August in Madison. Part 1.

It's fair to say that around here the last couple of weeks have been a little something like this:



Lucky for me, my husband knows that the best cure for such times is a roadtrip, so he swept me off to Madison for my first ever (finally!) trip to the Dane County Farmers Market.



The Dane County Farmers Market claims to be the largest producer-only farmers market in the country. I'd heard that it was big, that it was stocked full of fruits and vegetables and flowers and breads and cheeses (Oh, Wisconsin, how I love your cheeses!),  that it could easily take up an entire morning... yet I still wasn't prepared for sheer size and variety of foods for sale. It was amazing. I was in heaven.

Summer love

I know they say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. But tomatoes? Judge away. Especially in August when locally grown tomatoes start hitting the streets of the farmers market. This is when I go straight for the uglist 'mater I can find. One that looks something like this (which, come to think of it, looks pretty gorgeous after ripening on my window sill for a day.):



Anyway, you probably already know this, but an ugly tomato is a delicious tomato. So, so delicious. Especially when sliced and sandwiched between two piece of mayo-smeared-toast along with some still-sizzling bacon and cool, crispy lettuce.



Outside of tomato season, the only BLTs I eat are ones I order at restaurants. I've learned, though, that that's a risky order. I've been served tomato-less sandwiches (um, no thanks) and more salad/taco bar compilations than I'd care to detail. (There is a right way and a wrong way to make a BLT. Shredded iceberg lettuce and diced canned tomatoes fall squarely in the "wrong" camp.)

In August, though, the homemade BLT -- and the ugly tomato it's made with -- rules.

The problem with sewing gifts...

... is that you can't play show-and-tell on the internet!

Here's a peek at what I've been working on lately, though. I love that blue!

That's all.

Bibs and burps

So many babies in my world! So many opportunities to make little gifts!

This week I did some more sewing for another expecting friend: A set of four burp cloths, a la Chickpea Sewing Studio's diaper burp cloth tutorial (extra hint: iron the diapers so they're nice and flat before you start cutting and sewing), and two coordinating bibs using a pattern from Michael Miller Fabrics, in fabrics that coordinate with the babe's very cute green monkey-themed nursery.



I hope the chic (and super absorbent) cloths will make the very un-glamourous job of catching baby's spit-up a little bit nicer.