Nature In The Village

Let's a break from the rest of Europe and revisit Portmeirion, shall we?

For such an artificial construction, The Village is certainly surrounded by an abundance of natural beauty.

Summer Safari Dress

The fabric for this dress started life as a duvet cover, before I chanced on it in the op-shop. Imagine that, someone had a zebra print duvet cover! I want to meet that person and talk to them about our mutual love for animal print furnishing fabrics! They probably didn't love it that much though, since they gave it away. 

 I was going for a simple 1960s-inspired shift dress look, and decided to draft the pattern myself. It's a simple sleeveless bodice, with two slanted pockets on an A-line skirt. The whole thing closes at the back with a vintage metal-toothed zipper. I'd also drafted a Peter Pan collar for the bodice, but decided to forgo it due to the print's busyness. 

 

Dress - selfmade, Scarf - market stall in Krakow, Black tights - random, Shoes - market stall in Stalowa Wola

In A Pickle

What do you do on holiday? Well, sometimes you get pulled into the kitchen for a good pickle-making session. Making these sour little Polish pickles is a relatively fussfree process - gather your containers and ingredients, assemble them in the jars and then pour some hot, salty brine over it. Put the caps on, leave the jars aside for a few weeks, and you've got a stash of tasty gherkins to accompany every meal (maybe not breakfast).

Dill umbels in clean jars. 

Garlic and fresh horseradish for a tasty pickle. 

Most important ingredient - fresh, washed gherkins. 

No vinegar is added to the brine at all, just lots of salt and water. The sourness comes from the alchemical combination of salt, water and bacteria...yummy!

Whistle Stop Tour

Where have I been? Well, the last couple of weeks have been spent whirling through 4 cities in 3 countries, on planes, trains, automobiles and even a ship! Here are some highlights (in no particular order):

- a visit to a salt mine,

- lots of food,

- impressive buildings,

- and a wedding cake with bells on.

More to come!