Toad Lilies!

My toad lilies are blooming and it is so very exciting. They are my favorite flower in the garden, and I was afraid that they wouldn't bloom.  Hopefully they'll come back next year.

These were the first two, but right now there are many buds ready to bloom, and I can't wait!

Trash Beach, Post Irene

I know I'm always showing pictures of of the loot I find at Dead Horse Bay, so I thought I'd show some pictures of where it comes from.  The Hurricane blew out tons of new detritus, so it was kind of an amazing wonderland of, uhhh, trash. I'll show my treasures soon.  

I know there are differing opinions on Dead Horse Bay.  What do you think; is it great for amazing treasure hunting or a sad instance of ruination? 

Vintage French Postcards

I picked up some old French postcards at a thrift store the other day. One is missing a stamp (was it worth lots of money?) and I think the postmark says 05.  That would be 1905, making these more than a century old!  I love the fancy handwriting in the bottom photo. They also make me nostalgic for handwritten letters (not that I have had many occasions to write them)  I have a hard time coming up with things to write when it's to easy to facebook/email/text/videochat with most of the people I know.  I'd have to hold off on communication in order to have anything interesting to say.

But these postcards may inspire me to try!

Airplanes in the Sky

We live under a flight path--either planes taking off from JFK or landing at La Guardia--I can't tell which.  There's something I really like about pictures of planes in the sky. I love flying: you are completely untethered to anything that is touching the ground. It fascinated me as a kid, but now I just think it's fun--I'm sure the whole "destination" part of it helps, too!

Crochet Box

I'll often make small crochet motifs to try out a new yarn, or just for fun. I like to keep them in an old wooden cigar box, and use them for gift toppers, or sew them onto cards (fabric postcards, anyone?) but mostly I like collecting them and then taking the box out and taking pictures. Enjoy!

Pieces of lace, flowers, snowflakes and the beginnings of doilies. I love to crochet, but apparently I have the attention span of a ten year old.

Trash Beach Treasures

We had a good run at dead horse bay last week. Sometimes I get pulled away by the rest of my party when there is still so much searching to do!  But we stayed until full high tide this time--and I'm getting better at culling my collection:  the final haul was relatively lightweight (and certainly exciting!).  Here are a few treasures from the recent trip:

Look at this nearly perfect old doorknob.  Somehow it's more exciting to find one on a beach than buy it at a flea market.  And the glass stoppers--I'm always on the lookout for them, but I got lucky this time.

Look at that glass dish and all of the beads.  I must admit, the beads have been collected from multiple trips, but the dish is from the most recent visit and it is in great shape.  

Some of my favorites are the military collar pin and the old locket below.  I can't open the locket without breaking it because the hinge has completely corroded off. I'm sure anything that was inside is long gone, but we'll never know!

New Crochet Bottles

Finally, I've completed a new set of crochet covered bottles. Most of them have been done for a while, waiting for the thread ends to be woven in and all of them needed to be photographed. They are all posted to the shop, if you'd like to purchase one!

They were fun to photograph.  I especially like the set of champagne colored thread bottles with fancy patterns, like the ones above; I think they look good together.  I've been trying to expand upon my patterns lately, using more than just a simple netted stitch (although I still do like those).  I've found that the ones I like best are the most open patterned bottles.  They let the light through nicely.

little blue flowers

Recently I've had these blue flowers pop out in the garden.  I don't know what they are, and I thought they were just weeds (but I let them grow anyway)  They only last a day or so, and are teeny tiny, but I love their color and the curlycue stamens. Also, the spider hanging out in one of them waiting for a snack. 

Heat Wave

I love cucumber water and recently stumbled upon this variation: rosemary cucumber water. It's as simple as any recipe can be and great during a massive heatwave like we have now.

For a pitcher's worth I slice roughly half a cucumber and about 5 or so sprigs of rosemary in a pitcher (I also like to use repurposed looza bottles)  You can drink it right away, but it's best if left to steep overnight.  It is. So. Good.  If you only want a single glass, about 4 or 5 slices of cucumber and a couple sprigs of rosemary is all you need. Enjoy!

What are your favorite summer drinks?

Bleeding hearts and Broken teacups

My bleeding hearts are finally blooming!  I thought for sure they would just grow leaves all summer--don't they all bloom earlier in the year?  But look!  Here they are.

Also, I couldn't resist including a little teacup collection, they are some of my favorites from trash beach.

I hope you're enjoying your summer!

Some new things

We recently dropped an order at Honey and Hazel with a few new items.  I'm excited about the new cylindrical icicle earrings; they're a little bit softer and a tiny bit more understated.  I'm also in love with these v-shaped rose charms that look so good paired with a sparkly chain. You can check them out in the shop right now, but if you're in the area, I suggest you visit them in person at Honey and Hazel!

Fiddlehead Ferns

Yum.  I had never had them before, so when we found some this weekend in Massachusetts, I got excited and grabbed a bagful.  And yep, they were delicious:  cooked in boiling water for about 5 minutes, placed into an ice bath, then sauteed with salt, pepper and olive oil until tender. Then served up with a splash of balsamic vinegar. It was a good first foray into fiddlehead territory.  But, alas, their short season is just about over, so I'll have to wait a year to have another taste.

Lights

We had a fun Memorial day weekend playing with sparklers and long exposures.  And writing our names in lights.  I know it's a bit late, but I thought these pictures were fun, and with the heat wave coming up this week I need all the happy summer thoughts I can get!

Chicken Rental

Meet Gladys and Clarice, the chickens who lived with us for about a week and a half.  Since my brother starting raising chickens, I've wanted some, too.  But we have significantly less space in New York City than he does in Arizona.  

Now that we do have an outdoor space, though, we decided to have a chicken test run--maybe it would work out.  We were ready: we built a coop, bought some hay and feed, then went to our friend's Connecticut farm to pick them up.  They came home and got comfortable pretty quick; we had our first egg later that day.  The cats were both excited and terrified, but were certainly fascinated about the new strange things in the yard. By the end of the week, however, Melvin was comfortable enough to lounge out under the coop.

Our first egg was Clarice's and it was blue.  She's the darker Ameraucana, and Gladys is the brown one. Poor Gladys  tended to get pecked by Clarice, but she was definitely the more friendly of the two.

They both went crazy for greens.  We donated our cilantro to keep them away from the ferns and bleeding hearts, and then we bought them some kale which they devoured with crazy intensity.

When the cats first would get too close for comfort, the chickens would start making this "get away" cluck, and then the cats would get scared and run off.  Eventually Melvin realized that the chickens were too big to be food, and he was allowed to be outside if he ignored them.  I'm sure that if there was a scuffle, the chickens would come out on top, though.

They were great to have, but they did decimate some of our plants (see above)  and while the mess didn't really bother me (chicken poop is way easier to clean up than dog poop), the flies it attracted did. There just wasn't enough open space to get away from the flies. So we took them home again and came home with easier to care for plants. But one day we will continue our adventures with chickens.