i need an opinion

so i missed the canvas on demand groupon when it was available to long island.  but randomly i looked to see what was available in portland, maine; lo and behold it was there!  so i snapped that shit up.  and even saved $5.  now i have to choose a picture to have printed.  so which should i use?

even if you aren't one of the 4 people who reads this blog regularly, please leave a comment.  even if its "oh dear gawd don't use ______"

k thx.

honduras 1

honduras 2

new zealand 1

new zealand 2

new zealand 3

australia 1

australia 2

florida 1

florida 2

and yes i like water and sky.  quite fondly actually.  i dont think i can ever move back to the midwest.  and i made all the pictures really small for ease of scrolling.  if you want a close up [idk why..] just click on the thumbnail

THE QUILT OF DOOM

no not doom really.  it just took me 1.5 years to finish.  there may or may not have been a year hiatus in the middle...

all 8 blocks.  im not sure how i intended on doing 9 before... it would have been hellishly misproportioned.  this way it is only a bit wide for its length.  more like an old lady lap blanket.  oh.  and the bottom right block is a pair of chemistry beakers. 

green polartec on the back with quilt batting in between for extra warm.

cara cara oranges

thanks to the amazingly stocked [and cheap] produce of the worst named grocery store ever, giunta's meat farms, i discovered the cara cara orange last year.  apparently the tree only produces fruit from december to april and the fruit is completely seedless/sterile.  i described the orange to a friend thusly: sweet but not saccharine, juicy but not drippy messy, thick skinned and easy to peel with very little pith.  she said i could be an orange salesperson.  but really its just a fucking awesome orange.  and i am veeeery picky about my citrus.

oh yea.  and its pinkish rather than orange.  which is badass and much less messy than moro/blood oranges

thick shiny peel

totally unrelated coleslaw with wait for it... BACON!  i like my slaw dry so the sheen is a teeeny tiny bit of low fat mayo [not miracle whip]/white vinegar/sugar dressing from joy of cooking.  and did i mention bacon?  bacon was recommended as an addition by joy of cooking.  not my idea.  but tasty.  tasty bacon.  mmmmmm

looking smarter already

according to a totally non-biased source [...] wearing glasses to a job interview increases your chance of being hired as you appear more intelligent.  good thing ive gone more blind and increasingly need my reading glasses.  i legitimately have issues reading computer screens [without squinting] and printed text but my distance vision is still somewhere around 20/10.  this poses a problem in normal conversation [say like ..in an interview] as the person speaking is blurry.  unless you are within a 1 foot range of my face.  which i do not appreciate.  personal space issues.  seriously.  back off.

all of the following outfits include at least one piece that has not seen the light of day in.. well lets say months.  even though there are many months in a year.

• white tee: old navy
• blue vest/tanktop thinger: body c
• scarf: unknown
• jeans: gap

• cardigan: victoria's secret
• maxi skirt as a dress: forever 21
• belt: kenneth cole
• leggings: kohls

• dress: calvin klein
• scarf: unknown but wooly and warm
• jeggings: uniqlo
• new boots: wanted via amazon.com

• turtleneck: uniqlo [heattech]
• dress: target
• scarf: unknown
• jeggings: macys
• shoes: target

carb extravaganza!

gift from the mums cos were awesome like that.

birthday gift from the mums [back in november] and now that i finally have the scale, [see above] i can figure out the ratios!  and yes the perspective is all fucked up as i was actually using the cookbook and the cover happened to be visible but perpendicular to the table.  so i just turned the picture.  anyway.  moving on.

my first highly successful bread EVER!  [in the ratio book] and i walked to bravo in the nasty misty rain to buy yeast. 

spinach pasta dough [also from ratio] made while bread was baking

while my pasta dough was resting in very non-uniform flat blobs, i mixed up some andes mint oatmeal cookies.  i also figured out what the hell i did wrong last time.  [its the ingredient not shown here].  OIL!!!  i frikkin forgot half the fat/liquid last time i made these cookies!  no wonder they were bland and crumbly.  but, never fear, the baking gods were on my side.  unlike the eating well recipe, i used [extra] andes mint chips instead of chocolate, and made the cookies itty bitty, so there were 47.  i was short one on my final batch of 16..  oops

light airy bread topped with olive oil and kosher salt

spinach fettuccine piles waiting for their boiling bath

steamy pasta 3 minutes later and..a shout out to the sink disposal?

COOKIESSSS macro.  really, they're like 2" in diameter.

in other news, i received a notice from the new york blood donation center:  i am now a member of the gallon club. one milk carton sized portion of my blood has been siphoned from my arm since moving to ny.  granted, its been 2.5 years and that isn't that much blood.  but in my defense, i also donate platelets.  and apparently that doesn't count toward my creepy total.