Hi Hattie!

Meet Hattie. Actually Hattie2. She is on her way to Haiti as part of a doll club project. About a year ago, I had picked up an intriguing little doll at a craft show, and wanted to experiment with it a bit. I had started to draw up a pattern, but it had sat for months, and now seemed like a good time to work on it. I came up with a working pattern, and transferred it to cardboard, and cut out two dolls. As it went, I only finished one in time for the club meeting last weekend when the dolls were to be turned in. The dolls aren't being sent off for a while yet, and since it has been so impossibly hot and humid here, the prospect of a day in the sewing room with the air conditioning on seemed like the perfect choice, and I could finish up H2 and get her where she needs to go.

Ha! Turns out she is Hateful Hattie--or at least that is how I came to think of her. Right from the beginning, every seam I sewed wrinkled, or buckled or went off the lines. They tell you to use small stitches when working on little pieces, but what a torture when you have to pick them out to do them over again. And, I was messing the seams up two and three times in a row! What was truly annoying was that this was the second doll. Most every time I do something I feel as though I am reinventing the wheel, because I like to design my own stuff, so I expect to make mistakes. But this was a do-over! What was wrong with me? The grand concluding insult to injury big finish was when I finally turned the thing right-side-out and her feet were facing the wrong direction. OY!

So--she's finished. Literally took me all day. At least she came out the way she was supposed to...and it was cool in the sewing room...

Making It Work

I am not fond of knitting. I love the things that you can make, and all the beautiful yarns in fabulous colors tempt me, but I tried it some more, and I just don't enjoy the process. I crocheted a blanket for a baby gift, and realized how much I like to crochet. You can pick it up and put it down, shove it into your purse, and if it comes apart, you just collect the last loop and go on with what you were doing. Once you get the pattern down you don't have to keep watching what you are doing, and I can finish a project in a reasonable amount of time, instead of months the way the knitting seems to go.

I have had my eye on the ball winders that they sell. Since I do much more work with fabric than I do with yarn, I have been reluctant to purchase one. But, after dealing with three messy pull skeins, I went on the internet to see if I could turn up something at a reasonable (read "cheap") price. For some reason, none of the craft stores that offer those nice discount coupons carry them in the store, and of course, if you buy it online, you get hit up for the postage. So, ebay always seems to be my place of refuge. Usually you can turn something up used with low postage fees--or sometimes free shipping! So, one comes up that's a little different than the kind I have tried before, nobody else seems to bid on it, and I win the auction, and it arrives in a box pdq.

It arrives minus the clamp that would hold it to a table surface. And, it doesn't work very well. Maybe the bidders know more than I do. But, the price was right, and like anything you are using for the first time, maybe there's a trick to it. I find a metal tablecloth holder for our picnic table that has the right size to fit into the slot on the ball winder's back, and attach it to my kitchen table. I give it my best shot, making three very messy "balls" of yarn, not happy with the results. Last chance, you machine--after all, I have about $10 sunk into this venture...I turn it on it's side so that gravity will keep the yarn from slipping off the spindle, wrap it around my toe for the extra tension that the yarn needs to keep from snapping back, and give it one last try. It works pretty well--finally! If MT will make me an L-shaped pair of boards to attach it to, with maybe a screw eye or two for the tension, I think I've got myself a ball winder.

Well, It Looked Great...

About that tart...No way did it want to come out of the pan. It was stuck on there like suction cups, and that crust didn't want to budge. I didn't use any baking spray on the tart mold, and possibly overworked the dough. I've never had that much trouble with pastry sticking before, but now that I think about it, it didn't have that much butter in the crust. Oh well! Next time. There's always a next time...

How Nice When Something Goes Right For A Change!

I offered to bring dessert to a gathering this weekend, and I pulled out several recipes that I thought would be good, and selected "Almond Plum Tart". Since our presence wasn't required until 4pm, I figured I had time after church to put this thing together and get it into the oven and chilled on the day of. Pastry always tastes better on the day it is baked.

As I was working on the ingredients, I had a vision of the last time I had made this tart. We were in Indiana for New Year's, and I was cooking dinner while our hosts were at work, and I was alone in the house. I pureed the plums in their blender, which diabolically unscrewed itself from its base, and bright red plum went all over their white tile floor, and right up their lovely yellow painted walls, looking just like the blood spatter patterns that they are always analysing on CSI. Of course, the lady of the house chose that moment to call home just to "see how I was doing..." Luckily, it all washed off the walls, and the tile floor suffered no stains. Agita!

Today was much better, it all went together without any hitches, and I even prettied it up a bit with the spider webbing design on the top. At first I thought I had chosen too shallow a pan, and that all the filling might not fit, but it went nicely and didn't overflow when it baked. I also thought that the pattern might obliterate itself in the oven, but when it finished it looked good enough to hand to the judges on a reality cooking challenge show. The people who will eat it won't be nearly so hard on me though, and we are going to enjoy eating it as much as I enjoyed making it!

Where Ya' Been?

I know, I know--haven't posted anything in a long time. So I'm guilted into writing this, even though I don't have much to say. Maybe it's our lovely warm weather--and note that today is cooler, so maybe my brain cells have started working again. Last week at WW I stepped up to the counter for the weigh-in, and the person asked me what I did on the weekend, and my mind was totally blank. I'm thinking, portents of things to come...

So--where have I been? Where haven't I been? We did two big trips--one to Hawaii, and then a cruise to Bermuda. Hawaii was amazing--landscapes that we have never before experienced (acres and acres of black lava fields), and much beauty (jungles with huge plants). Bermuda was lovely (all that gorgeous green water) with old buildings and lots of history. In Hawaii we stayed in a condo, so had a very laid back week, eating out when we wanted, cooking in a time or two, or just having munchies and happy hour for the evening. We had a view of the sunset from our supersized lanai, and we were on the third floor and could watch the birds fly by.





The ship docked in Bermuda for three full days, so we had time to experiment with the public transportation, and were able to travel the entire island on their equivalent of a MetroCard. We picked up lunch one day when we were too far from the ship, but the other days caught our meals at the buffet for lunch and dinners in the dining room. I guess we didn't leave a lot of dollars behind aside from our sight seeing. Sailing out of New York was a wonderful experience that I certainly would repeat. Of course, you have to choose your season carefully--too early and it is cold, too late and you are in hurricane season. We met some folks who had come on a different ship that had left a couple of days behind us, and they hit storms in the Atlantic and were sick. I would have been very unhappy with that...We were so lucky, with a smooth sail in both directions.


I've said before that my brain checks out on vacation, and stays awol for days after we come back. I still seem to be stuck in puttering mode, spending time doing crosswords and reading bubble gum books. Our schedule is due to change to summer mode--I'll be playing in various churches on Sunday mornings, and my exercise classes will end due to excess heat in our facilities. I don't want anyone collapsing while we're there.

We won't be travelling so much this summer, but maybe we can get together with the grandchildren at the beach or the park after school ends. That would be nice. We don't see them as much since they all started school. It seems like the calendar has nothing on it, but then I start to tally up where we have to be, and looka-dat--there's plenty on there already, starting this weekend with a trip to Albany for a fine wedding. Plus, we get to catch up with our faraway relatives that we love, but don't see very often. Okay--sign off here, and pack up that suitcase once again!

Party Day

The sun is shining brightly, even though the weather men were threatening us with rain. It will happen tomorrow instead. Tonight is the party for Jon and Sue, and it should be a ton of fun. Family is coming in from all over--again!

We all decided a few years back that we would travel to the happy occasions instead of waiting until the funerals. It has worked out very well, and we have visited in several places that we never would have seen otherwise. But, we are running out of children to marry off. This is our last contribution to this arrangement--our baby. (And oddly, she is marrying someone else's baby...Has anyone done a study on this? Oldest marrying oldest, youngest marrying youngest?)

We will have to start planning destination reunions or something else to get us together. Why not? We enjoy each other's company, and a vacation is a perfect way to spend some time doing fun things. Maybe the dart in the map thing--gets you someplace different. Now we need to get them all to retire, so that they have free time to come and play!

Didya' Miss Me?

I've been away. And come back and gone away--well, it's what you do when you are retired, and have enough sense to go and do it as long as the money holds out, and your legs...


We went to Hawaii for a week, with Garden Fairy and her spouse, since it was the occasion of their 40th anniversary, and they invited us to go along. Well, what the heck! It's a long ride, but you end up in Hawaii....We went to the "Big Island", and did the volcano park tour--that was an eye-opener! And, considering what is going on this week in Iceland, fascinating! The Island is half black lava fields, and incredible to look at and drive through. No describing it. You have to go there and see it--beautiful in its own way, and so different. I could never stay there for long, just because of it being so far from anything else, in the middle of the Pacific. Less ominous than the volcano and its lava fields were the signs at the edges of the island that read "Tsunami Evacuation Area", accompanied by the tall poles each attached to six or eight warning sirens. We stayed in someone's lovely two br/two bath condo, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We generally ate lunch out while sightseeing, and had dinner in on our beautiful two-sided lanai.

We got back in time to have the fam in for the annual egg-hunt and Easter dinner, which turned out nicely, partly due to the lovely weather, and all the flowering things in bloom. After that was the wedding--very pretty, and meaningful. And then I headed to Florida by myself for a few days of outlet hopping with the fine ladies of my family, some of whom I only see only on such occasions. These things have to be scheduled in at least once a year--they talk about male bonding--well, this is our female bonding. MyTreasure makes fun of it, but he has his days when he and his friend go off to the ranges to spend their dollars shooting off boxes of "ammo". I at least come home with something I can wear...





Well, the good news is that the shopping marathons balanced out the wine drinking on the lanai, and I lost a pound at Weight Watchers this week. WoHoo! Salad season is here, so maybe I can undo the damage that I did in February and March, and find my way back into my summer skirts by the time I need them. One more little hurdle--the wedding reception this weekend. But--it's only one day, right? And, we are so looking forward to seeing everyone. After all, this is our last wedding! Everyone is married, and how nice is that! Congrats, Sue and Jon!