Loafing at Lake of the Woods, Oregon

Wayne and I just got back from Lake of the Woods, OR, where we went to celebrate the wedding of the beautiful Ashley Shult, now Mrs. Ashley Langdon (Andy). Ashley is the daughter of our friends Doug and Lee Shult who were my next-door neighbors when we all lived in San Mateo. I've known Ashley since she was two years old.

What a gorgeous spot for a wedding, and also a great spot to kick back and relax, which we did!

 

The wedding took place in a gazebo on the shores of the lake, just a little to the right of these red chairs. The groom and his groomsmen and all of us waited there, while the bride and her posse - her bridesmaids and her mother - arrived on an African Queen-style boat, with a wonderful air horn and a flag, tooting away festively across the water.

It was very cool. Ah love! Congratulations, Andy and Ashley!

The Best Bloody Mary

OK, so I've been bartending a lot this summer at a resort swimming pool. Guess what the most popular first-drink-of-the-day is...you got it! It's a Bloody Mary!

I will admit that other drinks take over in popularity as the day goes on and early evening approaches. But from opening time (usually Noon during the week and 11:00 a.m. on weekends) until about 2:00 p.m., the Bloody Mary reigns. Here's a photo of a Bloody at opening time - first one of the day on an sunny Friday morning.

 

And here's how to make The Best Bloody Mary:

Fill a tall glass (plastic at poolside) with ice.

• Add 2 oz. vodka of your choice. We use Hangar One, which is a locally made vodka.
• Fill with canned tomato juice (not Bloody Mary mix, you'll notice)
• Add a tablespoon Worchestershire sauce (or more)
• Add a few drops Tobasco Sauce (or more)
• Add a good sprinkling of ground pepper
• Add 1/4 teaspoon of prepared horseradish (or more). We use Beaver Extra Hot.

Stir very well to mix in the horseradish.

We garnish with olives and a lemon wedge. Celery sticks are traditional. Lime is also good, as are pickled green beans and peperoncini. You get the picture, be creative with the garnish, although savory works better than sweet.

Here's the view from my bar. Pretty cool, huh?

A thought for this day, September 11, 2012: When we fight hate with love, we win.

"The Sale": Revised

I've posted a revision of a piece I wrote a few years back called "The Sale". You can read it here.

The story is about my sister-in-law's garage sale in South Dakota, but really it's about going home. South Dakota isn't exactly home (Minnesota was my original home), but it's right next door. I left there a long, long time ago for adventure in California, and of course still have family and friends there, like my brother Jim and sister-in-law Marlys and their family. I'm pretty crazy about them. Some of my high school girlfriends and I still keep in touch - that's part of "home" too. We get together somewhere every other year and spend a long weekend laughing, talking, eating, and drinking wine. What a hoot!

Anyway, going home, wherever it is, is interesting. Maybe you know that.

BTW, "The Sale" is also published in an e-anthology (that's a collection of stories published as an e-book, just in case you need to know!) that my writing group, Townsend 11, published last year. It's a wonderful book called "No Definite Plans" - here it is on Amazon - check it out!

Giraffe Skirt

Here's the giraffe skirt!

Isn't it a fabulous fabric? I love the brick-y color. And, of course, the giraffes.

 

It's a simple Amy Butler pattern, and really easy to make. There's an "apron" in the pattern too, a piece I would call a peplum instead of an apron. I think I'll make that out of this fabric, and see how it looks with the skirt.

I envision wearing this skirt with a longish black scoopneck t-shirt and maybe black  tights. Here's the pattern. I've made two other skirts from this pattern, and my daughter-in-law Allie has made several too - she's the one who turned me on to it. Thank you, Allie!

 

 

 

Cooking up a storm

Cooking is another of my passions. How many passions is one allowed? Ten? Maybe twenty? I hope so. I am a woman of many interests ... ahem, passions.

You may not know I write a cooking column for the online newpaper Examiner.com. If you've ever scrambled for a new idea for dinner, or wondered what in the world to do with an excess of bell peppers that are going to go bad soon, you might want to take a look. I write about food I make for dinner. Usually I take a photo of the food as I cook it or as I put it on the table, and then I put the recipe up if it's a keeper.

Here are a couple of recent recipes, one for sauteed peppers with brussel sprouts and potatoes and another for Mabel's Calico Beans.  Well, Mabel's beans at least should resonate with readers from my old home place in Minnesota - it's exactly the kind of thing we used to hope would appear at the church suppers our moms dragged us to. Not to mention Mabel was a South Dakota girl, so kind of in the "neighborhood".

Tonight I made pizza for the first time in years. The crust was fabulous. The toppings could be improved. What are the best toppings for homemade pizza, my friends? When I get it down, I'll share.

BTW, I finished the giraffe skirt. I'll show you a photo tomorrow.

Animal fabric

Much Life has come between me and my blog, dear readers. But I am back! Of course, Life goes on thankfully, and in force. Some of Life is work and for the past few months I've been working as a bartender slingin' drinks at the pool bar of a nearby luxurious resort. What fun! What a lot of work! Now summer is waning, although the best weather of the year still remains here in northern California. I'll be working fewer hours but still (wo)manning the pool bar until at least mid-October. Perfect. It leaves me more time for all those other things I love.

Like pillowcases. Honestly, I have a passion for cute pillowcases. Here's another one I made...can you see the little monkeys on the blue part? Love them.

And then there's the Ant Skirt. It started out to be a pair of crop pants, but I seriously over-estimated my girth when it came to alterations to the pattern. Yes, it happens to all of us! When I got these pants put together, they were ginormous. Seriously. After a good laugh with my boyfriend Wayne over huge pants with ants, I cut off the legs and the crotch pieces, and sewed up the front and back. Voila! An adorable Ant Skirt. Here it is:

And here are the ants!

Isn't that about as cute as it gets? Now I'm working on a giraffe skirt, which I'll show you soon.

Sewing Pillowcases

One of my many passions is sewing. My mom taught me how to sew when I was 6 (for my dolls) and I've been doing it ever since. When I was in high school, I sewed most of my own clothes. It was normal for me to start a skirt in the morning (say, Saturday) and wear it on a date that night. To give my mom credit, she was cool enough to hem the almost-finished skirt for me while I showered and got gorgeous before the Guy-of-the-Day arrived.

Now I sew curtains and table napkins and things like that. I'm getting back into tailoring clothes for myself...slowly, slowly. Here's a blog I love about sewing, incidentally. http://www.blogforbettersewing.com/

So last week I was visiting my son and his family in Portland OR, and my daughter-in-law The Wonderful Allie took me to a fabric shop called Cool Cottons. Obviously they carry only cottons, and tons of them. What a great shop! On the wall, among the hand-sewn skirts and jackets and baby sleepers and little-kid backpacks was a pillowcase, done up in spaceships or something.

All of a sudden I had a brainstorm...I could make pillowcases from any fabric I wanted! Why I hadn't known this before, I can't think. I must have been brain dead. I am always looking (in stores) for cute pillowcases and never finding what I want. Anyway, I bought some cool fabric, trying to remember the colors of my duvet cover and bedroom walls and all that and here is the result below. So easy - it took about an hour from start to finish - and so cute, I think! Don't you think it's cute?

On to more new pillowcases!