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Garden Tour
I love my garden this time of year, when all the beds are full and everything is growing like crazy. Awhile ago, I did a tour of my studio and figured this would be the perfect time to give a tour of my garden. I’ll start with the front yard, since that is where the majority of the beds are. Unfortunately, I don’t have any good “before” pictures of my front yard. When I bought the house in 2007, there was just one raised bed, by the front fence line, and it was all overgrown. The rest was all lawn. Over the years we have added to the garden slowly. One…
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Fitting My Wedding Dress: Ava Muslin #2- a Wearable Muslin
It’s hard to believe that it has been over a year already since Matt and I got engaged. It felt like we had so much time to plan the wedding and somehow, suddenly, it’s only 9 weeks away! We are doing pretty well planning-wise. We were able to get the big things nailed down back in March, while we were in Vermont, like the catering and the tent. The rest of it we have been able to work on from here, like the wedding website, “Save the Date” cards, invitations, having rings made and getting Matt’s suit ordered, etc.. All the while, I have been slowly working on my wedding…
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Broccoli and Roasted Garlic Quiche
One of my favorite things to make in the Summer is quiche with broccoli from the garden and eggs from our chickens. I just made two of these for a baby shower brunch last weekend and they were a big hit. The secret is the homemade crust and the farm fresh eggs. Also, to avoid cow’s milk dairy, I make mine with soy creamer and goat and sheep cheese. And yes, it still tastes delicious and firms up just like it would with real milk. People are often impressed that I make my own crust. I should just take the compliment, but usually don’t, because the crust is so easy…
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Bachelorette Party Weekend
T-minus 12 weeks until my wedding! Since our wedding is in Vermont, we live in Seattle and we have friends coming from out of state, Matt and I decided to have our bachelor and bachelorette parties early, to break up the traveling people have to do. Plus, it is nice in the Northwest this time of year. Matt had his in Portland, OR and mine was in Cle Elum, WA. Yes, we both had party “weekends”. His was 4 days and mine was 3! Hey, we don’t get out of town often and neither do some of our friends (with kids), so I think everyone involved was happy to get…
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Broadcast Sowing: My Favorite Way to Plant Lettuce
Lettuce has a fairly long growing season here in the Pacific Northwest. You can pretty much plant lettuce from Spring until Fall. It only gets tricky if it gets hot, as the seeds can dry out before they germinate. I tend to plant lettuce mostly in the Spring and the Fall. My favorite way to plant lettuce is to broadcast sow the seeds. Lettuce seeds are perfect for broadcast sowing, because they are small and don’t need to be buried deep in the ground. I think broadcast sowing seeds is fun too and quicker than making a bunch of tiny holes for a bunch of tiny seeds. I just put the seeds in my hand and scatter them evenly over the area where…
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Mosaic Flower Stone Workshop Recap
I don’t know what the word is for me; life-long learner, school-a-holic, knowledge junkie? Yikes. Somehow none of those terms sound good. All I know is, I sure do like to be in school, taking classes and learning stuff. I was in college for 7 years after all. When my blogging bud, Stacy Brewer, of the blog Seattle Seedling announced her plans of starting an “Urban Farm Schoolhouse”, I was totally on board. I was especially happy to see that she was offering a Mosaic Flower Stone Workshop. I had seen some of her mosaics on her blog and was totally jealous of her skills, so I signed up immediately. I’ve been reading Stacy’s…
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Remembering my Mother
I don’t even know how to write about this right now, but my dear mother passed away last Friday, after a two-year battle with liver disease. Words can’t really express the grief I am feeling right now, but one thing that has been giving me comfort is a photo album that my mother made for me, several years ago. She made one for each of her three daughters, of which I am the youngest. The album is very telling, as it’s full of photos of the people she loved and the places and events that were important to her. There are photos of all of the houses we lived in, places she and my father…
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Fitting my Wedding Dress: Ava Muslin #1
Construction of my wedding dress is underway and I have completed my first muslin! The pattern is the Victory Patterns Ava and I am very happy with how the fitting is going so far. Fitting the Muslin- Based on the finished measurements for this pattern, I started by tracing a size 8 at the shoulders. Then, starting at the armpits, I graded the pattern from a size 8 to a size 10, so that from the waist down the pattern was traced as a size 10. I’m a bit pear-shaped, so this is typically what I do. The instructions tell you to try on the dress after you attach the lower bodice to the skirt and before…
