Friday, October 19, 2012

Wearing and Growing

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Beaded top: Indian tunic, thrifted and shortened by me
Silk skirt w/ brass buttons: Thrifted
Shoes: Thrifted

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I followed Milla's lead last weekend and finally got down to business with a long overdue closet cull. It felt good to go through it all, get rid of things that I just wasn't wearing, store the ones I decided to hold on to, swap out the spring/summer items with the fall/winter ones (though this has felt a bit premature with temps reaching the 90's here lately!), and just take general stock of what was actually there on those overstuffed shelves and doubled up hangers.

Turns out it's so much easier to shop your own closet when things are organized and readily accessible. So for this outfit, shop my closet I did, and put together some items that had been lost in the sartorial shuffle. Pretty basic, simple lines with a bit of shine... silver beads, brass buttons, metallic woven leather.

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I thrifted this top in the form of an Indian tunic with long slits up the sides. I fell for the beading and the diamond cutout. To make it feel a bit more wearable though, after months of not wearing it, I decided to try shortening it and got as far as cutting and pinning, before it went to the sewing bag where it had been sitting... indefinitely... as things do in the sewing bag.

It wasn't until my sister came over with a curtain she needed help hemming that I actually pulled it out. Heck, I'd already dusted off the sewing machine and read the manual to re-figure out how to wind the bobbin and all that jazz. It says something about the frequency of my sewing that I require the manual each time I start up a new project.

Anyhoo, it's much more wearable now, especially after rediscovering that I own it.

Now, for something completely different...

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Have you ever heard of a tree collard? No? Well, you would not be alone. Maybe a year ago Lucas read about them somewhere and we thought, "Wow, greens from a tree? How cool would that be?" Haha, Dr. Suess moment... but really, these things will grow for many years and become tree size, they're evergreen, and apparently the leaves are even more palatable than actual collard greens and can be plucked from the tree to eat raw or cooked as you would kale or other such greens! Neat, eh?

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Turns out they're not likely to be readily available at your local nursury though, so we were pretty excited when Lucas stumbled upon some for sale at the National Heirloom Exposition. They say to give it about a year to get established before beginning to harvest. Also, they don't seed often or grow true from seed, but are easily propagated from cuttings. They say to take cuttings between year one and year two, to make more plants for yourself or to share with others before the plant becomes woody which makes cuttings harder to get.

We're looking forward to being able to harvest and make new plants next Fall, I'll let you know how it goes, and if you're interested, you can learn more about this cool veggie tree here :)

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The Wedding Photographer

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I played wedding photographer back in June for Emmy, the eldest daughter of Liz (Clover’s former pre-school teacher). The wedding took place on “the farm” where Emmy grew up and where Lucas and I got hitched nine summers ago. She was just a kid at our wedding, maybe 11 or 12. Ours was the first farm wedding, to be followed soon after by one of Lucas’ sisters and then, years later, his mom. In fact, this was the first farm wedding in which no one from Lucas’ family was getting married!

I was asked to be the official unofficial wedding photographer of sorts and gladly accepted. They did hire a professional to stop by and do some posed portrait type shots, which I was thankful for, as that sort of thing is not really where my comfort zone lies. Wandering around capturing details and spontaneous moments is what I love.

True to form, I gave them the first half of the photos including the ones from the ceremony in a timely manner, but months later just recently finished editing the rest, see I don't just do this with blog posts!

Ha, stay tuned for such posts as the second half of our summer road trip, a magical spring weekend at the Northern California Women's Herbal Symposium, my big 40th birthday bash last winter, or heck, maybe even the second half of our Mexico trip two years ago... see, I procrastinate wildly, I don't forget ;)

In the meantime, while they are fresh off the presses, so to speak, I thought I'd share a few details and spontaneous moments from the second half of Emmy and Anas' special day.

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Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Scenes From a Birthday Campout

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Over the weekend, beneath a harvest moon, our sweet Clover turned five! We celebrated with a birthday campout under the oaks… family, friends, and neighbors came bearing gifts, much to her delight, and good food to share. Sausages and hot dogs were on the grill. I also made a huge salad and a few batches of THESE… so good! Perfect for a campout, and it was great not having to frost that many cupcakes.

Spring Lake campground, just a hop skip and a jump from home (seriously, like a ten minute drive) has the most magical group campsite (accommodates up to 75 campers) nestled in a grove of oaks. It’s quiet (well, not including the screaming children we supplied) and picturesque, totally secluded from the rest of the campground (especially nice for not worrying about said screaming kids disturbing other campers), has lots of sweet spots for tents, winding paths, its own private parking lot and restrooms, an AWESOME firepit, and did you see that big wooden table that wraps around the trees?

I’ve had a big bag of thrifted vintage fabric scraps in a closet for years now and I finally put it to use by cutting and tearing the pieces into strips to make some of these as decorations. I thought it would be a fun craft for the kids too, so I brought along extra supplies and some rainbow scratch-off cards as well. When they weren’t busy running around like wild woodland creatures, those kiddos got all kinds of crafty :)

We also borrowed a gigantic tent to set up as the designated kids tent. It was HUGE and the kids loved it. Once it got dark we busted out the glow sticks, also a big hit, and the kid tent turned into a wild rave of sorts which went on well into the night as the grown-ups kicked back with beers and laughter around the campfire. It was a fun night and Clover had a blast with her friends and cousins.

The next morning, fog hung in the trees as puffy-eyed kids (and grown-ups) emerged from tents. The coffee flowed, fresh bagels were topped with cream cheese and slices of homegrown heirloom tomatoes and, with 9:30 am as her time of birth, our little sprite was officially declared five years old!

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Welcome to five sweetie, we are so very proud and you are so very loved!