More scrap paper notebooks

I mentioned a few months ago how I'd gotten into the habit of stockpiling scrap paper at work, and that this scrap paper notebook tutorial seemed like the answer to what to do with all of it. So one cold Saturday afternoon I sat on the floor watching a movie and folding pieces of paper, which I then glued together into notebooks. I may have gone a little overboard in terms of volume. This isn't even all of them.

So now I'm just experimenting with different ways of covering them. So far I've used this ruler-print paper, which I'd bought about a year ago with no particular use in mind, sections of old maps, and my print Gocco (need to try that one out again).

I left a little pocket open on the smaller one, for storing scraps of paper and other bits of ephemera.

Now, what to do with the notebooks is the next question. (Write in them, yes, but since I'm not much of a journaler, I can't think of an actual function. Sigh.)

Flakiest biscuit, indeed.

I've tried this recipe for biscuits several times and have not been disappointed. Its proclamation of "flakiest biscuit" is pretty accurate. I may have overbaked this particular batch (the timer went off, I said to myself, as soon as I'm done scrubbing this dish I'll take them out of the oven, and the next thing I knew, many minutes had passed) but they're still pretty awesome. They work well for breakfast with jam, or with a more savory meal. I think the key is the cream of tartar and the dough-folding technique.

A visit from the Easter puppy

My mom made this cake. It's supposed to be a lamb but I thought it looked more like a puppy. So much so that it was kind of disturbing when she started cutting it up. Eventually it fell over without a body to support it and there was just a puppy head laying on the platter staring up at us as we ate.

Street art at the library

Saturday after a visit to M0MA, we ventured across the street to the former Donnell Library Center to check out Pantheon,

a window exhibit featuring work by graffiti and street artists.

For me the whole appeal of street art is encountering art in an unexpected place, color and creativity where there is usually none. So when it's all collected together in a window, it loses something. Still, it was a pretty cool exhibition.

The location seems particularly fitting, considering the fate of the Donnell Library Center, which was one of the main branches of the New York Public Library for more than 50 years. In 2008 the library closed after the building was sold to Orient Express Hotels, with plans to raze the building and replace it with an 11-story luxury hotel, with the library operating in the lower level. Then of course after the financial crisis, the deal fell through and the library remains empty three years later.

Looking into a non-exhibit window at the construction inside.

I liked these door handles.

After that we got dinner at the Shake Shack (always worth the wait, even in the cold), were nearly attacked by a crazed squirrel hell-bent on stealing my fries, and saw a very funny movie.