Greg and I spent Sunday afternoon canning. We found a few recipes on the Bernardin website; bought Bernardin mason jars, vegetables, pickling spices, and vinegar; carved out a few hours (halfway through, we realised we had to cancel other plans; pickling takes a long time), and, went to town.

We pickled green beans, fennel, carrots, beets, cucumbers, and (I have no idea why we did this, except that we had so much left after pickling the other veg) garlic.

And now, we wait.

I have to mention, I have never seen Greg as excited about a food prep project as I did this one. He wanted to talk about pickling and watch home canning youtube videos for days beforehand...

I have made chocolate chip cookies from the for me for you recipe easily a dozen times this summer, most recently for a Labour Day weekend cottage trip.

This is hands down the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I've ever found, but you need to let the dough sit for a day, which means you can't whip them up at the last minute. Well, actually, by speeding through the dough-waiting time (I let it sit maybe 5 hours?), I sort of just did.

A year ago my sister gave me some fabrics and asked me to make her pillows. The fabric didn't all match, so it took some time to find pieces for the backs. A year on, I've managed to sew a single pillow and two pair (the sumo print pillow has a match, too).

I have no idea where the print fabrics came from, but when I went to find a match for it (chocolate linen), the ladies at the fabric store went crazy for the sumo wrestlers.

I used Kwiksew 3844 (a pattern meant for knits), and the Grainline tutorial for flat bias necklines, to make, not one, but three tank tops.

The fabrics I used were a left-over purple silk, a funny stretch satin print, and an orange chiffon.

Sometimes you just need a night in with your girls, y'know?

tie-dye and batik cottons

(I happened across the end of summer sale at a local fabric store.)

So, Spain:

Claire and I spent 8 days visiting Barcelona, with day trips to Figueres (Dali museum!) and Sitges (oh la, the Mediterranean!!!!!).

Top three favourite travel moments:

1) The bike tour we took with Fat Tire Bike Tours our first full day there;

2) A day in Sitges (one day on the beach and I am so tanned);

3) The pintxos we ate, the cider and rosado we drank, the hilarious British couple we met, all at a fantastic Basque-style tapas bar we found in the El Born district.