a little luck...

for the weekend

two quilts down

finished my teal ikea fabric "cheater" quilt (cheating because it's backed with a fleece, not really quilted):

and last saturday, karoline made this sunny, cheerful lap quilt. it's backed with black satin (that's what she wanted):

she still has to hand-stitch the binding on the back side, but then it's done. i'm so pleased that she wanted to make something. i guess we actually are influencing by example.

so we're already getting good use out of the new machine:

next up, a fairy costume for sabin's upcoming school play--she's playing a fairy in sleeping beauty.  these are the materials i bought to make it:

and i'm going to try out a few of the fancy stitches the machine can do and sew these felt flowers to a ready-made pillow case i bought in ikea:

buche de nöel

and here is the finished masterpiece. i might not have the heart to let anyone eat it...

stuff we've been making

stuff we've been making at our house lately:

quilts

roasted peppers

self-portraits

small stories made of stacked books

painted walls

snowmen

and homemade schnapps

(horseradish - dried apple, cinnamon & clove - fresh apple & cinnamon)

happy thanksgiving!

i love books

spotted at design for mankind, is the coolest bookshelf ever or what?

cooking and sewing

because one often feels like nesting with the approach of winter, we've been making some yummy things with the last of the tomatoes from sabin's tomato plant and we've been sewing some throw pillows for the chairs in the living room.

fabulous tomato pasta sauce

8-10 ripe tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
1 medium onion, diced
3 fat cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 small chili (can be left out of kids are being fed, or just use a mild one)
salt & garlic pepper to taste
T of fresh thyme leaves (or other herbs you have access to)
drizzle of cream

sauté the onions and garlic and chili, add the tomatoes, salt & pepper and thyme. simmer 'til the tomatoes are cooked down.  put in a drizzle of cream just before you serve it--it takes out some of the intense, acidy tomatoiness in a good way.

i served it over fresh pasta with garlic-butter portobellos as the "meat."  it was fabulous.

i made a similar version of the tomato sauce (sans cream) and with quite a lot more chili to use like the patatas bravas sauce we get at the tapas place in greenbelt over a potato omelet.  yum.  what was left over, i threw into a batch of The Soup, so you might say that it's a very versatile thing to have around the house.  and it's good for those last tomatoes that aren't quite ripe or tasty enough to eat in BLTs or salads.

* * *

and now, for the pillows. sabin wanted to sew and since i've been stashing fun fabrics for awhile now, we decided to see what we had that could be turned into some pillows for the chairs in the living room. sabin chose these fabrics and with a little bit of help from me, even sewed herself on the sewing machine. we ended up with this cheerful and autumny pillow:

side 1

side 2

and last night, i got a 10 p.m. creative rush and started making this one:

fun!

what i did with my weekend

today, i made these apple "hand pies," which i was inspired to make after visiting tiny happy:

i used the crust recipe from here. and apples from our own tree, which i cut up, soaked in lemon water to keep them from browning (very effective and totally natural), sprinkled them with sugar, cinnamon and a small amount of flour.

they looked like this when they were baked:

they were very popular and disappeared VERY quickly.

i also made some in little bitty tart tins:

i planned on making cloth dust covers for all of my kitchen aid appliances, but didn't get that far.

we had some old bananas, so we also made banana bread, which i didn't photograph.

on friday, i bought this fabulous TLR camera:

i loaded it with 120 film (expired in 1991) and took a few pictures. we'll have to see how they turn out. quite cool once i figured it out!

then, i spied some sweet little mushrooms poking their heads up through the bricks out in the circle, so i got out my macro lens and took some pix of them up close and personal.

this lemon is on the "old" lemon tree.

i hope it holds on!!

and last, but not least, the "boys" (husband and rafy) finished the ceiling in the writing house:

now we can paint! one of those shades of blue you see on the far wall.

what did you do with your weekend?

great about today

1. the sun has been shining for like a week straight.
2. a lovely, very old, very tiny lady i saw biking to the grocery store on a brand new very cool, very trendy shiny black bike.
3. 150 K-2 graders dressing up as elves, trolls, knights and sorcerers and doing a role play all week down at the viking village. sabin is both elf and healer of the elves--which she does through special chants on the sideline of the battlefield.
4. did i mention that the sun is shining?
5. singing at the top of my lungs in the car.
6. my pretty little wave notebook, where i now record all blog inspiration
7. fresh coconut (i know this goes against my new local food thing, but i bought them before i decided to get serious about it and it would be a waste not to use them now).
8. this juice for lunch: 3 small beets, 2 large carrots, 1 hunk ginger, half a fresh coconut, 2 kumquats, ½ a lemon, 2 apples.
9. great lines from songs..."stars are just old light," and "what else can you do with seven itty bitty men..."
10. sunshine, glorious sunshine!

7 good things about 2007

it seemed too boring without any pictures of anything on this blog, so i hereby share the page i made yesterday entitled 7 good things about 2007. it was rather limiting to only put 7, but that's all there was room for on my 18mmx20mm page that goes into my fabulous plum-colored bookbinders design binder. what are YOUR top 7 good things about 2007?