My Summer in Pictures

Went to my first ever wrap party! Celebrating the completion of Cars 2

Joined the Monsters University crew as a shader

Conjured up some steak with blackberry sauce and baked potatoes

Attended the annual Big Wheels race on Easter in SF

Escaped to Wine country for some tasty treats

Stayed at the cutest little B&B

Used Aurelia's Chorizo in a Triple Sherry Cream Reduction
(tip: wear lose-fitting pants while eating)

Saw my dream car at Pixar's Motorama event

Met Finn McMissile in person

Escaped to Tahoe

Shared a junior banana split at Fenton's Creamery (the one featured in Up)

Got a crew gift for my time on Cars 2 Promotional
Check out the State Farm commercial!

Made some damn tasty skewers on the grill

Cracked open some Ying-Yang eggs

Did some laundry

Went to the SF Farmers Market

Attended the Kite Festival in Berkeley (and also learned some tricks on a stunt kite)

Made some AMAZING Blueberry zucchini bread and
zucchini hash (Tracy, if you're reading this, thank you for
sharing your brilliant cooking!)

Bought myself a bike, which I promised I would if Pixar offered me a
full-time job after my residency. It's beautiful and FUN!

I think summer is my new favorite season. Hope you all had a fun one as well!

Sheepskin Throw

I used to think sheepskin carpets were tacky, but lately I've been seeing them everywhere, mostly as drapes on furniture, and I have to say my mind has changed. If small enough, they add a lot of nice texture and luxury to a piece without making it look gaudy.

I picked one up at IKEA the other day for the tub chair we nabbed on Craigslist, which has been looking a little naked to me lately.

I find it both adorable and slightly disturbing that it matches Teako's fur so closely. Oh well, she almost never sits on it (this photo was SO posed), which is odd, because it seems like something she would like to make a nest out of. She's never really liked that chair though, so basically the whole point of it's existence (other than an extra chair when guests visit) is to sit there and look pretty. 

Balcony Update

It's been about 2.5 months since my balcony rose from the ashes with some brand new, hardy plants. I thought I'd give an update on how it's been doing so far.

Here's a little then-now:

Shockingly, I haven't killed anything, hooray! The tomato plants are growing fast and tall and were starting to crowd the other planters, so I took a couple of them and decided to give the upside-down technique a try. Instead of buying one of those ugly cylindrical things you see on TV, I opted to make one myself out of a simple hanging planter.

I cut a 2" hole in the fiber liner and gently pushed the roots up through the hole. Using a scrap of tough cloth (a reusable grocery bag in this case) I cut a smaller hole with a slit about the diameter of the stem and wrapped that around the stem on the inside of the planter, letting it rest on the floor to prevent soil from pouring out.

With the help of Boyfriend (he held the heavy thing to keep from crushing the tomato) I filled the rest of the planter with soil and added some oregano, rosemary and nasturtium at the top. Hopefully the tomato plant will survive. I'm already not expecting a great yield since my plants never see direct sunlight, so at the very least it will give us a smidge more privacy from the neighbors across the way.

Speaking of nasturtium, this plant is taking over my entire balcony! The only way this thing could be more resilient was if it were made of plastic. My poor phormium and dracaena are practically being evicted from their home. 

I've propogated the nasturtium out to other planters, which is as simple as pinching a clump and shoving it into some dirt. And to think, I was SO excited when those first two orange flowers appeared, now I'm throwing away clumps of the thing every day!

DIY Painted Hair Flower

This is the teaser :)

Pixar held it's wrap party for Cars 2 on Saturday, which was really, really fun! We got to see the film in its completed state for the first time (it comes to theaters June 24th so go see it!) and I got to see my very first feature film credit! The party afterwards had tons of amazing food, drinks and dancing. My feet hurt pretty badly by the end of the night from gettin' funky on the dance floor...worth it! I really regret not eating more of that food though....

So I originally had this idea to wear a hair flower to the party since I love them so much (and when I wear flowers in my hair, people tell me it looks very "me", which I assume is a good thing).  Unfortunately when I had finished the flower and tried it on with the outfit and jewelry, it totally did NOT work. It just looked too organic when the rest of my outfit was super clean and modern. Having spent the better part of three evenings working on the flower, I was super sad. But being able to give yourself honest criticism is important (difficult, but important), and I knew I couldn't wear it. *tears* That doesn't mean I didn't document it for my blog though! And who knows, maybe at another party with another outfit it could make its debut. Okay, so on to the crafting.

Boyfriend and I had decided on a lavender theme for our outfits when we found that he looked quite smashing in this shirt from Express. Unfortunately I couldn't quite find a high-quality, clean-looking lavender flower to match so I decided to paint one. I added some bling to the middle as well to make it more formal-looking. Here's how it went down:

Supplies:
Fake flower
Fabric paint + brush
Thread and needle
Hot glue
Beads
Flat-head pins
Pliers

I bought an off-white magnolia flower since it had the cleanest lines and wasn't the size of my head. I took it apart by popping it off the stem and taking out the middle pieces that held it together. I took out two petal pieces so it wouldn't be as voluminous and used those for testing.

I put some paint on a paper place and used a wet brush to water it down as needed. Before painting, I completely wet the petals and dabbed the excess with a paper towel. This allows the paint to bleed more smoothly to get those nice gradients. Then I applied my paint, starting with opaque in the center and using more watered down paint as I moved outward.

NOTE: Do not paint on an absorbent surface such as a paper towel. Where the petal makes contact with this surface will dry the paint faster leaving you with uneven spots. I tied my petals to a wire and painted them in the air after making the paper towel mistake. If you're impatient like me, you can use a hair-dryer to dry the paint.

Notice the spots? Those were the little raised dots on the paper towel that made contact with the petals. I tried to bleach the paint out, but it took 3 full days of soaking to get it all out, and by then the cloth had practically dissolved.

ANYWAY, when you're done they should look kinda like this:

My flower had these plastic pieces in between the petals to give them more volume and prevent them from going flat. I decided to use a couple and sewed them into place to keep them from slipping out and being seen.

Now for the beads: I added the large center bead by sewing it into place. Around the base of this bead I put a small amount of hot glue and let it dry. I secured each small bead on a pin by pushing the pin into the hot glue and through the base of the flower.

I bent each pin and trimmed it (it's important to use jewelry pins as they are flexible enough for this).

Here, the first set of pearl beads are in place. I continued to add more crystal beads for some sparkle.

Once all the beads were in place, I arranged my petals exactly how I wanted them, then used a generous amount of hot glue to layer them together. Then I flipped the flower over and secured a hair clip using thread and some hot glue (to keep it from slipping around)

Boyfriend wanted me to point out that he was diligently
washing the dishes while I took this photo

Here's the final product being modelled in some pretty unremarkable hair (mine, I was lazy that day).

In other news, here's the cost breakdown:

Flower: $4

Beads: $2 + 5

Pins: $4

Fabric Paint: $2

Hot glue, sewing supplies, hair clip: already had.

Total: $17

Not bad considering a lot of these things go for $30-60 on Etsy. It turned out really nicely and I was totally sad it didn't go with my outfit (read: really, incredibly heartbroken). I guess now I'll have to specifically hunt for a lavender dress to match it for next year's party.

Blackberry Glazed Steak and Rosemary Fromage Blanc

So I'm both embarrassed and proud of this post. Embarrassed, because the pictures were very impromptu and are just...bad. Proud, because this is one of the best meals I've ever made and I didn't use any recipes!

The meal started off with a trip to Costco where we picked up some great steaks, berries and fromage blanc from Bellweather Farms.

Fromage blanc (a.k.a. fromage frais) is a fresh cheese that tastes a bit like cream cheese, but is much creamier and lower calorie even than low-fat cream cheese. Our cafe at Pixar has been using this cheese on some of their healthy chicken wraps and I've been obsessed with it ever since I tasted it! I was so excited when I found it at Costco so I immediately snatched up a tub. In the above picture I've mixed it with some finely minced fresh rosemary and a dash of kosher salt. You can spread this stuff on anything: crackers, veggies, sandwiches, etc. More on that in a bit!

Next was getting the berry glaze ready. I'll admit, I've never done a berry glaze on any protein before (unless you count smearing my Thanksgiving turkey with cranberry sauce) so I was flying by the seat of my pants for this one!

Approximate measurements:

1 T oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp fresh rosemary, minced

1/4 c red wine

1/4 c beef broth

1/4 c blackberries (frozen or fresh)

1 T brown sugar

salt to taste

pepper to taste.

I started out by sauteing minced garlic and fresh rosemary in some oil. Then I deglazed the pan with about 1/4 cup red wine, added in the broth, blackberries and sugar, and let simmer until thickened.

While the sauce was reducing, I decided to make a light and fresh cocktail based on a gin and tonic (heavily, heavily based). 

I put about 1/2 cup gin (Blue Sapphire for this one), 1 small bottle of tonic and filled the rest of the pitcher with water and ice. Then I squeezed the juice of a lime into the mix and added sliced cucumbers. The result was the perfect summer drink! Very refreshing and not too alcoholic to make it a chore to drink. Gotta say, cucumbers are climbing my list of top low-calorie foods. Is dipping them in hummus still an option?

Alright, back to the steaks. After letting the seasoned steaks rest for 15 minutes, we threw them on the grill (hooray for our Weber Grill!). I brushed my blackberry sauce on them each time we flipped, which gave the meat a beautiful deep red-brown glaze.

Once those were cooked to desired done-ness, we plated them alongside some baked potatoes. Remember that fromage blanc? A generous dollop of that on the mashed potato and you have one of the best-tasting baked potatoes ever! 

I finished things off by sprinkling a little chive and parsley from my herb garden. I even did a little "berry brush" art on the plate, how suave is that? Aaaand another photo:

Much to our delight, the blackberry sauce was the perfect combo of sweet and salty that complimented the steak wonderfully. We had leftover sauce, which we both generously poured onto our steaks in addition to the glaze. The potatoes were melt-in-your-mouth delicious. The drinks cleansed the pallet and left us feeling refreshed. All in all, a really epic meal.