sew crafty!

i've been a busy bee:
thanks to this tutorial, i just made one of these:
i'm so pleased with how it turned out. i found this fabric and could not make up my mind about it. it's so colorful and felt borderline tacky, but it was so cheap (30% off! yay!) that i figured it couldn't hurt. well, it's awesome. the lining is navy linen. thumbs up.

and i made another functional item: an ironing board cover! thanks to the purlbee blog tutorial, here it is:
pretty awesome. i'm so pleased with myself.

check it

my mother-in-law got me this fantastic teapot for st patrick's day:

adorable, no? i lovelovelove it.

brainy

brilliant god-brother-in-law ian & friends came up with the idea of spending 6 months learning as much as possible about any given subject (he would do central park: park planning, botany, history, famous crimes, etc) and at the end of the 6 months, they would do presentations and pool their collective wisdom. everything i set eyes on becomes a potential candidate for such an undertaking. here is my list so far:
- octopi
- galapagos islands
- postal service (mail, not the band)
- pasta making
- cured meats
- organic gardening
- san francisco

made easy-peasy barefoot contessa granola and grapefruit ice this week, both were tasty and made the cut. they will be inducted into my repetoire, ceremony to follow.

yum.

smashed two recipes together for tasty tasty dinner last night. one that i was able to freely admit was delicious and i would eat again. spicy lentil and spinach salad + jamie oliver 5 minute salmon = good AND good for you.

i went to the jeff wall exibit at the moma on wednesday, and did not get it. i'm reading his commentary about it now and it seems pretty self-inflated and affected. but i guess i can appreciate it a little more? a little.