Posie Gets Cozy

Boysenberry Galette

With frozen boysenberries, I made a quick fruit galette. Mine oozed berry juice everywhere while baking but it was still delicious. Let it cool on your pan before you try to slice or serve it. I used the whipped kind of cream cheese (just because that's what we had in the fridge), increased the powdered sugar in the cheese mixture to 3/4 cup, and sprinkled the top with demerara sugar. This is so easy and so yummy. I've never made one before, but I'll be re-writing this for the recipe box.

Very excited that the floss arrived yesterday. Forty-six 1,000-yard cones of it. Andy and I spent the afternoon at the hardware store finding things to help us fashion an enormous floss-unwinding "machine" on the dining room table. The goal is to be able to pull lengths from all forty-six cones at the same time, so we can cut them all at the same time, in one big hank. We're both a little excited to start building the machine this morning to see if my idea actually works.

Bye-bye table — I'll see you in a few days? Weeks? Not sure how long this will take!

Also, I'm still waiting for the cross-stitch fabric to come in. Once I actually have it in my hands, I will show you the finished sampler and start taking orders for the kits (and put the PDF pattern out, if you want to do it on your own). I've also ordered a ton of scissors, needles, and hoops for my web shop as well, so you'll be able to get everything you need there. I'll talk more about all of that as I start receiving things from my suppliers and I get closer to a release date for this kit, but I am expecting it to be in the next couple of weeks. I've decided not to take pre-orders for things anymore, so I won't start the sale until everything is in hand and assembled. It's too stressful trying to predict dates by which things will be done, and then be told by suppliers that there are unforeseen delays, etc. This time we are aiming to make enough kits that they will be able to stay in the web shop and be available indefinitely, so please don't worry that they will sell out before you get one. I don't think that is going to happen at all. We are making a ton of them — I want everyone to have one who wants one, even if I wind up with extras. So, stay tuned for updates on this, but things are coming together and I'm very excited! So happy to get busy again.

And yes, I'm totally thinking botanical sampler on black-ish background for the next one! Thank you to several of you who yesterday suggested I check out 18th-century cut-paper collage artist Mary Delany (who began creating her collages at age 72), and poet Molly Peacock's biography of her. Never in my life have I ordered a book faster than this. I cannot wait to see it.

It's no secret that all of us are a little bit afraid of the Bee. There's reason. No sooner did I get done bragging to Andy about how the Bee lately follows me everywhere, sits near me wherever I sit, and hangs out watching whatever I am doing than did she keep me from getting a big fat head about it by slapping me on the wrist (literally) when I petted her the "wrong" way (on the chest instead of [only ever] on the forehead). Andy heard the thwap of her tiny, lightning-fast little paw (and my surprised whinny) all the way across the room. Beeeeee!!! Why you gotta be that way??? We made up shortly after (after I apologized profusely). Getting roundly scolded by the Bee is always very nervewracking. It's hard not to want to pet her, because she's so dang cute. Well. Maybe cute isn't the right word. Cute like a baby goblin is kind of cute? Cute like the thing might . . . I don't know . . . suddenly decide to grab you by your nostril and not let go? Cute like that.

Reading How to Know the Wild Flowers by Mrs. William Starr Dana. It's so sweet. It was first published in 1893. I found this 1989 copy at Powell's yesterday when I was browsing around there as a little treat to myself yesterday afternoon, having finished the taxes, sent the sampler pattern off to the printer, and received word that our supplies for the kits should start arriving on Thursday. I have a new idea for a new embroidery project. These botanical drawings I've been spending time with are so beautiful. They are really inspiring me lately. My poor cyclamen. I guess it needs more sun than it is getting in our house? Or perhaps in the Pacific Northwest in general. It's like a visual manifestation of Portlander Vitamin D levels, somehow [swallows 5,000 IUs, stat].

Slow Morning

It was supposed to rain this morning, but I don't think it actually did. It seemed like it was going to, though.

We have had exceptionally gorgeous weather here lately. Absolutely perfect. Prettier than I have ever seen, for days and days on end. What a gift.

I feel extremely disorganized lately. I have got to get my act together. I guess.

I'm sitting in an open window as I write this. When I was a little girl I was fascinated by things like window seats, dumbwaiters, butler's pantries, breezeways, and laundry chutes. My house didn't have any of these things, but I knew what they were from books. I was quite sure that when I grew up I would have a house that had a dumbwaiter. And shrubs that were cut into the shapes of animals (I was majorly into those). I think there is a scene in Harriet the Spy that involves a dumbwaiter. I read so many books about girls from New York City when I was little. There were a ton of them in the '70s and '80s, wasn't there? Or maybe those were just the ones I liked to read, having never been to NYC. Those were so cool. Can't remember the titles but I remember the books. I know I thought that if I ever did get to NYC I would know exactly what to do and where to go. Just like if I ever got to Walnut Grove. Not a problem.

Stills

A couple of years ago — or maybe it was even last spring? — I read Howards End for the first time. It blew. my. mind.

I had seen the movie many times and had always loved it. The movie is fantastic. One of the best movies I've ever seen. As great as the movie is, the book is even better. There's a section where Margaret can't figure out why Helen has been so distant, and as she thinks about it she comes to the wrong conclusion. I read that part while eating pad thai alone at Stickers cafe and I cried into my lunch at two o'clock in the afternoon. Unable to see the words on the page, I swiped at my face with my napkin — the brilliance and total fallibility of her conclusion moved me so much. She'd gotten it so right and was still so wrong. I looked up and was alone in the restaurant. I'd been there for a couple of hours. I paid, took the book, and headed down the road to the Reed College campus, needing an emergency tree to sit under to finish the book. I found a great tree but then pretty soon a guy came along on one of those riding lawnmower things and started mowing the enormous lawn right in front of me, slowly going back and forth and back and forth, getting ever closer to my tree and making me all nervous . . . plus it was extremely loud. I picked up and went across the street to Crystal Springs and found another tree at the water's edge. I finished the book there, sitting on a tree root in the dirt, late in the afternoon. I can't remember the last time I read (or made time to read) for that many hours in a single day. That was the best book. For me, at that time in my life, on that day, it was. I didn't want to let that one go.

The opening scene of the movie, where Vanessa Redgrave is walking around in the fields outside her house (the house is named Howards End) at dusk, dragging her long skirts through the long grass, and the rest of the family are seen through lighted windows playing a game inside the lovely house. That scene isn't in the book, I don't think — at least not that literally? But those first two minutes or so — the purple-gray evening light, the glowing Queen Anne's lace, the paned windows, her walking alone — they have always stuck with me. It's almost like certain visual moments make such an impression on you that you somehow internalize them, or memorize them, and then you might find, without your totally realizing it, that you're looking for a place like that, or trying to make a place like that. You're conjuring something. I remember another time, way back in River Forest, when I was sitting at the drive-through at the River Forest Bank, waiting for the money tube to come back. It was late summer, early evening, the light was golden, I was just waiting, and a bunch of seed pods and dandelion puffs floated past, and for a moment they were silhouetted black and silver against the sun. And I thought suddenly, "There. That. Like that." As if I'd somehow been waiting to see dandelion puffs and seed pods sail by. Like I recognized them, somehow.

Some Pioneerish Books

We don't do things small here in the Wild West. It's go big or go home. So I got me a biiiiiig buncha books.

I just got home. I was going to sit down and read one of these but instead I got the urge to knit a bunny. So weird when that happens (when you're about to read but then you find yourself knitting a bunny). I know you know what I mean.

Cinny Buns

Thank you for all of the living- and dining-room love! I updated Monday's post with some source information in response to the questions that came in, so check back there for answers. Our downstairs bathroom is pretty much finished, and our hallways have new paint, too, so I'll have more house photos soon.

I have been so very much enjoying the quiet of the house these past two weeks. I guess I am someone who really likes it quiet when I am home alone. It seems to make the day go slower, somehow. I especially like it quiet when I'm baking. I like to hear the sound of the dog snoring, the traffic outside, the baking things clattering. I thought about this lately because we have a new oven and it is bizarrely loud. It is electric, convection. When it is on, I can actually hear it from all the way across the house, in the living room. I read in the instruction book that this is normal; I think it is the convection fan whirring. I guess that is a sound of baking, too, now.

Whatever it is, it baked these cinny buns perfectly. These are the Bakery Cinnamon Rolls from The Grand Central Baking Book: Breakfast Pastries, Cookies, Pies, and Satisfying Savories from the Pacific Northwest's Celebrated Bakery. I love this book. I have made the Irish soda bread, the blueberry muffins (many times), and now the cinnamon rolls, and every single thing came out well. This is all totally because this is a good book, and not because I am a good baker because I really am not. I try hard, and I have one cake and one pie that always work, but I would say other than that I'm about 50% (bewildered) sweets-fail. Not always documented, but sometimes (those cracked me up. I forgot about those). But this book, and maybe the new oven (maybe the old one had even more problems than I thought?), is giving me more confidence. Possibly even already a fat head, as I told Melissa, a cinny bun–making veteran who advised me on the cinny process (and oh my stars did she ever just make the most gorgeous and special quilt in the world). Because these cinny buns tasted very much like the bakery version and I was amazed. (They even have whole-wheat flour and eight-grain cereal in them, which in your mind can help offset the absolutely sin-ny twelve tablespoons of butter and the crazy amount of brown sugar.) I do aspire to be a better baker. Watch out, friends and neighbors, potential recipients. For my next trick, I have mini-loaf pans here on the counter and they are trying to tell me I can do this thing. We'll see.

Book Signing Tonight!

From Embroidery Companion

I did nothing I said I was going to do yesterday. 1) I didn't stay in, I stayed out. 2) I didn't bake, I ate out. 3) I didn't go grocery shopping, I went to the bookstore. 4) I also bought two regular candles. I don't even know how it all happened. It was happening before I even knew it was happening. When the two candles showed up I almost screamed. Conclusion: Don't listen to anything I say.

I also accidentally let my domain name expire on my web shop, so if you were trying to order a pattern or a book or a kit in the past day or so and couldn't find the site, I'm sorry about that. (SORRY ESPECIALLY TO LINDA!!! And thank you to Sylvia for letting me know. :-) Whoops! It's working now.

I am excited about the book signing tonight! I am baking cupcakes and my mom and Arden are baking cupcakes. Please come so that my family and I aren't there eating 48 cupcakes by ourselves. We are surely capable of doing that, if necessary, but we'd much rather see you. I forgot to mention that a few people asked me about the sampler on my mantle the other day. That is a cross-stitch project from the book and I will be bringing it with me tonight, along with tons of other projects from the book. You can purchase a book there, or bring a book that you already own, or just stop by and say hi! It's all good!

Embroidery Companion Book Signing
Friday, December 3, 2010
5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Modern Domestic
1408 NE Alberta, Portland, OR 97211

I also wanted to tell you that Annette at A Simple Breath is having an Embroidery Companion Sew Along! This will be a monthly sew along of projects from the book that goes all through 2011. Everyone is welcome to participate! Please see Annette's blog for details -- and there is a book giveaway as well! One of the very, very best things about making books is watching how people interpret the projects, and seeing what they make. I am always so amazed at how the projects go out into the world and become so many other things. Awesome.

Speaking of awesome, have you seen the ornaments that are being made? LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. I just want to kiss every single one of those P.B.s on their little black noses.

Also, has anyone ever covered a roller shade with fabric? I know you are supposed to be able do this but I never have and I'm kind of scared. Spray glue and I don't have a good history together. Any tips?

Are you going to Scan Fair this weekend? Word to the wise: Go early. It gets so crowded you can hardly move! I'll be there with bells on at 10 a.m. And Farmers' Market is right outside (on Saturday, at least) starting at 9 a.m., so what more could you want. Can't wait.

Book Signing at Modern Domestic on Friday!

 
Gingerbread Heart Mobile from Embroidery Companion: Classic Designs for Modern Living

Good morning! Mmmm, I wish I was having heart-shaped waffles for breakfast this morning. It's cold milk and O's here, though. I don't think we ever did eat these waffles when we shot this photo a few years ago for the book. It was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and oh, the coffee was about eight hours old. You know how it is. I do love this picture, though. It is one of my favorite pictures and favorite projects from the book. I'll bring it with me (along with lots of other finished projects from the book) to the book signing on Friday, along with as many chocolate cupcakes with Cloudburst Frosting as I can manage. Please come!

Embroidery Companion Book Signing
Friday, December 3, 2010
5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Modern Domestic
1408 NE Alberta, Portland, OR 97211

I have a new full-time job. It's called Painting and Driving Around. Not at the same time — alternating. First I paint a bunch of stuff until I can hardly move, then I realize that we are missing some key piece of hardware/bathroom fixture/tile/grout/grab bar/whatever that needs to be gotten immediately for installation, and I haul my weary body down to the car and go drive somewhere to go get it (in the freezing cold/dark/pouring rain). The inefficiency of my process is staggering, though I try every day to think it all through and get everything. But between the constant Painting and the Driving Around, it seems there is no time left for actual Thinking Ahead. I would blame the paint fumes but I used all low-VOC paint, so it's not that. I did get all of the Christmas shopping done, so I plan to go absolutely nowhere for the entire month of December to make up for this.

In the past two weeks, I've painted the living room, the dining room, the downstairs bathroom, the downstairs hallway, the stairwell, and the upstairs hallway, and all of the trim in the halls, stairwells, and bathroom. Pretty much mostly by myself, except for the stuff I couldn't reach. I keep expecting Andy to be more impressed with this than he is. Me: "Honey [pointing], I painted the entire living room by myself!" Him: "I know — that's awesome!" Me: "No, seriously, honey, honey — watch [cutting trim with newfound ease] — by myself !" Him: "You're awesome!" Me: "I did it by myself!" Him: "I know that honey!!!" Apparently, nothing short of a parade in my paint-spattered, wrist-weary honor will satisfy me.

Oh yes, we have great conversations these days. One: "There's too much stuff in my office! I can't move!" "I'm sorry!!!" [repeat 450 times]. Another: "I'm so tired!" "I know, I'm so tired!" "I'm exhausted!" "Me too!" There's: "I painted the hallway myself!" "I KNOW. YOU'RE AWESOME ALREADY." And endlessly: "Where is the curtain rod/bathtub grab bar/hammer I just got?" "I don't know I didn't touch/move/take it" [repeat fifty times]. My favorite: Him: "Have you seen my stud finder?" Me: "I didn't use it. I've already found my stud [wink]." Saturday night while driving home in the rain from the home improvement store again: Him: "That person's license -plate holder thing says 'I'D RATHER BE SAILING'." Me: "I want a license-plate holder thing that says 'I'D RATHER BE AT HOME'." Him: [Busts out laughing.]

Impulse remodeling — interesting. You start one thing and it snowballs into fourteen things. I was probably warned. I probably ignored. Definitely ignored. Good news: This will be the last week of chaos, I think. I really mean it this time. Other good news: I love everything that we have changed. It feels like an all-new house. It feels good to repair and take care of the house for the future. I'm surprised at how satisfying that's been. I believe our bathrooms will last for a long, long time. I will have lots of pictures and details for you, too! Need to find the curtain rod.

Off (Again) to the Country

From Embroidery Companion

We're headed back out again today, this time to the Oregon state fair. Yippee. I mean Yeehaw. The sun is shining here and it is a gorgeous late-summer day. The fair goes through the weekend if you haven't made it out yet.

Something extremely exciting happened on Tuesday when I got a seeeeeerious, like professional-grade, photo printer with archival-quality ink and all of that. I have been wanting one for several years. I have been playing with it nonstop for the past two days and I am in love love love love love. I think it's time for me to start making actual photo albums again. More on this to come.

I picked up a bunch of bookplate requests from my P.O. box last week — thank you, thank you! — but I've been so busy fooling around that I haven't signed them all yet, but I will this weekend, I promise. I also ran out of books (both of them) because I am a space cadet and can't count, either, but more are supposedly coming today, so all of those will go out tomorrow (promise promise). Sweet Margaret the gardener is giving away two copies of Embroidery Companion if you will tell her how you are transported by gardening — either with real flowers or embroidered — by midnight tomorrow. And, as always, if you would like a signed bookplate for your book, just send me a self-addressed stamped envelope and a note about who to sign it for (and yes, you can certainly request more than one! :-). My address is P.O. Box 33274, Portland, OR, 97292-3274.

Now, Avett Nation: You know I don't want to make you feel bad if you missed Monday night's show at the Crystal, but oh my word. Holy awesomeness. We were literally twenty feet from the stage. There were only 500 people there. The boys were . . . oh man. That was a once-in-a-lifetime show for me, I know that. Our conversation on the way home:

Me: "Oh my gosh."
Him: "Wow."
Me: "That was awesome."
Him: "Oh my gosh."
Me: "Seriously, right?"
Him: "Totally."
Me: "Holy."
Him: "Dang."
Me: "I can't hear anything" [ears ringing].
Him: "What?"

Man. People, if I haven't convinced you yet, if you take one single thing away from ever reading this blog, if you can allow me to give you just the slightest bit of unsolicited advice, please do yourself the biggest favor ever and go see these guys live. It was seriously beautiful to be that close to the stage and look back and see the crowd, singing every word, as we were. I was right next to the curtain that separated all of us from the backstage peeps, and all of the Terra Nova High School kids (the show was a benefit for their farm) were back there, watching. They'd made dinner from their farm for the band and crew earlier. There are some great videos of the show here. JFC, this set list is for you (they covered Woody Guthrie's [very dark] "Portland Town," and there were also a couple of songs ["Let Me Live," "Pretty Girl from Michigan," and "Never Been Alive"] I can't get on Grooveshark).

The Avett Brothers set list, Crystal Ballroom 8-30-10:

Thank You!

From Embroidery Companion

Thank you so much to every single person who came out to Powell's last night for the book signing. You guys, I was SO nervous! But everyone was incredibly nice and very encouraging and just generally awesomely cool that I wound up eventually forgetting my nerves and having the best time. So thank you for coming out and smiling up at me and gobbling cupcakes and waiting in line forever while I wrote novels in everyone's books, because I am truly touched to have you there (and here). Thank you also to those of you who said you wished you could come, and who have sent me such kind and thoughtful emails (and comments), and left reviews of the book. I am sincerely grateful for your generous words. Making a book can feel kind of lonely at times — as I said last night at the book signing, my books, more than just being about whatever their subject matter is, always feel to me more like the other-but-secret half of the blog, somehow. Signing books for people in real life truly feels magical to me because it makes everything come together, somehow. As scared as I am to speak in front of everyone, at the end of the night I'm always so grateful that I get to have that experience in my life. So thank you for that, 'cause that's just cool.

There are signed copies of the book from Powell's available, and a big thank you again to Powell's for having me. If it weren't for Powell's, Embroidery Companion would be a different book, since so much of the research I did and inspiration I got for it came from stacks of used and out-of-print embroidery books I bought over the last ten years straight from their shelves.

Eeenyhow, and now for something really exciting: The Avett Brothers just this morning announced (thanks Becky and Fiona for the head's up!) that they are playing a surprise benefit show on Monday night at the Crystal, so go get tickets real quick because they just went on sale and we'll see you (again) there!