Beetlegirl Design

ghost parade

Yesterday morning I stepped out at eight a.m. with the hopes of a solitary walk through the quiet Sunday morning streets and along the cliffs overlooking the ocean.  A thick marine layer hung nearly to the ground, and I knew this alone would deter the sleepy tourists from overtaking the streets as they would later in the day.  A few blocks from my apartment I happened upon an endless line of vintage Woodies and their drivers.  What made it so unusual, especially as I continued down the street away from them, is that they were a parade without an audience.  When they overtook me twenty minutes later, there were no onlookers sitting curbside to wave them by, even the children who might have been there, were, instead, wrapped in blankets and sleeping in the couch-like backseats of the vintage automobiles.  What audience they did have consisted of the ocean soaked dogs and their owners who had just clambered up from the dog beach, the transients who came out from their motorhomes, a couple sitting together on a piece of asphalt that hung precariously at the edge of the cliff, a painter setting up his easel in a grassy field, the fishermen, and myself.  Between the half-light of the fog, the Sunday quiet, and the pace of the cars, the whole effect as they drove past me was that of a ghost parade disappearing back into the mist.

procrastination by any other name...isn't quite as honest

Well, perhaps "lazy" is a bit more appropriate.  But school is out for summer here, something which still has meaning in our life, oddly enough.  Rather than dedicating myself to the pattern making that I ought to be fully immersed in by now for the upcoming Plush You deadline, I have found myself spending afternoons walking to the lighthouse and back again, and reading and rereading books, or simply enjoying the luxury of slipping into daydreams. 

Tomorrow we head north to where the grass is greener.  We had forsworn that we were not going to drive to OR for a year or more (after a few disastrous drives), and it has been two.  I am actually looking forward to the drive, of slipping in and out through the curves between the redwoods, and the long big life and silly conversations that come with ten or more hours in the car together.  This will be one of those chaotic trips for us...where we will attempt to see just about everyone we know in the Pacific Northwest.  They will all be as darling and charming as ever, and leave us feeling homesick that we will not be spending our summer on their porches. 

And then I will return home to the embers of procrastination singeing my feet.  True inspiration is brought on by approaching deadlines, right?  I have already begun the first of my beasties.  He is an experiment of sorts...I am making something which is already traditionally cute...He will most likely come out looking forlorn, but that is left to be seen. 

So, that is it for the moment...and now I need to stop procrastinating and dash for the bus.  

an afternoon well spent

I am still a bit flabbergasted...but I went to Maker Faire this past weekend, and, well, I wasn't quite as excited by it all as I had anticipated being.  I suppose if I was into building robots in my garage on the weekends it would have been my piece of cake.  But, feeling a tad disappointed by the uneven amount of garden and crafting at the faire as compared to science/engineering, my partner in crafty crime and I quickly had our fill, and headed off to have an adventure of our own making.  What followed was the most wonderful and spontaeous afternoon.

First we ventured to Flora Grubb Gardens, and puttered through their odd and eclectic collections of plants.  As with everyone who comes here, I was smitten with their wall of succullents. 

And, after a bit of debate over donuts or pastries, we decided on the latter and even found a parking spot directly in front of Paxton Gate.  Sadly, they were once again out of the size of bell jar I want.

The pastries were from Tartine, of course.  We had bread pudding and coffees.

By a stroke of luck, the bread, which usually does not finish baking until hours later, was ready, so we bought a loaf for dinner.  Later that night, we recreated Tartine's croque monsieur with mushrooms, carmelized onions, asparagus and gruyere. 

The following morning my friend followed me down highway one to my most favorite place on earth, the Half Moon Bay Nursery.  I somehow managed to leave with only a smallish rosemary to replace the one I accidently baked in the sun.  I had more fun, as I always do, wandering around with my camera.  I found this wee little plant that had sprouted itself out of a patch of moss.

And now I am home again, with another weekend beind me, and another month ahead of me that I anticipate will be swept away before I have an opportunity to root myself in it.  I still hope to finish my flora shop update before I have to begin on my Plush You beasties.  On that note, I am off to wire a few pieces of grass before I have to catch my bus.

a "new" home

Our recent decision not to move into a two bedroom apartment quickly transitioned into a weekend long effort to reorganize the space we currently inhabit.  I absolutely love our "new" space, and I only regret that we did not do this sooner.  We somehow now have an impressively noteworthy open space, that we have both been gazing into with a sense of astonishment.  (If the little things don't make you happy, what will?)  The only one more happy than us with the new arrangement is our wee fuzzy one, who now has complete access to her sunny spot.  (Although I still think she is having a bit of confusion regarding the relocation of her cage, as I found her chewing on the side to be let out, when the door was clearly open.) 

This also means I can keep my patio garden, hooray!  And that we will still have our modest, but pretty, view of the trees and the misty marine layer that lingers among them. 

There is a bit left to organize, and a few more alterations/additions left in the realm of day dreams, but I need to find my way back to my crafting, so that is where I am headed off to today.  Once all is said and done, I will post a few pictures of our space, but that will have to wait. 

friend or foe

There are no snails in my wee patio garden.  But my apartment is full of the wide-eyed wonder of these charming snails.  If you would like a curious snail of your own, then you are in a bit of luck, as I now have three in my Etsy shop.  

Dinner with the Barefoot Contessa

My sweetie and I have a fondness for watching the Barefoot Contessa as we prepare our own dinner.  We may not appreciate her fondness for butter, but we chuckle at this in the same way we used to watch, wide-eyed, as Caprial and John poured a "little bit" of olive oil on everything they cooked.  Sadly, they do not air Caprial and John on our PBS here, and we miss their on-air marital spats and eager love for drinking as they cooked.  Mind you, we love Alton Brown.  But his schtick is food science, and the appeal of Barefoot Contessa is that you might actually go to the efforts of navigating the Food Network website to cook one of the items she made.  This past week, for the very first time in years of faithful viewership, we were forced really, to make her most delicious Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad.  Of course, it was about 80 degrees in our apartment the night I decided to slow roast the tomatoes, and it also happened to be the same evening I made two dozen cupcakes for my friend's babyshower, but that didn't stop me.

Here are the tomoatoes before their two hour bake-off.

And here they are two hours later.

And here is the completed Roasted Tomoato Caprese Salad in all its glory...at least for the few whole minutes before we enhailed it.

My only modifications might be to add a little less sugar, and to roast a whole lot more tomoatoes.  I think this is going to be a summer favorite.  But next time, I will start the roasting in the morning.

tales of a party planner

Hee hee...At this point, I am a wee bit too exhausted to recount my party planning tales, but the baby shower I threw for my dear girlfriend this past weekend was lovely.  I don't know that I have seen my friend smile with quite as much frequency as she did that day (despite the contractions she was already having!).  The dot garland was cute, and I will be able to use it again.  But what I was most happy with, were my cupcake toppers.  The cupcakes themselves were chocolate zucchini cake (at the request of the mother-to-be).  The toppers were made using a small flower paper punch, and some toothpicks that had grooves near the top.  I simply used a yarn needle to put a hole in the center of each paper flower, then ran the toothpick through until the flower sat in the groove.  I not only loved the overall garden effect of the flowers, but their shadows as well.

flora

I am presently hand-sewing my way toward a shop update I will call flora.  Flora, because I am hoping to include both the branches and the grasses that I have often photographed with my wee snails.  The going is, well, happening at a snail's pace, because my flora involve much sculpting of wires and draping of fabrics.  There really is something so lovely about hand-sewing though.  But what sounds even more lovely tonight is curling up on the couch with my bunny (and a few cookies) and watching the pretty sunset that has followed our few days of spring rain.

connect . the . dots

For the past few days, the ambient heat in our third floor apartment was such that my laptop was overheated before I ever turned it on.  Our walls were even hot to the touch.  Needless to say, I pondered crafting more than I crafted. 

I did though, sneak in these dot decorations for my friend's baby shower before the heat wave struck.  They are inspired by Martha's dot garland, but, as I prefer sewing whenever it can stand in for adhesive, I decided to sew my dots.  It was far easier, and my sewing machine was far friendlier, than I had imagined.  My sewing machine never once protested, and I simply sewed through a card stock dot every six inches, then pulled six inches of thread out, and sewed through another.  The trick, is to wrap the dot garland around a piece of cardboard, etc., while you are creating the garland, to prevent it from tangling. 

I am also hoping to create some bunting flags for her shower too, but that depends on my ability to create days between days and hours between hours. 

And now off to iron some linen and wool for large snail shells.

Three Things

My sweetie and I often play the "three things" game.  It goes like this..."What three places would you most like to visit in the next ten years?"  To which, my response is always, the south island of New Zealand, Kauai, and Scottland/Ireland.  "What three professions would you have sought if you could do it all over again?"  This one always gives me pause, because I don't know that I have yet figured out what I want to be when I grow up.  I am still exploring.  I have always loved the idea of set design/interior design.  I love photography, and I am occasionally reminded that I once wrote stories that were worthy of reading.  And on and on...On long road trips this game is followed by the "I hate" game, which means we are nearing the most tedious portion of the drive to Oregon, and it usually entails outlining all the tremendous fashion failures we have witnessed on the bus of late.  For the question, "What three foods would you choose if you were stranded on a desert island," the meal I had last night comes pretty close.  Although, I would have to replace the biscuit with chocolate chip cookies; the sharp chedder cheese could stay, and I do love salads (I might be part-rabbit).  And wine.  Oh, and figs stuffed with walnuts and blue cheese...What would your three foods be?