Looking back on the past month, I have been terrible at taking pictures of the few new craft things that I made. I’m still struggling with actually making time to craft things, as my caseload is picking up and my schedule evolves into more time at the office, instead of at home. I’ve also been sick with no desire to eat or cook for about a week, which has thrown off all of my dinner plans.

I’m also starting to think more seriously about the garden. Last year, since we were moving, we just had containers, but they did fairly well. I had a lot of herbs, tomatoes, and jalapeños. This year we are going to try a cinder block raised bed, in an effort to keep Fancy out of it. She has recently started digging in the bushes by the house. The Husband is determined to have us grow a lot of the produce that we use and hopefully be able to can or freeze a bunch of it. I love being able to pick fresh herbs and veggies as well.

I am happy to report that it appears one of my blueberry bushes survived the winter in the garage. It had leaves on it the other day. Lately it’s been too cold and rainy to actually put it outside, but I’m hoping it continues to grow. My second one doesn’t appear to be growing, but I will see what I can do with it. I think they would appreciate bigger pots. Maybe it will help them grow more. Last year, I had a volunteer Thai Basil plant sneak into my blueberry pot and grow like gangbusters.

Recipe Update:

I used 17 new recipes and 10 of my methods/recipes. I used 7 new cookbooks, which was a lot better than I thought I had done. I used two cookbooks with double recipes, both for my birthday party.

Hits were the pizza, Irish Stew, truffles, Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes, and Silver White Cake. The Husband requested the Szechuan shrimp sauce as a sauce for chicken too. I learned I can add butternut squash to mac and cheese, as long as I add enough fancy cheese to it. It was a pretty good food month!

The misses were the Chicken Stir fry that I attempted with no recipe, and the chicken potpie filling that was so dry and horrible. We won’t say much about either of those, except that the Husband still won’t admit that I can occasionally make terrible foods, even with the evidence in front of him. I think I’ll keep him. 😉

Food goals for the next month:

*Use 2-3 new recipes per week.

*Weekly Meal planning- I wrote down a list of the cookbooks that I still have not used and am planning to try to grab those first.

*Sort through my recipe cards, magazine pages, and recipe binder, and be realistic about what I would actually like to make. This one may take longer than a month, but I would like to at least attempt to start organizing them.

*Take better and more frequent pictures of meals, including side dishes.

Crafting update:

I had one vending event in the past month. I made one skirt, a cute Ball jar candle holder for my office, and several more fabric flowers, which are currently buried in my vending boxes.

Writing out that small of a list makes me sad. I’m going to try to stop having excuses for why I didn’t make things and just find a time to craft. It is what I love to do, after all.

My fat quarter trunk is now organized, which is a good step toward a workable crafting and sewing space.

I did run into a legitimate snag with one of the sewing books though. My Chic and Simple Sewing book is definitely sized for juniors. I’ve had it for years and found it new, with the patterns still intact on their sheets, at my local thrift store. I’ve made three of the projects from it, two wrap skirts, a few A-line skirts, and the Opera dress, which is no longer with us. The deep neckline looks amazing on the skinny model, however; on me, it’s not fit for public eyes… It was also really hard to get off and on and the hemline was accidentally asymmetrical. Those were all very early efforts. The skirts are still in my closet and I do wear them.

Now I can tell you for sure, that I am not going to figure out all my extra measurements, trace all these pattern pieces to the correct size, and make these patterns. It was one of first clothes sewing books I bought, so I was resisting giving it up, but it might be time. There is no sense in keeping things that are not useful and I have patterns better suited to my figure.

I think I’m beginning to realize that part of this challenge for me is to develop my own style and begin to weed out the things that don’t inspire me. I have so many crafting and sewing materials that are just gathering dust when they could be inspiring someone else instead. Giving up this book will let another beginner sewer experiment and learn their own style. If you know of a younger, or beginner sewer, who might like it, let me know, otherwise it will go to the giveaway pile.

Fun sewing fact, Joann’s now lets you use coupons on books and I had a 60% off one that was burning a hole in my pocket. I found this fun looking book called Sew Many Dresses, Sew Little Time by Tanya Whelan, which promises “interchangeable patterns to create 200+ unique dresses.” It has a section on alterations and the styles are much more flattering and sized with measurements, not just S/M/L. I can replace the simpler book for this one and get a lot more use out of it.

So, after that long-winded explanation, on to my crafty/sewing goals:

*Sew the pillow for my office with the inspirational quote fabric.

*Iron, back, and tie the Rainbow Snowball quilt.

*Add the fabric flowers to Etsy.

*Finish one project from the UFO tote.

*Continue organizing basement craft area.

*Take better pictures for the blog and for Etsy.

Some of these are shorter term and will hopefully be easy ones to finish. I don’t work Tuesday and will try to get the table cleared so I can at least get the quilt ironed and pinned.

Fancy has been super snuggly lately and would like me to add more walks, snuggles, and homemade treats to my goals this month as well. And really, how can I resist either of these faces?

 

She’s currently draped over my lap, snoring peacefully  away. 🙂 I should go and do the same!