first got it, I went crazy sewing a cover for it, then a little purse for the kid of one of my coworkers.  Since then, the only time I touched it was during our move, and it's been gathering dust ever since (not really because of the awesome cover I made, but you know what I mean, haha!).

Anyway, when we were in Alaska we did an inordinate amount of "shopping" - wandering around in all the touristy little shops filled with crap no one needs.  Including really old walrus penises, a bargain at $50 a piece!  L. O. L.  There were a couple cool stores though, the kind that real Alaskans probably go to, I think?  Haha.  We found one of them on our way to use the bathroom on the third floor of a mini mall - a sweet little fabric store!  The perfect way to force myself back into sewing :)  So I found one of those star of David fabric bundles, with a cool humpback whale print on it.

When we got home I was trying to decide what to make with these 5 relatively small bits of fabric, and I finally landed on this page via Pinterest - a baby quilt/blanket!  So I decided to make 2 - one for Bryan's cousin's little baby Penelope, and the soon-to-be daughter of my coworker, currently nicknamed George (haha).  What to make: done.  Who to make it for: done.  On to the next challenge: find the rest of the fabric I would need.  This is harder than you might imagine, thanks to the general snootiness of Santa Barbara.  The only fabric stores we have are insanely expensive, and the closest JoAnns is an hour away in Ventura.  After a bit of exploration on Yelp, I learned about Roxanne's, the cutest little fabric store in Carpinteria, only half hour away!  This is my new favorite place for when I'm feeling crafty...

Bryan and I ventured down there, I found exactly what I needed, and I could finally start my project!  The quilting itself was a bit of an adventure, and I technically didn't even do any "real" quilting - the kind where you sew pretty little stitches all over the fabric.  I was way too scared to try that.  I learned how to really use an iron for the first time ever (lol) and had a few minor and major battles with my sewing machine... but in the end, I was pretty happy with the result!  Here's the first one... now on to the next :)

Grow Dammit

This post is an homage to my aunt Lynette in more ways than one!  First of all, she's totally sick of seeing the fig bar post every time she comes to my blog :P  Also, I stole the title from a really awesome sign she has hanging over one of her gardens, AND I took her idea of using cinder blocks as planters (not that she invented the idea, but still, inspiration!).

It was a pretty wonderful weekend... last week we were in Alaska with the fam, which was super fun but going right back to a crazy week at work made me totally exhausted!  So the weekend was the first chance I had to relax and do some projects that I've been thinking about for a while :)  Check out the herb garden, featuring cilantro, oregano, sweet basil, thai basil, italian parsley, thyme, dill and rosemary!  Nom nom.  Now let's hope they all survive... will report back!

Fig Bars

A few weeks ago, I made this fig challah from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook... I was planning on doing a blog post about that, because it was supposed to be really pretty, but it turns out that tying bread in beautiful knots takes a skill that I don't have!  Then the bottom got a bit burnt and it just wasn't that good.  BUT I still had a bunch of figs leftover, so today was the day to redeem the fig baking project!  I wanted to make a homemade version of fig newtons, so I looked up some recipes and kinda just made my own little version.  Turned out REALLY tasty.  Here's the recipe :)

For the doughy part...
Whisk together
1 1/2 cup oats
1 cup flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
then stir together with
1/2 cup melted butter
1 egg

For the figgy part...
Bring to a boil, simmer until most of the liquid is gone, then blend in a food processor.
1 cup chopped black mission figs
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup orange juice
A bit of orange zest

Once you have that, lay down a layer using about half of the "dough"in a square baking dish. Press it down a bit, smear the fig filling on top, and top it with the other half of the dough.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  Deliciousssssss.

Garden Party

It's spring time!!!! Not that we really have seasons here, but it's been getting nice and hot during the day.  And I am overly excited about my balcony garden :)  We went to Home Depot and splurged on a couple of nice pots, because I can hardly stand to look at these plastic ones any longer.  I got a cute little cherry tomato plant, a jalepeno plant, and some flowers!  Oh and the growth of my succulent collection continues.  Bryan even got a little redwood sapling from some promotion at REI... not sure how long it will last in that pot, but maybe it will help our house hunting karma and find us a place with a yard... fingers crossed!