Gehring Road

sunday stash :: kei

Some new, beautiful but small cuts of fabric arrived this week, and I'm loving them. These are from Kei and purchased at Fabricworm. That red... stunning, came the same day I picked up those roses at our local supermarket. Leaves around the house are turning that exact color... how I love fall. No time to sew today, we're off to lunch with family and then it's work when we get back. This week promises to bring a day off (and maybe some sewing!), and a trip to my favorite theater (with 110 kids in tow) to see The Crucible. Also, I dove headlong into the newest season of Downton Abbey... it's amazing! New episode airs tonight. Happy weekend, I hope you are looking forward with anticipation to the week ahead! 

making new

lovlies from Anthropologie and Pottery Barn

Thanks for baring with me as I spent some time getting my school-legs (which means falling asleep at 7:30 pm, loads of grading and trying to spend any spare moment with those I love)... I feel oddly settled and really good at the start of this year actually, in a much better place than I've been in years passed when it came to the loss of my beloved summer free time. My planned grad class was cancelled due to lack of enrollment and I have a bit more time to finish some credit courses started in the summer. That combined with the lack of basic necessities like toilet flushing thanks to Irene sort of put things in perspective. The leaves here are beginning to peek out at us, and things are as they should be. We'll pick up our mums and pumpkins for the walkway next week and dust off the halloween decorations as well. Rob has been hard at work on the basement, which looks amazing. He's creating a workspace for himself (hello new kitchen cabinets!) and weatherizing the walls and floor. I'm amazed at how that space has come together... almost there.

Speaking of spaces, we're in the midst of a little living-room identity crises around here... that should really read I am and am taking Rob right along with me. Our couch finally arrived and I love it... but our eccelectic came-from-two-former-homes furniture and style is grating on me. If I could just go crazy (which I might), I'd pick up some of those outrageously expensive and kind of insane lovelies above. Curtains, I know I can make... in time so I won't be buying those yellow or orange ones from Anthropologie. But we need a TV stand solution... and quick. Ours is sitting on my old coffee table and it isn't great. Think table same size as TV... yeah, not good. We're contemplating the use of a hutch from the basement or a table given to us by my Aunt but both need a lot of work and paint remover and sanding and priming and furniture love. With my 8 pm (ha!) bedtime, that doesn't seem feasible but we'll see. In the meantime, a girl can window shop excessively, right? I hope this weekend finds you peeking at things that make you happy and spending much time with those you love. 

clambake

image from Williams Sonoma

We've been enjoying, savoring, gorging on, feasting and loving a good old fashion New England clambake around these parts once in a while for the past few weeks. As New Englander's we're not so blessed with the best weather but we are blessed with seafood, readily available local seafood and there really is nothing better. The recipe we use for this clambake is from Cook's and included kilbasa which was new for me, I'm a convert... big time. Really everything gets stacked in the pot... the water from the seafood acts as a steaming agent and everything opens/browns/bakes/cooks on its own in about twenty minutes. Magic. We recommend a plastic bag on the old table, which is just a tick classier than the lobster bib (no judgments if you bib as a rule!). Anyway, we throw the steamed goodness onto a platter and eat away. For those who are counting, yes, those are two lobsters. Yes, it was just Rob and I at dinner. Yes, we over ate and will probably just do one lobster next time. Or crab legs... yum. The best pot we've found for the job is that All-Clad (we love All-Clad) two in one multi pot. It has two steaming baskets (we don't use them for the clam bake) which can be used for pasta or even skimming broth. It's a new addition to our cooking arsenal. No clambake this weekend, we're celebrating my Aunt Tootsie's 90th (amazing, no?) birthday with some of Rob's famous chocolate (to die for) cupcakes and some quality family time. Happy Labor Day... get your clambake on if you can, it will make your soul happy! 

you know i have new fabric to share

Of course I have new fabric to show you, did you think the mail would have slowed (the closed roads, trees across power lines and lack of said power indicated to me that possibly it would have, but no! Mail arrived as expected!)? Despite the horrendous conditions, our mail carrier brought these lovelies to the house last week. And I love them. Let's take a closer look...

there are six different prints (air mail, legal pad, check) on this one and I bought them from this seller on Etsy, who is both a super fast shipper and very sweet... Whomever posted these on Pinterest is to blame for this find...

... and this one... (time for a fabric intervention?) but I do have good intentions for this fabric... remember this poor chair? Well it spent some time in the garage, then the basement, and now... well, it needs some love. Rob and I plan to reupholster it in the ruler print... hopefully we're still speaking after we do, ahem... anyone have any upholstery tips? Like, take it to a professional? Anyway, we'll see how it goes... Get your own ruler fabric here. 

This Suzuko Koseki print is one I have been after for a long, long time. I loooove it. And I hope your screen is picking up that pink... I'm hoarding Japanese prints for a project... that I'll probably get to in five to ten years... ha! 

Rob and I had a lovely and relaxed day... much needed after the insanity that was this week. Stops were made at Williams Sonoma (more on that this week), we visited our couch at Pottery Barn (still not here, but supposedly Friday... we'll see), Anthropologie (where I feigned having to pop in to pick up more of our bowls but fell in love with this at the same time), and Lowes (concrete mix... pop on over to Flickr and see the amazing work Rob is doing in the basement). Happy weekending to you and yours, I hope you are also enjoying these last few extra moments of summer! 

back.

So happy to be back in this space after Irene surprised us all with her nastiness... most of our loved ones are back to power (at one point 800,000 people in our state were in the dark, geesh!) and I'm back at school (we didn't miss a day, professional development happened the morning after Irene blew through...). I have much to share but lots to do today so it will have to wait for just a bit. Thank you for your emails and tweets checking in on us here, we're all just fine, if not a little sleepy. Back (again) a bit later, I just wanted to pop in and say hi.