I love my new sewing machine.

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Among the items in the long ignored basket was this vintage embroidered tea towel that had definitely seen better days. I knew I could salvage the good part, but what to do with it? Do you see how flipping sweet that is? It needed a new life and one that would showcase it well.

My top of the line circa 1960-something Singer had stopped holding a stitch and I never could get it to do anything fancy. Certainly nothing like this:
So this Christmas eve, when Pat put a great big box under the Christmas tree, I recognized the paper from the bag Uncle Kevin had dropped off a week or two before. It must be for Edie I thought – I went to bed thinking he’d gotten her something big she’d been begging him for. Was I surprised when the next morning, Pat put it in front of me! And what was in there but a brand spanking new sewing machine! A computerized one no less, a realm I had considered entering, but had no idea where to begin and just not sure I wanted to invest our money in. Problem solved all the way around.
I noticed last time I had visited said uncle that I had left my favorite apron – nothing fancy, just a plain white workhorse I’ve had forever that has definite chocolate and red wine stains. Next time I went to visit, I managed to see the apron, but it mysteriously disappeared before I could pack it. Uncle Kevin mentioned something about perhaps using the new sewing machine to make a new apron to replace it – I’m not sure if I was supposed to make one for me or for him.
I’ll admit, it took me awhile to really delve into using the new machine. Between losing my creative mojo there for a bit and then having the learning curve of a new machine, I was hesitant to start a full blown project. I needed the instruction manual in my lap the entire time, the presser foot arm was in a totally different place, how could I really sink my teeth into anything new? It required way more concentration than I had.
I’ve played around with it on some little projects – like some applique T-shirts for Edie’s pals – to get my bearings on it. Finally, I started feeling a little more comfortable with it. Really started liking it. Realized it had been way too long since I had a sewing machine that I had any confidence in because halfway through anything on the old one, I would have to stop and take it apart and put it all back together again, fingers crossed I could finish. Half the basket I have sitting there blocking the entrance of the happy corner are things that my old machine crapped out on, that I got frustrated with and put aside.
I really started missing my apron. I used that thing almost daily. I decided to make myself a new one, but without the apron in hand, I didn’t have a good pattern for one. But I really needed another full apron. They work so much better for me than those half ones (as evidenced by the stains on the missing one) especially when rolling anything out. My wardrobe choice of wearing mostly black and a love of baking bread need a moderator. A full apron works beautifully in that capacity. I used another apron I have (but admittedly, don’t like the line of as much, but it will have to do for now) and managed to find a way to use some of my fancy new stitches on the hem and the tea towel on the top.

A little unbleached muslin, some off white grosgrain ribbon for ties and voila. My first completely finished project with my new sewing machine.
Thanks Uncle Kevin. Hand over the apron in question and you will get a fancy new one too, just like it. Well, minus the flowery parts.

Good.

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Edie really likes carbs for breakfast. She’s quite happy with some toast or leftover biscuits or even better, english muffins. I, of course, like them to be somewhat nutritious and have taken to buying her whole wheat cinnamon raisin english muffins at the natural foods store. They are tasty and about the only ones I’ve been able to find on a regular basis without high fructose corn syrup, but they end up costing about a dollar a pop. Not nearly as cheap as my favorite, oatmeal, which also comes without HFCS.

While looking through one of my cookbooks one day, I stumbled upon a recipe for english muffins. Actually, it was a variation listed for yeast bread, so I decided to give it a whirl. It was under a paragraph and since I am game for anything under a paragraph unless it is a chocolate cake that comes with a picture that makes me WANT it, I thought, why not.
Turns out they are actually fairly easy, the hardest thing about them is that they need time. After the first rise, you roll them out, cut them with a biscuit cutter and let them rise on a cookie sheet. Instead of baking them, you cook them on a griddle at a low heat for 10 minutes per side. You really don’t even need to pay that much attention to them, which makes them perfect for me.
The bread recipe I like to use makes 2 loaves. I figured for my trial run, I would make one loaf of bread and use the dough for the other loaf to try these english muffins. I got well over a dozen of them – they were on the small side, but I don’t like her filling up on just carbs, I like to throw in some yogurt too, so they were really just about the right size.
And yes, they were tasty. See those nooks and crannies just like the old Thomas English Muffin ads? They toasted up beautifully too. For a fraction of the cost, I was able to make her breakfast for the next week at least, plus some for us. Definitely worth the time.
Might make me move off oatmeal and onto english muffins. That good.

On a roll.

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I don’t know if it’s because the weather is warm and I feel like I don’t need to spend all my energy keeping warm, or if it’s because I can see all the dust bunnies living right out in the open of my house with this more light and longer days of the approaching spring or if it’s because my dear babydaddy is not home and so therefore I have no one to hang out with so I might as well get some stuff done, but I have been a bundle of productivity lately. In a myriad of ways too. Over the weekend, I cleaned multiple closets out, actually scrubbed our bathroom down, worked in the yard AND found time to make things. I am very impressed with myself right now.

I made those lovely hoops for Edie for Valentine’s Day and finally got around to hanging them this weekend. (I also got around to hanging the lovely mirror she painted and gave me for Christmas. Clearly, we don’t hang things in a timely manner around here.) I had totally intended to make a whole collection of them, only to find that I could not find any wooden hoops around town the Friday before, so I grabbed what I had and used them. I think I ended up hanging them a little too far apart, which will force me make a few more for her, which I had originally intended, I just need to remember to look for some new hoops next time I’m out (that would be key, really). I filled them with a vintage linen napkin that had seen better days but was somewhat salvageable, a sheer green paisley that I thought would look divine on her pepto bismol pink walls and fabric from her great grandmother’s stash. Actually, it is a lovely lavender on lavender satin that was her grandmother’s prom dress. I just cannot take a decent picture of it and I’ve been trying for days. I’m going to fill in around what’s there, but I love she has family heirloom vintage scraps hanging on her walls. I’m pretty sure I have some more lying around here somewhere.

And, both sewing projects I did this weekend involved pieces from the big basket of unfinished projects/ironing. I am really proud of myself for finally tackling that. I need to finish one project (that required a trip to the store today, where I realized when I got home I totally forgot to look for wooden embroidery hoops, ARGH!), the other won’t get posted until someone returns from the Great White North. I gave myself a week to clear that pile out and while I haven’t met that goal, I really have been working on it a little bit at a time. Clearly, I am on a roll and I kinda like it.

Springing back.

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After a long and busy week of single working motherhood it’s finally Friday. And oh so delightfully warm in that sun. It’s nice to see the earth again. Even better to see things springing back to life.

This time of year always inspires me. After walking around surveying the yard and making a mental list of what needs to get done, I went inside and walked upstairs and pushed aside my current to-do pile and quickly whipped up a welcome home present for my dear husband. Amazing how a frustrated, cranky mood can turn around by just spending a few minutes being creative and wandering around in the yard.

Sidetracked.

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Saturday night when Edie said she couldn’t find something in her room, we went in there and started cleaning and reorganizing and tossing oodles of stuff. All of my creative energy right now is being channeled to clean and deal with the pile of dolls, books and art supplies.

I’m firmly convinced the child has at least 300 markers and twice as many crayons. Up next is a total overhaul of her art supply storage system. I’m going to have to give her another drawer in the sunroom, which means I have to get rid of stuff too.

I think we have scope creep.

Cute as a daisy.

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Had one of those lazy but productive days today. Lunch with my girl and took in her art piece up there which is hanging up downtown until tomorrow. Made headway on the happy corner. Made headway in getting her room reorganzied too.
Everything about today was as nice as the weather. I love days like that.

Why labels are good.

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All week I have had this notion of a nice pot of (chicken) noodle soup in my head. I make a big pot of it and Edie & I can eat it for a few meals, I can freeze some and pull it out again in a month when I don’t feel like cooking again. I just haven’t gotten around to it, with work and girl scouts and swimming lessons and you know, life happening, because this version I have in my head has to be a certain way, it’s going to need time. We had pizza one night with friends, mystery container from the freezer another night. Edie was slightly freaked out by that- I had no idea what it was, I knew it was recently enough, and it didn’t look freezer burnt, but it wasn’t labeled, so I wasn’t really sure….so I pulled it out and threw it in a pot, thawed it and served it, with a grilled cheese on the side, just in case mystery container was not good. About three bites into my soup, I muttered, “Oh, beef stew” and at that point I realized my child realized I had no idea what I just served her.

“Mommy, did you not know what this was?”

“Uhm, not exactly. I knew it had dumplings in it – did you get one yet?”

She was so NOT buying it and definitely slightly horrified by it.

Tonight’s pot of soup got bumped by wandering down to Betty’s for a cup of tea and staying longer than I had intended and I realized I just didn’t feel like cooking tonight. When I suggested something from the freezer, even with the disclaimer that I would only grab a clearly marked container, I got a look, so we had daddy style mac & cheese. Which is from a box. It is the one processed food I still keep around. I love me some box mac & cheese, we all do really.

As we were sitting there at dinner, I mentioned tomorrow I’ll make that pot of soup. I got a suspicious look. I said, well, maybe I’ll start it tonight and then if I’m tired when I get home from work, it’ll be here.

“Oh, so we can actually have dinner tomorrow?”

Clearly she is not happy with my dinner efforts this week, but at least she’s been polite about it.

I have a bad habit of putting stuff in the freezer with the intent of pulling it out again next week, so I don’t need to label it, and with having so many containers looking alike, I just don’t always know what I’m pulling out. And things stay in longer than next week. I’ll admit it. Mystery beef stew was definitely a strong argument for getting better about that.

Warming up.

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So I realized that what I really like about Edie taking swimming lessons during the winter is that I get to sit in a (nice) warm environment and knit for a good 45 minutes. I have been freezing since last December. Every time I touch Pat & Edie, they tell me how cold my hands are. Apparently ice cubes have replaced them. The parents viewing loft at the pool is really humid and warm and I was loving it today.
I took a few projects with me to to work on. I went on this flower knitting kick a while back – no idea what I was going to do with them, just did them because I could. I pulled one out, put a button in the middle of it, sewed a bar pin on the back and voila, a fabulous little gift for a friend who’s having a birthday tomorrow. When I pull that kind of stuff off, I don’t mind having piles of unfinished projects lying around.
A woman who has a son in Edie’s class at school and a daughter in her swim lesson today sat there and talked to me during the lesson. I can’t say I know her very well, and so as we were talking about our kids and what kind of year they were having at school and all that other good getting to know you parent talk, I found myself admitting I have one child and she’s dreamy. Really, I sort of have the perfect child and she’s really got no complaints (except for the fact that we’re making her take swimming lessons and she has so many other things to do and really, we’ve overscheduled her once again…also, I’m a mean mommy and didn’t let her watch any tv today….) and so therefore, neither do I. As I sat there knitting in my little cardigan sweater, saying that, I wondered if I was coming across as smug and perfect and you know, one of those people that I sort of dread and wonder if they are really that perfect all the time. I mean, my kid’s not perfect, but I realize that she is quite dreamy in grand scheme of things and we are very blessed with her. And I hear quite a bit from people about how great my kid is and how I’m sort of spoiled by that and yes, I know it and openly admit to it. Of course as soon as I say that, my dreamy girl is doing the backstroke in a definite diagonal line across the pool and about to take out her swim instructor….
In other news around here, I noticed signs of spring trying to pop up in the back yard. The hellebore has buds. A crocus is starting to open. A daffodil has a bud shooting up. This long winter just might end after all. I started getting excited about being able to dig. And plant. I think I want to grow some tomatillos this year. I got some from William & Sally last summer and made some salsa and stuck it in the freezer and man, that was good stuff. I want to grow that myself this summer.
Edie is sleeping upstairs with me again tonight, so there will be no work in the happy corner this evening. We both miss daddy, so it’s okay. It’s nice to have someone warm to snuggle with. I think I’ll just go knit and watch some Olympics. Did I really tell myself I was going to knock out that pile this week? I did wash the ironing board cover in a procrastination move. Well, tomorrow is another day….

The best intentions.

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That is the ironing/mending/unfinished project pile taking up a big portion of the happy corner. I had every intention of working on that pile this weekend and instead I went shopping, hung out with Betty and was in bed on a Saturday night by 8:15. Today, while having a Princess Diaries marathon, I did manage to pull something off that pile and fix it. A pair of Edie’s tights. So there. I did work on it this weekend. I’ll try to make it my goal to knock it out this week. It feels overly ambitious, but it’s also a good idea. If I can knock that out, I can start on other projects and have a little more room to work with. Betty says that one should be organized if one is going to have a good space to work in.

Wish me luck. Stuff has been sitting in that pile for years.