Tuesday found my sister and I in the kitchen, along with lots of baking ingredients, fixings for cucumber sandwiches, and John and Paul. (What?! I know what you’re thinking… but John and Paul are the two Beatles figures that my sister brings with her on every trip. It’s an ongoing source of amusement/joke that we take them everywhere and do “touristy” photos. lol.) One of my favorite outings with my sister (and mom) is afternoon tea. However, instead of going to a tea room this time, we decided to make what we were really craving (scones and cucumber sandwiches).
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The scone recipe I used can be found here. As usual, I tweaked things a bit (rarely do I follow recipes to a T), and we ended up using dried figs instead of raisins/cranberries/blueberries as the recipe suggested (non of which the commissary had in stock!). Plus my sister had never had a fig outside of a Fig Newton cookie, and being a fan of the seedy fruit myself, we had to remedy this. They turned out okay–I’ve definitely had better (and much worse). I think the problem was the amount of moisture in the dough; with the air as humid as it is here in FL, I sometimes run into this problem with baking. Things come out far too moist and end up taking too long to bake. Still, they were good enough, and they’ve all disappeared! The only thing we were missing was Devonshire Cream, which I adore, the commissary carries, but it awfully expensive for a tiny jar. *sigh*
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We opted for ice tea with our goodies, since it was so hot, and neither of us felt like hot tea. I had made a batch of Harney’s Black Currant ice tea the evening before (my parents got me a four box set for my birthday, and it’s been quite nice to brew some yummy iced teas the past couple weeks!). That we served in rum glasses. How classy! lol.
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Sometimes it’s really nice to do something a bit special just because, like an impromptu afternoon tea. I find it causes me to slow down a bit and appreciate those small interludes in life that are relaxing and fun. Have you done anything impromptu lately?
If you happen to be already following my Tumblr blog, you may have noticed an uptick in activity lately. I have been trying to be better about shoving a bunch of images (usually vintage fashion or classic film stars) in the queue every week–it’s slowly becoming a habit. But one of the reasons I’ve started to post a bit more consistently* is because I really enjoy the visual aspect of Tumblr. I’m one of those people that learns most easily by seeing–things click a lot faster if there are pictures, and I have always deeply enjoyed looking at interesting images. Tumblr fits quite neatly in my need for a little visual thrill to get the imagination going, plus it allows me to create a constantly evolving “mood board” and keep track of things I find that inspire me. Problem is not spending too much time browsing all the interesting bits and pieces I stumble across!
*I have probably totally jinxed myself! I’ll probably fall off the face of the Tumblr universe next week… lol.
If you have a Tumblr, please feel free to link to it in the comments–I’d love to see!
p.s. My apologies that posts have been so brief/sporadic the past couple weeks. With my sister visiting, we’ve been up to other things, and so my writing time has been limited. I’m also working on a new (and hopefully improved!) “blog schedule”, so things should be back to normal (with more sewing/creativity post) in the next couple weeks!
Just some neat things that have found a home with me recently…
A vintage-looking boater. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone, but it’s brand-spanking new! I picked it up in San Diego (for those familiar with the historic part of SD, it’s the costume shop in Old San Diego), as acquiring one had long been on my list. All the truly vintage ones rarely fit my big head correctly, and while this one is a smidge too big, it does fit over my wavy hair easily! I normally don’t wear hats often, but this one has been worn a lot since we got back–I can make it work with just about anything in my closet!
Stack of newly thrifted fabric. My sister and I went thrift shopping last week, and I found quite a few fabric pieces (still kicking myself for not picking up some other floral calicoes I spotted). I’m thinking of lightening the purple oversized floral–right now it looks too much like something I’d see on a sofa. But I think if I threw it in with a small bit of bleach, it might fade enough to suit me. I have to say, Florida has not been the greatest as far as garment thrifting goes, but it’s been pretty nice to me in the fabric department!
A pretty sewing pattern from one of my dear blog friends. Jen sweetly sent me a surprise package for my birthday–right out of the blue! It arrived just as all the upheaval with the funeral and flying out to CA was going on, and brightened my day incredibly. It’s sitting atop my pile of “patterns to make” this summer! Thank you, Jen!!!
Record player! This was a gift from my in-laws for my birthday last month. I have a smallish collection of records, but have been unable to play them since I got married and moved out of my parent’s house. Plus, we don’t have a lot of room in our apartment for more electronics, so a small, portable style turntable was just the thing! I’ve been listening to all my 70s music and jazz records a lot lately. Eventually, I’d like to get a vintage cabinet model–once we get a house that I can fit one into!
I also wanted to post a short animation I made last Sunday of the woman in white outfit, that I forgot to put in there. It’s just a silly thing, but animations always amuse me to no end, so I thought I’d throw it up here on the ol’ blog…
So what little lovely things have been exciting you lately?
A few months ago Brenda, who runs Humble Bumble B and make adorably retro-styled hats, contacted me about modeling a hat for her. Of course I jumped at the chance (what girl wouldn’t?!), and she made me a custom hat to photograph, based on a vintage stewardess cap I sent her pictures of (hence the title of this post). Is this hat not the most adorable thing ever?! I love it!!!
[ lovely hat by Brenda! ]
Sailor Husband graciously offered to take pictures of me–because I’m utter rubbish when doing self portraits that I need to turn out really well (it doesn’t help I don’t have a remote for my camera yet… need to get one!). I have to admit I’m pretty proud of these shots he took; he did a lot of photography in high school, but hasn’t done much since he enlisted. I think he needs to keep at it, don’t you? If nothing else, I need to make him my Official Photographer. hehe!
Thank you Brenda for this lovely hat and opportunity to do a little modeling! (If you want to see more shots, I put a ridiculous amount up on Flickr… Yikes! I feel slightly silly–I don’t want to seem narcissistic! lol.)
p.s. Thank you all for your lovely comments last week! Especially the gardening advice… I am printing out a lot of the tips and book suggestions to get myself started with this!
Organizing my sewing supplies has been on my to-do list for quite some time, but one of those things that has been hard to do. First, from lack of space when I was living with my parents (everything was divided between my bedroom and the basement!). Currently it was because most of the fabric, notions and such were still in the big, plastic bins I moved with, and in our already overcrowded second bedroom closet (aka the “storage unit”). Which meant every time I wanted something I had to dig. This in turn resulted in my being monumentally lazy about having to dig to put stuff back, so by the end of my most recent sewing binge, the room was pretty much ready to be declared an Official Sewing Disaster Area (OSDA).
[ stacked fabrics and shoe boxes of notions and trims. ]
[ vintage machine attachments and favorite magazines. ]
[ inspiration line above the shelving. I change this from time-to-time. ]
Finally frustrated with the chaos and inability to easily access my supplies (which would make my sewing time more efficient–at least in theory), I decided to buy a couple of inexpensive shelving units from Ikea and get to work streamlining things. Most of the patterns, fabric and notions are now easily accessible across the room–I no longer have to go digging so much! (Although, to be honest, there still is a few boxes in the closet: scraps, heavy fabrics, modern patterns, etc.) It’s still not perfect: I need a few more boxes for some of the smaller notions/trims and a new organizer for my buttons; but it’s pretty darn close to perfect for me!
[ paper and fabric flowers I made for decorating the walls. ]
It’s nice to look at too–just seeing the fabric out inspires me to get started on some new projects! Plus, every time I walk in the room I get a smile on my face… Thanks to Sailor Husband’s ever amusing sense of humor. Notice the GI Joe doll on the top shelf? After I put my 50th Anniversary Barbie up there (along with the creepy foam head I use to hold and display hats), he thought it would be hilarious to put Joe up there too. lol. That guy cracks me up!
I’ll eventually do a post to show you where my sewing machine and serger reside, but that area is still getting the kinks worked out as far as neatness and organization go…
