best darn red velvet cake ever

last saturday i went with my sister mip and bro-in-law hadleigh to brooklyn to check out the brooklyn flea (which had some really cool stuff, by the way). before we could make it there, we had to stop at the cake man's tiny brooklyn shop and get some red velvet cake for the road. that's all they sell there, with or without nuts. and it's amazing. go have some.

wales!

hey everybody, we're moving to wales! zack has been accepted into the mfa program at university of wales newport. the semester starts in october so we'll be packing up here in september, heading to utah for a bit, and then hitting the road for newport. we'll be sort of sad to leave new york, but we're so exciting to be moving on.

p.s. guess what the population of sheep is in wales. it's a lot more than people.

self portrait

so my friend gaby got hooked up with this project where a bunch of photographers submit a self portrait and pay a little, and then a book is designed with all the portraits inside. those who participated get a copy of said book. when she first told me about it i was intrigued, but i didn't have enough time before the deadline. then, luckily, they extended it. here is my contribution.

i tried to go with a very natural looking, unretouched (for the most part), plain and simple shot. any thoughts?

vampire books

ok, so i'm obsessed with vampire books. what can i say? i'm sorry? i'm embarrassed? well, i'm a bit of both, but sometimes we just can't help the way we feel.

here's the one i'm just starting (after reading part of the house of night series, and part of the vampire diaries series). why not just be honest, right? anyone else out there with me?

homemade bread, at last!

so i've been trying to get up the courage to make homemade bread for some time now. i don't know why the task seemed so daunting, but it's taken me months to actually do it. so that's how i spent my friday night, baking bread. i used my great grandma walton's recipe for whole wheat bread, and man is it good. here's what it turned out like.

i must say, it felt good using a recipe that's been in the family for so long. now if only i had the time to do it more often.

retouching

just a little before and after i'm pretty proud of. i had to take the pattern on the glasses completely off and add other ones that were lighter (a painstaking selection, let me tell you). then i had to combine it with the yellow lemonade image. then i had to turn the yellow lemonade pink. anyway, that's what i've been doing today...

cool glasses will be available on uncommon goods soon.

reading again!

yay! i've gotten really into reading again. now i can stop feeling bad about myself for my lack of interest. i'm currently reading about 5 books, some not as challenging as others, i.e. wimpy kid.

i'm obsessed with books on tape too. they're so enjoyable on my super long commute. too bad i'm rapidly running out of my stock. while in utah a couple of weeks ago, i checked out several from the orem library (a great source if you're in the area) and downloaded them to my ipod. i have listened to "on chesil beach" by ian mcewan, "the scarlet letter" by nathanial hawthorne, and "washington square" by henry james. i am currently listening to "a very long engagement" by sebastien japrisot. then all i have left is the second harry potter, which i've definitely already read. anyone know of an online source for audio books?