Antique embroidery

We strolled around Cold Spring, NY this past weekend and I found some neat old embroidery pieces in the antique shops there:

Please forgive the lousy cell phone photo -- it reads: 


TO A FRIEND'S HOUSE
THE ROAD IS NEVER LONG
E.H.B. 1932


I really liked this blackwork piece:

I also saw a very sweet antique plate that read: "When two fond hearts unite -- the yoke is easy -- the burden light." I wasn't able to get a decent photo of it, but I thought it might be a cute saying to stitch up as a sampler myself. I guess this will have to go on the (growing!) project idea list...

Ed Emberley-inspired fox embroidery!

Steven and I recently rented Fantastic Mr. Fox, and ever since then, I have been obsessed with the idea of stitching up a little fox embroidery of my own. 


That's when I remembered that I still had a copy of my cherished childhood book, Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals. When I started thumbing through it, I knew I had found the inspiration for my next piece.


Ed Emberley is an American artist whose work appears in over 50 books. I adored my Ed Emberley instructional drawing books when I was growing up, because they showed me, step by step, how to create pictures using simple shapes and lines. 


Here's the cover of my book:

(Do you notice that some naughty child colored in the ear and tusk of the elephant in blue? Let the record show that I am pretty sure it was my younger brother, and not me, who was responsible for this act of defacement. But let's move on.)


Here's the inside:

And the back cover:

And here's Mr. Emberley's beautiful fox:

I had some felted wool laying around that I had taken from a thrift shop sweater, and I decided to create my fox on the sweater pocket. Felted wool is definitely my favorite fiber to stitch on. Since it is hard to sketch out a design on wool, I drew my idea first on the Sulky Solvy water soluble stabilizer that I got last month, and basted the stabilizer onto the fabric. I didn't shoot any photos of this, but I loved working with this stuff, and will absolutely use it with all my wool stitching projects from now on. It washed right off in warm water when I was done -- easy peasy!


And here's how it came out:

Here's a closer view:

And his little face. 

After I stitched the fox, I thought he looked like he'd enjoy some flowers. Here they are:

As the Fantastic Mr. Fox might say: 


"That was pure wild animal craziness." {whistle! click click}

Summer noshing

We had houseguests this weekend and it gave us an excuse to load up on lovely summer produce and make some delicious recipes that we rarely find time just to make for ourselves.


There's a brand-new greenmarket at 1st Avenue and 27th Street, close to my job, where I snagged these amazing peaches on Friday:

These were halved, brushed with butter, grilled, and then served with ricotta cheese, honey and toasted almonds. You can literally throw this dessert together in 20 minutes!


And I wanted to serve yogurt, granola and fresh berries for breakfast today before our guests hit the road, so I was thrilled when our grocery store had these perfect local blueberries:

I've never made lemonade from scratch before, and I wanted to have a really refreshing summer drink in the house, so I tracked down an excellent lemonade recipe that calls for mint, ginger and honey.   


Fresh Mint and Ginger Lemonade

via epicurious

yield: Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 
  
• 1/2 cup (packed) chopped fresh mint leaves
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh ginger
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups (about) cold water

• Ice cubes
• Fresh mint leaves
• Lemon slices

Lemons and mint leaves:

Chopped ginger:

Preparation:

Combine chopped mint, ginger, and honey in medium bowl. (I decided to zest a couple of our lemons and throw the zest in at this point for a stronger lemon flavor.)

Add boiling water. Let steep 30 minutes. Strain into 4-cup glass measuring cup, pressing on solids to extract liquid. (I tossed the ingredients into a bit of cheese cloth so that I could really squeeze all the juicy goodness out.) Add lemon juice (I juiced 4 lemons and I had more than enough juice for this recipe) and cold water to measure 4 cups total. 

(Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Fill glasses with ice cubes. Add lemonade. Garnish with mint leaves and lemon slices and serve. 

I was so excited to drink this stuff that I forgot to photograph the end result, but it pretty much looked like lemonade, but a little darker because of the honey. I just loved that the lemonade was sweet enough with only honey as a sweetener!

Cheers!

Summer Sassy

It's finally cooler where we live today, but for the last week we have been in the middle of a scorching heat wave. It's times like this when I'm very glad that we give Sassy a short summer haircut each year. Here he is, lazing about under the ceiling fan before the heat broke:

Would you just look at this face?

Speaking of adorable creatures, I can't wait to show you the fantastic little fox that I stitched up last week! Photos coming soon...

Happy 4th of July!

I love decorating for holidays in the summertime, because I can put up some red, white and blue stuff for Memorial Day, and leave it all up for Independence Day and beyond. I had a little flag on our dinner table for awhile this summer...

...but then our apparently treasonous cat decided to defile it by poking his fangs through it several times. Rather than just toss it out, I thought I would use the fabric to whip up a couple of patriotic buttons for the Fourth of July. Here they are:

Later on, we're going to meet some friends to watch the fireworks here in Beacon, which are made possible by donations from generous local businesses and residents. Wishing you and yours a happy fourth of July and a fun long weekend!