Clara's Trio

Three hours of practice this morning for the girls in Clara's trio--Christmas songs, wedding music, and general loveliness. To my mind, it beats a rock band in the garage!

Stitching the Felt Ornaments

In the pause before the cookstorm, I am doing some hand-sewing, finishing up this set of felt ornaments. Like others who were little girls in the seventies, I'm fascinated by ornate felt ornaments after seeing my mother's creations. Back then they used bright acrylic felt, glue, sequins, and bright gold braid. This time around the fashion is for real wool and patient embroidery.

Patience is indeed called for, as on more than one occasion I've had to remind myself that I'm making these *for fun*. Having fun. Just a reminder, that's all.

I did the pink cup of cocoa first, because if you live at my house, you understand the importance of a big pink cup of cocoa, first thing.

And I'm bringing gingerbread girl over the home plate tonight. Then wrapping them up and enjoying Thanksgiving.

This Little Slice of Week

I love this little three-day week before Thanksgiving. Clara's done with her college classes until Monday. Giles has taken Hazel home and met her parents, and now he can settle in for a bit and get the boxes out of the sitting room. Tomorrow I pick Felix up from his school--score! The little girls and I *try* to keep our minds on school a little while each morning, but really we're thinking about pie, groceries, and girlfriends . . . .

Tomorrow night everyone will be safely gathered in. Then the winter storms really can begin!

Hipsters in the Woods

When I got home from my run I found Daisy in Hazel's lap. The bonding had been done and they had moved on to hair-stroking, reading, and cuddling. "She's the only nineteen-year old I know who wants to play house!" Daisy told me excitedly.


We did let Giles take her out of the house later on, and they trolled the thrift stores, scoring this farmyard vest(!), some eyeglasses(!), and Giles' manvest.

The hipsters.


Fortunately they can turn it off as well as on, and they're not too cool for singing, hide-and-seek in the dark, and popcorn with a card game.


When they're done being hip in the woods.

Satin Stitched Pillowcases

A second set of pillowcases. These took much longer to embroider because they're heavily covered in "lace stitch", as Daisy calls satin stitch, because she can only remember that there's a fancy fabric involved in the name. I spent several happy hours working on them while sitting in on Clara's cellos lessons this last month. Nice memories stitched in.

And now they're on a guest bed waiting on an arrival . . . .

Hazel Tomorrow

We have been madly scrubbing, baking, and fluffing the house. Tomorrow Giles comes home from college, with . . . a guest!


Beautiful Hazel, who probably looks less like a fairy princess when she's not styled for a fashion shoot. But tomorrow I'll know for sure!

Chicken Soup: Making It Spicy

A nice cold-weather variation on a favorite: spiced-up chicken soup. Start with your usual chicken soup recipe (one is here if you're at a loss).

Use 4-5 cloves of garlic in your vegetables. After you've sauteed to the point of transparency in your onions, add 2 t. cumin and 1 t. chili powder. When you add the broth, add a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies.

Instead of choosing noodles or dumplings for the starch, stir in 1-2 cans of rinsed black or white beans and add some frozen corn, heating til it's cooked through.

Serve with any of these delights: shredded cheese, sour cream, lime wedges, crushed tortilla chips, or salsa.

A New Stovepipe

The stovepipe was fifteen years old, and when the chimney sweep came out to clean it he allowed that he would rather replace it. Visions of his brushes poking out the rusted holes, no doubt. This being busy season for chimney sweeps, he came out to do the job on Sunday afternoon, on the roof and in the house.

It was sunny and chilly. From the rooftop you could see the red and ochre oak trees rushing up the ridge. Indoors, the girls spent the afternoon singing together and playing piano. Then it was quiet, and the simmering pot of spicy chicken soup took over the house.

All that is why, when we finally sat down to dinner, and the new fire heated up the wood stove, the chimney sweep sat down too and just kept us company for a while. He said so.

Carnations in a Copper Canister

Still loving the thrifted copper warming up my kitchen. This one is "Flour". I know you get it.

I also found "Fromage", a good-size shaker with giant holes on the top and a side handle. You could never actually store the Parmesan cheese in it, because there's no way to close it. But it makes an excellent beside-the-sink container for the Barkeeper's Friend scouring powder.

Schoolhouse Roasted Carrots

Schoolhouse Roasted Carrots

I doubt I invented these, but I *can* claim to have made them at least four times in the last ten days. They are that good, and the kids pick them out of the bowl before and after the meal.

Prepare however many carrots you want by peeling them and cutting them into sticks of roughly equal thickness. I usually quarter the top half and split the lower half. You want them roasting at the same rate, about.

Toss them with plenty of olive oil, thyme, and coarse salt.

Spread out on a cookie sheet or in a shallow pan, coated with Pam. Roast uncovered at 400 for about an hour. You're looking for very soft, dark-at-the-edges goodness.

The White Oak Turns Red

Already my favorite trees, the white oaks around my house are now more glorious than ever, redder than I have ever seen them. Our fall color is just peaking now, and it was worth the wait.

Daisy's Winter Wardrobe, Dress Four

Brought to you yet again by the colors blue and brown, here is Daisy's final new winter dress. It's a sweet satiny cotton from the high-end quilting shop (on sale). Crossover front, frills on the 3/4 sleeves, and a round of robin's egg blue ribbon at the hem.


We had extraordinary luck with tights from Mini Boden--I got a $25 voucher in the mail, and after ordering tights in blue and brown, Boden ended up owing me $5!

I particularly adore these brown tights on her dainty legs because the tiny flash of blue at the heel puts me in mind of a lady mallard. They have all those quiet brown feathers, then on the wing just one little patch of iridescent purply-blue.

An Antebellum Day

We had a perfect day in a historical town. Ladies in full skirts. Cabins. This lady had a full skirt *and* a chicken. And her jewelry matched her chicken. How often does that happen?

We loved seeing the kind of house that Laura lived in with Ma and Pa. Butter churn, spinning wheel, a fireplace to cook in.


Sunny and shadowy.


My beautiful interested daughters.


The best part came last. We had a ride in a buggy.


When things are that wonderful, it makes you solemn.

Vintage Cookbooks in the Shop

Vintage cookbooks, including some holiday inspiration, in my etsy shop tonight!

Round Loaf of Rye Bread

When you have a pan of sausages, you need a loaf of rye bread to go with it. I've been making all our dinner bread from the ubiquitous Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. There's a reason it's everywhere.

As Beautiful as Flowers

. . . and so abundant.

It's Like Using Cake Mix

When you want that creative hit without all the work, turns out you can just use a canvas bag from the craft store (cheap) and a scrap of something vintage.


Two minutes at the sewing machine and you feel like a genius.

This, and others like it, will pepper my shop early next week. I sure don't need six decorated tote bags for my own.

A New Room for Daisy

Daisy has been a victim of a seismic shift--changing rooms registered an 8.2 on her emotional Richter scale. We had to ease into it, trying the bed and giving up and going back to the old room. Trying again and succeeding in sleeping. It got easier the more her sweet little things got settled in around her.


Now she has room for her dolls all to be together, her books to all be in a straight line. She has morning sunshine and floor space for her littlest pet shop friends.


At bedtime she can see the light shining in her window from the sewing room. She has a stepstool in her closet to reach the high shelves.


She has a desk.


It all makes such good sense, and she's only a tiny bit shaky at bedtime, wanting to be "checked on."

Of course.

All this adventure was made possible by Giles, who pointed out this fall that he doesn't need the biggest bed and one of the best downstairs rooms anymore. So Felix is in the green room, finally in a double bed---he's the tallest child now! And Daisy's little orange bedroom is empty and appointed as a guest room, with Giles' few things in the closet. He'll be a guest there in just two weeks . . . not that we're counting.

Bella Makes Filled Pancakes for Breakfast

Bella made these beauties for breakfast. Half were filled with cream cheese, half with chocolate. They're baked in a special pan that you find at Williams-Sonoma. It has little round wells that you fill with a special batter I've never made--but I know that it involves separating eggs and whipping the whites. At dawn.

Bella owns this pan. She is the easiest girl in the *world* to shop for.


Now, you don't have to eat the filled pancakes in a garnet velvet robe, in the morning sunlight. But you can.

Clean and Comfy in the Car

Tricking out the car with the things we need to stay clean and comfy in cold weather:

• Full-size box of Kleenex.
• Big pump bottle of hand sanitizer--we use it every time we get back in the car after a stop.
• Good size bottle of hand lotion--the big bottles can stay nicely in the middle drink holders, since we don't drink in the car much.
• A supply of disinfectant wipes--not just for germs but for our clothes, or anything that gets a blob on it.
• Some personal supplies in the glove compartment.
• A cozy wool blanket that can stay out of the way when it's not needed, and stop arguments over the temperature controls when it is.
• A small umbrella.

Aside from these items, we adhere to a rule of Everything Out of the Car when we get home. Everyone looks around and picks up anything they can see or reach, whether or not *they* are the one who brought it into the car!

Daisy's Winter Wardrobe, Dress Three

Another soft, tiny print corduroy, made up plenty long, with a ruffle at the bottom. Long sleeves and a crossover front.


Almost like a gypsy. But she'd better not wander off from here.

Thrifted Purse Handles

The thrift store is my purse handle store. At a dollar a whack, it's much cheaper to buy a purse to cut up than to venture to the sewing store.

This one was unusual, a single large bamboo arc with great metal clippies. I attached them to the body of the bag by running twill tape through them. It's fun to make stuff up!

Body of the bag is patchwork from the basket, and thrifted linen. Check for it in the shop.

Daisy's Winter Wardrobe, Dress Two

We used the same pattern, but this time in an interesting gingham variation. See the tiny twists in the fabric? It almost looks like the fabric has been smocked in a diamond pattern. A little optical illusion.


Rickrack at the collar, vintage blue buttons, and most especially, long sleeves with "a little puff at the top."


Apparently this part of Betsy-Tacy and Tib was just too good.

A Fall Birthday Banquet

Time to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday--I'm so glad he has it at this season when it's a joy to putter in a warm kitchen, enjoy the golden light on the table, and cook again the rich foods we remember from last year's cold weather.


Can you read that menu? We started with a zucchini and gruyere tart (Bella made it, with puff pastry). Then a gorgeous salad, red lettuces with sprouts, pomegratate seeds, and candied walnuts (definitely will be making this again!).

Roast beef, mashed potatoes put through a ricer (you know it's a fancy dinner then!), gravy, roasted brussels sprouts, rolls.

Then, in honor of the man's love for pie, instead of a birthday cake an Upstanding Apple Pie served with homemade vanilla ice cream and coffee. We baked it in a springform pan and went for three vertical inches, with local apples.


Of *course* cards followed, and though we said we'd let Grandpa win in honor of his birthday, Bella did the honors. So, a revenge match.


Next year.

Clara in a Ruffled Sweater

Clara wears this gorgeous ruffled sweater over a little cotton 1940s housedress. The colors are just right together. Thrift store, you are so good to us.

Clara Reads to Us

Clara has changed cello teachers and now has to go Out of Town for her lesson, an undertaking which takes a good four and a half hours start to finish since she takes a ninety-minute lesson from a generous, unworldly professor who never looks at the clock, and it's forty-five miles away. It's too long to leave the younger girls at home, and too long to take them along.

Lately though, to the satisfaction of everyone, the grandparents have started having Bella and Daisy as visitors during the lesson. But oh the driving was no fun--until Clara started Reading.

We're working on the Chronicles of Narnia and no one wants to do anything except get on the interstate so we can have another chapter.

My favorite part is that after we're home, Daisy rolls around on the floor reviewing the chapters we've read, until she can quote long passages verbatim, from memory. If it's about Reepicheep or a Bulgy Bear, she's there.

Daisy's Winter Wardrobe, Dress One

My Daisy had definite ideas of her own: winter dresses, stat, and no negotiating in the fabric store. We came home with her four choices in fabrics and got to work. She stuck to a very close palette of blues and browns.


I actually was fascinated by this process. She has long observed *every* detail of dress, and regaled us at age three with excessively complicated descriptions of the costumes at a musical she attended. I mean, she was throwing around the terms empire waist, pleats, and square collar.

So no surprise that she knew what she wanted in her winter wardrobe.


Some turquoise buttons down the back of this soft, fine corduroy. Elbow sleeves. Peter Pan collar. Plain hem.


Made from (the out of print, I think) Butterick 6487, with a few modifications to please her highness.

Footies

Oh my. They make Footies in Daisy's size. She's been longing for them ever since she outgrew the 3T's several years and many inches ago.

Thank you, Lands End. You make school so cozy.

A Baby Quilt in Raspberry Scraps

It's so quick and fun when the cut-out squares are waiting in a basket. Then it's just a matter of picking a color to work with, and joining up pairs, then doubling and doubling them til there are lots of strips of eight squares.


Then once there are enough, making four big blocks. And setting them in muslin strips, and then backing them with a sweet cherry print from the stash.


This one's heading into the shop.

Yellow Patchwork in a Pillow

If my pillow form weren't oversized, you'd be able to see the plain canvas border around my piecing. I like the border. It calms things down.

Our Own Apples

. . . from the tree halfway down the driveway. It was Daisy's life dream to pick them into a basket covered with a cloth. Sigh.

Glass Domes

These glass domes, which are all over magazine pages, are also over the thrift store for just pennies. They truly are lovely and I've started picking them up when I'm shopping, after being inspired by my artistic sister-in-law who does the most elaborate, layered visual stories in hers.

Of course, mine at this point just hold a rock and a sprig. But I'm thinking of becoming a more complicated person!

"Different Methods"

'Men and women can't do housework together without quarrelling. Different methods, my dear. Men can't help in a job, you know. They can be induced to do it: not to help while you're doing it. At least, it makes them grumpy.'

'The cardinal difficulty,' said MacPhee, 'in collaboration between the sexes is that women speak a language without nouns. If two men are doing a bit of work, one will say to the other, "Put this bowl inside the bigger bowl which you'll find on the top shelf of the green cupboard." The female for this is, "Put that in the other one there." And then if you ask them, "In where?" they say, "in there, of course."'

--C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

Colette Patterns: The Ceylon Dress

I haven't actually been sewing my head off--I made this Ceylon dress in June. And enjoyed wearing it so much this summer--I even camped in it. The lightweight cotton shirting is so light it practically floats off the dress-form. When I make it next, I'll do it in a little heavier fabric. In fact, I'm thinking of a stable wool jersey, or a crepe, and making one up with long sleeves for colder weather.


Don't be intimidated by the number of different little pieces in this pattern. Lots of seams can mean lots of opportunity for improved fitting. And the instructions are very, very careful and clear!



This dress very effectively balances comfort and flattery, with that wide set-in cummerbund-style waist. Sail on, Colette!

Bella Makes Another Savory Pie

She says that if she ever does run a bakery, it will be a savory bakery. She tried a new Nigella recipe, this one for sausage and spinach pie baked in butter pastry in a springform pan. Despite misreading the directions and so omitting the step of *cooking the spinach*, this one came out great.

I feared a sodden mess because of all the water cooking out of the spinach during baking, but nothing bad happened.

I think the only savory pie in the cookbook she hasn't made yet is the steak-and-kidney pudding. I've told her no go--the lack of a pudding basin is only the beginning of my objections to that one!