Happy Halloween

I love homemade costumes. They're the best. Costumes that require minimal purchases? Those are great too. This year's costume required a piece of foam board, craft paper, yellow poster board, and a brown marker.

Et voila!

French toast! (Accompanied by that one ultra annoying backpacker at your hostel).

If I'm counting correctly this was my third food costume. The first was a candy bar in childhood and an ice cream cone the year before last.

Bulgur Chickpea Salad

Do you say "chickpea" or "garbanzo"?

I grew up saying garbanzo, but everyone over here seems to prefer chickpea. Both are nice, I suppose. Last week I made a bulgur salad to use up some left over bulgur I had sitting around. Turns out, it was delicious. The original recipe is here, but I'll write out my changes below:

Added 1 small cucumber sliced into coins
Half the amount of oil
Half the amount of lemon juice

If you add just a bit of (soy) feta, that's delicious too!

World Go Vegan Week

This week, October 24-31, is World Go Vegan Week!

Curious to try out being a vegan but not ready for the commitment? Now's the time!

Check out some delicious vegan recipes at:
Vegalicious
VegWeb

And a few of my favorites:

Vegan Zucchini Brownies

Bean Dip Provencal

PS: I'm not vegan myself... just a vegetarian walking pretty close to the line.

A Bit of Summer

I wasn't in town for Father's Day this past year. Although I had a few books sent to my dad, I wanted to do something more personal for him as well. I included a note saying I'd make him the baked good of his choosing while I was home for the summer.

I had a hunch he'd choose the granola... instead he asked for the same pies I made him last year.

Maybe it will become a Father's Day tradition.

First Forays in Quilting

I have admired modern quilting for a long time. Every time I see a new quilt by Ashley from Film in the Fridge I get inspired to try one for myself. There are so many amazing designs out there to choose from. Feeling a little brave this summer, I took my first little step towards quilting.

When Julia requested placemats in exchange for my beautiful new masthead, I thought this would be the perfect chance. I could make four small little quilts giving me plenty of practice with piecing, quilting, and binding.

In hindsight... not so sure that was a good idea.

I loved piecing each placemat. This phase of the project actually went quite smoothly and quickly. The quilting bit only required straight lines, no problem.

Unfortunately, when it came to the binding... things were pretty horrendous. The vision I had turned out to be ugly. Like, U-G-L-Y. But you know this was only decided after cutting and attaching the binding to all four placemats. Special thanks to my sister for teaching me the proper way to use a seam ripper (what had I been doing all these years???). After the ripfest and the purchase of new binding, the motto became "I don't give a _____!" until the job was done.

Did I mention I was operating on a strict timeline? I finished the placemats the day prior to returning to Abu Dhabi.

It was a high stress situation.

The only redeeming factor was the very gracious recipient who set them to work straightaway.

New Masthead

Did you notice my pretty new masthead? Thank you Julia!

More Color, Less Nikon

I always feel a bit weird advertising my camera brand on my strap. Plus, it's just not all that pretty. This quick and super easy camera strap cover tutorial was just the ticket.

My only complaint is the wrinkles in the fabric after lugging my camera around Scandinavia this summer.