La Jolla Contemporary Art Museum

I'm never sure whether it's ok to take pictures inside of museums. Sometimes they have signs that say no photography, and sometimes I wonder if I just missed seeing that sign in others.

I thought this particular installation was fascinating.

Toasted Sandwiches

I have really poor eating habits that stem from both frugality and laziness. So occasionally, I am surprised by my ingenuity when reinforcing both of these traits.


This was my response to wanting a grilled cheese but not having any butter and not wanting to get out a frying pan and not actually knowing how to properly make a grilled cheese in the first place.


That's a turkey and provolone cheese toasted sandwich right there. Yessir, that is the finest in this broke college student's recipe book.


I used to do this thing when I was a kid where I would get a slice of cheese and a slice of bread and melt the cheese onto the bread in the microwave. This is only slightly more sophisticated than that. Can I just say how much I love toaster ovens? They are second in usefulness (to me) only to the microwave. And to think, I once took a gourmet cooking class and managed to make somewhat tasty food without hurting myself or other people (well, I might have cut open my finger while chopping oregano, but that was only once!). What happened between then and now?

Lake of the Pines

We did a big family getaway over the Fourth of July weekend to this beautiful lake house at Lake of the Pines. I'll try not to have an overabundance of photos here :)

Saw deer walking through the backyard!

Sunrise

Sunset




Pre-dawn. It was beautiful, and the lake was glassy. Everything was so still. I just wanted to sit and absorb the stillness and silence.


My brother caught a fish!

Fish on a leash!



Enclosed patio on the second story of the house overlooking the lake. I think we ate all our meals out here.

Domo photobombed this one.

Our private dock and view from the top.

The back of the house. Isn't it huge?


I think this is so sweet.


It was nice to get away from San Diego for a weekend, albeit to a hotter area! But most of all, it was nice to see the extended family. The baby is getting so big, a year and counting!

Disembodiment

It always seems a bit surreal to be looking at my hair, not on my head.



Goodbye hair! Please don't get lost in the mail!

Happy Fourth!

Just a little something I whipped up on the train going home. So many ends to weave in!

King of the (Very Small) Jungle

This little lion was made for my coworker's first baby! This is probably the biggest thing I've made so far. It took just under a month but most of that was due to not knowing how to make the mane without using fun fur yarn like the pattern called for. I love giving handmade gifts :)




The fancy-schmancy packaging. I did try to pretty it up with a little crocheted bow in pretty variegated pastel yarn.


Incidentally, anyone else think it's more difficult to make gifts for boys? My roommate (and coworker) had already started tackling a knitted baby blanket, so I didn't want to make another blanket. Plus, I had a month to work on it before the baby's due date. My roommate had already been diligently at work on the blanket for 6 months.


And, it's almost impossible to find the right pattern for a cute amigurumi that is 1) free 2) not super difficult and 3) not terribly ugly. Besides the fact that my yarn stash has limited colors.


I pretty much narrowed it down to dinosaur or lion when I was choosing which to make, but lion won out because I couldn't find a good dinosaur pattern quickly enough. This one comes courtesy of Lion Brand Yarn.

* One thing I did change on the pattern was the way I worked the mane. I didn't have any fun fur and I could not, for the life of me, understand what the pattern was trying to tell me how to attach the fur to the head. I ended up attaching the yarn by slip stitching into the stitches of the head and adding chains to make a long loop and slip stitching back down into the head. I covered the head like this which gave it a kind of funny Rastafarian/dreadlock look, but I couldn't think of a better way to make his fur?

I do like how he turned out in the end though.
P.S. I hate not having internet at home.