Tag: Fancy

25 Days, Sewing, and Anxiety
Life Posts · Recipe Roundup

25 Days, Sewing, and Anxiety

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So since most of you know me pretty well, I wanted to share a little bit more about what my life has been like lately. I have some anxiety traits or trends, I guess, which started back in grad school. I’ve since officially been diagnosed with Anxiety Disorder, which went away for a bit. Lately it’s flared again, mostly due to transitions, I think.

I’m struggling with over thinking every decision, from what to wear to what to write about on the blog. Even what cookie to make next is freaking me out. Once I start mixing dough, I do feel a bit zen-like though, it’s just the decision part.

Our fridge has a whiteboard which used to have freezer meals on it, but is currently holding a list of tasks that I want to get done broken down by day. It changes, but never seems to get any littler.

As a counselor, especially one specializing in working with people with anxiety, you’d think I would be better able to manage my own, but it’s not exactly as easy as that.  I can tell people all day how to breathe, how to have self-care, and how to relax, but when it comes to me doing it? Ha.

The pupper is very good at helping me relax, she sits on me when she senses I’m upset and snuggles me in the mornings.  She also forces me out of bed most mornings to take her for a walk or play with her, which helps. She also has begun to tell us when it should be bed time. 🙂

She’s a snuggle bug for sure.

Now, I try very hard not to let the anxiety take over, but lately it’s been making it very hard for me to do things like post on my normal schedule or get household stuff done. I’m determined though and been through worse before, so I will not let it get to the point that it did before, full panic attacks and all. I need to do things like bake and sew and read my stack of library books. Sticking to a schedule helps me feel like I have a purpose and control too, which helps me calm down and stop freaking out. That’s where this blog comes in. Posting helps me plan my days and even when stressful can be a good way for me to actually get out what’s bothering me.

So now that I’ve gotten that long-winded explanation of why my posts have been inconsistent, I’ll get back to recipes and sewing.

I made two pot holders on my sewing day with Kayla. I went to her house, so I didn’t have to worry about Fancy guarding the sewing machines or trying to eat our lunch. 🙂

They are double lined with the cool reflective hot pad material. I lined the back with the brown polka dots that is around the edges. They each have a loop on them for hanging. I’ve been using them a lot and it’s kind of fun to have holiday themed household items to use. They are about 8 inches.

For cookies, I left off at the non Food Network recipes, so here are some more that I’ve made.

1- No-Bake Peanut Butter Bars from Sally’s Baking Addiction. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/07/02/no-bake-reeses-peanut-butter-bars/

These were surprisingly good. I don’t think I got a picture though, they got eaten quick. 🙂 I was nervous about the graham cracker crumbs, but it did taste pretty much exactly like a Reese’s cup. I would make these again.

2- Gluten Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies by Spinach for Breakfast. http://www.spinach4breakfast.com/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies-2/

The office manager at work said “Well, I guess if you can’t have gluten or dairy, they would be good.”  🙂 They tasted a bit under baked, even after baking them for over the amount of time. I don’t have a lot of experience making gluten-free baked goods, so I don’t have much to compare them too. Taste-wise, you got both the pumpkin and cinnamon.

3- Chewy Chocolate Cookies from A Quilter’s Christmas. 

These tasted very chocolaty, but they had so much sugar in them that the Husband said that it felt like he was chewing on sugar. I don’t think I’ll make these again. They were not a hit with us, although they did get eaten at both of our workplaces.

4- Flourless Chocolate Orange Cookies from Grandbaby Cakes. http://www.grandbaby-cakes.com/2015/01/flourless-chocolate-orange-cookies/

These are also dairy free, which meant my craft lady friend could eat them. She, in fact, volunteered to save us from the rest of them, which I thought was so nice of her. 😉 These will be going on the party list.

They were utterly delicious, kind of like a meringue base. Not very sweet actually for having a lot of powdered sugar in them. The orange smelled very strong, but was just the right amount.

Fancy has been giving me this face lot lately, as she hasn’t been getting any of the delicious smelling cookies coming out of the kitchen. I should make her  cinnamon spiced one, I think. She would like that.

She’s giving me the bedtime stare at the moment and I should probably listen to my own advice and go to bed. The Husband just started his very exciting Saturn 5 Lego set, so who knows when he will be sleeping.

Thanks for reading about my current emotional state! Sorry if you just came for cookie recipes and dog pictures. 🙂 I promise there will be more to come.

Monthly Review
Monthly Review · Uncategorized

Monthly Review

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It’s hard for me to believe it, but I’ve been writing this blog for 11 months! 11 reviews, multiples of 11 of new recipes, and probably about 11 craft projects completed. 🙂

Fancy has found 11 new places to nap, most of them in spots where we would like to sit or were previously sitting.

She’s also making new noises. We thought we had a quiet dog, but when she wants something that is not the case at all. Lately she has decided the coffee table makes the perfect launch pad to the couch. We’ve shut that one down quickly. No jumping on tables for her. This is her after getting yelled after one of those times.

So this month wasn’t a strong sewing month, although we did get two big organization projects done. We organized the cookbooks and the pantry area downstairs.

I also finished my Rainbow Snowball Quilt! It hasn’t made it to its new owner, but is completed finally.

I started a tunic, but got confused by the directions and put it away for a little bit.

I also started a new rainbow quilt. This one may have a home, but I have to measure it when done first. I can’t have sibling rivalry going on over my quilts.

It looks like I may only have finished one sewing project! Yikes! I need to get on that. Here’s a sneak peek of super secret Christmas projects to make up for it.

These two will be together. The next two are just pictured together, they will be separate projects.

This one was a complete impulse buy, but it was on clearance and I wanted it. Who doesn’t like winter walrus?! I will probably make myself a Christmas apron out of it. 🙂

I’ve also found several Christmas flamingos, one of which is this Welcome flag.

The neighbors thought they would escape flamingos at Christmas! Ha! Silly neighbors!

The Husband has not yet agreed to the large light-up scarf wearing flamingo for the yard, but if it’s still there for Target’s 70% off clearance, it’s coming home with us. 🙂  It’s possible I have a flamingo problem.  Send Legos for the Husband so he’ll be distracted and won’t notice additional flamingos!

Food-wise, I did better with meeting goals. I used 7 new cookbooks, a couple of new techniques, and 24 new recipes total.

We had 4 misses. The squash tasted bland and wouldn’t flambé, the shortbread was a weird texture, the souffle tasted too processed, and the seed cake was too dense and dry.

Hits were the French Onion Pot Roast, Fancy’s pumpkin pb treats, the Creamy Chicken dish from Natasha’s Kitchen, the Chocolate Banana Muffins, and the beef stew with barley and carrots.

This month I want to try to get the Husband a little more comfortable with cooking a few dishes, so I can leave more things for him. I also want to keep trying some new techniques. I’ve been hinting strongly for a kitchen blow torch for Christmas. There are creme brûlée yogurt parfaits to be made!

Craft goals for the month: I would like to focus on finishing Christmas presents and also making some household items, like potholders and seasonal table runners. I have Christmas and Thanksgiving fabric. Perhaps a table runner will encourage me to keep the table clear!

I would like to make at least one clothing item and finish a UFO, but that might be a back burner goal, depending on how Christmas goes.

I’ve also got to collect info for my year review! It’s exciting and scary at the same time.

All the 25 Days of Cookies recipes will be included in the weekly Recipe Roundups and will have their own post sometime after Christmas. Tonight I made no bake pb bars and glazed ginger hibiscus cookies!

Now it’s off to bed. I have a sleepy dog and a long day tomorrow!

Reminiscing and Thankfulness
Life Posts

Reminiscing and Thankfulness

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Social media can be a tricky thing to manage, but most of the time the good outweighs the bad, I think. According to my Facebook memories, 5 years ago I posted about possibly turning into a 50’s housewife. I had been very domestic  with cooking and such. Everyone pretty much agreed that as long as it wasn’t Stepford wife style, I was probably fine. 🙂

I still don’t wear pearls when vacuuming, mostly because the Husband does the vacuuming. If you start seeing weird things in Jello appearing on the blog though, maybe send help.

Now, five years later, I have a blog about housewifery, which includes both my successes and failures in all the areas. Life is weird sometimes.

I did a photoshoot with a friend of mine very early in the very cold morning on Saturday. She’s a bellydance friend, so it was fun to get all sparkly. Here’s a shot of the costume inspiration that I wore.

We were shooting in front of some graffiti off one of the big markets downtown (yes, Dad, in the big yellow spot, but in a safe area), so my friend wanted a lot of contrasting colors. I’m excited to see how they turn out.

We had visitors again this weekend. Katy and Moose stayed with us on their way back home. The dogs pretended not to be friends, but we know different. We had a doggy sandwich going on the couch for movies.

Moose turns into a pumpkin around 10 ish and would very much prefer the bed, but Katy wasn’t there, so he took the couch instead. Meanwhile, Fancy, who cannot stand to be left out of anything where Moose is concerned, was on the other side.

You’ll notice that she is closer to Katy than me… Poor Katy has two dogs attached to her hip whenever she visits. She helps us train her though, so it’s always fun.

We’re thinking that Fancy’s bedtime is around 11 or so. She starts sitting by the bedroom door looking sadly at us. Sometimes she sighs a lot too. She’s a weird dog sometimes, but she fits right in. Today it’s warmish outside, so she’s napping by the garage until it’s time for her walk.

I didn’t sew very much this weekend, even though I had intended on doing some work. Instead, the Husband helped me set up a decent photo studio to get all my Etsy items finally posted. It’s a bit of a mess at the moment, so no pics of that. Basically, we took a white piece of fabric and clipped it into skirt hangers and hung it on the wall. We rigged up work lights, and my tiny lights from my mini photo studio and I got some nice pictures of the new hip wraps and bags. I’m working on getting them on Twinflower Fancies as I’m able. Fridays and Sundays seem to be good days for me to get pics taken.

We also got a bookshelf for the cookbooks!

Yes, those are all of them, and yes, we may have filled the whole shelf…

We have all this room in the kitchen though that we are still trying to figure out what to do with.

Oh, I’m sure we’ll fill it, but we’re trying to figure out the items that would be most useful. What kinds of things do you guys like to store within easy access?

The Husband also got me a knife block from Henckels which looks lovely. I’ve already cut myself with the paring knife twice and we haven’t gotten all of them washed yet. Eventually I’ll remember that new knives are sharp!

Now it’s off to churn ice cream before work. Have a wonderful day!

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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Happy Thanksgiving Leftover day! I hope your leftovers are tasty!

I did make two new recipes for Thanksgiving, but the souffle was not made for dessert. I had big plans, but the interweb said that it wouldn’t rise after being transported in batter form and I was having an off cooking day. I thought I shouldn’t risk it.  I didn’t want to ruin Thanksgiving. We brought caramel brownies instead (from a box! The horror!). I burned the brownie edges actually, by mis-remembering the temperature. This was after my squash refused to flambe and my cranberry sauce was more like soup… I shudder to think what the souffle would have done.

I’ve made five new recipes this week. My unexpected day off helped on Monday. Fancy got a batch of seasonally appropriate pumpkin treats. She likes the apple ones better, I think, but these still get the tail wag and sometimes even a head tilt!

These were a Pinterest recipe.

1- Peanut Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Dog Biscuits by Created by Diane.

https://www.createdby-diane.com/2012/10/pumpkin-peanut-butter-oatmeal-dog-biscuits.html

The dough was very wet. I hadn’t ground up the oats, so that could have been why.  They didn’t bake up hard at all. They are nice soft little cookies. They work really well as a trick to get Fancy to eat when one of us isn’t here. We can crumble them up over her food and she seems to realize she’s hungry after picking out all the bits.

2- Triple Chocolate Ice Cream from the Kitchenaid Ice Cream Bowl attachment book.

This was good. I had thrown in a tiny bit more cocoa powder because I was at the end of the box and it showed up as a bitter aftertaste. I forget that the sweetness level goes down after being frozen. This was not the Husband’s favorite. He couldn’t get over the bitterness. I liked it.

3- Glazed Butternut Squash from Cast Iron Cookbook by Joanna Pruess. Section: Vegetables and Other Sides. 

No picture of this, but it looked like mashed squash. 🙂 It was a little mushier than I liked. I started with unexpectedly tiny chunks of squash, which might be why. I was disappointed in this. It had brown sugar, bourbon, butter, and maple syrup and still tasted a bit bland.

4- Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Casserole from Natasha’s Kitchen.

https://natashaskitchen.com/2011/04/17/chicken-and-mushroom-casserole/

This was very good. I needed more mushrooms, but even without them it was delicious. The Husband rated it very highly and requested that I make it again. We had fresh parsley from the garden and fresh parm.

5- Mulled Cranberry Sauce from Food Network Magazine, November 2017, V. 10, N. 9.

This was tasty, despite being a little soupy. I think it needed more fridge time, as it seems to have firmed up a little over night.  My inlaws enjoyed it as well. It had all the flavors of mulled wine in it.

Tonight we had beef fajitas, instead of leftovers. I need a day in between turkey dishes, since I’m not a huge fan of it to begin with. My M-I-L made a delicious turkey though, so I know the leftovers will be good. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the squash. I can’t make anything for Fancy with it, since it has things in it that are bad for dogs. I’ll keep you all updated..

I hope you’re all enjoying time with family!

Sneezy, Dopey, Grumpy, and Sleepy: The Four Dwarves of a Cold
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Sneezy, Dopey, Grumpy, and Sleepy: The Four Dwarves of a Cold

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I am sick. I can’t stop coughing, sneezing, or blowing my nose. I have no appetite and just want to go to bed and sleep everything off. Fancy was so concerned about me that she has been attached to my hip since Sunday and has to be touching me at all times. She’s started to guard me from The Husband again. She freaked out when I had to use my nebulizer, but seemed okay once I showed her what it was. Now she just has to lay on my lap while I use it. She checks on me every so often like this.

The Husband has been taking good care of me, so I am feeling like I’m getting a little better. The last stage of a cold for me is when it settles into my chest and my asthma flares. I’m taking zinc and drinking orange juice (though not at the same time.. blech)  and having lots of chicken soup.

I have not felt up to crafting or sewing, as I’ve also hurt my back again. I sat crunched up while writing and am still paying for it. I have to find a PT place again, so they can fix it.

I have been able to write and got over word count pretty much all the days so far. I had a hiccup in my story and decided to go back to my original idea of a people/princess rescuing dragon. The Steampunk idea got away from me. I don’t know enough about the mechanics of it to write a good story. The cowboys were confusing me to and I got really bored with my characters and the storyline. The Husband suggested I write the original one and so far it’s going well.

We went to a wedding on Saturday that had dragons. 🙂 I woke up with a cold then, so brought my own box of tissues and hand sanitizer and tried not to hug or breathe on too many people.

It was a really cool wedding.  Beautiful decorations and just a hint of nerdiness. 🙂 The sign says “One ring to bring and into marriage bind them.” The bride looked like a princess and the groom was her very handsome prince.

We got to see a whole bunch of college friends and the Husband’s music fraternity serenaded the bride, which is my favorite part of a PMA (Phi Mu Alpha) wedding. There was a serenade at our wedding too and it, of course, made me cry.

It’s time for another dose of cold meds, so I’ll leave you. Hopefully I will start to feel better this week. We have our Elevensies party on Sunday and I have a lot of food to make. Send me healthy prayers please!

Monthly Review And Recipes
Monthly Review · Recipe Roundup

Monthly Review And Recipes

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Another month gone by! I’m excited to be getting into the holidays and to be finally being down to one job. My current plan is to transfer everyone by The end of December. So far I’m on track. My Fridays are going to be Etsy and errand days. And blogging, of course. 🙂

I made two new recipes this week. One was good and was very good.

1- Gershwin’s Greatest Gumbo from Musical Feasts from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

I have no pictures, since we ate this on Halloween. I do have a picture of some of the leftover Halloween candy. We only had about 30 trick or treaters and two Costco bags of candy…

The Gumbo had Cornish hens and smoked gouda chicken sausage. I would switch to smoked turkey sausage instead. The gouda sausage was a little weird. This was delicious though. It had a little kick to it. We will make this again. We had it over rice. It made a perfect meal to have on a cold night.

2- Scalloped Potatoes and Ham from A Quilter’s Christmas by Louise Stoltzfus and Dawn Ranck. 

This was eaten while I was at work, so no pictures. I had a few bites when I got home. The Husband said it was a little soupy, but tasted good. It didn’t originally call for that, but I just threw some sliced ham in it. I would make this again.

Now for my monthly review. I made 20 recipes. 9 were new cookbooks or internet recipes.

We had a couple of hits, the gumbo, Fancy’s dog treats, jerk chicken, and the cuban steak.

Misses were Dad’s bread method and the Hungarian Beef Stew.

I tried using Dad’s method for my new technique and will try it again. I made some more frozen meals to keep and they have turned out good so far.

Crafting wise, I made my goal of finishing an item of clothing and my UFO goal on one fell swoop with my flamingo pjs. They are so cozy!

I also made my elephant bag, but couldn’t bring myself to sell it. It needed to be mine.

I also started Nanowrimo this month, so my challenge will be getting my writing done as well as maintaining  sewing and cooking. I foresee a lot of crockpot meals this month.

So to explain Nano, the point is to write 50,000 words in the month of November to end up with a short novel. I’ve attempted this before and only “won” once.  This year’s novel is a Steampunk novel involving political intrigue and magic. Somehow while writing yesterday, cowboys showed up. It was weird, but it kind of worked out. I think. It’s going to be interesting to see where it goes.

So my goals for this month will be a little smaller, due to Nano. I plan to still keep the 2 new meals per week. I also want to try cooking something familiar with a new recipe.

Sewing goals are to find my serger pedal and to try sewing with knits. Also, to finish one of the quilts that I have tucked away.

Now, I have to go get the dog off the bed. She snuck into our bedroom while I wasn’t looking. She likes to steal blankets and pjs and snuggle them.

Oh, and make word count. Wish me luck!

Cozy Sewing
Crafty

Cozy Sewing

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We couldn’t take it! We had to turn on the heat. Fancy, as you can tell, was extremely happy. She’s currently snuggled on her fleece on the couch.

I love fall, but forget that about this time of year, I start to freeze. This continues until Spring. I wear two pairs of socks, sweaters, my Jayne hat, blankets as skirts, and wraps around the house. It’s not like we keep it that cold, I just can’t warm up when I get chilly. Fancy will only go out in her fleece when it starts to be 30 or under.

Being cold made me sew a pair of flamingo pj pants that have been in my U.F.O box for a while. I used a striped knit for a waistband and cuffs. I think they are adorable. It’s disguised flamingos in bowler hats, what could be cuter? They are very comfy and warm and I fixed the weird crotch pulling that happened with my last pair by actually following directions! Well, understanding them finally.

I also finished this cute elephant bag. I saw these two fabrics as remnants and they wanted to be together. Who am I to resist what fabric wants? 🙂

It has six outside pockets and three inside. It also has a recessed zipper. It is huge and I love it. Working on it soothed my soul after a couple of hard days at work. It also reminded me how to put in a recessed zipper, so I can add it to my bags for Etsy.

We also organized the pantry over the weekend and some of the closets.

We’re trying to decide how we want to finish the basement. The inner walls are covered in a veneer that isn’t even tacked on. You can’t see it much in the pictures, but the built-in shelves were not put in correctly, so it looks alarmingly like they are tipping forward. Those will come out and metal shelves will be put in instead.

We’ve learned to concentrate on just one area, rather than try to do it all. Being a homeowner can be a little overwhelming, especially when there is a lot to fix or change.

Fancy is teaching us the importance of play even when having work to get done. She’s a silly dog. She fits right in. 🙂

We tried to dress her up as a panda for tonight, but she tried to eat her costume. My sister-in-law sent us the costume and we were hoping it would be nice, but she was too focused on playing with it. Maybe we’ll stick to sweaters and capes for her.

Now I have to go walk her before we’re besieged with Trick or Treaters! Have a Happy Halloween!

Recipe Roundup and Bread Experiments
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup and Bread Experiments

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I have one recipe this week. I think I’m losing my way a little. I know I’ve said this before too, so I apologize for repeating myself.

Meal planning has been out the window and my schedule has turned into late nights almost every night. That should be a little more under control in a bit. Fridays are going to be off my schedule after tonight. I need to go back to dance and have a night in. My Monday nights will be earlier too when I am able to switch to just one center, probably only until 6:00 pm. The Husband will be happy to see me, I think. 🙂

My one new recipe was Jerk Chicken, which was a freezer recipe from Sweet Peas and Saffron. https://sweetpeasandsaffron.com/7-chicken-marinade-recipes-freezer-friendly/

I got home late and haven’t tried it yet, but the Husband said it was good. He had it with rice and we had applesauce or strawberries as sides.

We also had spaghetti and lasagna this week. The Husband pointed out that I change how I make those each time. He’s right, it changes with what I have in the fridge. The spaghetti had celery and less mushrooms than usual this time.

I used some of my flamingo pasta for lunch one day with the spaghetti sauce. It made my lunch more fun for sure.

The lasagna had fresh mozzarella instead of ricotta and didn’t have any shredded parm. It also had a mix of shredded mozzarella and provolone. The Meijer brand, I think.

I also made bread, well, attempted to make bread with my Dad’s method. It did not go well.

The spoon in the first picture was made by my Dad for our wedding. I love it too much to use it. I just gaze at it. I have very distinct memories of watching both my parents make bread, but I associate it more with my Dad. We had a huge bread bowl that would hold enough dough for three or four loaves. My brothers and I would fight over who got the end piece with butter… Mmm… He sent me his method written out, but I forgot to see if I could post it. I’ll ask him and post later maybe.

This, kids, is what happens when your yeast dies a horrible death…

I didn’t use enough yeast and it got too cold. It didn’t rise even after being in a warm oven. Our house is freezing. We’re playing the “See how long you can go without turning on the heat” game. I’m perpetually cold, no matter what, so just add hoodies and socks. Fancy snuggles more, but she doesn’t seem to mind as much as me.

Poor bread. It tastes good, but it’s pretty sad. I’ve made bread before lots of times, but always with measurements. My Dad has been making bread for many years, so he knows all the tricks. I’ll have to study his methods a little more. For now, I might stick to recipes.

Speaking of recipes, I was overcome at Costco and now we have 5 dozen eggs… This week we will have the crustless quiche, homemade ice cream, and I will have egg salad for lunch. Possibly also chef’s salad and I’ll have to bake something. Many things… They are good until the end of the month, so I’ve got time. We’ve also got our Elevensies/Lord of the Rings Party coming up, so it should be okay. If you have any other ideas, let me know!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go cuddle this cold puppy and find more egg and party recipes. I’m behind on planning.