These are the ornaments we made for Aja’s tree. Aren’t they cute? They were very low-key to make. We gathered sticks from the yard, hot glued them and tied them with twine to make a star. The hearts and icicles are white, no-bake clay that we formed to shape and then painted/glittered. They look so nice on her tree, in her country/English/modern-style.
And these are the pickled green beans all prettied up for gift giving. I made cranberry shortbread to go with it.
We’re in a winter wonderland (or Arctic Blast 2008 as the news is calling it) here in Seattle. I’ve got four inches of snow at my house and the roads are really really icy. I didn’t go into work yesterday and it looks like I’ll be home today unless the sun is warmer than the news predicts. It’s really beautiful. The city has few to no snow plows and we have hills like San Francisco has hills, so the roads are literally shut down. My work is downtown, a little over a mile from my house, but most of the trip (that I usually walk there and bus back) is a 70 degree incline. Any and all buses that service our hill have been suspended. People were out last night on one of the main roads using any and everything to sled down it! While I do like snow days, I don’t like being stuck. But I can’t complain, we have heat and warm food. But we are supposed to go to Portland for Ryan’s birthday on Sunday, so hopefully things will be tamer by then.
December 19th, 2008
We went with Aja and Ben in Connecticut to a tree farm to pick out their Christmas tree. Aja decided she wanted a big tree. Ben found an adorable tree farm just down the road from their house, complete with barn, 200-year-old stone fences, and an acre of trees. We found nearly the largest one, farthest away from the car. It measured almost 10 feet and probably 12 feet around.
The boys were very manly, chopping it down, carrying it to the car, and securing it.
It was such a lovely day outside, a little brisk but not frigid. The sun was shining, and we had good company.
Aja and I spent hours handcrafting some ornaments for it. We strung 40 feet of cranberries, dried 6 oranges and made ornaments out of them, knotted twigs together to make star shapes, and twisted clay to make icicles that we dusted with white glitter. It’s a very pretty tree!
December 15th, 2008
We went to Connecticut for Thanksgiving to celebrate with dear friends, who hosted us graciously. We had a lovely Thanksgiving meal that was purely vegetarian–quite the treat for two vegetarians amongst large families of meat eaters. Both of us each had a must Thanksgiving recipe, both of which were “salads” as they like to call them in the Midwest. A pretzel salad (a crust of butter and crushed pretzels, a layer of cool whip and cream cheese, topped with strawberry jello and chunks of strawberries) and what we call Acini de Petri. The table was decorated, the food was delicious, and the company was divine.
I’ve got more images to post from our trip, but I’ll save those for later.
Thanks for all the kind words on my last post. It was a really hard week, especially to follow such a lighthearted trip to the East Coast. But, I’m happy to be here. And very thankful for all that I have.
December 11th, 2008
I don’t think I’ve ever been away from the blog this long! I wanted to write a note to say that I’ve had a death in my family and am not gone, just otherwise engaged. I am aiming to be back to posting this week. I hope this finds you and yours well.
xo,
Dacia
December 8th, 2008
These are the dresses from our Project Runway challenge. We each were tasked with choosing a fabric we hadn’t worked with before and making a dress without a pattern. There were five contestants and all the dresses were so cute. Mine isn’t pictured, but I’ll post a picture soon. Sarah worked with silk and I thought had the most well made and well tailored dress. It’s the burgundy one with the pretty trim. Kate’s won the cutest prize, and who wouldn’t have guessed with that baby in a matching dress! And Emily’s was the most fashion forward with the vintage-inspired top and Pucci-esque bottom. I don’t know what mine was, ladies?
The oohing and aahing was followed by dinner at my house. We had a salad, white beans with pecorino and sage, and manicotti. The girls were so kind as to bring dessert. We also had apple crisps with ice cream!
We’re going to continue with our own, personal project runway. The next project is lingerie, inspired by Angry Chicken who made the most gorgeous slips and what she calls “tap pants.” We mentioned our plan when the boys came to pick up their wives and they were all giddy with thoughts of lace and ties and frills and were very disappointed to find out that lingerie can mean PJs, slips, and boring things, too! At least one in the group has plans to make maternity flannel pajamas.
November 20th, 2008
It was my sister-in-law’s birthday last weekend so I made a big dinner and had my in-laws over. I wanted to use the pumpkin–the biggun’–that we bought at the farm and debated over stew versus risotto. The stew was sounding a little bland to me, so I made saffron risotto and stuffed the pumpkin with it. The only thing I didn’t take into account is how long it would take to make enough risotto to feed twelve–about an hour and a half! I cleaned the pumpkin and baked it for about 30 minutes before stuffing it with the risotto, after the risotto was in I cooked it for another 30 minutes at 300, based on this recipe. It was delicious! And very orange! Continuing with that theme, I made roasted carrots with thyme, a delicious salad with orange vinaigrette, and butterscotch cake from the Nigella Lawson book. I think my favorite part was the salad. It was made with mixed greens, walnuts, shaved pecorino, shredded red cabbage, and pears sauteed in butter and brown sugar. The dressing is as follows:
Orange Vinaigrette
1 small shallot, minced
2 tbsp. squeezed orange juice
1 tbsp. orange zest
4 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
The cake wasn’t as good as I imagined it would be. I wouldn’t make it again–it wasn’t very sweet, was too dense, and tasted a bit more like a biscuit with unsweetened caramel cream cheese frosting. I did have fun making my own caramel, a first for me. It was pretty easy and very delicious on its own!
November 11th, 2008
Ryan and I spent a few hours at the pumpkin patch on a lovely autumn Saturday two weeks ago. There were kids, a corn maze, and kettle corn popping. The weather was sunny and brisk–a perfect day for a stroll through the farm. We decided on the South 47 farm in Redmond.
I had originally wanted to get all dark green pumpkins to mimic a spread I saw in Martha that was beautiful and dark. I had white pumpkins last year, so it seemed like a good change of pace.
But, they didn’t have any quite dark enough and I really liked the “Cinderella” pumpkins, partly because of the name and mostly because of the gorgeous orange color and the creamy white stripes. So we loaded our wheel barrel with these.
The had this gorgeous wooden box full of gourds. They had stools pulled up next to it so kids could climb up and pick out the ones they liked. I always chose the half and half ones. Doesn’t it seem odd that something could be split so perfectly like that?
And then there was this spread of edible squash–you can see the mini Cinderella pumpkins in the middle there. I just love all of the coloring on squash. It’s so pretty!
We headed home with about 20 pounds of edible pumpkin and a large bag of kettle corn–that was completely emptied by the time we got home.
November 4th, 2008
I had a plan to make a kitty basket from fabric. My great grandma used to use her leftover fabrics to make braided rugs. I always loved how they looked and thought it might be nice to try the technique in basket format. I braided about 8 yards of rope, but when I started to coil it realized that a) I would still need another 16 yards, and b) that the braid was not nearly tight enough and the fabric not nearly sturdy enough/thick enough. I have no idea how this is done and now wish I’d done a little research before diving in, but that’s the nature of trying things out. I’m a little hesitant to start over with this, because I probably spent two hours mindlessly braiding. But I have no clever ideas of what else to do with the length of rope I made. Any ideas?
I have great plans to go to a pumpkin patch and do some vintage hunting tomorrow. Hopefully the weather holds up and I can get Ryan on board! Hope you all have a lovely weekend.
October 24th, 2008
I always love the color studies that I see around blogland–random colored items in the same family. It’s such a nice juxtaposition of everyday objects. These are a few yellow items that can be seen around my house–that brilliant autumn tree, an empty cream puff box, and my yellow trunk that stores all my quilts.
I have been so in awe of the fall colors this year. I can’t ever remember what makes them so bright, wetness or dryness, but they are just lovely this year. When I was walking home yesterday I so wished I had a super camera to photograph them. My camera would not have done justice the elm leaves and twigs the muted color of old book pages that were scattered so perfectly they looked painstakingly arranged; nor the piles of red maple leaves that had been swept in a wave pattern by the rain, as if molded like kelp on a sandy beach.
Ryan and I made a regular stop of Joe’s pizza in New York, which was handily right next to a Beard Papa–a store that makes cream puffs to order that are so yummy I really need to have one right now. Seattle has not had a Beard Papa, until now. It’s in Uwajimaya, in case you want to stop in. They only take cash, so you know. Hooray for Beard Papa! Don’t you just love that line drawing of the bearded papa?
And lastly, the trunk. I used to use this as a coffee table. I found it at an antique store in Tacoma and just loved it. Someone must have painted it, and the leather handles are long gone, but I still love it. My step-father was so kind as to line the inside with cedar planks, so it really is perfect for housing linens. I keep all my quilts and family heirloom needle crafts in here. It lives in my living room; often I pull them out for a show and tell, or a cuddle on the couch with the aforementioned tea and movie.
October 21st, 2008
I had no intention of taking a blogging break, but time got away from me. I have a much more difficult time with getting things done in the evening when the weather changes. I find all I want to do is curl up with a blanket, tea and a movie/book/TV show. Which leads to very productive crafting and blogging as you can tell. If this were a blog about my TV watching, it would have many more frequent updates. But that would be lame, lame, lame! (What does this say about me?)
Alas, I did spend a lovely Saturday afternoon last week at a dear friend’s new house sewing and crafting. It’s got a wood stove and is surrounded by apple trees, and she prepared a delicious brunch for us girls. I worked more on my dress, which now fits me everywhere. I just have to do all of the finishings–hemming and trimming and whatnot–now. I also spent a few good hours with my idea book. I tear out everything I see in magazines that I want to remember for some future project and organize them and keep them in this binder, which I do use several times a year. I have little folders for each holiday that holds all of the ideas for decorating, eating, and general merriment. It has come in handy on many occasion. I keep a stack of ripped pages and try to organize it twice a year, which works pretty well. This used to have “Idea Book” spelled out in beads on the cover, but got ripped to shreds and now says, “I Book.” Still fitting.
October 17th, 2008
Vegetarian Sushi Cake by Whipped Bakeshop
Felt Cake by Shirley’s Workshop
Birthday Cake by Julie Des Meules
Knitting Basket Cake by Cake Journal
Today is the third anniversary of this blog. It does and doesn’t seem so long ago that I started this–a catalog of my adventures–that I get to share with all of you lovelies. I posted about my reasons for starting this here, in case you haven’t read. It’s a story! But from those beginnings, my blogging has morphed and formed. Since I’ve started working I haven’t been able to keep this up the way I would hope, but I am so thankful to have a place to share my projects, thoughts, dreams, life. Thank you for reading. Thank you for inspiring me. And most of all, thank you for all of the kind thoughts and for sharing this journey with me.
October 5th, 2008
There’s nothing like starting new quilts before you finish old ones. The face of this quilt that I started in January is completely pieced; I’m just dreading the stretching and pinning the backing and batting process. I don’t have an efficient tool to do this. My great grandmother had a wooden frame in her basement to do this and quilt with as well. I certainly don’t have space for something like that. But, I think I will try the spray glue method that was recommended at some point, maybe over Christmas break.
I just couldn’t pass up the fabric that’s second from the top. I can’t remember who makes it, but it’s a canvas and I just love the print. I still want to find a pea green fabric with some print, and I’ll need a solid or two in there as well. It’s just going to be a lap quilt I’m making as a gift.
For my next quilt (I know, what? Two in progress and already thoughts for a new one?) I really want to do an appliqué. I’ve also always wanted to do a postage square quilt, but that seems a little torturous. I have tons of scraps that would be perfect for it, though. And quilts like that are always such a hallmark of a time period–to see each and every scrap of fabric used over a span of years.
I did not get my pots planted; I didn’t even make it to the store. Instead, we spent Saturday picking blackberries and watching the salmon run at Cedar River, and then dinner with friends. That was followed by a whopper of a migraine that pretty much debilitated me for the rest of the weekend. And on that note!
October 1st, 2008
I whipped up this tablecloth for a folding table at my church. I’m in charge of organizing the coffee and treats each week, which I frankly haven’t been doing that stellar of a job. The church was using a 50-cup, tinny, percolator that made really weak, tinny coffee that was served out of styrofoam cups. Appetizing, right? I purchased a commercial Bunn brewer and upgraded to a local coffee, Cafe Umbria. I used to work at Torrefazione, which was started by the Bizzari brothers. Torrefazione has since been purchased and nearly eliminated by Starbucks. But the brothers each started new shops, Cafe Senso Unico and Cafe Umbria here in Seattle and they both have great coffee. We now also have eco cups, which biodegrade. Back to the tablecloth… I found the oilcoth at Stitches for a decent price and trimmed it with some leftover fabric I made into binding. I didn’t measure the table before I decided to make this, so I was a little worried my sizing would be off but it turned out just fine. And it looks so much nicer than a chipped, metal folding table. I was considering making a canvas tablecloth, because I found canvas fabric I just loved, but was soon very glad I didn’t go in that direction. After the first use of the tablecloth, about two cups of coffee were spilled on it and brownies and bread were mashed into it, and it all wiped off with a sponge.
This week went so much faster than last week, perhaps because I had a day off on Monday. It’s supposed to be nice this weekend, so we have plans to head to a local farm for some fresh produce,, and I’m going to re-pot my planters with fall cabbage and mums; the summer herbs are all looking very sad. And, hopefully, get some rest!
September 27th, 2008
Over a glass of wine, a girlfriend and I were talking about Project Runway and our desire to make more clothes. We got it in our heads that we should challenge ourselves, and one of our other dear friends that sews, to make a seasonal dress without a pattern. I’ve never made a dress before, but I have free-formed a few items of clothing. This gorgeous Anna Sui linen has been hanging around in my stash for over a year. It was staring me down and condemning me for having so much unused fabric–another reason we were inspired to create this “challenge.” The plan is to reveal our creations next month at a shared dinner party with our husbands.
The dress I’m making is loosely based on an Anthropologie shirt and a vintage dress I have in my closet. The top has a swoop neck with a high waste and some serious pleats in the skirt. I’m going to embellish the top with some large rhinestones and I’m considering trimming the sleeves with the pleated ribbon I made. It might be too much pleating, though. We’ll see. I’m starting to question the pleats altogether, since the fabric has such a strong pattern on it and in bright colors to boot. I’ve got both of the top pieces made and the front skirt. All that’s left is the back skirt, zipper, and lining. I spent about four hours on it thus far, and probably have about that much left with all of the finishing touches.
It’s a shame the summer’s already gone and I won’t be able to wear it (aside from our party) until next year, but at least the linen’s not shaming me at every turn!
September 23rd, 2008
When my grandma was in town, I took a day off to spend time with her and my mom. I figured we’d do something fun so when my mom suggested the SeaTac Dahlia Garden I was a little perplexed. Not because a dahlia garden sounds like an un-fun adventure, but because the town of SeaTac is mostly known for the humongous international airport that resides there, about a 20 minute drive South of Seattle. The town is not cute and some would even call it run down. It’s full of strip malls, loud planes, and old, pre-war houses.
Off of a very busy road, we spotted a blue house with a few rows of dahlias lined up in corn rows, with a smattering of water-rotted tables filled with buckets of cut dahlias and a sign that read, “Pick your own: $4 dozen or $0.35 per stem. The house was gated and looked like no one was home, leaving us very unsure of the plan. Planters of dahlias shone their pretty heads behind the house, so we approached the gate and found a very small sign that invited any guest to enter in.
Behind the gate and the house were rows and rows–probably an acre or two–of dahlias in all colors and varieties. After some wandering past a bed with about 20 varieties all with blood-red stems and foliage, we spotted an older man, in his 80s for certain, with a baseball cap and Osh Kosh jean corduroys crouched in the dirt, busy away. He explained the order of the garden: the patch goes from small to large varieties (with heads the size of a newborn) the farther south you walk. They’re organized by color, then shape from there and each is neatly tagged with their name, “Tropical Sunrise, Peppermint Patty, Gertie’s Red” in a calligraphic script. Another man, of same age and stature, appeared out of the field and we learned that the two gentlemen run the place. They dig up the bulbs each October, harvest them, sell them in the spring, and replant–each year. I’ve planted a few bulbs before, but I can’t imagine digging, dividing, and replanting the sheer quantity of dahlias they do. And at 80! Can you imagine?
We chatted for a little while, finished perusing the dahlias, placed a few orders for the spring, and gathered a lovely bouquet from the cut flowers in the front. It’s definitely worth a visit, if you’re nearby.
September 15th, 2008
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