bricolagelife

clicking around on sunday morning

i spilled the coffee this morning.  which is leading me to seriously reconsider... everything.  while i was on my hands and knees cleaning up i turned to see the dusty spattery spots and messes in the corners and low down just out of everyday sight that one finds when one is on their hands and knees in the kitchen.  i thought again of a constant daydream of mine.  a dream of a seamless home.  a place designed without all of the dead space between walls and fixtures, without many surfaces where dust can build up or hide away.  a place with hidden closed storage everywhere.  a serene place so seamless you could hose it down in ten minutes and be finished cleaning... aaaaaah.

but of course i don't live that way.  i like details and pleasing objects arranged in pretty groupings.  i like baseboards and crown mouldings and old wood floors and paneled doors.  i like curtains on the windows and shears underneath.  i like art on the walls and i like books and bookcases.  i collect things.  i have a lot of dusty corners.  and my dream home looks more like this.

after visiting my dream home i found a personality quiz at smosch i had to take.  i like quizzes.  but they always ask a lot of either-or questions that i want to click both answers to.  both answers are sometimes truer than one.  but still, you might like to take it too.  see my results here.

besides spending time spilling things on the kitchen floor and clicking around the internet, i have been getting things done around here.  

this is almost finished.  i led all those threads thru the eye of a needle and back thru the fabric where i tied each one off in knots underneath.  and then i made a lot of layered prints.  see them here.

what are you finding while you click around these days?  send me links with your comments!  i love links.  and comments :)

happy sunday!

friends and news

back detail of the daisy brooch i made for a trade with helen.  

she's wearing her daisy in her curly hair, which i imagine looks lovely!

something new and exciting and beautiful can be found here!  my friend gigi of road side scholar has opened an etsy shop full of her gorgeous photography.  if you're like me and you've been enjoying her sunday snapshots, you will love clicking on each image and reading her descriptions.  she has a great eye for the humorous, the odd and the beautiful in everyday life.  and her color sense is brilliant!  congrats pal!

{sorry if my links aren't linking... typepad is wonky again today}

indulgences

it's the weekend, people!  i started my day by running (7) errands before noon.  that's my new helen heath pocket on my greatly improved canvas shopping bag... thanks again, helen!  it makes groceries even more lovely :)

now it's time for some indulgences.  they don't have to cost much (or anything) but they can be so very satisfying...

slather a toasted buttery croissant with bonne maman raspberry preserves and drink an iced coffee.

take a walk early early in the morning before the day grows heavily humid and too hot.  there are hollyhocks blooming in the alleys near the edge of the park.  i had forgotten how much i love hollyhocks...

for a couple of dollars get a few spring rolls at the vietnamese bakery around the corner...

take a nap in the clean sheets...

make espresso late in the afternoon, tho i know i shouldn't...

wear my vintage clogs around the apartment to break them in because the leather is stiff and the shoe repair man said there was nothing he could do to soften them... even tho i know i shouldn't.  wooden clogs on wood floors over the neighbors downstairs... i'm stepping as softly as i can.

have a cocktail to compliment all the green goddess dressing i've been consuming (i made a replacement batch).  i call this

the ginger goddess

1 ounce ginger/vanilla bean infused simple syrup

2 ounces light rum

juice of one lime

splash or two of sparkling water

ice

cheers!

have a happy weekend

found photos

this shot is from the stack of slides we found in his storage locker.  i'm drawn to this one.  i want to know where they are.  have they stopped on their way somewhere or is this the destination?  it's autumn and the trees are showing great color, yet the photographer has given the dying grass the main focus.  and would this be nearly as interesting if the shadow weren't in the corner?  i think i like it so much because it looks like a shot i would take.  i can relate.

see the final page of jessie's found photo album here.  such lovely seascapes.  farewell jessie!  thanks for turning the pages kirsty.

new layered print

exploded view.  showing stroke sequence.  i like that.

i almost left the apartment today... but then i made this instead.

and it's nice to be right, even if it's only about this.

what's in my drawers

more (i know, can you believe it?) art supplies.  do they have to make them so beautiful and irresistible? must they be so bright and alluring?  and so practical at the same time?  dragging them all out of their neat and tidy space in the drawers makes me want to drop whatever i should be doing and play.  drip a little ink onto paper, blend with colored pencils, erase and paint and scribble.  feel that chalk dust on my fingers.  i have made a mess just to photograph them... and the work room is too small for what i've left all over the floor.  i'll put them all away for now.  but i will come back to you, my preciouses.  oh yes.  i will be back.

summer haiku

sun hot sand meets skin-

a shocking gasp, and lifting 

skirt i hop hop hop

i like

cast shadows and light.  

and this idea

and how true this is

and this.  so good.

found smiles

usually when you find debris left on the beach by humans it is an unpleasant sight.  but when we walked down early one morning we were greeted by these bouquets.  bottles of water were buried in the sand and filled with day lilies and daisies carried from a garden on the hill.  in all the years i have been walking along these beaches i have never seen this before.  it made us smile.  

more smiles to be had here.

and everything about her makes me smile...

sunday suppers

green goddess.  when i was a child this was my favorite dressing.  it came in a jar from the grocery store and it was expensive so we rarely had it in the house.  i never knew what was in it or how it was made, just that it was delicious and creamy and exotic.  a delicacy saved for special occasions.  when i grew up and switched my allegiance to vinaigrettes i reserved a small nostalgic spot in my heart for green goddess.  but i still knew nothing about it's ingredients or it's recipe until i saw this.

i bought everything i would need and whipped up this batch of beautiful green goodness the next day.  i have no words to describe my happiness at tasting this.  the mere knowledge that it was waiting in the fridge brought me a secret joy.  seriously.  it meant that much to me.

first i tossed my boston lettuce and cucumber chunks in the glorious richness.  seeing it cling to every morsel so lusciously was a delight.  i made mental notes for future meals... this would be good on rice or rice salad, tasty on wasa with a boiled egg, delicious stirred into pasta salad brimming with fresh veggies - my week's menus were set!

but there was sweet corn on the cob steaming in a big red pot on the stove and it was making the apartment too hot.  i opened the window and set the big box fan in the sill to blow the heat out (we have no exhaust fan) and turned to put my camera away.  i heard the crash before i realized how windy it was and that i had forgotten to close the window on the top of the fan.  it lay on the tile floor, covering two pots of african violets, it's plug yanked from the outlet.  the first thing i thought was that i had just washed the darn floor yesterday.  but i didn't use the word "darn".

clean up was surprisingly simple.  one pot and both plants were salvaged and the dry dirt vacuumed up quickly.  the corn was ready and as i tightened the lid on the jar of dressing i thought; be careful.  i saw the jar smash in my mind.  this sort of thing happens a lot in my head and i try to pay attention.  it's called intuition and i believe in it's messages.

of course, you know where this is going... as i turned toward the refrigerator with one hand on the lid and the other around the sweating jar, it slipped from my fingers and shattered across the kitchen floor in dramatic fashion.  the horrible sight of thick creamy green goddess-coated shards of glass all over the room was truly not the worst part of my instant shock.  not even the fact that i had just five minutes before cursed and cleaned up a separate mess in the same spot.  it was the loss of my beloved dressing.

truly.  i still feel a keen sense of culinary mourning today.

oh well... let's make more green goddess together, shall we?

ina garten's green goddess dressing

in a food processor, plop 1 cup mayo, 1 cup chopped scallions, 1 cup fresh basil leaves, 2 cloves garlic, 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, 2 teaspoons anchovy paste (or a few little fishies whole from a jar), 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.  blitz until smooooooth.  add 1 cup sour cream and blitz again until blended.  

store in a jar and handle with care!

sunday suppers is hosted by pip.  and see kirsty's here.