Sunday

This has been a week of baby showers for the ladies sewing circle. Two to be exact. Tiny clothes, tiny shoes, tiny sandwiches (for the ladies).

Bear Grills is building a raft on a beach and collecting water from a home made still on television. He yells everything that he says, I wonder if he ever relaxes.

I am sitting on the couch writing this to you all, attempting to relax but I just had too many cups of tea today.

Today I am going to cook my very first batch of homegrown peas... for people other than just me. I hope they are good.

Done and Done

I really really really dislike going to the grocery store. Time seems to move so much slower within the walls of the grocery store. Simple tasks such as writing a check(not me) seem to drag on and on and on until I have really considered buying one of those horoscope roles just to see if ANYTHING is going to happen next, or if this is it. I can only hear Mr. Bojangles Instrumental so many times before I want to run a muck with a cleaver. I make out a list and then panic and end up with a box of white cheddar cheezits, 1/4lb of butter and some bendie straws and I leave anyway because I am just so relieved to have gotten anything at all. I can still make a mean caserole out of this...take that Martha, Julia, Paula, Giada, Guy and Alton.

Is there some way to never have to go again besides slowly starving to death or randomly showing up at my mother's dinner table?

Maybe.

Ryan and I are in the process of growing quite a bit of food in our garden. I am hoping that we can subsist on this for a while. This is our second time around with a garden so we know just a little bit more than last time and that is still very little. Did we grow enough for the winter Pa? How do we store this food Ma? There are many questions that I cannot answer yet. Luckily we can always go to the dreaded grocery store if we do happen to need food. The Duggar's make their own laundry soap for goodness sake I think I can figure out a way to at least not have to go to the grocery store so often.

So the garden is part of the solution. I would also like to purchase a lot of meat. Legally people, please do not email me if you 'know a guy.' Also, I have some chickens coming to me as last year's birthday gift from my husband. So, eggs, check. Bread, got it covered. What else? Listen, I am not going to go bananas and stop using soap or shaving my legs just so I don't have to go to the grocery store, perhaps a few well times trips to Costco are in order. And we don't really drink milk and powdered is ok by me.

By the way, I am serious about this just so you know. Do not expect to see me knocking on watermelons, or harrassing the lobsters in the tank anymore...well not very often anymore.

Zesty Bean Dip

I love these posts that I write late at night just before I go to sleep and right after I have taught sewing for 10 hours. The topics are weak and the grammar is terrible, but I love these posts. Why? Thank you for asking. It is because they have titles like 'Zesty Bean Dip' and I am under no obligation to actually talk about zesty bean dip.

I spoke to my sister today who recounted an entire episode of Jerry Springer to me over the phone and I have to say, I am never one to watch that show. It has to look partially authentic for me to enjoy it and well, do I really need to explain to you all that it wrong with Jerry Springer?...I didn't think so. Anyhoo...I let her go on for a while about a lady talking to her chickens and playing a harmonica (all on the show BTW) and our phones disconnected. I didn't want her to think that I hung up so I called right back and she didn't pick up. Then she called me back and I couldn't hear her. Finally after about 10 minutes of back and forth we were finally able to get through to each other and when we did...what did we do?...We finished the conversation about the lady with the chickens and the harmonica for another 10 minutes. Colossal waste of time? Perhaps. But at least I am polite.

Yikes, I better go to bed.

Surely you know...

...that the fair is coming back to town! I know exactly what you are going to say, you can't stand those terrible rides. Well, me either, for the most part. But what I love about the fair are the competitions, for cooking, fine arts, canning, farming and what am I forgetting? Oh SEWING! yes! I am just so excited, did I say that already, can you tell?

Last year I entered a table setting along with my friend/former co-worker Heather. We used our work time to create a pretty sucessful table setting (if I do say so myself) complete with handmade table cloth, napkins and centerpiece. Perhaps I need to explain this particular competition...you set a table. I am serious. There is a specific way it needs to be done, no joke. We received 3rd place (applause). Table setting to the fair is like curling to the Oympics, it really excludes most of its audience and makes people laugh. Also, no matter how silly it seems you cannot look away. Here is the only reliable source for proper table setting.


Emily Post


I did not have time to enter any sewing last year, but I am making up for it this year. Adult and children original designs...I have something in mind, but I don't want to jinx it so more about that when it's finished.

If you would like to see what other catagories there are to enter or read in greater detail about sewing...click here.

Hello Monday - Spring Break and Sew! Sew! Sew! Three things about sewing you know but need to be reminded of...

All of the young ladies of the Ladies Sewing Circle are on Spring Break from school this week sooooo we'll be missing a few young ladies classes on Wednesday due to super fantastic and exciting spring break vacation activities. We won't be starting anything new, just finishing up the bunny slippers. And then...new April stuff that will be posted for your Tuesday viewing pleasure.

Until then here are a few quick points I have about sewing that I would like to share with you:

1. If you sew something once, you made one and it may or may not have been fun. If you sew two of that something, you will know how to do it a little bit faster and better based on what you did the first time around. If you sew something three times, it will probably stick and you can crank this 'something' out, like nobody's business from here on in and it will look better each time. In short, do not be discouraged by your first attempt at any sewing project because it will most definitely look like you made it with your left foot in the dark. It will take at least three times to look as though you made it and four or more times to make it look like it was manufactured in a fancy-shmancy high-falutin factory. Isn't that what we are all aiming for?

2. Sewing takes time, so enjoy the process. Put on some music or some television in the background and go to it. Or if you are part of the sewing circle, engage in some conversation that is likely to take you from angry biting geese to possible names for future pet bunnies and then back again in a matter of seconds. It is important that you realise this fact before you begin your project. Do not expect to complete and entire project each time you sit down to sew. I love to instead concentrate on making super straight sewing lines and ironing between each step. I also like to estimate the time it will take in total and try to stick to a schedule to finish. Sewing is a process, not a race. Sewing is war.

3. Start early. This means several things. Age - I started sewing when I was fiveish' and look at me now, just look, I can make anything. No brag, just fact. And I love it.
In terms of project completion however, if you have a sewing project in mind, and you need it by next month, for goodness sake start now. Poofy hair flowers are cute now, but if you need twenty by Tuesday and it's 9:00pm on Monday, you will hate yourself and those poofy hair flowers before you are done and where is the joy in that? I'm just singin' the same old tune you've heard before, it's called Procrastination and it's by Nancy and the To-Do List Avoiders.

Look at me imparting wisdom like I have any to spare, I swear, I totally searched for my phone today and I found it in my hand. And look at me sharing that story.

Easter

I was never entirely comfortable with the Easter Bunny coming into my home and leaving me a basket of goodies. I was, in fact, extremely uncomfortable with the thought of a giant rabbit sneaking into my home in the dead of night...breathing his giant rabbit breath. I really had to psych myself out to sleep the night before, listening for those huge feet to come creaking through the house and in the morning, no matter how prepared I thought I was, I was always really horrified to see that he had left a basket...he was there...shiver. Is he still here? watching? Did this ever bother anyone else? No amount of chocolate or colored eggs in shining grass could warm me up to the thought of a huge rabbit, all those things were only evidence that he really existed. I had forgotten all about my rabbit-phobia until today when someone mentioned that the Easter bunny had left behind something or other and I felt this strong sense of relief, I am an adult now, the Easter bunny won't visit me...until I have children. This is definitely something to consider.

I can't help but think that watching this movie had something to do with all of this.

To Do Tuesday List

Tuesday is my day to get things done. I have all day to lay face down on the front lawn if I please. But not today, I have a lot to do. Here is what I need to get done today.





1. Go running. Seriously, it has been too long.

***UPDATE. I did not run today, though it would have been the perfect weather to do so. It is hard to get yourself to run for health's sake. I need to be chased and running for my life.

2. Finish making the rest of April's projects for the April Preview that will be posted some time today. Accomplishing this will take a trip to the fabric store. Note: remember to return from the fabric store and do not stop at Portillo's, you do not need a hot dog before you sew.

***UPDATE. Made most all of the projects, but did not post. Contrary to popular belief, I am not Wonderwoman...or the Green Lantern. But I DID go to the fabric store and DID NOT stop at Portillo's, but am seriously reconsidering the role a hotdog plays in my sewing projects.

3. Cut out the pieces needed for the bunny slippers that will hopefully get completed in Wednesday's class. The last project ran a little long and bunny slippers got pushed up a week. I think this was as a result of a little more difficulty and a lot more interesting conversation...which is a very necessary part of a sewing circle you know.

***UPDATE. The pieces were not cut out, but I expected this (says me).

4. Go to the grocery store and don't forget the peanut butter or the dish soap. Also, food, buy some of this, and no more Ramen or edamame.

***UPDATE. Went to the store, did not forget the peanut butter, did not actually need any dishsoap (are you still awake?) and bought real food.

5. Super secret Easter project needs to be completed by tomorrow night...stay tuned for photos.

***UPDATE. Project completed. The Easter bunny can now stop texting me...he gets so rude around Easter.

If I can get this done today, I will be my own hero. If I can not get it all done today, I will reconsider being face down on the front lawn.

***UPDATE. I have decided to be my own hero regardless of the list and the lawn was too soggy for any type of laying today.

wish me luck.

Looking forward to...

...the weekend, so that I can go here: The Apple Pan

...today so that I can clean my house. I am pretty sure that I have squatters.

...someday, when I have room for this guy

Have a lovely Tuesday

Shhhhhh.....

(whispered tone) I am one of those people who kill spiders.

Well, not me, my husband. He kills spiders and takes out the trash.

I sure do love a good spider smashing. That is not true. I do feel sad a little, especially when they are just quitely lounging on the wall beside my bed, sometimes even facing away from me as if to say, "oh, your're not bothering me, I'm just looking over in this direction" But I know, and they know, that they have at least 7 of thier eight eyes focused on my ear, or nostril and are trying to navigate their way in. Yes, that is the fear, that the spider will crawl into my ear, nose or...mouth, ahhhhhhh!Not impossible, ask the science channel, no not that one, the one on cable!

I will not be able to make anything today, but I will be dreaming of the next project and Friday I will be unstoppable. Until that time, please accept the photo above of my husband as today's post. I can't even begin to explain.