For A Couple of Dollars

I get so discouraged listening to people complaining about the economy, and all the things they "need" to buy. The cost of living has gone up, but there is so much that you can do to offset it that no one dreams of doing anymore. They don't understand that you can actually make things yourself, and save a ton of money. I had a friend who was once amazed to see me make salad dressing in a jar with oil and vinegar and spices. It never occurred to her that you didn't have to buy it ready made. She converted pretty quickly, and there is no longer any Kraft at her house.

There is a fabric warehouse near us that sells upholstery and drapery fabric at more than reasonable prices. Not only that, the men who work there are very generous when they cut, so you always get more than you ask for--not like Joann's where they cut it right to the 1/4", and sometimes if it is crooked, you get less than you ask (and pay) for. A couple of weeks ago I went to the warehouse, and of course, never come out with only what I go in for. There is always a box of 1-2 yard pieces for half price, and since I love all the colors and patterns, I can see them all as tote bags or pocketbooks, and some always go home with me. If I ever sew all the pieces that I have, we'll be buried in tote bags!

Here are the latest two, made from the same one yard piece--works out to a $1.50 a bag. I thought I would like to have a knitting bag that would hold my latest project with all the things I need, including the extra yarn, and Mother Necessity thought it looked like something she would use also, so she gets the other one. It travelled to Cape Cod last week, and I crocheted a whole baby blanket on the ride there and back. I'm all ready with the yarn for the next project, since there will be a new little girl arriving in December. Nice to have something lovely to work towards...

So Hot!!!

We haven't had a summer like this that I can remember. Usually we have a few, maybe five night that the AC gets turned on, and usually only because the sheets are so damp that I can't stand it any more. This year has been a different animal. We have had the hottest July on record, and the AC has been on every night, and sometimes in the afternoon when I can't stand it anymore. Today I was in the sewing room, but there was a wonderful breeze blowing through, and since I have a door in that room as well as windows, it makes it pleasant (provided there isn't an excess of noise outside. We had a pair of twin boys across the street who had a basket ball hoop, but they grew up and that ended.) And yet, I didn't accomplish much. I became mentally involved with a picture of a suede tote bag from a sewing magazine, and all my brain cells just flew away, in a direction they didn't need to go. But, once I figured it out, I got down to work. By then it was 3pm, or maybe 4pm. Dinner, still being in the freezer needed some looking into, so only a little was accomplished. In this heat, my microwave has become my new best friend, and luckily I have a couple of delicious recipes that set me up with dinner, and leftovers for second night. We have taken to eating later, and it is perfect out on our deck at 7pm. After this, I am planning on my gas grille. Somehow, I can't do an all-inclusive on the grille, so I have neglected it. Time to remedy that, but it won't happen until next week, since we are going to a wedding out at one of the vineyards, and won't be needing anything cooked for a few more days.

A couple of days ago we found our way to the beach with the grandkids, and it was glorious. They even now have an excellent lobster night there, and we get out there for supper on their deck--not as often as we would like, but it is wonderful when we get it together and go. With all this heat, it makes it a great choice for an evening's entertainment, since they have a different band that plays each night too--what more could you want? Maybe all this heat gets those of us without AC out of our houses, and doing things we wouldn't otherwise. However, I do turn it on to sleep--and I feel great when I wake up in the morning!

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!