winter? already?

The last four days have been unbearable -- gray skies, constant spitting rain, and biting wind. The house temperature has plummeted to 71 degrees, chilly for a gal who leaves her thermostat on 80 all summer. Could winter be here early? I certainly hope not. It's just got to be a passing phase. Please?

But in the meantime, I've settled into cozy winter tasks. I'm halfway done with the scarf I'm knitting. I promised my mother I'd create a silent auction item for her women's group function next week. I've settled on sewing holiday coasters in a quilt-square theme. I'm combining 3-5 of the fabrics shown here in each square, which will be added to a felt backing. It took an hour and a half of debating at the fabric store to come up with these pairings -- I wish I was more decisive! Denyse Schmidt Quilts has been my inspiration for this project. Her off-kilter geometric designs have always caught my attention. If these coasters go well, I hope to dive into my first quilt by the beginning of the year.

I've also been commissioned to create holiday gifts for about 20 coworkers -- Gators themed. I have some ideas kicking around in my head, and I hope to have some drawings done by the weekend. As always, I'll post my progress with these tasks in the next few days and a few fun surprises, too. And maybe if I'm lucky the sun will finally come out of hiding.

puppy love

Madeleine doesn't care to pose for photographs. But does that stop me?

one skein down, two to go

On the way to Crystal River (actually on the way home, though I knit both ways) I finished knitting the first skein of yarn for my new winter scarf. It's nothing fancy, but I've finally started holding both needles with my hands (instead of one wedged in my lap), and I'm no longer looping (called Continental style I'm told.) My goal by the time I finish this is to be faster and more consistent with tension. Then I'm going to get my hands on some circular needles and create a matching hat!

west coast wandering

Yesterday, a friend and I went over to Crystal River to spend the day. I hadn't been there in a few years and was impressed with their combination of thrifts and antique stores. Everything we saw was moderately priced, with the exception of the $10 tattered copy of the first Harry Potter book in a Hospice Attic (I actually laughed out loud, then felt sort of bad.) I've been on the lookout for vintage Florida & oranges memorabilia for a while now, but it's either too kitchy or really expensive. I did luck out with an old promotional poster created by the Florida Citrus Commission. There were two different designs, but the thermometer's grin made my choice easy. We were blown away by the World's Best Organized Thrift Store -- the book area was divided into sections which were alphabetized and clearly labeled. Even the greeting cards were grouped according to celebration. The only thing we couldn't figure out was why they differentiated between Christian, Religious, and Christmas when organizing records (isn't that three ways to say the same thing?)

I also took some pictures, mostly ideas for T-shirt designs and silly local signage (several in little Williston! Who knew?) I'll have them up on Flickr in a bit, which I should attempt to connect to this blog sometime today -- wish me luck!

drink your dinner

I made this dinner a while back and photographed it, meaning to add it here. I forgot about the recipe until just the other day. Recently I've been enamoured with food blogs, especially fascinated by the apparent love of cupcakes in the internet world. I saw a recipe for Cuba Libre cupcakes, which happens to be my favorite simple mixed drink (I promise to make those cupcakes one day, if only to find out what Coke, rum, and lime taste like in cupcake form.) It made me wonder about Mojitos, my newest liquid obsession. So I searched for a Mojito chicken recipe. I didn't like some of the ingredients -- minced ginger is not found in a Mojito -- so I played with it a bit. This is what I ended up with.



pen loves paper's Mojito Chicken

1 lb. chicken breasts
2 tblsp. flour
1 teasp. garlic powder
1 teasp. ground ginger
1/2 teasp. salt
1/2 teasp. black pepper

2 tblsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 teasp. crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup white rum
3 tblsp. sugar
1/8 cup fresh mint leaves

Mix flour, garlic powder, ground ginger, salt, black pepper in shallow baking dish. Pat each chicken breast dry with a paper towel, then coat with the mixture. Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and brown on all sides until cooked through, about 8-10 minutes. Transfer to platter and keep warm.

Add garlic and red pepper flakes to skillet until fragrant. Stir in lime juice, rum, and sugar. Boil slightly until reduced, about 5 minutes. Add mint and stir, cooking for 1-2 minutes more. Pour sauce over chicken. Serve with orzo or rice.

25 years of feminist activism

Friday night Gainesville Area NOW celebrated our 25th anniversary as a chapter. We put a ton of time and effort in the planning of the event, and I'm thrilled at how well it turned out. A lot of people came, the speakers were fabulous (you can always count on Jenny Brown to motivate you to continue the fight), and dinner was quite good by banquet standards. We had a silent auction to help raise money for our chapter. It was also the night we unveiled our chapter's next major campaign: Encouraging our city commission to take a stand against restrictions on abortion and birth control. During his campaign, Republican Governor Charlie Crist said he would sign an anti-abortion law if it were to come across his desk. We are planning to take out a signature advertisement in the Sun before the primary elections in January reminding him that the women of Florida want no restrictions on abortion and better access to birth control. I am so proud to be involved with such smart and talented women.

a complete old set

Old furniture has always spoken to me. My house is full of family pieces -- my maternal grandmother's dining room set where I grew up eating holiday dinners, her old stereo cabinet that I turned into a bar, a bright turquoise chair I remember from my paternal grandparents' guest room. Even my craft room table has a personal history -- it was my changing table when I was a baby. I love the way each piece in my home connects me to my roots or brings back special memories. So I felt blessed recently to receive one of my favorite pieces from childhood, an outdoor metal dining set from my maternal grandmother's screened porch in Jacksonville. She had a giant magnolia tree that shaded the porch, and I remember sitting at this table to eat lunch in the summers when I'd visit.

My father brought back the glass-topped rectangular table and three chairs when he went to visit, leaving one behind for unknown reasons. So I diligently went to work sanding, washing, and spray painting. I even recovered the seats. After a weekend labor of love, my new almost set was placed in its spot in the sunny Florida room. Right away I invited my friend Lauren over for dinner at the new table, and I took to eating breakfast there since the eastern morning light makes the Tiffany blue room even brighter. It was quickly becoming an integral part of my house -- Tim and I even played a game there on our very first date. But it just wasn't complete. And it bugged me. I kept meaning to go retrieve the missing chair when one day I opened my back door and there it was (thanks Mom!) Unfortunately, I was too busy to refinish the orphan chair for several weeks. But this weekend I vowed to get it done -- and here are the results. My new old set is now complete.

holiday harbinger

Look what came in the mail today! The November (read Thanksgiving) issue of Bon Appetit. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It isn't overtly religious or full of the commercialism so many other holidays have succumbed to. It is just about family and food -- two of my favorite things. Usually my parents host Thanksgiving and I cook 80% of the dishes. I love to spend hours planning the menu with a good balance of the traditional and new. I even have a Thanksgiving planner that contains previous years' menus (with recipes) along with recipe contenders for the current year's list. I put a lot of time into this, obviously. My paternal grandfather was a chef who passed his kitchen adventurousness onto his sons, which encourages unique dishes on the table whenever we gather.

This year the family rented a beach house in St. Augustine to celebrate both Thanksgiving and my grandfather's 90th birthday. My grandmother just passed in August, and this will be the first time my family has gathered since her funeral. I know it will be a bittersweet affair, since my grandmother was a woman who cherished family, food, and faith above all else. Holidays were very important to her, so I'm looking forward to planning this year's feast while helping to continue our family's traditions. I'll share some favorite recipes from Thanksgivings past when we get into the month of November, since I'm sure I'm the only person out there already planning.

window weather!

It's finally time to open the windows -- if only in the evening. I hope the cool breezes stay around for a while. Maybe I'll have to dig out the sweaters soon? Probably not. It is still Florida, after all.

new project

While driving around Jacksonville Thursday searching for a deli to grab some lunch, I came across a new craft store I'd never heard of: A.C. Moore. Of course, all thoughts of lunch went right out the window as I drove into the parking lot. Upon entering though, I was sort of disappointed. I think A.C. Moore is connected to Michael's in some way since the store was organized in the same manner and the sale signs used the same font. Of course that didn't stop me from spending 45 minutes browsing. In the end, I was excited with what I found:



Yes, green yarn. The exact same yarn I used to knit Tim's birthday card. I loved how soft it was while knitting the card, but I didn't have enough left over to make what I really wanted -- a new scarf. I loved the color of this yarn -- and the great sale price -- so I bought three skeins. I started knitting immediately. I love the feel of working with this yarn. I'm using #7 needles, so it's not as quick as what I'm used to, but I'm in love with the progress so far. I'll post a pic when I finish with the first skein.

festival season

Phew! It's been a busy week. I'll try to make up for not posting with some extras today and tomorrow. I've been enjoying the festival fun that comes with fall in North Florida. I love the way this community comes alive again once the consistent 90-degree days give way to 70s and 80s. Last weekend was the Thornbrooke Arts Festival. I went with my Mom on Sunday -- the first mostly dry day after four days straight of rain. There was a lot of jewelry at the show and an abundance of glass pumpkins. Mom found one we both fell in love with, but it was already sold. We were disappointed with the day after that until I found this cute print that Mom graciously bought for me:


I'm a Gainesville Area NOW board member, so it was particularly cute to me. I think I'll put it in a simple frame and hang it in my office.

Today I went to the Friends of the Library fall book sale (there's also a smaller one in the spring.) For the uninitiated, the FOL has about 300,000 books, records, CDs, DVDs, games, and more crammed in a meticulously organized fashion into a (now) small warehouse. The sale runs for five days, but if you want a chance at the best of the best you ought to be there Saturday morning. It's so celebrated that folks even camp out the night before, making sure to be one of the first through the door. It's a FOL ritual of mine to pass by the parking lot the evening before just to check out the campers (there were at least two out there yesterday at 4:30.) How do these campers know what they want? Well, that's the fun of the sale. Typically you never really know what you'll find at the sale since there is no preview day, which is different from most library sales. By the time the doors open at 9:00, the line has snaked through the parking lot several times and down the street. Being full of mostly book lovers though, the entrance into the sale is usually orderly and quick. I picked up a few old Marthas (magazines are only a quarter), a quilting magazine, and the Home Restaurant cookbook. Home, located in NYC's Greenwich Village, was the only place I ate more than once the entire summer I spent at NYU. The cookbook brings back lots of good memories.

Unfortunately, I missed the 12th annual fall plant sale at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, the Natural History Museum's ButterflyFest 2007, and several fall festivals in surrounding communities. Next weekend is the 1890s festival in McIntosh and Morningside's native plant sale. I'm hoping to get to both before the 3:30 UF/Kentucky kickoff.

the lovers, the dreamers ...

Today I woke up grumpy. Madeleine was pawing at me, wanting to go outside. I didn't get enough sleep and was still achy from all that cleaning yesterday. There was nothing for breakfast so I went out to get pastry and a paper. As I left the store it started to rain, again, for like the fifth day in a row. That made me grumpier, until I got in my car and looked up -- at a full rainbow. The rain stopped as quickly as it started and the rainbow became clearer, lifting my grumpy mood away. Today will be better -- I know, I know (I only wish I'd had my camera!)

disappointment & dinner

SEC football is something I really love. So much so that I had all three SEC games on today (yes, even that horribly boring Vandy/Auburn game.) All the teams I wanted to win today lost instead. I'll be honest and say I didn't think Florida would win -- or even get that close -- so I spent most of the game finishing cleaning the house while listening to Mick Hubert's play-by-play on the radio. But by the fourth quarter I was hopeful. I mean, we were still up by 10! We'd held them at the goal line! Then they let LSU come back and win. I am so disappointed I can't sleep, which is why I'm posting this in the middle of the night. Sigh.

The real point of this post was to share the dinner I made tonight. I love Cuban food and cook it often. However, most of my favorite dishes require several time-consuming steps that make them impractical for weekday meals. I did a big fall cleaning day today, which was perfect for making vaca frita since I could go back and forth from the two without wasting any time. Vaca frita is basically a crispy beef stir-fry with hints of citrus, garlic, and cumin. It is delicious.






Here is my version of this classic Cuban dish:

Vaca Frita

1 1/2 lb flank steak, cut in half
2 bay leaves
1 teasp salt
1 teasp cumin

juice from 2 limes
juice from 1 lemon
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teasp cumin
salt & pepper to taste

3 tblsp olive oil
1 small to medium onion, cut in half then thinly sliced
2 tblsp chopped fresh parsley
lime wedges for serving

Place the steak, bay leaves, salt, and cumin in a large saucepan with enough water to cover the meat. Cover and cook over low heat 1 1/2 hours or until meat is tender. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to sit covered for 1-2 hours for meat to cool.

When meat is relatively cool, remove from stock (save stock for another use -- good black bean or soup base.) Shred the beef using your fingers or two forks (it should pull apart easily) and place meat in a large glass or plastic bowl. Add the citrus juices, garlic, cumin and salt & pepper. Mix it well and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight (give it a turn every now and again if you think about it.)

Remove the meat from the marinade, or just pour out the excess juices. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat until warm and cook the meat, stirring often, until starting to fry, about 5-7 minutes. Add the onions and cook for 5 minutes, continuing to stir. When the beef is crispy, take the pan off the heat and add the parsley and juice of several lime wedges. Alternatively, you could add the parsley and a lime wedge to each individual serving. Serve with white rice. Yummy!

gray, blue, gray, blue

A color post? Not really. Those words represent the sky over my house in the last few days. Evey time I think the rain is done more gray clouds roll in. Normally that wouldn't be so frustrating, but I want to get outside in the yard and do some fall cleaning. Maybe nature is telling me I should start my fall cleaning inside?

the wonders of a florida fall

For the last few weeks I've been reading on other craft blogs about the beginning of fall: the chill in the air, the desire to stay inside and nest, and the death of the summer garden. I've often wondered what it would be like to live somewhere where the seasons actually change when the equinox hits. This time of year is one of the few times I'm slightly jealous of the rest of the country. Until today made me come to my senses.

I was watching Madeleine play while looking out over my large overgrown backyard (overgrown only because it's just too hot to work in the yard in August & September around here) when something bright red caught my eye. Really? Could it be? A blood-red passion flower! I'd been waiting and waiting for these flowers to bloom, but hadn't seen any all summer. Upon closer inspection, I found blooms throughout the extensive vines climbing all over my back fence. Finally!



Then I looked around some more. Bougainvillea clusters, hibiscus yawning open, and Gerber daisies popping up. Even the bleeding heart vine is ready to bloom! So I grabbed my camera and took a tour through the yard. While snapping pictures I realized that although I still have a while to feel a real chill in the air (which we call winter around here), a Florida fall is special in its own right.

I'll post more yard pictures after I spend this weekend taming the lawn and flower beds. I am giddy with anticipation.

fabric & paper

While I was busy with the jet convention I promised to share more projects I'd recently finished. It's a little late, but here you go:

I made two new freezer-paper stencil shirts before I headed to Clearwater this weekend. I love the outline of the plane, which I'll admit I created from an image I found on the web. It's given me ideas for more intricate shirt designs. As for the F? Well, I am a Florida Gator girl.






This is a graphic design project I created for Gainesville Area NOW's 25th Anniversary banquet. I'm a big fan of repetition and geometry, can you tell? This was a great project for me, especially since it forced me to learn more about InDesign. I made response cards, tickets, and posters to go with the invites. The program will also follow the same simple design. We're celebrating 25 years of NOW feminist activism in Gainesville on October 19th. If you'd like to come, send me an email.



These are thank-you cards I use in my business. They are found images of airplanes sewn onto cardstock using red thread and a sewing machine. I get rave reviews for these since most of my customers aren't super artsy and don't expect repairfolk to sew. They're a great way for people to remember me and my service.





One of these days I'll share my Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree card collection. For the past seven or so years, my homemade holiday card has been based on the tree (I'm a little obsessed.) I'm currently working on this year's edition. I'm also working on a large installation for one of the huge walls in my living room. I found some great 1'x1' canvases for 50 cents each at my favorite thrift store in the world, a Goodwill in St. Pete. I bought nine of them and plan to use them to create one large image. I'm about 89% sure what it will look like and really excited to try out some new painting techniques with this project. I should finish it this month since Tim's going into seclusion for a few weeks to work on the comps for his dissertation, leaving me free to paint, paint, paint. Wish both of us luck!

thrift score!

I had a crazy busy weekend full of so many fun things: I witnessed USF beat WVU in Raymond James Stadium, spent a great evening hanging out with one of Tim's old undergrad buddies, got suntanned and blown away exploring Honeymoon Island, and went to an amazing Folk Art festival in St. Pete. But what am I most excited about? The most amazing thrift score in recent memory!

We're bumming around the Salvation Army in Clearwater off US 19, which we'd passed a dozen times but always figured wasn't that great (SAs are so hit or miss nowadays.) We'd been thrifting earlier in the day and I'd found some cute daisy glasses I would have purchased, except that they were $2 -- each! For a used, paint-peeling-off tumbler! I remarked -- for the millionth time -- about how if you really wanted to get rid of something, you'd price it to move. Ever since eBay, thrifts are so pricey. Not everything is worth a ton of money, you know? Anyway, I was impressed with how reasonably priced everything at this SA was. Obviously, this was a thrift that didn't care about the provenience of their merchandise -- I saw Candlewick stemware for 50 cents a glass! There was an unusually great collection of both dining room suites and china sets. If you know me at all, you know I am obsessed with china. I would have 10 sets if I had the room (and I already have three complete sets!) So I was wistfully looking at each classic pattern when I stumbled upon one of the most amazing things I've ever seen -- an entire set of green Blue Heaven!!


Now, I've collected Royal's Blue Heaven china for almost 10 years. I have a built-in Blue Heaven radar: I can actually find the lone Blue Heaven plate at the bottom of a huge stack of mismatched dishes with just a glance. And between thrifts, antique stores, and (heaven forbid) even eBay I've managed to amass 10 place settings and almost every additional piece -- platters, pie plates, coffee pots, even juice glasses. But after all these years I've NEVER seen the pattern in green. The set includes seven almost-complete place settings, a sugar bowl (with lid!) and two great serving bowls. The photo only shows part of the set -- the rest is drying after a good wash. The berry bowls also have an unusual feature -- a cool side handle. I was so excited I was speechless (another first?) Tim hasn't been thrifting with me for that long so he didn't really understand the magnitude of the find. I ended up with over 50 pieces for $29.99 (no tax in Pinellas County?) When we got home I raced to the computer to research my score. Apparently the pattern is called Mojave Green and is relatively rare (not on eBay, not mentioned on Royal's site, listed on Replacements Limited but with no pieces in stock, etc.) It made me smile all night, even through the Gators' ridiculous loss to Auburn. Now that's powerful!

In blog news, I'm working on getting my Flickr site updated, which means I'll be able to share more fun photos. I'm also trying to figure out how to customize my heading. Hopefully by the time October is over everything will be set up the way I want it. Stay tuned...