from the air

I've always been the kind of person who suffers greatly from motion sickness. We lived 17 winding miles outside out of town and I missed out on many gymnastic and ballet classes because I arrived feeling too sick. Most public transportation makes me sick and every time I've ever flown there's been at least a moment where I was pretty sure I was going to throw up. Magically on our flight home yesterday, I was fine throughout the entire descent. So fine in fact that I was able to photograph the incredible sunset.

black friday

I hope you'll join me in buying handmade this holiday season.

olives day 1

Last week a friend dropped off almost 20 pounds of fresh olives. Apparently I have the reputation for a willingness to deal with free food that is labor intensive. This is the same friend who brought me pounds upon pounds of quince. So my knowledge of curing olives is about zero, which meant I headed straight to the internet and luckily found some suggestions that seems valid enough. The only trouble is that you don't know if the experiment is going to work until you are at least a month in, probably even longer. With so many olives, I decided to try 2 methods.
Method 1: Slice each (and every) olive and dump in a bucket filled with cold water. Alternately you can gently bash them with a mallet or rolling pin, I did some of each as an experiment, Make sure they are all fully submerged and put the container into the fridge. Once a day for about a month, dump out the water and fill with fresh water. When the olives are palatable, fill bucket with brine and season with herbs and spices as you please.

Method 2: Place all un-rinsed olives into a bucket, fill with vinegar salt solution and put into a cool dark place. Every month or so, dump out solution, don't rinse olives(!) and re-fill with fresh brine. In about 6 months they should be tasty.

Since this is is such a long term project with variable outcomes, I'm not giving you the exact recipes until I know they work. But I will give you the link to the methods I'm following. I'll update you as we get further along.

traffic

I am very lucky to have a short commute to and from work. I'm even luckier that it takes me past one of the best views in the whole city. Lately I've been admiring the lights on the bay bridge made from all the poor people stuck in traffic. By the way, there are more shots from this series on Flickr.

weather update

Oh my god, summer in November! Last night we were seriously tormented by a mosquito in the bedroom. After 4 attempts to find the little stinker, we finally gave up. He certainly had the last laugh having bitten my honey on the eyelid. Really mosquito? There's very little blood there for drinking but does it ever swell up! I'm taking advantage of the sunshine spending every possible moment with the kids outside. It's inevitable that we'll be stuck inside from rain soon enough. For now it's clear blue skies, lovely grass and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

cookie on your face

I can't believe I dared to complain about the sun setting too early. We have had the most gorgeous weather. It's mid November and 75 degrees. Better to just be thankful for what I got. Like for instance that I can take the kids to eat lunch with my wife at least once a week. It's special for all of us, doubly so when I bring cookies.

 

 

sunset

I do not love the fact that the time change has made it dark by the time I get home. I took this yesterday as I left work.

meet and greet

Want to come meet me in person? I'll be stitching and listening to music at this event:

shadows

the 5 year old's party..

...you wish you were invited to.

thinking about cookies

Hello. I think we might have some new readers, welcome. It was a big week here with The Chronicle article being the highlight for sure. Didn't read it? Try this.
The Heated had some nice press too. First, a treasury including "Get Awesome" made it to the front page of Etsy, then Dwell decided to make "Design Advice" their product of the day. And at long last, the Party Bird towel we shipped off in May made it's debut in Better Homes and Gardens, with a full page shot no less.

In addition, the line of organic textiles I have been working on for Modern Playhouse has finally been released and will be for sale this Saturday at Sprout. Pretty much everything exciting that happened all year happened in the same week. So strange. So exciting!

Can I tell you that I managed to make 3 quarts of stock and a pot of beans plus pancakes on Sunday? It's been a goal of ours this year to plan more of our meals in advance. We tend to eat better and spend less on food if at least 4 meals are shopped for on Sunday. One thing I didn't make but keep thinking about are Buckeyes. Do you know them? Smitten Kitchen wrote about them recently and I cannot stop thinking about them. I'm not even a peanut butter freak! I'm pretty sure the kids will go batty for them so I think we'll give them a go on Friday. In case you feel like ditching your diet, the recipe is here.

it's fall

feet and what i'm up to

I haven't been posting much lately because I've been working on multiples of the same few items and they have not yet been formally announced so I can't even show you. What I will say though is that I'm working with this new company on a line of textiles and they are going to be amazing. Please go check out Modern Playhouse, I think you will love what they make. All the products are made in an environmentally conscious way. This means organic fabrics, sustainably harvested wood and non toxic finishes. It's really something I care deeply about so I'm thrilled to be part of making it happen.
Instead I'll show a little pair of feet. Remember back when I was working on a series? I had some of those printed very large and framed for the girls as a birthday gift.  They have grown a bit and I think I'll continue to take images as they get bigger and bigger.