Just So Good.

Yup, my birthday's coming up. Monday to be exact. I generally don't make a big deal about birthdays (well, my own at least). I always feel awkward telling people that it's my birthday, I never want anyone to feel like they were supposed to know or supposed to get me something. But I do love how birthdays (like any holiday really) are such a great excuse to reconnect with people who may have drifted a little too far away.

And of course, I just love the handmade presents.

This lovely and oh so yummy blackberry jam arrived on Wednesday from my old roommate and dear friend Leah. She made it while visiting her boyfriend's family (sounds like an intergenerational jam-making session) in Washington state.

Look how perfect it is on my oatmilk bread. Yum Yum. Thanks Leah!

Shop Update

So I mentioned this shop update a couple of days ago and it is currently underway. I've still got a few more pieces that hopefully will all be up by tomorrow night (I do actually have a day job). Here's a little sneak peek...

We've got pouches (snappy and zippy), bags (well, there's just this one right now, but I'm working on a couple more that will hopefully be done next week), and children's hats. I'm still working on more pieces for the fall/winter and I'm hoping to be a bit more regular about keeping the shop updated with new stuff. (Also- there's still a nice sale going on to clear out some of the leftover summer stock- so be sure to check that out too).

NYC, part 4: there and back

To wrap this whole report up... Just before we left to go to New York, I decided (and who wouldn't) that I needed a new bag to take with me. Right. Seeing as our flight wasn't leaving until the evening, I put off this project until the very last minute, finishing it about an hour before we left the house.

It was perfect though. Simple, functional, and of course with my new favorite fabric.

I also decided that I needed an embroidery project for the plane ride. I usually knit on planes, but I haven't been knitting too much lately (Some of you may remember that sweater I was all excited about finishing a while back. You may also have noticed-or not- that I never actually reported back on the finishing of said sweater. That would be because said sweater is still in it's hiding place in a box not too be looked at any time soon. I'm still getting over my desire to burn it. Let's just say, it was a long, frustrating project, that didn't come out beautifully in the end.).

Anyways, while we waited to board the plane, I worked on a drawing, which was then traced onto some fabric. I spent the ride to New York working on this.

And then I spent the ride back working on this.

And lo and behold, upon my arrival, so many of the trees here actually look like that. It's like my embroidery was some kind of wish for fall to really appear. And it has. We had a wonderful trip, but I'm glad to be back in Minneapolis. Ready for cool weather, apples (and all the apple yumminess that will arrive soon), back to knitting, more shop updates, the restart of our netflix subscription (suspended for the summer), and many cozy cozy nights.

brief interruption...

please bear with me for a brief interruption of the nyc recap posts for this beautiful introduction to my very favorite season.

I celebrated the first day of fall by getting back to breadmaking. Two delicious loaves of "soymilk bread" (I used oatmilk) from the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book. I hope you are all enjoying the new season.

There is a shop update in the works. It's been a very long time coming, and I'm definitely feeling it. I'm not planning a big, all-at-once update, but rather a few items here and there over the next week or two. I will keep you all posted on the new items as they appear.

NYC, part 3: heirloom crafts

Everytime I go visit my parents, there's always a pile of goodies from my mom waiting for me (and it's always in the same spot- on the floor next to the nightstand in my old bedroom). It usually consists of some newspaper articles she's cut out for me, the occasional free pair of underwear from Victoria's Secret, the odd piece of mail that came for me, and often some old item that she's just found and thought I would want.

Well this trip, I may have hit the jackpot. Although my mom found her craft love in knitting and not sewing, my grandmother and great-grandmother were apparently quite the seamstresses. My mom claims that she never learned to sew because her mom always ripped out her projects and redid them herself. Anyways, mom found a whole pile of beautiful embroidery thread, some apparently belonged to my great-grandmother. (The labels on many of them are in Polish). What a treasure- I know I'll need to come up with a special project for these.

She also uncovered this beautiful sampler that she made when she was younger.

And finally, these old tea towels (or curtains? we're not quite sure) that were my grandmother's and these aprons.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I'll be back next week with the conclusion of my nyc recap posts.

NYC, part 2: soon to be built by me

Maybe it's the change in season. Maybe it's the fact that I hate shopping and generally buy one new clothing item every other month, and I'm still wearing some clothes from high school (although I suppose I should be reassured that they still fit). But I'm tired of my clothes and want new ones.

One would think that the logical thing to do when a person is in need of new clothes and in New York City would be to um, go shopping. However, when it comes to shopping I am plagued by both a good conscience and a deep desire for good value (and I don't just mean cheap- I mean well made). I have spent way too much time in my younger life working against sweatshop conditions, and am truly a firm believer in fair labor (and that can mean so many different things), to now ignore those values in favor of hip clothes. So I really try my best not to shop just anywhere that has cute clothes. I have found a great store here in Minneapolis that I think really fits my requirements of a clothing store, Birch Clothing, but I think the best solution is to really hit the patterns and start making more of my own clothing.

I achieved my goal of learning how to use a pattern this summer- I made three skirts and am in progress with my first shirt. To keep up the momentum, and fill the serious lack of shirts in my closet right now, I dragged Jared to the Built By Wendy store on the Lower East Side.

I picked up these two patterns, checked out Wendy's own designs, and got a little scoop on what she's been up to. Maybe I'm the last to know about this, but apparently Wendy's working on another book that will focus on sewing with knits. Ooooh, can't wait for that one!

PS: I just have to share this with you all...In an exciting and totally unexpected turn of events, my building manager has changed his mind and will be allowing all tenants to have pets!!! So stick around, there may just be some puppy love here in the next few months! yipee!! (can you tell that I'm excited?)

PPS: Also, it's International Talk Like a Pirate Day!!! Ok, just one pirate joke. Q: What's a pirate's favorite wine? A: Pinot Noi-aarrrr. hehe. ok ok, just one more. Q: What's a pirate's favorite radio station? A: NP-arrrr. hehe. Let me know your favorite pirate jokes, I can always use more (and Jared's getting really sick of these two).

NYC, part 1: a bring your own scissors kind of place

Aaaah. Back to reality. I had a lovely trip to New York, the homeland. Although I always talk about how I really couldn't live there anymore (for so many reasons that I won't bore you with here), I do love having an excuse to go to New York at least twice a year. Oh yeah, and having a free place to stay is great too. This trip was much more low key than many of my other recent trips. I spent lots of quality time with my mom and dad, which was great. We had a small, but wonderful Rosh Hashanah dinner. And I passed up some of my usual spots in favor of testing out some new ones. On the first day in the big city, my mom and I visited B & J Fabrics, which was an experience, to say the least.

The selection was totally overwhelming and I couldn't even buy anything because I couldn't possibly figure out how I would decide what to buy. They had an amazing selection of Liberty and Japanese fabrics among many many others. But, sooo expensive (at least $26/yard!). I decided to just get some samples of some of my favorites in case I changed my mind. When I got back to my mom and dad's house, I took a quick look around Superbuzzy and ReproDepot- and found almost all the same fabrics (the Japanese ones at least) for about $10/yard cheaper! So glad I didn't waste my money.

Well, even though I didn't buy anything, it was certainly an experience to be among the New York designers (or their assistants at least). It seemed like the kind of place that people on Project Runway or something like that would go to shop for the show. I kept expecting to see cameras trailing someone as they were cutting their own samples of all the beautiful fabrics. (I also got scolded for trying to follow the lead of the woman who had brought her own scissors. When I asked an employee if I could borrow some scissors, I was rudely informed that only designers with special passes can cut their own samples. My mom later asked me if I told him that I was a designer-thanks mom!)

We also stopped at M&J Trimmings, and I managed to indulge in just a few of the many vintage ribbons they have. All in all, it was a great day- that's right, I'm not going for a day-to-day recap of my trip, but there is much to report back on. So I'll be debriefing here in stages. Stay tuned for more crafty nyc goodness!

Have I mentioned that it's fall here?

This is something I've been thinking about for about two weeks. Ever since I started waking up to cool mornings. You know, the kind where the air is crisp and refreshing, but you only need a sweater for a couple hours, until the sun comes and warms your face. Yeah.

Fall is my favorite season and I've missed it so for the past couple of years out in Berkeley. We got to Minnesota at the tail end of it last year, but there's nothing like the change of seasons. Fall always makes me think of school (obviously), but it's been a few years since I've been headed back to school at this time of year. With no real change in my schedule at this time, I've paid closer attention to that actual seasonal change. The different flowers that are blooming at the end of the summer, the change in the weather, new foods available locally-there were apples at the farmer's market yesterday! As I watched the steam rising up out of market-goers' coffee cups, I knew fall was really here. And the time to begin slowing down from the business of summer has arrived.

So, I sadly have no fall photos to show- as leaves have not yet turned and I didn't even bring the camera to the market yesterday (darn!). But I can tell you that as I sit here typing, it is grey and cold outside and a bit rainy. And I'm listening to the rustle of the slowly yellowing leaves as they blow in the wind.

Jared and I are leaving for New York tonight for a bit of family and friend time, celebrating Rosh Hashanah, and just a much-needed getaway. Oh yeah, and of course hitting my favorite fabric and yarn stores! There may be a post or two from NYC, but if not, I'll see you all in a week!

Our first "road trip"

You might remember about six weeks ago when I wrote about getting our Ulla back after seven and a half months in the body shop. After that long without our car, we decided we needed to at least take a little trip to celebrate this momentous occasion.

That very weekend, we took a little trip to Stillwater, MN. It wasn't exactly the cute little town we had hoped for (it probably was about 5-10 years ago before it got really touristy and they built a bunch of condos). Anyways, it's about an hour east of Minneapolis, and it was a great little getaway for us. On the way home, we stopped at the St. Croix Vineyards for a little wine tasting. It was really nice. They let you walk around the vineyard (which is also an apple orchard) and it was just the small break that Jared and I needed back then.

It's taken this long to post about it since this was the first excursion that involved revisiting my film camera, and I've only just developed these photos...

new projects and happy birthday mom.

Well, I talked a little while ago about having lots of new ideas for new projects. I thought I'd finally give you all a little sneak peek. I've been waiting to post these since they were my mom's birthday present (which was yesterday) and I didn't want to give it all away to her, since I know she's my most avid blog reader (love you mom!).

I think I've found a new favorite fabric designer--Etsuko Furuya. Yeah I know I'm like the last one out here in crafty blogland to jump on the Japanese craft train, but I've finally fallen into it, and I don't know if I'll make it out in one piece. I just picked up a couple of yards of some other patterns from this line over at Crafty Planet last week, and I almost don't want to cut it up, I just want to look at it, it's so beautiful!

Ok, yeah so back to my mom's birthday present. She'd been bugging me for a bag for a little while, so I whipped this one up. It'll most likely be used as a knitting bag (in NYC, all purses must have zipper closures to avoid subway snatchers) so I made a little matching zippy pouch that can hold some little knitting essentials. I followed the zippy pouch tutorial over at twelve22. It's really great and super easy! Yeah, and I actually followed the directions this time- that always helps.

So there it is. Happy Birthday mom, I hope you enjoy the bag set and use it always in good health.

**If any of you are in the Twin Cities, come check out the A Stitch in Time Saves fundraiser this Thursday from 6pm-10pm at Grumpy's Downtown (1111 Washington Ave S., Mpls). It's a crafty sale to benefit the victims of the 35W bridge collapse.

Just Peachy

This being my first year living in Minnesota, and my first year in a little while living in a temperate, northern climate, I find myself still getting used to the different times of year that foods are available freshly and locally.

In Berkeley, peaches were overflowing at the farmers markets starting in early June. I only just found some here (well, they're from Wisconsin- but close enough, right?) last week! So I
decided to pull out my mom's Peach Crumb Cake recipe. As always, I had to adapt it to be vegan, but I think the adjustments turned out pretty darn delicious.

Vegan Peach Crumb Cake:

Topping Ingredients: 1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
6 tbl unsalted nondairy margarine
3/4 tsp cinnamon
Cake Ingredients: 1 stick unsalted nondairy margarine
2/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup canola oil
2/3 cup soymilk
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2-3 large peaches peeled and sliced (peeling is optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To make topping: combine all topping ingredients in a food processor or blender until crumbly.

To make cake: Butter and flour an 8" square pan. Cream butter in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together maple syrup, oil and soymillk. Add to butter and mix well. Sift in flour, baking powder and salt. You may need to add extra flour if the batter is too liquidy. Beat batter until all ingredients are combined and pour into pan. Arrange peach slices in overlapping rows over batter and sprinkle topping over them. Make sure to put enough topping around the edges or the batter will rise up over the topping (that's ok too, but doesn't look quite as nice).

Bake for 50-60 minutes, test with toothpick to make sure it's done. Enjoy.

**Felicia! I just realized that I forgot to send you this recipe when you had all those peaches. Sorry! Hopefully you can try it with some of the frozen peaches you've got...