What's For Breakfast?

Today's breakfast consisted of fresh sourdough rolls (hot from the oven!) with a choice of butter, strawberry-tarragon or blackberry-basil jam. The first course was a delicious "peach boat" made using local peach halves filled with boysenberries and blueberries from our garden, and then drizzled with blueberry-lavender-lemon verbena jam. The "boat" was then garnished with borage blossoms and sprigs of lemon balm! The second course consisted of our signature Cherry-Fennel Granola topped with whole milk yogurt, and garnished with blueberries, apricot slices, and a strawberry holding a fennel leaf! Eye-catchingly scrumptious!

Happy HoneyBees!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of these delightful little garden pollinators:

Another Project (Oh No! - Oh YES!)

Well, I have decided that it's high time for another vintage sewing project! Yes, I'm rather crazy, since I have decided to do this in the height of summer tourist season, when time and craft space are pretty much non-existent...but when have I EVER been rational when it comes to vintage?! But let me back up and give you my reasoning...

As you've probably already gathered, I have become fascinated recently with the history of the 1920s and 1930s. I have been collecting magazines, articles of clothing, etc., and trying to read up and learn as much as I can! The past few weeks I have been focusing a bit more on the mid-to-late 1920s era.

About a year or so ago, I went to one of my first estate sales and purchased, for the painfully low price of $10, a beautiful and authentic 1920s "flapper era" coat.

I love it!

The problem is that I have no authentic 1920s dress to wear with it!

Sad Day.

Unfortunately, I do not have the budget to afford an authentic 1920s dress, and I have been unable to find any at the local yard and estate sales. I couldn't even afford to buy any 1920s patterns either, since those normally sell for between $35 and $85 each!...

...Well, until today that is!

Today, I stumbled across an INTACT and UNUSED 1920s "flapper" pattern for the beautifully low price of $7.50+$2.25 shipping! Ummmmm...YES! I snatched that up in a heart beat! It is a lovely dress style, and I am so SO excited to try my hand at making it!

You can view the wonderful Etsy shop I purchased it from here:
Rosenu2

Because it IS the height of tourist season, I am actually going to be enlisting my grandmother's help, both in space to work and sewing expertise. While she can't sew herself like she used to, she is still a knowledgeable seamstress from her years working in a dress factory as well as working with other talented members of our sewing-inclined family. So I think between the two of us, we'll be able to knock this pattern out rather well! And as for buttons? Well, good news: I have a tin box of antique buttons collected by both my grandmother and great-grandmother, so I think I can find some authentic buttons for the dress in there!

Now, what fabric to use...?

Romantic Surprise Dinner for Ryan!

Last Friday, I surprised my husband with a romantic dinner for two at home.

I brought out the 2nd best china, made creamy pesto pasta with sauteed baby zucchini, and chilled zucchini soup. I even sliced up the homemade sourdough loaf so that we could have our pre-dinner bread & butter appetizer!

And of course there was water with decorative borage ice cubes!

I made the pesto sauce using assorted basils from our garden, as well as heirloom garlic, walnuts, parmesan, and cream. The chilled zucchini soup (an excellent and refreshing way to use up spare zucchini in summer!) is made using zucchini, onions, water, basil, and thyme, and garnished with purslane leaves (also collected from the garden).

I even dressed up for the occasion!

Life of a Flapper Girl

Last Saturday, I told Ryan that if I didn't get off of the farm and do something FUN for a change that I was going to have a meltdown!! It has been SO unbelievably stressful these past few weeks:

• We are in the height of tourist season (while great for business, sometimes it can be hard on stress levels)
• We recently lost one of our llamas to old age (one of the original llamas/animals we purchased when we moved here, and also one of our favorites)
• We lost an equally-beloved "original" goat to a mysterious possible ingested toxin (though the lab results are pending), and had two more goats grow extremely ill (possibly the same cause - they had to be rushed to the ER vet and one had to be monitored overnight)
• We recently had our sweet little elderly bunny suffer a stroke
• Our grandfather, who has early Alzheimers (and whom we help care for), is hitting that turning point - he hasn't come out of his latest spell for close to THREE MONTHS, and I am beginning to wonder if he ever will...?

So, all in all, it's been kind of...difficult...lately. I'm not saying this for a pity fest, mind you, I just wanted to show why I said if I didn't get to do something fun for a change I was really going to have a crying fit!

I have been very fascinated with the history of the 1920's and 1930's lately, and I have been reading up all I can about these time periods. I recently found and ordered a rare reprint of the 1927 Sears Roebook Catalog! 1100 pages of history to peruse!! I'm so excited for it to get here! Then (though we can't afford to go), there is a "Speakeasy" Wine Dinner being held at the end of the month by one of the local wineries, and it's a vintage dress-up dinner! That just got me in the mood to figure out my flapper self!

Most people associate Flappers with the entirety of the "Roaring Twenties." However, in actuality, the style had its initial origins in the mid-to-late teens, and the TRUE Flapper style (as we think of it today) really didn't reach its popularity until ~1926.

I DO own one piece of authentic flapper apparel. Unfortunately, it's a winter coat:

(Please ignore the 1933 hat with the 1926 coat. FAIL for me!)

So, I opened my closet and tried to figure out what I could throw together. Several years ago, the fashion industry went through another revamp of the Flapper Era: I had a skirt from Ann Taylor that mimicked the pleated skirt style, and a flapper hat from Banana Republic. I found a long tunic-y gold camisole tank top and matching short-sleeved jacket, and some antique/vintage jewelry. The long "flapper" necklace was actually an antique rosary that belonged to a deceased family member. I didn't have much use for the rosary, but I wanted to be able to remember the relative and use the gorgeous lead crystal beads, so I made it into a necklace! Top top everything off, I used the gorgeous beaded "antique-style" purse that my mother-in-law got me for my birthday!

While we were out and about town on a day-long date, Ryan found himself a lovely little Stanley Sweetheart measuring stick! A Sweetheart for MY Sweetheart!

Gone, But Not Forgotten

Sometimes I think that my love of all things vintage is really just a method of trying to recapture the past - those elusive figures who came before us, but who we never truly knew...such as my mysterious great-grandmother, I suppose. If we can hold tight to those individuals, then they will always be with us, even after the memories fade and we forget about the moments we have lived but lost in the sheer number of moments that make up a life. In a way, my greatest fear is to forget...to forget even a single precious moment of time, because it dishonors those I have shared it with. And why does the passing of friends bring about those forgotten moments? Why do I remember these snippets of time when I can no longer share them with the friend they contain? We have lost so many beloved original animals this month, and we are on the very of losing another. As a farmer, I know that life and death are intertwined, and I am intimately acquainted with both. From helping to bring a baby goat into the world, to slaughtering a turkey for food, my husband and I have both held life in our hands - whether as a beginning or an end. And yet, experiencing this, knowing this circle, why is it so difficult to say goodbye? Losing some of the original animals we obtained when we first moved here and started the farm has been heartbreaking. It's like being a long-lived senior and watching all of your friends pass away before you. It's like watching a farm grow up and lose its childhood forever. It's the passing away of memories, and the passing away of innocence. Life has never been easy, and friendships formed to help share its burden are just as strong whether they are with a furry soul or non. It just never seems fair.

I think the hardest part of all is saying goodbye...

A Walk Around the Farm...

I took my camera out this morning to see the sights...

An heirloom Dragon's Tongue bush bean reaches up to greet the morning sun! This little seedling is growing in the "new" pasture garden. Germination rate on my bean seeds: 6 days!!! Looking forward to that enormous mid-September harvest!

Noticed that the garlic was flowering...

I love the smell that the fields and fields of wild chamomile flowers make as you walk through them! And who can be sad with such cheery flower company anyway?

Oh, you thought I was exaggerating about the 'fields and fields' comment? Here's one small section of wild chamomile field...

Citrine (one of our Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats) came up to the fence to say hello!

The Indian Runner ducks were having a BLAST playing in their blue plastic pool! It's a bit like having living rubber duckies!

For those who have never seen parsnips (or, for that matter, carrots/lettuce/kale/etc) go to seed, welcome to my jungle! I hope you like parsnips...I'm going to be giving seeds away at this rate!

Honeybees Love Borage (And Gloria Loves YOU)!

Summer days are definitely here!

The bees are buzzing happily amongst the flowers (they seem to love the borage the best)...

...and the animals are contentedly munching in the pastures.

The berries are slowly ripening..

...and all of the flowers are blooming.

And Gloria wants to give everybody llama kisses!

I (Still!) Want To Be A Spoiled House Cat!!!

Life is SO not fair!

Lucky #5

Meet Lucky the Rooster - the fifth rooster to have this name. Lucky was our free rare chick when we placed our poultry order earlier this year, and he is one handsome chicken! As far as we can tell, he is a Single Comb Brown Leghorn.

I really like this batch of chickens! We have some truly fascinating varieties, such as a Salmon Faverolle we have named "Wolverine" (as in X-men, because of her "side burn" feathers), two W.C. Black Polish hens we have dubbed "Doc" and "Mrs. Doc" (think "Back to the Future"), several fabulously speckled black and white birds of a variety known as Silver Spangled Hamburgs, and a Mottled Houndan named "Jimmy Hendrix." Of course, there are many other fascinating chickens in this latest batch, but those are some of our favorites.

The Passionflower Is Blooming!

After growing several varieties of passionflower a couple of years ago (and losing quite a few over the winter(s)), I finally had one of my blue varieties flower! Isn't is beautiful?!? There are still two other varieties that are alive - another blue and a purple. I can't wait to see the "official" passionflower bloom as well.

Yard Sale-ing

On the way to the birthday bash last Sunday, we randomly stopped at a yard sale in Talent. In a box of old music books (of which I had no interest), there lay a 1937 copy of American Home magazine. Interesting read, though perhaps not as much as the LIFE mags I scored previously. But it IS a fascinating look at American home decorating trends in the late 30's, as well as what "phobias" were being fed to the general public (in this case, I have noticed that the late 30's were the era of "Halitosis Fear" - EVERY magazine I come across has ad after ad toting products sure to eliminate the bad breath running rampant across the country!!). I think my favorite part of the magazine was the car advertisement on the back cover:

"But officer - when I told you I was just going to get a hat pretty enough for my new Ford, you said yourself THAT wouldn't be easy!"

I also finally got up the courage to alter that $5 vintage wedding dress I bought at a yard sale earlier this month. It seemed almost sacrilegious to alter a wedding dress...but the length was too long and awkward for me to wear it out and about. Originally, I was just going to shorten the hemline to about mid-calf length or so, but the skirt was so full that it looked rather odd at that length. Therefore, I took the hem up even more, and here's the result!

BEFORE

AFTER

I actually rather like it at this length...