Tea Towel Love

I had the pleasure to meet a local Seattle designer, Dinah of Dinah Coops this last weekend at the UCU sale as her neighbor vendor. Dinah creates a sophisticated line of sustainble slikscreened tea towels made with 100% linen from Eastern Europe as well as printed wooden tablemats, coasters, and jewlery. All her creations are as nice and humble as Dinah herself.
We did a trade and I had to get the green and yellow tea towels for the great design and especially since they're the colors of our kitchen! There's always room for one or two more tea towels!
In return, Dinah picked up Piano Nobile's Sweet Pea print notebook!
I love trading for goods!
(Photo from Dinah Coops)
(Photo from Dinah Coops)

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

American Designs are JOINing in!

OMG! I'm LOLing w/ X-citement and IDK why!! This new Core 77 article just came out highlighting the US design club movement and guess who they're featuring: JOIN Design Seattle and it's bff Brite Collective. The article basically prophesizes that design awesomeness is on its way to the USA on the wings of design clubs like JOIN sprouting up around the country. Read for yourself to find out the full scoop including profiles of Chicago's Object Design League and Brooklyn's American Design Club and efforts to get the government more involved in supporting independant design. Thanks Core 77! So great to see the momentum building! Everybody now: U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!...

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Cut - It - Out

Some randomness for you:

I was searching for some images of scissors and happened to come across a lovely piece of artwork entitled just that by this sweet little artist (can't you just picture her saying "I'm a PC and I'm 4 years old"?):

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Feeling Hot! Hot! Hot!

This weekend I'll be at the first Summer Urban Craft Uprising (UCU) indie craft show!

When: Aug 1st-2nd, Sat/Sun 11am-5pm

Where: Seattle Center Exhibition Hall (map)

What: Seattle's biggest indie craft show with a wide array of handmade goods, workshops, book signing, and more!

Why: Do you really need to ask? My answer to you is....why the hell not? it's gonna be 100+ degrees in Seattle this weekend (miserable!!), and why not come hang out inside at UCU WITH AIR CONDITIONING...need I say more?
But come check out awesome stuff, do some shopping, meet some people, and then go back out to the giant fountain at the Seattle Center to have more fun!
I might even do that during my lunch break!! :D

Here's a little sneak peak!

We will have some new items like these wooden plant labels for your garden or plants! Every plant needs a friend just like all of us!
Another new exciting items we're gonna have are these notebooks we're debuting at UCU! These are made with LOVELY hand printed fabric by Isabelle of Piano Nobile. We recently befriended Isabelle and Nicholas and they're wonderful enough to print these fabric in time for us to sell at the show! I'm drooling over them myself....don't worry, I'll wipe off my drool.

We'll also have tons of other items marked down, too! I mean, who doesn't like to brag about how good of a deal they got, right?AND our dear and super talented friend, Ingrid will be selling her awesome bags at our booth as well! I'm totally excited to see what she'll be bringing!

So lot of exciting things...so come by to check out our stuff and say hello!!..... and while you're at it bring us some ice cone or treat, too! :D

Hope to see you there!

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Garden update

We're kicking some major gardening butt thanks to all the amazing summer weather we've been having.

Above: our very own bright orange cherry tomatoes! Heirlooms and many more cherries to come very soon.

Chinese Eggplant almost ready to pick

Green Peppers beginning to show their face.

Cucumbers are going crazy! We had our very first batch of cucumber cookies when I picked the first ripe cuc' today. Yummy!

Special thanks to the sun for finally taking the time for a long-term stay in Seattle...keep it coming, but try to keep it under 90 degrees...pleeeeeaase...

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

AlphaBrass NOW AVAILABLE!

We're Big Carteling it up again and posting the AlphaBrass side tables that appeared in JOIN's Ctrl Alt Design show. The table's bases are made of modules from vintage brass table lamps. We're adding these tables to our other previous AlphaBrass lamp and bench.
Check out our new shop to buy buy buy. We'll be producing a limited run of them with Paperstone, walnut, and white oak tops. Each will have a slightly different profile and height according to available brass lamp modules. Hooray!

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Chalk it to Me!

With the JOIN show behind us, our pieces are back in our possession, so I wanted to share this series that Jean put together of chalkboard coated figurines. It's called "Chalk it to Me" and it debut in our recent show, Ctrl+Alt+Design show last month. These figures are one offs from rummaging through thrift stores and spending hours on ebay looking for the right figures. Now you can interact more with figurines a little bit more on a daily biases...bunny figures has needs,too....they like to feel special every once in a while, too. Just like all of us. :D
Here are some more figures we have:
Pretty Panther Shepherdoodle Buddha Gone Wild. (AKA, Raise the roof Buddha)Limited pieces are up for sale on our test Big Cartel shop we're currently piloting. More to come soon!

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

We've got shelves!

2 more shelves done and I think I might not need the 4th one. Here are some pics installed with goodies on the shelves.

Above is a before shot with blue tape outlining the proposed shelving arrangement (the TV was originally going to go here). Months and months later the dream is nearly realized! Just have to figure out how to finish the shelves, but not change the color of the wood (I don't want it to yellow...any ideas?).

More on Flickr

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

One Step closer to shelving...

Anyone who has visited our side of the dupe in the past 2+ months may recall the seemingly purposeless white wood textured panels on our wall. The panels were the beginning of our built-in shelving...one of those projects that has taken way too long. We got one step closer recently. Finally, I have 1 shelf of 4 sort-of-kind-of ready. I'm pretending it's ready at least. 3 more to go! Plus notching for the brackets and finishing them.

I am building the shelves using this great bracket system from Rakks and using the wood-textured wall panels (actually planks of primed house siding) as wall panels that hide the the required vertical brackets in the gaps between. The shelves will be lightened white oak and will be adjustable in height using the clever camming action of the Rakks bracket. I'm planning on routing channels in the shelves to partially hide the brackets.

More on the whole project when I finally get the damn thing done.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Chikabird + Piano Nobile (New Friends in Ballard!)

Through a series of events and connections this Spring, we've been lucky to meet some nearby and very talented neighbors! Isabelle and Nickolas, founders of Piano Nobile are a short bike ride away from us in Ballard - and Chikabird have some exciting things brewing with them.

If you're in Ballard this Friday or Saturday, stop by Piano Nobile's home/studio for a Summer Studio Sale. Part of the City Stimulus event running all week to encourage folks to shop local - it's a great opportunity to do a little shopping and check out a stellar transformation in the Ballard industrial zone. Prepare yourself to get incredibly jealous of PN's space, talent, resources, furnishings, dog, Vanagon, and Volvo. The sale features handmade goods by some fantastic local designers and we feel flattered to be included in such a group.
Chika and I met with Isabelle last Monday. Over coffee, berries, and coffee cake - we decided to do some collaborating! Isabelle has been printing her own textiles for home and personal accessories, so her scrap bin contains a lot of high quality fabrics. The following pictures feature the various patterns and pieces she gave us, and what we did with them.

Anyone want a silk dupioni notebook? Perhaps taffeta or linen is more your style? These beauties make their debut at the Piano Nobile Studio Sale and are just the teaser for what we have in store for the Fall!

Stop by, check out their amazing space, do a little shopping, enjoy some snacks and drinks, and meet some talented people!

Piano Nobile Studio Sale
Fri & Sat July 17th&18th
11am - 6pm
908 NW 50th St
Seattle WA 98107

Unfortunately, neither Chika & I will be there, and we sincerely apologize for the fact that we're unable to be there to support and see everyone....but don't let that get to you. We'll be there in spirit while we do the Renegade craft sale in San Francisco. :)

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Ultimate Freedom Meal 09'

Oh! What a glory day it was to celebrate the day of freedom. The dupe (our house) celebrated honored our country with great pride by coming together to make an awesome freedom meal.....well actually, to be honest, we really just needed an excuse to convince Jesse to make his infamous burgers made with red wine reduced sauce and shallots. Ever since he first mentioned the process on how to make those burgers a year ago, we've been dreaming about it ever since. So what better time to make a burger than on July the 4th?

Chika on the other hand took charge of making some homemade french fries & curry ketchup! You'd think that making fries is easy as cutting it up and just throwing them into a giant pot of hot oil...well, not these twice-fried-perfectly-crispy-outside-with-soft-inside-fries.
Chika peeled, sliced, and soaked them in water the day before to take out some starch. This was an important step to ensure the best result for the ultimate fries.

At the dupe, we don't joke around. We don't just do the most obvious and quickest cooking technique. We like to prolong the process, add more steps, or reduce whatever liquid we can to make these seemingly simple dishes more than awesome.

The burgers and fries were beyond my expectations. Burgers were juicy and well flavored...the fries were crunchy and soft at the same time. It was just heavenly. Burgers+fries=Freedom=Food coma in heaven.......with burger angels. ooh yeah.....

For dessert, I made Chocolate croissant bread pudding. This also required an extra step of pre-toasting the croissant so it's extra crunch and buttery! This is not a dish that's highly recommended for the South Beach dieters...fyi.

I used a recipe online, but altered it a little by adding sherry to the sauce and used 97% dark chocolate. I topped it with some toasted hazelnut and homemade cinnamon whipping cream. But here's my slightly altered recipe:

Dark Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding

• 4 to 5 large croissants, cut into 1-inch cubes to measure 6 cups
• 5 tablespoons softened butter, divided
• 2 cups half and half
• 8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
• 3 eggs
• 1 / 2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup sherry or brandy
• chopped toasted hazelnut for garnish
• Fresh mint for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cut croissant into 1 inch cubes. Spread croissant on a baking sheet. Bake until lightly toasted; set aside and turn oven off. Spread 1 tablespoon butter in the bottom of an 8 or 9-inch square baking dish and add toasted croissant cubes. Heat half and half and remaining butter in a medium saucepan until almost boiling; add vanilla and sherry; cool to room temp. Whisk together sugar and eggs in a medium bowl and slowly whisk in chocolate mixture. Fill bottom of baking dish with one layer of croissant (use about a third of the croissant cubes), sprinkle with chocolate. Pour sauce over croissant cubes, making sure that all are coated with mixture. Repeat step until the whole dish is filled with croissant, chocolate, and sauce. Let stand for 1 hour and preheat oven to 350°F. Bake for 35 minutes. Serve warm with whipping cream or ice cream!

After our meal, we enjoyed a bike ride to Fremont and watched the amazing fireworks by Lake Union. It was a good freedom day.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Built with Love...

This happened about a 2 months ago, and I've been putting it off. But Chika and I did a special project for Henrybuilt.
It was for their new wardrobe system and we did the design and prototyping of some leather handles, felt pockets, and hamper bag that's cleverly integrated with the whole system.
Our work got mentioned in blogs like Remodelista!

Check out all the sexy beauty shots below.....

Leather Drawer Pulls with hand stitched reinforcement detail. They're minimal but supple. We heart leather!!

Felt Accessory Storage Pockets for the interior door rail system

Hamper Drawer with integrated basket, constructed from mesh + recycled leather

Dylan designed the wooden jewelry knobs, the lighting, the shaping of the sliding tray tops. I can only imagine how satisfying it would feel to use that....

As funny as it sounds, we actually never saw the entire system as a whole in person. We only saw parts of it here and there, and now it's all the way in the NY showroom. So, unless we go there to see it, or order it ourselves, we'll never get the real experience....
But actually we're just happy to see all the photos and all the blog mentions of HB's extraordinary work...and I have to admit....Chika and I's work looks pretty darn good with it, too. :D

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

News Update at Chikabird

Tomorrow Chika and I are gonna leave for a long 10 day trip hitting up 2 major city in Cali for 2 shows in 2 weekends and it's gonna be 2 awesome!
This weekend, July 11th & 12th, we'll be in Los Angeles for the Renegade Craft Fair! Come see us and our new sweatshirts (read further down to see our new design), Patch Kits, wooden buttons, and Plant Pals(tm). These haven't made it to Etsy yet, so get 'em while they're hot! The following weekend, we'll be in lovely San Francisco for Renegade, July 17th & 18th.
We got lots of new stuff...but of course we didn't get around to take photos of other stuff like the plant pals, buttons, and patch kits.
But we're super excited about these new Chikabird bleached hoodies and track jackets! We got inspired by our friend, Dave, who used this process. Thanks Dave!!
I designed the stencil...we love tools....
Th process of bleach stenciling is SO simple, but the result looks more than just ordinary!! The possibility to play with layers, time, and ways to apply makes it super fun, since the results can look so different!
It's easy to do and the materials needed it is so minimal that you can literally do it in couple hours.
Here's a step-by-step instruction, so you can try it, too!
Step 1: Make a stencil with waterproof sheet. We used a medium weight Mylar here.
Step 2: Mix 50/50 bleach & water in a spray bottle.
Step 3: Spray back of Mylar with light adhesive spray to keep stencil secure.
Step 4: Use a the mist setting on spray bottle and try to spray evenly over the areas you want to cover. Dab any extra residue on the surface with a rag.
Step 5: Wait and watch the magic happen! You can see the color change immediately. It's so much fun to watch.
Step 6: Peel off stencil when you've achieved the result you want. The time can vary since you can play with something really subtle with less time, or let it sit longer with more contrast.
Step 7: Wash it in the washing machine in cold water right after. This is to set the bleach so it stops the bleaching process. Ta-da, you have yourself a awesme shirt!!

The best part about this process is that you can really play around with the bleaching time, layering, and even different texture. I like to overlap the stencil so it just adds another layer of visual interest.

Oh...and this was a little funny accident I had during the proess where there was a fold.... It's Hammer pants! Get it?.....it's a Hammer...and it looks like it's wearing pants??I think it's adorable...I actually might just make a print of JUST that.
Have a good weekend!

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Day Before Freedom Day

Last Friday, the day before the official America's Ultimate Freedom day, Dyaln was lucky enough to get a day off!
We wanted to do something nice and thought about getting a nice brunch in Ballard to gear ourselves up for a nice & rare 3 day weekend together. But then at the last minute, we decided to eat in and make our own brunch instead! It always seems easier to eat out, but in fact making breakfast/brunch is about the easiest meal to make! Also there's a less likely chance to cause food comas (more on that matter for the actual freedom day)

I made some french toast using some thick artisan bread, and made up a simple mixed berry compote and some vanilla mascarpone. Also some fresh peaches and yogurt! It was pretty simple but totally hit the spot!
We didn't plan anything big for the freedom weekend. Instead, it was nice to just stay a home together, get some projects done, reorganize and do some chores....like doing the laundry. I usually put off doing my laundry, but I finally decided to it, as I was about to throw them into the dryer after washing, I stopped and realized that I haven't hung my clothes out to dry for at least a decade!
I grew up always having to hang dry my family's clothes as a kid, and that was one of the chores I was responsible for. As much as I dreaded doing my laundry, I still enjoyed the simple pleasures of hanging the clothes and putting clothespin on it....it's somewhat meditative.
I was especially stoked when I found my giant bag of vintage clothes pins that I got from a year ago! Those vintage clothespins are simple and adorable! I just love how the soft subtle form is justified to allow such ease of use, and the shape itself is seems so refined and pure. simply perfect.
Since I'm on the topic of our house, I'm gonna give you the latest garden news at the Dupe! Past couple of weeks I've been talking about Peas....and about how I...you know..."pea-ed in my plants"... well, FYI, Pea plants are so last week and is totally OUT! The pea joke is totally tired and I'm bored. Now what's IN are these fabulous heirloom tomatoes and mixed salads that are growing! Just look at how fabulous they look! So healthy and fresh looking! The tomatoes of course are too early in the season, but they look like they're well on their way to become sexy tomatoes! The mix salads are starters that we got from the Ballard Farmer's market, and the flavors are just AMAZING. We don't even use dressing with it since there's nothing like tasting the bitter peppery flavors of these greens.
yeah....summer in Seattle is pretty good.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

5 Reasons why we heart Burien and didn't even know it

Collectively, Jean and I have lived in Seattle almost 27 years...not a once have we even had the slightest reason or desire to go to Burien, a suburban city near the airport about 15 miles south of the downtown Seattle. From an ignorant city slicker's perspective, Burien and anywhere around it embodies suburban sprawl. We got off the free way, and saw this...
and thought "yup...yet another wide congested streets, endless rows of big box stores and uninspiring neighborhoods of cookie cutter houses...."
Our preconceptions were challenged however by the concepts of Thomas Seiverts. Following his lecture, we decided to join Thomas and Boris (his son), Matthew Stadler of suddenly.org, and a good size group of strangers in the city of Burien for a neighborhood walk as a textbook example of how we can begin to rethink the aesthetics of urban sprawl.
As we arrive at the meeting point, we saw a giant open parking lot next to Staples...oh boy... Needless to say, we were pleasantly surprised by the simple wonders this suburban site has to offer. The 2 hour walking tour consisted of a loosely directed rout, a map, and conversations at varoius check points to stop and share some thoughts between everyone.As we started the walk, it took us a little time to first get acquainted with people and get in the zone of looking at things. But as time went, we gradually shifted to our traveling mode...where we started to wonder around with others and explore the alleys and side streets. We absorbed every little thing in our surroundings, stopped every other second to look at something closer or take photos, and even talk to strangers! All those things are so out our norm on a daily bases unless we're traveling somewhere far...but little did we know that pretending to be travelers in our own city can be this enjoyable and stimulating.So, here's our top 5 reasons why we're reformed:
1. Alleys: According to a member of our group, many of Burien's alleys were created early in its settlement...the more streets the town appeared to have, the more enticing it was to railway development. In modern times, unassuming alleys in the town are bustling with the activities of mixed-shared use. A central alley off the main street houses the back side of commercial areas: restaurant workers hanging out on break and the olde feed store's garage door open to reveal surprise chickens and haystacks. As the alley continued into the residential area, people customized their spaces without fencing off their property revealing beautiful gardens (with more chickens!), backyard bbq's, and abandoned backyard projects. You rarely think to walk down alleys, but they are really visually rich areas.
2. Repetition towards "Aesthetics": One of the big themes in Sievert's theories is the inhabitant's tendency towards adding aesthetic elements to make the landscape their own. One of our most striking observations of this is that there was lots of repetition in the Burien cityscape: newer "more attractive" traffic lights were being put up directly next to perfectly good utilitarian ones, boring signs were repeated with brightly colored versions of the same thing, better looking fences were put up directly in front of less desirable, but effective counterparts. People definitely have the natural urge to beautify their space, we just need to be more deliberate about allowing that to happen.
3. Original Character: Burien has a pretty sweet downtown strip. Not only are there tastefully done new condos and retail shops going up (including a great coffee shop called Burien Press) but there are plenty of un-gentrified quaint shops and cafes(Kirk's feed, old time patriotic barber shop) and original 1950's main street architecture (many vacant but formerly home to jewelry stores and trophy shops) that add to it's charm and history.
4. Unpretenous art scene: The city tour began and ended at the Burien Interim Art Space (B/IAS), which is a temporary public art space created in an empty parking lot outside of the Staples super store. The area was slatted for development, but as the project was put on hold the community banded together and convinced the builder to allow it to be a temporary open-air art space. In between artfully carved up asphalt (the parking lot was selectively broken up to reveal the dirt below) B/IAS houses several burning man sculptures plus a small pea patch! There is also the Burien Arts Gallery situated in a lovely small house above Burien Park, which is beginning to break ties with it's seascape-watercolor-painting past and bring in contemporary works from Seattle and beyond.
5. Unafraid of Fine Dining In a Staple's Parking lot: Burien appears almost unapologetic about it's identity, which is impressive in its own right. While it has some developed character, it is mixed bittersweet with soulless big box stores, roaring traffic, and run-down fringes. The city wears it all well and according to Sievert's ideas is well poised to gracefully accept a future of increased localization and need for community resourcefulness. We were just happy to be there to witness what it has to offer here and now and to enjoy a great conversation and a delicious (and free!) meal in looming shadow of Staples.

All and all, this simple walking tour was an experience that left more than just an impression. We walked away from the tour with new inspirations, new connections, and the feeling of optimism. Pretty amazing for a suburb town. Next time when we're feeling the travel itch, we'll just head down to Burien instead!

See more photos and commentary on Flickr.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Pea-ed on My Plates!

Remember when "I pea-ed my plants"? ...well....now, it's gotten a little out of hand...
the peas at our house are growing like crazy and we've been harvesting tons of them! It's nice to not have to split one pea between 5 people anymore. That was rough.

The peas tastes so sweet, crunchy, and fresh! Oh boy! This must be what accomplishment tastes like!! Pathetic?.....I would disagree....
Some people accomplishes this during their first grade class....some people take a little longer....like at 27. But who's eating the peas NOW and proud of it?........ME!! (two thumbs pointing at myself)
Yeah....take that, first graders. :P

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Take a Closer Look at What's Around....Even If It's Costco

When was the last time you stopped to appreciate the most mundane parts of where you live?
Have you ever hike along the woods off the highway?
Can fences be used to connect instead of divide?
These are a few of the questions brought up in a lecture Jean and I attended tonight by urban planner Thomas Sieverts and put on by Portland-based Suddenly.org.
Thomas's theory is that we need to come to terms with the already established sprawl of our urban environments and recognize the inherent charm and potential in the in-between state of being it creates. His suggestion is that we begin to shape our culture in a way that appreciates and enhances interactions of people with their location.

-How can we make the best out of the situation and be better aware of and enjoy the places we live?
-Can spaces between buildings become spots for gardens or for people to mingle?
-Can big commercial businesses use the parking lots to house community events like flea markets, fairs, or skateboard competitions?
Thomas posed these questions and more through a narrative photo tour through a Tigard, OR, an apparent suburban wasteland (similar to Burien, WA) of big box stores, fast food, and lower-middle class residences. The photos highlighted the hidden beauty of forests situated between strip malls, spaces between buildings, unofficial walkways, and well-intentioned. Some were beautiful examples spontaneous human resourcefulness others audacious attempts to insert "beauty" in an altogether bland location (think trimmed hedges in parking lots...what's the point?). All were scenes you could witness if you'd just notice it or take a thoughtful walk around a neighborhood near you....or keep it simple and get your ass out of the car. :DBillboard on I-5 between Seattle and Portland. It's always changing with some ridiculous messages on it. I love reading it every time we go by.
Playful signs on a roundabout by Hiawatha neighborhood off of S Rainer Ave in Seattle.
The point behind it all is that there's a natural desire to express human needs no matter the location and that we all need to recognize them and demand them, but it's also what we choose to see and appreciate what's around us.
Will there come a time where living in an abandoned strip mall or Costco building is just as desirable as livinging in industrial warehouses?
This whole lecture has opened up so many design potentials on this subject, and our heads are spinning with ideas for Brite!!...... oh boy!

Today July 2nd: Continuing event with Thomas Sieverts : there will be an organized walking tour in Burien neighborhood to practice this exact philosophy we described and explore what's around there. When's the last time you decided to stop and walk around Burien?? We can't say that we have....But we will tomorrow!

4:00 pm Burien through Community Eyes: Walk the city of Burien with Thomas Sieverts and artist, Boris Sieverts. (Gather at B/IAS 5th Ave SW & SW 150th St., Burien.) Free and open to the public.

6:00 pm Conversation and Nosh with Thomas Sieverts and Boris Sieverts, Burien political and civic leaders, neighbors, friends, and an interested public (at B/IAS, 5th Ave SW & SW 150th St., Burien; food and drink from Mark & Sal’s Deli). Free and open to the public.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Pie Contest and more!

Tricia from Taste Matters, is putting up her second annual Pietopia contest! I got totally excited when I read about her first Pietopia last year via Chelsea's blog.

What's Pietopia?
Simple! Make a pie with your own personal story/memory/or feeling!! Such as what flavor pie would describe your life and why?

It's interesting to think of a pie that represents a personal story, memory, or feeling.
I just think about how there are countless kinds of pies and how each and every pie has its own personality added to it. Pies are wholesome, pies are warm, pie are comforting...just like homemade chicken noodle soup or fresh baked cookies.
I never grew up eating those American dishes as a child with Taiwanese background, so I can't say that I have the same associations as someone who grew up eating homemade baked pies by their grandmother or mom. But I still find it interesting that even with my different background and associations with pies, I find them just as comforting as all the foods that I grow up with! (i.e. homemade dumplings, sticky rice in banana leaves, and marinated pork belly...yum!)
Maybe we're tasting more than just buttery flakey crust and warm gooey seasonal fruit....maybe we're actually "tasting" the thoughts and the heart that goes into baking the pies....

It almost like a carefully arranged Japanese Bento...where the rice balls are in the shape of a Pokemon, Hello Kitty, or in this case...pandas. Yeah....pretty ridiculous.
I suppose food made from the heart is just universal and that's just something that anyone and everyone can relate to and simply appreciate. Ahhh...the power of food. So get your aprons on and start baking! Maybe I'll bake the world's cutest pie....a pie with baby pandas, puppies, and baby's laughs....yup...it's gonna be lethal.

Entries are due July 15th!
Send them to Tricia: pietopiacontest@gmai.com

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Events: Urban Planning with Sieverts

There's a series of really interesting events happening in Seattle this week from July 1st-3rd concerning the idea of urban planning specifically in Seattle and Burien (interesting combo). Occasioned by Thomas Sieverts, there will be discussions, film showings, and exhibits surrounding this topic.

Suddenly Presents: Sieverts in Seattle and Burien, July 1-3, 2009

Our cities surprise and confound us by scrambling the categories we
use to plan and understand them. At once dense and sprawling, crowded
and empty, urban but centerless, dynamic and stalled, the landscape
where we live defies planning and leaves us with little grasp of its
meanings or pleasures. Yet it is the product of our choices,
individually and as a public: we live here now. So, what can we make
of it? Suddenly will bring art and food and public conversation to
bear on the common cause of making meaning and life in the landscape
where we live now — as it is, as we are, as best we can.

We're thinking of checking these events below:

Wednesday July 1
7:30 pm “Urban Aesthetics,” lecture by Thomas Sieverts (at Town Hall, 1119 8th Ave., Seattle, $5 suggested donation)

Friday July 3: (if you can splurge...this dinner sounds really amazing)
Corridor Project closing dinner at 6pm hosted by Michael Hebb,with Matthew Stadler and Thomas Sieverts in conversation, including a celebration of “suddenly: where we live now, the visual chronicle;” (see www.onepot.org for details). It's $40 for the dinner
The documentation of the Corridor Project IIII: Habitat: will be on display. The opening of the Exhibition is open to the public and begins at 9pm in Occidental Plaza in Pioneer Square.
Corridor Project IIII is an exploration of the wilderness and landscape of the Interstate 5. Michael Hebb, Hannes Wingate and Michael McManus discovers what it means to live, eat, and create a habitat for 3 days in one of the freeways generous median areas. (crazy!!)

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Clam Crazy!

Here some photos of our recent clamming trip to Birch Bay....about a month ago...maybe longer...can't keep track anymore! I can't believe it's already the end of June!! Sigh...Time is going by way to fast.!! I feel like the summer is gonna be over soon!! NOOOOO!
Anyways, we went with a group of friends who had timeshare (thanks Terri!) at Birch Bay and so we all went to do some clamming. It's been a long time since I've been clamming, and it was Dylan's first time. (and might be the last...you'll find out why)
The first day of digging was in the late afternoon soon after we arrived. We were all digging around finding a few here and there....and I was honestly getting a little discouraged since all I found were tiny clams or big shells with nothing inside. Talk about lame....no one likes stupid big empty clams!
But then after about an hour or so, Christine and Nick totally found the money spot where we were getting handful of clams at a time! Booh-Yah!
As we dug and dug, the tide was also coming in closer and faster! So 2 of us had to build a sand barrier to block as much water out while the others were literally on their hands and knees in the water frantically digging.
Check it out! Dylan actually captured this scene with his manual camera! It was totally exciting to have found the spot with so many clams. I can only imagine what it would be like if it was actually gold... All that excitement and adrenaline rush! Hmm...that doesn't say too much about my life, huh?
We cooked up a whole bowl of these babies and sauteed them in garlic, leek, and white wine, and it smelled amazing!! Finally at 10 pm, we made our dinner along with salads, and other side dishes. We were all looking forward to be rewarded with some fresh cooked clams that we all worked so hard for. We all went for the clams...tasted them...chew chew..CRUNCH!
There was still sand inside!! We try to rinse them out as much as we could, but some of the clams still had a lot of sand inside...really not the type of texture I was expecting.
They would of tasted amazing if they weren't so sandy!!....I suppose we should of soaked them longer. :(
But then on top of that, the very next day Dylan got some sort of flu or food poisoning...where he had horrible stomach pain and ended up staying inside for the majority of the day...puking up all the clams...and CLAM SAND!....sorry, TMI! But yeah...not super pleasant for him. So I think Dylan's gonna stay away from clams for awhile now...
On the last day, we got to check out Lummi Island on the way back to Seattle. It's a lovely little island that we took a tiny ferry to get to. We all got to just hang out by this beach and enjoy a lovely picnic.
It was a quiet and fairly secluded beach with beautiful shore line. The entire beach is covered in round pebbles and rocks of all colors and sizes and we spent hours searching and collecting a bunch of rocks.....weighing ourselves down more and more as we went. The shore line was so beautiful with dramatic rock formations and interesting sea life! I love seeing all the patterns, textures, and colors in nature....It's so surreal! Also took some polaroids!
We had a great time though (minus sandy clams and Dylan throwing up...). Thanks Terri and Chris, Christine and Nick for the great weekend!
Here's us trying to take a polaroid of ourselves...it's harder than it looks! You can just see the struggle on his face trying to take the photo and smile at the same time. Men...they just don't know how to multitask do they?
See rest of the photos, here.

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