I think July is the month of tiny dresses:

I made this dress for my friend’s daughter, but accidentally cut it out too small. Now I have two identical tiny dresses and no tiny girls to give them to…

Someone in my life needs to have a baby girl instead of all the baby boys that are populating the families of my friends. Any takers?

I was recently interviewed by rocloop dot com about MadeByRachel. You can check it out here. I don’t look like I’m enjoying myself…in fact, I don’t really feel like I look like myself at all in the picture, but despite that fact, it was fun!

Update: You can also read the story here!

My friend sent me some pictures of her daughter in the tiny blue dress I made her. I’m not sure what she enjoyed more: wearing the dress or the juice she drank while wearing it:

I finally got around to sewing this little back-pack for my friend’s two and half year old daughter. It’s a little rough around the edges, but I managed to make it completely reversible.

Red polkadots:

Or blue polkadots:

The straps connect by a snap on the bottom of the bag, so the straps can either match the bag or show the contrasting material.

I also learned that when the directions on the snap package say to be careful with hammers, you really should; otherwise, you break a lot of snaps.

I was so excited about everything I bought last week at the South Wedge Farmers Market that I took pictures of it. Yea, I’m one of those people who gets giddy about lettuce. I figure it will tempt you into checking out more local options.

Loads of berries: raspberries, cherries, and strawberries…

Fresh-baked whole wheat bread, granola, cheese, and a free-range chicken. The farmer I purchased the chicken from gave me a lot of recipes and tips on how to grill my first locally raised chicken…

Swiss chard, two kinds of lettuce, spinach, garlic scapes, and the first tomatoes of the season from my favorite heirloom tomato farmer…

organic compost for my little potted plant garden…

So far, I’ve managed to eat and or give away all of the berries, a quarter of the greens, all of the cheese, and a bag of granola. I’ve already make raspberry honey muffins twice:

If you live in or near the 19th ward, check out the Tuesday evening farmers market there from 4-8 off Brooks Avenue…when I find a more concrete address, I’ll post it here. I’m hoping to bike over today and check it out.

I had a very fun holiday/birthday weekend and have lots of photos to share, but no Photoshop to work with. Due to some semi-serious, or just annoying, laptop drama, Xian convinced me to install Mac OSX. So, we wiped my laptop clean and started over. I’m still in the process of installing applications, so hopefully by tonight, I’ll have lots of pictures to share. Until then, I’m off to read in the birthday hammock.

EDIT: It seems that I’ve completely lost my ability to understand computers. Xian keeps saying, “ok gramma” whenever I say something silly…like that I installed Mac OSX, not that I really installed Leopard. Sigh…

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I eat lately. So much so that I think I might be annoying the husband a bit…but I can’t seem to stop talking about what I eat, where it comes from, it’s nutritional value, what it’s doing to my body, the environment, etc etc. I don’t really want to turn into one of those people, but maybe those people aren’t such a bad batch?

Plants were on my mind all day yesterday. I spent the morning in Fairport visiting a friend and bought a pint of local strawberries at a small market in the village. They were so beautiful, I couldn’t wait for Xian to see them:

Then I drove over to Victor to use up all my Borders Christmas gift certificates. (This is how much I don’t support big chain bookstores–it took me 7 months to get there.) I had seen Barbara Kingstone’s latest book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, at my school library and decided it might make a good summer read. It’s a nonfiction story about her family’s decision to move from Arizona to Virgina and eat locally for an entire year. I spent all afternoon reading it next to my potted plants:

After two chapters, I watered my tiny potted garden and examined all my tiny green tomatoes growing in terracotta pots and earth boxes:

my row of basil:

and my row of herbs:

I also bought my first Vegan cookbook, Fresh & Fast Vegan. I’m not ready to commit to a vegan diet, but I’m definately curious. Last night I baked a vegan banana bread and it was amazing. The only down-side: I caved to a glass of organic skim milk after eating it. Oh well.

I’m also a huge fan of this cookbook. My sister and brother-in-law bought it for me a few years ago and so far, everything I’ve made from it is delicious. I highly recommend this one if you’re interested in eating locally and in season.

If you’re interested in eating locally in the Rochester area, stop by the South Wedge Farmer’s Market Thursday evenings (4-8 p.m.) and check out all the goods from local farmers. I’m excited to see what’s new this week. Last week I came home with strawberries, cherries, sugar snap peas, speckled lettuce, and some amazing granola.

Dropped off another tiny collection of dresses to Thread yesterday:

Sleeveless black jersey knit: (here I’m wearing the size small)

Sleeveless purple jersey knit: (here I’m wearing the size medium)

made by rachel dress in the Thread window display…so sweet: