This was a very twenty-something weekend for me, complete with home-made sushi and Knocked Up. (Pretty good, on both accounts.)

It feels rather demographically stereotypical, but husband and I have decided that we really like sushi. He even likes it enough to watch some youtube videos, make a few trips to the store, and make some himself.

And the results?

Well, let’s just say that the brother who lived in Japan for a year gave it two thumbs up. :)

I made cupcakes Tuesday night for my mother’s birthday, which was yesterday. I can’t find the recipe online, so to make your own batch of incredibly delicious vanilla cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting you’ll have to buy the June issue of Martha Stewart. I bought a copy for mum as part of her present and happened to, um, skim through it before giving it to her (the recipe page might be an teensy-weensy bit rumpled now).

As I was making the cupcakes, I noticed that the batter and frosting were the most beautiful shades of white on white. 

One thing I really like about having a new camera is that I’m trying harder to see now. When you’re limited to the small viewspace inside your lens, you look harder at how things relate to each other. You think more about things like color, composition, and value - things that I forget about most of the time. I remember walking around Providence, RI, the day after discussing value (how light/dark something is) in one of my illustration classes and seeing the trees and houses and cars like I had been blind for years. Sometimes knowledge + understanding can give you new eyes.

I guess this doesn’t really have anything to do with cupcakes anymore. I really enjoy that fact that making one thing acts as a trigger for all manner of ideas for unrelated things. From cupcake batter to white compositions to Mark Rothko paintings to home decor to that piece of furniture I didn’t buy at the Goodwill to the pillowcases I did to the idea I had for a new purse made from them to I should probably paint instead to I don’t paint enough anymore to what should I paint next…You get the idea. All while standing at the kitchen counter mixing flour and eggs and sugar.

Back to mother’s birthday, it would have been an entirely lovely event except that brother-in-Japan was missing. I coaxed some beautiful but rarely used china teacups and depression glass plates out of her cabinets and set them on a, old printed tablecloth. And I had the first red roses of the season, cut from the bushes in the yard.  

I hope she felt loved, because she is very much. Happy birthday again, mum!

The dining room is done, but I’m not going to take photos until the furniture is put back in place (it doesn’t look like much of an improvement with plastic, rollers, paint cans, etc. scattered all around). I do have pics of my other weekend accomplishements: thrifting and cooking.

I don’t know why I’ve been on such a thrifting kick lately, especially since I don’t have a lot of money to spend. Thrill of the hunt, maybe? Anyhow, I spent about $15 last weekend and came away with a lot of new treasures, including:

..two pillows in a really lovely linen print (from a thrift store). The pillows are strangely lumpy, so I think I’m going to throw the stuffing out and keep just the fabric. I really, really like the combination of green and turquoise.

..a vintage Christmas tablecloth in perfect condition (from an estate sale).

..a French wallhanging (from an estate sale). I’ve started collecting these - I have one with Swedish flowers (in Swedish) and one with American birds.

..a hobnail vase and a jar(?) with lid (from the dollar shelf at an antique store).

..a piece of fabric-that-I-didn’t-realize-was-polyester and a great old photo (from a thrift store). Can you see the expression on the man’s face??

Not pictured: new spider plant, large piece of printed fabric, and some other stuff that I can’t remember right now.

I’m out of time, so I’m going to post the food pics without any comment other than that they were delicious. The potato soup moreso than that ravioli, but it was my first try. (Don’t the raviolis look like little alien spaceships?)

Last night’s big project was to finish the biscotti I’m giving as my office Christmas presents this year.  I sort of messed up the present thing last year and gave larger presents to a few people, only to discover that around here people give small gifts to everyone.  I wanted to bake something other than cookies, so I got ahold of a biscotti recipe and gave it a shot.

According to Josh, my biscotti turned out really successfully.  It’s crunchy, almond-y, and slathered in chocolate with vanilla stripes.  The only problem is that the recipe didn’t make as much as I thought it would (why is that always the case??), so everyone only got two pieces.  But the hand-stamped gift tags should count for something, right? 

As I was dipping pieces of biscotti in chocolate I watched Little Miss Sunshine, which - as Josh agreed - was much better than we’d thought it would be.  The VW that needed a running start was hilarious; I don’t think you can come up with something like that unless it’s happened to you.  And I really really like DeVotchKa, so the soundtrack was a nice surprise (”How It Ends” is one of my Favorite Songs Ever).

Amusing office moment of the day: did you know that the Missouri Botanical Garden is very particular about being a Garden, and not Gardens?  I didn’t, at least not until after I had 350 holiday cards printed that included an announcement about a “special tour of the Missouri Botanical Gardens.”  Oops.  My very kind supervisor helped me cover 350 s’s with white out.

Another amusing office moment: I read through lots and lots of applications from international students, so I see a lot of Engrish (”Dear officer, I am very interesting in your program…”).  But today’s was the best - one student’s letter of recommendation came from an assistant professor who had spent two years as a “poster-doctor” in Germany. 

If you don’t spend any time around postdocs, you might not find that funny. But I did.