Wishing you a weekend of lovely sounds

Bumblebee
I thought I'd leave you with a few things to listen to this weekend ...

A great song by a French ensemble that I've been dancing to with the Wee Lass.

My favourite spoken word piece ... it's about bottled water.

An awesome cover that totally re-imagines the original.

This song has beautifully poetic lyrics.

A song that always makes me miss Montreal exquisitely.

My favourite TED Talk on creativity.


Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

The Most Delicious Panzanella

Panzanella
One of our favourite easy dinner dishes this summer has been panzanella. It's quick to make, refreshingly cool on a hot day, and it gets gobbled up by the Wee Lass.

Here's how I make it for 2 adults and 1 toddler ...

Most Delicious Panzanella
stale bread (good quality crusty French or Italian style bread, approximately 1 cup per person when cubed)
3 fresh tomatoes (approximately 1 per person your salad will serve)
1/2 fresh cucumber (optional)
1/2 to 1 can of diced tomatoes (optional -- desirable if your bread is rock solid stale)
4 Tbsp olive oil (really just a generous glug ... I don't actually measure it)
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar (or red wine vinegar or cider vinegar)
garlic (1 clove)
shallot (optional)
capers
Taggia olives
assorted fresh herbs (basil, thyme, oregano)
salt and pepper

Saw the stale bread into small bite-size cubes and place in a shallow salad bowl or deep pie dish. I used the end of a loaf of rosemary foccaccia. If your bread is really stale, you'll want to make sure it all gets thoroughly soaked, so that's why a shallow dish works better. Now you're going to make a juicy concoction to dump on top. You could mix it in a separate bowl first, but I always just add it to the bread as I go.

Finely chop your tomatoes (and cucumber if you're using it) into small cubes. If your bread is super stale, then add a can of diced tomatoes for extra liquid and tomatoe-y goodness (I didn't need it in this case). Drizzle on a generous amount of olive oil (use a bit more if your bread is really hard) and add the balsamic vinegar. Mix this sauce around to combine. You can add finely chopped garlic and shallot directly, but I prefer to soften the flavour of it with a quick saute. I actually forgot to add it in the pictured salad and the whole thing was still tasty.

Add a bit more olive oil if it seems like a good idea. Toss in a big spoonful of capers and enough olives for everyone to get at least 3 or 4. Finely chop a generous bunch of fresh basil, thyme, and oregano and add to your bowl. Sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix it and let it sit for 5 minutes before serving.


Panzanella
Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Web Wanderings for the Weekend

A fresh batch of playdough
Some of my favourite things from wandering around the web...

A must-make recipe for anyone with a toddler. We make 1/4 batch at a time.

You don't have to be pretty.

Be kind.

A cute tip for improving your french accent.

The sweetest nightlight.

My current favourite book to read to the Wee Lass.

Utterly astounding book sculptures.

Quirky idea for taming cable clutter.


Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Haiku Postcard

haiku postcardAn awesome friend of mine suggested doing a haiku postcard exchange. This is what I came up with. I have forgotten everything I learned about my watercolour paints, so come September (and the Wee Lass begins preschool), I have artsy plans for myself.

Here's a sketch I did as part of the series of motherhood inspired haikus:

motherhood
Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Wanderings on the web

Summer in a bowlA few things I've run across lately....

A scientific approach to making your favourite type of chocolate chip cookie.

The most amazing food blog that I've read in ages.

A genius (if extreme) method for finding your style. If nothing else, it's highly entertaining to read about someone else doing it.

What I'm eating for breakfast these days. Except I use raspberries.

A music video about geek girls. I played RPGs growing up, read scifi/fantasy, and got a B.Math in Computer Science. I am a proud geek.

Chic bicycle adventures to take around the world.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

There was one with polkadots.

When there's not much time for sewing projects, I tend to stick to the highly functional ones. A book bag for library visits and a zip pouch for spare toddler clothes are two recent-ish projects.


Book Bag
The book bag is a lined tote with a pocket on the inside. I love the cute gnomes and woodland creature fabrics available in Holland and they paired well with a classic red and white spotted fabric.


Book Bag (inside out)
For the zip pouch, I used some exotic fabric from a bundle of fat quarters and some tiny white on blue polkadots for lining. It really should have been wider, but I wanted to work with what I had on hand and all my zippers were short. It's just big enough to fit one change of clothes for the Wee Lass, but I will probably make another one when I have a chance to pick up some longer zips.


Zip Pouch
I don't tend to sew from a pattern, so I just made both of these up as I went along and using materials that I already had. Given my time constraints for crafty projects, having a good stash of stuff has been invaluable. I try to keep a nice variety of ribbons, elastic, zippers, snaps, and embellishments around so that I don't have to delay a project by going shopping for supplies. This can also lead to some delightful serendipity. I am so pleased with how Zoe's slightly wild blue-green hair turned out and it occurred largely because I didn't have any leftover yarn in a more conventional colour.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

And then we made a Dolly.

Zoe the dollThe Wee Lass and I made a fabric dolly together. She's very interested in my sewing machine and frequently asks to do a sewing project. We used tea to dye some linen from a thrifted shirt (we needed only a small part of one arm of the shirt for this dolly).



I drew a pattern on paper based roughly on the shape of her bunny (amusingly, also made from a thrifted shirt) and then traced around it to add seam allowance. I made the arms a bit fatter (easier to flip and stuff) and added thumbs. We sewed up the arms and legs together and stuffed them full of "fluff" as she calls it. I added felt eyes and a mouth with some embroidery thread before sewing the body up and attaching the arms and legs. I attached a little loop of embroidered trim so we could easily clip the dolly to a bag or the stroller if she's coming out on adventures.



I added yarn hair, based on a simple tutorial that I found online. Since our dolly didn't have a perfectly round head, I found it worked better to start the "scalp" at the hairline and then spiral in, rather than the reverse. I wove in the loose ends of the braid to fill any gaps and secure it. I just added a little bit of long yarn hair to make pigtails and bangs, rather than covering the whole head.



This type of "flat" doll is quite approachable for a novice sewist and lots of fun to involve a little one in the process. Next time the Wee Lass requests a sewing project, I think we'll make her dolly a dress.



Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.