The Royal Shindig

So, I did not wake up at 4 am to watch it, but I won't place judgment on those of you who did.  Don't worry, I taped it.

Plans for today: Make some scones, drink some tea and watch later when Austin gets home from work.

Anyway, in the spirit of the occasion, I highly recommend you reading Paula Poundstone's moment-by-moment commentary on Twitter.  I guarantee you it's more entertaining than the actual ceremony!

Croissants***

Here's where the story begins.  I was thinking about what we should have for dinner tonight and I came up with gnocchi with some sausage and asparagus and other veggies in a lemony sauce...then I thought, "We should have bread with that."  Then I thought how I don't really like to go to the grocery store here alone - I'm kind-of a wuss and it seems to take so long (Metro trip and walking for 5 minutes to and from the stations)  

So instead of wasting my precious time with public transportation, I had the brilliant idea to make bread!  That doesn't take long does it?  Oh right, only about 4 hours.  But you don't have to catch a communicable disease while doing it!

After looking up recipes for french bread, I bagged that whole idea (9 hours! - that wouldn't be ready by dinner) and somehow decided croissants sounded good.

Sure they take time, but totally worth it!  You get a yeasty, bread-y aroma that envelops your apartment (note: if you don't live in a total of 800 sq. ft. the scent probably won't fill up your entire living space), not to mention the delicious flaky satisfaction in a crescent moon shape when you're finished.

It's easy, I promise, try it for yourself!

Camera Strap w/Pocket

I got some fabric a little while back with the intention of making a more fun camera strap, this time with a pocket and today I finally sat down and made it.  I'm not going to lie the pocket is a little tight for the lens cap, but it does fit.  I will have to work on that for the next one, and let this one out a little.  One thing that went better this time: I remembered to take pictures of it before I put it on my camera strap!

Happy Easter!

Spoiler Alert:  If you have the Philadelphia/Buffalo game tivo'd and you still haven't watched it, do yourself a favor and stop reading now, especially you dad :)

This morning Austin did actually get up to surprise me with hidden eggs and an Easter basket :)  Then we made some delicious biscuits and gravy for breakfast and walked around Eastern Market.  This afternoon we watched the Flyers beat the Sabres in game 6...so it was a pretty perfect day!

Hope your Easter was great too (and I hope you're not a Sabres fan...we might not be able to be friends anymore ;)

Strawberries

My favorite thing to do when I have a big flat of strawberries from Costco that are going to go bad soon is to pile them on top of delicious homemade pound cake and then smother them in homemade whipped cream...that's just what I'd do.  You can do whatever you want with them.  This morning I resisted the urge to have more cake for breakfast and instead used some of those strawberries to make a smoothie - still delicious, but not quite as satisfying.

Don't you want some? :)

I also got these little guys ready.  I love dying Easter eggs...I am still trying to convince Austin to get up early on his day off and hide the eggs around the apartment for me :)

P.s.  Happy Earth Day!  For all of you that are lucky enough to live someplace that has beautiful landscapes everywhere you look and nice weather 99% of the time - go outside...do it in my honor!

Week 16 - Refreshing

Waterfront Walk

Seafood market down "at the Front."

The Signers of the Declaration of Independence Memorial with all their ducks in a row :)

Local News

In Utah, the local news is always good for a laugh with their fluff stories that usually take place at an elementary school and the mindless banter between the anchors.  Here, I don't watch much news - it's a little scary, and I'd like to be able to leave the apartment still.  Anyway, Austin and I watched Norm MacDonald's stand-up show last night and I thought I'd share his take on the local news :)

Weekend Update

Saturday: It rained really hard all day (to the point where things are flooded here, including the tidal basin!), so we did the obligatory running around stopping at Costco, Target, REI, and of course Joann's!  Then we watched Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (free trial weekend of HBO) which was a bit of a disappointment... surprising since I can usually count on Matthew McConaughey for a good chick flick - needless to say, Austin didn't really like what we did on Saturday :)

Sunday: 65˚ and sunny all day.  Woke up late, made banana pancakes and pretended it's the weekend...oh wait, it was the weekend still.  Either way, it was a nice Sunday morning.  We had plans to go to the Nats game, but then we got there and all the $5 tickets were sold out so instead we walked down to the waterfront and then around the monuments.  We found this secret hidden monument (to us at least, I'm sure the rest of the world knows about it) for the signers of the Declaration of Independence.  It's a really nice little park with some water features and benches, and most importantly it is set a ways off from the road so you can just barely make out the soothing sounds of traffic!

And today: 70˚ and cloudy.  Austin had to go back to work today and I have spent the day making a new watermark and not uploading the pictures I took from this weekend - so you get a picture of my kitten instead!  (I'll post the waterfront pictures soon.)

P.s. I have a new countdown clock on my computer for when I get to go home an breathe the fresh mountain air: 17 days!!!!

my first commissioned piece

I think I may put my three hard-earned degrees to good use and become a professional crafter.

We probably should have moved to Utah County for my new career choice.  I wonder if Austin can do whatever it is he does in Provo?

Speaking of using my education - I got a job teaching yoga at the climbing gym!

This post is going somewhere I promise:  I got up this morning (about an hour and half later than I had planned on getting out of bed) and finished a yoga mat bag that a friend from way back commissioned me to make!  She picked out the colors so this bag is more basic and simple looking than my sister's and I think it turned out really well.

Austin and I are going to work on a new design sometime soon, then I have to make an etsy store...that means I have to come up with a clever name - any ideas?

Yesterday

So many great things happened yesterday!

1. Austin surprised me by bringing home flowers for absolutely no reason
2. The shoes that I ordered came in the mail (trail running shoes for the safari)
3. I got my yoga certificate
4. AND I got my Kenyan visa!...It's really happening, we are going to get to see the big cats!

The only bad thing that happened: Paul got voted off American Idol :(

Playing Tourist

Since Austin and I just moved to DC a little over two months ago, we still play tourist quite a bit on the weekends, going to museums and the monuments and all of that.  But this weekend we kicked it up a notch.  Austin's family was in town so we packed a lot in.  The Cherry Blossom Festival, the Japanese Street Festival, the Natural History Museum, the American History Museum, the Kite Festival, etc., etc.

It was so nice having his family come stay with us for the past few days.  It gave me something to do for one thing, but it is just always nice to be around family!  When is everyone else coming to visit?

Week 14 - Chaos

Here is a "two-fer" post for you.  A little preview of our weekend while Austin's family is in town and my photography challenge photo.  The theme was chaos and we went to the Japanese street festival on Saturday...in a word: chaotic.  

But I'll explain more of that later.  For now, you just get to see for yourself!

Camera Strap

Considering the fact that everyone and their brother now has a fancy DSLR camera, and half of those people have the exact same camera as me (the other half have the Canon Rebel), I wanted to make mine stand out from the masses.  This afternoon, I used the tutorial from the Skip to my Lou blog to make this really simple camera strap slipcover.  The bonus? - it's padded too!

P.s. If you were thinking, "that fabric looks familiar"...you're right!  I just used the leftovers from my skirt for the first one :)

Handmade Yoga Bag!

Last summer before I started my teacher training to become a yoga instructor, Austin made me a bag to carry my mat, strap, towel, etc. etc.  It turned out really well and I used it pretty much everyday for the next 6 months and I am still using (although less now) and loving it!

I had to say all that to make sure I gave Austin credit for designing the original bag :)  I followed his original design and made another bag for my sister for her birthday.  And now that she has opened her present I can finally show you the pictures!

For all my fellow yogis out there, let me know if you would be interested in buying one for yourself and I will get to work!

more from last weekend

I forgot to upload these pictures from my other camera, which means that I also forgot what else we did last weekend (besides the fireworks and baseball game).  Now I remember that I made a delicious loaf of bread with my parents' bread-maker that they gave me when we moved.







On Saturday (since it was hailing and raining and windy) we went downtown to get our library cards and then we went to a little cafe, called Busboys and Poets that has cool art on the walls and poetry readings and other hipster stuff like that, so all the kids can go there and do ironic things.  All that being said, Austin and I like it there quite a bit.

On the walk home, we stopped to take some pictures of the beautiful Magnolia trees and the sunset over the mall.