Mini Cornbread Muffins & Whipped Honey Jalapeño Butter

Verna, Florence, and I were itching to bake something yummy when I was hanging out with them in SF. While Verna and I teamed up to follow an Alice Waters cornbread recipe, Florence (who bakes/cooks fantastically) experimented and came up with the perfect butter spread. I took advantage of the opportunity to practice a little 'silly' food styling.

Practice Dessert Table

This weekend, Kathy and I worked together on another dessert table. We followed the usual setup - she baked yummy desserts, and I got to make them look pretty.

While this project was mostly for fun and practice, Kathy also plans to use photos in an upcoming Project Wedding article about do-it-yourself dessert tables (link to article). Of course, the way to get nice photos is by luring your DSLR friends to the event with the promise that they can eat up the dessert table afterward.

I am very happy with the results. I tried a few new ideas with this table, and they all worked together nicely:
- Shower curtains as the backdrop
- Grid shelf to display flowers and desserts
- Office paper filers as elevated trays
- Picture frames as trays

A funny side story: I was at Safeway mulling over which flowers to use and finally settled on using tulips... at the same exact time some other woman decided she wanted to buy up every tulip in sight. I was lucky enough to grab two bunches of purple tulips before she snatched up everything at the flower stand we were at. I quickly ran to another section where I remembered seeing more tulips and managed to get the last purple bunch before she could get to them. There were a couple seconds where she tried to give me the stare down, but I just turned around and proudly walked away to the registers.

All photos courtesy of Jennifer Chen

Crocheted iPod Nano Pouches

For Jess' birthday, a couple of us pooled our funds together and bought her a new 16GB iPod Nano. Since I've been in a crocheting phase, I made her two cases. One is in the colors of our beloved Alma mater U.C. Berkeley - blue and gold. The other is in the always chic and fashionable colors of black and white.

YAY! Birthday Card

Only because Jon C. has a good sense of humor did I think it would be okay to take a sarcastic jab at him on his 27th birthday. My roommate thought the colors made the card look like a flag.

Can you spot my mistake?

Crocheted Camera Pouch

For Christmas, my mom bought me a new camera (Canon PowerShot SD780) to replace my old Canon SD-I-Don't-Remember-The-Model-Number-Cause-It's-That-Old. I crocheted a case for it with some soft yarn that I also received as a gift (from Michelle).