This was a festive variation on our usual coffee cake: after the batter went in the pan I spread the thin slices of a Granny Smith apple with the peel still on, a small basket of fat blackberries, and the zest of an organic lemon. Then, of course, the streusel. Delicious and photogenic.
I picked this book up in Colorado and enjoyed peeking at it all the way home. In fact, I was itching to get into the *gigantic shopping bags of darling fabric* I had picked up at Denver Fabrics and The Creative Needle, also in Denver.
The photography is wonderful, the fabrics and trim choices are inspiring, and it's very nice to have some basic crafty-type patterns all in one place. However, the pattern pieces and instructions are probably not the easiest for a beginner to follow, nor do the patterns "bend the rules", as far as I can tell.
In spite of that, this is my favorite sewing book of recent vintage! Colorful, fun, stylish!
One last set of pictures from the trip, then back to the usual round of quotidian joys.
Daisy in a dress my mother made several years ago for my brother's wedding. It has a sash made of ribbons and a beaded lavender sachet tied on--you not only look good, you smell good too in this dress!
Bridesmaids with their bouquets:
Peace before the festivities:
Detail of the wedding cake (Daisy was positive the tiny top layer was going to be hers):
Well-dressed men:
Magic:
Certainly Daisy's high point of our trip was the party in the stable that served as a rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding (after this affair the Composer's father inelegantly dubbed the weekend "Cowboys and Indians").
A little short on Western wear, at least she had a tee with an appliqued donkey!
Clara and Bella were treated to extraordinarily beautiful boots which I realize are not shown here . . .
. . . and Felix somehow ended up in his uncle's hat and vest.
Though lacking boots, the Composer owned the evening. His uncle had commissioned a video honoring the bride and groom and it played to a most appreciative stableful.
What worked:
• Cherries, strawberries, and grapes for car snacks, packed in a rigid plastic container.
• Thrifted pillowcases for everyone to use as pillow covers in the car. At night, fold up and stuff inside real pillowcases. Still satisfying those yellow-brown-avocado green cravings!
• An inexpensive hotel suite instead of two rooms.
• A new baby sweater to knit in the car.
What didn't work:
• Washing the laundry with Cascade all week in the condo washing machine. Next time, I'll label the dishwashing powder as *well* as the laundry detergent. Hey, at least we didn't have streaks!
• Scheduling a hair appointment for Bella and a photo shoot for Giles the morning after returning.
Four pluses, to two negatives? A great trip.
We're in the middle of a week of festivities before a weekend wedding. Some pictures from the Indian dinner party--
where Daisy's forehead was decorated with a stick-on jewel:
Looking in:
Graceful traditional dress, intense colors:
Dancing (Clara was one of the most enthusiastic):
The lovely bride:
Tandoori:
Beauty:
Happy to have found a use for some thrifted bits--crocheted blooms and green curly ribbon . . .
When we originally made our vacation plans we thought we would set out today, as soon as Felix got home from Boy Scout camp, and make for Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico before turning north for a wedding in Colorado. However, we realized yesterday that the Composer's work schedule, while actually *paying* for the trip, has made this departure date not feasible. So now we plan to leave on Monday.
Extra Saturday Pleasures
• A bonus weekend at home with no commitments.
• Lots of thrifting this morning with all my girls in tow. A floral sheet. A bluebird print. Glass punch cups.
• The inspiration of 1930's nightgowns at the antique store--something to sew with my sheet.
• My mother visiting with the summer issue of Marie Claire Idees--something to read on the road.
• Blue and cream Debbie Bliss cashmerino for my next knitting project--something to make on the road.
• Picking Felix up after camp--he looked just as I thought he would after a week in the woods--tanned, bleached hair, and eyes, as always, truly aglow.
• Clara's beaded sewing projects. Her work is lovely!
•Taking Bella out for ice cream.
• Roasted Vegetable and Sausage Rigatoni for dinner.
"Cornelia awoke with a great zeal for work upon her. She had dreamed a living room that would lift the whole house out of the sordid neighborhood and make it a place of delight. She had thought out some built-in seats with lockers where many of the odds and ends could be stowed; she had planned to paint the old, cheap dining-room furniture a wonderful deep-cream enamel and decorate it like some of the expensive sets in the stores . . .The set in her mother's room she would paint gray with decorations of little pink buds and trailing vines. The set in her own room should be ivory-white with sepia shadows . . . and little by little the old house should be made over."
This pattern, vintage McCall's 8895, is my obsession. I'm not quite sure why it has taken over my mind, although it does contain instructions for *twenty-five* craft items perfect for selling at a bazaar.
Can I talk about them? There is a skate tote bag shaped like a big boot, done in calico on the cover. A record tote bag that holds ROUND records--do you just throw away the album cover??? A curler bag made up as a stuffed elephant. A rather frightening and massive clown-doll pajama bag. I love with a capital L the children's smock (did it in strawberries), so wonderful because it's cut all in one piece, plus a big pocket.
I do know where some of this is coming from--see that stuffed chicken? My grandmother made hundreds of stuffed chickens when I was little, not this exact pattern, but something a little stiffer and perkier. This pattern is tapping into my oldest memories.
However, I have a vacation to plan and pack for, groceries to get, girls who need glasses, and a house that must be tended, so I'm definitely stopping after the frog beanbag. Although I believe Clara is going to actually need the owl-applique eyeglasses case, so maybe I should squeak that one in . . . .
Just enough strawberry tablecloth left for one medium-sized project: a child's smock from a vintage pattern. 
The crew of gardeners has come and gone (they will be back briefly tomorrow to fix a stone wall), and my garden is a wonder to me. But in a Japanese way, as there is not a lot growing.
Instead, its bare bones are exposed, the few sturdy established shrubs have room to breathe, and everything else is mulched.
I had forgotten the beauty of my stone paths, which form a pleasing not-quite-symmetry in the circle. And there's my little stone-bordered ornamental pond filled with water irises, and my little retaining walls. All so relieved to be rescued from the overgrowth of weedy abandonment.
I'm looking forward to a fall of lots and lots of planting. Weed-free til October is my cry!
"They reached a lovely grove at sundown and stopped by the way to have supper. Graham got down and made George help him get out the big hamper.
There was a most delectable lunch; sandwiches of delicate and unknown condiments, salad as bewildering, soup that had been kept hot in a thermos bottle, served in tiny white cups, iced tea and ice-cream meringues from another thermos compartment, and plenty of delicious little cakes, olives, nuts, bonbons, and fruit. It seemed a wonderful supper to them all, eaten out there under the trees, with the birds beginning their vesper songs and the stars peeping out slyly. Then they packed up their dishes and hurried on their beautiful way, a silver thread of a moon coming out to make the scene more lovely.
Doris was almost asleep when at last they began to hear the booming of the sea . . . ."
We packed in a lot today. The morning was spent at the lake where, as usual, we found our favorite swimming and picnicking spot empty. No one but us ever comes before noon! We swam and dug in the sand under pearly gray skies (these reappear in my story!), then had a satisfying picnic lunch with leftover birthday cake from Felix's fourteenth.
As soon as we repacked everything and hauled it up all those sandstone steps that the Civilian Conservation Corps laid in the thirties, the skies opened and the heavy rain began.
Which made an afternoon of napping just the ticket, and a perfect prelude to a friend's wedding.
Which was supposed to be held outdoors, in a green field. But boy, was it raining, so things were hurriedly moved inside. Fortunately the affair was meant to be very casual and organic, because there wasn't much room, and the guests ended up carrying their chairs in and out to accomodate the changing plans.
I ended up eating my plateful of dinner sitting on an ice chest in the garage.
But it worked. We had a great time, enjoyed the beautiful cakes my friend Carol baked and decorated, and Giles took these gorgeous photographs.
And I really enjoyed being comfortable and wearing Keds with my polka-dotted dress.
Boy did I have fun with this one! It's as gorgeous as a little cupcake!
Nothing makes the kitchen smell better than coffee cake, gentle and cinnamonny. This morning's breakfast was a variation on our favorite. Instead of using cherries or blueberries I thinly sliced several fresh apricots and set them on the batter, then sprinkled with streusel. Very nice. Would have been even nicer if I had had some almond paste cut in small dice to strew around the apricots, and some sliced almonds . . .
