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OMG! I totally need to make one of these for my cats. As you may have noticed, I'm a bit obsessed with my kitties. This little project was found on Ikea Hacker, one of the best sites for getting creative with Ikea's inexpensive goods.
Paola opted against the expensive (and pretty ugly) Bastis Krona pet bed ($69.99) and instead adapted the
Now if only there was a way I could hack this thing to make a bunk bed for my feline friends...
Two more photos after the jump!
Last night the boy and I made a pizza using leftover pasta sauce from the weekend. Since he doesn't eat cheese we had to go halvsies. Here's what this monster entails.
Sonia's Pasta Sauce
2 diced serrano peppers
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 yellow onion
2 cloves of garlic
salt
pepper
olive oil
First I sautée the serrano peppers in about three tablespoons of olive oil. Once the peppers have browned and I can be pretty sure that their spiciness has infused the olive oil I take the peppers out.
I then pour in my diced onions. Over a medium heat I cook up my onions until their transluscent and soft. I then add a few pinches of salt and pepper, plus a few pinches of sugar to carmelize the onions.
Next I put in the crushed garlic and let it soften up a bit, but not burn.
As soon as everything seems to have melded together I pour in my can of diced tomatoes and stir everything in. For the next 20 minutes I let the sauce simmer over a low heat, stirring every 5 or so minutes.
At the very end of the whole thing I pour in 1/2 cup of low fat milk. This thickens the sauce up a bit and also mellows out the spiciness from the serrano peppers.
My side of the pizza included some slices of mozarrella, carmelized onions, and slices of garlic. Bruce's side had some chopped up veggie Italian sausage, green pepper and carmelized onions. We ended up cooking the dough (from Trader Joe's) in the oven at 425 on its own for about 4 minutes before putting our toppings on. This helps with keeping the sauce from making the crust too wet.
We were pretty satsified. I don't think Bruce left the couch for three hours or so...
Damn, where have I been? Today, while listening to Pandora, which by the way is the best freaking idea ever, I discovered Ray LaMontagne. His first album, called Trouble was released in 2004. His voice is nice, raspy and it makes me all feel all warm and fuzzy 70's-style.
Another talented bearded dude is Devendra Banhart. I had the chance to photograph him a long time ago. He's very sweet and multi-lingual. "Seahorse," "A Sight to Behold," "Be Kind" and "Todo Los Dolores" are a few of my faves. I love his guitar picking!
We do not condone illegal activities, but we will probably stick around to document them. I found these gems while digging through my archives. There is always something brewing in Oakland.
Check out the close ups after the jump.
I just watched "Ma Vie en Rose." The main actor (pictured above), Georges du Fresne, did such a good job! It was his first film. By the end of it, I was a puddle of tears. And it made me think of Gwen. And my heart broke. Be nice to each other.
My "craft corner" is home to the sexy lady wall. There are strippers, thrift store senioritas and bad girls. l like to look up from the worktable and see them. They remind me to keep it a little crazy! Not that I really need much encouragement. See the wall after the jump. However, I am recruiting new ladies to join the party and I found 'em on Etsy.
First on file is the letterpress Loretta Lynn print which is just awesome. Yee-Haw is a company from Tennessee whose founder was born on Halloween. Now that is cool. I wish they had a Dolly Parton print. She is the best. Yee-Haw has a lot of good Obama prints, some Lucha ones and too many musicians to name. I love art that looks and feels handmade like Yee-Haw's pieces. She also has great design and color sense. Keep it up, lady!
I mean momentoes. Do you collect concert, movie, theater, transportation, restaurant, museum, sports events ticket stubs or business cards? Apparently, I have a surplus. I squirrel them away in corners. Yes, I have a paper design fetish. I love to see how design progresses historically and regionally.
This art project was so easy, cheap and fast! It had a dual purpose - to create some meaningful art that wasn't a photo and to organize my "men's toes."
A long time ago, when I thought it was a good idea to live in an SF Tenderloin studio with two dirty skater boys,* I met Albert Reyes. He was a friend of one of the aforementioned dudes. Reyes was a student at San Francisco Art Institute and not like anyone I had ever met. He is nice, talented, eccentric and a little weird.** Reyes is known for his "GIVE" tag, his spit art (pictured above), his sexy lady images and his pop culture redux drawings. If you look closely, you can find him in some of his drawings.
So there's this French dude, Pierre Blanc, who takes ugly vases you'd normally find discarded at your local Salvation Army and turns them into rock pots. He paints logos of all the things I was obsessed with in junior high -- metal and skateboarding. After the jump some more photos of his rockin' creations.
Why is it that small things make us coo and squeal? I love puppies, kittens, babies and tilt shift photography!
This process involves tilting the lens and shifting the plane to give a distorted perspective as if the photo subject looks miniaturized. There are a few ways to do it. You can buy a lens for a grand or you can DIY it for cheap. Another alternative is Photoshopping it. Here is a tutorial. The simplest, free way is called tilt shift maker. I tried it out on three of my photos. See the before and afters.
