Guilted Into It

Where should I begin?  I think it's best to start with the guilt trip I've been on lately. You see, Carolina posted some amazing lemony posts recently.  "It's citrus season in California."  That first line is enough to get the guilt fired up. We have a dwarf Improved Meyer lemon tree.  And a Mexican lime tree.  And a navel orange tree.  And a mandarin orange tree.  My small kumquat tree didn't like container living, otherwise we would have one of those as well.

I decided to work on this guilt thing by juicing some of my lemons and making candied lemon peel following Carolina's example. Oh....my....word!  Is it ever tasty.  I froze some lemon juice and reserved just enough to make crustless lemon meringue pies in individual ramekins.  It's a very good thing I halved the recipe. Mr. P and I do NOT need to gorge on lemon meringue.

I always think of my maternal grandparents when I eat Lemon Meringue. My grandfather loved the meringue piled high and done just a bit crispy. He called them Calf Slobbers and didn't think there was any other way to enjoy it.

Now, on to other things. I had hoped to get Mr. P to take some photos of me in the hats.  Unfortunately, it just isn't going to happen any time soon.  And I know some of you are looking for pictures of the finished hats. You'll just have to put up with the weird angles and the blurry pictures as it's the best I could do trying to play photographer and model at the same time. At least you can see how fun and functional they turned out.

This purple polka dot is the one I made my sister.  The fabric is Jane Sassaman's Early Birds.

A small bow on the back adds a little sass.  As if you need any when you're wearing one of these!

And then there's the one I made for myself using the zebra print by Jennifer Paganelli. They're very boho chic. I fully intend to wear mine with long tiered peasant skirts or rolled up jeans and heeled sandals.

What have you done this weekend so far?  After hours in the kitchen, I'm ready to sit down and read all about it.