When we were four

And chaos interminably reigns...

This is the life.  Period.  That's all I have to say.

I have three sisters.  Together we make four, of course.

Then we have a few sisters-in-love(law).  And a couple of sisters just cuz.  (Love you Karli!)

But there's just something about just the four of us being together.  It doesn't happen very often anymore.  Elise lives in another state and is most often missing from our sister time.

Do you realize how difficult it is to find  decent picture of us all together, without someone cracking up or me ruining it by talking!  This is what we usually look like...

Ahh, that's more like it.  Here we are casting off for a good laugh!
Well, that's what I've been up to, in a nut shell.  What about the rest of you?

For more pictures check out Beth's blog here!

Playing Hide and Seek with the Sun

It's been deceivingly summerish around here until suddenly Monday, we woke up to an overcast day!  I can never seem to remember what the weather is supposed to be like around here this time of year.  Obviously, it's October, it should be cooling off.  I know that much but Idaho can be very diverse and I think I'm just used to taking it as it comes.  It's still only in the high 60's but that was enough of a push to get me fully in the mood for Autumn.  At least the sky matches the colors of the landscape now!  It was so deceiving (if not actually pleasant) to crunch the leaves downtown in shorts and sandals and sunshine.

I would love to do some canning and baking but there just isn't time!  It's a constant joke between a few of my friends that my common response to how life is, is "Good.  And busy."  Seems it's become my motto.  But the one thing that's marvelous about being busy, is (if you can) you learn to enjoy the simple things: coffee in pottery mugs, walks by the pond with the dog, the slightest change in the weather...

 and spontaneous crafting nights with sister!   

My sister sent me a link to most lovely yellow flower.  

And I immediately wanted to make one just like it.  

  I bought this hat at Forever 21 last year.  It had an ugly black pinwheel fabric flower on it.  I always meant to change it out but didn't before it warmed up.  It's quite whimsical and from some angles down right Charlie Chaplin (which I'm still not sure how I feel about) or an almost horrible 90's throwback (just don't pair it with any vests or primary colors!).  I think the flower helps :)

We have a rather spacious sewing room corner but packing four girls and dog in was quite cozy.  We were climbing over each other and constantly losing the scissors.  Perfect bonding time!

I think the hat is backwards but I like it better this way ;)

They're are lots of tutorials online for fabric flowers.  This is a flat rose.  I sort of followed both this tutorial and this one from Thread Bangers (which is actually part two, you can find the first video here).  I didn't make the flower as formal as Tanya, I left my edges rough and it's lopsided in a very pleasant way.

We also made some fluffy organza flowers (although it wasn't organza - don't you love how we follow the rules).  And attached some tiny roses to bobby pins with hot glue.  Bethany made a huge flower with some vintage fabric that turned out pretty fun.  

Thanks to the resident photographer for the photos!
P.S.  You may recognize the scarf from this post!

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