Since I am having tea with some friends on Sunday, I thought I would go over my monthly review a few days earlier. I had a bit of a hiccup in my crafting and baking time, due to the paperwork problem, but did pretty well at getting things done.
According to the Husband, I just need a few more cooking techniques under my belt to be ready for Masterchef. He thinks I can get them done in a month or so. (I’m hoping his play will start needing him soon and he’ll be distracted.)
Fancy is hoping I stop messing about on the computer and make her some biscuits and give her more snuggles. We’ve all got dreams…
Meanwhile, my dream is to find my serger pedal so I can start learning how to sew knits and can make myself all the tunics I need. This means cleaning the basement completely. Maybe this weekend I can unpack and reorganize a few more boxes.
So in terms of craft goals, I had set some category goals last month, with only two firm projects. My office art is mostly completed. I need to add words to my “Heavy” picture, but the first one is done and at my office.
I washed the backing fabric for the Rainbow Snowball Quilt and plan to tie it on Monday, when my whole day is free. I also plan to work on my Ren Fest costume on Monday, but we’ll see how much I get done.
I made a pretty dress with pockets! I have gotten several compliments on it whenever I wear it. It needs a neckline fix, but is still wearable.
I made many tea wallets for Etsy, just have to take pictures of all of them and get them posted. You are probably all sick of seeing pictures of tea wallets, so I’ll spare you this time. 🙂
I am slowly working on the basement. We are planning on getting new shelves to give the Husband a way to get his Lego boxes off the floor. Fancy likes to lay under his table and gets a little snappy when we try to get her off the boxes. No new updates since the last big organization effort.
I still haven’t figured out how I want to store the fat quarters, so for now they are still in shoeboxes in the trunk. It works, it’s just not the nicest looking way to do things and I think standard sized boxes would be better.
I didn’t finish anything from the UFO pile, but have hip wraps earmarked for Ooky Spooky, so can maybe catch up then. My teen group requested a pj party for our last session, so I am going to try to get my flannel flamingo pants done by end of September.
I did make two new hip wraps! They are pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. It’s an edgier color scheme than I normally use, so I am excited to see how they sell. I really want to keep both of them, but will have to just make myself one to wear there. Perhaps I can even use it for my costume piece for my own dance.
Here’s the first one:
It has a repurposed belt as an accent and has black and white skulls on the other side with 4 tassels. 
The second one has more embellishments and no tassels. It has black fringe along the bottom and a chain piece along the top.
I almost broke my needle while sewing the chain piece on. There’s only about an 1/8 of an inch for the needle to go and one of the links was just a bit too far over. Both machine and needle are okay, but I definitely need to change my needle.
Food wise, I did not do so well. I don’t know what it was this month, but food did not sound interesting at all.
I used 9 new recipes. 3 of them were also new cookbooks, Cooking from the Gourmet’s Garden, Retro Pies, and The Vintage Tea Party Year. I made 9 recipes by my methods and used 4 recipes from Pinterest or elsewhere online.
Hits were Rack of Lamb with Potato Puree (My Italian Kitchen, Luca Manfe), the Rosemary Bundt cake, and the   sweet cream ice cream from Cooking Classy.
I also made a really good apple pie following a recipe from Retro Pies, by Linda Everret. It has sugar and cream brushed on the crust, which the Husband enjoyed a lot.
Misses were my homemade chicken soup. It came out a little weird and watery. The chocolate cake was not moist enough for me either.
Food hasn’t been a priority lately. I haven’t really wanted to eat, which makes it hard to cook. We’ve been eating the freezer meals that I put together a few weeks ago and that has helped. I’m not sure how to motivate myself at the moment beyond the bare minimum. Any ideas for getting out of a food rut?
The Husband did get me a beautiful Boos cutting board for our anniversary, which makes me want to have cheese plates and other things we can display on it. It’s so pretty!
Maybe exploring some options like that might help. Sometimes the thought of doing all the work to cook is what stops me.
Here are my goals for the month, before I get too philosophical on the subject of food.
Craft Goals:
*Finish at least one UFO project
*Rainbow Snowball Quilt
*Finish Ren Fest costume
*Clean/organize basement
*One item of clothing
Food Goals:
*Try one new technique
*Try a new ingredient
*Meal plan
*New breakfast or lunch recipe
Speaking of food, I should probably go eat lunch and get the dog out for a walk. She whined until I got up this morning, ran around like a crazy dog, and then went right back to sleep. Silly dog..
Have a great holiday weekend! Hopefully it’s relaxing and fun!
