First bloom this year

Great plans are confirmed by the blooming today of this "SORBET" peony which was a Mother's Day gift from my daughter a few years ago. [It was a brown stick in a bag then! LOL!]

Today's plan is that Mom and I and my daughter and her children will all be together on Mother's Day.
Perfect! And confirmed by the peony blooming early this year to give "thumbs up" to our plan! 

Perfect day

I have the day off today and am not taking on more than I want to!

 This pile of antique lace, recently washed and ironed is ready to embellish a lace scarf.  I may sit and work on it later!

I found a recipe for lemon poppyseed cookies which uses Jiffy cornbread mix....so that was an easy treat to try!

Our springtime lunch today was artichokes with olive and lemon dipping sauce. Wonderful!

Outside it is 72 degrees and sunny.  JUST PERFECT!

I took the camera out for a look at the garden....first the shady sitting area with the newly painted blue chair....

then the newly gravelled area for the container tomatoes and peppers. There is also a dramatic with and purple African daisy....love it!

Finally, this link should take you to the cormmeal cookie recipe!

http://www.recipe.com/lemon-and-poppy-seed-cornmeal-cookies/

Yard work

This is my first post using Bloggers new features.....we'll see.....

Today was perfect for yard work (or anything one wanted to do outside) sunny and high in the 60's!

I started spray painting one of my vintage lawn chairs.  Love these chairs!

We are working on the area where our containers have tomato and marigold plants.  We will add white crushed rock and more, smaller containers of bell peppers.



All of this is about a month earlier than usual! We may have a great growing season this year.
Here is a new variety of petunia!  I love the pink and white together!

It isn't even mid April yet my garden looks like it usually does in early May!

I took these today and it is cool and overcast....in the 50's.

These peonies were open fully in the sunshine yesterday!

Hosta's are looking lush....and a trillium is emerging here too!

Yesterday, beautiful and sunny in the low 70's, I got the gardening urge....(could be those steroids I had to take for my sinus infection...but I had SO much energy!) and worked on my little outside garden bed, sowing seeds for lettuce and planting annuals, salvia, alyssum, zinnias, a dahlia, coleus....so much fun! I know I will love watching these grow! [That is cilantro which survivied our brief winter and is wonderful now!]

Here is some lantana and some small bell flower ((like a mini petunia) nesting in the pot, a bright splash of red, is the latest broken coffee cup!

Finally, two tomatoes in the half whiskey barrel, an heirloom "Mortgage Lifter" and a hybrid "Early Girl". I will add a few marigolds and call it "good"!

Spring is here, the most "intense" we have had for years, everything is blooming and leafing out (and spewing pollen) at once! My peony bushes have overshadowed the tulips, we have more lilacs than we ever had......and they certainly are popular with the swallowtail butterflies!

This is not my photo, I was cutting a bouquet of lilacs for a friend and was delighted to see the butterfly. But I had clippers, not a camera so I "Googled" swallowtail butterfly and found out that yes, that was the one I had seen ( by looking at "images"). I'm sorry, it has been a few days and I can no longer find the link to the photographer to give credit.

I'd been sewing and working at the store and hadn't spent much time out in the spring air until last weekend. Finally, I cleaned leaves and debris out of a flower bed. It didn't take long to clean....but that exposure to mold, dust and pollen sent me over the edge with my sinus and allergy problems. I became very tired and lost my voice the next day...now, after medicine and a few days rest, I am better!

Ah, SPRING!

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Remember the little Christening gowns? For a special day in Jamaica?

Yesterday, I received this iPhone photo (below) from my daughter. They are still down in the Caribbean so I was happy to have this quick peak at their celebration. The babies are not too delighted and the parents look tired, but that is to be expected! I love the little bare feet!

Wanting an almond tea cake recipe, I read several online.....






which led to reading several posts about Dorie Greenspan's Swedish Visiting Cake recipe.
I modified her recipe because I like cherries and almond together!

Here is my recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Melt one stick unsalted butter. Cool slightly and add 1 scant c. sugar. Beat in 2 eggs.
Add 1 tsp. each vanilla extract and almond extract. Mix in 1 cup flour and a pinch of salt.
Spread in a greased 9 " spring form pan. Top with cherry preserves and sliced almonds.
Bake about 35-40 minutes or until cake tests done.
[There is no leavening agent other than the eggs in this, but it makes a nice tea cake!]

After weeks of designing, ordering materials and sewing by hand and machine, two little white dresses are ready for the twin's Christening day. [I, their grandmother, loved every minute of making these!]


This one has a ruched center panel and Swiss embroidered trim....all soft fine white cotton batiste!

The other dress uses French laces. Here you can see the pearl buttons which are on the back of both dresses.

Each dress has it's own sweet "Victorian suitcase" storage box.....

Not being near the babies, I leave it to their parents to decide which dress is for Nina Kate and which one for Sophie Jane!

May they have a safe trip to the island of Jamaica and a blessed baptism day while visiting the other grandparents!

Highly recommended by me......

Sister Macrina Wiederkehr's writing brings fresh insight into the sometimes wrathful and patriarchal words in the Bible. Spending time with the Scripture readings and her reflections (and suggestions for our own reflection) is time well spent!

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I have thought a lot about the word "abide" lately.....mostly it's other meaning, to tolerate or put up with.....as in "I can't abide unmade beds." It seems to have its roots in Old English and to have been popular in days gone by....and in the South still today. It is a word I enjoy using!

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More information when "Googling" the word "abide"-----

"The Dude abides" a famous quote, which I had never heard! (Jeff Bridges played the Dude in the movie "The Big Lebowski").....and that Jeff Bridges has a new book on Zen coming out..."The Dude and the Zen Master"!

What next? The world is truly many faceted......never stop learning....even if it is mostly trivia!

I've been reading lately about modern or improvisational quilts....somewhere in my research, I came across this one....






Of course, I love the aqua and red.....but I had something more masculine in mind....using gray,which has suddenly been hard to find. It seems to be selling out...solid gray cotton.



I found and ordered 2 yards of "organic" gray from Fabric.com when I ordered the cotton batiste for the christening gowns...

I visited this blog for more about the quilt shown above and then made my blocks in darker colors, with some smashing bright accents and used the gray for the lattice!



NOW, to get this quilted!

Making a small footstool---pouf wise.....

Now, stuffed, tufted and ready to use!

I love using this when I am knitting, reading or handsewing....gives my feet just the lift that they need!


The directions are in this tutorial!

More sewing.....




a shopping cart liner for little grandson in Idaho!


A sundress for my oldest grandchild...she too is heading for Jamaica shortly!


And finally, the early morning light on the two almost finished Christening dresses for the twins...





This has been really fun, I brought the sewing up from the basement to the kitchen table....just love working in the heart of my home!


The down side of obsessive sewing ( at my age anyway) is inflamed bursa on a heel....the foot which uses the foot pedal of the sewing machine, as well as carpal tunnel issues from lots of cutting and hand sewing (I cut lots of fabric for cutomers at work too!). I know I should stop sewing and just read for a while.....maybe the rest of Lent?

Sunny day babies......wearing the little sundresses I had just sent to them!

Still more to sew.....the Christening dresses....

First, I was doing heirloom or French hand sewing with organic cotton batiste and imported laces.......it was slow going!

Then my first shipment of entredeaux, thread and lace arrived. I got out the Janome sewing machine and it has been smooth sewing ever since!

It is wonderful to be able to create the beautiful airy look of antique sewing techniques with modern convenience.....though I do still enjoy doing hand work....this machine saves on carpal tunnel and eye strain! [I "Googled" a lot of sewing tutorials to refresh my skills as it has been too long since I had the classes on this type of heriloom sewing! LOVE the Internet!!!]

Now back to making French seams and buttonholes for little pearl buttons....waiting for more entredeaux and edging lace which was back-ordered! [Yikes! must send these dresses soon!]

My daughter's children......


.....sewing for those 7 month old twin girls is keeping me busy! They MUST have the proper wardrobe for an Easter trip to Jamaica....(including 2 "christening" dresses).



Here (above) is a chair full of little sundresses, a hat, and "bloomers" in various stages of being sewn....below a rick-rack trimmed sunsuit is ready for shipping to them!



[I have ordered white batiste for 2 little christening dresses and will post about those when I sew them!]

How to capture a moment.....(or "giving equal time to "pears", after my post on "indigo"...)



Step one, buy a handmade pottery pitcher from a local artisan.
Step two, roam the yard/garden searching for somethin lovely to fill the new container.
Step three, arrange everything on the new table runner.....and add a pear!




Step four, grab your camera to record this from a couple of different angles. Trying to hold the camera steady, but it is not too important as these photos are just for general reference when I (hopefully) start doing a watercolor based on this moment.

Step five, wait a day or two....the pear is getting ripe! Still no time to paint. Grab sketchbook and make a loose pencil drawing directly from the still life, not the photos....(go over this sketch with India ink pens when the pencil drawing will not scan properly for this post!)

Step six, eat the pear for breakfast.....perhaps pausing to sketch it after slicing,.... or NOT.

Hope for time to get out the watercolors while the arrangement is still on the table....

Attention! this is my post # 1,000!

This textile artist with permanently blue hands knows the

Power of INDIGO !

Aboubakar Fofana has worked for years in Africa, France, Japan and Great Britain to preserve the ancient dying techniques for these beautiful textiles.

I had first read about him in "Indigo in search of the Color which Seduced the World", a wonderful travel and adventure by Catherine McKinley.

Last week my friend Paula brought me a back issue of "Traditional Homes" magazine, April 2009, which featured an article about him.
This piqued my interest and I found a lot on the Internet.

Blogger Holli Zollinger writes about these textiles here .

You can read more about Catherine McKinley HERE .
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All this thinking about indigo seems appropriate for this my 1,000th post!
When I impulsively started blogging, I named my blog by "pulling" two words "out of the air", hence "indigo" (a color I loved!) and "pears" so ordinary but still fascinating to an artist!

I am considering taking an on-line indigo dying class with Shibori Girl . I have enjoyed using her textiles in my art work recently!

Two great Valentines for those of us who stitch!

These are a surprise from my friend Diane, of "Lavender Dreams" blog! Love them! [thank-you Diane!!!!]

Getting my home ready for Valentines (time to put away my pine tree "Christmas" table runner), I wanted something different and contemporary but still crafty and unique....so I was inspired by the blogger at "i heart linen" , Rashida Coleman-Hale, to create something in the "Zakka" style.....a new tablerunner with neutral linen and fun strips of color!

"Rashida Coleman-Hale has gathered talented designers from around the world to bring you 24 delightful Zakka projects. Zakka, a Japanese term meaning “many things,” is all about all the little things that improve your home and appearance."




Now, I'm set for a month or two!