art imitading life

photo of me taken by nadia.

here's a scrapbook layout that was inspired by a page out of a j.crew catalog. i borrowed the color palette and some of the elements from the outfit for the page.

a co-worker of mine was talking to me about the importance of journaling. she was encouraging me to journal as i prepare myself to move to chicago. i think the idea of taking time to reflect and remember is an important habit to develop. as i was making the layout i was remembering how last year was a very formative year for me and i think 2010 will be even more so. that's kind of my approach to scrapbooking...it's kind of a record of watershed events with photography, words, and design.

a mad hatter's tea party

a very merry un-birthday to you! this morning i hosted a mad hatter's tea party with some of the ladies from church. we dressed up, drank tea, ate sandwiches, and had great coversation. we even had our own white rabbit. i can't wait to do it again!

the menu

savory

chicken salad sandwiches
with cashews and shredded carrots

turkey sandwiches
with sundried tomato pesto, alfalfa sprouts, and sliced cucumbers

egg salad sandwiches
with chives, shallots, and shredded carrots


sweets

homemade almond biscotti, tim-tams, and milano cookies


drinks

yorkshire black tea, coffee, pink lemonade, and pomegranate juice

a housewarming gift

my friends, the peshke family, are moving in to their first new home very soon. i was thinking of a special housewarming gift for them. it's hard to buy housewares sometimes because it becomes a question of what color, do they have it already, and will they like it? too stressful.

i thought i'd make a scrapbook layout using their family portrait (which i just happen to have) and put the page in a white shadow box for a personalized and handmade gift. i think it came out pretty well. i used products from work, of course. all the embellishments are from our new nest family embellishments collection.

i really like this enclosure piece. it's a mini foiled envelope with a little card inside that comes out! too cute...we do a good job here at mambi (me and my big ideas). i'm going to give it to them tonight...hope they like it!

bitter+sweet

wish i was with you, dear.

happy birthday, charles

last saturday was charles' birthday. we surprised him with a homemade potluck dinner made by a group of his friends. i made homemade meatballs. meatballs are essentially miniature meatloaves so i used my meatloaf recipe and formed them using a mini ice-cream scoop. (i took a page from nadia's playbook with the first photo hee hee)

we decorated sam and grace's house for the occasion. of course mambi paper was utilized for the event. i was going for purple and gold but to some it looked like purple and orange. hahaha, oh well.

dinner was awesome! everyone did a wonderful job with their dishes and steve even had the meal paired with different wines. yumm! chuck had a great time as well, job well done guys!

happy birthday charles! many more to come, friend.

that's right, i scrapbook.

check out a blog posting i did for our mambi blog about building a scrapbook layout. i've said it before but i really think that scrapbook applies basic design principles. it's actually a really fun way to practice things that i learned in school and in the end come out with something that is memorable for me and can be a keepsake. sometimes i get to do fun stuff at work. hahaha, sometimes.

i've been really blessed to be asked to contribute to the mambi blog regularly. i've been asked to find a good picture of myself so the blog can profile all the contributors. not having a suitable specimen to submit i've asked nadia for a portrait session. hopefully we'll be able to work some magic and have a great shot to share on the mambi blog. we'll see!

new slow cooker

my boss got me a slow cooker for christmas. a unique gift but i liked it. it was a hamilton beach 'stay or go' slow cooker. the cool thing about this slow cooker is that the lid has a latches that allow for portability without spilling.

i decided for the first use of the slow cooker i'd try making chipotle-lime chicken with jamaican rice and peas and i added kielbasa because everything is better with kielbasa. it was a fairly easy recipe but i added my own take on it. i added more spices, a lot more chipotle, bay leaves, tomato paste, bell pepper, potatoes, and coconut milk.


it was the first meal using the cooker and actually it was the first time using a slow cooker for me. i have memories of my mom's crock pot but i had never used it before. after some research on foodnetwork.com and reading the instructions i share with you some slow cooker dos and don'ts:

1. defrost meats completely before putting in cooker. if possible do a little stove-top cooking before putting in cooker.
2. cut meats into smaller portion. avoid whole chickens for example.
3. if cooking meat, start the first hour on high, the switch to low.
   
4. only fill the cooker 1/2 to 2/3 full. yeah, i packed mine to the brim the first time...
5. no peeking! avoid opening the lid. every time you open it you are adding about 20 min to your cook time because all the heat has escaped. all most all slow cooker recipes don't need stirring.
6. avoid moving a cold insert to cooking or a warm insert to a cold counter. the temp change could crack the insert.
7. add any dairy, such as milk or cream, in the last hour of cooking.
8. don't reheat food in slow cooker, it'll take way too long. hence, slow cooker. use the stove-top for this.
9. put veggies on the bottom layer of the cooker and meat on top
10. devise a way to transport if you don't have a latch lid!

it came out ok, i thought. a few changes to be made for next time. but i really enjoyed using the slow cooker and i'm looking forward to using it in the future. albert made a great side dish of sliced bean curd with cilantro and green onions too! thanks grace for taking pictures!