procrastination (er, study) cookie(s)

It's finals time! Ugh. One more week until I get to go home! Basically all I have left are two papers and one presentation, so it shouldn't be too bad. Unfortunately, I'm having an awfully hard time motivating myself.


One cookie is pictured. Many were eaten.

I need sugar to work, and since we're low on flour I made oatmeal cookies (these cookies). And because I felt like they needed more sugar, I made them oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Yay! This is why I like baking. It's good for procrastinating, but it also yields morsels of yumminess which improve the studying. Therefore I feel like my little baking foray doesn't really count as procrastination because it was productive. Right? Yeah, this is how I justify things to myself. Wish me luck!

beginning to look a lot like xmas ...

As much as I would like to get all Christmas-y and go to town on decorating this apartment, it just ain't really worth it since most of us are going home for the holidays. Also, it's finals time so I need to be focusing on school stuff. But ... I did manage to hang my stocking on my door. Yay!


For scale, the stocking's only about six inches tall. And those weird shadows are due to the weird configuration of lighting fixtures in my room. There's a little Christmas tree in our living room, so I guess that counts. Oh well, it ain't much but it's in the right spirit.

happy thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Yum yum, turkey time! I'm actually at a friend's house in Connecticut, and I'm going to experience my first ever truly American Thanksgiving. Excitingness. Sure I've had the turkey and the mashed potatoes before, but in a Chinese household ... Thanksgiving isn't very traditional ... and sometimes includes duck instead of turkey. Heh.


I hope everyone has a good holiday! Don't eat too too much! And try not to get trampled tomorrow, okay?

really non-mexican tacos

I've been fairly busy lately (and still sick) so I haven't been very crafty and I haven't been making much food either. For instance, my lunch today consisted of crackers and juice. But I actually put a bit of effort into tonight's dinner! I basically survived college by eating everything in a tortilla since I can't really cook. Usually my meals involve simple reheating, a box, or a can. Eh.


I made myself some soft tacos with chicken sausage, mashed potatoes, corn, and shredded mozzarella. They were delicious. My roomies think I'm weird and I'm sure other people out there are wrinkling their noses at me, but hey - I never said I was normal!

If you're thinking: Where are the fruits and veggies? Well, the honest answer is that there are none. Nutrition-wise, I'm horrible. Not a big fan of healthy things. By no means am I suggesting that this would be a well-rounded meal for someone (unless you had a side of veggies). As one of my roommates put it, for me, the food pyramid is more of an hourglass shape, heavy on the carbs and sugar and sparse on everything else. I should probably get my cholesterol tested.

starting on xmas cards

I like to make my own cards for Christmas because I feel like there are very few good ones out there that are unique but simple enough for my taste. And cheap enough for my budget. I'm currently experimenting, so I'm not sure what I'm going to end up with, but it'll probably just be black ink on white card stock, with maybe some added ribbon ... maybe.


I really want it to have a modern, simple look, where the typography takes precedence. Hm ... I'll have to play around more with it. I don't want it to be too boring, but if I'm making a whole buncha cards, I couldn't go too complicated either. Any suggestions?

I'll just shelve this for a while until I figure out something I'm completely satisfied with. After all, I still have over a month to make and write these cards!

life of a carrot cake

One of my roommates (roomie I) had her birthday a few days ago so the rest of us decided to make a carrot cake for her. Fun times in our apartment! We used this recipe that I had used before except without pecans, and currants instead of raisins. After some carpal-tunnel-inducing carrot grating (thanks to roomie J and myself), we got the batter together.


It baked up pretty nice, but the darned thing wouldn't come out of the bundt cake pan even after I banged on it for forever.


However, it eventually did come out thanks to roomie D and a knife, and roomie D then whipped up the icing and sprinkled it all nicely with Halloween sprinkles. Cute, eh?


It was yummy. It got devoured pretty fast, leaving only a little bit for the fridge.


After the above picture was taken, roomie J opened the fridge (which isn't very organized) and the cake came tumbling out. Sad. So yep, the rest of it basically ended up in the trash.

Thus ends the story of this carrot cake's life. We still have extra carrots left, so carrot cake #2 might be on its way soon. Because it was yummy.

glass jar + paint = jar-o'-lantern

A while ago I had seen this Martha Stewart project for Jar-o'-Lanterns and I thought, I got jars and I could easily get paint. So voila.


I decided to make my little jar-o'-lantern be a happy little guy, so I just freehand drew his face on with a permanent marker and let it sit so the marker would dry. Then I headed down to Michael's to buy orange paint. I probably should've gone with the recommended oil-based enamel paint ... but the orange acrylic was cheaper. And whatever, it looks fine. Oh, and the wire was just some normal silver 16-guage I picked up at the local hardware store. Simple and cheap - why does Martha have to make it seem so much more complicated?


Right now I've got him on our table in the living room, hanging out with our plastic pumpkin (filled with chocolate) and our real pumpkin (which is waiting anxiously to get carved). Now if only I can find some green ribbon to tie onto the silver wire, I'd be completely satisfied with it. In total, I only spent about $4 for the project since I only had to buy paint and wire. Yay!

cinnamon swirl bread success

Woot! I finally got around to making bread in the bread machine AND remembering to take pictures. I got a Cuisinart bread machine when I first moved to New York and I've been making the cinnamon swirl bread that's in their recipe book. Pretty yummy.


I've been making the 1.5-pound loaves, and it basically fills up the entire thing, so I don't know how this thing is supposed to make a 2-pound loaf (although it's an option). It's just so easy, I love it. Back in Texas when I made bread by hand I always had trouble getting it to rise correctly, but never once had a problem here. I have a jar of yeast and a whole thing of vital wheat gluten, but goodness gracious flour goes fast.


This time the swirls came out better than the last time, but since we don't have a rolling pin, it's not too perfect. Plus, more cinnamon sugar would be better because ... there should always be more cinnamon sugar.


I made the bread as a procrastination tool while writing a paper. And whaddaya know? It makes a great breakfast paired with coffee after an all-nighter! Woot! This slice was further down into the loaf so the swirls are way different. Must had "rolling pin" to the list of stuff to buy.

More bread needs to be made though, because two days after getting baked, it's almost gone. Sadness. On the other hand, the paper got done and even though it wasn't the best, it got done. Now I just need to get going and start all my other assignments.

line squiggles

I've been procrastinating again ... just a bit. I still need to do readings for class, I still need to go through and print photos from last year, and I still need to do laundry. On the other hand, I've gotten back into line drawing and short story writing. Yeah ... it's productive in a not-very-productive sort of way.


I did some shopping for craft supplies today, so I have a few things in the works for Halloween coming up which will be quite fun. I've also been working with my bread machine and it's making some yummy stuff, which is also good. Now if only I could get to be as excited about reading architectural theory, I'd be set.

getting back into the swing

So ... I'm pretty much settled in by now. I moved in about one month ago and my room is pretty much set up, but I might buy a few more things in the upcoming weeks. Graduate school is really quite time consuming, not with busy work assignments like in undergraduate, but there are so many readings to do for each class that it takes a lot of effort to keep on top of them all. Two weeks in and I'm already not doing too well at that.

I'm not too fond of how my room looks decoration-wise, but it'll slowly get there. I like to keep myself busy with little crafts and tasks to give myself something to do when I need a break from all the reading. I'm currently working on a short story for a challenge swap, and the other day I bought two canvases (really cheaply from Michaels) and I want to do some kind of ink drawing on them. We'll see. I need to get some photos printed out ... which I've been saying for the last month.


Back in Austin I had a shelf that was devoted to clear glass bottles, and I've started doing the same to my windowsill here. I hate throwing away bottles, and I like the look of them when they're all different sizes and the light hits them. When there get to be too many I'll recycle them, but for now they're creating a little family on the sill.

Ugh ... alrighty then, I guess I should get back to reading now. From now on, if you see a post from me, you can go ahead and assume I'm procrastinating, so feel free to chide me back into being a responsible student.

i'm back! (sort of)

My last real post on this blog was over a year ago. Whups. Anyway, I’m back from my adventure in China and I’m settling into college life again, only this time it’s graduate school and it’s New York now. What a change, eh? Unfortunately I couldn’t bring much stuff, so my crafting stuff is rather minimal at the moment. And by minimal, I mean bare minimum. Yikes. I’m going to have to seriously restrain myself from going on a shopping spree at Michaels to replenish my craft stash.