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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!