I went to a fabulous church basement charity bazar last friday. It may be my new favourite place. Amazingly prices. Painfully gracious old church ladies. Jars and jars of vintage buttons. I came away delighted and inspired, with 3 metres of nubby blue wool tweed (to become pantalons), 1 metre of lilac and teal print cotton (to become a little spring blouse), a batik table cloth (to become a froufy spring skirt), a couple metres of cotton trim, a bag of about 40 zippers, 6 lbs of vintage buttons, 3 vintage embroidery hoops, 1 vinyl record, 2 cast iron saucepans, and a bag to carry it all home in, for about 25$. And the church ladies were so gentle and grateful for my donation, it sort of broke my heart.
Sigh. This could get dangerous.
There are some very beautiful and unusual old buttons in there. I could spend many happy hours sorting through them all. As could my kitty.
There are so many single buttons, though. I think I’m going to have to make a blouse that has 20 odd buttons on it. Wouldn’t that be neat?
That one in the centre with the wings and star is my favourite.
The hills are alive! We’ve been listening to this record on repeat for 4 days. It’s just so… lovely. Looking at the liner notes makes me want to make big full skirts and demure fitted blouses and wear pointy toed flats and frolic and sing all day. Pretty doable, I think.
Also: zip, zip!
So, then, over to the edibles. We watched the lunar eclipse last week with a friend, in between making homeade pierogis. What a great idea that was! Yes, rather a lot of work, but not so much as to not be absolutely worthwhile and delicious. We sort of winged the recipe, based on a few different online versions – using some whipped potato in the dough in place of sour cream, using cheddar instead of ricotta in the filling, frying the pierogis too, rather than just boiling them. We served them with the requisite saurkraut, and a bacon-esque broiled tofu, that I will give you the recipe for, since it was so delish:
Marinate 1 pkg of tofu, which you have very thinly sliced, in a mixture of about 1/2 c. tamari, 1/4 c. maple syrup, and 1/4 tsp. of liquid smoke. Toss the tofu well, and turn every 1o minutes or so to make sure it’s all absorbing the marinade equally. After about half an hour, lay the tofu out in a single layer on a very liberally oiled baking sheet. Bake this in a hot oven (400F or so) about 20 minutes, or until most of the marinade has been absorbed. Then, broil under a watchful eye to crisp it up, turning the pieces once or twice until they are all brown and sizzly, removing the done ones to a plate outside the oven if some a cooking quicker than others! We make this to go with eggs on sunday mornings, or sometimes cube up the tofu and have it on a salad like bacon bits. Hmmm!
Oh, and cupcakes! My boss made them in the middle of the day last week. She has an enormous sweet tooth (a rather bad influence on yours truly – like I need an ally!), and after I casually mentioned I could really go for a piece of chocolate cake after lunch, she whipped these babies up in a little under an hour. Complete with dark chocolate ganache icing and coconut sprinkles. Oh, the perils of the work/live studio! It was maybe one of the tastiest cupcakes, ever. And she made me take 6 home! (…have I mentioned lately that I quite enjoy my job?)
It was a pretty nice treat after a very long week of full time work – and now I am in the midst of a week off, while my boss and I each take a well deserved break. I packed up and moved over to my new studio this week (pictures soon), and have been having a pleasant time working on various projects. The baby blanket recipient was born a couple weeks ago, party for him on saturday so I am finishing that up.
The quilting process itself wasn’t that tricky after all – just a bit more hand sewing to finish the binding and she’ll be all done.
And here are a couple more melton wool brooches I have made for birthday-celebrating friends. One of who is coming over for dinner very soon, so I should be off to make said dinner. Hmm, food and crafts – I’m a happy camper.
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