happy valentine's day!

My fuzzy Valentines:

new zinnias

New zinnia prints in the shop!

When I sold out of the most popular colors of the zinnia prints last fall, I wasn't sure if I was going to print any more - but in the past six weeks, there's been a renewed interest in them. The silver and blue combo was always my best seller (there's just something about silver and blue!), so I now have two new colors available in my shop - royal blue and turquoise, both printed with metallic silver ink.



My favorite thing about these prints is they look fantastic matted and framed, and I include a custom cut mat with every purchase:

Happy Sunday!

P.S. Forgot to mention that the zinnias are available as a prize in my Messy Hair Contest! Entries are due Friday, so send in your messy hair pics ASAP!

insomnia

Recently, I've been having a terrible time sleeping. I'm no stranger to insomnia, but this is ridiculous. Night after night, I find myself staring at the clock at 4 am.


I've tried reading, drinking wine, listening to music...nothing works.

The other night, while lying in bed, eyes wide open, I picked up my iphone and saw this:

The album cover for Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust by Sigur Ros. (They're Icelandic.) Why are bare butts so hilarious? (Important Note! I had never seen any of their videos until I just searched for that link. I just watched the video for Gobbledigook - my favorite Sigur Ros song - and holy moly! Naked people frolicking in the woods!!! And they show a lot more than their bare butts... Excuse me while I go watch it again...)

Anyway, last night I finally got a few good hours of sleep. Until this happened:






















So I got up and decided to show that smoke detector who's boss. It involved a ladder. And some swearing. But I finally pried it off the ceiling. It's a hardwired detector, so I yanked the wires out, too.

That'll learn ya:


Of course, the smoke detector kept beeping. Its back-up battery was low. That little battery door was a bitch to open. There was more swearing.

But I got it open, only to find...

Noooooo, not the rectangle battery!

Honestly, who keeps 9-volts lying around the house? Not us.
So, I ripped the battery out. Of course it kept beeping. Mother *#&$^@%!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess where the smoke detector is now??? Downstairs, locked in the guest bedroom - as far away from me as possible. That's what happens when you don't shut up! (RIGHT, Gravy?  Just kidding - I didn't lock the dog anywhere. I did wish that I could remove his batteries though!)

(Also, don't be too worried about the batteryless smoke detector. We have seven smoke detectors in this house. Five of them have batteries. We should be covered. Knock-on-wood.)

And now I am going to attempt to get some shut-eye. (Just as soon as I giggle at the Icelandic wiener video one more time...)

easy open

Larry came home the other day with this bottle of Advil with the Easy Open cap - no doubt, because of my gimp hand.

If I need this geriatric cap at age 32, how the hell am I going to get into my pills when I'm actually a senior citizen?

More importantly, why don't they put the Easy Open cap on wine bottles???

tasty january!

This month, Larry really picked up the slack in the kitchen (it seems I can either be creative with my art or my cooking - but not both at the same time! If it weren't for Larry I would've survived on cereal, cookies, and cheese this month). He cooked all sorts of comfort foods - homemade chicken noodle soup, white chili, meatball subs...perfect meals for a month that I'd prefer to hibernate through. By the end of the month I had rediscovered my cooking mojo and cooked up some comfort foods of my own, like Smitten Kitchen's Vanilla Bean Pudding (which I had been promising Larry for weeks).

I attempted donuts (on my list of things to make for the year) - I didn't have high expectations for baked donuts (a proper donut really does need to be fried), and as expected, I was disappointed as they tasted like donut-shaped corn muffins. In the successes column, we found a simple recipe for chicken breasts that actually has flavor: Herbed Balsamic Chicken with Blue Cheese. I also accomplished two Culinary Resolutions - cooking our first international meal and baking my first loaf of bread of the year.

What we were eating and cooking this month: comfort foods - soups, chili, sandwiches and homemade pudding, lots of cheese, store-bought cookies and sweets (yikes!), olives, chicken, and a Moroccan feast. 

international meal | morocco + bread of the month | kesra

We kicked off our international meal resolution in January with a Moroccan feast! I had also resolved to bake one loaf of bread per month and as I was sorting through Moroccan recipes, I found a recipe for Kesra (Moroccan bread, though some sources list it as Algerian - either way it's a North African bread).

When I had first mentioned my goal of cooking an international meal each month to Larry, I asked him which country we should choose first and he immediately responded "Morocco!" I was surprised by his choice and intrigued - since I really know nothing about African cuisine, other than having eaten in a handful of Ethiopian restaurants in DC. Here's what I learned through cooking our meal: Moroccan food is freaking delicious!

On the menu:

• Chicken Tagine with Apricots and Almonds (served over couscous)
• Moroccan Eggplant Salad
• Kesra (Moroccan Bread)

I had hoped to pair the meal with a Moroccan wine, but I didn't have time to go to the wine store and shockingly, Safeway doesn't carry wine from Morocco. So we drank beers instead...also not Moroccan. And I had planned to make M'hanncha (Snake Cake - awesome!) for dessert, but I ran out of time. First lesson learned - we need to have our international feasts on weekends, as it was an ambitious meal for a weeknight and by the time we ate it was almost 9 pm.


But - it was totally worth the wait. Only a month into the year, and I can already guarantee that the Chicken Tagine will be one of the best recipes we make in 2011. It was phenomenal. In fact, it was probably one of the best things we've ever made. I have a beef with chicken and that is this: it has no flavor.  But this was one of the most flavorful dishes to ever touch my tongue. As Larry summed it up after we'd licked our plates clean without uttering a word to each other throughout the meal, "I could eat this chicken all night!"

The bread was fantastic, too - and the easiest yeast bread recipe I've ever tried. I thought the round loaves might be dense and chewy - but they were soft and light - my first bite from the oven left me exclaiming "it tastes like a biscuit!" I made it because I thought bread would be good to sop up sauces, but I really loved eating it American-style - that is slathered with butter. It would also be good dipped in olive oil or spread with jam for breakfast.

Next up: Portugal!

messy hair: practice what you preach + contest extended!

When I first announced my Messy Hair contest, I promised that I would share a photo of myself with messy hair.

Does this count?

This may be the best photo taken of Larry and me. Ever.
Also, this is definitely my January photo for The 12 Project.



Can I even tell you how fun it is to take unflattering photos of yourself? Totally awesome and hilarious.

(My awesome robot shirt is from Rainbow Swirlz.)

Here's our creepy mug shot pose:


Fake smiles:


Larry says we look like Krusty the Clown and Cousin Itt.


So can you top this? Now that I've shown you mine, it's time to show me yours! I've extended the contest deadline by two weeks - so there is plenty of time to send me your photos. Spread the word!

Once again, the rules:

Contest: Got Messy Hair?

How to enter: E-mail a photo of your messy-haired self with the EMBRACE MESSY HAIR print (you can be holding it, it can be hanging on the wall behind you, etc - just as long as the print is visible in the photo) to funnelcloudrachel @ yahoo (dot) com. Be creative! Got a husband with messy hair? Messy-haired kids? Include them in the photo!

Note: I will be posting the photos on my blog!

Deadline: February 4, 2011 (11:59 pm EST) EXTENDED! February 18, 2011 (11:59 pm EST)

Prize: One winner will receive a free print from my shop - a zinnia print in their color choice from what is available in my shop.

ROAR.