Pillows

Months ago my friend Tracy gave me some pretty fabric to make throw pillows, and I finally got around to making them. Tracy gave me a beautiful piece of Ikat as well as some yummy cream velvety fabric. I had on hand a raspberry silk faille skirt I'd pulled to pieces. I fell in love with this pillow and decided I would try to recreate it with my skirt fabric and the leftover pieces of the cream velvet (I used the majority of the velvet for the back of the Ikat pillow).

Here is the Ikat:

and here is the mitered pillow:

Mitered pillow I defy you!

The person who made the original started with striped fabric, but I decided I needed a real headache and made my own stripes. Whatever, I am happy with the results, and happy that I used the skirt fabric for something useful.

I found this tutorial for making more graphic mitered pillows. Take a look if you think you might want to make one, or at least the illusion of mitered corners without all the work.

Happy Christmas

Hope you have a wonderful day filled with family and love!

Baby

For those of you who are wondering, this baby is still hanging out. I am pretty sure she is not going to be arriving tomorrow, or even the day after. But that is okay, because she seems pretty cozy in here and I can't complain either. So, we wait.

For Mike

Since you keep asking me what I want for Christmas here are some suggestions.

1. immersion blender

2. a nice iron

3. microfiber dusting mitt

4. a new robe

5. magazine subscription

Quilts

My mom came up yesterday and we headed over to the de Young to see the Amish Abstractions quilt exhibit. The exhibit was just the right size, not too many quilts so as to overwhelm, but just enough to get a good idea of the range of different styles and patterns. What impressed me the most were the teeny, tiny, perfect stitches on the quilts.

Risotto

I made this yummy risotto the other night. I'm not sure why I've hesitated to make risotto in the past, it was easy and really did not take that long to make. In fact, the most time consuming part was chopping and cooking the butternut squash (which I did in a pot with a little water). Recipe here.

p.s. If you don't want to use wine just use some of the chicken stock.

Holiday at Ikea

Saturday we were in the East Bay picking up something from Craigslist and stopped in at Ikea on the way out. I ran in to get some fabric, and as I was going to the checkout line I picked up some of their ornaments. Looks like we are going to have a Scandinavian Christmas. Tree trimming and watching the Christmas Devotional tonight.

Showers

I had two fantastic baby showers last month. One at my mom's house with all the ladies I grew up with as well as aunts and cousins. The other up here in San Francisco with all the wonderful friends I've made since we moved here.

Unfortunately we did not get any shots of the whole table before people devoured all the goodies at my mom's, but here are some detail shots.

Lemon meringue cupcakes and coconut cupcakes.

My mom getting a little dangerous with a blow torch, yes a blow torch, not a kitchen torch.

The aftermath.

The San Francisco shower hosted by Meg and Michelle: There was a theme of sweets because I am having a sweet little girl. Meg made me a CD with all the pictures of the event, but because our place may or may not be a gigantic mess, I can't seem to find them. So, I am going to refer you to Michelle's blog until I can find that CD and put up those pictures.