It Was Ten Years Ago Today.....

Before I launch into what I have been up to since I last popped on here, I'd like to reminisce a bit on having a blog for 10 years. 10 years! I can hardly believe it has been that long, and yet when I scroll through my archives, I see a lot of life lived in those ten years. I miss people actively participating on personal blogs like they use to when I started back in 2008. I think the blog that started it all for me was Alicia's blog, "Posie Gets Cozy." Her blog sparked my desire to start my own and document my ordinary life, and also to share some recipes and sewing projects. Having this blog has come in handy many times when I want to remember what I did for a holiday or a flower arrangement I wanted to do again etc. I have also made many good virtual friends as well!  Do you also remember when blogs were super popular and we had giveaways? I loved participating in that. I won some pretty good stuff and  I also gave away some great prizes. I also loved "corners of my home" posts, because who doesn't like to snoop in homes and see how others live? Instagram really put a big hole in people writing personal blogs. I do love Instagram though, but I like writing my thoughts in this format a bit better. I would have liked to do a giveaway of sorts for my 10 year anniversary, like I did in the past when I hit a milestone with this blog, but I feel that people are shy to leave comments and participate  on here, so it would be a bit odd to do one. I just want you to know that even though I struggle to get on here and write posts, I will continue doing my best even though it seems like I have disappeared for an eternity.

Ok, enough on that topic. Since I last posted, I had friends over for dinner, which I haven't done in a while so that was fun. I made Osso Buco, and an epiphany cake. This cake didn't turn out as good as last year. Not sure what happened with the pastry, but the flavor was tasty at least.  The main reason for my absence is mostly because I have been working on Caitlin's baby shower. I can't post very many pictures of what I have been working on, except the little flower letters that are pictured. That little project was super fun to make, and I'm impressed with how far silk flowers have come! I usually shun them, but for a cute little project like this, they can't be beat. This will be part of the decor for the shower and later for little miss Ruby's bedroom. I can't wait to show you all the details of the shower when I can. As you might have already guessed, I'm also sewing up a storm for baby girl too. I'm trying not to get too carried away, because I want to see what her coloring is and how big she is so that I can better gauge what to make, but of course I have to make something tiny for now :)

This past weekend we went to St. Helena for brunch with Caitlin and Cyrous, to a place called  Archetype. It was pretty good, and I loved the decor of the restaurant. You can click on the name and it will take you to their site.  I really love the drive to St. Helena, because you get to see all the beautiful vineyards and everything is in bloom right now. Fields and fields of mustard flowers and cherry blossoms. I was hoping that the horrific fires we had this past fall didn't damage too much. I was pleased to see mother nature has began to carpet the landscape with green grass and wild flowers. You still could see the scorched trees, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would look. On our way back home, we stopped in Napa to visit the "Ox Bow Public Market." I had no idea this wonderful place existed! Now I know where I'll be going for lunch next time I'm roaming in that neck of the woods. The photos above show a little bit of the market place. There are quite a few restaurants that will have to be tried. We were short on time when we walked through, so I can't wait to go back and take some more time looking around.

The patterns pictured are a couple I purchased last week, and I can't wait to sew a little something for myself once I finish my Ruby projects. The pattern on the right, I'll be making the blouse version instead of the dress. For the "Tea House" dress I'm trying to find some nice rayon or really soft linen. I'm not sure yet. I bought some cotton lawn ages ago, and I might practice with that fabric before I commit to something on the more pricey side. The fabric store I go to in Berkeley, sews up samples of these indie patterns and it's so fun to see how they turn out. I really loved the Tea House dress, so I'm looking forward to making it. The liberty fabric came the other day in the mail. They had a sale of sorts on Fabric.com, so I decided to grab some of the ones I have been wanting. Also, there was a print called "Lillian's Berries" that I use to have, and made a little top out of it ages ago. I loved that print, but sold the shirt and thought I could get more. Nope, it was no where to be found in all my searches. So, I decided to ask around on Instagram to some fabric IG people to see if someone had some in their stash that they might want to sell. Bingo! Some sweet person in England had a yard and sold it to me, and I received it today. I'll be hoarding that for bit, and will be making something for Ruby in the future.
Well, I'm off to watch a bit of the Olympics.

10 years people......10 years. Lets hope I'll still be on here for a bit longer!
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Summer's End

Oh wow, I didn't realize I let my blog collect dust since August 3rd! I'll do a quick round up of what I've been up to. The first couple of pictures are at the Alameda Flea Market. We took our niece Natalia with us, along with Caitlin and Cyrous, to wander through 800 plus vendors of all sorts of goodies. I love going to this flea market, yet I always arrive around 1 and it shuts down at 3, so I never give myself enough time to really look at more than a dozen or so. It was still a fun day, and we ended up at the St. George gin distillery that was near by. We love their product and had lots of fun trying some of their other spirits.

Not long ago I came across a funny post on Instagram that read: August is the Sunday of summer. I thought that was pretty funny, and envisioned sad summer lovers kicking and screaming because the season is almost over. Meanwhile I'm already looking everywhere for signs of fall with joy in my heart haha. Caitlin and I took a little walk around Berkeley not long ago and I snapped a few pics of the beautiful leave that you see above. I know that technically Fall isn't official until late September, but soon as I turn the calendar to September....Summer is OVER hahaha.

We are finally finished with all the peaches on the trees!! Sheesh there were so many this year, that I just ran out of things to do with them and started giving them away for others to enjoy. They were so beautiful this year. I never ended up making a pie with them like I had planned. I think mainly because I made a lot of rustic tarts, and was just burnt out. I also don't like having too many desserts hanging out in the house.  The tomato tart that is pictured was so good! It was such a simple recipe from one of my French cookbooks, that I really wondered if it was going to be any good since it was so simple in the ingredients. I could easily make another one of those. They only taste good of course with those beautiful heirloom tomatoes, and soon those will be gone in the markets.  I also managed to make my favorite blueberry coffee cake not long ago, after I over bought some blueberries. It's what I do all the time...I go to Berkeley Bowl and have a zillion ideas for meals and treats, then over buy. I seem to forget there are only so many hours in a day, and I can't possibly be making elaborate meals and get other things done, like pieces for my Etsy shop, and my part time Anthropologie job.

Speaking of my shop, I just completed the little outfit above and it was very fun to make. The embroidery part turned out nice I think, and I want to do more pieces like this.
Today I worked on a co-workers baby gift, and tomorrow I'm making another outfit for the other lovely lady that is due a month after. Both are having girls, so naturally I had to make them something. I hope they like what I chose to make them. I see both of them on Friday and will present them with their little gifts.
The picture of my living room is the day of the eclipse. I didn't go outside to try and see it. I just watched how odd the lighting got in the house, and laughed when my little Riki bird got weirded out and thought it was time to go to sleep. He napped for a solid 20 minutes, something he never does in the morning hours.
 No other news from my camp, just chugging along. I'll share photos of the gifts I made for my co-workers in my next post. Right now I have to get in that room and get cutting and sewing the last outfit.  Catch you later!

Dog Days of Summer

When August rolls around I'm always looking for signs of fall. Am I the only one doing this? It's hot out, yet I see the light changing bit by bit.The peach and plum trees yielded a lot of fruit this summer, probably because of all the rain. I've made a few tarts with the plums and have so far made muffins with the peaches. We have been just eating the peaches off the tree outside the kitchen window.  I'm really sad that one of the peach trees became so heavy with fruit that two branches snapped. I'll be going out on Friday to pick a bunch of them off, then we can survey the damage to the tree. The deer are happy about it, and visit nightly to snack on the accessible treats. I've scared a few of them when I shut the windows for the night! When they bolt you can hear the force when they run and jump. In the morning I see the sidewalk covered in peach pits hahah. This year we have many, many avocados! They will not be ready until late fall early winter. They look so cute swinging in the wind like tree jewelry.

A couple of weeks ago I hurt my back making my bed of all things. Really nerdy and annoying, but it had me on the couch for a good five days. I'm usually really careful with my back, but one false move is all it took.  For long time readers you may remember that I had a full hip replacement back in 2010. After a lifetime of hip dysplasia, it messed up my back big time. It took me almost 6 month to recover from the operation and work on my herniated disc. I had a wonderful physical therapist that taught me how to take care of my back. Soon as I hurt myself a week ago, I went back to all the techniques that he taught me. Nine days later I was back to my normal. My normal is still chronic back pain and very fragile back, but at least I can walk and move around somewhat normal. It really scares me somedays thinking about how I'll be when I'm really old!  I'm back to work both at Anthropologie/BHLDN, and also back to making some of the pieces for my little fall line for the shop. I finished the cute little linen romper with the bunny as the final summer piece. I had envisioned this one day and decided to throw it in there before I start on fall/winter. It's ready to buy, just click on the side bar under my Etsy.    I had fun embroidering the little collar on the white cotton batiste baby top. I'm making some little winter bloomers in the fabric that you see paired with it in the photo. I just love this print. Normally I like working with small florals, linen, and Liberty of London, but I couldn't resist this print. It's designed by Rifle Paper Co. They recently printed an Alice in Wonderland book with these illustrations. The flower print, below the Alice print, is also theirs. I haven't decided what I want to make with the floral one, but the Alice one, I will be making bloomers, skirts, and possibly a top.  I always have many ideas, it's the time that trips me up as usual, along with the capes. Ah the capes....around now I start to get people favoriting the cape listing and I can usually get a count of how many I have to make. It's already started, and I'm ready with all my red wool and cotton Little Red Riding Hood prints...bring it on :)
Well, I'm writing this at midnight, and I need to go into BHLDN tomorrow. Catch you all later, and enjoy the rest of the summer, even if you might be like me where you are chasing the fall light!

Easter

Hope everyone had a happy Easter if you celebrate it. Ours was very nice, and seemed to go at a really nice pace this year. Often times I feel like I'm rushing around trying to get things cooked in a timely manner, but this year didn't feel like that. Caitlin and Cyrous came over in the morning for a late breakfast and then dashed back home to get ready. It gave me a chance to switch out the table decor for dinner and start prepping. I chose a simple menu this year, as it was just us four as usual.  We have a local grocery store that has an incredible meat counter, and I was very happy to see that they offered a half of a leg of lamb. I love lamb for Easter, but end up with too much meat afterwards and there is only so much you can consume in a few days time. We aren't huge red meat eaters, so it often times goes to waste. I love how the half of the leg was only 4 pounds and this time no waste! I used a menu from one of my old "Gourmet" cook books. I sure do miss "Gourmet" magazine.  Anyway, the lamb recipe I used this year was an Italian recipe. The lamb marinaded in garlic, rosemary, anchovies, and olive oil. To accompany the lamb, I made a salsa verde out of parsley, mint, anchovies, oil and vinegar. If I ever make this again, I think I would add a bit more vinegar to the sauce. I roasted six bunches of the cutest baby carrots and mixed them with fennel. Steamed potatoes, and salad with a simple lemon vinaigrette rounded out the menu.  Dessert.....as you can see I posted a lot of pictures of the process of this tart. I found this recipe on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a try. I loved the crust, which was a very light textured shortbread. I want to use it again for other fruit desserts this summer! I'm a seasoned tart builder, so this was not a difficult recipe like others said on Pinterest, just more time consuming with slicing all the rhubarb on the mandolin and then poaching them in sugar water. The weaving was super fun, since I love to do lattice pies, this was very simple for me. The recipe wanted you to weave the rhubarb on parchment, then flip the whole thing on to the tart. I skipped this and did it directly on the tart instead. I could just see myself trying to flip this carefully woven rhubarb, then it get all mangled in the process!! I think it is far easier to do it the way I did. If I make this again, I would take more time to make all the strips more uniform. The filling was frangipane flavored with rum and vanilla extract.
We bought those cute chocolate rabbits pictured from our favorite chocolate maker in St. Helena called "Woodhouse Chocolates" click here to check this place out!  We ordered two little lady bunnies and two little gentleman bunnies, and Fed Ex guys literally dropped the order on my front door step, shattering them all!  Woodhouse over nighted more to us and luckily those made it intact. They are so good. Of course we still got to keep the broken ones, and we have been munching on those first hahaha.
The top photo with the embroidery bunny is going to be a bib. I decided though that I will not offer this in the shop. The appliqué is a bit too time consuming to produce. I will however embroider the actual bunny onto the bib instead. I love the shape of these little vintage bibs, so I decided I will test out the embroidery only version very soon. I'll be working on some little bonnets and bloomers for babies next. I really want to offer layette type of gifts and I'm still in the process of what I want to include in the set.
Our yard is bursting in blooms and bugs, and bees! The air feels heavy with pollen and floral perfumes. I love it, but the allergy medicine is definitely a must! The peonies are ready to bloom soon, so get ready for flower spam!

Happy spring everyone :)