Our Saturday morning..

nursing our small summer garden and making breakfast... yummm!

Beginnings of spring

Planted two tomato plants, cucumber, strawberries, basil seeds, cilantro, rue, chili peppers and lavender yesterday. Still have our survived thai basil, rosemary, baby basil and african basil plants from last year in pots strewn about the kitchen and on book shelves. I love watching our thai basil and rosemary come back to life. The ultimate joy for me this weekend was getting my hands dirty once again. It's amazing how much of a difference a few more little plants on the window sill makes. We breath better, the cats enjoy having more plants to rub their noses on and nothing makes me happier than to nurture and protect them and watch them grow.

my knitting projects...

I've been experimenting a bit with my knitting lately. A project I have yet to complete is my second attempt at a scarf for s.. hopefully I will have it to him by the time winter comes around next year! I wanted to do something with stripes and I wanted it to look like the yarn had been recycled. I know there is a great recycled yarn by Knit one crochet two called second time cotton, that's really actually very beautiful..but Ive had the toughest time trying to find it in chicago. Actually one of the best tips I ever received, from the owner of a knit shop here in town called knit1, was to go to thrift store and buy a used sweater or two and rip it out and reuse the yarn. Of course you would have to prep it by drenching the yarn in water and leaving it to hang dry so it wasn't terribly awful to work with but I thought that idea was just brilliant. The perfect rainy day project.

some of our inside plants..our jade grew 3x its size since we brought him home and our echeveria "black prince" is growing a little guy!

http://www.domestic.fr/ :: s has this incredible vintage forest illusions wallpaper that we have been working to get permanently placed on our living room wall...but at domestic's site they showcase a multitude of wallpaper art that are really graphically beautiful. More simplistic in their designs, but I love the textures they give to living spaces.

organic farmers and me

S and I decided the best way to live in the city and eat the yummiest food around was to sign up to a local CSA and get our Organic veggies and fruits delivered to us. So we did! I can't wait for our first delivery. We have our little porch for planting and a few pots full of basils and rosemary, thyme and intend to grow our own organic tomatoes again this summer, maybe even a tomatillo or two, but we certainly can't do it all. We searched the web and S and I found a few places and alas, M's Organic Farm in Woodstock, Illinois makes deliveries right to our neighborhood of Logan Square! Can't beat that, plus they have seasonal recipes to guide you through staying experimental with the foods that are delivered. I'm excited to meet the farmers that grow our foods for us too. This is a first for me, which is really sad if you think about it. All of the foods I have ever eaten, besides the the herbs and one or two tomatoes S and I ate last summmer, have all been store bought... and who knows who grew them or how fresh they really are or how they are really grown. Our inspiration came months ago but other folks are eating only locally grown foods as well, such as colin beavan and his family. I have been reading his blog quite a bit lately. He and his family are living quite extremely, but it's inspirational and interesting to read. I have also been reding up a bit about urban planting at mr. brown thumb's blog. He lives in chicago, too.

My newest venture... fabric hunting.

I have decided in the midst of my learning to knit and playing with patterns and forms and certain project functions that i would start to play with other objects and materials. I have a bit of a crafty itch lately. S bought me this beautiful Singer Sewing machine for the holidays and a few beautiful items to hold my tools in while i travel and work. Needless to say I've been thinking a lot about what projects I wanted to do with my sewing machine and not doing much doing. So finally i am getting started! Well, at least I have my fabrics ordered. Not quite the forms of expression I am used to but i think better. I feel more comfortable letting the patterns of fabrics and shapes of sewn objects and hand sewn textures tell me about each piece I create rather than deciding it's destination and planning for it much like i used to do with my illustrations and drawings. Yes free form sewing and pattern making i think. So I'm just getting started...and I'll keep you posted as I graduate into a full fledged sewer. But for now if anyone out there has any tips to share with a newbee please feel free!