Hello Monday - In Bloom

I am starting the week with a clear head, a fairly clean house and no stressful deadlines. Wow! That hardly ever happens. I thought a little celebration was in order. Nothing big, in fact, I wanted more than anything to relish the little things. This morning after I came home from school drop off, I lingered over my coffee, I took a stroll through the garden to see what was in bloom. I looked past the ridiculous amount of weeds, the lettuce garden decimation by my hens and practiced selective viewing. Turns out there is quite a lot in bloom.

A double columbine

The tail end of the Elderberry flowers

The last Peony

I nearly trampled a tiny delicate mushroom. No idea what it is, but I let it be.

Lavender

Oh and look! The Hydrangea is beginning to bloom. Such a nostalgic flower for me. Amazing that when this flower head is at it's peak, it will be a dark purpley blue color!

What is blooming in your neck of the woods?

Oh, and I want to share with you that I have the immense honor of being Editor for the month of June over on the wonderful WhipUp. I am sharing some posts from lovely bloggers and makers, as well as contributing posts of my own. The theme for the month is Make it Local, there will be recipes, tutorials and some really lovely reading. Please come by and say hello. You can find my Introductory post HERE.

Have a stellar day!

Shabby Apple Dress giveaway!

You have heard of Shabby Apple right? They are the company behind a whole lot of vintage clothing style prettiness. Oh so many lovely dresses! I am rather fond of a pretty vintage style dress, yes I am. So, imagine my excitement when the folks at Shabby Apple contacted me and asked if I would like to host a giveaway of one of their dresses to my dear readers. Yes I would indeed!

Now for the dress, actually, there are three styles to choose from! Click on the link under the pictures to see more info and pictures.

At first sight

Snapdragon

Grand National

All you have to do to have a chance to win one of these dresses is to leave a comment on this post telling me which one of these dresses is your favorite. (Giveaway only open to United States residents)

For an extra entry to win, "like" both Shabby Apple AND Lola Nova Facebook pages and come back here to let me know you have done so.

Best of luck to everyone and have a sweet weekend!

Edited: Oh me! I forgot to say that the giveaway is open until Thursday, June 6th at midnight. I will announce the winner Friday, June 7th!

It's not you, it's me.

Whoops, slipped away there for a bit. Completely unintentional you know. I am in an utter state of shock that the year is almost half over and school will be out in a couple of weeks! How, I ask you, how in the world did that happen? I am going to make an effort to spend more time around here, because I miss you!

I did want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your wonderful comments on my last post. What a bunch of lovely readers you are. There has been no luck as of yet in finding our new home, but we are patient enough to wait for just the right place.

Not finding a house hasn't stopped me from day dreaming of decorating or imagining more storage! In fact, I accidentally popped over to Pinterest the other day, oh my! So many gorgeous ideas to see! Not the ideal thing to go looking at when you have a list of chores as long as your arm. I did that thing, you know the one, where you tell yourself "just a few minutes" and then an hour later you look up to see it's time for school pick up. Yes, that happened and I'm going to have be more careful in the future.

Well, I do have more to share, but I will save a little something for later.
Have a happy day!

Let the next chapter begin

I do believe the time has come, a little bittersweet - but mostly exciting, to move on.
It is time to leave The Little Green Cottage.
This last weekend we began house hunting in earnest. It is thrilling and nerve wracking both.  And every time I think about packing I get a little queasy.

So much life has been lived in this tiny house. So many milestones passed, all the laughter and tears and funny old business that has taken place in this house that we have loved, oh my.

The day we moved in, the Engineer proposed. We got married in the backyard (right where the chicken coop is now). We brought our daughter home to this house. We have cooked, danced, sung, paced, planned, hugged and hung on to each other in this house.

We have planted 10 years of gardens. Cooked thousands of family dinners. Canned hundreds of jars of jam. Changed the curtains 831 times. Moved the furniture around 562 times. Made the bed 3,450.12 times. There have been washing machine breakdowns, a  near electrocution (of the engineer whilst trying to wire a new light), a small stove top fire and some other trials and tribulations. Still, this house has truly been a home.

We have sanded, scraped, painted and remodeled and made this house our happy place. We have seen the neighborhood change and change again. We have made true friends of our neighbors. This house has been good to us. We have simply outgrown our tiny cottage and it is time to move on...

...and write the next chapter of our lives.

She's About a Mover

This week is all about trying to recover from a nasty cold which has set me back and far behind, having a little panic over some very tight deadlines, and parenting a sweet girl going through some growing pains. I really am in the thick of it.

I hope that your week is full of happy things and I will see you on the flip side!

WIP Wednesday

My Work In Progress.  A little glimpse at what has been keeping me up at night. Drafting a pattern I hope will be for sale this Fall. This is the first muslin (or fabric draft) I was working with, making adjustments and notes for pattern changes. It is a process of trial and error, small set backs and successes and evolution. Look at that dappled sunlight on my work surface, so pretty.

What have you been working on?

edited for clarification:
"Muslin" is a cotton fabric, but it is also a term that refers to a draft garment. You can make a muslin out of muslin, but you can also use whatever fabric you have on hand. I used some old cotton quilting fabric that was given to me.

All about a sandwich

Yes, that's right. This post is all about a sandwich; and why not? My blog title is "Lola Nova - Whatever Lola Wants" and right now Lola wants a sandwich. This sandwich! Are you thinking to yourself, 'Is she really doing an entire post all about a sandwich, really?' Oh yes I am indeed. It is my new favorite lunch and lunches can be tricky for me, so I get a little worked up when I come up with something good. And this is good.

It goes like this:
Get yourself some farmer's cheese, the spreadable kind. The type I can find locally looks like this...

If you can't find any, you can substitute Neufchatel or Cream Cheese. Then you want to add fresh herbs and... well here, I'll just give you the recipe.

Herb Cheese Spread Recipe
8 oz. Spreadable Farmer's Cheese
2 Tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
A squeeze of fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1-2 Tablespoons chopped fresh Italian Parsely
1-2 Tablespoons chopped fresh Basil
1 small garlic clove minced
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all of the ingredients together in a small bowl. Lasts in the fridge for a week.

 Now build the sandwich:
A couple of slices of whole grain bread toasted. (If you are really ambitious and want to bake your own THIS RECIPE is one of my go-to breads. It is very adaptable and tasty.)
Spread a layer of the Herb Cheese Spread on the toasted bread.
Add some thick slices of tomato and avocado. Throw on some sprouts and fresh spinach and voila! Everything a lunch should be, good and good for you.

"Too few people understand a really good sandwich."  James Beard

Oh, and Happy Monday!

A Wordless Wednesday Sneaky Peek