angry chicken

belated birthday cake show and tell

Thanks so much for the snack bag love. I love making the videos. It's so much easier than trying to write it out, you know? I love just being able to show you how.

I have been meaning to show the cake I baked Liddy when she turned 3. It's a vanilla cake, from the yellow cake recipe I link to here, with stabilized whipped cream. Genius! The cream really holds up nicely when it's stabilized. I want to try this piped on cupcakes. I really love whipped cream—much more so than most frosting. I served strawberries mashed up on the side, so you could make your own shortcake.

Her requested birthday party theme was butterflies, so I added these paper ones (taped to skewers) that I printed out from Agence Eureka and the candle holder is from Sarah's shop, of course. Each girl has one. I need my own.

Liddy also got this vintage dress and it's so cute it hurts. It came from littleveggievintage over on Etsy. She hasn't worn it yet. I'm not promising I won't take it and hang it up in my art room. I might give it back to her one day.

Unrelated:

I have a Lazy After-Sun Spray recipe posted over at Make Gather Grow. Please check it out along with all the other great Lazy Summer projects Kelly has posted.

snack bags! a sewing tutorial video

I feel like I am cheating

Sometimes the simplest and easiest sewing projects end up being the ones I wear the most. This is true for this dress here and ditto for this skirt and the wool jersey leggings I will blog about in the fall (because really, we don't need to think about wool leggings right now).

So this dress was my muslin (of sorts) for the green dress I made a bit back. It's basically just a blouse pattern that I lengthened and added a collar with a rolled hem edge. There is no closure, it's loose enough to fit over my head, and I just belt it—or not. There are two bust darts, used from the blouse pattern, but it's debatable if they are even needed. It's sheer, so I wear it with a slip. The bottom hem is a rolled edge done with the serger, just like he collar edge.

The fabric is a polyester—I know! I just never thought I'd use polyester, but again, this was supposed to be a practice dress and the print was so pretty, so I bought it just in case it turned out rad, which it did. I found the fabric at Mill End Store and it was in the lingerie section. To minimize cursing, I used a needle for fine weight fabrics. Easy as pie. I made this before I made my green dress, so it was a long time ago—and I am only really appreciating it now because it's finally warm enough to wear.

The ease of this dress almost makes me want to sew nothing else but about 5 more, but I love new details and challenges so I know I will keep trying new designs—but DANG this one is a keeper. It only works with very lightweight sheer-ish fabric. It's all about the drape. The collar was just pinned on and sort of sculpted and then stitched by machine when it looked right. I'm not sure if I could have done this without a dress form, which I use constantly.

Details and Specs:

I know I'm not really linking to pattern here. I used this blouse pattern minus the closure and the facing and made it longer, and a bit wider and added the ruffle style collar. Ultimately, I used a different pattern for the green dress, which I link to in that post but check the bust darts on that pattern before you sew, they were crazy on me.

a little play with stick puppets

A bit back Sadie found some popsicle sticks and wanted to make some puppets for a play. We filmed it with the flip and if my laptop weren't in the shop getting fixed (curses!) I'd have a little movie to show you, but oh well. Using this other machine I'm on now makes me feel like I am wearing someone else's shoes. 

Anyhoo, these were so cute I just about died. With some of her artwork, it's like she is doing an impression of an adult trying to draw like a kid. Do you know what I mean? It's so interesting to me. So, this was a long play about a wedding and some princes and all that—the girl above there has soot on her face, from all the hard labor she does around the castle. Her plays are long. Like 15 minutes at least, and tend to spin off and get pretty layered and complex, at which point her sisters start complaining. I'm always surprised how long they last before the heckling starts. I know she is very influenced by my tutorials with these stick puppets, but when I think of all the other things she could be influenced by, I'm not complaining.

remember that green skirt?

I sewed this skirt about a month or so ago. I know it was in May. It was soon after I saw this skirt (scroll down) from Talbot's and needed to make a similar one for myself. I didn't make it exactly the same, different details and length. I love it, love the pockets and the buttons and all that, but I can't believe what a fussy little sewing project this was. Here is my summary:

• The wee bit of stretch in this cotton made it annoying to work with. I didn't use any fusible interfacing, which would have helped. As it is, (because of the stretch) it always seems to big.

• I used Simplicity 2656 I love having pockets but this pocket in the pleat detail, while super cool,  was hard. Way too hard for an a-line skirt. Like laughable hard. Especially in a solid color fabric.And especially if one doesn't plan to tuck in a shirt while wearing it, because with a blouse untucked, all the details slaved over are lost.

• This pattern New Look 6969 sewing pattern would have been much easer and I plan to use it for a red skirt.

• But having said all that, I do really like it and love how tailored the details are. I really like sewing new patterns with different construction challenges. Originally I made this with super cute covered buttons, but switched them out. The shank on covered buttons always seems too long, and so they seem to catch a lot on fabric and work themselves loose.

• I do feel much much better having this intense green in my closet. I have been wearing it a ton.

Unrelated, yet extremely important:

Last weekend we (the adults in the house) saw Trek in the Park, and I implore everyone in Portland to go see it! It's free—it's an outdoor performance of an original Star Trek episode (the one with Kahn!) and is super fun. Go really early if you want to try and sit. 

3 kittens named after food.

These three sisters were delivered to us this week, thanks to my pet loving brother. We knew we wanted kittens, but weren't sure when, from where, you know—the details. We decided to just wait it out and just like our last beloved cats, who are no longer with us, these 3 just appeared in our lives and were in need of a home—and we are thrilled to take them in.

We have in the top left corner, Muffin (named by Delia):

• Likes playing with yarn and sleeping and is often called Lemon or CatCake.

In the lower right corner we have Lemon (named by Baby):

• She is insane and likes to kill anything moving. She is often called CatCake or Muffin.

In the upper right corner we have CatCake (named by Sadie):

• She is shy and likes to sleep under the bunk beds. She is often called Muffin or Lemon.

Obviously we will learn more about them, but for now, that's all we know. Our new favorite game is Find the kittens and even better Which kitten did you just find, was it Muffin? No, wait, that's Catcake! No wait, didn't we just find CatCake? Oh wow. Maybe it's Lemon.

This is taking up much of our time. Let the summer insanity begin!

we picked some berries

We picked a ton of blueberries and raspberries last weekend and are headed out for more this week. I wrote about this stellar Blueberry Muffin recipe last year and revisited it again this year, and yeah, it's still crazy-delicious. I have also made these muffins with raspberries—outstanding! It's the cornmeal that makes them so good.

More tarts were made as well. Lemon curd with blueberries in the back there and close up, chocolate (melted chocolate chips) with raspberries on top.

so excited to announce—

Grammie (my mom, also known as Gayle Karol) has set up shop—Tillie Studio.

After years of longarm machine stitching on hundreds of quilts, she (after retirement from her years as a newspaper editor) can offer her services to everyone—and not just to me, of which I have taken huge advantage.

So, what does this mean for you all?

Well, if you are a quilter, you know how hard it is to qet your pieced tops through a home sewing machine. Enter swear word here. It's really really hard. And if you have never made a quilt, you might feel like the task of cutting and piecing a quilt is enough—and want a professional to do the machine quilting. In either case, professional longarm machine quilting is truly outstanding and can be as custom as you like.

Her wonderful new site Tillie Studio explains it all. I can tell you from experience that she is a dream to work with, extremely knowledgeable, funny, and totally laid back. She has done the machine quilting on all my art quilts (like this one and this one and this one, too) and I can't speak highly enough of her skill.

So send her your quilt tops! Do you want to make a series of blocks for a friend getting married or having a baby? Or do you want to make a modern quilt with some simple bold stripes? Or do you have a vintage top that has never been quilted? Talk to Grammie. She's here in Beaverton, Oregon, but can receive quilts from anywhere in the US, so this isn't just for local folks!

Questions? Her FAQ is outstanding. I'd start there first.

framed vera

I have had these linen Vera napkins for a few years now and finally got around to framing one, which I had always intended to do. These were my grandmother's and I cherish them. I have written about my grandmother's obsession with Vera textiles and dishes before. I am so lucky to have most of her collection.

I used a standard 12" x 12" frame (from Aaron's, it's meant for 12" LPs) and used these very handy little plastic strips inside to create space, sort of making this a shallow box so the glass doesn't touch the napkin. I have these strips in quantity because I use them for other artwork I frame, so I have always bought a lot. I'm not sure if they sell smaller quantities, but you can call and ask.

I sewed the napkin to rag museum board at 4 or 5 points to mount it. This is exactly how I frame my small quilts. I really like this method for framing textiles or anything with depth.When I say sewed, I mean I just use an awl (or a small nail) to punch 2 tiny holes in the board and then thread a needle, draw it through the linen, and tie it in back of the board in a square knot behind the two holes.

I am so happy to finally have this up and in the house. It makes me really happy to look at everyday—somehow it speaks to me more than a photo of her does. Or maybe not more, but different.

 

baby birds and thoughts about hippie stuff

The baby robins hatched!

It's been so amazing seeing these 3 (the 4th egg didn't hatch) eggs hatch and watch the baby birds grow and learn to fly. The mama robin is so sweet! She did fly into our house and we were so stressed she was going to get hurt, but she got out just fine.

Finally there is some sun here, and I'll take it. It's so nice. However, I have a random summer cold. I have been doing yoga about 3-4 times a week for a year now and it's amazing how much different I feel in my body than I did 2 years ago. Granted, I had been nursing or pregnant for 7 years straight, so just that change feels different, but my point is that even colds feel different for me now that I am doing yoga regularly. I still use Yoga Today**, and when I want a shorter session I use them for free over on their youtube channel. I would like to go to a local studio again (I was going to Om Base for a bit) when I can. Nothing like being around live humans, you know? But I am so grateful I can just do yoga whenever I want at home and not have to worry about jumping in the car.

ridiculously cute downward facing dog

For doing yoga with the kids, the girls love this book by Cyndi Lee. We love all her books. The drawings are perfect for all of us. It's a great game for them—they pick poses and play yoga teacher. I do my own yoga by myself before they wake up, but when they are up and have the inclination we play yoga pretty often. It's quite crazy and floppy without much concentration by the younger two, as you can imagine. I just am happy they are into it at all. They can do so many poses now (and know all the names of them!) and just having this idea of movement and breath in their experience is wonderful—so I don't worry at all if it just falls apart after 5 minutes. Which it does, in fits of laughter and monkey business.

I also have been reading some amazing books on meditation lately. I was drawn to meditation after I started yoga and my "what I didn't do today" list I try to keep. I think I mentioned this as a New Year's resolution. It's the opposite of a to-do list. I try to stop myself from doing that extra thing and then write down or think about how I didn't do it. Like I didn't do the dishes right now, or fold that extra hamper of clothes, or turn on the computer, or check e-mail (again.) It's been really fitting with the reading I have been doing lately. This book, Turning the Mind into an Ally, is rocking my world right now. My meditation so far has been pretty funny. Boring, annoying, at times nice, and also sleep inducing. Who knew I could fall asleep so easily? Self discovery is a magical thing, I'll tell you what.

My summer list of to-dos for myself and the family has gotten pretty short as a result of all this—which I find very relaxing. Picking berries, swimming, sleeping outside, going to hear live music outdoors, and spending time with grandparents and extended family and friends. That's about it. Yes, we will do more than this but just distilling it down to the favorites feels so easy.

**A few of you just asked what my Yoga Today Ambassador ID is--thank you! I just got it hooked up, its: angrychicken

no one got hurt and it was fun.

happy holiday weekend!

We are prepared to have a good time this weekend celebrating our country's Independence Day. We always have a pretty big family shindig dig up at my aunt and uncle's house near Mt. Hood. There are always many animals on hand, lots of great food, explosives of all sorts, and I heard a rumor of an archery contest this year—complete with prizes. We are very excited.

These printable clip art images are available over at Martha's site—the flags are going into cupcakes. The Red, White and Blue Desserts she has are making me nutty. What to choose? Maybe this? Let's hope my nails last through the weekend.

Have a safe holiday and don't blow off a finger! And thanks so much for the sweet feedback on the homemade gift for Liddy!