Pumpkin Season!

It's after Labor Day. It's fall! What's the flavor of fall? Pumpkin!

The coffeeshop where I work now has pumpkin lattes, which means that I'm about to drink my weight in the syrup. :) I made pumpkin ice cream, but it only used half of my pumpkin puree. There wasn't enough material for a whole pie, and I don't have enough time in the morning to make pumpkin pancakes. So.... I decided to halve a recipe and make half a crust recipe and make mini pies!



My mom got me this mini-pie pan years ago, and I haven't used it once until this year. It happens to be the perfect size for a mixed berry pie with just one or two of each berry per bite, and the ideal thing for just a little treat. It's divine if you use a little pumpkin spice in the pie crust too. Yum!

Self Portrait Challenge

I'm new to the world of the blog. At first I was very resistant. Blogging seemed like a part of the greater technological emptyness robbing society of the will to connect person-to-person, filling the internet with such a breadth of vapidity opinions were completely devalued. This, however, was an incorrect assumption.

I'm sure there are a lot of empty-headed blogs out there, but there are also musings of great tenderness (such as at i heart linen), reader responses that warm the heart (posy gets cozy) that prove that people really do seek out connection in this world, images of inspiration (absolutely beautiful things), thought-provoking dialogue on artistic topics - even art itself.

So, I've come around to this new technology, grudgingly at first. I came across this blog, called Self Portrait Challenge. The premise is that each month the owner gives a topic, and you take self-portraits that fit in the category. This month, the category is 'in the bathroom'. You post your pictures to your blog, send the owner a link to your blog, and if the owner likes your photos, they appear on the portrait page.

I've decided to do this. I like that I'm expanding my artistic endeavors to photography, and learning how to handle digital media (about time, no?), and figuring out this blog world. So, here are my photos.



Are You There?



My Work Is Cut Out For Me

The Heat Is On

When I woke up this morning, Talah and Lena had overtaken the bed. They're not big but they're definitely not small, and when they lay like this, I end up curled in a ball, and I have to wonder, why am I the one curled up in a ball here? It's just so hard to resist these beautiful faces.

They didn't move when I got up so I got to take these pictures. Our air conditioner has broken. They're fixing it today, but in Austin, it's nearly impossible to find the will to move when you're living in genuine August heat. I find it hard to imagine how people lived here before air conditioners were standard. I grew up in the midwest, where it can get hot, but nothing like here! Even Talah thinks so.



Thanks to some large fans, I was actually able to be productive today. I went to a party last weekend and someone liked my purse. She expressed interest in getting one, and I said I was hoping to sell them in the future, so she 'ordered' one. I just started it. It looks like this:



I'm going to have to figure out some way to make the straps more interesting. Perhaps a ribbon with a pattern down the center of the blue stripe. And also, maybe a pocket on the outside. I put a pocket on the inside but I might have to move it. It's very high up near the top edge of the purse, which seems like a silly place for it to be. It's a nice utilitarian bag. I'm going to have to put a loop over the top, as well, so it has a kind of flap close, and it will hold shut with a big, pink button.

I started this purse, too, which I love:



I just found out about interfacing. Interfacing is what makes a fabric stiff. The kind I got is iron-on -- just iron it to the back of the fabric, and then the sides hold their shape. I've never used it before. No wonder none of my other things were so floppy. It's trial and error when you are learning by doing, which is my game. I like to see something, then use it as inspiration for my own designs. If I could just figure out how to sew on zippers so the tag isn't hanging all over the place, I'd be set. Lena can hardly wait.

Mini-Prep Madness

I made this dish based on a recpie that appears in the August 2007 Bon Appetite magazine. It's amazingly simple - sauteed onion and celery, then simmered with fresh corn cut off the husk in water, served around a crab and avocado ceviche marinated in olive oil and orange juice. Salt, pepper, puree - done. Serve cold. I might add a touch of heat next time (spicy chowders are definitely amazing) in the form of red pepper flakes or a touch of fresh jalepino pepper sauteed with the onion and garlic, and maybe use a vegetable broth instead of water for depth (unless you have perfect corn picked fresh from the stalk, which you would want to really showcase). With slightly less than amazing corn from the grocery store, the vegetable broth would have helped a touch.

And a glass of pinot grigio.

I also have no food processor, which seems absurd. I tried to mix it in my mini-prep, but instead of getting velvety goodness, I got tiny chunks of rustic corn hash-ness. The mini-prep also has a tendency to leak while prepping, and much soup was lost to the floor, counter and walls. Someday, a food processor is definitely in order.

I took these three photos of it. I'm trying to spruce up my photography skills so if you can identify which is the best photo and why, I'd love to hear about it. (I'm partial to the first photo)

Summer Paisley

A new fabric store opened in Austin, and it is full of incredible prints and delightful notions that have been inspiring me lately. I found this paisley with a green that almost perfectly matches my kitchen and made a half apron, then went back and found the irrisistible pink polka dot pattern and the top came from that.

One of my favorite parts of the design process is the evolution of an idea. All it can require is single sight or sound or taste and the idea is born, and over time it develops into something even better than originally expected.



Added bonus: enough fabric was left over to make this purse. Straight lines couldn't be easier. I feel like the purse is missing something, though, so, if you have any ideas, let me know!

About Me

I have a friend who had a book. The book was full of signs, directions and advertisements that had been written in other languages and translated into English... or perhaps I should say, mistranslated. By far my favorite was a picture of a girl, looking into a package with her hands on her delighted face, with the caption, "Inside, the box is full of happy!"

Now that's a package!

With luck, this page will also be filled with happy, or at least happy-inspiring notions.