Blue Tulip Hat

 

 

I finished this in early October and it's been great for meandering the streets of Holland. It's a free pattern via knitty.com called Foliage.

Now it's getting pretty cold here, so I may need to knit up an even warmer, non-lace hat. Perhaps this saucy little cloche will be next:

Christmas Knitting

These days, my knitting needles have been full of fun new projects.  Some for myself, some for friends, and some for new babies.   The problem is that I can't seem to focus on one and get it done!  Some just need to have buttons added, where others have quite a way to go.  But, in the meantime, I thought I'd share some of my works in progress.  Some of the other projects (non-kniting) I have on my plate right now, that I'm very excited about:  new vintage items to add to etsy shop, costume designs for theatre production of NINE, skirt for myself made of vintage fabric... phew... I'm keeping busy!  I can't wait to share some of my finished results.  Well, better get busy!!!  -S

Latest Dutch Escapades

Well, we haven't made it to other parts of Europe yet, but here are a few more photos of Tom and my time in Holland. Be prepared, it's a long post!

Tom with his red umbrella walking down a typical brick paved street in Haarlem (this is about as much of Tom as you'll see since it's like pulling teeth trying to take his picture)

 

Me looking like I can't decide which direction to go in Haarlem.

A Dutch castle called Muiderslot ("mouderslot") originally built in the 1200s, then re-built in the 1300s.

A very colorful nick-nack store in the town of Leiden.

Amsterdam Station-- yes, that's a train station, not Hogwart's. We usually take the bus from Vijfhuizen to Haarlem, and then the train from Haarlem Station to Amsterdam Station, since driving a car around Amsterdam is utter insanity! The streets are teeming with bikes, scooters, people, cars, busses, trams, one way streets, and multiple lane round-abouts!

An inside view of the Concertgebouw where we saw the Royal Dutch Orchestra play an evening of Mozart. Tom made up his mind to move here after that concert, it was so good!

 

Celebrating with our "Dutch family".  Joke was an exchange student who stayed with my mom's family when in high-school. She's remained part of the family ever since. These are her children and their significant others at a restaurant celebrating her son, Kees-Pieter's birthday. From lower left: Kees-Pieter, Eefke, Me, Frouke. Above left: Joke, Tom, Femke, her husband Rob, and Paulien, Kees-Pieter's girlfriend.  They're all incredibly sweet people with a great impish sense of humor!

Me in Haarlem overlooking one of the zillions of canals. More Dutch adventures to come! --L

Lord Flynn

 In response to the previous post, sister, here is Lord Flynn looking quite regal, if not a bit  peeved, in his knitted bow tie.   Hmm.... kittens! - S

Cute Overload

 What is cuter than animals and babies?

Animals and babies in hand-knit accessories, of course!

 

 

 

Hallo from Holland!

This is where I've been and what I've been up to for over the past month. Here I am at Kinderdijk, a place full of windmills and canals built as early as the 17th century.

Here is a snapshot of an old church edifice in Haarlem, one of my favorite towns in the Netherlands. Of course, no photo of a city in Holland is complete without bikes-- there are loads of them everywhere you look. This pic certainly doesn't do it justice!

And this is part of the town square in Delft, home of the famous Dutch blue and white pottery. I've already snagged myself a few Delft pieces to bring home with me-- vintage ones, of course. Stay tuned for more glimpses of my Dutch adventure... L

Applesauce!

 It was a beautiful fall day here in the midwest and it felt like just the right kind of day to make applesauce!  I've never made it before, but I had a bag of apples that I needed to use (which I purchased along the roadside in northern Mich), so applesauce it was going to be.  It was a pretty fun process, besides the endless chopping of the apples, I like the peeling part.  I followed the directions from America's Test Kitchen cookbook.  Being the silly girl that I am, I thought I would make a few changes, like add more water than asked and throw in some cinnamon sticks.  The cinnamon was fine, but the water just made it too watery.  And instead of using a apple mill, I threw it in the blender which made it a bit too pureed.  In the end, it was more like soup, but I'm still very proud of my accomplishment.  During the process, I also thought it was time to don my newish vintage apron that I found at an estate sale this summer.  It's just so pretty, I don't want to get it dirty (which kind of defeats its purpose).  

I hope everyone else is enjoying their fall, wherever they may be.  Also, if you have a hankering for other yummy apply treats, you must try this recipe for apple cake.  It is freaking amazing (and freaking easy). -S

"Hoo" I was for Halloween

I know we are a few days late on this one, but I wanted to share a quick picture of my costume!  I'm rather proud of how it turned out, considering I made it in about 5 hours.  I do need to give credit to this blog where I recieved my inspiration and downloaded the mask template.  I was originally going to dress as Luna Lovegood but I just couldn't get truly excited about that idea.  Anyways, sorry I don't have a picture of me wearing it in all its Halloween glory.  I think I'll have to recycle this costume for another year and probably do it up even more.  Maybe a feather mask??

Now that November is upon us, I feel I can get truly excited for Christmas!  I'm attempting to make all of the presents this year (which will be kept at a minimum).  I've gotten started already so hopefully it won't be a mad rush to the end.   Also, I am sooo thrillled that I will be spending my holidays with my darling girl, Monica, and her darling family in Boston!  So, look forward to many Christmas related posts which will probably include:   knitting, elves, cookies, and more!  -S

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Halloween

Happy Halloween Everyone!!! Here's a little blast from the past from the punk rock goddess herself, Siouxsie Sioux. Enjoy! -S

Creepy Crawlies!!

I just finished these creepy spider gauntlets for my dear friend Alyssa in San Francisco.   I thought they would be perfect for her since she loves Halloween-y things (all year round) and cuts hair, which she can easily do with these fingerless gloves.  Aren't they too adorable??  I'm very pleased with the result, and I sure hope Alyssa likes them too.

Speaking of Halloween, I still have a lot of work to do on my costume. My to-do list include making radish earrings and Spectorspecs.  Can you guess who I'll be???????? More to come on that.
P.S.  You won't be hearing from one of V.V. sisters for a while since she's off in The Netherlands for a month.  I sure am missing her!!!!! -S

Mmm...MUFFINS!

These muffins are so yummy and not too sweet.  I slightly altered a recipe for sugar-free banana muffins by adding blueberries and a little bit of honey.  Now, don't get me wrong, I love sweet baked goods, but sometimes it's good to have something a little less sweet (especially if you pair it with hot chocolate).  Plus, muffins are the perfect fall treat!

I was so happy with the results, both how they look and how they taste, I thought I'd share the recipe:

4 Bananas, Mashed
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 egg
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. flour (white or wheat)
1/3 c. melted butter
1/4 c. fresh blueberries
1 tsp. honey (optional)

So easy to make.  Just mix the wet and dry ingredients seperately, then mix together.  I added the blueberries at the very end so they don't get too mushy.
Makes 12 muffins in medium size muffin tin.  Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 mins.

Now, just make yourself a cup of tea, sit yourself in front of an old movie, and enjoy!!! - S

Halloween's A-Coming!

I'm starting to get excited about one of my favorite holidays!  I think I'll keep my costume a secret for now, but I wil say that it is Harry Potter themed... can you guess?  Well, I thought to get into the spooky spirit, I thought I'd share these fun vintage pictures of some very sassy ladies.  Aren't they delightful?  I'd love to know what your holiday ideas are.  Please do share! - S

Vintage Happiness

Over the summer I've become quite the garage/estate sale junkie.  And during those times, I came upon some real finds!  One thing that I always have my eye out for are vintage patterns.  I remember the days when I could walk into my local thrift store I easily find some adorable patterns straight out the 1950's, but these days they seem harder to come by.  So, I was so pleased to find a whole stack of patterns for sale that I haggled down a bit on the price.  These are some of the better ones, at least by their picture on the front.  I don't know if I'll ever get around to making any of these (I still need to assess if all of the pattern pieces are there) but the fashion illustrations are so fun to look at.  I especially like the hairstyles- what great inspiration! 

I have another very special item that I acquired thanks to my friend Marge that I will hopefully blog about soon... here's a hint:  HATS!!! -S

Peddling My Wares...

Here's a little glimpse of my booth at an antique mall called Town Peddler.  I hope y'all stop in and check it out if you're in the area.  It's a little messy right now since I just moved everything from one corner to another, but this gives the general idea.  I'd say the majority of items currently featured in my booth are from the 1950's, though it's constantly evolving. Gotta love that Lassie paint-by-numbers! --L

Mad Men and Me

This was a rather silly diversion, but I couldn't help myself.  Although I'm not a completely devoted Mad Men viewer, I do love to tune in and stare in awe at the costumes and set design.  Sometimes the storylines get a little too soap opera-y for me.  Then I discovered this Mad Men tool on their site that allows you to create your own personalized Mad Men character, and well, I just had to try it.  This was is what I came up with.  I think she's a bit more Peggy than anyone else.  -S

Dr. Seuss aka Dinosaur aka Strawberry Lemonade Cake

Here's our spontaneous crazy cake that we sisters made a few days ago.  It all started with a box of strawberry cake mix that Tom was pressuring us to make one evening.  Leiza then went a little wild with her creatively decorated lemon flavored frosting.  In the end, it was very sweet and yummy, but we still can't decide what it should be called.  It seems to look like a dinosaur egg or something straight out of a Dr. Seuss story but also cute as a glass of pink lemonade.  It is quite the conundrum!  Well, I guess the most important thing is that it looks sooo darn pretty!  As we try to hold on to the last bits of summer, I'm sure we'll continue to make summery confections that we will be mighty obliged to share with y'all.  - S & L

Knitting Inspiration: Island at War

I was recently re-watching one of my all time favorite BBC series called Island at War. I have a little bit of an obsession with WWII related stories. They can be very sad, but also completely inspiring. Besides the stories themselves, I am always in awe of the lovely costuming done for those series. While I was watching this one, I couldn't help noticing all of the amazing knitting going on! This is just a sampling of the beautiful knitted work. I especially love the girl's blue sweater and beret. I wish I was a good enough knitwear designer to recreate them... sigh. I can at least try to make her oh so cute beret! -S

Pretty Pink Soup

Guess I'd better catch up with my sister and finally add something to this blog of ours! So here's what we had for dinner tonight. I used up the last remaining veggies left in the garden and whipped up a batch of my favorite soup. Yummy! I don't use a recipe, I just try to make it taste like my Russian mamushka's soup. I started by sauteeing onions and garlic in olive oil, added chopped carrots, celery, a little bell pepper, potatoes, cabbage, a little zucchini, beets, tomatoes, and lots of fresh chopped dill. Add water and boullion, salt, pepper, a splash of balsamic vinegar, about a teaspoon of caraway seeds and about a tablespoon of brown sugar. Cook it all up until the veggies are just the right softness. You can't tell from the photos, but the broth is a lovely shade of pinky-magenta, due to the beets. Along with the soup, Stephanie made a pan fried pioneer bread and Tom made a salad, also with veggies from the garden and a tasty vinagrette. Mmm, I'm getting hungry all over again! --L

Something to feast your eyes on...

I'm finally posting pics of the lovely cupcakes my sister & I made for our little Labor Day shin-dig.  I have to say, considering we whipped them together mighty fast, they turned out DELICIOUS!  I really wanted to incorporate raspberries into them, but I knew I needed chocoalte too.  The solution:  Chocolate Raspberry frosting!  All I can say is "yum".  In fact, I was a little bummed when I realized our guests ate them up so fast that I only ate 2... guess we just need to make more.  -S

Pin Curls & Clara Bow

Here is my first attempt at vintage style pin curls.  It wasn't quite as laborious as I would expect, but I'm not sure if I will attempt it every time I shower.  I went by Strawberry Koi's tutorial which was very helpful.  The results:  CURL MADNESS.  I tried to tame it down by brushing it out and adding some bobbypins to pull it back.  Although it was rather crazy, I did love the results.  I'm one of those straight-haired gals with curly-hair envy.  sigh.

When I was messing around with my new curls, I was reminded of some of my favorite 1920's film sirens, in particular, Clara Bow.  I don't know if it's our redhair that we have in common or her amazing performance in"It", but she has always been my favorite 1920's stars.  Here's a little tribute to her:

By the way, I hope all of you lovely viewers like Vogue Vigilante's new look!  I've been messing around with how to make it look a bit more pro.  Still kind of working on our header, it's a work in progress.  I have many more posts in the works, including some amazing cupcakes made for Labor Day celebrations.  See ya! -S