Weekend Update

Thanks so much to everyone who inquired as to how Connor fared during the fireworks. I am pleased to say that he did pretty well, possibly because he was squished on the sofa with me and buried under a mound of pillows. This seems to help a lot when storms come in, or when there are fireworks, but obviously, it’s not a long-term solution.

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If you’re looking for a super easy summer dessert, try the dessert I made for a dinner the other night. It’s called Eton Mess, after the exclusive boys’ school in Windsor, England. It takes five minutes! Because of the holiday, I made it with blueberries and raspberries. Here’s the recipe:

• Blueberries/raspberries/strawberries
• Whipping cream, or whipped cream
• Meringues kisses.
• Sugar

If you buy pre-made meringues, crush them slightly, not to dust, but so there’s still some shape left. Add sugar to the berries, if you want to layer the different berries, keep them separate during this step. Whip the whipping cream until it forms soft peaks, or just scoop it out of the container if you’re using pre-made whipped cream. Layer the meringue, berries, cream, berries, cream, meringue into a bowl/glass/dish. Et voila, you’ve got a simple summer dessert!

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I am adding things every day to my Etsy shop, including some yardage of the Scalamandré La Dame Aux Cameleas Imari on Black that I found stuck in the back of a thrift shop. You can read the story here. This sells to-the-trade for $400/yard, and I am offering it for $100/yard. It’s really a spectacular textile, with 20 colours, each handprinted. The funniest thing about this is that I had never measured the yardage on the bolt, and thought it was about five yards. Turns out it’s about 15.5 yards.

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There’s an auction at my favourite place this weekend, but I am still trying to get details about one of their gallery sales. If you’re interested in joining me on Saturday morning, just north of Baltimore, let me know. One of the lots they’re auctioning is some fossilized sharks’ teeth, which are actually fairly common along the Chesapeake Bay. Bu their estimate, I’ve probably got several thousand dollars worth of these stashed in an old tin, as a result of the collections of several of my older cousins.

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I did a favour for a childhood friend recently, and made her some graphics. She had seen something similar in a catalogue, but wanted them slightly different and more personal to where we live. I found the nautical charts for Maryland’s Atlantic coast and used that as a basis for the background. Then I found some great images on the Graphics Fairy (which you should check out) and inverted their colours… and some other things, and came up with these images.

With some Photoshop magic and some non-copyrighted graphics, I was able to create exactly what she wanted for her house at the beach. I am playing around with some other images like these and might make them into fabric with Spoonflower.

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What did you do with your long weekend? Or your short one?

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