{delish}

yummm...

I adore delicious potato salad.

Recently, I started reading "A Homemade Life" my Molly Wizenberg. It's a lovely book about the influence of food and cooking on Molly's life.

The first recipe in the book is for her father's potato salad. The recipe is simple, yet yummy.




I adore how the colors blend together - the purple of the potatoes, the green of the onions and white and yellow of the eggs. I made it for Easter dinner at my dad's house. Besides needing salt, I think it was very yummy.

I can't wait to try more recipes from the book.

::a little smocked dress::

I remember my mom making smocked dresses for me when I was a little girl. They were my favorite dresses in the world! I would spin around in circles, making the skirt of the dress raise high into the air (I did wear shorts underneath, ;)). Those dresses were very special to me.

One of my joys, is sewing for Molly and I hope that she enjoys what I make for her.

Recently, I ordered Weekend Sewing, by Heather Ross. I LURVE IT! It is full of fun and simple projects, including directions for making a smocked dress. My mom was out of town, so having the directions in the book was very helpful.

Sewing the elastic on. I wound it on the bobbin, by hand. Worked great! Drawing the lines on the fabric is a MUST.

After the elastic is all sewn. It's not "scrunched" up yet - just you wait!

All "scrunched" up! Spray the smocking with water and press with a hot iron. Then, like magic, the elastic contracts. This is my favorite part.

My beautiful model! I did add an appliqued bird on the front, but that pic is stuck on my phone ;).

Sweet shoulder straps.

I'm considering posting a full tutorial on smocking a dress, or even a shirt. Humm...

{fabric I adore}

It's a strange thing to adore fabric, I know, but I always have. Fabric is comforting, gentle, calm, and so very comfy. Of course, that is if you have some of the good stuff. I adore a wonderful, soft, brushed cotton. Heather Ross has incredibly touchable fabric. Her stuff is amazing.

BTW - I blame my addiction, er, love, on my mom.

This love of beautiful fabric lures me into quilt shops, online and IRL (in real life). I have accumulated quite a lovely collection. It is filled with cotton woven prints, hand-dyes (thanks to mom), and batiks. Batiks and hand-dyes are my absolute favorite for quilting. Cotton woven prints are perfect for making fun projects for my kids. I love when they search and find the perfect one to match their personality, at that moment in time.

At this moment in time, Molly was a princess and Aaron was a prince with quite the royal cloak. And I was "Queen Mama" - who could possibly argue with a title like that??

Well, inadvertantly, I have hidden away much of my fabric. I thought I was storing it for when I would really need that perfect one, but no. Really, what that does is reinforce that "out of sight, out of mind" principle. I have forgotten so much of what I have, beacuse of those "convenient" storage bins. So, reorganizing was next on my list. Otherwise, I risk buying the same print or batik again, which I am completely guilty of.

So, I decluttered and reorganized! Wanna see?? I do have to apologize for not having "before" pictures. I forgot.

Folding up my fabulous fabric onto boards. I bought these fabric organizers from Polar Notions. The are absolutely wonderful. I love that they have them for fat quarters too!

Walking in:


Ah, so much better. But you can see that I still have stuff in bins. I ran out of the boards and need to order more.

After I go through these bins, I have a feeling I'll actually have empty space on my shelves!

My cutting table and more fabric to the left. Again, ran out of boards...

So, it's a start! And it's a much better family space too. Clay can work on the computer and not lean on thread and be threatened by straight pins. On the cutting table is my newest creation. I'll have pics of the finished product soon!

More to come...
~Cristy