Working on a little something...

Hopefully I'll be wrapping it all up by week's end!
-Cut

~Weekending~

These past few days have really felt like we are transitioning into deep fall. The wood's behind my house is a riot of color... which seems to have been dialed up to max these past few days. The rains for our region have finally returned. The PNW was experiencing a bit of a drought this fall (for us) but in the last week we've managed to completely wipe all record of said drought from the books. I think it can be seen as both a blessing and a curse. I feel so lucky to live somewhere that can sustain me and provide a lush backdrop of green year round. But it was really nice to feel dry for a couple months... the wet just seeps into your bones this time of year and makes you perpetually cold and damp.


Anyways, I digress. With the return of the heavier rains it truly feels like a transistion is taking place away from the active time period of early fall when it's still warm enough for a t-shirt in the afternoon and a lot of time is still spent outdoors... to the more hibernating days of book reading, tea drinking and hand and feet warming.
With this being said why not spend a lovely Friday evening in with a good friend, warming up the kitchen with bubbling cider as you wait for it to boil down into a beautifully rich, cinnamony syrup to then make caramels with?

I know many of you follow the beautifully written and photographed blog Smitten Kitchen...well, this talented lady recently also became a cookbook author and both Carlie and I are super excited to meet here on her upcoming book tour. To hold us over until we have said cookbook in our own hands we decided to make these beautiful little caramels with a smack of apple that Deb so graciously shared last week. Please run right out and purchase all the supplies to make these caramels up immediately!!! You will not be disappointed!

Happy Weekend to you all,
Cut and Shoot

The Anthropologie Inspired Pillow

I'm sure many of you by now have seen the Orimono Pillow floating around pinterest and various sewing blogs. So many people are talking about their love for this pillow! And it's understandable, what's not to love about it? It's a very modern take on patchwork design, the photo of the pillow shows an arrangement of lovingly picked and placed fabrics (though it sounds like that isn't always the case when you read the reviews for this guy on Anthro) and it's a neat conversation piece wherever you decide to place it in your house.

And it's $88.00 dollars.

In this household, spending...wait no, thinking about spending $88.00 on a pillow is crazy talk. It's not that I couldn't scrape together $88.00 if I needed to. But wow come on! Wouldn't you rather spend that on awesome clothes (note the plural-ness of that word) or on an epic night out or ... really on just about anything. This pillow is a beautiful piece of art, but I'd almost rather frame $88.00 and lean that frame up against my sofa then spend it all on one pillow.

That being said, I totally looked at this thing and thought the thought I've had about a billion times in my adult life already. "I could make this" and with a smirk I added the second part to that thought that immediately follows: "...and it probably wouldn't cost me a thing!"

Deal sealed. I was making this pillow.

(Please note that at this point... all that conversation prior to this line was said before starting thus pillow and therefore complete and total reality has now set in concerning this creation.)

Now, this isn't really a tutorial on how to make this pillow. It's been on just about everyone's sewing board that I browse and their are many, many wonderful tutorials out there about how to make this thing already. This is more a bit of eye candy with a word of advice. So here goes: Give yourself time... don't rush this thing. It is one of those projects that loves to be picked up during a movie... or casual conversation with friends. It has it's sticky points... like when your creating a pattern for the tiny pieces that aren't meant to fit together perfectly. There were times I wanted to throw this thing against the wall. (Totally unsatisfying to throw fabric at the wall by the way). So heed my advice: give yourself time.

I walked away from this project for about 2 weeks ahem, 4 months... then I picked it back up and am attempting to finish it. (See where that monthly sewing basket challenge has made a difference?!) I love my pillow, and I love my total cost of $0.00 spent on the project. But I would charge way more the $88.00 dollars if I was making this for a client. Way more.

So here is to my almost finished project. Yippee!

Hoping to show you guys this thing in it's amazing whole-ness soon.  And I guess I am also encouraging all those out there like me who procrastinate on projects, who have a timeline of 2 weeks that gets blown out to 2 months or longer, who have the best intentions to keep plodding along but are easily swayed by shiny new projects they just can't wait to start... to keep on keeping on. You'll be so happy you did in the end.

Love,
Cut

Lemon-spiked Hummus

As the days are finally starting to grow warmer... and we start settling into a summertime routine that involves more outside then inside, more play then work, more family communal meals or meals on the go then the sit down variety we are so used to, I've found it immensely helpful to have a bowl of this made up and ready to go in the fridge each week.



This hummus is the perfect bridge between meals and I often eat it as lunch itself with a liberal helping of fresh cut veggies as dippers. (Cucumber spears and bell peppers are my favorite).
It's also incredibly portable and I've already taken it to several family barbecues and picnics in the last month... and only see that trend continuing.

If your like me in any way... you like your dips super flavorful... and this one does not disappoint! I like a good dose of lemon in my hummus... because I think it compliments the warm notes in the olive oil and chick peas while giving the whole dish a jolt of much needed flavor.

Hummus however is forever adaptable and this would serve as a good base to something:
~spicier (cayenne-roasted bells-chili flakes)
~earthier (good olive or other oil of your choice-toasted pine nuts-fresh oregano)
~or even playing around with your bean blend. I've already made a lentil/chick pea blend that I love as a sandwich spread.

Play around with it and see what goes over best in your household.

Lemon-spiked Hummus

Ingredients:

1 can (14 ounces) chick peas/garbanzo beans, drained
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 cup lemon juice (I only like fresh lemon juice and usually use the juice of 1-2 lemons)
1 large garlic clove
1 teaspoon tahini butter
2-3 good glugs of olive oil

Blend all ingredients together either with a food processor, blender or directly in the bowl with your immersion blender. Consistency should be solid, not runny... but not super thick like mashed potatoes either. Serve with a variety of vegetables, pita chips or wherever else you need a little extra flavor. Best served chilled.

The One Hour Project: Dish Towel Apron

I think that sometimes I get caught up in these epic projects that take weeks upon weeks to finish... and every once in awhile it would be good medicine to just complete a project in an afternoon... (or evening, once my little one has fallen asleep).

The other day I picked up a couple of bright dish towels from the *secret goodwill* (a local goodwill that never fails to present treasures for me to buy... and the location of which I've been sworn to secrecy by my sister and fellow bargain hunter) that were just dying to be made into an apron. They are cotton and the perfect amount of worn down with faded blooms and soft patches...

So I put together this quick tutorial for you all to make your own dish towel apron if the inspiration hits. Now something that should be noted about this particular dish towel apron: I hate the tutorials that use one towel... it is absolutely not enough fabric for me to use in a pratical way.

I don't know about how you all cook... but I am constantly using the sides of my hips to dust flour from my hands or quickly dry them after a dunk in soapy water. Thus being said I made sure the towels were just that: plural. That way they would span not only the front of my waist but wrap nicely around the hips a bit.

Please also take note that while it's totally possibly to only use fabric from the towels themselves, I like my aprons to hit just at the knee, so I also used a fat quarter scrap from my stash for the waistband. Any scrap in this case will do and you'll see in the tutorial below that really you just need something that runs the length of the top (waist) of your apron. Okay, on to the tutorial!

Dish Towel Apron

1. Lay out your towels on a flat surface and cut two sides of the hem from each. They must be two sides that are next to each other because these raw edges will become your center front of the apron and your waistband.

*Please note* that my print is not directional. Meaning it doesn't matter if I cut it and then flip one of the pieces "upside down" when moving on to my next step of placing right sides together. IF your fabric is directional make sure you cut the top and left side of one towel, and the top and right side of the other towel.










2. Place right sides together, making sure the raw edges are on top of each other.

3. Stitch together one of the raw edges starting from the hem and moving up to the other raw edge. Starting from the hem is very important in case your two pieces don't finish at the same time. If this happens at the waist you can compensate when applying the waistband... if this happens at the bottom hem, you need to re-hem the apron. No thanks.

4. Take your seam you just sewed and press it open with a hot iron. Once the seam is pressed open, I went back over the seam placing a staystitch 1/4" from the original seam on both sides on the right side of the fabric.

You could also finish your seam by serging it or binding it with some pretty scrap fabric from your stash. I was looking for speed more then attention to detail, but I've bound my apron seams before and liked the outcome.

5. Next we are going to slightly gather the top of the apron. I started by sewing a basting stitch line (basically the biggest stitches your machine will make) along the top of the apron. I then pulled on one of the threads while gently gathering the fabric along the top until it was the desired width for me. Once you have this figured out tie a knot with the thread so it will hold your gathers while you work on other parts of your apron.

6. Now grab your pieces that you cut from the towels in step one. There should be four of them. We are going to sew two of them together, creating two nice long ties for your apron.

Start by making the shape of an "L" with the two ties and place the foot on your sewing machine down so that you sew diagonally across the square the "L" will create.

Next open up the seam and press, and sew along the outside of the square in order to anchor down your seam allowance "flaps". Do this to the second set of cut hems and set both ties aside.


7. Now it's time to create your waistband. I literally grabbed a fat quarter piece from my stash (though anything with the correct length will do), measured along the top of my apron, added an inch (for seam allowance) and decided how high I wanted it to be (2" finished, which is then doubled and an inch of seam allowance is added to this as well, bringing the rectangle of fabric I cut out 21" by 5".) Because this is being sewn like a binding, you could cut your waistband on the bias, however I didn't.

8. Apply this to the body of the apron like you would a binding. Burdastyle has a wonderful tutorial on how to do this if your not quite sure.

9. To finish the edges of the waistband I poked them in on themselves, tucked in an apron tie on both ends and stitched down both sides of the waistband and ran a topstitch along the top of the waistband.


This was just a super fun, super easy project that left me feeling very accomplished for the day in regards to sewing. (And you know you are all super jealous of my "prime" in-front-of-the-garage-doors picture taking spot...)

If you decide to go forward with making one feel free to snap a photo and send it with a link to your blog if you have one. I love to see what other people are working on and the little things they add to a project to truly make it their own.

Enjoy and happy sewing!
Love,
Cut

On the eve of something wonderful

Tomorrow my little one turns 2! Or do-oo, as he likes to say, while holding up all five fingers.

So tonight finds me working on some birthday surprises for him. I think our overall plan to "make" his day tomorrow is to eat pancakes in the morning and then go hunting for airplanes. Hopefully the sunshine sticks around!

Hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

Tomato and Roasted Red/Orange/Yellow Pepper Soup

This was a soup born out of two separate needs: a) I desperately needed to use up some vegetables in the fridge TODAY and b) I really needed dinner to be hands off so I could attend to the towering pile of dishes that always seems to greet me by mid afternoon.

Tomato and Roasted Red/Orange/Yellow Pepper Soup

Ingredient List:

1 Parsnip, cut into chunks

2 Carrots, cut into chunks

Bag of Sweet Peppers (about 8 or 9)

4-5 Tomatos, quartered

1 Garlic Clove, top cut off

2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

Pinch of Salt, Pepper and Thyme

Toss vegetables in oil and sprinkle with herbs and seasonings. Roast for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

1/2 Yellow Onion, large dice

2 cans (14 ounces) diced tomatoes

3-4 cups of water

A small squeeze of tomato paste

Salt and Pepper to taste

I started by chucking the whole lot of expiring veg onto a cookie sheet and roasting them in the oven for about an hour. I started it at 350 and bumped it up to 400 for the last 15 minutes or so. My advice is just keep an eye on it. Roasting vegetables can be finicky business.

Not quite knowing what this experiment was going to be yet, I browned some large chunks of onion in a heavy pot, and threw in the roasted garlic after a couple minutes. I then dumped the entire pan of vegetables into the pot, stirring it for just a few seconds before adding 2 cans of diced tomatoes with their juice. I then stirred the whole thing up, and let my immersion blender do the work of blending everything super smooth. From here you could go a couple different routes. I chose to make soup by adding 3 or 4 cups of water to the mixture until it was the right thinness. You could however cook up a quick pot of noodles and ladle a spoonful of sauce over it for some super tasty spaghetti. I like a lot of basil in my homemade sauces because I think it gives it that extra special flavor... and having neither fresh nor dried on hand I decided to go the soup route.

Regardless what route you decide to take, I think you'll find this dinner to be extra rewarding due to it giving you the time to wipe up the counters and set the dishwasher into motion while it roasts and simmers away.

Enjoy!
Cut