The other morning, I walked into the downstairs bathroom that is pretty much the domain of Edie. There I noticed peeking behind the shower curtain, a Hello Kitty bath toy perched on the spout of the tub. I wanted to capture it in a still life – my first thought was I admit, to post it on instagram, like the purple duckie shot from a few weeks ago. Only unlike the purple duckie on top of the soap dish, any shot I attempted to get of Hello Kitty seemed to spotlight the funk of the tub. Continue reading
Canning Confessions.
This is not what you want to see when you grab a jar of tomatoes off your shelves.
That escalated quickly.
Not being in elementary school doesn’t mean an end to the Valentine’s Day exchange. Instead of hand crafting a Valentine for every classmate, a plan was hatched with her lunch table to exchange treats in honor of the day. She had her heart set on sharing cupcakes, which I willingly agreed to help with while tuning out the part about a DIY cupcake holder idea she’d gotten from Pinterest in which to present them. Continue reading
Sort of like pouring a stiff one.
When I was in college, the designer Vincente Wolf had come to visit our fair campus in the name of some event that was held every year which completely escapes me now. He gave a few talks, one of which has stuck with me all these years. Continue reading
Something not soup.
I love to make big pots of soup this time of year. The house just feels cozier with something good smelling simmering on the stove all afternoon, you know? However, given that the habit of making a big pot of soup for dinner starts sometime in October, it begins to wear thin with some members of this household about this time of year – sort of like the grey sky or the weather forecast with the words snow or ‘polar vortex’. They’re just done with all of it. It certainly doesn’t help that I expect said pot of soup to serve as dinner a few days in a row as well as maybe even some lunches during that stretch. Change is needed and the easiest place to make it happen is the dinner table. Continue reading
World Community Arts Day, 2014
Distance doesn’t have to be an obstacle in approaching World Community Arts Day. Thanks to modern technology, we can interact with people all over the world without leaving the comforts of our home. As the discussion of what & how to approach a project took place via Facebook posts, USPS delivery of handwritten notes, recipes & art projects to each others’ doorsteps, it occurred to me that this was our community project. Despite the distance from Virginia to California, my friend G & I were making concrete connections as well as virtual ones without having to leave our homes. Continue reading
It’s fun to fondue!
It’s no secret that the people who inhabit our neighborhood use any sort of excuse to host a get-together. As the snow continued to accumulate Thursday, Dahlia sent out an email asking if anyone else thought this was cheese fondue weather. Our thoughts may have been more along the lines of, good gosh let’s get out of this house and drink with other people, but hey, fondue worked. A few emails (and phone calls) later, we appeared to have a plan. Continue reading
Sort of in season.
Grandma’s fruitcake cookies are a holiday staple here. Which probably has you asking why I’m blogging about them in February, because everyone knows fruitcake is clearly a December holiday treat and not a February holiday treat. In the hustle & bustle & multiple cookie swaps that were December, the cookies didn’t get made. We had fourteen dozen cookies on hand – we didn’t need any more. As we don’t share these cookies well there was no way they were getting made for a swap for us to only have a few left on hand. No, we need the entire batch all to ourselves. Continue reading
The knowledge of making.
There has been a much welcomed return of making around here this week as well as some previously scheduled knowledge sharing* which always ends up inspiring more making, a very good thing. Continue reading
Back.
Thank you all for your kind words on the loss of my cousin Henry. Last week was brutal, just plain and simple.
We are slowly getting back into the swing of things here. It’s amazing the restorative power of a pot of vegetable soup, freshly baked bread & homemade chocolate pudding can have. Did I mention the pudding was dark chocolate? If I was a better food blogger, I’d have written this post around recipes for at least one of those home cooked items, with beautiful images. But I’m not. And to be honest, the pudding was not entirely smooth. The phone rang AND there was a knock at the door as I came to a critical point in pudding making. Oh well. It was still pretty darn edible, even if it wasn’t perfect. Such is life. Not always perfect, but still pretty darn tasty if you can get past the lumps.
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 