Tuesday's Top Pick

It's almost February and you know what that means! Abraham Lincoln's birthday! And Valentine's Day, of course. ;) So I thought in keeping with that theme, some quirky gifts to get your loved one for the overly-commercialized holiday of love.

ThinkGeek gifts.

From top left working towards bottom right:

• Soft Kitty Singing Plush - $29.99. Who doesn't want a singing cat?
• Gift Box of Mini Plush Microbes - $19.99. You can choose the set of microbes you want to give. Egg, sperm, kissing disease, an amoeba, and penicillin make up a set or you can give an assortment of STDs!
• Geek Insignia Ties - $39.99. Atoms, formulas and monkeys, oh my!
• DIY I Love You Bean - $4.99. Grow a bean that says 'I Love You.' Cheap and romantic!
• Chocolate Zombie Head Bon Bons with Cherry Brains - $9.99. Because V-Day is all about chocolate.
• Domo Plush - $9.99.  Domo arigato,  Mr. Roboto.

Little Printer

It just occurred to me that I never shared with you the awesomeness that I stumbled across a few weeks ago: Little Printer.

Hello Little Printer, available 2012 from BERG on Vimeo.

This little printer is just too cute for words. It prints out news, puzzles and social media feeds for you in a daily newspaper format. The only downside I see of is that is creating environmental waste (paper) BUT let's say you use this paper as your daily note taking scribble paper instead of a post-it that you write things on, then things equal out. :)

What are you thoughts on this? Is it something you would consider using?

Storm Clouds

Storm Clouds

Taken in early June. North Carolina experience some extreme weather this spring and summer - everything from tornadoes and earthquakes to hurricanes. I am a little bit of a weather nerd so I read some local weather forums and blogs and currently some people are saying that this upcoming spring, and even late winter, could be a little on the extreme side for North Carolina again in terms of weather. I'll guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Paintings, paintings everywhere

Almost finished Night Fairy painting.

Today I've been trying to finish up my multitude of paintings, like the one above and get them ready for prints, all which will hopefully go up on my Etsy shop next week!

This blog has also been connected to my new website, here, which should be fairly user friendly and a easy way to keep up with me!

Selection of upcoming paintings.

Tuesday's Top Pick

My Bread by Jim Lahey, amazon.com

So for this week's top pick I'm actually not posting something from Etsy! I know, I know! What is the world coming to if I'm not constantly trolling Etsy for the next big thing? ;)

Now I have to be honest, I don't own this book. Yet. It is on my list of books that I am hoping to be able to purchase for myself next month. But I did get a great recipe that is from this book via the New York Times (see it here) featuring bread that doesn't require any kneading and I tried it out today.

I was pretty skeptical with the whole making bread without kneading thing. Wait, let me back up a second and let you know why I was looking up bread recipes that require no kneading. Reason #1 is because I like to be lazy and cut corners if I truly can and reason #2 is because my bread maker committed suicide by jumping off the kitchen counter mid-knead the last time I used it. I don't know exactly how it happened but my bread maker was mixing away and somehow in the process wiggled itself close enough to the edge of the kitchen counter and fell, breaking in pieces. It was a sad day. And hence the no knead bread.

So I made the bread last night, let it rise and baked it this morning. And overall, I was pretty impressed and the only complaint I have is that it didn't rise quite as much as I would have liked, but that may have been to the way I handled the bread and not necessarily the recipe. And I do think that this is a bread I would like to make every week. I may play around with the recipe and make more of a honey wheat bread and if I do I'll let you know how it goes!

-Sara

Catawba Cat Heart

Mr. Catawba in a Promotional Shot

I know I haven't been posting on here as much lately and for that I apologize. I have been busy volunteering with Second Chance Pet Adoptions (go visit them here) in attempts to improve my resume and land a "real" job. 

Anywho, that handsome fella you see up above is Catawba, Second Chance's resident center cat. He has been with Second Chance for what seems like forever and he is a really cool cat... except for the fact that he doesn't like other animals, including cats, or children or even people, some days. He sometimes has a bit of anxiety issues and can very well have moments where you are petting him and then you find out that he really wanted you to stop petting him by way of teeth or claws. But other than that, he's pretty awesome.

But I've been good. Really good. And by that I mean I haven't flooded my blog with the roughly 300 Second Chance animal pictures I have taken in the past two months. ;)

And I promise, more print-worthy, non-animal pictures are on their way!

-Sara

Tuesday's Top Pick

I didn't forget, I promise! :) I was just at work all day and by the time I got home last night I was too tired to do this. So, here you go!

Pink Rose Headband

I find it amusing that here in the heart of North Carolina, we haven't had much of a winter so far. In fact, the past two days have been the coldest so far, having highs of 37 and 44. Prior to that we had highs in the 60's and 70's. So given this mild winter we have been having, which to be honest feels more like spring than winter, I find it amusing that I catch myself longing for early Spring. The time of the year where their is still a bit of a bite in the mornings but as the day goes on, the sun warms everything with her golden hues. The time of the year where you see the birds starting to migrate back north (Robins!) and the crocus are popping their heads up out of the ground, while the daffodils and irises are starting to send their shoots up. And so, in honor of me missing that time of year, I have been scrounging through Etsy (like always, I know!) and finding objects like the one you see above, which just screams at me early spring. 

If you would like to see more like the headband above, check out Roltinica's shop (she lives in Russia!).

First Animal of 2012

Carolina Wren (credit Birdtiques.com)

I started a new tradition last year of looking out for the first animal I see of the new year and reflecting on what that could mean for the upcoming year.

Last year, it was a lizard. Meaning: Intuition, heightened sensitivity, future dreaming, detachment. Face your fears.

This year it was a Carolina Wren. Some believe the wren is a symbol of home and family. I think it's important to note that with wrens, the male does most of the nest building and builds several dummy nests to entice a female wren.

Others like to point out how bold and resourceful the wren is, not being shy to confront any bird or animal that it deems threatening and being very creative when it comes to nest building materials and placement. The wren can make a home anywhere.