Winter Foliage

The Weekend

2012-01-23T09:55:00.006-05:00

My last post was last Monday when I told you about last weekend.

Well wouldn't you know, another Monday rolled around, so it's time for a Weekend update. We woke up to snow on Saturday! That meant hopping in van and driving through the woods to get to the nearest slopes. For Calder it also meant tolerating my requests to !stop! when I saw some cows in the snow:: And now it's raining. again.

Back home that evening, C cooked up something delicious for dinner. I don't remember what it was, but I remember where Ca$h was:: Notice we've kept our little village up. It's become our winter village, and it probably won't come down until the daffodils bloom! The little bird house village is still going strong too.

And then on Sunday, I did a bit of baking. Remember when I mentioned that my grapefruit marmalade wasn't setting? Well it never did set, so I was left with jars or grapefruit syrup. We thought it'd be fun to add a citrus slant to a chocolate layer cake {think about how good a chocolate orange tastes, now imagine grapefruit}.
The grapefruit syrup spread beautifully, even soaking into the lower layer a bit making it extra moist, and it was fun surprise to get a bit of zest in your bite.

Happy Monday*

Our Cozy Weekend

2012-01-16T09:02:00.004-05:00

While we didn't receive as much snow as our northern neighbors, it was exciting to wake up to the carpet of white on Friday and have it last all weekend long. I'm assuming winter as finally arrived, and I'm really {really} hoping that the snow starts to pile up.

Other than going out to a yoga class {resolution #3 :: attend at least 1 yoga class per week. so far so good!}, and running to the craft and grocery store for supplies, we stayed in and embraced the cozy.

A big pot of black bean soup was on the stove {working on my food-photography skills here}::

It was time to polish the wooden spoons and cutting boards. Below's a before shot, and above's the cutting board after it was buffed to a shine. More details about the beeswax/mineral oil wood balm here.

Speaking of balms, it was time to get serious about keeping my skin nourished. My hands are always a mess, and it just gets worse in winter. Basic hand lotions are too light, so I go straight for a heavier salves and balms. Some people don't like them because they're heavy, sticky, and can come with an odor {C thinks I smell like cigars when I use Bag Balm}, but I can't get enough of their sking-protecting powers. I love Burt's Bees cuticle cream and hand salve {they come in nice small containers that can be thrown in any bag}, but I started using Bag Balm last year and now I'm hooked:: Bag balm comes in a large tin that you really don't want to carry around, unless a heavy purse is your thing. I buy a tin and then divvy it up into smaller containers ~ the Weck jar above sits on my desk in my office. The Weck jars without their metal closures are perfect for a job like this because there's no lid to pry off or unscrew. I also refill empty containers {think cuticle cream, etc.} from other cosmetics and throw those into my bags.

When my hands weren't sticky/balmy, I was busy knitting up a sweater for a friend's baby that should arrive any moment now. Since this little one is arriving in January in Boston, I thought a cozy cabled sweater was just right.

How do you know you've spent more than enough time inside? When you upload your photos and see just how many cups of coffee were photographed over the course of the weekend. C's back life plan? A barista. I'm more than happy to be his taste tester, especially when he makes a candy-cane special for drinking while taking down the christmas tree.

So that was our cozy, winter weekend. How was yours?

A Thai Russian Christmas

2012-01-12T00:01:00.001-05:00

I have some delicious {and easy} recipes to warm you up! I promised them for Tuesday, but we're moving a bit slow in these parts... trying to hold on to the holidays and ignore the looming semester of work.

Other than wishing the fam damily a merry Christmas and keeping the tree up, we haven't done much to celebrate Russian Christmas around these parts. Why do we even go that far? Well, 50% of my genes are Russian. It's in the blood.

So, this year C and I thought it would be fun revel in the holiday and cook up a fancy meal. We wanted something new, something that would go with our new year's resolutions {resolution #1: learn to cook up some tasty Thai food}, and since my sister Sarah's spent the holidays in Thailand, we decided to do a Thai Russian Christmas! obviously.

The menu::
~ Poached Cod with Shiitake from the Wagamama cookbook
~Spicy Thai Coconut Chicken Soup from the Jan/Feb 2012 Cooking Light

{resolution #2: improve my food-photography skills}

~ Poached Cod ~
*Makes two serving
2 tablespoons butter
2 5-ounce cod fillet
2 scallions
1/4 green pepper, trimmed, seeded, and cut into thin strips
handful of shiitake mushrooms, finely sliced
1 tablespoon sake {we didn't have any, so we just used a spoonful of broth from the soup}
salt and white pepper
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
2 aluminum foil squares about three times the size of the fillets

Preheat the oven to 400F. Using half the butter, grease a section of the foil just larger than the fillet. Put the cod on the foil, skin-side down. Top with the scallions, green pepper, and mushrooms. Dot with the remaining butter, add the sake and season with the salt and pepper.

Wrap the foil tightly to form a sealed package. Put in a roasting pan and pour in enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the foil packets. Place in the oven for 10 minutes, or until cooked {our fillets took a bit longer, we just ordered an oven thermometer!}.

Open the foil packets and drizzle in the soy sauce.

~ Thai Chicken Soup ~
2 teaspoons oil
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup red bell pepper
4 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
4 minced garlic cloves
1 3-inch stalk of lemongrass, sliced lengthwise
2 teaspoons ground fresh chile paste {we couldn't find any, so we used a chili garlic sauce that I found in the Asian section of the grocery store}
3 cups chicken stock
1 1/4 cups light coconut milk
4 teaspoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups shredded chicken {they called for breast meat, but we like to add in some dark too}
1/2 cup green onion strips
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Heat the oil in your favorite soup pot. Add the mushrooms, bell pepper, ginger, garlic, and lemongrass; cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add chile paste; cook 1 minute. Add chicken stock, coconut milk, fish sauce, and sugar; bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low; simmer for 10 minutes. Add chicken and cook until thoroughly heated. Discard lemongrass before serving. Top with onions, cilantro, and lime juice.

Yum and yum. I love eating Thai dishes in the winter. The spice warms you up, and they're full of so many fresh flavors that you know you're doing something good for your body.

Wednesday Soundtrack

2012-01-11T12:17:00.002-05:00

Dudes!!!

Guess who got a ukulele for Christmas? I've been strumming away every day. Since most ukulele players seem to play and sing, and since I don't consider myself much of a singer, C and I are going to form a little duo ~ he'll sing and I'll play. Our first selection? Paradise City by Guns and Roses.

I've found a bunch of great ukulele resources online. There's PDFMinstrel for music. Ukulele Tricks & Pineapple Pete's Uke School for lessons and info, among others.

Of course, I've been re-listening to a whole bunch of Julia Nunes. You can find her youtube channel here.

And then there's this little rock star::

The Goods.

2012-01-08T20:54:00.010-05:00

Christmas morning was an embarrassment of homemade riches around these parts.

My mom finished up Calder's stocking just in time for filling:: When it came to picking his stocking image, it was a no brainer ~ he loves his bike, but then we got a bit slap happy and decided to add "bang boom crash" as a silly reference to the spills he's taken over the years. You can see the rest of the family stockings in this post.

After our old barn fell in the "great barn debacle of 2010", we were left with a whole pile of beautifully-aged barn wood. You may remember that some of it was used to make our wedding signs. My pop got crafty with the old wood in his new barn and workshop, and built birdhouses and feeders for all of the kids with yards:: {picture of the bird feeder to come, it's too awesome to not make an appearance on the blog}

And then there were the kitchen potions from sisters::C's sister gifted us some homemade beet and ginger chutney. My sister cooked up pumpkin spice syrup {great for some pumpkin spice cappuccinos}, apple cider syrup {mixed with hot water it's a perfect winter evening drink}, and candy cane vodka {I'm sipping on a Kahlua-peppermint vodka drink right now!}. wow

I continued our annual photo book tradition ~ giving Calder the usual "year in review" book. In addition, we put together a cookbook/wedding album for the parents and grandparents.

Along with grooming it up, C planned the menu, and acted as head chef ~ prepping salads and side dishes the night before and grilling up the steaks and salmon during the reception. Needless to say, it was a treat to put this non-traditional wedding album together. Along with highlighting the groom in his apron, the book includes our menu, the readings from the wedding, and a whole pile of smiling {and costumed} guests::

For the ladies I put together earring hangers::

I replaced the frame's glass and backs with a piece of radiator cover cut to size and glued into place {hardware stores have a selection of designs}. To neaten up the back of the frames, and to further secure the metal, I glued some fun pink and white nylon rope around the opening.
Finally, I finished them off by adding a hook for hanging, and included a pair or two of dangly earrings with each frame!

And, of course, I knit. I knit, I gifted, and I forgot to take pictures. Let's save that fun for another day, I have a bird house to hang and some candy cane vodka to drink {at the same time}.

ps. We had a delicious Thai-Russian Christmas ~ on Tuesday I'll share the hot and spicy recipes that warmed up our house!

Postcards from the Road

2012-01-06T08:50:00.004-05:00

Now that we've been home and working for a week, we're missing that sense of adventure and excitement that comes with traveling. In this case I think our best cure will be settling in, putting a big pot of soup on the stove {thai chicken}, a movie on the wall {any suggestions?}, and making home the place we want to be. Here are a few more postcards from the road {most taken with the Hipstamatic app on my phone}::

Four More Sleeps!

2012-01-03T23:01:00.005-05:00

... until Russian Christmas! If you grew up in my house, you'd know that the tree doesn't come down until after Russian Christmas. If only we could celebrate all over again, I have a feeling we wouldn't change a thing::

Packages would be wrapped in red and white::

The cappuccinos and hot chocolates would be sprinkled* with stars::

Don't forget the silly hats for Christmas eve dinner::

And they may be worn while making the Christmas coffees::

While reading a quantum mechanics textbook::

While hiking up Colorado's Independence Pass::
...surrounded by Aspens::

Wait. Huh? What?

After the festivities in PA, we ran/drove off to Colorado for a few days between Christmas and New Years to do some more visiting. That's right, 24+ hours in the car both way, and we took the pup. Much to our delight, we discovered that he's a champion road-tripper! It was a requirement to join this pack, and he passed the test with flying colors. Of course, he slept most of the way...

And when he got lonely in the back, he found a way to sleep as close as possible to the driver::

Sometimes C would join him for a nap {still wearing the Santa cap!}::

Don't let those two fool you, the drive wasn't all a big snooze... there were cows::

And high winds::And yawn. Ok, the drive itself was straight and long, but the company was entertaining, and the leftover christmas cookies delicious.

Now back to the matter at hand, how can we finagle celebrating all over again this weekend?

*Sarah, we're saving some star sprinkles for your iced christmas cappuccino in July!

Four Sleeps!

2011-12-21T21:31:00.002-05:00

Only four sleeps until the big day! Our village has snowy trees::

The presents are wrapped {we went with a red and white theme this year ~ using a lot of brown craft paper, a bit of red and white paper from Ikea, and some baker's twine left over from the wedding crafts}::

And there's a steady rotation of Chieftains on the iPod::

Christmas Citrus

2011-12-19T22:52:00.006-05:00

This week our Sunday was a bit busier than last!

A batch of grapefruit marmalade was made for the stockings, although I'm a bit worried that it didn't jell. If that's the case, I'll be looking for some creative uses for grapefruit syrup ~ perhaps over vanilla ice cream? I remember having this same worry in the past, and things have always worked out. Fingers are crossed.

After the marmalade it was on to candied rinds, or rather the gummy worm candies according to Calder ::
So far I've made some lemon and grapefruit rinds. This was my first time making the lemon rinds, and now there's no going back, they are the tastiest gummy worms ever. I use Martha's fool-proof recipe, and they turn out perfect every time.

Ca$h was busy too, rather than sleeping the day away, he stole the cat's seat by the window, and did a bit of squirrel watching...

Wednesday Soundtrack

2011-12-14T11:41:00.002-05:00

Oh people, it's time to bring the music back!

It sure has been a dry couple of weeks around here, all of that traveling didn't leave much time for listening to new stuff {it's hard to get pandora while in flight, and in Germany they're still listening to David Hasselhoff}. Now that it's Christmas I can play the good stuff that I try to ration all year, but before I smother you in the Chieftains and George Winston, I have something fun and new to me.

Song: Christmas in the Ashram
Artist: Chris Rosser
Full lyrics can be found at the bottom of this page. My favorite lines:
The guru must be out of town
There's tinsel in Vishnu's crown
Someone hung a Christmas star
From one of Shiva's extra arms

I love Chris' version, but couldn't find one that I could share, so here you have it performed by Tom Prasada

Our Sunday

2011-12-12T11:44:00.005-05:00

It got a bit lazy around here yesterday afternoon::

I had plans to bake some cookies and finish up a few presents, but found myself under a pile of Calder and Ca$h! Luckily my hands were free to work on a knitted Christmas gift, and the computer was within reach to catch up on Bones!

Hope your weekend was just as relaxing*

Decking the Halls

2011-12-09T10:33:00.002-05:00

The ribbon candy is in the tree:: A trick I learned from my mom. It's fun to tell people they can eat the ornaments, and even more fun to catch Calder taking a nibble!

Above the hutch, and near our Sibley's bird poster, is the little village of bird houses:: Another great idea from Design Sponge. I picked up the birdhouses at Micheal's, and drilled holes in the back for Christmas lights:: Since my village is placed high in the room, I drilled the holes near the bottom of the houses, so that you can't see the lights when you look up at the village. I used some old coffee sacks for the burlap surface. I love this little village, and think it's going to make an annual appearance, but next year it might be fun to add some sparkly white snow and icicles to the roofs!

A couple of grey army blankets, saved from our wedding, have become the tree skirt:: I'm loving the rustic yet cozy texture.

And finally, we've started a little village above the kitchen cabinets:: I think we need some Christmas trees and maybe a streetlamp or two to really set the scene...

Hey! Ho!

2011-12-03T01:31:00.009-05:00

It's been a whirlwind of a month. The big picture: there were three weeks away from home, and one crazy week at home.

You know about the work trip in Germany, but I forgot to show you some of my fun purchases. The theme here is enamel. Somehow I never noticed all of the enamel goods available in Germany shops, but this trip they really caught my eye.

I picked up a couple of white enamel cups, planning on keeping them in the van for our road-trip camping. Even though they aren't the most sensible for winter camping because of the lack of insulation, I couldn't resist! The green sugar container and pitcher are for the house. C loves using the picture when he's steaming milk for morning coffees, which warms my heart and cup. And finally, possibly my most favorite purchase of the trip ~ that's an enamel lunch container on the left. It has a rubber seal and tight locking lid ~ perfect for preventing leaks as I bike to and from work!

Guess how you spell/say enamel in German? It's the original email!

You also know about the new four-legged addition to our home. But I never told you how we found him.

We have to thank these guys::
That's my sister Kris and her BF, Ryan. I think they're each other's bff, and they're the proud owners of this pup, Dutch::

Don't let that sleeping shot fool you, she was wiped after a weekend of hiking and camping {she had a lot of hikers to keep track of}. Dutch is an active and uber smart Australian Cattle Dog. In addition to Dutch, they like volunteer as a foster home with their local shelter, and that, my friends is how Ca$h came into our lives. He was their latest foster pup, and they realized that he was just too good to let go. C and I weren't actively looking for a dog at the time, but we knew we wanted one, and we're smart enough to know that you don't let a good one go! We also have Ryan to thank for the creative spelling of Ca$h's name, I guess Ryan's the dog-father.

Here are the two pup bffs together::

And look, some knitting! While we were out on the walk, I noticed that Kris and Calder were wearing some of my knits gifts. Warms my heart as much as the steamed milk in email!

And the hats bring me to week three, because unfortunately during all of the fun and adventure of Thanksgiving C's hat was left in CA... in fact, he had already left it in the Bay Area by the time those pictures were taken, so now I'm scheming up a new one in time for Christmas.

Speaking of knits, the two projects in this post have traveled with me from place to place. I'm happy to report that both are almost done, but have to stay under wraps until Christmas!

So, that brings me to this past week. A week spent in all-day meetings, many in rooms without windows. At night my brain was a zombie, but I was still able to fit in a good amount of holiday knitting. Along with the secret projects, I put together some jingle-bell garland. I tried to take some evening photos in the dark hotel:: Um yeah. This was an easy and fun project. I'll give you more details and better photos soon!

Wow, it was fun to catch up! But now? The next month is going to be spent at home! I have plans for decorating, baking, and of course, a bunch of present crafting. Let the holiday fun begin!

Fun was most definitely had by all...

2011-11-27T00:22:00.009-05:00

Of course there was a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

This was followed by the largest Christmas tree expedition to date::

How many people does it take to pick the perfect tree? Seven it is ~ three for doing the serious work of choosing, cutting and carrying, and four for causing trouble.

Throughout the snowball fight, I stayed cozy in a combination of tried and true knits:: That's my first and most favorite owl sweater paired with a woolly hat that I made last winter. I promised a pattern for the hat and realized I never delivered... it's on my to-do list.

There were challenging {uber challenging if you know this group} games of Monopoly::

And we rounded out the week with a bit of sledding::
Usually we're struggling up the sledding hill through a few feet of snow, but not this week. The snow was shallow and rock-hard forming a crazy fast track with a jump, making each run equally terrifying and exhilarating.

I hope your holiday was full of fun and smiles*

Traveling

2011-11-20T11:18:00.005-05:00

Hello from sunny California! We're out here for a bit of Thanksgiving fun.

As I was hopping on the plane, I remembered these photos that I took on my way out the door to Germany. It's the mundane, but oh so important, extra items that I pack to make long travels comforting. And if you're interested in some more exciting travel posts, follow my sister's writing as she travels around Thailand.

The basics:: I always pack some Emergen-C packets - they're powdered drink mix full of vitamins, minerals, and a bit of fizz (like alma seltzer). I figure the extra vitamin C is always good when confined to cramped quarters with a bunch of strangers, and having the flavored drink mix helps to make any water-fountain water more palatable. Along with this I carry any empty water bottle. A few Cliff or Luna bars always go in my bag ~ on some trips I don't need them, on other trips, like the last one to Germany, I'm surprised by how quickly I go through them. A snack bar can really come in handy when flight schedules change and you don't have enough time to grab food in the airport. They're also great when you land in a foreign country late at night {or on a Sunday in Germany} and find most businesses closed. And finally, chocolate.

The meals:: I'm not opposed to eating in the airport, and sometimes it can be fun and delicious {I just had a fantastic salad full of veggies, avocado, and almonds on our layover in Phoenix}, but when I know that my travel is going to span several meals, or don't want to fork over the $$$, packing a meal is the way to go. Remember that the "no liquids and gels over 3oz" rule applies to food too, so I veer away from anything slightly gel-like {no yogurts, soups, etc.}. My favorite stand-bye is a bean salad. I picked these up at Wegmans, and cooked up some quinoa to go with them. So easy, filling, and delicious. On our Saturday flight, I skipped packing a meal, but packed a big slice of my mom's carrot cake - it was hearty enough to substitute for breakfast until we found lunch on our layover.

The entertainment:: I never travel without some project to keep me busy. Usually it's two projects so that I can switch them up if I'm bored, and so that I have plenty to keep me busy if travel plans change or are delayed. I always make sure that one is small enough for a plane so that I don't disturb my neighbors, and I try to stick to mindless projects that are difficult to mess up when I'm exhausted and jet-lagged.

Those are my travel necessities, what about yours? If you're hopping on a plane this holiday season, I hope stay well fed and entertained!

Johnny or Money?

2011-11-16T20:46:00.004-05:00

Meet our new buddy, Cash!

About the pup::
~ he's about six months old
~ he's a mutt, a mix, a heinz 57, we don't know what he is
~ he's super gentle and calm for being a puppy, but put a squirrel in front of him and you can barely contain the crazy
~ he may have gotten into the cat litter once or three times {we finally bought another gate to keep him out}
~ tipping the scales at 45 pounds or so, he fancies himself a lap dog and will crawl right up the moment you sit down

About the name::
~ he came with it
~ we don't know whether it's short for Johnny Cash or for Cash Money {he is from Philly after all}
~ to keep up appearances, we're assuming his first name is Johnny, but to cover our bases, he goes by Ca$h
~ he comes when we call it

A day in Berlin

2011-11-13T08:52:00.006-05:00

Thursday was free of meetings, so I bundled up, and headed out for a walk across Berlin, taking pictures along the way. The good: This post is full of pictures! The bad: It may take a while to load.

Getting to the city required a walk past the lake::

And through the woods::

To the most deserted-looking train station ever::

So deserted that I wasn't all that surprised when a fox strolled through like he was making his daily rounds::

I would have thought that I was in the wrong place if it weren't for the fresh cigarette butts near the bench, a clear sign that someone recently waited for a train... at least I hoped that's what they were waiting for::

Once on the train, I love to get a sneak peak at the German allotment gardens {this picture doesn't show just as awesome and neatly maintained the allotments are, but the wikipedia link provides a few more shots}::

I hopped off the train near the Berlin zoo, and peaked in at the animals as I walked along its perimeter::

I soon left the zoo and took off through the Tiergarten, once hunting grounds where fox was prey::

I continued through the center of the Tiergarten::

And then found a nice bench for lunch::

I walked through the Brandenburg Gate::

And continued towards Mitte, the central borough of Berlin, passing by the Berlin Cathedral along the way::

Once in Mitte, it was time for a rest. After the long walk, I need both a bathroom and internet access...enter Starbucks, definitely not a truly German experience, but it was fun to order a "Lebkuchen Latte" and comfortably relax before heading back out for some shopping::

***the picture taking stopped for a few hours while I visited some of my favorite {and some new to me} shops for a few stocking stuffers****

By the time I filled my bags with goodies, the sun had set and it was time to make my way to the evening's hotel. I passed through the market at the Hackescher Markt Station::

I picked up some raspberries for an evening snack, and then headed into the train station for one more ride::

Hello from Germany!

2011-11-08T22:04:00.006-05:00

I've been here since Sunday for work. We're staying in a hotel on a lake surrounded by forests. Best location ever, but between jet, lag, short daylight hours, and long meetings, I haven't had a chance to walk outside. Hopefully that'll change tomorrow, and ooh, maybe I'll even have some pictures to share.

During the meetings, I've had plenty of time to scroll the internet, and have a fun tidbit to share ~ google knows your location when you sign on to check our email, and they translate the languages on their pages accordingly:: It's confusing at first, but a fun method of language immersion.

Thursday's a day off, and I've mapped out a plan for the day:: I'm in Potsdam now {located to the south-west of Berlin}, I'm going to take the train into Berlin and hop off somewhere around the marking on the south west of that map ~ it's a hardware store that sells fun housewares. Then I'm going to walk through the Tiergarten, ending at the Brandenbrug Gate, and continuing across the Spree river to the cluster of shops that I've marked on the other side!

Seriously?

2011-11-02T21:29:00.003-04:00

This amaryllis just won't take a break.

~ It bloomed beautifully last Christmas.

~I put it on the porch this summer, and it bloomed again this August...

~ In September I put it in a dark, cool closet in our basement to hibernate. My plan was to bring it back out near the end of November hoping for more flowers this Christmas... After ignoring it for well over a month, I opened the closet to pull out a halloween costume, and found this::

The amaryllis is growing! It's white because the closet was completely dark. I figured that since it made it this far, there was nothing for me to do, but bring it up stairs and see if it flowers all over again!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T22:20:00.006-04:00

I hope your day was full of more treats than tricks!

Here at Agrestic our house was crawling with spiders... The wind kept blowing our cobwebs into bunches, which made them look a bit sloppy in the daylight, but they were perfectly spooky at night!

While the ones above were for scaring, some unlucky readers might be more frightened by the one below:: We were having a slight fruit fly problem until this lady moved to town {C asked how I knew it was a girl, I don't, but when I see a spider on a web, I always think of Charlotte}. Seeing the fruit flies this close reminds me of looking at them under the microscope for the genetics lessons in high school biology. I may have 99 problems, but the fruit flies aren't one {groan}.

Soup and Snow

2011-10-29T13:57:00.002-04:00

Last night my brother suggested that I "publish something relevant", because in his words, "everyone knows you can knit a hat". Taking his suggestion to heart, I've decided that nothing is more relevant on the first snowy day of the year than soup!

If you want some meat in your soup, may I suggest a good ham and bean soup served with buttered sourdough and a seasonal pumpkin beer?

If you want a meat-free soup, try Maya*Made's Three Sisters Soup {named for the corn, squash, and bean ingredients ~ a fun science lesson in itself}, served with some warm soda bread fresh from the oven and kale sautéed with garlic::

Need a quick and easy lunch for work next week? Layer rice, black beans, salsa and cheddar cheese in a jar. Pop it in the microwave to warm it up and melt the cheese and enjoy*

2011-10-24T09:50:00.004-04:00

Some minor happenings inside and out ~

I replaced the petunias in the hanging basket with heather and pansies, two flowering plants that will keep flowering late into fall. I was first introduced to heather as a cool/cold weather plant when visiting England and Germany. It seems that most of my visits to Europe have occurred during the cold and grey months of October or December, and I would see flower boxes bursting with blooming heather. Heather's a plant that grows along the coasts of England and Scotland ~ it thrives in the cool wet weather and acidic soils, and it doesn't particularly like heat, drought, or fertile soils. As a result, it's not a popular plant in the nurseries around here, and it took me quite a while to find some. I don't expect it to make it through the whole year {although that would be awesome}, I'm just hoping that it stays green for most of the winter.

Pansies were something I started paying attention to when I lived in Philadelphia, where the winters are generally just a smudge warmer and shorter than they are in central PA. Some years, you can plant pansies in your fall pots in Philly where they'll thrive, as winter arrives the blooms may stop, but the foliage stays green, and then as soon as the cold winter days are ending, the pansies will be the first to bloom again in the spring! Of course, if the winter's too harsh, they may not survive, and once the heat of summer comes, they're toast. Again, pansies weren't the easiest bloom to find around here ~ the nurseries are practically giving mums away, but not pansies, unless they sold out?

Inside our Christmas cactus decided to dress up for Halloween:: This guy was full of buds when my mom bought him last year, but most of them fell off without opening. Maybe it was the commotion of changing locations from nursery to store to kitchen table? I'm excited to see that this year we haven't lost a bud yet!

The Sash

2011-10-20T10:08:00.000-04:00

Oh the drama that is the wedding dress. In this case choosing the dress was a relatively easy and pain free experience. It took one day, two? or three? shops, I found the dress I loved, and that was that!

The sash, on the other hand was not that simple.

On the day I bought my dress, I tried on a gold/champagne/tannish sash {the photos in this post provide a good example}. When our lovely saleslady approached me with the sash, I made a face of slight displeasure ~ it was a color that never crossed my mind and I didn't expect to love, but after it was on, I loved every bit of it! The only question left was whether or not it would match the yet-to-be-decided bridesmaids' dresses, so I decided to wait and order it when we got the dresses.

Fast forward a month or two, and we're shopping for bridesmaids dresses. We pick out a fantastic yellow dress that will look good on everyone {and it has pockets!}. We ask our current not-so-lovely or with-it saleslady to bring out the "champagne" sash, and wouldn't you know it, as she approached with the sash, I made yet another face of displeasure. This was definitely not the same champagne sash we tried during our first visit, this one was a very light, almost white pinkish color... maybe the color of a baby's bottom? Questions were asked, it was denied that our "champagne" sash ever existed, or maybe it was no longer available, who knows when you're as ditzy as this sales lady was. Then she made some reference to Christmas, I made some retort about Christmas in Russia ~ who knew if either of us were making sense?

Oh the drama of the sash.

Bottom line, the awesome sash was no longer available. BUT it looked so good, and looked great with the bridesmaids dresses, AND maybe, just maybe, my mom was up for the challenge of making the sash...

So that is what we/she did. We bought a swatch fro the dress shop that was the same color and fabric as the sash we loved, found a near-perfect match at the fabric shop, and the fun began! The dress came with a white sash, so she took that apart to figure out how it was constructed and to have the templates necessary for cutting out the fabric. I wish we thought ahead and took pictures of the whole process for sharing.

It was a full family affair ~ my brother drew the vine designs on the bottom of each side. He did a great job of making them slightly different but balanced. My mom hand-stitched the embroidered design and added the bed detail. Looking to other beaded sashes, we realized that the key to a nice sparkly piece was to put a sequin under each bead or crystal.

The final sash was amazing! So much more personal and unique than anything we could have bought, and it looked lovely with the wedding shoes!

A number of buttons and loops were added to both my dress and the sash for bustling, but on the day of, we moved from ceremony to party so quickly that I never too the time to properly bustle anything. Instead, the sash was tied into a big bow, and off I went to socialize.

Unfortunately, in all of the merriment, we never slowed down to take a full detailed picture of my back to show the sash. For example, if you're curious what the back of the bridesmaids dresses looked like, I have it::

Back of the wedding dress and sash? Not so much, but like the day it was perfect.

New Colors & Textures in the Bedroom!

2011-10-18T17:00:00.005-04:00

I'm excited about the little changes taking place in the bedroom. We're taking away some of the dark colors, lightening up the space, and adding a bit of life and texture to the space!

The Bracelets

2011-10-13T14:35:00.003-04:00

A few more details about our bracelets from the last post. Theys are super simple to make following the directions from Honesty WTF, and purchasing the supplies from Ornamentea.

Our color choices:
~ brown and natural leather
~ turquoise, pomegranate, and sunflower waxed linen
~ antique and nickel plated ball chain

You may want to make one using the exact measurements in the directions and then adjust accordingly for future bracelets. We found that using 12.5 inches of the ball chain {rather than the 12 inches suggested} gave us a nicer fit.

I love these and want to make more... the only probably is that after making two, they're so easy that the "making" part is a bit boring, and probably best done around a campfire with sisters or over a few drinks with friends to pass the time!

We camped, and ~

2011-10-10T10:50:00.008-04:00

Reveled in the beautiful weather::

Took an afternoon nap by the stream::

Made some bracelets::

Marveled at the mushrooms::

Sat around the fire::

Woke up to sun on our tents and faces::

Small flowers, small vases, big impact!

2011-10-06T09:45:00.004-04:00

I never thought of cutting fall mums for vases, but then a few flowers fell off as I was replanting and an idea occurred::

I could put some in a small bottle, adding a sweet touch to the bathroom::

And I could snip off a few more flowers to make a big impact in one of the vases from the wedding {if you missed that post it's the bottom half of a beer bottle!}::

Version B

2011-10-04T13:49:00.004-04:00

I worked out a worsted bean version of the star-topped hat. And look ~ this one matches my sweater. This year's fall uniform is complete!
It's been a lot of fun knitting up these hats... it's a busy week, so the pattern's on the back burner, but I've already started to think about star-topped mittens, and baby sweaters!

Location Perks

2011-10-02T11:59:00.002-04:00

Over the summer, we've witnessed quite an airshow::
The realtor never mentioned that we were in a hot air balloon flyover zone. Showtimes vary throughout the weekend, but you know it's about to start when you hear the roar of the flame.

Then the flame goes quiet and you can't take your eyes away from the balloon as it gently and silently floats through the air.

Going, going, gone... until next time

2011-10-01T21:13:00.004-04:00

2011-09-30T09:54:00.010-04:00

It's officially fall in the garden! Leaves are falling, asters are blooming, and I'm planning for next year. Somewhere in the middle of summer I fell behind on my gardening posts {as well as falling behind on wedding posts ~ we still have some great projects, recipes, and pictures to share!}

Here's the south side of the house in the peak of summer:: The July and August beds were full of bee-balm, blacked-eyed susans, coneflowers, butterfly weeds. And the grass was tinged with brown as it recovered from a dry spell. As the summer flowers faded, they've been replaced by fall beds full of sedum and asters::

It was nice to sit back and watch this garden grow, but now that I know what's growing where {for the most part}, I'm feeling a bit more confident in my plans for next year. For example, the fall beds are not looking as sharp as they should, due mainly to a lack of maintenance early in the summer ~ I should have been pinching back the asters and sedum to encourage more stocky growth. By not pinching back, we've produced quite a few leggy ladies::

Planning aside, there's still plenty of work to be done right now, and my focus has turned to leaves! As my favorite garden guru, Mike McGrath, knows this year's leaves provide the raw material for next year's mulch. Why mulch? Mulching your beds with leaves adds organic matter that will help to retain water throughout the growing season, unfortunately, because the leaves are mostly carbon, leaf mulch won't add many nutrients to your soil, so compost or manure fertilizers should be used too.

To create the mulch, you want to shred this year's leaves and add a bit of nitrogen so that they begin to decompose. If you were to add the whole leaves to your beds, they would take a long time to break down and create a soggy mess that would smother tender spring plants.

So here's what you need:
~ leaves
~ nitrogen, if you mow your grass before you rake your leaves, the grass clippings will provide plenty of nitrogen. If you don't have any grass, you can buy a nitrogen compost supplement
~ a leaf blower/mulcher {the day we bought a leaf blower we officially embraced suburban life}. When you put your leaf blower on reverse it vacuums and shreds your leaves!!
~ a storage space with plenty of airflow for your shredded leaves.

Creating the bin is super easy with a bit of chicken wire and zip ties::

I wanted to create a simple bin that was about three feet tall with a three foot diameter. This requires a three by ten foot piece of chicken wire, and lucky for us, that exact size is sold in many hardware stores. Shown here with our 200+ pack of zip ties, because we love us some zip ties:: To create the bin, unroll and flatten your wire, then attach the two short sides with a few zip ties. If it's a bit wobbly when you stand it up and/or if you live in a particularly windy area, you can secure it with a few tent stakes or fence posts {sold right next to the wire in our hardware store}. I skipped the posts and used some branches that were pruned from our trees.

In our little yard, I found a nice hidden space for my bin in our "woodland corner" {the little area filled with spruces, ferns, and other shade-loving plants}.
It's so perfectly hidden, yet still very accessible.

Once your bin is built, shred your leaves and grass, and fill the bin! You'll want to keep your leaves moist, and turn it every once in a while throughout the winter, and by spring you should have some nice, dark brown mulch. Now that the mulch pile is built, it's time to start thinking about a compost pile, but the two should not be combined ~ the one winter season of leaf decay for your mulch pile is not enough time to turn kitchen scraps into compost, particularly if you continue to add fresh material to the pile. So two piles are needed, and you can always add leaves from the mulch pile to the compost.

2011-09-26T09:25:00.005-04:00

First ~ I'm glad you liked the hat {despite my ho-hum picture of it!}. I'm working on a second one and writing up the pattern details now.
Second ~ remember this song from Motopony, you can get the album on sale at Amazon for $5 until Sept 30! just an fyi.

And now for a moment of zen... It's been fun to watch the flowers morph into their respective reproductive unit.seeds, pods, and berries! oh my.

{butterfly weed, related to milkweed and loved by monarchs}

{poppy family, big and small}

{arum}

{the yet-to-be-identified}

Happy Fall!

2011-09-23T14:55:00.004-04:00

With this rainy weather it's shaping up to be a good weekend to cozy up with some knitting.

How about a hat?

This is the hat I made last weekend using the Icelandic wool from the PA Fiber Festival. What do you think?

I love the little star design and am working on a second version right now. The design was created by incorporating my hat decreases into a basic chevron stitch {such as this one here}. If you're interested, I can write up some detailed instructions after I finish the second hat!

I'm off to bake some apple crisp and rake the leaves*

And we're back!

2011-09-21T22:33:00.004-04:00

I knit up a fun little hat to keep me warm while we frolicked along the Mendocino coast... more details will come once I get some photos.

Pennsylvania Fiber Whaaa?

2011-09-15T15:19:00.006-04:00

Dudes, there's a PA Fiber Festival. Did you know?

Our weekends have been busy driving from one bike race to another. First there was the Lancaster race, where we happened upon the Lancaster Arts Fest.

Then last weekend between the Montrose road race::

and the Pine Grover Furnace time trial::

We discovered the PA Fiber Festival {in it's 8th year!}. Who knew? Not me, obviously. We saw a sign for the festival off of US81, and stopped by after the Montrose race. Unfortunately for the venders, I think the week's floods kept many visitors away from the festival, fortunately for me, the aisles were open and it was a perfect chance to get out of the car and stretch my legs.

It was a nice little festival, much smaller than the more well-known and older New York and Maryland festivals, but definitely worth the trip if you want a chance to buy some quality fiber products and want to meet the farmers, animals, dyers, and spinners making your yarns!

I purchased a couple of skeins from Unplanned Peacock Studio ~ the yellow lace-weight and red sock-weight ~ and a couple of skeins of Icelandic wool from Hearts Ease Farm. I was hoping to take the lace with me to work on a new scarf this weekend, but I haven't been able to settle on a pattern {what you see on the needles is a failed test swatch}. So, I'm taking the wool, and am hoping to whip out a quick hat based upon that swatch... if there's anything I learned from my many visits to the bay area and northern CA, it never hurts to bring a cozy knit hat or two {particularly when camping}!

If you go, don't miss the trick mirror in the bathroom*

Wednesday Soundtrack Repeat!

2011-09-14T11:34:00.004-04:00

We're leaving our green forests and flying over the mountains to arrive at a wedding by the sea this weekend. So it's only appropriate to find a song that talks about all things good... proposals from the trees to the mountains to the sea!

After the rain ~

2011-09-12T20:11:00.008-04:00

Holy Amaryllis Batman!!

2011-09-09T10:34:00.006-04:00

Check out the flowers on this one:: ... and at such an odd time of year. As I mentioned back in June. This was an amaryllis that bloomed last winter. The flowers were/are beautiful and I wanted to try to keep it around for another year.

According to the care instructions I found online {here's a great resource}, I should put the plant outside for the summer to let it recharge its bulb, and then put it in a cool shady place in September to let it hibernate before forcing it again this winter. To my surprise,a new bud growing a couple of weeks ago. Apparently this particular bulb didn't check in for instructions on the internet. At that point I figured it was too late to do anything, so I just crossed my fingers that we'd get some big pretty flowers this second time around. And we did!

The huge flowers have been a nice treat, particularly during this week of grey, rainy days.

As you can see, there are no more leaves, as these flowers started to open, the leaves began to brown and get mildew on them, so I snipped them off. As a result, I think this will be the last bang for the bulb. I'll start my amaryllis-tending experiment again this winter with a new bulb {or two!}.

ps ~ the cross-stitched picture in the photo was a gift from my sister! It used to sit in Calder's bathroom in CA, and now we have it in the kitchen, a fun reminder to um, love the good sh*t?

Back to School Fun

2011-09-08T08:45:00.003-04:00

Who doesn't want their own chalkboard? Seriously. Well, Calder for one ~ he'd take a white board any day over a chalkboard. And we'll let him keep his whiteboard in the man cave.

But me, I couldn't wait to put a big chalkboard in the craft room, especially after my success with the front door.

Even though I like the traditional slate and green colored boards, I thought they might be too dark for this project. The craft room is on the north side of our house, and it only has one window, so I decided to pick out a lighter color from Rust Oleum's selection of chalkboard paint...

What do you think? I went with the periwinkle colorway. With the first brush stroke, my stomach was in knots because it looked too purple, but now that it's up on the wall with a bit of chalk on it, I like it. I'm focusing more on its blue and grayish tones and trying to ignore the purples.

And now that I have a place to scheme, all of my crafty-whims are on the wall.

Friday Soundtrack

2011-09-02T10:26:00.004-04:00

I found it! The new music I was craving... it's a good thing I have headphones, because I've listened to this song over and over {and over} again without driving everyone around me crazy.

So, listen to this, and then maybe hit replay because you won't be able to help yourself.

Band :: Motopony
Song :: King of Diamonds

On our late summer table...

2011-08-30T22:46:00.006-04:00

Usually, I put a little music up on Wednesdays, but sadly I'm feeling a bit parched in the music department. Any suggestions? While my ears are starving, I've noticed that at least our table, and my belly, has been fully of delicious late summer veggies in all forms...

Spinach, leek, and tomato quiche {with extra-thick crust!}:: ... um, it looks a bit deflated the second day, but what it lacks in volume, it packs in that Popeye-spinach punch.

Pickles!
These are quick, easy, and oh so delicious! Refrigerator Pickles

Ingredients::
3 average-sized cukes {more if you're using smaller, pickling cukes}
1 green pepper
1 onion
1 Tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons celery seed
Chop, slice, etc. Let stand 1 hour

Mix the following and add it the veggies::
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice

Then add 1 sliced lemon and stir. Cover the container and refrigerate 24 hours before eating {we sampled them five minutes in, two hours in, twelve hours in, and finally 24 hours in... we are down to half a batch and need to make more ASAP!}. Serving suggestion ~ on your plate next to a warm and toasty grilled cheese.

Dilly Yellow Beans::
{recipe found here}

Roasted Veggies two ways::

{Zucchini, Vidalia Onion, Carrots, Bell Peppers}

{Beets, Potatoes, Leeks, Carrots}

B-L-Ts!

And to go along with today's theme, I found this beautiful, inspiring video...watch it and then go bake a cake!

beet cake from tiger in a jar on Vimeo.

Sneak Peak

2011-08-29T13:34:00.002-04:00

Did a little something fun in the craft room! More pictures as soon as we tidy up.

A sweater!

2011-08-26T08:15:00.007-04:00

This sweater was inspired by a new pair of shoes {pictures to come}, which got me thinking about cool fall days, apple picking, and another wine tour in the Finger Lakes region?! oh my

For now, I've been slipping the sweater on to ward off the chill of early mornings... and that's just when I took these pictures ~ on a cool morning still in my pjs!

The pattern is Cassis, by Thea of BabyCocktails {a great read if you're looking for blogs!}.

As you can tell, I made a few modifications. Knitting sleeves and making it slightly shorter than the pattern. For the sleeves, I following this version ~ adding the lace pattern to the sleeves, and decreasing slightly as I knit them down from the shoulder. The yarn is Lion Brand's Fisherman's wool, and I used size 7 Addis.

Sweater length is always a puzzle for me. This sweater was supposed to be longer than I knit it. I stopped short because I was worried that the length wouldn't look good on me ~ making me look bottom heavy and frumpy. After I was finished, I realized that the sweater stops right at the widest point of my hips {you might not be able to tell from these pictures}. It doesn't look bad, but I'm wondering if it would look even better if it stopped just above that point? decisions decisions. If I get ambitious, I'll take some pictures and analyze the heck out of it :)!

I'll think about it while I'm out picking flowers...

Have a happy weekend!

Wednesday Soundtrack

2011-08-24T11:28:00.003-04:00

These cool evenings make it feel like Autumn's right around the corner... I'm preparing by eating as many juicy peaches as I can and by keeping the vases fully stocked.

A slower summer song...

Really?

2011-08-22T07:38:00.003-04:00

How does this::

Turn into this::

Both pictures from our yard this weekend!

Gifts for the girls in yellow.

2011-08-19T14:38:00.010-04:00

And we're back to the wedding. I put together little boxes of goodies for the bridesmaids. And yes, before even discussing the contents, I was ecstatic with my "wrapping". Just a plain brown box, wrapped in baker's twine with a tag attached. You'll see both the twine and tags again in a future post! I'll pause while you gag on the matchy-ness of it all.

Quick note before I dig in ~ This post is heavy in pictures and links to some of the fantastic Etsy shops I used for supplies. One of the things that really made me happy while planning the wedding was searching out the artists and local or small shops for supplies.

Inside were a combination of purchased and handmade gifts. Each girl received a different botanical necklace from Elizabeth Scott Designs. I love her shop, and she was so patient as I deliberated on my choices! Since you never know what the weather will be like, and since the dresses were sleeveless, I included a white pashmina scarf. And then... I wanted to take the time to make something special for inside the boxes.

I've always wanted to make clutches with the metal frame opening, and thought the wedding was a perfect excuse to give it a shot. I was also hoping that the little purses could come in handy the day of the wedding for storing any odds and ends that the ladies were carrying around. These were made using the pattern and hardware for 5 inch clutches from this shop.

Inspired by the bee and honeycomb touches that we were incorporating in to the invites and wedding decor, I began the process looking for some sort of modern-honeycomb fabric. I started this project in January, and at the time, I wasn't excited about any of the designs I found. That said, I did a quick google search this afternoon and found a few nice options. I thought about designing something myself and getting it printed by Spoonflower, but, as it usually happens with projects like this.... inspiration struck, and I went in yet another direction.

Using the hexagons from our save-the-dates, I embroidered a honeycomb design and each girls' initial on the front of the purses.

Here were my key supplies {minus the needle and thread}::

The following was done before sewing the pieces of the purses together::
~ Using an exacto knife I cut out hexagons in three different sizes from the card. In the end only the two larger sizes were used for this design.
~ With the magic disappearing ink pen, I traced one large hexagon and surrounded it by a hive of the medium hexagons, making the hive slightly different on each one. The pen really is magic ~ staying long enough for you to embroider but then completely disappearing in a couple of days {sometimes sooner if you really agitate the fabric}.
~ I used the backstitch to trace the honeycombs.
~ I then found a font that I liked and printed out the four initials that I needed. I used these as a guide to free-hand the letters with the magic pen and then used the stem stitch to embroider them, going back and making two lines of stem stitch where I wanted a thicker line.

PS. ::
~ This is my first embroidery project, so maybe there's a more standard method for embroidering letters? I did a few quick searches and some test runs, and then I winged it.
~ Many of these purse frames require you to glue the fabric into the frame. Everywhere I looked, people recommend Gutermann Glue. I had a hard time finding it in the typical craft shops, but was able to order some from this seller.
~ I think I drank a lot of coffee while working on this project. How I managed to get it all over the paper with the initials but not on the bags is a mystery.

Since the big design went smoothly, I wanted to add a touch of design to the back side of the purses. At first I thought it'd be fun to trace three medium hexagons, filling in one of them like so::

But my test runs looked a bit sloppy and came with the "wah wah" soundtrack of disappointment. So, back at the drawing board I came up with this:: I cut out a hexagon shape from the fabric I was going to use for the lining and using a zig-zag stitch on the sewing machine I attached it to the back of the bag. It might look a bit wonky in that picture due to the folds in the fabric.

The lining was made up of two fabrics. The top half was the flowered fabric::

And the bottom half was made from the same satin that was used to make my sash {more on that soon!}. You can see a snippet of the two fabrics in this photo::

I'm so happy with how these turned out and am a bit bummed that I didn't make more for the mothers, flower girls, and myself!

In addition to the clutches, there was another little project that I'd been wanting to make. Hairpins with little flowers:: A big thanks to my sisters for modeling/photographing these at the beach last week. I think everyone wore them the day of the wedding, and yet I can't find a bit of photographic evidence!

Of course these are unbelievably simple. Buy the flower cabochons and pins, glue one to the other and you're done! I purchased my flowers and hairpins from the Snapcrafty Etsy Shop. I used a jewelry glue that I picked up from Michaels that's meant to glue plastic to metal, and it worked really well.

Assembly tip :: Slide the pins onto a piece of card stock to hold them steady while applying the glue and flowers::

Quick confession :: I was inspired to make my own after I paid $12 to buy a set of two from a little shop in Boston. That was a few years ago before I knew where to find the flower and pin resources. Never again my friends, now you can make 10 for under $10. winning!

Wednesday Soundtrack

2011-08-17T12:57:00.002-04:00

artist:: Vienna Tang
song:: City Hall

Last week...

2011-08-16T13:57:00.003-04:00

The Painted Door

2011-08-02T22:41:00.006-04:00

Well it's Tuesday evening, so I'm more than fashionably to the Pinterest Challenge party, but so excited to join! Don't know about the challenge? Or Pinterest?

Pinterest is a fun, still new-to-me site, that allows you to "pin" inspiration photos that you find around the web. You can also follow other pinterest users, getting inspiration from their boards. The Pinterest Challenge is the brainchild of Katie from Bower Power, Sherry from Young House Love, with co-hosts Emily Henderson and Lana from Making a House a Home. Realizing that many of us pin a million and one inspiration ideas, but never get around to acting on them, they posed a challenge ~ to complete one project from our Pinterest board by today and share it.

Quick confession ~ without a TV, I'm usually a step behind when it comes to new shows, DIY superstars, etc. So until this challenge, I didn't know who Emily Henderson was. All that was corrected over the weekend with a few marathon sessions of Secrets From a Stylist, and now I can't get enough.

Here are my Pinterest Boards, and the project I took on this week was inspired by... this!

I really wanted to paint the door, and was looking for a nice, deep teal color. Everything about this house is beige/white, so I'm looking for ways to add in pops of color, and this white door was a great place to start::

In addition to the blah, white color, it had this crazy hook stuck to it at an angle::

So, step number one was to remove the hook, and give the door a light sanding to even out some bumps.

I had pinned that picture as I was thinking about door colors. At the same time I was thinking about my desire for a chalkboard wall in the craft room, and that's when I found Rust-Oleum's tinted chalkboard paint! I loved the idea of painting the door with chalkboard paint ~ now we can leave fun messages for each other for the way in and the way out.

I also loved the paint because it completely eliminated the anxiety of choosing amount the zillions of colors out there. They really nailed this color on the head, but now I'm having trouble deciding exactly what color I want to use in the craft room... In economics, a common assumption is that an individual's utility increases with the number of choices available. For many people this may be true, but I've always argued that past a certain point too much variety can be paralyzing. That's me standing in the paint aisle for hours.

Take a seat...

2011-07-29T10:04:00.007-04:00

Here's a project from the wedding. Just about two years ago at this exact time, I was biking to work in Boston and saw this old screen door out on the sidewalk with someone's trash. Of course, I locked up my bike on the spot, carted the door home, and then went back to my bike and on my merry way.

The door is really awesome, and it's too bad that its dimensions don't match any of the doors I know, or else I'd put it to good use. The door sat in my bedroom for a long time. First it just leaned against the wall, after that it as a jewelry holder - attaching my earrings to the screen and hanging my necklaces from a few hooks. Then I decided that I wanted to embroider a design into the screen. I spent an evening doing it, but never got much further.

So, when it came time for the wedding, my motive was always to use what was on hand, and I knew it'd be fun to incorporate the door {keeping with our farm-house wedding motif}. Inspiration struck one night when I was thinking about the seating cards.

We were using manila tags on the thank you gifts {a post on those is coming}, and to keep things cohesive I wanted to use the tags for seating. Since the tags had a string, I wanted to hang them from something, and that's when the lightbulb went off ~ I have so many fun/beautiful buttons. We could sew the buttons to the screen door and hang the tags on them!

We embroidered an upper section with the words "Take a seat" and added a little bee button that I had been holding on to for the longest time.

In another section, we sewed a simple heart with our initials::

And then we added the buttons! The screen came with a tear {on the right side of the picture below}, so rather than ignoring it, we playfully stitched it up.

We sewed on a button for each guest/tag... but then invited a few more people, so on a few buttons we doubled up the tags. We decided to double up moms and little kids, that way both of their names were right next to each other and easy to find!
On the day of the wedding, we propped the door up under the willow tree as it's pictured.

Another door project's coming tomorrow!

My Summer Shower

2011-07-28T11:12:00.004-04:00

These two products are the staples of my summer shower::

You'd think the Body Shop was sponsoring this post, they aren't, I'm just addicted.

I thought about it and realized that I've been using the peppermint foot scrub for over ten years now! Is that possible? I only use it a few times each summer, so a container lasts about two years. Want something really refreshing? Scrub up with the scrub, then use your favorite peppermint foot lotion. Keep that in your pocket for the next heat wave.

The Grapefruit Shower Gel is something new to me. I used to use their grapefruit glycerin soap, but the past couple of summers I was feeling unsatisfied, there just wasn't enough of that grapefruit punch that I was looking for. Picking up the shower gel was like getting punched in the face with a field of grapefruits. Seriously, I'm convinced that there's a ton of grapefruit zest in every bottle. How do they do it? I want to eat it.

Wednesday Soundtrack

2011-07-27T00:59:00.005-04:00

Artist :: Lady Gaga
Song :: The Edge of Glory

A few things::
- I can't get this song out of my head.
- I love the way she sings the opening lines, there's something about her voice and the rhythm of those lines.
- I can never, ever take her seriously when I see her, I have to listen without watching.

-Something I can't stop looking at :: the purple coneflower picture from the last post. Doesn't it look 3D?

- Did you notice who's playing the sax? Consider this a mini tribute to Clarence. Not the tribute you'd expect after his years of playing with Bruce, but how much fun is it that this was one of his last projects? He really deserves his own Wednesday Soundtrack feature. xo

2011-07-26T09:33:00.006-04:00

It's getting wild out there in the garden. Right now hydrangeas are in full bloom, and they're surrounded by beds full of black-eyed-susans, echinacea (or purple cone flower?), queen anne's lace, bee balm, and a few yet un-named.

Putting that all together makes for some beautiful bouquets! The second bouquet contains both the snowball and oak leaf hydrangeas {love}.

On the table

2011-07-21T21:29:00.011-04:00

With the heat keeping me away from the stove, and a fresh head of cabbage from my pop's garden, I came up with a contingency plan this week :: Asian Coleslaw, and lots of it!

I love cabbage-based salads in the summer, they're such a nice and hearty change of pace after weeks of eating lettuce-based salads {although I know, with a few nuts and beans those can be hearty meal too!}. With my cabbage in the fridge, I did a quick internet search to see what types of coleslaws I could find. I was looking for something new, and if I didn't find anything, I would return to my summer-cabbage-salad-favorite :: Ramen Noodle Salad! I love that salad.

You'd think that the ramen version would be called "Asian Coleslaw", but what I found may be my new favorite slaw! This version skips the noodles, and uses a variety of ingredients found in Chinese and Thai cooking to make the dressing. Find the recipe here. I didn't follow it exactly, skipping the Nappa and red cabbages, as well as the ginger in the dressing. I loved the results, but want to try it again with the ginger.

At dinner I paired it with cheddar cheese on toasted sourdough with a touch of my mom's Chili Sauce ~ more details on the sauce soon!

Having big batches of salads like this in the fridge make packing lunch so easy. What else makes it easy? My cute little tiffin from India.

It's a three layer tiffin, but on two-layer days, I just close it with rubber bands.

Lunch today included the salad, {sweating} cheddar cheese, tomatoes, a hard boiled egg, and melted chocolate for dessert.

This weekend I'll be busy in the kitchen working on some homemade ice cream! I'll keep you posted.

Wednesday Soundtrack

2011-07-20T13:02:00.010-04:00

Before we get to the songs, another wedding detail::
My sister painted these fantastic signs for the wedding. The day really was a big party, other than the ceremony, toasts, and cutting of the cake, there was no formal schedule.

Using big signs was a great way to virtually guide people around the party/property. Some signs pointed people towards the games and acted as an open invitation to play. Our games included horseshoes, bocce, washers. Other signs shared some of the crucial details : bar, bathrooms, ceremony. Some friends and siblings camped, and I thought the "camping" sign was a great way to keep that area organized while also letting the other guests know that having the tents and camper in the far corner of the field was intentional.

And as I mentioned last week, our DJ and late night dancing was in the barn, not under the tent where dinner took place, so if the thumping music and flashing lights wasn't enough, our fun little sign explained everything::

Before I play the music, did you see the sign?

Or are you thinking that the signs are just blocking the scenery?

2011-07-18T23:42:00.007-04:00

First there were the daffodils and then the tulips, which were followed closely by the lilacs. Now, in the heat of summer, the garden's bursting with lilies! I haven't identified them all yet, but their colors and smells are intoxicating. Enjoy*

For a Summer Baby

2011-07-17T22:55:00.005-04:00

This is the sweater that I gave you a sneak peak of at the end of May.
As I mentioned, it was my first time skipping buttons in lieu of ribbon. I love how it turned out ~ the green ribbon with the white yarn is perfect for a summer baby named Charlotte! Although I admit, as I tied and re-tied the ribbon, trying to get it just right, I realized that buttons may be the quicker and more practical choice for dressing a baby.
I'm sure no one will be thinking about practicality when they see the new baby in her lacy sweater!

A few details::

Needle size ~ US 5 {note to self, I'm 98% sure they were fives, but should double check~}
Yarn ~ Lane Cervinia Calzetteria, a sock yarn from Italy via Flossie {thanks!}. It's a great, washable sock yarn.
Modifications ~ I knit the body in one piece, when I get to the arms, I put these stitches on holders and continue knitting the body in one piece until the end. I then pick up the stitches for the arms and knit them in the round. No seams to sew!

Wednesday Soundtrack {wedding edition}

2011-07-13T00:28:00.004-04:00

Calder and I both like a wide variety of music, our soundtracks for workdays are different from our Saturday mornings, and that's different from our Saturday nights. We made an effort to share some of that variety on the wedding day, and the credit for how awesome it turned out really goes to C as he took a lead on the music planning.

We were so very lucky to be able to hire the Wissahickon Chicken Shack to play during our ceremony, during cocktail hour, and after dinner. They are a fantastic bluegrass band out of the Philly area, and they really added to that relaxed, backyard picnic feeling that we wanted to evoke. It was also the perfect choice of music that our guests, both young and old, could sit back and enjoy or get up and dance to. And of course, nothing says farmhouse wedding like a cat hanging around the bluegrass band:: She didn't leave her post all day!

If you're in the Finger Lakes region this weekend, they'll be playing a few shows. And if you aren't lucky enough to see them in person, YouTube will have to do::

Reason #101 why we love them :: The band played their own rendition of Bruce's Two for the Road (click here for the lyrics) for Calder and I to dance/stumble to.

Here's Bruce's version of Two for the Road, and note that at the beginning of the video it's black, but everything works out in the end ::

After the band cleared out, the DJ stepped in, and the rest of the night looked like this::

And sounded a bit like this::
Our DJ was a friend of my sister's and she brought the barn down. Calder is particular about his dance music, and he loved her! We want to take over the barn and hire her every weekend. Best night ever.

Birthday Cake!

2011-07-11T00:34:00.003-04:00

I woke up today with two missions : make a birthday cake and water the flowers {water the sh*t out of the flowers}.

These last few weeks of ignoring the garden and focusing on the wedding have left the flowers looking a bit dull, but I'll leave the garden update for a future post and focus on the birthday cake.

I've had my eye on this cake for a while, and decided that it was the perfect project for christening my new Kitchen Aid!

I can definitely see why this is Alicia's go-to birthday cake. It's nice and simple, and made with ingredients that I always have on hand. The cake itself comes out moist, bouncy, and with the right amount of crumble. Plus, if you follow Alicia's lead and add the coffee, you'll get a good, dark color.

After popping the cake into the oven, I read her frosting recipe. It calls for a roux... which caused me to pause. I was up for baking the cake, but a roux on a relaxing Sunday/birthday morning? I wasn't so sure this morning, but one frosted cake later, I assure you it's definitely worth the effort.

I followed her instructions to a T *except* for that whole bit about whole milk. I only had 2% in the fridge, and I knew that whole milk only has about 3% fat. So I threw caution to the wind, and it worked!

A note about the roux : it was a piece of cake. ha! If you look at the ingredients, you'll notice that you're making a hefty portion of roux (1 cup of milk and 1/4 cup of flour). As long as you keep your heat on medium to low, with that quantity of liquid & flour, you don't have to worry about it burning. And as long as you keep whisking, per Alicia's warning, you really won't have have to worry about lumps.

This may just become a birthday regular around these parts too! I'll just have to work on my decorating ~ did you see how beautiful hers is with the red sprinkles and strawberry?

We did it!

2011-07-05T01:18:00.009-04:00

We had ourselves one fantastic wedding! And we lived to tell the tale...

As I may have mentioned, we did a whole lot of crafting for the wedding. Originally I thought I'd share projects as they happened, but in the end, I liked keeping most things a secret, and now we have a whole lot to talk about!

Inspired by my drink this weekend {a mojito with lemons rather than limes}, I thought I'd ease back into things and talk about colors.

I originally wanted a yellow and grey color scheme ~ big on the yellow and just using the grey when we needed a color to tone things down. If you're unsure about that idea, a quick google search shows you that there are a lot of great yellow and grey weddings out there. But as I started to put together some of the projects, I thought it would be fun to add touches of red and green... think bowl of strawberries meets lemonade with a touch of mint. Or red table meets mint mojito with a touch of lemon.

I put together a little pinterest board {after the wedding} in an effort to convey the ideas I was having before the wedding. If only I had jumped on the pinterest bandwagon sooner ~ it would have been a great way to get all of my ideas out of my head and in one place for everyone to see!

Our first touch of red came from Ikea's TEKLA dishtowels {pictured on the pinterest board}. These were used as the cloth napkins at each place setting. ETA:: when I bought the 100+ towels/napkins for our event, they were priced at 49 cents a piece. We really got lucky, because as you see they're now up to 79 cents a pop!

Above the tables, we hung yards of bunting. This project was super easy to make, and although I was worried, it didn't look like we were going to open a used-car lot!

We cut out a cardboard template that was used to trace triangles on our fabric. These were cut out with pinking sheers. Wanting the bunting to be two-sided, two triangles were stitched together with right sides out to make each individual flag {or bunt?}.

We used 1 inch wide, heavyweight twill tape folded in half for the top of the bunting, remembering to leave a bit of extra twill tape at each end for tying to the tents.

I ordered our twill tape in 72 yard spools from twilltape.com, and now I love the internet even more for having a website that specializes in twill tape.

Sticking with our festive flag projects, I made a whole bunch of mini flags like these::
I got the idea after seeing these flags at Herriot and Grace. The project turned out a lot simpler than I expected. I cut pieces of ribbon, glued them to the skewer, and added one stitch with a needle and thread to make them extra secure. After the ribbons were on, I handed them over to my sister to make different cuts in the ribbon ends and then dip them in No Fray. We used a variety of ribbons, some with wiring, some without, and we even made some with extra large yellow rikrak. Now I want another excuse to buy more jump rikrak!

Finally, I'll leave you with the raw materials for a quick, last minute project::

We had a few friends and high school students assisting us with food service and cleanup throughout the day. They were all wearing black, and so I wanted to give them something that would add a little color to their outfits and help them to stand out in the crowd as someone who guests could approach if they needed a drink, had questions about the food, etc. At first I thought I would make them aprons from the Ikea towels, but then I saw this toweling fabric from the Fabric Depot and knew that it'd be perfect! It looks a little granny-ish/country-ish, which fit in well with our use of old china on the buffet table and the bluegrass band.

The toweling fabric is meant for making dishtowels, so it's already hemmed on two ends ~ you just cut it to the width you want and hem the remaining two sides. I did that, and then used some of our leftover twill tape to make the apron ties.

So with all of the yellow, red, and green, where's the grey? We used these grey blankets {also pictured on the pinterest board} for some of the seating during the ceremony. And the bridesmaids looked fabulous in their grey wedge TOMS.

getting my act together.

2011-06-09T11:48:00.010-04:00

The lack of posting around here is in no way representative of the amount of activity, but I guess that's how it goes every now and then!

We've been super busy over here, spending the weekends at my parents' house chasing turtles {and newts, and butterflies...}

Then, once we've scared every critter into hiding, we turn around and "ooh and ahh" over the new barn::

And FINALLY, once all procrastination is over, we get down to business and prepare for our big party!... it's only two weeks away, and the excitement's building.

Between weekends I've been busy welcoming summer on the deck::

I have a few fun plant projects going on out there. There's the little herb garden that came together better than I expected!::

I picked up the plant stands from Lowes, and the pots from Ikea. The stands each hold three pots ~ I've filled them with mint, basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, and sage. And if herbs are exciting enough, the pots are a grey clay, perfect for writing on with chalk!:: I love having the herbs out on the deck for easy access, but I'm thinking about adding a little herb-garden space to our flower gardens because they're pretty high maintenance in the pots. Plus, one basil plant really isn't enough when it comes to meeting my pesto needs. I'm thinking about what can go in the pots if that happens... something hardy and on the lower end of the watering spectrum. Any ideas?

After a quick lesson from my sister on the "thriller, filler, spiller" technique for pots, I laughed and then become a quick convert. The pot below contains nasturtiums and coleus ~ I thought the deep dark coleus would be a nice understated thriller while the nasturtiums would act as a combination filler and spiller. To my surprise, the nasturtiums have taken off and are the stars of the show for the moment! No complaints here.

Over in this corner is my amaryllis. It bloomed beautifully last Christmas, so I thought I'd keep it growing and see if I can get it to re-bloom next year. It'll stay out on the deck all summer and then I'll put it in a cool, dark place in September before waking it up again after Thanksgiving. If it blooms again, I'll be sure to let you know!

until next time*

So I lied.

2011-06-03T17:19:00.002-04:00

Life was too busy for a week of posts! And our poppies have turned into pods!
Who knows what next week will bring?

As you can tell...

2011-05-26T12:24:00.002-04:00

I'm being super lazy with the blog this week. Tune in next week for a full line-up of fun. Oh, and the garden? Now we have poppies!

Summer Stuff for a Sunny Day

2011-05-20T09:52:00.002-04:00

After months, and months of rain. Oh? It's only been days? Well it feels like months.

Anyway, how to spend a Friday evening::

1. Make your new favorite sandwich for dinner on the deck. Mine's egg salad with diced radishes and a bit of Maille mustard.

2. After the sandwich is reduced to crumbs, stay out on the deck and work on a little knitting:: This is the famous February Baby Sweater from EZ {found in the Knitter's Almanac}. It's my go-to baby sweater. I tried to spread my wings and find another lacy baby sweater that I liked, but in the end went back to my fav. This time I'm mixing it up and rather than using buttons, I made little eyelets in the second increase row and am going to weave a ribbon through for a closure.

3. No picture for this. BEFORE going home, remember to stop by your favorite liquor store and pick up the supplies for sidecars.

enjoy*

2011-05-18T09:37:00.003-04:00

It's gardening and music today!

As predicted, the fast-fading lilacs were soon replaced by peonies. Loads and loads of peonies. Leading me to hum this song every time I fill a vase::

There's the vase on the kitchen table::

The multi-color collection in the living room::

The single flower on the side table of our newly decorated guest bedroom {don't you want to come for a visit?!?}::

These are tree peonies {really shrub peonies}. Their buds are huge:And their flowers are ginormous. I'm going to be so bummed to see this season go! Luckily our herbaceous peonies have not started to bloom yet.

This was my first experience with tree peonies, and now I want to be a little Johnny Appleseed and plant them everywhere!

Lilacs!

2011-05-10T17:50:00.004-04:00

Hurry! Run to your local lilac bush and get cutting. I noticed that some of the flowers on mine have peaked and are starting to brown. That season was way too short, so to make the most of it, I'm thinking of going out after work and picking a few vases full.

If the lilac season is about to end, we might as well send it out with a bang.

This weekend the house will be saturated with the scent of lilacs, and next weekend, who knows? Maybe peonies?

I learned a little trick about extending the life of your lilacs after they're picked :: smash the woody ends (where you made the cut) with a hammer. Read more about it here.

Did you notice the variety of lilacs in the pictures above? I always thought of lilacs as coming in two varieties:: white and purple. These are all growing in our yard, and while on a bike ride the other day, I spotted yet another variety with deep purple flowers that are edged in white. If a spot opens up in the yard, it could be fun to add just one more lilac to the bunch!

Food!

2011-05-10T11:22:00.005-04:00

It's been a while since we've had some food on this blog.

This week I've been enjoying all of the gardens/farms that have come alive with the warmer weather.

Depending upon where you live, asparagus is either just beginning, going full force, or dying down. Whatever your situation, get yourself a bunch and make a yummy asparagus and salmon quiche:: I made this up as I went along, but here's a rough guideline, you can do with it what you wish::
~Make your favorite pie crust and put it in the fridge or freezer while you work on the rest of the ingredients. If I'm only going to have 10-15 minutes between making the dough and rolling, I'll put mine in the freezer to give it an extra boost of cold.
~Cook your salmon in the oven until just done. I cook mine in a casserole pan with a little bit of olive oil on the bottom and a dash of salt on the salmon.
~Cook your asparagus, you could do it on the stove top or by roasting it in the oven. I did mine on the top. After heating some olive oil in a cast iron pan, I added the rinsed and cut asparagus, and put a lid on to trap the heat and build up some steam. Then I added some diced garlic and any other spices or herbs you desire {a confession - I was feeling lazy on this particular day and added a dash of mrs. dash for my spices, and it came out great!}. A note on the Mrs. Dash, I'd never had it before, but a neighbor gave me a jar she didn't want. Somehow I feel that it's cheating, but I am a fan :-)
~This is my style for the quiche filling, and I'm warming you that it's super losey goosey, but it's never gone wrong. I hear people claim that it's impossible to make a quiche with anything other than cream; in my kitchen anything and everything seems to work. Whisk 3 or 4 eggs in a bowl, add a cup or more of milk, and a half cup of shredded cheddar. I have to admit, I've never measured the amount of milk I'm putting it, I just pour. And sometimes, if I add this to my crust and it looks like I need more filling, I'll just pour some extra milk right into the dish!

~Roll out your dough and place it in the pie plate. Flake your salmon and place it on the dough. Pour in your quiche filling. Arrange the asparagus on top, and pop in the oven until it's done! Enjoy.

Now for our second early spring veggie:: kale. As the weather heats up, the kale's going to die down, so get it while it's good. I used my latest bunch to make a batch of kale chips using this recipe.

Fresh:: This kale came from our friends' farm and it was fantastic!

Crisp:: I have to admit, I wanted to eat the chips plain, but over-salted them. Do you know where this is heading? I crushed the chips and put them over some plain popcorn {scroll down to the bottom of Smitten Kitchen's post} ~ I couldn't have asked for a better solution!

Happy spring eating*

Someone deserves a sweater...

2011-05-09T09:32:00.004-04:00

Our wedding invitations went out last week. Oh boy! Talk about making something official.

The production of these invitations was a major undertaking by my brother. Here he is mixing up paint::

He created the designs, mixed the paint, printed and printed and printed, and cut each invite by hand {x-acto for him, he doesn't trust paper cutters!}. And unfortunately for us, he did this all in the basement, making it very hard to take good pictures and document the process.

The invites were a combination of screen and letterpress printing. On the fronts, the yellow and gold images are screen-printed, and the green is letter pressed. The green on the backs of each piece are screen-printed.

Because we were doing everything by hand, I wasn't too stressed about having an exact day that the invites had to go out. On the other hand, because we're doing so much of the actual wedding planning and prepping, I was a bit conflicted about when we should require the RSVPs ~ most guides suggest an RSVP date of 4 to 3 weeks before the big day. I would love to know today how many guests we'll have.

To give us some flexibility in this situation, we came up with a great solution:: We added a little hanging tag to the RSVP cards that allowed us to write in the return date rather than having to know it the moment the letterpress plates were made. Another plus ~ this allows us to put different return dates on the smaller second round of invites that are going out a week later than the first!

So, here's what we have:: A fun, twine-tied package with the invite, RSVP card, and info card with some of the important details! I love the final results, and think they set the mood for the fun, relaxed, outdoor, homemade wedding that we're planning!

Here's a close-up of the backs with our initials::

Oh, and one more thing to think about ~ stamps. I found the selection of USPS stamps to be slightly lame at the moment. I'm just not a fan of the current, purple love stamps, but at the same time I didn't want to spend a dollar per stamp to make our own. Our invites required 64 cents in stamps, so I settled on the ug-loves {ugly loves}, and then I paired them with these 29 cent herb stamps. And in the end? The ug-loves grew on me! So if you're in a stamp bind, it is worth going in and seeing what fun combination of stamps you can put together to get the postage and look that you want.

So, as soon as the wedding craziness is over, it's time to start working on Jeff's sweater!

2011-05-06T01:08:00.003-04:00

AAAAAAnnnnnnnd it's back to the garden. Because that sucker just keeps growing and exploding. We started the week with ruffled and plain daffodils and !surprise! we'll end it with ruffled and plain tulips!

The frilly::

The sleek::

The tiny::

And the yet unknown::

I'm off to buy some outdoor furniture this weekend!

Aidez

2011-05-02T23:00:00.001-04:00

Say hello to Aidez, a free pattern from Berroco.
I mentioned Aidez about a month ago in this post. At that point I still wasn't so sure about the yarn, but now that it's finished I'm so happy with it! Beyond the color I love everything about the yarn and am so bummed that I don't know who made it or how to get more without going to back Rhinebeck... but now that I've finally used up all of the yarn from my first trip, another visit to the fair may be in order this year!

I knit this all in one piece, eliminating the side, sleeve, collar, and shoulder seams. I know some people like the finishing work, but for me that's one hurdle that I'll do anything to avoid! For knitters who like cables, this sweater has just enough going on to keep you interested without having to constantly review the charts.

Um, what else is there to love about the sweater {while I'm gushing}?
~ the longer body and sleeves
~ the lack of closures
~ the neckline
~ the coziness
~ the joy of quick knits on big needles
~ and the yarn :-)

yay!

2011-05-01T22:52:00.008-04:00

This picture-heavy post is a celebration of the common, and not-so-common, daffodil {genus Narcissus}. They're under the weeping cherry, among the succulents, under the pine trees, and everywhere in between. These reliable, early spring blooms provided bursts of yellow, brightening up the rainy days of April::
They looked lovely against our carpet of red succulents::

My favorites were the frilly ones::

But some days I loved the simple varieties more::

Particularly this peachy-keen one::

Although among all of this love, I have to admit that the ones with multiple flowers on a single stalk seem like a genetic mistake/accident::

Just as reliable as the daffodils were the April showers ~ did you see those rain clouds in the first picture? But we also saw glimpses of sun, and have our fingers crossed that there's more to come!

w-HOOP-ty Do.

2011-04-21T22:49:00.003-04:00

You've probably seen this before ~ it's the perfect easy and cheap way to decorate a wall, particularly the wall above your sewing machine::

Just take a collection of sewing hoops, fill them with fabrics and hang!

Rather than use just printed cottons, I wanted to add some variety to my wall. The blue and white checks on the left are from an old, old shower curtain from my parents' house. The brown, burlap fabric with the white stripe is from a coffee sack. I'd like to enhance that one with an embroidered flower or two, maybe try out some crewel work. The igloo print on the bottom was made from a linoleum block that I carved in high school. As you'll see soon, I've used some of the fabric in the large hoop for a special, secret wedding treat. And finally, I have a few tiny hoops to fill in some of the larger gaps, but I've temporarily hijacked them for another project.

There you have it ~ something so nice and easy that dresses up the wall and allows for continuous modification as inspiration strikes!

ETA:: speaking of easy decorations, I'm still loving my simple little vase.

Wednesday Soundtrack

2011-04-20T11:38:00.001-04:00

Artist :: The Weepies

Song :: Gotta Have You

2011-04-18T23:13:00.008-04:00

The garden continues to unveil one surprise after another! It's quickly getting ahead of me ~ new flowers are blooming before I've had time to identify the ones that bloomed the week before.

For example, what's this little beauty? I've found some close matches when I search for anenomes, but nothing that is a sure match. For a few days, this was my only view, and I almost overlooked it because it really is so tiny {the mass of green in the picture above is from another, yet-to-be-identified plant}::

Then there are these deep purple, fuzzy guys:: A few of these are planted near the mailbox, and they're taking forevvvvvvvvver to open up!

Under the plum tree is this little guy:: That opened to become this::

And it's close, but not exactly the same as this one peaking out from under a little evergreen tree:: This last flower appears to be some type of anemone blanda.

Any ideas? The comments are open, and any help identifying the plants above will be greatly appreciated, because as you're about to see, my naming schemes are not very helpful!

.... While you're thinking, I'll leave you with our one identifiable success of the week. Bloodroot! Such an unfriendly name for such a pretty flower:: Looking from above ground, I assumed a different name for bloodroot : Dinosaur Egg Flower. Can you see the resemblance as they emerge from the ground:: Searching for "dinosaur egg flower" didn't get me anywhere, and I can't even remember how I lucked upon Bloodroot. All I know is that after learning the name, there was not a fivehead*-slapping moment where I exclaimed "of course! why didn't I think Bloodroot?"

Bloodroot gets its name from the red sap that emerges when the root is cut, and that's not the only awesome thing about this plant::
~ The sap can be used to dye fabrics and yarns. Useful since I got this book for Christmas!
~ It has been used by Native Americans as an herbal remedy and included in name-brand toothpastes as antibacterial and anti-plaque agents.
~ Its seeds are spread by ants! The ants carry the seeds back to their nest where they eat the fleshy, protein and fat-rich part of the seed called an elaiosome. They then leave the rest of the seed, where it will grow in the next season, nourished by the rich soil produced by wastes in the ants' nest.
In searching for Bloodroot, I came across the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum blog. It seems to be a fairly new blog, but I'm really excited about it because they are posting pictures of plants as they bloom. Being in Maryland they're just a week or two ahead of my garden, so it should be a great resource to help me identify plants throughout the season!

*My forehead's so big that it's been referred to as a fivehead. The offenders shall remain unnamed.

Burning the candle at both ends.

2011-04-13T00:28:00.003-04:00

You'll have to pardon the interruption, there will be no music this week as the only sound I'm hearing is the purr of my computer fan. In light (haha) of this crazy week of deadlines, discussing candles is only appropriate.

Remember this post about our unsuccessful first attempt at candle-making?

The problem with our test candles was that we experienced too much pooling of the wax, enough that it suffocated our flame. A bit of research was required, and little did I know how extensive the world of wicks would be. There are wicks with zinc, paper, and cotton cores, flat braided wicks, square braided wicks, and even wooden wicks! The wick you choose should be a function of the diameter of your candle, whether it's a pillar or a container candle, and the type of wax... if you're interested, here's a great chart to get you started.

Since we were working with beeswax container candles, that's where I focused my research. I discovered that beeswax, unlike petroleum wax, is particularly viscous when melted, and it requires a thicker wick {more capillary action} to pull the wax to the flame to be burned. As a result, we needed square-braided wicks which were designed specifically for beeswax. Square-braided wicks come with their own numbering system from 6/0, "six-aught", to 1/0, and then from #1 to #10. 6/0 wicks are for the smallest candles and #10 are for the largest. Something between a 2/0 and a 3/0 was perfect for our containers, so I went with the 3/0 {it turned out to be a lucky guess}. Silly me for thinking this candle-making was going to be easy!

Here's test candle #2:: We have a winner! When I lit this candle, the glass was full of wax, and after 6 or so hours I took that picture. The candle burned cleanly and slowly ~ just perfect for our all-day wedding affair. At first I was skeptical ~ the full surface of wax was not melting, just the area around the wick. After the flame was below the level of the glass, the problem went away, and we had an even, clean melt with a nice flame. I'm chalking initial uneven burning up to a draft when the flame was exposed; to eliminate that problem, we decided to only fill the glasses half-way with wax.

In addition to pulling the wax to the flame, the square-braided wicks form a "carbon cap" at their tip which makes the wick extra hot and helps it to melt a larger area of wax. This is particularly useful in our case because with the right size wick it will melt the whole top surface and there will be no wax stuck to the sides of the glasses as the candle burns down.

On a whim I decided to fill some tall jelly jars with wax:: With a bit of wire or twine, I think these will look great hanging from the trees and under the arbors. Oh, and see that polka-dot thing in the background? It's one of our two wedding-day kickballs {the other one is green with hearts}. We still have to rent the tents and tuxes, but I can sleep a little easier knowing we have kickball checked off of our list ;-).

And a serendipitous extra ~ we cut more bottles than we needed for the candles. I picked the ones with the best edges to fill first, and only used about half of the glasses. That's when I realized that these green glasses make the cutest little vases:: When filled with a bunch of low-cut ruffled flowers like carnations, we can hide any imperfections in the cut edge. It's a fun, easy, and oh-so-cheap addition to our wedding {and house} decor!

Here's a picture with my phone for scale::

And one more because eating breakfast next to this little vase makes me smile::

As an aside ~ I never found one comprehensive source with detailed information on every type of wick, wax, and candle type. There are plenty of websites and books that give you bits and pieces of info, but was looking for the Holy Grail of wick info and never found it. If you have a great resource, please pass it along!

2011-04-08T00:57:00.003-04:00

There's more life in the garden this week!

The sedum buds are starting to open up and grow. April graced us with a full week of showers, and the water forms these perfect little pillows on the sedum::

Outside our kitchen window is a shrub of some sort. My money's on hydrangea, but I could be wrong. It's just starting to unfurl its leaves, so it may be a while until I see some flower action to confirm my guess::

And finally, I can't wait for these guys to grow to full size. Can you identify the flower? Lilacs!!! We have a row of them along one side of the house. No more secret lilac-stealing missions for me, there will be more than enough to fill the house!

Wednesday Soundtrack

2011-04-06T10:37:00.004-04:00

I have some fun music for you today!

I made my way to Philly last weekend for a little house concert. The house was packed, the food and drinks delicious, and the music was fantastic/fun/funny/phenomenal:: Pearl and the Beard, Tinsmith, and Nervous but Excited. yeppers, it was good.

Since the get-together was in West Philly, I thought it was the only appropriate to share this Pearl and the Beard Will Smith mix::

The Terrarium Bug!

2011-03-31T23:52:00.008-04:00

Yes I've caught it from my sister Kris, who's made a couple of excellent models.

Remember this jar from a thrifting adventure? Well it's finally been put to use:: And sadly, that fern is the same fern from the vessels post. It was thriving in my Boston bathroom, but, like me, it became a bit stressed after moving to four different houses/apts/cabins in as many months. It definitely hasn't received the humidity it needs, but I'm hoping we've fixed that problem with the terrarium set-up.

And do you see that moss? I know I could go outside and pick up some moss, but I thought it would be fun to order the terrarium variety pack from Moss Acres. Because really, who doesn't love to open a box o' moss?! You get a lot of moss in that little box, and next week I'll show you what else I did with it.

Garden Gnome!!!!:: How cute is that little guy? I love garden gnomes, and I sort of want one for the yard. What do you think? Is it too silly? or the right kind of fun?

Rather than walk through each step, I thought it'd be fun to put together a little terrarium diagram:: Got it? Now go out and make yourself a fun little garden. It'll stave off the end-of-winter craziness, particularly for those of us that woke up to an inch of fresh snow this morning. That was one inch too many.

Yes, we still play with yarn

2011-03-31T01:32:00.010-04:00

It may not seem like it based upon all of the distractions at Chez Winterfoliage, but I do squeak in some knitting {and crocheting} here and there.

Currently occupying my needles::That's Aidez, a sweater that will be the perfect winter to spring transition piece. I'm making it with some unnamed wool that I picked up at Rhinebeck three years ago! As you can see, I'm also knitting it seamless, because it's the way I roll.

I'm not good at knitting colorful sweaters for myself, but the day I bought this yarn I was feeling adventurous. I brought the yarn home, took a picture, blogged about it, and then immediately put it away because I wasn't so sure about the color. I decided that my feelings about the yarn weren't getting any better with it just sitting there, and since my bright green Owl sweater was such a success, it was time to knit up this yarn and *hope* that it grows on me.

I think it's working. If nothing else, the sweater's definitely growing. I have to admit that I love all of the oatmeal Aidezes that I've seen, but I'm trying my hardest to love this purple guy. And really, it is great yarn, check out the specks of red and blue in this closeup::

What else is going on? Some secret wedding knitting::

And, of course, I'm still working on the hexagon afghan. Here's a picture on our queen-sized bed for scale::I think I'm going to increase it by another 50% for a nice, cozy afghan.

ps ~ I've listened to yesterday's song on repeat all evening. It's good.

Wednesday Soundtrack

2011-03-30T11:11:00.002-04:00

Artists :: Billy Bragg and Wilco
Song :: California Stars

Just for fun...

2011-03-28T00:16:00.003-04:00

The bridesmaids dresses and shoes have arrived! My sisters gave us a little fashion show with the full she-bang. We decided to go with the dress I showed you in this post. I swooned about them then ~ the color, the fabric... and the pockets. I'm still uber jealous that the bridesmaids have pockets!

This was the perfect excuse for all of the girls to buy TOMS. We've each drooled over them from afar, but never took the plunge until now. Why TOMS? Everyone liked their casual look, but we really love their charity work. The girls claim that the wedges are really comfortable, and I think they're better than heels for an outdoor wedding on grass!

And what are the post-wedding plans for these two? They're putting together their audition tape for The Price is Right.

2011-03-25T01:20:00.005-04:00

This week, much to my delight, the garden was bursting with early bloomers! I can't say it enough, manning this yard is going to be such a fun learning experience for me. Everyday I'm discovering new facts while observing the plants, reading my pile of gardening books, and researching online.

Here's the same patch of crocuses I showed you in this post:: Did you know that crocuses open their flowers every morning and close them every night?!

The bees love them, can you spot the little guy in this photo, he almost blends in with the background::

We have a few patches of dwarf irises:: There are more varieties than I expected, and I'm still not 100% sure what we have here.

Under the pine trees there are snowdrops::

and Eranthis, or winter aconite:: It was such a fun treat to find these under the trees where I really didn't expect anything to come up! Apparently the Eranthis will self-seed and are most successful if planted in a space that will be left alone so that the new seedlings aren't disturbed. Hands down my favorite fact of the week ~ the Eranthis use thermogenesis to give off a small amount of heat. Warming the ground around them allows them to be one of the earliest blooms in your spring garden!

As the gardening bug has taken hold, I've started to explore the world of gardening blogs. A couple of my favorites are A Way to Garden and You Grow Girl. Of course, I'll add these to the sidebar along with any others I find.

Superplasticity.

2011-03-24T11:20:00.005-04:00

A few years ago, my mom and I saw a pair of card catalogs on ebay and we couldn't walk away. In fact, if they were to be ours, we had to drive to them since shipping was out of the question.

Both card catalogs went home with my mom, because my shared Boston apartments did not leave much room for one of these big boys. My mom's card catalog was put to work immediately, the drawers were filled with everything from silverware and scissors to markers and masking tape. My card catalog was stored in the barn, until "the great barn clean-out of 2010" that I often refer to. During its time in storage, it got wet, and the finish on top was ruined. Not a big deal at all. In fact, I have such a hard time taking that leap and painting old, wooden furniture, that this was the excuse I needed! I still had a bit of blue paint left over from painting these desk legs. After removing any final bits of varnish and sanding the top of the card catalog, I got to painting. I love the results! I'm thinking that I'll take it a step farther and paint the sides of that top piece, and maybe one day I'll get adventurous enough to paint everything but the drawers. You can see in the photos that the varnish is already chipping off in other areas. Won't it look awesome?

I've yet to fill up the drawers, right now I'm just enjoying the old labels {and thinking about ways to keep these labels, while adding new functional ones}. {WOOL! could there be a better label for a knitter?}

One idea was to keep the old labels where they are and add smaller, new labels to that smaller section on the left, where the drawer numbers are now.

Plus, how great would it be if the items I put in the drawers relate to their old labels? Like silly putty in the superplasticity drawer, because I'm always looking for a place to store my silly putty.

Wednesday Soundtrack

2011-03-23T11:15:00.001-04:00

Artist :: Florence and the Machine
Song :: Dog Days are Over

Grapefruit Marmalade

2011-03-22T10:41:00.003-04:00

Two batches of this marmalade. I followed the recipe as written except for the lemon because there were none in the house. I prefer the marmalade recipes with pectin, just to be sure that all of our hard work jells. And when it does, how much fun is it to look at those little floating flecks of candied rind::

And I can confirm, it's delicious spread on some bread and cheese for breakfast.It's always best to have not quite enough marmalade to fill the last jar, so that there's some for testing!

The remaining jars will be saved for the wedding ~ for our favors of canned goods.

Happy Spring!

2011-03-21T11:02:00.002-04:00

It's here!... and so are the crocuses. Did you know their flowers open up during the day and then close again each night? Those little red rosettes are from one of the many succulents that I'm so excited about!

Macarons!

2011-03-18T11:08:00.001-04:00

This, my friends, is a short and sweet story of perseverance.

I wanted to make macarons, not the coconut variety with two o's (macaroons), but the French ones with one o. I don't know when I first had them, but there was a bakery down the street from one of my apartments in Boston and it was such a fun treat to buy just one while I was walking around town.

Just as I was leaving Boston I saw this book for the first time, and took it as a sign::

It was time to step up to the plate and make a macaron. I asked for the book for Christmas, Santa delivered, and the rest is delicious.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew this was going to be a fickle endeavor. How could it not when meringue, syrups of sugar water, and butter cream are involved?

My tip : Take some good common sense, patience, and, as I mentioned at the beginning, perseverance into the kitchen with you. Why? Well, on this particular day, not one of the timed events in my kitchen matched the book's suggested times.

-After you mix the meringue batter, you pipe it out in to this perfect little circles (following the little pattern you traced on wax paper). Dudes, my circles were anything but perfect. I'm blaming it on my batter, which seemed a touch too runny and would not just SIT STILL. But eh, I figured if it all ran together I'd end up with one big awesome treat.
-The pan o' perfect circles is supposed to sit for 15 minutes (30 on a summer day) until a slight crust forms on top. After 15 minutes? no crust. 30? no crust. At that point I figured I'd go do something fun in the craft room and come back when I was good and ready. Really I think it was only an additional 15 minutes, but it worked! There was a crust, so on to the next step.
-Bake for 15-18 minutes in a 375F oven. Oh boy, after 10 minutes, I smelled something burning and ran to the oven. Luckily it was just one of the smaller, misguided dots of batter on the pan, but the pan was definitely done and any more time was going to be too much. So, from then on I set the first timer to go off at 8 minutes and check on the pan every minute or so until they were done. {I think I need an oven thermometer}

-Check out the pictures! There are no perfect little circles, but they look, felt and tasted like the real thing. They even have the little pied, or foot, that they are supposed to get. And according to the book "without it, the pastry cannot be called a macaron." We la-di-da. I think we're making macarons after all!

-Now for the stinking butter cream. The recipe calls for heating up 3T of sugar and 3T of water in the microwave for 1 minute, stirring, and then heat again for another 4 minutes. Of course no two microwaves are the same, and of course, my microwave burned the mixture {to a smoking, smelling, brown mess} after a mere 2 minutes. So I went at it again, this time keeping my eyes on the prize after a minute and pulling it out of the microwave after a minute and forty-five seconds. {Ah, the joys of an inherited microwave, I can't figure out for the life of me how to turn the power level down, but I'm guessing that would have helped!}

-The butter cream worked on the second go, and finally, finally, I was left with an easy step : make those cute little sandwiched treats!

{I wanted to take some over to a new neighbor, and found that popping them into a mini bread pan worked perfectly!}

Will I make these again? Yes! They were so stinking delicious. C thought that the butter cream was a little too buttery, but I loved it. So I may experiment with another butter cream recipe. One that does not use the microwave.

Are there any left? Nope, I nibbled on them, and then I took the rest off to my sister's house where they mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night, and we still didn't catch the little elf that ate them!

Would I recommend the book to a friend? Most definitely. While the times were off, I could just blame that on the differences in kitchens. The book is full of clear and careful instruction, step-by-step pictures, and an amazing array of ideas for flavoring both your cookies and the creams.

2011-03-16T21:55:00.004-04:00

Well that was a break and a half! How much are you loving the longer days?

As the weather warms, I'm going to be spending many {MANY} sunny hours outside tending the amazing yard when we inherited with the house. As I've met new neighbors, they've introduced me to other new neighbors, telling them that I moved into the "garden house". If that's not pressure to maintain this house's best feature, I don't know what is!

So of course, I want to document this journey on the blog. It'll be a great way for me to document changes throughout the seasons and from one year to the next. Some posts will be simple picture updates, others will contain research and garden projects {look out for a shrub pruning update next!}. Oh, and how do you like the little Garden Journal header for the post? I had to find a way to let those cute bees from the wedding invites make a regular appearance on the blog.

This first post is an introduction to the different areas of the garden as they appear in late February.

A bed dominated by lavender and lamb's ear around the mailbox::

A variety of succulent ground covers along the driveway::

A weeping cherry with early spring perennials that are followed by a shade garden of hostas and ferns::

The shrubs! I love the size and natural look of these shrubs bordering the front porch {let's hope I can keep them that way}. In front of the shrubs is a small garden of succulents and perennials::

The beds bordering the side of the house. Full of sedum, and asters in the fall, and clematis climbing up the deck::

The back yard. It has a variety of flowers along the house, and a bed with two large birch trees and a Harry Lauders Walking Stick::

It looks a bit drab, huh? How about some pictures from the first day we walked through the house? Looking at these, I can't believe just how green and lush it was.

The front::

The porch::

Side beds::

And the back::

Fortunately, with all of those perennials, my job this first year will be to watch everything grow, clean up last year's dead foliage, and pull the weeds!

Wednesday Sountrack

2011-03-02T13:54:00.002-05:00

It's Goonie love! Even though Martha Plimpton has gone on to do a lot more, I still think of Goonies.

Here she is on Studio 360, singing a fav. Some people don't like the whistler. I'm a fan, what about you?

excuse me.

2011-03-01T00:37:00.004-05:00

These pictures are sub-par, but I think you'll get the jist. This is what's become of the remaining fabric from the stool project.

I mentioned you'd see it again. I've framed two pieces behind glass and am using them as whiteboards. The one above is in my office. Yes, the fabric's already starting to slump ~ apparently the move from home to the office was not that smooth, but the real problem is that I'm just storing the fabric in the frame until I some idea strikes and it gets put to another use! I had at least two yards, maybe more, left over, so I folded and framed the fabric without cutting it to size and just secured it with the frame - no tape, staples, or anything else. It was a rush job and ended with the slumping, but a quick fix will put everything in order.

For being such a simple project, it really brightens up my office, and will hopefully help me to organize that desk...

I made a smaller version for the craft room. I lucked out, in that this piece was cut off while making the stool, and it just happened to fit the frame perfectly!

Another note on using picture frames for whiteboards - you can use any dry-erase marker and it will wipe right off. This works on both glass and plexi-glass! The smaller frame is glass, but the larger is plexi, and there's no difference between the two.

Winter Foliage :: The Ice Edition

2011-02-28T00:51:00.003-05:00

There's been a shocking lack of winter foliage photos this year, and since it's the last day of February, I realized it was now or never.

This series was taken after last week's storm, one that started as rain, but turned to snow. It left behind a beautiful collection of icicles.

And quite possibly my favorite :: it's a frozen drop of ice on the tip of a pine needle!

How to:: end the week, start the weekend

2011-02-25T23:53:00.002-05:00

This is really the perfect drink for spring and summer evenings on the deck, but a girl can dream {and drink}.
A gin and tonic, made with Hendricks and a dash of Rasberry Shrub. I picked up this bottle of shrub at Tait Farm. A farm just up the road from us that I'm so happy to have discovered so soon!

Mirror mirror on the floor.

2011-02-23T22:55:00.005-05:00

It's time to revisit the bedroom. This wall in particular:: The mirror's on the floor because we never got around to putting it in its proper place. It's supposed to be turned 90 degrees and attached to the dresser on its right. After a few days of its sitting on the floor, we realized that we loved it as a full-size mirror. Plus, I like the way the dresser looks without having this big mirror attached!

The only problem? It's a bit too short, cutting us off from the shoulders up. Hanging the mirror was out of the question, because, like its dresser counterpart, this piece weighs a ton and a half.

I wanted some sort of foot or base to place the mirror on, but credit for the final design goes to my pop (he built it too!):: A pair of legs each with a shelf that the mirror will sit on. When it's in place, it resembles an easel.
A mini can of glossy black paint was all it took to make the legs match the mirror.

You'll have to excuse this last picture. It looks a bit wonky because I was in a hurry. But! I have one more idea to address the big blank space over the dresser and finish off the wall (it may or may not have something to do with the curtain rod caught in the photo). Once that's done, you'll get a better look at the mirror on its new legs. Good picture or not, this simple project makes a big impact. The mirror's at the right height, and it looks more like a piece of furniture (rather than just a mirror leaning against the wall), something I didn't think about when starting this project.

*Final note ~ There's one more thing I didn't really think about until placing the mirror on the legs. This project is a great solution for our home of two, somewhat grown-up adults, but if you have kids in the house (the kind that run around, bang into things, and possibly knock things over), this would definitely fit into the unsafe category. The heavy mirror falling off the legs would not be a pretty site. I think it could be easily fixed by securing the top of the mirror and even the legs to the wall.

Wednesday Soundtrack

2011-02-23T15:00:00.001-05:00

Boy, it was hard to pick a song this week, but I think this one is a keeper::

Artist : Harry Manx
Song : Don't Forget To Miss Me

A test.

2011-02-21T22:50:00.001-05:00

One can never have enough
a. yarn ?
b. books ?
c. cloth napkins !

Being the perpetual savers that we are, I inherited a pile of old, used table-cloths, shower curtains, and other used fabrics from my mom. This pile is a variety of woven cotton patterns. They were stained and/or ripped in places, making them unsuitable for their intended use, but still had enough good space for "something else". I've recognized this as a problem. Something always has another use, and if I don't want to end up on Hoarders, I better have a plan to use up the old goodies at the same rate they're generated! So, I've started to whittle away on this pile, turning the un-stained, un-ripped sections into cloth napkins.
They are perfect in all of the right ways : super absorbent, generously sized, and relocated from the "hmmm" to the "ah-ha!" pile.

Because, like yarn and books, you can never have too many cloth napkins!

Take a seat...

2011-02-20T22:08:00.003-05:00

It's going to be a week of crafty posts from around the house!

For this first project, I've incorporated many of my favorite things :: fixing up something old, using materials from around the house, and doing something new!

The old ::
I rediscovered this stool in the "great barn clean out" of 2010. I fondly remembered sitting on it in my pop's shop when I was young, but like many odds and ends it founds its way to the barn and was quickly forgotten. As you can see, when it was un-earthed, the fancy green-sparkly vinyl cushion was a toast.

The materials ::
The only materials I really had to buy for this project were the tacks. Everything else came from around the house : the foam, wool felt (used as the fabric layer between the foam and the yellow fabric), and some fun yellow "dandelion" fabric from IKEA. I had so much fun with this fabric that you'll see it again later in the week.

The "new" ::

Learning to re-upholster! I've never re-upholstered something before, so it was fun to dive in to this basic project.

And now, this stool resides in an un-used corner of the living room. Adding a bit of color and an extra seat when we have a full house!