The Sparrow Post and George Washington

Sorry we got a little behind there on the 'A Time To Keep' updates--since the last related post we've had TWO lovely holidays to celebrate Tasha Tudor style! First Valentine's Day and today Washington's Birthday. We were a little half-hearted about both of them, I'm afraid. But we have more ideas for next year!

I drove up to Seattle Valentine's Day weekend with the girls after slogging through two weeks of them being sick and left Amy here to make progress on the Sparrow Post...of course, the reason she stayed behind was to work on actual work stuff, so the Sparrow Post ended up being a work in progress (though a very lovely one). Which is sort of nice, really, as then we can add to it and it will be a surprise next year, too. It was a good size for letters and for their Valentine bags. When we got home that Sunday the girls could see it on the table as we drove up to the house, so they raced in to open it! We did also manage a few hurriedly-executed and badly-photographed but much-loved doll valentines around here.

Those will be better next year, hopefully needing less hyphenated words to describe them :) Maya Made did a really achingly wonderful miniature Swallow Post you should check out, and she posted an image of Tasha Tudor's doll Valentines. Ahem.

For Washington's Birthday we made Washington Pie (which is really a cake) from The Tasha Tudor Cookbook (thanks for the recommendation, Heidi!)

Clara and Ellis were all about having a new cake-worthy holiday, let me tell you, though the finished product ended up a little too sweet for all of us. I'm thinking that next Fourth of July we're going to have to stock up on things like red, white and blue crackers to use for Washington's Birthday, as it's not quite the same event these days as it was when Tasha Tudor went with her grandmother to S.S. Pierce to purchase favors like miniature hatchets and patriotic candies.

We had to make do with some homemade woven candy baskets filled with a few mini-marshmallows, and as we were also lacking walls lined with correspondence between early presidents and one of our ancestors like Tasha Tudor had at her Grandmother's house in Beacon Hill, we instead read the book 'George Washington's Teeth," which, if you haven't read it, is a funny and wonderfully human look at our first president. And appropriate to read when eating a four-layer cake filled with jam and dusted with powdered sugar. :) Next up in 'A Time to Keep' is supposed to be sugaring weather, which I'm afraid we're going to have to skip during this driest and warmest year on record in a state not very famous for its maple syrup, so I think Easter is our next Tasha Tudor endeavor!