Gloaming Designs

4th away

my first fourth away from my homeland and it was missed.

we celebrated it at home on the 2nd with a festive dinner:

Burgers with sauteed shallots, homemade ketchup, mustard, arugula, mayo, and homemade buns

simple zucchini salad with mini basil (from our 'balcony garden')

fresh peach Half & Half (half homemade lemonade, half homebrewed sencha iced tea)

free-form peach tart













how proud i am to be a part of such a beautiful country.  i am grateful to be american.

i nearly cried when i listened to this and how did i never know this story of the flag?

last year at this time (in maine):



tune in tomorrow to see why we couldn't celebrate independence on the 4th: a wedding of R.'s childhood friend.

a walk with tea

before & after : june 23 2009

a new idea.  things change.  before & after.

it' s been a little busy but i'll get back on track here!

Rosa

now in the shop:





a custom silhouette of you or a loved one mounted an a vintage appliqued organdy round and vintage linen.  so beautiful, i nearly kept it myself!

Driving to Paris with an Engineer

R. is an Alternative Energy Engineer.
right now he is working in solar but really, it all interests him.
he's like a little boy looking at that stuff.

so, that means that when we are lucky enough to borrow his mom's car to drive back to the city (instead of the train), we end up here:



the very flat region between Orléans and Paris is dotted with these enormous wind turbines.



i love when they are all on at once; their rotation is not super fast and they are so graceful.
and, as this was my first time under one, i got to hear what it sounds like.  i have to say, it wasn't at all loud and it was actually a very soothing sound - almost like really regular little gusts of wind.  i wanted to make a video but the camera battery didn't have enough juice.



BIG.  that linear shadow going so far over the fields?  the wind turbine.  and we can't even see the shadow of the blades it's so far away.



as you can see, the blades make a diameter of about 295 feet.
(so i just did a quick google search and figure that the blades are roughly 24 stories tall.  oh dear lord.)
the entire thing reaches 410 feet in the air (approx. 34 stories) and can produce 2,300kW.



so that's what we were standing under sunday night on our way back home.



but you better bet he checked out every corner of the place before we left.

In The Shop! In The Shop!

i am so excited about these new items in my shop!!

four Pause Tea Sets



they each include a vintage teacup and saucer (from the French Brocantes), a vintage silver spoon, and a handmade petite place mat decorated with vintage lace or ribbon.



each set comes packaged in a beautiful vintage linen bag custom made for each set.



i am so in love with them!  there will be many more in the future.
(yup, that's tied with vintage ribbon, too!)



can't you just imagine grabbing a few precious minutes on your own to curl up with a book and open your tea set to have a cup of tea with some sweet little treats ... dreamy!

sigh.
i think i need to have some tea now.

--  and, en plus, as they say, more shop loveliness coming this week!!  --

Happy June 1st!

Weekend en Semaine

yesterday was a holiday here in france.  and it was soooo lovely.  the one day felt like a whole weekend.  which makes the fact that today is friday and the two days of the weekend are just around the corner feel extravagant.

our choose of activities was a happy accident that made it feel like we really left the city.  we started in the city and walked the Promenade Plantée out of the city for its entire length.  a large length of the walk is actually on an old raised train track.  it is so lush and well planted that the illusion of not being in the city is nearly complete.  the many rose vines were literally dripping with huge, full, vibrantly colored blooms, including the cabbage roses i love.

 



when we got to the end we were nearly at the circle of highway which marks the edge of the city proper and so continued a short distance to reach a place i've wanted to visit since we moved in our nearby apartment: the Bois de Vincennes.  this is where i felt myself take flight.  as if i needed more proof that i am not a city girl, i couldn't help it, when we set foot in that wood i felt light and at home.

i was not the only one, the group of ladies above where dancing together and singing 'la vie en rose' at the tops of their lungs!  so wonderful!







in total we walked something like 6 miles.

the best part is that this is all nearly in our backyard;  when we were looking for an apartment i told myself that i was going to trust.  how was i supposed to know the truly best place for me in this unknown city?  and there are somethings, like the Bois de Vincennes, which make me realize all the time that i have some great people up there looking out for me.

when we got home i made us a feast of homemade tortillas with avocado, tomato, white beans, red onion, cheddar, and creme fraiche.  i used nie's tortilla recipe (using white flour because it's all i had) and seriously, in my exhausted, preoccupied state, it was still ridiculously easy.  i made the dough, chopped the toppings, and by the time the chopping was done, the dough was ready to go.  there is really no reason for me to ever buy tortillas again!  try it.  seriously.

 happy weekend!

so you don't have to wonder

i really wanted muffins.
but i didn't want to buy a muffin pan because i have 2 wonderful ones in storage back in the U.S.
i'm like that.  i'll leave clothes behind so i can have enough room to bring back, as i have in the past, a kitchen rug, kitchen knives (in the checked luggage!!!), books, candlesticks, beach stones and driftwood, and more.  last time i even brought back my collapsable Starck for Target cozy chair.
but the muffin tins haven't made it in yet.

no matter, i'll just put the cups in a cake pan i thought and bought some paper liners at monop'.  i prepared the selected recipe (from Elle à Table) for apple and oat muffins and just as i was about to bust out the muffin cups my eye caught the line on the front of the pacakge: ne pas mettre au four (do not put in oven).  what?.

so, i did it anyway.



so, you can cook with monoprix paper cups and you can make muffins without a muffin pan.
the muffins will be anything but round, but, hey!  they're still muffins.
and i did this experiment so you don't have to wonder.


and i wanted muffins.

Ikea!

last weekend we went to Ikea for the kitchen island we've been dreaming of since we moved in in november.  it's love.  and i love ikea.  this gives us the counter space we really needed and a visual separation between kitchen and, well, everything else as it's a studio apartment.  before, i literally only had one kitchen drawer so the silverware was kept in a pitcher on the counter.  i don't mind the look, we had the same in our last apartment, but when you have a 20" x 24" total workspace, it gets tight.  i know plenty of you fellow apartment-dwellers have the same problem!  so the joy of 2 (!) more drawers and a place to hide silverware, well, it's very nice.

we also got a few smaller things on the top of our wishlist, most notably, a trashcan.  no more trash bag just hanging out on the floor!  but, the serious and unexpected thrill of the trip was finding the little blue and green set perched on the island in the photo.

i had searched the internet the previous week looking for a popsicle mold that was simple and didn't require disposable wooden sticks but to no avail.  what i found listed was either too price-y, too fussy, or too far away to ship.  but there, with the last minute impulse buys near the registers at ikea: simple popsicle mold.  for 2€.  sold!  i should have gotten 2.  but i can't wait to try it out and have started a list of flavor combos.  at the top of the list for the moment: pineapple, basil, lime.  i'd love to hear any favorite combos you guys have!

p.s. new banner and layout on the blog!  yea!

p.p.s. Abigail has offered one of her gorgeous illustrations for free download.  you can frame this and have some art on your walls in no time!