intimates

not so long ago a friend of mine sent an email that some might consider odd. he had purchased an awesome sweater. this sweater.



look at that detailing!



clearly this was machine made. the request in this email was to make a matching pair of panties for a lady friend of his. clearly i accepted the challenge. shortly thereafter someone was selling an appropriate book at a stoop sale for my building. i purchased it and the excitement began.

to find the appropriate yarn, i went to the fairly new lion brand yarn studio. i usually don't go in for acrylics, but they have some really nice stuff there. and it is an excellent place to match colors. i wound up using vanna's choice for the purple, and some thicker wool for the green. in the end, this is how things turned out.



the pattern had some lace embellishments and the same color for the crocheted seams, but that wasn't the direction i wanted to go in for this. also the pattern for the cherries was copied from the sweater.



now, i am never one to do things by halves, so clearly there must be an accompanying top.



what a happy pair they make.



and then with the sweater....



now for the ratings:

DIFFICULTY:
AWESOMENESS:

bento day 3

after the supercuteness of day 2 i slacked off a bit on day 3. here is a terrible picture of an unappetizing bento.

oops. only one pic today. on top the brownish mass is some golden curry, with rice on the sides and decorative (?) nori shoved in on the sides. the green swirls are wasabi. on the bottom we have sushi rolls of roasted beets with honey goat cheese. you will notice that the top three are gigantic. these were my first sushi rolls. the bottom there were a bit better. shoved between these rolls is some pickled ginger. snap peas on the side, and for some reason i put in a few baked chicken nuggets on the upper right.

for those who may think a bento box could not possibly fit a reasonably sized lunch, au contraire! this was too much food.

bento day 2

my new hobby goes apace. or rather, went apace for three days and then i got distracted by some shiny object. regardless, here is the bento of day 2.



let's get a little closer, shall we?



on the top here we have four mini spring rolls nestled amongst some edamame. in the cup is a barbeque-like dipping sauce. on the bottom we have some sushi rice topped with furikake and a few clovers made from nori with this fancy device. to the left of the nori dividing strip are a few baked chicken nuggets.

delicious.

new hobby

hello blogosphere. it has been a while. how are you doing? have you lost weight? i've been busy doing i have no idea what and apologize for my absence. however i have much to tell you! i have a new hobby. and it is bento.

this is a new hobby that may or may not last, but is super fun. a friend of mine defected from the states and is on a whirlwind tour of asia. during her travels she sent me a present by mail. after only 7 weeks of transit i received this:


it is a bento box. a tiny multi-layered plastic lunch box. little did i know there is an entire culture behind the creation of bento boxes. and i wanted in.

so, humble readers, i present to you, my very first bento box:


i admit that it is less fancy than some others, but you have to start somewhere. and this is what i had on hand. let's take a closer look.


enhance.


so this is what we've got. top box: lined with shredded carrot, ball of leftover rice coated in sesame seeds, five homemade tofu vegetable dumplings i had in the freezer, steamed and wrapped in bok choy leaves to prevent sticking. bottom box: sliced grilled chicken apple sausage over lettuce, bok choy sauteed in ginger, and carrots wrapped around capers on creepy face picks.

it is truly amazing how much fits into such a little box. i am awaiting news on whether this was an appropriately filling and/or delicious lunch.