a quiet indulgence

image here

My trip the other week was great. Action-packed with soul-satisfying visits with family and old friends. But in the midst of that, there was a lovely, unexpected counterpoint: eating lunch alone. It was a quiet and satisfying experience that I don’t indulge in nearly enough. Actually sitting at a restaurant table by myself – not a bar, not a coffee shop, without a phone or book as distraction.

Sitting upright, staring straight ahead, happy in my own company.

thanks, nido!

Big thanks and crafty hugs to Phiona for hosting a party and demo for Weekend Handmade in her drop-dead gorgeous store Nido. With cupcakes! And DRY soda cocktails! It was a blast and you can check out some snaps right over here.

fighting your way through

This is stunning to me in its perfect truth. 

oh, vermont

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Sometimes I imagine my parallel imaginary life and in it, I am living in a snug Vermont cabin with a big front porch in the middle of a little orchard, with mud boots by the back door. The air smells green and woodsy and clean.

That is not my life at the moment, but I’m not complaining. Instead, I’m hopping a plane and heading for the leaves and chilly fall this weekend to meet up with some of my best old pals and kick around Burlington. And – bonus! – this Monday (Oct 17th) from 5-7pm I’ll be at the gorgeous Nido in Burlington, giving a demo and signing books. Please drop by, Vermonters! There will be a fabric sale and cupcakes and cocktails. I mean, it’s like the main food groups all in one place: fabric, sweets and booze.

Nido Fabric + Yarn  • 209 College Street  •  Suite 2e  •  Burlington, Vermont 05401

weekend handmade blog tour: day 7

We made it to the final stop of the Weekend Tour, and that means we have arrived at Crafty Pod for the last installment. Diane (you may know her as Sister Diane) is smart and discerning and crafty -- a new friend I am very happy to have made. Come hang out, right here.

Thanks so much to all these big-hearted, clever gals for supporting Weekend Handmade. It means so much! xo

Previously on the Blog Tour Day 1: Today kicks off a full week of bright, sassy, creative ladies generously hosting installments of my Weekend Handmade blog tour. For the tour, I decided to mix it up a little and break a creative, relaxing weekend down into its chronological parts, and find a guest “host” for each segment. If you are confused, it’s okay. It will all be revealed over the next week, as will the details of what makes for a perfect weekend.

First up is the sunny Liz Stanley from Say Yes to Hoboken. She is a crafty wonder who alters her own dresses and holds dinner parties in her community garden plot. So you should all go read the post right over here.

Day 2: For today’s installment, we’re visiting with Willi from Diggin Food. Willi is a bright spark of a gal who grows vegetables, keeps bees, and believes everyone deserves a good couch. My kinda gal! Check it out right here.

Day 3: We’re up to Saturday afternoon, and that means it’s time to visit Megan of Not Martha fame. Megan knows her way around four-leaf clovers, the Internet and Project Runway. Plus, she is super supportive and fun to hang out with. Yep, stellar credentials for a stellar girl. Come visit right over here.

Day 4: It’s Saturday night in the parallel world that is the Weekend Handmade blog tour. And let me tell you, the Mighty Girl herself is your girl for a Saturday night. You can get ready together in her bathroom, go dancing, and then come home and solve the world’s problems on her couch. I mean, what’s not to love about Maggie? Nothing, that's what.

Day 5: Rise and shine, everyone! It’s time for the Sunday segment of the blog tour and that means we get to visit with Victoria from SF Girl by Bay. She’s so inspiring that Jonathan Adler wants to be seen with her. She makes me proud to live in San Francisco when I see it through her Sunday in the City eyes. And I STILL can’t get enough of her gorgeous new logo. We're right over here.

Day 6: It’s the second-to-last stop in the blog tour, and that means we have traveled all the way around the globe to drop in on Gabby from Design Mom. This lady is radiant. And talented. And generous. And mother of six kids, currently living in France. I mean, come on!

In case you want to cheat and see who will be part of the rest of the tour, you can go over to STC's website. But just ask yourself first, are you also the kind of person who flips to the end of a book halfway through? If you are satisfied with your answer, you may proceed.

the coolness of cross-stitch

Is needlepoint cool again? Look at these pillows by Karen Barbe (okay, they’re woven but they resemble cross-stitch) and Anna Maria Horner’s gorgeous new fabric line.

Karen Barbe Woven Pillows (first seen at Simply Grove)

Loulouthi fabric by Anna Maria Horner

This is a great development for me because it’s giving me the kick in the pants that I need to pick up an abandoned craft project. A couple years back I bought a belt buckle needlework project. As a newbie to the art of needlepoint, the eensy canvas didn’t intimidate me.

Or so I thought.

In reality, I stitched a couple sections but wasn’t too sure I was doing it correctly, so that poor belt buckle has languished deep in my abandoned project pile.

Now I’m seeing these bright, beautiful cross-stitch references and I’m inspired to dust off that canvas and give it another go so I can add this belt to my fall wardrobe.

it's this time of year again

Riots of color in the dahlia garden so bright that my brain fuzzes up with happiness.

PS: A few people emailed me, incredulous that this was my garden. Well, your disbelief is correct because it certainly ain't my garden. This is the Dahlia Dell in Golden Gate Park. A lovely, lovely place to spend an afternoon or evening.

barn nostalgia

This might seem like cheating, but a lot of people have recently asked me about the barn I grew up in, because I wrote about it in Weekend Handmade. I also talked about it a little in the NPR interview.

So what does this barn look like, people ask? Well, here is a post I wrote a while back in March 2009.

When I had Heather Ross here the other week talking about growing up in Vermont, I got to thinking about my own childhood in Virginia, and asked my mom to send me some photos.

I actually got teary when I saw them. I’m not sure why, because this barn is as familiar to me as my own face. When I’m at home in Virginia and come across old pictures, they’re all in the context of this crazy family adventure that resulted in an amazing house and really special childhood. But when I see them on my computer in my perfectly normal apartment in San Francisco, the imagination and perseverance that it required of my parents comes into clearer focus. They decided to move out of the city, buy a 200-year-old hay barn, move it piece by piece to some land they bought, and re-assemble it into a home. They did this without much money, largely on their own (helped plenty by a volunteer crew of friends and family), so big wheels lived side-by-side with cement mixers.

This next one (below) is my favorite. At some point, the saw in the background moved upstairs, outside of my parents bedroom. Where it stayed until I was in high school. The barn was always a work-in-progress, and I guess that's the thing about childhoods. You don't know that it isn't exactly normal to play with dolls in the middle of a building site until you get a little older.

I love the barn like she is a person. We spent my whole childhood growing up together and uncovering who we always were. In some ways, I’d like to be more like her: a purposeful old soul with a big heart in a simple setting, who can weather any transformations that come her way.

why, hello etsy!

I had the great luck to attend Hello Etsy this past weekend in San Francisco. Vanessa was kind enough to invite me, and since a lot of the day-long event focused on local manufacturing and product design, Mike happily kept me company. I have a keen interest in all of that because I’ve been along for the ride while he brought Jimi into existence (proudly made in Massachusetts, so he knows a thing or two about local manufacturing!).

Mark Breitenberg, provost of California College of the Arts, kicked everything off. A phrase of his that keeps tumbling around in my mind is “thinking with your hands” – he described it as developing an idea through the process of making. I love that. So often, I need to escape the churn of my brain and just make something. It restores my equilibrium.

You can watch his talk here, and the panel that follows “From Prototype to Product” is worth sticking around for. Such a rich blend of personalities and experience, with Allison Arieff, Woolly Pockets, DODOcase and SF Made. 

I couldn’t stay for the last panel “Startup Stories”, but I heard it was plenty inspiring. How could it not be? It was moderated by Rena Tom of Rare Device, and featured Catherine Bailey of Heath Ceramics, Ryan Mies and Sarah Labieniec of Lab Partners, and Heather Moore of Skinny laMinx. On a personal note, it was great to meet Heather – especially since I used her tea towel for my apron in Weekend Handmade (bought at Heath in Sausalito, see how the world goes round and round?) I am such a big fan of Heather's gorgeous textiles and I just read about her beautiful new collaboration with a couple other fave designers of mine, called Cloth Paper Clay.

weekend handmade on npr!

My phone started buzzing early Saturday morning, when friends and family on the East Coast heard my interview with Scott Simon on Weekend Edition Saturday. Woot! The happiness rolled its way West, as the program aired in different time zones. Then the craziest thing. NPR listeners are obviously good, old-fashioned supporters of the printed word, because later in the day Melanie emailed me after checking out the Amazon ratings, and this is what I found.

Yep, I spent the weekend with Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin. Pretty surreal.

In my giddiness, I set up a Facebook page for Weekend Handmade. I plan to post updates there, and hope we can create a little crafty community where people will post images of finished projects from the book, as well as tidbits about what makes for a great, creative weekend. I am really bad at asking for favors (unless you are my husband or one of my sisters). But I would be so grateful if you passed this on and helped spread the word.

Thanks, friends. I’m happy and overjoyed and humbled by all the love and support.

cherry pitter

I found cherries, to make a more traditional Manhattan garnish. And I’m now the proud owner of a cherry pitter. While I go au natural and leave pits in for cherry clafouti, I wanted de-pitted cherries for this. Because, let’s be honest here: that boozy squish at the end of a drink is pure deliciousness.

I’m not normally one for single-purpose kitchen gadgets, but this is the only thing that has ever made me understand how little boys feel when they run around pointing toy guns at each other. I could pit cherries all day with this little gun.

brandied...blueberries?

I’ve been working the early shift at the radio station this week. And by early, I mean the alarm goes off at 4am – which I have come to realize is not really the morning at all. It’s the dead middle of the night, as far as I’m concerned. It’s a spooky experience to get to work while it’s still inky-black outside, and then re-emerge into the sunshine at lunchtime, having already worked a full day. The first afternoon, I sort of stumbled around in a dumb haze after I got home. The next day, I had an urge to make something simple and fast and satisfying. I think I needed to feel human again and handle something that had been touched by sunlight, instead of just words on a computer screen.

So I set out to make brandied cherries. But I was thwarted. No cherries in either of my local shops. So I turned to blueberries. Who knows, they might turn to purple mush. Or I might be onto something and we’ll all be garnishing our Manhattans with brandied blueberries. I’ll let you know either way.

the first review!

Imagine my surprise when I was reading the Sunday papers in bed with a cup of tea and came across this:

Someone told me it was online, but I thought I had missed the print version. Hooray for the hometown paper and big thanks for their very kind words. Here's my favorite line: "...the finished products, if completed carefully, look pretty enough to happen upon in the shelves of Anthropologie." Praise indeed!

You can read the whole review right here. Thanks again, SF Chronicle!

summer vacation

See, I got all excited about the book and forgot to tell you about my vacation. In a word, it was perfect. There is nothing better in my book than sun-warmed skin.

On the one rainy day we had, we made friendship bracelets in the living room and then went down to the wet beach to run off our cabin fever. Other than that, we swam and rode bikes and ate lobster rolls and played lawn games with the little ones, and swam some more.

After a week at the beach, Mike and I headed north to Vermont and spent a perfect lazy day doing nothing more than floating on my sister’s pond with margaritas in hand. Followed by cornhole at dusk and a very, very funny game of charades.

I'll miss you, summer vacation.

summerfood: beach plums

With the end of summer nearing, it feels appropriate that the last Lazy Summer post is Sarah’s Cape Cod quest to find a fleeting summertime offering: the elusive beach plum. xoKelly

While Cape Codders might be totally forthcoming about where to get the best lobster roll, they seem to take the complete opposite approach when it comes to beach plums. When I announced that I wanted to go on a hunt for these small, wild plums that many locals create delicious jams and jellies from, my mother-in-law called a neighbor who has knowledge of where the plum shrubs grow. But she was afraid that if she mentioned the words “beach plums’” in her message, her neighbor wouldn’t call back for fear of being pressured into sharing her local knowledge.
 
Beach plum shrubs are found on the sandy dunes of the Atlantic Coast from Maine to Maryland. But they’re near impossible to domesticate. Sure, you could plunk a young shrub in your yard and it might get tall and leafy, but you may never see one single, solitary plum. So if you’re a local and know where to find the wild, ripe fruit – you apparently keep it close to your chest.  
 
We weren’t deterred by the plum-hoarding, so we set out to find our own secret stash. I could swear I saw some little old ladies moving signposts around in an attempt to confuse us. And it worked. We found nothing but gorgeous landscapes, fields of Queen Anne’s lace, and a small market on the way home that sold jars of plum jelly, all ready to be spread on toast.  
 
We''ll call this one even, Cape Cod. -Sarah

it's here!

Today is the official launch. Fly, little book, fly! Here's a trailer to whet your appetite. Please pass it on!

You can find it in bookstores and online. If you can't find it in your local bookstore, please request it! Otherwise, you can find it here:

*Powells

*IndieBound

*Amazon

*Barnes and Noble 

And in the UK: (listed in pounds, so nifty!) Amazon UK

There will be some exciting promotion news next week. In the meantime, I'm off to saber off the top of a champagne bottle.

back off, irene

Mike and I squeaked out of New England just as Irene arrived. We could have high-five’d her, we were that close. Our last stop was at my sister’s place in Vermont, which one day later became shut-off from the entire world because all the roads were washed out. My parents heard from her after the storm cleared out. She and her husband had biked into town to survey the damage. But they’re still without power or even a phone so we haven’t had an update in a while. It’s surreal and a little unsettling with all our hyper-connectivity to not be able to reach someone.

painting from here

When we were little, we used to have regular nights when we would pretend we lived before electricity. We lit candles and played board games and even pretended to make butter with my mom’s antique butter churner. Truth be told, I get a pang of envy when I hear someone’s power went out because I still have such an association with a lack of power and cozy, happy family evenings.

Vermont has such a big place in my heart. They’re hearty folk up there, but still. I wish everyone well and safe and dry.

behind the pages of weekend handmade: photo shoot (con't)

One of the most satisfying things about the shoot was that I got to populate it with so many things from my life. When I pulled up for the first day of shooting, my little car was packed to the gills of odds and ends I gathered at home. And many of them made it into the book. For instance: my husband’s cricket medal that he won in England when he was 11 year old. I mean, doesn't that warm your heart? Also, domino score cards, with the winner (who shall go unnamed) demanding a signature as evidence of his win. And a little pantry setup we made with some of my preserves and the milk pitcher we use for tea every morning.

photos by Thayer

And the very sweetest and most special inclusion of all: my niece. Locked in time forever at my first photo shoot. I cannot express the swell of happiness I get every time I see her.

lazy summer visits amy pennington

This installment of Lazy Summer Radio finds us back in Seattle, hanging out in a stunning garden with food writer, author and gardener Amy Pennington – who has been “doubled-GOOP’ed” as Sarah says, with both of her books raved about by none other than Ms. Paltrow. Listen in as we talk about sun tea and why lake swimming freaks her out.



minimal to-do's

Here is the extent of my to-do's while I'm away:

*Swim

*Read

*Nap

*Porch during a rainstorm

Ambitious yes? Well, there is one other thing I might do. And that is to revisit friendship bracelets. Amy organized a swap last summer that I couldn’t be a part of, and I’ve been meaning to make one ever since. Perfect for a porch and a rocking chair, yes?

image from Purl Bee

And if I need a refresher, I will be using this post from the Purl Bee. I’ll see you soon, refreshed and wearing with a stack of these on my wrist.