heylucy

two t-shirts

I ripped this picture out of an Anthropologie catalog awhile back, and remembered it while on a recent trip to Old Navy:

Cute, right? The price? $98. It's a t-shirt people. Who pays $98 for a t-shirt? Not me, but I really do like this t-shirt. So, back at Old Navy; they have lots of t-shirts for just $10 each, and they're a lovely soft cotton knit. I bought two stone colored t-shirts, and cut one up and stitched the little heart shaped pieces to the other. I'm not sure if I'm done yet, but I think it's looking pretty good.

I'm a bit on the busty side, so I may not want to add more. We'll see.

I also got an unexpected package in the mail this weekend. It's the second book which includes a pattern by moi:

I love those pomegranates on the cover. My creation didn't make the front cover this time, but it did show up on the back, which was a nice surprise.

And here's a look inside:

It's a lovely book, although more for inspiration than actually making any of the projects exactly as they appear, I think. I love the flower magnets (also on the back cover), and think they would be a fun little project. It also makes me want to make another mini-quilt. They're just so much fun.

Speaking of books, I've been doing a little reading lately. I was just browsing at the library and happened upon The Friday Night Knitting Club. New York Times Bestseller! the cover proudly proclaimed. And it's about knitting, so I'm sure I would like it, right? Wrong. Very, very wrong. I don't think I got past the third chapter. It was so poorly written, I kept wondering why the author didn't have an editor. She couldn't have with all the awkward sentences. Most knitters that I know are also pretty smart people, bad writing isn't going to get past them. The characters were all such cliche's, I just couldn't take it. And then the main character gets all pissy because the father of her daughter comes back into her life, and she doesn't want him to have anything to do with them. I get that the guy cheated on her and dumped her, and that was a really jerk-y move, but now he does want to be a part of his daughter's life and she's so selfish that she's going to deny her daughter that opportunity out of spite? He's not abusive, he paid child support, there's no reason for her daughter not to get to know her father. Better late than never. I hate it when chick-lit books have to be all "girl-power" and we don't need no stinkin' men to be happy. Blah blah blah. Why belittle men to give a woman a sense of self-worth. Maybe it all turned out different in the end, but I can't be bothered. And that's what I thought of that :o)   

food

I haven't had a lot of time lately to take pictures, so I decided to make the most of my lazy Saturday and take a few. I also ate some very delicious food, so I combined the two activities and took artful pictures of what I ate. My kitchen table sits in a corner where there are two large windows, so the light is quite nice there. I know I'm probably a little weird, but hopefully you will appreciate at least one of these elements of my day-pretty pictures and/or pretty food.

I started the day with my usual yogurt and berries, but I had a treat of fresh raspberries instead of frozen blueberries. Mr. HeyLucy can be very thoughtful and generous, and likes to bring me 'treats' when he goes to the grocery store. I've been trying for months to get him to understand that four pints of ice cream and a giant box of chocolate chip cookies are not treats that I want every week. It finally, finally clicked, and this week he brought me a big box of fresh raspberries, and a package of fish (tandoori tuna, or something exotic like that). Go Mr. HeyLucy! Good job :o)

I tried Agave Nectar for the first time, instead of my usual honey. It was quite tasty.

Later I had a snack of figs and goat cheese, drizzled with honey. A couple summers ago I discovered that fresh figs are one of my favorite fruits, while spending a lazy afternoon at a friend's house by her pool. Her neighbor had a fig tree, and had given her a huge box. I couldn't stop eating them. I think fig season is fairly short, and I don't know if you can get figs everywhere, but if you see them, try them! I love how they are sort of ugly on the outside, but slice them open and they're all pink and lovely on the inside.

I love fig season! It also coincides with peony season, which is another of my favorites. I've had a bunch on my desk at work every week for the past month. I bought another bunch for home on Friday. They're just starting to open, so I'll be taking pictures of them over the next few days as they get bigger.

One last meal:

Chicken potstickers and ponzu sauce for dipping, and a bowl of edamame. The frozen potstickers from Trader Joe's are a staple in our freezer, and I like ponzu sauce so much more than just plain soy sauce.

The bottle is quite pretty too. But that doesn't mean I never use soy sauce. In fact, I just bought a little sauce pot to fill with soy sauce and keep by the stove. It's much prettier than the plain Kikkoman bottle with the red lid I was using, and a bargain at only $5 at the Japanese market.   

Are you hungry yet?

fresh & fruity

Well, it is now confirmed. I have some very smart blog readers. Thanks to everyone for telling me about the swallows. Since they eat flying insects, I'm going to let them stay. Eggs have most likely already been laid, and I don't want to disturb them. Once they leave, I'll probably knock down the nests, because they are right above the door to our shed, and stuff is dropping, and by stuff, I think you know what I mean. That wouldn't be a huge problem, after all, I dodge chicken poop all day long since our chickens are spoiled and get to free range around the entire yard, but this is over a door I walk through several times a day, and I don't want to be pooped on. Also, it's still kind of creepy when they come pouring out of their nests and circle around and around above me. Silly birds, I was here first, and if I bug you so much, maybe you shouldn't have built you little swallow colony above a door I go through several times a day. Doh! Also, there is a lot more bird poop on my car, and I think we all know who to blame that on as well.

Let's change the subject, shall we? Sheesh, it was hot this weekend, well over a hundred on Saturday, and today a much cooler 98 or so. One good thing about summer, at least, is all the delicious fruit. So I made a lovely, cool fruit salad. This is a great recipe, because it works with whatever fruit you have on hand. I've made it with all sorts of different combinations and it's always delicious. The only things you really have to have are oranges and fresh mint.

Today's version had strawberries, red grapes, nectarines, and a french-kiss melon that I got at Trader Joe's. It looks like a small cantaloupe, and it was so sweet and delicious. So here's my fruit salad secret: cut the peel off an orange, so there's no white pith-y stuff left, and hold it over your fruit salad bowl while slicing out each section, again, leaving the white membrane in between the sections behind. Once all the sections are cut, squeeze all the juice out of what's left of your orange. Then chop up some fresh mint and toss everything gently. It's just perfect. I'll be eating lot's of variations on this theme all summer long.

I managed to get a couple more curtains done, but my sewing room is our little guest house, which has no air conditioning, so I didn't make as much progress as I had hoped. Instead, I decided to start on something cool and cute to wear.

Inspired by this smock/dress from Noa Noa (and really everything on their site is so pretty and inspiring), I got some white cotton/linen on sale at JoAnn and this pattern (view D), and thought I'd add a little embroidery to the front band, and make it wider. So I sat in the cool, air conditioned house, and did a little stitching with red perle cotton.

The GLRP, and other topics

The next step in The Great Living Room Project (tm) is underway, although there were a few hiccups. Speaking of hiccups, Winston gets them all the time. Should I be worried about this? They only last for a minute or so, but I've never known a dog to have the hiccups so often.

Anyway, back to the GLRP. I started on some curtains. I've had this green fabric for quite a long time, and I wanted to pair it with some nice, light, white to keep things bright and sunny. I picked up a pair of sheers from Ikea for $9.99, thinking they would work well and be economical to boot. I also originally thought that they would be cute with long, skinny tied tabs and then I realized that for three windows, with two panels each, I'd be making skinny ties for the rest of the year. So, I made one curtain, minus ties, and my economical solution was economical for a reason. The fabric from the Ikea curtains was too light, and the grain was way off, so it was a big pain to cut out and then it didn't hang right. Back to the drawing board. I have some natural linen, which I will be using to slip-cover the wing chair, so I decided to try that. Unfortunately, it was slightly narrower than my green fabric, of which I was using a full width for each panel, so I had to piece it together, and I didn't even have to sew it to the green before realizing that it was way too heavy and where I had to seam it was just way too stiff. So, on to the next option. I had a couple pieces of a nice linen-cotton blend. Again, I had to piece it, but it's light enough that it doesn't affect the drape of the fabric at all, and it's heavy enough that it works well with the green. So, I think we have a winner. Two panels are done, except for the hemming, and the rest are all cut out, so I may try to get one done each evening.

So, yeah, it's quite green. I don't care though, I like it. It's a Susan Sargent fabric, from the same line as the fabric on my sofa, so it works. I'm violating my self-imposed blog rule of no photography of wrinkled items, but I still have to take them down for hemming, so I'll press them all nicely then, and with the morning sun coming through, it's too dark to see the wrinkles anyway. Eventually I also want to make white canvas Roman shades for each window. I also need to figure out something for the window on the front door. Probably something plain and white. I sure wish I could remember where I put my switch plate cover thingie. I'm sure it's somewhere very safe.

I don't know if any bird experts read my blog, but we have a bit of an infestation of these little birds. They've built little mud nests under the eaves of our shed, which isn't a huge deal, but there seem to be way more birds than nests. There are about 5 or 6 nests, with more underway:

We've also found three of them dead in various places, and it doesn't seem to be the work of the dogs. Bear has caught a few little critters in his day, and he enjoys playing with the corpses and then swallowing them whole (gross, I know, but he's a bird dog and an excellent rat catcher, so what can you do?), and we've found the little bodies, completely undisturbed in the middle of the driveway, where he surely would have found them. I don't mind a nest or two, but it's getting a little creepy how many there are, just flying around. I'm wondering if I should knock their nests down, so they'll go find somewhere else to live. We were thinking that maybe they used to live in the tree that was cut down last fall. But there are lots of other trees where we live, so it's not like our shed is the only option. Does anyone know what they are? I'm just not sure what, if anything, we should do. I tried to get a picture of them all flying around when I get close to the shed, which is not easy, but here are a few of them:

They don't look so creepy there, but trust me, it's kind of creepy.

Okay, next topic. I did a little cooking this weekend, and have perfected a wasabi cream sauce, which is so tasty over seared tuna. Actually, perfected is perhaps a little too grand of a term, I just took a little sour cream and added some stuff, mixed, tasted, adjusted, and tasted again. Anyway, if you like sushi, you might enjoy this:

Seared Tuna Steaks with Wasabi Cream Sauce

2 4-5 ounce Tuna Steaks, very fresh!
1/4 c. sour cream
1/2 t. wasabi paste (you could probably use wasabi powder as well)
Juice of 1/2 a small lemon
1-2 t. soy sauce

Make the wasabi cream: mix together the sour cream, wasabi, lemon juice and soy sauce. Taste and add more soy sauce or wasabi if necessary. Add a teaspoon or two of water and stir. It should be just a little runny.

Season the tuna steaks with a little salt and a lot of freshly ground pepper. Sear for a minute or two on each side. They should be quite pink in the middle still, although not cold. Slice and drizzle with Wasabi Cream sauce to serve. If you're squeamish about rare fish, or you question the freshness of the fish, it would probably still be quite delicious if you cook the fish through.

We had this last night with some steamed sugar snap peas and this cold noodle salad from hello yarn and it was all so very delicious.

turquoise

The overwhelming majority said turquoise, and because I am basically lazy, I decided to go along with the majority.

I liked the suggestions to paint it the same color as the wall, and if I start hating this, maybe that's what I'll do, although I think if I start hating this, that will be motivation to take the time to look and find something I really love. I've got lots of little pops of turquoise, yellow and green around the room, so for now this fits in just fine.

Five people actually called me weird and my sconces hideous. It's okay though, I can take it.

Indecision

Progress continues on the living room, but I am having trouble deciding what to do here, so I've got a nifty little poll for you. I'm doing this on a budget, so I'm re-using the wall sconces that were here when we moved in. They're a little too ornate for my taste, and I hated the original antique bronze finish (or was it brass? Either way it was super 80's country, and not even in a classy Laura Ashley way), so I decided to paint them. And it's definitely an improvement, I already thing they look cuter and more modern. I've replaced the overly ornate glass shades they used to have with cheapo simple white school-house style shades from Home Depot. I just can't decide how far I should go with the paint. Here's what I did first:

Just plain turquoise. Then I got out the chartreuse green paint:

I'm not sure which I like better. Or I'm wondering if I should try to tone it all down with a glaze of white or possibly an antique-y brown? Mr. HeyLucy thinks they look like they are straight out of World of Warcraft, and I can kind of see that. I don't know if that means it's a good thing or a bad thing in his mind. Anyway, your opinions would be most appreciated!

The Summer of Home Improvement

I hereby officially declare that this is the Summer of home improvement here at chez Lucy. A very long time ago, I ripped down the ugly wallpaper in the living room. And then I did nothing. The wallpaper had been pasted directly onto the dry wall, so that meant it had to be mudded, and to match the rest of the house, it needed a particular sort of plaster texture, and it was just all too much to deal with. So I didn't, until I finally worked up the courage this week. I went to Lowe's and bought a box of joint compound and a trowel, and did it all myself. I think I just pulled a muscle in my arm while patting myself of the back. You can sort of get the idea here:

Note to the guy at Lowe's who I asked what I needed to complete this project: Please don't tell me what I do or don't want to do, I'm not a complete idiot, and when I say I want plaster, I mean I want plaster, and not orange peel texture. You've never been to my house, you don't know anything about my taste, and most importantly, you don't know what I am or am not capable of. I find that very irritating. I think I should bring him this picture and be all, "hey idiot, see, this is what I wanted, and this is what I got, because I'm not afraid to try and do it myself." but maybe that would be rude. Anyway, moving on...

I can only give you some previews of a couple corners of the room, because I have a few more projects to complete. Once I got the walls all looking how i wanted them to look, I primed and painted. As usual, the first color I picked wasn't quite right, so I had to go back to the store with my paint-covered hands in my baggy painting pants and pick out another color, and the paint girl was quite surprised and impressed that I was doing my own painting, but at least she wasn't all condescending like the Lowe's guy. The new color was just right, and I happily finished painting and artfully arranging various pieces of art on the walls.

I was lucky enough to get one of Claire's gocco prints, which I matted in bright turquoise, to go along with my little bird plate and Anthropologie hooks. The clock is from Urban Outfitters, but I don't think they have it any more. The wall color is from Dunn Edwards, and it's called Fly a Kite. It's a nice periwinkle blue.  I especially like how it looks with the yellow in my kitchen and hallway, because you can see the two together in the archways:

Those are my beloved paint-by-numbers pictures that I found, framed, at an antique mall for $18 for the pair! What a bargain! And I also love my big pear. If you look closely, you can see that some ofbthe frames in the hall don't actually have photos of anyone I know. Classy, no? But at least they're hanging up, right? I better add finding photos for the frames to my to-do list.

I also got the curtain rods up and the two wall sconces, which are sort of ugly, painted. I'm hoping that my new paint job will make the sconces more bearable. Now I just have to make curtains, paint the door, re-install the sconces and slipcover the chairs. Not much at all. Heh.

I'm pooped and sore all over, I have more to share, but I think I better get some rest first. Thanks for all the nice comments about my skirt and weight. I really think that picture is just at a really good angle, and also, remember that you can't see my bum, there's plenty there to lose :o) I am behind on responding to comments, and my stupid e-mail is being stupid again, but I'll do my best to reply this week!

And because I can't do a post without a pet picture, here is a rare visit from Petey, who is either sleeping, as you see here, or bouncing around the house, from one windowsill to the next.