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Transplanting Tips: The quest for homemade sauerkraut continues!
Remember the cabbage seeds that I started indoors back in March? Well, here they are now and they are ready to be transplanted in the ground! I hardened them off by bringing them outside during the day and bringing them back in a night for a couple of days. On the third day I left them out all night. I’m no expert at hardening off plants, as I haven’t done a lot of it. I would imagine some other plants, like warmer season crops, may need a longer and more gradual hardening off, but a few days seemed fine for the cabbage. This time of year, I try to do…
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Palette Challenge Project #1- Truffle Dress
I completed my first project for the Colette Patterns 2012 Spring/Summer Palette Challenge and I couldn’t be more pleased. I have to be honest, as my third ever handmade garment attempt, I kind of needed this one to be a win. I liked my Meringue skirt for the fabric and the piping, but structurally it had issues. I learned so much about fit making the Pastille dress, but realistically, I don’t see it being something I will wear very often. If I was going to keep spending time making handmade clothes, I really needed to make something I adored, to make it worth it. Luckily, I love my Truffle Dress! I had read several…
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A sunny Sunday in the garden: thinning’s not so painful when you have chickens… and a short rant on weeds.
Everything is growing in the garden right now, including the weeds. I have been told that a weed is just something in the garden you do not want. I also realize that there are people that tolerate and even embrace dandelions. I know it can be used as food and medicine. I respect that. Maybe it comes from my own ignorance as to how to properly contain and utilize the dandelion, but for now I hate dandelions. I hate them because they grow so aggressively, in places I don’t want them and can be difficult to remove. So this time of year I am obsessed with dandelions. I want them…
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2012 Spring & Summer Palette Challenge
Woohoo! I’m going to do a sewing challenge! Apparently, twice a year, Colette Patterns hosts seasonal wardrobe “palette” challenges. For this one, the idea is to pick a color palette for Spring and Summer, make a “mood board” (with examples of your colors, fabric, inspiration, etc.) and then make as many garments as you can, in 8 weeks. Here is my mood board (I totally had fun making this by the way): I already had the first two fabrics and had been eyeballing the third. The first fabric swatch, going from left to right, is a vintage fabric that I bought from Etsy. The listing was for a 60s style back satiny…
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A Pastille for Easter
I completed my first dress (my second garment and the second project in the Colette Sewing Handbook), just in time for Easter dinner at Flower’s house! My inspiration for the fabric and the trim was from this post from the Nashville blog, Lladybird. The author, Lauren, makes the cutest clothes and always seems to find the perfect fabric for each project. To steal a saying from Monica, the owner of the West Seattle Fabric Company and author of the blog Bursting the Seams, my new dress is “happily imperfect”. Most of my mistakes are on the inside though (my surged seams suck) or are barely noticeable unless I point them out. I am…
