Dressember 2nd: This Is Why They Wore Girdles

Today I chose a long neglected vintage dress from Suzy Q. Very Betty Draper of me, don't you think? There I am, languishing about with my 10 o'clock Old Fashioned. That's 10 a.m.
I realized, about 2 hours in to the day that the sharp pain in my side was not last night's pizza expanding and contracting in my stomach as I had originally thought, but was in fact, due entirely to the teeny tiny waist band of my dress. Clearly my boyish figure would have been trussed like a turkey in 1958 in order to fit in the clothes of the day. Sigh. The things we women have done (and will do) to look presentable.

Guess What?

Remember when I was waxing rhapsodic over these Bensimon shoes? And wishing I could find them in my size?

Well, I did find them! Or at least the lace up ankle sister-shoe (the ones above were sold out in my size).

I ordered them in gris claire (so french!). I'll pick them up tomorrow and will wear the heck out of them all summer long.

l.o.v.e the rumply canvas and distressed edges. am i crazy for purchasing something this light in color? my other thought was this shade...help me decide?!

Nothing New

Imagine my surprise (dismay?) when I opened my new anthropologie catalog this evening only to find this chair being offered...
which looks suspiciously like the one in the first photo and below, which I reupholstered two years ago. "Hmmm, even the fabric looks very similar" I though to myself. But surely that can't be. I used 100 year old homespun jute and flax/linen blend (not entirely sure) from France that I bought from someone on ebay. So I looked at anthro's website and guess what? The Lunet Chair is "upholstered in recycled jute sacks from France...Price $1698".

I don't know whether to be kinda proud of myself or annoyed that something I thought was so unique is now so accessible. Well, only if you have an extra $1698 laying around. Sheesh. Guess it just goes to show no matter how hard you try, there's nothing new under the sun.

Favorite Things: Day 31

Favorite Things: Day 31 This guy..

For being steadfast, loyal, loving, hard working

baby wearer, boy carrying

Papa.

For being my best friend, confidante, encourager, challenger. For patiently putting up with my bleep. For making all my dreams come true by giving me the family I always wanted. But mainly for being the inimitable Ryan. I love you.

Favorite Things: Day 30

Favorite Things: Day 30 Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

You know, I was going to leave day 30 for something like "being a sibling/nurturing siblings", or "community", or "friendship" but decided, what are any of those, really, without a little sweetness? A tiny morsel when the craving hits. For me those cravings are satisfied with these Devil Food Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Buttercream. To be honest, I could do without the cupcake. I mean, it is made out of chocolate that I mix with fresh brewed coffee, and for a bite of something chocolatey, it does the trick. But for me it's just a vehicle with which to drive the buttercream into my waiting mouth. Mmmm, as Blythe is fond of saying. And she hasn't even tried these yet.

Brown sugar buttercream was new to me so I went for the same method as I do my lemon meringue white buttercream...egg whites whisked together with brown sugar over a double boiler until warm and shiny, then beaten into a frenzy, in part to cool the mixture off. Then you add the butter. I won't say how much, but it's a lot. The moment it all comes together and begins to look like something you could actually ice a cake with is a glorious one and the point at which my mouth begins to salivate with expectation.

I love the salty-sweet of the butter and brown sugar and have been known to keep the leftovers in the fridge for a pick me up late afternoons when Mama needs a secret treat. Good stuff.

Favorite Things: Day 29

Favorite Things: Day 29 Sweaters

All I can say is, one can never have too many. Long sleeve, cardigan, pull over, turtle neck, cable knit, fine gauge knit, metallic, 3/4 sleeve, shawl collar, puffed shoulder, boat neck with stripes, cashmere, merino wool, cotton, linen, cotton/wool blend, variegated, handmade, vintage, store bought.

They're all good.

And no, I don't have too many.

Favorite Things: Day 28

Favorite Things: Day 28 Traditions

Ryan carrying Felix up the hill to the hut.

One of my very favorite things is carrying over traditions from both our sides of the family, as well as beginning new ones with our own brood.

Thanksgiving, when I was growing up, always entailed about 20 extra people as well as make shift table of plywood on sawhorses, covered nicely with a starched white table cloth. We pulled out boxes of Noritake china from under the stairs and washed each piece carefully. I loved polishing the silver, ironing the napkins, and setting the table with candles and place markers. The kitchen was a hub of activity, with amazing smells driving us all wild with hunger. There was the year Mom accidentally dropped the 25+ lb. turkey on the floor, creating a scene right out of The Christmas Story, and the other year Aunt Suzie traipsed around our soft pine wood floors in spiky heels, leaving an indelible mark on our floor that nearly sent my father into an apoplectic fit.

Christmas began with the hunt for the perfect i.e. tallest tree in christendom that we would then cut down, tie to our car, and drive merrily home. One year, our eyes were bigger than our strength, and we had to use a pully system, with me standing on the front porch, tugging on a rope through the dormer window to get the tree in an upright position. I think that one was close to 15-17 feet high? Christmas also included copious amounts of yummy food, including the year Mom made a traditional English plum pudding and tried to light it on fire with brandy soaked sugar cubes. Many attempts at lighting failed and then suddenly, whoosh, it seemed to explode and we all gasped then applauded. Good times.

Since we moved to Wisconsin, my side of the family has been traveling here for Thanksgiving. Everyone pitches in for the big meal as well as all the other meals of the week, lots of games of dominoes are played, beer is drunk, but the best part of Thanksgiving is an afternoon at Indian Lake. There is a wonderful warming hut on top of a hill there, with a wood stove and a stash of firewood. We haul in food and supplies and spend the afternoon mostly outside, around the big fire pit, with the hut as a place to warm up if need be. It's become a tradition almost every one in the family looks forward to the most.

Noel starting a fire in the hut's woodstove.

My older brother James also ropes anyone he can into running the Berby Derby with him Thanksgiving morning which I feel conflicted about. On the one hand, I enjoyed the race the year I ran it, but on the other hand, I'd much rather wake up late and eat a large breakfast instead. Either way, it's a fun tradition.

Our family has created lots of other traditions. Some of them will remain the same for years to come, others may change a bit to fit our changing schedule and kids' desires. Either way, it's a lovely way to create memories and an anticipation for the years to come.

Favorite Things: Day 27

Sam & Oliver playing on the beach at Sherando Lake

Favorite Things: Day 27 State Parks

Some of my fondest childhood memories are of camping at a place in the Blue Ridge Mountains called Sherando Lake. Camping is only $15 night (still) and the sites are private and shaded with easy access to restrooms and water. We'd go for hikes, rent a canoe, or swim in the lake that also has a nice sandy beach. For a family of 6 on limited income, it was an affordable and ideal vacation.

Devil's Lake in Wisconsin is a favorite place to camp and hike because of how much it reminds me of Sherando and it's proximity (about an hour 15 minutes from our home). We also like Governor Dodge, Lake Kegonsa (10 minutes away) and Indian Lake. For a paltry $25 park sticker fee, we can have year round access to all this free entertainment and exercise.

Most state parks were created by the CCC, a government program FDR founded to give out of work men jobs and to create a service for the people of our nation. I remember my mom telling me stories of my Grandpa Shomon hauling logs up steep hills to make steps and trails in various parks around the country and to this day, I think of him every time we find ourselves hiking one of these parks.

I'll be fulfilling a dream in two weeks when I take the boys camping at Sherando Lake for the first time!

Favorite Things: Day 26

Favorite Things: Day 26 Eating al fresco

Favorite Things: Day 25

Favorite Things: Day 25 Books

Although Cydney makes a great case for the audible book and kindle, nothing will ever replace a good old fashioned bound book in my aesthetic. I've always been seduced by antique/vintage books especially and from a very young age, began collecting them at library sales my mom would take me to. Some of my most prized books are a complete collection of Louisa May Alcott's works my mother gifted me for my birthday a few years ago. She bought them in Hawaii at her friend's book shop and learned that they were owned by two young girls whose family came to Hawaii to be missionaries at the turn of last century. Her father prized books more than anything and built a shelter for their abundant collection before building a house for the family. The inscription reads to either Miss Ethel or Miss Anna Paris from a Mrs. Carter, 1900-1904. I love thinking about these girls, far away from their home and living in a strange land but being transported into Alcott's world just as I am every time I open one up.

I also have the complete works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Thackeray, Guy de Maupassant, almost all antique copies of Edith Wharton and Henry James, George Eliot, and Victor Hugo. I love the gilt edges, the decorative spines, the beautiful illustrations, the different typefaces, and yes, even the slight musty smell some of them emit.

When I packed up my car to drive solo from VA to Seattle at the age of 19, my little Toyota Corolla was packed to the gills with boxes and boxes of books. When my car caught on fire in the Nevada desert, I had all those boxes shipped to my final destination, rather than leave them behind, which just shows my dedication to the printed word. It's gotten a little out of hand, and sometimes I think I need to pare down. But then I sit in our reading room and realize I could never part with any of these friends.

Favorite Things: Day 24

Favorite Things: Day 24 Journals

I really wish I had done a better job journaling the last few years. My entries are scattered, interrupted, and largely unfinished since I often am scattered and/or interrupted whenever I sit down to write. I'm grateful for the journals I do have...it's so interesting to peruse entries from a decade ago and see where I've grown, matured and changed as well as the things I still continue to work through/think about. Journals are also a great cache for memorabilia (just found tickets from the Eiffel Tower in one), artistic sketches (or in my case, clippings from magazines), and poetic phrases that need to be written down.

I loved finding the entry above from a cross country trip my mom and I took from VA to Seattle in 1998...it made me smile to see that even then, the Wisconsin landscape took a hold of my heart and dragged me in.

I have journals for all the boys, although naturally, Sam's has the most written in it, since Sam was born first and had the bulk of my uninterrupted attention (his is the leather bound marbled paper one above that I purchased in Montepulciano the trip we found out we were expecting him). I've been trying to write more frequently for each boy. I haven't decided when I'll pass them on to the boys, but it will be on a significant birthday when they are much older. For quick use, I love the "My Quotable Kid" journal from Chronicle Books that Blythe gave us...each page has a space for date, place, kid, and then the quote. I keep it within easy grasp so I can write things down immediately that need to be immortalized.

Favorite Things: Day 23

Favorite Things: Day 23 Summer

I first met Summer in the beginning of Summer 1998. I had only lived in Seattle for a year and we met at the graduation party Dana Jill threw for Jared. Within minutes of meeting (along with our other friend Freya, who I also met for the first time that day), we were fast friends. In fact, the 3 of us spent the rest of the weekend together talking art, poetry, faith, spirituality, and of course, boys. Or rather, the boys were in hot pursuit of my 2 new gorgeous friends. I quickly got used to being the "chopped liver" friend. A year later, Summer brought her new beau Colin and her brother Ryan over to the house where I lived to watch "So I Married an Axe Murder", and thus began my relationship with my husband.

Our friendship went through a rough transitional period when we both got married...I think it was tricky figuring out how to go from friends to sisters-n-law. My pregnancy and birth of Sam quickly erased any hurt feelings or misunderstandings as Summer was determined to be the most loving and present auntie ever, a role she relished and has never ceased to fill despite the 2,000 physical miles between us. She drove up from Eugene, OR as soon as she heard I went into labor and slept on a hospital couch until Sam was born.

Later, when Ryan and I were going through a very tough year (that's putting it mildly), she was my constant confidante, my encourager, my listener, never telling me what to do, never judging me, but helping me to process through everything and when I chose to reconcile with Ryan, she once again drove up from Eugene and lived with us until 6 weeks after the birth of Oliver, helping out in every way imaginable so that I could have a healthy recovery. Night after night, she watched Conan O'Brien on our couch and cuddled baby O so that Ryan and I could get some much needed sleep. To this day there is a very special bond between "Olba-bear" (as Sam used to call him) and Mimi (the name the boys call her).

Honestly, the fact that both Summer and Ryan are in my life are evidence that God loves me in a tangible way that I don't think I ever quite got before I knew them. How many women marry a guy and land a best friend as a sister-n-law in the process? Maybe more than I know, but I count myself blessed beyond measure to have Summer as my sister-friend.

Now she's a Mama to two extraordinary girls, my nieces, and we share an ever deepening bond as we journey through parenthood together. Despite the fact that her brother is my husband, we're able to have honest and candid conversations about marriage and what it means to be a wife and I'm constantly inspired to love Ryan better through watching the example she sets with Colin.

She's an incredibly talented photographer who feels too weird about self-promoting to actually make a go of it commercially and a girl whose fashion sense is always fun and boundary pushing.

You'd be hard pressed to find a more loyal, hard-working, dedicated, honest-to-a-fault, fun, creative, flawed-but-determinedly-working-it-out person who I can call literally any time, day or night and know she'll pick up the phone and have something wise and funny to say. She's a one in a million gem.

I love you Summer.

Favorite Things: Day 22

Favorite Things: Day 22 Fun Kitchen Gadgets

If I had to list them in order of importance prior to yesterday, it would go:

1). Microzester

2). Cherry pitter

3). French pastry rolling pin (wood)

4). Terra cotta whole garlic baker

But there's a new sheriff in town, a rookie who completely upset the natural order of things and took top place in the affections of the Baughn family. Who is this upstart gadget? A line of 4 Star Wars cookie cutters from Williams-Sonoma. Received an email from the latter advertising the former (aren't "latter" and "former" just brilliant words? They just make life and communicating so much easier) and since Ryan was literally next door, I capitulated and purchased. It wasn't really a fair fight. I didn't tell the boys but surprised Sam with buckwheat pancakes in the shape of Yoda and Darth Vader the next morning at breakfast (I just couldn't wait the 3 weeks until his birthday which was the intended gifting date) and he was ecstatic.

I then tried them out on his sandwich I packed for his lunch.

Jasper thought they were a hoot.

Oliver tried his hand at decorating with the royal icing and did a phenomenal job (although Bobba Fett, below, is mostly my handi-work).

What will they think of next? (they being the retailers and they do have the same thing as pancake molds but I figured the cutters could do double duty and they work out pretty well).

Unfavorite Things: 2 Weeks of Being Unwell

Hi all-

I want to apologize for not keeping up with the favorite things project. I have been running on empty for what seems like forever but has in actuality only been 2 weeks. It started with a horrible sore throat that lasted for days, turned into cough and severe headache and just when I thought I was getting better, I got beat up in a street fight. Well, not really. But that's how badly my body ached for several days. Alongside stomach issues and massive fatigue (bed by 8:30pm with a 2 hour nap in the afternoons), I'm not ashamed to admit that I called Summer to cry on her shoulder long distance a time or two. I really really want to indulge in more whining about the state of my house, the massive piles of laundry that have built up, the guilty feelings of not being able to do much more for Ryan or the kids then just get by, much less feeling like a crummy friend for barely (0r not at all) checking in lately...everyone please forgive me and know there was a reason why.

With all that said, the older boys have been shopped out for an overnight and I'm hoping to spend some time catching up on this project, which I've enjoyed immensely. And then I'll kick my feet up with a cup o' tea and catch up on all your lovely postings as well.

Favorite Things: Day 21

Favorite Things: Day 21 Parties!

I love any excuse to have a party. I love preparing for it (I'm kind of a last minute planner even when I know months in advance that one is coming up), love cooking and baking for it, and especially love when everyone shows up at the door, smiling and excited to spend an "occasion" together. One year, my friend Hansi brought her Sam & Remy over for a Valentine's Day party.

Sam asked for a pirate party a few years back. Grandpa hand painted flags and I bought bandana material at Jo-Ann's so each kid could be swarthy...it was a stretch for Esther & Indy who are just too darn cute, but they tried.

I don't claim to be the most creative when it comes to party ideas, I mainly focus on the food and making sure everyone can make it but I've heard tales of Jenn over at Precarious and her legendary parties for her girls and often wished I had her kind of ideas and execution. I suppose in the end, though, no matter what your budget or your style, just getting together with friends and family is about all the excuse you need to have a party!

Favorite Things: Day 20

Favorite Things: Day 20 BBC, Master Piece Theater & Andrew Davies, bless his soul. For bringing all the wonderful classics to life in adaptation after glorious adaptation. Impeccable acting, writing, set and costume design is like candy to this girl who grew up wishing she'd been born a century or two earlier (to blue blood parents on a country estate in Derbyshire, of course), so much so that she set up a wash stand in her bedroom and brushed her teeth and washed her face there instead of the bathroom with all the modern amenities just outside her door. Nerd.

Yup. Officially in love with Richard Armitage, Daniela Denby-Ashe and the writing of Elizabeth Gaskell (who was a close friend of Charlotte Bronte and a well-known author herself in her day, now experiencing a revival of interest in her novels thanks to productions such as this) after watching this 4 part mini. And seriously, I'm going through with season 7 of MI:5 (or Spooks as it's known across the pond) just to continue watching Richard Armitage take on the world.

Ryan and I found this production of Bleak House (with the lovely Gillian Anderson in a role that rivals her turn in House of Mirth) absolutely riveting. "Shake me up, Jenny!" is now a favorite catch-phrase in our house, especially loved by Felix who has absolutely no clue what it means.

And of course, everyone's favorite. I nearly came to blows with a few friends in a debate over the best adaptation of Pride & Prejudice but I still defy ANYONE to find a better adaptation of Jane Austen's novel then this 1991 version. It just doesn't get any better than the chemistry between Jennifer Ehle's Elizabeth Bennett and Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy. There are so many memorable scenes but one of my favorites is between these two when Elizabeth receives news of silly Lydia's scandal. Even after 50 sittings it's still swoon-worthy and no one can convince me that Keira Knightley did better. Jennifer Ehle brings an intelligence and maturity to Elizabeth that I found sorely lacking in the latter's performance, and as well as Matthew McFadyn did as Darcy, he's no Colin Firth. Sorry. I'm pretty firm on this one.

As a frequent viewer of period dramas, I'm amazed at how often Andrew Davies' name pops up as the screenplay writer. Well done and thank you from a legion of devoted fans such as myself.