This Spring...

...I'm totally mad about balloons. I'm going to post a lot about that floaty things until you pop. Sue me.

Papris'.

Jacqleen Bleu's found via Oh Joy!.

Free People 2008 fall shot.

Cherryblossomgirl's.

My Polaroid Blog.

Tim Walker's photography found via clairekathleen444's.

This Weekend...

I'll just stay at home and read some books I haven't got a chance to read for long time. It's raining too. Looks like it's going to rain all day. *sigh*

Oh, looks like Terry the Tiger cub is doing the same thing as I am! Feel free to take him home with you. I think Terry looks good as a recipe card, a kid's book label, or a lunch bag's label. Did I mention how Terry loves his stripy sweater?

Grab, print, reproduce, and share. Happy weekend, everyone!

An opposite of a Dentist Office..

Janethillstudio's The Little Cake Shop

Ginko's birthday card.

Bakers Dozen's Blanca Gomez's card.

..guarantee to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Madera: Sneak Peek

Pity the poor venture capitalists. Most of their investments end up being a bust. Relegated to the wasteland that is Sand Hill Road, they have nowhere nearby to commiserate over a beer let alone celebrate, on those rare occasions when everything goes according to plan. Well you can stop feeling sorry for them starting April 2nd when Madera at Rosewood Sand Hill opens.

I had the privilege of attending a preview lunch yesterday and got a chance to chat with the Executive Chef Peter Rudolph and Wine Director, Paul Mekis. Their enthusiasm was a joy to behold as were the food and wine pairings. I had mixed feelings about the food at Campton Place under Rudolph. Sometimes it hit the mark other times it missed it completely. But everything I tasted yesterday was spot on.


First up, an oak smoked warmed Hog Island sweetwater oyster with cucumber, avocado and fromage blanc. The herbal vegetal flavors played off the barely smoky oyster and was an inspired combination. It was perfect with sparkling wine. Madera will have a Champagne cart and included on it will always be at least one grower produced Champagne.


A tender piece of octopus was well seasoned and surrounded by vegetables, a nice contrast from the typical Spanish style plating with potatoes.


Next a take on "surf and turf", smoked arctic char with artichokes, crispy veal sweetbreads topped with tarragon. This was one of Rudolph's signature dishes at Campton Place and it's a keeper.


Rudoph explained his own meal choices have leaned towards more vegetables these days and it was clear from the farro, mushroom and vegetable stew with oak grilled leeks. The chewy farro with the crunch of walnuts was hearty and satisfying and the vegetables and plump mushrooms were fresh and full of flavor. Vegetarians and meat eaters would be happy with this dish, it's by no means an afterthought and might just become a signature dish.


The Kurobuta pork chop from Snake River was brined and grilled over black oak then served with beans, mushrooms and a bread dumpling wrapped in cabbage. The pork chop may have been the best I have ever eaten. Really. It was intensely flavorful and perfectly cooked. It had more smoky flavor than most of the other dishes which was fitting. The dumplings were tender and had bits of vegetables inside them, frankly I thought they could have been a side dish or main dish on their own instead of a garnish on an already full plate but that's a minor quibble.


I'd be remiss in not mentioning how well the dessert fit with the rest of the meal. The pastry chef Shannon Swindle is diabetic and perhaps that influences his less sweet and more adult desserts. The serving of delicate vanilla flecked ricotta cheese cake was creamy but not overly sweet, accented by grilled fruits and a few caramelized nuts.

The wine list has over 600 wines and over 100 are Pinot Noir, a good wine to pair with gently smoked and grilled dishes. The list is impressive and the mark up reasonable, ranging from 2 to 2 1/2 times retail. It features lots of interesting French choices some familiar and others less so. You can view a sample of the wine list here.

While there is no set tasting menu, you can arrange to have as many courses as your would like and to have wines paired with them as well. Rustic but refined in it's food and decor, the restaurant fits well with the surrounding rolling hills and it's easy to imagine the energy you will feel when it's filled with deal makers and holiday takers, even just those sneaking away for a leisurely lunch...

Madera
2825 Sand Hill Road
Menlo Park CA
650.561.1540

Opens April 2, 2009

Easter Gift Tags Printables is Here!

I am not really healthy at this time, (thank you for all of you wishing me better soon!), so here's my Easter printable, quite different from what I have planned, but I hope all my dear readers will love it. Fell free to download here, share, craft, and do anything with it, even sell it, maybe, but be a dear and send me a link to your creations using these gift tags, you don't have to post it on your blog, a flickr link or an email would make my day.

Earlier, my so called Easter craft plans including some Easter rabbit puppets, Easter paper game, and Easter build up paper diorama (hello, big dreamer!), but due to my condition and very limited time (my deadlines are still endless despite the holiday and my sickness, unfortunately), I just have the strength to do a set of gift tags. *boo-hoo* I know, I know, it's lame, so hate me, throw rocks at me, and dump my body at the sewer.

Nevertheless, making up for my weakness I'll share with you a list of things to do/craft this easter. Obviously, these ladies did their homework better than mine, so please visit them.

1. download lovable yet adorable art you can print yourself at Jen's FeedYourSoul.
2. making Easter eggs? Don't forget to decorate the holder too! Visit Zakkalife for the how-to.
3. enter Calamity Kim's giveaway to win a chance of a basket full of spring time goodness.
4. dyed some eggs with Lolly. (I swear she posted this craft tutorial first before Martha Stewart Living hit the racks!) The sweet Lolly has a bunny week running too, in case you're more of a bunny than an egg person.
5. make an artwork, yes, YOU make the artwork. You can do it by following sarahjane's easy step by step.
6. make a "baglets" and print them pretty ala Jessica from howaboutorange.
   
7. does my list suck or just can't get enough of Easter craft? Head over to Christy's to find better options, guaranteed.
   

Quirky Little Chandelier..

.. of forks and spoons. from bikinbarang.


(I'm sorry for the short post, but I'm not feeling well today, and I have to see the family doctor now. Sorry!)

While taking a break..

..from extra cute things and cotton candy color, I met Lulu. She said she's going to bite me if I didn't post her on my blog. She's still cute, in some way, and the most important thing, she's a little naughty and crave for attentions. So, here she is.

Happy Weekend, everyone! You can print, share, or use this illustration as a card, e-cards, etc when you feel a little like Lulu.

Stamping Fun

I was in a desperate need of a decent envelope today, my husband's relative had been sending him lots of good things and he wanted to thank him with a proper thank you note in an envelope. Due to the relative's tradition, it's not polite to use a white blank, usual office envelope, so here's what I do in a very limited time. (It is effectively cheap and fast!)

I have a stack of self-carved eraser stamps, if you're like me, who unexpectedly always have to decorate something quickly, it might be a good idea to carve in your spare time and make 2 or 3 stamps as a start. If you want to carve your own eraser stamp, Geninne has a very good tutorial on how to start carving.

So here are my weapons of urgent envelope decorating.

What's a pencil doing up there? I used the eraser head to make red dots, not exactly a dot since I have used the head to erase earlier, but I like my non-dot.

It's the final envelope. Quick and easy. It works well to spiceup a fabric (use a fabric ink pad), cards, book covers, envelope liners, etc..or in case you need a gift wrapper but you only have a blank brown piece of paper.

The Clovers Finger Puppet Printable!

Happy St. Patricks day everyone!

I know I'm not Irish and not celebrating this holiday but, hey, it's always nice to have an excuse to celebrate something! To celebrate the day (and feeling extra lucky today) I'm giving you a free printable of mr. and ms. Clover here, and boy, they love to dance, so print them while it's hot and slip them through your fingers (they are not on the net forever, boys and girls!).

I love to make finger puppets, it brings me back to my kindergarten days. I was always putting this and that to my puppets and I remember making a lion once, I put many color shredded papers for his mane, some ruffled strings (I can't fine straight one) for its whisker, some beads because it came from Africa (my logic was poor, I know), and finally dabbing my crayons all over the puppets to illustrate fur. My kindergarten teacher said to me, in a Simon Cowell kind of tone, "It's a little over the top, don't you think? Why don't you just color it with crayon like your friends?" Well, I'm glad I didn't.

download me.

So, if you're unfamiliar with finger puppets, try my Clover for your initiation, next time, you can make your own. Here's how to ...

1. Cut along carefully until all white spaces are gone, yes, including 2 holes on each Cloverboy/girl.
2. Slip your fingers (usually your pointer and middle one) and make them walk, run, or dance! If you think you have smaller or bigger finger diameter than the holes I provided, before you print remember to adjust the pdf files first.
3. The hats and ribbons are their accessory. Slit the white line on top of their faces and slip the accessory's gray space behind. Voila.

As usual, if you play with mr. and ms. Clover please let me know. You don't have to blog about that, just put them on Flickr or something and let me know. I want to see their new feet.

If you need another clover craft head to Zakka life. She has the most utterly amazing clover craft tutorial.

My luck meter is decreasing again...

..for winning an adorable Bunny pin from RE-read! I won it on February and it just arrived yesterday, for Indonesian snail mail it can be considered extra quick, trust me. Anyway, I am soooo.. excited when the neat package laid on my mail bowl (yes, the bowl looking kinda empty nowadays.. in that case I'm double excited!). This would be my second winning this year!! Whooaa if this is hoe things are going for me, I'm sure my luck meter will run out by June!

I was thrilled too about the fact that Re-read actually use magazine covers and such for the envelope, labels, and stuffings. How thoughtful! Even my prize is also made from recyclable stuffs! How great is she? I'm into recycled craft and if you're like me, RE-read has a whole lot of them at her store.


What make my winning more interesting is that my friend Anna also won a bunny from Re-read, just a week or so before I won mine! Isn't that a pretty coincidence or what? You can read about Anna's bunny here. I can't find a proper dress to pin this baby on, so meanwhile she sits on top of a book that have a pretty matching color. Say hi to everyone, bunny!

Watch your back, Agyness!

If the center of fashion hasn't moved yet, last time I check it was Paris, France. Even their child's fashion magazine is sooo fashionable, in a Paris kinda way, of course. And look at these adorable models, they are so good at posing, I think they are re-sizing Gemma and Agyness with photoshop. So here's a little indulgent for your fashion sense to decorate your desktop. Warning : if you're a 50 years old guy and happens to feel really excited looking at these, please look for help, immediately.

Yaay for Craft Store!

Lovely Christy of Sweet Tidings is opening her new shop, happy handmades. What is she selling?
Well crafters alike should rejoice because she's going to fill her racks with one of a kind craft supplies, Japanese craft/zakka books (wooo-weee!), softies, and many more!

If you're a big craft fan and can't get your hands idle, check happy handmades daily!

As if the excitement alone isn't enough, Christy is having a giveaway to celebrate the opening of her store! It's open until this Thursday and all you have to do is coment on her post, congrats her, and tell her I'm sending you! Here's a peek to what you can win!

Tasty Events

Delicious reception
March 15, 2009 2 - 6 pm
Studio
1815 Polk St
San Francisco

Studio gallery on Polk St annual show Delicious features art work on the theme of food from 90 local artists. This is always a playful, fun show with paintings, prints, sculpture, drawings, photography and even jewelry. The opening reception is this Sunday March 15th, from 2 - 6 pm and the show runs through April 12th. There are plenty of affordable pieces, like this charming woodprint by Ayu Tomikawa called Nibela reaches for a cake.





White on Rice 5:30 reception, 6:45 film
March 17, 2009
Sundance Kabuki
1881 Post St
San Francisco

The Asian American Film Festival is showing the Japanese film, White on Rice. If the trailer is any indication, it promises to be a quirky, humorous slice of life. Tickets are $11 and there is a free pre-screening reception hosted by lyemon Cha where you can meet the director and cast and enjoy appetizers and of course, green tea. Reception is at 5:30 at the Bar Bistro and the screening is a t 6:45 at the Sundance Kabuki Theater





San Francisco Chocolate Salon
March 21, 2009 10 - 6 pm
Fort Mason
Marina Blvd
San Francisco

Chocolate! This year I am a judge at the San Francisco Chocolate Salon. Come to Fort Mason on March 21st and try chocolate and beverages from over 50 chocolatiers, confectioners, and other producers. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.

Happy Weekend

..from Chubby Shroom and son.

Feel free to grab, print, send, ..anything to the Shrooms. Just link back to me, I'll check how they are doing at your home.

Olive Oil Cookbooks, Tastings and Events

Fran Gage's The New American Olive Oil includes profiles of artisan producers and 75 recipes, each using extra virgin olive oil. Having tried a selection of the recipes I wholeheartedly recommend the tangy Tabbouleh with Meyer lemon olive oil and the Almost flourless chocolate cake, it's a light and fluffy version as opposed to the heavy ones you sometimes get.

Fran Gage is a particularly wonderful baker, experienced in sensory analysis and is one of the members of the California Olive Oil Council tasting panel. She uses extra virgin olive oil in desserts like pound cake in place of butter and in recipes like rillettes where you would expect to find pork fat. Over the next few months there will be plenty of opportunities to attend a olive oil tasting and book signing event with Fran Gage.

Another olive oil book I'm excited about is Micki Sannar's Olive Oil Desserts. Sannar was inspired to develop recipes using olive oil for health reasons, and her baked goods are delicious. I particularly like her lemon cookies, but everything I've tried of hers is good.

A sweet book in more ways than one, the recipes are interspersed with funny and heartwarming stories. While Gage uses all extra virgin olive oil, Sannar uses pure olive oil. This is to minimize olive oil flavor and maximize cost efficiency. Like all good cookbooks, this one is clearly a labor of love and I know Micki spent years and years working on it and perfecting her recipes.


A final book I have to mention is Joanne Weir's Wine Country Cooking, now out in paperback. Joanne is a terrific cooking teacher, which you undoubtedly know from her successful television shows. She is also a fledgling blogger and has always been utterly gracious to me. I was a big fan of hers, from the moment I reviewed her book From Tapas to Meze, several years ago. Wine Country Cooking, out in paperback, might as well have been subtitled "the extra virgin olive oil cookbook" because almost every recipe uses it. This mostly Mediterranean cookbook includes mouthwatering recipes like Pork and Artichoke Stew, Farmer's Market Risotto with Zucchini and their Blossoms, Warm Olive and Caramelized Onion Tart and Braised Fennel with Orange. You'll want to make everything in it!

Joanne Weir will be signing books and offering samples of her recipes at the newly renovated McEvoy Ranch shop at the Ferry Building. RSVP and take home a bottle of McEvoy Traditional Blend Extra Virgin Olive Oil with your cookbook purchase on March 19th from 6 - 8 pm. See you there?

Get Ready for Spring Dress..

..for free!! Head to Grosgrain to enter her giveaway. I think the paper crane dress is so pretty and spring-y, I imagine it twirling when you move. But I must warn you that the dress is quiet small, I think, judging from the model's figure in pictures. I am not sure but Grosgrain provides the measurement, be sure to check if it fits you or someone you know before you enter the giveaway. Don't shut the chances of your smaller size sisters :).

Me? My post baby figure might not fit in, but I have a cute cousin who might. So, all you pretty petite ladies head over here quickly!

Olive Oil Tasting

Olive oil has a lot in common with chocolate, wine and tea. Each has a long history, compelling health benefits and is a staple in just about every kitchen or dining room table. The more I learn about each, the more I realize how much more there is to learn. After the olive oil tasting I attended yesterday, I feel like I've woken up and smelled the, oh, you know what. The tasting was led by Fran Gage, author of The New American Olive Oil and member of the California Olive Oil Council's tasting panel.

I thought I knew a bit about olive oil because the family I lived with in Tuscany produced their own olive oil. We used it for just about everything including frying which many "experts" will tell you shouldn't be done. Most prized was the olio nuovo, a first pressing that is particularly fresh and intensely fruity and peppery. We used it on fettunta which is toasted bread, scraped with a raw garlic clove and sprinkled with a little salt. In my kitchen I usually have several citrus flavored olive oils and a variety of mild and more robust varieties open at one time. Some get used for cooking, others as a finishing touch.

I've tasted a lot of olive oils, but I never knew there was a proper way to taste them. Here is just a little bit of what I learned:

• Each extra virgin olive oil will smell and taste mild, medium or robust

• All extra virgin olive oils should be "fruity"

• A desirable extra virgin olive oil balances the fruity aspects and the amount of bitterness and pungency

• Bitterness you can taste on your tongue

• Pungency you detect in your throat, if an olive oil makes you cough, it's pungent

Official olive oil tasting is done with little blue glasses that hide the color of the oil. Color does not indicate anything in terms of flavor and can mislead tasters. Glasses should be warmed and agitated slightly to release aroma, just like wine. Judge the scent, then the flavor. Sniff the oil and breathe in like you do with wine tasting, then slurp a bit to get the full flavor. Some of the flavors and scents you may detect are almonds, artichoke, herbs, dried roses, hay, grass, green apple, banana, spice (especially cinnamon) Aromas might include tropical, floral or buttery. Gage offers suggestions for how to put together a tasting in your own home, tasting oils on a variety of different foods.

We tasted several olive oils and one of the most robust was from McEvoy Ranch. McEvoy did poorly in a completely amateur taste test done by Cook's Illustrated but was rated highly by our group and also by the professional tasting panel, that is trained to look for complexity and nuances. Panel members like Fran even take olive oil sensory evaluation classes. Like many American olive oils, the McEvoy oil contains oils from a blend of olives. McEvoy uses Frantoio, Leccino, Pendolino, Maurino, Leccio del Corno and Coratina olives. In California there are 125 varietals alone. While there are a couple of other states beginning to produce olive oil, for now, California is the major producer of olive oils in the US.

Tomorrow come back for reviews of some olive oil cookbooks and information about olive oil events and tastings.

Can't get enough of pastel.

Look what I've done to February's blog title theme. I guess I want a fabric printed like this.

Martha's Craft Dept

I am a Martha Stewart fan. Go on, laugh, despise, and humiliate me if you want, but I do love Martha Stewart. Not Martha as a person, of course, but her whole media and especially the decorating, the wedding, and the craft section. When I first grab the issue of Marta Stewart Living I always flip all through the recipes and other articles to see what's in store for craft and decorating. Same thing happened to MS Wedding, I safe the gowns and rings for later to see the decor and the invitations. (Yes, my husband continually asking why am I still reading MS Wedding after I get married? Men, they never get it, don't they?)




So do you ever wonder why MS publications have all the best layouts, greatest projects, and of course, the best craft section? Here is the blog of their craft dept called The Craft Dept (how unpredictable)! Why so excited, you say? Well for me, I love to peek into someone else's kitchen, even more intriguing to me if the kitchen actually serve the tastiest, most good looking foods. So here I am drooling over pictures of my dream job, dream office, dream stack of papers...

Well, since you're there, they also post about other things too like craft projects they made for the magazine, so be sure to grab a triangular box pattern.

Illustrate those Typo!

I was reading through a design magazine (I'm sorry I forgot what magazine it is, I'll tell you when I remember, because I read it on a stall, ssshhh!) when I came across this article about typography and it's purpose in design in general. It was stated that a typo (I hate typing the whole word, so do forgive my lazy fingers) defines itself and the design it is in. So, when you decided to use one typo in a design, you shouldn't add any more design elements to define your whole stuff, for example, a Helvetica can stand alone in a design to tell you that the look is simple, modern, and so on.

I agree to that, at some point, mainly because my Indonesian clients always think that the more the merrier, in a ridiculous way. In my experience with clients, they always want more than a typo to go with their design. A picture, photograph, illustration, clipart, anything but typo-only. The more you can add to a design, the better. It's like a photograph of a banana with yellow and brown puffy font saying "this is a banana" and below that a watercolor illustration of the banana itself.

But I resent to that theory sometimes, when the "add-ons" to the typo are something related, beautiful, they deserve being there with the type (or embedded in the typo itself, in my picks), and obviously making the typo "speak" louder than before! Check out these example and you might agree with me.

Kate Forrester for Wallpaper magazine.

Rodrigo Braga found via designfeedr.

eika.dopludo found via Holga.

Press me..

I don't know about everyone else, but I just love letterpress. There's something magical about different levels of paper it creates. It elevates a design into some kind of personal art instead of just printing it, it lets you know that a human actually involves making the design. Here are some of letterpress studio I adore.

Sweetbeets.

Fugufugupress.

sycamorestreetpress.

letterpressed and diecut card (punchable character) from Egg Press.

Don't you just love running your fingers through all these? Or am I just crazy here?