an update

clearly i haven't been on this blog in a long time. and something has happened to a bunch of my old posts and flickr photos are not showing up. not sure what's going on with that but i am pretty sure i am too lazy to figure it out.

why haven't i been around? no particular reason really. i was never a great blogger to begin with. i think with ravelry, my need to document my projects has diminished. i would like to blog more about cooking and baking. I also have 3 (yes, 3) other blogs that i contribute to now which i love and have taken up a lot of my time.

so i don't know when or if i will ever get back here to blog regularly. maybe if i start sewing more and/or knitting more (omg i haven't knit a big project in ages). perhaps i'll just try for a monthly recap of my crafting projects. we'll see how i do. for now, if you'd like to keep up with me, you can find me in a whole bunch of places.

instagram
ravelry
nite lite book reviews (adult fiction, romance, sci fi, non-fiction book reviews)
read now sleep later (ya, children's book reviews)
the painted ninja (nail polish and beauty blog)

:)

a new year

happy new year, everyone! i hope that you all had a nice holiday. i actually had a couple of weeks off from work, which was awesome. i am actually driving back down from my parents' house tomorrow to my place. i am going to be sad to go. it's been nice just hanging out and not doing anything. we had a great first christmas with my niece, who is the cutest thing ever. don't try arguing with me because you won't win. here's a blurry picture of her.

even though this is way out of focus, i think you can tell how adorable she is. :) i also saw a few movies including the hobbit (awesome!), django unchained (thought provoking and over the top), and jack reacher (tom cruise being super intense as always). the weather in norcal has been quite cold and was pretty rainy the first week i was up here. luckily my brother and sister-in-law gifted me with some really cool rain boots.

puddles fear me now. i bought a lot of nail polish which i am not going to show you. though i will show you the mani that i wore for over a week. it was seriously beautiful and wore like iron. 

you can't really tell from this picture but it is seriously sparkly and shiny. it is a pink red with bits of scattered holo glitter in it. seriously one of my favorite polishes that i found this year. 

and i ate. a lot. my mom is a great cook and i eat as much of her food as i can while i am at home. here are just a few of the tasty things i had over the break.

christmas dinner

beef pho

banh xeo

i will definitely miss the cooking when i am gone. that's about it. i read a couple of books but not as many as i'd hoped. i also pulled out my mom's old sewing machine to see if it worked. and it was working right up until it jammed. so now it's at the repair shop. i am hoping it just needs a good tuneup. it's a super old machine and it's not going to be worth putting a lot of money into it to fix it. if the estimate is too high i may just have to purchase a new one. 

since it's a new year, i should probably think about what my crafting goals are for the year. i cleared out my ravelry queue to only be 6 pages long. that took a couple of days. i used to queue everything i liked instead of favoriting it. now i know better. i only kept the things that i would realistically make and the list is still quite long. i do hope to get a lot more knitting done this year and learn to sew. 

and of course i'd like to blog more consistently. i say that all the time and i still haven't quite gotten the hang of it, but i'll keep trying. what are your new year's goals? :)

dreams in color

Just a wee nail polish haul from this week. My mom picked out the yellow and the lavender. I love having a rainbow at my fingertips. Off for Thanksgiving break. Hope you're all having a wonderful week!

pumpkin coffee cake

Fall is here, though you might not know it by the ridiculously warm weather we are having in SoCal. But fall means pumpkin time! I finally got to make something with pumpkin this past weekend. I decided to make a tasty looking coffee cake that I saw at Recipe Girl. It was pretty tasty (and my co-workers decimated it). It wasn't my favorite though. I think I wanted something more like a pumpkin cake and this is like a coffee cake with a layer of pumpkin pie filling in the middle. Delicious but not what I had been craving. I think pumpkin donuts or pumpkin cupcakes are going to be next on my list. 

What are some of you favorite fall recipes?

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

adapted from recipegirl.com

Yield: 12 servings
Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 50 min

CAKE:
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
One (16 ounce) can unsweetened pumpkin puree
1 large slightly beaten egg
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

STREUSEL TOPPING:
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened slightly
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, optional
Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray a 9x13-inch pan with nonstick spray.

2. Prepare cake: Use an electric mixer to cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl; add eggs and beat well. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Mix dry ingredients into the butter mixture half at a time, alternating with half of the sour cream. In another bowl, combine pumpkin, egg, 1/3 cup sugar, and pie spice. Keep separate.

3. Prepare topping: Mix the topping ingredients together with fork or hands until crumbly. Set aside.

4. Spoon half of the batter mixture into the prepared pan. Sprinkle half of the streusel topping over the batter. Spread the pumpkin mixture over the streusel. Carefully spread the remaining batter over the pumpkin mixture. Sprinkle remaining streusel on top.

5. Bake 45 to 50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

weekend update: trick or treat

we had 3x this much candy and gave it all away

I can't believe that Halloween is over already. I feel like I look forward to it so much each year and then it goes by so fast. I had a really fun timing hanging with my friends and their baby while handing out candy. Then we watched Shaun of the Dead and Halloween while eating copious amounts of candy. I really can't think of a better way to spend the evening.

iris as a gnome

she is walking now so always in motion

I also went to a taping of Ellen this week, which was a lot of fun. They don't make you wait too long and the show goes by quickly. Ellen is always so positive and funny as well. I don't have any huge plans this week except for a knit night on Friday and a book signing on Saturday. The signing is for Jon Klassen at Gallery Nuceleus and that's on Saturday evening. I am a big fan of his so it should be really fun.

I am hoping to start a new book this weekend, too. I haven't decided which book just yet. I love it when I can start a new book though. There are always so many possibilities.  I hope you all had a great Halloween. Does anyone else have any good plans this weekend?

I'll leave you with the book trailer for Jon Klassen's newest book, This Is Not My Hat. Happy weekend!