Daily Oakland Sunset on Instagram

Wow it's been a while! And that while has been crazy, I must say! I'll get into what's been going on this past year in future posts...maybe...or maybe I'll just say I'm happy to be back and looking forward to the future! Now that that's out of the way, I wanted to dedicate this post to my new project, and tell everyone a bit about it. Ever since Instagram finally developed an app for Android, I've been hooked. After some time I noticed that a majority of my pics were of the absolutely gorgeous sunsets that we get almost every night here in the bay area. Sooo, I created a new account specifically for those shots so I could share what I loved with people who love the same thing, and feature their shots as well! In under just 8wks we're already over 750 sunset lovers strong, and 2 of my contributors have been chosen as Photo of the Week on an Oakland Tourism site visitoakland.org ! Its pretty awesome! It's been really fun for me to see all the different perspectives my fellow East Bay artists have when capturing their sunsets every day. And dedicating that little time each evening to finding somewhere to shoot, trying new ways of immortalizing the moment, and just consciously chillin out and watching Mother Nature at work has been so relaxing, and fulfilling. I'm grateful for everything around me on a daily basis, which has been a long time coming. :-) Feel free to come join us on Instagram: @dailyoaklandsunset

Views from the Bay Bridge

A couple years ago, I got stuck on the Bay Bridge with hundreds of other morning commuters as a deranged gentleman ahead of us threatened to throw himself into the Bay, and blow up the bridge behind him. The police set up a roadblock, stopped traffic, and handled the situation after a couple hours with the SWAT team and plenty of news coverage...and no harm to anyone. We weren't being evacuated, were told not to be alarmed, but were pretty much stuck. Being stuck in the middle of the Bay Bridge didn't really afford us much to do except mill around and snap pictures. But, in retrospect, (given that the gentleman did not end up hurting himself or any other person), what a unique opportunity! I'll probably never get a chance to stand on the upper deck of the Bay Bridge again, as it's not pedestrian friendly. Looking back at Oakland.. And out towards San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.. Just another reminder of how to turn a crappy situation into something better :)

Mother Kombucha and the Neverending Green Onion

Sounds like the title for an offbeat fairy tale or something, eh? Kind of! Mother Nature does indeed pull off some pretty amazing magic. Recently, we happened to be the lucky recipients of some of that magic, thanks to a couple awesome friends!

The lovely Dominique hooked us up with a batch of homebrewed Kombucha tea, complete with a couple Mothers and a nicely growing Scoby on top! She even gave us her personal recipe for Kombucha tea, and care instructions! Such a sweetheart :) More on Kombucha tea here.


While making dinner at our place a few days ago, our good buddy Paige shared a little tip she'd picked up off Pinterest (god, I'm addicted to that site..), for neverending green onions! The next time you have green onions, instead of tossing the trimmed white root ends, submerge them in fresh water in a small jar and place them in a sunny windowsill. Within a couple days, they'll start shooting all over again! We've had the jar on the right for only 4 days and look where it's at, already! Just snip off what ya need, keep the water fresh, and you'll hopefully not have to pay for green onions for a long time!
Happy Growing!

Temescal Tool Lending Library

Hey all!.I'm knee deep in building a custom work table for our studio, as well as a few other projects! I'll document the whole build process in a couple days when it's all done, but here's a sneak peak at the mish mash of gathered items that'll be screwed/nailed/glued/willed together to create something very distinctly "Breanna" (rack full of stuff not included)


As part of this build, I've had the need for some tools that I dont (yet) own. Enter the wonderful Temescal Tool Lending Library!

This amazing little wing of the Oakland Public Library group has over 2700 different tools to check out, and it's all free as long as you've got a library card! From the gnarliest power tools to teeny tiny hand tools, they've got you covered, and are all smiles and helpful about it to boot!
The Tool Lending Library is located at the back of the Temescal Branch Library, a beautiful red brick building in the Temescal neighborhood in Oakland. They offer workshops, volunteering oportunities, and a super welcoming atmosphere for the wide range of patrons they see every day. I feel really lucky to a so close to this unique resource :)

Temescal Tool Lending Library
5205 Telegraph Ave
Oakland, CA 94609
(510) 597-5089


Now I'm off to rev up the power tools and get buildin!

Rainy Oakland

Some shots from a recent rainy walk through our hood...

(PS, finished shots of the door table and all the other projects I've got going are soon to come!)

Door Table Update! Step 2's

First off, the next steps taken on the DIY dining table. A new crazy work schedule (I recently was promoted to managing my own store, hours, hours!) postponed my work on the table all week. BUT, for the first few days everytime I checked the Ikea leg pieces for solidity and dryness in the stain, it was still a lil sticky. So, hectic work actually worked in my favor here.
Today, I decided to screw all the damn pieces together. I was tired of looking at them drying. I still had the underside of the pieces to stain, but I figured I could do that when the pieces were all together, bc, hey, they were the underside pieces...who's going to be scrutinizing my craftsmanship there???

(p.s. I did have a friend over this evening who gave me the raised eyebrow and mentioned the integrity of my "craftsmanship"...meh, whatever, I'm not gonna be looking at the underside of my damn table.

ANYWAY: rant aside...

Here's what I started out with after putting the half stained pieces together:


Ikea thinks it's ok to have the gross big screw holes visible on their furniture..


Wood filler fills them nicely..


The finished product after full stain, upside down since I was working on the underside of the pieces..


This is taking so much longer than I originally anticipated...but I can attribute it to the slow stain setting times on the Ikea finish (literally 3-4 days) and my super busy schedule. Oh well, these two days off will prove fruitful no matter what!

DIY Dining Table from a salvaged door: Part 1

I couldn't find a dining table I liked. Scratch that, I couldn't find a dining table I liked that was cheap or free. We have a large kitchen and dining area to fill (comes with the large house), and I wanted a big gathering place-type table to fill it. I'm trying to see how far I can go furnishing it with free, reclaimed, salvaged, second-hand, etc pieces. I believe we can do it, and I believe we can make a lovely home in this manner, indeed :)
Craigslist was unfruitful. People either wanted too much for things I wasn't willing to settle for, or they lived too far away, or I couldn't fit their "beautiful antique piece that just has to be out today" into the back of my hatchback. I took all of this as a sign pointing me in a different direction. How do I get all of the pieces of a large dining table into our place, on my own, on the cheap? Build it myself!!
Enter the GREAT idea found here: http://www.designsponge.com/2008/01/diy-project-dining-table.html . This sounded super fun and easy so..hell yes!

There are ways to make this project completely free. Scavenging a door, not treating it with anything, makeshift legs. I wasn't privy to any of these options at the moment, and hell, I wanted to see if I could build something beautiful from otherwise cheap or throw-away materials..so I may have splurged a little on the finishing details. The final product will still come in at hundreds of dollars less that an equivalent size table at retail, guaranteed. AND, this one will be personalized and one of a kind :)

Step 1: Find a door

Accomplished this at our amazing Urban Ore , the best salvage/recycling/treasure hunting warehouse I've found in the Bay Area. From the literally 100's of doors I whittled my choice down to a hollow core door (price - much cheaper), with no drilled though handle hole, and unpainted for easier staining. Cost: $25

Step 2: Find legs

The DIY recipe calls for a set of 4 Ikea Fintorp table legs, which as far as I can tell have since been discontinued. After much searching of flea markets, salvage yards, and craigslist, I couldn't find anything that floated my boat as a fancy replacement. My ideal vision was a set of 4 beautifully lathed banister type spindled legs...alas, nothing, so need overrode dream vision. I need a dining room table. Plan B mode set in and I checked my pride and walked in to Ikea. (Disclaimer: As much as I loathe the big box, assembly line, rat in a maze feeling of Ikea, {and the fact that buying their particle board shit makes me lose sleep} I do like walking through once in a while to brain-catalog design ideas. I can't lie, their designers are good, considering the materials they have to work with.) After 3 days of recon..no lie.. I settled on 2 of the Vika Fagerlid legs in birch veneer (which apparently is also discontinued). This choice came from a couple of other necessities. The fact That I chose a hollow core door hit me during my leg contemplations: How am I going to sturdily attach legs to this thing?? Oops... Well, the Fagerlids have large wide flat tops that I can easily screw in to the corner joints of the door, and will support a larger piece of the door. They were also half price due to the whole dc'd thing. Score! Bonus that they have neato storage shelves on the sides for pretty vases, bowls, etc. Might attatch thin safety rails across the shelves so wayward feet can't smash. We tend to have our share of wayward feet wandering through our place.. Cost: $40 (marked down from $80)

Step 3: Sand and Stain!!

The hands on part..my favorite. With my Aretha Frankiln Pandora station on I set to the job at hand. The door itself was lightly varnished so I only took a light sanding to it to rough it up for staining. It took the stain well.


The legs came in 6 piece segments that Sonny advised me (smartly) to stain before assembly. I was wary of staining Ikea pieces due to the fact that they were already "finished". I read through a few ppl's horror stories of trying to refinish Ikea pieces before totally losing interest and wanting to try it myself. My pieces are birch veneer and all these people were bitching about melamine and foils and laminate and whatever...I decided to try it anyway. I thought sanding to rough up light varnish would be better, but for some reason I went ahead and tried just a straight stain out on one of the smaller pieces on top of the finish. Call it laziness. It worked better that I could have thought. The stain penetrated and took on the gloss of the finish. Magic??


So, this is the stage I'm at. It's going to take overnight for the stains to set, then it's time for second coats, second opinions, second chances, etc..

Updates to come as the project is completed!

Muffins!! Applesauce, and Lemon-Peach-Berry-Cornbread! *Vegan*

I'm on a baking kick. It's pretty awesome :) You can't beat a house filled with the aroma of fresh-out-the-oven muffins! A couple recipes for some killer morning comfort food!

Lemon-Peach-Berry-Cornbread Muffins (adapted from a recipe from "Vegan with a Vengeance)

Ingredients (12 muffins):
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 tbs baking powder
1/3 cup sweetener (recipe calls for sugar, I use a mix of sugar and maple syrup. Ideally I'd use agave sweetener if on hand)
1/2 cup canola oil
3/4 cup non-dairy milk (my fave is Hemp)
2 tbs soy yogurt
4ish tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 cup mixed berries and peaches, frozen bits are the easiest

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 400 F. Lightly grease twelve-muffin tin
2.In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and sweetener.
3.In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, milk, soy yogurt, vanilla and lemon juice.
4.With a wooden spoon, fold the wet ingredients into the dry.
5.Fold in the frozen fruit, being careful no to over-mix.
6.Fill each muffin cup three-quarters full.
7.Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center of one comes out clean.

The key is using the soy yogurt to keep the insides moist!! Delish! This is also a recipe that could easily be changed to suit the fruit preferences of the diner :)


Applesauce Muffins (recipe from How It all Vegan... constantly tweaked..tried here with Raspberry )


2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup non dairy milk
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 cup fresh made applesauce

To make the applesauce:
3-4 cored, peeled, chopped apples
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup your fave sweetener
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan, cover and cook on medium heat for 20 mins or until chunks are mashable. Mash with a fork or use food processor to blend.

Muffins:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a large ceramic bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Make sure your dry ingredients are thouroughly mixed before adding anything wet!
3. Add the milk, vinegar, oil, maple syrup, and applesauce.
4. Mix together gently until "just mixed". Spoon batter into lightly oiled muffin tins.
5. I added a little dollop of leftover applesause to the top of each of my muffins pre-baking, for extra sweetness.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Test with a toothpick to see if done. Makes 6 BIG muffins, or 12 small muffins.



Stuff your face!!!

Spaghetti Squash Pizza

I love spaghetti squash. Love love love it. It's buttery, sweet, and amazing on it's own, and when combined with Italian spices, tomatoes, and served up in the place of cheese on a vegan pizza it's utter heaven! Here's how I usually do it up..apologies for the "approximate" measurements... I like to be pretty liberal with ingredients, changing it up a bit each time.

1 medium spaghetti squash, halved
~a couple teaspoons olive oil
~3 tsp Earth Balance, more or less depending on your butter taste preferences
1-2 14.5 oz cans Muir Glen Organic Canned Tomatoes with Basil and Garlic . This is also a preference. Two cans make extra tomatoe-y, 1 can makes a slight tomato tartness, a hint of Italy instead of a smack in the face :)
Crust of your choice - I like frech artisan french bread, or premade cornmeal pizza crusts.
Dried Basil and Thyme to taste (approx 1 tbs each)

1 - Preheat oven to 425 degress. Rub flesh of the halved squash with the olive oil. Place squash, cut side down, on a baking sheet and pierce the skin several times with a fork. Bake for 45 mins, turn squash over and bake for approx 10 mins more, until spaghetti-like strands can be easily forked from the flesh of the squash. Take squah out, let cool for a couple minutes then scrape spaghetti flesh into a bowl.

2- Raise oven temp to 475, or whatever temperature the pizza crust requires. Add tomato cans, Earth Balance, Basil and Thyme to spaghetti squash in bowl. Mix until butter is melted.

3- Evenly spread squash mixture on crust. Return to oven and bake until crust is slightly browned, about 12 mins, depending on your oven and crispy crust choice! I feeli like the most important part of a big pizza-like bake is checking on your pie. Every minute changes the consistency/quality of your outcome. Revel in the lush smell and keep an eye on your lovely dish!

Here's my last..

A wonderful, filling, rich, totally vegan meal paired nicely with a rich green salad and maybe some fresh fruit for dessert. YUM!

Oh the possibilities..

Some may see another overgrown Oakland yard...I see opportunities untapped...I have dreams about what this yard could produce...

Simple Homemade Dog Treat

A super simple, ever adaptable, highly entertaining homemade treat for your dog!

So, back on the first of the year, I adopted a Dachshund puppy from a local rescue that had saved her from a Bakersfield shelter. I named her Dixie, and I love her dearly! True to the breed, however, she is smart, feisty, and stubborn as a damn mule when she wants to be. And oh, lordy, the girl will eat anything! So, every once in a while to give her a little extra mental stimulation, coupled with a yummy healthy treat, and to keep her busy during times when I need her out from underfoot...the pup popsicle!



This one is peas, kibble, and lumps of peanut butter frozen together with a bit of water in a small tupperware. Dixie went crazy for it! Even frozen, she could smell what she knew was going to taste good, and worked ferociously to lick and gnaw away at the thing. It kept her busy for at least 30 minutes, maybe more! Invaluable time for me to make dinner without having to worry about things like tripping over my little one in the kitchen and dropping something hot, heavy, sharp, or toxic (think onions or chocolate) that could potentially be harmful to her.



If you have a Kong, you're probably familiar with the wonders of interactive, freezable treats. If not, experiment! I love Kongs, but frankly, anything I don't have to wash makes my life that much easier. These are completely edible, freezable alternative ideas to a stuffed Kong.

-applesauce and veggie bits
-pumpkin puree and peanut butter
-low sodium broth and fruit chunks
-mashed banana, blueberries, and dog biscuits

I could go on and on!!! And honestly, it only takes a few seconds to throw together in the morning before work..guaranteed ready by evening!



So go forth, promote good dental health, provide a good challenge to keep your dog's mind active, and reward the little (or big) one for everything they do for you!


*Disclaimer: Of course there's always a risk of excessive wear on the teeth with a long standing ice-chewing habit. I'd recommend only using enough liquid to keep solid pieces together, or freezing liquids that are softer (think no-sugar juices or purees). And remember, a treat is something special, not an all the time thing!

Tilden Regional Park

Took an afternoon hike around Lake Anza in Tilden Regional Park above Berkeley and Oakland. It's been pretty unseasonably warm around here..perfect opportunity to get out with the dog and wander around the woods for a few hours!

Simple Life Lessons: Taught By a Dog

1) "Five more minutes.." is usually so worth it.
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2) When you see something you want, let nothing stand in your way. Gallop-bordering-flight is a good option for getting there.
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3) Always let your real friends know you love them.
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4) Let your heart shine!