angry chicken

the nail update & new music

This is day 7. You can see the little flaw there on my pointer finger, but overall, these nail decal things are outsatnding. I have worked them hard all week and only on the 7th day did they show any signs of wear. I'm on day 10 now and they look not so perfect, but I think the pattern hides a lot. If they were a solid color they'd look much worse. I ordered mine from Mod Cloth, they are made by Nail Fraud.

This pack comes wth 20 stickers so I can get 2 applications with a set. And, if I am clever with the scissors, I can fit my girl's nails in there, too, becasue the stickers are so long. They take a while to fit, trim, and put on, but it was so great to not have any drying time or creepy smell. I am sold on these. This set is going on for the July 4th weekend.

*Update. The removal is a bit, sticky (ha!) it takes some elbow greasy to get off the glue under the pattern. Afterwards my nails were really dry, so I rubbed oil on them and am giving them a good 4 days to air out. I think these are still excellent, but wouldn't have them on all the time.

Unrelated and even more exciting than striped nails:

The new Gillian Welch is out and I bought and love it. Here's a great interview with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings over at American Songwriter, and here they are on Conan (from last night) and I can't wait to see them in Portland in 2 weeks.

I warned you.

This is an evil thing. It's so good. So incredibly good. It's a recipe from the side of an off-brand box of corn chex (the recipe from the official brand, which is what I could find online, is here). It's basically melted chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter mixed with corn chex and then coated with powdered sugar. I did not use a ziplock bag as instructed, just a bowl and that worked fine. Then we all got really sick eating this stuff.

Unrelated—

I saw the new Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris, with Grammie a bit back and enjoyed it. I especially liked all the scenes with Hemingway. I found this handy cheat sheet for all the famous characters in the movie and how they all knew each other. It's pretty fun to read. But even more fun to read is this piece I found quoting notable authors talkin' smack about each other. Wow.

Scandinavian Midsummer Festival

We had a lovely time at the 83rd Scandinavian Midsummer Festival this last weekend. The rock star parking we were blessed with made it actually possible. It was a great way to celebrate summer solstice and Sadie, in particular, was riveted by the folk dancing. I suspect classes will be requested soon. Her Kirsten doll came with us (the Swedish American Girl who is retired now, sadly) and was recognized by everyone which was pretty cute. I fell in love with the Sami jewelry by Nomadic Artisty. I have one Sami bracelet that was given to me by Pete a few years ago—but want another in the worst way.

mini-burger cookies for the 4 year old

Liddy turned 4!

We really did her burger-themed party up right. Grammie got the 6 pack mini-burgers (from New Seasons) and then we ordered a burger cake (from Fred Meyer, I know it's trashy and not homemade, but come on. She loved it and the cake fries you can dip in ketchup frosting!) and we had a blast making these mini-burger cookies, which were mentioned in the comments of my last post. They were so fun to make and so cute!

We are all tired, sugared-out, and have huge smiles. 4 is awesome. Thank you Lydia for being amazing.

the importance of zombies

I can't remember exactly what we were talking about. I think it was monsters, probably Godzilla, when it became clear my girls were completely unaware of a plethora of boy-type topics. Disturbed and stressed as to where to begin I rummaged around and pulled out Will and Abe's Guide to the Universe that Pete and I were obsessed with in college. It broaches many more topics than I could ever imagine, providing them with an endless supply of questions to ask.

The comics are really simple—It's pretty much just Matt Groening following around his boys and writing down everything they say. I appreciate this in many more ways now that I have kids. 

Godzilla, Mothra, Dracula, ghouls, zombies, slime, voodoo, cyclops, skeletons, ghosts, bugs, horror movies, robots, space ships, aliens, superheros—all these topics can now be discussed and analyzed easily, greatly contributing to their well-rounded education.

In the back there is a handy index, which I had never noticed before. Brilliant!

Unrelated-

Happy Father's day to all the dads! We celebrated with challa french toast and some gifts. This is a big week for us—after Father's day we have Summer Solstice, Grammie's b-day, And Liddy's B-day (4!) all in the next 3 days. Add a ballet class and a gymnastics class in there too. Whew! I'm already tired typing it. Liddy has requested a cake that looks like a hamburger, with fries (made of cake) on the side. I will not be attempting this but will enlist the help of a bakery, 'cause come on. I think this is a very wise move. I did sew her a dress which I can't wait to show. And I also bought these striped nail decals. For myself, not for her. But she sure appreciates them. I have them on now and they rock. Hard.

sort of a different salad and a sewing project

This salad (asparagus, red onion, and pecorino cheese) was made for me last year by Sarah when I came to visit and I had forgotten about it until I had a bunch of asparagus in my hands last week. I usually have asparagus cooked but this was raw and so good. The recipe is right here. In the comments I noticed many people found the flavors too strong so I made it a little different—with less vinegar (but added lemon juice) and less red onion. Also, if I were to make it again, I'd pre-soak the red onion in ice water for a bit to take the edge off. The vinegar does the same thing, but only after a few hours. It mellows with time. We had it alongside some salmon. Delicious.

Unrelated:

I am very excited to show a new project I have just sewn and posted over at Modern Domestic. It's for Grammie's birthday. Grammie, don't look I mean it!

happy items

I was given this outstanding white ceramic berry container by a sweet friend  for my birthday and it is making me so happy. It came from Branch and Birdie here in Portland but you can get them online at Velocity and a similar one at Sur la table. 

In it, I keep these ridiculously large paper clips that I found at Target in the office supply section. They please me to no end. I have been using them quite a bit on totally random items. And sometimes as a bookmark. Now I want to find a huge pencil. Or maybe an eraser.

some other Happy Items:

• My girl Sally has another PACKAGING 101 class she is teaching! Her last one filled up really fast. You can see the details here. It's in Portland at Modern Domestic and looks like so much fun.

• I have a new banner.

• I am just now adding items to Pinterest and it is thrilling! I need to figure out if I can print these pages. Maybe just with a screen shot? But I need them big. I love this idea—of keeping/organizing images for easy linking, but dislike not being able to put these in an actual sketchbook. I still like to cut and paste paper for real, dang it! Technology can be bittersweet.

on a rainy day

To make this project, a stapler, white paper, crayons and cotton balls were used. We drew clouds, stapled some key areas leaving an opening to stuff, jammed in the cotton balls, then stapled it closed and then cut around the cloud shape. A crown was added along with some taped-on rainbow streamers.

Unrelated:

• I have another ruffle project over on Modern Domestic. They have a handy tutorial up on using this wonderful foot, too. Thanks ladies!

• I sure love the general vibe and styling of this Esty shop, Little Byrd Vintage, who also happens to be local.

• I am loving the look of these handmade shoes from The Generation, also on Etsy.

some of our favorite books

We started reading this series, The Melendy Quartet by Elizabeth Enright last summer and keep coming back to them. We all love them. The writing is so witty and well crafted—they are truly a pleasure to read out loud. I found them by accident. I checked them out of the library randomly and was so taken with the writing style and the laid-back/old-timey joy of childhood the stories describe that we bought them all.

We haven't read anything else by Elizabeth Enright but she has a ton out there. These were written in the 1940s and you can tell. They are wordy (hooray vocabulary!) and wonderful, and a bit dated in the best way. Another bonus for our family, school is not a huge topic in these books. The adventures unfold  outside of school, which seems unusual in fiction for older kid readers, unless it's fantasy.

Maybe it's more of a reflection of our lives when we first read them, but they make me think of hot summers, dirty socks, missing pets, late nights, and scheming plans—and it just makes me happy.

Unrelated:

I have a post up over at SouleMama (as part of her soulful mothering series) about my family cookbook— please take a peek!

salad with fennel and other items

I made this salad the other night and was reminded again of how good it is. I make it a little different each time. It's based off of a salad recipe that is in Molly's excellent book, A Homemade Life. It always makes me happy when I eat fennel. It's one of those food items I had eaten ill prepared many times—so I assumed I didn't like it. But I do, I realize, a whole lot actually, with the right balance of flavors.

For this salad I layer onto of a pile of lettuce: radishes, apple, fennel, and shaved Parmesan. I then top it with salt, pepper, lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil. Delicious. There is a tool needed however, one which I find absolutely mandatory—a mandoline to slice the radishes, fennel, and apple. I use mine all the time and am waiting for the day I cut myself. I need those special gloves!

Unrelated-

• I am up to no good over on Modern Domestic posting about the Bernina ruffler foot. They are offering these for 20% off during the month of June, so if you have ever been tempted to get one, here's your chance to get one on sale! I will be showing a few projects I have made with this glorious foot throughout June over there. Thanks Ladies!

• Over dinner last night with my crew I got a slew of good tips on the Netflix front including Doc Martin. The first episode I watched when I got home and enjoyed it so much. It feels like a cross between Northern Exposure (the show) with Local Hero (the movie). I love having a new series to watch.