Fox x-stitch

I made this little red fox cross-stitch quite a while ago (for my friend Jennifer as her secret Santa present last Christmas!) but I don't think I ever posted about it. I also made an elk for my friend Molly (but I never took a picture of it). I really enjoy making these little animal stitches inspired by the art of Charley Harper. They are pretty small so they don't take forever (like some of the other cross-stitch projects that I've been working on...I will post about those a little later).

When I went back to Washington for Christmas, I made sure to stock up on lots of cross-stitching thread, cloth, and even Sculpey clay to make sure I can work on crafts here in DC -- the land of no craft stores -- until I can get back to the Ben Franklin craft store in Redmond!

Zaytinya food-fest

This happened a loooooong time ago, but I had not had the time to post about it until now. Carlos and I visited one of our favorite restaurants for a celebration dinner and (thanks to a birthday gift certificate from my good friends Christina, Michele, and Erin Kado) were able to go all out for a fantastic meal!

Carlos and I had wine with tons of little plates of food: calamari, shrimp, scallops (my favorite), hummus, tzatziki, pitas, and an incredible cheese plate!

One of the best things I had during that dinner (aside from the scallops) was the cheese plate -- there were so many delicious varieties of cheese with interesting accompaniments (honeycomb, candied walnuts!). This was a really great dinner and I might be going back again this Friday for a friend's birthday celebration. Also, I am bringing my family here when they come to visit in about a week (I've already made reservations because this place is very, very popular). If you ever want to come and visit me, we can eat here~

Hello again bloggie!

Hi all!

Sorry for the little blog hiatus, but as most of you know, I have been away in Costa Rica for the past couple of months teaching the grad OTS tropical ecology course. It went really well and I am now back in the states again.

Things are pretty busy and there is a lot of stuff that I need to write about (including some things from a while back that I never got around to posting!). The cherry blossoms are blooming now (Carlos and I had a picnic lunch under some of the coolest trees near the Capitol) along with lots of other pretty flowering trees. DC is really awesome in the spring (and I'm glad that my family will get to visit soon to see the coolness)!

I am still busy with post-course stuff (writing reports and putting together the course book) but once things settle down a bit, I will get back to posting more regularly~