please welcome...oh and the winner is...

To contact us Click HERE
So, for the long-awaited, most delayed giveaway results ever, finally we have a winner...

and it is number 9...Gill! Gill has the pleasure of choosing which set of 3 pouches she would like. If you didn't win and would like to make your own pouches, or something else completely from this fab range, head over to Saints and Pinners to get yourself some of the fabric.
Other news today, in case you have been sleeping all weekend and haven't yet heard, is that the wonderful website to get all your Kona solids here in the UK - along with other lovely fabrics - has changed hands from Mandy to Justine.

This is a very exciting new venture for our lovely nurse, quilter, mother of 3 friend and I hope you will all give her a warm welcome.
Justine has big plans for Simply Solids. As well as continuing in Mandy's great footsteps, she has exciting new plans too, which will be revealed over time. Simply Solids offers free postage on every order over £15and Justine would love to hear from you if you would like certain colours stocking and other collections. Personally, I'm after her stocking Quilter's Linen...
To welcome Justine Lynne is doing a giveaway, so head over to her blog to read all about it and enter.
To celebrate the launch Justine is offering for this weekend only, every order will receive a free random FQ for every £10 spent in the shop. The offer will run from today thru to midnight on Monday 17th September!! What are you waiting for...GO!!

what's new...

To contact us Click HERE
It's that time of year when there are lots of new fabric lines entering our shops and The Village Haberdashery has some great new collections landing.
Storyboek Two, organic cottons from Birch fabric is just as whimsical and fun as the first and includes this very cute bunny and fox design. I am so excited about Oh Deer by Momo and can envisage plenty of Christmas related projects with the fabulous Deer in cherry.For something a bit different go check out the sophisticated Indie from Art Gallery fabrics. I particularly love the Tapestry design which will be a fantastic blender in winter inspired projects.


To make way for all these delicious new fabrics, Annie has thrown even more fabrics into her Sale section...and boy what a sale section. There is 15% off summer hits including Crabtastic, Flea Market Fancy, Alegria, Happy Drawing and Hello Pilgrim. I have a feeling you will need to be quick to grab some of these as well as up to 20% on other lines too.



Head over to the sale section now and explore all the new lines too while you are there.
Happy shopping!

giveaway...and a weekend offer!

To contact us Click HERE
Unless you have been sleeping all summer, you will be as excited as I am to see the arrival of Anna Maria Horner's new collection Field Study in our stores.
 As ever, Anna Maria has given us yet another to-die-for collection and Field Study is no exception.A sense of adventure and the idea of investigating the natural world up close and from afar was at the core of every print that Anna Maria Horner created for Field Study.
 Whilst there is something for everyone in this collection, it will come as no surprise that my favourites are Sundials and Corodinates, but I am rather drawn to Raindrops and Specimen. 

The question is, what are your favourites? And this is a decision you do need to make as my lovely sponsor M is for Make is offering a bundle of any 6 FQs of your choice to 1 lucky winner.3 chances to win this fab prize...1. leave a comment letting me know which design grabs you most...2. sign up to Kate's newsletter (scroll down to the bottom here) and come back and let me know...3. Follow Kate's blog and come back and let me know here.

Giveaway open (to UK residents only this time I'm afraid) until end of next week, Friday 5 Oct...oh and please make sure you have an email I can get you on, otherwise I will have to redraw. Bossy, I know, but needs must.
Other great news, Kate is offering 15% off everything over the weekend but is kindly opening that early to you lovely blog readers and is available now (now, I said, go, go, GO!). Simply enter Blueberry at the checkout any time from now until 8pm GMT Mon 1 Oct.
Good luck and happy shopping!

what's new...Stateside...

To contact us Click HERE
Boy has Brenda been stocking up!Pink Castle Fabrics is now stocked to the rafters with all the latest and best lines out there.
The Liberty has started rolling in and she expects to be fully stocked on that by the end of next month.
 Mama Said Sew has landed and as you would expect the texty prints are selling out fast. It's a great great line and if you haven't discovered it yet, you won't be letting this pass you by, trust me.
 You can find all the Robert Kaufman Spots on Dots collection...all 65 of them!Then there's Melody Miller's Ruby Star Vinyl. What fun! Love them, particularly this print below.

Did I mention that all this week Brenda is doing 20% off of all precuts and bundles in the shop.  That includes FQ packs of full lines (and a little FQ pack of Liberty) ? No? Well I have now, so what are you waiting for??
Have a great weekend!

quilting magic...

To contact us Click HERE
Every now and then my fabrics have the opportunity to be turned into something magical by talented quilters.This time the incredibly talented Jane of quiltjane has weaved her amazing magic with some scraps of my fabrics.Take a look at what Jane did here...

...be prepared to be amazed.
In the meantime, for the opportunity to weave some magic of your own with Anna Maria Horner's Field Study, don't forget to enter my giveaway here.

Summer Dinner Party, Awesome (and Easy) Appetizer & Old Family Recipes!

To contact us Click HERE



I hosted a dinner party for ten on my back porch last night. It turned out really sweet. My guests said all the food was amazing and we sat around and chatted well into the night. Family I had not seen in many years came down and it was nice to catch up. Earlier in the day I was a little worried about the weather--there were thunderstorms predicted, but it turned out to be a perfect night for eating out and grilling on the deck. Shown is a super easy appetizer that I make often because people love it so much. It's a simple recipe using hummus and feta cheese. The other dish is our favorite Summer Salad. We ate Strawberry Shortcake and Ice Cream Pies for dessert. In case you're hosting a dinner party of your own soon here's my super easy recipe for a tasty appetizer.Hummus & Vegetable DipTake a  container of your favorite hummus (I used a spicy version)Sprinkle a half cup of crumbled feta on topSlice and chop fine your favorite fresh summer vegetables ( I used finely sliced cucumber, red onions, diced fresh tomatoes and chopped yellow pepper) -Sprinkle the cut vegetables on top of the feta and hummus. Serve with your favorite cracker. I love the Simply Naked plain Baked Pita Chips.As for the old family recipes, my guests mentioned they still have a lot of my grandmother's recipes (my dad's mother) written down and they are going to share them with me the next time we get together. I can't wait to try some of them. She was a woman who raised ten children. I can only imagine how much cooking and baking she must have done over the years.

Falmouth Heights on Dwellable

Falmouth Road Race & Super Yummy Lunch with Old Friend!

To contact us Click HERE
Last Sunday was the 40th Annual Falmouth Road Race. It's always an extra busy weekend with tons of people in from out of town. My oldest daughter is an avid runner and runs on the Falmouth High School Track Team and Cross Country Team.

She ran her first Falmouth Road Race this year and it was so much fun to be there for her and cheer her on from the sidelines. She did awesome! And I know I'm just a proud mama, but she really does have a knack for running and she loves it.

She ran nine minute miles and she said the last two miles were a killer. It's that last steep hill as you approach the finish line that seems to challenge the runners most. The cool thing is you run along the water that overlooks Martha's Vineyard so the views are gorgeous.

Later that afternoon I had plans to meet a good friend of mine. Both of our lives are so busy so we don't always have a chance to get together as much as we'd like. But when we do it's always such a fun time.

 I had lunch ready for us back at my house before we headed out for the day. We decided to take a drive down Cape out to Province town. We wanted to walk the rock jetty, maybe ride our bikes out to race point and then do some people watching and shopping along Main Street.

 I made a big fresh leafy green Salad, and I put together a special thin crust pizza topped with fresh tomatoes, roasted fresh sweet corn and black beans tossed in a bit of light olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette then topped with fresh Mozzarella and Parmesan. I served black raspberry ice cream with whipped cream and a cranberry biscotti on the side for dessert.

Recipe for Linda's Black Bean & Roasted Corn Thin Crust Pizza

Take a thin crust and place onto a pizza stone
In a small bowl toss 1/4 cup fresh diced tomatoes, freshly cut corn off a single cob, 1/4 cup black beans, Tbsp. light olive oil, Tbsp balsamic vinaigrette and salt and pepper to taste
Spread onto the crust
Top with 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan and 1 cup freshly grated mozzarella
Bake in 425 degree oven for about 15 minutes until crust browns and cheese melts.

Holding on to Summer

To contact us Click HERE



"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time." ~ John Lubbock

      This past week I certainly could have skipped spending two days at Wood Neck beach and the next at Menahaunt but like Lubbock suggests it was 'by no means a waste of time".
My teaching semester is about to get underway, I have an article coming out soon and my kids are busy with back to school preparations and sports practice. So there was plenty to do.
 Yet the way I see it -- all too soon my children will be at school all day and I will be teaching then rushing from one activity to the next.
So for now we did what made the most sense: we called a friend, grabbed our suits and headed down to the beach.
Surprisingly I didn't turn my oven on all week (this might just be a first) yet we did use the grill to make burgers and dogs (a summer favorite).
The photograph above is from a sunset walk I took earlier this week with my girls down to South Cape Beach.

Family Dinners

To contact us Click HERE
Did you happen to see my recent article in the Upper Cape Enterprise Magazine in the Family Supplement that came out last Friday?  I wrote a piece on the topic of "Family Dinners" . I talked about things like getting picky eaters to eat, getting kids to eat healthy and ideas for getting dinner on the table easier. I shared a recipe for Linda's Sour Cream & Chicken Enchilada's, a favorite at our house and I wanted to share a photo of the enchilada's we made for dinner last week. If you're in town and get a chance, check it out.

Autumn, Apples and Baking Pies!

To contact us Click HERE
 ~"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf's a flower." Albert Camus

Autumn on Cape Cod is wonderful. The air is crisp in the morning. The cooler weather invites a coziness that I've missed throughout the summer. Outdoors long walks with a sweater, morning frost and the falling then raking of leaves offer a soothing texture to my neighborhood. Indoors the smell of apple cider and the peeling of apples for baking sweet treats offers comfort.

At my house our favorite go-to Autumn recipes once the apple trees invite us to pick their bounty include Steele Family Apple Crisp, Apple Pie and Cranberry-Apple Pie.

Every Autumn I look forward to taking the short drive North over the Bourne bridge to Acushnet to go apple picking with my kids. The hay ride over the pumpkin patch and the filling of our baskets with apples is something I always treasure. When we arrive home we often watch football, throw some Chili in the Crock-Pot and bake an Apple Crisp.

Each year some things will change. Yet some things remain constant like a simple afternoon to share good food in the crisp Autumn air.

roasted peach sherbet

To contact us Click HERE


Hi everyone. I don't consider myself an expert at all on food photography or someone who should be giving tips. I live for where other food bloggers give lighting tips, they are always so helpful. But I thought I would share my piece of advice that I did when I was shooting these photos.

Ok here are the first two shots:


1.

2.


Do you see how the light is fine? Perfectly acceptable, but still not very special. The amazingly fresh peaches, so ripe that you touch them and they bruise, are looking a bit dull. The light is not accentuating their juicy flesh. The soft and subtle light is not working in these two photos, for me. So I decided to switch it up a bit. In these first two photos, the light source, a window, is coming from slightly above and to left.
In these next three photos I switched the light to where is was coming from above and directly behind the peaches.Notice the deeper shadows? The glistening flesh of the fruit and the shine that you can see in blade of the cleaver? A much more intriguing photo to me. 
So for anyone beginning food photography and having trouble with lighting, here's my tip. Move your subject around and taking photos from where the light is coming from all different angles. You never know what you are going to like or what is going to work for your aesthetic until you try all possibilities. and have fun! Don't be too serious :)


1.

2.

3.



and now on to the sherbet







So on Sunday, my Sous Chef at work was telling me about this amazing peach stand just a bit up from where we work. The guy only sells peaches, ones he picked just that morning, minutes before he brings them to the stand. People line up for these peaches and they all sell out incredibly fast. We must go take a field trip there today, she said. It sounded amazing. Then her end on savory got a bit busy and my end on pastry got a bit slow. So while I was trying to work on a new recipe, making many variations of it, she thought I should use currants in the recipe instead of raisins. So shoved a five in my hand and sent me off to the store to go get some. Yay! Outdoors time! I thought. Then she went, Wait. You have to go get some of those peaches too! So with a bit more cash, I was off. 
After getting a box of currants I figured out my way to the peach stand. Just on the side of the road, on the way out of St. Helena. It was just a bit before 8 am and there was already probably a dozen cars waiting for the man to swing back the fence so they could all get to the stand. I didn't realize it really would be that popular. So when 8 am rolled around, all the people jumped out of their car and hauled ass to get in line to buy boxes of them. So I waiting patiently, in the very cold wind behind an old man that kept looking at me and saying 'These boxes are mine! I called them! Go find your own' 'Okay....' I said, not that I had even went to grab them or even had been looking at them. So I picked out my chosen ones and it was back to work I went.
And the peaches really were amazing. They were so ripe and juicy. I knew I had to make something with them fast because I didn't want them to spoil. So after searching for something to do with them, I remembered my ice cream maker. Oh, I can make peach ice cream! I thought. Oh wait, I have no milk and not enough cream. Scratch that. Well, I will just do peach sorbet! was the next thought. But then it came to me. Sherbet! the perfect compromise. I had just enough cream to do it. 
And it was great. Mine did freeze up, though. Quite a bit. Maybe I under-churned in the ice cream maker? Maybe over-churned? Or perhaps my ratios of ingredients are just a bit off so where it freezes to that proper ice cream consistency. Either way, I just let it thaw a bit on the counter, maybe 10-20 minutes and it was perfect.












Roasted Peach Sherbet_________________________________________________________________
makes 1 quart
7 peacheszest and juice of 1 moderately sized lemon148g white sugar, plus a handful additional for sprinkling236 ml heavy cream
Oven 400F.Cut the peaches into quartering, discarding the pits. Place on a baking sheet, flesh up, and sprinkle with a handful of white sugar. Roast for 30 minutes. (When done, you can remove the skins if you like, but I preferred to leave them on. It adds a bit of a nice texture)Then place the peaches and the rest of your ingredients in a blender. Puree until smooth. Place in container and chill until completely cool, at least 1 hour. Then churn in an ice cream maker and freeze until set.

I'm moving!

To contact us Click HERE
Not the blog but me! My 45 minutes (one way) commute to work has now been drastically slashes to 1 minute! (10 if I walk).
I now call the little town St Helena, just north of Napa, home.
So I have yet to actually get Internet or other basic apartment needs, so the next post might be another week or so. But no fear, I haven't forgot about my blog! I'll be more present on instagram and twitter. My only Internet access is my phone, hence no photos in this post.

Yay my own little apartment!!

<3
Julie

Damaged Film. Part 1

To contact us Click HERE
So I shot two rolls of film on my 645 camera. I couldn't wait to get the negatives back. I had found a film developing shop in St Helena that still did 120 film. Couldn't be more excited, with results in an hour too! 
But then I got the film back. I didn't really look at the rolls in the store, just rushed home so I could scan them. So when I actually looked at the negatives, their was developer solution all still on one side then the finishing solution all down the other. Scratches were everywhere. Seriously? They abused the film.
These are the results. The effect isn't too bad, and I tried to clean them up as much as I could. 


Acorn Squash




Andy Warhol Soup Cans



Dinner at Gotts

Let's Talk About Snails & Snakes

To contact us Click HERE
Snails yes, snakes no. I am petrified when comes to snakes; spiders and dogs too but that is a different story for another rainy day. I was reading something about snails and let me share this with you. There are more than 80,000 different species of snails, yes 80,000 that is darn a lot. I think I probably seen 20 the most including the one I ate. They are widely distributed on land, in the sea and in the fresh water. Land snails have two pairs of tentacles where their set of eyes reside on the lower set. Water snails have only one pair of tentacles, with eyes at the base.

Now my favorite subject - the snakes. What can I say about the snakes? They hatch from eggs - and no they are not related to the chicken. However, there are some species of snakes that do give birth to live young snakes.

Recent Quakes Definitely Doing Their Job - Relocating Cities & Shortening Earth's Days

To contact us Click HERE
That is all I need - a shorter day! Researchers at NASA calculated that the Chilean earthquake shortened Earth's days. It shortened by one-millionth of a second, still small but shorter. I think this is a second earthquake in a decade to result in a shorter day.

After the catastrophic 2010 Haiti earthquake at magnitude of 7.0 with 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater, a chain of other earthquakes surf through the Earth's crust. The second one to start was Chile with an 8.8 magnitude. If I correctly remember, then it was Japan, Turkey, Kosovo, Japan again. I probably missed some. This may be normal after after all, shake the world and it will move - like everything else.

Well, these earthquakes did shake the world enough to relocate cities in Chile. Researches found that cities and islands physically shifted west. From the satellite data, scientist at Ohio State University and University of Hawaii found that city of Concepcion moved about 3 meters to the west. When compared to Earth size it may not be big shift, but to me three meters is a lot. In addition, the Chile's capital Santiago moved only 30 centimeters. Buenos Aires in Argentina moved 2.5 cm.

Scientists say that this usually happens with earthquakes, but usually too small to notice. However, this time it was definitely noticed.