I've Been Away...

Among other things, I've been to Sew Camp, Long Edition, now a week ago.

Gaylen hosts 3 day Sew Camps in March and September; this year, she added a 5 day edition in June.  I went; it was wonderful.  There are always a lot of ladies who are much better seamstresses than I, and I pick up things just listening to them talk and watching them work.  Camp went from Thursday through Monday, but I arrived on Wednesday and left Sunday (obligations starting at 9AM Monday).

This is the sewing space, shared by 9 of us.
 

 Gifts or "swag" included with our stay.

Gaylen makes these coasters for us; aren't they wonderful?  She makes food themed ones which are throughout the rest of the B&B, but I really love these.  I now have 2 of the 3 in my collection!

The obligatory and much anticipated trip to Fabric Mart, and most of everyone's haul (several people had some of their fabric shipped to their homes, rather than haul everything through airports or Amtrak).  I haven't had time to take a picture of my fabric; I forgot one bag of fabric at the B&B (I always seem to forget something; why change the tradition now?).

I showed up with one project nearly complete, one cut out, and a tentative plan for the gift fabric.

These are the things I finished (including the dress I was wearing).  The blue and white stripe with the large flowers in the back of the display was made by someone else, but I wasn't about to take it down.  So, all told, I made or finished 6 dresses and 2 for granddaughters between Thursday and Sunday.

These are some of the garments the other ladies had finished by the time I left Sunday.  Their work was amazing, their styles lovely, and I loved hearing about their inspiration.

I came home tired but happy; a couple of my kids had minor emergencies last week, so I only had about 18 hours home before I raced off to Philadelphia and then Connecticut.  The biggest problem was an appendectomy (my son's leery of needles and whatnot, so I raced off to comfort him while he awaited test results and then greet him after the surgery and spring him from captivity the next day), so there's nothing truly wrong in my world.  But if Mom can offer comfort, this Mom always will.

I've actually remembered to take a couple of food pictures, so I might even get myself back to an even enough keel to write about cooking this week!

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Produce Box, Week 4

This week's box is a little bit different.  A lot less fruit, for one.

Also, eggplant!  I see ratatouille in the future, maybe tonight.

The baby redskin potatoes ought to be good.  Of course, plenty of onions.  But they're pretty much a staple, so they always get used.  I also got lettuce with red tips, red kale, scallions, those dandy little cherry tomatoes, broccoli, butternut squash, radishes and pears.

I went to Shannon's house for a day, so we could go to the zoo.  I brought one bunch of radishes with me, because there is no way on earth we will use both bundles.  But the rest is already on the agenda.

And I guess I need to post pictures of some of the things I made with previous boxes.  I'm a little slow here; life is overwhelming some days, when there's so much to do and so little time.

Happy Sunday, everyone; I hope you're enjoying this early summer day.

More Produce

This will get boring.  But it's the only way I'll be able to remember my weekly Misfits Markets box.

Red leaf lettuce and tomatoes for salad, along with nectarines, apples, lemons, grapefruit, zucchini, onions, butternut squash, bok choy and fennel.  I confess, I had to ask one of my daughters what the bok choy and fennel were.

I cut open a grapefruit one morning, and offered the second half to Ryan. He took one bite and rejected it.  Mark tried it and liked it very much; he and I shared the second one this morning.

I also have to say that we were supremely disappointed in the tomatoes.  They were standard hothouse type, relatively flavorless tomatoes, unlike the cherry tomato assortment we got in a previous box.  Still, a nice assortment overall, and Ryan commented that this produce box is a good thing, and I should continue ordering it.

Happy Sunday, everyone!