baker, baker

hayden and i baked some zucchini bread together today, and i do truly mean that we baked it together. she helps with the pouring and mixing, and loves to lend her taste-testing talents to the process when permitted. (once raw eggs enter the mix, that's a no-go.)

i selected and made minor modifications to this recipe because it contains oats, which i've never had in my zucchini bread before but which add a healthy touch and also, i'm hoping, a nice texture. we've yet to sample the end product, but will do so after her (non-)nap. since she's recently become enamored of banana bread, i'm really hoping she enjoys the vegified version.

zucchini-oat bread
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
6 T natural cane sugar
1-1/4 t ground cinnamon
1 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1 t sea salt
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
3 large organic eggs
3/4 cup organic canola oil
2 t pure vanilla extract
2 cups grated organic farmer's market zucchini
Turbinado sugar

sewing 101

as i'm both learning how to sew and how to use my new sewing machine (pfaff classicstyle quilt 2027), making some tissue holders seemed like a safe and easy learning project; i.e., minimal frustration with maximum output.

this wasn't my first project, or even my second — more on those later this week. but it's the first thing i've made multiples of, and it was reassuring to start seeing some progress without first logging hours upon days upon weeks on the machine. and, of course, it felt so, so good to raid my fabric stash (finally!) after months of building it up.

ask and you shall receive

sometimes there's a pattern of fabric, or two or four or more, that i like. a whole lot. yet discover that it's not only been discontinued, but is no longer anywhere to be found. anywhere — not at my local shops, the usual online haunts, on etsy, on ebay, via google, or even through fabshophop (an awesome resource, by the way, both for small fabric store owners and those who want to access their inventory).

i'm sure we've all been there, and maybe you've been driven to do what i've done? out of desperation, i've trolled etsy for sellers who've made things from the fabric i covet. and then pinged them to see if they had any additional yardage, remnants, or even scraps they'd be willing to sell me. most times i strike out, but many times i've managed to hit paydirt (see below).


likewise, someone recently contacted me with a desperate fabric request of her own. i wasn't too excited to part with any of it — i'd worked hard to find what i had, had already sold off the excess, and knew i wasn't likely to get my hands on any more in this lifetime — but i ultimately decided to sell her some (see below) in the same generous crafting spirit by which i'd scored my own treasures.


it felt good, honestly good, to be on both ends of the transaction... and i'm beginning to think there should be some sort of remnant/scrap swap/sale system for hard-to-find bits like this. a flickr group waiting to happen, perhaps?

she wears it well

this sweet and simple t-shirt qualifies as the very first article of clothing i have ever made for hayden... and is hopefully far from the last.

i simply took a sweet piece of vintage cutter quilt and hand-appliqued it with gradient embroidery floss — and lots of love, of course — to an american apparel t-shirt.

she loves it, and i'm so proud to see her wearing it. she wears it well.

rose, duke & hayden

yesterday, i was thrilled to receive two new shirts that i'd ordered for hayden from rose & duke — purveyor of supercute and überstylish handmade wares for kids (and other awesome goodies).

and i wasn't the only one: i have *never* seen hayden as excited about an article of clothing as she was this morning when i showed her this thermal popsicle shirt. she immediately tried to pull it on over her pajamas! when i finally got her dressed, she kept oh-so-proudly pointing to the popsicle and declaring "pockle!"

NOTE: rose & duke is owned and operated by the ever-impressive and all-around-wonderful jessica, better-known to some of you as violette crumble.

something old, something new...

hayden has lately become obsessed with her star foam stickers — something she was introduced to by her cousin emily during our visit back east — constantly asking, "mo stahs? mo stahs?" so I decided to give her one more.

i took one of the stars, enlarged it on the copier, and used the resulting image as a template to applique this vintage cutter quilt piece to an american apparel t-shirt.

i hope to finish it up tomorrow, and i hope she likes it. at least until next week, when she fixates on something else :-)

back in the saddle

in the past month, i've made not one, not two, but three softies at the request of my friend michelle. two of the lovies (as michelle calls them) were newborn gifts for some mutual friends, while the third was a birthday owl for her son (and hayden's good buddy) diego's second birthday. knowing who these were intended for definitely added layers of special meaning to the process for me, and got my crafting juices flowing again. (thank you, michelle!)

sadly, i forgot to take pics of the first two kitty softies (one for baby ashland, the other for baby laszlo) before i brought them with me to brooklyn two weeks ago, but i did remember to photograph diego's owl before i dropped him in the mail yesterday (along with two of hayden's favorite books, the knuffle bunny series from mo willems). i'm pretty happy with him, even though i did—oy gevult!—mess up the positioning of one of his eyes.


this owl is made from three shades of mary flangan's amazing felted wool that i picked up at purl last fall, as well as material from a fabulous harris tweed blazer (see below) that i recently scored at goodwill. he's stuffed with eco-friendly nature-fil, which i find eminently more huggable than wool.