June 13

Today is (was) my mother's birthay, so I have been thinking of her more than usual. I especially felt close to her when Lauren brought this home from school today and proudly read it to me:
My Mama was a loving, caring, mother, wife, and friend. That's how I learned how to do it. Thank you, Mum. I miss you.

June 10

More of my commute. How can I complain? NPR on the radio, except for in the canyon (no reception) when I put on a CD. Though I have to tell you, I need some more CDs. Tell me what music you love, and I'll sample it.

June 9

I have a long commute to work (75 to 90 minutes) but it's very pretty. I've been meaning to take my camera with me for ages, and at last today I did.
Ever since meeting Misty, I have wanted to show her how the colors I see at the beach each morning remind me of her. Don't you agree?

June 6

Goofy Josh. He loves his job so much. I can't quite figure out whether I like the kids being exposed to this stuff. Does it eliminate any fear of images on the screen, because they know (from hands-on experience) that it's not real? Or does it just desensitize them to the idea of real-life horror? Are they likely to shrug at the thought or sight of a real severed limb, having played with fake ones? I don't know ...

June 2

One of these days I'll get my very own macro lens, and be able to do attractive food photography. But for now, I leave you with this incredibly scrumptious recipe.

EDAMAME SALAD WITH BASIL VINAIGRETTE
1 cup frozen shelled edamame
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 large tomato, diced
1 celery stalk, sliced
1/2 red onion, diced
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped

Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add the edamame and cook 5 minutes; drain, rinse under cold water, and pat dry.

Combine the vinegar, oil, garlic, and salt in a large bowl. Add the edamame, beans, tomato, celery, onion, and basil; mix well. Let stand at room temperature about 15 minutes before serving to allow the flavours to blend.

June 1

I've been making a lot of these singlet-style shopping bags lately. So easy, so handy, so pretty.

Mushroom Villagers asked about the leaf fabric. The selvedge says, "The Lindsay Collection by Karen Montgomery for Timeless Treasures Fabrics, Inc." I just found it here. They have a retail store locater on their site, which might be helpful to some. Though I do recommend making the trip to Michael Levine's, no matter how far away you live.

May 31

Downtown LA's fabric district has some pretty skanky-looking stores.

But today Evie and I were headed here:
I hadn't visited Mr. Levine since last May, when I went with Sister. It was good to be back.
I was very, very restrained. This is all I bought. Aren't they pretty?

I miss blogging ...

I'm still alive. I've been working long hours, of course. I warned you about that. But I have other excuses for not blogging. Like not having Photoshop on my new computer, which makes saving photos for web a real pain. And spending all my free art time making birthday gifts for people who read this blog, thus not wanting to show you what I've been up to. But really, for whatever reason, I was taking a break.

But I miss you, so now I'm back, and ready to share again. Here's some fun things I've been doing in the last month or so:

Playing (very briefly) with a macro lens Josh brought home from work (he is the prop master on Dexter for season three. This photo was taken with Dexter's crime scene camera.)


Visiting Descanso Gardens with Josh. Even though he has lived in L.A. his whole life, he hadn't ever been there. Whenever we spend a half day somewhere like this, he spends about ten percent of the time exclaiming "We have to do stuff like this more often!" Yes, indeed.

Spending a day with Penny and John. We walked through the Hollywood hills, and visited the La Brea Tar Pits and The Getty Museum. They taught me a lot about plants. We ate good food, and laughed a lot. Wonderful.

Planting a veggie/herb garden. I left it pretty late this year, but now it's done, right before a day of unseasonal rain. Perfect!

Being a parent. Ian and his friends went to a murder mystery birthday party. From left to right, they are John Wayne, Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, and George Burns. What a fabulous bunch of 17 year old boys. I love 'em.

Meeting Misty and Shari. Well, I had already met Shari once before, but this time I got to share a meal with her and commune for a few hours. Misty was on her way to Australia so that made our meeting even more special.

Cooking, of course. And reading. And sewing. And doing yoga.

So yeah, I'm still alive :-)

April 20

Major brownie points for Josh today. Not only did he clean the bathroom and vacuum the house (without being asked), he showed up with this bookcase in the afternoon (though I admit to some major hint-dropping -- some might say 'nagging' -- on this count). Having bought about 200 second-hand books in the last four months, I am in urgent need of about 20 linear feet of shelving. (Those precarious piles all over the floor in my studio are starting to get to me.) This is a Very Nice start. When we're a little more flush, we'll get two more like this. Doesn't it look right at home already?

April 6

It's a bit of a birthday tradition for me, to go out to the desert to see the wildflowers. When Rhea was here, I'd pull her out of school for the day, and I'd take a sickie from work, and we'd drive out to Lancaster to the Poppy Reserve just to glory in all that neon orange. The last few years have been woeful for wildflowers -- last year the Reserve recorded 58 poppy flowers! -- but this year's a doozy thanks to the winter rains.



I'm a woman of simple desires. All I wanted for my birthday was a bookshelf, and to visit the wildflowers. Today I got half of that :-)

April 3

My new job is kicking my butt (in a good way) so all I have is a restaurant review.

March 29

Well I have had no time for crafting for the past week or more, but today Evie and I went for one of our exploratory walks, this time in Echo Park and Angelino Heights, an historical neighbourhood of Victorian homes built in the 1880s and, for the most part, beautifully restored and upkept. You can see all the photos here.

I am really enjoying my new job, even though it's removed any 'me' time from my week. Those of you following my reading progress on Goodreads will notice that my galloping pace of 3 books a week has stumbled and collapsed. That horse is now lame. My sewing machine is gathering dust. But maybe tomorrow, after shopping for groceries, cooking meals for the week, and layout out a freelance client's web site, I'll have time to whip up some of these. I have the fabric picked out and ready to go ...

March 17

I made a couple of manly aprons today, both adult-sized and tween-sized. They'll be going in the Christmas boutique.

I also whipped up a cape for a SuperToddler of my acquaintance. Whew, what a burst of sewing I've done over the past four days. Now it's time to take care of some other types of work, and get ready for the New Job.

March 16

From the small to the large: potholders (to keep the warmth out) and a cuddly robe (to keep the warmth in), both completed today.

March 15

Remember a while ago I said I'd be starting a new job very soon? Well, that turned out to be not quite true, because I didn't understand that the hiring process would move like molasses. BUT! It's true now. Starting on Monday week, I'll be a Senior Print Producer at a big name international ad agency, with a loooong commute. Which means that my crafting time is going to be slashed. Which means I need to get a few advance birthday gifts made. Here's a start:

This is an "I Spy" blanket made of snuggly flannel. I saw the idea on someone's blog and loved it. A great way to keep a little person occupied in the car, finding pictures, learning colours and vocab, making up stories, etc.

This is a wall-hanger/organizer thingy for a certain special young man who will be turning 10 soon (Tui, don't let him look). The groovy background fabric was one of my 75c a yard scores of last week. It's heavy weight decorator fabric, and I got 7.5 yards of it! Woohoo! I pulled a man's shirt from my stash to make the pockets, and decided to incorporate some of its shirt-ish features.


I am REALLY happy with how it turned out. I might make another one for my nephew, and write a tutorial as I go.

March 13

Last night I innocently popped down to my local Joann's to buy some bias binding. There was a lady at the cutting table with THREE CARTS full of fabric, buying the entire bolt of each. I expressed my amazement at the amount of fabric she was buying, and she said, "Don't you know about the sale? All the red-tagged bolts are 75% off! So these are $1 or 75c a yard! Go down the back and see!" So an hour later, and not very many dollars poorer, I came home with these lovelies. Don't they look like jewels? My mind is racing with possibilities!

March 12

Four years ago and counting.

March 11

Josh is going on his almost-annual 'guy trip' to baseball spring training in Arizona. He himself is a Dodger fan, but his accompanying mates are Giants fans, and they spend all season giving each other a hard time. Josh enlisted my help to create this tshirt last night, which he will proudly wear on the trip. Apologies to my non-American readers, who probably won't 'get it'. It's a baseball thing.

March 10

I tore myself away from my book to make a gender-neutral flannel receiving blanket and a couple of burp cloths for my pregnant sister-in-law.

March 8

Hmm, it's been a while since I posted. I have noticed that my interests go in cycles, and since I've started blogging I've been through phases of collage, drawing, cooking, sewing, and now, reading. I'm devouring about three books a week at the moment, to the detriment of everything else. Unfortunately this latter obsession doesn't have much in the way of visual output, thus the lack of blog entries.

But! I do have something to share. Evie and I did Walk 28 from our book today (there are only 36 walks in total, so we are drawing closer to the end). This one was in East Silver Lake, which has views of the now empty Silver Lake Reservoir ... ack! Not a pretty sight in its present condition! The neighbourhood also boasts a half dozen or so homes designed by the famed Richard Neutra. But for me, the main allure of the walk was the delightful Loma Vista Pl. path, one of the longest combination steps/walkways in LA. It is heavily overgrown in places and lined with bungalows and cottages, all with no vehicular access. I would LOVE to live in a place like the one pictured above! So close to the city yet so secluded too. You can see all the photos here.