Oh joy!

Oh my goodness! I am so excited I stumbled upon this AWESOME illustrator. It is sooooo cool it makes me want to get out my pens right now! I love the "messy-flow" quality it has. This is my absolute favorite style of illustration, I just don't know what you'd call it. PURE BRILLIANCE! Go check out the site, rebeccawetzler.com. I promise you'll find something there you like!

- Jess

Threading your brows

I recently discovered from a girlfriend of mine a new technique of maintaining your eyebrows-threading! I have to admit I was pretty scared to watch the youtube video she posted- I could only image what a needle and thread would do to your brows. Luckily there are no needles (Whew!) and the thread only stays on the outside of your skin! It's kind of a weird process to try and explain so here is a video I though was the easiest to under stand and see.

After watching a few tutorial videos I became fascinated and had to try it myself. I have thread- this should be easy! Here are my thoughts on threading your eyebrows:

1. It's pretty painless.

Actually, I think it hurts less than tweezing. I've never waxed them before, so I'm not sure how to compare it to that. I also think that once you get quicker it won't hurt at all.

2. It's actually "tweezing" your brows, not cutting them.

Some of the videos i saw threw out the word "cut". It doesn't cut at all-more so just tweezes quickly and much more at a time.

3. Cleaner shaping:

What's nice about threading is that you can move the thread as your "plucking" around. So you can make an angle, yet rotate it as you go. Basically, letting you shape your eyebrow while you pluck lots or a little hair at one time. Nice!

4. Need to practice

I definitely feel that you can't master it on your first time. It's going to take some practice. As long as your not crazily whacking away at your brows, it's pretty easy to control and not screw up the shape. You don't want to have one bald patch for work the next day! Take it slow and watch out for your lashes!

- Jess

Happy Halloween!

So, I know I'm a day late, but I hope everyone had a wonderfully scary Halloween! After my first attempt to carve a pumpkin in ages, I finally finished up my little one. Quite successfully, if I might say so myself! The big one turned into a disaster. The walls were too thick and my small kitchen knives couldn't make it all the way through. So much for a cute cat carving! While I was scooping out all the insides, thinking how sticky all of this was I remembered something my mom and grandma used to do with me. Toasted pumpkin seeds! Now I was excited to scoop out the goo and squish through it to find all the hidden seeds. Pumpkin seed recipes have come along way from the ones we used to make with salt water and oil. I did some digging to find a recipe and came across 3 very unique ones on 101 Cookbooks: Sweet & Spicy Pumpkin Seeds, Curried Pumpkin Seeds, and Black Tea & Butter Pumpkin Seeds. Here are the recipes if you too are dying to make use of your leftover seeds:

Sweet & Spicy Pumpkin Seeds:

• 1 egg white
• 1/4 cup natural cane sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grained sea salt
• 1 cup fresh pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 375. In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the egg white, sugar, cayenne and salt. Add the pumpkin seeds and toss well. Drain off any excess egg white (using a strainer) and place seeds in a single layer across a baking sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes or until seeds are golden. Sprinkle with a bit more sugar and cayenne pepper when they come out of the oven. Taste and season with more salt if needed.

Makes one cup.

Curried Pumpkin Seeds:

• 1 egg white
• 2 teaspoon curry powder
• scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grained sea salt
• 1 cup fresh pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 375. In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the egg white, curry powder and salt. Add the pumpkin seeds and toss well. Drain off any excess egg white (using a strainer) and place seeds in a single layer across a baking sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes or until seeds are golden. Sprinkle with a bit more curry powder when they come out of the oven. Taste and season with more salt if needed.

Makes one cup.

Black Tea & Butter Pumpkin Seeds:

You can use many different types of tea here. I opted for a smoky black one, but you can go for one infused with other flavors, or even tisanes (I have a dried lime tea that I be would be interesting in this recipe). Choose a tea that is fragrant and has a pronounced flavor for best results.

• 1 teaspoon (black) tea
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grained sea salt
• 1 cup fresh pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 375. Using a mortar and pestle or spice grinder, grind the tea into a fine powder. Set aside. In a medium-sized bowl combine the butter and salt. Add the pumpkin seeds and toss well. Place seeds in a single layer across a baking sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes or until seeds are golden. Sprinkle with the ground tea. Taste and season with more salt if needed.

Makes one cup.

TIP: If you have time I do recommend soaking your pumpkin seeds in salt water over night, then letting them dry back out before following the recipe. Even on the sweet recipe you still want that complimentary "salty" taste. Sprinkling salt is just not the same.

I leave you with a great picture of our Halloween party this year!

-Jess

It's pumpkin time!

I thought I would let everyone know that I’m very excited about the annual pumpkin-carving contest at work this week. I haven’t carved a pumpkin in years! Probably since I was 13 or so. It’s been so long that now the pumpkin industry has cool carving saws, scrapers and pokers for the serious aficionados. I will be doing mine the old fashioned way - kitchen knives and spoons! I’ve been trying to catch up with some research on the best way to carve a pumpkin and how to preserve it. Here’s some tips; I hope they work:

Start with marking you outline with “puncture holes” to create your template. Always start your carving from the middle of the pumpkin; work slow and in small cuts. Always cut your corners first before making your lines.

To preserve your pumpkin there are 3 different techniques:

1.) Apply Vaseline to the cut areas to help keep it from drying out on the carving.

2.) Once your carving is done, spray your pumpkin with water and wrap in plastic wrap. Keep in refrigerator till ready to use. Try off with paper towels when ready to present to help prevent molding.

3.) For extra mold protection, add some bleach in with you water mixture before spraying on pumpkin.

As soon as I finish my carving- well, start my carving- I'll post some pics!

- Jess

Simply sweet… and last minute!

I love my friends, I really do… but they plan everything LAST MINUTE! I’m an overboard planner. I know exactly when and where I going to do things and how much it’s going to cost and what to bring. I even have the weekend planned by Wed! So when I found out ON LABOR DAY, that we were invited to a party, I panicked! Now what am I going to do! Every store in town is closed on Labor Day, and I can’t be “that friend” that shows up with no food, and then pigs out on everyone else’s ! Hmmmm, what to do, what to do? I quickly remembered a recipe that I’d almost made several times for a quick circumstance just like this. I grabbed my trusty Betty Crocker cook book and opened it to the most basic desert recipe I could remember- Butterscotch Brownies. I was back in business! This recipe has all the basic ingredients that I always have in my house. Let’s just say I kept my reputation as “the awesome dessert girl” and got rave reviews from everyone at the party. I recommend keeping this delicious “back-up brownie” recipe for every last minute invite!

Butterscotch Brownie

• ¼ cup butter or stick margarine
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tbs. milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• ½ cup chopped nuts if desired
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt

Heat over to 350. Grease bottom and sides of square pan 8 x 8 x 2. Melt butter in 1 ½ quart saucepan over low heat; remove from heat. Stir in brown sugar, vanilla, milk and egg. Stir in remaining ingredients. Spread into pan. Bake about 25 min. or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes in pan on wire rack.

You can also add any toppings to it such as chocolate chips, nuts or candy pieces. I used chocolate chips on top, and then baked them so it all got gooey!

- Jess

Just Because...

That's exactly why I started this blog!

I'm Jessica-designer, illustrator, cook and lover of handmade crafts and naturally worn elements! Here you'll find little peaks into my day-to-day life, thoughts, interests and dreams-just because I like to share them with you. I'm addicted to Chinese and Thai food, as well as anything chocolate! I love to knit, even though the only thing I can make is a scarf! I desperately want to learn to sew something cool-like an ultra-trendy shirt or dress. I'm in love with texture-rusty metal, wood, deteriorating vintage items, peeling paint! Anything that adds character and age to something. Graphic design is my passion. I can't help but stop in the middle of the store isle and stare at the huge sign on the wall. I'll even hold a design piece so close to my face it touches my nose-just so I can see all the detail of how it's made! My husband an I plan on learning a foreign language even though we can't decide between French and Italian! Great plans are in the works to travel to far places-China and Tahiti are coming up within the next 2 years. Oscar and Zoey are my two kitties that are wild and crazy-I hope they stay like that forever! I have the coolest husband that likes to shop with me, loves antiques and takes me flying to anywhere I'd like to go (Yeah, yeah... I'm spoiled).

That's enough about me for a bit. A "last-minute" dessert recipe coming up soon!

- Jess