California Milinery Supply Company

If I lived in LA, I would spend most of my time in the California Milinery Supply Company. Rows and rows of feathers, flowers and trims are stuffed into boxes and drawers and apparently they are always digging up more stuff to sell. Sorry the photo quality isn't the best; it's a little dark in there!

Here's what I bought:

and

Aren't these mushrooms the cutest?

A few of my favorite things

A friend dropped by my place on Sunday to drop off this vase that she found for me on one of her thrifting trips. It was a lovely surprise and looks perfect with a few of my other favorite objects.

Good Things

It's been quite a hectic week around here and I have been an all-out grump today so I thought it would be nice to remind myself of a few wonderful and happy things in my life.

*These flowers from my CSA that I picked up last night. I am so excited to have fresh flowers every couple of weeks!

*Lots of other delicious things from the CSA- asparagus, arugula, mixed greens and strawberries. We made the perfect salad last nights with fresh greens that tasted like they had just been picked from the ground. The great thing is, they actually were.

*I got a copy of my book yesterday in the mail! It's actually a real-live thing.

*I won a big bunch of quilt squares of Marimekko fabric on ebay. Looking forward to making some pretty things with these.

*Renegade NY is this weekend and I actually get to walk around and enjoy it.

What great things are happening with you?

New to me.

The fruits of a recent Ebay fabric splurge are pouring in. I got these gorgeous vintage cotton fabrics in the mail this afternoon. They arrived heavy and shining with starch so I threw them in my new Wonderwash. Now they are soft and whisper thin and blowing in the breeze on the line.
By the way, the Wonderwash is a small handcrank washing machine that uses 90% less water and detergent than traditional washing machines and it is amazing! Normally when I get new fabric I wait to wash it until I go to the laundromat but now it can get laundered right away and I can throw in a few tee shirts and some socks too!

Slow Sunday

This has been a summer of setting the alarm even on the weekends, there have just been so many plans and so many people to see. I love nothing more than having lazy slothlike weekends so I have been craving a slow quiet day like today for months. A quiet Sunday in pajamas with lots of good food and public radio equals my idea of heaven.

I love the idea of a big Sunday dinner with leftovers for days so I made good use of these amazing tomatoes from my mom's garden and made a tomato sauce with leeks and spicy sausage. I think leeks are my new favorite vegetable; they are so good! After that, I made a peach crisp with peaches from the farmer's market. I would have taken a picture but it takes a much better photographer than me to make peach crisp look appealing. It was delicious though: I am trying to eat with the seasons more and it really makes foods seem more special when you only eat them during their peak.

After that, I cleaned my kitchen and stared lovingly at my growing collection of Catherine Holm pieces. My grandmother had lots and lots of Catherine Holm and I have no idea what happened to them. Even though these aren't hand-me-downs from her, they remind me of childhood.
My soundtrack for the day: archives of WNYC shows I have missed and a new-to-me podcast, Geek Farm Life, thanks to my friend Cal!