Trying to find some color...

in this grey and cold spring.

I do not have any beautiful outdoor pictures, since it has been cloudy, cold, raining, hailing, snowing, sleeting or some combination of the previous. I have always admired Alicia's and Jane's abilities to capture beautiful still lifes. So here is my first attempt:



However, if you click through to Alicia's blog, it is a riot of color due to a weekend trip to the tulip festival. At least spring is happening somewhere.

So onto other color news in my life... here is my latest purchase:



It seems a little bit Hello Kitty sometimes with the purple/pink.





My previous iron died due to a fall on the cement floor. Also it had an auto shut-off time of 8 minutes which was stress inducing to say the least. I would be sewing away at my machine and hear the iron click as it was shutting off. I would have to run over to the iron and tip it a few times to get it to turn back on. This new one has an auto shut-off of 15 minutes which so far seems to work well. Does anyone know of an iron that does not have auto shut-off? or are the manufacturers trying to save us from ourselves again?

Oh the aches and pains of outrageous gardening...

So last fall I had all the grass removed in our upper front lawn. Our house sits up above the side walk, so we had these little bits of grass on either side of the front walk... which required the mower to lift the lawn mower up and over a short rock wall. This was not fun... nor easy for myself, since I'm 5'0" tall... very challenging. To fix this problem and to provide more planting space, the grass was removed. Since we had 3 days in row of sun forecasted starting last Friday, we ordered pea gravel and mulch and rented a rototiller Friday morning and set to work.

At the end of Day 1 and beginning of Day 2, we had the site leveled and the path edging put in:





The rest of Day 2 involved hauling and spreading the pea gravel. Two cubic yards of it!
Day 3 was consumed with the moving of rose plants and mulching, mulching, mulching. The neighbors have remarked that the mulch smells much like poo, to which we have replied that the smell will go away... over time.



We still have about 16 roses to move. The original rose bed is too shady and we get one good bloom of roses and then nothing but leggy plants for the rest of the year... which does not work for this rose loving lady. Now we can plant more small perennials and edging plants. But it is raining again and I am really, really sore and having seriously bad allergies after this grand event, so that will have to wait for a bit.
For now here are some gratuitous flower shots to show that spring has really finally arrived:

A little spring color

I had a whirlwind of errand running this morning. I grabbed my camera hoping to take some blog worthy pics... since I have posted very little in the way of inspiring photos since the beginning of the year. I'm in love with the Oh Joy! blog. It is full of color and beautiful pictures and ideas... not that I want to copy what she has there, but I would at least like to contribute in a similar fashion.
However, upon arriving at IKEA which was full of their new fabric collections and spring/summer merchandise, I realized that my battery had died. There was no way of even fooling said camera into taking one picture of their glorious fabrics hanging in space. So I will have to post these images from their website....







So I returned home in a fit of color inspiration. Last week Miss E and I had purchased some new grosgrain ribbon for belts. So we put them together on this grey afternoon... right before the hail and rain.



I love all the grosgrain stripes that are available now. About 4 years ago, these belts made a huge comeback at retail, but there was very little choice for the home sewer or even the internet shopper. So I wound up using a rainbow stripe for a 2 year old Miss E, who was perfectly happy with it... but these stripe combos are waaaaaaaay better.



She's a well accessorized little lady.

Death of a Serger

The old serger is no more. It functioned for 14 years and was in need of some serious help. So all the work and twiddling from the other night has resulted in the purchase of this....



Ooooo... shiny!



I can't wait to have some time to use the rolled hem and the ruffling/gathering settings... AND you don't even have to switch out throat plates! There have been some good improvements in the last 14 years.

Quiet Chaos

The blog has been quiet once again while my sister and I have been working on Mister Judy. She and her family are in town this week for spring break, and we have been sewing away on samples... until the serger started to seriously malfunction. And as I was adjusting the tension dial, it came off in my hand and the back part fell into the machine. Since it was, of course, 8:30pm at night and everything was closed, we took the serger apart.



We found the piece and reassembled.



Only to have the same thing happen again 5 minutes later.



And of course I need this thing to work, so we can get these samples sewn! So today we are taking it into the shop and hopefully they can fix it on the spot... otherwise I may be coming home with a new serger.

On another note, we have been leaving the spouses unattended with the children and the house. They made a discovery in the kitchen while cooking dinner and are attempting to sell the item on eBay. So far no luck.

Finally decorating the house

After being married for almost 10 years, we have finally put some of the spouse's art collection up.



This is his collection of Howard Finster who was a prolific folk artist.



I feel so grown up now that I don't have blank walls.

Yay! Loobylu is back!

Loobylu aka Claire Robertson is back after taking an entire year off from blogging! Her things are so inspiring, and she is such a talented artist. And since she's in Australia, I can get my summer fix looking at her photos... while I'm waiting for spring to arrive here. She's doing some darling embroideries. As does Miss Hillary over at Wee Wonderfuls. Check out her Stitchette's in her shop. Maybe I will get moving on embroidery some day soon. I have a good size stash of vintage embroidery transfers.
In the meantime, here is some general gorgeousness from my spouse for Leap Year.



I always get flowers for Leap Year... luckily, he does give me flowers at other times... otherwise it would be a long wait between bouquets.

Inspiring Things

I love little glimpses into the past. Over this past year, I inherited a notebook. It contains all types of clippings from newspapers and magazines grouped into related collections. My father and I are guessing that it was done in the 20's by relatives in Canada (possibly Victoria) and sent to my grandmother. Here are some of the beautiful images....




How about these rabbits and images for Easter...



... definitely some softie inspiration... as well as some great ideas for little dresses.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone is having a lovely St. Valentine's Day and not over indulging on the chocolate. The above picture is from my last year's Valentine's gift. It is from a book titled "Appolonia's Valentine". It was published in 1954 and tells the story of a girl who tries and tries to make the most beautiful valentine. The pictures are wonderful.

I just returned from a wonderful and sunny three days in Las Vegas. Since Chinese New Year is in full swing the Bellagio had their conservatory all decked out.





There were more orchids than I have ever seen outside of Hawaii! Bunches and bunches on them everywhere....

A Little More French Cooking...

I'm really, really trying hard to stick with this seasonal eating idea. Martha Stewart's book Healthy Quick Cook is arranged by season. So I flipped through the Winter section and picked Pot de Feu or Pot of Fire, which is browned meat cooked in chicken broth with seasonal vegetables.



Everything looked so pretty simmering away in my new red enamel cast iron pot... a Christmas present from my parents. I love it! It is extremely heavy and can go from the stove top into the oven. Retains heat like a champ.
The Pot de Feu smelled so good cooking. I used parsnips, carrots, celery, and leeks for the vegetables. I don't think that I have ever cooked with leeks before. They are so good! I have a recipe for a leek and onion tart. I think that one may be cooked up soon. The final result was really good. I served it in a bowl with mashed potatoes.




... and of course, Miss E didn't want to eat it. She does not like cooked carrots, she informed us. Odd, that used to be her favorite vegetable. I'm sensing some Kindergarten-style-vegetable-non-eating advice from some of her classmates. We made a bargain, and actually got the kid to eat some veggies... in return, we made CUPCAKES! I used the More From Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. I have actually been to the bakery in New York, and yes, the cupcakes are good, and yes, there is a line out the door even at 11pm at night. However, something went very wrong with all the "help" from the children and me not letting the butter soften enough, or the full moon, or the really cold weather. This is how my batter turned out...



Which was very thick, almost the consistency of mousse or buttercream frosting. So I spackled it into the cupcake papers and hoped for the best. I know I have made this recipe before, but didn't recall this type of batter being produced. They baked up beautifully and tasted like a dream. The texture inside was fine and soft.



Of course it always helps to have spatula assistance from a blue-eyed, one shoulder wearin', handsome little man...



We added a "healthy" dollop of buttercream on top (of course made with butter.. no shortening in this house). I ate one and my cupcake craving is satisfied. We still have 20 left.

Craft and Project Update

I haven't posted any crafty things lately. Mostly because I keep forgetting to take pictures of things... or it has been so grey in Portland and the light is so bad that nothing photographs well. We have had 3 days of extremely cold but sunny weather, so I have no excuses.
Last year the spouse bought me the Naughty Needles knitting book. And I fell in love with these gorgeous ribbon laced mitts...



and this winter I finally knitted up some (please note the sunshine in the photo):



They are made of lambswool that I ordered from Ami Ami who apparently does not have a Canadian (meaning English) site anymore. I hope they bring it back. They have beautiful yarns.

The other big project has been finishing that laundry room. Here is the way it looked over a year ago when we were getting ready to start the basement remodel... and yes, this is what it looked like when I used it.



And now... look out Martha, I have a cool laundry room too!



ooooo.... SHINY! and CLEAN! with extra shelving behind the door. And a cool carpet square rug from FLOR. Eventually that little green shelf will hang above the sink.



And then... I finally put together a frame with some natural linen in the back to display my lovely enamel pins!



It almost looks like one of those crewel-work embroideries. I love it!