A Lavender Colored Autumn Sky

I crept into the sewing room and found some inspiration in a scrap of soft purple fabric and a Japanese Dress Pattern Book.  There is so much inspiration inside from all the sweet little girls, muted colors and wonderful pictures!  I love the line drawing for directions - if only it were in English!  

I seem to always run into a snare transferring the pattern from paper to fabric.  All the patterns come printed on a large sheet and it's a matter of tracing through Japanese characters and several sizes to find the pieces you need!  However, it's very worth the hassle and the directions are simple enough that, even if I don't cut things out exactly right, I can trim pieces to fit as I go.  (If anyone else has a trick to using these patterns I would love to know!)  

Here's a peak into the sewing room

It's far from perfect and I didn't iron it for the picture!  The pleat in front isn't quite right and I got impatient with the bias tape finish and improvised.  I love it for it's peasant simplicity.

 It would be darling over a white turtle neck.  I have a particular little girl in mind for this but I still have to see if it will fit!  I have no idea what size I wound up making, I just eye-balled it.

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun

To Autumn
-John Keats

Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun,

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round thatch-eaves run-

To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flower for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o'erbrimmed their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abrad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reaped furrow, sound asleep,

Drowsed wit the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;

And sometimes like a gleaner thoud ost keep

Steady the thy laden head across a brook,

Or by a cider-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring?  Aye, where are they?

Think not of them, thou has thy music too-

While barred clouds bloom the softy-dying day,

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue.

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud-bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now, with treble soft,

The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Happy first day of Autumn!

not your everyday apron

I drug myself into the sewing room, a few nights ago to start a project. I've been in something of a sewing slump lately. I ran into this lovely yellow fabric at the store months ago and snatched up a few yards but it came home and sat on the fabric pile for too long. I had picked it up with an apron in mind. We (sisters) tend to fight over one apron in the kitchen - which is ridiculous considering how often we're in the kitchen together and how boring (it's just black) the apron is. I cut the apron in a similar shape to the coveted apron but flared it up a bit.

There's something to me about yellow and grey that's very nostalgic. The colors together are very calming and feminine, in the right shades. I'm slowly finding myself collecting yellow and grey items: a book, a bag, an apron.This yellow and grey is so fitting for cold grey days.
I can't wait to mix up all sorts of baked goods in it this winter.

It's been pretty quiet around here lately but things should be getting messy soon :)

P.S.  All pictures by the resident photographer.

The taste of summer

Let's be clear about one thing first... this is not a food only blog!  

That said, we made ice cream today.  

I cannot express how delighted I am at the end of each weekend when I remember I'm not going back to school this fall!  I've been dissatisfied with my college education of late and am saving my pennies and looking into other (college) options just now.  I felt like celebrating my extended summer.

This is turning into another of those "favorite foods" sessions but here goes.  I love ice cream!  It's the perfect summer dessert and Maddie (my sister) has been asking to make it since her birthday (back in June - oops!).  We had a big family dinner tonight so of course we had for dessert...  Strawberry Ice Cream!

It's a little like magic pouring thickly sweet milk into the churn and then voila!  Absolutely perfect fluffy ice cream.  It's so easy I feel like I haven't done anything.  (I left Maddie pureeing all those strawberries while I ran out for ice, so really she did all the hard work :).

Look at our happy ice cream faces:

Our cones were still drippy soft (the ice cream really needs to sit overnight, but all well!).

I can't get enough of the kiddos running around with ice cream faces!  

I was simultaneously scooping cones and snapping pictures crazily - they're just too cute!

*Sigh* summer, how I love you.

Basil

Life has been crazy.  I've been running around since April and I can't believe it's already August.  I've got lots of big plans for things to blog about, it's just going to be a matter of finding time.  For now creativity fits under the food category and food is whatever is blooming in the garden.  So we have Basil.

Thanks to my mother we have a monster patch of Basil plants blooming.    

Basil is the best.  And here we must digress to all the wonderfulness of Basil: It's green - my favorite color; it smells wonderful; it's easy to grow (or at least my mother makes it look that way); it makes the best Thai food ever and I love Thai food.

Somewhere between visiting Utah, camping and California, my sister Maddie and I commandeered the kitchen to make some Thai Basil Chicken

I call this my "Imitation Thai Dinner" and if you've had authentic Thai, this does taste different but the fresher your basil the closer it tastes to Thailand.  This is also known as the company dinner around here, it's just so simple to whip up and everyone loves it.  Or at least I love it.

Thai Basil Chicken

I know I originally found the recipe online but I can't remember where!  

Serves 4-6

2 T. Sesame, Peanut or Vegetable Oil

1 lb Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast

1 Red Bell Pepper, Cut into 1/4 Inch Strips

3-4 Garlic Cloves 

1 Serrano Pepper (or more if you want more spice)

4 T. Hoisin Sauce

2 T. Thai Fish Sauce

1 t. Sugar

1/4 Cup Water

1 Cup loosely packed Basil Leaves

Jasmine Rice

In a wok or skillet heat stir fry chicken for 4 minutes in hot oil.  Add red bell peppers, garlic, and serrano.  Cook for 2 to 3 minutes.  Add hoisin, fish sauce, sugar and water.  Throw in basil and toss until it wilts.  Dump it on a bed of rice and enjoy.

This recipe really is delicious with these exact ingredients but I've fudged countless times.  Plus it's high summer and seems such a shame to only use peppers in a stir fry, so we threw in zucchini and used some fresh peppers from the garden instead of serranos (I don't know what kind they were?  They looked like banana peppers).

Enjoy

Something tells me it's all happening at the zoo

I love the zoo, which doesn't quite make sense, I'm not much of an animal person (except for the dog)... this is evinced by the fact that I seem to only have pictures of the two legged types roaming around with me.

Beware those sharks!

(Eliana's my favorite - in the back of the boat on the right)

I'm so rusty on photography (especially since I've had to revert back to my kodak since my sisters nice camera died). I've been so lazy about taking my own pictures because I live with a photographer. It's been fun to try again, even if I find myself frustrated with how things come out.

If you want to see some really good pictures (taken by the resident photographer) go here and enjoy all those happy faces.

She wore sunlight in her hair

We've been busy around here lately...

drawing, skipping, hiking and eating lots of ice cream.

I took advantage of vacation to practice sketching and my little niece gladly obliged.

I was really delighted with how the picture turned out - thanks to a little girl who loves to pose for her aunts (my dogs on the other hand still come out pretty terrible :).

I went hunting for a frame but couldn't find anything I liked so I cut one out of cardboard and covered it in a flannel fabric I had on hand. It now rests on her mama's desk.

Photos by RD Photography