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Separelli

Monthly Archives: April 2012

Laundry Day

26 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by separelli in food, lifestyle

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as old curly hair and I were driving through the hinterlands of new jersey last night, we were waxing philosophical about the pros and cons of living in the waaaaaaay country. we concluded that despite our many grumblings about the lack of cool things to do, we’d rather live where we do than paramus nj. so add paramus under mogadishu on the list of places that vermont tops.

on that note, vergennes laundry is one of the pleasures of living where we do. sure, it’s no tartine, but it makes us happy on cold & cloudy sunday.

the dregs of my hot chocolate in all it’s glory.

he sure does look smart…

i like to call him “maurice”

the scent of spring

15 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by separelli in Uncategorized

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vermont

never in all my concrete, high-rise, city loving life did i think that i would welcome the smell of manure.but i do. it means the farmers on our road have sloughed-off winter and are readying the fields for spring planting.

spring.

not that we’ve had a particularly rough winter this year. we got about 8″ of snow in the valley by this year compared to 138″ last year at this time. then we got another 20″ in may. so, while our fancy wooden sled hasn’t been put to use yet, i’m not complaining about the lack of snow. it did get cold though, so these last few days of 50s, 60s & even 70s today {!} have been fantastic. our bones really need the vitamin d.

i decided to plant our garden even though we’ll be out of town for about 6 weeks this summer. i’m hoping there’s enough rain that it can fend for itself. fingers crossed for the carrots, fava beans, beets, kale & lettuce…Image

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home

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neighbor

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swimming hole.

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bleating lambs as tiny specks

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remnants of the old mill that got washed out in the 1928 flood 

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yes, i went the full vermonty-clog, denim and flannel.

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riding that railroad track

13 Friday Apr 2012

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dc, nowrooz, travel

i grew up in d.c., and i like to go back whenever i can. i would move there is 3 seconds flat. the mister does not feel the same way, but oh well. one of the nice things about moving from san francisco to vermont is the density of the east coast. we can get to montréal, boston, nyc or dc mostly in a few short hours. and i LOVE taking the train {conversely, i hate flying} where ever i can. montréal is oddly enough a 2.5 hour drive, or a 9 hour train{????????}, and there is no direct train from burlington to boston, you have to go all the way down to nyc and then back up to boston. neither of these are practical. but, but, the train to nyc is 5 hours, and then another 3 on to d.c., so we rock those with fair regularity. 

my last trip to d.c. was for iranian new years, nowruz, which is on the spring equinox. zorastrian style.  i’ve only ever  spent 3 nowruzes away from the fam, and they were sad. this year, the new year coincided with the freaky warm front that swept the east coast, so man oh man did i spend some time outside.

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many iranian’s in “downtown” reston va. it was the first big festival in northern virginia. most years the smithsonian has some exhibits and events around nowruz, but this was pretty cool too.

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traditional qashqai hats

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and rugs

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and dyed fabric

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my mom has some beautiful photos she took of a qashqai wedding in the 70’s. maybe i can convince her to let me share them.

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qashqai singers

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the enormous haftseen they set up in the square. it was about 10′ across.

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haftseen eggs at the “iranian’s for obama” table.

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haftseen style obama sign. very stylin’.

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no explanation needed for these beauties. 

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the day’s star.

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her father, a.k.a., my cousin.

a couple of days later was the party at my aunt’s house. she invited me to the party that morning, which was a relief since i was staying with her. might have awkward if i had to hide in my room.

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her wonderful flowers. the mister won’t let me bring hyacinth into the house because the smell is so over powering. luckily, my aunt’s house is big enough to absorb the scent where as our wee sf apartment wasn’t up to the task the year i made our haftseen.

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her garlic for the haftseen. i must admit, i’m a little scared of it.

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all the food alia & samira, my aunts housekeeper & cousin made. deeeelicious.

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one of my foxy aunt’s dancing. she’s good.

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my dad on the left and his two brothers.

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a highly intelligent cousin of mine.

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not even the lack of a drum could keep my dad from joining the music making. wine may or may not have been a factor in the merriment.

one my favorite days was a walk that my dad i took down on the mall. we went from the smithsonian castle, walked along the tidal basin to the martin luther king junior memorial, back around to the fish market, and then ended at the castle once again. it was long and hot, i eventually stripped down to my tank top, but it was fun.

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see something say something? perhaps we should have, but i’m hoping it was just an art piece. on grass. outside a federal building. in d.c. nothing could go wrong could it?

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the two tones of the washington monument. they had to stop construction when the civil war broke out. when they were able to resume building, the original quarry they used had been depleted for the war efforts, and the new stones were a different color!

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oh that wily dad of mine

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one of the 4 original cherry blossom trees planted by elenor roosevelt and the empress of japan in 1912. not sure how i never saw them before this year, but they are beautiful. apparently as cherry blossom trees age, they thicken, and shorten. like humans i suppose.

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the mlk memorial through the cherry blossoms. they made him white.

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and he doesn’t seem happy about it. the memorial was packed though. it was wonderful to see all the school field trips and tours of the memorial despite the controversy over the color of the granite, the nationality of the artist and the quotes chosen.

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when i was little, i lived in dread of one the crab jumping onto the dock and pinching me. Image

it was great to see the fish market thriving once again. we can here weekly when i was a child. it was in this parking lot that my brother and his first wife waved her newly minted green card for us to see. it was in this market that i first tasted old bay seasoning.

my fingers have been worn to nubins.

08 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by separelli in lifestyle

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so, it’s been a long while since i posted, but i haven’t been idle. there have been crafts, trips, and visitors around these parts. i’ll start with the making.

remember these? well, they found a fan. a very cute fan.

now, they are drool-y loved up birds

some friends & i got a ream of industrial felt and made us some slippers. while we are lucky {read “spoiled”} enough to have radiant heat in our floors, most of vermont does not. so there are many a cold floor to be found. these beauties have been traveling to friends’ houses with me.

while you can’t see it, the bottoms are covered with leather to prevent slippage!

after dying the felt from “HOLY CRAP THAT’S A HIDEOUS ORANGE” to “duck feet orange,” i got inspired to dye some more things. among them was this old mexican lace apron that my m.i.l. gave to me. i tried to make it black, however, rit dye had other plans, and so, grayish purple it is.

clearly not the smoothest fade from dark to light, but i happy with it for a first try.

i also tried using “natural” dyes. to no real avail. however, while the fabric washed back to muslin, i had a good time smearing beets in an attempt to capture their vibrant color.

{gold nail polish by the kardashian sisters. don’t judge me.}

amazing color. too bad it all bled out.

i also screen printed some vegetable bags that will soon be for sale on my etsy site as well as at clementine in middlebury.

i have a real thing for triangles. the mister is willing to let me screen print some fabric to re-cover our kitchen chairs!

but, BUT. most of my time has been spent making baby quilts for the multitude of our friends who have been making little people.

this is the second quilt that i’ve made, and it’s my mister’s favorite by far. he’s really into what he’s calling the “deconstruction of the traditional quilt.” a.k.a., the one patch as a nod to the craft and the wacky nonsensical quilting lines.  i used athletic tape to protect my finger-tips while sewing the binding!

that top cream floral fabric is one of the softest cottons i’ve ever come across

i quilted this one with a traditional “window pane pattern”

i’m very fond of the way that the binding is always uneven. it’s the mark of something hand sewn.

these are fabrics that i’ve been carrying with me since we left california. i finally found a baby i wanted to give them to!

rad wonky quilt lines.

the summation of my last little while.

i finally got to give the quilts to their babies on my last trip to d.c. which i will post about later this week.

and now, i’m onto another quilt. this one might my favorite thus far. it’s a crazy uneven patchwork of glorious fabrics that i got at nido in burlington. but i can’t show it till it’s gone off to be played, pooped, and slept on…

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