Drunk Octopus

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

w/ mint buttercream

I used this recipe from Simply Recipes because I preferred the arrangement of ingredients to other chocolate mint recipes i could find. 4 ounces of dark chocolate played a key role in the deliciousness.

It was the perfect opportunity to make use of the overgrowing mint in my indoor herb garden... but strictly for decor, peppermint extract was used for taste.

As is mentioned on the Simply Recipes post, these taste just like thin mints. I'm personally not a big fan of peppermint, but I know others are so this was my choice contribution for a recent BBQ/party. Even for a mint-disliker such as myself, I thoroughly enjoyed these and would make them again. 

Utensil Jewelry

This is a lovely bracelet/bangle I bought in Copacabana, Bolivia. It was once a fork! The metal is heated and shaped with pliers then the embelishments are soldered on. 

Competition

I keep Kitty on a leash

Strawberry Flower Cupcakes

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream

Yet another Martha Stewart recipe. These are my favorite of all the cupcakes I've made... 

Instead of using finely chopped strawberries, I purree'd them. They tasted like Strawberry Shortcake and were very moist. 

I used a large petal cake tip for the frosting to make the flower tops. Making flower tops on cupcakes is pretty neat because you can rotate the cupcake as you would a flower nail and work pretty quickly. Just youtube 'flower cupcake' and youll find plenty of inspiration for flower cupcake decorating. 

Sushi at Home

I made sushi.

It was my first time.

It turned out pretty deliciously.

Anything you put in sushi pretty much tastes good, so I think the rice is the key to real success. Unfortunately I can't rememeber which recipe I used.. I just googled one. But having freshly/properly prepared sticky rice that has never been refrigerated makes a big difference.

There's nowhere around here to get sushi grade salmon (my favorite) so I used smoked salmon.. very delicious none the less. I also used cucumber, tamago (sweet egg omelet), avocado, cream cheese, shrimp, crab meat, and sesame seeds. I ate all this in about 2 days.

Red Velvet Cake with Berries

... and cream cheese frosting of course.

I learned some interesting things about Red Velvet during the preparatory research for the making of this cake. I had never made one or even tasted one before and I wanted to know what all the hype was about. When I started to read through recipes I was unimpressed with the list of ingredients. None of them seemed like they would provide any spectacular flavours or unusual elements that couldn't be found in a standard chocolate or vanilla cake (except buttermilk.. that makes things taste pretty good sometimes). So I did a little more investigating.

What I learned is that back in the day, the reddish colour was the result of a reaction between cocoa powder and an acidic ingredient like vinegar or buttermilk. Nowadays we usually use a more processed form of cocoa powder and the reaction isn't enough to produce the same red it used to... hence the red food colouring in many recipes. Apparently many people used to use beets to boost the colour as well.

All in all I was expecting more. I feel like the red food colouring is cheating... and may also be a mind trick that makes people think they're eating something more remarkable than it really is.

Or perhaps my cake just didn't cut it and I still don't know what I'm missing!

Silly Seagull

This silly seagull was at my workplace this summer - she decided to make her nest in a parking lot, next to the entrance of the office building. I don't think she realized what she was getting into at the time.. there were people going in and out of the office constantly and I'm sure she felt threatened. Some of the guys were nice enough to make this wooden shelter for her. Unfortunately I don't think any of her eggs hatched :'(

My Specialty is Roofing

hahaha

Knitted Slouchy Hat

This is a bi-colored slouchy hat.

It's made of an alpaca wool blend.

I didn't really follow a specific pattern, just an eHow article on how to knit slouchy hats. I attempted to determine my gauge and calculate how many stitches I should need. Apparently I miscalculated because it ended up wayy too big. I thought of trying to felt it to make it smaller but that probably wouldn't have worked since it's not pure wool. I eventually sewed a seam down one side (what a shame) to make it fit.

Once complete I knitted this little flap into the brim. I didn't like how thick the tab was so I removed it and made a new smaller tab which you see in the first picture.

My Bicycle

This is my bicycle. It's a Specialized Stumpjumper.

My Motorcycle

This is my motorcycle. It's a Suzuki GS 500.

Clay Trout Tray?

I made this clay Rainbow Trout for a friend. It's supposed to be a dish/tray of sorts.. although may have been better off as a wall-hanger. 

I tried all sorts of objects to prop it up accordingly, in an attempt to maintain the 'tray' shape while drying: jewelry gift boxes, spoons, toothbrush cases, wooden ladle, the list goes on. I think this was the hardest part.. in the process, one of the fins broke. I had to reattach it with more clay.  It worked, but barely.

I used the Oven Craft type clay, as I don't have access to a kiln. I've used it before and it works well for my purposes. When it was finished baking I painted it with watered down acrylic paint so the terra cotta color would show through (complete with silver wash for a fishy sheen). After painting, i put a coat of clear glaze on top. I used the shiny kind as I thought it might look more like real ceramic glaze... but I was wrong. In the future I will use the pearl finish glaze. The circular globs on the underside are intended to help prop the fish up into it's tray shape once solidified and displayed (again, the most complicated part). 

Some day I will try my hand at more abstract clay shapes.

Felt Flower Brooch

This felt flower brooch tutorial was created by Meagan Reardon of Not Martha. It's a fairly quick and easy project that can make great gifts!  Below is a photo log of my progress... 

Different from Meagan's tutorial, I used a glue gun instead of Fabri-Tac and I think it worked well. It leads to a little more clean up at the end due to glue threads everywhere.. but for the sake of speeding up the process it's worth it. 

I plan on trying this out again with smaller petals and different colors to make a more dainty brooch or fridge magnet!

Crayon Art

It's getting harder to hide the fact that I love rainbows.

I had seen versions of this project on a few blogs and knew instantly that I had to have one of my own. Here it is.. a Crayon masterpiece. 

I was hoping I could arrange the crayons in a way that represents the visible spectrum of light. This is the prettiest and most rational arrangement IMO. It's a little tricky though because the crayons are not arranged in the box this way.. and the color of the crayon wax itself is quite misleading. A dark colored wax does not necessarily produce a dark colored marking on paper. So I had to test all of them before deciding on the best arrangement. I also had to reject the colors that didnt fit into the spectrum (except a few pinks obviously)

Rejects.

Once the arrangement is established, the crayons are placed on the canvas to see how many can fit.

Then they must be glued in place. I decided to leave a space on either side of the crayon train to allow room for diagonal drips. I used a glue gun - I'm not sure if there are more suitable options out there or not. Glue gun glue doesn't seem to stick to canvas (or other smooth-ish things) very well and I suspect repairs may be in order some day.  

Then I put it in the oven, half a canvas at a time because the whole thing wouldnt fit. It's a tiny oven. I wasn't sure if it would work.. but it did! the crayons melted quickly, then I took the canvas out and held it upright so the melted wax would drip.

drip drip.

While we're on the topic of rainbows...

These photos (clickable to original sources) are of a real life tree! I just found out about this today and was angry that it hadn't been brought to my attention earlier. Clearly this is the most beautiful tree in the world, and is called Eucalyptus Deglupta. In a nutshell, the bark is shed periodically and reveals bright green inner bark. As it matures, the color changes to blue, purple, orange, and maroon (thanks wikipedia). Shockingly, this tree is cultivated mostly for pulpwood to make paper. I can only assume that these colors don't preserve well, otherwise i would build my entire house with it. 

Internal Rainbow Cupcakes

These are Coconut Cupcakes made from a Martha Stewart recipe. They turned out delicious - I've made several of Martha's cupcakes and love them all. Part way through the recipe I realized it might be a good opportunity to test out rainbow cake effects for the first time. 

I used liquid food coloring (I've used it in the past because it's cheap but I've since moved on to the gel-type, it's the only way to go when you want concentrated colors without changing the consistency of your frosting/batter). Next I separated the batter into five bowls and colored them accordingly. It's easy to scoop the separate colors into the pan; the batter is thick enough that they stay separate. Last I sprinkled rainbow sugar confetti on them prior to baking. 

I can't say that I'm very happy with how they look from the top - next time I'll frost them instead (which would also benefit by keeping the rainbow a surprise until eating time)

Thanks to my friend Brian, the fantastic hand model, for this display

Nice huh! I guarantee this will not be the last time rainbow cake visits my kitchen.

Pet Faceoff

These are my pets, Kitty & Snake.

Kitty is a 6 year old tabby cat, and Snake is an ~8 year old Corn Snake.

I've loved reptiles (and all other creatures) since I was a child. When I realized it was possible to have a pet snake that required very little equipment and special care I jumped on the idea. I got him when he was 3 years old and have had him for 5. Many snakes live for 20 years! He's a pretty timid snake and likes to hide in boxes.

I've had Kitty since she was 8 weeks old. She normally prefers to be the only cat on the premises and has a history of jealousy. She is great with humans though and very affectionate. She is primarily an indoor cat but loves exploring the outdoors and eating grass as often as possible. She could also probably stand to lose a pound or two.