Little Acorn

O, Canada!

Canada Day this year coincided with the beginning of the local strawberry season. Every year when I taste these sweet ruby jewels I wonder why I ever bother with those pale cardboard strawberries from California. The season is so short here, so we'll be enjoying a lot of strawberries over the next few weeks.

David decided to celebrate our great country and how lucky we are to be Canadian by attempting his first Pavlova. He thought the red and white colour scheme was perfect for the day and that it would really showcase our delicious berries. It was totally yummy and pretty as a picture, but you won't be getting the recipe. Meringue is a fickle mistress, especially on a hot and humid day, and this one was not the texture you'd expect. But tasty? Hoo yeah.

Computer Problems...

Issues both large and small have taken the decision out of our hands and it looks like it's time for a new computer NOW, so please excuse my lack of posting. I'll keep trying to show you David's yummy Pavlova, but if I can't you'll just have to be patient.

So sorry.

A Kitchen Bouquet

Just some foxgloves that are brightening up my kitchen at the moment.

And the Winner is...

Julia!!!

Random Cuteness

Our Zephyr really knows how to get comfy.

Don't Be Blue...

...you still have time to enter to win a fabulous prize! Just leave a comment over here before 5pm pacific time tomorrow and you're entered to win the Softies Kit!

David is So Very Smart

Smoothie...frozen in a popsicle mold...a smoothsicle...brilliant!

In Celebration of Summer

Smoothies! Yes, I know I could have a smoothie anytime I wanted, but it just seems like a summer thing to me. Here's our favourite classic smoothie recipe, using some frozen fruit for convenience, a good creamy texture and a nice degree of coldness without watering it down with lots of ice. 

Makes 2 large servings.

Into a blender place in this order: the juice of 1 or 2 oranges, 1 cup low fat or non fat plain yogurt, a squeeze of honey or other sweetener (optional),  2 small or 1 large banana, 1/2 to 1 cup each of frozen strawberries and blueberries (I freeze my own when the organic local ones are in season) and 6 ice cubes. Put on the lid. Whizz. Drink. Yum. 

Right-Side-Out

Here she is, right side out! Just a prototype as there are a few things I want to tweak (arm placement, less of a bowling pin neck, etc), but I think she's pretty sweet. She's just a smidge over 12" and as with most of my projects she's made with mostly found/recycled fabrics.  The pattern is my own, but I always fear that I've been overly influenced by all the other great softies out there and want to do something with my own unique stamp on it. There won't be the same crazy hair on many more dollies as I'm running out of that weird but fabulous fabric. It's obviously some sort of creepy plastic-y stuff as it doesn't fray a bit, but it's super soft and sproingy and has the texture of really thick velvet or very short fake fur. It doesn't even fuzz when you cut it. Space age technologies at work there, I'm sure! I'm also working on a dress up dolly and she's cute but currently naked, as I don't seem to be able to get past the sack-dress-with-elastic-neckband stage.

Prototypes

My studio is nice and cool today, so I've been working on some softie prototypes. Patternmaking is a skill I'm still working on, so I'm pleased with how smoothly it's going. Often (okay, usually) at this stage there's muttering and threats, but today things have flowed pretty well. I'll just give you a little inside-out peek today, but maybe tomorrow or thursday there will be some new girls to introduce.

Remember there's still time to enter the giveaway! Just leave a comment on this post to be entered!

My Prize is Your Prize!

Look! Look! Look! My prize for the Softie Awards arrived! It's Therese Laskey's neat-o "Softies Kit: Instructions and Tools for Creating 15 Plush Pals".So very awesome and I'm so very thrilled to have won it. The only thing is, this isn't my first Softies Kit, so the only thing to do is to pass it on to one of my lucky readers! So in honour of my 104th post and because you're all so great, I'm announcing the first ever Little Acorn Giveaway! Just leave any comment on this post and I'll pick a random winner the evening of Thursday June 26th (that's 2 whole weeks - tell all your friends!). I'm happy to ship internationally, so whether you're a fellow Canadian or from anywhere else on the globe, you can enter!

Off to Their New Home!

The mousies are so excited they can hardly sit still. There is a LOT of giggling and good natured arguing over how to spell "Schenectady". They are extremely happy that they caught someone's eye on Etsy and now they're going on a big trip south of the border to their new home.

Goodbye little ones, you'll be missed.

Now I need to get to work. My shop is looking pretty bare.

Wee Quilty Update

The top is finished and I'm fairly pleased with it, which is high praise indeed from me. Some of my cutting was wonky because I didn't have the right tool, which caused subsequent wonkiness in the piecing, but all in all I think it's good, especially for a first effort. I've got the batting, but still need backing material and binding. I'm thinking about red, but then when aren't I thinking about red? Maybe yellow for the binding?

Sorry about the fuzzy and dark picture. For some reason that's the best I can get today.

I'm planning to hand quilt it because it has a rustic, handmade feel (ha! they can't say crooked, they have to say RUSTIC) that I think would be really accented by hand stitching. Of course I don't know how to hand quilt, but that's what the internet is for, right? I love sewing by hand so I'm really looking forward to the quilting and binding of this little project.

Will I ever make a human-being sized bed quilt? Not likely, but never say never.

A Volunteer

This charming yellow poppy showed up this year along my back fence and I've been carefully trimming the grass around it ever since I first spotted the leaves in the early spring. I was eager to see what colour it was going to be. I was hoping for red, but I wasn't disappointed by this cheery yellow. I'm going to let it go to seed and then try sprinkling them around in that area of the garden. I'm not usually a big fan of yellow, but this one is really sunny without being brash and I'm quite glad it decided to take up residence in my garden. And it's obviously hardy as it's growing in an area that gets virtually no sun and is extremely dry. Does anyone know what kind of poppy it is? Am I asking for trouble of the invasive kind if I encourage it to spread around?

My New Love

 

It's okay David, you don't have to be jealous! My new love are these apricot foxgloves that I planted last year and have been patiently waiting for ever since. "Apricot" doesn't do justice to these, which are luscious and dusky, with tones of rose and yellow. The plants are sturdy and snail-resistant and some of the flower spikes are taller than I am!