Housewarming

My good friend Rachel just moved into a new apartment in Los Angeles. I wanted to give her a housewarming gift that would be useful, but of course I had to make it. She had mentioned the other day that she needed an apron, so I got to work. I love the combination of fabrics here. It reminds me of something from Anthropologie. The pattern is from Anna Maria Horner's "Seams to Me."



I also appliqued fabric shapes on a new set of chocolate brown towels. It's an incredibly easy process, and it makes them look so much more interesting!

Supplies:

• Bath towels

• Fabric

• Interfacing (the thin kind that feels like paper, not fabric)

• Thread in a contrasting color

The first step is to decide what shape you want to cut out of your fabric. I chose a pretty vintage Japanese print that already had little diamonds in different colors.

Using the steam setting on your iron, press the bubbly side to the wrong side of the fabric. After it cools you should feel that it thickens and stiffens the fabric. Now cut out your shape.

Note: Rather than iron on the entire interfacing (and waste fabric), I chose which colored diamonds I wanted to use, and just ironed the interfacing on those, and cut them out individually.



At this point I usually press the shapes one more time, to make sure that the interfacing has really "applied" itself. Again, let the shapes cool and peel off the interfacing. You should have a slightly sticky residue on the back of the fabric.



Place the shapes where you want them on the towel, and iron once more to set. Now they are lightly glued to the fabric, so they won't shift while you're sewing.

Play around with the zig-zag setting on your machine until you get a stitch that you like. I like to clearly see the thread, so I used a stitch width of 2 and a stitch length of 1, in a contrasting color. Work your way around the shape, and don't forget to backstitch at both ends!

Veggie Tales

A few weeks ago (months, for some) I planted some seeds and plants in my backyard. It's so much more fun to eat veggies when you've grown them yourself! Here are my first pickings.

Some of the zucchini were used in Okonomi-yaki that my amazing husband Ted made yesterday (that's a savory Japanese pancake, by the way). They're my absolute favorite, and he makes them a lot. We've adapted our own recipe, depending on what vegetables we have on hand, and what we're in the mood for. But here's our basic recipe:

Ingredients:

(Pancake)
2 oz. self rising flour
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup super dashi
pinch of salt
1 egg
1 scallion, chopped
1 cup thinly chopped zucchini and cabbage

(Sauce)
2 Tbsp. ketchup
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. Ponzu sauce
1 1/2 tsp. sake
squeeze of lemon juice

(Topping)
Japanese mayo
pickled ginger
dried bonito flakes

Combine the flour, milk, dashi, and salt in a bowl. Add the egg and stir. Next add the scallion, zucchini and cabbage and mix to combine. Heat a non-stick frying pan over moderate heat, and add the batter, like making a regular pancake. Wait for the bubbles to appear, then turn over to cook on the other side.

Combine the sauce ingredients.

Serve the pancakes hot, topped with Japanese mayo, the red sauce, pickled ginger, and bonito. (This picture is just half of a pancake, since they're so huge!)

And here's the recipe for my favorite sweet, lemon sponge pudding. A great way to use the many lemons from our tree (sorry, my own picture didn't turn out well)!

Table evolution

We finally have bedside tables! Thanks to Britt at cucumbersome.com, who thought of this design and inspired us to make our own bedside tables, we now have actual furniture in the bedroom. These started off as some very unexciting Ikea cabinets, to which we added a base board of wood, four legs, and then embellished the front and sides with mouldings. And then came the paint! We chose a really pretty minty green that looks great with our chocolate colored duvet. Check out the evolution of the tables in the pictures (I thought I had taken more pictures of the steps, but these were all I could find in the end)...

Post wedding party!

It's been a long time since my last post, for obvious reasons. And I have some great pictures of one of those reasons...after the wedding extravaganza in Anguilla, we came back and had a big party in St. Louis to celebrate with the rest of the family who couldn't be with us on the island. Since it was a regular wedding reception, there was a ton of work to be put into everything. I made placecards based on the same design as the wedding invitation.

We also had tiny Asian takeout boxes for our party favors.

Everything looked great, and the whole day was a blast!

Wedding Invitations and Envelopes

I'm finally done! Everyone (except perhaps Ted's relatives in Japan) should have received their invitations by now, so I am free to post the pictures. This design was borrowed from Kathy Beymer's (of merrimentdesign.com) brilliant poppy wedding invitation and stitched envelopes. Thank you Kathy!


Ted and I decided to base the invitation on our wedding palette of lime green, gray, and peony pink. We ordered the fabric from Japan and printed the cards with our home computer. Because the pattern of the fabric consists of different sizes of multi-colored blossoms, when I cut out the flowers to applique on the cards, each invitation was individual. It was such a fun process, and I'm so proud to say that I actually made my own wedding (reception) invitations! We wish you could all be with us on our wedding day, but we'll try to bring a bit of the Caribbean to Missouri on that day!

Green Day

I haven't updated this in awhile because I've been busy making my wedding reception invitations (I'll post these soon). But in the meantime, here's a picture of some business cards I just designed and made with my computer and a watermark stamp and embosser. I can't decide which color combination I like better...Now I just have to distribute them!




And of course I couldn't resist including a picture of our baby, Thomas (we're adopting him, by the way). I made him a green "T" pillow, which amazingly is the only stuffed thing that he hasn't torn to shreds (we've already lost a stuffed squirrel, a ball, and a toy dog). I think he knows it was made just for him!

Puppy Love

We have a doggie! Well, technically, he's not ours, but we're fostering him temporarily. He's one of many pooches from the very crowded South LA Animal Shelter. The decision of which dog to choose felt like it was straight out of "Sophie's Choice," but I eventually picked the guy that seemed to need us the most. When I first brought him home, he had virtually no social skills: He cowered from everyone, and constantly had his tail in between his legs. Not to mention the scars all over his face, and his matted, dirty hair.

Since he was found as a stray, they don't know anything about his history. But from his fearful personality, we can guess that he didn't come from a good place. Amazingly, he has changed so much, in the week that he has been with us. Not only is he not shy anymore (AT ALL!), but he has a healthy appetite, beautiful coloring (after two baths and a couple of rain showers), and he is one of the sweetest, most lovable dogs ever!

I'm teaching him some tricks (starting with the basic "sit"), so any training advice would be appreciated! I'll include more posts about him soon--by the way, we named him Thomas!!!