Texture Tuesday | Seabeck Heron

I've posted this photograph before, but when I saw this texture from Kim Klassen, I knew it was perfect for this favorite photograph. I love the Asian flavor of the texture, which pairs so beautifully with the heron.

   Textured with the Savor texture, 71% overlay

Recycling

I spent a lot of time this past weekend sorting through the clothes I've set aside to donate, looking for ways to recycle fabrics for sewing projects. And since I tend to procrastinate when it comes to hauling stuff to Goodwill, there was a lot to choose from.

When dress standards at work changed to business casual, I packed away most of Dave's shirts, and all of his sports coats. I sorted through them and set aside my favorites of the sports coats, especially the tweeds and small checked fabrics. From the shirts I set aside the wool and flannel and corduroy; these heavy fabrics will be great for tote bags, and the cottons from his button-down shirts will be perfect for linings.

From my own discards I set aside the clothes made from really good fabrics, and saved the unique buttons and a lot of the zippers. I will still keep the clothes I really loved, the navy challis floral skirt and the autumn print jumper, the black polka dot dress with the inverted front pleat and white collar and wide red belt, the teal wrap-front dress, the Gunne Sax dresses.

I also saved all the fun and unique labels from our clothes. When I have enough, I'll arrange them in a sort of crazy quilt design, stitch them to a dark backing fabric, and use it for the front of a tote bag.

Early morning

This is my favorite time of day. The early morning hours, when the house is quiet and my time is my own for just a bit longer. When I worked, it was Friday morning that I looked forward to the most. Now that I'm retired (talk about calling time your own), it's every morning.

I put the kettle on as soon as I get up, and feed the cats. Once the sun comes up, I open the blinds and take a look at the day. I read while I sip my first cup of tea, then open up the laptop and write for a while, updating my journal from the day before, and maybe writing a blog post or two. Once Davey gets up, we make breakfast together while we plan our day.

It's a simple, peaceful routine. Boy, do I love my life.

Sunday brunch

This morning we joined a group of friends at Salty's Alki, our last gathering before the holiday season begins. For the past two years, we've met up each month to break bread together at one of the area's restaurants. We've sampled some pretty amazing food at places like the Melrose, Bistro Baffi, Purple, Elliott's, The Red House, Marche on Bainbridge Island, and The Grill from Ipanema. Plus we've all grown closer as friends... the best part.

We had a great downstairs corner where we all sat together, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Elliott Bay and the Seattle skyline. In between bites and words, we watched the ferries go to and fro, container ships coming in and heading out, a large group of colorful kayakers passing by, and an equally large group of scuba divers heading out to explore.

I can't begin to list all the food that was spread out for us to choose from. But my favorites were the Dungeness crab legs, the mac & cheese with Kielbasa, the Eggs Benedict prepared two ways, the salmon with a Mediterranean sauce, and all the fresh fruit.

When the party broke up we spent another half hour talking, and watching this Thayer's Gull enjoying his own version of Sunday brunch: a starfish he pulled off the rocks just outside the windows. Our meal looked a lot more appetizing (and had more variety). He managed to eat half of it before another gull swooped in and stole his prize.

At least no one did this to us.

Farmhouse style

My love of farmhouses goes back to a very young age, when I was crazy in love with horses. Being only four or so, I was convinced that in order to have a horse, you needed to live in one of these houses, surrounded by acres of green pastures. I had yet to learn that people in cities had horses, too... they just kept them in other people's stables, and lived where they pleased.

Driving the back roads, looking for farmhouses, has always been one of my favorite things to do. And once I learned that Craftsman style houses are close relatives of the more humble country farmhouse, I started to explore the older neighborhoods of the towns and cities we visited, looking for perfect examples of the things I love in a house. Gables, dormers, double-hung windows, decorated eaves, stained glass, and shake siding.

They come in all shapes and sizes, one story or one-and-a-half story or two story. Some have simple entryway porches, and some have porches that wrap around the whole house, with room for wicker chairs or a porch swing. There are half-moon attic windows and leaded glass windows, double-hung windows or bay windows with window seats. Some have shingled exteriors, some have both shingles and narrow cedar siding. And there's even the occasional farmhouse rendered in brick.

My favorites are still those that are surrounded by pastures full of horses. Some things don't ever change. But I'm also glad to find farmhouses that have survived the loss of their acreage, houses that still shelter someone who loves farmhouse style.

I found my own farmhouse, too... but that's another story.

Header photograph | Textures

This is not your usual photograph of Glacier National Park, but I've been into textures and small details the past few months, and this is one of my favorites. Seed pods, flowers, tiny fallen leaves, bark and moss, even the gorgeous swirls of my blond cat.

This photograph was taken in Glacier last August, in an area known as the Sunrift Gorge. The light was perfect, the color of the rocks in the streambed was amazing, and the water was so clear, if it hadn't been moving, it would have been invisible. For scale, note the grey-blue bird at the top center. It's one reason my eye was drawn to the scene.

First freeze

This morning brought a reminder that winter is just around the corner: hoarfrost, thick and sparkly, brilliant in the early morning sunshine. It arrived late this year; usually we have heavy frost by mid-October, certainly by Halloween.

I wanted one more chance to photograph the smoke tree in the early morning light. The tree was brilliant with yellow leaves yesterday, but the hard frost overnight took the last of the leaves, and there they lay at the base of the tree, rimmed with white, all the beautiful autumn colors in a heap.

More beautiful still was the herb garden, where the carpet of thyme looked like it had been dipped in coarse sugar like some fanciful garnish for a dessert tray. It looked good enough to eat.

Orchard pruning

We waited a long time for fall to arrive, for the trees to go dormant. Impatiently, as we'd decided it was time to do some major pruning in the young orchard, and were anxious to start. This orchard always been the misfit, with trees planted too close together by a previous owner, then badly pruned so the trees never had the structure they needed to grow up straight and strong.

And we added neglect to their lineage... waiting too long between pruning sessions, and allowing some suckers to grow too tall and too big.

Today we fired up the chain saw and hauled out the ladders, cut branches and suckers, stood back to contemplate how deeply to cut, what to leave, what to remove, then moving on to the next tree. There was damage to repair, too...  trees that bore the brunt of the ice storm in 2012.

While he cut, I hauled branches out to the yard. On another day soon, we'll cut the branches into firewood, and stack the small stuff to burn next spring. We've pruned so much this fall:  our burn pile has grown to three piles, and will soon be five. And we still have hand pruning to do, to thin out the branches for better air flow and light.

The mess is huge, but it's beginning to look more like a healthy orchard. That makes it worth the aches and pains. That and the good feeling that comes from a day of hard work, done together.

Cathedral Windows

One of my most prized possessions is a muslin apron that my sister made for me, with an inset of the quilting handwork known as Cathedral Windows. The bright reds and blues and yellows are perfect against the muslin, and I love the country look.

When we bought our 1923 farmhouse, I hung the apron on the bathroom door and it's been there ever since. I can see it every day as I walk up the stairs, and it's such a perfect welcome to our antique bathroom with claw-footed tub and pedestal sink. My sister also made me a quilted cozy for my Pfaltzgraf teapot, lined with dark blue calico and decorated with cathedral windows in the same reds, yellows, and blues.

If you want to try this technique for yourself, here is a very good tutorial (with lots of pictures) for making a pillow with a cathedral windows front.

New life for a metal child's tray

A book on country style gave me the idea for turning a kid's metal tray into a message board. And I knew it would be perfect for my country kitchen. Years ago I found three slightly dented metal trays at a yard sale. I wasn't sure what to do with them, but they were my favorite Nile green and figured I'd find a use for them eventually.

This was one of those projects that required no trips to the store... don't you love those? I had everything I needed:  metal trays, picture frame hangars, glue suitable for bonding materials to metal.

The whole project was super simple. Just clean the tray, mark the top center on the back of the tray, and glue on the picture frame hangar. Be sure to use glue that's designed for bonding to metal. You could also drill holes and use picture hanging wire, but I decided to keep the trays intact.

Making custom magnets was just as easy. Just collect a few favorite bits and pieces, and glue a magnet to the back of each. My favorites are poker chip tokens from geocaching, colored dice, tokens from games like Monopoly or Scrabble, foreign coins, and wine corks from favorite wineries.

There are a couple of good options for magnets. Round ceramic magnets are strong, but they're heavy, and I didn't like how these thick magnets looked on the back of small tokens. I recommend using rare earth magnets. They're super strong, lightweight, and thin, perfect for tokens of all sizes. I would recommend avoiding sheets of magnets; they're easy to cut and adhere, but aren't strong enough to hold tight on a painted tray. You can find both the ceramic and rare earth magnets at Harbor Freight for much less money than the craft stores.

I liked the first message board so much, I made a second one. One hangs near the phone, and it's used for invitations and reminders of local events. The other is near the pantry, and it holds my grocery list.

The extra magnets are stored across the bottom rim of the tray, ready to use.