50% off the little green bird and lattice prints! Score! And cupcakes!? How cute!

I'm slowly collecting fat quarters of the 1930's reproductions and other tiny prints that match. I found a quilt pattern over the weekend at Cabbage Rose that I think will be cool with these little pretties: 'Just a Piece of Cake'.

My Nicey Jane quilt top is finished! I have to say, I really enjoyed making this. I have a better idea of what to look for on my next quilt to make sure my seams match up more than these did. I think I'm only a quarter inch off on a couple rows. Whoops. :)

We had three weeks to plan this wedding and we had the best time doing so. The dress shopping was absolutely hilarious and our Saturdays filled with decoration creations was oh so fun. We offered up our back yard for the ceremony and reception and, minus the heat, I think it was perfect. We had so many ideas but no one really had a clue as to how well it would actually come together. We all worked hard, had a wonderful time, and had another chance to wake up our creative sides.

Burnt orange was what she wanted. We were able to pull together the different yellows and oranges that we could find in store in August. I didn't think it would have been that difficult as they're summer colors and it's summer. But no, Halloween and Christmas have already replaced summer in-store. I don't get it, though! There has to be a store in town that sells every color of tissue paper (and wrapping paper) that you could think of! We need one. We really do. I would be in heaven. Yes, we could have bought all our tissue paper online...

Pom poms: Sandra's best and most regretful idea, I think. :D They're cheap, they add a lot of fun and color, but they can be a pain when you're making 60+ mini poms for napkin rings and 45+ large and medium poms for hanging in the trees. No regrets though. They made such a difference! Accordion fold, tie in the center, clip the corners, and puff out. Next. Next. Next. My fingers are tired!

Who knew fake flowers and styrofoam balls were so expensive!!! I honestly think these flower balls would have cost about the same had we used real flowers. I learned quite a bit about the fake flowers though. The greenery can really trick you and make you think you're getting more than you actually are. And remember to look for empty stems where someone may have pulled the flower off. Thank you, Hobby Lobby, for the 50% off sale. We made six flower balls using six different flowers. The larger balls used three sets of fake flowers each as the flower bunches were pretty sparse. The smaller balls used two sets of flowers each.

We used four different sizes of mason jars as candle holders and vases. We all fell in love with the little squatty jars. They don't hold much, but they're so cute!!! I'm sure my grandma and sister will love them as well once I mail them the extras for canning.

Fresh flowers was a must. They're so beautiful! We sent the groom and his groomsmen to go find 8+ bouquets of yellow, orange, and white daisy-style flowers the morning of the wedding. We all crossed our fingers hoping they would be able to find some good bouquets. And success! Half of the bouquets were even on sale! We had six 8' rectangle tables for guests and one 6' round table for the bridal party and all tables had a couple mason jar bouquets each.

Updated Drupal to 6.19 on K|F and noticed I forgot a couple modules after my migration from 5 to 6. Captcha for one. How did I forget that!? The upgrade process kinda sucks...or maybe I need a better preparation process. Yes.

Assholes sure are assholes...and they're so much more shitty when you have to work with them. I really wish they would go far far away because they bring out my angry, snarky side way too often...like week-daily. But it's the weekend, no more energy spent on jerks for the next couple of days.

I'm anxiously waiting for my Portal buttons to arrive. My notcot lady will soon meet a bit of nerdiness. Glados, you earned a small place on a corner of my STM. I need to finish Portal. Finding time to play games seems close to impossible.

Ok, that's not fair. Let's try this again. I have way too many hobbies for the amount of free time I have and gaming doesn't rank very high compared to some others. I'm looking for a quilter to finish assembling my Heather Bailey quilt (and then I have a new one to start). I have the outdoor couch cushions to either recover or do some serious scrubbing (and then oil the eucalyptus). My drink-and-draw book is getting a little dusty and I have a couple canvases that haven't even been gesso'd. Sons of Anarchy to watch (YAY!). Wedding decorations tomorrow. Assembly on Friday and Saturday. I'm really diggin the projects that my ladies and I get together to work on.

Lara Cameron's quilt of her own handprinted fabric. I love it. And she prints on an organic cotton/hemp blend.

I love this room. I love Design Sponge. I'm really liking different shades and hues of grays on the wall, especially with white trim.

Quilt #1: Heather Bailey's "Nicey Jane" using the Baker's Dozen pattern my sister and I picked up from Cabbage Rose in Fort Worth. It's nice and simple for my first quilt.

Quilt #2: Lauren and Jessi Jung's botany line for a little bit of bark, ripple, bloom, and grass. Seeds, tendrils, bramble vines, glories, and buds. My original thought was to use Amy Butler's Lotus Brick Path pattern, but after going through the patterns on Lauren and Jessi's blog, I may change my mind. :) I like the brick path for the simplicity to show off the little details and patterns of the fabric. Who knows, by the time I finish my Nicey Jane Baker's Dozen, I may find a new pattern.

Quilt #3?: Rosemarie Lavin's Spa collection in browns and greens or browns and blues? I'm looking for something cool and calm in colors both Will and I dig.

Pancake molds and cookie cutters from... Williams-Sonoma!?

Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups reduced-fat (2%) milk
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Spinach:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
• 4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 3 6-ounce packages baby spinach

Lasagna:

• 15 no-boil 7x3 1/2-inch lasagna noodles (from two 9-ounce packages)
• 3 1/2 cups fresh ricotta cheese (28 ounces)
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
• 1 large egg
• 2 cups coarsely grated Italian Fontina cheese (8 to 9 ounces), divided
• Herb Pesto

Sauce:

1. Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and whisk 1 minute (do not brown). Add milk and wine and whisk until smooth. Cook until sauce thickens and comes to boil, whisking constantly, 4 to 5 minutes.
2. Remove from heat. Whisk in Parmesan cheese and salt. Season sauce to taste with pepper. DO AHEAD Sauce can be made up to 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.

Spinach:

1. Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add shallots and garlic. Sauté until shallots soften, about 2 minutes.
2. Add all spinach (pot will be full). Cook spinach until wilted but still bright green, tossing often, about 3 minutes.
3. Using tongs, transfer spinach to large sieve set over bowl; reserve pot. Press out excess liquid from spinach. Drain 10 to 15 minutes longer.
4. Return drained liquid from spinach to reserved pot. Boil until liquid is reduced to glaze. Return spinach to pot and toss 1 minute. Remove spinach from heat. Mix in 1 1/2 cups sauce. Season spinach to taste with pepper.

Lasagna:

1. Place noodles in large bowl. Fill bowl with hot tap water. Soak noodles until pliable, stirring occasionally to separate, about 15 minutes. Place large sheet of parchment paper on work surface. Transfer noodles to parchment in single layer, shaking off excess water.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Mix ricotta, Parmesan, and lemon peel in medium bowl. Season to taste with salt. Mix in egg.
3. Spread 1/2 cup sauce thinly over bottom of prepared dish. Top with 3 noodles, arranged side by side and covering most of bottom of dish. Spread half of spinach mixture over (about 1 1/2 cups). Sprinkle with 1/3 cup Fontina. Top with 3 noodles and half of ricotta mixture (generous 13/4 cups). Drop half of pesto over by teaspoonfuls, spacing drops evenly apart. Continue layering with 3 noodles, remaining spinach mixture, 1/3 cup Fontina, 3 more noodles, remaining ricotta mixture, then remaining pesto. Top with last 3 noodles. Spread remaining sauce over; sprinkle with remaining Fontina. Cover dish with buttered foil.
4. Bake lasagna until heated through and bubbling at edges, 50 to 55 minutes. Remove from oven. Remove foil from dish.
   Preheat broiler. Broil lasagna until top is browned in spots, turning dish occasionally for even browning, about 4 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes to set up.

Source: Bon Appetit



Herb Pesto Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups (lightly packed) fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup (packed) fresh Italian parsley leaves
• 1/4 cup fresh tarragon leaves
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Combine first 6 ingredients in processor. Blend until herbs are finely chopped. Add oil and blend to coarse puree. Season pesto to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to small bowl.
2. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Press plastic wrap directly onto surface of pesto and chill.

Source: Bon Appetit

Finally! Today is the day for Lightbox success! I think it took a Drupal migration to get it all working correctly. All my attached images (Flickr and local) are now viewable in Lightbox. The Flickr module worked in my previous Drupal 5 installation, but with this particular theme, the showcase block up top is an even better place for the recent uploads. With a couple module and css tweaks, it's almost exactly what I want.

Next up: a status updater + block (possibly Twitter integration), color gradient for my tag cloud, a new recipe content type (since the recipe module absolutely sucks), a separate domain for the noms, and more content rescued from Google cache. I love nerdy Saturdays.

I did it. I deleted the wrong database. I blew away my entire site with the click of one button the other night as I was prepping for a new Drupal migration site. Why didn't I double-check my db configuration before assuming the instance was unused??? Good lord that was stupid. Thankfully Google cache has over a hundred of my stories saved, but what's gone is gone and it's time to rebuild.

So...decision time. Do I recreate all the stories I can dig up? Or do I keep the recipes and start fresh? Good bye, old friends. Hello, new canvas. I'll salvage the goodies and see what I come up with.

resh peaches and plums right off the tree courtesy of our awesome neighbor. I watched him walk another stout bag to a neighbor across the street.

Mmmmm... This dish was amazing, but it took over three hours to finish. The blanching worked for only half of one of the twenty five or so peaches (I used about two and a half pounds total plus five plums) so I took a paring knife to the rest of the skins. Per some of the comments, I added some nutmeg and cinnamon to the filling as it cooked. Once the filling was finished, I stirred in the blackberries from our yard, careful to not squish them all. Of course I had to smash one just to see the dark red juice mix with the thick peach sauce.

Crust:

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/4 cup solid vegetable shortening, frozen, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons (or more) ice water

Topping:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Filling:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons whipping cream
• 3 pounds medium peaches

Directions:

1. Blend flour and salt in processor 5 seconds. Add butter and shortening. Using on/off turns, blend until butter is reduced to pea-size pieces. Add 2 tablespoons ice water; blend until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; chill at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.
2. For the topping, combine all ingredients in medium bowl. Stir until small clumps form. Chill up to 1 day.
3. To make the filling, combine sugar and cream in heavy large nonstick skillet. Bring medium saucepan of water to boil. Drop 3 peaches into water and blanch 1 minute. Transfer peaches to bowl of ice water. Peel peaches and slice thinly, letting slices drop into sugar-cream mixture in skillet. Repeat with remaining peaches.
4. Cook peach filling in skillet over medium-high heat until peaches are tender and sugar-cream mixture is reduced almost to glaze, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Set aside.
5. Preheat oven to 375°F. Roll out dough to 14-inch round. Transfer dough to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Trim overhang to 3/4 inch; fold under and crimp. Pierce crust with fork; freeze 10 minutes. Line crust with foil and beans or pie weights; bake 10 minutes.
6. Remove foil and beans and bake crust until pale golden, pressing with back of fork if crust bubbles, about 10 minutes longer.
7. Spoon peach filling into warm crust. Sprinkle with topping. Bake pie until filling bubbles and topping is golden brown, placing baking sheet under pie to catch any drippings, about 50 minutes. Cool pie on rack at least 30 minutes.

Source: Epicurious