Updates....

A few random things.

1) I dug something out of my naughty basket and finished it! I cast on for these slippers a year and a half ago while camping with the fam, than never finished them. It was pretty pathetic. I just really hated the attached i-cord. So I left it off!

Project: Mary Jane Slippers by The Purl Bee
Yarn:  Schoeller+Stahl Big Print (7941) & Moda Dea Washable Wool (Black)
Needles: US10
Ravelry Project Page

I used the Moda Bea on for the soles and strap since I didn't have enough of the super fun retro looking Big Print. Altered to fit a size 10. Added 2 sts to the CO and kept stitch count 2 extra. I also added an extra 3/4 in to the length. Since I didn't do the i-cord they are a bit droopy, but I still like.

2) When Mom visited a couple of weeks ago she decided since I lost 25 lbs of my 40 lb goal I needed new underwear & bras (which I won't show you, no worries) and new mineral makeup and more complicated eye makeup. Since to look more natual I apparently need more makeup and brushes and stuff, I outgrew the little makeup bag I've used.

But I'm a sewer, so you can guess what I did.

New makeup bag and brush burrito! I modeled the brush burrito after a needle roll and sewed on some clasps to close it instead of a tie. While I've been sewing for five years, I have an irrational fear of zippers, but I did it! Both have a layer of batting and the bag is quilted.

3) I signed up for match.com. So freaked out. Dating scares the crap out of me. Never learned the rules and online is an adventure! The new profile pic, which is better:

or

Or do they both suck. Holy crap, this is awful.

The Start of Vacation

So the first day of a week of vacation should be one where you sleep until noon and lay on the couch watching TV all day, right? Not in simple eclectic land. I woke this morning dreaming of my flannel stash. That's a perfectly normal sentence. And when I woke up to the cat meowing at me at 645 I was determined I must make flannel pants out f my hot pink peanut butter and jelly sandwhich flannel. Right then. So off I went down the hall to my sewing room. But of course that was the one flannel I hadn't prewashed. While I waited I did get to make some progress on my Olatz shawl. My reward for surviving Christmas crafting.

And the best thing I did while waiting for my flannel to dry in my painfully slow dryer? Using the rockstar Kitchenaid Artisan Stand Mixer I got for Christmas from my parents to start a loaf of bread to go with my turkey leftovers for lunch. It was an existential experience. All my talk of being unsure if I wanted a Kitchenaid because I enjoy the experience of hand kneading? Rubbish.

But now the flannel is dry and the hot pink pbj pants of my dreams shall soon be a reality. To vacation time!

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Inverse Pillows

My Labor Day weekend was full of sunshine, and frolicing (how they hell do you spell that, frolicking?), and picnics, and smiles. Okay, that's a big fat lie. I had a few nervous breakdowns, drank some beer, knit half of a shawl, napped, made a friend endure a low-fat supper, drank some wine, watched the first of the Lord of the Rings (my ex got custody of the second and third ones), and I QUILTED. I actually quilted a lot. I finished my top, got some help basting it to fend off an additional breakdown, and got all of the quilting done, and well, finished it. The pics will come when I can go somewhere to get some decent pics. My sketchy apartment complex just isn't a great backdrop. It is living on the back of my couch. The pillows were an awful fail in matching in any sense of the word, so I made some "complementary" pillows out of some left over fabric from the quilt.

The design is different. I just couldn't bring myself to have them totally match the quilt. I already felt a bit like I was living in a Fons and Porter photo shoot sitting there with them all together last night.

I also didn't want them to totally match, so the pattern is kind of inversed. So they match, but not like, identical twin match.

While I have admired many a quilted pillow on Flickr, this was my first go at actually making some. I made pillow cases, really, for 18x18 inch forms because I am sick of my pillows splitting and this way I can trade them out.

A big unknown for me was how to really quilt this. Not the sewing part. Well, that part turned out a little differently than I planned. I also intended to do horizontal lines, but I didn't want them to be too stiff. I wasn't sure if I layered batting behind the pillow top or what. I went with yes. And I like the results. So, top + batting=okay by me.

P.S. I'm single today. So, if you know any guy looking for a snarky crafter with a strong attachment to her cat, too much yarn, a closet missing doors due to a fabric explosion, committment issues, and who bakes too much and likes locally brewed beer, send him this way. (Yeah, yeah. I'm hiding my feelings a bit.)

A Ball

Being in my late 20's there seems to be absolutely NO shortage of friends either a) having babies or b) celebrating babies. I have another first birthday party coming up soon. But this one is FOR A GIRL. (It seems my friends seem to end up with male offspring. God help us all!) While I didn't go all out on something insanely girly, I did get to use some more girly fabrics. And this is one girly girl. True, this ball is a little more "folky", but I like it.

The ball? For Kicks Patchwork Ball from Anna Marie Horner's Seams to Me: 24 New Reasons to Love Sewing.

While there were quite a few little patches to cut (32 if I remember correctly) the fact this is machine stitched helps with the sanity level.

And, um, these? These were "extra". God, I pray they are extra. I was tired and ready for bed and no longer had the patience to count hexagons and pentagons, and and, it made the shape of a ball.

Well, pretty much. There were a few "off" spots. But let's pretend.

Happy first birthday, Euladora!

Weekend in Review

All in all I had a pretty domestic weekend. How was yours?


Saturday I am proud to say that I finally finished an apron for ME!! Yes, ME!! This was the fourth I have made in the last couple of months. The one I was wearing was pretty sad. It was to that point where no matter how many times I washed it was still crusty from the flour and what not. It led a good life. It has retired to a nice resort in Florida with a view.

I’ve really been digging the yellow and gray combo for awhile. I bought this flowered fabric a couple of years ago, but it seemed a little old lady for everything. But not this apron. The pattern for this is from McCall’s M3979 American Hostess Vintage Aprons. I had to do some changes once it was all said and done. The top and was WAY too high and stuck out in a funky way. And to be honest I’m not crazy about the pocket bulging like that. It looks like it’s just begging to catch flour and other little bits for a disgusting result.

But it’s kind of growing on me. It got a test run yesterday with this Asiago-Laced Rosemary Bread. I did some double duty for the bake-along. Last week’s theme was bread. I have had this recipe that I tore out of some random magazine at work kicking around for awhile and I happened to have some asiago cheese I didn’t mind getting out of the freezer. In all honesty, I haven’t tried it yet. I was (finally) getting my butt in gear yesterday and putting away the laundry that still had laundry from LAST summer to sort through. (I am not kidding. Nothing like putting away 10 months of laundry to make me swear off shopping for some time!) My apartment was toasty while I was baking this bread and the smell of asiago kind of overpowered the place, so I wasn’t wanting any warm bread with those two factors at play. My husband did have a piece this morning, however, and gave it his stamp of approval. And he doesn’t use that stamp very liberally! I intend to bust into this bad boy tonight!

I also got a head start on this week’s bake-along. We are making homemade pizza dough, which I have not done before. I don’t think I’ll willingly go back to frozen pizza or even store-bought crust! My little Italian friend gave me her recipe. It was great. I also made some pizza sauce from scratch. Recipe below. It does have a bit of kick, though! And I actually got two pizzas worth out of the recipe!

Happy Monday!

Exquisite Pizza Sauce from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 6 fluid ounces warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 3/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
• salt to taste

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine tomato paste, water, Parmesan cheese, garlic, honey, anchovy paste, onion powder, oregano, marjoram, basil, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and salt; mix together, breaking up any clumps of cheese.

2. Sauce should sit for 30 minutes to blend flavors; spread over pizza dough and prepare pizza as desired.

Embrace the Introvertism

Me=neglecting blogger. I know. There is no great excuse. I will admit, the hindrance of typing sans n or b keys is a little of it. (I'm anxiously awaiting the call my new keyboard is in!)  And I had to face the fact that taking a vacation day really just bites you I the ass I the log run when you work in a one person office. And I’m still trying to figure out where in the hell I put the map to my happy place. Anyone ever hear the song “If You’re Going Through Hell Keep On Going”? Me, I tend to languish in the heat and bitch that my hair is getting frizzy from the humidity.


I made the mistake of venturing out to a Young Professionals Network event last night. Silly April. I tend to try to lie to myself that I’m really not as much of an introvert as I know I truly am. Then (of course), a guy I had been seeing and have a very awkward relationship with due to the coals I raked him over was there, so I got to observe him I action with the ladies. It was utterly fantastic. Kudos to the new friend who humored my attempt to reach out and dealt with my denial. But I’m taking baby steps to get myself out of the house. For now it’s time for me to just retreat back to the meeting rooms, kitchen, and sewing room where I find myself much more comfortable.

SPEAKING OF SEWING…one more apron got finished!

My little cousin is getting married in a month. It will be a gorgeous handmade wedding and she is stinking adorable. I have some mixed feelings. I’m psyched for her, but it will be my first close family wedding since my husband and I separated. My family doesn’t seem to get why I don’t want to put my ringless hand in the pic that is being done with all of the women in my family who have been married in my great-grandma’s headpiece. Umm….yeah. Divorce is a bit of a foreign concept for my family.


I have a firm belief that new brides need an apron made just for them. So, I present to you my cousin’s!

Mom working her apron modeling gig.

Some potholders with the scraps.

I included a little bridal kit. I got this amazing one when I got married. But this one has some little basics like thread, Velcro, libt remover. I always seem to be that person at weddings running around frantically mending bridesmaids dresses and sewing buttons back on tuxs. I come packing!

So I will try to better about posting. For real. Now I get to go work on a grant. Here’s hoping it doesn’t include many n’s or b’s!

Another One Bites the Dust

Here it is, that time of the weekend that the imminent arrival of the work week looms and it is truly unavoidable. How am I spending it? At the moment taking a break from some handstitching on an apron for my cousin's wedding shower and listening to Prince's Pussy Control. It makes me smile. Love me for who I am. :) I promise it's on a compilation CD. (REALLY!) However, I recommend you be very careful doing a search on it. It ain't pretty. And of course I wasn't thinking and did it from my work computer. Hmm. But I diverge.

So how was your weekend? Mine was pretty laid back. I needed this weekend. At 4:55pm on Friday I was stuck in construction traffic somewhere in a random Chicago suburb and getting emails from a board member who wasn't happy with me. (My husband wasn't sure why I was checking my email while stuck in city traffic, but it's not like I was moving!) While I love my job most of the time, I was in TGIF mode at that point!

The husband and I spent some quality time at his place on Friday. After I found my way out of Chicagoland that is. Pizza+Movies+Beer=Friday Night. He somehow convinced me to stay up until four in the freaking morning. So that led to sleeping until one in the afternoon Saturday, squandering away my precious Saturday time. But guess what I did when I got home?

I

Made

THESE

homemade

POP TARTS!

They were pretty amazing. I made them with, wait for it, Nutella. I have been living under this rock where Nutella hasn't pushed through. I have internet access under this rock and I have heard the raves about Nutella, but NEVER HAD IT! I know. I hang my head in shame. However, do you people realize there are 200 calories per tablespoon of Nutella?? This brought my pop tarts to like 500 calories a pop. Seriously. But we're not going to talk about that.

I also made some with strawberry preserves. Which were also pretty freaking amazing. And the true shocker---despite his moral objections the husband tried a Nutella one and admitted (begrudgingly) to liking it. A little piece of hell froze over and my pop tarts caused it!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Opps, fugitive Nutella!

Ready to rock.

Mmm. Can't you feel yourself expanding just looking at these?

I did an egg wash on mine so that they would be nice and brown. I had multiple people tell me that a pop tart is not a pop tart if it doesn't have the crunchy glaze/frosting. I had every intention of putting some on. However, they were plenty sweet without it. And did I mention we were already at 500 calories? However, if I did put it on, I would melt some chocolate chips to put with the frosting for the Nutella ones.

What else did my uber-exciting weekend hold in store for me?

I attempted to organize the massive amount of printouts of recipes I want to try that threaten to overtake my kitchen. It wasn't pretty.

The phrase "looks like a tornado went through here" fit?

I got some work done on my cousin's wedding shower apron! I am a firm believer every new bride needs an apron. Call me old fashioned, but I call it simply style.

Progress. I gots it.

And I did some hand stitching. I know. Between that and the husband liking a homemade treat that you can buy chock full of preservatives in the store this may just be the end of it all. Live it up and be sure to tell your mom you love her!

Brr...anyone else feel that cold draft?

And...I made a mini pie. It actually just came out of the oven. But there will be a whole post on mini cheater deserts sometime soon! (This blog lives on the edge, we all know you're here for the thrills.)

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Even though my apartment is covered in fabric scraps and flour. Happy work week! (You can do it. I promise.)

Pop Tart Playlist:
    Sugarland, Love on the Inside
    A Fine Frenzy, Bomb in a Birdcage

Sewing Playlist:
   Susie Suh
   Fiona Apple, Tidal

Mother's Day Package is in the Mail!

  

You get a sneak peak at what's in the package that is in it's way RIGHT now to my mom. Well, this plus a little card with stamped declaration of love for mom and a pic. After hearing me gush about it and reading my copy, Mom really wanted a copy of The Grand Central Baking Book as well. She has also been talking about wanting another apron that is just a tie around the waist type.

Luckily, I have an obscene amount of apron patterns....

And the winner is.......Butterick See & Sew B5125!!

I was really pretty bummed because I was psyched to make it out of this amazingly kick ass Mom tattoo fabric, but apparently I wasn't the only one to think this was a brillant idea, because when I went to get some last weekend, they were out and it was too late to order it from online.  So, since Mom loves green, green it was.

Wasn't totally sure if two thread colors was a great idea,

but I really liked the vintage-y look of the contrast stitching.

The pattern just has you turn the edges under once, but I did it
double so it wouldn't fray. Which took for freaking ever.

All done!

And it got all done in time. Despite the assistance of my faithful shadow.

Checking it out.                                       Sitting where I need to cut.                       Nap time! What pattern piece?

And speaking of aprons....I made this one for my friend to celebrate her new bakeshop a few weeks ago. Gotta have a place for that cold hard cash!

Sewing Playlist: 

    Ingrid Michaelson, Be OK

    Sugarland, Enjoy the Ride

    Dido, Life for Rent

    Alanis Morissette, Flavors of Entanglement

    Flyleaf

A Visit

This weekend my mom came up to visit with me in a pre-birthday celebration. We had our weekend of good food and hours of crafting. This weekend featured breakfast pizza, pj pants, a new recipe, and lots of eating out. As my birthday present to my blog, I share our recipe for breakfast pizza, along with some pics of the rest!

Breakfast Pizza

Pizza Crust
1/2 lb sausage
8 bacon slices, cut into pieces
nacho cheese
3 eggs
mushrooms
Colby Jack Cheese- 1 1/2 cups

We just go ahead a buy pre-made pizza crusts from the store. We like this to be a nice and easy breakfast and there is a quite a bit on this pizza, so these seem to be able to stay nice and crisp. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. First off fry up your sausage and bacon. We just put it all in a pan together.

While the sausage and bacon are cooking we spread the cheese onto the crust. We actually used jalapeno chedder for this weekend because we couldn't find plain nacho. It has a bit of a kick, but tasted great!

Next you are going to put on your sausage and bacon and top that with mushrooms. Up to you how many mushrooms. We are a hardcore mushroom family, so we toss only the whole freaking can. Beat your three eggs together in a small bowl, it works best if you have a little spout to control your pouring. You are going to SLOWLY pour the egg over the pizza. Be very careful not to let this egg go over the edges. It will cause your pizza crust to stick to that pan like mad.

Next you are going to put on the cheese on. Now the pizza is ready to put in the preheated oven!

Cook until the top is nice and bubbly. We only cook this at 350 to ensure the eggs get done.

Now enjoy. I promise-amazing.  It also reheats nice if you just put it back in the oven for 10 minutes or so back at 350! (I'll be having some for breakfast on my day off tomorrow!)

After breakfast and a bit of shopping we set out to make some pajama pants. Time to time our sewing projects lead to some cursing. I am not a very good sewing instructor and I feel the need not to have the swearing bouts as I would on my own in an attempt to not cause mom to panic. Here is a nice action shot of me making sure things are going okay.

And after a few hours of diligant sewing we had some new kickass pajama pants! Mom thought they were a bit baggy, but I was in love. Yeah, they definitely aren't something I will dare to ask the question of "Do these make my ass look big?", but love rarely makes sense.

Proud new pajama pant owners.

And to cap off the day we tried out a new recipe I found at bhg.com for Roasted Red Pepper Lasagna. Delicious.

As always an excellent visit.

Strawberry Muffins & A Little Sewing Revival

So during a ritual wandering around the grocery store yesterday I happened upon a strawberry sale. What is that you say, non-reader? This is not an exciting thing in your world? It was in mine. Strawberry sale=muffins. Lovely strawberry muffins. Careful you don't drool on the keyboard. I already have crumbs from these bad boys in mine! The recipe?

Strawberry Muffins

2 c. flour
1 c. white sugar
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
8 oz. strawberry yogurt
1 egg
4 T. butter
2 c. fruit

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) Stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, & baking powder.
3) In a separate bowl, combine yogurt, egg, vanilla, butter, and fruit. Stir mixtures together until combined; batter will be thick. Scoop into prepared cups. Top with crumbs.
4) Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes.

Crumb topping

3/4 c. flour
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. cold butter

In a small bowl, combine flour & sugar; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over muffin batter.

Sewing RevivalAfter a depressed stage hiatus I have returned to the sewing room. Crazy April decided to make a dress for Easter rather than buy one. Butterick B5181 for inquiring minds. Will she have it done in time? Not likely. I seem to like the picking out of fabric and buying patterns (and yes, alphabetically filing them) part more than the actual making.

The fabric

Ready to cut