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!

Ripening Garden and Cake Building

So...what did you do for the long memorial day weekend? Us, nothing. We rarely travel or go anywhere on this holiday or Labor day. We hung out at home and on Saturday I built the cake that I talked about in my last post.
The cake was fun to make, and the tweaking I did to it, didn't really alter the flavor that I remember as a kid. The recipe is from the mid to late 1960's and it's called "Cherry Crown Cake." My mom use to proudly make this for pot lucks and always got many compliments on it, and I loved the flavor combinations. She followed it to the letter, using canned cherry pie filling and walnuts, and sweetened coconut. I decided to use organic non sweetened coconut and pecans, because David is allergic to walnuts. I also made my own cherry pie filling using some of the cherries Cyrous' dad brought us. I was going to macerate the cherries and make more of a compote, but I happen to pick up this magazine called at Costco that had a yummy homemade cherry pie filling recipe. I think if I ever make this again, I would like to try the compote of cherries instead. The filling recipe was good, although I just wasn't sure about the cornstarch aspect of it hahaha. It had a whole vanilla bean pod in it and lemon juice, so it really did taste good. This cake has a lot of coconut! You put 2/3 cup sprinkled in the bottom of each pan, then pour the batter on top, then 1/3 cup more coconut sprinkled on top of each before you put it in the oven.
The  odd thing about this recipe was that while making the batter, they didn't have you cream the butter and sugar first. You were to put all the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl, then mix the butter and milk into the dry. Lastly you add the eggs and almond extract. Interesting method and much different than other cakes I have made.   I have this cake recipe written out in my mom's handwriting and I found it on Pinterest. If you are curious about it, you can visit my Pinterest board "Desserts."

Oh my...... the yard!! Last year there were so many peaches that we couldn't catch up with all of them and even with the deer eating some at night for their dessert, we still had more! This year, not as many sadly, but look at all those plums!!! Also out there are many nectarines, and pluots. There are also a zillion loquats that the squirrels and other wildlife are enjoying, as evidenced by the mess they have made! Instead of peach pie this summer, perhaps I'll be making some plum galettes instead. There are still peaches, don't get me wrong, but not as many...boo :(  Also above pictured are some things David planted in some wine barrels. Soon we will have zucchini, Anaheim peppers, tomatillos, and some plum tomatoes. We also got one tiny little fig growing on the fig tree plant we bought last year from a local farmer. Not sure what we are going to do with this fig plant, as there really isn't a place to plant it in the yard. Might have to gift it to someone hahaha.

If you are frequent reader, you know my busy month is coming up. Why oh why did we decided to get married in June and have our first born in June??? Combined with Father's day, and David's birthday, we are in for a whirlwind soon! I'm trying to make a better effort to blog more. I let things go and I feel like I don't want this space to drift off like others have done with their blogs. Having said this, I'll try my hardest to document festivities in June. We will be celebrating our 33rd  wedding anniversary this year. I decided to find a nice summer dress for our special dinner out this year. Finding dresses are a nightmare for me. I tried some on recently at Anthropologie, and it was a no go. Today, I wandered into Nordstrom's with zero intent to find anything, only to see what they had. There is was!! The cutest summer dress!  I quickly grabbed it and tried it on. Love at first site, and it fit really nice. This rarely happens for me because of my shorter torso, I always have to have dresses altered. I almost lost hope and was going to attempt to sew something up for myself. I was spared that task thank goodness. I don't mind making tops and skirts for myself, but dresses.....NO! (Side note) Before I found the dress, I saw this really cute line of clothing from France called Jolie. Love this line! BUT they had an eyelet top that was a short sleeved peasant blouse that was nothing really special, except that the actual fabric was pretty, but just cotton eyelet. It was the simplest of tops which would take me maybe an hour or less to make, with an elastic neckline. Price tag.....$300.00  What the heck?! I I don't mind paying good money for well made beautiful clothing, but this top should have retailed for no more than $150.00 and that is pushing it. This is why I hate going clothes shopping hahaha.

The holiday weekend threw me off track to get anything done for the shop. I'll be cutting hopefully tomorrow, in hopes to get some more summer items in. Then soon I'll have to start thinking about fall stuff. I'm trying to make a better effort for fall items this year. It's not as fun to sew for I don't think. I end up consumed mostly in red capes come September/October usually, then I have nothing in there for the fall winter months. Need to get better organized for sure!

Ok, catch you all later!