11.18.11

NYC part I: I spent most of Tuesday afternoon hanging around Zuccotti Park. Of course, it had been cleared out eight hours before I had planned to head out there, and then I flew home and missed all the action Thursday, but what can you do? The park was barricaded, and the surrounding area was pretty calm — the police officers and journalists far outnumbered the protesters — but it was still really interesting.

11.4.11

I’ve spent some of my free time lately working on a couple of design projects, which I’ve really enjoyed. Both were fairly simple and based on designs found elsewhere, so I was able to recreate and just play around in InDesign.

1. Kevin’s graduation invitation, inspired by this link Andrea found:

It was fun to take these jumping shots. (: I made the background pretty light, but I wanted to make sure the text was easy to read. That will be printed and then glued onto orange cardstock to give the invitation a border.

2. A save the date for the friend of a friend of a friend. Their photographer took some beautiful shots, and they picked out their favorites for this, which is going to be printed onto a magnet:

They met while shopping at Walmart, hence the setting. I’m also working on their wedding invitation and accompanying materials — looove weddings!

11.3.11

A couple of recent front pages:

10/22 Austin American-Statesman A1

11/1 Austin American-Statesman A1

(:

11.2.11

Josh, Gail, Kevin and I all celebrate our birthdays within the span of about a month. Mom and Jim planned a birthday brunch for us a couple of weeks ago, and we ended up moving it down the street to a park, where we ran around all afternoon. So fun! (:

You’re never too old for an outdoor birthday party hosted by your parents. With party hats, of course.

10.27.11-2

I met Kevin and Andrea on campus last weekend to take some photos to accompany his graduation invitations. The nice thing about a fall graduation is that it’s not 800 degrees outside, like it was when I convinced poor Noble to go to the top of the Co-op garage for his pictures in May.

We got several nice shots. This is one of my favorites:

We also took a few action shots for the invitations, which I’m designing. This one didn’t really work since we were still figuring out how he should do the jumping (hence his completely covering the tower), but it’s by far the most hilarious picture I took that day.

10.27.11

We do a lot of eating in the newsroom. We bring food to wish someone well on his/her last day, to welcome new folks, to celebrate birthdays, or sometimes for no reason at all.

We’ve been doing A LOT of eating lately. My latest altar offering, for Sarah’s last day, was these pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.

Ingredients:
3 1/3 c. all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1.5 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
1.5 c. light brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. canola oil
1/2 c. low-fat buttermilk
2/3 c. water
15 oz. all-natural canned pumpkin
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, soda, salt cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice in a medium-sized bowl and whisk to combine.
3. Place sugar, eggs, vanilla, oil and buttermilk in a bowl, beat until blended. Add pumpkin and water, beating at a low speed just until combined.
4. Add flour mixture and beat until fully incorporated, do not over beat. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Spoon batter into cupcake pans lined with baking cups. Bake for 15-20 minutes until tops are firm and spring back if touched.

I sadly found myself without any cinnamon, so I just added some more nutmeg and allspice. I got 24 muffins and a mini loaf out of the recipe.

10.20.11

Store owners need copy editors, too.

10.18.11

Behold, the best cookies I’ve ever made:

That’s probably not saying much, since I don’t make cookies often, but these mint chocolate chip cookies were truly tasty — maybe it was my new silicone baking mat, or the fact that my oven and I were finally getting along. Or maybe it was the secret recipe: the one on the bag of chocolate chips.

Make these, and you’ll be happy.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup salted butter – softened
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 package (10 oz.) Andes Crème de Menthe Baking Chips
2-2/3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Directions:
1. Blend butter, sugars, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla and eggs until mixed.
2. Stir in Andes Baking Chips and then flour. Chill approximately one hour in the refrigerator.
3. Measure out approximately 1 oz. of dough. Form a ball and slightly flatten.
4. Bake at 350° for approximately 8-10 minutes.
5. Cool on pans for two minutes before transferring to wire racks.

The recipe says it’ll make four dozen, but I used my cookie scoop and got three dozen.

10.15.11

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and we celebrated with dinner/a movie at the Drafthouse, followed by drinks, cake and hanging out at our apartment. My favorite kind of low-key evening. (:

I took a vacation day because all I really wanted for my birthday was a night off from work. But the night before, Mom and Jim surprised me with treats at the office:

Aww! Love you guys!

9.27.11

True love, y’all.