angry chicken

pies. I love them.

Over the weekend grammie gave me a book about pies. it's called Humble Pie and it's writings about pies and pie related life stuff. Not recipes, just musings really, although there are a few great tips and about 3 actual pie recipes. Sound funny and odd and it is. Not really a "read" but more like small tidbits about pies and life. kind of like a blog. . . anyhoo, it got me all excited about pies and making pies and getting all pie-y this summer. And it has made me all crazy about finding the perfect pie carrier. Something like something like this here:

or this one here:

And this book also mention freezing pies. I have this huge freezer in the garage, grammie gave it to us when she moved and it caused me a lot of problems last Christmas will all the cookies I made. Not bad problems, more like the "I am insane and can't stop baking" type of problems. I had never thought to freeze a pie. But you can. The fruit kind. There seems to be a bit of debate about when, but it makes sense to me and seems most likely that freezing before you bake is the way to go. More details here

So, I imagine a freezer full of pies. And then I can bake them and take them places. Where, I know not. I seem to only go to the grocery store and the library, but I think if I freeze a bunch of pies, and word gets out, then I will have many places to take them.

rad old cookbook

My uncle dropped by these 2 amazing old cookbooks, self-published, which he found thrifting. Thank you thank you!! They are are full of amazing recipes, written on typewriter with dang funny titles and remarks.

God, I love this kind of stuff so much. I need to makes these recipes and if someone wants to give them a shot first, please report back and tell me how they went.

We had a pretty good long weekend around here. Saw friends, saw a lot of rain, and just hung out. I am almost done sewing a dress, but need a really long zipper, which I don't have. errg. Grammie and friends and family came by yesterday for chili, cake, and cornbread to help extend the birthday celebrations. We got some pots re-planted with lovely plants on our stoop, which were in a very sad state before this weekend.

Mailorder #3 is almost ready to go to the printers. I am really excited about this one. It should be on sale by the end of this week, or possibly the beginning of next week (Most likely.) I will send out a couple e-mail reminders too, (you can sign up on the maillist over at kingpod)

This is the last issue for the subscribers and I am thinking that #4-6 will be available subscription only. The sales every 8 weeks are so much work and more for you all to keep track of. I do like the idea of being able to sell single issues, but I think this makes more sense. . . . so, I think the subscription for #4-6 (which wouldn't be available until late July) will be a larger edition, so more people can take part? I need to figure this out and balance the edition size with my sanity. ha!!

summer skirt #2 and some thoughts

I was able to make this skirt on my birthday. It was rainy, so I sewed instead of going out, which was fine by me. I was smitten with the skirt Mariko made especially the pocket detail-which I looked at closely at her back-tack party. It's so flipping cute! This amazing pocket fabric is from Hillary. I have been trying to work it into something for a bit now and I think it works with the denim perfectly-in that bicentennial way. You can also see it on Hillary's amazing apron here. (I do think these were napkins, right Hillary? Or someone made them into napkins when you found them?)

There are white buttons on the pocket flaps, hard to see because of the white polka-dots. And this is that same pattern as the seersucker skirt. And yes, it does match my new shoes, I am thrilled. Now a lightweight kelly green hoodie t-shirt (sleeveless?) to go on top. Because this is exactly what I want, I won't be able to find it, that is for certain.

I just finished reading Bergdorf Blondes-complete fluff and really enjoyable. It's like reading about the moms in the Nanny Diaries before they got married and had kids. It's yikes and funny and totally insane. But it got me thinking about stuff. And wanting stuff (never a good sign) and the only item that came up in the book that I could afford (by a whole heck of a long-shot) was the mention of personal stationary, which I quickly discovered, I can't afford. I still have the personal note cards I made (gocco) with my initials from our wedding and I need to bust them out for birthday thank-yous. I know I am not alone in my love of stationary, cards, and anything mail related and full of paper-goodness (hence mailorder) and letterpress makes me all weak in the knees. . .so, either I will find a professional print job that I don't feel gross paying for, or I will gocco new ones. Can't decide which. . I have a love/hate relationship with gocco screens and xerox machines. Sometimes they love me and sometimes they both hate me at once, which equals disaster and swearing and a ruined gocco screen, which we all know now is very very bad (did someone save that company yet? or are we all still having to hoard all the supplies?)

This was all made worse when I made the mistake of buying the new Blueprint magazine, which is so bad for me because it also makes me all wanty. I hate magazines with so much stuff to buy, it's not good for me. Oh, but it does make me more crafty, right? Because I am always trying to figure out how to make all this stuff they show. Anyway, they have a beautiful spread on stationary and notecards. . .gads.

And on a completely unrelated note, I just made brownies and actually lined the pan with parchment so I could lift them out in one piece and then cut them into squares (the way these food editors actually tell you to do in the mags, but I never do) and it worked so well I am embarrassed I had rebelled from this advice for so long and just hacked away at them in the pan. If you do this, you can also cut off the "too brown" edges to make the perfect squares. It's so easy this way. I just thought I would let you all know for you parchment paper hold-outs. Try it!

good lord, thank you!

ah man! thank so much for all the swell birthday wishes. It was so wonderful to read all the comments. It was really rainy here yesterday and I was in all day with a big goofy grin on my face reading what you all wrote. thank you. and so good to hear of the mutual LesportSac appreciation. And they still come with matching zip pouches! so I don't need another. The matching pouch was a big deal for me when I was little and obviously still is. So happy they didn't ditch that fabulous detail. This lovely card from Pete is by Johnathan Alder and I love it. Letterpress and all mod and folksy.

And this amazing card is from grammie-a quilt from the 1900's. The two color quilts always look so incredible to me.

And the most comfortable shoes ever. And I got sick not on cake, but on Lebanese takeout and way too much baklava. There is a special kind of sickness that comes with too much baklava and I am hurting. Must rest. Really, again thanks to all of you that indulged in anything yesterday, I felt your love and I have a slew of e-mails to write, please forgive my slowness. You all are awesome.

my happy day!

I am 34 today.

That sounds old, but then again, not so old, you know? That's mom and me at the beach. I obsess over old photos of her. It's funny, I think about my mom so much more on my birthday now that I have kids because she is the one that gave birth on this day. Yes, I was born, but I don't remember a thing. Really, aren't birthdays a much bigger deal for the moms? I remember the parties, mind you. The snoopy theme being a favorite of mine.

Back to being 34. A few things are different this year. Little things. A few more grey hairs. . and I wonder about things. . for instance, if I am ever going to be too old to wear barrettes? I think my own personal answer is no, but if I am wrong, just don't tell me. When the bliss catalog comes now (why do I get this?) I find the "corrective" products very very interesting. I never used to ever look at these and now I do.Who knew my upper lip needed so much attention and so many products could help me? I have been in the dark about this. Literally. Our house has the worst lighting. I know because I pluck my eyebrows way less now than I used to because inside the house they look just fine. Then when I do look in the mirror in the car. . . yikes. I know there are more important things than looks and I certainly could write about all my inner growth this year, yadda-yadda but really, I wonder who would want to read that stuff? And I just have not been in a very deep mood lately and honestly, it's been wonderful. And I feel pretty much the same inside year after year, so my birthday benchmarks are more on the shallow end of things I'm afraid. . .speaking of shallow, I am thrilled with my b-day presents-

The best bag from grammie (LeSportsac that I ordered for myself and had it sent gift wrapped. We are all very busy and damnit, I knew exactly which one I wanted!) The best gift for me is something I feel so guilty about not making myself, so this is the best indulgence. This is my new summer bag, complete with small illustrations of sassy snails on it. This might be right there with the barrettes. Am I too old for a bag that most certainly looks like it should be my daughter's? And more importantly, will she fight me for it? (She might relent if I give her the matching pouch. . shoot, I will have to get another for Delia!) LeSportsac takes me back, man. I loved my mom's so much in the early 80's and had my very own a few years later. Good times.

And these amazing shoes (Campers no less. Can there be a cooler shoe company?) from my brother and these I love so very much I am dying. They are still in the box which I can't open yet, hence the photo without my feet in them.

I had big plans of special downloads, recipes, and all these things for you all who come by and read the blog to help me celebrate. . .sorry, I didn't do squat. But, I do encourage everyone reading today to grab a cupcake somewhere and eat it. Then have a strong cup of coffee and then maybe eat another. Make me proud!

I went to a party and got some fabric.

Mariko hosted a back tack III party at her house Saturday and I enjoyed myself immensely. There were lovely Portland bloggers there, most of whom brought their back tack projects to show and share ideas, although we mostly just ate and talked. I am not a back tack participant this time, so I was crashing really, but I wasn't the only one, so I didn't feel that bad.

The food was divine and I wish the conversations hadn't been so lively because I could have eaten way more. . .but Mariko was oh-so-generous and sent me home with TimTam (via Alison, thank you, thank you!) and Pete and I got sick on them last night. yum.

Alicia was there and brought in and unloaded two huge boxes of fabric to give away. She is painting her studio and was doing some cleaning. Alicia, I hope it all went well and you are in some sort of organizational bliss right now. I, not being shy, took a bit of fabric home as well. Ahem. I tried to play it cool and did ask people if they wanted what I grabbed (I have a feeling people were just being polite) anyhoo, I made out like a bandit. But I did put it to good use and made this bag out of the goods in this wonderful canvas with a sassy striped lining.

This is loosely based off of the Buttrick BP172 pattern I have. I was too lazy to even cut out the pattern and the shape was a bit funky, so I just went at it from the photo. It's got bias trim and the button closure is not functional, because really, why would I need to unbutton only one side of the strap off this bag? The lining you can't really see in the photos (more photos here) but it's a lovely stripe, another cast off of Alicia's.

It was swell meeting everyone, there are so many cool bloggers in Portland! Thanks Mariko (and Alicia!!) and I have 1 TimTam left. Woo-Hoo!

it worked just fine

 

I finished the skirt! it worked out just fine. I went from LOVING this pattern (McCall's 4306 which I now see is out of print) deciding it was the best ever, to not liking it, then reverting to liking it a whole lot again. It's only 2 pieces, which is wonderful. But, it's cut on the bias which means it uses 2 yards. I have this rule that for skirts I buy 1 1/2 yards, just to keep on hand, so I actually had to NOT use my skirt fabric stash for this. . .

But, I think I may be converted to this new pattern anyway because the 2 pieces make it super easy and the bias gives it a great swing. There is a grosgrain ribbon waistband (hidden on the inside) and a side zipper. The trick with this was the seersucker. It is stretchy anyway, so when cut on the bias, it all got a bit jiggy. But some stay stitching (1/4" straight stitch from the raw edge) kept it from misbehaving. I will definitely make this pattern again. That there is a little freezer paper chicken from a vintage embroidery pattern. I added some hand stitching too and now need to add a baby chick to Sadie's dress because, as she noted, my skirt and her dress don't match without that detail. She is right. Now onto Miss Delia's outfit. Or top. I have very little left (the youngest one gets the shaft, huh?)

the best ads ever

Today is the Oregonian's 4th annual kid designed ads day. I love this so much. Brilliant.

The kids actually get paid for these. You can see them all here. Okay, nevermind. I can't find it on the OregonLive website. (I hate that site. It makes me crazy. There, I said it.)

But moving on, these are amazing. Really. I think every newspaper should do this. And for once I actually read these ads! It's just great. I posted about these last year (can't find that post, so I think we know who is all crazy here. . ) and I love them!

summer dress for flicka

I got quite a bit of this cotton seersucker last week and was planning on sewing matching smocks for the girls like these (the ones on the book cover), but made a Flicka style dress for Sadie instead. I have plans to make Delia a similar one, (that would be for Ricka) although I ran out of linen and also used up a bunch sewing a skirt for myself to match, Jesus, I have lost my mind. So hopefully I will have enough fabric for Delia's dress. If not, I will do a top only. She's small, you know.

I toyed with adding something cute or more custom to this. Embroidery? Freezer paper stencil? But, I kept it simple in the end. It seems like kids clothes, when you buy them, are never plain. They always have some much stuff on there, you know, to make them "cute" or whatever, kind of drives me crazy, so keeping this simple feels just right to me. That, and I need to finish my skirt, so there you go.

Here's the back view of the dress. My skirt has great potential at this point, but I did cut it on the bias and it is very stretchy, so there has been some swearing with this one, but I think it will turn out okay. If I never speak of it again and Delia's top is inexplicably cut on the bias, you will know it was a disaster. Sadie's dress is McCall's 4757, by the way.

It was recycle day when this was taken, which is why they are at the window. The recycle men are like superheros! the kids love them!

domestic sewing fun

Mother's Day was great and not only did I get a chance to paint my toes (more about this exciting fact in another post) I was able to start and finish some sewing projects. Here we have the switch to a summer palette for the girls' table in the kitchen. The little kitten creamer is a favorite of mine, I got it in college and it has chipped an ear in its many travels.

Here you can see the new setup, the cafe curtain matches the napkins. There is both a valance and a cafe curtain back there, behind the sink, if you can see beyond the glare. The curtains used to be just white, which was refreshing, but very boring. The girls love this new setup a whole lot. And how I love my serger more than words. That's the rolled hem there on the napkins and after all the little hems on the curtains and the tablecloth, I was ready to take a break from that. I got a babylock serger 2 years ago (this was serger #2) and this is the one for me. I don't think I will ever need another. Da bomb, as they say. (But I think I am the only one who still says this? I am officially an un-hip parent)

I did not vinylize this fabric as I did here. Eventually the iron-on vinyl did lift from the fabric and it just never seemed right, but it works in a pinch. I think just rotating 3 cloths or so is the way to go, or maybe I will cut a piece of cool oilcloth about an 1" smaller than the tabletop, so I can wipe it off, but not have it drape over the edge, because it gets too pokey and won't lie flat. Actually, as I write this, I see that is the answer. Especially given the new cloth is simple and has no big pattern a cool oil cloth would compete with. Oh, so good to work out these little details.