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In the meantime, the special surprise! This year I’ve partnered (speaking of that update… can we just talk for a second about pregnancy brain? I just wrote parnerted and patenred and every other option before I finally got around to the correct spelling… yeesh! but back to the point…) with the most ah-mazing group of women for the Dream Shop Collective, a collective of like-minded shops offering 9 giveaways, hosted by 9 blogs over 18 days.

All of the shops are independently owned and primarily run by women who pour their heart and soul into what they do, with a focus on handmade, well-made and vintage… and I’m just obsessed with the shop I get to introduce you all to. Everything Golden speaks my language, with an ethos steeped in the belief that style runs much deeper than a visual quality – it comes from history and creative process.

And basically everything they carry has found its way onto my Christmas list…

So here’s the deal — we’re giving away all of the wonderful things in the top photo above.

1. Vintage Wood and Brass Beads $22
2. Handmade Ring Dish $38
3. Handmade Brass Jacket Earrings $68
4. Hand Painted Pouch $38
5. Palo Santo Incense Sticks $8

A total value of $174!!

So quick, enter the giveaway below! And be sure to visit the Dream Shop Collective website to check out all of our amazing shops and giveaways. As an extra special treat, each will be offering 10% off this holiday season using the coupon code “DREAMSHOPCOLLECTIVE.”

Gifts will be shipped within one week from the closing date of the giveaway and shipped by the applicable shop.

This giveaway starts on Saturday, December 5, 2015 at 08:00 AM EST and ends on Monday, December 7 at 08:00 AM EST.

Shop this post: Hand Knit Chunky Forest Hat //Handmade Tribal Purse // Found Botanical Sake Cups // Handmade River Rock and Jade Necklace

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While backed up against this roadblock, we’ve also set about searching for our next steps… and though maybe they’ve been clear all along, it took some time before we were ready to accept them and move forward. We stepped gingerly ahead, into a rebranding project we knew was the right move, but kept one foot in the past.

That’s not the plan anymore. The sparks are coming… slowly, and sometimes while we sleep, but they’re there.

And the next steps are clear.

Holson House, which we’ll launch in the coming months, is the future. On the Holson House blog, we’ll share many of the things we do now, including our family and our own little house, but especially the hearty, healthy, whole food that is truly the center of our home. And we hope to do it with a fresh set of eyes.

The success of Dough Uprising continues to percolate, but we know now that its real time is yet to come. With two full time jobs to keep up with, we’ve stepped back from our weekly farmers markets to focus on special events. We know that we love to bake more than anything, but we also know that we want to be available for those 3am feedings and take our littles on spur-of-the-moment trips to the mountains and the beach. Mark left his work in kitchens years ago because in the end, nothing is more important than time spent with family… in the home, around the table, and in the evenings when little ones long to be tucked into bed.

Now is, sadly, not the time to take the leap into a full-time food business. We both hope to someday return to the kitchen full time, but our family has some growing to do before we do.

In the meantime, we’ll continue to follow and grow our shared passion for food, family, community, and photography. Mark and I have created many beautiful things together, but we know the best is yet to come. It’s hard to be original on the internet… where so much beauty abounds and so much imitation persists. But we hope you’ll be there to cheer us on as we dive deeper into our passions and grow into the roles we were always meant to fill.

The path forward, now, is clear… and I can see the spark up ahead.

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Mark and I are just over the moon – and happy to report that Austin couldn’t be more excited. Lennon is still blissfully unaware of the chaos to come, but we’re sure he’ll be just as pleased as the rest of us when he realizes we’re about to go back to the days of dropped food.

At sixteen weeks, baby is happy, healthy, growing steadily, and letting me know it. I’ve gotten a crash course in intense morning (otherwise known as all the time) sickness these past few months… nausea, headaches, vertigo, and all of the things I now know can come along with the first (and into the second, so far…) trimester. But I hear that means good things for the baby’s development, so for now, I’m sleeping a whole lot more, working a whole lot less, and rolling with the punches.

Mark has, meanwhile, been a saint… keeping me awash in healthy meals, force-feeding me water, taking care of our home and our littles, and making sure I’m as comfortable as I can possibly be. I know it’s hard to be on the other side too, I can see the worry in his eyes and I know he must feel powerless to protect us both… but we feel so lucky to have him by our side.

Mark and I have known for a long time that we wanted to grow our family, but I never knew I’d be quite so excited as I am to welcome this little person into the world.

It’s such a good world, this little life of ours… I can’t wait to show this bundle around.

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Okay, I don’t want to hear it — the smell only lasted a few days, at most. And if all goes according to plan, this little stockpile of freshly-made relish will be with us for months.

Minus the flea beetles and, of course, what we’ll go ahead and call “the great squash scourge of 2015,” our first-real-garden adventure has been mostly successful. The blistering heat of late summer has us wishing, despite ourselves, that the rain would return… but the tomatoes are loving the sun. And we may even find ourselves with an eggplant or two by August’s end – having nursed them back to health in a post-beetle world.

… we won’t talk about the squash. They were so healthy… it all happened so fast.

Regardless, we’re still swimming in the stragglers… so I suppose if there was one thing we could spare… 

But the bounty — of tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, and herbs — has allowed us to get a little more creative.

… and that creativity, thankfully, includes this big steaming pot of homemade relish and the sweet, sweet smell of apple cider vinegar in the air.

Homemade dill relish crostini with peaches and quark

1 fresh baguette, sliced
2-3 fresh peaches, peeled and sliced
8oz quark
Homemade dill relish (Recipe below)
Few sprigs fresh dill, for garnish
Butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread baguette slices with butter and toast in the oven until golden brown and crunchy.

Spread each toast with a generous bit of quark, then place peaches and relish on top. Garnish with dill.

Homemade dill relish

2½ lbs cucumbers, peeled, diced, and seeds removed
1 large yellow onion, finely diced
1 small red bell pepper, finely diced
1 small green bell pepper, finely diced
1 banana pepper, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
¼ cup salt
3 cups apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons dill seeds
1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
2 teaspoons celery seeds
½ teaspoon turmeric
2 bay leaves

Place diced cucumbers, onion, peppers, and garlic in a large bowl. Combine with salt and pour water over the mixture until covered. Let sit for at least 6 hours or overnight.

Drain the cucumber mixture in a colander, rinse thoroughly with water, and drain again.

In a large stock pot, add sugar, vinegar, and spices and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 5 minutes. Add drained cucumber mixture and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Discard the bay leaves.

Ladle the hot relish into hot sterile jars, leaving 1/4 inch at the top. Wipe the rims of the jars clean and seal tightly with the lids.

Process the jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Sealed jars will store in a cool, dark place for a year. If the seal is broken, the relish will keep in the fridge for at least a month.

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Cue the biggest happy dance of all time for these floors — which have been hanging out in boxes for weeks, just longing to replace that dirty, moldy old carpet.

We’ve only made it as far as the stairs (one whole bottom floor to go…) but oh the difference it’s made.

Suddenly I’m reminded why we bought this poor little house in the first place… the one I’ve been so hard on for so many months.

The thing is, when you walk through a place with a mind toward renovation, all you see is possibility. HGTV makes it all look so easy.

Then you move in. You start ripping down walls, tearing out carpet, and suddenly you live in a construction zone. That HGTV team of construction workers is, sadly, not coming to the rescue.

Meanwhile, you’re fighting off bugs, scrubbing off 40 years of dirt… and then there’s that mysterious itch.

Day in day out, the beauty under all that rubble is a little harder to define.

But the reward.

It might be a slow process. I might’ve spent the entire day Sunday putting down just 10 (of ~60) rows of tile. My butt might hurt, my back might ache, but — little by little — our projects are coming together. And the reward is just that much greater because of the wait.

P.S. Thank you JORD for the beautiful wood watches we’re sporting in this portrait on our beautiful new wood floor! We’re totally and completely in love!

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Would I love to have that guest bathroom back up and running after a month of staring at an empty room? I would. Would I like to eat a well-balanced dinner instead of a sweet, crisp, melt-in-your-mouth pile of buttermilk waffles with summer fruit and sweet cream?

… well no, actually I’d much rather have the waffles.

As our renovation drags on, slow as they come, the lessons in patience are piling up. But with the onset of August, it feels almost right that they should. The summer days are few, and the time left to savor them is fading by the day.

Buttermilk waffles
Adapted from Martha Stewart

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a second bowl, whisk together buttermilk, butter, eggs, and vanilla. Add to flour mixture, and stir until just combined (your batter should still be lumpy).

Heat waffle iron and brush or spray with oil. Pour batter onto iron, close, and cook until waffles are golden brown and crisp. Top with sauteed plums and sweet cream (We love this recipe for crème fraîche whipped cream).

Sautéed plums

5 plums, pitted and quartered
4 tablespoons maple syrup
3 tablespoons spiced dark rum
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon

On medium low heat, sauté plums with maple syrup and rum until tender — around 20 minutes.

The mixture should begin to reduce and thicken. When this happens, remove from heat and add lemon zest and juice to finish.

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As it stands now, the guest bathroom is stripped down to drywall and plaster, the floors are sometimes still carpeted, sometimes stripped to the subfloor… to say we’re living in a construction zone would be an understatement. And the weekends are short.

We watch those home renovation shows now with more than a little envy of the team of construction workers and designers somehow able to finish a whole home renovation in 6 weeks. Right now our little two-person team is shooting for something north of 6 months…

But it’s coming together, piece by piece. Our kitchen is organized, our garden is growing, we seem to have won at least the first few battles with the bugs, and the boxes are slowly beginning to disappear – replaced by newer, more exciting boxes filled with tile and vanities and the gosh darn prettiest wood floor I can’t wait to put down. So, we’ll get there.

But I won’t lie — this little excursion provided a welcome escape.

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Flowers are such a simple solution in a time when everything seems complicated… no matter how many obstacles arise – and arise, they do – in our home improvements, the garden continues to grow.

Asbestos tiles? Have some squash. Warped walls? The tomatoes will be ready soon. Still battling bugs? Maybe they like all those vegetables on your counters. Hmm.

We’d meant for this summer to be something of a return to normalcy, to a focus on each other and the little things that make summer so great… but the projects are piled high, and the weekends are filled to the brim. I wonder if we really have it in us to slow down… to sit for hours in the sweet summer air, grass stains on our fingers.

… perhaps we’ll find out when the projects are done. One thing is certain; we’ll surely have a beautiful new place to sit.

Squash blossom salad with blackberries and burrata

Bunch arugula
2 Belgian endives
1 cucumber
1/2 pint blackberries
Burrata cheese
Freshly-picked squash blossoms

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, serve with lemon vinaigrette.

Lemon vinaigrette

3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 tablespoon course-chopped chives
Salt and pepper, to taste

Mix all ingredients, to taste. Serve on the side or drizzle over salad just before serving.

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Our first Field + Foundry event took place around this time last year, and even in the middle of the warm summer rain, the evening was magical.

In anticipation of many more magical evenings to come, I’ve been playing with a few new place settings — and even a few fun new gifts using my HP Sprout. The Sprout makes it so easy to scan in a little bit of nature to use in a design — something I’d never be able to create on my own. And the possibilities are endless. Here, I used a little marjoram — one of my favorite herbs — to create a little take-home recipe book for guests.

And if you’d like, you can recreate the design with this printable recipe book! Just print double-side, cut, fold, and bind with a little bit of twine. Easy as can be!

Insert your own recipes, if you’d like (maybe the recipes you serve at your event?) and print on anything you’d like — I love the white, but I’d also like to experiment with a nice kraft paper, maybe even with a plain white or black ink!

This way guests can come back to your recipes and remember the evening for many months and years to come!

This post is sponsored by HP. Thank you so much for your support of the partnerships that make A Thousand Threads possible!

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