angry chicken

fashion and magazines and sewing

I've been doing a lot of sewing lately, helping with the girls' Cinderella production at their ballet school. I am primarily working on the step-sisters and step-mom. I'm having a blast reworking old costumes—adding new bodices, trims, etc. I keep thinking of the dress Molly Ringwald made in Pretty and Pink (gah!) while chopping up old dresses and adding new parts. This kind of sewing really appeals to me. It's on a tight deadline, I have to use existing fabric/trims from a costume shop stash, and I have to be bold with my choices—subtle doesn't translate from a stage.

Seemingly unrelated, but actually related, I am in between books, and have been craving a fashion magazine. A printed one, not one online. I was thinking about buying one, but I haven't really bought any in so long. I sometimes buy an Elle for the beach or when I fly, but the ads are so gross and the perfume samples stink and it's all so much junk to wade through to get to the good content and editorials— I knew there must be some cool indie fashion mags out there that aren't online only. I have a few old issues of Lula, which are lovely, but skew very young and I'm not always in the mood to look at the sad lounging girls.

I found this list of indie fashion mags, and even though it is a few years old (I'm assuming not all of these are still around) it got me interested in searching around. I didn't have to go far, one of the holiday gifts I received this year from a dear friend (who often knows what I want before I do) was this book, The WORN Archive: A Fashion Journal about the Art, Ideas, & History of What We Wear which is a compilation of articles from Worn Magazine. I remembered I had it earlier today when I saw Worn listed in the indie fashion mag article I linked to. I'm having a hard time putting it down—it's exactly what I wanted. I sewed all morning and afternoon and took a long reading break on the sofa, with a quilt, a pug, and a napping 7-year old, thoroughly enjoying this book. It reminds me of Nest, my favorite interior design magazine (RIP) which was about non-traditional designers creating interiors in wonderful, strange, and artistic ways which were often a bit crazy.

Sometimes, I wonder how much stuff I have squirrelled away I have forgotten about. I did find 3 pairs of small sewing scissors in various sewing kits this morning after cursing that I had none.

flying machines

We are learning about flying machines and the Wright Brothers (and their sister, Katherine) and have spent all day making paper airplanes from this wonderful site where you can print out templates—already marked and ready to fold. They were then decorated (there is a ballet themed one) and are now being used in a home movie as I type this. The home movie is going okay. There are some artistic differences but everyone is happy to have discovered the slow-motion feature.

random stuff

The weather has been getting warmer this week, which is thrilling. This is at Marshall Park, which is down the street from my childhood home. I spent so much time here when I was little. It's different now, but the trails are still the same.

• I finally started and finished Wild, by Cheryl Strayed. This was one of the I-know-I-should-read-this-emotionally-exhausting-book-but-I'm-avoiding-it books on my list. The other was The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, which I read a bit back. I'm glad I read both. Wild was not what I thought it was going to be. After reading Tiny Beautiful Things, I expected more, maybe unfairly. I'm not sure more of what? More emotion? There was something so raw about Tiny Beautiful Things, that I missed in Wild. I haven't seen the movies, I'm not sure if I will. Maybe.

• I did see a movie last week, While We're Young. It was funny and cringey. Pete and I had a lot to discuss. I liked it because it gave us so much to talk about, not because it was perfect. It's uneven, but very entertaining. We had many questions about what was intentional and what was accidental in terms of themes. 

• The girls are loving Duolingo for foreign language study. I am realizing just how much Italian I have forgotten since college. Delia has realized she can make fart noises in the recording/spoken part of the exercises and still usually get them right. Now she says she can fart in Spanish.

 

coconut macaroons with unsweetened coconut

I love eating coconut macaroons and love making them. It took me awhile to find the perfect recipe. With so few ingredients, you'd think it would be simple, but it wasn't. After testing different recipes, I knew I really didn't like them too gummy or too sweet. The recipes that call for sweetened coconut (which I never seem to have, I buy unsweetened in bulk) and/or sweetened condensed milk just never crisp up enough for me and are too sweet and gummy. This recipe I have been using for a few years now and it works perfect. I like them a little more toasted than normal, so you might want to check them at 15 minutes, depending on your preference. Bonus—these are so nice to have for the gluten-free/dairy free people in my life.

For the cookies:

• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
• 3 egg whites*
• 1 tsp vanilla
• pinch of salt

I whip the sugar and egg whites until they are almost a meringue. This is a crucial step that I think makes a huge difference. Then I add the other ingredients and bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes, checking for browness at about 18 minutes. I use a small cookie dough scoop for these. Delicious!

*Sometimes this seems like too much liquid, depending on the size of the eggs. When this happens, I add 1/4 cup more coconut. Conversely, if I only have two eggs left in the house, I add less coconut, more like 2 1/4 cups.

pencils.

I read about this great pencil shop CW Pencil Enterprise in NYC and fell in love with the online shop. The photos of it are so calm and pleasing. I really wish I could go to the shop in person.

I wanted to order some pencils and erasers for the whole family, but I didn't know where to start. So, I did what my brother would do. I e-mailed the shop owner, Caroline Weaver, and asked if she would pull pencils for me based on my needs and include her favorites. I gave her a price not to exceed. She was so helpful and enthusiastic and wrote detailed notes on all the envelopes separating the pencils by type. We are thrilled and are scribbling away like mad. Happy internet moment! I think she should open a shop here in Portland.

dyi travel watercolor sets

I saw these watercolors sets on etsy a bit back and have been wanting to make one ever since. There were a few how-to methods I found online. One used empty watercolor pans that you stick in an empty Altoids tin, but they were hard to source and we always have Fimo or Sculpey in the house, so we tried this method instead.

You can watch the tutorial Delia made with Adobe Voice. It takes a second to load and you have to scroll down and hit the play button. She made this tutorial 100% on her own, which is so impressive and also demonstrates how easy this app is to use.

A few more details that might be helpful:

• We baked these with the Sculpey in the tin, without paint, at 235° for about 20 min for the mini tins, 35 min for the larger tin.

• This set is only as good as the paints used. We used cheap ones for this, but it would be easy to upgrade to fancy tube watercolor paints. This is easy to refill.

• Our wooden spoon handle had a slightly pointed tip, which was very handy for making the wells.

• This brush, which also holds water, is great for using with this tin when out and about.

nice little coffee house

We have some time to kill between violin and piano lessons every week and I just recently discovered this lovely coffee house, Maplewood Coffee & Tea nearby that is our new favorite spot. It's in a residential neighborhood and it tucked away where you would never know about it unless you lived there. It has a pretty big play room for tiny ones, and a park is at the end of the street. They serve Stumptown coffee and also cookies from Two Tarts, which makes me happy since the Two Tarts shop in NW closed a bit back.

Unrelated but equally exciting:

• We bought some pencils from this online shop CW Pencil Enterprise and were thrilled with what I got. I will post photos soon.

• We are madly making mini watercolor sets in Altoids tins and it's so much fun. Delia is almost done with her tutorial for it now. She's making it in Adobe Voice on the iPad, which I will post a link to soon. It's pretty amazing what she can do. That girl has seen a lot of craft tutorials.

creamy chickpea spinach soup

I made this Creamy Spinach Chickpea soup a bit back and it was a huge hit with most of the family. This is a photo of before it was blended. I use a stick blender for this, which I love. I have been researching getting a Vitamix for a few months. I stopped researching, finally deciding to get one (after also looking at a Ninja) but I still haven't pulled the trigger. I have a blender that works fine. It's not amazing, but it makes smoothies, which is what I need it to do. But it won't blend greens and kale the way I suspect it needs to get the kids drinking them. They will eat veggies in soup, however. So, I'm feeling like I can't justify the price. I know they have them refurbished, but still.

So, I took the money I had ear-marked for the Vitamix and bought an iPad mini last week as a family learning tool. So far, it's iMovie 24/7 here. I made a lot of home movies when I was little (with a huge video camera strapped to my shoulder!) and I can't believe how easy it is now. The version of iMovie on my laptop was so old and clunky (my OS is so old I can't upgrade) and this new version is insanely easy to use, the girls are making movies non-stop all by themselves.

Any iPad learning apps you all like? I am finding a ton out there, Common Sense Media is a great resource for this.