A Closer Look at Ottoman

Tights and Leggings

The weather in Oregon is perfect for transitional clothing right now (and items that will allow me to wear my warm weather clothes now and expand my simple wardrobe) which has me thinking of leggings and tights. Which then immediately has me searching on Etsy for handmade ones....

Sunshine Yellow Leggings with Diamonds and Raindrops Print

These leggings by Pretty Penny Designs is perfect for Oregon in the spring. This shop has a bit to offer for curvy gals too and I hope that she adds more to that line.

Luxe Collection Leggings - Abstract Mesh

I Heart Norwegian Wood has been a favorite shop of mine for such a long time...so many great things. These leggings are just one of them.

Leg Warmers Night Secret

There are so many beautiful and femine pieces in the Sockbox shop that it would be really difficult to choose.

What's your favorite maker (handmade or otherwise) of tights and/or leggings?

I hope your week is going well. Boo and I headed to the farmers' market today and managed to make it when the sun was out (we've had on-and-off rain and sun all day). We got ourselves a light lunch and treats (ie. cookies)...parsnips, a huge beet, green onions, hothouse tomatoes, and sage and rosemary plants. My wee indoor herb garden is growing.

Those Oatmeal Cookies

I made those oatmeal cookies again (via)...with said modifications including lowering the amount of brown sugar (1/2 c. instead of 2/3 c.). I liked it (I say "liked" because they are already gone).

A short post today...lots of laundry to fold...it never ends, am I correct?

I hope you have a great weekend, it's been sunny here two days in a row, but it's supposed to rain tomorrow. Oh well, two days of open-toed shoes has been so nice anyway. Besides, pretty soon I'll be sweating and wishing for a break of rain.

Happy weekend!

Preserved Lemons

This post reminded me that Jenny and I recently made some preserved lemons. I had brought some oranges and lemons back from our trip to Southern California from my grandmother's trees. I'm wondering if my grandmother's lemons are Meyer lemons, they're so orange. Or, maybe they are just allowed to ripen fully on the tree. I'm always amazed at the citrus trees in general when I visit...they can have ripe fruit on them for months and can simultaneously have flowers blooming, my all-time favorite scent.

Anyway, I've been wanting to make preserved lemons for some time. I've actually never tried them, but they sound intriguing and complex in flavor. A local pizza place actually had a pizza with preserved lemons as a topping on one of it's specialty pizzas, but I never tried that particular one.

Jenny and I used this recipe for the preserving the lemons (which includes a wee bit of sugar and peppercorns), and there are recipes included on the post for what to do with said lemons (including putting them atop vanilla ice cream - whoa...sounds incredible! Sweet + salty + sour = wonderful). We have a couple more weeks before we can use these beauties...I can hardly wait! Oh, and the recipe says to use another lemon for juice to cover the lemons being preserved. The lemons from my grandmother's tree were so juicy that the jars were overflowing from just the lemons in them...amazing.

A couple other recipes that have inspired me lately are: this one for oatmeal cookies (I used whole wheat flour, would lessen the brown sugar next time a bit like I usually do, and used dried cherries)...best oatmeal cookies I've ever had...and this more sophisticated version of rice krispie treats. I havent tried the latter recipe yet, but it sounds divine (again, complex flavor).

Have you been experimenting in the kitchen? Any success?

I hope your week is going well!

Brass Letter Stencils

I listed several vintage interlocking brass letter stencils today. Here's the line-up....

Letter P Brass Stencil

Letter Z Brass Stencil

Letter Y Brass Stencil

Letter N Brass Stencil

Letter V Brass Stencil

Letter H Brass Stencil

You may notice that I'm pretty excited about spring...what with the basil seedlings and the cheerful spring-like postage stamps as props. Oh, dresses and open toe shoes and bare legs from the knee down and light-weight tops and popsicles and salads and eating out-of-doors and the sun on my face! Soon...please, soon!

Thinking of Plants

I've been very busy with well, the rest of my life lately...apologies for the absence. I've also been thinking about plants (in addition to stacking rings). I suppose it's spring and one can't help but think of such things.

Our local farmers' market opened back up again last month and I decided to get a few herb plants (and plan to get more). It's really difficult to garden where I'm at, the deer devour everything (including the blackberry plants...ouch) and the soil is clay and full of rocks. I've decided to try to keep things simple after what I've deemed to be a couple of unsuccessful years at a garden. Container plants inside, and specifically herbs seem to suit just fine.

Other benefits these herbs offer are that they offer up some green and life in the house, they smell wonderful, they will save money for cooking, they charm Boo, and they have potential for natural dyeing.

This beautiful specimen above is a chocolate mint. I have always wanted a collection of mint plants and here's a start. Containing mint is often a good idea as they will take over one's yard. They also like water and I like that I can just keep that particular plant a bit more moist.

This fellow is a greek oregano (with zinnia seedlings in the background) and has doubled, nay tripled in size since I purchased him a few weeks ago. I decided to use sand and rock when I transplanted these plants. The sand doesn't allow the plants to be watered from above (I just pour water in the saucer and let the water wick up) because it mixes with the potting mix and isn't as aesthetically pleasing...it also may may make the plants again susceptible to fungus gnats, though I'm not sure.

And, I have another plant to update you with....

My Lithops is in it's swollen, almost translucent state. Unlike what I understood previously, the skin does not shrivel around two new split specimens each time...sometimes, it's just one like the previous one. I suppose I'll have to wait a bit to find out what is beneath these parents.

Sigh...well, off that's all for now. I hope to be back soon! Thank you for reading, dear readers.