Steve tried out our new Bi-Rite ice cream book by making meyer lemon ice cream, and I suggested sandwiching it between a couple store-bought mini gingersnaps. I was just going to use the ice cream sandwiches as one component in a picture with ice cream also in a bowl, but the ice cream in the bowl was melting too quickly. I was also having issues finding a composition that I liked with the sandwiches, the bowl, and the lemons. When I took the bowl of ice cream out of the equation, the picture came together much better.
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| 120/366 mini meyer lemon ice cream sandwiches |
Monday was finally the day of the official announcement picture. I had readied the components in advance, wrestling with our printer to print our 12-week sonogram picture on the one piece of photo paper that we had left and figuring out how to prop it up (against a tea light). The sheep was actually a project that I started in late April. I had seen these WoolBuddy needle felting kits at a shop in Glen Park, and I decided to try making one. After all, I was looking for some sort of stuffed animal for my announcement picture, and without really realizing it, I'd been drawn to WoolBuddy animals for pictures in the past. There were a few options for animals, but the sheep was the cutest, since it reminded me of Shaun from Wallace & Gromit.
I got the hang of the needle felting pretty easily, although I had issues figuring out what size to make the body. By the time I started attaching the little balls to it, I realized I was going to run out of wool. So I tried to make it smaller partway through, which resulted in some of the already attached balls not adhering very well in the back. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, though; it just won't be for the baby to play with. The ribbon actually came from some packaging on a chocolate bunny at Easter. It happened to be about the right size and a lovely gender neutral color, so it worked perfectly.
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| 121/366 coming attractions |
It was back to more regularly scheduled pictures for the beginning of May on Tuesday: another calendar picture. This time, I used the wood of the bedside table as my background. Sooner or later, I'm really going to run out of ideas for these.
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| 122/366 may |
Wednesday felt like a good day for baking, and I broke out an old classic recipe: zucchini bread. The past few years I've been neglecting the old family recipes in favor of Molly Wizenberg's banana bread with chocolate and ginger, olive oil chocolate chip bread, and the pumpkin chocolate chip bread from the Baked cookbook. (I'm sensing a pattern here...) I think the last time I made zucchini bread might have been at my sister Bethany's place in Knoxville or possibly even when she lived in Salt Lake City for a while. In any case, I was craving something of the sort, and I had never taken pictures of the zucchini bread before. The recipe is the one that my grandmother used to make, and it's labeled as being "from Bill Lowry's mother"—friends of the family. It's pretty much a spice cake/bread with zucchini in it. Sometime I'll have to try making the chocolate variation, but I might have to make some banana bread first.
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| 123/366 zucchini bread |
The weather was warm on Thursday, and for lack of better picture ideas, Steve and I decided to go have sushi for dinner in Noe Valley. (Yes, I can eat sushi! I just avoid tuna and eat at places that I know are trustworthy.) On the way there, I spotted this monkey in a boutique window. I've taken so many sushi pictures at Hamano in the past; it's probably good that I found something else to shoot for my picture of the day this time.
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| 124/366 argyle monkey |
Friday was another milestone in the pregnancy: my first maternity clothes. I was at about 15 weeks at that point, and while I could still button a couple pairs of my regular jeans, they were getting increasingly uncomfortable by the end of the day. (And the hairband extender trick made me feel like my pants were falling down if I was out and about.) So it was time to go shopping. I had previously scouted out the maternity section at the Gap store downtown, so I went back in search of jeans. I got two pairs—one with a demi panel and one with the full panel—and a couple of basic camisoles. (The white one will eventually replace the non-maternity one I've been using for my belly shots.) Anyway, despite my general dislike of shopping, the whole experience wasn't too scary; and the jeans have been an improvement so far.
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| 125/366 new territory |
Closing out the week, Cinco de Mayo fell on Saturday. We usually have Rob, Traci, Dan, and Carmen over for chile verde, but we had just seen Rob and Traci on Monday for their (belated) birthday dinner. Instead, we just celebrated with Dan and Carmen, starting the party early so we'd be done eating by Elsa's bedtime. We had virgin mojitos (my suggestion), not-so-virgin mojitos, chile verde, beans, and rice. Elsa had fun playing with her toys on our dining room floor. She even got a few tiny bites of tortilla with chile verde sauce on them—her first taste of Uncle Steve's cooking, such as it was.
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| 126/366 elsa upstairs |
That wraps up the month of April. Perhaps I can make a better dent in May now, preferably before June arrives...
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