just because it's spring!

a day late, but
happy spring to those who are on the
northern half of the blue planet



yesterday, i did a little experiment with
a recipe i found for
"inside-out carrot cake cookies" on this yummy food blog

since i have hard time following directions
i did a little tweak on the recipe, of course
which turned out to be to my liking

what did i do?


*carrots finely, instead of coarsely grated (hence watery) just because
*switched to whole wheat flour, increased amount by perhaps, 1.3 times
*added 1/2 table spoon of baking soda by mistake (then scooped out the eye-measured amount in panic)
*sweetened only with 1/3 cup of honey, ditching sugar altogether
*used pecans instead of walnuts, skipped chopping
*added more raisins, though how much more i cannot say
*substituted butter with grape seed oil
*plus, added oat meal, probably about 1 cup

the result?
well,
look!



be fooled by the bumpy outlook and
you'd be pleasantly surprised by the
rather fluffy texture, though wholesome to max.
(probably due to the excess baking soda)

think of how a thing between
muffin and scone would fluff

subdued sweetness was very delicate
the kind that makes you search for it
goes well with bulky, chunky, unchopped pecans


wishing you all a
sweet springtime
(or autumn, if applicable)

kelp gone astray

about five days ago, i've gone
down to the beach, looking, specifically,
for a big kelp

what appeared to be the "it" kelp
was lying in shallows, strangely lit up
lucky me, i thought, until i lifted it up
as tall as myself, it was as if
dragging a mermaid back home, uphill



although i am one of those freak from japan
who could clear your tide pool in approximately 5 minutes
the big find was not to go into my soup bowl

one of my pending project is an expanding collaboration
with a friend of mine, the sea themed 2d artwork-to-be
thought seaweed would make a perfect background...

but as i began shooting the mermaid
it somehow descended to, i mean,
progressed into what's slightly more decadant than
what i had in mind initially


i really don't know what happened...






okay, this is about as far as i could go, posting
i tell you this much though
the kelp is the mermaid,
the siren

just take my word for it



well,
after 5 days,
the thing started to smell decadant as well
while i was giving it a long last look
i found a shellfish, clutching at the root
still very alive




lucky him, he didn't end up in my soupbowl
(yes i dragged it back to where i found it)

photo friday: a spiky loner

their theme this week is: isolation



can you guess what he might be?
(apart from being a loner that is)


visit photo friday headquarter for more photos on this theme

wing dress update: looks done to me

my project "wing dress" is a
dress with dyed feathers on it
been working on/ documenting the process of it
since may 2007
taking my sweet time


since the last post on the subject
i have been working on
last bit of touch ups

see?

(is that charlie on your...chakra?)



just darkenning places that
seem not to merge well

either on bodice, as seen below, or...



using a round object originally for ironing
like this...



at one point, all this started to feel
so very redundant
(even to myself)
then i knew, it was time to...get a model and see

now, i've used live models in the past, but
turned out they were too lively to be cooperative
so this time, i opted for.....an android!

from left to right:
see, 2 knobs on her head
top one controls temperament, the bottom posture

as i asked her to turn around...

i was met with a glare
android with an attitude problem
her defiance kept me away from her top knob until...

i saw her start to remove her face (!)
then i had to pounce on her and
turn the temp. knob all the way to...nice

suddenly, she sat
and stayed put (nicely)
i re-read the manual, it said,
budget models do not come with manual setting
it can either stand and defy or sit and smile

well then...that's that, but
can you see the feathers swirling in movement anyways?



after all this hassle
i decided it's good enough!

(((yeaaa)))

so removed the tentative stitches and...



darkened inside the seam
you can see the difference clearly in the below photo



now what's left is to
assemble the dyed/ touched-up panels

getting near the completion...


thankyu for your visit!!