ruby crowned kinglette

nevermind....

i now have an even newer, more classic obsession.

actually, it is more like obsession version 1.2 - and i am only a little bit surprised in my almost constant imagining in owning this....

or this. it's this one that distracted from the beach cruiser and although these are much more expensive, i think one or the other is going to be mine.... soon.

i will also be needing a dog to ride in a basket attached to the back. a woven wicker basket - with loaves of french bread and and arm loads of tulips... i am, right now, seconds away from tears of pure joy and excitement.

i have a new obsession....

ok, what else is new... i live my life hopping from one obsession to another.

let's see...

genealogy
birding
gocco
embroidery
gardening
photography
dieting (hahahaha, not really)
cooking - well, buying cookbooks anyway
sewing clothes
monitoring spending - but short lived, of course
and now....?
i want a beach cruiser

i won't go near a beach with it - maybe, but i would ride it to work, and back (which is why i need a 3 speed, so i can haul my ass home).  i only have 2 miles to go either way and i think it would be good for me... and the earth.  and! i want it to be orange. not all of the ones i am looking at come in orange, and i suspect that choosing one based on color alone might not be the smartest way to go.  but, my god, a tangerine colored bike with a pink or red basket?  i mean really, why would i consider anything but orange? 

am still considering streamers to fly from the handle bars... but i bet they would be stolen immediately.  streamer stealing bastards....
i have 6 decks of cards and some old clothes pins in the cupboard so i am set there.

this one is the single speed, i would need multiple speeds - you know, so i could make it home without killing myself, or my pride (ha, pride?)

this one, this one is at the tippy top of the list. you can see why, can't you?

this one is pink, i am not sure i can get it in orange, but i can get it in a vanilla color with a saddle brown seat - if i remember correctly. 

and this one is nifty too....

ohhhhhh, man..... thoughts?

it's finally paid for itself.... or, at least it would have if it was charging

this garland is made of thank you notes, still in production... i have several more garlands strung between doorways. suzy and i have begun making her wedding invites, and all the goodies that go with them.  we have drunk two bottles of wine and had thai food the first night, boca burgers and margaritas the second.  we are not done, and have had only two misprints and one broken glass so far... damn fine record i think.

she bought the paper from paper source and we are using inks and supplies from think ink... the gal that owns the business is local and super great and real nice too.  i would like to think that i will be doing more gocco, and therefore more business with her... you should too. both.

this here is what the rest of the living area looks like... a nesting ground for printed pieces of white paper.  that little gocco'd bird in the back? it is a piece by evan b harris, something i bought almost as soon as i began blogging, could have been before, can't quite remember. but i have to say, that one day i hope to produce a gocco'd something as great as that... i mean, besides the art itself? what in the world could be better than a gocco'd bird, in a dress? sewing???  nothing, that's what.

forks... and plates, of course

more....

15 hours on the farm

my sister and her fiance have some property, with a house and a whole lot more, a ferry ride from seattle... it is a wonderful place, completely wonderful. saturday evening, at 6, i decided i needed to get over there for the night.  sunday morning i awoke early and in the hour or so i lay in bed listening to the birds the fog rolled in. it took a while to lift, leaving lovely views as it did...  this is what the walnut tree they are going to be married under looked like at 7:30 or so...

suzy has decided she is going to be a farmer....

rhubarb - for a pie one day...

chives, lots and lots of chives

strawberry leaves and dew. beautiful.

i decided i am going to enjoy her crop...

i was on the ferry again by 12:30, headed home to go to the symphony with mom and then a kind of family dinner - but i panicked because i ran out of time... the real dinner will be on the 17th or so with a mother's day celebration in the meantime...  instead we had pizza and the rhubarb pie suzy and i made after looking at all the little plants popping out of the ground that will one day feed us...

thanks suzy...  it was a very good 15 hours.

yay for may!

happy may day - i love you may....

everything i do takes longer than it should...

and the reason?

i never put away my tools, my papers, my fabrics, and last time... my bias tape maker.  at least that is what i thought.  i stood there, at my work table, in my pit studio and wondered, almost aloud, where would i have put that thing the last time i used it? when did i last use it? is it in a project box? is it in one of the several bags lying about with stuff in them because i was too lazy to put that stuff back? is it tucked under several inches of other projects? is it 'kind of' put away in a box of like things? i don't have any other like things, so.... would it be in a box of sewing supplyee kinds of things? what the hell box would that be? and where???

it was on the wall, hanging on a hook, in the only place it ever has been since i bought it... but the problem with it being there is that is where it belongs and since i am a person that never puts things back where they belong it never occurs to me that i should look there first.

same thing goes for all my tea cups that go missing.  they always turn up in the microwave, always. i never look there first - or ever - and instead just get a new cup. i only discover the old cup in the microwave at the moment i open it to re-heat the tea in the new cup... and then? it begins again.

i just went to test myself.... this time i passed. there wasn't a teacup in the microwave, but... i know for a fact that the bias tape maker is not where it belongs. it is on the work table with all the other little bits of stuff strewn about waiting for the creating to begin.

i went outside and noticed more spring had arrived...

my maidenhair fern, just beginning to unfurl itself.  so tender and fragile...

they look a bit otherworldly, seen up-close like this... i will have to remember to go back to see what happens over the next week or so. i will need to get out there again because my little apple tree is just starting to show the pink in it's flowers.  that means another trip through the neighborhood collecting pollen doing my best to johnny appleseed my way to some kind of crop. 

obviously the sun was shining this afternoon, that hasn't been the case lately so even a tiny bit has been quite welcome.

a new project

others have photography projects...

maria and stephanie at 3191

alicia and heather at noticing project

andrea at hula seventy

meg and shari at entre deux mers

and more, of course...

pretty much i have wanted my own for a year.  didn't know what it would be, or consist of, or who to participate with....

it showed itself, on 13 april, as plates & forks.  i see it as a solo endeavor. the idea is to photograph these plates and forks where i see them, when i see them, dirty or not, mine or someone else's....  it will also serve the purpose of getting me to take my {jim's?} camera with me, and pull out my canon and film every once in a while too. i plan for it to run a year, ending on this blog's {unofficial} birthday, 23 march 2009. 

the project will have it's own album, over there, to the right. i will post photos here every once in a while too, especially on days when i got nothing else... like today, for instance.

book club, mario and advil

last night i hosted book club…  i was going to serve popcorn and beer, and looking back it might have been a better idea, but i would have missed learning a few things, and i always like to learn new things. in fact, sometimes i like to learn things i already know.

or should know.

or thought i knew...

new thing:  if i have read a book in the last year, and it is slated to be read for book club? i have learned that i won't remember to read it again, but do anything else that might look interesting instead. in the end, when there isn't time, wish i had read it... that last little part? i did know that of myself.  i believe that is called regret - i am intimately familiar with regret.

ok, moving on.

learning again thing:  it is very important to read, with some attention being paid to, the entire recipe of an item i am making for the first time...  case in point? mario batali's eggplant caponata.  the picture above are the first several ingredients cooking away in olive oil.  a generous amount of olive oil which is why everything is so shiny and pretty.  so pretty in fact that i became a bit distracted.

i kept adding ingredients, and it was still looking so darned good.  then i added the last three... and although it still looked good, when i tasted it... well, all i could wonder was 'did he really mean to add 3/4 cup of balsamic?', 'maybe it will mellow when it cools', 'maybe it needs to cook off that vinegary taste', and then again, 'did he really mean to add 3/4 cup of balsamic???'.  well, no. actually.  he meant i should add 1/3 cup.  ummmm.  those little eggplant sponges were in no way going to give up all that vinegar. so, i made it again.  it was tasty and really worth making it the second time...

learning again thing:  it is smart for me to make some recipes at least once before serving it to guests.  i didn't have as much success, i didn't think, with the orange tart, capri style.  i had nearly two cups of the custard that didn't fit into the tart shell.  wow!  my eggs were big but not goose eggs for crying out loud.  the custard that did fit to the very tippy top smelled quite good while it burned on the oven floor after slopping over and inbetween the shell and the pan.... nice.

new thing:  seven advil will make me goofy.  four were not doing the trick, so i took three more.  i seem to have hurt my upper back when i hit some golf balls at the driving range about six weeks ago. i keep waiting for it to get better, it keeps staying really tight.  apparently cooking in the kitchen didn't help so it was bothering me last night.  seven advils and a glass of wine helped... my back, not so much my brain.

thing i already knew:  my book club is full of great, wonderful women.  it was nice to be goofy with them, and have them eat my food and expose myself to the idea that i might be a little bit sylvie and have them still like me anyhow....

new thing:  it seems the recipes from my new mario batali's molto italiano cookbook are available through the food network... i don't know if it is all of them, but i wonder if i would have bought the book knowing that they were there?  probably, i love cookbooks, and the photography is so freaking great it almost makes you think you've eaten the dishes before you have prepared them.

new thing & thing i already knew:  jen wondered if it was strange that she had a little crush on mario batali... i said no. because.... if i could have one on kevin james, she could have one on mario batali...

liberty, flat pigs and another in the series

bought some liberty fabric on ebay... with our crap exchange rate i am not sure it was any more frugal that going to liberty itself {well, except for all the other expenses} or even clicking to purl soho.  i don't care, touching these makes it all better. i do have plans for them, but not firm ones.  it involves garment sewing, and that makes me nervous - so they may be hoarded with the rest of my stash.

hidden in there are 7 pigs - heh heh.

and then this, today's contribution to the plate & fork extravaganza.  it held a soft boiled egg on toast before it hit the sink.  i am an egg lover, no doubt about that.

today, for breakfast...

this is what i made for breakfast today....

it is a swiss chard and cheddar omelet.  and it was tasty. the recipe is from epicurious and in turn from bon appetit - february 2001.  i am pretty sure i have the magazine in the basement but i came upon the recipe last summer when it was included in the newsletter from the csa pat and i had membership in.  i didn't try it right away.  i am lazy.  pat did though and then served it for dinner one night while i was over at her house.  i have been making it since. looks like i was kind of liberal with the cheese this morning....

Chard and Cheddar Omelet

This southern-style omelet would go nicely with sautéed plum tomatoes and warm corn bread. Dessert can be butter pecan ice cream drizzled with bourbon.

Makes 2 servings; can be doubled.

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 ounces red Swiss chard, stemmed, chopped (about 3 cups packed)
3/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

5 large eggs
3/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
   

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in 8-inch-diameter nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add garlic; sauté until soft, about 2 minutes. Stir in chard, cover and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Stir in hot sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to small bowl. Wipe skillet clean.

Whisk eggs, 1/4 cup cheese, salt and pepper in medium bowl to blend. Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter in same skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of egg mixture and cook until eggs are just set in center, tilting pan and lifting edge of omelet with spatula to let uncooked portion flow underneath, about 2 minutes. Scatter half of chard mixture over half of omelet. Sprinkle 1/4 cup cheese over chard. Fold omelet over cheese; slide out onto plate. Repeat with remaining butter, egg mixture, chard and cheese.

i make it a bit differently though...  i usually just make a two egg omelet for me.  and don't really measure the chard or cheese, and use quite a bit less butter too {surprising, but true}.  i do use the sharp cheddar though, tillamook. always. i use olive oil to cook the chard and a clove of garlic, halved, left it in the pan to cook with the chard but discarding it once the chard is done.  {only a hint of garlic is necessary - for most things, most of the time. my friend the budding chef agrees.}

ok then... once the chard is done i remove it from the pan. i add a bit of the cheese and whip it into the eggs before pouring into the buttered pan. once it is about 2/3's done i top with the remaining cheese and chard and cover with my plate.  that way, it cooks through and i have a warm plate too...

enjoy!

oh, yes... it looks like a pattern is developing. look for more plates and forks this month, apparently it is plate and fork month on ruby-crowned kinglette....

                                                                                             

sunshine and goodness

today is supposed to be real nice... maybe 75 degrees nice. that makes me a happy girl.

this morning i didn't sleep in.  it was too nice.  i did lie in bed and wonder what to wear to work though, and didn't come up with much.  i kind of feel i need to honor this first really nice day of the year with something a little bright and fun, but it turns out... i don't have that in my closet. or my drawers. or hanging on the rack by the washer downstairs.  i feel badly. i am feeling like i am letting this spring day down.

i will get over it.  this day is going to be too pretty to let something like that get in my way. 

so, i am off to see what brightness i can cobble together before i head out the door. 

and speaking of doors... this is mine this morning, with the sun shining through, bouncing off the art opposite and reflecting the tulip design in the leaded glass back onto the inside; sun shining where it was never expected to... pretty great, huh?

have a sun filled day, no matter what your weather.

this is what friendship looks like

it was 7:45{am} and i heard a knock on my door.  not a loud one, and i was asleep, so it took me a few moments to realize what i had heard.  i had to lie there and wonder who would be knocking on my door at 7:45{am}. eventually, i rolled out of bed and went to the door, peeked out and saw no one, so then had to stand there for several seconds wondering if i really did hear a knock at my door at 7:45{am}.  i finally opened the thing and there on my little table was a lovely piece of lemony surprise.  i looked up and down the street, and wrapped my robe a little tighter, thinking that, well.... i shouldn't get arrested this morning if i could help it. i grabbed the still warm plate and went inside to call jen and thank her for breakfast.

of course i ate it for breakfast.  i started at 8:00 exactly and it was gone before 8:04.  that might sound to you like i hardly had time to enjoy it, but you would be wrong... i enjoyed it a lot and am absolutely sure it is exactly what i needed.  it is, i am certain, the start to what is going to be a perfectly great day....  the weather is fantastic, and the dalai lama is in town... i mean, really... lemons, the lama and sunshine - how could you go wrong?

ok then, a few things.  first, i hesitate to let people, (you) know i was sleeping at 7:45{am}, seems a bit decadent to sleep in like that... but i am working tonight and worked last night, so i kind of deserved it? right?  second, i didn't actually call jen, i tried though, but didn't have her cell number and i knew she had to be within a half mile of me at the time, so i emailed her and while doing that she called me....  third, eating a lemon tart should be required every sunny friday morning.  jen?  i will plan to be up and have the tea ready next friday at 7:45{am}... just saying.

spring

it's here...

i am so glad to see you spring, you have been missed.