Dang. . . dang, this new gallery for the Polka Dotted aprons looks so good! Thank you all so much! This one here is designed by Meg and I am very excited that she is now selling the pattern, you can get yours here. Please head on over to Tie One On, pop over to flickr, and take a look at all the apron goodness. You can see the new theme there, too.
It's Friday and I am happy about that. It's not been a bad week, but I am looking forward to getting some help around here. I have some projects in mind—some crafting and some cooking. I had a failed batch of lollipops and I am determined to not let beat me. Reading the thermometer correctly will help immensely, I think. I didn't have it submerged enough last time and so my sugar syrup turned black while never getting to the hard crack phase on the thermometer. Oops. It's just sugar and water, right? No biggie. Not like the 4 eggs and 2 cups of sugar I wasted when I forgot to put the flour (the flour!) in my pumpkin cake last weekend. That is still irking me, actually. Oh, cooking with the girls can be fun and so not productive. I blame them, for the record.
Here's my apron for Tie One On, the theme being Polka-dotted Lovelies. It's for a young girl, and I thought it would be a great gift with the cookbook there. That's my copy, which is well used. I love this cook book. I think there is a sewing version too, but I haven't seen it in person. This fabric is by Grand Revival and the ruffle is from my trim basket.
other stuff:
-Julie over at Booga j reviewed a bread baking book that has been calling out to me. You have to read bout it, it sounds so cool!
-The bloggies!!! I am honored to be nominated in the Best Craft/Art Blog category along with the other great blogs, not martha, PostSecret, posy gets cozy, and apartment therapy. I just had thai food with Alicia last night and am now planning on T.P.-ing her house, you know, as a gesture of friendly competition. And I got a chance to talk to Megan of not martha fame this summer, and she was so cool and swell, I feel totally comfortable driving to Seattle to T.P her house, too. This is my 3rd year being nominated and I think I have come in last each time. I assume so, because they list the winner, and then the other blogs. . .and I am always listed last. So one can assume, that, you know, I am last. So my goal this year is to be second to last. Vote! I always feel so excited to see the other nominated blogs are out there. I am going to check out the music ones for sure. I can only listen the Fraggle songs a bit longer around here before I go all hyphy.
There's a cool homemade apron contest over at Craft and I'm gonna enter this one-
You all have to enter this!!
All you need to send is an image of a homemade apron. That's it!
Okay, there are hundreds of these already made over at Tie One On, so all of you apron makers out there, just send in a jpeg of what you have made before!! 5 winners will get a copy of this fine book, Prairie Girl, (which is the inspiration for this contest) and the lucky 5 will also get to see their apron in the actual Craft magazine. See the details here and make your aprons famous! The deadline is November 12th.
I know this doesn't look like an apron, but it is. An apron of sorts. I'm calling it the Dour Fir Apron, for the Tie One On theme, Local Pride. Doug firs are so prolific here in Oregon and a woodland fairy skirt was desperately needed for the middle child's upcoming birthday. . .so there you go. These fairy skirts are just about the easiest things to make ever. I have tried all kinds of tricks gathering the tulle and have discovered it's stupidly hard. The easiest thing to do is just pinch it together as you sew, then it's a piece of cake.
There are 6 layers of tulle in 3 different colors topped with a mildly tacky printed tulle with pine cones and fir needles. I was on the fence about using this print but decided to go for it. It makes it so Doug fir-y and sweet and you know how the kids love anything a bit tacky. I keep trying to go all minimal with them and then I get busted. "Mom, where's the glitter? The jewels?" Oh, yeah. . .
So, to make this I just measured the tiny waist and gathered the tulle layers to that circumference measurement. Then I centered the gathered puffy skirt it on a long wide ribbon and stitched it down. I topped the waist with another piece of ribbon, sandwiching all the tulle raw edges in-between. The ties are only one layer of ribbon, if this makes sense. Then I trimmed it all while it was on the hanger, making a bit uneven and puffy, fluffing like mad. No hemming needed of course, I love tulle. It all cost about $5 by the way. I am exaggerating, but it's not much, anyway. I got 2 yards in each color and had a bit left over in the length. I want one, too. I'm not afraid to admit it.
The March/April Rick-Rack Gallery is up, you can go to it here from Tie One On it is amazing. You can check out the new theme there, too. A ton of aprons this round all worth careful inspection. And check this rad one here from Tanya! That's some rick-rack!! So very cool, I am freakin' over this.
I have nothing to report today other than that, it's been all about aprons here the last 48 hours. . .except I am into the heavy testing phase for the next mailorder recipe card and it involves rhubarb. I am so excited.
The theme for Tie One On for November is to share a holiday recipe and show an apron. Any apron. That's it. I wanted to make it easy on us all. . so find your favorite apron, take a photo, and dig though your recipe cards. And while you are at it, please check out Hannah's cool new food/recipe blog, the recipe box. She has some great recipes already up and even a pdf of a super cool blank recipe card to print out, all ready for your box. I think we should all e-mail her our Tie One On recipes as well for this awesome project, can't have too much of good thing.
This is one of my all time favorite family recipes. It comes from our family cookbook that my mom and aunts put together in 1981, which deserves it's own post. The apron is one of my all time favorites that I thought would kind of go with the recipe. I got it for Christmas last year and love it to bits. Best pockets ever.
Christmas Braid
2 3/4 cup flour
1 package yeast
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
In a mixing bowl combine the yeast, 3/4 cup flour, and cardamom. In a small sauce pan (or the microwave) heat the milk, butter, and sugar until warm. (not hot) Add the milk mixture to the dry and mix on low for 30 seconds, scrape. Add egg. Beat for 3 min on a high speed. Slowly add the remaining flour to make a soft dough (you may us a little less or a little more flour than the 2 remaining cups.) Mix until the dough is smooth, (use a dough hook here) Put in a greased bowl to rise until doubled (depends on the yeast you use, 30-50 minutes) Punch down dough. Turn onto a floured surface and make 3 balls. Let rest for 10 min. Roll balls into 3 ropes (16" long) and braid loosely. Start in the middle and work out to each end, tucking/pinching ends under. Cover with a towel and let rise again until double in size.** Brush braid with a little milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 375 for 18-20 minutes.
**I always pre-heat the oven during the second rise and put the dough nearby or even on top of the oven. It makes it rise faster.
The smell of this braid baking is 100% Christmas to me. It's wonderful with butter and jam and even better as French toast the next morning. Thanks grammie!! Send me your favorite family recipe and apron photo. . share the love, man!
I got done with Delia's witch costume. I used the same style pinafore apron as Sadie's last month. I know this was sort cheating, but I needed to multitask. She is quite proud, as you can see. I made the caplet, the hat, and the treat bag, which you can barely see. I didn't not gather sticks for the broom however, I came to my senses (sort of.) I was cursing a bit at the amount details I put into Sadie's, because although it was fun, I felt I had to do the same for Delia's. . .it was making me a little nutty and I'm really glad they are finished. They are a little too big, but hey, I know these kids are gonna grow, right?
In keeping with a spooky post--my husband sent me this brilliantly stupid thing yesterday which I love. A great time waster.
We have zucchini here from the garden. . .I didn't see this one and it got WAY too big. . .so I guess I will be making some zucchini something. . .bread? Cake? Not sure, but something with sugar--and I think I can find some recipes here, god, I love the internet. Who knew you could put zucchini in so many things? The tomatoes are just now, barely, starting to get red, except the cherries, they are doing pretty good. The eggplant tanked as did the yellow cucumbers, which really bums me out-but the peppers are doing well. .
And, the June/July Tie One On apron gallery is up! Wow. I know I say this every time-but really, WOW. Some many amazing musical themed aprons. I haven't counted, but I think Sound of Music is the most popular. . thank you all, once again, for being so rad with your apron submissions.
I was going to bust out some apron type thing that was all tunic-y and hippie and Jesus Christ Superstar, but the vintage won out (again.) It's Oklahoma for my musical themed apron for the Tie One On June/July theme. This sassy number is trimmed with wide bias and has two pockets and I love her so. The pose here is so serious but I am actually singing and being a total goofball while I wear this. The girls always say "mama, stop singing. I sing self." I actually miss singing around the house because they really are adamant that I not sing! And I swear my singing voice is not offensive.
Okay, I know the summer is no time to be ironing and crafting inside, but this was way fun, so I hope the extra time motivates you all to add your musical apron-I can't wait to see what you all do!
Oh, I am happy about this. I decided to make a ficka, dicka, and ricka smock for myself for this month's Tie One On theme, also inspired from the anthropologie smock (and coincidentally, there is a great tutorial from suzdeth for a shirt like this as seen on whip-up) this style of smock seems to be all around right now-and I love it!! I don't want to take it off. I used a lightweight linen/rayon for this because it had to float, all cotton would have been way to stiff.
I really struggled with the pocket because I had to have a pocket, but should it contrast or blend in? I opted for the minimal look, which is usually my first choice. The challenge for me with this smock, was since I wanted to wear it out, I didn't want to look either; pregnant or like a 6 year old. And I was thinking a crazy patterned fabric pocket might make the look more. . . juvenile? I'm not even sure. Certainly a crazy patterned pocket wouldn't make me look pregnant. (Which I AM NOT by the way.) Not sure if I avoided these two looks with this smock, but I just don't care. I like it too much.
I'm not done with smocks. There are too many styles for me to be excited about. The 1970s tunic with bell sleeves, the 1940s house dress style. . .I could go on and on. But first, I need to get out of town. Family weekend at the beach tomorrow! yippee!
