Author Archive for Irina

Madeleine day

The other day … I’m in a honey scented cloud in my kitchen. It’s Honey Madeleine baking day.
The recipe I used came from this wonderful wonderful book.

The recipe promised 18 Madeleine. I doubled the ingredients. It was a smart move, I should tell you.
Here, 36 of them. Or most certainly less by the time I took this photo. It was hard to guard freshly baked smelling like Heaven cookies. They were shamelessly stolen from under my nose as soon as I turned away to refill the cookie mold. Well, Madelaine do taste best when warm.
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They look so pretty too!
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Don’t believe this picture. Never mind how hard I wanted to try, there were more than three for me that time.

Happy May 1!

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{my lily-of-the-valley; porcelain and tole by Vladimir Kanevsky}

It’s Orthodox Easter.

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Sunday, April 15th is Orthodox Easter. Last year we were in Ukraine during this time and could enjoy the atmosphere of the holiday. And since we’re home in Hong Kong this Easter time, I wanted for my family to have a little bit of Ukrainian tradition.
In Ukraine for Easter there are ALWAYS colored eggs -pusanky and sweet Easter bread – pasky, in pretty much every home. I’m keeping with the tradition, though in an easier way. Actually, many Ukrainians use this same easy way now with the colored eggs. They are not really painted on. It’s a picture on plastic wrap that you put on an egg and then dip it in hot water so the wrap ‘hugs’ the egg tight.
It’s cheating, but the eggs look really pretty.

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Last Easter while in Ukraine I used my chance and bought all kinds of different egg wraps and dry food coloring specially made for eggs. I used red and blue color this time.

As for Easter bread … the process of making it takes whole day.
My homemade pasky and here from three years ago.

I’m having it easier for myself this year. Decided to make a cake, we call it keks or bunt cake, and decorated it the same way as with pasky. Pretty, and so much less work and time saving too! Looking good.
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On Easter day we all greet each other with saying “Hristos voskres” with the other person responding “Voistinu voskres” or “Christ is Risen!”, and the response is “Truly, He is Risen”. It is also customary to exchange a triple kiss on the alternating cheeks after the greeting.

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A glimpse at Easter in Ukraine from our traveling there last year here.

Nevertheless, Orthodox or not, I’m wishing you a beautiful Sunday!

My new Oversized Aubusson Style Pillows

Among so many things I like, cushions are a must. In my opinion, they give a room nice, warm and cozy feel. I really love them and it seems cannot get enough. I make them myself and I buy them.

It doesn’t matter if they sewn out of fabric or a needlepoint work or a tapestry. There are only two requirements – they must be beautiful and well made.

Filled with down and feathers, large, handmade pillows are the most beautiful.

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When my pillow arrived from the factory, I loved the Aubusson style roses right away. The factory did a good job on the Aubusson, but not on the way the pillow was assembled. I even avoided looking at it, forget about taking a picture of that very poor workmanship. If I tell you that there was a white color zipper attached, you get the idea.

I knew, I had to take the pillow apart and sew it back together again, but this time using an appropriate color of velvet for backing and of course the zipper.

On my trip to the fabric district I was lucky to find a right color of nice silky to the touch cotton velvet to make the pillow backing. An afternoon of sewing and here is my beautiful over-sized Abusson weave down filled cushion!

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{the backing velvet and the hidden zipper}

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{I made mitered corners too}

Here is the beauty on my Kartell Louis Ghost Armchair.

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… and, as it perfectly goes with the theme of the cushion, some real roses, 70+ pieces of them, petit and in lovely shades, from my visit to the Flower market yesterday.
Enjoy!

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“Feeling blue”

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I’m not a “blue” person. I always loved warm colors – yellow, red, orange.
But as I’m feeling ‘blue’ and nostalgic at the moment, I went around the house to see how much blue color I actually have. Not much I admit.

Looking at the second last picture … nostalgia at its highest … a photograph of my father for his University graduation album in 1956, and a passport size picture of my son we took for American immigration visa. He’s wearing a blue sweater I knitted for him. It’s been only about 13 years ago but somehow feels like a life time. It’s all different now, different country and not even the US any more, different language, different culture. He’s twenty one now, University graduate and working. I’m very proud of him, but at the moments like this I want him to be a four-year-old again … I’m holding his hand while we waking to his art school for a painting lesson. Here is his old watercolor at the background on that same second last photo. He was six at the time he painted it.

The last picture is of the painting of my son’s art teacher in Ukraine. I bought it for my son as a memory of his first teacher before we left for the States . I think I should re-frame this little oil painting that I just propped against an antique frame.

Oh well, I’m going to make another cup of coffee now and go back to my embroidery. The Hare is going really well. I cannot wait to ‘see his fine eyes’ as I’m very close to embroidering them. Next time I will post pictures of the Hare and hopefully he’ll have his wonderful eyes embroidered by then.