Saturday, August 30, 2008

Early and Late


When I was little, I think I would have loved sporting one of these shirts. Maybe nobody would get it if I wore a "31" shirt this year...

Anyhow, Makaio (my nephew) got a "3" shirt just in time for his birthday (phew!). Poor Maile's birthday was in June and she's just now getting her "1" (bad auntie!). To make sure this doesn't happen, Malia's getting her "7" shirt almost a month in advance (redemption).

All three were made with the same green polka-dot fabric (in this case, matchy-matchy is acceptable). I honestly think this might be the end of this fabric...no, I'm serious this time...

Back in Business

About 100 years ago, I bought this frame for $1 at a garage sale. I instantly turned it into a framed chalkboard, and used it... But in the last 3 or 4 years, it's mostly been sitting downstairs gathering dust.

Today, she's back in business with a new look and purpose - as a pin-board! I went down to Peapod and got me some of that new Anna Maria Horner fabric. Against my first instinct, I bought this fabric, because it matched my duvet and my rug...


But once I hung it, I just couldn't get this fabric out of my head... too matchy-matchy and maybe a bit modern for me. So the girl with the bee in her bonnet marched right back down to the store and bought this instead:


Much better, and much more "me."

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Molto Focaccia!


I think I just said "very focaccia."

Well, it was very...easy, delicious, and almost gone now. And this time, I purchased the rosemary (but the fresh stolen rosemary was much more scrumptious, I have to say).

Family Napkins

My sister commissioned (I'm going to use this word as much as possible) me to make her family some reusable cloth napkins, 'cause we're green and stuff. I thought about just buying her some napkins, but that's no fun - and I think she wanted them personalized anyhow (who wants to risk mixing up your napkin with the 3 year-old's?).

I came up with a compromise:
Purchased napkins with home-sewn detailing (and stash-busting!)


(*sneeze* that's stayed-home-sick-from-work me in the spoon reflection - hi! *cough*)

I bought the napkins at Crate & Barrel Outlet for $.97, and the fabric...well, you've seen this before (lots of times). I think they will go nicely with her Tuscan-style home.

Voila!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Even More Babies

See? I'm still not over these.

The first one is a "commission" piece (how professional do I feel saying that??). And I think this might be my favorite set so far. The road trip fabric is way cool.



This one is for one of our little guys at work. He looks like a little old man (even so say his parents), so I feel it fitting to give him a necktie onesie. I think the necktie onesie may become a permanent part of my repertoire.


It's too cute - I have to look away now...

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Mas Bebes

Two of my friends from work are having babies. One, a boy, and the other...well, we're waiting to find out the "flavor."

I know these are way over-done (by me), but I am still so in love with them. I'll switch it up soon, just let me get over these first.





(awesome quality photos, right?)

One Man's Trash...

I can't believe I haven't shown you my "new" lamp!!


Let me start by telling you that I found this little gem in someone's curbside discards. Yes, I dumpster dove for this baby - not proud of it. But it was right on my way home, and I was only going to look, and...but...and... I love it! Of course, I had to remove the Christmas bow, duct tape, and playboy sticker to unveil it's awesomeness (p.s. spell check is calling this a real word).

Can you even stand it??

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Bath Bomb Robbery

While in Seattle, we stopped into this cutest little bath shop, Bliss Soaps. I loved their bath bombs, and I loved how you could buy petit bombs. They also had doughnut and cake and cupcake shaped bombs. I had to exhibit serious restraint (remember the size of the suitcase I took?) - especially since I don't even have a bathtub!

It happened to be buy-one-get-one-free bath bomb day, so I stocked up on 10 of them. And then the owner said I couldn't have a lopsided crate, so he threw in 2 more. In the end, I got 12 bath bombs for less than $10. I felt like I robbed the guy, but he assured me I did not.

If you're in Seattle, go to Bliss Soaps in Capitol Hill. You will not be sorry.

House of Bread

I tried the Olive Oil dough from the Bread Book and made some focaccia:

Before:



After:


Neighbor, if you are reading this, yes, that is the rosemary I stole from your garden. Thank you very much, it was delicious and well-appreciated (if that's any consolation).

Productive Half-Day

What did I do while not attending the party? There was a little stash-blasting going on.

First, I made a "much needed" tote bag (can you imagine?) for myself, for once. I bought this fabric 100 years ago for next to nothing - I think it's the same fabric that Lucky Jeans makes their pockets out of. I had no intentions of making one of these today... it just happened.


"S" for Auntie Fafa


I also made some door snakes (which I had planned on making, I just found the clover fabric first). D thought they should have googly eyes and a tongue... and so I changed the name to draft-dodger. This house used to have carpet, so all the doors had to be cut to fit. Now with the carpets removed, we have big-ol' spaces under the doors.


I used the Lotta Jansdotter Simple Sewing pattern, but let me make a couple recommendations... If you have the same used-to-be-carpet-under-the-door problem, you need to make the snakes "taller" than the 4 inches recommended in the pattern. I made mine 5 inches (x 36 inches), and they still are too short (as in, they fit inside the crack, but still allow a little bit of draft along the top). Also, you don't need a 5 lb bag of beans for one snake. I used 4.25 lbs of beans in 3 snakes! Maybe rice is different...

And then, well, I had all these left over beans, so there's a nice little pot of chorizo pinto beans a-simmerin'. Dinner...

Happy Birthday Karen

Sidebar: Some of you are worrying about me because my blogging has been sparse. I promise, I'm OK...just a little unproductive these days and nothing much to show, but getting back in the groove. Sorry to worry you - I have some things in store for you this week.

So this past week was my good friend Karen's birthday. She also just bought a house with her husband (YAY!!). They had a housewarming/birthday party today, but I am home blogging instead of attending the festivities because I thought it was yesterday. D & I enthusiastically showed up with my little tiny gift on the wrong day. Uh, woops! They are such gracious hostesses, and so we got to have a nice chat and personal tour of the new digs - lucky us!

So, back to the little tiny gift... instructions on the invite said, "Absolutely no gifts whatsoever." So, I brought a "present" instead. Besides, I had bought this cutest little fabric FOR her when I was in Bainbridge Island. I simply couldn't NOT give it to her.



Karen can wear this while riding her little black moped....or not. I hope you had a lovely birthday and a fabulous party. Thanks for having us, and congratulations again. We are in love with your new place.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Yummy Plummy Jam

I love helping people offload their excess fruit. Plum jam from my favorite Amy Butler Jam cookbook.

I wish I could help more people...

Monday, August 11, 2008

For Karen and Mary

Mary (and Molly, Phoebe, Jack, Emily, & Hannah), this is for you. I saw this in the Olympic Sculpture Garden and had to take the photo. See, Mary is my "other mother" and is/was my mentor when I thought I wanted to teach Montessori. While I decided to go into nursing instead, I still adore her and basically want to be her. WWMD?


Karen (and Monica), this is for you. Karen, I had a Mocha Generra (hello! delicious!) in your honor and thought about the good ol' days with Dr. Barnes.

Monica, I miss it too...

No matter where you are in the world/country, you just can't get away from your friends...and how sweet that is.

A Bon Voyage Was Had

Guess where we went?


No, this does not explain my 1 month lapse in blogging, but let it mark my return...hopefully. D and I just got back from Seattle for a little impromptu vacation. We had a lovely time with perfect (borderline too hot, if you can believe that!) weather. I think might have liked it a little.

We mostly just walked around and visited obligatory tourist destinations. Oh, and I happened upon a (kick ass) quilt show - totally unplanned, I swear! We LOVE the space needle and took about 5,000,000,000 photos of it (I only posted 3...you're welcome). My favorite was our little morning trip to Bainbridge Island. You could make me live there, and I would be OK with it.

From the sculpture garden:


By night:


Sidenote - we agreed to carry on our luggage. It should be noted one of us was a lighter packer than the other. Can you guess which suitcase is whose?