By Loving Hands

Giovanna is one lucky girl. She has received beautiful quilts from special women who love her. I was taking photographs of them the other day to record what they look like before years of snuggle-loving catch up with them, and it occurred to me that these are too pretty not to share.

The first was made by my mom with the help of her friend Emilei. My mom does not have extensive experience with sewing, so I was impressed with her determination to make something special for her granddaughter. We love the pattern, and especially the Japanesey flair of the butterfly and flowers material!


This next quilt was made by our friend Susan who now lives in North Carolina with her sweet family, after transplanting from Hawaii just a year or so before we moved here. They have since become part of our extended family, and we LOVE having them so close. Susan made this quilt with beautiful Hawaiian prints, and it reminds me to make sure Gigi grows up knowing her Hawaiian heritage even though we may not be able to afford to live there for a very long time.


And last but not least, my Auntie Katy just sent this gorgeous quilt from Portland, OR. She has impeccable taste for things with a bit of funk, and her collection of vintage fabrics make my heart sing: circus prints, chickens and roosters, and little dutch boys with sailboats? So, so cool. The quilting is also very unique: she found a computerized machine that makes a variety of designs, and she chose these big flowers and swirls to finish off the effect.


Giovanna will spend the next few years of her life wrapped in warm, love-filled quilts as she sleeps, and I hope that her dreams will be as sweet.

An Unlikely Source of Inspiration

Anyone who knows a bit about Mormon culture (and I mean the real-deal Mormon culture, not the rumors... although they are probably true too) knows that Mormons love food storage. It's about providing for your family, preparing for unforseeable future need, and being self-sufficient! We love gardens, we love canning things, and we love wheat!


Well, I'll be the first to admit that Marcos and I have a long ways to go when it comes to building our supply of non-perishable foods: if we faced unexpected unemployment or a natural disaster, I'm honestly not sure how long we could live off of the few large cans we have in our closet. But I'm starting to warm up to the idea of growing our supply.

One of the food items that is commonly found in food storage cans is wheat berries; they are cheap and they last forever, but the number of people who know what to do with the uber-hard grain are relatively few. Luckily, one of those people is my friend Jen. When I told her that I was thinking about exploring some of her wheat recipes, she suggested starting with a few pounds of hard red winter wheat berries that I could purchase cheaply in the bulk section of Whole Foods market. So last night, that's what I did.


After bringing the berries to a boil and then simmering them on the stove top with a bit of salt and plenty of water for an hour or so until they were soft and a bit chewy, I followed a simple recipe for this Fiesta Wheat and Bean Salad, and it was so delicious. On Friday we are eating at a friend's house, and it's our turn to prepare the main dish. What did I decide to try? The Hippie Tacos recipe from the same food storage website, which uses wheat along with ground meat.

And one of the best things about using wheat berries is the price! At $1.19 a pound at Whole Foods, and even cheaper if you buy it mega-bulk size from a cannery, our contribution of wheat berries to the Fiesta salad cost us less than two dollars, and it fed us well for two main meals. For those hoping to stretch their dollar, it is even possible to use the grain in place of *gasp* ground meat.

Don't tell my husband...

Am I allowed to think

...that my little girl is the most beautiful thing in the entire universe?


Lately I just can't seem to help myself.

Surveying large fields...

...and cultivating small ones. Growing food as an apartment dweller can be near to impossible without so much as an inch of earth to claim, which is why I'm so happy that the space outside our front door is taking on a personality of its own. Introducing...

the cucumber

the rosemary

three blind tomatoes

the basil

and the nasturtium.

Don't they look like parasols, or jelly fish? Lovely.

Capturing my Daughter

Sometimes I wonder if my photographs capture Giovanna adequately. There's something about being with someone every waking hour of the day (and many not-so-awake hours as well) that fuzzes the clarity with which we see people. I just find myself hoping that you "get" her when you see these photos...

But frankly, I'm not sure if the cuteness will ever be properly conveyed through this blog. I mean, the cuteness of her in a swimsuit? Fat chance!

Announcements, announcements, a-NOU-ncements!

Woo-hoo, here they are! Rebecca and Dena at Darling Art Photography were amazing yet again, and helped me to put together two versions of a birth announcement for little Giovanna.

One is a little more formal... (click on images to enlarge)

...and one is a little more fun!

Romance

Romance is difficult to prioritize right after the birth of a baby. That's why I love being married to the type of guy who pulls the decorative candles off of the mantelpiece to add to our Brazilian black beans and rice meal that I set up outside on the t.v. table. Such simple pleasures.

Memorable Memorial Day...

I think it happened the day I found out I was pregnant: all of a sudden, I became really into holidays (remember my Easter jello-mold?). Maybe it is because children bring out the desire in parents to create recurring memories and traditions, but whatever the reason, I really dig an excuse nowadays to think about how to celebrate.


The day was lovely, and crazy. While Marcos took off in the morning to play Ultimate Frisbee with some church friends, I met my lovely friend Katherine for breakfast. She graduated with me last year from the UNC Master of Social Work program, and she is now running a community center for low-income immigrant families in D.C. I wish we had more time to catch up!


Have I mentioned how much Giovanna eats? She went through a brief but beautiful stint of normalcy a week or two ago, and is now back to eating all. the. time. Hello chins! Hello little leg rolls! Good-bye breasts! It was a great friendship while it lasted...


And then the bar-b-ques began... Our friends Tracy and Austin hosted a really great gathering of friends, and their home was absolutely perfect for the crowd: plenty of air-conditioned space inside with countertops full of potluck beauties and great company, and a wide open grassy space outside for croquet, bocce ball, and all sorts of rompings...


This was my creation of the day: Strawberry Tall Cake. I won't go into detail about the fiasco it turned out to be, but I learned something about myself in the process: I have very little natural skill. But what I do have is a good eye, so when I run things amok - whether it be desserts or artwork, or handiwork - I just keep working at it until my good eye says "stop". Then I stop. And then I get things like Strawberry Tall Cake, which I humbly add, turned out to be a success.


Can you catch my Memorial Day drift? A red and white cake on a platter with blue stripes, and Squeeker wearing a red, white and blue dress (thanks Linds!)? Who am I? What am I turning into?!


And to top off a great day, we headed for our friends the Hill's home in Raleigh for their family bar-b-que, complete with root-beer floats. Being there must feel like family for us because we completely neglected any photo taking, but they made us happy to be spending our holiday evening in their company.

We have the best of friends...