Christmas Morning Brunch

We celebrated Christmas in Seattle this year, with my husband's side of the family. I know it is now June, but I'm playing catch-up with my posts. Christmas morning we had the family over for brunch.

Christmas Brunch Menu

Coffee and Orange Juice

Yogurt Parfait with Homemade Granola

Satsumas

Raspberry-topped Lemon Muffins

Sausage*, Fontina and Bell Pepper Strata

*I used Field Roast's Smoked Apple Sage "Sausage"

DIY felt garland from the Purl Bee

DIY Enameled Bottles from Martha Stewart. I collected empty San Pellegrino Lemonata bottles.

DIY Fabric Birds and Owls. Not being an amazing seamstress, these patterns were pretty do-able for me. Leftover blue and white striped fabric from my friend Robin's weddin'.

I'm back!

Hello, friends...it's been a while. To sum it up, the past 7 months have been a little overwhelming for me. No special or dramatic reason, just more responsibility at work and working on projects at home. Writing on the blog felt like one more thing I had to do, so it got cut.

I'm feeling better now, so I'm going to start this up again! I do like writing little blurbs on the blog, and sharing photos of my projects and food stuff. It's nice to feel energy to do that again.

The project we're working on right now (by the way, we DID finish our bathroom...photos to come)...the backyard! We've put in raised beds for vegetables (Kip's birthday present to me). Those photos are also to come. I'll put them in my next post.

First ever harvest! I made yummy Butter-Glazed Radishes from Orangette. Since I had about 100 radishes that needed to be eaten, this recipe put a nice dent in that amount.

fall kick-off

A few weeks ago we spent the weekend at my in laws' cabin in Leveanworth, WA. Saturday for breakfast we made pumpkin muffins, so delish... ...as well as a smashing frittata.
After our power breakfast, we went for a hike at Merritt Lake.
A few fall colors...

potting bench

I'm sneaking in a picture of the finished path. I realized I hadn't put one on yet!

This is the 'before' picture to show you what the southeast side of the front yard looks like. The potting bench and tiny tool shed will go here. The rhodies and bird bath will be moved. The other plants in the picture are our neighbor's.

Now for the potting bench. Kip and I found this old workbench for free on craigslist. The wood was unsealed, so we painted the boards with white paint. The boards on the top were rotting, so we removed them.

We replaced the boards on the top with the old planks we removed from behind the asbestos siding (project from March 2009). These planks are nearly 100 years old. To protect the boards against the outdoor elements, we sealed them with the same sealant we used on the deck.

Kip screwing planks to the table.

After securing the top, we nailed 6"x6' cedar fence boards to the back of the table.

It was really hard to get them perfectly even at the top, so we used a small strip of wood as a trim to hide this.

Finished potting bench in its new home! Those 4 posts next to it are the skeleton of the shed Kip is making me! Photos on that to come...