Thanks for putting my recipes up! For a printable recipe card for Cranberry Salsa, click here.

For the last 3 or so months I've been thinking about moving.I don't want to go through the hassle of boxing up stuff again and I've realized that I really just want to redecorate. I'm bored. In my efforts to figure out what to do, I've been addicted to Apartment Therapy and Design Sponge; which both have so many great ideas. A while back there was a post on organizing your books by color, which is far superior than organizing by size. Wow, it's like my bookshelf got a makeover. I did dust, so in a way it did. A much needed makeover. I think I went through 12 clorox wipes to get the dust off of one shelf alone. It was bad. I don't know why I'm so proud of this, insignificant change, but I think it might be the beginning of a head to toe makeover for my apartment.

HAPPY 5 MONTHS, PENELOPE! Penelope, this is the first time I've actually posted ON your actual birthday! I'm so proud of myself. Usually I forget about these things. Thanks for being an adorable and sweet baby. Chris and I love you more and more everyday. It's hard not to when you're just so adorable. You're such a great sleeper. Thank you. I can't tell you enough. I don't think I would have survived these last 5 months without so many good nights of rest. Honestly, your sleep keeps my doppelganger away. Thank you. Thanks for being such a happy girl! Chris and I get so greedy over your smiles and laughs. Sometimes Daddy wins, and sometimes I'm the lucky one winning those precious treats. You're really sweet to us. Your daddy and I just love to see how much you can do. You grow so much every day. We love seeing you play with your toes and we also love to count your rolls. Love you, Nells bells. Happy five months.

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It's so cute to see Penelope's eyes light up when we start dancing Counting Souvenirs by Junior boys; we both love it. If you see me dancing like a lyrical maniac through my window, you'll know why. I enjoy the music video, however it does get a little too literal towards the end when the character starts counting his spoils. Weird. Enjoy. Note: the record that he swipes is the Junior Boys single "In the Morning", also a good song.

About two years ago, my grandmother gave me the classic 1960s Hollywood Schwinn that my mom rode back in the day. I don't know how I survived the previous 3 years of college without a car or an amazing (all original) bike. I've found so much joy in riding a bike to and from the grocery store, up the hills (Powell street anyone?) of San Francisco, and pretty much anywhere I wanted to go. I love it's rusty basket in the front, the squeaky bike seat springs and its general awesomeness.* The only problem is how monstrously heavy the thing is (which explains why it was so well preserved; my mom only rode it for a couple of months before ditching it for a lighter 10-speed). I'm guessing it weighs somewhere between 35-45 lbs. Since last year's bike project worked out so well, we were thinking that some day we would build/buy a fixed-gear bike for me someday. That "someday" came a lot sooner, when I realized that running wouldn't be a feasible athletic activity after having birthed Penelope, and my awesome cruiser was just too heavy to pull a bike trailer. At first we tried to find frames on Craigslist (like Chris did last year), but that didn't work out since the frames usually weren't my size. So we thought it might be easiest to just buy a bike off the rack. We test rode a few fixies; Specialized Langster (Boston), Torelli Tipo Uno, Felt Curbside, Swobo Sanchez and Surley Steamroller, all of which were great, but had their drawbacks. Chris and I (but mostly Chris) felt like each bike would have to be upgraded after buying the bike, which defeated the purpose of getting a bike off the rack in the first place. Luckily, Chris came across Mission Bicycles. They solved our problem exactly. We wanted a fully customizable bike that we didn't have to build ourselves, and that's exactly what they do. You go to the site, pick the colors and components you want, and in four weeks you have your own totally awesome bike. After I ordered my bike, Kirk at Mission Bicycles called me up to confirm my order and write down any specifics. When I went to pick up the bike, one of the guys (I'm not sure which one) fit me to the bike and made all of the necessary changes. I've been so happy with my bike and now that I FINALLY have a bike trailer for Penelope, the bike no longer tortures me with it's consuming presence. I love it. I have one problem though. I don't have a name for her yet. Any ideas? *The picture of my old bike is actually a photo I found somewhere online, it's not my actual bike. blerg. Dad, if you're reading this and you have a few spare minutes, could you photograph my bike? I think I miss it a little. Thanks for taking care of it for me, Lin.

Here's the recipe for the Creamy Cilantro Dressing from Cafe Rio. It's fabulous and easy. You can use this dressing on your own Cafe Rio-style salads, burritos, or –my favorite– on grilled cheese sandwiches. Mmmm. Hope you enjoy! You can download a printable recipe card here. Creamy Cilantro Dressing 1/3 cup buttermilk 1 cup mayonnaise 1 cup cilantro leaves 1/4 teaspoon crushed jalapeno pepper* 1 Ranch mix packet 2 cloves garlic 3 tomatillos Add all ingredients in a blender, blend until smooth. Makes about one quart. *The recipe calls for crushed jalapeno, but I used crushed red pepper instead. It wasn’t quite as spicy, but tasted the same.

Last Saturday, Chris, Penelope and I ventured up to SF to see his exhibit at the De Young. I was hoping that we would leave earlier that day; instead, we left around 1:30, got to the city around 2:30, and drove to the Legion of Honor, because the Chihuly website gave directions there. THEN, when we made our way to the real De Young Museum, we met up with my friend Dan (who's in the city for an internship), and waited until 5:00pm to get let in. It was a long wait, but the payoff was spectacular. I was tickled when the museum security guy said that photography was allowed (sans flash)!! YAY. Chihuly's work is just so yummy, the colors so juicy, you want to eat it all up. Photographing it all was just as good. My favorite two installations were of the vintage fishing boats and the final piece, I forget the name but it looks like the candy fields straight out of Willy Wonka. Here are some of the photographs I managed to take of the exhibit. If anyone reading this has a chance to go, PLEASE GO! It's well worth the $15 ticket. I thought it was SO cool how Chihuly made the glass look so much like woven baskets. From the last show I saw, this must be a new direction for him. When we watched the video on how these were made, we noticed that the captions even included the cheap lounge background music. Chris, Dan and I had "Innocent sex kiss blows my mind" stuck in our heads for hours. Even as I write the song is plaguing me. We not only were tortured by the music, but also seeing the ridiculous lyrics. Blerg. These forms are just magical for me. I think this room was probably my favorite. I couldn't help but post so many photos in this post, and if you want to see more, visit my Picasa Album here. And now for your listening/watching pleasure. . .

Since the whole breast-feeding thing failed miserably, we've been inundated with so many empty formula cans! Yes, we have recycling that comes every 2 weeks, so we can always dump them in there, but I almost feel like recycling should be the last resort. Up-cycling or repurposing is preferable. Chris has been storing some old paintballs in some of the cans and maybe I was a little jealous of the utility, I wanted some for myself, but the labels on the cans are SO stinking ugly. Then it dawned on me, the cans are silver and you CAN take off the label (yeah, a little obvious, huh?). I think it took me a good 3 months to come to this simple realization. At about the same time, I realized that I have silver and white wallpaper, and the cans are silver!! BINGO! Cut, cut, tape, tape, about 2 seconds later I had some stylish cans to hold my make-up brushes, Penelope's bath toiletries, etc! Now I can't wait until Penelope finishes off a can so I can repurpose it. AND. . . a couple of weeks ago when I went to open my fabulously glamorous makeup, the lid greeted me with a smiley face. I couldn't help but share. . . P.S. Bare Essentuals is pure magic. I love it!

Penelope had her Four month check-up yesterday, which went surprisingly well! She didn't cry for the first shot, fussed a little with the second and so far has yet to get a fever or anything. I'm so amazed at how well she's done with all those immunizations.

Penelope's stats:

Height: 24 inches (67%)

Weight: 16 lbs. 6 oz. (90%)

Head: 17 1/4 inches (96%)

I was just shocked at how big she is, well, only kind of. I know she's big because I have to haul her everywhere, and my arms are constantly getting tired, but I had NO idea how big she is for her age!! WOW. I guess it is a little obvious when she's now fitting into 6-9 month clothing. I just love chunky babies.

Do you want to learn how to bind books, or watercolor? I'll be teaching a bookbinding class and a watercolor class (starting in 2 weeks), through the Sequioa Adult School in Menlo Park. If you're interested and would like to sign up, or find out more about the classes offered, go here and/or here. *Update: The September Session of Bookbinding has been cancelled, so if you're still interested in learning how to bookbind, sign up for the November Session!

Right after I had Penelope, I vowed to myself that I wouldn't post a million pictures of Penelope and make my blog revolve around her*. I have to say, the opposite has happened. I hardly post about her, that I wonder if people even know I have a beautiful, well-behaved, funny, adorable, sweet little baby girl. Well, just so y'all know, I DO have a fabulous little baby girl who just turned four months old. She's not rolling over yet; however, she is giggling and threatening to roll over and she is starting to understand what toys are, or what things could potentially be toys (e.g. earrings, necklaces, bells, clothes, hair, feet, hands, etc), AND she loves her rice cereal! She's really cute. Here are a couple of photos of Penelope in her cute-mode and I've also posted more photos on her page here. *Note: it's not bad to post a million pictures of your babies, I could post them and look at other's baby photos all the time (I do the latter all day long), I'm just afraid that I'd lose my identity if I did. The blog is now called IS•LY (standing for I Still Love You), which is my proclamation to myself and anyone that reads this that there is more to me and my life than changing poopy diapers(which isn't all that bad). It's my hope to continue doing the things that make me uniquely me, while being a mother and taking care of my lovely little family. It's totally an ideallistic approach at mommyhood and a very hard balance to obtain. I've gained a TON more respect for my mom and mother-in-law who have sacrificed so much, except who they are, for motherhood. I just want to be like them.

Some of my most embarrassing memories are of (a) choking down soggy zucchini and (b) doorbell ditching monstrously huge zucchinis on some of our neighbor's doorsteps. I always thought my mom was crazy for planting a million zucchini plants, but I later realized that she only planted one each year. My grandparents had us over for couple of weeks ago and we had roast beef and zucchini relish. The relish is delicious, and I'm really excited to make some of my own. I asked my grandma for the recipe, and it turns out it's my great grandmother Buz's (Jesse Newton's) recipe. I just love recipes with sentimental value and family history.

Zucchini Relish

This recipe makes 6 pints!!

• 10 cups ground zucchini peeled and seeded
• 2-3 cups ground onion
• 1 red pepper ground
• 1 green pepper ground
• 5 tablespoons salt
• 5 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 1/4 cups vinegar
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 tsp celery seed
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 rounded teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg

Combine zucchini, onion, peppers and salt, mix well and let stand overnight or 5 hours. Rinse well and drain. Add remaining ingredients in a pot and simmer for 30 minutes or until clear. Pour into sterilized jars and seal, or in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Here's the lunch sack tutorial as promised. Click HERE to download the tutorial!

P.S. Thank you so much to all of you who have left comments and have shown interest in the tutorial. It really makes my efforts seem worthwhile.