Wink Juice & Nudge-Nudge Pizza

(Entirely too coordinated today, Eleni requested a portrait by the cutting table upon completing her dressing.)

Thank you, thank you a million times thank you! You guys are so smart and veggie-lovin, I knew all I had to do was ask. And I should have mentioned that I have skimmed through my friend's copy of Deceptively Delicious, which I think is a great concept, not a new concept (who among us doesn't sneak in a smidge of strained spinach with every spoonful of strained sweet potoates that baby will tolerate?), but really a great concept for a cute book. The reason I haven't purchased it, is because so many of the recipes are for dishes I couldn't get Joseph to eat whether or not they're made with a sneak of veggies. In addition to being adverse to vegetables, he is just sooooo picky. No grapes, oranges, berries of any sort, watermelon, sauces (unless on pizza), meatloaf, raviolis, soups (except broth from chick-noodle) etc. etc. Clearly his don't list is too long to continue, but the other thing I find is that the easier it is to hide a vegetable the less nutritional value it seems to have. Its the greens we seem to have the most trouble finding a way to fit in. But after 17+ years parenting, I've learned to not turn mealtime into a warzone. I refuse to. Not to mention, it has never helped one of my kids like something new. I think its perfectly fine for him to have dislikes, I just want help his tastebuds mature a bit.



(So as not to completely disappoint her fans, she has chosen to just barely mismatch those socks. Artistic genius, I say. But, well, could be bias.)

But your enthusiasm, and great ideas, have given me new inspiration and hope! Jeff and I have been meaning to get a garden started, which we hope to embark on this summer (would love some chickens too, but no one has trouble stomaching eggs, so that can wait.) We've also read article after article about how much it helps to not only grow food with your kids, but to also include them in the preparation of meals. I can mostly definitely vouch for that one. Though this could get dicey when covert carrot operations are underway at the stove while their backs are turned. But we'll figure that out.

I have tried the V-8 fusion and already had that in the fridge, and I'm not kidding, when I tell you that last night as Joseph was enjoying a glass of it, he overheard Nicolas read aloud from the bottle that "every glass has a full serving of vegetables and fruits! - Wow, thats great!"

To which Joseph replied, "What? Oh. I don't really like this." And has refused to drink it this morning. Anticipating this, I bought JuicyJuice at the market last night, and when everyone cleared the kitchen, I mixed in about 25% purple carrot juice and hid the evidence. Wink Juice. He rather enjoyed it this morning with his breakfast.

And tonight for dinner, I will peel a zucchini (God as my witness) and shred it into the mozzarella that will top his favorite homemade pizza. Nudge-Nudge Pizza. I have a notion to also sneak some flecs of spinach in the sauce.....but I better do this gracefully and gradually.

Other items on the to-try list will be some pumpkin pancakes, zucchini bread, and carrots in the mac & cheese. I know there's more, but that's on the mind at present.

I'll report back. Thanks to all my field correspondents!
xoxo, Anna

More fun than necessary

I had waaaaaay too much fun taking these photos yesterday. I musta changed around that journal "quilt" configuration and taken a picture of it about 64 times. Proof being a dead camera battery, of course (charging now). I worked on these new goods last summer with a huge amount of giddiness due to being such a sucka for blank sheets of pratically anything....journals, stationery, sketchpads, notecards, recipe cards, etc. I think the obsession might be akin to the sticker love and pencil love I know so many of you can relate to. I'll hopefully be getting all the goodies loaded into the shop today and sending out an emailing to the list once they're there.

Now then, onto more important things. Eating your vegetables. I found what I thought would finally be that one thing that our son Joseph would be tricked into eating. Amazingly yummy and and slightly salty and very crispy veggie chips. And not the tri-colored dehydrated potato chips that you can get, but these are indie-made from my local Fresh Market (aka my personal bank account drainer). I was prepared for the fact that they actually look like vegetables (they are, duh) and this might scare him from trying them. He tried it anyway. And he did not like it. At all. Not even if I offered a whopping dollop of sour cream (which is amazing btw). So. Any suggestions for a 9year old who hasn't eaten and swallowed and kept down anything green (save gummy worms) in about 7 years?

This is of course being asked by someone who also stood in front of the ice cream doors for about 10 minutes deciding on the perfect two pint combo of Ben & Jerry's last night. But I can plead pregnancy. I don't know what Jeff's excuse is. In exchange for your sneaking-in-vegetables advice, I will offer that the Pistachio and the Cherry Garcia are a match made in dairy heaven. Spumoni-like.

N'kay kids, ciao! xoxo, Anna

Model Employee

And chapter 4 in the sewing pattern chronicles. We have our dear Allie, whose job description here in the studio did not mandate being adorably photogenic, however she is overqualified. I do think I hired her because she has red hair though. One day last fall, I walked up behind her at the cutting counter and held a few different fabric samples up against her locks in the sunshine, just having a look. Unbothered, she kept cutting and folding with only a slight glance over the shoulder and an eyebrow raise at my scheming. I just smiled and walked away.



Long before I was envisioning the cover shoot, I envisioned the Ruthie Clutch. In thinking about clutches, I thought about the sensibility in a bag with no straps and handles and the person who doesn't mind what some others might consider inconvenient. But I kept seeing the clutch shape as a very sensible thing somehow, due to the size that most clutches are. They are not overwhelmingly huge like so many bags that we carry around these days, because, well, do we fit too much in our bags and in most of our days? And that's were ideas of luxury came in. How fun must the outing be if we only need this little number for our possessions? Pretty fun.



And combining ideas of being both fun and sensible, I immediately thought of my grandmother. Anna Ruth. Who was often called Annie by my grandfather. But just a few times, and usually in fun-poking flirtation, he called her Ruthie. It would usually be followed with a little suppressed grin from her. And I loved it, little as I was. It wasn't often, but it was fun. Like carrying a clutch. But my grandmother would only bend in favor of fashion over practicality every now and then, but always managed beauty. She was very beautiful.



So there she is. The Ruthie Clutch.

Been so busy here, finalizing all the printing for the patterns, and updating my website at every little turn. Also managed to add a Good Folks flickr group for my folkish friends. Today I have a new shelf to put together for some studio storage, and finalizing specs and colors for a new kitchen linen collection for fall. Oh! Also, finishing up some photography for a new collection of paper goods that I designed! And, I've got oilcloth in the shop now too! See. Busy. Toldya.

good day, xoxo, Anna

Love

Tell me how I could have let this skip out the door without journaling the fabulousness of the combination here? Indie dressing at its best. This is what childhood was meant for. She is happily in charge of her clothes. Every day. As a matter of consequence and preference you will not find a spit-shined child in this house. They just look happier like this. We do brush her hair, honest, it just looks like that again really fast. I can find 1000 things I love about this photo- the messy perfection, the proud grin, the twinkle in her eyes (not to mention of course she stands on new studio floors which I love, and in front of new built in studio shelving which I love-more on that next week), but of course mostly, I love her.



Theme-appropriate for her party at pre-school today are the Valentine tights, naturally. A perfect pairing with the painted-on boots. And a wrinkled Bo-Peep skirt? Yes. (where is that iron?)



Sigh.

What was I saying?

Oh yes, love. I love the beard. Adore, is perhaps a better description, so as not to overuse the word and render it meaningless. Because I really love the man suffering through having a beard for me. He must kinda like it, or I can guarantee it would've been gone weeks ago.

Find a million things to love, and have a Happy Valentines Day! xoxo, AM

Studious Sewing

Reveal 3. The Study Hall Skirt. When I was a kid, and sewing, my mom (the consumate 4-h seamstress) encouraged me to sew from patterns. Keep in mind I was likely not even ten yet, but I tried and became frustrated by the language and terms that where used that I had never heard before. The illustrations helped me more than the text, but sometimes they were more confusing. I can remember when I finally just stopped looking at the instructions, and instead looked at the pieces I had cut out. Cutting out was my favorite part because I knew I could do that. I loved the way it felt to push a straight pin through the delicate tissue then through the thickness of a few layers of fabric. It just felt right. Which was encouraging. But anyway. I looked at those funny shapes and started thinking about them in a new way. In a way that was maybe more like a young architect than a young sewer, and I eventually figured stuff out, and continued to sew pattern-free until I made my own patterns. My mom compared me to my aunts in Greece who would just take scissors to cloth and cut a dress pattern, knowing their daughters' sizes well enough to go free-form from the beginning. It was my most favorite comparison. It was the most inspiring comparison, no doubt.



As I draft and write and illustrate this collection of patterns, I've thought so often of those young days standing at the long bar where we cut and pinned everything in our 70's style den. I try to keep my own memories of sewing being new in mind as I go, and sort of teach young me how to do it all again. The satisfaction of making it right. But not the pressure of making it right. I think that's the balance for lots of us who (wish to) pick up a needle nearly every day (if only, right?).

But onto this pattern. Something else I learned VERY early in just getting dressed as a child was a disdain for waistbands. Any kind of waistbands. Elastic all the way around. Elastic just in the back. Didn't matter. I just wanted everything to sit at my upper hips, band free. Still do. Which is one of the reasons I made this skirt. My own, and I think several figure types are way more flattered by something that fits your hips well and leaves your waist alone. Isn't this why we always reach for our jeans? And this particular pattern also leaves your lower hip alone with flirty pleats front and back.



Do you remember this little skirt from way back when? I have worn that skirt everywhere, and because of that, I knew that a form of it had to be a pattern. It always feels right to wear it. Like pushing pins through pattern tissue and fabric. Right. And I love the idea of doing fancy work on the front panel like the original, should you feel the need. Don't you?

love, xo,AM

Squeezing a few things in ~or~ Squeezing into few things ~or~ Goody does Maternity

I love that I get personal emails requesting a shot of my belly. You might imagine that my belly looking like this is hardly a new thing around here. In fact I was talking to my sister the other day and complaining that I wouldn't see her before the baby is born most likely and how she won't see me pregnant. Which was promptly answered with "uhh, I've sorta seen that Anna." She said it in the most loving way. Brewing #6 hasn't bored everyone around here though, as Eleni and Isabella give this belly its very own hugs goodnight before bed. Oh my gosh, what was I posting about? Oh yea-there's been lots of questions that I want to answer for you about oilcloth, patterns and such so I'll try to squeeze 'em in here. That's were the squeeze thing came, from, now I remember. N'kay:

oilcloth: Is being rolled onto bolts as we speak which is fabric talk for the last thing that happens before it ships to stores. You'll have to check with your shops to ask if they're carrying it, as I'm not sure that every store who has my quilting cottons will also have these. Though I know they've been popular picks. We'll also have them listed in the shop in precut 2yd quantities as soon as they get here. They're 55" wide and I think will be retailing for 19$ or so a yard. AND GUESS WHAT? YOU DID IT! You banged your pots and pans & helped me get 3 MORE prints of Good Folks sent off to the mills for more oilcloth varieties! Yay you! It will take a little time to print and coat the wider goods, but you have this, this and this one to look forward too.

patterns: My first collection of four patterns is at the printers as we speak, erhh, as I type. You've seen 2 of them here and here, and there are two more that I will share this week and next. And by the end of the month, all the patterns should be shipping to stores. I will also have them in the shop, but perhaps first as kits with fabric. Our first priority is to get the patterns to all the shops, so if you're a retailer you can contact me about that, of course. We'll be updating the website within a week or so with a new wholesale page that will have all the ordering info. And whether you're a retailer, a customer, or my 3rd cousin twice removed, if you really want up to the minute news on all that, you can sign up on my mailing list where I make it a point to bug you about once a month. I try not to bug about business in this space too much, bc I prefer to bug only those who specifically ask to be bugged. Naturally I like to share what I'm working on every now and then if I'm all jazzed up about it, cause that's what I do, but, well you know. Could I elaborate on this more?

that dress in the Good Folks photos: Never have I rec'd such questions and gasps and in response~ thanks and so happy it makes you happy too! A version of this dress is in development for a sewing pattern to be released in early summer. And the zigzag quilt hanging on the wall behind her will be the free downloadable pattern for Good Folks. This'll be ready in another week or so, and the technique used in piecing the quilt is exactly what was used in piecing the dress for the most part. So making the quilt will get you all ready to make the dress.

Is that everything?



My OB completey teased me and called me a teenager when she noticed my chic maternity jeans as we listened to the little peapod's heartbeat last week. She said all her teenage patients do this and I most definitely did this as a pregnant teenager. I guess some things you never outgrow. Oh well, clearly you do outgrow some things. But you know, some habits you never outgrow. I have nothing against maternity clothes, but as referenced in both photos, I mostly choose to halfzip, half-button, rubberband and recompose my favorite things as long as I can. I think I just have a harder time finding favorites in all the maternity things, save a few sets of pajamas.

This is going into that endless place. I will let you have a rest from me now.

Oh, no wait! Kim at TrueUp cared enough to ask me some questions about Good Folks and I hopefully answered with a little insight, so go here to read. Also, I have to tell you to go see Coraline in the theatre! My heart raced at the opening sequence with the gorgeous and incredibly satisfying up close views of a doll being cut, stitched, stuffed, etc. So lovely. Go see, go see. ALSO, I didn't think I could like Radiohead more, but their Grammy performance with the band kids was perhaps the best Grammy peformance I've ever seen. I only usually catch what I wanna catch, and skip a lot of it. And I just don't have anything to say about M.I.A.'s b&w ladybug that she stretched over her due to deliver a baby body, except more power to her. I hadn't thought of it.

have a great day! xoxo, Anna

Multi-tasking, naturally

And this would be pattern reveal part deux. I give you the Multi-tasker Tote. This sweetie has already been toted all over town avec moi (I'm sorry, I don't know where all the French is coming from today) and it is settling in to be my very favorite bag. For reals. Comfortable to have on the shoulder, easy to slip your hands in and out of the four outer pockets and firm enough on the bottom, to not have your contents on a constant spin cycle. Voila!



More importantly, for a sewing pattern, it is so enjoyable how this one comes together, if I do say so myself, and I did. But one of my pattern testers said so, too. She said she felt like a magician putting in the side outer pockets, and my heart skipped a beat at the sound of that. I am really not so hard to please.



No surprise I had to also whip up a few totes with Good Folks. But maybe, there is a surprise.....



Is that fabric lining the pockets and the inside a bit shiny?

Oh, why yes it is, how nice of you to notice!

It's oilcloth pals! Not the hard, plastic-y, send your stitch-lines in every direction (not to mention your use of foul language) variety of oilcloth either! It is our lovely, supple, beautiful Free Spirit cotton that has been coated, not too shiny and not to matte, but just right to let the colors of the fabric shine. The texture is so usable, and as you can see, it gathers...leaving all kinds of application doors open, such as darling rain slickers and hats, bibs, baby bags, lunch totes, splat mats, (oh! the garment bag pattern from my book!) and with a 55" width, a mere pair of pinking shears would give you a wipeable tablecloth in about 7 minutes. Multi-tasking. Have I sold it?



I'm sold. So far, the oilcloths will be offered in the two prints shown, the Small Gathering/Citrus print and the Fortune/Sun print, but bang some pots and pans together and demand we do more, and we may do more. I plan to put together a cutesy downloadable idea sheet for these goods to inspire some fun projects for you. They are trailing the rest of the goods in arrival, but should be here sometime this month. Oh-and the patterns should be shipping this month too!

Whew. Two fun things on the way. I am nothing if not expectant.

Good Wednesday, xoxo,Anna