Monday, July 27, 2009

La Delfina ?


While sewing the housecoats for the girls, I started feeling like I was a seamstress just like the one that made my Mom's dresses years ago. Big difference though - she had no need for patterns.
TG looks wonderful in her new housecoat - the fabric is just plain old cotton but there is nothing plain about this design.

Garden update



I haven't had as much time to spend in the garden this summer but occassionally I will wander out there first thing in the morning when it's not yet 40 degrees and I'm properly shod to avoid all the ants crawling all over the place. The tomatoes are in tubs; we are giving the raised beds a rest from all the plantings last year. The celery and parsley are doing really well and the sage plant that I thought had died has revived.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Maura's butterflies


I'm very happy with the way Maura's housecoat turned out. She chose the fabric and it only took me a matter of days to sew it all together. One down, three more to go.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Company for breakfast


One of the most endangered animals in the world. A very social animal. Spends its time burrowing, feeding, and resting on sunwarmed rocks. Eats mainly greens.
This is what I learnt today about a marmot that joined us for breakfast at the park.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

How prepared are we?

A wildfire is raging in my backyard and I've been told to evacuate. What do I take with me? Of course, as long as we all get out safe, nothing else matters. But if I had the time to choose, what would I pack to take with me? Our documents are already bundled up and ready to go - something we did after the 2003 fires. We have no pets to worry about and there are no rooms filled with heirloom furniture.
Photo albums, scrapbooks, and shoeboxes filled with photos would be packed up. So would all the quilts, either that I have made or ones that have been gifted to us.The bin filled with all the girls baby clothes - these are not storebought but all handmade by loving grandmothers, relatives and friends.
My collection of books would also be top of the list to be saved. Artwork done by the girls, all the furniture that has been handmade by Valodya, my linen closet, my hope chest, our china cabinet,.... the list goes on and on.
Most of the people dealing with the wildfires in West Kelowna did not have time to pack out their stuff but on the other hand no one lost their life and for that we are all grateful.
Are you prepared?

Saturday, July 11, 2009

A gift



A friend at work, who is moving in with her chosen one, asked if I would give her some of our favourite recipes. That is not a problem, after all we have been married 30 years this year and being creative in the kitchen is something that you have to learn pretty quickly. My recipe collection used to be in a high school binder, in no particular order. There were colourful recipe cards given to me by friends, photo-copies from library books, pages torn from my own magazines, and recipes written on scraps of paper. Just recently I have begun organizing all the recipes into coil bound books and because breakfast is the most important meal of the day I have gathered together all my pancake, scones and biscuit recipes into one book.
For my friend I copied some of our favourite main dish recipes onto old postcards, decorated the cards with old stamps, wrapped them up in a thrifted cotton teatowel depicting Welsh love spoons and tied it all up with some brightly coloured ribbon.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

My week in review

Had a wonderful brunch on Wednesday July 1st for Canada Day. For a treat we had black figs with our buttermilk biscuits and they were great, but not as great as the ones I have had in Italy.
Even though it was blazing hot, I went to the fleamarket on Sunday and found this beautiful vase. The lip was cracked but the price was right - FREE!
Could not resist the 50% off sale at the fabric store - added to my butterfly collection with two fabrics - a creamy print and a black print plus I found some sharp looking stripes.
I think I may have mentioned before that feverfew is one of my favourite flowers - every year it pops up in so many unexpected places. So I traded some of my feverfew for lemon balm with a friend at work.
We had drainage problems in the spring on the shady side of the house and all my hostas which had been gifted to me, had to be dug up. I did not think they would survive but as you can see they are doing really well.

Daughter # 2 has definitely inherited her Nonno's talent - she is much better at cutting her Dad's hair then I ever was. Watch and learn.