-
Photo Fun Day Friday (on a Monday)
I realize it is Monday and I am a few days late on my Photo Fun Day Friday, but with my sister visiting, I wanted to keep all the photos for one big post and I also didn’t want to be a slave to my computer while she was here. We had an amazing time together and we got to show her all around! It was soo much fun, I just wish it didn’t go so fast and I wish I knew when I would be seeing her again! That’s the worst part of moving away from your family 🙁 My parents will be here in just over 3 weeks though, so we get another amazing week of family time coming very soon!
Our favorite house guest, Lucy! How cute is she?
Our newest art print – Goin’ to the Beach – can you tell we have already been inspired by our surroundings?
Our Mad Men inspired print, You’re a Marilyn or a Jackie, recently reprinted and rereleased.
Our booth at Unique LA last weekend. Brand new design, constructed completely out of recycled wood pallets.
Seri and her favorite Auntie, my sister, Vicky! So so happy she came to see us for almost an entire week! Just wish she didn’t have to go 🙁 Her trip went way too fast.
Cocktail on a rooftop in Venice Beach.
Look at that view.
The skate park in Venice Beach.
Sunset over Santa Monica.
Vicky on the Santa Monica pier.
The old crew back together again!
Beach day in Laguna Beach. So beautiful there.
Our matching “Seester” tattoos!
Hosting a little giveaway over on the Tasty Yummies Facebook page to celebrate 4,000 likes!! Go enter now, I am selecting the winner, at random, tonight.
Vicky’s first trip to Disneyland!
Space Mountain. Love Summer in the back, ha!
An update on our little hummingbird nest that is cozied up in our grape vines. Look at that tiny little beak.
Mark looking all dapper over a virgin tiki drink at Don the Beachcomber.
Sharing a Scorpion Bowl at Don the Beachcomber on Vicky’s last night!
Long Beach Pride Parade yesterday. What an incredible event. So amazing! -
Photo Fun Day Friday
Happy Friday Guys! I hope you had a fantastic week. It’s been a fun and busy one over here. We are gearing up for a big show this weekend, Unique LA, which is a huge amazing show featuring all things handmade. If you are in the LA area you have to check it out, it’s an amazing show. We are booth # 258 – Hero Design Studio. We designed a whole new booth for this show, constructed completely out of recycled wood pallets. I cannot wait to see it all constructed and completed.
On top of getting ready for the show, we are also counting down the days until my sister Vicky arrives here in California for a visit. She gets here Monday and I couldn’t be any more excited!! She is here 6 days and I cannot wait to show her around, take her to Disney and just hang out!
What do you have planned for your weekend?
Had to get a bottle of this for our Kentucky Derby party last Saturday.
Jalapeño cornbread mini muffins. I kinda made the recipe up on the fly but here are two other cornbread muffin recipes here on the blog. Cheddar and green onion cornbread and vegan cornbread muffins.
It is rare that you will spot bacon in my kitchen. It’s almost like spotting a unicorn. I bought some yummy organic applewood smoked bacon that I baked until crispy for the hot browns and it made the kitchen smell amazing.
A black-eyed pea salad inspired by this recipe, an effort to bring something healthy to the Derby menu.
Grain-free apple cobbler. I used my berry cobbler recipe and subbed out the berries for some yummy granny smith apples.
The assembly line for the Hot Brown Sandwiches. I made the sauce gluten-free, just so I could taste it to make sure it was OK, but otherwise I made these ALL for Mark.
Look at this beauty! She was sitting there when I was photographing food, posing like this.
I rolled over the other morning and woke up to this little face staring back at me from the other side of my pillow.
Playing some arm balances in my home yoga practice the other day. This is Eka Pada Koundinyasana I. It isn’t perfect, but I am working on it.
Toast with avocado, tomato slices and sprouts. The perfect breakfast.
My cucumbers are growing like crazy. I have a huge row of them. I planted these from seeds just a week and a half before I took this photo. It’s incredible.
Since we didn’t have a CSA this week, I took the bike for it’s first trip to the farmers market. Likely the first of many.
Yesterday’s post-run smoothie. Recipe can be found on my instagram.
Hubby surprised me last night with reservations to Carthay Circle Restaurant at Disneyland. Sunday marks 10 years since our first (blind) day and 6 years since we got married.
Disney is just so darn magical. Gets me every time. -
Photo Fun Day Friday
Happy Friday!! This week flew by for me, how about you? Got anything fun planned for the weekend? Hubby is originally from Louisville, so we are celebrating the Kentucky Derby tomorrow, as we do every year, but this year we can actually host a little party at our new home. We are so excited.
I plan to make a bunch of food that reminds Mark of home, most of which I cannot eat myself, but I definitely don’t mind one bit. I think Mark actually gets more homesick this time of year than at the holidays. It is such a big deal there. So I plan to make some Hot Brown Sandwiches, a black-eyed pea salad, pimento cheese dip, jalapeño cornbread, deviled eggs, apple cobbler and a bourbon pecan tart and of course mint juleps. Then we are picking up some homemade fried chicken from the market at the corner. Depending on how all the cooking and baking goes I will try to share some of the recipes on here, afterward. But I make no promises!
An update on our banana tree. Look at all those bananas. I cannot wait to eat some.
Some of the beautiful roses from our yard.
Having a home yoga practice means sometimes you get a little kitty in your down dog.
And sometimes your mat gets taken over by a real dog.
Mark was in San Francisco for a few days for work and Seri really missed him. She wouldn’t leave his side when he got home.
Tried running on the beach this week since I have been having a little knee pain. It felt really great on my knees and my back.
Discovered the most teeny tiny adorable hummingbird nest, cozied up in our grapevines. It is barely 2″ wide. If that. Incredible.
Had a growler of local organic grapefruit kombucha delivered by bike from local husband and wife company, Fine Feathers Kombucha. I just adore where I live.
I *think* I found what I was looking for on yesterday’s run. I KNOW that Seri did. Look how happy she is
Went to the doctors yesterday for the first time in over a year. It really is the one place in the whole wide world that can give me anxiety as soon as I walk in. I really don’t like doctors.
-
Photo Fun Day Friday
In switching to a new hosting company last week, I had to skip out on Photo Fun Day Friday, so there are lots of pics this week! However, I have to tell you about how very excited I am about my new hosting company. I am now working with Pair Networks out of Pittsburgh, PA after a not so desirable run with another company. What really drew me to this company is their commitment to sustainable business practices and their environmental policies. All of pair Networks’ operations, including data centers, support operations, development labs, administrative facilities, and employee commutes & business travel are 100% Carbon Neutral. Additionally, pair Networks is powered by 100% renewable energy.
I urge you to check out Pair Networks and consider switching your hosting, if you are in the market. Their customer service has been amazing and they respond to all of my questions in a very timely matter, even with the 3 hours time difference. (I actually received a personal response to an email from them on a Friday night at 10pm, their time). They aren’t sponsoring me to say all of this, I am just very happy with their service so far and after being quite unhappy with my last company I know there are a lot of not so great companies in that industry, so I thought I would share.
OK, on to the photos. I first wanted to share with you, my two brand-new promo photos – aka “head shots” (that sounds so fancy) that you might have noticed here on the site. These were taken by the very talented Luke Copping, in Buffalo NY, shortly before we moved out here to So Cal. It was high time I got some pro photos for the site, for press mentions, etc and it was a really fun excuse to get my makeup done (thanks Shianne at Fawn and Fox) and feel good about myself. We also got some photos taken of Mark and I for Hero Design Studio. So happy to have some great professional photos of us, not from our wedding day! Thanks again, Luke!
OK now here’s quality you are used to – all the non-pro pics I took over the last two weeks 😉
I am in love with all the roses growing in our yard. The fragrance from this particular variety is amazing. Just cut some yesterday to bring into the house and they smell heavenly.
Jpeg enjoying his time with his daddy.
We are in full festival mode over here. We set up at the Rose Bowl Flea two weekends ago and it was great! Cannot wait to go back.
The Hero Booth at the Rose Bowl Flea.
With a 3:30 am wake up call, I of course brought some Vigilant Eats Superfood Cereal with me to the event and it was perfect. I LOVE that stuff.
Me workin’ the booth!
After working all weekend, you know we had to take a day off and head to Disneyland. Yay annual passes!!
Lettuce (and other greens) wraps have been my jam lately. I have been putting everything in them.
This is our banana tree!! I cannot even believe I have a banana tree!
When we moved to California we sold our second car with plans of buying bikes to replace it. Finally got around to doing that and it has been awesome!! I have been biking everywhere. My favorite has been cycling to the ocean for my morning run, then back home. Such an enjoyable workout.
All I have to do is sit for a minute and Seri can find a home on or near me.
Went to a Shabu Shabu restaurant here and I am officially obsessed!! Love that it is vegan/gluten-free friendly, too.
I am pretty obsessed with this delicious organic kombucha made by husband and wife companyFine Feathers Co., here in Long Beach. They make all of their deliveries around town on bike!
Some mornings this baby makes getting up nearly impossible.
I made some loquat simple syrup with some of the many loquats growing on my tree. So delicious in sparkling water.
Veggie fried rice inspired by Jeanette’s Healthy Living.
Hubs skateboarding.
Even standing on a skateboard terrifies me. Yoga or die! 😉
The view on our morning bike ride the other day, Naples Island.
Soo very happy to have a family face visit us yesterday! Jane came for a quick visit yesterday, so I made a bit pot of Avgolemeno Soup for her. It’s her favorite.
This is what happens when Seri and I go on a walk. She just wants to lay in my lap on the grass and take it all in. She sat here forever just watching everything going on. I love it.
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!
Got anything fun planned?
-
Photo Fun Day Friday
After some serious down time on the website yesterday (so sorry if you were unable to get the site to load if you came here) and not being able to log in to the back side of my and post anything for the first half of today, I am so happy to be here and happy to be sharing some photos from the last week.
We have a busy work filled weekend ahead, but then we are taking a couple days off at the start of next week that we are planning to fill with some fun adventures. What do you have planned for this weekend?
This house of ours gets incredible light. It shines in every morning so perfectly right as we are waking up.
Got up early over the weekend so I started a fire and then made some grain-free banana chocolate chip muffins over the weekend using this recipe. Instead of strawberries and basil I added in two mashed ripe bananas (added a bit more almond flour), some cinnamon and some mini dark chocolate chips.
How beautiful is this juice? My post run juice Monday morning – orange, beet, carrot, ginger and strawberry. The photo hardly even does it justice.
I adore this cat.
Got our first CSA since moving out here. Until my veggie garden is in full effect, this is the way to go. All this for just $15 and certified organic.
I am still totally amazed that this is where I live now. Feels like perpetual vacation.
A new donation-based yoga studio opened here in Long Beach, Yogalution Movement and Ayurveda. I’ve been to several of their classes, it’s been great!
While obsessively trying to perfect a cookie recipe, I inadvertently didn’t eat or make dinner. So spicy chipotle stove-top popcorn was the answer.
I love getting texts from my 3-year old niece, Teagan.
In cleaning off some of the photos on my phone, I realized I never shared the two new tattoos I got just before I left Buffalo. First this “Seester” tattoo that both my sister Vicky and I got matching.
And of course I needed a little something to represent my hometown! B U F F A L O
We went to the opening party last night, for a new business in Santa Ana called Best Wines Online, where our very good friend Patrick is working. Drank wine and spent time with our good friends. Actually got a nice photo of the two of us out of the deal, this was before I splashed red wine on my ivory lace dress. Weee! -
Photo Fun Day Friday
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Photo Fun Day Friday. It’s not that there was a lack of photos to share, I actually have taken so many photos since moving here to California. I just keep forgetting to put some together to share. Life has been pretty great here so far, I still kinda cannot believe this is where I live. It feels like perpetual vacation. I love it. I still hope to get some photos of the house posted to share with you guys, just have to wrap up some of the details leftover from moving in. It’s really feeling like home though.
So hopefully I am back at the Friday posts happening regularly and hopefully you guys enjoy!
Our fig tree is starting to do it’s thing and the tiniest little baby figs are starting to sprout and form. I cannot wait.
Looks like living in California only one month has already started to affect my work. This is a quick sketch for a project we are working on.
Almond flour waffle for one. Pretty excited with this recipe. Look for it on the blog this week!
Not the best photo, but the Vegi Bowl from Hole Mole might be my new obsession. I am not one for most fast food/take out places but this place has tons of gluten-free/vegan options. This bowl is loaded with fajita-stlye veggies, rice (I go super light with rice), beans and then I skip on cheese and add guacamole. Only $3.99! What?
Prepping and packaging some greeting cards last week for an event we did in Ventura.
Look at these two. Jpeg and Seri.
Gotten quite into running since moving here. Treated myself to a new pair of running shoes and it has made a huge difference already.
Working on taking my handstand away from the wall. I can hold it without the support of the wall, but I am still too fearful to pike or kick up without knowing the wall is behind me. Someday.
A recipe I have been playing with for gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free coconut macaroons. Don’t worry I will be sharing the recipe soon!
Made a big pot of classic Greek avgolemono soup on Easter Sunday to remind me of my family. First holiday away.
A snail friend I came across on my run the other day.
My little baby, Seri, cuddling in the morning.
Zucchini pasta. My favorite lunch lately.
Every morning and every evening at Sunset there is a donation-based yoga class on the bluffs here in Long Beach. Amazing views and so serene.
Us at Disneyland.
Small World at Disneyland. My favorite.
Disneyland.
Simmered fresh pink grapefruit and rosemary for an all-natural room freshener. Smelled amazing.
If you eat peanut butter (or any nut or seed butter for that matter) in this house, this face will ALWAYS be in yours.
Yesterday’s delicious post run juice. Orange, ginger, apple, celery, green bell pepper and strawberries. So good.
New Ganeshsa shirt. Love it.
The first fruit from our trees here at the new house. Loquats. First time trying them, they are amazing. -
Photo Fun Day Friday – Cross Country Move Edition
[imagebrowser id=1]This is a unique Photo Fun Day Friday for many reasons. First it is my first post from our new home here in Long Beach, California and secondly, it is a TON of photos (long overdue, I might add). We left Buffalo on Saturday, February 23, nearly two weeks ago for our cross-country move to Long Beach, CA. It was 7 long days of driving with lots of fun, adventures and unplanned stops along the way due to weather. We had to change up our original route due to Winter Storm Rocky, but we made it here safe and sound last Friday. We have been unpacking like crazy and trying to get this place all set up to feel like home, so we could get back to work asap! I got my kitchen unpacked earlier this week and I have NEVER been happier to see my stuff. It had been packed up since around January 5th! I have already made quite a few trips to various grocery stores and a farmers market to get all stocked up. I finally cooked my first real meal for us last night (I made a version of my Thai Chicken Soup) after lots of take out, salads, sandwiches and snacks all week long. Tonight I am even hosting our first dinner here, with our friends Patrick and Summer. I cannot wait, this house was made for entertaining.
Once we are a bit more settled, I plan to do a fun photo post to give you a tour of the new house and neighborhood, so look for that soon. Wait until you guys hear about all of my fruit trees and the farmers marker in walking distance. I am dying! In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the photos from our road trip, I decided to go with a gallery this time so make it a bit easier to view. I know it isn’t perfect, the photos are all taken on an iPhone (since my SLR was safely packed away) and some view a little large for the page, but it works (I hope).
Oh and don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about the yummies!! I hope to get back to the recipes in the next week or so, and I also have some fun product reviews and other goodness for you guys. So stay tuned. Thanks for your patience in this transitional time for me, it was great reading all of the comments both here and on Facebook. I cannot wait to get back to creating in the kitchen and sharing my recipes!!
Here are all photos from above as thumbs, so you can pick and choose what you’d like to see larger. In case you don’t wanna page through them all.
[nggallery id=1] -
Photo Fun Day Friday
We are back in Buffalo temporarily, we got back from California late Wednesday night. We are now wrapping up all the loose ends before we blast off a week from tomorrow, next Saturday February 23rd! I kinda cannot believe we are leaving in 8 days already. Gosh, even though we have been planning this move for over a year and a half, it still seems like it snuck up on me. All of these photos are from our time in California! We have a fun weekend planned with a final poster sale here in Buffalo at the Town Ballroom tomorrow 11am-5pm (if you are in Buffalo and around tomorrow, feel free to come out – the sale is free to attend and open to the public). Then we have going away party in the evening and a fun family dinner Sunday night! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Me and my buddy Winslow.
Vegan Gelato from Paradis in Long Beach.
We went to the Stanley Kubrick show at LACMA. This cutlery is an original prop from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Grady Sisters outfits from The Shining.
We went to the Rose Bowl Flea on Sunday. That thing is HUGE!
A cool vintage French cooking print. Wish I had the room for this.
Our good friend Patrick and my hubby, Mark.
We are officially Californians. We got our Disneyland Annual Passports.
The magical princess castle at Disneyland.
The new Radiator Springs ride in Carsland inside of California Adventure.
My boozy shrunken zombie head drink at Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar. You KNOW I bought that mug.
Mark, Me, Summer and Patrick.
Our new west coast abode! Cannot wait to get out there and start making it home!
-
Photo Fun Day Friday
Hey guys, it’s a Photo Fun Day Friday from the road. We are in California until next Wednesday. We flew out here to find our new home and we gave ourselves 8 days to do it. If you can believe it, we fell in love and found a place on Day 1. It was the second place we looked at. It is perfection. I cannot wait to show more photos. So now, we get to enjoy the rest of our trip here. I think we are even going to squeeze in a trip to Disneyland on Monday! We are so excited to have some time to spend with our friends out here and get to know what is soon going to be our new home. Just three short weeks.
Here’s a few photos from the last week. Some from Buffalo and some from here in Long Beach.
Teagan helping me bake a batch of my chocolate chip cookie bars.
Seri longingly looking out the window on another snowy day. Dreaming of the park.
Went to a Sabres game in a suite on Sunday with our friends, Anjuli, Dana, JP and my sister Vicky. They may have lost but it was an awesome time. Also, FYI they have gluten-free beer at the arena. The bar at the Harbour Club for sure stocks it, not sure about anywhere else.
.
I stocked u on some healthy goodies for the flights and our time out here.
Succulents and sunshine. Love you California.
I went to a farmers market in February and stocked up on veggies. I cannot even believe it. Those blood oranges are to die for.
A quick snap shot of the living room and dining room area of our new house. Look at that fireplace, all the natural light, those built-ins on the right, etc. It is seriously to die for. By the way, there are a ton of fruit trees in the large yard. Orange, peach, plum, avocado, fig, banana and there are grape vines. Are you kidding me???
Oh and look at the kitchen. Newly updated, lots of storage and countertop space, etc. I am in heaven.
The front!! That deck is huge by the way!! Can’t wait to share more photos soon.
-
Photo Fun Day Friday
It has been another crazy week. Time is just flying by right now, it is insane. I wish I could slow it all down. We have just been busting our bums getting everything in order for the move and our trip out to California this upcoming week, to find a place to live. On top of all of that, I have been dealing with some nasty back stuff. It has been a huge inconvenience and it could’t have come at a worse time. Which is why I am sure it came at all. It started by me picking up the dog over and over two weekends ago when she injured her paw. First it was a small muscle spasm and ache, then silly me went to yoga, over did and next thing you know I am in full on disc related pain again. Booo! I have been seeing my amazing chiropractor and massage therapist like crazy, I attended a myofascial release/yoga workshop, I am icing, stretching, rolling, etc. It just doesn’t wanna get better as quickly as I wish it would. I am trying to stay positive and not let it get me down, but missing my last few weeks at my beloved yoga studio surrounded by so many amazing people has really made it hard. I go there as an escape and as a way to find myself on my mat. I think that may be the hardest part of being injured is losing that part of my self temporarily.
At any rate, I am sure I will be back at it soon enough. In the meantime, I have been doing everything I can do make the recovery process go as smoothly as it possibly can.
I hope you have all been well and have an amazing weekend. We have a lot planned, but I am looking forward to all of it.
Our sweet little Seri falls asleep many nights, with her bed in her mouth, kneading. It is heartbreaking,
The perfect way to start the day. A hot fire, hot lemon water and a little yoga. I am still nursing this back injury from over a week ago, but taking it easy with some light yoga every day.
Got my makeup done for our Hero / Tasty Yummies photo shoot with Luke Copping on Saturday. Wish I could have someone around to do my makeup daily.
My handsome hubby!
Me on set getting some shots for Tasty Yummies. So excited to finally have some professional photos of us for both our business and for myself for this site. Can’t wait to share!
A quick iPhone snap of us at Victory Studios with Luke Copping.
Charring onions and ginger for some homemade pho.
The pho stock simmering all day long.
My beautifully vibrant lunch from Betty’s on Weds. Roasted beets, shaved fennel, goat cheese, orange sections and lots of greens with a ginger orange vinaigrette. It was incredible.
It was 65 degrees on here in Buffalo on Wednesday so Seri and I took a nice long, and much needed walk together.
Took my Seri
-
Photo Fun Day Friday
Well, I am sure you’ve noticed, but it’s been a while since I’ve shared photos as part of my Photo Fun Day Friday series. It wasn’t a conscious choice, but life has just been a bit crazy and more-so just generally out of sorts. After the holidays ended, we were immediately in full-on moving mode and we have just been going non-stop ever since. Here is a just a quick abbreviated visual synopsis of the last month or so. Things are going well over here, we fly out in less than 2 weeks to California to find a place to live in Long Beach, then we fly back to Buffalo pack our car up, grab the dog and hit the road to drive across the good ‘ol US of A! We cannot wait.
Our gift to my parent’s this year. A family photo session! We had the shoot this past weekend and it was so much fun! Can’t wait to share some of the photos. Such a fun thing to do before we leave town and I will be so happy to have some really nice photos of my family throughout our new home.
One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year. A ganesha statue from my Mom and Dad. Can’t wait to find a place for it in our new home.
I love my cozy new slippers from my sister.
Seri enjoying one of the first big snows of the winter.
Me and my baby. Holding her tighter than ever after she was released from the emergency vet after ingesting xylitol.
Mmmm. Pomegranate. (and a sneaky little Seri)
At the start of the moving and packing. Surrounded by boxes! (Oh and of course, a nice tall glass of wine)
The moving truck all packed up. Sealed it with the kiss of a handstand! Our stuff is all in storage in California waiting for us.
Gonna miss my old kitchen SO much. We designed it ourselves to be exactly what we needed.
A sweet card from my lovely friend Alyssa.
My handsome boy Jpeg, posing for some pics.
Buddha and incredibly delicious chocolate at Oh Pour L’amour Du Chocolat. Two of my favs.
Our poor Seri has had a rough month. She broke a nail at the park last week and it was broken so high up they had to sedate her, remove it and wrap it up. Poor thing. She is all better now, thankfully.
My adorable parents at the family photo shoot over the weekend.
My kind of dinner. Sauteed kale, red kuri squash, white beans, onions, garlic, sliced almonds, dried cranberries and avocado. It was INCREDIBLE.
It has been WAY too cold to go to the park lately, poor Seri is sad.
Carmine, my mom’s cat (aka my little sister’s cat), was posing so sweetly for me yesterday when I was taking photos with my SLR camera. How adorable is that face? -
Photo Fun Day Friday
Hope everyone is in the full swing of the holidays and loving and cherishing every moment of it! I have been! It has been an emotional few weeks over here. The emotions have been caused by a variety of different reasons – like this being our last holidays living in this home and in Buffalo for that matter. Of course the sad tragedy of last Friday and the loss of all of those sweet innocent babies hit me just as hard as I know it hit most everyone else. On top of all of this, our family has been dealing with a terrible accident that landed a family member in the hospital the Friday prior, he is in serious condition but very lucky to be alive. Please send if you would, your positive thoughts, prayers, healing vibes, etc. his way, he could certainly use them in his long road to recovery ahead.
It has been a lot of happiness and sadness for a short time, but it has all made me appreciate the magic of life and love that much more! Life is fragile, every moment a blessing and the only way I know how to embrace that is to live each day to it’s fullest, grateful for all that I have. I hope you are all doing the same, hugging your loved ones a little tighter this holiday season and counting your blessings whenever possible. Love and light to you all!
As you will see in the photos, this week has been spent full embracing the holidays, shipping out the last minute orders for Hero, shipping gifts to out of town friends and family, packing boxes and squeezing in as much family and friend time as humanly possible!
Our Christmas tree got an update with this custom made (and hand sewed) bull terrier tree skirt made by our friend, Joanne.
Here’s a close-up of it! So what, we are a little obsessed with our dog!
Got together with the family on Sunday and made TONS of baklava using my late Yia Yia’s recipe. I may not be able to eat it but it makes for great holiday gifts for friends!
It is a pretty labor intensive process. You place each layer of phyllo dough, one at a time, and brush with butter. There are 15 layers, then nuts and spices, 10 layers, more nuts, then 15 more layers. Layer by layer, sheet by sheet! I love making it and hanging out with my family, even without the satisfaction of ever taking a bite!
Me and my sister Vicky, spreading the nuts layer.
Pouring the syrup over top of one of the finished trays. Smells soooo good!
I started my Christmas wrapping earlier in the week! It may be my favorite part of the holiday and the gift giving.
My final giftable recipe for my series this month with Free People. Look for the recipe on Sunday.
Took a break last night from packing and organizing for the move to relax! My relaxation involved a roast chicken from our farmer, a glass of bourbon and Christmas music.
I cut up some of the delicata squash leftover from our CSA with porter farms. I tossed it with some olive oil, maple syrup and spices and added it to the chicken in the last 35 minutes.
-
Photo Fun Day Friday
Well here it is, another double Photo Fun Friday post. Two weeks worth of photos, since life has been a bit hectic and we were away last Friday! See my last post that explains all of the busy and crazy in my life right now. A funny thing I realized in looking at these photos from the last two weeks, I feel like I have eaten out at more restaurants in the last month than likely the whole year, with all the traveling, birthdays and trying to squeeze in hang time with friends.
It has been a really fun two weeks, a great way to finish off the year! We were in Chicago two weekends ago and then Pittsburgh this past weekend. That is it for our traveling for 2012 and now we are home for the holidays! Yay! Hope you enjoy all of the photos (there’s a lot of them), and I hope you are enjoying your holiday season. We will be at the Western New York Book Arts Center this weekend, this afternoon and all day tomorrow, for the Last Minute Panic Holiday Marketplace! Come on by if you are local, we will be selling our prints, greeting cards and other goodies. I will be there on and off, since I also need to be at home packing 😉
Do you have any fun plans this weekend?
The big tree in Downtown Chicago and the Christmas windows at Macy’s.
Billy and Mark at their live Adventures in Design podcast show at Schubas in Chicago.
Our booth at the Chicago Renegade Holiday Craft Market
Hot mulled wine…mmmm.
The sweet little Stella Maxine.
My favorites!!! Margaux and Stella. I hate how far Chicago will be from Southern California 🙁
Super amazing jellyfish installation at Renegade Craft Fair.
The crowds were crazy this year.
Some of my handprinted gift tags.
One of Margaux’s beautiful baked creations. She made these delicious looking s’mores cupcakes for Mark’s birthday. I couldn’t eat one, but I sure appreciated how yummy they looked and the smile they put on my hubby’s face 🙂
Printed t-shirts for my yoga studio, East Meets West, with their new logo I designed.
A hot Tom & Jerry, a warm fire, Christmas music and lots of great friends. Pretty amazing stuff right there!
Making truffles is messy business, but boy is it worth it.
Those holiday cups at Starbucks sure make me happy!
The beet salad I had at Habitat in Pittsburgh was so good it was gone before I could take a pic 🙂 If you are in Pittsburgh, check that restaurant out. Great seasonal, local farm to table food with a special gluten-free menu. They even have gluten-free bread for sandwiches at lunch.
Christmas tree in Market Square Pittsburgh.
The view from the convention center in Pittsburgh where we were set up for the Handmade Arcade last weekend.
It was this or french fries for me at the convention center. Yay for will power. (But oooh were those fries calling my name.)
We celebrated Mark’s birthday on Sunday with family, friends and some down home soul food from Gigi’s restaurant on the East Side. (I had take-out pho from Pho 99 Fast Food)
One more friends dinner for Tom and Jerrys. This time at the Buffalo classic, Schwabls.
Gluten-free blueberry pancakes from the Original Pancake House. The perfect fuel for a day of Christmas shopping and planning a HUGE move.
Flavored finishing sea salts. Look for the recipes on Sunday.
Amazing illustration from a vintage children’s book in our collection.
I finally made time to bake last night. I made these amazing grain-free chocolate chip cookies from Against All Grain and topped them with some vanilla sea salt.
Our cat Indie, being silly last night while laying on Mark’s lap.
-
Photo Fun Day Friday
It’s a short one this Friday, since I just did a photo post on Monday! It’s been a nice couple of days, we were getting ready for our trip to Chicago for the Renegade Craft Fair and we even had time to decorate our Christmas tree!! I hope you have had a nice week and have an even lovelier weekend! Do you have anything fun planned for your weekend?
My sweet baby, Seri, sleeping on me.
I just LOVE this stuff!!
We went simple and sweet this year with our tree. Handmade felt bunting with brightly colored flocked ornaments.
How insanely sweet is this photo? Ahhh!
Our new print “Beauty Shop” is now available in our etsy store (as long as a few other new prints).
We stopped for our obligatory road-trip Mexican yesterday on our way to Chicago.
-
Photo Fun Day Friday (Yes, I Know it’s Monday)
So it may be a few days late, but here it is. I decided after a busy few weeks of travel, house selling, getting ready for Thanksgiving and organizing the Thanksgiving series here on the blog, by the time the holiday had come and gone, I was just plain exhausted!! I needed a few days to relax, regroup and enjoy life with the family!
Last weekend we wrapped up our east coast tour in Brooklyn and then made the drive home. We got back late Monday and took a Tuesday and Wednesday to catch up with everything from being away 10 days and to get out all of the web orders that came in while we were out. Thanksgiving this year was the best one I can ever recall. Instead of it being the large extended family affair that is usually is, which is definitely nice, this year we decided to just do a small dinner with my immediate family. My parents, my sisters, my niece and nephew and Mark and I. It was so quiet, fun and it was really nice to spend time together cooking, eating, visiting and enjoying each other. With our pending move across the country, I am taking in all of these moments and cherishing them to the fullest.
On Saturday, we made the drive out to West Valley, NY to visit McHugh’s to cut down our Christmas tree. My parents, my sister Vicky and my niece Teagan joined us and we all went into Ellicottville afterward to walk around and grab some dinner. It was the perfect day, there was even snow!!!
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday (if you celebrate) and an enjoyable weekend. We have another road trip coming up this week, so I am going to do my best to get a few recipes up in spite of that.
Lemmy, our good friends Karen and Mike’s adorable Olde English Bulldog.
Our booth last weekend at the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn.
The amazing view of Manhattan from the park where we were set up.
A little skyline selfie action.
So happy to get home on Monday night and to be back in the kitchen, I made a quick pot of vegan hot and sour soup.
Took a little break on Tuesday for a quick walk in the park alone to clear my head and soak up the sunshine while we have it.
Took Seri to the park for some Thanksgiving ball time!
My Dad, aka “the world’s greatest Pappou” carving the pasture-raised turkey we got from our farm, Sojourner.
Best Thanksgiving EVER!
I made many dishes for the meal, but these might back been my favorite. Grain-free vegan chocolate cream pie mini-tarts with whipped coconut cream. I used my mini-tart shell recipe and the chocolate cream filling recipe here from Girl Makes Food as part of our Very Tasty Thanksgiving series.
Teagan. Looking how we all felt after the big meal!
My handsome boy, Jpeg.
I made potato pancakes from some of my mom’s leftover red smashed potatoes from Thanksgiving.
The family at the Christmas tree farm.
Me and Mark!
My girls!!!
Uncle Mark and Teagan. She was LOVING all of the snow!
We found our tree!
So perfect!
Couldn’t have had a better day to go Christmas tree shopping.
Got our first snow here in the city yesterday! Guest it’s time to switch from the fall decorations to the Christmas stuff.
-
Photo Fun Day Friday
As you read this, we are hopefully halfway across NY state or somewhere in Pennsylvania or something, starting out our 10-day road trip. I am not entirely sure where the last week went, we were so focused on getting ready for this trip that the last week just feels like a blur. On top of the trip we’ve had a lot of other things going on, some of which I cannot tell you about just yet, but I cannot wait until I can!
What I can do, is show you a few images from the last week. It’s a lot of printing, working, new posters, etc. I promise I am not trying to advertise to you guys, it was just a very work-heavy week.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and hopefully next Friday’s post will be a bit more exciting as we will be one-week on the road and by that point we will have already been to DC, Baltimore, Philly and we will be in Brooklyn. I anticipate a pretty big Friday post 🙂
How I spent my Friday night! Screenprinting, hot spiced cider with a little Kraken rum, and I listened to (and since finished) Tina Fey’s book Bossy Pants. May not be some people’s idea of a Friday night, but it was perfect to me.
Saturday morning I left the house before 8am for yoga and got to spend a few quiet moments watching this beauty on our street. Photo is a little blurry because I was trying to hard not to scare her off. Isn’t she so beautiful?
Our colorful CSA share last week. So many goodies. I am seriously gonna miss this during the winter months!
Check out this incredible chevron wall piece our friend JP made for his fiancé and our good friend, Dana’s salon, Fawn & Fox. Isn’t it amazing?
An installation on display at fawn & fox of some prints we designed for them. There particular prints are all one-of-a-kind, printed over layers and layers of other pieces of prints from over the years.
More printing. This was me reprinting our San Francisco print.You can see the finished print here.
Monday was a stressful day for many reasons, this looming trip, the dog was sick, etc. I was up around 6:00am and before 8:00am I had a batch of crinkle cut turnip chips in the oven. What can I say, I like to cook when my mind is overwhelmed. It calms me down.
A close up sneak of a brand new Philadelphia art print we designed and printed this week.
Here is the finished print. We’ll have this for sale on the road and it will be available online when we get home.
I got a copy of Ocala Style Magazine’s November issue in the mail today, where two of my recipes are shared as part of their “Slow Cookers, Speedy Meals” feature.
It’s my recipes for Chipotle Black Bean and Quinoa Crock-Pot Stew and Butternut Squash & Chickpea Coconut Curry.
Last night’s simple dinner. A banana, almond butter, cocoa and chia seed smoothie. It was exactly what I needed.
-
Photo Fun Day Friday
Hey everyone!! Happy Friday. It has been a bit crazy over here, as you probably noticed by the lack of a Friday post last week. Last weekend our very good friends, Summer and Patrick were in town from California for their Buffalo wedding reception. It was really fun to just spend the entire weekend with them and their families and to celebrate their marriage again!
A couple of weeks ago we found out that we (Hero Design Studio) got accepted into an art and craft fair in DC, Crafty Bastards, on the weekend of November 10th and since we have a craft fair, Renegade Craft Fair, scheduled the following weekend in Brooklyn, we decided it made sense to just book our schedule full of different events in between and stay on the road, versus driving all the way home and then turning around again and heading back to the coast. More on all of that in a later post, but for now we are dealing with the craziness of going on the road for 10 days and getting all of the work done beforehand that needs to get done. Plus, we have had a rush of house showings this week, which has been great for obvious reasons, but it has made getting all the work we need to get done before we go, even harder. So it has been a bit hectic over here, to say the least, we didn’t even get to celebrate Halloween, we had a showing and then we spent the rest of the evening working. We have a pretty full schedule until we hit the road next Friday, a week from today, but don’t worry I have some really fun stuff planned for you while I am gone, stay tuned.
What have you been up to lately? Did you do anything fun for Halloween?
Seri being all cute.
A brand new Halloween print we made for this year, available here.
A cactus-eyed view of Allentown from Cantina Loco.
A new shirt I designed for Modern Nostalgia that we printed last week.
My sweet orange boy, Jpeg.
My favorite thing about the cooler weather is getting to wear fun patterned tights like these.
Spend all of last weekend hanging with our besties, Summer and Patrick. Such a great weekend!
I made a big huge pot of chicken and vegetable noodle soup on Monday while we waited for the possible arrival of Sandy.
Feeling pretty lucky that some wind and rain, and a small amount of power outages is the worst of what we received here on our side of New York state. Meanwhile there are people just a few short hours away that lost everything, their homes, their neighborhoods and some so much worse. So much devastation. That Mother Nature is one cruel, cruel B*tch! If you can, donate to the American Red Cross, your monetary donation can aid in their efforts to help those in need at this time of crisis.
From the Tasty Yummies blooper reel. This is what happens when you still have strong winds and you attempt to take your food blog photos outside! Wah wah, somehow I did get a shot before the wood back drop fell and spilled it everywhere. (see this coming Monday’s post)
A little sneak at a brand new print we designed and printed for Fawn & Fox Salon.
My sweet niece Teagan went as sushi for halloween this year. Couldn’t you just eat her up…. hehe! My sis, Vicky made the whole costume herself, complete with a cute little chopsticks, wasabi and ginger hair piece. GAH!
-
Photo Fun Day Friday
Happy happy Friday! Hope everyone is having a great week and has a fun weekend ahead. Most of this week’s photos come from our trip out to the lake over the weekend and at the start of this week. We had so much fun, the weather was perfect and it was exactly what we all needed. A little “fancy camping”, as we were calling it. My cousin Andrea and her boyfriend Mike came in from Albany for a night, then my sister Vicky and my neice Teagan and my parents all came out. We ate, drank, walked on the beach, watched movies, had beach fires (and smores) and just relaxe. It so was perfect and I didn’t want it to end.
We don’t have a lot of fun on tap for this weekend, we have an open-house on Saturday from 11am-1pm (let me know if you are in the area and looking and I will send you the info), and a house showing on Sunday, so I have my fingers (and toes) crossed for some action. Other than that, I hope to get some baking and cooking done. What do you have planned for this weekend? Happy weekend everyone!
Mark and Seri doing some serious cuddling.
The beach makes me happy.
Uncle Mark and Teagan.
Seri.
My niece, Teagan and my sister, Vicky.
Mark and Seri taking in the sights and sounds of fall.
Mark and Seri again 🙂
I love the colors this time of year.
Me and my baby on the beach.
Campfire on the beach. My favorite.
The weather on Sunday was a beautiful 70+ degrees and sunny. It was perfect.
I made spiced apple cider sangria.
Vicky and Teagan.
The little princess.
Look at that view and those colors. It was hard to leave on Monday.
Mark got me the most delicious chocolate birthday cake on Tuesday from Bon Bon’s Gluten Free Bakery in West Seneca
Had a great dinner at Taste of Thai with so many of my favorites. I’m a lucky girl!
After a weekend at the beach and birthday celebrating that meant a week of extra careful eating and a little detoxing/cleansing. Beet, apple, orange and carrot juice was a great way to kick it off.
Super excited about this cookbook that I got from our friends Anne and Billy.
-
Photo Fun Day Friday
Hey everyone, Happy Friday! We’ve had a pretty fun week over here. We are in Chicago right now visiting friends, my husband had a live show with his design centric podcast, Adventures in Design, and we are celebrating our good friends, Anne and Billy’s, wedding tonight and tomorrow. It was a fun and relaxing drive out here and so far a great trip. I’ll post photos from this weekend’s events on the next Photo Fun Day Friday.
Hope you all had a great week and have a super fun weekend. Got anything fun planned?
Now that the weather has cooled down a bit, I was super excited to bust out my new poncho. How amazing is this pattern and those colors?
A quick first trip with my sister Vicky, to the cider mill on Saturday to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox.
On Sunday I celebrated the Autumnal Equinox with a Sacred Sounds Vinyasa Flow class at East Meets West Yoga. Live drumming, Indian chanting and more. So amazing.
The first of many pumpkin pie smoothies for the season.
I made some orange spiced gluten-free granola for the road trip. I’ll have to make it again so I can share it with you guys.
My new iPhone 5 showed up right before we got on the road for Chicago! YAY!
Best rest stop ever, how could I not buy a bag of kettle corn for the road?
We stopped for a bite to eat somewhere in Ohio, corn as far as the eye could see.
This is where we are staying in Chicago. No really. Isn’t our friend Anne an incredible illustrator?
Mark and Billy and the Adventures in Design live podcast show at Schubas in Chicago.
Trying to be a good house guest and earn my stay. Made everyone a veggie frittata.
Beautiful fall flowers I saw while I was picking up flowers with Anne.
I finally it to a Native Foods. I love that everyone on the menu is plant-based vegan food and the gluten-free choices are clearly marked.
I had a Bangkok Curry Earth Bowl and a bottle of New Planet Beer. Sooo yummy!
I finally got to meet our friends Margaux and Jason’s beautiful new baby girl, Stella Maxine. She is perfect. (my hair however is not)
This is Kocio, he is sweet/crazy.
Awesome patterned curtain at Billy and Anne’s house.
-
Photo Fun Day Friday
It’s been a pretty low-key week over here, on Sunday we set up at Clutter s i x here in Buffalo and spent the day outside in the beautiful weather, selling our goodies. It was a fun day, we saw lots of friends and family and it was great to just be outside soaking up the beautiful weather while we still have it. We also completed two more prints in our ongoing series of kitchen and food related prints, a collaboration between my two loves, Hero Design Studio and Tasty Yummies. Eventually I will be adding a small store tab here on the site so they can be purchased right from here, but for now you can nab those or any of our other products from our etsy store or our web store.
This weekend hubby is in Cleveland for an event (I’ll be staying home with the dog to keep travel costs low) and then we leave on Tuesday next week to head for Chicago for our good friends, Anne and Billy’s wedding and my hubby Mark and Billy are doing a live show for their podcast, so we have a lot going on. I am hoping to get some relaxation in this weekend, but I also have a few recipes I would like to get done before I go, too. We’ll see. Tomorrow is the Autumnal Equinox so I hope to get some sort of fall activity in to celebrate, maybe I’ll just head to the Meyer Brothers Cider Mill and grab a gallon of some delicious apple cider since I have been craving hot mulled apple cider! Sunday I plan to attend an autumnal equinox Vinyasa flow class to live music at my yoga studio, East Meets West. Sounds like a lovely way to celebrate the end of summer and the start of my favorite season.
What do you have planned for this weekend? Any fun fall activities to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox?
We buried St. Joseph outside near our for sale sign, in hopes of getting some luck selling the house.(An and old superstition/wives tale that many people swear by). I am certainly not a religious person, by any traditional means, but I definitely have a belief that there is more out there than us and I am willing to try anything to sell this house!
Our newest kitchen inspired 8×10 art print featuring the brilliant Julia Child quote
“People Who Love to Eat are Always the Best People”. Available now from our etsy store or the Hero web store.
Another new kitchen inspired 8×10 art print “It’s Best Fresh from the Farm”
Available now from our etsy store or the Hero web store.
I took a quick trip to the Western New York Book Arts Center to pick something up and I had to sneak a peek of the amazing type collection in the basement.
It’s definitely a type-nerd / graphic designer’s dream down there.
Our booth over the weekend at Clutter S I X.
I made my quinoa and goat cheese stuffed peppers early in the week with the abundance of peppers from our CSA. This time I left out the mushrooms and corn and added in some fresh kale, garlic and fresh herbs and I added chèvre from First Light Farm & Creamery to some of them.
One of my favorite things about this year, limited edition autumn spiced hard ciders. This one is my favorite right now, it’s like fall in a bottle.
A new recipe I created for my next Free People feature. Look for it on Sunday. (I am still obsessed with those arrow serving spoons BTW)
First of many pumpkin recipes for the season, look for the recipe tomorrow!
My sweet Seri. I am so in love with this dog
My favorites this morning at the park. -
Photo Fun Day Friday
Happy Friday everyone! Hope your week has been wonderful! These Friday photo posts really make me realize how quick each week goes by, I honestly felt like I just did one of these posts! This past long weekend was a fun filled one with lots of family and friends and my shortened work week was filled with lots of yoga and some really fun projects both for work and for Tasty Yummies.
If you have kids, I hope their first week back to school was great (if they started this week). There is something so welcoming at the sight of all the big yellow school buses and the loads of back to school goodies in stores. However, I did realize that there is something about the start of the school year that triggers a major shopping bug in me and I want to go out and buy all new clothes. I guess that is from being a kid and buying a whole new back-to-school wardrobe. Looks like a trip to the thrift store is in order, perfect for my budget! 🙂 Do you have the shopping bug right now, too?
Hope you all have a lovely weekend. We have a wedding on Saturday for some really good friends and then I have a feeling we will be watching some football and relaxing on Sunday!
Do you have anything fun planned for this weekend?
Jpeg paying peek-a-boo over the bar.
We went to East Aurora this past Saturday to walk around a little, visit some of the locally owned shops, etc. I finally got into Swirls Bakery, who offers a different gluten-free and vegan cupcake flavor every day! So delicious!
We of course also stopped by the legendary, iconic Vidler’s 5 and 10. I remember going here as a kid. So many great memories, this place is the best. And of course, I adore their 10 cent popcorn machine 🙂
One of these princesses is not like the other…
My sweet little fur baby, Seri.
Jpeg in the morning light.
“Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.” – Buddha
I love my yoga studio, East Meets West.
Spent some time with my sweet lovely niece, Teagan.
A delicious lunch treat. Polenta rounds with an eggplant caponata and vegan cheese (recipe will be posted on Sunday)
Made a super thrown together dinner on Wednesday night after not knowing what the heck to make. A end of summer veggie red curry with eggplant, zucchini, bell pepper, tomatoes and I served it over rice noodles and topped it with toasted coconut. I was inspired by this recipe that perfectly popped up in my google reader right around dinner time – but I made mine a bit differently – I added a lot more red curry and some vegetable broth and used gluten-free soy instead of fish sauce, etc.
Homemade orange spice and cranberry granola. I will definitely have to make this again so I can share the recipe. It was delicious and those house smelled incredible while it baked.
One of my native-inspired women’s tops that I designed and hand silkscreen printed is featured on a new billboard for the Buffalo News. Fun little surprise.
