belle epoque

Drawing is very definitely not one of my strong suits. I do, however, spend a lot of time wishing I could draw, and my mother, who is a beautiful artist, has spent quite a bit of time trying to teach me. The best I’ve ever done is on spontaneous line drawings of flowers, when they’re sitting slap in front of me.

Taking initiative from the amazing Bethany, I’ve kept holiday gift ideas in the back of my head since about July (when she was making strawberry-lime jelly for gifts already!). We’ve taken HMB up to the beach for a few weekend afternoons and I’ve been thrilled anew at the crazed heartiness of the orange nasturtiums that grow wildly everywhere around the cottage. They are totally profligate about where they drop their seeds, which gave me an idea. I collected a nice big mound of dried nasturtium seeds and decided that I’d divvy them up, make cute little envelopes (designed and illustrated by me) and send them off to friends who have yards for the holidays. Gardening is also not one of my gifts, but here in Northern California, I’ve had success pushing nasturtium seeds into crappy soil around February to get lovely flowers by mid-March! I think they are similarly idiot-proof in other climes, just need to be planted a bit later.

Anyhow, last time we were there, during a very brief HMB nap, I plucked a stalk of flowers, buds and leaves

and set pen to tiny hotel pad of paper to make the illo for the seed packets

Keeping in mind that I am not good at drawing, I am pretty happy with it! Now I just have to figure out how to trace it onto watercolor paper and paint it orange and green. Then scan it again and shrink it, then work out the text and layout for the seed packet labels. Ummm…well. One thing at a time! I will show you the finished product should it materialize. In the meantime, this is a good time of year to collect seeds from the annuals in your garden to share with flower-loving friends during the winter- they are always a nice reminder that spring will come again.

Yes, it is true. I’ve fallen victim to a terrible seasonal ailment, the kind that shame causes people to speak about in whispers: Summer Sloth. I was on track, grand plans percolating in my head, then it hit. And suddenly all I could do was lie around reading books, flipping through magazines and occasionally napping. But I’m determined to fight it! I will Stop The Sloth! So far I’ve cleaned out my closet, done three loads of laundry and baked scones. And now, obviously, I’m blogging. I even have a shirt cut out that I just might actually sew together if I’m able to throw off the lingering tentacles of the Sloth. In the meantime, some things I like:
*Scones

I’ve linked to this recipe before, but as it remains my favorite home-baked item that I really haven’t found as good anywhere in San Francisco, it bears re-posting.
*Michelle, because she is awesome. I got to meet her and one of her darling wee ones at Maker Faire, and when she read my whining about not finding vintage patterns my size, guess what she did? She sent me a HUGE PILE of fabulous vintage patterns just for me!

Oh Michelle, you are wonderful and a testament to the incredible kindess and generosity of the crafty blogging community. She will be getting further credit for everything I make with these patterns.
*Fabric I got at Stonemountain and Daughter in Berkeley

It is probably hard to tell in the photo, but it is a large-scale print on baby-wale corderoy with a teensy bit of stretch. It was on super-sale so I bought enough to make this

Pattern courtesy of Michelle, of course, and perfect for such a big, funky fabric. I always admire people with really fun printed coats, so this is my chance to have one! I also highly recommend a visit to Stonemountain and Daughter if you are ever in the Berkeley area– their fabric selection is amazing, and they have a totally drool-worthy selection of Japanese imports.
*The beautiful hand-dyed (cochineal, Anne?) plum-colored cashmere fiber Anne very generously sent me after it sadly felted on her while she dyed it. I think it would make a lovely luxury felted bird:

*New faces in the garden

*A live Discovery Channel moment in the little park down the street

Moondoggie spotted this huge falcon (hawk?) as it swooped up from the ground carrying a small rodent in its talons, then I snapped some photos when it settled down at the very top of a tree to chow down.
*Of course, the new and last Harry Potter novel. I picked it up at 3:00 on Saturday and finished it yesterday morning (even with a break for sleeping!). I know there will probably be critics, but I feel like she did a wonderful job wrapping everything up, even though, of course, I’m left wishing there would be more.
*Anticipating the Stitch’n'Pitch tomorrow! I have to dig up a knitting project so I am really part of the crowd.

Wish me luck on shaking off the Sloth! Hopefully I’ll be back to regularly scheduled crafting around here…

Thanks for the ribbon craft ideas, and the enthusiasm for the fabric I found too– I must admit to being something of an impulse buyer. Though I seldom feel remorse over fabric purchases, I do sometimes wonder if what I’ve found is as great as I think it is, so it is nice to get a thumbs up from crafty connoisseurs like you! I have a few ideas for projects to suit its wondrous bright floweryness, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, I decided to use another length of vintage fabric in my stash to recreate one of my favorite skirts, which is fitted at the waist and then has one big inverted pleat in the front:

I didn’t think of it in advance, but striped fabric makes pleating incredibly easy! Just bring the sides of two of the stripes together and voila! I don’t think the picture is particularly flattering, but in real life I like the skirt a lot. In fact, once I finished it I wore it straight out to meet Camilla at the MOMA for the new Matisse exhibition. I also think it will work as well with a sweater and boots in the fall as it does with a white shirt and sandals now. Yay!

And are you ready for some exciting garden news? My sweet peas are blooming!

I just love them. Most of the plants are that pale pink variety, barring one gorgeous snowy white, and one whose buds seem to promise a deeper fuschia color (they aren’t done yet, so we’ll see). Of course I had to cut a few to bring indoors

where they live up to their name and make the whole room smell sweet (really!). I am so proud of these little beauties, raised by me from seeds! The trellis they are climbing is right outside the window of my little studio, so I can see them when I sit at my sewing table, and smell them when I open the window.

Any of you out there thinking that I haven’t give you a garden update lately?  And that this is probably because I killed all of my plants already?  The short answer is: not yet.  The long answer is…

The tiny pink parade rose I got around Mother’s Day is huge and bushy and getting ready for another bloom. Rosie, the yellow parade rose I bought on sale in the fall you can see on the right. She has also grown very tall and recovered from her case of powdery mildew thanks to the nice man at Smith and Hawken and some organic pest & fungus killer.

Despite a little heat wave that turned their leaves brown, the sweet peas are hanging in there and steadily making their way up. No blooms yet.

I cheated a bit on my tiny herb garden by buying plantlets from a nursery (sage, rosemary and thyme, for the parsley I’ll plant seeds eventually). The trick is keeping them alive, and I’m confident I can do that, at least until they are big enough to provide leaves for salad dressing and marinades.

Hey, who’s that in the bougainvillea? That is a genuine Pookie&Figparasol bird. I can’t even tell you how dear it is in person- how small and soft and perfectly stitched. And the talent? It runs in the family. I am also a huge fan of her sister’swork, of which I am very fortunate to own several pieces. It is also even more wonderful and intricate in person. Amazing! When I make a little wall gallery I’ll take a picture and show you.

So, that is the end of the garden report for today, and the beginning of the meme! Joyce very kindly tagged me for the “7 Random Things” meme, so here they are:
1. I’ve been wearing perfume every day for the past two months. I used to save it for special occasions.
2. I’m really liking mango with lime juice lately, though I need to perfect my mango cutting technique.
3. Organization is the bane of my existence. I’ve been trying to get organized since I was 12 or so, and every scheme I come up with fails. But I’m still trying.
4. I didn’t eat eggs until I was in my twenties. Just didn’t like them. Still don’t like them runny in any way.
5. I went to all girls’ school from the age of 5 to the age of 18. I didn’t love it at the time, but now I know it was just the right thing for me.
6. I am one of three Gemini women in my family (mom, me and my niece)- family get togethers are total talkfests.
7. I know all the songs from the movie Grease II, and no, I won’t sing them.

I know the rules require that I tag 7 people, but you were all so great about doing that 49 things meme that I’m not going to press my luck! I always like hearing random facts about people, though, so if you want to share one or two in the comments, please do.

Not much crafty going on around here the past few days!  I’ve been doing eminently productive but unphotogenic spring cleaning- lugging bags to the charity shop, and the trash.

But my wonderful husband got me a thrilling brand new camera that has all kinds of amazing features that are crying out to be used. Plus some of you, I know, are in places where spring is not behaving properly, so I went out on a walk and took pictures for you. Click on the picture below to pop over to the flickr set and browse around if you need a little dose of sunshine!

I plan to wear my tulip dress to a special dinner at Boulette’s Larder tonight. Inspired by Nancy’s news about the big bead expo, I broke out my jewelry supplies and made a pair of earrings to go with my outfit. And then made a few more…

Strawberries to go with dress, and oranges because oranges are great.

And some shell shoulder dusters, because once I got started I couldn’t stop. I definitely have more earrings than I wear, so the oranges and the shells will likely make their way up on to etsy sometime soon!

And because the macro feature on the new camera is so wonderful, a wee garden update. There are new colors of nasturtiums blooming every day:

bright yellow with a deep red center, and I’m waiting impatiently for this one, which looks like it will be a scarlet stunner:

Whew! That’s enough for now–I hoped to have time to make a little bag to go with my dress (it strikes me as a dress that can stand some matchy-matchy), but I may not get around to it…

And oh! I almost forgot– the amazing Emily of The Black Apple has started a new blog to track her outfits and clothing loves. I adore her mod-victorian-bohemian aesthetic, so I’ll be visiting as often as she updates! Do check it out.

Happy Weekend Friends!

I finally finished the tulip dress, though not in time to actually wear it today. Ah well!

It is from a Butterick retro pattern(4790 if the link doesn’t work for you) from 1952, and considered “very easy.” It was easy as it didn’t require a zipper or anything fancy, though it did take quite a lot of fabric!  I need to iron down the darts (looking at the picture I see there is a rather unfortunate bubble at the top of one!), and it needs to fit just a little more snugly at the waist, so I’m going to fiddle with it a bit before calling it done and hanging it in the closet. I am not quite as thrilled as I’d hoped, but once it fits properly hopefully it will grow on me!

In other springy news, things are going very well in the deck garden these days. We now have a rainbow of nasturtiums,

full morning glory leaf sprouts

and lovely green sweet pea sprouts (new this week!).

Now I just have to be patient and take care of them until they twine up the trellis and start to flower in 90 days or so. Seems like such a long time!

Oh! And yesterday night we went to see The Killers in concert, and they were fantastic. One of the opening acts was Howling Bells. The lead singer has an eerie, lovely voice that reminds me of The Sundays and The Innocence Mission. You can hear some of their music if you have the sound up on your computer when you go to their website. Sadly they are not on iTunes, and it appears Amazon thinks their album is only available as a spendy import (I wish I’d bought a CD last night!), but certainly if they’re opening for the Killers some US label will release it here sooner or later. I’m always on the hear-out (ha) for new-to-me music, so I thought I’d share in case you are too!

I very much wanted to show you my spring jacket today, but I’ve some last seams to sew and a snap to attach before it can be unveiled.  I can, however, show you a few other wee crafty things.

This morning I made Alicia’s no-knead bread, which instead of 19 hours takes more like 2ish.

riiiising

all done!
I used the same rapid rise yeast called for in the other no-knead bread recipe and I think perhaps it makes this recipe rise just a little bit too much, as it flopped right over the side of the bread pan as it baked! But it was still delicious and sweet– more like a loaf of lovely smooshy white bread than the longer no-knead’s hard-crust boule. I think it would make delicious bread pudding too!

There’s also an exciting garden update

Ok, it may not look too exciting, but that is one of about 5 little morning glory sprouts that just popped up this morning! In terms of crazy cute flowers that are already blooming, take a peek at this delicious fabric:

I know *exactly* what I will be making out of it, and I can’t wait to show it to you when it is done! I hope it turns out as cute as it is in my imagination… We’ll see, I guess!