Photo Friday: Flowers in Greece by ArtQuirk

 

It's been a few years since I was in Europe, but this print—Flowers in Greece by ArtQuirk on Etsy—reminds me of how lovely it can be to stroll around a city (in my experience, it was Rome that I saw places like this, but it's nice to know that Greece is just as lovely!).

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And now for a little link love:

Send some support Jennifer's way and make a peanut butter pie for Mikey today.

I love coconut macaroons, so I think turning them into tart shells is entirely brilliant!

We usually eat our beets warm, but this Chilled Golden Beet & Ginger Soup looks like a great way to enjoy them on a warm August day.

Need a new apron? This looks like a fantastic diy version that's even adjustable.

I love this Song Lyric Wall Art project (via Poppytalk) so much that it might just inspire me to get making again.

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I'm sure that you're all as excited as I am that it's Friday. On my weekend agenda: haircut (yippee!), the Iowa State Fair (where I'll be staying far, far away from the fried butter on a stick—too far!—though of course paying my respects to the Butter Cow), making strawberry rhubarb jam (in my effort to try making one new thing a week in my kitchen), and probably a lot of reading. Have a good one!

Photo Friday: Tomatoes in a Mint Bowl

 

 In getting back on schedule with regular features, today's image really speaks to me because it is an artistic interpretation of something that's a steady feature in our house—lovely tomatoes (lately, sungolds from Grinnell Heritage Farm) in a colorful latte bowl (I have this set, which I adore). The print is from TheJoyofColor on Etsy and I urge you to scroll through her work because each one feels more lively and inspired than the next. The past few years, I've really tried to support independent artists by buying artwork for my walls and while the wall space in most of our house is somewhat occupied, I recently realized that the kitchen needs some love! So hopefully I can add a few lovely pieces, maybe even this one, to the yellow walls.

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And now for a little link love:

Alyssa Ettinger recently started making porcelain pendants (you might know of her porcelain mason jars or her knitwear bowls). The pendants are gorgeous.

There is a new issue of Nuno Magazine out (this issue is all about the desert, with 23 crafty projects that channel the Southwest—includinga rad throw rug clutch and paper beads I am dying to try to make—using recycled or repurposed materials) and I can't wait to get myself a copy.

Josh made pickled beets this week, which marked the first official canning done in our house which is tremendously exciting. But when I saw this post on Simple Bites about Lacto-Fermentation I realized that there might be a way to preserve food minus the boiling water (which would be nice for our sweltering Iowa summer). I am looking forward to reading more about this method.

I need to try making this gluten free fresh pasta. I should do it on a lazy Sunday and serve it with pesto.

And hitting the sweltering heat note again, this Orange Creamsicle smoothie recipe sounds completely delicious.

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Josh is running a race tomorrow morning with his buddy in Davenport, so we're going to do a little exploring of the Quad Cities in Eastern Iowa while we out that way. Enjoy the weekend everyone!

August Print of the Month: Up from Linn Photography

Up from Linn Photography

This is my eighth purchase in this year's mini print of the month series, which is my commitment to buying a photography or illustration print from an independent artist each month this year. 


I just love how this image captures what I love about summer and also the type of location where I someday want to live—in the woods, under a canopy, filled with summer sounds (crickets, cicadas, tree frogs, etc). It's been a good summer and as kids and teachers go back to school, this is a little visual reminder of the windows open feeling that I so enjoy.

And because it's Friday, here are a few things from around the web that I bookmarked this week:
Downloadable Jam Labels from Poppytalk (would totally use them if I had enough fruit to can).
Chocolate Zucchini Bread recipe from Simple Bites. I might be making this over the weekend.
More lovely and organic fabrics from Cloud Nine that make me really excited to be almost ready to start a new quilting project (via decor8)
V over at Beauty Schooled finishing up her time in beauty school. Oh happy happy day!!

And on that note, happy Friday and enjoy the weekend!

Join the ReadyMade Community Cookbook (with a Side of Link Love!)

Photography by Marty Baldwin

Hello, thanks for being here and happy Friday! I have some exciting news to share with you today about a project that I'm working on at my day job with ReadyMade. If you're not familiar with the magazine it's about people who make things and the culture of making, with a hefty dose of projects for your home, garden, closet and kitchen. It's a pretty fun read, if I do say so myself, and it's filled with useful info.


All of that said, we're also heavily user generated and we rely on our community for a lot of our content. To celebrate both our community and the tradition of community cookbooks—those spiral bound booklets that womens groups across the country put together often to raise money for a good cause, like their church or community group—we're putting together our own community cookbook. We think this is a really fun way to gather our food community, share recipes all in one collection, and take the energy that we share online back into our own kitchens. We'll also be partnering with a food-related charity so that we can do a little good in the process.


So we need your recipes!


Is there something that you're known for? Something that's been passed down in your family and you can't have a party without? Something that you recently discovered you are stellar at making? Whichever the case, we'd love to have you submit one of your recipes and have the chance to be published in our cookbook.


Click here for all of the submission information and please feel free to share this project with your friends and family. The more people we can get involved, the better the book will be, so do join in, okay?



Now that we've gotten that taken care of here is a bit of Link Love for you.
1. There is a preview of Anna Maria Horner's new fabric line, Innocent Crush, up on her blog. Oh my, exciting stuff and I definitely need to figure out how to get myself the dress that is shown in the picture!
2. This wedding on Snippet & Ink seriously makes me want to find a barn that would be cool enough for a wedding reception in Iowa in July (not sure it's possible, but this is SO pretty!). I love the simplicity of the bride's hair—there are flyaways! they are lovely!—and the decorations in the barn.
3. Cherry Pomegranate Sorbet on Honey & Jam. Yum.
4. Young House Love's post on greener lawn care is providing a lot of fuel for thought on what to do with our enormous lawn that I for one think we do not need to be mowing (front yard, I understand, back yard...who cares!?)
5. This Built by Wendy dress made by Karyn at Make Something. Truth be told, I never did get around to making the dress I bought a pattern for this past spring...maybe this is a sign that I would be happier if I could be whipping up clothes for myself!

Okay, continue on with your day. And yay weekend!

Summer Projects Update and Friday Link Love

 I thought I'd take a moment to update you on where I am with my summer projects since it's been a while. I've been working on the baby quilt a little bit each night and am so close to finishing up the body—and then I get to move onto doing the binding, which is my favorite part since it means I'm almost done!

I like that the quilting on this one has been pretty minimal (as compared to this crazy beautiful one) and that I just might finish it before my friend has her baby. Above you can see the back.

The other project is my embroidery, which I started while on vacation. I've been working on this in the car, while traveling and also while I was on the beach last weekend and I've definitely gotten over the hump on this one too. That patch of green leaves in the center was a bit of a mental challenge, so I'm really happy to be done with that part. I love how this is turning out and love how I've been learning a new way of stitching.

Link Love: a few things I've found around the web this week that I just love
1. Summer Hair Challenge: the ladies at No More Dirty Looks are running this challenge that I am doing today—which is really hard since I have super curly hair and it's crazy humid outside!

Some time in the next week, when you get up in the morning, shower, shampoo and condition your hair using nontoxic natural products, comb it when you get out of the shower, and that’s it. Once it’s dry, send us a pic.

I'm being brave because I love the idea of breaking our reliance, or at least becoming aware of our reliance on chemically laden products. (Found via Beauty Schooled)

2. The colorful floral fabric dresses in this vineyard wedding make me swoon.
3. My tomato herb risotto recipe on ReadyMade which I am making again tonight.
4. The fabric jewelry from Vadjutka.
5. Pasta with corn pesto from Tim at Lottie + Doof sounds delish, if only we didn't clean out our pile of sweet corn last night. I guess it would be a good excuse to go get more!


Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Beets, Beans and Surprises in the Flower Beds

We had quite the dramatic weather weekend with a huge storm Saturday night that brought 60-70 mph winds, which resulted in us losing power for 24 hours. Which was helpful considering my goal to stay off of the computer on Sunday, but frustrating since I couldn't cook in advance of this week (part of my share of our chores) and we had to deal with a melting freezer (and you, know, the heat inside the house). But, it proved to give us a chance to do other, simpler things, like play guitar (Josh) and quilt (me), read, and spend time outside in the garden. Here are some snaps to give you a sense of how things are progressing.

Above was our first batch of beets, both regular red ones and Chiogga ones (that are striped on the inside). We had them grated in a salad. Here are some of our tomatoes, from our enormous plants.

A pea!

A bean! Actually, we've eaten about three batches of these beans already, which has been rather exciting.

Here is a big patch of thyme that is just waiting to be put to use in eggs- it's particularly good with eggs and sauteed onions, actually. There is also a mountain of basil, so as soon as I get my hands on a container of pine nuts, there will be a bulk batch of pesto going into the freezer.

And finally, since this is our first summer in the house, we keep being surprised by what's blooming, like this bed of coneflowers and what looks to be some type of hibiscus. They make the bees really happy.

Link Love: five things that have caught my eye lately online.
1. The Canning 101 series on Simple Bites to make good use of all of your summer produce.
2. The wedding graduate post from 20 year old Ashlyn on A Practical Wedding, which just proves to me that everyone has the right to get married when the time is right for them, in the way that is right for the couple.
3. The Italian floral inspiration on this We Like it Wild post on Design*Sponge.
4. This Grown Up Lemonade recipe from Kelly at Eat Make Read.
5. This Cathedral Windows Pillow from Make Something, which I Must Try at Home as it completely makes my heart happy.

Hope you all had a great weekend and thank you for your thoughts on balance!

Link Love: Birthday Goodies

Since I got a handful of lovely gifts for my bday last week that have made me so happy, I thought I'd use this post to start the week of right and share them with you.

Above is the Rainy Day tea towel from Leah Duncan, one of my new favorite illustrator/designers. I opened this up and immediately new that it would never be soiled in the kitchen—this beauty is going on a wall, likely in my office where it can give me endless inspiration.

You might remember that I posted about this necklace a few weeks ago. And my sweet boyfriend remembered too, and now I am the proud owner of this beauty from Corrine of September House.

I've also mentioned Good to the Grain: Baking With Whole Grain Flours before and to be honest, I have been tempted to cook my way through it it's so great. I can't wait to share what I make. (I swear I will not go out to lunch while my next batch of bread from this book is rising, I will not!)

A sweet and very unexpected gift came from one of my coworkers, who knows how much I love cookbooks (and sits behind the enormous stack of them on my cabinet). She very thoughtfully gave me the Fill-in-the-Blank Cookbook Log from the Small Object (makers of my favorite Today is Awesome print). The log is sort of like a library system of card cataloging—each cookbook gets a little pocket and a card, and then I get to write info about when the book came into my life and what my favorite recipes are. Given that I recently came into possession of one of my grandmothers cookbooks, and she left a handwritten list in the front of each of her current recipes, I know I'm going to start doing this, even if only to amuse me later in life...I am sure I will think, wow, I made a lot of baked goods when I turned 30!

Link Love: Found Florals

 

I tend to catch up on other blogs while I'm eating lunch each day and since I come across so many lovely things, I've decided that I should start sharing them with you. Today's topic: florals.

New lovely bookmarks from Abbytryagain have me wanting to find a sunny spot, a lawn chair and a good book.

The fascinating peak into Anna Maria Horner's quilting life, where I learned that she used thicker thread and embroidery needles for her stitches.

 

This absolutely stunning watercolor print from lilydove on etsy (via Decor8) is spring in pretty print form. (And I will be surprised if one of her prints doesn't turn up as a future print of the month!)

 

Twig & Thistle has some lovely Easter entertaining inspiration (originally via the Wedding Style Guide) that is making me very happy it's spring and I was able to enjoy two meals outdoors this week. (Also, for the record, I'm a sucker for pretty, completely set tables, outside—the wall behind my desk is filled with them.)

 

Not only do these Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies from So Good and Tasty look delicious, but this one is sitting on the most darling plate. I do love the subtle whimsy of old floral china patterns.