Galentine's Day

Happy Galentine's Day!

Galentine's Day is the celebration of women's relationships with their female friends. It happens the day before Valentine's Day and is, in my opinion, the far superior holiday.

This Galentine's Day I needed to put a little time into my most important relationship, the one I have with myself. I haven't been too kind to myself lately so I decided to take myself out on a date. I took an afternoon to do the things I used to do when I was single. I took the day to do whatever I wanted. And I took my time at doing them, too.

I used the fantastic resource that is Thrift Store Junkies to make a list of East Bay thrift stores I hadn't visited, which excluded the downtown Oakland Goodwill, the Chinatown Salvation Army, and the various thrift stores on Alameda. Instead I visited the stores in Rockridge, Piedmont, and the Temescal. Not thrift stores really, they're mostly second hand and vintage stores. Prices are generally higher but the clothes, housewares, and furniture are also higher quality. Give a little, get a little! Or give a lot, in my case.

I visited a lot of stores but found one in particular that was fantastic, Alta Bates Showcase Thrift Store. The prices were reasonable, the store clean and tidy, the staff friendly, and best of all, the clothes were actually vintage. You know, old-ish. From before the 90s. I ended up with a white eyelet peplum, a blue eyelet wiggle dress, an incredible boiled wool shrug with 3D embroidery of big red flowers, and a red and white flannel which, I imagine, will be perfect for doing housework. Summer's past and future have been on my mind something fierce this past week.

My last stop was to my favorite treat spot in all of Oakland, Scream Sorbet. They do amazing vegan sorbets (though most sorbets are vegan anyway) using fresh, seasonal ingredients in thrilling combinations. Combined here are my two most coveted flavors, blood orange and coconut Thai basil. There's a deep savory sweetness to both that makes me wildly happy. I don't know how they do it over there, but they do it so well.

#quiltmadness

In the last post I briefly mentioned wanting to make a quilt for myself. The thing is, I want to make about 100 quilts for myself. A short list of potential quilts:

1. A half-square triangle quilt
2. A vintage sheets stripe quilt
3. A Farmer's Wife sampler quilt/yearlong quilt
4. and a scrappy trip quilt

That's not so much work, right?

Goals for 2013

I'm not much of a goal maker but I'd like to become one. In the interest of growing and learning, here's my list of goals for 2013.

1. Finish 5 quilts. I'm nearly done with the disappearing nine patch quilt top for Maggie, then I need to acquire fabric and choose a pattern for Finch's purple birthday quilt, after which I'll start thinking about the fabric and patterns for my mom's quilt and my dad's quilt. If I have anymore quilting energy left in me, I want to make a twin-sized quilt for Kaydence and a twin-sized quilt for Georgia. And maybe one for me, too.
2. Shoot more. I shot more in 2012 than I have in any year previously, and I'd like to keep the ball rolling in that direction.
3. Buy a new digital camera body. My trusty 40D has been perfectly adequate these last 6 years, but it's just not capable of doing the things that I need for it to do any longer. I'm going to use a combination of Christmas Amazon money and aggressive saving from my Lyft work to purchase a new 6D. Ideally this will happen by the end of February, but who knows what horrifying money black hole will crop up between then and now.
4. Start a photo project or two. This is intertwined with goals 2 and 3. I already have one in mind (100 Strangers, on film) and the second will depend on the new camera body because the 40D doesn't have an affordable, reliable wireless remote associated with it.
5. Build a portfolio site to professionally present my photography. I don't know the first thing about creating a website and don't have any money to spare to pay someone to make one, so this will rely almost entirely on how affectively I can pester Michael to build a site for me.
6. Make some money from my photography. Whether it's shooting weddings, engagements, headshots, or family photos, I want to start making some money from my work.
7. Start secret project "Sister". This will require research.
8. Finish my thesis. I am not particularly enthused about this goal and it's the only one I'm required to meet to be an outside force (i.e. San Francisco State University).
9. Graduate. See goal 8. By the skin of my teeth, if need be. I just have get out of here.
10. Find a full time job. See 9. Maybe not in a museum or anywhere near a museum.
11. Move. Dependent on 8, 9, 10. 
12. Build and tend a garden. Dependent on 11.
13. Read more, internet less. Better for my smarts, better for my emotions.
14. Adopt a dog. Dependent on 11.
15. Acquire health insurance by October 14, at which point I will age out of my parent's coverage and be one of America's 50.7 million uninsured people.

There they are. All reasonably achievable, with the exception of finishing my thesis. That thesis ... I just don't know. It feels impossible and deeply improbable while at the same time being something that must happen before I can move on with my life and leave this miserable mistake behind me.

Something old, something new

I can't keep my fingers out of something new, something different. I jump from one hobby to the next. Just when I've reached relative proficiency, bop! There I go, off to the next thing.

I had never thought of myself as having this kind of personality, and have had some small degree of disdain for people who do, preferring what I thought as the philosophical high road of learn-it-'til-you're-an-expert. Do that one thing forever, do it until you're so damn good at it no one can deny your hard work, your skill, your artistry. Whatever.

That's not who I am, though. I want to taste it all. And right now, I want to taste the flavor of ... quilting. The frustrating, maddening, discouraging, deceptively simple craft of quilting. The delightful craft of quilting, too.

A few weeks before my 25th birthday my mom asked me, hey, you're about to be really old (paraphrasing), can I get you something special to mark the day? Little did she know that for the past few weeks I'd been eyeballing a series of three beginning sewing classes at A Verb For Keeping Warm, my local Oakland fancy fabric and fiber store. The cost of the Saturday afternoon classes, $75, was too far outside of my budget to consider, but birthdays have a way of making budgets work. Birthdays and very kind, loving, generous parents.

The first class was this past Saturday. I came in the week before to pick up supplies, then stopped by the discount fabric store down the street on the day-of to pick up the pricier tools I would need, like a rotary cutter and fabric shears. Michael grabbed some fabric for his Jughead costume, and I snagged some tulle. For what? We'll talk about that later.

The class was taught by the wonderful Carolyn Weil of Laughing Duck, who was an excellent teacher and suffered my many foolish questions. On top of being a new hand at quilting, I've also never sewn before. I knooow. I know.

I wasn't prepared for the mathematical nature of quilting, but now that I think about it I really should have expected it. Guess I'll have to brush up on my simple math. My lacking math acuity aside, we cut our fabric and built one 9 inch square during the class; I finished the other five at home, all of which you can see here. Next week we'll add the solid blocks and work on the backing.

And I'll tell you what, I can't wait.

Spring is on the way, which means it's time the gardeners of the northern hemisphere start thinking: strawberries? Strawberries! Definitely strawberries.

In the spirit of spring time and the glory of California's central valley, here's a recipe for strawberry ice cream. I apologize in advance for publishing a recipe that requires a specialized kitchen gadget; I absolutely hate when a perfectly wonderful recipe for cake asks for a stand mixer. I've yet to meet an alternative ice cream mixing method that works as well as the specialized gadget, however, so this is the recipe you get.

Strawberry Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1½ - 2 cups strawberries (fresh or frozen and thawed)
2 cups coconut milk (about 1 can)
1 cup almond milk or Mimic Cream
¾ cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon guar gum
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Slice one cup of the strawberries in to small chunks and set aside.

Combine the remaining strawberries, coconut milk, almond milk, guar gum, vanilla and sugar together in a blender and puree. 

Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions; I find that mine takes about 30 minutes.

Add sliced strawberries in the last five minutes of freezing.

Scoop in to vessel of your choice and freeze.

Probably the best thing that came of this weekend with my dad was the revelation that he's now in it ("it" being veganism) for the animal welfare. This from the guy who told me I was "betraying my heritage" when I went vegan years ago, from the guy who has worked in the restaurant business his entire life, from the guy who, for most of my life, was a proud and vocal foodie. The dad I had then could probably give Anthony Bourdain a run for his money for disparaging comments made about vegetarians and vegans.

It started out as a health thing–his cholesterol was way too high. He'd been on Lipitor for years, was trying to eat well, and exercised constantly, but it never really dropped down to a healthy level, just a less-deadly one. At the time he was working for Zoe's Kitchen, a Greek fast casual chain in the South. Simultaneously he was working with Veggie Grill, a small vegan fast casual comfort food chain in Southern California. They hammered out a contract and my dad moved to Veggie Grill, conveniently located in the same area he's already living. And I got to be stoked that my dad was no longer commuting to Birmingham, Alabama to go to work.

On top of health, it became a I-don't-want-to-be-a-hypocrite thing. Doesn't look too good if the CEO of a vegan chain is eating meat.

Now, I love my dad, but he's not exactly the most compassionate guy. So when he started to give a fuck not just about his health and his image but the plight of factory-farmed animals, I was shocked. Frankly, I'd always thought it seemed more likely he'd become a born-again Christian than give two shits about animal rights. So when he told me, over a plate of enchiladas at Gracias Madre, that he "didn't think it was right, the way we exploit animals," I nearly fell out of my chair. I couldn't believe it. I still can't really believe it. But I'm really happy about it.

It will come as a shock to exactly no one that sometimes baking is a struggle. Sometimes a recipe just doesn't work, or your oven cooks things too unevenly (ahem), or you forget a crucial ingredient, or the ingredient you need is just too damn expensive. So, no photos today, no recipe.

Yesterday I attempted to veganize look I made that!'s strawberry cake and it was a disaster from start to finish. I should have known when, while reading the recipe, I thought: "This might be above my skill level."

It certainly was. As soon as it came out of the oven I knew it was a dud. After I frosted it (why did I bother?) Michael gamely tried it and pretended to like it. Kind soul, that one. It was too dense, the flavor was off, hadn't cooked all the way through, the frosting was too tart, and the taste of almond extract too strong. I frosted that cake, took a bite, and cried about it.

I watched some funny animal videos on youtube and felt better. But the memory of that terrible cake continues to haunt me (as do the dishes it generated.)

I'll try it again someday.