I thought since Wade is getting some traffic blogging about DC and Food Trends that his blog shouldn’t have an ordinary blog theme that anybody could use. So I made a new one for him! Gotta look out for the Swalrus Network. The header image is from his trip to Lake Tahoe I modified it so that I can swap out the lake and mountains in when he gets tired of that image. Then ‘Little Wade’ can be taking a picture of anything.

Comparison picture after the break.

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Somehow I’ve convinced myself that all my projects are easy. That I can just run to Home Depot at 8:45 and somehow have them completed by the morning.  It’s coming down to crunch time for wedding projects, so I really need to start working on them instead of all the other projects that keep popping up in my head! I’m still keen on the idea of having a photo booth at the wedding.  I slacked off some when I tested the software and camera setup and got everything working about 2 months ago.  I just needed to find a printer that would work, I freecycled an epson 840 which should be able to print on the 4×6 photo paper. I’m at the step now where I can pretty much see it completed, which is usually the point where I lose motivation.

I need to keep moving so I can get these things done!

Here is a list of projects that I have going on right now. They are in various stages of completion.

• Skull door knockers
• Paper Lantern style Photo Booth
• Fantasy Football Trophy
• FJM website and logo
• Box office Contest website
• Hannah and Opie Wedding art gift
• Micah and Renee wedding art gift
• Bachelor Party/Draft this weekend

There’s probably more… but I’ve forgotten about them.

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We needed dinner. We needed to use up some things in the fridge. We were hungry.

Laurel and I created these egg and cheese based turkey lined ‘cupcake’ like things. It was really easy actually. If you’re looking for a quick easy breakfast-for-dinner thing, this is the way to go. Besides the cheese they seem to be semi-healthy too.

Line a muffin tin with 3 pieces of sliced turkey, then add diced onions, shredded (mozzarella) cheese, mushrooms, spinach and more cheese. We added a dusting of garlic powder because we love it so much. Fill with liquid egg whites to keep everything together. We’re not sure about the timing but 350 degrees for about 15 minutes seems about right. Keep an eye on it to be safe. They should come out of the pan with a little coaxing from a spoon.

Then enjoy!

process pictures after the break…

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We finally finished our wedding invitations and got almost all of them in the mail yesterday. They are a perfect metaphor for who we are as a couple. I designed them with a sophisticated look but with cool distressed fonts and fun elements. The main parts are printed on tree-free banana husk paper. The envelopes are natural vellum and the outside wrapper is fine art paper with mango leaves or banana husks embedded in them.

But what is more like Laurel and me is that we were too focused on the little things about the design and missed a few major things. Like the fact that the red card stock was about a quarter inch too short and wouldn’t properly gate fold around our card. Or that the only reason we had to use the card stock in the first place was that we couldn’t find a natural card stock that was thick enough, so we rigged something up with paper from the craft store. Or that we procrastinated until the last minute and then realized that our design was a little complicated, forcing us to glue, fold, insert, label, and stamp 76 of them in two days. In hindsight I wish that I’d made them a little bigger and spent longer looking for some kind of all natural card stock for the gate fold.

Way too many pictures and a cost breakdown after the break.

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Maybe it’s because Laurel has been out of town for two weeks. Maybe it’s because I’m getting bored watching a South Park marathon. Maybe it’s because I’ve been driven crazy by a steady diet of turkey sandwiches with spicy sweet mustard and Giant brand seltzer water. Anyway, today has been a Saturday filled with projects. I saw some coffee on sale at giant last night. It was Fair Trade, Organic, and in a recyclable steel container. So I knew that Laurel would approve on all accounts! What I forgot to notice is that on the outside of the container it said “Unroasted”! So this morning when I opened the can I was surprised to see hundreds of little green coffee beans staring me in the face.

So out of boredom or possibly the desire not to clean the house I decided to see if I could roast the beans myself at home. I googled it and found this page on my first try. It suggested that I could in fact roast them in the oven!

How hard could this be!

Hard! (Or maybe not that hard and I’m just not that good at it)

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I made these when I was working on my GMU cornhole set, I had planned a tribute to the 2006 Final Four team. But time and lack of ambition got in the way. So I thought I’d share some of the unfinished work. These are the good ones, drawing people is still very hard for me!

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