a p p a r e n t l y

I love this project – both the “pouf” itself and the tutorial, but let’s be real – it’s an enormous pincushion that you can display on your sofa.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that – apparently I have a thing for pincushions. Check out this adorable pincushion shop I came across during Giveaway Day. Is it wrong that I’m thinking of buying one even though I have about four different pincushion patterns tucked away?

Design*Sponge » Blog Archive » sewing 101: making a pouf.

Hello, readers of Sew, Mama, Sew! It’s Giveaway Day in the blogosphere, which means that you’ll find a long list of crafty people who are giving away handmade items and/or craft supplies on Monday, May 17 on Sew, Mama, Sew’s blog. This is a great opportunity to find new crafty blogs to follow, as well as online shops that feature lovely handcrafted goods from edibles and wearables to maps and ephemera.

Apparently will be giving away a handmade jar pincushion filled with notions (vintage buttons, bias tape, pom poms) along with one yard of the sweet vintage fabric shown in the photo. The fabric is dotted with elephants, zebras and giraffes dancing with little red stars on a light brown background. I love these pincushions, and I have one in nearly every room of my home (plus a few others).

Recently I’ve started to give my Etsy shop, Petite Legume, some dedicated attention. Right now the shop is stocked with felt food, sunhats and toddler pants, but I’d like to add to my repertoire. So for my giveaway, please take a look at Petite Legume and answer the following question in the comments on this post: what would you like to see (or see more of) in my shop?

Please leave your comment by 6pm EST on Thursday, May 20 to enter the giveaway. Be sure to include your email address so I can contact you if you are the winner! A winner will be chosen by the Random Number Generator and will have 48 hours to reply to my email with a snail mail address before a new winner is chosen. US entries only, please; if you have ever visited my local post office, you’d understand.

Update: We have a winner, and it’s Megan, who said, “I love the felt food – more of that would definitely be cute. I like the idea of a previous commenter — make your own pizzas or burgers. Things with movable parts. Thanks for the giveaway!” Congrats, Megan!

Thanks to all of you for your thoughtful comments. People suggested more felt food, which is definitely in the works – I even have a new shipment of 100% wool felt ready for this project! The other popular suggestion was more sun hats – particularly girly ones and in adult sizes. I have a bunch of custom orders to do this week, but then I’ll be creating more hats. If you would like to request a custom hat, just email me. You can see some of my new fabrics in the next post…

I knew we were taking a risk by venturing out at 5pm on a Saturday. I’d been tracking my shipment of new fabric and it was on a truck “out for delivery” today. But for the sake of family harmony (not to mention a fine meal), I crossed my fingers and hoped for an 8pm delivery. That’s not uncommon around here.

When we turned the corner by our building, an empty FedEx truck was parked across the street. “Go!” insisted Mr Apparently, and I rushed to our door in the hopes of thwarting one of those nasty little door tags that means “package undelivered.” And like some sort of FedEx groupie, I loitered by the truck for a good ten minutes until the delivery man returned from an adjacent block with a hand truck bearing one yellow parcel. “I think you may have something for me…” I suggested, my tone hopefully conveying the proper mix of “oh, I’m so ridiculous” and “I’m not leaving this truck without my eight pounds of yardage.”

The yellow parcel was indeed mine, and here’s a quick iPhone shot of what it contained:

As is often the case, I am totally surprised and delighted by some of what I expected to be “rounding out the stash” fabric, and a tiny bit disappointed in the couple of yards I may have earmarked just for me. But that’s good news for everyone else, as it means they’ll go into the pool of available patterns. The botanical reproduction prints are particularly lovely, and really every yard in the lot has excellent potential. I’m very pleased with this order.

image from http://jackson-heights.net/

I have lived in Sunnyside for six of the past eight years, and it’s no secret that this neighborhood offers an amazing array of worldly cuisines, from Indian-inspired Chinese to Japanese-Nepalese and several varieties of South American. What I have always lamented, however, is the complete lack of Vietnamese food. We have multiple Korean joints, numerous places for both decent and cut-rate sushi, and at least half a dozen Chinese takeout storefronts, but no Vietnamese restaurant.

In an attempt to discover more of the world in our own backyard, I opened my trusty copy of Sietsma’s The Food Lover’s Guide to the Best Ethnic Eating in New York City and opted for a Malaysian restaurant just steps from the 7 train at 74th Street. Because this book is somewhat outdated, I looked up this establishment online to make sure it was still in business. The reviews were good and we set off. As you can probably guess, despite my cursory research, Malaysia Rasa Sayang is now a generic-looking Thai restaurant. But not to fear – the very same block offered a Korean BBQ, a Korean-Chinese restaurant, and a pan-Asian place advertising ramen, the mere thought of which had set off my desire for some sort of Asian meal in the first place. We sat down at Prince Hof, but between the blaring music, the tv screens at each booth playing videos, and the lackluster menu, we quickly rose and left.

Then we saw the sign: Thai Son. Don’t be fooled by the name – it’s one of the few Vietnamese-run Vietnamese restaurants in New York, and affiliated with the Thai Son on Baxter Street in Chinatown, where I’ve been several times (although not as frequently as the inimitable Nha Trang Centre, just around the corner). Without any question or even a glance at the menu, we went inside, and it was like visiting an old friend – easy, simple, familiar. In writing this post I’ve come across several lukewarm reviews, but everything we tried was delicious. The calamari was lightly fried in a flavorful batter, the cha gio stuffed with fresh pork, and Mr Apparently’s pan-fried noodles spot on. Vaguely pursuing the desire for ramen, I skipped my standard order of grilled pork over vermicelli for a bowl of chicken pho and asked for egg noodles instead of rice noodles. The bowl of soup was arguably the best pho I’ve had in New York. Perhaps I should have been eating chicken all this time (although that’s a topic for another post), or perhaps Thai Son just makes a fine bowl of noodles; regardless, it’s a quick subway ride away and we’ll be going back.

I’ve been a fan of Anthony Bourdain since his television debut, and have paid good money to sit in the same room while he mouths off about the Food Network while overtly running afoul of New York City’s anti-smoking laws. I’ll read anything he publishes and look forward to his next book, coming out on June 8.

Andrew Zimmern also holds a tiny little spot in my heart. Many years ago, I walked into Minneapolis’s now defunct Cafe Un Deux Trois, an outpost of the NYC resto, and asked for a job. Two years later, I landed a position as a lowly server, ferrying steak frites and omelettes from Zimmern’s kitchen to the art deco dining room of the Foshay Tower. Where I really loved to be was behind those kitchen doors, where Zimmern held court with a no-slackers-allowed attitude and a foul mouth that made midwesterners cringe. He called me “Sarah,” not because that’s my name but because he once spent a semester at my alma mater (and probably because he couldn’t recall my name). I’ll confess that I’ve only seen AZ’s tv show once – we don’t have a tv, and the one time I did watch I was sufficiently squicked out by cheese maggots. But I’ll never forget the way he ran a kitchen: swiftly, concisely, proudly, and with the occasional and well-placed outburst.

So how did I miss Bourdain and Zimmern together, practically in my backyard, three years ago?

This superlight flannel sun hat was just posted to my Etsy shop last night, and I can’t quite explain how adorable the print is: giraffes on wheels, zebras on scooters, elephants on skateboards, hippos on roller skates and wind-up turtles all frolicking on a light blue background. The stripes match perfectly, because the hat was constructed from two coordinating (and never-used) receiving blankets.

I’m a big fan of finding obvious-yet-unconsidered sources for fabrics. Last year I purchased a gorgeous tablecloth at Crate & Barrel and am still making lovely things from all that yardage. Sewists, where do you find your fabrics?

Apparently is pleased to participate in Sew, Mama, Sew’s Spring Giveaway Day on May 17. Sew, Mama, Sew! is a lovely online shop full of beautiful fabrics, and the Sew, Mama, Sew! blog has been a true source of inspiration and instruction ever since I hauled my trusty old Kenmore out of the closet three years ago.

Come back here on May 17 to find out what I’ll be giving away and how to enter to win. I’m thinking it’ll be a handmade jar pincushion filled with supplies along with a yard of fabric, but suggestions are welcome!

Years ago, in the midst of a ramen fixation, Mr. Apparently and I wandered into a little storefront in the East Village that turned out to be Momofuku. Since then David Chang has turned his love of simple Asian food into a mini empire and followed it up with an enormous cookbook, which I recently ordered not so much for the recipes but for the stories. I have a thing for foul-mouthed chefs.

Now a woman from Canada has hopped on the blog-your-way-through-a-cookbook bandwagon (with no apologies) and tells us about what it’s like to make every single recipe:

Momofuku at home – Cooking the Momofuku cookbook at home | Momofuku for 2.

And here’s a special link for Mr. Apparently in particular: using meat glue to attach bacon to bacon.

The June issue of Martha Stewart Living has an article on tartlets by Clotilde Dusolier, which is charming enough by itself, but the lovely illustrations of vintage plates by Miyuki Sakai made me look twice. Sakai works entirely on a sewing machine, using only thread.

The images in her online portfolio are sweet, but the plates in the magazine are stunning. You can see all eight of them here on Miyuki Sakai’s site.

Miyuki Sakai Sewing Illustration.

I’m am officially a beekeeper! : Juniper Moon Farm

Susan Gibbs just stacks one impressive thing on top of another. Not only is she a shepherd and small business owner, but now she’s keeping bees, too. These pictures walk you through the process of setting up and unpacking your beehive(s).

And just to pique your interest: did you know that queen bees eat fondant?