After settling in Seattle I was dead-set on finishing some projects that have been a long time coming. For example, this August my husband and I will celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary and we had yet to get photos printed of our big day. Growing up, I loved looking at my parents wedding album (not too mention a gillion other family albums) and its just something I wanted to do. It’s been sitting, uncrossed off on my list. We have gorgeous photos thanks to our friends Kelly and Kyle (Hi guys!), who drove to Montana to shoot the epic event, so it was high time I made an album. THE PROBLEM WAS I COULDN’T CHOOSE – SO NOW I HAVE TWO, 300 PHOTO ALBUMS TO DOCUMENT EVERY LOVELY MOMENT WE HAD UNDER THE BIG SKY. Next, also wedding related, were the 4 dozen or so quilt squares we had guests sign at our wedding. The idea was that I would make a quilt with these squares and with the fabric left over from the 300 or so napkins I made for the big day in coordinating colors. Had I ever made a quilt before? No. Crazy? Yes, that’s me! I’ve sewn just about everything else though, so I was confident I could figure it out. THE GOOD NEWS IS, THE QUILT IS MORE THAN HALF COMPLETE. JUST A ROW A DAY, I SAY. Here are some images of the progress. Prior to the wedding I’d hand-stitched the middle piece and I have to say, it’s my favorite part, along with the sweet, funny and sentimental notes from friends and family. I get a warm and fuzzy feeling knowing that our favorite people have touched and helped make this quilt the beauty that it is. I am looking forward to cuddling up and watching movies with this quilt and building forts with our kids someday. Also in the photos is my rock-solid Singer sewing machine from the 1940’s. I love this beast. It’s what I’ve used for pretty much everything – including the items for sale on this site! There is not a piece of plastic on it. It sews through anything. It’s simple. It’s beautiful. The silver-inlay detail, exposed belt, hum of the motor, and sporadic little power light make me grin. It was passed down to me from a friend of the family and along with the Singer my grandmother gave me…
Read MoreA little howdy, food love and making use of your “special” pieces
Howdy! My first post as Davey Handmade! Exciting times. I picked this photo for my first post as it signifies the beginning of my new chapter in Seattle. Here I am unpacking our storage after 9-months of travel. Funny how all of ones worldly-possessions fit into a 6 x 10 storage space. Good thing I found my tennis racket! Here goes… I am finishing up my first product prototypes (post coming soon!), so in the mean time I will write about something else near and dear to my heart…and stomach: local, yummy grub and kitchenwares! As I write this post, the weekly farmers market in Columbia City, Seattle is humming about 30 feet from my door. I’ve been taking advantage of this as much as possible – purchasing fresh flowers, homemade noodles, sauerkraut, tamales, brocollini, apricots and so much more. Here is a photo from the meal I made with my recent purchase of spinach linguini from La Pasta. I had just made a a batch of pesto from my bounty of basil growing in my Zipgrow towers (photo below) and tossed the linguini with fresh sautéed veggies, an onslaught of parmigiano reggiano, and some chunks of spicy sausage. Yum! THE GORGEOUS BOWL THAT HOLDS THIS TOWER OF PASTA WAS HANDMADE FROM A FRIEND OF MY HUSBAND’S AS A GIFT FOR OUR WEDDING. I hadn’t used it much in the seven years since our wedding and when we moved to Seattle I vowed to actually use all the items we had stored away for the year while we traveled (more on that way down below). The one thing I missed from our Tetris-packed storage unit (more cringe-worthy photos below – isn’t that nice? Glad I didn’t get squished!), was my kitchenware…and I have boxes of it. Previously I have saved these items for special occasions or dinner parties, but really, every night at our house is a dinner party! My husband and I eat dinner with each other just about every night, at the table, with cloth napkins to boot! We grew up that way and its something I plan to continue when we have children. We connect over the meal and catch up about our day. We laugh as our dog gives us sad “I am so hungry” eyes and waits to do give the pre-wash duty on our plates. By no means is every meal as pretty as this…
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