At the beginning of this year I moved my website to a new hosting company. That means that any links to embroidery patterns that you may have bookmarked will no longer work. You'll now find the patterns here.
They're available as PDF digital downloads so you no longer have to wait for me to email your patterns to you. After your payment goes through via Paypal, you'll be able to download the files directly to your computer. Just print them out and transfer the designs to your fabric as usual.
A very cool feature of IndieMade websites is the gallery. I've made one called Vintage Embroidery and it has photos of completed designs that use my patterns, including several pillows I've made for Primrose Design, a baby bib, and blocks from a quilt that I made for a friends first baby. Most use the vintage stamped-for-embroidery linens that were the originals of my patterns. You might get some ideas for cute things to make. There's also a copy of the one-page Embroidery Stitch Guide that I used to mail out with my printed patterns.
I'll be adding some new designs very soon. Hope you'll stop by.
5.02.2016
5.14.2015
sign of spring
I always know it's May because the lilacs are blooming. Even though I lived in an apartment complex as a kid, and you wouldn't expect nice plantings, we had pretty nice landscaping. Including a big lilac bush in the green space behind our building.
My mother's birthday was May 18 and she could always count on a bouquet for that day and usually for Mother's Day, too. The bush was huge and I could pick armfuls and never make a dent in the blooms.
When I finally bought a house of my own I was happy to find a big lilac bush growing there. And under the bedroom window. On warm nights with the window open, their spicy scent fills the room.
Later, we took down a row of very ugly pine trees along the end of our property and replaced them with lilacs of various colors, including this deep plum with white outlined petals.
I picked some this afternoon and filled a vintage glass vase I bought last year. The photo was taken on my screened porch but they'll come inside tonight. It's going to be cold again; it was 34 degrees this morning!
My mother's birthday was May 18 and she could always count on a bouquet for that day and usually for Mother's Day, too. The bush was huge and I could pick armfuls and never make a dent in the blooms.
When I finally bought a house of my own I was happy to find a big lilac bush growing there. And under the bedroom window. On warm nights with the window open, their spicy scent fills the room.
Later, we took down a row of very ugly pine trees along the end of our property and replaced them with lilacs of various colors, including this deep plum with white outlined petals.
I picked some this afternoon and filled a vintage glass vase I bought last year. The photo was taken on my screened porch but they'll come inside tonight. It's going to be cold again; it was 34 degrees this morning!
5.05.2015
mystery birds
I've recently gotten interested in needlepoint again, especially designs with birds. I scored these two vintage beauties on Ebay. Both are what's called pre-worked, meaning that the design is already completed in the center of the canvas, and the buyer fills in the background with a color of their choosing. I haven't decided that part yet!
The first has two red birds. The seller called them cardinals but clearly they're not; the female is too bright and they don't have pointed heads. This is a vintage Bucilla brand, which is a very common brand for needlepoint.
The second one is my favorite; Madincor brand, made in Madeira, Portugal. And that was a clue in my search for the identity of the bird, which has unusual coloring and a very long beak. It's not North American! Can you guess?
It's a European Bee-Eater and you can see him in the following photo taken in Spain. Yes, they really do eat bees; they snatch them right out of the air.
I can't wait to get started on these and they're small so they should go quickly. The bee-eater is just 8" x 8", the red birds are a little larger at 13" x 13". I haven't found a local source for tapestry wool for the background so it looks like I'll be shopping for it online.
The first has two red birds. The seller called them cardinals but clearly they're not; the female is too bright and they don't have pointed heads. This is a vintage Bucilla brand, which is a very common brand for needlepoint.
The second one is my favorite; Madincor brand, made in Madeira, Portugal. And that was a clue in my search for the identity of the bird, which has unusual coloring and a very long beak. It's not North American! Can you guess?
It's a European Bee-Eater and you can see him in the following photo taken in Spain. Yes, they really do eat bees; they snatch them right out of the air.
I can't wait to get started on these and they're small so they should go quickly. The bee-eater is just 8" x 8", the red birds are a little larger at 13" x 13". I haven't found a local source for tapestry wool for the background so it looks like I'll be shopping for it online.
3.17.2015
who's got the buttons?
You may have noticed a new link in my sidebar; it's for my second Etsy shop, opened in January and selling only buttons. That (maybe?) sounds too specialized but buttons were some of the biggest sellers in my original Etsy shop and I wanted to do a major destash of that section on my website, so it makes all kinds of sense.
I have mostly vintage buttons from the 1940s to 1970s, a lot of plastic, some metal, glass, and pearl. A few newer buttons. All are perfect for sewing (of course), crafting (have you seen some of the gorgeous jewelry people are making from buttons?), and even collecting for some of the very old and valuable ones.
I started out buying buttons for my own work and use them on just about
all my products—pillows, hanky sachets, mini wallets, and tissue cozies.
And I love the brightly-colored plastic ones from the 1940s and 50s,
especially the flower-shaped and pinwheel styles.
I find them at local flea markets, yard sales, and antique malls and
also on Ebay. But the best and least-expensive way for me to buy them is
in box lots. And the problem with that is I end up with too many and
with ones that aren't quite right for my work. That's why I started
selling them. And that's why I can offer them to you at great prices.
With every order you'll get a bonus vintage plastic button sewn to a cute business card.
So check it out when you have a few minutes to spend browsing. I try to
keep about a hundred listings active and add new buttons as the current
listings sell. And, if you're looking for something in particular (a
size, a color, or a style), convo me and I'll see if I can help. I have,
literally, hundreds of buttons on hand and I might have just what
you're looking for.
4.22.2014
seller beware
I've been struggling about whether to say anything about my recent experience with selling in a local shop again. It didn't work so well the first time I did it, and my second experience wasn't any better. In fact, it was much worse. Honestly, I won't do it again unless it's my very own store. Maybe some day :)
With this kind of arrangement, the vendor pays monthly rent and possibly gets a reduction if they agree to work in the shop a certain number of hours every week. With enough vendors, the owner gets their rent and expenses paid and doesn't need to hire sales help. The vendor gets to keep all of their profit from sales, minus a small percentage if the customer pays via credit card. Sounds like everybody wins, right? Maybe, maybe not.
In my ten years of doing business I've found that selling in shops is very hit or miss. Some places will be a good fit for your products; some won't. The problem is that there's no way to predict which way it will go. And, if you've locked yourself into a contract and your sales aren't good, you're stuck. That's what happened to me. I lost hundreds of dollars because I had to pay rent every month that my sales did not cover. And that's not counting the hours I volunteered. And it isn't enough to just break even anyway; the whole point is to make a profit.
I was going to suggest that anyone considering such a deal should do their research. But, unless you can track down current vendors to hear of their experiences or vendors who have left to find out why they did, you're relying on the shop owner to be truthful in answering your questions. It's their job to find vendors so it's understandable that they'd paint a rosy picture of how things might be.
I'm currently in another local shop (well, sort of local—it's in the next county over), but it's a consignment situation. I know many people will say not to do consignment either (and there are some potential problems with it that I'll save for another discussion) but it's been mostly a good experience. This shop is a perfect fit for my things and I've made more in the four months that I've been there than the entire time I was in the other shop. And that's including the commission that the shop takes.
My point is, though, that if it wasn't a good fit I could just pick up my things and go. I'm not locked into a specific time period and I don't have to spend time volunteering—hours that I could be creating new products.
I took a very long hiatus from blogging (almost a year and that's partly because of those lost hours spent volunteering) but I'm starting to feel like I have something to say again. No promises; we'll see.
With this kind of arrangement, the vendor pays monthly rent and possibly gets a reduction if they agree to work in the shop a certain number of hours every week. With enough vendors, the owner gets their rent and expenses paid and doesn't need to hire sales help. The vendor gets to keep all of their profit from sales, minus a small percentage if the customer pays via credit card. Sounds like everybody wins, right? Maybe, maybe not.
In my ten years of doing business I've found that selling in shops is very hit or miss. Some places will be a good fit for your products; some won't. The problem is that there's no way to predict which way it will go. And, if you've locked yourself into a contract and your sales aren't good, you're stuck. That's what happened to me. I lost hundreds of dollars because I had to pay rent every month that my sales did not cover. And that's not counting the hours I volunteered. And it isn't enough to just break even anyway; the whole point is to make a profit.
I was going to suggest that anyone considering such a deal should do their research. But, unless you can track down current vendors to hear of their experiences or vendors who have left to find out why they did, you're relying on the shop owner to be truthful in answering your questions. It's their job to find vendors so it's understandable that they'd paint a rosy picture of how things might be.
I'm currently in another local shop (well, sort of local—it's in the next county over), but it's a consignment situation. I know many people will say not to do consignment either (and there are some potential problems with it that I'll save for another discussion) but it's been mostly a good experience. This shop is a perfect fit for my things and I've made more in the four months that I've been there than the entire time I was in the other shop. And that's including the commission that the shop takes.
My point is, though, that if it wasn't a good fit I could just pick up my things and go. I'm not locked into a specific time period and I don't have to spend time volunteering—hours that I could be creating new products.
I took a very long hiatus from blogging (almost a year and that's partly because of those lost hours spent volunteering) but I'm starting to feel like I have something to say again. No promises; we'll see.
2.13.2013
Happy Valentine's Day!
A vintage Valentine's Day card from my collection. And one with a cat - how cute is that?
2.05.2013
cats and elephants and bears, oh my
These are easily the cutest thing I've ever purchased on Ebay. And can you believe that I was the only person bidding? It's a set of 18 animals printed on fabric (pretty sure they're 1930s) and designed to be appliqued onto quilt blocks, then embroidered, then everything put together to make a baby quilt. There were no instructions included but I've seen enough of these kits to make a good guess.
There are three each of a cat, elephant, rabbit, puppy, pig, and bear. Some of the fabrics are prettier than others but they all coordinate well together and there are a lot of blues so it won't be too girly when finished. I really love the yellow floral and polka dot print, although there are only two animals with that pattern—the cat shown above is one.
I'm going to scan and trace these so I can share the pattern. I think they'll be really cute with more modern fabrics. Not sure if people will be turned off by the applique part (maybe that's why no one bid on them?) but they could just be used for embroidery patterns, too.
A calico cat
There are three each of a cat, elephant, rabbit, puppy, pig, and bear. Some of the fabrics are prettier than others but they all coordinate well together and there are a lot of blues so it won't be too girly when finished. I really love the yellow floral and polka dot print, although there are only two animals with that pattern—the cat shown above is one.
And a pink gingham elephant
I'm going to scan and trace these so I can share the pattern. I think they'll be really cute with more modern fabrics. Not sure if people will be turned off by the applique part (maybe that's why no one bid on them?) but they could just be used for embroidery patterns, too.
1.07.2013
macarons
A delicious, melt-in-your-mouth novel featuring the sweet pleasures of French pastries and the exotic scents and sights of China, The Color of Tea is a scrumptious story of love, friendship and renewal. (Amazon.com)
I recently finished reading this book by Hannah Tunnicliffe and loved it. It's about a woman who relocates to China with her husband, finds out she isn't able to have children, learns to bake macarons, and opens a tea shop. Of course, there's more to the story than just food, but the descriptions of the macaron flavors and fillings that the author uses to open each chapter (like gunpowder green tea with sweet mandarin buttercream or provençal lavender with sweet fig buttercream) left me craving macarons.
The history of macarons is a bit hazy—some say they're French, some that they were originally developed by Florentine pastry chefs and brought to France by Catherine de Medici. Who knows for sure.
Basically, they're two crunchy shells baked from an egg white, almond, and powdered sugar meringue sandwiched together with a creamy flavored filling. The shells are usually brightly-colored and often have flavors added. I've never tried them before.
I saw a small notice in Vogue that Ladurée, the Parisian patisserie famous for their macarons (they've been making them for 150 years), recently opened a branch in New York City (864 Madison Avenue). If I'm in the neighborhood, maybe I'll stop in and try a few. I probably should have just started with the best.
Have any of you made these yourselves? What do you think? Am I missing something?
Basically, they're two crunchy shells baked from an egg white, almond, and powdered sugar meringue sandwiched together with a creamy flavored filling. The shells are usually brightly-colored and often have flavors added. I've never tried them before.
And maybe they're best when freshly-baked? I picked up a small sampler box of them at a local gourmet food shop—pistache, citron, and fraise—and I wasn't all that impressed. Not bad, but not worth swooning over either.
I saw a small notice in Vogue that Ladurée, the Parisian patisserie famous for their macarons (they've been making them for 150 years), recently opened a branch in New York City (864 Madison Avenue). If I'm in the neighborhood, maybe I'll stop in and try a few. I probably should have just started with the best.Have any of you made these yourselves? What do you think? Am I missing something?
1.02.2013
a fresh start
A new year, a fresh start. I seriously neglected blogging last year and I paid the price for it with less comments to the posts I did publish and less traffic to my website. I'm going to try to do better this year.
The problem for me, and likely for most bloggers, too, is coming up with ideas for posts. In my case, I always feel that I need to say something important, or at least something worth saying. And when I can't find my voice, I don't say anything at all. But, maybe I'm over thinking the whole thing (I'll admit that I do that...a lot). Maybe it's enough to say a few words or post a photo with no words at all. Maybe each post doesn't have to be such a big deal. I'm working on that.
Some other resolutions are to start working my way through the pile of half-finished and not-yet-started embroidery projects in my studio. I'm really good at starting things—choosing colors, planning the stitching, etc.—but not so good at the home stretch part. With all this snow we've been having (more so far this year than the entire winter last year), curling up indoors with needle and floss doesn't sound half bad.
I'd also like to offer some new products on my website this year. I'm still sourcing materials and making prototypes so I won't say too much about them just yet. But I will be adding new embroidery patterns very soon.
Happy New Year to you all!
The problem for me, and likely for most bloggers, too, is coming up with ideas for posts. In my case, I always feel that I need to say something important, or at least something worth saying. And when I can't find my voice, I don't say anything at all. But, maybe I'm over thinking the whole thing (I'll admit that I do that...a lot). Maybe it's enough to say a few words or post a photo with no words at all. Maybe each post doesn't have to be such a big deal. I'm working on that.
Some other resolutions are to start working my way through the pile of half-finished and not-yet-started embroidery projects in my studio. I'm really good at starting things—choosing colors, planning the stitching, etc.—but not so good at the home stretch part. With all this snow we've been having (more so far this year than the entire winter last year), curling up indoors with needle and floss doesn't sound half bad.
I'd also like to offer some new products on my website this year. I'm still sourcing materials and making prototypes so I won't say too much about them just yet. But I will be adding new embroidery patterns very soon.
Happy New Year to you all!
10.23.2012
busted
Well, the show I did this past Saturday was not a good one for me. After an hour of no one stopping into my booth I had a bad feeling that things were not going well. I sold four things all day, not enough to cover the booth fee, the item I was required to donate for the gift basket raffle, and probably not even the gas it took to drive there.
I made a couple of mistakes here, and maybe you can learn from them. I'm certainly keeping it in mind for the future.
#1—I listened to other crafters who said they'd heard it was good show. And I shouldn't have. Like people's opinions about restaurants, movies, and good places to vacation, that's very subjective. People have different tastes and are looking for very different things. For me, this show was too country craftsy, with too many hobby craft vendors with low-priced items. I just didn't fit.
#2—Not checking out the show beforehand. Had I skipped the idea of being a vendor this year I could have attended the show as a customer and I would have known immediately that it wasn't a good fit.
#3—Making too much stuff. Because I thought the show would be good I made a lot more items than I would have. Now, having too much inventory isn't necessarily a terrible thing provided you have space to store it. I have two more shows coming up in November, one of which I've done before and know will be good. I can send extra product this month to the shops where I consign. And I can take a much-needed break, too. Maybe catch up on paperwork.
Even though the show was a bust, it wasn't all bad. I met a woman who has a bunch of vintage handkerchiefs to sell. Several people took my card and promised to visit my website to do some holiday shopping (the discount code I gave them may provide some extra encouragement). And I met a young girl who excitedly told me that she'd just learned to cross stitch and loved vintage transfer patterns. You go, girl :)
I made a couple of mistakes here, and maybe you can learn from them. I'm certainly keeping it in mind for the future.
#1—I listened to other crafters who said they'd heard it was good show. And I shouldn't have. Like people's opinions about restaurants, movies, and good places to vacation, that's very subjective. People have different tastes and are looking for very different things. For me, this show was too country craftsy, with too many hobby craft vendors with low-priced items. I just didn't fit.
#2—Not checking out the show beforehand. Had I skipped the idea of being a vendor this year I could have attended the show as a customer and I would have known immediately that it wasn't a good fit.
#3—Making too much stuff. Because I thought the show would be good I made a lot more items than I would have. Now, having too much inventory isn't necessarily a terrible thing provided you have space to store it. I have two more shows coming up in November, one of which I've done before and know will be good. I can send extra product this month to the shops where I consign. And I can take a much-needed break, too. Maybe catch up on paperwork.
Even though the show was a bust, it wasn't all bad. I met a woman who has a bunch of vintage handkerchiefs to sell. Several people took my card and promised to visit my website to do some holiday shopping (the discount code I gave them may provide some extra encouragement). And I met a young girl who excitedly told me that she'd just learned to cross stitch and loved vintage transfer patterns. You go, girl :)
10.08.2011
eat your veggies
Don't you just love this fabric? I spotted it on eBay and thought it would be perfect for the pot holders I seem to be making a lot of these days. The color palate is pretty simple—just yellow, white, red, and green on black—but it has a surprising variety of vegetables. Yellow squash, tomatoes, green peppers, corn, radishes, beets, peas, and even artichokes. That's a vegetable you don't see much on fabric!
This fabric wasn't cheap, but it's so cute and also 2 yards in length. It's hard to find yardage in vintage fabrics and I wasn't going to pass it up.
9.27.2011
fly away
There's a scene at the end of the pilot episode of the new ABC show Pan Am with a little girl watching the stewardesses walking down the runway and boarding the plane. One turns back and catches the little girl's eye and makes her smile. I was that little girl. The thought of being an airline stewardess (and no, they were not called flight attendants back then) seemed exciting and romantic, a way to travel the world, have adventures, do and see exciting things.
My stylish grandmother flew on Pan Am from Tulsa to visit us in New York. Dressed to the nines, of course, because this was the early 1960s and people dressed up to go just about anywhere including airplanes. We would drive to the airport, JFK or La Guardia, to pick her up, and had plenty of time for people-watching while we waited. That exact scene probably happened to me at least once.
I even remember reading Coffee, Tea or Me?: The Uninhibited Adventures of Two Airline Stewardesses by Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones, borrowed from my mother's bookshelf and read in secret because it was pretty racy for a 12-year-old—they weren't kidding when they used uninhibited in the title :)
By the time I was old enough to seriously be thinking about careers, airline stewardess was pretty far down on the list. I realized that the job was basically a waitress in an airplane and the restrictions (weight, proper attire, etc.) were brutal. I didn't have the body or the personality.
Watching the show the other night brought back some of these memories. Any show that models itself on the Mad Men formula will be compared to it and come up short; it may take place in the same era but it doesn't quite have the sly humor that Mad Men does. I liked it anyway and will give it a chance while I'm waiting for Mad Men's return in January.
Pan Am, ABC, Sundays at 10pm
My stylish grandmother flew on Pan Am from Tulsa to visit us in New York. Dressed to the nines, of course, because this was the early 1960s and people dressed up to go just about anywhere including airplanes. We would drive to the airport, JFK or La Guardia, to pick her up, and had plenty of time for people-watching while we waited. That exact scene probably happened to me at least once.
I even remember reading Coffee, Tea or Me?: The Uninhibited Adventures of Two Airline Stewardesses by Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones, borrowed from my mother's bookshelf and read in secret because it was pretty racy for a 12-year-old—they weren't kidding when they used uninhibited in the title :)
By the time I was old enough to seriously be thinking about careers, airline stewardess was pretty far down on the list. I realized that the job was basically a waitress in an airplane and the restrictions (weight, proper attire, etc.) were brutal. I didn't have the body or the personality.
Watching the show the other night brought back some of these memories. Any show that models itself on the Mad Men formula will be compared to it and come up short; it may take place in the same era but it doesn't quite have the sly humor that Mad Men does. I liked it anyway and will give it a chance while I'm waiting for Mad Men's return in January.
Pan Am, ABC, Sundays at 10pm
9.23.2011
this could be dangerous
You might ask where I've been all this time, but I've just discovered treasuries on Etsy. I mean, I knew what they were and I've looked at some and even been featured on a few. But I never made one myself. It's incredibly addicting!
In case you don't know how it works, you curate a collection of Etsy items based on a theme of your choosing (the one shown above was the color apple green), arrange the photos nicely, publish it, and wait for comments—most of which will be from the artists you featured thanking you for featuring them. I've done four in the last two days. It's the kind of thing that once you start it's hard to stop.
You really get a feel for what's out there in the craft community after spending an hour weeding the gorgeous handmade things from the um, not-so-gorgeous, assembled-rather-than-crafted stuff. Let me just say that there's an incredible amount of the gorgeous. And a great photo goes a long way, too.
You can see my treasuries here. And I have about twenty ideas for more. I'm never going to get any work done :)
In case you don't know how it works, you curate a collection of Etsy items based on a theme of your choosing (the one shown above was the color apple green), arrange the photos nicely, publish it, and wait for comments—most of which will be from the artists you featured thanking you for featuring them. I've done four in the last two days. It's the kind of thing that once you start it's hard to stop.
You really get a feel for what's out there in the craft community after spending an hour weeding the gorgeous handmade things from the um, not-so-gorgeous, assembled-rather-than-crafted stuff. Let me just say that there's an incredible amount of the gorgeous. And a great photo goes a long way, too.
You can see my treasuries here. And I have about twenty ideas for more. I'm never going to get any work done :)
9.17.2011
soup's on
You know it's fall when your thoughts turn to soup when planning dinner. It's been very cold here—38 degrees yesterday morning—so soup sounded like the perfect thing to warm us up.
One of my favorite go-to soups is this white bean one from The Silver Palate Cookbook. It involves some chopping of ingredients but isn't too time-consuming if you substitute canned beans for the dried. I'm usually not a big fan of canned veggies, but beans (and tomatoes, for that matter) are nearly as good as fresh. And, around here, all you're going to find in the winter.
White Bean and Sausage Soup with Red Peppers
4 tablespoons sweet butter
2 cups finely chopped yellow onions
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
6 parsley sprigs
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
4 cups chicken stock
1-1⁄4 cups dried white beans, soaked overnight (or 2 cans white beans)
2 sweet red peppers
2 tablespoons olive oil
1⁄2 pound hot Italian sausage, precooked
salt and freshly ground pepper
Melt the butter in a pot. Add onions, carrots, and garlic and cook, covered, over low heat until vegetables are tender and lightly colored, about 25 minutes.
Add parsley, thyme, and bay leaf and pour in the stock. Drain the beans and stir them into the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until beans are very tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour. (If you're using canned beans, you just need to heat them up for about 15 minutes. And I usually add the liquid from the can, too.)
Pour the soup through a strainer, reserving the stock. Discard the bay leaf and transfer the solids to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, or use a food mill fitted with a medium disk. Add 1 cup of the cooking stock if using the processor and process until smooth.
Return pureed soup to the pot and stir in additional cooking liquid, 2 to 3 cups, until the soup is of desired consistency. (I'm not as fussy as this. I blend it all together in the food processor—in batches—the consistency is fine.)
Cut away stems and ribs of the peppers and dice them. Heat olive oil in a small skillet, add peppers and saute over low heat, stirring occasionally, until tender but still crunchy, about 15 minutes. Transfer peppers to the soup with a slotted spoon.
Dice the cooked sausage, and add it to the soup. Set over medium heat and cook, partially covered, until heated through, about 15 minutes. Season to taste and serve immediately. Makes 4 to 6 servings.
Serve it with a crusty baguette. Leftovers, if you have any, reheat really well for lunch the next day. I think you could easily make this a vegetarian dish by substituting vegetable stock for the chicken, and leaving out the sausage. The sausage adds a nice bit of spiciness but it's plenty flavorful without it.
For dessert I tried Ina Garten's Old-Fashioned Apple Crisp recipe with a combination of apples—a few leftovers from a recent trip to the farmer's market and a few from our trees. I agree with some of the commenters that it turned out a bit too wet so, next time, I may add a bit of flour to the filling or cut down on the juice. The flavor was wonderful so the recipe is definitely a keeper.
Now it's time to dig out some of my winter sweaters. If it doesn't warm up today I'm going to need them :)
One of my favorite go-to soups is this white bean one from The Silver Palate Cookbook. It involves some chopping of ingredients but isn't too time-consuming if you substitute canned beans for the dried. I'm usually not a big fan of canned veggies, but beans (and tomatoes, for that matter) are nearly as good as fresh. And, around here, all you're going to find in the winter.
White Bean and Sausage Soup with Red Peppers
4 tablespoons sweet butter
2 cups finely chopped yellow onions
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
6 parsley sprigs
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
4 cups chicken stock
1-1⁄4 cups dried white beans, soaked overnight (or 2 cans white beans)
2 sweet red peppers
2 tablespoons olive oil
1⁄2 pound hot Italian sausage, precooked
salt and freshly ground pepper
Melt the butter in a pot. Add onions, carrots, and garlic and cook, covered, over low heat until vegetables are tender and lightly colored, about 25 minutes.
Add parsley, thyme, and bay leaf and pour in the stock. Drain the beans and stir them into the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until beans are very tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour. (If you're using canned beans, you just need to heat them up for about 15 minutes. And I usually add the liquid from the can, too.)
Pour the soup through a strainer, reserving the stock. Discard the bay leaf and transfer the solids to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, or use a food mill fitted with a medium disk. Add 1 cup of the cooking stock if using the processor and process until smooth.
Return pureed soup to the pot and stir in additional cooking liquid, 2 to 3 cups, until the soup is of desired consistency. (I'm not as fussy as this. I blend it all together in the food processor—in batches—the consistency is fine.)
Cut away stems and ribs of the peppers and dice them. Heat olive oil in a small skillet, add peppers and saute over low heat, stirring occasionally, until tender but still crunchy, about 15 minutes. Transfer peppers to the soup with a slotted spoon.
Dice the cooked sausage, and add it to the soup. Set over medium heat and cook, partially covered, until heated through, about 15 minutes. Season to taste and serve immediately. Makes 4 to 6 servings.
Serve it with a crusty baguette. Leftovers, if you have any, reheat really well for lunch the next day. I think you could easily make this a vegetarian dish by substituting vegetable stock for the chicken, and leaving out the sausage. The sausage adds a nice bit of spiciness but it's plenty flavorful without it.
For dessert I tried Ina Garten's Old-Fashioned Apple Crisp recipe with a combination of apples—a few leftovers from a recent trip to the farmer's market and a few from our trees. I agree with some of the commenters that it turned out a bit too wet so, next time, I may add a bit of flour to the filling or cut down on the juice. The flavor was wonderful so the recipe is definitely a keeper.
Now it's time to dig out some of my winter sweaters. If it doesn't warm up today I'm going to need them :)
9.14.2011
local find
Although I haven't had very good luck this summer with flea markets, I am still finding great stuff on Ebay and in local shops. Like this cute little table/shelf—not sure what to call it—that I found for $28 at an antique store in Milford, Pennsylvania.
It has shelves but it also has handles on top like a bed tray. It came with a simple coat of white and I'm using the leftover paint from my armoire repainting project earlier this year—a light green, a little yellowish but definitely not minty—what's called celery green, I think. It was the perfect color for the armoire as it picked up one of the secondary colors in the vintage fabric I used in the room. But, it also happens to pick up one of the stripe colors in the upstairs hallway runner. So, I'm going to use the piece right outside the bathroom to hold towels. The bathroom itself is too small to hold anything; it barely holds one person at a time :)
The color thing is a little interior design trick. Bring a secondary color from one room into the next room, even if the primary colors are very different, and everything flows together. Not in a formal decorated way but in a casual, unstudied way. For example, one of our bedrooms is mostly turquoise and lavender with the green armoire. That same green, picked up again in the hallway rug (and now in my new table), ties together the two spaces, even though the hallway is painted yellow. The room next door is painted a deep red called henna and it all works because of the striped rug that contains all those colors. I just bought a new shower curtain for the bathroom that also opens into this hallway and it has some yellow among the other colors. So, even though the walls are painted a light blue (called sea glass), the yellow picks up the yellow from the hallway. Easy peasy. And you thought you couldn't decorate without professional help!
It has shelves but it also has handles on top like a bed tray. It came with a simple coat of white and I'm using the leftover paint from my armoire repainting project earlier this year—a light green, a little yellowish but definitely not minty—what's called celery green, I think. It was the perfect color for the armoire as it picked up one of the secondary colors in the vintage fabric I used in the room. But, it also happens to pick up one of the stripe colors in the upstairs hallway runner. So, I'm going to use the piece right outside the bathroom to hold towels. The bathroom itself is too small to hold anything; it barely holds one person at a time :)
The color thing is a little interior design trick. Bring a secondary color from one room into the next room, even if the primary colors are very different, and everything flows together. Not in a formal decorated way but in a casual, unstudied way. For example, one of our bedrooms is mostly turquoise and lavender with the green armoire. That same green, picked up again in the hallway rug (and now in my new table), ties together the two spaces, even though the hallway is painted yellow. The room next door is painted a deep red called henna and it all works because of the striped rug that contains all those colors. I just bought a new shower curtain for the bathroom that also opens into this hallway and it has some yellow among the other colors. So, even though the walls are painted a light blue (called sea glass), the yellow picks up the yellow from the hallway. Easy peasy. And you thought you couldn't decorate without professional help!
9.10.2011
and they called it puppy love...
Who doesn't love puppies, or any small animals for that matter? I especially love the cute embroidered kind that you find on vintage linens. Actually, all of these began as stamped-for-embroidery projects. I'm happy to create pillows from already embroidered linens but it's so much easier to be able to chose thread colors to coordinate with fabrics you love!
I've used primary colors for the first pillow and strategically-placed a few tiny buttons within the embroidery—one on his beanie, and two on his overalls. It's really hard to find very tiny buttons—I got these at Joann Fabrics.
The second pillow uses a dog bone and paw print fabric and two bright orange vintage buttons. Both of these pillows are just listed for sale on my website.
I have tons more stamped embroidery blocks to work up and will probably make finishing them a winter project. Some are truly funny—think pigs with footballs, basketball-playing chipmunks, bowling dogs. Those are going to make fun pillows!
8.08.2011
summer's going fast
You're probably wondering why I haven't reported back about my flea market trip last month. It's because the day was a huge disappointment and I hate even thinking about it. I budgeted a certain amount for the trip and barely spent any of it. Maybe it's because this textile-linen-button theme market always falls over the July 4th weekend. There were very few vendors (really, who wants to sit all day over a holiday weekend when you could be swimming or picnicking or barbecuing) and most of my favorite sellers were not there. I may even skip it next year (and I've gone about 5 years in a row now).
My best find of the day was a length of vintage (40s?) rayon fabric for $2. Aren't the colors great? Rayon isn't something I use in my work but there's enough to make a pretty blouse from it.
The day wasn't a complete waste because I got to visit my friends at Hello Bluebird and Tea Street Vintage in West Reading. And I delivered a new batch of covered notebooks and sachet stacks.
In other news I've been busy with the new local shop, working on Thursdays and sewing like mad to keep my space fully stocked. And then there's the garden and things around the house. You know how it is in the summer—and boy is it going fast this year! Anyway, in spite of the fact that I haven't been posting much, I'm still here :)
My best find of the day was a length of vintage (40s?) rayon fabric for $2. Aren't the colors great? Rayon isn't something I use in my work but there's enough to make a pretty blouse from it.
The day wasn't a complete waste because I got to visit my friends at Hello Bluebird and Tea Street Vintage in West Reading. And I delivered a new batch of covered notebooks and sachet stacks.
In other news I've been busy with the new local shop, working on Thursdays and sewing like mad to keep my space fully stocked. And then there's the garden and things around the house. You know how it is in the summer—and boy is it going fast this year! Anyway, in spite of the fact that I haven't been posting much, I'm still here :)
7.14.2011
it's war
...against the woodchucks who've taken up residence in my yard. First they ate the last picking of peas, then they munched the tops of my baby lettuces, and now they've moved on to the beans. At least with those, they're eating the leaves and not the beans themselves.
I almost wish they'd eat some of the cucumbers. I picked about 4 dozen of them last night. I've been making my mom's cucumber salad which is really a refrigerator pickle with no canning involved. But really, how many of them can you eat? And we all thought zucchini was prolific!
These are the easiest thing to make and you can keep adding more sliced cucumbers to the liquid. My mother used to keep a jar in the fridge all summer. We ate them with most meals and they're even good on sandwiches with a little sweet butter to keep them from soaking into the bread too much.
Sliced Cucumber Salad
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup water
4 medium cucumbers. thinly sliced
2 small onions, thinly sliced
pepper, chopped fresh dill
Mix together the sugar, salt, vinegar, and water and stir until the sugar dissolves. Pour over the cucumbers and onions and sprinkle with pepper and chopped dill (you can leave this out if you don't like dill) to taste. Refrigerate for several hours, preferably overnight. This works well for a flattish dish but the cucumbers and onions should be completely covered with liquid so, if you're using a deep bowl or jar, you may want to double the liquid ingredients.
It's a great way to use up some cucumbers. But, if you have as many as I do now, you may have to make "real" pickles, too. Time to dig out the bread-and-butter pickle recipe :)
I almost wish they'd eat some of the cucumbers. I picked about 4 dozen of them last night. I've been making my mom's cucumber salad which is really a refrigerator pickle with no canning involved. But really, how many of them can you eat? And we all thought zucchini was prolific!
These are the easiest thing to make and you can keep adding more sliced cucumbers to the liquid. My mother used to keep a jar in the fridge all summer. We ate them with most meals and they're even good on sandwiches with a little sweet butter to keep them from soaking into the bread too much.
Sliced Cucumber Salad
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup water
4 medium cucumbers. thinly sliced
2 small onions, thinly sliced
pepper, chopped fresh dill
Mix together the sugar, salt, vinegar, and water and stir until the sugar dissolves. Pour over the cucumbers and onions and sprinkle with pepper and chopped dill (you can leave this out if you don't like dill) to taste. Refrigerate for several hours, preferably overnight. This works well for a flattish dish but the cucumbers and onions should be completely covered with liquid so, if you're using a deep bowl or jar, you may want to double the liquid ingredients.
It's a great way to use up some cucumbers. But, if you have as many as I do now, you may have to make "real" pickles, too. Time to dig out the bread-and-butter pickle recipe :)
4.14.2011
unwelcome visitor
I realize this isn't the best photo. It was starting to get dark and he'd just knocked over our bird feeders. We were more concerned with getting him out of our yard than taking a picture. Right when I snapped this he was on the move—over the wall and across the road. Apparently he doubled back because our neighbors (behind us and up the hill) called a short while later and told us he was after their bird feeders. Their dogs chased him away and back towards our next door neighbors house.
The funny thing is we knew he was around. Last week my husband said that we really needed to start taking in the feeders at night (which is kind of a hassle so easy to put off). Sure enough that very night he knocked over the pole that supports four feeders and scattered seed and pieces of broken feeder everywhere. Our neighbor told us that, a few nights later, someone saw him running away from a chicken coop with a chicken in his mouth. I suspect we're in for more drama with this hungry little guy. And, yes, I do mean little. This is a second year bear, first year away from mom, and he's going to get much bigger!
Update: Last Saturday, about 5 miles from here, a mother and three newborn cubs were up in a tree in someone's backyard. Since this was in a town they had to call animal control, who tranquilized the bear and moved her and the babies out into the woods somewhere. Hopefully not our woods—we have enough problems of our own :)
4.06.2011
on a mission
I've been searching forever (OK, at least a year) for a small bookcase that's 16-18 inches wide that I can use upstairs, either next to the bed or in the hallway outside the bedroom. Yes, we have too many books and our downstairs shelves are overflowing.
It really holds quite a lot for being so small!
Surprisingly hard to find. But I did last Saturday at the antique mall. It's very simple, mission style, with four shelves and just 17 inches wide (and 8 inches deep). And it fits exactly in the space between two door frames in the hallway. It's in pretty good shape with the paint worn down in places (I'm going to repaint it anyway) and slightly wobbly (a strategically placed nail should fix that). The booth seller was having a 20% off sale so I got it for $24!
On top are a green pottery bowl, two watercolor wildflower prints, some vintage keys, and a small book of humorous essays (which I'll blog about soon).
I've filled it with books for now until I figure out what color to paint it. And until it's actually warm enough to paint.
This vintage hand-carved shelf with mirror back is hanging on the wall above. On it are a vintage-style bird, a favorite quote, and a vintage rhinestone pin with turquoise stones. You can't tell I love turquoise, can you?
It really holds quite a lot for being so small!
Surprisingly hard to find. But I did last Saturday at the antique mall. It's very simple, mission style, with four shelves and just 17 inches wide (and 8 inches deep). And it fits exactly in the space between two door frames in the hallway. It's in pretty good shape with the paint worn down in places (I'm going to repaint it anyway) and slightly wobbly (a strategically placed nail should fix that). The booth seller was having a 20% off sale so I got it for $24!
On top are a green pottery bowl, two watercolor wildflower prints, some vintage keys, and a small book of humorous essays (which I'll blog about soon).
I've filled it with books for now until I figure out what color to paint it. And until it's actually warm enough to paint.
This vintage hand-carved shelf with mirror back is hanging on the wall above. On it are a vintage-style bird, a favorite quote, and a vintage rhinestone pin with turquoise stones. You can't tell I love turquoise, can you?
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