Passover

The F's decided to host a Seder tonight and we were happy to join them. Admittedly 3 is too young for the boys to take away much of the meaning of for Our Little Helper to see the similarities between Passover and the Last Supper. But any occasion is a good one to get together with our best friends. Mrs. F set such a pretty table using Granny's china and a tempting dish of coconut macaroons to tempt us.
We went pretty quickly through the Seder, the boys did try the bitter herbs in salt water, which had just the effect one would imagine. They were very excited about hiding the afikomen and the prospect of toys. After the bitter herbs though we were unable to get the boys to try the Hillel sandwich with the charoset and shredded horse radish, but that is one of my favorite parts of the Seder. Another thing they enjoyed was being able to stick their hands in their juice and touching their plates to symbolize the ten plagues. Who doesn't like a holiday where you are allowed to get messy?
Mr. F made a great matzo ball soup and roasted potatoes and steak for dinner. Very impressive since he decided that morning to host the Seder that night. She didn't think they would this year since she is expecting and still having some morning sickness.
This was an especially happy Passover for me because I was remembering last year's. Mr. F's mother had come to town to prepare the dinner for her family. After the meal Mrs. F, Big Mrs. F and another woman and I were talking about trying to conceive and family planning. The other two were talking about how which months they would avoid trying to conceive based upon the resulting birth month. These types of conversations among fertiles are a little upsetting to me because I'm not able to just pick a month and have it work so easily. I looked up to heaven and said, "Dear God, I will take a baby any month you will give me one!" Four days later I learned I was pregnant. In a way I like to also consider him my Passover miracle.

Palm Sunday

It is hard to believe that Lent is almost over! It seems to have gone by much quicker this year, especially considering last year I was going through my first cycle with infertility drugs. What a difference a year makes!
We had very nice weather this weekend. On Saturday I went on the Kitchen Revival Tour with Mrs. F and the weather was mostly clear and dry which was very nice for getting in and out of the car repeatedly. Mr. W was out late with his fraternity buddies, but decided that he'd get up to join us at Mass for Palm Sunday. Mass started in the field and then a procession to the church with music and everyone waving palm fronds and branches. It was very cold out, but very sunny.
Once we were home Mr. W made us blueberry pancakes with assistance from Our Little Helper and then took the boys for a walk to the playground. I used that time to work on the baby photo albums. I also made hazelnut biscotti cookies since time is running out for this Lenten season. The recipe for Quaresimali comes from Italian Holiday Cooking. In it they are described as being a Lenten cookie because they are "so hard they are a penance to eat." I made them once before for an Altar Society bake sale. At that time I didn't have the cinnamon oil, but they still tasted good. Hard, but good. I searched high and low for the oil; I was eventually able to find cinnamon extract at Sur la Table and hoped that was close enough. When I added the extract to the eggs I was overwhelmed by the aroma of cinnamon and feared for the worst. But once the beaten eggs were incorporated into the dry ingredients the smell was no longer over powering. I think it baked off too because there is a mild flavor of cinnamon in the cookies.
This was the most successful I've been at roasting and skinning filberts. 20 minutes at 350 degrees seems to do the trick. I haven't looked back at my other recipes with filberts but I assume those must either recommend a lower temperature or a shorter time baking because I never end up with all the skins easily coming completely free of the nut.
So even though biscotti is more often paired with coffee, it makes a lovely, crunchy accompaniment to tea.

Kitchen Revival Tour

Mr. & Mrs. F's Laurelhurst bungalow kitchen was last remodeled in the 60s. There is no dishwasher so they are going to do a kitchen remodel to update it and add a deck in the back yard which would be accessible from the kitchen. Although they already have a design established with Mr. Z, she and I thought it would be fun to go to this year's Kitchen Revival Tour. The tour is organized by the Architectural Heritage Center which is close to my heart because my father began his stained glass career in Oregon working for Jerry Bosco and Ben Milligan. When I was working for Craftsman Design and Renovation we had clients featured on the tour.
We left the boys with our husbands and headed out in their Smart car. We decided to start with the houses on the other side of the Willamette to a house in Beaverton. It was a 1949 Ranch, but the interior is completely Moderne. This house is so intact; the kitchens and baths are untouched and they are fabulous! The kitchen is paneled walls and ceiling in Marlite and the breakfast nook has the original chrome and glass table and upholstered banquets. A glass curio shelf divides the nook from the kitchen work space. Perfect inlaid linoleum is underfoot. The main bath is destined for savethepinkbathrooms.com, with original pink and blue Marlite paneling, floor tiles, and fixtures. The best part of this house in my opinion was the master bathroom. A fabulous chrome and Marlite dressing table and glass block. I am positively smitten! Who wouldn't want to get ready here? This house was a perfect fit for the homeowner too. Her mid-century collections and wardrobe are destined to live here. I caught another case of basement envy when I saw their basement bar. So fun! I also enjoyed the balustrade and the coved cork on the stairs.The theme this year seemed to be hex tile countertops. House after house had colorful hex tiles in some application. There were two houses on the tour by the architect Kenneth Birkemeier, the first of which was his home. Nestled on Alameda ridge on the North side of Fremont St. this 1951 mid-century brick house had an incredible view made all the more wonderful by the gorgeous overcast weather we had. I was remarking to Mrs. F what a beautiful day it was and another tour goer laughed at my Oregonian-ness. But, hey it was warmish, dry, and cloudy with a bit of sun peeking through. Anyway, while I'm not a Ranch girl, there is something to be said for floor to ceiling windows when the house has a view. The main countertops in this kitchen have been replaced at some point with a fat granite slab, although the cabinets are original. The upper bar and one of the lesser used side countertops retain their original blue hex tiles. It was in this house that I ran into a couple of former clients. Theirs was one of the kitchens we featured on the tour. The wife volunteers for the AHC so it wasn't surprising to meet them on the tour. We chatted about how I now have two sons and am busy but enjoying being a homemaker. They told me that they really missed me on their second project after I retired because things ran so smoothly on my project. I guess my replacement wasn't as organized as they would have liked. I must confess that their complement really made my day! It is so nice to be appreciated!
The second Birkemeier house was a 1949 Cape Cod with more intact kitchens and baths. Powder blue hex tiles on the kitchen counters, curio shelves, and wavy scallop trim along the crown are all original and make for an adorable workspace. I also enjoyed the light filled, adjacent breakfast nook. Another awesome pale pink and powder blue tiled bathroom has escaped destruction. The next house in Laurelhurst was my favorite. The 1913 Arts & Crafts house was under restoration by the new owners and is full of wonderful stained woodwork. The bi-swing door from the dining room leads into the most awesome depression era butler's pantry. Oh how I would love a house like this! The interior of the cabinets and the walls are paneled in Marlite. A pantry which used to house the refrigerator has been thoughtfully converted into a half bath. In the kitchen they solved the dilemma of cabinets too shallow to accommodate modern appliances by installing dishwasher drawers instead. A perfect solution because it would be a shame to lose these aqua and white tile countertops.There was one house from Sunnyside in which a back porch was converted into a breakfast nook in a very similar way to what I would do in our bungalow kitchen... the only difference is we don't have a back porch so we'd need an addition to the original footprint. The following house on the tour was a 1905 bungalow in Richmond. The house had a bizarre addition n the 1970s resulting in a very mismatched kitchen with Depression era tiled countertops with diagonal knotty pine paneled walls. The most recent remodel replicated the 1920s cabinetry, refurbished the hex tile countertops, and refinished the sink. There were some parts of the kitchen that I liked, but the whole space was still very odd; there is a view into the loft above. I do adore these swinging doors under the sink though.The last house we visited was a 1909 bungalow with Marmoleum Click flooring. I have a low opinion of DIY floating floor systems because they always sound so hollow and look so fake to me. But I was impressed with the Click, the seams were very tight and not noticeable. I was planning on a really involved design for Marmoleum in our kitchen, but would not invest in that now since we will probably move. However the DIY vinyl tiles are falling apart and must be replaced before we sell. I think the Click would be a good solution for us.
I always enjoy these glimpses into other vintage houses. I'm still not sure what the future will hold for us. If we stay I need a breakfast nook and mud room addition, if we move I need a butler's pantry. If it were plumbed I think I'd be in 7th heaven.

The Upper bathroom

I finally finished painting this picture frame, which based on the newspaper dated December 12, was a project I started right at the height of my nesting spree. Now that all my first aid accessories are complete AND we have a wide angle lens, I thought I would post new photos.There are two inspirations for this bathroom. The first is this jade green color. I have been collecting first aid or Red Cross items since I bought this orange tin in high school. I keep tampons in it. Some red cross canisters lead to the purchase of the jade green First Aid book which I picked up at Stars Antique mall for $1. Several years later I found the matching First Aid kit across the street at Stars & Splendid. Mr. W bought it for me for our 2nd anniversary since it is completely stocked with all the original cotton bandages.I'll go into the saga of the tub in a minute, but when I thought about what color to paint the tub I was a bit indifferent. Then I saw an episode of How I Met Your Mother which featured Brittney Spears playing a crazy girl. In her apartment was a purple painted claw foot tub in the main room. It looked awesome, such a bold color! And then I thought about that jade green from the first aid accessories. I'll admit I was very nervous at first at how it would turn out, it is such a bright color and re-painting a tub is not fun to do once it is installed. (I was able to paint ours while it was upside down in the hallway.) The color is Benjamin Moore #__, and the walls are a lighter tone #__.
We had no plans to redo this bathroom originally. The walls were a pale yellow and the floor was a mauve VCT, not my preference, but acceptable. The slope in this room was off by about 1 1/2" in 8 ' which is pretty significant and water wouldn't completely drain in the tub which was causing the finish to fail. We decided to fix the slope by putting glides under the feet. Long story short, a leg broke off, it took us years to fix it, and when we finally got the tub and sink basin professionally refinished, Mr. W noticed how much he had scratched up the floor and ask me if I thought we ought to replace it. I jumped at the chance of course!
Here's where the second inspiration come in. I had a client with a 1920s Tudor Revival in Alameda and I was in love with their black and white hex tile floors. Theirs was long and narrow and had 3 medallions. I used their pattern as a guide and did just one medallion in the center with the same border. I bought unglazed 1" hex tiles from Daltile because they are more period appropriate. The grout is Delorean Grey. My carpenters were able to fix the slope in the floor some by building up the underlayment. The rest we fixed by having Stanley Avenue Tub drill bolts into the feet which we can adjust to get the right height, and we used nickel plated glides to protect the new floors. Our claw feet are a little unusual, even with all the tubs Stanley Avenue Tub sees, they don't lock in place. Instead gravity is what is keeping them on. To remedy that, and prevent another foot from falling off again they made a toggle bolt for the pairs of legs to keep them on. This is probably an unnecessary safety precaution, but it was worth it to us.The train rack was purchased at Rejuvenation and installed before was added the linen cabinet in the hallway. The finish is polished nickel. Now that we don't need to store all our towels here I can create a little vignette.

Spring fever!

Yesterday was gorgeous! The weather was a delightful 68 degrees. It was so nice and sunny out I kept trying to convince My Little Helper that we should go outside and play in the back yard. He didn't want to get out of his pajamas as usual. He didn't want to go on a walk either. After several hours I was able to convince him to get dressed and we made our first post winter trip into the backyard. Oh do we have some cleaning up to do!
Mr. W had left a giant pile of leaves, branches and needles in the middle which I assume was because he had run out of room in the yard debris receptacle when he was last back there in the fall. The pile was so big that I filled the container to capacity. My main goal for going back there was to relocate the two compost bins. Now that the laurels are gone I planned to place them out of sight behind the potting shed. The spot which they had occupied would be set up for the boys to dig and play trucks. I knew I could move the bins myself because Mr. W had emptied them earlier this year spreading compost around the yard.
Once I moved them, with help from My Little Helper, I sat back to nurse the baby and my mind started spinning with all the projects I need to do this year to get the yard looking nice and to make progress toward becoming a Back Yard Bird Habitat. I'm hoping that the nice weather wasn't a fluke or some April Fool's Day joke. I'm so motivated right now! If we get another day of nice weather I'm going to pull up the fabric that is in the bed by the deck. The previous owners had a sandbox there and when I dismantled it my mom and I thought it would be a good idea to mix that sand in with soil and compost. The Habitat woman suggested I take that all out. That's going to be a lot of work; I'm going to need an empty yard debris bin when I start that!
I'd love to go right out and buy some plants to fill in the bed at the rear property line, but the poison isn't working fast enough on killing the laurels, there are still shoots of new growth. I think will apply more chemicals, but we may have to grind out the stumps in the end. And I think after we return from our vacation I'll start hunting around for a door to the potting shed and have my uncle return to enclose that little out building.
For now, My Little Helper is enjoying all the dirt and playing with his gigantic sand and water table that my mother-in-law sent. How fun it will be when both boys can play in the mud together!

February at Cannon Beach

Last month we went to the coast to celebrate my father's birthday. I posted about my house epiphany but not much else about the trip. We had terrific weather for February at the Oregon coast. When my dad turned 50 my mom threw a surprise party at the beach and flew me in from New York. After that it just became an annual thing which we have continued since he passed away. Since he wasn't religious he wanted his ashes spread at the beach so if the weather is cooperative we make the journey to the spot where he remains.
My Little Helper loves going to the beach. He lines up all the chairs in his room to create a garbage truck, has us get in the back of it or throws every.single.toy in his room into the big chair, and drives us down to the beach to have a picnic. I love his imagination! It was surprising then that after driving down to the beach and waking up in the beach house he didn't want to get dressed to go out onto the beach. "I don't want to go to the beach! I don't want to have fun!" he exclaimed. I have learned that 3 year olds are very fickle. But eventually we got him dressed and bundled up and out on the sand, which he of course loved. I wanted to take some nice family photos of my growing family since it was so sunny and nice. My problem is that even if I have everyone standing where I want them, zoom and set up the camera how I want it, and ask the photo taker to stand here, I never end up with the photos that I imagined in my head. This happened last year in Japan and San Gimignano; here part of my problem was you should never turn your back on the sea.
We had a nice, laid back weekend. Since we were there with my mom and sister, Mr. W and I even had a chance to go out for a walk on our own. We made a little trip into Cannon Beach and I was able to squeeze in an antique store on Hemlock St. One of the tables had some religious items on it and I found these holy candles which I knew had to come home with me. I haven't celebrated St. Jude's feast day yet so now I have some homework to do. After I unpacked the box of candles at home My Little Helper wanted to hold it and against my better judgment I let him. He promptly dropped the box on the floor and broke one of the candles. Sigh! I am constantly reminded of the Jeff Foxworthy routine and his line, "We just can't have nice things!"

Biting off more than we can chew

My friend Ms. Mc loves The Beatles, from the time we met in 6th grade she has always been a fan. She has a set of rag dolls wearing the Sgt. Pepper costumes and she has a tradition of placing her infants among the dolls, as the fifth Beatle so to speak, and taking a photo. Between us we have 5 sons. When this occurred to her last year she suggested that we dress the boys in Sgt. Pepper costumes for Hollowe'en. This year with her 12, 5 and 2 year old and my 4 year old we could have the whole band and my baby could be the 5th Beatle. Upon further reflection she decided that her oldest probably doesn't want to dress like the babies and would prefer something more scary.
After creating a duck costume for last Hollowe'en, I decided we could make Sgt. Pepper's costumes for the boys and add the embellishments ourselves. After perusing the internet to check on prices for professionally made Beatles costumes, and not finding any in children's sizes I realized that making them would be our only option. But I did come across this site which has incredible detail in recreating the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band uniforms. I mean really tedious, specific detail. We certainly won't need to be searching for sources of pre-1965 London Fire Brigade buttons, but it will help us get the general look for each band member. On another site a poster recommended using the Simplicity pattern #2561 if adapting the costume for children.
With this information in hand Ms. Mc and I headed to Fabric Depot last week to start by buying the fabric. Yes, we have 6 months before October, but I'm a bit of a procrastinator and I'm already worried we may be biting off more than we can chew sewing 4 costumes for the boys. We were able to find satin fabric in all the neon colors we need and Ms. Mc was able to get a 40% off one item coupons for us. We have The Beatles divided up like this, her two boys will be Paul and George, My Little Helper will be John and the baby will be Ringo in hot pink.
Next step: prepping the fabric and cutting out the pattern pieces!