cherry tomato

Scenes from the Fair: Part 1

We got there right after it opened on a gorgeous, warm, cloudless Saturday and found the place nearly empty. It was perfect. I'm not a fan of crowds, so I don't make a habit of frequenting fairs, but we got free admission and couldn't resist the opportunity to take little J on such a sublime day. To top it off, someone handed us free ride tickets as soon as we got onto the fairgrounds. Dealing with the crowds that quickly amassed was worth it just to feel the pure joy little J was experiencing while riding the carousel. It is not an exaggeration to say I was overcome with how happy he was, fighting back tears as I looked into his beaming face.  

Slow Sunday: Baking Respite

This baking simply has to stop. Every weekend for at least the past month I have awakened with the urge to bake something. This Sunday was cinnamon rolls, certainly the most involved baking I have done recently but oh so worth it. However, after this weekend, I'm taking a break from all the baking and focus my energy more on my ongoing projects. 

This Sunday truly was slow. I had nowhere I had to be, and I never even made it out of the house. The morning started with jazz and baking, and later in the afternoon I was even able to take a nap. When I'm able to nap, my naps usually last for a half hour or so, but Sunday I slept for about two hours, and it was the most restful, deep nap I've had in ages. I must have needed it after a stressful week and an exciting trip to the fair on Saturday.

I hope you all had a satisfying weekend as well.

Autumn Delights: The Harvest

One of the best parts of autumn is harvesting the fruits and vegetables you've been nurturing all summer. We've been harvesting a lot this past week, and have some zucchini we need to start turning into breads and muffins. I think we've gotten the last of our ripe tomatoes, so we still have to pick all the green tomatoes left on the vine and make something like the Rick's Picks Green Tomato Condiment. 

We've been spending a lot of time canning the fruits and vegetables we've been harvesting. My husband picked and saved all the strawberries and raspberries we grew this summer just so we could make jam. There is something particularly satisfying about not just preserving the summer's bounty, but also growing what you're preserving. We pick wild blackberries every year and make delicious combinations of blackberry jam with everything from rhubarb to huckleberries, always trying to get creative with the combinations. The only things we were forced to buy this year were cucumbers and beets. We had to buy cucumbers because we just had terrible luck with cucumbers this year, and we had to buy beets because the boys can't get enough of them, and we simply can't grow enough of them. It looks like we'll need to increase our production next year.  

On the topic of harvesting, I hope you were able to catch the super harvest moon last night. It was cloudy in Seattle, but I stayed outside to catch the site between the clouds and was able to see both the moon and Jupiter. Even with the clouds you could see how brightly it illuminated the sky. It charms me to think of the days when the harvest moon would have been more important to our society, and it makes me feel a little more connected to the life cycles that affect us all.

Autumn Delights: Tights!

I absolutely adore tights. No matter what time of year, I almost exclusively wear skirts and dresses and have for as long as I can recall. So when the weather cools, I really look forward to throwing on some tights. Most of my clothes do not have bold patterns, so I like to have tights that are a little more interesting than just sold colors, although I have lots of colors as well. I also like to combine tights with knee high socks in some other pattern when I wear boots (another think I look forward to wearing in the fall). 

Here are some good examples of tights I'm enjoying right now, all of which are pretty classic patterns:

Chevron Tights via Anthropologie

Plaid Tights via Modcloth

Houndstooth Tights via Nordstrom

Confetti Metallic Tights via Madewell

Floral Tights via Sock Dreams

and my all time favorite, Polka Dot Tights via J.Crew

Autumn Delights: Nesting

I’m continuing this week’s list of things I love about autumn.

When the days become shorter and the rain becomes more frequent, I spend a lot more time indoors. I have a hard time staying inside and working on projects during the summer. We have so few sunny, warm days, that I feel like I have to take full advantage of every one of them we have. Once the weather changes, I don’t feel at all guilty about working on things in the house. I get this overpowering nesting urge and start updating/changing things in the house, baking regularly and making things.

I was hit with the nesting bug about three weeks ago, and ever since have been juggling multiple projects at once. I’ve been knitting, making jam, baking and cutting out fabric for quilts.

So, while I’m not necessarily happy that summer is over, I’m able to be more productive in the autumn than I am in the summer. I do have a list, and it is long, but I’m slowly marking off the items. 

 

Autumn Delights: Drinking Tea

Since today is the autumn equinox, I thought I would dedicate the rest of the week listing some of my favorite things about autumn.  The summers in the Northwest never seem to last long enough for me. I dread those first signs of the fleeting summer that signal autumn’s approach. Yet, once I reach the point of acceptance, I fully commit to the transition and willingly embrace autumn’s arrival.

As the temperatures have cooled, I’ve really been enjoying tea.  I’ve only recently developed a true appreciation for tea. I never really learned much about tea and how long it needs to steep and always felt it had a bitter quality. Now that I’ve learned more about how to prepare tea, I realize this is not at all the case. Although there are some teas that are intentionally bitter, for the most part the teas I was preparing were simply over-steeped.

 If you know anything about Seattle, you know it is a coffee town. I too love coffee, but I recently kicked the coffee habit and have found myself drinking a lot more tea. I work a block away from a great tea house called Vital Tea, where they have daily tea tastings.  Between going there and learning about tea from friends, I now know how to avoid making bitter tea, and I’m hooked. Lately I’ve been drinking tea pretty much all day. I find it so hard to drink cold water all day when I’m already struggling to stay warm, and nothing can warm me up quite like drinking tea.

There are thousands of teas out there, but I thought I’d share some of my favorites right now. I’ve just put together a few notes about these teas, but this is in no way comprehensive and  I am far from an expert.

 Green teas:  Sencha

Sencha creates a nice, cloudy, deep green tea. It has a delightful grassy flavor, and is the tea I drink the most.

Oolong teas: Blue People, Milk Oolong

Blue People

Milk Oolong

Oolong comes in what looks like little balls of tea leaves. After steeping once or twice, the leaves start to unfurl and create a beautiful, toasty golden tea. The Blue People also has ginseng, so I like to drink it when I’m in a bit of a mental fog. The Milk Oolong is probably the best tea I’ve ever head. It’s a very light blonde color and has a buttery flavor. It’s…amazing.

Herbal teas: Chrysanthemum, Medicinal

Chrysanthemum

 

Remedy Tea

When I don’t feel like having any caffeine, I usually go for the Chrysanthemum with a little bit of stevia leaves added for sweetness. It’s a really light, floral tea that is also somewhat relaxing.

I also use several medicinal teas for everything from boosting the immune system to clearing out the sinuses during a head cold to helping calm an achy stomach.

There are two things about tea that I never knew before that have helped me develop a greater appreciation for them. Maybe everyone already knew this, and I’m just the last one to know. Just in case that isn’t true, here are the two things:

1. Different types of teas need different temperatures of water for steeping. For example, you don’t want to make green tea with boiling water, but it’s great for herbal teas. Here is a great resource for water temperatures for different teas.
2. When you use quality tea (not from a teabag at the grocery store), you pay more for it, but you can actually steep the leaves numerous times – usually 3-4 times depending on the tea. This actually makes it a pretty good value.

I rarely use any sweetener in my tea, although I do like to add stevia to some herbal teas. Otherwise, I prefer my tea on its own. If you do like sweetener, I recommend giving stevia leaves a try. You can just add them to your other tea leaves, and a little goes a long way. You don’t have to use refined sugar or artificial sweeteners to get a delicious sweet flavor to your tea that isn’t overpowering. The one other sweetener I’ll use is honey, but usually only if I’m sick and want the honey to coat my sore throat.

If you use a good quality tea with the right temperature of water, you’ll never have to drink another bitter cup of tea again, unless, of course, that’s what you want. I’ve actually tried a bitter green tea that is said to aid weightloss. It was very, very bitter.

 

Slow Sunday: Accepting Defeat

Being sick on the weekend is particularly irritating because I always have such grand plans to accomplish those things that are more challenging to do during the work week. I tried to be productive, but I just ended up wearing myself out. So, I had to admit to myself that I what I really needed was rest. I spent most of Sunday just taking it easy, although I did manage to work on a couple of projects, I spent most of the day resting.

 

Started off the day with a cup of green tea

Then headed to the Ballard Farmer’s Market and got caught in a rainstorm

I was really drawn to the root vegetables today. I think they were particularly vibrant because it was so dark and rainy.

I was cold, wet and worn out from the trip to the farmers market, so I went home to just take it easy and do a bit of knitting.

 

 And cut some fabric for a new quilt.

How-To: Chalkboard Wine Boxes

I've been working on re-organizing my studio over the past few weeks, and it didn't take me long to run into a challenge. I have plenty of space, but lacked boxes to separate some of the different categories of items. Things have gotten pretty out of control, and I needed a solution. I started looking around for some nice boxes to stick on my shelves. I was trying to keep away from plastic bins and focused my search on wooden boxes. Unfortunately, all the wooden boxes I could find were much more expensive than what I wanted to spend. I found a set of three boxes for $85 and a single box for $28 at Target, which reminded me of wooden wine boxes I've used in the past.  I stopped by my favorite local wine shop and got some wooden boxes for a mere $3 each. 

They were perfect for my purposes. The larger boxes, which are made for 12 bottles of wine can hold larger items like books and larger pieces of fabric. The smaller sized boxes that accommodate 6 bottles of wine are the perfect width for storing patterns. Once I got the boxes, we just removed the brads/nails that were still left on the top and removed the stickers. Then I primed and painted one side with black chalkboard paint so I could just write the boxes' contents on the outside of the box and change as necessary.

This is a fun, easy project and I ended up with boxes that I like much more than any I found to buy for significantly more money. 

Slow Sunday: Weekend Guests

Both my mother and my sister stayed with me this weekend, and I don't think it could have been any more pleasant. I would like to share with you some of the highlights:

Baking lemon cream scones and eating them with blackberry-huckleberry and strawberry jams Eric and I made last week (more on those later). 

Being really indecisive at the yarn store and finally settling on some beautiful, soft brown yarn for a new hat.

Selecting fabric at Fabric Crush to use on a new quilting project I'm starting this week. 

Knitting+Mad Men marathon+margaritas+homemade guacamole and chips for dinner = exciting Saturday night.

Discovering animals at the zoo with my two year old son and my mother. 

Enjoying a sunny, relaxing afternoon with my mother, sister and son. 

Ending the weekend with my sister and my favorite dinner: popcorn with butter, truffle salt and nutritional yeast. 

With such a fun, yet relaxing weekend, it's hard not to feel ready for the work week ahead. If only every weekend could be like that. 

I hope you had a great weekend too, or at least a relaxing, slow Sunday.

Clearing out the Unfinished

I had to make a promise to myself to complete some unfinished projects before diving into any new ones. So, I am pleased to share with you not one but two completed projects! You have no idea how proud I am. 

The quilt was actually the first one I ever made, and I'm mortified to admit that it was nearly ten years ago that I started it. I had never, ever considered making a quilt before, but I was at an Anthropologie store one afternoon and became overwhelmed with the desire to make my own quilt with what I envisioned being a very French country theme, eventually settling on a simple nine patch design. I had the most fun selecting all the fabrics and held onto the inspiration long enough to complete everything but the binding. Oh, the binding - so, so tedious. I know there are those out there who actually enjoy this final step in the quilting process, but I just consider it a necessary evil to an otherwise enjoyable endeavor. And so, my quilt has gone unfinished for these ten years until now while I continually started new, more exciting projects. I spent my evenings last week diligently stitching, and Sunday night I stayed up until 2 a.m. watching old 120 Minutes while working on it - refusing to quit until it was finally completed. Such an exciting life I lead...

 

Here is a shot of it on the bed and not a very good one at that. Taking pictures of a quilt is not so easy, afterall, but I think you get the idea. I placed it on the bed to get a view of it, but its permanent home will be on the guest bed. 

Next up was the little bear above that I started a couple of years ago. I rediscovered it while working on my studio last week and decided it was a project that also needed completing. To be perfectly honest with you, I can't even remember why I was making him, but he was a little guy I designed and hand stitched and remember really enjoying making. I couldn't tell you why I didn't finish him, but I think it all worked out for the best because I was able to give him to little J, who already loves him dearly - promptly naming him bare bear. 

Now that I've gotten those things cleared away, I'm ready to get started into a couple new quilts - one at a time...I think.