Kale Update, Blog Update

Hi friends,

Two months ago I told you about planting your garden for the cool, late spring we were having back then, and I showed you the baby kale plants we had just transplanted. With temperatures in Madison hovering around 85 degrees this week, that definitely feels like a long time ago.

Well, I've posted an update on those little kale plants, now big kale plants, over at my new internet home, sidonie.com, where I'm keeping a little project log. There's a super-easy recipe for kale chips over there, too, in case you feel like having a snack (I know I do).

Please go check it out and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!

Sidonie

Unexpected Pops of Patchwork

Like a lot of my fellow design-obsessed twenty-somethings, I go a little crazy for modern decor and super-clean lines. Although I love a good color blocking, I've never been a huge fan of quilting and patchwork. Don't get me wrong, I really admire the skill, patience and craftsmanship that go into intricate, multicolored patchwork pieces, but they often feel a little too precious or whimsical for my taste.

Not so with these pieces, which fuse handcrafted charm and sleek, elegant design, and would blend beautifully into a mid-century home. Best of all, by bringing patchwork out of the context of the quilt, these objects pack the power to surprise and inspire.

The first time I saw the Caitlin Chair by B+Y Design, my opinion of patchwork changed. The refined color palette and careful mixing of textures work beautifully with that playful but structured geometric pattern. I saw this about a year ago, and since then I've been imagining this motif on every chair in my house.


This room, featured in House to Home magazine, showcases gorgeous textiles from Vanderhurd in a patchwork pattern that mimics a mosaic and add instant depth to the room. Here again, the color and pattern choices are impeccable and play really nicely together to give a very streamlined look. That incredible chandelier from Habitat doesn't hurt, either.


This charming card from Etsy shop HereMyDear makes me just swoon. The font! The little stiches! The sentiment! I would definitely shy away from this mix of floral prints in a traditional quilt, but the crisp capital letters and even spacing keep it neat and fresh. I love it, and it's available in red or blue colorways.


Julian Louie collaborated with Aldo on these patchwork ikat wedges, and I love the look. I have to admit that these are just a pinch too high for me, but they're so much fun and definitely unexpected. And at $125 at Aldo, they're also pretty affordable.


Finally, patchwork is the perfect medium to fulfill a little digital nostalgia. Check out this pixelated pillow from Flickr user Voodoorabbit -- so sweet, simple and fun.

What do you think? What fresh takes on traditional crafts pique your interest?

Images: as linked above.

Plants for a late Spring: Finding the Right Crops for your Cool-Weather Garden

Tiny pepper sprouts will have to wait to be planted outside.

Here in Wisconsin, we've been experiencing a woefully late Spring. But the fear of a April or May frost need not keep gardeners indoors -- plenty of plants love the cool spring weather, and even thrive when the temperature dips unexpectedly.

So for those eager to get outside and start digging, here are a few hardy vegetables that you can plant early without fear.

This baby kale plant has begun to develop a rich gradient from lush green to deep purple.

Kale
With its renowned antioxidant properties, varied colors, and great versatility in the kitchen, kale is easily one of my favorite vegetables to grow. Though it can thrive all summer, kale's rich, nutty flavor actually sweetens with a frost, making it a perfect choice for spring and fall gardens.

Pea vines can be added to a springtime salad for a sweet change of pace.

Peas
Who doesn't love snacking on peas right off the vine? Crisp and refreshing, peas also handle the cooler temperatures with ease. Depending on the variety, they can be grown low to the ground or on a pole or trellis - perfect for apartment-dwellers who might be short on space. The best part? Many varieties can be ready for harvest in 60 days or fewer.

Broccoli
Originally evolving from cabbage, another great cold-weather crop, broccoli can happily withstand a little frost. In fact, it should be planted about a month before the last frost (in Wisconsin, our average last frost is May 10). With its excellent nutritional value, including helping in the prevention of cancer and heart disease, broccoli is a smart and tasty way to start your garden early.

As an onion grows, it sends up one shoot for each layer of the bulb.

Onions
Though onions prefer soil temperatures around 50 degrees and higher, they can survive with soil temperatures down to 36 degrees. Many varieties need long hours of daylight to produce bulbs, so be sure to place them in a sunny spot. Whenever you're ready, you can eat them as spring onions, or wait until they've matured to slice 'em up.


Of course, these are just the beginning. What other cool-weather crops round out your springtime garden?

Travel Photo Wednesday - Tuning In

Well, ok. After I committed to blogging again, and then utterly failed to do so, I'm back at it. I have a new camera, I reorganized all of the photos on my computer, I'm ready.

I'll (re)start things off with Travel Photo Wednesday. In early August, some family members and I went on a fly-in fishing trip in Canada. We flew in on a fantastic old airplane that landed on the lake.

Isn't it great? There will be more Canada photos to come, I'm sure.

Weak week for travel photos

I _really_ meant to post yesterday. I brought some travel photos on a USB drive to work so I could post.
I didn't get to it.

So I'm going to re-post a photo from our old blog, Iowa Summer. It's a nice reminder of springtime during this midwestern heat-wave we've been having--though next week I'm sure we'll be back in the depths of winter. I didn't even take the photo, in fact -- my boyfriend's friend Maria did. This is from a fantastic park near Maria's house in Japan.

Making a place to make things

This might be first post I've made here that is really truly relavent to the name.

There's an alcove in my apartment, about three feet across and two feet deep. For a couple weeks I had a little table there, but it didn't fit very well and things just piled up on it, because it was not a nice place to work.

Then I fixed this problem.

First I tried to find an appropriate desk or bookshelf--it didn't happen. So I took the sensible course of action, and roped my dad into helping me build something.

I made the basic workplan, and then my dad and I put it together. When I told him, then, that I was going to cover it in wallpaper, I think he was skeptical.
But he need not have been skeptical.


Progress!
It's not even real wallpaper, I think it was supposed to be wrapping paper, maybe?


And the finished product:


Nothing could fit more perfectly into this little space, and it all came together for about $60--way less than a pre-fab desk OR bookshelf.

So now I have a place to make valentines! And as soon as I get a sewing machine... so excited.
Now this is a making-place.

sewing projects

One of my goals over winter break was to sew more of my own clothing. I even got a new book, Sew U: Home Stretch, and am attempting to learn how to sew with knits and make my own t-shirts and a knit dress. So far, it's challenging. So I stuck with what I'm more familiar with, and made this skirt.


I already love wearing lots of shades of grey at once, so this just makes it easier.


The yellow on the hem is just the bias tape on the inside, it's not really visible when I wear the skirt. I didn't really use a pattern, so I am really happy that it turned out (almost) just like I pictured it in my head. It feels just a little bit cheerleader-ish, which is fun.

Fridays at home in Madison

My new apartment, featuring my lovely (non-functional) fireplace, and, along the left side... pocket doors! I love pocket doors, especially with fancy handles and pretty moulding.

A Month Without Internet Access

Well, it's not quite true. I have internet access at work, and when I go to my parents' house, but when I'm at these places it's usually because I have things to do... Things that are not blogging.

But oh, have I ever been doing things worth blogging about! And if Mal's going to get back into it, then I suppose I can, too.

At the end of December I started moving into my new apartment. I've been having tons of fun setting things up, decorating, putting my kitchen utensils in appropriate drawers and so on. With everything just about in order (for now), I threw a little housewarming party last weekend to garner some compliments and give myself an excuse to cook excessive amounts of appetizers.

The Menu
Pita chips with hummus and almond-eggplant dip
Stuffed mushrooms
Broiled polenta rounds with tomato-bean sauce
Corn & feta filo purses
Felafel stuffed with goat cheddar

Reasons Why I'm a Fool
1. Forgot to take any photos
2. Completely forgot to fry and serve the felafel

...So in addition to a housewarming party, I also had a lovely felafel dinner earlier this week with zero prep.


The point: Without internet access I've been (a) wildly productive on cooking, decorating, and making things. But (b) terribly incapable of blogging.
The goal: Continue part (a); rectify part (b).

Travel Photo Wednesdays: On Ice

Okay, maybe I'm even back for real this time. I took a bunch of photos out on the frozen lake at my cabin, mostly of my sister and our dog, but also of branches with frozen over berries, footprints filling up with water, and the way the sun hits the snow. It was right after I got my new camera and it was really nice to look at the world again in the way only holding a camera makes me do.


And everybody kind of looks like an important explorer when they're backed by an expanse of ice.

I also sewed a new skirt, and I want to show it to you. How does tomorrow sound?

up north at the cabin

I'm ringing in the new year in northern Minnesota, at my family's cabin. Last night we went out for dinner, and then watched old episodes of the Johnny Cash show on PBS and tried to stay awake until midnight.

One of my favorite books when I was little.



Newly installed fireplace! An excellent addition.

Puppy and dad lounging on the couch, a choice cabin activity.


I'll post again tomorrow for Fridays At Home (cabin edition!), and hopefully with some more frequency in the new year.

Friday at Home, Except Not

This week for "Fridays at Home," I'm away. Pleasantly ironic, isn't it? I'm visiting my relatives in Germany, but I got a picture before I left. And oh dear, I know, it's an awful picture! Promise to make up for it next week.

Anyway, I bought this bag at the market for 10zl (about $3.50), and I've already had to, shall we say, reinforce the stitching at the zipper. But it's perfect for little week-long trips like this!

See you next week!

This time without fireworks

Tuesday was Independence Day in Poland. They're celebrating 90 years since the founding of the second Polish Republic (at the end of WWI), so it's sort of a big deal. Above is a photo of the flag outside our apartment building.

Brian and I celebrated in the same way as many of our fellow Cracovians--we got on a jam-packed bus (I mean my face was up against someone else's coat for most of the ride), and rode to the zoo!

We weren't actually headed to see the animals, though. The Krakow zoo is surrounded by woods, called Las Wolski, which are full of walking and biking trails. It was our first time out there, and I would definitely return. It helped that we had an absolutely gorgeous day. How many days in mid-November are 55F, sunny and cloudless?


Some of the trails are densely wooded, and some are edged with jagged limestone ridges. Some paths are paved, and some are a bit more rugged. It's a pretty big and diverse area.


The highlight of the trip, and the reason everyone comes out there on independence day, though, is a mound. Ok, a really big mound. Krakow has four of them, each with winding paths leading up to a great viewing point at the top. This one, though, is called Independence Mound, in memory of Josef Pilsudski, the celebrated Polish leader, who took charge as Chief of State of Poland 90 years ago. The mound contains soil from various battlefields, and so it's a pretty important place for an independence day celebration.


Like I said, from the top you can see all of Krakow, which is pretty spectacular. The view's not actually as great as from the Kosciuszko Mound, closer to the center of town, but it's still pretty cool.


Meanwhile, in town, the downtown was pretty crowded, a stage was set up for a sort of pagent and for some reason, small children were on every corner playing instruments. In particular, we saw a few little boys with little accordians... mostly they seemed not very interested in playing. I surreptitiously snapped this shot of an accordian boy against a lamppost on the main square. He would only play a few beats before stopping to gape at the pedestrians or pick his nose. I can't assume it was a very lucrative day for these kids, but who knows?


All in all, a fun and classy Independence Day.

colorful food for fall

So, I'm living in Poland right now--perhaps you've heard me mention that.
We like to eat cheaply, and we do almost all our grocery shopping at the Old Market (Stary Kleparz), which is about five minutes' walk from our place. What this means: we eat a lot of cabbage, onions, bread, barley and button mushrooms. White foods, in other words.

Lately we've been trying to incorporate more color into our culinary lives. It's really a perfect time to do it, too, because fall makes me want to put color everywhere, but especially on my plate! Our number one secret weapon against colorless food has been salad, and I think we've been pretty successful.

Top five colorful ingredients that we can get at the market, while staying frugal:
1. Avocado (definitely our biggest salad-splurge item at approx. $1 a piece)
2. Spinach (about $0.80 for a tremendous bunch, usually takes three meals to get through)
3. Yellow Lentils! (we've taken to soaking and cooking dry lentils rather than using canned, which is cheaper and tastier--the texture really does something for a spinach salad, and, of course, the color compliment is lovely)
4. Red Cabbage (delicious change of pace from white cabbage, slightly more expensive at about $0.50 for a good sized cabbage head)
5. Tomatoes (about $2/kilogram, less for the smaller, sweeter varieties)

And I recently learned to best absorb the lycopene in tomatoes, you should eat them with some fat. That's the best reason for a light oil-based salad dressing that I know of, after the obvious (delicious).

Considering all the pierogi, naleśniki and zapiekanka we eat, the right colorful salad can be positively refreshing, not to mention vital to our health.

Fridays at Home

Today one of my housemates and I got home from class, looked around our funny, useless little room between our kitchen and family room, and decided to clean it up. At the beginning of the year we had arranged this cute little reading nook and set up a sewing table, but the room had since been inundated by empty bottles waiting to be filled with home-brewed beer, drumset parts, hats, gloves, miscellaneous papers, half-completed knitting projects, etc. The works.


In an unplanned cleaning frenzy, we got rid of all of the clutter and unearthed our lovely reading nook. I promptly curled up with a cup of coffee and a scone and caught up on food and design blogs. A nice way to spend a snowy(!) afternoon.

Introducing Fridays at Home

I think the archive of this blog shows that Travel Photo Wednesdays has been a pretty successful idea, and with that in mind, Mallory and I are proud to introduce a new theme day to our blog-weeks.

Fridays at Home, as we'll call it, is pretty much the opposite of our Wednesdays abroad. We'll post photos from our home environments, our daily routines, etc. Things that might otherwise go overlooked.

I'm not incredibly proud of my first contribution to the theme, but I'm not actually at home (I'm at a tiny cafe, an environment that might be fairly considered my second home), and this is what I have.


Roses, especially the smaller breeds, are too pretty to let wilt and drop their petals. I prefer to dry them, and in our apartment, this is the solution I have found for hanging them to dry in perfect form. This particular rose was a birthday gift from a Polish friend (see my earlier post on the Polish flower habit. The drying rose looks admittedly weird for a day and a half hanging on our mini-blinds, but now it lays delicately on the hood above our stove, and brings some small amount of color to our kitchen.

Travel Photo...Thursday?

Now that my homework and other obligations are piling up, and I no longer have fall break to look forward to, I'm getting kind of nostalgic for some things about my semester in Germany. Mostly, how much easier the academics were. But also the numerous wine tastings paid for by IES.


Too bad my current studies don't include paid-for field trips to wineries. Isn't it still an important cultural experience?

On the main square in Wroclaw, Poland

I took this photo of a small girl with a bicycle in downtown Wrocław, Poland, this past weekend. I love it. Enjoy.

Weekend Getaways

Today is election day. Maybe you've heard? Every blog I read posted something about it.
Here in Poland we won't know the results until 7 or 8 or 9am Wednesday morning -- and I have the mimosas ready and waiting.

Meanwhile, I spent the weekend in Wrocław (with my boyfriend and his father, who is visiting us) and Poznań (with one of my very best friends). It was a really nice getaway for a few days, and I got to see two lovely cities I'd never been to before.

I did what you might expect from me -- went to the cinema to watch a foreign film, drank tea and mulled beer in tiny dim cafes, bought (somewhat) old maps, went to a John Coltrane tribute concert and, oh, yeah, I took some photos!

Here are the main market squares of each town -- you can compare for yourselves.
Wrocław:



And Poznań:



And for good measure, here's a snap of the amazing breakfast spread courtesy of my dear friend Asia:


Wonderful! I particularly liked the blood sausage with barley -- I can't help but wonder, though, what my seventeen-year-old self, the vegan, would have to say about that. Not to mention my dear co-blogger, also vegan. Mallory? Thoughts?

Travel Photo Wednesday

Today's travel photo wednesday...a look back at one of my favorite parts of Freiburg, the beer garden on the Schlossberg.



It's starting to feel closer and closer to winter every day...so I'm getting nostalgic for the days of beers outside in the evening, when it got dark later than 7:00 PM.