Start fresh this Spring

Spring is finally here (for most of the country)!  If you live in Florida like me, it's been Spring for quite some time now.  This season is about new growth, starting fresh and spending more time outdoors.  As far as starting fresh goes........this can mean a lot of different things;  taking on a new challenge, cleaning the crud out of your window panes, or updating your wardrobe.  Or a bit of each!

Nothing freshens your look like a new handbag.  It can be the color pop that your muted outfit is in desperate need of, or the sophisticated and unique piece that makes your tired old jeans look fresh again.  The hottest colors for spring are what I call, vibrant pastels.  Lilac, seafoam and cornflower blue mix amazingly well with apricot, vivid lime and coral. These standout clutches are created from the softest Italian lambskin and made in the USA.  These colors are limited, so get your favorite (or two) now, and start the season off with a punch!

Buy these and other colorways at cblau.com

 

C.Blau for the Holidays

As this Holiday shopping season is coming to a close, I'm happy to report that the 1st collection of C.Blau handbags is almost entirely sold out!  I have a few left if you would still like to get one in time for the holidays.  I can have it wrapped in burlap and ribbon and sent out wherever you would like.

I've received some great feedback about the bags, and was recently blogged about on Radar To The Scene  She reviews all things fantastic and has a lot to say about beauty products, fashion, food and music.

Also, my good friend Lindsey who moved home to Omaha, Nebraska and opened up her dream store Piper, is selling C.Blau handbags.  If you're ever in the Omaha area, be sure to stop in and check it out.  She recently starting selling online, so if you don't happen to be local you can still buy! She has a great eye for the unique and special and gets a lot of emerging designers in her store.  Check out what she had to say about C.Blau in a recent blog post. 

I will have the Spring 2013 collection of C.Blau handbags ready by late January.  Keep posted for potential online shopping available in February!  I'll give you a sneak peak at the design process/colors in future posts.  Stay tuned!

C.Blau handbags

This has been a long time in the making.   I've gathered my experiences and honed the skills I've learned from previous jobs.  I've taken a bite out of life and gone for a passion of mine.  I've created and designed a line of leather handbags.  The bags are manufactured in the U.S.A. and stamped for approval by yours truly.  No seriously, I've hand stamped each bag with it's own number, so your number will only be your number.  As you know by now, I'm infatuated with color.  The leather colors for this first collection are beautiful and vibrant! These clutch handbags are available in solid colors and two-toned.

You can view the C.Blau website here.  For now, I don't have a online store through the website, but email me at christina@cblau.com and I would be happy to make payment arrangements and send you a clutch!

These bags are made in limited quantities and the colorways will be constantly evolving.

Enjoy!

                                               

Butterfly garden

I'm always expanding and trying out new things in the garden.  My latest kick has been trying out a butterfly garden.  It's very simple in fact, the butterflies do all the hard work.....all you have to do is provide the right plants.  Butterflies need two kinds of plants in order to reproduce and inhabit your garden.  The first is nectar plants that will provide a food source for the butterfly.  The second is a host plant in which the female butterflies will lay her eggs and caterpillars will hatch.  The caterpillars are hungry buggers and will devour an entire plant stalk in one day.  I learned the hard way and planted my milkweed (host plant for a Monarch butterfly) front and center in the garden.  I wanted to be able to watch them from the living room window.  Well, I watched them all right.........I had ugly sticks to look at within a few days.  I replanted them at the side of the house where they are semi out of sight.    

The image to the right is a swallowtail butterfly just hatching from it's chrysalis.  The caterpillar feeds on the Passion vine.

 










Below are some pictures of the Monarch caterpillar eating it's way through the Milkweed plant.  As I said, not exactly pretty.

After about 10 days, the caterpillar wanders off (sometimes 20-30 feet!) and finds a safe place to form a Chrysalis.  It is sometimes difficult to find them. This is where it will hang for about 5 days.  The Monarch chrysalis changes colors over those 5 days.  It starts out a bright jade color with gold metallic flecks.  Everyday it darkens more and more until it looks almost black.

Every butterfly species has a different looking chrysalis.  The Swallowtail's looks like a crispy stick.  I think the Monarch's is by far the prettiest.  

Once it hatches, it will look for nectar plants to feed on.  Then the process starts all over again and the female will lay her eggs on the milkweed.  

During the months of July and August there would be at least 3 different butterfly varieties constantly fluttering around the garden.  It was really cool to witness and I was constantly yelling for Tony to come out and look at all our butterflies......yes, I did call them "our" butterflies.  I guess I got attached.   This would be a great project to try with your children.......or for yourself if you're a child at heart like me.

Something's brewing!

I just wanted to send out a sneak peak of something that I've been working on.  I'll give you a hint....it involves leather and zippers.  If you can read tiny print, the text at the bottom of the tag will give it away.  More to come later next month!

mangoes taste like candy

Alright, I know I said before that figs are my favorite fruit.  Well, I take that back.....since moving to Florida mangoes have moved up the rank to No.1.  I know what most of you are probably saying, "I don't know if I really like mangoes" or "I would never think to buy a mango".  Well, you are probably saying this because you haven't ever had a FRESH mango.  Like just ripened and hot from the sun.  From your backyard.  As far as I'm concerned, if you live in Florida and don't have a mango tree growing in your yard, you are doing yourself a disservice.  When you buy a mango from the grocery store, I don't think you get a choice of what variety you're getting.  You're just getting a mango that has been shipped in on a food truck.  In Florida, when buying a mango tree there are many varieties to choose from, depending on the size yard you have, to the flavor and how early they ripen.  Check out this helpful link to view the mango varieties.  I bought a Glenn Mango, mostly because it is fiberless (you don't want a stringy mango), and because it is a smaller tree.  Glenn mangoes have a very sweet, almost "peachy" flavor.  I got the tree a couple of years ago, so this was our second crop (if you could call it that).  We had 7 mangos........count it 7.  Tony and I knew it was 7 because once they started growing we checked on them everyday.  Last year we lost a couple to some opossums.  When you only have 7 mangoes a year, you are very selective on who you share them with.  Hopefully in the next few years we'll have an abundance and be able to share them with our neighbors. 

So, what do you do with a mango?  If you are like me, you stand over the sink and eat it like a barbarian....juice running down your chin with a happy grin on your face.  It is just that good.  Mangoes make a great salsa over fish.  Just chop it up with some jalapeno, red onion, cilantro and lime juice.  Since I only had one mango left, I decided to use it in a salad.  I think this simple salad was one of the best I ever made.


Baby Arugula and Mango Salad
large handful of baby arugula
1 mango, peeled and chopped
olive oil
rice vinegar
pinch of red pepper flakes
pinch of sugar
squirt of mustard
salt and pepper
fresh grated parmesan


In order to get to the edible flesh of the mango, you need to peel back the outer layer.  I find this is easy to do with a sharp knife.  The mango has a hard seed in the center.  I find it easiest to just start shaving off chunks around the seed.  Then chop the chunks into your desirable size.  I like a big bite, so mine stay large. 

Make the dressing directly in your salad bowl.  Add the olive oil, vinegar, red pepper flakes, sugar and salt and pepper.  Whisk this together pretty well and adjust to your own preference.

 I love the bitter taste of baby arugula.  I think it balances out the sweetness of the mango.  The red pepper flakes add just enough heat.  Add fresh grated parmesan cheese, and that's it.  You're done.  You won't believe how much flavor comes out of that simple salad.

So hopefully at this point I've perked your interest to go out and try a mango.  Unfortunately, if you live up north, don't make your mind up completely until you've tried one straight off the tree. I promise you won't be disappointed.
 

lazy days and figs

Most of Fiona's movement during the day is following the patch of sun through the dining room windows. By the time we get home from work, the fur on her belly is hot and she is purring and stretching in contentment.  If you ever need a lesson in relaxation, adopt a cat.  They seem to understand the epitome of letting everything go and just be content to lay in the sun.  After all, isn't this what summer is all about?

Yes, I like strawberries, and raspberries.  Oh, and blueberries and blackberries are delicious as well.  But I LOVE figs.  These late summer fruits are abundant up north in Southern MD.  In fact, I have a great friend in NY who's family hosts an fig-inspired meal every summer.  Fig Fest has become a popular event and grown in size since it's inception 4 years ago.  The family has a very large fig tree on the side of the house that has inspired and produced the fruits for the day.  The beauty of the fig in my opinion is it's diversity in complimenting many flavors.  It's great with meat, on salads, or canned as a preserve.






The picture to the left is my Brown Turkey fig tree.  It's not ripe yet, but when it does ripen, the color will be a brown, purplish color.  The hard part is keeping the birds, opossums and other animals from eating them before I can.

 

This recipe is very easy and delicious.  It has bacon and figs.  What more could you ask for?  Oh, and fresh herbs from your garden.  I found ripe Black Mission figs in our local Publix.  You could save this recipe for later in the summer and use your own!  This is an appetizer I discovered a while ago out of the book The Herbal Kitchen    

Warm Figs filled with Goat Cheese and Bacon
1 tsp olive oil
4 oz bacon
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 TBSP chopped rosemary
1 TBSP chopped thyme
1/2 tsp salt
6 large ripe figs, at room temp
1/4 cup soft goat cheese

preheat oven to 350 degrees


Chop your bacon into small pieces.  Add the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat and render the bacon until it is nearly crisp.  Pour off half the fat, and add the onion, rosemary, thyme and salt.  Cook, stirring often, until the onion is soft.  About 3 minutes.

Cut the figs in half and press your thumb into the center of each half to make a small depression.  Arrange them face up in a shallow glass baking dish.

Add a spoonful of filling to each fig, making sure to cover the top.  Crumble the goat cheese and place roughly a tsp on each fig.  When ready to serve, bake the figs until just warmed through, about 5 min.

Serve warm and ENJOY!