dumpity dump dump

it's time for a random photo dump!  i take pictures all the time of stuff we do and then find that a lot of them don't really deserve a whole post...so here you go.  heh.

for one of their friends' birthdays, the bean got a bug up their butt to craft a handmade gift.  i don't really know what the significance of the wombat is, but that's what they created - she has a scoop of ice cream on top of her head and she's sitting in a skillet with a deep dish chocolate chip cookie.  i'm sure it's filled with all kinds of inside jokes, but i was just marveling over the bean's creativity because this was created with no pattern, not following a youtube video or online tutorial or anything like that.  the bean just knew what they wanted it to look like and it turned out exactly as they'd envisioned:

one weekend while the hub was off doing stuff with his friends, the bean and i headed down to little tokyo for some shopping and a fun lunch at our favorite udon spot.  they love a little shop out there called mokuyobi, which is a super cute shop filled with clothes and accessories in really bright colors and all made locally.  

we spotted this ad for a sample sale the following weekend:

and then we stopped here for a quick treat before heading back home.

the sample sale was in south pasadena, which was a slightly easier drive than little tokyo.  we got there about a half hour after they opened, and the line to check out went all the way back to the front door.  i walked around the shop a bit with the bean and then left them to keep browsing while i got in that long line.

another day, we headed out and met up with the old lady at disneyland for a few hours of fun.

somewhere in between the bazillion rainstorms we've had here in soCA over the last few months, we also got some snow, which was really cool:

we tried to put beanies on teddy and cocoa, but they would have none of it.

i crocheted some fun little surprises for my friend weezermonkey's kids:

and also worked on my submission for the home arts competition for this year's l.a. county fair.  it turns out that the rules for the culinary competition state that those who sell their work aren't eligible to compete (oops), so i decided to try something different this time around.  i scrambled to finish my two pieces by the turn-in date, and then headed out to the fairgrounds to drop my entries off for judging.  there were a lot of other folks there with handmade quilts and dolls and things in hand, and i was flattered when a good handful of them stopped to compliment me on my projects.  the fair opens in may, and i'm excited to see if their sentiments are echoed by the judges.

i follow a bunch of people on instagram who post their process for recreating drinks from starbucks and dutch bros., which probably sounds super dorky (but i don't care).  this, of course, led to me deciding that i wanted to save up for an upgrade to my entry-level espresso machine.  i did a little internet research to narrow down my options and see what i could get with the budget i'd set for myself and settled on a nice mid-level breville machine.  

the coffee gods must've been watching, because as soon as i'd made that decision i got an email from williams-sonoma announcing a 20% off sale on - you guessed it - their selection of breville espresso machines.  SCHWING!  this then presented me with quite the dilemma...go with the machine i'd settled on and save a few bucks, or use up the original amount i'd budgeted and upgrade to the next step up?

bitch, please.  as if that were a real question.  and then i did a little googling and found that amazon had also decided to put all of their breville machines on sale.  and so the next day, i welcomed this new addition to the household:

much to my family's amusement (and slight horror), i moved stuff around and now i have my very own coffee bar:

they may make fun of me for it, but don't think they haven't all enjoyed some delicious caffeinated beverages as a result.  hmph.

there's another new toy in my kitchen too, and i think it's getting almost as much use as the coffee bar - an air fryer!

so i've actually had an airfryer for a few years now, but the damn thing is so big and sucked up so much power that every time i fired it up it would trip a circuit.  like, every single time.  it was so annoying and so i never used it.  it just took up space in one of my cupboards, and after looking at it again one day i finally decided that i wanted to get rid of it and buy a smaller, more usable version.  i listed in my local mom's yard sale facebook page and sold it within ten minutes.  woohoo!  and now i'm having fun trying out all kinds of fun recipes and cooking everything i can in that thing.  it's amazing and i can't believe i waited so long.

oh, and for st. patrick's day i totally pigged out on green krispy kreme donuts and a shamrock shake from mcdonald's.  YOLO.

still learning new cookie-ing tricks

while we were in san jose, i'd gotten a text asking me to make some "friends"-themed cookies for a birthday.  the designs were simple enough, and i thought maybe it was a good time to finally debut the buttercream frosting in an order.  but i knew that there was no way i'd be able to freehand that easily recognizable font.  and so i decided that it was time to try out something else that would be new to me - using a projector to trace what i needed to put on the cookies.

of course, nothing i do ever seems to go smoothly.  as i was mixing the cookie dough using my trusty pink kitchenaid mixer, i somehow managed to get the pour shield in the way of the moving beater.  it stopped working immediately, and when i turned it off and on again, the beater wouldn't budge and the motor made a terrible noise.  the kitchenaid website offered practically no assistance aside from the option to mail the mixer in for repair, but like the broken embroidery machine a couple of months ago i didn't really have the luxury of time on my side.  sigh.

r.i.p., pinky.  you were so pretty and gave me ten years of service, and i loved you so much.  

after doing a quick search for inventory in local stores, i ended up going to target so that i could use my red card for the 5% discount and picked up pinky's new brother...minty.

he's pretty in his own way, but i really wish i could've found another pink one.  or even one of the matte black ones.  something that might have actually matched with the rest of the kitchen.  le sigh.  he's a little smaller than pinky, and slightly less powerful, but at least the bowl and other accessories i had still fit and now i have two sets of stuff to use.  that comes in handy, anyway.

as for pinky - well, i debated trying a little harder to figure out how to get her fixed.  and then i came to the conclusion that i really didn't have any room to put her anywhere, and getting her fixed and then trying to sell her would be a pain in the ass.  and so i did this:

unsurprisingly, she was out on the curb for roughly ten minutes before someone drove by and snatched her right up.  

anyway, i got back to work on those cookies and once they were mixed, rolled, baked and cooled i was ready to set up the projector and give her a go.  i was really happy to find that setting it up and getting the design sized just right took just a few minutes, and then i was breezing right through decorating those cookies.

see what i mean?  super simple and clean.  and buttercream frosting holds the designs beautifully, without any spreading or smearing - unlike the corn syrup glaze i've been using for years.  it's not as easy to spread for a smooth work surface, but i think it looks nice in an imperfect way.

and here's how the whole set looked.  i found a simple line drawing of the famous frame that hangs on monica's door, sized it and traced it onto the other cookies.  not bad, if i do say so myself.

the buttercream frosting hardens just enough so that the designs don't smear and can still be individually wrapped, just like i always do.  and i think it tastes really good, if not slightly less sweet than the glaze.  now i just have to convince everyone who places a cookie order that buttercream is the way to go.  it's so much easier and faster for me to mix it up, especially since i don't have to make two separate batches of each color like i used to before.  the consistency is perfect for both spreading and decorating, which i really like.

eek. wish me luck.  

time for an upgrade

so i've been working with my heat press now for what, a couple of years maybe?  and it wasn't very long before i realized that i'd definitely picked up a starter machine because a lot of the things i was working on were bigger than the heat plate on that little press.  and when the owner of the xtend studio i frequent hit me up to do some shirts to put in her retail section, i decided it was finally time to upgrade.

i checked out all sorts of different sites, comparing models and prices and features until i realized that maybe i should just stick to the same brand i was already using.  and so i picked out the one i wanted, hit "order now" and waited for it to arrive.

it made quite an entrance into my world:

that box was HUGE.  and it took me a solid week before i finally decided to suck it up and get the thing set up.  it was super heavy and i struggled just moving it a few feet into the nook where i had decided to put it until we could find a better spot for it.  but look how awesome:

and then i realized that there was no way i was going to be able to lift this thing up out of the box and put it on the table by myself.  it was big and awkward and heavy as hell.  i sent out an SOS to the hub, who chuckled over text and then came home to help me out.

in the meantime, i got started on cutting out the vinyl and figuring out which shirts i was going to work with first.  i'd gotten a huge box of blank tank tops from xtend to work on, and it was fun going through the different colors and deciding which ones would get which design.

and then it was finally time to fire up that bad boy and see what the difference was between him and my little mini press.

you guys, it's AMAZING.  it has a slide-out drawer, which makes it so much easier to lay the item down and get the design placed just right.  the top comes down with the right amount of pressure, with a magnet to hold it in place until the timer goes off and it pops up automatically.  this means i don't have to babysit it while i scurry around getting the next item ready to go.  it's fantastic.

here's the first few shirts i did for the studio:

i think i have about four or five more colors of shirts and about that many designs that i've already laid out, so i'll be a busy bee this week.

and now i just want to heat press ALL THE THINGS.

totally a marketer's wet dream

so i'm always seeing sponsored posts in my facebook feed advertising all sorts of stuff from kitchen gadgets to fun graphic tees to exercise equipment and everything in between.  i'm also gonna confess that i've totally gotten suckered into a few of them...like the light saber umbrella that was selling for a fraction of the official licensed version at disneyland.

it arrived about two weeks after i received a shipping confirmation in my email inbox, sent directly from china.  and it's really wonky - like, it does light up and even changes colors when you push the buttons.  but there's a light at the end of the handle that won't shut off unless i take out the batteries, which makes for a pretty inconvenient switcheroo if and when i decide i want to use the force as i stroll through the pounding rain.

also recently delivered (and also directly from some seller in china) is the sauce blender that i thought was such a great idea.  now, i haven't actually tried this thing out yet, but it's this thing (photo swiped from google images):

so it's supposed to be a hands-free gadget that will stir your sauce or soup or whatever without you having to stand at the stove the entire time.  i'm pretty hopeful that it'll work like a charm...but we'll see.

and then i spied an ad for some really comfy-looking shoes that i thought were pretty cute and would go with a lot of things i wear on the regular.  they're by a company called allbirds, and the shoes are made from specially woven merino wool.  the material is natural, breathable, moisture-wicking and washable.  they're made so that you can wear them without socks, and all of the reviews i found online from reputable sources (like time magazine, forbes, wired, popsugar) said that they lived up to their promise of being the most comfortable shoes ever.  and they give you a trial period, too - you can try them out, wear them for 30 days and if you don't love them you can return them.  all returned shoes are donated to charity, so they don't go to waste.

after debating between the solid black and heathered gray, i opted for the latter and placed my order.  they arrived less than a week later.

when i opened the box, it looked like this:

cool packaging always gets my attention.

the shoes remind me a little of yeezys...you know, kanye's line with adidas.  only these were a lot cheaper and a whole lot easier to get ahold of.  well, and i kind of refuse to give kanye or anyone named kardashian any of my money, so there's that.  i took them out and put them on right away, and as soon as i laced 'em up, i understood why all of the reviewers loved them so much...they really are incredibly comfortable.

i wore them all day while on our day trip to solana beach, walking up and down the street and through the shops, and i'm in love.  it was a beautiful day, a lot warmer than the 50-60 degree temperatures we've had lately (which i love, so that's not a complaint at all) and so i wanted to test out the claims of moisture-wicking and odor minimizing and temperature regulating.  i gotta say, they passed the test with flying colors.  plus i really like the look of them...no huge logos and they don't look like your typical athletic shoes.

they aren't made for running, but i can't wait till i can put them to the ultimate test - a full day at disneyland.  and if they pass that test, i may very well want to snag that all-black pair after all.

aaaaaaaand any other colors they might decide to put out.  heh.

the workshop continues to grow

i had a friend contact me awhile ago to ask if i could do some cookies for her company's holiday party.  she was looking to have their logo on the cookie somehow, and of course, i'm like "sure!" i explained that i probably wasn't going to attempt to freehand the logo using frosting, but instead would have some edible images printed up and use those to decorate the cookies.  she thought was a mighty fine idea, and i penciled the date on my calendar and waited for further instructions.

turns out that she ended up needing a total of 260 cookies - half of them with the logo and the other half in some sort of wintery/holidayish-but-not-christmas design.  phew.  it was a pretty tall order, but i knew i could handle it if i took it slow and didn't let myself stress out too hard over getting them all done.

and then i got to thinking...each sheet can hold about a dozen edible images.  and each one of those sheets is $10.  after doing a little mathing (yes, i turned "math" into a verb), i realized that those logos were going to add up to quite a pretty penny.  not to mention, i'd also been asked by another friend to do some cookies with her company's logo on them too.  do you see where this is going?

so, yeah...i turned to the google and started doing a little research on edible ink printers.  i've looked into this before, but hadn't pursued it much further because i really didn't have an urgent need for it.  and even after i perused the different options and pricing, i second-guessed myself and wondered if i really wanted to deal with yet another piece of equipment and take the time to figure out how to make it work and blah blah blah.  in the end - well...

guys...this thing is humongous.  it's about twice the size of my regular printer.  yikes.  and yet i was excited at the idea of being able to produce my own edible images whenever i want them.  see?  one stop shop right here, people.  i can do it all!

once it was powered up, it was time to insert the edible ink cartridges.  they look just like the ones that came with the printer, only the ink is FDA-approved for consumption.

the cartridges click into place one by one, and a little light goes on once they're properly installed.

next, the printer does some aligning and adjusting and testing.

a couple of minutes later, disaster struck.  the screen flashed an angry red with some sort of error code that said that something was stuck, or the ink cartridges weren't correctly installed, or something.  i opened the front door of the printer to see what was wrong and the cartridges were stuck on one side. i couldn't even see them or figure out how to get them back out.  i opened all of the doors all around the damn thing, looking for jammed paper or some other way to access the printhead, and...nothing.  i started to panic a little, tried looking through the troubleshooting section of the manual, turned it on and off a few times.  then i decided to try calling customer service, who while very friendly, was pretty much no help whatsoever.  finally i managed to stick my hand inside and pry that printhead out so that i could finally see what was wrong.  one of the cartridges had popped out of place, and when i snapped it back in and closed all the doors, the self testing resumed and finally resulted in a test page.

yay!  i was so happy to get through that without having to return the thing to best buy.  not to mention, i only had the one set of edible ink cartridges and didn't have time to have to order another one.  all i needed to do then was connect it to the wifi so that i could print wirelessly.

well, guess what?  i couldn't get that shit to work either.  it had to be right next to the router to connect, and then even after i was able to get my computer to recognize it as a network printer, every time i tried to send a print job it would never go through.  i was so frustrated by this point, i was ready to just chuck it all out the window and cough up the $10 per sheet.

BUT NO.  i was determined.  i finally decided that i didn't care about printing wirelessly and went through the entire house looking for a cord to just hardwire the damn thing to my computer.  of course, there was no such cable to be found anywhere.  and so off to best buy i went.  except that the stupid thing cost $30.  YARG.  i couldn't bring myself to do it and went across the parking lot to staples instead, where i managed to find one for a lot less cash.  i grabbed some lunch on the way home and headed straight back to the office to get it connected and get this show on the road.

wonder of wonders, it finally worked:

the graphic printed up so nice and clear, and as soon as i saw that first sheet come out all the frustration and irritation and stress flew out the window and was replaced first with a huge sense of relief.  and then as i finished printing the rest of the sheets i needed i was pretty stinking stoked over my new toy.

once all of the cookies were rolled out and baked, i decided to try a new trick i'd read about before but hadn't had the chance to test out.  normally, i'd make the frosting and put it into a decorating bag to "flood" the surface of each cookie for the background.  but i'd seen some blog posts where they put the frosting into a shallow container with a lollipop stick attached to it and simply dipped the cookie, scraping the excess off with the stick.  and so i got my supplies ready:

and after a couple of tries, i got the hang of it and found that it worked really well - so much so that i was done in about half the time it normally would have taken me.  as i dipped each cookie i placed the logo on top and set it aside to dry.  the last step was to outline each cookie in a gold-colored frosting, which also went a lot faster than i'd anticipated.

wanna see what 130 cookies looks like?

much to the annoyance of the old lady, i spent a good bit of time bellowing "WHAT UP, G!" as i worked on those.  oh well.  i couldn't help it.  plus, i was super amused at myself the whole time.  heh.

as for that second cookie, we decided to go with a very neutral, non-holiday-specific snowflake.

once they were all dry, i placed one of each cookie into bags and tied them with teal colored ribbons.  happily, she was super thrilled with the results and now i can't wait to hear all about how they went over at the party.

and now i just want to make cookies with people's pictures on them.  oh, so many possibilities...