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Baby Shower on a Budget!
I’d never been a part of planning a baby shower before, so when I was recently asked to help with decorations for one, I turned to Pinterest for inspiration. Pinterest is great for party planning, as you can make a “secret board” that only people you invite can see. This way, I could pin inspiration to “Traci’s Baby Shower”, invite the people who were helping plan the shower and then Traci (who follows me on Pinterest), would not be able to see what we were planning. It’s brilliant and so helpful. I’ve made the board public now, since the event is over, if anyone wants to take a look. My friend, Val, and…
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Goat Cheese Making: Homemade Chèvre
One of my goals for 2013 was to make cheese. I am lactose intolerant, but have found that I can eat sheep and goat cheese. I have wanted to make my own cheese ever since reading about author, Barbara Kingsolver’s, own lactose intolerance and cheesemaking in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Exciting stuff, huh? Well, you try not eating cheese for years and you may think it’s pretty exciting too. Unless you are vegan and then you just have more willpower than me. Also, I like the flavor of goat cheese. Some people don’t. Even some other lactose intolerant people I know don’t like it. So they may not be…
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An Interview with Sarai Mitnick of Colette Patterns
The The Colette Sewing Handbook played a huge part in me learning how to sew. The first three garments I ever made were the first three patterns in the handbook, the Meringue skirt, Pastille dress and Truffle dress. Colette Patterns are some of my favorite to sew. They are everything I want in a pattern; vintage inspired, yet contemporary, stylish, cute and unique. They come in beginner, intermediate and advanced patterns. I have only attempted the beginner’s patterns so far, but I have found them all to have easy to understand directions. With each new project, and the handbook open to the chapter on fit, I have been getting better and better…
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Super Simple Pea Trellis
This pea trellis is so simple it is almost ridiculous that I am even posting about it, but it is the one I always do, so here it is. SUPPLIES: trellis netting- the larger size, so I get the 5′ x15′ wooden garden stakes- pack of six, six feet tall staple gun with 1/4″ 6mm staples INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Put stakes in garden bed where you want them. 2. Staple trellis netting to stakes, cut where you need to. What I like about these: They are cheap, simple and fast to set-up. It’s not permanent and so can be placed anywhere in the garden. What I don’t like about these: They…
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Maple Blossom Fritters
Ever since Flower went foraging for nettles, I have been intrigued by the idea of foraging. For awhile now, I have been hearing of people foraging for mushrooms and for all sorts of wild greens, even within the city limits. My friend Cara is the expert on foraging and I have been wanting to go mushroom foraging with her for awhile, but it hasn’t worked out time-wise yet (she often goes on weekdays and odd hours). When Cara came over last Saturday and asked if I wanted to go foraging for maple blossoms and then make maple blossom fritters, I said “Hell yeah!”. I did think we were going to…
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Portland Blogcademy Recap
If you follow me on social media at all, you have probably already seen a lot of photos from my weekend at the Blogcademy in Portland. I couldn’t wait to share them! But if you want to know how my weekend went and what the Blogcademy was like, read on! Blogcademy is a two day blogging workshop taught by Kat Williams of Rock n’ Roll Bride, Shauna Haider of the blog Nubby Twiglet and Gala Darling. The Portland Blogcademy was their 4th workshop (they go to L.A. next) and they will be starting their world tour after that. More info and dates can be found at www.theblogcademy.com It was held…
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March Cook the Books: Good Fish- Hangtown Fry!
The March cookbook, for the Cook the Books cookbook challenge (hosted by Meg of Grow and Resist and Oh Briggsy), is Good Fish: Sustainable Seafood Recipes from the Pacific Coast by Becky Selengut. Becky is from Seattle, used to work at the Herbfarm and I think she should be my friend. She also has a podcast that I have become hooked on (thanks to Meg mentioning it in her overview of the cookbook), called Closed for Logging. I listen to a lot of podcasts and If I can listen to someone I don’t even know talk for an hour, and think they are hilarious, than they really must be funny. At…
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5 tips for Overcoming Being Overwhelmed by the Garden
photo by Amy Kiel With the arrival of Spring, and the official start of gardening season, I thought I would welcome in the new season, by talking about something that I experience every year around this time. No matter how diligently I put my garden to bed in the Winter, I always walk out to a yard that overwhelms me in the Spring. There’s dead stuff that needs to be pulled out and chopped up for compost. Then there are the beds that are compacted from a Winter’s worth of rain that need to be forked up (and root systems removed), so the soil is loose again. What has become my…
