Sewing Room

As you probably know, I am very happy with my sewing room, or sewing studio if you feel snotty, in the basement. The whole room isn't actually just mine, but it's a very good space and I will photograph it the next time I clean it! In the meantime, I realized that I took these once and meant to post them. These are some things that hang on the walls.....

This framed shadowbox has some vintage notions from my Grandma's sewing basket. No matter what we do they insist on falling down inside of there; apologies for how, um, sliding-down it looks. There are some snaps, bindings, elastic, needles - - all with ridiculously low (by today's standards) prices. I love having them and I love thinking about her when I look at it. I need to make a reminder to take it apart and try to fix it again soon. If you click on the picture, of course, it will get bigger and you can really see what's in there.

Over by the ironing board DH hung this cool little bar with hooks - handy, eh? There are a few shears there and applique scissors, some fusible tape, and a print I bought from a student at school. She had photographed the textile room there, and I loved it. It's just taped up to the wall. Don't tell DH. He hates when I tape things.
Rusty has a little hangout on an old sham from my bed, in front of the door. From here he can keep an eye on birds/sqirrels/deer and me at the same time. Looks very alert, doesn't he?

Snowy tree

I took this picture last week when we had a nighttime snowfall. This tree is behind the porch, and partly visible from the kitchen window. I thought it looked kind of cool.

Drumroll please

DH's sweater - finished at last! It seems to fit as planned; he hasn't worn it yet!

Valentine's Day Surprises

I wanted to send the College Students something for Valentine's Day, but didn't think they needed me to buy them any candy or any plastic anythings to store. It was kind of late at night and I was thinking about what would be recycled or recyclable and I had a flash of GENIUS.

I ran around the house looking in all the drawers and nooks for things that were red or pink. And Useful, they had to be Useful. This is what I found:

Red squares of paper for writing notes, black cherry and red raspberry EmergenC packets, Red Bush Tea and Awake Tea, shampoo packets from the Red Roof Inn (can you believe that one?), red Fruit RollUps, half burned red candles, a red velcro thingie for keeping cords together, red pens & pencils, bobbins of red thread, red & pink straws, a pink yoga sticker, a pink bunnie cutout (which will definitely come in handy for Easter), red box of matches, a red "keep this coupon" cause you might need that someday, a red clip, pink post its, red tablet, and finally, red ribbon and pink ribbon. You always need ribbon for something.

I decorated two coffee cans (I am so happy when I find a use for coffee cans) with paper and made labels to glue on them.


I divvied everything up and filled the cans. I didn't have the right boxes so I took them to the post office and the post office man (what do you call that guy?) had something. He liked the cans. So did the recipients!

Coincidence

Today I was in Wegmans grocery store, in the natural food section, to be precise. I noticed the shoes on a lady standing near me, and they were pretty cool, so of course I asked her about them. She loves them, they are made by J-41, and she gave me details on them. I looked them up on Zappos and they are pretty close to this, if not exactly it:


Her pair was vegan. At any rate, we chatted, went our separate ways, and I checked out. In the parking lot I noticed, parked next to my car, an identical car to mine. Parked right next to mine. With Obama/Biden stickers. And a Vermont sticker. I like Obama/Biden and I like Vermont. So guess who was in it? That's right. The shoe lady. We like the same shoes, we like the same car. Coincidence? I think not.

I'll bet she knits.

Regarding the cake....

It's in the microwave. I'll let you know in a few minutes.


Hang on.....


I see it in the pyrex cup; it's climbing up the sides.....


Took it out after three minutes and it fell a little bit so I just popped it back in for 3o....

OMG! I just tipped it out onto a plate and cut it in half - can't taste it yet because it's too hot but it looks DELICIOUS...

Double OMG - it's good! I might have been able to leave it at just those 3 minutes, not sure, but this is GOOD!

Most Dangerous Chocolate Cake in the World

This email has been going around and I thought I'd post the recipe here for everyone's chocolate enjoyment!

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).
And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world ?
Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

A friend of mine made it. She says:

I made it today. I have a 1300W microwave so cut the power to 90% and cooked for 2.5 minutes. It was a little dry and tough. 80% next time. I did use chocolate chips and can't imagine it without! (what self-respecting chocoholic wouldn't have chips on hand)It is definitely 2 generous servings. I'm sure it's better with ice cream.

Use a really big mug! I used a 2 C pyrex measuring cup.

Ok so if you try it give us the results! I may try it later today for Alex and his friend who is here.

Tracks

At 3:00 this morning I just happened to be awake and looking out the window when I saw a black animal walking across the front yard. Could have been a skunk but I didn't see a stripe; could have been a porcupine but its head didn't look angled enough. At any rate, this morning I convinced DS2 to go on a little tracking walk.....

I don't know, can you see these tracks? We also followed some other ones (maybe a rabbit) only to find that whatever it was, it spent some time under the patio table! We started off following this set of tracks...

They eventually led us here, to this fall of trees and the muddy/frozen creek right behind them. DS2 crossed the creek and was starting to pick up the tracks again, with me not far behind, when he called to me, "Mom. Stop. Back up. I smell a skunk." I backed up.

Walking back up through the woods to the house.
This is the view you're always happy to see - the house! But notice, it's still up hill.
And still, I might add, uphill even where you are home.
It was fun. On the way back we followed some other tracks to a living tree with a hollow at the base and again could smell a skunk - - Rusty immediately stuck his head into the tree and we both yelled at him to COME OUT before anything disastrous could happen.

I love snow.