Super Bowl Update

Do you ever have a card idea that makes you giggle to yourself? I do. Sadly, today is the final day of WSW. It was so much fun. I didn't get to do all the challenges (hello, there were like 3 dozen) but I was able to combine 3 challenges into one card: Mix it Up (using stamps from 3 different stamp companies), Opposites Attract (using opposite colors on the color wheel) and By the Sea.

1. Surfer and Surfboards: TAC (The Angel Company)
2. Sun: Stampin Up
3. Chicks Dig Me: justjohanna's Odd Bird Planet

I guess I've been in a fruity mood lately. The lime card didn't quite come out how I wanted but I think it's cute. I stamped OBP Lime Slice Medium with white ink and heat embossed with clear ep. Layers and layers of scrap papers on an orange cardstock base.

I like taking Christmas stamps and adapting them for year-round. Here, I used OBP Partrige in a Pear Tree with a cut out of a pear from Daisy Ds wonderland paper. I used glossy stuff on all the pears to make them stick out and to coordinate. A little lime green ribbon, doodled lines and some sparkle. Done.

Worldwide Stamping Week is in full swing on Two Peas this week. Here are 2 cards that I made for inspiration challenges.
The top card was inspired by a photograph of a room. I used OBP Scrolly Border and 5 Petal Flower stamps to create the background paper. Then, I used a strip of black Prism paper and ribbon from Bo Bunny. The Bookplate is from JoAnn's and the sentiment is OBP. The layout is this months Lime Tart Sketch.
Dianne's challenge was to use a quilt as inspiration. I love the pattern of my Grandmother's unfinished quilt top. It looks like bow ties. I used the pattern for my layout below.
The paper is from Daisy D's. I bought it a few months ago because it reminded me of old quilt fabric and have been hoarding it ever since. I used my Fiskars Threading Water border punch, some ribbon and Odd Bird Planet Thank You for my sentiment. To add to the quilt effect, I made little stitch lines with my Lumocolor permanent marker.

It's Wold-Wide Stamping Week at Two Peas In a Bucket. There are dozens of fun challenges to do, many with fun RAKs (prizes.) I am hosting the Planes, Trains and Automobiles Challenge where you make a card with a transportation theme. Check out the details at the Planes, Trains and Automobiles thread. For a list of all the challenges, check out the WSW master thread. Here's my card example:


I used Jen del Muro's Sketch for You to Try from last week for my layout. When I looked at the sketch I imagined justjohanna's Odd Bird Planet's Work Van Right driving on the highway at sunrise. I used all kinds of scrap papers on this one including Daisy D's Wonderland and Basic Gray along with my Sharpie Poster Paint pen and my Dymo label maker.

****This restaurant is closed as of January 2009****

I can't help it. I know I have blogged quite a bit about L'explorateur, but we had a perfect meal there this week. The day was lovely, the service was great and the food was outstanding!

Were were served an amuse bouche of a slice of fried zucchini with a remoulade sauce. It was good, but could've used a sprinkle of salt on top. As for the things we actually ordered, we started with some of the L'ex classics, the scallop ceviche, which I am completely addicted to, and the yellowfin tuna "pizza" which is a small flatbread with anchovy aioli, the tuna, thinly sliced, and some olives and microgreens. They were both amazing! The ceviche contained scallops, avocado, cilantro, habanero, and cucumber with house made chips. Oh, and lots of lime juice. Cucumbers aren't my favorite thing, but I ate around them (interestingly, they don't always put the cukes in, it does make for nice variety that it isn't always exactly the same).

We both had the skate for our main. I have mentioned before how much I love skate (as does hubby) so when it is on a menu (which isn't that often around here), we almost always both order it. I loved that it wasn't the classic preparation that we have had many times. It was lightly floured (and I think had some egg in the crust too), pan fried and served over a mix of chopped asparagus and morels all in a brown butter sauce and over a swash of miso paste. May sound a little strange, but it was richly delicious.

We had a bottle of the Principessa Gavi with the meal which was also perfect (for some reason with this wine, it is either really good, or somewhat skunky). Since we were on such a roll, we decided to go for dessert. We went with another L'ex classic, the banana pot de creme with dark chocolate genache. We have had this before and weren't as impressed as we were this time. I don't know if it was slightly different or if it was just the high of the rest of the meal that made it seem so good, but it was very good. We also asked if they had glasses of moscato d'asti for dessert and were told they only had it by the bottle. We ordered a glass of Riesling to split instead. When the waiter brought the wine, it was actually moscato d'asti. It was funny because he didn't mention it, but obviously, they had decided to open a bottle for us. So we ordered another glass (lower alcohol content you know!).

This is a restaurant that we really need in Indy and I hope it continues to do well! It is the most edgy restaurant I think we have and the food is fresh and outstanding. Rumor has it the chef is looking to move the restaurant downtown. I would still go just as much and hopefully maybe even more people will discover it and enjoy it as I do.


L'exlorateur
6523 Ferguson Street
Indy 46220
317-726-6906
www.dinelex.com

This week on Splitcoast, Odd Bird Planet is celebrating Owl Week. There are fun contests with prizes, sales and lots of owl talk. Just go to the OBP forum and join the celebration.

Caardvarks has a challenge right now to make a beverage-themed card. I don't drink much other than water but I still wanted to participate. If you want to participate, make your card and post it to your blog. Then, post your link in the comment section here by June 15th. You could win a prize. Good luck!

Stamps: justjohanna's Odd Bird Planet I want to espresso my gratitude (jj mix) and Petite Teacup Left.

Patterned paper: Flair Designs.
BTW, the colors match IRL.

OK, I was hoping for some soft shell crab, but turns out they only have it for a couple of weeks in the beginning of May. I did find out though, it was a good time to visit Oceanaire because it was Devour Downtown, where many of the downtown restaurants have fixed menus for a $30.00 (and you get 3 courses). So I thought, hey, this is a perfect for Oceanaire since, a) their stuff is very pricey and b) the servings are way too big. So I ordered the set price, hubby ordered a la carte and we shared. The serving size of the devour downtown appetizer was great! Small portion of smoked salmon. Very well done. We also ordered the regular mussel appetizer which was, of course, huge. They were pretty good--not too big in individual mussel size. The shallot/white wine sauce was a little flat--needed several lemon wedge's worth of squeezes to brighten it up, then it was quite tasty. Although my favorite mussels in this City are still the ones on the bar menu at The Tavern at Bugg's Temple.

Continuing on with the set menu (you actually got to choose one of three choices for each course which was nice), I had the Dungeness crab cakes. I love Dungeness crab and having had the blue crab cakes at Oceanaire before, I had high expectations for some really meaty delicious crab cakes. However, while their blue crab cakes are that way, the Dungeness crab cakes are not. Apparently, they use all the meat from the body cavities of the crab and it is the small stringy bits. (Now, when you are eating the actual whole crab, this part is still really good, but didn't come out this way in the crab cake.) The portion was actually still quite large (2 large crab cakes). Hubby ordered the walleye done "Ritzy" style with crushed Ritz crackers. It was quite delicious (and interestingly, the only fresh water fish on the menu--apparently the chef is from Minnesota and loves walleye). I love it too. I think it is one of the best white fishes around personally.

Up til now, the service was superb and quite a difference from our last meal out at Puck's. We even had the manager at our table a couple times to check on us. And your shell bowls are constantly emptied and water is always full. However, in between entrees and dessert, things got really busy in the restaurant and service of the food slowed quite a bit. We finally ordered our dessert from the special menu and it was a strawberry rhubarb crumble with ice cream. There was way more ice cream then crumble which was unfortunate because it was hard to tell how the crumble really tasted.

I know this review sounds harsh, but I generally do like Oceanaire and the fact that the seafood is very fresh. This was definitely not my best meal, but I like that the menu is different each time, and next time I will get something else. I also really appreciate the professional service. I will do devour downtown again at Oceanaire as well because I really appreciate the smaller portions.

Oceanaire Seafood Room
30 S Meridian Street
Indy, 46204
317-955-2277
http://www.theoceanaire.com/

I love the color combo from today's Splitcoast Inspiration Challenge. For my card I used the bottoms of OBP Cupcake Row for my flower pots. I used my new Fiskars Threading Water border punch that I ordered from Paper Garden Projects. The store is run Cathrine from the OBP Design Team. Great selection, great service.

Stamps: justjohanna's Odd Bird Planet Cupcake Row and Happy Birthday With Sprinkles on Top

Patterned papers: justjohanna Limited Edition Ladies Dancing Bright Kit

Flowers and Ribbon: Fabric Store

Bookplate: JoAnn's

I'm still playing with Daisy D's Wonderland stuff. I made this card using the double sided Wonderland papers designed by the talented Stephanie Dosreis. I paper pieced the petals of, you guessed it, justjohanna's Odd Bird Planet's Flora Hugabundous.

A little about my day today; I did 4 presentations at my niece's career day at school. I tried to convince 80 first graders that my job is cooler than a firefighter, policeman or nurse. I resorted to dancing and giving away cool mesh bags with the YMCA logo. I think my plan worked. :)

****Note: Puck's is no longer in business.

Pucks, Pucks, Pucks. What can I say? The food is great, and so is the ambiance (beautiful dining room at the Indianapolis Art Museum overlooking the fountain), but the service blows. Hard. We went last week and have been many times since being back in Indy. The food has almost always been excellent, while the service has ranged from mediocre to really crappy (as it was this last time).

Because the service problems started from the get-go, that is where I will start. I will tell you about the food next. We walked in, about 2 minutes late for our reservation. There was no hostess there and a large party ahead of us. We all waited. The hostess came back, told us she would seat them and be right back for us. About 10-15 minutes later (!!) she came back and seated us. At a table with only half the necessary flatware and no bread plates. Granted they were pretty busy, but it bordered on ridiculous. The waitress was nice but very distracted and slow. Our meal took forever. Later, I saw why the hostess wasn't at the front. She was bussing tables and pouring water and bringing menus (which by the way, for dinner, we were given one dinner menu and one lunch menu). It makes one wonder if they are struggling with help or business and were not expecting a crowd. But you have to have bussers.

As for the food, I am amazed that with the service issues they have, they continue to put out such an excellent product. Although I have noticed that the menu used to change a lot more than it does now. Which is a bummer because parsnips are really more of a fall/winter kinda thing I think. Where's my spring veg? But if you are having a lot of service problems, and who knows what turnover in the kitchen, it is probably easiest to keep up the quality with routine.

On to the food specifically. I had the frisee salad with a poached egg, bacon and sherry vinaigrette. I have had it in the past, and as usual, it did not disappoint. Excellently prepared and executed. Hubby had the tuna tartare which I had the last time I was there (and I had some this time off his plate as well). The quality is really good, but to me, it was heavy on spiciness and could've used some lemon or something. Next, I had the halibut done Shanghai style with rice. It was good. The fish was cooked very well, but it was quite spicy. I can handle a fair amount of spiciness, but this started to take away from the other flavors the closer you got to the end of the meal. Normally, my experience with Shanghai style is a sort of mix between the spiciness of the red chilies and a sort of sourness from the ginger and rice wine. This was mostly just hot, with a hint of the other flavors, but still quite good.

Hubby then had a blue cheese encrusted filet, as the mains weren't really up his alley this night. (Listen up Broad Ripple Steakhouse, this is how you do a blue cheese encruseted steak--with blue cheese! Not breadcrumbs.). He was quite happy.

Anyway, it was a very frustrating meal because the food is up there in the Indy scene, but the service was so bad, it made it hard to want to go back. I hope they fix these problems, because not everyone has 3 hours to spend at a weeknight dinner. And I want to go back, I really do.

Puck's at the IMA
4000 Michigan Road
Indy, 46208
955-2315
http://www.wolfgangpuck.com/

This is another card that I made using justjohanna's Odd Bird Planet's June Newsletter Sketch for my layout. Love that black with light blue polka dot paper? Actually, it was the backing to some Making Memories embellishments that Kim gave me. It was too cute not to recycle.

Stamps: OBP Flora Hugabundous
Prima Leaves
Ribbon from Stash
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink

As of today, justjohanna's Odd Bird Planet is two years old. It's a pretty exciting time too: New images, new website look, new wiki, new Design Team, becoming a Splitcoast Member Company and lots more fun things planned for our future. Anyways, Happy Birthday!

Stamps: OBP Frosting Only, Happy Birthday with sprinkles on top. Paper: Basic Grey. I made the bottom detail with my new Fiskars Threading Water Punch. Chipboard 2 with Cotton Candy Stickles.

Guess what company is the newest SCS member company. It's Odd Bird Planet (formerly known as justjohanna.) The announcement was made this afternoon and already we've received the warmest welcome from all the SCS members. Check into the new Odd Bird Planet SCS Forum for some fun updates.

And, speaking of SCS, I made a card for the SCS Featured Stamper Challenge today. I cased a beautiful card from Maren.

I followed Maren's layout and color scheme but used some different patterned papers from Bo Bunny (big polka dots), unknown scrap (green polka dots)and the Paper Source (red check) and I used one of the strawberries from justjohanna's Odd Bird Planet "Strawberry Row" and "Lacy Circle Medium."

The tan textured cardstock and the red ribbon is from my stash. I cut the ribbon in half lengthwise to make it the width I wanted.