Tag: Monthly Review

Monthly Review
Crafty · Monthly Review · Sewing

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

Here’s to another month! January flew by as usual. We had a lazy first weekend in February. Fancy spent most of her time playing tug with the Husband and her rapidly shedding rope toy, or snoring on my lap. She did not move for much of anything. She was not interested in the puppy bowl, although she was a little confused by the puppy squeaks. She squeaked her ball a lot though, in protest of us watching other pups.

I think I’m off to a good start with sewing. I’ve been working on a bunch of projects and I made some things that I needed and finished a bunch of projects from the UFO box.

This project takes care of both of those categories. I made some hot pads for the kitchen. One has a loop and one doesn’t. They came out a little small, so we’ll probably use them for trivets.

They were easy to make, but not too pretty on the other side. Yikes.. The binding was too big.

I have also started a new rainbow quilt. I’m not counting this one against my total. It’s technically for an old project that I hadn’t started yet.

I swear to finish something big soon. My quilt tops are stacking up. If I don’t finish some, I’ll have to get a bigger tote. I’m considering just backing everything with fleece. I have batting for a bunch of them, but not all.

So for UFOS I have made 13+ tea wallets, the hot pads, a Christmas zippered pouch, the evil fairy bag, and the library bag.

For new projects, I made a self-drafted tunic and the castle shirt.

I have also added two more quilt tops. Well, partial. They aren’t sewn together yet. They are also rainbow, since I apparently can’t do anything else. I think I’ve decided on this block for the pastel rainbow one. I found a cute white on white floral to use for the center of the blocks. I may need to make a few more of the scrap blocks depending on how the layout looks. I also have the chevron one in the featured pic.

Man… sometimes admitting the things I haven’t finished yet makes me cringe. I don’t normally put stock in negative self talk for motivation, but apparently sometimes it works. I’ll be working on some backed up projects for sure this month.

I’ve done much better in food terms this week. 15 new recipes and 12 new cookbooks. Hits were the lamb, the cinnamon ice cream, the Parmesan crusted chicken, and the Gordon Ramsey noodle and mushroom dish.

The hotpot was also a hit. It was a fun dinner with bonus noodle soup!

Misses were the pho (smelled like “lamb and feet”) and the pie contest apple pie. Not too bad for the month.

Goals: 

Sewing/crafting:

– Make the dragon dress

– Fancy up my work clipboards so I don’t get them mixed up with the office ones.

– Fully finish a quilt.

– Sew a pair of leggings! (Eek! Sewing with knits!)

Food goals:

– Use the InstantPot

– Try a new breakfast recipe

– Try a new lunch recipe

– Meal Plan/Pantry shop

– Make more ice cream! (Yes, I know it’s winter, but ice cream!)

I will also try to snuggle this puppers more to her standards. She feels sadly lacking in the snuggle department… You can plainly see she’s terribly sad about it. She probably also needs more treats. I mean, how could we resist?

I think I’ll take her current example and take myself off to bed. Have a lovely, restful night!

Monthly Review And Recipe Roundup
Monthly Review · Recipe Roundup

Monthly Review And Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

Sometimes when my baking projects don’t quite turn out like I think they should, I make up little stories. It helps me cope. 🙂 This one was a Christmas Eve series of texts to Kayla when the bread got a bit out of control.

To set the scene: I decided to make a new recipe for what I thought was probably nissu. This recipe was for Pulla from the Scandinavia cookbook. It called for currents, but I left them out. The measurements were all in metric and I forgot I had a kitchen scale that would measure in metric, so it took a bit to figure things out.

Here’s the first picture:

This is where it started to go a little wonky. This is my biggest Pyrex bowl. Before the rise had happened… After 8 cups of flour…

This is the dough after the rise:

Also where my texts started to get a bit silly…

“After the rise, the bread overlord demanded a warm oven…”

“Too scared to disobey, I complied with haste, in hopes that it would spare the household.”

Kayla thought it was pretty funny, but she wasn’t the one being menaced by bread gone wild. The Husband was no help, he welcomes our bread overlords. 🙂

The recipe said it “served four” and I’m not sure who it thought I would be feeding. Ice giants? Trolls? It made a ton of them!

Mmmmmm….. the rolls were delicious. They are all contained now and less menacing after being frozen.

I didn’t cook a lot this week, due to the holiday, but we did have the traditional Christmas Eve meatballs. Eric and I have added buttered noodles to our tradition and I like it.

These were just beef meatballs. Since I know where to find ground venison now, we generally add that too, but I wasn’t able to get to the store. We’ll have mixed ones for the party though. We also had salad with them.

I also figured out that although the peppermint truffle filling was a failure as truffles, it makes a great ice cream sauce. We had brownie sundaes and I made mine a peppermint one.

I also used a Roasted Garlic Chicken freezer meal, which we both enjoyed. My stomach objected to something extremely violently though and I wasn’t able to eat any of the delicious leftovers. The Husband had it as leftovers and was fine, so it was just my stomach being weird, I guess.

Now for the monthly review!

Food Review:

I made 17 new recipes and used 4 new cookbooks. I used four family or my recipes. We had a good track record of eating leftovers. I did horribly at actually making breakfasts and lunches.

Hits were the peppermint sugar cookies, the garlic chicken for the Husband, stuffed Italian meatballs, the GF chocolate Orange cookies, and the Mexican Hot Chocolate Crinkles.

Misses were the garlic chicken for me, peppermint truffles, and the chewy chocolate cookies.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something, so if I figure it out, I’ll post it.

Food Goals: 

-Use the spice grinder and kitchen blow torch. 🙂

-Try to use at least one new cookbook a month.

-Make more tea blends and drink more tea!

-Use the InstantPot.

Craft Review

This month I made 4 hot pads, listed three new items on Etsy, sold 10 tea wallets, organized a little, and made two table runners. I started my Christmas skirt, but it still needs a lining and a cover for the rough zipper ends.

Craft Goals: 

– Finish two quilts from my stack of UFOs.

– Deliver the Rainbow Snowballs (When will it leave my house?!)

– Finish the second OT quilt and mail them off.

– Make a dress.

I have navy fabric ordered that has white baby dragon silhouettes and little gold crowns on it. It needs to be a sweet little dress with a gold Peter Pan collar and slightly puffed sleeves. It makes me giggle to think about it. My kids at work will love it, especially the little girls who think they are princesses. 🙂

I also really need to organize the basement and come up with a system to keep it organized. Hopefully I’ll find my serger pedal while working down there.

We’re possibly having family for the Epiphany party and want to be able to show off the whole house. The basement is a disaster from my fabric spread, the Legos, and Fancy’s proclivity for shredding cardboard. We also just found evidence that there may have been rodents nesting under the dryer at some point before we owned the house. We haven’t seen evidence of any there now, but need to get things sorted to make sure.

If you don’t hear from me by Monday night, send help… The bread overlords may have banded together with the fabric piles to take us down.

Also exciting news, my blog is almost a year old! I’ll be taking most of next week to review the good and the bad that went on this year. I’ll be splitting it up in sections, otherwise I think it would be way too long.

Let me know what you like reading about and if there are things I should change. That’s what the new year is for after all!

Monthly Review
Monthly Review · Uncategorized

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

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 flambĂ©, 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 brĂ»lĂ©e 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!

Monthly Review
Monthly Review

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

Sometimes we need a little reminder of the beauty in life, while tragedy surrounds us. I took the featured picture while stopped (yes, Mom, completely stopped) in traffic one day after work. It certainly made my commute a little better.

I briefly lost my notebook with all of my recipes, notes, and craft lists in it, but it was in my work bag.  I’m going to need a new one soon, this one only has a few pages left. Should I make the next one all fancy, with different kind of paper, like graph paper and ruled paper? I should probably just use one of the many half filled ones I have lying around here.

So I have the backing for the Rainbow Snowball Quilt! It’s brown dog themed fleece, since it is going to a home with dogs. I will finally get it finished in the next few weeks.

I completed a quilt for my OT friend and have one more quilt top that is destined for her too. I’m going to send them together.

I made a dress! I took a chance and added lace and it turned out really cute.

Four more hip wraps are done and waiting for Ooky Spooky vending.

I tried some new color pairings with the hip wraps and I love them. Hopefully other people will love them too!

The lyrics are on my second office picture and they are hanging on my wall. A third one is simmering in my head too.

The words say “I’m holding on. Why is everything so heavy? Holding on. To so much more than I can carry. I’ve been dragging around what’s keeping me down. If I just let go, I would be free. Why is everything so heavy?”

I did clean a little nd then got side tracked by fabric and now need to clean again. I have problems cleaning while I’m sewing. Fabric gets put in a pile and it’s much more fun to keep sewing rather than put things away. I was able to sneak some fabric into the laundry though, so now I can get to the projects.

The top two will be dresses or skirts, the Minions are supposed to be matching pj pants or shorts for the Husband and I. Yes, we’re dorks. 🙂

For food goals this month, I didn’t use any new ingredients, I don’t think. I did make spaetzle for my new technique. It was a lot of work. My arms got steamed and tired. It tasted good though.

I also made a new muffin recipe for breakfast and made chili specifically for lunches. I did pretty well meal planning.

I used 7 new cookbooks, five family or my recipes, and made 20 new recipes overall.

Hits were the roast chicken, Fancy’s treats, and the tortellini Stroganoff.

Misses were the stuffing. It was too dry for the Husband.

We had so much chicken this month that the Husband got sick of chicken. He’s typically fine eating the same thing for a while, but this was too much. We’ll try some different proteins this month for sure. We might even try some meatless dishes!

Fancy had a big month and met lots of dogs and people. She had lots of playtime and got a few new toys to chew on.

She also cuddled a lot. She’s definitely a people dog. 

Sewing Goals for next month are to make at least one clothing item, one item from the UFO bins, and finish a wedding quilt. I also want to work on some more bags for Etsy and vending.

Food goals are to try more meatless dishes and get creative with breakfasts. Also, to continue to make the freezer meals for long days.

The Husband has his play pretty much all month, so our dinner schedule might be weird. We’ll both still need lunches though.

My garden is on the verge of dying. I had a hard time keeping up with the watering when it was so hot. I also didn’t realize I should have been plucking blossoms that wouldn’t have a chance to mature first. Next year I will know. My herbs are still growing though, so that’s good.

Fancy is demanding walks by jumping off and on the couch, so I have to go get her out before she takes out the furniture. Have a good week!

Monthly Review
Crafty · Monthly Review

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

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!

Monthly Review
Monthly Review

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

I have made 75 tea wallets this month. I went a little crazy. What’s also crazy is the fact that my scrap boxes look very similar to when I started. I need to get my already started quilts done so I can start making some more.

These are waiting on the last threads to be cut. It’s my least favorite part. Some of them will also need buttons.

I got tired of having nothing to report on for my craft goals this month, so worked pretty hard to get them done. I still need this darn Rainbow quilt to be done, but may be able to get the fabric washed tomorrow.

Crafting and Sewing Update

So my completed craft goals for the month were to figure out a wallet and a coin purse, organize the basement, and fix something from the mending or finish a UFO project. Some of the tea wallets were actually in my UFO bag and I fixed a skirt where the elastic had snapped.

I found a stash of wallets that I made when I was first sewing for Etsy, but had decided they weren’t as professional as I would like, so haven’t sold them. I pulled a black one made from a shrunken sweater with a daisy print fabric and daisy embroideries on the front. It’s not too big and looks cute.

I also made a zippered coin purse from some scraps from a shirt. It gave me an excuse to use a tiny 4 inch zipper.

It’s lined with the same material. I have so many zippers right now and really need to make some zippered bags for my Twinflower Etsy store. I have a bunch of weird colors though, so hopefully I can find enough fabrics that match. It would be terrible if I had to buy new fabrics after all! Well, the Husband would think so at least.

This is the skirt that I fixed. The elastic popped while on a work trip a few years ago and it got stuck in the mending pile. I finally pulled it out, picked a few stitches and re-threaded the elastic.

Such a simple fix and I just never did it. Now I can wear the skirt again and it will be even more appropriate since I work with kids.

My office art and clipboards were two things that I only got partially done. I lost my Modge Podge in one of the moves and will need some more before I can collage the clipboards.

The office art is drawn out, but I haven’t quite decided if I like it. One of the songs I had picked out, “Heavy,” is by Linkin Park. With Chester Bennington’s recent suicide (the lead singer), I’m debating the wisdom of having the song in my office. The song itself talks about not holding on to things you can’t change and recognizing that you need to leave some things behind. It’s a beautiful song and sparked a few discussions in my teen group, I’m just not sure if I should have it up right now. I can see both sides. On one hand, the song itself can be inspiring, but it now is connected with someone who died by suicide. Maybe I will still make it and put it up in a few months. This piece will have a stick figure trying to support a globe on it’s back with the words in the globe. It will either be oil pastels or collage pieces with cool colors.

My second song, “Brave,” by Sara Barellis, is one that I have wanted in my counseling office since before I had an office. It talks about saying what needs to be said and being brave. For a little while every time I had to do something big, the song would be playing on the radio. 🙂 This one will have a stick figure shouting the chorus. It will be warm colors.

Garden Update

Most of the garden is growing well. I’m still waging a war on squirrels and they are still winning. Here are some garden pictures.

These are the “mammoth” jalapeños. They still aren’t what I would call mammoth…

Green Peppers

Roma Tomatoes

Cooking Update

I used 12 new cookbooks and 25 new recipes. We had one family recipe and 4 or 5 recipes/methods by me. That’s a lot of food. How did we eat so much food?

Hits for the month were the Gold Beach Burgers, the Korean BBQ ribs, the Greek Grilled Chicken, and the Shrimp Scampi. Most of the ice cream recipes were also hits.

Misses were the Slow Cooker Soy Citrus Chicken, the Garlicky Baked Chicken Thighs/Drumsticks, and the carrot puree.

We had at least two new recipes per week and I made lots of new ice creams. I made two last night actually! This week’s recipes will be posted later.

Goals for next month: 

Sewing wise, I am relaxing my goals a little. I’m picking general categories this month. Sometimes I don’t want to work on the things I’ve picked. The only firm projects are the Rainbow Snowball Quilt and my office art.

Categories:

Clothing item, Etsy stock, and UFO/mending pile.

Continue to organize basement.

Get new storage for small pieces of fabric.

Garden Goals: 

Dry herbs for a tea making party in September.

Food Goals: 

Continue to make 2-3 recipes for week.

Try new ice cream recipes.

Use new recipes for Anniversary party.

Get freezer recipes made up in freezer.

It seems I may have a busy month ahead of me. I think I’ll join the puppers in a good night’s sleep.

Monthly Review
Canning and Preserving · Crafty · Gardening · Monthly Review

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

It has officially been six months since I started the blog! So far, I have been pretty pleased with my progress, but can always do a little more.

I’ve decided that when I do extra things, instead of my written goals for the month, I should just get to call them “bonus goals.” That way I won’t feel bad about getting those things done instead. Like deep cleaning my kitchen cupboard…I knew it should be done, but wasn’t actually adding it to any list until there were ants. I do need to start a regular cleaning list for things like that. I tend to do them when I get frustrated, which would be prevented, if I was doing them regularly.

I am going to start with the craft part of the review today, as I am proud of what I had gotten done.

Crafting Review:

I’m in a weird sewing rut right now. I want to sew, but there are too many projects to choose from and I get consumed with anxiety about what I want to get done. I’m also not sure how many elastic waisted poofy skirts I need in my closet, which is the easiest thing I feel like sewing. I want to sew rainbow scrap quilts too, but since I have been attempting to finish one for three months at least with no joy, I’m not allowed to start another.

I’m also struggling with starting new things right now. My brain is telling me that I need to fix the things in the mending or that are half done first. My brain is right of course. I did finish one thing from the UFO/mending pile, just today actually.

I made this tunic dress about a year ago, washed it, and promptly discovered all the places the very tiny bias tape didn’t catch. This included the left sleeve, which had also frayed and was literally hanging on by a thread. I took off the edging on the sleeves and neck and sewed new hems. I also blind stitched the pocket edges down, to make them look neater. Now I can wear it again!

Here’s closeup of the pocket: You can see where the wash made it a little wrinkly, but I think that won’t be too noticeable while wearing it. Really, if anyone is inspecting the pockets that closely, I will be firmly requesting some more personal space.

The dress is a beautiful cotton batik and it has a blue linen like material on the bottom to add length and interest. It’s based on my favorite shirt pattern and is pretty comfy. I’m counting this as my piece of clothing for the month, as it was unwearable until I fixed it. 🙂

Other things that I have made:

Covered boxes for the games at work.

I decided to keep the plastic bin for my Legos, but then needed a few more storage containers to keep other card games and other small games in. I had thought about buying something, but already had shoeboxes and cute fabric. Who wouldn’t want rocket boxes?

These are just hot glued and could be neater on the inside, but they work perfectly for me, and the kids I see are not going to care.

I added black buttons to the tea wallets that I made. They look really nice. I’m hoping to get them up on Etsy soon.

Speaking of Etsy, I did end up listing 3 new things and renewing a few more. I also sold one of my older bags soon after renewing it, which was nice. I know I need to get some more stock up there. I am hoping to get pictures outside.

I also organized some more in the basement. It still doesn’t look like I did anything, but I did make my way through another pile of ironed scraps to be cut up. I did get my 1 yard totes and patterns squared away, so that helped.

I decided against making a whole new purse. The vintage ones I had book marked didn’t look as fun. I switched to a messenger style one with books on it. It has no pockets though and I desperately need a wallet and coin purse for it.

Crafting Goals:

* The ever-present Rainbow Snowball quilt.

* Make a wallet and coin purse.

* Continue with basement organizing.

* Make art for office.

* Finish a UFO/Mending project.

Garden Review: 

Everything is still alive! I picked two strawberries and two cherry tomatoes today and they were delicious.

All the food plants have buds or vegetable starts. The herbs are growing well too. I’ve been using them while cooking and have had the basil in Caprese salad about six times this month.

Garden Goals: Keep everything growing! Eat everything!

Recipe Review: 

Hits were the new chocolate chip cookie recipe, the yogurt, a caramelized onion grilled cheese, and a custard based ice cream from Pinterest-recipe to come.

We didn’t have any misses, just a few recipes I need to bump up the spice as usual. This month, I promise to actually measure once in a while to make sure I’m not under spicing the food.

I used 9 new cookbooks this month and made 25 new recipes total. I made up one new recipe, which turned out to be good. I canned 1 savory item, 2 marmalades, and one juice concentrate.

I also bought three new canning books… I couldn’t seem to stop myself at an outlet store. One was a paperback set of two for $.99 and the other I blame on the Husband. He found the Southern Living Small Batch book, which includes seasonal “Putting Up” party ideas. How was I supposed to resist that? 🙂

Meal planning went pretty well and I made at least two new recipes per week. I finally made yogurt and we’re on our third batch of ice cream. I ate good lunches too and planned enough time to figure them out before I had to go.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to find a biscuit recipe for Fancy, although, I was given one by a friend. We just bought her a large bag of chicken treats, but I would still like to find a crunchy biscuit for her.

Our bacon plans had to be put on hold, as I wasn’t able to find the right salt and had to order it online. It also takes a week to cure. Eventually we will have homemade bacon.

Fancy doesn’t seem to mind fireworks, as long as they are small ones. She does not like large booms or screamers and definitely does not like the ones directly across the street. I’m going to take her with me to organize the basement and see if that helps. We’ve got lots of cuddles, treats, and chew toys at the ready too. This is her before the fireworks.

I hope your plans for the 4th are good ones. On Wednesday, I’ll share one of my family traditions for the 4th that cause people to want to be adopted by us.

Have a happy holiday!

 

 

 

Monthly Review
Crafty · Gardening · Monthly Review

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

I’m embarrassed about how much I didn’t get done this month… I had a lot of goals and got some of them done, but not as much as I would like. Knowing I was going to write this post did motivate me to get a few things done right under the wire. In fact, I waited to post until I had posted some flowers on Etsy, so I could cross off one more goal. 🙂

The garden was a big accomplishment too. It wasn’t actually written down as a goal, but should have been. It is going well so far. I have blooms on a few strawberry plants and my zucchini plant got bigger while I was at work yesterday. The Husband is helping me water the plants after he gets home from work, so they are staying nice. Fancy hasn’t shown any interest in digging in the containers, so that’s good.

I did make a few new recipes this week, but not really enough to write a full post, so I thought I would just combine them with the review. This week we had taco salad and mac and cheese with butternut squash and homemade sun-dried tomatoes for old recipes.

Here are the two new recipes I used:

1- Mushroom Pork Loin from the Taste of Home Slow Cooker Cookbook. Section: Pork, Lamb, and Seafood

Modifications: I was only making one pork loin, so I only used one can of cream of mushroom soup and about 2 cups of broth. I used a pre-seasoned Italian pork loin, so didn’t add much additional seasoning. I also added onions and chopped mushrooms to the bottom of the crockpot to make sure it was full enough and for additional flavor. The Husband had it over noodles and said it was good, but a little salty.

2- Asian Cucumber Salad from Food Network Magazine, June 2015, V. 8, N.5. 

Modifications: I think I accidentally got a Fresno pepper instead of a red jalepeno. It was hotter than I expected, but was still delicious. My in-laws enjoyed it as well. We had beef franks with sautéed mushrooms and onions and a side of peaches as well. I will be making this again. 

Food wise, I did alright with my goals. I used 2 new recipes each week, I think, if not more, and we did do some more meal planning. I was a little bit better at taking pictures of new meals, but have to remember to take pictures of the other meals too. Plating needs to be worked on too, since you eat first with your eyes.

I didn’t even start on sorting my recipes, but have been remembering to put the cookbooks away after meal planning. Sometimes it seems like the tables sprout piles of books when I’m not looking.

I used 13 of my old recipes, 7 new cookbooks or recipes, and 4 repeat cookbooks. I think my totals are shrinking. Maybe I need to throw another party to bump them up again. 🙂

Hits for the month were the dog treat recipes, the roasted garlic parmesan mashed potatoes, and the shrimp albondigas soup.

Misses were a pork chop dinner that was too dry, and the rosemary flank steak, which had no flavor.

The Italian Turkey/Chicken meatballs were sort of in the midway point. They were good, but needed extra seasoning. I would still make them again, just bump up the seasoning a lot.

My craft goals didn’t go so well. I did iron the Rainbow Snowball quilt, but still haven’t washed the backing or finished it yet. I also didn’t finish anything from the UFO bin. The basement is still a disaster. The area around my sewing area is slightly less of a disaster, but that’s it.

I just listed 3 of my fabric flowers on Etsy (http://Etsy.com/shop/twinflowerfancies) and finally managed to take pictures of them. I promoted the listing as well, which is something I always forget to do. They are a great hand sewing project, so I plan to make more.

I did finish my inspirational chair pillow for my office and managed to remember to take a picture of the candle jar I made.

The pillow is definitely helping me not sit cross legged all day, which hurts my back, but it does tend to fall on me when I get up.

I did have one vending event which I made a small profit at this month and remembered to take pictures of the table. I used one of the close up pictures for my Etsy cover picture and made sure to get my business cards in it.

I found myself doing things that weren’t on my list instead of focussing on things I had wanted to do, such as making these fabric trays for vending and the ones for my office. I do need some more storage options for my office and it was fun to make them, but it wasn’t exactly what I needed or had planned to do. The small ones work perfectly for pencils and my smaller fidget toys.

Another highlight for the month was getting to take Fancy to the lake. She did so well and she seemed to really enjoy herself. It was a relaxing weekend, for sure.

Food goals for the next month:

*Meal Planning: use more of what we have, spices, pantry foods, etc.-Ongoing

*2-3 new recipes per week.

*Make good lunches. Use my lunches to try vegetarian recipes.

*Sort recipe binder and loose recipes.-Ongoing

*Find a good biscuit recipe for Fancy. We go through biscuits quickly.

Craft goals for the month:

*Finish Rainbow Snowball quilt so it can go to its new home.

*Make a container for Legos at work.

*List at least one new item per week on Etsy.

*Sew one item of clothing.

*Make a new purse. I shredded my current music purse bottom yesterday while running through the kitchen on my way to work.

*Organize the basement.

Garden goals:

*Don’t kill anything!

I’m going to write these goals in my project book too, so I can have another reminder without having to go back to this post. Hopefully remembering how it feels to not achieve many of them will help me stay motivated. Feel free to check in on them throughout the month. I’m sure the extra push will be helpful.

Now I’m off to take a certain puppers for a walk, if I can get her to move out of the sunny spot in the yard. She had a big morning with lots of barking and chasing of the squirrel that lives in the yard. Hopefully your day is as happy as hers!

 

Monthly Review

Happy 2 Month Anniversary!

LSiehLeave a comment

Wow! It’s been two months already. How did that happen? I am feeling particularly cute today because I’m wearing my strawberry dress, which I finished specifically to get a project done for the blog. I thought I should take a minute and review what I’ve gotten done so far. It doesn’t seem like it’s that much when thinking about it, but I suspect I’ve gotten more done than I thought.

Food/cookbook Review: I went back and counted up my cookbooks that I used. 28 new cookbooks were used in the past 2 months! I didn’t completely finish any, but I might be close with Retro Diner. I seem to only have a few more sections of it to use. My most used cookbooks were Food Network Favorites and Better Homes and Gardens, both with 4 recipes. They were all from different sections though. I thought there would be more repeats, but I’ve done pretty good.

I’m getting better about figuring out recipes before I need to start working on them. I’m learning that sometimes it is better to follow the recipe and sometimes I need to go with my gut and make modifications even if it doesn’t call for it. The Husband keeps telling me I should be thinking about going on Masterchef and threatens to have friends bring over random foods for a Chopped style dinner party. I think that the Chopped dinner party might be fun, but am not sure about Masterchef. I still have trouble with planning sides and cooking things at the same time.  The Husband still claims that all I have to do to cook is to wave my arms and food magically appears. He is fairly gracious about eating a little later so I can get everything done, but I suspect it would do me in on a TV show. Plus, Gordon Ramsey might call me a muppet and I might never cook again…

I did find picture of the Wolfgang Puck pizza (Food Network Favorites) that I hadn’t posted and it looks delicious. It was very good and definitely will be added to the pizza night menu. This pizza was one of the favorite meals for the last couple of months. The Curry Chicken Salad (Food Network Favorites), Blackwood Hall Muffins (Nancy Drew), Buttermilk Fried Chicken (Better Homes), and the Stuffed Meatballs (Food Network Favorites) were all favorites.

Recipe misses were Chicken Risotto (A Quilter’s Christmas), and Creamy Mushroom Soup (My Recipe Keeper). I think everything else I would make again, just with modifications.

I still have this week’s Recipe Round up to write, but thought I would do a review first. Those recipes will be  written up tomorrow or Sunday.

Craft Project Review:

So far I have finished one baby quilt and the Rainbow Snowball quilt top, and started another scrap quilt, which I haven’t taken pictures of yet. Here’s the Rainbow Snowball sewn together. Excuse the wrinkles, I have not ironed it yet. I can’t decide on a border fabric, so it probably won’t get one, unlike the original look. It would make it too busy, I think, and I’m not a fan of white borders. It’s going to be quilted with buttons in the diamonds and probably backed with either a fleece or a red flannel. It does have a home, just have to get it done.

I made or completed 5-6 tea wallets for my Etsy store and vending. Some of them just needed a specific thread color to finish the final seam.

I added bias tape to complete the strawberry dress and made a complete dress from scratch in 5 hours for a Dita Von Teese show. The strawberry dress is not the McCall’s pattern that I thought it was. It has princess seams that I had forgotten about. I’m still going through patterns to see what it actually is.

Also, I discovered my dog is afraid of the dress form when it is undressed. Fancy is a terribly vicious pitbull, you know. 🙂

Finished three belly dance hip wraps from the project box. These are all put away in their box, but I did post a few pictures last Wednesday of the black and blue ones. I haven’t gotten pictures of the pink and silver one yet.

Finished two bags, the red and black Record Bag (only in progress pictures so far) and made a dinosaur 6 pocket tote bag.

It’s been a little easier to do more things with food, as we have to eat. Crafting seems to take a backseat, partially due to how ridiculously messy the craft area in the basement has become. It’s pretty cold down there right now, so I have just been down there to find specific things and not working down there. I’m ashamed to say how messy it is, but I really need to focus on getting it into better order. Potentially getting a space heater will help too because then I won’t be taking over the dining room table with all of it. We cut up almost all of our moving boxes and I’m planning on swiping the side flaps to wrap fabric around in hopes that it will help keep things a bit neater and help me to know what I have. I’ll probably post some in progress pictures to help keep my motivation going.

So there it is! Looking back at this list, even though I can see some room for improvement, I’m pretty proud of what I accomplished.

28 new cookbooks used and 15 craft/sewing projects completed in two months. That’s a good use of my time, I think.

Hopefully you’ve had fun following along and will stay tuned for more crafty and cooking adventures.