Sewing at long last

I took this project on an embarrassingly long time ago, and have just finished 1 out of 2 large towels, and none of the small ones. The idea is to take these much loved, well used towels with ragged edges and add edges (essentially quilt binding). Soon I can give these kidnapped towels back to their rightful owner in their new, improved state.

This is in line the movement of reusing, updating, and improving (refashioning) things we already own instead of going out and buying new things. While I haven't officially refashioned anything else lately, I did mend an old coat (seam had come out of the shoulder) and have some ideas for sewing holiday and baby shower gifts that I may be able to pull off in time... But first, I have a few more towels to work on.

December garden

The two winter tomato plants are growing huge and don't seem to have been bothered by the week of rain we've had. Here is the 3rd of the winter tomatoes (champion), with the first two cherries. This is the biggest tomato I've grown, by a lot. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet... but it will be yummy.

And the multicolor zucchinis are revealing themselves as dark green, light green, and yellow. The yellows aren't quite going strong yet, but here are the first of the green ones. I made a stir fry.

And then this is the first of the celebrity tomato plant to turn orange. Check out the cluster above. This plant is in a smaller cage and more smooshed together, so we'll see how well these guys do. I'm still not ready to do much pruning (except take off the dead stuff), so things are chaotic and crowded.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

The last of the butternut squashes was picked today, bringing the total to 31 for the year (from 3 plants). Pretty awesome yield! While they last for many months, I've been looking for recipes to use them. And this butternut squash gnocchi recipe was something else.
The good: it was a pretty simple recipe. I compared  it with another one, and this was far easier. Plus it's fairly healthy (I skipped the butter sauce and just ate it with salt and parmesan cheese) and quite yummy.
The bad: cleaning up, which  brings us to...
The ugly: it was super messy but hilarious and I'd totally make them again. So what if they look pathetic, they taste pretty darn good.

Culture sneaking in

I had two awesome arts experiences in the last month or so...
The first was something I'd been looking forward to for a few years, listening to David Sedaris speak. His stories are funny in print, but listening to him and watching him tell them in real time, unedited, with giggling and audience interaction was tremendously fun and exciting. The theater was sold out - a recently remodeled theater in the heart of downtown that I had never noticed in my 3 years here. Copley Hall, nestled right in with Horton Plaza. Might need to take the theater tour one of these days.
And the second art experience was a suggestion from my sister, who wanted to go to the SF MOMA over thanksgiving holiday. While I'm generally not one for modern art, this was the last weekend of the Richard Avedon exhibit, which was well a trip to the city. He's known for portaits and did fashion shoots in the 50s and 60s which got him off the ground. One of the most moving rooms was filled with larger than lifesize portraits of people taken in the late 80's and early 90's who were regular people in the US West. Several carneys, an oil worker, a drifter, a twelve-year old. They all have thier mouths closed and are serious. I wanted to breathe for them. Lift their burden somehow. The fashion models looked perfect of course, but a lot of the impact of the portraits is the honesty and faults (wrinkles, sun spots, exhaustion) present in the subjects' faces.
I'm probably not ready for that much honesty, but will attempt a few minutes of seriousness when taking holiday photos this weekend.

Ripened - Thursday to Monday

It's getting redder... compare Monday's photo to last Thursday (the last post). I'll give it 2 more days and hope that I get to it before the animals do.

Deja vu

I got home tonight to find one of my winter tomatoes had toppled over. I bought one sturdy tomato cage a few weeks ago, but for some stupid reason (like I'm cheap), didn't get a second. I suppose I thought I was going to test the first one and see how it worked before buying another? Meanwhile the tomato in the wimpy cage (on the right) was down for the count. Thanks to a big wood pole, the day laborer, and his mad hammer skillz, it's upright again for this photo (and hopefully will remain upright for the near future).

Proof that these are big tomatoes below (varieties are celebrity and champion). The first one on the plant that did not fall over is just starting to barely turn orange. I have an issue with patience (like not having any) and these weeks or months that this thing takes to turn red are going to be very hard. But what can you do... Notice the giant leaf on the right? I planted zucchini again. Over summer I had 3 plants grow huge and take over. So what did I do for winter? Now I've got 4 zucchini plants growing. I really do never learn. This time they are supposed to be multicolored; I just couldn't resist planting one seed of each color.

Inside the ghost watermelon and the end of summer harvest

I "ghosted" the watermelon after the disappointment of finding white flesh inside it's sister melon (picked the same day, before it had ripened). Well then as murphy's law would have it, after opening this one Nov 1st, I found some pretty nice red flesh. Not super sweet, but we ate every bit of it. The man said he actually liked the tartness. What a nice surprise!
The eggplant is the only plant from summer that is still flourishing. It has 6 fruits on it now in various sizes; the largest should get plucked soon. Another lesson learned - eggplants apparently need cages or stakes. This one is following in the path of the summery cherry tomatoes and toppled over the retaining wall. It just kinda grew that way, didn't end up there with a catastrophic fall the way the cherries did, so I haven't done anything to try to straighten it.

And here's a before/after shot of the flourishing squash/melon box vs. the way it looks now. There's only a tiny bit left alive on the hillside from the bits of butternut squash and watermelon vines that haven't petered out yet. In the center box are the eggplant, the swiss chard and tatsoy; which seem like they'll never die, although eventually I will retire them in favor of something new.

Cutest kids costumes

Check out these adorable kids costumes sewn by people posting on wardrobe refashion and burdastyle:

• Scroll down to the second photo of these 3 musketeers (barbie style). Double-click on it to make it bigger... link to blog
• This may be the best father and son duo I've seen - pirate and parrot... link to blog
• Where the wild things are inspired this one... link to pic
• Dr. Seuss (complete with green eggs and ham props)... link to pic
  
• And the classic Star Wars costume... link to pic
• Mario bros (several kids)... link to pic
• A baby snail... link to pic
• And finally, I'll leave you with the king (Elvis, of course)... link to pic
  

Ghosts from the garden

I carved my halloween watermelon today. It got this job a few weeks ago when I cut open its sister watermelon and discovered mostly white flesh - due to my eagerness I had cut it off the vine way before it was ripe.
So fast forward to now, and what do I find but some pretty dark pink flesh only 1/2 inch under the skin! Well, I carved it anyways and if no one steals/smashes it tonight I'll cut it open properly tomorrow...
There's no light inside, the flash in the photo just caught it in a contrasty way that shows it well.