Shopping When I'm Hungry

They tell you that all the time--don't shop when you're hungry. At least I don't buy a lot of junk food, but I do tend to dig something out of the bag as soon as it hits the kitchen counter, and stuff it into my mouth.

We have had three days of rain--and these have been the ONLY ones all summer. We have been suffering with 90*+ for weeks on end, and I have been loath to turn on the stove, for any reason. I'm pretty creative when it comes to putting things together from leftovers, so we have not been deprived of nice dinners, and we have eaten out on our deck every night for at least the last six weeks. But the last few day's readings have barely crawled up to 70*, so I thought it would be a good time to make something that would take a while to cook, and picked out baby carrots, and mushrooms, and the most beautiful bag of potatoes from Massachusetts, of all places, along with an assortment of veggies that will get us through the rest of the week.

I need to use up the frozen meat in our freezer, so I have been resisting the sale fliers, and pulling lumps off the freezer shelves in the basement. I ended up with a package of chicken legs, and turned out a batch of chicken stew, with three containers that will return to the freezer for future lazy days. "Chicken stew with baby carrots, mushrooms and new potatoes in white wine and tarragon sauce." See--I could write those fancy menus. Come by for dinner--I'll defrost for you!

Edward Gorey Would Like These

I took myself to the produce market yesterday, since we were out of fresh veggies, and they always have an assortment of cut flowers, usually at reasonable prices. Since I enjoy having a vaseful on my breakfast room table, and since I am a terrible gardener and there is usually nothing out in the garden to bring in, I will treat myself to something pretty. They had cala lillies yesterday, white, and these, which I think in flower terms would probably be called black. Very unusual, I thought, and they were very fresh. I put them in my basket with all my veggies, and when I got home, I did my little arrangement, and there they are, sitting on the table.

I confess, they are starting to creep me out. They look like they are waiting for something to crawl into their centers and fall down into the waiting pool of poisonous...

...maybe I should have bought the white ones...

Lime Blanket Baby Born

I did a second baby blanket using Bernat Softee, since the first one went so well. They had the greatest colors--the usual assortment of baby pastels, but also some gorgeous darker colors not usually used for infant yarn. The first blanket was for a boy, and I used turquoise. It was so pretty. That went as a shower gift, but that little boy is still waiting to be born. There was another baby on the way, so I chose the lime green, since it is still summer, and I thought this baby was also a boy. Turns out they waited for the birth to find out what it would be, and she was born last night. I confess, all this technology is pretty great--they had pictures on the internet from the hospital room, everyone looking happy, baby looking sweet--wondering what just happened here. Must be very confusing...

We did a lot of driving last week--first upstate to the old ancestral home for a school reunion, then on to Cape Cod for most of a very pleasant (and cooler) week of pretty scenes, beach and fun. Cape Cod never disappoints, even after all these years. I wonder how it retains its salty character, in spite of all the nasty development that goes on everywhere else. The bonus was crochet time in the car, and I got the blanket finished--ran out of yarn for the last round of lace on the edge, but that was remedied when we got home. Last night the beautiful baby came into this world, and luckily, lime green will go fabulously well with her little pink outfits. Glad I didn't go for the yellow!

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.