progress

I'm a procrastinator - always have been. Without a deadline, I don't see the need to hustle. Progress is slow but steady as I work on more hats for my friend Emmy's fashion show next month. Since I've been teaching myself millinery (from books, websites, experimentation, etc.), it's been especially slow, but also extremely gratifying. The color scheme for this particular line is deep and dark and the fabrics are wool - nubbly and textured as well as wool felt. It's August outside, but it's cold and snowy on my work table.

Hopefully I'll have lots more to show you soon, but here's some of what I have so far (the bases are just the beginning - feathers and other adornments to be added):

Lots more to come in the next few days! Surrounded by all of these feathers, I'm feeling inspired.

mmmmm... blueberry scones

I'm not a morning person, and that includes eating breakfast. I love breakfast foods, but I'm usually not ready for a meal until I've been up for a few hours. I've learned that this is bad for an already slow metabolism, so in an effort to make something quick to grab for breakfast I've been trying out healthy muffin and quickbread recipes. Last week I made banana bran muffins and pineapple bran wholewheat quickbread (yay, fiber!) - sorry no pics. Those turned out so well, I decided to try scones today. Although this recipe wasn't as healthy (hey - it still had some wheat flour instead of just white, and fresh blueberries) as the previous ones, I made smaller portions to cut back on the calories. I love scones, but you never know what you're going to get when you buy them (even though I never buy them pre-packaged/processed - only at yummy places like Danish Pastry House (outpost at the City Hall Farmer's Market)).

Quite easy to make (I substituted fresh blueberries for frozen) - here they are 1/2 way through baking:

I added 5 minutes to the cooking time (they weren't quite done at 20 minutes) and put them on a wire rack to cool.

Of course I couldn't wait to try one, especially since I already had a nice hot cup of coffee waiting:

Fresh out of the oven, these scones were light and delicious. I'm sure they'll taste different once I've given them a chance to cool, and next time I might omit the cream cheese, but this recipe makes a perfect scone!

it's about time...

Time seems to be a constant theme in this blog, especially lack of time. Today I'm turning over a new leaf (again) to create a blog that's fun and entertaining for me and my potential readers.

I've spent some time looking at other blogs and I know what I find engaging but when it comes to blogging, it seems to me either it comes naturally or it doesn't. From now on, I'm just going to write about whatever interests me - not that I don't care about an audience, but blogging is such an egoistic venture that maybe I have to stop worrying about being perceived that way, and just go for it. So, here goes... thanks to everyone.