WASHER NECKLACES

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I've been making these Anni Albers-designed washer necklaces for a few years now. Anni was such an amazing woman. Married to the painter Josef Albers, she studied and taught at the Bauhaus, made an international reputation for herself as a textile designer (that's one of her textile patterns below), and figured out how to construct ingenious jewelry out of everyday objects like washers, bobby pins, and paper clips. You can buy kits to make her hardware-store washer and grosgrain ribbon necklaces here, or mix up materials (like my version above, made with cotton rope and enormous powder-coated washers).  

SHAKER LEMON PIE

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Before even moving to the Bay area, my husband bought me a baking book from the awesome SF bakery, Tartine.  I've tried a few things, but really love their recipe for Shaker Lemon Pie.  It can be tricky...be SURE to cut the lemons paper thin, or else use Meyer lemons.  Making mistakes in this area can lead to inedible results (trust me).  You can find a recipe for this pie here.

GREY HIPPO

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Knitting a hippo was even more fun than knitting a pig! (Who would have thought :>) I like to joke about our fat little kitty cat, saying that now there are TWO grey hippos in the house.

BEST SO FARS

When we lived in New York, one of our favorite bodega treats were Tate's chocolate-chip cookies. Oh man, they are good. Go get some. Anyhow, soon after discovering Tate's, we found we weren't alone in our admiration for these delicious morsels. Jeffrey Steingarten, longtime food editor at Vogue, totally agrees! In his hilarious and informative book, It Must've Been Something I Ate, he cites Tate's as being one of the two "finest" chocolate-chip cookies made (the other one is a brand called Kathleen's). "Through a remarkable feat of reverse engineering" he comes very close to copying the prized cookies in his personal recipe for the "best so far" chocolate-chip cookies. We make these cookies constantly. A giant framed copy of the recipe used to hang in our kitchen. I decided to christen our new (old) Braun mixer with a half-batch last night.

KNITTED FRIEND

I am loving my new hobby of knitting and really enjoyed making this adorable pink piggy! You can find the pattern for him and a lot of other cute animals in Itty-Bitty Toys. It is a great book; I am just a beginner and had no problems making it. I also learned to use double pointed needles with this project (which is easier to do than you might think).

KNITTING

I have not posted anything in so long! A lot has happened, including the birth of our first baby; Elizabeth Larkin Heywood, born March 21st (the first day of Spring!) in Berkeley, California. We are so excited to share our world with her. I have taught myself to knit as of late, so here are a few of the projects I have completed for the little bun:



All of these projects I made with patterns from the fantastic book Vintage Knits for Modern Babies.

YIPPEE!

Happy Birthday Erik!