for those I love
for a haven of comfort
for the extravagance of time – to reflect, to create, to share
for the lessons of hardships
for the simple joys
for new connections forged
for this life
i am grateful.
**********************************************************************
Wishing a Happy Thanksgiving to all! I will spend a long weekend stuffing myself silly with food and celebrating with my two favorite people in the world. I will return Monday with a new handmade outfit. Cheers!
I have rarely had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner… Growing up, my mom made sushi for T-day, though as I grew into my teens, big turkeys started to appear next to the sashimi. And for the last couple of years, due to work or lack of motivation, we went out for Chinese food.
I know. Sacrilege.
This year though, I’m cooking. It’ll just be the three of us because we avoid travel during Thanksgiving week (we had a harrowing travel experience five years ago and vowed never to subject ourselves to it again – it’s hard when you have no family in town). It’ll be nice and low-key, and the menu will be non-traditional. I probably won’t make sushi, but it will be stepped up a bit from our usual store-bought roasted chicken. Instead of pumpkin pie, I’m planning on making this panna cotta. There might be cornish hens and maybe a corn bread stuffing…
I bought a humongous 29 oz can of pumpkin puree by mistake, which is far too much for the panna cotta. So I made pumpkin muffins using half the can.
I used Sarabeth’s recipe, but didn’t have any raisins or sunflowers or pastry flour, so I made a few modifications: omitted the raisins and sunflowers and used cake flour instead. Not to worry, they’re still absolutely delectable. And when combined with Ina’s maple cream cheese frosting…well, these muffins are entirely too addictive.
How cute are those polka-dot cupcake cups?? I happened to have stripey washi tape in my supplies basket so I made little flags. Don’t they look great together?
What are your T-day plans if you’re in the US? We miss seeing our family, but it’s also nice to have the special day with just the three of us.
It started with this.
Several years ago, I wanted to try fabric paint to make my own design. I took some grey linen and white fabric paint and voila, I had little rain drops because when you live in the Pacific Northwest, you are always thinking about rain.
And then I made this little number…
But it turned out that K did not like grey at the age of three (how can she be my daughter??). She has strong opinions, that one. She only wore it once. And it sat in the deepest, darkest corner of her closet, completely forgotten.
Until yesterday.
I have been ooh-ing and aah-ing over the many cloud pillows on the great interweb, and remembered the grey linen with white rain drops. How perfect!
So I drew a cloud shape freehand, but realized that the stuffing will spill out from the button back. A duplicate was traced onto a white linen/cotton blend and the grey became a pillow cover. Since I had the white fabric out anyway, I made a bigger cloud.
And got this.
They’re a bit puckered, I know, and the grey pillow could be shaped a little more cloud-like. But they are very sweet and K approves. There will be more cumulus nimbus pillows in the horizon…
Happy Friday! I feel this way with every Friday post, but I am enamored with this outfit and desperately want one in my size. Though I sewed at a snail-like pace and kept making mistakes, I was able to complete the two dresses and am loving them. A light caramel-colored shirt dress over a silvery-beige-camisole dress, accented with creme. Très chic, no?
She’s holding these in her hands (left over from Halloween, and now I’m realizing that next to actual caramels, the dress is more camel-colored, but ‘shades of camel and creme’ doesn’t have as nice a ring to it).
Surprisingly, I did not use my usual pattern book this week. The shirt dress is from this and the camisole dress from this. Both are made of cotton; the shirt dress feels more like a cotton lawn, and the camisole dress is a linen-look.
I love the shirt dress. The frills, the many buttons, the little belt. I debated whether to add a contrasting color and fabric for the frills and belt, but no, I’m glad I stuck with the same fabric. It has a little bit of an Orla Kiely feel, and worn over the camisole, it looks like a pseudo-trench coat.
The camisole dress is simple yet has a slight twist in the design. The shoulder straps loop into a back seam channel and through two holes to be tied in the back – that was kind of a botch job of an explanation and it’s hard to see in the photos, I know, but trust me, it’s very cute.
Look who’s being silly.
I think I’m on the mend. I slept through the night and my headache is gone – hurrah! Hope you have a wonderful weekend friends, and stay warm!
Thank you for all the well wishes – it seems that this is one of those tenacious flu-type illnesses that is determined to stick around. I am doing everything slowly this week and am not getting a whole lot done…but I am getting better and while I sip more tea and try to recover, I am mining old works and leave you with one of my illustration series, “Seasons” (done entirely digitally with lots of origami paper overlays). Summer, with the penguins, is my favorite.
