Tag: sewing

Sewing Confessions
Crafty · Life Posts · Sewing

Sewing Confessions

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I have no one to blame but myself for this spree. I had told Kayla about the magical discount fabric store where everything is $2.99 a yard and we finally managed to go on Friday. It coincided neatly with a pattern sale at Joann’s and the rest is history.

Here are the patterns I bought:

L to R top: Dress with shawl collar, sweetheart neckline with button accents, tunic and cardigan

L to R bottom: Peter Pan collar for my dragon dress (fabric is the featured pic,) Wrap dress that wraps from the back to the side. It looked so interesting, I had to get it. Plus, the Simplicity patterns were all .99.

The good news is that I have plans for the fabrics I got from the discount store and it will hopefully help me get more comfortable with knits. I have an irrational fear of them, but also several different knits waiting for projects already.

Kayla was very excited once we got there. She and I both had projects in mind. I want some more tunics and she wanted some raglan shirts. It was fun to introduce her to the store. They had moved recently into an even bigger place.

The Husband knew I was going and when I came home with black fabric with tiny beach umbrellas on it, he said “Well, of course, you needed that. You can make a sundress with it.” Oddly enough, that’s exactly what it is going to be.

How cute is that?! I tried to resist, but it lured me in. I sort of have a style in mind for it, just have to find the pattern.

This lace for $2.99? I probably should have gotten more of it. I got 3 yards to make an overlay on a dress. I got grey material, which I thought would work underneath, but I think I accidentally got rain poncho fabric, which is fine. I need a rain poncho.

I think this is the back of the lace, but I like the grey part showing.

This is apparently double knit. I have no idea what that means, except that it has another knit on the back. The owner was excited by it while she was cutting it. I’ll have to do some research. It was going to be a casual, kind of slouchy tunic.

Navy polka dot knit. I resisted buying a $42 dollar maxi skirt from a semi-famous fancy clothing company last summer and have been on the hunt for a polka dotted fabric ever since. This will be a $4 maxi skirt, which I’d say is a win.

Tunic! It’s hard to see, but it has little shadows of the colors in it. I like it and it will be a very nice tunic.

This will be a dress like the strawberry dress. It’s actually a deep Kelly green and a deep navy. They are both very vibrant colors, but got washed out when I took the picture. I think it’s a cotton rayon blend. It’s got nice body and drape and is slightly heavier.

We will be going back, I’m sure, but not for me at least, until I get some more projects done. I have probably three or four more knit fabrics downstairs waiting to be made into something useful.

Lest you think I frittered my time away unwisely in a grand shopping spree, I’ll show you the projects I have finished lately.

Christmas Lily zippered Pouch for Etsy/Twinflower Fancies.

Two tea wallets because I had black thread loaded.

These were from a random Halloween batch that didn’t get finished. I have a couple more too, but am waiting to see what I get back from what I had at Hawthorne and Vine. Obviously, I still need to get the threads cut and a button added to the cats.

I self-drafted this curved hem on the tunic. I used a familiar shirt pattern and extended it. The sides are split and turned under. The neck and sleeves are finished with a thick black bias tape. I’ll add a tiny bit more room if I use cotton again. Knits would be fine with the same dimensions. It’s got a cute silver sun or starburst pattern.

Here is an in process shot of the fabric:

I also finished my castle shirt!

This is the fabric I ordered with the dragon fabric. I made the sides flare a little and added some more pleats to the neckline and back. The original line is too wide for me, but I need it that size elsewhere. I gathered the sleeves, so they look a little better. I kept thinking I had put them in upside down, but they just needed to be poufier.

I’ve also been organizing up a storm. We got a nightstand for my side of the bed yesterday and I was able to clear out some of my dresser. I was pretty ruthless with my closet stuff too. I put several things in the giveaway pile. My winter sweaters are now hanging in the closet in a sweater hanger thing. I’ve still got a bunch to do, but at least it’s a start.

Fancy is giving me this look and whining. We are 15 minutes past her bedtime and she is terribly unhappy. I’d better go put her to bed.

Hope you enjoyed seeing all the sewing! I’ve got a pretty good momentum going that I would like to keep up. I’ve got to beat my 67 project record, after all. 🙂

Back to the Sewing Machine!
Sewing

Back to the Sewing Machine!

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Now that the busyness of the holidays is over, I can finally get back to my own sewing goals. Fancy’s picture pretty much shows how I feel after all of it is done.

My fairytale fabrics came in the mail and I have them washed and the patterns that I think I will use have been pulled. I have a few more details on the dress to work out, but the shirt should be pretty straight forward. That’s probably my next project.

While waiting for the fabrics to get washed, I made a simple elastic waisted skirt. I’ve actually talked about this fabric before. It was a birthday fabric purchase, I believe.

It has pockets, but they sit oddly and things fall out when I sit down. I self-drafted, which is really a fancy way of saying I didn’t measure… It’s possibly a little too heavy of a fabric to be in this style, but I think it’s cute. I wore it yesterday with a sweater, leggings and boots.

I also worked on the Rainbow Chevron quilt. I now have all the strips sewn together and it needs to be ironed and trimmed.

As we all know my feelings about ironing, I’m sure you can understand that I have to break that up into smaller bits. Plus, when I finished it, it was bedtime.

It’s draped over a 4 foot folding table, if that gives you an idea of scale. I don’t know how long it is in inches, but each strip is five of the rainbow patterns long. It will have a black border around it, probably about 6 inches to match the strips.

I also made more tea wallets. They’ve been selling on Etsy and I had black thread loaded on the machine and bobbin. These four were from my UFO box, waiting to be finished.

I try to remember to check for tea wallets when I switch thread colors. It’s super annoying to load half a bobbin, just for those.

Speaking of UFOs, while I was thinking about what to sew for clothes, I finished a bag from the box. If I can sew just a few things from the UFO box between big projects, I should be able to hopefully make a dent in it.

The Husband had to remind me that I probably shouldn’t keep all the bags. “Other people need cute bags too,”or so he says. I think he just wants my stash out of the house.

But it’s books! 🙂

Since I had brown thread loaded, I finished up the entire stack of brown tea wallets. I have broken my rule about not making multiple things with the same fabrics with tea wallets. I bought 1/4 yard pieces to make the wallets for Hawthorne and Vine and Etsy. This batch has three fall leaf ones, but they all have different inside fabrics.

I ran out of time before bed to tie and clip the strings. I’ll post another picture of the insides when they are completely done. That’s another step I have to do in batches. It drives me batty if I have to do them all at once. While I was looking for these, I found a stack of spring ones that need strings and buttons too, so I’ll have a tying marathon soon.

Tonight, I may try to cut out my castle blueprint shirt. I managed to catch the fabrics before they got wrinkly in the dryer and can maybe sew it tomorrow.

Fancy is being crazy dog and playing catch with herself and one of her treat dispenser toys. It’s pretty cute. I should probably go give her some more attention. Poor thing thinks she never gets enough.

Have a good night!

Yearly Review- Sewing and Crafting
Crafty · Life Posts · Monthly Review · Sewing

Yearly Review- Sewing and Crafting

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It has been a crazy year! I switched jobs twice, lost my serger pedal, but found it yesterday (!!), made a dress in 5 hours, found a favorite dress pattern, and used up an entire notebook.

I’ve watched multiple seasons of weird British shows (Death in Paradise, Doctor Blake, Great British Baking Show) and some Project Runway. Also, some action shows like The Flash, and Wynona Erp, much to the Husband’s dismay. 🙂

My space is getting organized, slowly but surely.

All my larger scraps are now housed in two containers. I have a shoebox style container full of tiny scraps as well, but they get lost if they are in with the bigger pieces.

Umm.. there’s a slight chance I need to stop saving scraps, or work exclusively in scraps for a bit…

I made about a million tea wallets, which does help with the scrap piles. They’ve also been selling a lot on Etsy all of a sudden. My tea wallets are in a brick and mortar store as well, Hawthorne and Vine, which makes me more confident when trying other avenues in the future.

My Etsy and vending events went decently well. I’ve been better about posting to Twinflower Fancies and am investigating other options for advertising.

One of my favorite clothing makes for the year was my Dita Dress, otherwise known as the “5 hour dress.” I did make some modifications to the pattern,  but got a ton of compliments on it from complete strangers. It’s very exciting to say “Thanks, I made it!”

We discovered that Fancy is not a fan of my dress form unless it is dressed. Silly dog.

I also made two other versions of my strawberry dress, after finally remembering which pattern it was. I like them all, but was so pleased at how the lace worked out on my rose dress. I think it’s my favorite. I wore it in my professional head shot for work too. 🙂

Quilt-wise, my absolute favorite quilt was this rainbow one for a friend’s baby.

I love this quilt. Maybe that’s what I can use my scraps for! I’ll make a version to keep. It does use tiny pieces if I make the 5 inch squares first. Plus, I’m fairly certain I have some extra black squares somewhere.  The Husband is shaking his head at me and suggesting that I should maybe finish the projects I have started for other people first… Silly Husband, deadlines are for other people… (He’s probably right though.)

I also took a huge leap and made the pictures for my office. I was nervous about putting my almost non-existent drawing skills out for display, but was inspired by someone who repeatedly makes me draw things to “help build my confidence in drawing skills.” In the end, I’m glad I ended up choosing the songs and images I did. I’ve had positive responses from people and take pride in embracing my space as my own.

I found a source for my quilts, since they don’t meet Project Linus requirements. My friend has an OT room for kids with emotional disturbances and they will be getting some of them. I have one completed and two tops waiting to be finished.

I used 7 craft books. I added a few more in the process, but have tried to pull patterns or books that I am not using to be donated. I actually was able to connect through the bellydance world with a high school sewing club and they will be getting these items. The box of fabric I had for them is getting bigger and bigger. I’m excited for it to go to kids who are just getting into sewing.

Overall, I completed 67 total projects. This did not include actual numbers of tea wallets. I lost track somewhere in one of the rushes. If you know any tea drinkers, send them my way. I’m sure I can find one for just about anyone.

And what did you learn? 

Things I’ve learned from this year is that I don’t really like working with paper very much, despite having a bunch of scrapbooking stuff.  There is not one paper project on this entire year of blogging. I’ve brought a bunch of it to my office and most of it will probably make its way there.

I need to have a firm hand with the supplies that I keep. I have random craft supplies, Christmas ornament supplies, and beading supplies that I rarely use. Is it really worth having it take up the space, when it could go to someone who would use it?

Organization is my least favorite part, well, along with ironing, of the whole process. Losing my serger pedal is the perfect example of the reasons why I need to get this under control.

Do you know where it was?

It was staring me in the eye from behind a box of elastic and hidden by my thread boxes. The thread boxes that I go to every time I need new thread… that sit next to my sewing area in the basement. That I swear I searched. I’m a bit annoyed with myself to say the least.  My dad is going to say “if it was a snake, it would have bit you” when he reads that.

I may make this picture my background screen on my Ipad if I’m having trouble getting to the organization bit later. Maybe it’ll shame me into actually doing it.

Speaking of actually doing things, here’s my yearly goals.

Yearly goals: 

* Continue blogging both successes and failures.

* Be more involved in the online sewing community for support and growth.

* Continue to develop my Etsy store.

* Learn to take better pictures.

* Learn to use (and not be scared of) the serger. It dishonors my friend’s memory to have it just sit there and not use it.

* Get halfway through my UFO boxes.

* Donate items I am not using/that don’t work for me.

* Be fearless with new projects and techniques.

Whew. That’s a lot of words. Here’s a new cute sleeping dog picture, if you’ve made it this far.

I hope you’ve enjoyed coming along on my journey with me! I know I’ve learned a lot, maybe I have inspired you too!

Here’s to another year of creativity and adventures!

Christmas Sewing, Flamingos, And Tea
Crafty · Life Posts

Christmas Sewing, Flamingos, And Tea

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It’s time, it’s time! I can show off my Christmas sewing! 

My parents and my aunt each got a table runner made from the same fabrics, with different buttons. The buttons are from my Grandma Shirley’s button stash. I shamelessly absconded with them when I moved out. 🙂

Grandma would have approved. She liked things being used. Here are the buttons up close.

The top button was for my parents, and the second one is for my aunt. I accidentally bought a ridiculous amount of fabric by forgetting how much I actually needed at the cutting area. Table runners for everyone!

We’ll have one too for next year. I have some gold buttons set aside.

I also tried to make a skirt for Christmas Eve, but discovered I had a non-separating zipper right after I had attached it.

I cut the zippers, but I need to file down the edges and line it. It was ridiculously staticky when I put it on and stuck to my leggings. I’ve had the fabric for two years at least, all the while intended to be a zippered skirt. I used a self-drafted skirt as a pattern and changed the waistband. It has a wide purple lace on the bottom. I’ll get better pictures when it’s completely done.

To switch gears, my family knows me very well. I received 5 flamingo items and several kitchen gadgets!

Here are the flamingos! Fancy is trying to steal the blanket already, but I’m keeping it!

She has her own flamingos, from my sister-in-law. 🙂

The Husband got me a coffee and spice grinder, a kitchen torch, and 5 fun tea infusers! The book is from my parents for both of us and it looks like a lot of fun to read. It includes recipes based on books that were meaningful for the author.

Here’s more pictures:

The mittens have already been used. I’m going to have a cup of tea before bed tonight and use another one! I’m going  to have lots of tea in my future. The Nessie one is part of the set of Nessie utensils that the Husband also bought. I’d given up hope of getting it because it was always sold out. He remembered though and now I have it.

The green spoon is a colander, the blue is the original ladle, and the baby one is the tea infuser. I’m excited to use them. They’ll certainly make me smile.

Fancy was so excited for her ginormous tennis ball, but ended up mostly just ripping the fuzz off. It looked like the Grinch was murdered in the living room after she was done. She was extremely suspicious that we were going to take it. She could also barely fit it in her mouth, so it was funny to watch her try to carry it.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas! I have to go extricate my snuggly blanket from the dog. She keeps creeping closer and closer on my lap, which happens to be covered with said blanket. 🙂

Stay warm!

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!

New Seasons and New Sewing
Crafty

New Seasons and New Sewing

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I finished the Rainbow Snowball Quilt! Finally! I even had a little of the fleece backing left, which will become a dog coat for the Fanciest pup I know. 😉 I just have to meet up with its new owner and it will be gone. I was desperate to start a new black and rainbow quilt, so I knew I had to finish one of the quilt tops that was waiting.

Here’s the Rainbow Snowball and the backing for it. It’s french seamed essentially, sewn and flipped, and sewn again. No batting because of the fleece backing.

The new rainbow quilt is a Friendship Braid pattern. I had a lot of the pieces cut already, from Maelee’s quilt.  Here is the new quilt:

The colorful pieces are just on one side. This is two pieces how they’ll be when finished. The edges will be trimmed, so they’ll be rectangles.

I have three strips done and a fourth started. It will probably be five strips, potentially six, if I have enough orange and yellow. I run out of those colors all the time! I don’t really use them, but if I’m going to keep making rainbow quilts, I need to get some fat quarters or remnants.

We had fun on our Super Secret Christmas Mission. I took some pretty pictures! It was fun to go on a weekday. It felt like we were playing hooky!

Since our weekend started early with our trip, we continued the fun with a massage on Saturday, a visit from Katy and Fancy’s secret dog friend, Moose, a party with Kayla on Sunday, and a visit to the Lego store. We came home with the next piece of our Christmas Lego village: the Christmas station, a little nutcracker ornament, and the world’s biggest Lego bag. I’m pretty sure I would fit in this sucker. See?!

(I will not be trying to fit myself in the bag, by the way, I just think I could. I think it would confuse Fancy a lot and she would probably try to eat the bag to get me out of it.)

My weekend continued through today unexpectedly.  I didn’t have to go to work at all. My first and last appointments cancelled and I rescheduled my middle one. It was right in the middle of rush hour and would have taken me longer to get there, than the appointment itself. It’s weird transition time right now, since I’m trying to get everyone transferred or referred before I switch to only one center. I will be much happier when my commute is 15 minutes instead of 45.

Because I had this extra time, I was able to work downstairs a bit. The responsible sewist came out today and instead of running out with coupons in my hot little hands for new solid fabrics, I looked in my bins! I want to make some more solid or neutral reading dresses to wear with patterned leggings.

I kept finding cute fabrics that I hadn’t seen in a while. I rediscovered another flamingo flannel piece. It’ll be pjs, of course! I cannot have enough warm jammies ever. I’ve been known to wear flannel pants in June.

Isn’t it cute? It’s waiting to be washed.

I tried to make  dark-colored dress, but didn’t have enough of the fabric. I started a tunic in a very light cotton. As I’m typing, I realized, I should have used a pattern from one of my books! It would have been the perfect fabric for it. Either way, it’s a new pattern, so it still counts for my list.

This is the pattern.

Here are the pattern pieces and the color.

It’s possible I need to branch out color wise… I have a ton of blue clothes fabrics.

Well, Fancy is telling me that it is her bedtime and she would like me to go to bed too. I hope you’re staying warm as fall turns into winter. I’ll be warm again in the spring. 🙂

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!

Bellydance Beginnings
Crafty

Bellydance Beginnings

LSiehLeave a comment

My weekend was full of creativity, dancing, and friends new and old. My heart and head are now full of ideas and new things to try. I thought now would be the time to share some of them, so I can track my progress on them.

I was at Ooky Spooky, which is a Halloween themed bellydance event put on by Boheme Tribal. https://www.bohemetribal.com/

I love this group of dancers, especially Sarah, the owner. She’s so warm and supportive to everyone and introduced me to my favorite dancer, Mardi Love. I promptly gushed and was too embarrassed to say anything else the whole weekend. I was starstruck. They almost had to stick me in a corner with boozy tea so I could calm down.

Normally, I’m too shy to even talk to the headliners, but I was trying to be brave. I kept trying to think of a way to play it off, but there’s not really a way to say “hey, I swear I’m not a creepy stalker fan” without sounding like one. She was very nice about it though and didn’t run away screaming. I may need to work on that…The not gushing part, not the causing people to run away screaming part.

The workshops were fantastic. I was dancing, so I have no pictures and there were no pictures allowed during the show. You’ll have to imagine a room full of sweaty, energized, slightly dizzy from turning, dancers. 🙂

I ended up actually doing the two technique workshops and just watching the choreography ones. My back was not happy with me. I didn’t do enough dance to prep it ahead of time. It felt good to be dancing again. With switching jobs and financial stress, I haven’t been able to go to an actual class for a while. This weekend made me realize that it needs to be a priority again. Dancing at home by myself isn’t as much fun.

So you may be asking “But how did you even start bellydancing?” It’s a valid question. I’m a tiny blonde lady who still gets carded for R rated movies. It’s not exactly something you would think I might like to do.

It started when I was in grad school and noticed that I was gaining a lot of stress weight. I saw a flyer in the Rec Center while walking the track one day and since the classes were free, I decided to try it. Oh my goodness! It was the most fun I had ever had. For once, my belly was supposed to jiggle and it was high energy and graceful at the same time. It also didn’t affect my asthma at all, which most strenuous exercise does. I went home feeling great! Reality kicked in the next day when I could move without at least 3 different painful spots. 🙂 I loved it though and kept going back.

I am lucky enough to live in an area where there are lots of different styles to choose from. There’s tribal fusion, classic Egyptian, and ATS teachers in my area. I tend to stick to tribal fusion, but really like the classical class that’s close too. Explaining all of them is about three more posts though…

Bellydancing also helped me find an outlet for sewing, as I’ve made a few costumes, and of course, all the hip wraps for Etsy.

Here’s a picture of my fanciest costume and what it started out as.

The shirt was a $6 Salvation Army purchase. It is a vintage Neiman Marcus piece, which my Mom attempted to buy to save from being cut up. The top and the skirt appliqués are all hand sewn. I still have a bag full of the beaded parts, which I will use to add some fabric to the sides at some point. It has two slits in the skirt. I performed in it at another Boheme event last spring. 🙂

I’ve also made some other individual costume pieces for dances at Ren Fest.

These were from the same year. I wore black 25 yard pants (hem measures 25 yards if spread out) and a lace sleeved pirate top under the corset vest.

My very first hip scarf! It is red and white stripes on the front. I had different tassels on it, so was showing the reversible side for this picture. I wear it to any vending show where I am not dancing and all the time to class. It’s my favorite!

Dancing has always been a stress relief for me. I danced pretty much from middle school on, even through college. Bellydancing in particular makes me feel like I can take on the world and I don’t have to care what anyone else says. It’s a very embracing and supportive community.

Well, after writing out all that, I think I should go dance! Hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures and learning about my journey.