Under the Tulip Tree

Sugar Snap Pea Salad

Do you have lots of sugar snap peas growing in your garden? It's amazing how much can grow from one little pea, isn't it? Mine are ripening all at once right now (I planted them a little late) and it's a struggle sometimes to figure out what to do with them (except eat them straight off the vine). If you're like me and you're running out of ideas for peas, give this salad a try. It's tasty and fresh with a little bit of crunch and just the right amount of tang. And it's quickly become one of our favorite summer side dishes.

Here's how to make it:

Sugar Snap Pea Salad with Lemon-Vinaigrette
From the Summer 2011 Farmer's Market issue of Vegetarian Times

Lemon-Mint Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tblsp. chopped fresh mint
2 tblsp. lemon juice
1 tblsp. minced shallot
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. sugar (I left this out and it tasted just fine)

Salad:
1 lb. sugar snap peas, trimmed
1/2 cup chopped pistachios

1. To make Lemon-Mint Vinaigrette: Whisk together all of the ingredients.

2. To make salad: Cook sugar snap peas in boiling water 2 minutes, or until bright green. Drain. Toss peas with vinaigrette. Stir in pistachios

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Pretty simple. And a yummy way to use up some of those peas that are bursting at the seams all over the place. Enjoy!

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A Shirt and Bow Tie for Mr. P

A nine-year-old boy doesn't get dressed up very often. He might wear one of his dad's ties for Thanksgiving dinner but other than that, he'll probably wear hand-me-down t-shirts and cargo pants/shorts every single day. This particular boy has to go to a wedding this weekend, though, and his mother won't let him wear his "I swear it wasn't me" t-shirt. This is actually fine with the boy, as he is surprisingly supportive of his mother dressing him for the wedding.

His mother indulged herself a little as she set out to create the boy's outfit (she doesn't often get the opportunity to dress her son from head to toe). She immediately settled on a sweet little summer ensemble of a button-down shirt with a bow tie, Bermuda shorts, and boat shoes. She didn't find everything she was looking for in the shops (she never does) so she ventured out to the fabric store. The boy was intrigued by this since his mother is almost always perusing the fabric aisles for herself and only herself.

She used Simplicity 7030 and was so happy to find the last bit of a fabric she'd hoped to find—a slightly retro, navy and white little number. She was equally happy to find a nice grayish-blue woven for the tie (and the flat-front Bermuda shorts from the uniform section at Old Navy). She worked at the sewing machine all afternoon while the boy oohed and ahhed over her shoulder. This made her smile.

And when the boy's mother finally put him in his new outfit, she squealed and gasped with such delight that she made herself lightheaded and had to sit down. The boy wasn't surprised by this reaction at all. In fact, he hardly noticed.

After all, the boy may only be nine but he is very well versed in how mothers can respond to these types of things.

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Thyme on the Patio

Since posting my concrete patio project last year, I've received many questions about how the creeping thyme looks now. Did it ever fill in? Can you walk on it yet? Do you have to do anything to it? The short answer to all of those questions is yes, yes, and yes.

Yes, it has definitely filled in nicely. Here's how it looked almost a year ago today:

I didn't have to train it, it just sort of found its way around the pavers. I watered it almost daily after I first planted it and now I water it twice a month or so. I am of the opinion that creeping thyme likes dry, sandy soil since that's what's between the pavers and it seems to like it there.

The answer to the next question is, yes, we can totally walk on it.

In fact, we can run, jump, and play basketball on it just fine. However, if we move the chairs and patio furniture around too much, it can break and tear. So we keep the furniture where it is, which is on the pavers and not directly on the thyme—especially the chairs.

And the last answer is, yes, it needs a little (though hardly any) maintenance.

In the beginning of the summer, it was crazily overgrown—purple flowers spilling everywhere. At first I liked it but then it started getting tall and gangly and looking like weeds. The patio was also starting to lose its geometric shape and I didn't like that very much, either. So we used some hand-held trimmers and evenly chopped all of the tops off the thyme and trimmed around the edges of the pavers. It took about an hour and we haven't needed to do it again since.

Overall, it's been a great, low-cost, low-maintenance, highly-durable way to fill in a concrete patio and I would definitely recommend it!

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Green Shoulder Tie Dress

Pattern New Look 6676
View A
Fabric 100% cotton calico

I am quite partial to green clothes. Green jeans, green shoes, green tights—I love them all (not together, of course!). I like green dresses, too, and I tried to tone down the prissiness of this pattern by using a darker, earthier green fabric. It's not too prissy, is it? The pattern called for a ruffle at the bottom which I didn't like at all so I left that out and added some length to the hem instead. Now it's one of my favorite go-to, throw-it-in-the-wash, fry-it-in-the-dryer, kind of sundresses, and chances are you've already seen me around town in it at least 8,476 times.

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39

Hi.

I'm 39 today.

Arden drew me a picture.

Perry drew me one, too.

When I told Perry how old I was he said, "Wow, you're really coming into the old, Mom."

So true, kid. So, so good and true.

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A Strawberry Hello

Hi. These strawberries are really small. But they're really nice and sweet, too, and so are you. Thank you for being here and leaving such kind words. It truly means a lot to me. Hope you have the loveliest, sweetest, summeriest kind of weekend there is.

xox~Julie

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Miss A Gets A Haircut

Last week she told me that she wanted to cut her hair. Short. She asked me what I thought about that. I told her I thought it was a fabulous idea.

She knew what she wanted: Side-swept bangs on short hair. She printed out a picture and brought it in with her.

And just like that, she's this new kid.

More decisive. More determined. More of who she is. More of who she'll be.

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And that's an amazing thing to witness.

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*Her ponytail was long enough to donate to Locks of Love.

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