Egg Salad Sandwhich

Speaking of the simple things in life. There is nothing better than eating food that brings back memories. I don't recall eating egg salad sandwiches that often when I was little but I have a very clear recent memory of eating them while camping last year. So so yummy. And since we have been on a "creative-sandwich-kick" an egg salad sandwich seemed like a great next option.

Toasted bread
+Hard boiled eggs
+Veganaise
+Brown mustard
+pepper
+celery
+lettuce

= pure deliciousness.

The simple things in life...

... Fridays, someone remembering your name, a sunny morning, drinking your favorite tea, having your husband surprise you with a full tank of gas in the car, getting free cake at Palios, sitting in the same spot in class everyday, treating yourself to a bagel, getting a note from a friend, or getting. new. kitchen. cups... there is just nothing like the little things in life that just make you smile. Simple things that are of no real importance to anyone else but they mean the world to you. Well, lets just say, recently I indulged myself in one of these simple joys of life: getting a couple new glasses for the kitchen. It was on a rare trip by myself to New Seasons (wes and I generally always go grocery shopping together) last weekend that I saw them. I had just picked up some granola and was turning my little cart to get some strawberries and- there. they. were. Sitting there. Perfectly. Waiting for me. Now, I am not the type to really get that excited over these things. And I am overexagerating a tinge. But only a tinge.

Let me explain.
So I have an amazing job right? I love the kids. I love the family. I love the house. I love the dog. I love the neighborhood. and, I LOVE there cups. They have two shelves full of all sorts of quirky glasses, most of them being retired jam jars with lids still hanging around (you know, to bottle up a smoothie or coffee on the go). Also, the mom -like me- doesn't really like the smell of a glass when drinking from it so they have straws readily available encase if you are just such a person. And the dad - like Wes- thinks this habit is sickitatingly-sick and cringes at the thought of us contributing to the massive pile of plastic out in the ocean (don't get me wrong, I am thoughtful of this, just not disciplined enough sometimes) and therefore we must wash all straws and reuse. ;) Anyway, thats just a little side comment to emphasize my main point: Little 3 year old is just about the most cutest thing when sitting in jammies sipping orange juice from her jam jar and straw in the mornings. So, I have wanted these cups (perhaps so that one day my own little adorable 3 year old can do the same thing) but mostly, I just want to be that awesome. Believe me, I went as far as to consider purchasing certain types of jam just so we can keep the jar afterwards. ok, so moving on..

I turn the corner. And there they are. Completely unoriginal and perfectly purchasable. I pick one up in my hand and set two in my basket.

Oh, but then. What are these cute glasses? Oh, but these are so cute too! So, I set two of those in my basket as well.


And oh no!! They have these ones too??? (I not only found one kind of glass that the family has but two types of awesome glasses that they have). I cannot leave with out them.
And so, two of those go home with me as well.


All for the bargain price of 12 dollars. I leave new seasons with six new glasses.

woops!

I made my first Print!!!

Remember how last quarter I was keeping you all updated on the latest homework assignments in my 3D design class? Well, this quarter its a whole new ball game: Printmaking. I wasn't even sure of what Printmaking was before taking this class. As we learned about it, I kept thinking how am I going to ever figure this out? Basically there are lots and lots of steps, and you can't mess up or else generally you will have to start over. So I will break it down for you. If only I had pictures of each step.

There are two types of printmaking taught at PSU: etching and woodcuts.

Etching is where you remove what you do want printed.
Woodcuts is where you cut into a slab of wood and remove all that you don't want printed.

I am taking the etching class. So here is the brief version of what it takes to make just one print:
1. Pick out the size of your copper plate.
2. Apply waxy surface called "hard ground" to plate let dry for 2 days.
3. Using your etching tool draw into the hard ground. ANY MARK MADE ON HARD GROUND WILL BE ETCHED INTO COPPER. Therefore, you are basically drawing with pen and cannot mess up. (you can go back into your copper plate later and physically scrape away your mistakes, but this is not fun.)
4. Once drawing is finished, spray paint back of copper plate, let dry then soak plate in chemical bath for 20 minutes. All the marks you made on your hard ground will be engraved (etched) into the copper because of the chemicals eating away at any copper exposed.
5. Remove and wash copper plate. Clean plate with mineral spirits removing all remnants of hard ground.
6. soak paper of choice in water while inking up your plate.
7. Pick ink of choice, and using a plastic scraper (much like what you'd use to frost a cake) "frost" your plate with lots of elbow grease. (ink is not that easy to push around)
8. Remove paper from water and dry off with towel and rolling pin.
9. place inked copper plate face up on printing press. Lay paper on top of copper plate. turn the nob until it all comes out the other side of the press.
10. Tada! A print was made!!! Now, let it dry.

Crazy isn't it? My immediate response to learning this process was: why not draw with a pen and save some time? After completing the process and making my first print I can now appreciate the fact that the art of printmaking mostly lies in making more than one. After drawing into a copper plate you now have a stamp to use over and over, forever and ever. You can make 10 to sell and one to keep for yourself too. I think that by the end of this class I will understand even better. And alas'! Here is what the assignment was:

My first printmaking assignment was called "On the Road." We were to bring in any pictures, or drawings that would inspire us to a final idea. My pictures reminded me of a road trip with Ashley Whipple. We were driving to visit our friend Cory in SLO at Cal Poly and then we were to continue our drive with Cory to visit Marisa at Point Loma. After driving all day we some how managed to get lost. It was a lengthy adventure after trying to figure it out on our own/ worrying about worrying our parents if we called them. Eventually I think we ended up calling Ashley's dad, but anyway. All this to say, after we got on the right track it was way past dinner time and we were tired and hungry. So, we go through an in-n-out drive through. All I remember is sitting in Ashley's car desperately trying to open a ketchup packet. It was one of those moments where exhaustion/hunger/the giggles prevent you from using any strength you have left. It was obviously funny enough for me to remember how ever many 4 years later this is now. And so....

My Ketchup Packet Print was born.
This is the final print.

We had to make 5 of them
And in printmaking lingo it would be called "an edition of 5."
This is the copper plate with the drawing etched into it.

And because you are making a print of the drawing you have to work backwards. Meaning that the print of your drawing will be the reverse of what your plate looks like. So, if you have text in your drawing, you need to write it backwards...

Can't wait to share future prints with you.
Love,
Katie

Sue and Greg Visit!

Last weekend the in-laws were in town! Woot Woot! Our first visitors of 2010-- Goooo in-laws! We had such a great time visiting, reminiscing, eating, shopping, resting, and celebrating life with family. The Elk Grove-Scovilles had not visited us since exactly a year before. (well, almost exactly) Last year their visit was accompanied by our friend: rain. This year however, they experienced our best weather of the year so far: sunny spring in the 70s!! It was perfect. The weekend consisted of:
Palios (of course), Powells Books (of course), Avignon Bar, shopping, Laughing Planet, Dove Vivi Pizza, The Old Wives Tale (First and Last time going), Park Ave Cafe, The Rose Garden, vegan discoveries (you know-since we have a vegan in the family now. JUST KIDDING-- just giving someone a hard time. ;) No titled vegans in this family), lounging at our apartment enjoying the good weather, Cup and Saucer, Cigar bar--no girls allowed, and a certain spur of the moment-- crazy act permitted because of pure kindness on my behalf for wes: tattoos. Thats right. Wes and Greg got tattoos together. Not quite so sure if I was allowed to announce this on our dear bloggy blog but... I couldn't resist. (sorry in advance if this was suppose to be a secret!!) The kicker? it was my idea. Well, jokingly my idea.

It all happened like this...

We are driving home from breakfast on a beautiful sunday morning. We pass the tattoo place where Wes has gotten a tattoo before. Wes points this out and I say "ha ha we should all get matching tattoos!" Wes freaks out taking me seriously and from then on he is on a mission to make this happen. Greg turns out wanting to add a little something to the tattoo he already has and Wes (of course) has a list of things he's thought over for a year to choose from. So, we have quite the adventure. Tattooing actually happens and Sue and I sit and watch our husbands get all inked up. I can now say that I have sat in a tattoo parlor. (do they still call them parlors?) I will admit that it was quite fun to do together and because I know you are all wondering: Wes got the Luther Seal tattooed to his upper left arm and because I don't have permission to tell I will let Greg's be a secret. They both turned out really well. I will also admit that I only pretend to loathe and cringe everytime Wes gets a tattoo. It is never an easy decision, after all, what permanent decision really is any easy one? But I can now view Wes' tattoos as art and I love the thoughtfulness and planning that goes into each one. Don't worry mom he won't end up looking like this guy. (click on me!) Ha ha! I'm just saying... for all the bashing I do, I'm only joking and support my husband 100%.

So that was our weekend. I'm so thankful for the time well spent and can't wait for my trip home in June to see everyone else. Love you all and Bring on the pictures from the weekend....

Wanna help me Study for Biology?

You DO? Great! Let me tell you about it...

So... you have this thing called the flower. It consists of:

The obvious: petals. But did you know that it also consists of sepals? which are the outermost petals that protect the bud of the flower as it is developing. When you are talking about more than one sepal it is called the Calyx. Just so you know. And now that its spring and things are budding everywhere you can use it in all sorts of cool sentences. For example, "wow look at that beautiful Calyx" or "wow, that Calyx is really doing a great job of protecting that bud!" Then of course there is also the Anther and the Filament which combined together is called the Stamen. And yes you guessed it. The stamen is the male part of the flower. How do you remember that its male and not female? Well, just look at the word: sta"men." That's right. mmhmm. Then you have the Stigma and the style and the ovary, which holds the ovule. Sounds like a song I know except: "the stigma is attached to the sy-le, the style is attached to the ov-ary and and the ovary holds the ov-ule." And oh you guys are so smart-- all together these parts make the female part of the flower. Oh! Don't forget that all of these female parts put together is called the carpal.
(sorry if this diagram gets cut in half... it might be too big)

orchid

Aren't you so happy you got your little biology lesson today? Oh and something really fascinating: did you know that the orchid has a tricking mechanism? It has one petal disguised to look like a female bee that even smells like a female bee which then attracts the male bees over who try to mate with this fake female bee. They try and try to mate and in the midst of all of their sexual frustration they pick up a bunch of pollen. Then they leave and rest because they are so exhausted which then situates the pollen in the perfect position to be left to fertilize the next flower the bee lands on. Crazy huh?

mmmhmmm. And while I'm studying all of this, the girl behind me at coffee is reading childrens books (all of which I read to little 3 year old everyday!) and writing reviews for them for her children's book class. *sigh.*

I will never be able to look at a flower the same way again. ;)

So, this year our Easter celebration was all about the food. After all, when you take away family, (live in a different state) easter eggs (who has the time?), and church (services only offered in the morning/Wes still sleeping from working all night), what do you have left? Food. Lots of yummy good food (and of course our early morning doughnut adventure). Last year Sue and Greg were visiting. They came and our day started with church, continued with breakfast for lunch, lunch for dinner and dinner at 9:30 at night--woops! All because of--drumroll please-- some bread-rolls... homemade rolls. Explanation: you know how I can be a little emotional sometimes?? Well, I cried over the rolls when I discovered they took hours longer than I had planned for. And having the amazing, sweet family that I have, they insisted that we eat late and make the rolls. So we did... we ate late only to end up having hard small rolls that didn't even turn out anyway. *sigh* memories. This Easter we did not make these rolls (though we almost did) we felt like we were trying enough new recipes for one day and to add on homemade rolls to the mix would have been a bit much. The good news is: Everything turned out delicious this Easter. AND we ate at 7:00. Boo-yeah! So, our menu on Easter day:

Honey-goat cheese-phyllo dough-triangles and fruit

making them...



Leek, Mushroom Potato Gratin

[Oops... forgot pictures of these]

Asparagus

I discovered a beer that I like:


and Tiramisu for dessert

yum yum yum

and these were

my surprise Easter flowers...
Rainbow Tulips!

We had so much fun. A little saying to live by: when preparing any meal always spend as much time enjoying it as you did to prepare it.... and that we did....

I PROMISE we were not the least bit tipsy in any of these pictures. Just being silly and having a great time with our "photoshoot."

Love to you all... counting down the days to summer! :)

Katie

Happy 3rd Birthday to you! 

Out of all of the many children I have in my life I have never attended one of their birthday parties. I have been asked before but usually am too busy. However, today that record was broken as I was -officially- the face painter at the little three-year olds (whom I nanny) birthday party. And now, I am gulping down coffee as I type. Exhaustion is settling in so quickly. Exhaustion from the smiling, and talking and thinking and helping and of course from just the overwhelming nature of bounce houses, 40 strangers I didn't know and 20 kids running about. Being the face painter, I drew up pictures ahead of time for the kids to choose what they wanted. Today I painted: butterflies, hearts, flowers, a batman mask, stars, moons, and balloons. It was most unfortunate that none of them chose my awesome drawing of Clifford the big red dog, or the octopus, or the lady bug but at least everyone was happy. My biggest fear was that they would look into the mirror and start sobbing: "It's not what I wanted!" No, that didn't happen. *pheeeew*

Besides face painting, there was a bounce house, tons of yummy food, cupcakes that I baked (so proud!) ;) and Mr. Ben. So, who is Mr. Ben? Just the funnest, most awesome-est, thing to do with a 3 year old on a thursday morning: sing-along-songs! Mr. Ben is a children's musician here in Portland. Who they hired to play at this birthday party. Three year old and I have attended said thursday mornings with Mr. Ben a hand full of times and I think I enjoy it more than the kids do. What could be more fun then going to a coffee shop and sitting on a rug listening to this guy? (Click on it to see who Mr. Ben is!) I was the only what at the party who knew all of the words to his songs (which I quite often have stuck in my head). What's more catchy than words like "my bicycle is not really a bicycle, it has three wheels and that makes it a tricycle"???? mmmhm. 

Moving on, I have fallen in love with my job. If you haven't grasped this already you now officially know. I love the family. I love the girls. I love little 5 month old: stinky poop and all. I love taking care of their house and I love being a part of their team. I am so excited for this next year with them. Now that little two year old has turned three it makes me excited to see how she will change. This age is my favorite because of the rapid growth that happens. They start to learn balance and coordination, they become a little bit more independent and a little tiny bit less glued to mom's side. Anyway-- this is my life right now. And after months and months of listening to my work dilemmas I wanted you to know how happy we are with my new job. It is working out and the wait was well worth it. I know you can all sleep peacefully now. 

ok, Again, moving on... I have to get going on homework. I have a ton of fun biology stuff to work on and am currently working on a drawing of a ketchup packet for my printmaking class. Pictures from our Easter feast will be posted soon. Love to you all,

Katie

PS: Guess who we get to see this thursday??? Oh, just.... Sue and Greg!!!! WOOOT WOOT!!! So excited!!! 

The Breakfast of Champions

Haaaaaaaaaaaaappy Easter!

What a day, what a day. First of all, I must say that for the first time in my life I "battled" through Easter weekend. It was quite strange. I have never actually mourned on Good Friday as I considered the blood that was shed for me so many many years ago. I had never really struggled through the idea of life and figuring out the things that are most important to me. And therefore have never felt so freed from the burden of this broken world as I have today on this Easter day. Believe me, I knew before this weekend the things that were important to me, however I had just never realized how much the petty things I worry about really don't matter in comparison. There are things in life that are hard: sickness, pain, poverty, death but after working through this bible verse for the past two weeks I have now been reminded of a hope that I had perhaps forgotten. Please read:

2 Corinthians 4:7-12, 16-18

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 

What is seen is temporary. What is unseen is eternal. I am thankful for the sacrifice that was made and that He rose again on this Easter Sunday. Last night I just cried. Cried and cried over the sickness and pain I know of in the people closest to me and almost feeling guilty for the blood that was shed for me, a sinner. After reading and praying I woke up today with peace. Thankfulness for His grace, and for His sustenance. Today we celebrate and I feel good doing so. 

SO! How did we kick off our day of celebration? Why, eating doughnuts at 6 in the morning of course! Surely this was the breakfast of champions back in Jesus' time right? Understand that we only eat doughnuts when company is in town who have yet to experience Voodoo Doughnuts. Other than that, we don't really eat them. So, it was quite the treat and so much fun to celebrate this way with Wes before he had to hit-the-hay for his bedtime (he worked graveyard as usual last night). As for the rest of the day we have an amazing-definitely-special-occasion style dinner planned. On the menu?...

Starters of homemade goat-cheese honey phyllo dough triangles

A maincourse of Mushroom, Leek, Potato Gratin. (good ol' slow-cooker style)

Sides of Asparagas, fruit and bread.

For Dessert? Homemade Tiramisu. I know. Crazy. So far so good! Pictures to come soon. 

And here are pictures of our early morning:

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!