Back in Needham a couple weeks ago, my cousin Eileen pulled me aside. “I have to tell you,” she murmured, “we have issues with your neighbor Joan.” It all came down to the ridiculously lovely birthday party Joan put together back in June for her daughter, in which she combined readily accessible decorative materials to …
Category Archives: Making
Out With the Old
The fabric stash around here just keeps growing when I’m not looking, so last week I fired up the old sewing machine. First up: stacks of old t shirts not good enough to give away but too good to turn into rags. Something had to be done. Turns out there is a great skirt pattern …
Teacher Gifts
It’s that time of year – schools are wrapping up, and parents are wondering just what to wrap up for their children’s hard-working teachers. It’s always a dilemma. My cousin Maura and I usually end up emailing each other around now to brainstorm fresh ideas. (Now Maura, it should be noted, once gave their teachers …
This n’ That
Is it really possible that I’ve resisted using an n’ in my blog titles for an entire year? Yes it is. I had to check my list of posts, and it’s hard to believe, but true. So watch out, y’all, because this might be the year of the apostrophe. ANYway, last weekend was a nice …
Success
Now that’s more like it.
Epic Bread Fail
I guess I’ve been lucky in the bread department in the past. I don’t make it regularly, but I love the process. I particularly love testing it when it’s done – hot out of the oven with some honey on top, just to be sure. A couple weeks ago I made a wheat bread with …
Teacher Gifts
In our schools, the parents all contribute to one main gift for the teachers at holiday time, but I love to have a little something to go with the notes the kids write to the teachers, aides and librarians. This year my friend Barb and I made chocolate bark with assorted toppings. We melted blocks …
Snowflakes
We don’t get a lot of the real kind of snowflakes here in Mill Valley, so we make them out of paper. This year we started using a new technique to build out our snowflake portfolio! It’s a slightly less geometric, more illustrative style.
Rainy Day
This is the morning I woke up to a cold, rainy, grey day and thought – I’ll just have to wear my cheery socks that Mum gave me. This is also the day that I forgot my ballet slippers when I went to class. I’ll leave the rest of that scenario to your imaginations… …
Thanks
Some shots from our Thanksgiving holiday with Lino and Claudia, down in Venice Beach. We were on the highway at 4:30am on Thanksgiving morning. It’s actually a great way to go – the kids sleep for a couple of hours of the trip and there’s hardly any traffic. It took us a bit less than …