HAPPY MAY DAY!

It's full-on spring; the flowers around my valley are in vibrant bloom and the sun is shining. I pulled out a wonderful Japanese Cotton fabric designed by Yoshiko Jinzenji, bought some time ago from Marcy Tilton...

It was so much fun to play with pattern placement on this fabric, particularly because I had a limited amount, so I had to be extra creative.

The pattern, once again, is Vogue 1453 by Sandra Betzina; since this is my 4th make, I guess it qualifies as a TNT...

Those little striped circles are "porthole pockets" lined with a black and white stripe remnant...

While I was making this, I listened to The Sympathizer, written by Viet Thanh

Nguyen, which just won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It is beautifully written, somewhat difficult to listen to, due to the subject (the war in Viet Nam), and especially interesting to me, as I lived in Saigon for two years during the war, so many of the descriptions of places, and names were familiar to me.

Big news in our family...our granddaughter Stephanie gave birth to our first great-grandchild,
Amethyst Elizabeth...

Mother, father, grandmother and baby are all doing well!

Our next-door neighbor's farm stand is bursting out in all its glory...I made White Beans with
Broccoli Rabe (Rapini) and Lemon  the other night

and also Crispy Cauliflower with Capers, Raisins and Bread Crumbs, a favorite when the fresh cauliflower arrives.

I think this is my favorite time of year to cook, with all the beautiful young vegetables and fruits making their appearance. We're also enjoying baby potatoes, peas and radishes from Dave's garden.

Between Dave, me and our housekeeper, we keep Paddy's grave decorated with flowers all the time....

How we miss that beautiful boy...Thank you for all your kind wishes.

After I finished the vest, I dove into my stash in the studio and managed to cull at least 20% of my fabrics (and that's A LOT) and found an additional way to organize them, my left brain being in the ascendant last week! Now I have to deal with all those discarded fabrics...

This week, I am visiting BOTH Visible Monday AND Hat Attack...thanks to Patti and Judith for being such wonderful hostesses!

TTYL

A VEST OF VENERATION

Almost five years ago, in this post, I wrote about my dear friend, cherished role model and beautiful human being, Laura.

At 104, Laura is presently transitioning to the next life, and in love, gratitude and honor, I finally made the quilted garnet silk vest I wanted to remember her by.

Laura taught me so much, by example, by her everpresent interest and fierce support in whatever
I might be doing, by the way she dressed, and by the love which she carried within her that was unmistakeable and available to all.

I bought this quilted velvet 5 years ago and made another Vogue 1453.

I'm also introducing my new hat, a gray felt handmade '40's type hat, made by 

UnaHats and sold on Etsy.

Maggie and David were up last weekend and lots of cooking and hanging out took place. Lovely as always! I have a new cookbook, Gjelina, named after a much beloved restaurant in Venice (CA) that Maggie took me to several years ago. I dipped my spoon into the waters with

this,

Roasted Beet Salad with Avocado, Oranges, Toasted Hazelnuts and Sherry

Vinegar, recipe here.   YUMMM! It was particularly wonderful because the baby beets were from the farmstand next door to me, which recently reopened after a few months off for the winter. Their baby spinach is to die for, too...

And last night I made Roasted Mustard Chicken by The Barefoot Contessa...

which we will have tonight, also, along with a bottle of champagne, to toast 

the last (sob) episode of Downton Abbey.

I'm sliding in under the wire at the beautiful Style Crone Judith's Hat Attack...

come see who's wearing what!

TTYL

YET ANOTHER CATCHUP...

Well, I meant to post before this; I needed a good week to recover from all the socializing in Oregon, then I went to the Bay Area for a quick trip (see 
Sham's Post for details and pictures), then I spent almost a full week doing a major clean "out and up" of my studio and then had a wonderful weekend visit from DD Maggie...we celebrated her May Birthday, Mothers' Day and my June Birthday all at once. FUN! And... she got behind the camera to do a photoshoot on all my new clothes, both sewn and RTW. It's so much more fun to do that with someone, rather than using a remote control! After we finished on Sunday late morning, we went out for a lovely leisurely brunch at Petros' in Los Olivos...

On to the clothes...

I made this top  and these pants for my trip to Oregon...

The fabrics are both from Girl Charlee, a black, red and gray sweater knit, and a gray stretch denim.  And to go with them, I made this wonderful red raincoat
V 9070 in a juicy red rainwear with a little metallic thread in it, both fabric and pattern from Marcy Tilton.

Of course, we had wonderful sunny weather in Oregon, but the coat is fun to wear anyway.

Also, before I left, I made these wide-legged pants in a silky crepe (black and white, of course!) I can't remember which pattern I used, but they are very cool and comfortable.

While  shopping in Portland, I found this little sleeveless tunic

and this one, with sleeves...

Later on in the week, I went to Cannon Beach with my friend Willie, and we
found these lightweight rayon pants:

To round out my summer wardrobe, I found this wonderful Vince Camuto poncho

and this breezy Chico's top, bought with my now-canceled Indian trip in mind...

 And, to finally come to the end of this endless post, here are pictures of Maggie, Dave and me celebrating my birthday a few days early...

A big thanks to Maggie for taking so many of these pictures and making the weekend SO. MUCH. FUN!

TTYL...

P.S....I'm heading over to the "Hat Attack" at the lovely Judith's Style Crone blog...come see all of us in our head gear!

COCKER SPANIEL VEST...

You've heard of poodle cloth, right?

vintage poodle cloth coat on Etsy

Well, I just made a Cocker Spaniel Cloth vest...

My friend Patti Ferguson was given some fabrics and she just KNEW that this wool boucle knit had my name on it. Dave took one look at it and said "it looks just like Paddywack!", and indeed it does. He IS my fashion accessory, after all...

I used an out of print Burda pattern, 8296, View A

The wrong side of the boucle knit was attractive, so I reversed the facing on the lapels so that I could wear it open if I choose...

With our current schizophrenic weather, it provides a warm layer for those half-hour segments of the day when it's cold outside.

Besides spending time in the studio, I tried a new recipe which immediately took

on 5-star status...

It's "Crispy Za'atar Fish with Israeli Couscous, Swiss Chard and Feta" from

Epicurious. YUM!

I found this the other day while fashion-surfing...

an excellent reason for sewing my own clothes...$250 for sweatpants?

The lovely Judith of the Style Crone blog is hosting her monthly Hat Attack

party, so I reached into my closet and pulled out this:

It's a handsome hat from the Fulani tribe which I bought many moons ago

in Mali, in West Africa. I love items of clothing which can be wall decorations as well as being

worn!

Here's a picture of my little guy having a nap on his tempurpedic pillow...

TTYL...

A LITTLE RENOVATION BREAK...

As I may have mentioned, we are doing a little bit of renovation (there's no such thing as "a little renovation")...we are repainting our bedroom, dressing room and my office, and then putting in new wood flooring. The good news is that our kitchen, dining room and living room are still intact, and we are sleeping in our lovely guest house for three weeks until the work is done.

The bad news is that we had to move 1000+ books from our bookcase in the bedroom.

This is what happens when you have a degree in English Literature and rarely throw away books.

The whole area will be painted in Dunn Edwards Center Ridge....it's a medium
gray, neither blue nor brown.

The trim will remain an off white. The plaster walls have a "skip trowel" finish with a glaze, but this time we will do a simple paint coat.

This weekend we went up to the Cambria area (in Central California) where Dave was born and raised, to attend his high school reunion. It was a beautiful

day, after a little tiny rainstorm Friday night, so everything was sunny and glittery.  We stopped off in Pismo Beach for some oysters on the half shell (for Dave) and aFish Taco (for me). This is a blurry picture of me at the restaurant, but it'll qualify me for an appearance on Hat Attack, Judith of Style Crone's wonderful monthly opportunity to show off our hats.

TTYL