dolin bliss

What a lucky girl I am!

Surprise I am finally back!  Whew, it has been a whirlwind the past year and a half.  No need to bore you with all the details.  So let's get down to why I am so lucky...

I can finally mention this lovely book!!!  It has been a long time coming.  I had the honor of helping Jennifer Paganelli of Sis Boom write, illustrate and create the patterns for this beauty.  Jennifer is such an inspiring person and I was so honored that we got to work together.  We have never met face to face, and were put into contact with each other via Chronicle Books (they must have known), how great we would get along.  The book is available for pre-order and will be released at the end of April.  

More book info to come and maybe some catch up posts, on what I have been up to.

My First Quilt!

So excited to have finally finished my first quilt.  It is nothing fancy, just a string pieced number.  But I still love it. 

I did this along with the workshop I coordinated for the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles with participants from Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence, mentioned here.  I figured if I am going to continue on with being the project coordinator I needed to have actually gone through the whole process.  It was so much fun and I can totally see making more quilts in the future.  This one was pieced and quilted by machine.  The SJMQT purchased this fantastic machine and I am now trained how to use it.  I still need to learn the computer component, but I do know how to run this fancy pants machine, doing free motion quilting.  Right now, we are teaching all the women that went through the entire workshop how to quilt on it too.  They are having a blast with it.  

This evening we are heading up to SF for Frances and Greg's reception at Flora Grubb.  Can't wait to see the bride and groom in their custom made apparel.  I will post finished pictures of the green couture dress I made for her, next week.  

New Adventures in Canning!

Last week was my first try at canning and I had a blast.  We were overflowing with zucchini, lemon cucumbers and crystal apple cucumbers.  I needed a way to preserve it all so it didn't go to waste.  A few weeks ago I found a 1964 copy of The Farm Journal Freezing and Canning Cookbook at a thrift store for a buck.  Then my sweetie found the Burpee Way of Home Canning booklet for .25 cents.  The stars were aligned for my first canning experience.  I tried two different recipes, a dill pickle one and the sweeter pickled zucchini one.  They were both a great success when I had some friends over to try them out.  But the favorite was the pickled zucchini.  Here it is:

I did the dilled version and made these adjustments: 

-only used 1 1/4 cup sugar

-added about 6 jalapenos, sliced into rings

-used a bunch of fresh dill instead of the dill seeds

They are so good!  My zucchini plants in the garden aren't producing much right now so I went to my local farmers market this morning to get more supplies.

I got a about 7lbs of squash, 1 bunch of dill tops, 4 bunches of dill and a couple of red bell peppers all for canning.  The rest is ready for eating now.  Fun Fun.  

If anyone has some great canning/pickling recipes, please feel free to share.  

I really haven't been totally slacking off!

Want a little peak into what we have been up to here at Lulubliss...

-Growing leek and jalapeno seedlings.

- More leeks and tomato seedlings.  

- Make my own worm compost bin!  I was too cheap to buy one for $80, so I made this one for $12.  Here is a video on how to do it.  I have some bricks set inside the bottom one, so the top one (where 400 of my new wormy pets live) has some air circulation.

- My first contribution to feed our wiggly worms.

As I am sure you have already guessed, the gardening bug has bitten me.  So here is what I asked my sweet husband to help me with while he was on his spring break.

- Marking the territory for our two raised beds.

- We had to dig up all the grass, where the beds are going.

- Fantastic 10'x3'x1' bed my sweetie made for me, in place.  Mikey has to check it out.  

I missed taking a picture of the next couple of steps.  We dug out a good portion of the dirt pictured above, then lined the sides of the bed with some heavy duty plastic sheeting, laid down 1/2" grid wire mesh on bottom (to keep the gophers out) and finally filled it with some "veggie mix" soil (that was so stinky).

- Bed #1 all planted.  There are zucchini, lemon cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, basil, jalapenos, leeks, spinach, carrots, radish and a variety of lettuces all in this one bed!  I am so excited for things to really get growing.  We had to put up the little wire fence up to keep the dogs out, they were eating the stinky manure dirt (yuck).  Domino still tries to sneak a taste now and then.

- Here are both beds, the covered back bed measures 12'x3'x1'.  We have to keep it covered and unplanted until we can make the other doggie fence.  I am going to plant more peppers, lettuce, herbs and persian cucumbers in this bed.  

Spring has sprung... and I am a bit looney!

I love this time of year.  When the weather gets warmer, flowers are blooming, days are getting longer and I can indulge in my favorite Easter candy...  Yummy, candy covered malted milk eggs!  Oh joy.  

Now for the looney part.  I have mentioned before my love of vintage sewing machines and I need another one like I need a hole in the head.  But this weekend I brought another one home!  I can't believe it myself, but as I am writing this I am looking at my new girl Lucinda.  She needs some work, but I hope you can look past that and see her in all of her vintage Singer glory.

She is an 1898, model 27 Singer treadle sewing machine, sometimes known as the Sphinx.  I have been wanting to learn how to use a treadle sewing machine, for quite some time.  I grew up with one in our living room, it was my great grandmothers and the sewing machine that my mother learned how to sew on.  I remember playing with the treadle pedal and pretending to sew great things, on that machine. It never had a belt and I don't remember the condition of the actual machine (the cabinet was in great condition).  It wasn't as old as this machine.  Anyhow, I really looked forward to getting that machine from my mom, this past year I asked my mom if I could have it and found out that she sold it a few years ago, without letting me know.  I was heartbroken and very mad at my mom for a while, but realized that I needed to let it go.  So in comes Lucinda.  

-She came with instructions on how to use all the attachments that originally came with this machine, but Lucinda didn't come with them (they are readily available online).

-Also, the original bill of sale! 

I will keep you updated on how her cleaning and tune-up goes.  I can't wait to sew something on her!  

Hello Again and a Refashioned Cashmere Sweater

OMG!  Has it been almost two months since I have posted?  Where has the time gone and what have I been up to?  Geez!  I don't have much of an excuse, but I have been concentrating a bit more on some freelance work.  

I have always wanted to be the one that keeps a journal religiously, and can look back years later at all my oh so interesting entries.  But I have never been good at it and the entries end up feeling way to self conscience and not at all interesting.  I guess that is kind of how I have started to feel about my blog.  Don't get me wrong, I love blogs!  But sometimes I feel like I don't have much to say and don't want to bore you.  I need to change my way of thinking about it all and just blog and create things to blog about.  So here goes!

On that note, I do have something to share, that was quick, easy and fun.  On a recent thrift store outing I found this great pink cashmere sweater for $5!  BUT, it was a tad to small, bummer!  I held onto it while I finished my shopping, not sure if I should put it back or buy it (I also was holding the exact same sweater in a pale turquoise, that I am kicking myself for putting back).  I decided to buy it and figure out what to do with it later.  I brought it home, washed it and set about figuring out what to do with it.  

Since it was a tad small, I thought, why not make it into a open loose cardigan.  So I carefully removed the ribbing at the neck.  Just so you know most sweaters (especially ones made from nicer fibers like merino wool, alpaca and cashmere) are fully fashioned.  Well, what the heck does that mean?  You ask.  A fully fashioned sweater means that all the pieces used to make it up are knit to shape (unlike, a tee shirt which is cut to the shape you want), then those pieces are linked together (which is like sewing them together).  Anyhow, this means you can carefully take apart most sweaters without the pieces coming unraveled.  Just a little tidbit for you to know.  Sorry for the tangent.  I removed the rib around the neck and cut a straight line up the center front.

Since I cut the center front of the sweater, I needed to finish off the edges somehow, otherwise the garment would start to unravel.  I had this vintage fabric with pink flowers, that went with the sweater.  So I cut a couple of bias strips to make binding, to finish off the front edges.  

Now what to do about the neck and closure of this cardigan... How about a great shawl collar that become the ties to close this puppy up.  

Here is a close-up of the shawl collar.  It is basically a wide bias band folded over, then I sandwiched the neckline of the sweater between the two layers of the shawl.

WOOHOO!  A great new cardigan to bring welcome Spring in.

Playing the Ponies!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Last Sunday a big group of us went to Golden Gate Fields to celebrate Irenes' birthday and it was a blast.  Plus it was dollar day at the track which means admission, parking, programs, hot dogs and beers are all only $1!  You can have a lot of fun for less than 10 or 20 bucks.   

- The girls with there bets... from left to right: Andy, me, Carrie, Maya, Irene and Sarah.

I have never been to the horse races before and definitely want to go back.  I did end up betting on some races, which is a lot of fun.  Didn't win a whole lot of money (I don't like to bet to much, $2 is the minimum), but I did end up winning enough to keep me going with the betting for most of the day.  

- Trumpeter announcing the next race. 

On another note, I have added lots of accessories to my Etsy store.  There are some great shoes and scarves.  Check it out if you have a chance.

It's a little late for this...

But Happy New Year!  Better late than never, is what I say.  I hope all of you had a fabulous time welcoming in the new year.  We sure did.  It was perfect, very quiet night at home with my husband, our pups and some champagne!  

What we did on December 30th and 31st was the real excitement for me.  As part of my Christmas gift, Matthew had got me an overnight stay in Monterey (at a dog friendly hotel, so the boys could join us) and an Elkhorn Slough Safari.  

We drove down the Carmel on the 30th (Dominos first road trip), walked around the village and took the dogs to the beach.  Growing up along the Central Coast and living in the Bay Area for all these years and I had never really been to Carmel!  Oh what a beautiful place.  We want to go back there and stay at Doris Days' Cypress Inn (they also allow dogs).  The dogs had a great time at Carmel Beach, Domino had never seen the ocean before.  He wasn't that impressed, but he was really into all the other dogs playing at the beach.

Then off to Monterey.  We checked into our motel and decided to go the touristy route and have dinner at the Old Fisherman's Wharf.  It actually turned out to be a great meal.  The next morning we drove up to Moss Landing for our Elkhorn Slough Safari.  I couldn't recommend this enough.  If you love sea otters, sea lions, harbor seals and ocean birds, this is a fun way to see them.  Next time I want to try kayaking in the Elkhorn Slough.  Here are some pictures of just a few of the many animals we saw on our safari.

- Raise your flipper if you want your picture taken.  Sea lions hanging out.

- Harbor seals sunning themselves.

- Otter posing for me.  

- Look otters!  Oh, did I mention I was the otter counter on our safari... Such an honor.

Happy Holidays!

The holidays are shaping up to be very mellow and nice this year.  Which is just perfect in my book.  Folks that know me, know that Christmas is my least favorite time of year, for many reasons (which I will not go into now).  But ever since I have been with Matthew I have had a reason to celebrate at Christmas time... You see he is a Christmas eve baby, and everyone knows how much I love to celebrate birthdays.

We are very grateful this year to have each other, our family, our friends and of course our sweet pups!

- A nice gift of red cashmere from my sweetie!  He wanted to find a replacement for the turquoise one that Domino ate.

Another year end thing I love to do is getting a new daily planner and putting in all of my important dates.

- This year I couldn't pass up the large red moleskine daily planner.  It's the prettiest shade of bright red (I want a lipstick in this shade).  

Wishing a happy and healthy New Year to all of you!

There is a lot in the works here at Lulubliss and look forward to all sorts of fun stuff to come in the New Year.

Mid Century Supper Club

After being invited to many of Karens' Mid Century Supper Club parties, we were finally able to make it to the wonderfully crazy Holiday party!

What the heck is the Mid Century Supper Club?  It started off as a Flickr group, which Karen is a part of.  Karen decided to share the fun with all of her friends and start hosting MCSC parties.  Here is the blurb from Flickr about the club:

"Have you ever been curious about aspic? Perhaps you’ve itched to try out a Spam casserole? This is a group for those of us who collect vintage cookbooks, or for those of us that merely wish to pay homage to the dietary delights of our parents' generation. Let’s put those mid-century cookbooks and magazine spreads into action! You are invited to prepare dishes and photograph them with the source page -- or if that's not practical, please provide a link to the scan of the page in your stream, or put the finished product photo and the original scan together into one image.

If you've ever looked through vintage cook books and booklets, you know that in the mid-century era, creative and stylish presentation was almost as important as the taste of the food ... judging by some of the ingredients, maybe more so! That's why we're not worried in the least about any substitutions you may want to make ... meat substitutes for the vegetarians, relplacements due to allergies, heck, even shortcuts like cake mix are fine! The point is to make the dish look more-or-less like the original image, or in the mid-century spirit!

From the chef at the swankest supper club, to Mom and her Sunday supper, mid-century cooks aimed to reflect the grace, charm, and inventive spirit of the times in the dishes they served. Whether whimsical or elegant, every plate set before a valued patron or a dearly-loved one demonstrated an attention to detail seldom seen today. Let's revive some of that artistry and creativity!"

So Sunday afternoon was the MCSC Holiday Extravaganza.  We made two appetizers from a 1955 Planter's Peanut recipe booklet, Matthew did the pineapple appetizer server with cheese balls and I made the bologna stack ups.  Yum! (Okay, not really).  

-Here are our appetizers in action.  

-Image of the appetizer spread from our Planter's cookbook.

This party was so much fun and it had it all!  

-fancy aprons, check

-crinolines, check

-mice, check

-creepy lute playing elf, check

-aluminum christmas tree, check

-viking boat, check

-chocolate covered bacon, check

-lots of champagne, check

Here are some more images from the party:

To get the full effect you can check out Karens' Flickr set, there are even two videos (one where I am saying Happy Halloween?!).  I will leave you this last picture of my sassy husband pouring some sparkly for the ladies:

A big thank you to both Jon and Karen for hosting such a fab party and for the use of all the images in this post!  I love you.