myrnamay

In Jars.

In which I frantically attempt to get things out of the garden & into jars.

 

The world's most low-key zucchini pickles, a combination of the Zucchini Pickles, Cafe Zuni Style from Poppytalk and Smitten Kitchen's Pickled Vegetable Sandwich Slaw. I didn't have any turmeric, I did not take the time to crush the mustard seeds, I did not use a mandoline, I added black peppercorns and garden jalapeños, I reduced the sugar....and they worked out perfectly. Freestyle.

 

A certain member of the household hates the word "chutney", so Slate's You're Doing It Wrong: Apple Chutney becomes Apple Voldemort: The Condiment Which Shall Not Be Named. The apples we gathered were a little sub-par, but this stuff was fantastic on Madhur Jaffrey's Shrimp & Onion Pakoras (with zucchini & corn taking the place of shrimp).

 

I'm currently thousands of miles from my beloved Bar Tartine, so when I needed to dispatch some beets as well as feel a tiny twinge of that ol' marble bar bliss, I made Bar Tartine's Pickled Dilly Beets from HonestlyYUM (except our garden dill had already gone to seed, so these aren't so dilly). Bleeding Heart Martinis are imminent. 

 

How did I ever wake up in the morning before I discovered jalapeño jelly? Toast or a bagel spread with peanut butter, jalapeño jelly, and a sprinkle of sea salt just might be the perfect breakfast. Complex carbohydrates, protein, and enough of a kick to open your eyes and make you excited to be alive. Sadly, I have no idea where I found the recipe. I was intimidated by the inclusion of pectin, but making it was as easy as jalapeño pie.

 

Finally, for now, we have Mark Bittman's Tomato Jam. I skipped the cinnamon and cloves and used less than 2/3 of the called-for sugar, and judging from tablespoon that I slathered on toast because it didn't happen to fit in the jars, this stuff, as the New York TImes said, exceeds expectations.

 

A Vase & A Promise

Echinacea, little bluestem, blue indigo, spirea, & serviceberry, in a pit-fired vase by Nedda Atassi from Gravel & Gold

For Christmas I gave a vase, along with a promise to keep it filled with pretty things. Stay tuned...

 

In situ, with apothecary jar matchstick bottle by Jen Pearson, another gift. And that guy!

Too many tomatoes? Whoever heard of such a thing!

Craft night, dude! Kelly & I put on some frocks and joined Jordan for her 2nd Craft Night event. I thought I was pretty cool stampin' my stamps & chattin' it up until Kelly showed up with sunny yellow fingernail polish that exactly matched her sunny yellow embroidery hoop. I believe one of us got served. Excellent group of crafty-types, plenty of blog-world insight, fantastic snacks, hell yeah.

And! One of the ladies (& yes, it was all ladies) had a bumper crop of tomatoes at her community garden in Oakland, where apparently it is both summer & sunny, and she was generous enough to share with us foggy-city girls. Bumper crop!- are there any two more beautiful words? Send me your bumper crop of anything other than mushrooms and I will bask in the glory of too much salsa/pesto/jam/greatness. You can see the sunshine just bursting out of the tomatoes, right?! Man!

And some days, if you're lucky, Japan comes to you.

Maker of tea-set unknown, but the sparkles on the wall are from this project!

One of the nicest things about living in San Francisco is that when things bring you down, you can always run away to Japan. Japantown is so lovely, and looks its best on a pearly, foggy day.  Many of my favorite afternoons were spent there, and many of my favorite objects were purchased there.

However, the set of teacups you see above was not bought, but won! Generous Leilani, just back from Japan, held a drawing for this set of five cups & saucers. I would have been thrilled to win just one cup & saucer- or even just one cup- and couldn't believe it when I won the whole kit & caboodle. Can I confess something? I totally cried. You know how when something nice happens to you at the very moment you need it most, and it's so sweet & overwhelming & such a relief? Totally. I love my new tea-set soooo much. Thanks, Leilani!

Moderato ceramics, available at Rare Device & New People the Store (in Japantown)

This dreamy pitcher & mug from Japn were purchased years ago at Rare Device, and I'm thrilled to see they are still carried there! The mug I bought with my Easter-basket money, on my way to the festivities in Dolores Park, where I proudly drank a mug of Champagne. The pitcher was a birthday gift last year, and though I rarely have my act together enough to pour cream into the pitcher and then into my coffee, it makes me happy just to see it sitting on the shelf. When I have my new-teacups tea party it will finally have a chance to shine.

Belfort notebook & Sarasa Pen from Kinokuniya Stationery

And here we have my most recent Japanese treasure, a notebook the color of the telephone at my...brand-new job! Perhaps there will be details soon, but for now I have my pink notebook, soon to be filled with copious notes & diagrams & sweet smudges!

No time for games, no time for frames

"Spend some time in the kitchen with your friends" by Brooke Budner

There have been many projects & messes happening around these parts, but since they either will be published or I have a dream they will be published, I can't talk about them! Here are some hints: Barbie's dream closet, emergency poppies, Plasti-Dip fumes, as many baskets as I can carry, & the definitive guide to R.V.s from 1983.

There have also been days when I absolutely could not bring myself to make anything. Just couldn't handle it. Does that happen to you? On days like that, and so many others, thank goodness that other people make things. Desperate for some beauty on my walls, but lacking both patience and dollars, I found ways to get my three current favorites up on the cheap & the quick & let's face it, the dirty. 

The charming print above is by urban farmer Brooke Budner, of The Greenhorns. I found it at Gravel & Gold but if you're not in San Francisco you can buy this one and others- bikes! tools! produce!- from Brooke's Etsy shop My poster hangs above the sink and is the perfect thing to stare at while washing dishes. Everyday I see something new, and am reminded of the oil lamps my parents use during the holidays, or the collection of eggbeaters I used to have. I just stuck the poster up with a clip, figuring my love will protect it from splashes.

"Prairie kitchen Helpers" by Screech Owl Design

Screech Owl Design does some of the loveliest printing I've seen- subtle colors & rich inks on luxurious cotton paper. I love the naturalistically-rendered birds in modernist settings, especially these two little chefs and that amazing stove. That's an Aga, right? Like in Raffaella Barker novels! I bought this card a year ago just to put up in the kitchen, & it's finally on the wall thanks to a 50cent office clip. I'm now one step closer to that house (& Aga) in the English countryside.

   "I made this for you" by Leah Rosenberg

And finally, glowingly, a poster by dear Leah, one of an edition of 1000 posters made with the intention of being given away. Isn't that lovely? This is technically the back, but you can see the bright stripes of paint on the proper side showing through. I am quite fond of grey, so that hint of color is just right for me. In a moment of picture-hanging inspiration, I attached it to my eyesore-fusebox with magnets. Why did it take me four years to figure that out? Magnets!

A thousand years of good luck

I was walking home the other night with a friend, immersed in the summery midnight hush of leafy residential streets & our ambling conversation. So immersed, in fact, that we walked three blocks farther than necessary. Of course, even after four years here, the diagonal San Francisco streets still confuse the hell out of me, but on this occasion I don't think I was to blame.

Along with cake, paintings, wine, & the rhythm of a great meal, we discussed living alone versus living with roommates. We're both 30-ish; she lives in a wonderful house with roommates, I find myself living alone for the first time in eight years. She is currently fond of her living situation, and I asked what she liked about it. She said she enjoyed the way things change.

Though I could be very wrong, I took that to mean the way objects and moods migrate around the house, the way things are different when you get home than when you left. The tiny clues that help you solve the mystery of other people, and let you piece together their day & their lives. Someone made a pot of French press, but had to rush to work before finishing their coffee. Someone has a bowl of bread dough rising. Someone opened all the windows in the warm afternoon, but now that the fog has rolled in they need to be closed.

It's surprisingly startling to have nothing change. When I arrive home everything is exactly as I left it. Obviously. There is, of course, the soothing cacophony of my street, the cozy evening sounds of my neighbor across the way fixing dinner & laughing with her children, and the surreal late-night festivity of my next-door neighbor shout-singing along with "Los Caminos de la Vida". But I'd like something more. 

On my unintentionally daily walk down Valencia, I happened upon an estate sale at the sylin' atelier House of Hengst. They were selling rad ceiling lamps, vintage sewing machines, a tempting Nagel, and hundreds of yards of mirror garland that once hung in their window. Because I am both a Valencia & a window dressing nerd, I remembered the display. I bought all I could carry, and walked home like a jingle-jangling disco ball.

There are worse ways to spend an afternoon than sitting on the floor, carefully untangling sparkles.

I draped about 1/3 of the garland in my window, and am enchanted with the effect. The reflections move across the otherwise standard ceiling, breezes produce bouncing lights & the softest tinkling.  

And what else, to create change? Flowers that bloom & fade rapidly? Twinkly lights on a timer?

A much simpler story to tell

The story behind yesterday's photo encompasses twelve years & four states, but today's is a breeze.

Last year I decided I was embroidering enough to justify buying a proper pincushion. Not that the knee of my jeans wasn't working splendidly.... I looked at thousands of pincushions on Etsy- some lovely, some appalling, none quite right.

After much fun-but-fruitless searching, I found the magical one you see above, at Accident & Artifact on Valencia. (It is a wonderful place.) I don't know the story behind this little pincushion, where it was made or found, but I do know I love it. And hey- five free pins!

The tiny baby deer is part of my extensive Tiny Baby Deer collection. So many deer, found in antique malls & flea markets & estate sales in the Midwest by the lovely Sue. They're all currently packed away except for this blue-eyed baby, but I have big plans for a Sparkly Lights Tiny Deer Winter Wonderland display come December...

Stories.

No stamps were stamped yesterday, but I did take a photo.

More to come.

Heath & Home

 

Dreamy, dreamy Heath Ceramics.

I was lucky enough to acquire a few of the cappuccino cups Heath made just for Blue Bottle Coffee. They're beautifully crafted, & quite sturdy of course, but after a year in a busy cafe there are bound to be some casualties. Each of the four above has a tiny injury: a fissure, a chipped handle. Their beauty is undiminished, and the candle-holders of my dreams were born.

Embroidery photo by Sam. Sorry about the moire-ing! The enlarged version is unaffected.

I fell for Heath when Blue Bottle opened their cafe in San Francisco's Ferry Building and I was commissioned to embroider a few signs- a thrilling & daunting task. I am a huge fan of Blue Bottle's aesthetic. Though my years at Miette taught me to embrace the pretty, my style definitely tends towards the Scandinavian/clean/modern/kinda masculine.

Grey, white, wood. 

So. For the life of me I could not sew that freakin' cappuccino cup & saucer. The latte mug & paper to-go cup went pretty well, but when I got to the cap I realized I had nooooo idea how to render something so curvy and three-dimensional. There were many, many ripped-out stitches, and plenty of pouting. Eventually we came to an understanding, and like an ornery puppy, the cappuccino cup had become my favorite.

And now I have one of my very own, neither chipped nor cracked, despite the fact that I use it every day and am world-renowned for my breaking skills.

Very impressive, Heath.