Arlington National Cemetary, Arlington, VA,
snapped approximately 15 years ago.

I have been super busy and have neglected my blog for the last month or so - I do apologize not only to you, dear readers, but also to myself, because I genuinely love my blog. Look for me to rectify the neglect in the coming weeks.

However, I am taking a moment to recognize it is the Memorial Day weekend here in the U.S. - the holiday weekend that marks the unofficial start of summer, but also when we take a minute to recognize those armed service members, across centuries, who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. 

I snapped the photo at the left because I loved the composition - I did not know at the time that Memorial Day was conceived after the U.S. Civil War as a way to dress up the graves of military dead with flowers (and thus the reason it falls in May, when so many things are in bloom).

If you would like to take a moment sometime over the weekend to pay your own tribute, here is a listing, by state, of national veterans' cemeteries. Additionally, many jurisdictions also have local veterans' cemeteries which might be of some interest. If you do, please don't forget to bring the best blooms you can find.

  

A (Sort of) Milestone

You can see these lilacs here
on my Flowers board

As many of you who follow this blog regularly probably already know, I'm not much into numbers ... as in numbers of social media followers. I am far more interested in those who have been with me (and will continue to be with me) for the long haul.

So it is with a major amount of surprise that I realized this morning that I have 800 followers on Pinterest. While I know that may be a small potatoes number to many of you, for me it's huge! My Pinterest board activity far outpaces any of my other social media outlet activity, so I thought it might be fun to get a little background on all those Voie de Vie followers:

This awesome riot of color
can be viewed here

Top five pinner metro locations (highest to lowest):

       New York
   Washington, D.C.
      Los Angeles

These pretty in pink peonies can be
seen on my Flowers board here

        Atlanta
    Philadelphia


While my audience is far and away from the United States, the next four countries who pin from my boards:

        
        Canada
    United Kingdom
     Netherlands
       Germany

The five boards with the most amount of followers (highest to lowest):

             Flowers
             Interiors

I love the color play in this
arrangement, which you can see here

         Stylemakers
Fashion Weeks/Events Around the World
    I Tought I Saw A Puddy Kat

And, along the sides, you'll see the five all-time most pinned images from my boards. It's no coincidence that four of them are flowers! Although, I must say that in the last thirty days my Fiber Fanatic board has been getting a fair amount of repins.

I had no idea when I created a flowers board that it would become my most popular board - I only knew I love flowers and wanted to share their inspiration with others. Go figure.

Of course, the board I want everyone to follow - my original designs board, is still in its quest to gain further traction. That's alright, I am patient. 

And last, but certainly not least, this
lovely living space can be seen here
on my Interiors board. In the past
I've blogged about its popularity.

And while I thought my Interiors board would be the runaway hit (but was eclipsed rather quickly by those darned awesome flowers), the big surprise has been my Stylemakers board, which came out of ... like ... nowhere, to jump into the third most-followed board.

Pinterest has been a very good thing for me - not only in terms of sharing my inspirations and a way to visually show a good portion of my making, but it has also contributed to design sales (although I am less interested in this direct connection). It's nice that Ravely now tracks sales referrals for shopkeepers. 

I thank everyone who follows my boards, and I hope I continue to be a visual inspiration to each of you.

Happy Earth Day!

I live in one of the most beautiful corners of the planet. I never take for granted the bounty of the Pacific Northwest.

I leave you with an enduring recent morning photo of the Puget Sound's grand dame.

Color Inspiration

 

The Friday Hodgepodge

The backs are just as
pretty as the fronts 

Sigh, it's the last weekend of summer here in the U.S. The Labor Day holiday always signals the end of all that summertime fun - bbq'ing, hitting the beach, and long, lazy, light-filled evenings during which one can craft away.

Well I, in fact, can't say I bbq'ed or hit the beach. However, I've been working furiously behind the scenes on designs for fall, which I'll be able to reveal in just a little bit.

In the meantime, I'm starting a new September JAL in my Ravelry group for my Tunisian Meets Tartan Bag, and I'll be using the following Cascade colorways to work on my own bag right along with the JALers:



Cascade 220 in Heather, Lichen, Camel and Banana
Cream, with George Bailey as accent 

This is a great way to solidify your tunisian simple stitch skills, so I hope to see some of you there.

Additionally, I thought I'd share photos of my most recent America's Test Kitchen recipe test - it's massaman chicken curry:

It came together fairly quickly - I charbroiled the aromatics and chilies in the oven, put all that in the blender with a hefty amount of ginger (like, 3 oz worth!), some liquid and blended to make the curry paste. Then, I toasted the paste in a little oil to bring out the flavors, added appropriate seasoning, browned chicken, diced potatoes, and more onion, and then let simmer. This curry is incredibly flavorful but not hot at all - I used anaheim chilies which register at, like, zero on the chili heat scale. It will, however, ward off most colds and Dracula - the amounts of garlic, onions and ginger are off the charts.

Finally, I leave you with the flowering sights of a late summer walk here in the Pacific Northwest - we are indeed lucky to live in a climate that allows for blooming flowers throughout the entirety of the summer months.

Have a happy, restful holiday weekend (everyone in the U.S.) - and get ready for back-to-school (if it already hasn't happened). And don't forget to check in with Andrea over at Wisdom Begins in Wonder and see what everyone else is working on this end-of-summer weekend.

P.S. - Andrea, the shawl is almost done. :)

Spring in the 'Hood

Mini yarn crawl ... and those little green balls of death

One minute there's Deb underneath
one of the Pike Place Market signs ...

A Ravelry acquaintance, Deb, recently traveled to the PNW, mainly to conduct a class at the Crochet Liberation Front's crochet retreat on Camano Island. However, the visit provided a nifty excuse to go yarn crawling and sightseeing. Love that!

So, on a beautifully sunny fall day, we met up - by recognizing our hand-made crocheted wear. (Ok – so we’re just a little hand-made geeky.) I started the tour at Bad Woman Yarn. This small-ish, just-north-of-downtown shop has been very crochet friendly – and continued to be so during our visit. The shop even had a lovely crocheted scarf on display right in the front of the store – always a good sign.

After petting the yarn, and Deb’s purchase of some locally-made buttons, we hopped on a Metro bus (yeah!) and made our way downtown to So Much Yarn. While Deb was looking for local fiber, she wound up purchasing a ball of Noro Kirameki - it’s a colorful wool blend laceweight yarn that I’m certain will become a lovely shawl. I found buttons that will be perfect for my next shawl (which, as I write this, is about 80% complete).



... and then the next
minute she's been swallowed
up by the crowd.



 Everyone was out at Pike Place Market (as you can see from the photo to the right) – which was our next destination. The Market is all about eyeing the great local flowers, produce and other crafts, as well checking out the flying fishmonger – which we, of course, did. In between traversing the market, we sat down for a much-needed and enjoyable lunch at Lowell's Restaurant and Bar. Man, there is nothing like a good tuna melt, and it’s even better watching the boats come and go from Seattle’s very busy port, all visible from Lowell's strategic market location.



I need to digress for a moment to comment on a certain stall’s brussels sprouts. When did they become something to fear? A little olive oil, crispy bacon, and seasonings are all that’s needed to tame these round bundles of ruffy-goodness. I should note they were right beside the “cute little eggplants.” Really. The stall needs a new copy writer.

After lunch, and a stop at Market Spice Tea (oh, love the smell of cinnamon, orange and clove), we made a quick swing to Fran's to sample the cadillac of chocolates. Don’t get me started on the dark chocolate caramels with sea salt. Just one person’s opinion.

Finally, we made our way up to the Elliott Bay Book Company – in their new location. Of course, we eventually made it to the crafty book section to check out their crochet book selection (not too bad, and a few that I hadn’t yet seen). We ended in the café for a final cappuccino while Deb waited for her chariot to whisk her away for dinner (being made by her husband – excellent).

A sightseeing and yarny good time! 

More fresh Market flowers - what color