More on Aprons

It's good to see the good, old-fashioned apron has made a comeback in pop culture! Look at what Pam is doing over at Bella Pamella. (Be sure to read her How it all Started.) And then, sneak a peek at the Heavenly Hostess line. Out of this world, aren't they?

In the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness...

...this blog is being re-drafted. We beg you will pardon the inkblots.

The Emmeline Apron

Remember my raving about the charming Emmeline apron that combines elegant empire styling with contemporary appeal? Well, here's the result of my splurge on the pattern and a trip to the Wal-Mart fabric department!

An old-fashioned pairing of blue and white toile and chambray. (You can't see the pattern too well, but it features children climbing trees and entertaining themselves in other constructive ways!). The apron is actually two, and the reverse is a more contemporary print that looks like blue watercolor splashes on a light blue sky.

Simple little pleasures

"The nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splended or wonderful or exciting happens, but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string."

~L.M. Montgomery,
Anne of Avonlea

Pizza the Great

A nice alternative to brick-oven pizza is iron-skillet deep dish. Here a basic wheat crust was pressed into a 12" skillet that had been sprinkled with cornmeal.

For toppings, how about pizza sauce, organic ground beef, sauted broccoli and spinach, red bell pepper, mushrooms, onions and a smattering of cheese?

Bake at 425 F for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 375 F for another 10, and finish off for a final 10 minutes at 400 F. Serve with olive oil for dipping the extra crust.

Buon appetito!

Guitar Lessons

When you're named for a jazz guitarist, you pretty much grow up thinking you were born to play guitar. I was named after Larry Coryell. I don't play guitar. I don't own a guitar. I don't even consider myself musical, although I sing and play piano. But I want to play guitar. Always have. I've tried to play but haven't stuck out practicing past the initial sore-finger stage. When a friend heard I wanted to take up the guitar this summer, she was, unwittingly, an answer to prayer when she offered to let me borrow the guitar her elderly mother gave her. A $500 Fender, never played, not a scratch. I said yes, please. Today, I signed up for lessons with another friend. Thursday is the day. My fingers are numb, but I know five chords and my strumming is improving already.

Here's the deal, and this applies to other things besides guitar playing: you don't practice, you don't succeed. It's not as if people are born with magical powers enabling them to excell at whatever they make look so easy. We're born with the capacity for greatness, and we have to work hard to achieve it. (I'm a good cook, but not because I was born with a wooden spoon in hand. I've been practicing my culinary arts for over twenty years until cooking seems utterly natural to me. If my friends think its genius, I must re-inform them! It's practice, practice, practice!)

Commending Love's Labour

Maybe you, dear reader, will recall these sweet faces from earlier posts, though never in the same picture before. Our friends Grant (the Minnesota correspondent) and Gwen (the picnic conspiritor) graduated from C of O this month and are planning to be married July 18th. Their friends in all parts of the world wish them every happiness in the life they will build together. "God...bless, preserve, and keep you; the Lord mercifully with his favour look upon you, and fill you with all spiritual benediction and grace; that ye may so live together in this life, that in the world to come ye may have life everlasting. Amen." (from The Book of Common Prayer)

Lovely Aprons

I'm in love. With the Emmeline apron. Not only is it in modified empire style, it's reversible. Pretty much perfect, if you ask me. Meg, you're a genius!

A close runner-up in my affections are Stephanie's belles choses: regency aprons and others, including an amazing Alice-in-Wonderland apron deluxe!!