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...

tomato!

“It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.”

-Lewis Grizzard

The tomato in all 3 photos is the ONLY one that turned red on my plant! So I thought it appropriate to give it a little podium. You know, like the when you win an Olympic event.

Are you blushing, tomato?

if you're looking for baby shower ideas...

A few weeks ago I coordinated a baby (girl) shower for a friend of mine.

I got the idea for a flag garland from my friend Robin. I chose about 6 different fabrics to use for flags, and used twill tape at the top. I ended up using about 56 feet of twill tape, and sewed about 48 flags.The shower took place in the church basement, which was great for size since so many folks attended, but needed a little help to brighten it up. :) I tried to transform the space with a "garden picnic" theme. Here's a photo of pretty much the whole space. My talented pastry-chef friend, Annika (check out her foodie blog...the girl knows her stuff), did the amazing cupcakes. (don't you love how they look like poppies and dahlias??!!)
Seriously, Annika is amazing. A true artist.
Each table had 3 paper poppies, created by a team of super crafty gals and myself. Also at the tables we had party favors: sewn little fabric pouches, sealed with a big ol' diaper pin and stuffed with salt water taffies. Got the idea from Twig & Thistle.
In addition to the paper flowers and party favors, each table had two small picture frames. I bought the frames from the goodwill, spray painted them pink, and put baby quotes in each one. I found this cool font at Da Font. It's free!


My husband helped me assemble these hanging paper flowers...how cool is it that they're made out of gusseted paper bags?! Super easy. I ordered pink bags in bulk online.

just peachy

Gentle folk, it was has been way too long since my last post. Between a family reunion, out of town guests, jury duty and planning a baby shower it seemed a little busy the past few weeks. But I'm back in the saddle again and wanted to share these photos of glorious ginger-peach corn vegan muffins from Babycakes. I had strong morning sun coming through the window for this photo, so I pulled down our white roman blinds to diffuse the light.

If you want to see a beautiful photos of peaches (along with numerous other gorgeous food photos), check out Rachelle's blog.

My heart is ever at your service. -William Shakespeare

Kip and I were blessed to attend a beautiful wedding for beautiful friends this weekend. It is truly a deep honor and profound joy to love and be loved.

Now join your hands, and with your hands your hearts.

-Shakespeare

Yummy macaroons...

The bride was beautiful. Shakespeare says it better:

I'll say she looks as clear as morning roses newly washed with dew.

continuing on the path

Kip tamping down the gravel.Putting down the edger. Leveling the sand...
Setting down our 'cobblestones'
Yay!
Sweeping sand between the cracks. I'll post pics of the finished path soon. We had a rain this weekend that helped settle the cobblestones and now we need to apply more sand.