men and babies

The adorable baby in my photos from a few days ago, is the son of Sara - one of my oldest and closest friends. We were lucky to have her and her cute family visit us from out of town over the weekend, and we spent Sunday afternoon drinking wine and admiring baby Sam.

I just love the expressions that babies make - Larry got some good ones out of baby Sam:

"Please don't eat me!"

"I'm not so sure about this...you're not my dad and besides, you're kind of funny looking..."

And my personal favorite, "What stinks?"

hello, yellow

around here: march

the big 5-0-0

Today, my shop made its 500th sale!

I'd celebrate with these cupcakes that Larry brought me last night, but I already ate them all...

(And they were delicious!)

this dog

In the past week, this dog ate a wad of dryer lint and a dried-up roadkill rat.

His name is Banjo, but we call him Little Guy, Number Two, Cheeseburger, Dirt Bag, Block Head, and most recently, Banjosaurus Rex.

Now he has a new nickname: Lint Licker (and yes, he does have a dirty mouth).

ballston arts & crafts market

A few weeks ago, I got the news that my shop was accepted as a vendor at the Ballston Arts & Crafts Market! Funnelcloud Studio will be there on June 11 and October 8. The market is sponsored by the Ballston Partnership and is located at Welburn Square in Arlington (at N. 9th and N. Stuart Streets) - right next to the Ballston Metro!

I'm pretty excited about this! I was a vendor at a much smaller market last fall, but the Ballston Arts & Crafts Market requires vendors to have a 10'x10' tent - I've got a lot of work to do to prepare in the coming months! Yikes! I'll post more as the dates get closer and as I make progress on my display/tent set-up, but if you're in the DC/VA area, mark your calendars and stop by and say hi!

Also, they sent me these awesome postcards to promote the event:

And on the back - the dates for the Ballston Farmers Market. I'm a sucker for a good farmers market. We always go to the Falls Church Farmers Market on Saturdays, but I'm looking forward to checking out the one in Ballston on Thursdays.

Also, when I logged into Facebook today, I saw that the Ballston Partnership had named me artist of the week - how awesome!

Thanks, guys! I'm looking forward to checking out the first market in April and being a vendor in June and October!

bread of the month | light brioche burger buns

People, I made hamburger buns. From scratch. And they were awesome.

I started this endeavor at 9 pm on a Friday night. They require two rises and that definitely takes some time, but it was one of those recipes that came out looking exactly like the picture. And even though it was nearly 1 am by the time they came out of the oven, I couldn't resist slathering one with butter and gobbling it up. In fact, that is how I liked these buns best - fresh from the oven and dripping with butter. I actually think they are too good to use for burgers.

I believe that a bad bun can definitely detract from a good burger experience. We never buy those supermarket buns that have the consistency of a wad of kleenex. Our favorite packaged hamburger bun is actually a good ol' Thomas' English Muffin (a trick we learned a few years ago on an episode of Barefoot Contessa). However, I'm not sure the difference between a good bun and a great bun is detectable when eating a burger...the patty plus fixins always overwhelms the bread. The same happened when I filled the buns with egg salad.

Homemade buns certainly didn't hurt though, and the burgers were delicious! Grilled turkey burgers with smoky paprika aoili, cheddar, and grilled red peppers and onions...oh yeah. I mean, look at this:

I would definitely make these buns again - just maybe not for burgers. The recipe made eight buns and they were huge - I would definitely divide the dough into ten buns the next time. However, what I'd really like to do is make them into slider sized buns and serve mini crabcake sandwiches on them!

Light Brioche Burger Buns recipe on Smitten Kitchen.

dogs in scarves

This dog knows he's good lookin'! Strike a pose, you sexy beast:




(This post is for Logan, who also likes to play dress-up, and who agrees that dogs in scarves are way cuter than cats in sweaters.)

P.S. The screenprinted scarf that Banjo is wearing is from Made By Michelle Brusegaard. I don't know if Michelle has ever had a dog model one of her scarves before... (Hopefully she is an animal lover!)

good things to distract me from my brain pain

While Larry was traveling in Central Asia last month and I was on my own to survive February bachelorette-style, I started a list of things that were making me happy - you know, to distract me from gray skies, freezing temps, muddy paws, insomnia, and missing my boy. The list is on an index card next to my computer and I thought today would be a good day to break it out...

I've recently started another cycle of cluster headaches, so if I don't write much in the coming weeks, it's because of my insane clown posse brain pain. The "good news" is that the headaches will be gone in about two to four weeks (hoping for two), so I'll only look like this temporarily. Until then, to distract me from my shattered face, we have some happy things:

Things I'm loving:

Homemade custard for breakfast and reading in bed with our yellow comforter, finishing a book on my reading list, snowflake pajama pants.


Fuzzy slippers.

Fuzzy puppies.

Sales for 50 days in a row in my shop (my first non-sale day of 2011 was the day Larry returned from Asia safe and sound - I was ok with that!)

The skylight in our bedroom.


300+ ideas for my freelance gig.


Being accepted to the Ballston Arts and Crafts Market. (I'll be there on June 11 and October 8 - stop by and say hi!)

Reading every day. (Per Personal Resolution #2 - I've kept it up and read every day this year.)

A new issue of Food & Wine and mini marshmallows - lots of 'em!


Dinner at my favorite local restaurant - Sea Pearl.

New cookbooks.

Wine.


Candles in jars.



Moroccan food.

Sartori Bella Vitano Gold - my new favorite cheese.

The Boden catalog - always so cheerful.


"Men" who will carry your purse.


Oreos.

Curry.

An awesome new address stamp from Paperwink. (I thought about designing my own, since I have designed my own stamps before - but why bother when Paperwink's stamps are perfection? My favorite design is Highway 1 - but I thought it just wouldn't look as cool with a Virginia address as it does with a California address!)


Llama Love!

Winter sunsets.


14 types of cheese currently in my refrigerator!


Recipes inspired by books I'm reading. (I made egg curry as inspired by Interpreter of Maladies. If I had a book club, I would totally combine it with a dinner club to continue this theme. I recently finished reading Empire Falls - not sure what recipes would be inspired by this book - diner food? Currently reading Gilead...so far the only food mentioned in this book is "fried mush." )


Etsy shopping sprees and pretty packages.


Sugar cookies.

Wayfarer Prints from BKNY. (Can't wait to get these framed and up on the wall! Also, just saw that they are sold out - got mine just in time!)

Leftover Italian Cream Cake.

Bakery treats.


iPad2 - soon to be mine!

Favorite grilled cheese sandwiches - gouda, swiss, and tomato on potato bread.

Discovering USB ports on my iMac keyboard - only took me three years to realize they were there.

Pretty stamps.


New nailpolish (Larry calls these my "Terminator 2 nails".)


Cheesetique - my definition of heaven on earth.

Burgers and shakes at Elevation Burger.

Pudding cups - I told Larry the only thing I felt like eating the other day was pudding and he stopped at the store on the way home from work and bought me 24(!) pudding cups!

What are you loving these days?