Geesh! I believe I have gone a little crazy with bags…..gift bags, that is. Maybe you have read (or not) that I love putting gift packages together. To “customize” the gift package a little more, I started making my own gift bags to put treats inside and etc. So I have spent the last few days making gift bags and MORE gift bags! Don’t I sound like a nut? Anyway, I created my own designs and used different materials such as Tyvek and 100% cotton fabric (besides standard paper) to print them onto. The Tyvek is nice and sturdy and is not something you can easily rip or tear.
Here are some printed on standard paper and sewn at the bottom:
A closer look:
More variety in design and material:
Experimenting with each material starting at the top, clockwise: paper, Tyvek, and cotton fabric.
In the middle of summer, the weather is a lot cooler over here and everything that you plant in a garden takes twice as long to bear fruit it seems. So, it was really nice to see the zucchini finally growing…and now they are really taking off. Wow! I know I am exaggerating here, but it is as if they grow an inch each day.
We also have three different kinds of tomato, planted and barely growing: yellow brandyvine, roma, and cherry. These are the cherries getting ready:
There is one recipe – very simple, but I can not wait to try it. A pizza with sliced zucchini and cherry tomatoes tossed with olive oil and basil leaves, and topped with goat cheese. That sounds so yummy to me!
Not in the garden, but they put a smile on my face – surprise Gerbera daisies (my husband calls them the “Nut Tree” flower):
I don’t want to answer that, but hopefully a couple of friends do not mind surprises. The surprises or unexpected packages that arrive in the mail are the most fun. I put together a couple of packages at the end of the week – Friday to be exact. I like to send cookies. I just pray they don’t harden or crumble into pieces upon arrival.
This time I made a shortbread green tea cookie from this recipe. Yum! They are really tiny so you do not have to feel too guilty when eating them.
Added a zippered travel pouch:
Everybody travels with cookies, right? Yeah….it all makes sense now. Please detect some sarcasm there.
Anyway, in the last post, I mentioned a footstool that my husband and I found at an antique store last month. In the very near future, I would like to reupholster it. The only thing that is making it impossible to do right now is not owning a silly staple gun. I am swearing that someday soon when I am out and about/running errands I will remember to pick one up. Okay, so this is what the footstool currently looks like:
This is the “before” photo.
Mission accomplished. I really did not know I was on a mission until I decided to stop at JoAnn’s while running other errands (very typical of me) – thinking they might have a nice selection of upholstery fabric on sale (?) for the old footstool my husband and I found at an antique store last month. It needs to be reupholstered in a bad way….and finally! Found two different pieces to get me started and of course, purchased for nearly nothing. Hmmm…I don’t know which one I will choose, but as soon as I get my stapler gun – you will find out! This is my first sweet treat of the day.
Secondly, it is literally a very sweet treat. A little homemade chocolate mayonnaise cake and mascarpone cheese berry ice cream – and it is homemade as well! The first time I had ever tasted or heard of a mayonnaise cake was at the Macaroni Grill in Roseville. It is such a moist cake. This is the recipe I used. As for the ice cream, the recipe is in the Raley’s complimentary ‘Something Extra’ magazine, but I added blueberries and blackberries in addition to the raspberries.
And finally, there is Thomas:
The film, Trouble in Paradise, released in 1932, directed by Ernst Lubitsch. We received it from Netflix and I believe I watched it four times – not in a row, but over the span of two weeks or so. A little side note: I find it incredibly difficult to find a movie today worth watching so most of my film favorites are of the old. Anyway, in one of the first scenes, the (so-called) countess played by Miriam Hopkins, is wearing a beautiful dress with a brooch placed in the center, near the chest area. So this is my attempt at a little illustration of the dress, back and front.
Watch the movie at any rate – dress or no dress!
For the last several weeks, I have been glued to my notebook with a mind full of ideas for patterns. I do not have a single clue about design (well, maybe just a little) or what I would print them on to – fabric, gift wrap, stationery, etc. Anyway, so I printed one of the patterns out on a standard sheet of printing paper. The printing quality is less than good, but I made it into a little envelope with scalloped edging. Kind of cute.
Origami…perhaps, it is. Okay, so I just thought it looked “cool”. I have no idea what it is, but I made it with more low quality printed paper. Maybe the paper pattern or “design” looks somewhat familiar. Hint, hint: the temporary image header. Yeah…so I need to find more interesting things to do in my day.
