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.

Afternoon Project, in pictures

This is the center piece of our entertainment center, which used to have the television inside but isn't being used for that anymore. (Ignore that little shelf to the left, it hides in the corner and holds yarn.)
The other two pieces of it are being used in other rooms and this one would make a great storage place if not for this giant cutout in the back. It's a heavy piece to move across the floor if you need the game board that has fallen back there, or the ball of yarn.

I measured everything yesterday and went to the store and found stacking closet organizers that would fit, and a big sheet of luan to cut and use to cover the hole. The guy at the store cut it in half for me because it wouldn't fit in the car.
I measured/marked it and used a utility knife to cut it to the size needed - lots of cuts and I am really afraid of razor blades and of cutting any surface in my kitchen, so it took a while!
Once I had the board cut to size I realized how plain it looked, and I remembered a roll of very heavy wrapping paper DD and I found on clearance last year. I thinned some tacky glue with water - WHICH, by the way, had a price sticker from Frank's Crafts which closed years and years ago, making this a very old bottle of glue. It was still fine. What a mess. I used my hands to mix the water and glue and then spread it all over the board. I talked to my Dad on the speakerphone while I did it.
Time to assemble the shelves. Very happy that the drill was charged.
Ta da! The hole is covered with pretty paper and the two shelves stacked together and fit in there nicely!
Sewing baskets, yarn, bills, Alex's school books, my laptop (there's a giant power strip attached so I'm going to keep things - camera, cell phone, ipod - charging on one of the shelves) and a bunch of other stuff, all done!
That was a good project but it took the day, between going out and finding the materials, putting it together, restocking it, and sorting through all the stuff that used to be stuffed in there.

Winter Tree

Here's the kitchen tree that I didn't want to take down, and wanted to decorate it for winter. I ordered some paper cut outs from some crafty person on etsy, and they came today.

Area rug

DH found Flor, a company that makes carpet squares in all kinds of colors, textures, and patterns, which lets you make an area rug - or a wall to wall carpet - however you like. Since the TV room needed an 8 x 9 rug, and we were thinking about just buying a carpet remnant and having it cut and bound, we ordered this stuff instead.

It arrived the other day, and we arranged it into a pattern we like. Nowwe have to use these little sticky circles to hold it all together at the corners. The squares stick to each other, not to the floor. I think this is neat because you can rearrange them if you like, or use them differently in another room, and you can just pick up a square that has a spill and rinse it off and let it dry! We have a few extra squares, too.

So here is a picture as we were putting it together. It was night, so the colors are off...

And here is a picture of it in the daylight. I like how it looks. We are going to put wood blinds on the two side windows and I think I'll make some sort of fabric treatment in one of those spicy red shades.

Rusty wasn't even in that room until I took the camera and stood in the doorway. He walked right around me and sat on the floor. Honest.

Weathermen are clueless

Let me just tell you how happy my son was that DH was hundreds of miles away in Ohio when this unexpected snowfall arrived. Had the ATV all to himself. Did have to wrangle with the plow to get it attached properly. It's good to be strong.

Ciao, Christmas 2008

I hate taking the Christmas decorations down. Not because of the work, but because I like them. It does give the snowman collection the opportunity to move from the family room to the foyer, though. They stay out through the winter because, you know, they are made of snow. They seem to appreciate the opportunity to be front and center.

Here is how they look, all lined up and sprinkled with snow. They are very cute, and I try to pick a new one up each year, but only if I really like him. Or her. But then I was photographing them and taking some close-up pictures, I started to think that they look a little creepy from certain angles. Like a snowman army....



I mean, see the guy on the far left, leaning in, in front of the "S"? Did he move?


On the corner of the table I put these little figurines of children playing in the snow. On the right that little boy is climbing through the snow tunnel while a little girl is standing on top of it. Clearly their parents are negligent; that is unsafe behavior.

And finally, they are watched over by this...elf. Gnome. Wood sprite? I have no idea. I bought him years ago and I like him even though he is a mix of creepy and...creepy.

I can't believe I have to go out

Today is an annual charity event for Relay for Life. It is indoors and it's a lot of fun, a fancy lunch and a day of knitting/classes/fashion show, but is COLD outside and really cold in my bathroom to go up there and get a shower!

Be SURE to click on this!

This is so funny, but youtube won't let me embed it - probably because this particular clip was played on Jay Leno. Click here for this funny phone call to 911, from a 4 year old.

Surprise Mittens

They were a surprise because I forgot I made them last year. While I was looking for some yarn in my "yarn cupboard" last week I found this pair of mittens waiting to be felted. (Felting means to shrink something made of wool on purpose). I felted them to fit me, and here are pictures of how it works:

• Here are the mittens, really big, as you can see.

• You have to wash them in hot and cold water, back and forth, being kind of rough with them.

• At the sink, one hot, one cold. REALLY hot, and REALLY cold.

• Drying on the heater.

• Much smaller now, and a perfect fit for my hand. Sorry it's blurry, it was kind of hard to photograph. Very warm mittens!

What have you been doing while everyone is away?

Everyone is away skiing in Colorado, my FAVORITE place, and I am here with an injured dog. It's a good thing I love him so much.

I have watched a ridiculous amount of this Twin Peaks set, the entire series. It belongs to Jason.


I have worked on DH's sweater. What you see here is the bottom half of the body and one sleeve, from the cuff to nearly the elbow.
I pressed some of my favorite linens with my fancy new press that I got for Christmas.
I made a crazy amount of pizza dough, below, which now needs to be shaped into shells, prebaked, and frozen.
I defrosted the big freezer in the basement! It was a cold, wet job.
I had to buy a new espresso machine because mine died. This is a step up, because the one that just died is probably the 4th one we've been through of the less expensive kind. This is exciting!
I have darned, fixed, and otherwise spruced-up these socks that belong to my children - including the girlfriend's pair!. Except for the one pair on the bottom right corner, I've knitted all of these for them and they love them. They all happened to give them to me at the same time, with holes/snags/whatever.
So I piled up all the socks to put them away and noticed just how lovely they all are. Look at all that color, and pattern, and obvious LOVE to make those damn small stitches in the socks! And there are a lot more handmade socks around here than this!
I made this delicious broth and the next day made a FABULOUS vegetable soup. Delicious. Lots of it.