greenclogs

our days

We've had some slow and quiet days around home this week. The last few boxes are being unpacked. That stack of books on the family room floor is slowly getting shorter and shorter. The upstairs landing is clear of stuff that hadn't found a home. We go for walks. We dig in the dirt. We bake bread. We do (a lot) of laundry. 

The garden is growing so fast that we can practically watch it in real time. Right now we're eating the lettuce and the mustard greens while dreaming of everything else that's coming along. Brussels sprouts are on the left and Swiss chard on the right. Chiogga beets and Atomic Red carrots in the distance. 

The Beer Friend edamame just sprouted, which has us quite excited. We also have a few new little yellow squash plants poking through. I love watching them push their way through the soil and stretch themselves toward the elusive sunshine.

My blueberry bushes are surprisingly full of blooms. I'm a little giddy about that. I didn't expect much from the first year - anything is a bonus, really. 

The little one would rather be outside in the garden than doing anything else at all other than discovering shortcuts on the computers that we didn't know existed. Of course, none of those shortcut discoveries are repeatable. 

I could sit there and observe her wandering the garden all day. As your kids grow up, you forget how involved toddlers are in wholly experiencing every moment of their days. I watch her study the intricacies of dirt clods or ask for the 43rd reading of "Are You My Mother?" and it brings me back to the toddler years of my other babies. To Lindsay digging and digging in the sand on the beach in Santa Monica. To walking with Gunnar around the block on my lunch break at toddler speed, stopping at every crack and examining what laid below the storm grates. To Annika's insistent exploration of the world above her by climbing anything that might possibly hold her weight and reading her favorite books from memory. They all explore and absorb their world with a gusto that I try and often fail to replicate myself. 

Today we made our bread for dinner and she clambered up onto the chair to help. She stirred the water into the flour with a wooden spoon. We turned the dough onto the counter and took turns kneading it until it was smooth and elastic. She cried when it was time to let it rise (I see some playdough making tomorrow - no pesky rising). We talked about the magic of yeast and rising dough. She won't remember this conversation, but I know she'll remember in the darkest recesses of her memory that we always made bread together and she'll know that yeast is magic. Because making bread is what we do. 

She'll remember the ritual of bringing the chair to the counter and mixing and stirring and kneading. She'll always smile when she picks her greens from her own garden or smells a carrot freshly pulled from the soil. She'll discover these treasured books in boxes that I give her someday and while she may not remember which were her favorites when, the familiar rhythms will wash over her as she reads them aloud. I know, because the rhythms do that to me. I've read some of these books for 20 years to 4 babies. Each has its tone, its hand signals, its rituals that are unique to us. That belong to our family. All these things she does and we do become a part of who we are. 

These days are very good indeed.  

a quick look at our afternoon

We are so fortunate to live less than a 1/2 hour drive from the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. Whenever we get stir crazy and need to soak up some nature/get some exercise, we hop in the car and 25 minutes later, we're in the middle of this. Some shots from our little hike at Bridal Veil Falls. 

And it was good. I feel lucky. The end. 

gilding the lily - bacon cheddar biscuits

We like biscuits around these parts and make them often. Our most frequent biscuit is a cheddar cheese studded biscuit (recipe here but now we use a new favorite that is similar and referenced below) that is inspired by the biscuits at our favorite bakery in Cannon Beach. Back when visiting CB was an annual occurrance, making our own was necessary. Now that we only have to drive for 90 minutes to taste the real deal, we still make them, but without the sense of longing and homesickness that accompanied them in the past. However, driving to the beach every time we have a biscuit hankering isn't realistic so we still make our own when the hankering strikes. 

This weekend when I pulled out the ingredients for biscuits my eyes glanced past the slab of bacon in the refrigerator and then quickly went back to it. I like bacon with my biscuits. Why not bacon in my biscuits? Why not indeed. I pulled out that slab of bacon, whacked off a hunk of it and diced it up into 1/4" cubes (I had about 1/2 c of bacon cubes). While the bacon crisped on the stovetop, we diced the cheese into the same size cube and cut the butter into the dry ingredients for the biscuit dough. The cheese and crispy bacon were added to the dough before the buttermilk was incorporated. The dough was patted and folded and rolled and folded and rolled and cut and baked. Out came deliciousness. The buttery biscuits were studded with little gems of bacon and cheese and had that wonderful toasty cheese at the bottom that is my very favorite. Turns out that bacon cheddar biscuits are just as good in real life as they were in my mind.

A side note - ideally you would use unsliced slab bacon for this recipe because you'll have uniformly sized cubes, which is best for even cooking on the stove. We're lucky enough to live in a neighborhood that has a German meat market with delicious slab bacon. You may not be and that's okay. Do buy the best bacon you can find - it makes a difference. We use high quality bacon in small amounts in a variety of dishes. I find that the better the bacon, the less of it I need and the less expensive it ends up being in the long run. Invest in the good stuff and use it in small amounts rather than just eating big slices of bacon. A little goes a long way. Trust me.

And now, the recipe. The basic buttermilk biscuit recipe is based on the one in The Grand Central Baking Book: Breakfast Pastries, Cookies, Pies, and Satisfying Savories from the Pacific Northwest's Celebrated Bakery which is my very favorite baking book. I don't know that buttermilk biscuit recipes vary substantially, but this book has never done me wrong. Ever. 

Bacon Cheddar Biscuits (makes 12)

3 cups AP flour

1 tbsp granulated sugar

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup cold unsalted butter cut into 1/2" cubes

4 oz medium or sharp cheddar cheese (I use Tillamook medium usually)

1/2" thick slab of bacon, or 4 thick slices of good quality bacon if you don't have slab available)

1-1/4 cups buttermilk, or a bit more if needed 

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment (or don't if your baking sheets are well seasoned like mine). 

Cook the bacon on the stovetop until quite crispy. Drain on a paper towel and set aside. 

While the bacon is cooking, cube up the cheese and start the dough. 

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a high sided bowl. Whisk to combine. Cut in the chilled 1/2" cubes of butter with a pastry cutter or with your hands until the texture turns mealy with small chunks of butter in it. Stir in the cheese and the bacon. 

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk. Mix until it just comes together. Dump out onto a lightly floured surface. If the dough is too dry and crumbly then add in buttermilk as you knead it, 1 tbsp at a time. If you like layered biscuits, then fold and roll out the dough with a rolling pin a few times to create layers. If you don't care about layers, then just pat it out into a 1 - 1.5" thick rectangle. It won't look super smooth and pretty and you don't want it to. Cut 2.5" biscuits with a cutter or with a glass if you don't have biscuit cutters.

Place on the baking sheet and bake in the oven for approximately 25 minutes. They should be golden brown on top. Let cool and eat. Yum!

So much to say

Okay, well. So much for sewing week. All of my plans were torn asunder by the delightful surprise arrival of Lindsay! I just about keeled over from excitement. Needless to say, sewing plans were thrown to the side while I hung out with my big girl. I did finish one more little dress for Kit. 

It's based on the pillowcase dress pattern from the Craft Hope: Handmade Crafts for a Cause book by my dear friend Jade. Since I do not have a stash of vintage pillowcases, I amended it by using 1/2 yard of fabric that was leftover from the "I'm a kid too!" skirt that I made for myself. We're rocking the matchy. This is such a quick and easy and cheap and adorable way to clothe a little girl. I want to pull out a bunch of 1/2 yard cuts and make a whole bunch of them. Especially now that we're getting glimmers of it being warm enough for her to wear them for a few days. I'm planning another sewing marathon this weekend to make up for my abandonment of the challenge. 

Since Linz was here for a few days, we had to go visit my grandma and surprise her too. I took what is sure to be a classic family photo. 

Someone was not enthused about having pictures taken. There were rocks to throw. I have a series of outtakes (seriously - this was the best one) from this little visit that are priceless. 

Speaking of priceless, today was the first day that our new chickens got to play outdoors. They were out all afternoon and had the Best Time Ever. I took 250 pictures, which may have been a bit excessive. 

They'll be out again tomorrow and Friday while the sun shines. We plan to finish the coop over Memorial weekend and get them out of the garage, which will be awesome. It was too much fun to be outside with them today and watch them explore the big world out there. It's so hard to believe that this was them 7 weeks ago. 

I'm astonished at how tame they are and I'll credit Gunnar, aka The Chickener. 

That boy loves his chickens. 

Hope everything is going well in your neck of the woods. There have been some serious behind the scenes stresses around here but we're seeing the end of it now and things are looking up. I'm going to enjoy the sunshine and my family and our many blessings. 

See you tomorrow with some bacon biscuits. 

and now a little dress

I haven't been as productive as I'd hoped this week, but I'm still getting things done. I have temporarily abandoned the Hopscotch Skirt after fighting for way too long with the pockets. I think something with fiddly details is not a good fit for KCWC because I really want to make the most of my sewing time during a self imposed deadline. I made myself feel better/more accomplished by finishing a skirt for myself that had been cut out for a few days. I'm a kid too, right? Photos of that tomorrow. 

I turned my attention to some tried and true Japanese pattern books for a basic raglan sleeve dress for the baby. Honestly, quick and dirty is what I'm all about this week, despite my attempts to be fancy and complicated. I had 1/2 yard of this voile fabric and wanted to maximize it as much as possible. I used nearly every scrap of it for this dress. 

The sash is unattached while I figure out if I like it or not. The sash fabric is also used for the trim on the neckline and on the sleeves. I think I'll just hand tack it on so I can take it off later or move it down as she gets bigger. I probably should have made a smaller size (this one is an 80cm) because while the length is good, it's really wide on her. She's a little peanut and I keep forgetting that when I make her clothes. However, what I love about a dress like this is that she'll be able to wear it for a long time and it'll just transition from being a dress to a tunic. I can replace the elastic with a bigger piece when I need to. 

This is the first time that I've cut into my very small stash of the Anna Maria Horner voile fabrics and I'm in love. They're lovely to work with and are so soft and light and perfect for floaty summer clothes. I have 2 yards of another print that I've been saving for a shirt for myself. That may have to move up the list now, so I have it for when it warms up here (hahahaha! like that's going to happen!) and I need something airy to wear. 

And of course, Kit would still like you to know that she is SO BIG!

let the sewing begin

Hey, did you know that this week is the spring Kids Clothes Week Challenge? Technically it starts today, but for those of us who have to very carefully plan out our sewing time (hello toddler!), it may have started early with pattern tracing and fabric cutting and stacking up of prepped projects for maximizing the sewing time and output this week. 

I may have also started the sewing yesterday, since my Mother's Day present was some semi-uninterrupted time in the studio with my sewing machine and an already cut project. 

I started with the Oliver + S Ice Cream Dress pattern as a quick/easy start to my week. Annika is a bit tough to fit with sewing patterns, so I made a trial version with a cute vintage fabric that I scored at the Knittin' Kitten for cheap. Yes. There's a fabric thrift store in Portland. For real. The light green is a tonal dot that sweet Cathy sent to me a few months back. I had Annika try it on before I put the button on the back, and she wouldn't take it off until bedtime so I think she likes it. Still need to sew on that button.

(note the deceiving patch of sunshine. our toes were squishing in mud to get out to that little step)

What I liked:

Liesl's patterns are very explicit and have all of the finishing details that make for a lovely finished product. It went together very quickly and without any construction issues. The details like the notched collar and pockets make a simple silhouette more special. I think it would also be cute if I left off the bottom hem section and made it into a smock shirt. We're planning to do a few of those for her. 

What I'll change next time:

Annika has broad and sturdy torso, so the yoke ended up being too short. For version 2, I'll lengthen the yoke piece by about 2" on each side and decrease the body panel length accordingly. I think it'll sit better on her. She says it's comfortable as is, but I think it'll look better longer. If your child is narrower in the shoulder area than mine, the yoke should be just great. Time to dig out some cute fabric for the next one. 

Up next:

another Oliver + S pattern (can you tell I made good use of the Bolt pattern sale?) for Kit. I'm making the Hopscotch skirt that's from the same pattern set as the knit dress I made a couple of weeks ago. If I'm particularly productive, I may make another one of those dresses too because they go super quickly. Then I'll do some fabric cutting tonight for later this week. 

Happy sewing! What are you making this week?

quick and easy, except for the photo shoot

I made a quick and easy skirt today. But somehow, photographing it is really difficult, as you will see. 

(excuse me, Mama, while I chase the dog)

I made myself a skirt today. Well, I drafted it and cut it out yesterday and even sewed the side seams. But I prettied it up today. And I love it. I have some big clothing sewing plans for the girlies over the next couple of weeks, but I took some time to bust out a quick a-line elastic waist skirt that I'm sure will be a staple this summer. I also have big plans for sewing for me, but most of the good stuff is waiting because I'm finally starting to lose the extra pounds that have been hanging around for far too long and I'd rather spend my time/energy/awesome fabric on things in a smaller size. 

(Mamaaaaaa! pick me up!!!!) 

However, due to a general unwillingness to spend money on clothing my body over the last too many years, my wardrobe is pretty pathetic. Something had to give, so I took a couple of hours and some great lightweight hemp/cotton denim (yay Bolt sale!) and some strips of the new Denyse Schmidt line (yay trading fabric for new fabric!) to make myself the first of a few skirts that can be easily modified as I drop some inches. I used the basic instructions from Sew What! Skirts: 16 Simple Styles You Can Make with Fabulous Fabrics for drafting the pattern. If I hadn't fussed over fancy trims, it would have taken a grand total of an hour. Instead I spent two hours and went from boring to fun. I used the same trim fabric to create a bias tape waistband for threading the elastic. Next time, I'll probably just fold it over since no one ever sees my waistbands anyway. I am not a shirt tucker. 

(oh, nevermind. I'll go bother Gunnar)

The hardest part? Taking a photo. I do love me a quick and easy project to get the sewing juices flowing. Tomorrow I'm back to tracing and cutting out stuff for the girls. They are going to have fantastic handmade summer wardrobes and I'll be hanging out in my elastic waist skirts and Old Navy tshirts. Hopefully I'll get better photos next time.