Budget Minded Modernist
The DIY Paulistano post on Remodelista was a good copycat, but still out of reach for me. I too, have always LOVED the look of these chairs…but $700 for the frame alone isn’t going to cut it…even if I use a $23 dollar dropcloth to finish it.
One of the commenters had a GREAT idea to make it a complete DIY…..using rebar to make your own frame. Cool eh? The texture of the rebar could make it very interesting with an industrial vibe…I likey.
Canvas DIY version via Remodelista
I decided to spiffy up the living room by rearranging some art and FINALLY reorganizing those annoying bookshelves. Better, I think. Still room for improvement, but in case you haven’t figured it out by now…nothing is ever finished, it’s always a work in progress…and anything can change, at any time.
I brought my Chinese Pug painting by Paul Edelstein in from the bedroom and I think I like it there.
As for the shelves, I moved out all the classic literature paperbacks, which was a significant chunk! Now they are in an upstairs closet ready for The Minors first English Lit class. The rest of the books are still filling up the bottom cabinets, but neatly stacked now. Need. More. Shelves.
Going through all the books got my spring fever kickin’…I don’t think I’ve mentioned my love for all things Sir Terence Conran and Diarmuid Gavin… I possibly have all their gardening books…it’s a sickness. I can’t WAIT to get the landscaping finished.
Below is a perfect example of why I never have enough bookshelves. I picked this up at an estate sale for $1.00, who wouldn’t?
Look at it…a nice condition, hardback biography of Zelda Fitzgerald, not to mention a fab cover. How could you NOT want to read that? Have I? Well, not yet…but I WILL. I have lots of these….sigh.
We spent Valen-New Year hanging out in front of the fire in here…eating spicy pork pot-stickers for lunch and Gorgonzola fondue for dinner. Don’t ya love days like that?
Apologies…it only just now came to my attention the” subscribe by email” wasn’t working…Feedburner was not cooperating with my theme…anyway…it should be working now, so sorry about that.
You know how I don’t buy into the whole Valentine’s bit, and that I’m a geek…but if you haven’t heard this yet, it is my kind of Valentine story. Have a great weekend.
(couldn’t embed for some reason-sorry!)
MP3 of Carl and Annie NPR Radiolab
Photo Sagan/Druyan Assoc. via NPR
Despite the fact my vision is comparable to looking through plastic wrap, I can’t break a promise, so I made a bunch of fortune cookies for the kids to share with their class for the Lunar New Year…Year of the Tiger! I usually double this recipe, but not everyone is feeding forty something kids so here’s my basic recipe: The process is very similar to baking tuiles.
Preheat oven to 275 degrees for convection ovens, 300 degrees for regular ovens.
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coconut extract (secret ingredient)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Whisk all above together until frothy.
8 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons granulated sugar
Sift above dry ingredients into a bowl, then add flour mixture to wet ingredients. Here is the tricky part…add 5-10 teaspoons of water. You gauge how much after you’ve wisked the batter. If you let the batter rest a bit, you’ll have to adjust less as you go along. Sometimes I end up adding a few extra drops after I’ve made my first cookies. The batter should not be runny, but drop easily from your whisk/spoon.
Take about a tablespoon of batter and flatten into a circle on a cookie sheet with the back of your spoon. I like to use silicone baking mats. I can only bake 3 per sheet…any more than that and I can’t work fast enough before the cookie becomes too brittle to fold. It’s a great team project because if you have 2 sets of hands working, you can knock it out much faster. Otherwise…plan to spend a few HOURS on this. Yeah, I know I just lost half of you….
When the cookie is just starting to brown on the edge, (12-15 minutes) remove with an offset spatula and flip over so the “smooth side” is down and will be on the outside.
You MUST work very quickly here….put your pre-folded fortune in the middle of the circle (it’s hot) and fold over the edge of a glass or cup. If you have sensitive fingers, move along…probably not a good project for you. (There goes the other half.)
Then put to cool inside a muffin tin with the tips pointing downward…otherwise, the cookie will slowly re-open and cool that way…no good.
If you make them several days in advance..you might need to re-crisp them in the muffin tins the day of serving. If you keep them in a good airtight container…you should be OK and you’ll have fortune cookies that are actually decent tasting. It goes without saying that kids (and adults) LOVE these.
Gong Hei Fat Choi or Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year!
This is a vase that my father made in the 70’s, and this week, the CC and I start a pottery class. I’m so excited, as this is something I’ve been wanting to do since I was about TEN. I need some new teacups anyway. We’ll see what we create as the weeks unfold…but if someone dares hum even a single note of Unchained Melody, I’ll hurt them…seriously…don’t ruin my dream with that cheez.
UPDATE: First class was…sucky. My teacher is a COMPLETE tool. When my bowl became off center on the wheel, I intentionally collapsed it so I could start over and he lost his s**t on me. He yelled at me to the horror of my classmates..then stomped off to the other side of the class room and continued to rant to his assistant about how “FRUSTRATING” it is. He attempted to smooth things over with me at the end of class by explaining how much he “wanted to strangle me” when he saw me destroy my piece…I think I GOT that already, you prick….nice apology. More than half the class left early. Gonna be an interesting 8 weeks….