Lavender festival at last.

Strange bed-fellows

Erik and Hanu have a habit of falling asleep in the same position. (Note the angle of the head, chin on paw, and both are curled in a ball). What's the purpose of this synchronized sleeping? How do they manage it in their unconscious state? These are mysteries they take to sleep with them.

Urban craft uprising radness

Last Sunday, we went to the Urban Craft Uprising. It was a bit small, but each booth had something really unique and creative. As much as I love the holiday market, and all sorts of Saturday markets, it was really nice to see something different. I know a lot of artists are wary of photographers, so I was sparing with my photos. But, I collected a lot of business cards, and have links to some of the cooler things we saw:

The Chalkboard Tee: www.thechalkboardtee.com (it works, and cleans off well. I love the apple!)
Becky Stern, general radness & LED's : sternlab.org (I especially like the white collar squids)
Figs & Ginger : figsandginger.com (pretty metal necklaces - checkout the sprouts & trees!)
Dave Sheely : www.davesheelydesigns.com (limpet rings - plastic is the new gold!)
Dotted Line Jewels : dottedlinejewels.com (Impecable)
Passion Flower : passionflower.etsy.com (shinky dink earrings. I got some of these! I want to try making them myself, too.)
Cake Spy : cupcakespy.com (cupcakes living on the edge)
Breidenstein Design : breidensteindesign.com (a fellow shopper used the word "epic", and I think that covers it. He did the goggles below.)
Made by Moxie : www.madebymoxie.com (brilliant felted monsters)

And best of all:
Ladies and gentleman home : ladiesandgentlemen.etsy.com. Jean Lee's etsy shop. She's a friend from high school and it was really good to see her! She's one of a few people I've been terrible about gettign in touch with since moving to Seattle. And, I highly recommend browsing her stuff. She's just... cool. Very very cool. But also super sweet :)







On our way to the UCU, we walked through belltown. I love the name of this cupcake shop!


Flowers at the Seattle Center. Normally, I'm not wild about most of these species, but I was won over by the overwhelming cheer of the entrance.


On of my clearest memories of visiting Seattle as a little girl is the Seattle Center fountain. It's Shoots huge jets of water up in the air randomly....


Then shots off. People run in cloes to the fountain...

Until it randomly starts up again, catching you in the spray. It's a genius design - makes the fountain more exciting, engaging, and sabves a little water to boot. The girl in the black dress was adorable - she was dying to play in the fountain, and finally even started edging towards it until her mom saw her, and made her come back & sit on the rail.



We arrive.


If Erik doesn't change this to his new facebook picture, I might have to hack in and do it myself...

Tiny monster in a tiny cage

Jar o'monster.

Apathy-face cutepins.


Afterwards, we took the monorail downtown. I wish it was a longer route, because it's full of windows, and a really lovely way to see the city.


My loot.... A flapper gnome hat. Electric blue is the new black, don't you know? (This idea still baffles me, but appears to be true....)


Some of those shrinky-dink earrings. lovely!

Window cat

Lavender sugar

I've been doing better about posting recipes latley, but you can't use them if you don't have all of the ingredients. And the most important ingredient of all is lavender sugar.

So, Go pick some fresh lavender. Maybe A dozen clubs for a mid-small jar. Less if you like your lavender subtle, more if you like it lavender-y.

Put the clubs in a jar of white sugar, and set it aside.

In 2-3 weeks, we'll be making lavender cupcakes!

An evening in Ballard

Saturday we took a trip to Ballard to visit Joannes, and state my ever growing fabric addiction. After a quick whirl through the thread and pins, we found ourselves hungry & wandering down town Ballard.

Ballard is one those districts of Seattle that long ago was it's own city. There are some parts of it that are icky-suburban... but, some parts are freaking adorable. And the "down town" has a lot of character.

We passed, a Great Harvest bakery (that's right Eugenians - same company!), a public library with a green roof, a very interesting fountain, several shops devoted to small cute things, more than one cupcake store, and much more.

Eventually we landed at a Japanese restaurant with truly exceptional food. Highlights included Shiso tempura, smooth sake with almond notes, and a shaved ice with red bean paste & chunks of chilled lychee.

Fresh zucchini salad

I don't recommend this unless you have a mandoline....

-ultra finely sliced zucchini
-ultra finely sliced leek
-a teaspoon full of mayonnaise (grapeseed oil vegenaise - even if you're not a vegan, trust me, it's better)
-pinch of sea salt
-several dashes of dill
-a small sprinkle of garlic salt
-diced nasturtium
-cracked pepper

Toss.

YUM. There's no picture because I ate it all.

Discovering macro atoms, in a summer salad

Erik's breadless cucumber sandwhichlet

I was sitting here zoning out when erik walked up and popped something wondrous into my mouth.

Thinly sliced cumber
diced nasturtium
diced basil flower
sea salt

Go try it. It's pretty too (those red things you see are just for decoration).

Weekend sewing

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything! I'm uploading a bunch of photos now, so there should be regular blogs for the next couple of weeks.

I've been learning to make my own clothes. I Started with some fabrics I wasn't too attached to, in case I made silly mistakes. Which, I have. I really have. I was so anxious to finish this (my first) skirt, that I kept putting off hemming the bottom edge. And now, it will not be easy, and I'm not quite sure that I ever will. The fabric was a bit of a disappointment too. Up close, there are touches of brilliant iris and magenta in wavy stained-glass like shapes (you can see them if you click on the photo for the full size). But, when it's on, you don't notice them so much. The pattern is a little too small.


This dress is pretty darn cute. It's got pockets, and a nicely draping full skirt. There are straps there too that you can't quite see. Someday I'll get around to taking a picture of me inside it.


Fabric for a new dress. I'm thinking of giving it an empire waist, kind of a-line skirt (not poofy, but not fitted either) and adding a band of off white at the waist and on the top edge. What do you think? Any ideas?


Yes, I'm making another bag. This time I'm doing a more complicated pocket, more pics when it's sewn!


The fabric situation is getting out of hand... If anyone knows where I can buy a cheap wooden shelf, with shelves sized for small folded bits of fabric, I would greatly appreciate it <3