too much of a good thing

Love Oregon

leyla — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:15:47 +0000

(via tru.che)

Happy Birthday, Oregon! You’re 151 years old today :)

If your heart isn’t in Oregon…well, you’re missing out, but you can find the rest of the states here.

Movin’ on…over to blogger

leyla — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 06:21:43 +0000

So….I’m moving. Slowly but surely, I’m moving my posts over to blogger.

www.leylafolsom.blogspot.com

See you over there!

Bite-size Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

leyla — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 05:40:44 +0000

If one of your New Years Resolutions

1) was something along the lines of “Eat healthier” or “Lose weight” (like mine is….)
but
2) you know you can’t just stop eating sugar cold turkey

then this Chocolate Crinkle Cookie is perfect for you. You can have an entire cookie in only one bite. Perfect.

They’re the cutest, tiniest, most adorable cookies I’ve pretty much ever seen.

I was in a baking mood the other night and we had almost nothing in the house. Almost every other Chocolate Crinkle recipe has unsweetened chocolate in it and we didn’t have any and most of them required chilling the dough for 2 hours. It’s 11 pm at this point and I had no interest in staying up to 2 in the morning. So after a frustrating search online I found this recipe.

Cocoa? Check. Makes 30 cookies? Perfect. 10 minutes in the freezer instead of 2 hours in the fridge? Wonderful.

First, mix dry ingredients.

Use your fingers to mix in the butter…which is what the recipe recommends. I tried to use the mixer. Since my fingers are in the bowl with cocoa all over them…you can tell it didn’t work.

At this point, I’m realizing that there is only going to be enough dough for like 10 cookies. At the most. Ugh.

This picture makes me laugh. Gross.

Spread the dough fairly thin around the bottom of a metal bowl and stick it in the freezer for 10 minutes.

So now I’m like, great. At least this is a quick recipe because I’m going to get like a grand total of two cookies out of it.

Then I read the recipe. I quote: “Spoon level teaspoons of dough…”

Most cookie recipes call for tablespoon-size cookies. This is even better. Tiny little cookies?!?! Yay!

Roll each teaspoon-sized cookie in powdered sugar and bake at 400 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.

Perfection.

ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg, beaten lightly
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar plus additional for dusting hands

Oh hey, 2011

leyla — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 04:35:25 +0000

I’m not usually one for New Years Resolutions. I generally don’t like to do whatever everybody else is doing, so if everyone is making resolutions, then I don’t want to. Plus I don’t like failing at goals I set for myself…so I just tend to ignore the opportunity to set goals for the year.

However…I’ve been thinking about it and there are a few things I want to accomplish this year.

Here we go!

People Make Cool Things: Chasing the Nuns

leyla — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 20:09:00 +0000

Who doesn’t want to wear two turkey legs on their head?

Sarah of Chasing the Nuns has several different crafts featured in her shop but my favorite is this turkey beanie:

(Via)

She also makes tote bags out of t-shirts:

(Via)

I loved Mr. Rogers when I was growing up. Won’t you be my neighbor? Dang it, now that song is going to be stuck in my head all day.

Find Sarah online: Shop | Blog | Twitter | Picasa

What Not to Eat

leyla — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 04:34:02 +0000

If you are allergic to milk fat and trying to cut carbs so you can drop ten pounds to fit into your suits from 18 months ago so you can start a job that requires you to look professional, this should not be your lunch.

If, however, you fit into the 99% of the population who isn’t allergic to milk fat and/or isn’t trying to lose 10 pounds, then make sure to follow this method of making grilled cheese and also use milk instead of water to thin the concentrated tomato soup. Make sure you have lots of butter in the fridge.

What I’m trying to say is…I’m both allergic to milk fat and trying to lose ten pounds…and I had grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch.

Fail. But so delicious.

PS. The first meeting of the brand-spankin’-new Salem Etsy team was last night! Jessica of DIY Studio wrote about it here. I’m excited to get to know these ladies and introduce Salem to Etsy and handmade. And vintage, of course.

PSS. I’ve been caring for an invalid today and I must say, I feel pretty helpless. The invalid (aka Isaac) had one of his wisdom teeth removed today. The two dentists he went to today were wonderful – he called this morning to say he wasn’t able to sleep last night because of the pain. The dentist got him in for x-rays at 10, and then the emergency tooth removal was at 2. Both were unplanned. I’m pretty impressed that both of those doctors were able to fit him in and I’m super glad he will be able to eat regularly without pain now. Lesson from today: I don’t think I’d be a very good nurse. I would feel so bad all the time because I can’t fix anything.

At least I’m pretty good at heating up tomato soup.

Christmas in Photos…and learning how to use the Hipstamatic

leyla — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 02:17:00 +0000

Christmas at the Oregon State Capitol

My niece is going to be a reader :)

My mother-in-law got me Small-Batch Preserving and Slow Cooker Recipes. We got a new Crock Pot and the one time we used it so far was a flop, so the cookbook will come in hand. I’ve been wanting to learn how to embroider and this book will get me started.

Postscript to this photo…Isaac is so sweet. We were at Craft Warehouse a few days ago and I was looking at this book but decided not to spend the money to buy it. After we moved on, he told me he wanted to go “look for a pattern” and he ran and bought it for me. Love him :)

The perfect way to end the weekend…Isaac beat me at Skip-Bo (pretty sure he was cheating) and then I kicked his butt at Rummikub.

PS. I have a pretty strict rule against paying for apps (which is sort of funny considering most of them only cost a dollar even though I think nothing about spending three bucks on coffee). I’ve been wanting the Hipstamatic for a long time. It is a little confusing at first, but I think I’m figuring it out. I got the Williamsburg pack for some extra film and a wide lens and I like it much better than the standard films.

Christmas was fantastic but I think we are all ready to be done…right?

Only my boss…

leyla — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:33:47 +0000

Most bosses try to motivate their employees. Mine is a bit different. She buys every one in the office “de-motivation” desktop calendars for Christmas.

Hope
May not be warranted at this point.

Goals
It’s best to avoid standing directly between a competitive jerk and his goals.

Government
If you think the problems we create are bad, just wait until you see our solutions.

Congress
Proudly defending the status quo long after the quo has lost its status

My favorite is the one that will be hanging in our conference room:

Meetings
None of us is as dumb as all of us.

(via Despair.com)

Love my office.

People Make Cool Things: Love Elycia

leyla — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 22:18:39 +0000

I was super excited to find out that I get to feature Elycia’s blog and shop this week.

Love Elycia was one of the first blogs I found and liked enough to actually figure out how to use Google Reader in order to keep up with her blog.

Elycia makes funny/cute headbands:

She draws super adorable girls who tell a story…Derby is my favorite, mostly because she crochets!

And apparently her kitties are well behaved enough to be allowed in her craft room.

I try to let Maddy in the craft room…and then get mad at her and throw her out.

LoveElycia online: Shop | Blog | Twitter

*Now that I’m back to blogging on a (semi) regular basis, I’ve re-joined the BesTeam on Etsy to feature some great artist/crafters. Yay!

Christmas Lights!

leyla — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 07:45:10 +0000

There’s a neighborhood in Keizer where almost all the houses decorate with tons of Christmas lights. Isaac and I got hot chocolate and drove through tonight.

Love this saying :)

Go Beavs!

I took a million photos of this Pooh & Tigger display but it moves and it took so long to take the photo that I couldn’t make it not blurry. Oh well. Still cute.

If you’re trying to get to the North Pole, don’t follow this sign…it’s pointing west.

We’re going to go walk through Magic at the Mill for all the lights and singing, hopefully on Thursday. I’ve never been but it’s supposed to be beautiful. I’m excited.