Sunday Sewing
November 2, 2009 at 8:22 pm | In Sewing | 2 Comments
Yesterday I had a wonderful sewing day. Everyone very kindly let me just keep working on my projects. It helped that I had cut out pieces the previous day for some of them. And with all my working at my own stuff, Paul was still able to paint the front of our garage! Between that, the new driveway, and some new fencing around the garbage can, our outside is looking as nice as we imagined it for the past few years. So what did I sew? Aprons, aprons, aprons!
“The Waverly.” This is a pattern I have made before for my friend Melissa’s birthday. I’ve had fabric set aside for this for some time and I’m pleased with the way it turned out. Sort of frilly and flouncy with the scalloped bottom and plenty of gathers, but also crisp and elegant, with the white binding.
This cherry fabric I purchased at least four years ago and have only just now gotten around to turning into an apron. I loved the cherry border that is printed on this fabric. This border went along both side of yardage. I cut it right in half and then used more of the leftover side to make the waistband and ties. I was very pleased to make the waistband and ties based on the other aprons I had made. I really feel like you can learn some good sewing skills with these projects! Once you get down the construction of main piece + any pockets + waistband + ties, you can really play with embellishments, bindings, and so on.
I am going to use the leftover fabric to make a Tabitha sized apron for her for Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas…I’ll be making at least two Christmas aprons this year. Here’s the first. I used the “Psychedelic Squares” pattern (from A is for Apron) I bought this fabric specifically for aprons for baking Christmas cookies, so I was definitely going for a red/green and fun pattern scheme. I like the ric-rac on the pocket, too.
I have pieces cut out for another one and ideas for a couple more to make as well. When I bought that cherry fabric I also bought some gorgeous bluebird fabric with the intent of making a full apron (covers top as well as bottom), so maybe I’ll try my hand at that as well. But first up, a belated birthday present, another Christmas apron, and another gift apron (or two..). I think one of the reasons I felt motivated to get started on this yesterday is that Halloween is done, it’s officially November, and while not Christmas season yet, it’s almost here and it’s certainly time to think of Thanksgiving and decorations and time to get going on handmade gifts.
Now, I’ve got to start whipping up cocktails and party nuts to go along with my little aprons 
Happy Halloween!
November 1, 2009 at 1:34 am | In Crafty, Family, Sewing, holiday | 3 Comments
This was the most fun Halloween we’ve had in years! At 4 this was the year that Clark not only embraced his costume, but also was thrilled by the trick or treating (last year we did about 5 houses and that was it, though he did love his costume) At 2, having an older sibling, Tabby was also excited by it. She also has a monstrous sweet tooth and was nutty about the candy. And of course, since it’s a Saturday and Paul was actually off of work, the whole day was a fun holiday.
We all painted masks:
Ate loads of cookies that we baked and decorated yesterday:
At nursery school Clark has been gearing up for Halloween big time. Crafts and songs and stories, all culminating in the Halloween parade and party on Thursday.
Bat made with hands:
Mummy:
We don’t decorate too much around the house, except for a string of spider lights.
And of course we’ve had some pumpkins and gourds about for a while now:
And now, the main event: trick or treating.
In our little village Halloween is a huge event. We’ve only lived here 6 years, but my friend who’s grown up here assures me it’s always been a big deal and in recent years has really exploded. It’s somewhat inexplicable, but it’s absolutely delightful and we’re happy to be a part of it. In the village center of 3 streets hundreds of people wander the streets trick or treating. Grown-up dress up just as much as kids (I’m thinking that next year we might; my favorite grown up costumes this year were Paul Stanley and Luke Skywalker with Yoda attached to his back ) and many of the houses have lavish decorations. One of my favorites is this tree with a headless horseman. What’s so awesome about it is that this house was sold 2 years ago and the new owners continued to create this decoration:
This picture is a bit blurry, but I include it so you can see that the tree itself looks like a horse:
Spoooooky:
Here we are ready to walk down to town (note: it was a bit rainy now and then, a very damp walking around.) Clark requested a pink and purple Tyrannosaurus Rex costume and Tabby was a cow (Clark’s costume from 2 years ago, but I made a new hat with more authentic ears) I sewed the main part based on last year’s giraffe costume and Paul masterfully made the headpiece. He really loved wearing it and roaring.
On the way we stopped in at Walter’s (the feed and seed) and he had a wonderful “treat” for us: his pig, Cheyenne, had her babies! They are 3 weeks old and were possibly some of the cutest baby animals I’ve ever seen. They were like puppies. None of my pictures came out very well, so a word picture instead: they are all black, have floppy triangular ears, little round behinds, and little tails with just a slight curl at the end. Their mother is humongous. Seriously large.
On to the houses and the candies. Clark was not at all hesitant about marching right up to the doors all by himself and nicely saying “trick or treat”, “thank you”, “Happy Halloween!”. Tabby couldn’t bring herself to say anything, but was quite happy to help herself to the candy.
Lots of fun, lots of nice town spirit, lots of really good candy.
Happy Halloween!
It’s Her Party and She’ll Cry if She Wants To*
October 19, 2009 at 1:10 am | In Cookery, Crafty, Entertaining, Family, Recipes | 1 Comment
Yesterday we had a birthday party for Tabitha’s 2nd birthday (which is actually still 2 days away.) Last year we had a small brunch, but this year decided to have a few more people, even though we knew that with the iffy weather it was likely everyone would be indoors. They were, but that was fine. In fact, I’d have to say the whole party was a nice big fun raucous success. And cozy, too, because we had a nice fire going. Raucous because there were ten 3-4 year olds running around, not to mention four 1 1/2-2 year olds.
Here was the menu:
Hors d’ouvres: Hummus, Pita and pretzels, Carrot Dip, and pigs in blankets. What is carrot dip, you ask? Only the most delicious dip ever. An old friend of mine used to make this and I swear we could just gobble up a bowl and a bag of pretzels while eating a movie. The recipe is simply 2 carrots in the food processor, then add an 8 oz bar of cream cheese, whiz it around until nice fluffy, add in a dash of garlic powder, a good tablespoon of lemon juice, and 1/2 tsp (or more) of minced dried onion. You can add milk to think it out, but I had some extremely juicy carrots so didn’t add any. It’s a beautiful pale pinky orange color and it is very yummy.
Main food: a ham. Everyone loves a ham. And I had little rolls so you could make little sandwiches. Then I also had macaroni and cheese, sweet spinach salad, oriental salad, deviled eggs, and a green salad. No one touched the plain boring green salad, but they gobbled up the other two. The spinach salad was great-a recipe from Taste of Home and it had an orange poppy seed dressing. The oriental salad was that salad with the broken up ramen noodles in it, shredded cabbage and carrots, and the sweet tangy dressing. (I used a recipe from Cooking Light, but this is a pretty common recipe you could probably find anywhere.) I thought it all went nicely together.
The cake: First, in addition to the cake I made brownies and lemon bars. I tried a new lemon bar recipe-this one had cottage cheese in the filling. They were fantastic. So, on to the cake. This was a decorating thing I saw in a magazine and saved for quite a while. Unfortunately the pictures are not great (we have many wonderful photos of our family, but never great pics from our parties. I guess we are too busy hostessing and I finished the cake so late in the day I didn’t properly photograph it.) Basically it is frosted white and then there is pretzel fencing and little frosted animal crackers grazing on the top (on green coconut grass.) (Also, apparently the lens was slightly smudged. Really this was a cute cake, much cuter than the picture makes it out to be!!!)
Hilariously, it had not occurred to me that the animal crackers would be a huge draw. As soon as the cake came out five little boys started shouting “I WANT ONE OF THOSE!” and reaching out to the flaming cake. Good thing we had extras. The birthday girl enjoyed her cake very much, especially getting to taste frosting and the custard filling at many stages along the way before we actually cut into it.
As for party favors, I made caramel apples and tied them up with red ribbon. They came out beautifully but I will admit that when I went to eat one today it was a huge mess and the caramel was too gooey and I suspect that no one enjoyed theirs at home either. (But hopefully everyone will be too polite to say so.
My favorite part thing was the “Happy Birthday” display pictured at the top. This was in this month’s Parents magazine as a Thanksgiving decoration (spelling out “Give Thanks”.) I gathered sticks, painted them, and then drew and cut out the circles and letters and hot glued them to the sticks. The vases are filled with split peas. I am so taken with this decoration and indeed going to use it for Thanksgiving and spell out a different message.
*In fact, she did not cry at all, but had a very good time. She celebrated her party day by not taking a nap and instead climbing out of her crib for the first time (and somehow lifting her doll’s stroller up into her crib.) Very pleased with herself about that. Here she is all worn out after the party and opening her presents:
Getting Organized and Puppy Pants
October 19, 2009 at 12:45 am | In Sewing | 6 Comments
A little while ago I bought myself a spool organizer and I absolutely love it. I find it very inspiring and soothing to see all my spools and bobbins in almost rainbow order. Not to mention it keeps them better organized. Today we were all very mellow-the weather was cold and dreary and we were tired out after Tabby’s birthday party yesterday. So I undertook a little sewing area reorganization. I sorted through all my trims and bias tapes (apparently I have a zillion packages) and I found a good way to organize/store/take better care of the ribbons and trim. I took part of a cardboard box and wrapped them around it and pinned or taped the end. I also did this with the loose bias tape. Voila! So much better. I’d love to have it out somewhere where I can gaze at it all the time, but I put it neatly in one of the sewing tins. I also sorted out all the elastic, pins, snaps, and needles.
Before I embarked on this organization I had sewn up some flannel pants for Tabby. I had cut the pieces out over a week ago and this was my first chance to sew it together. In the meantime I had already made her a pillowcase and her doll some pants out of the same fabric. Well, now they can all be matchy-matchy because the pants are complete.
And, once I saw all my organized trims and notions I knew the perfect way to finish them off: pink piping along the bottom!
And I have to say, I bought this fabric at Wal-Mart (I know) for $4/yard and it is some of the nicest, softest flannel I have ever felt. Plus the puppies are adorable. So, for $4 pants, doll pants, and pillowcase. Not too bad!
Birds, Pumpkins, and Front Loaders, Oh My!
October 13, 2009 at 5:13 pm | In Chickens, Family, Wildlife | 1 CommentWe had a very nice Columbus Day weekend, with lots of highlights. It began when I went out to collect the eggs a few days ago. I opened the rear door to the nesting boxes and there was a hen standing in one. I noticed that her vent was protruding and I realized she was going to lay her egg soon. I figured it would be like having a baby–seems like it’s going to happen any second, but it really takes a while–but I watched her pulse a few time and I saw the egg actually come out!!! In all my years of being around chickens I never actually saw an egg come out of a bird before. It pretty much looked like you might expect. I’m sure most people will be pleased I don’t have a photo to accompany this section
On Friday morning there was exciting activity across the street from us. We live on a narrow road and directly across from our house there is what we call the “pull out”, because it’s like the road veers off and ends, providing a convenient parking area. Dump trucks started showing up and dumping out giant loads of gravel, big pipes and fire hydrants were placed at the edge, and a front loader was parked. Having a front row seat to this has proven vastly entertaining to both children. And, after they were all done (telling us they’d be back on Monday to start work) we let Clark bring his trucks over and play, climb the mountain of gravel, and sit on the front loader.
Promptly at 7am on Columbus Day they began their work, which is installing city water on our street (due to some fascinating contaminated water years ago from some building settlement. Our well is not affected and we are opting out of the city water.) Apparently we will be getting a fire hydrant in our front yard, too. All day long they dump more gravel and then the front loader brings scoopfuls of it down the road to fill in where they’ve dug up the road for the pipe.
On Sunday we had our annual pumpkin picking out at Norz Hill Farm. We love going there, especially taking the kids’ pictures in front of the “How Tall This Fall?” painted wood sign. We have pictures of Clark for four years in a row in front of it. I’d heard reports of pumpkin crops suffering due to this summer’s weather and it turned out to be quite true. In years past the sight of the fields filled with brilliantly colored pumpkins and gourds was quite breathtaking. This year it felt like there were slim pickings. We did get a couple pumpkins and a few gourds, though, and of course the fun is in the whole outing-the hay ride, the hay maze, the lovely autumn day. It is definitely one of my favorite autumn activities.
Out in the field there arestill pumpkin blossoms for fat bumblebees to stuff themselves into. I was very pleased with this pictures–I basically stuck my camera lens into the blossom.
When we got home we arranged all our pumpkins and things on the front porch with the mums. I noticed my dahlias are still going strong and I think they are such striking flowers. Tabitha beheaded a couple.
While we were sitting on the porch admiring everything we noticed a little sparrow flying in and out of the birdhouse. It’s mate was sitting on the branch next to it and they were very noisy. Could they be building a nest? Or just looking for a nice place to stay? We were just charmed by them. Check out the cute birdie and she peeks out and then launches off.
I will have some more pie, please.
October 8, 2009 at 12:33 am | In Cookery, Gardening | 1 CommentI read my new Family Fun magazine today (November issue-looking online I don’t see that stuff up yet, hence no link for this recipe) and there was a recipe in it for a “Swedish Apple Pie.” Since I have many pounds of apples from Monday’s apple picking excursion I thought I’d give it a try. I was a little alarmed by how much butter there was in it (and omitted almost 2 T), but there is no such thing as too buttery. The thing was delicious. In fact, to quote Clark after his first bite: “This is NOT disgusting, this is DELICIOUS.” And I agree.
Although our main garden looks like a big mess of weeds (which we aren’t ready to clear out yet because there is a valiant brussels sprout plant, pepper plant, and carrots still growing), a very pleasant autumn surprise has been the raspberry bush. For the past week there have been about 2 ripe berries a day. Not enough to save, just to pop in the mouth. Today there were about a dozen and they were all delicious.
What Should Dolly Wear?
October 6, 2009 at 5:25 pm | In Family, Funky Photos, Sewing | 4 CommentsTabitha loves her baby dolls and kisses them loudly, pushes them around in strollers, puts them to bed, wraps them up, feeds them, and is a very good little mother to them (well, she’s kind of rough with them, but she kills them with kindness.) The dolls are usually naked, except for one that she insisted wear a shirt of hers. As you can imagine it was ridiculously large and she was always needing to be adjusted:
So the other day I did some alterations to the 12-18 month sized bodysuit and voila! Baby has a dress and also a fetching little hat. See how happy she is?
Inspired, I decided to make her a dress out of some other fabric. Here she is in her sailor dress and crazy cap:
Check out this vibrantly orange mushroom I found in the woods (there is no color enhancement on this photo):
Yesterday we went apple picking again. This time we got a good variety of Winesap, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, and Ida Red. They were all…delicious.
Apple Canning Party!
October 5, 2009 at 2:12 am | In Cookery | 2 Comments
What a delightful day. Liz and Eleanor joined me for apple canning. We made two different kinds, even! Apple Wedges with Red Hot Cinnamon Syrup and also Apples with Dried Cherries and Golden Raisins. We did have a bit of trouble with our initial batch-three jars leaked and didn’t seal!! The Ball guide assured us to try again with new lids and we did and it seems ok. The thing about canning is it’s quite nerve wracking because you really don’t know how it went until you eat it months later and see how you feel! But based on the look of the jars? Beautiful. And the smell? Delicious? Clark remarked “It smells delicious in here. The smell is just drifting to my nose.” Indeed it was. Cinnamon, red hots, cloves, and hand picked apples. The kids ate some of the extra cooked in syrup apples and they pretty much gobbled them up.
It was so nice to have people to do this with. Instead of being a slightly tedious project, it was fun to have kitchen companions and other hands to help. Plus, with Pookie there we had our very own photographer. You must check out her awesome pictures here. Especially because I’m inadvertently channeling Betty Draper in one of them. I think I look quite fetching! So not as many pictures here as usual because frankly the ladies at IPB did a great job taking pictures and describing the process. Here is their post about today.
Tomorrow I’m going apple picking again, and I think next up is a big batch of applesauce.
Gasp! I just realized that one of my categories is “Cookery”, a term I employ because it’s a library thing- a quirky little subject heading that everyone needs but usually only librarians know. Well guess what? The Library of Congress has announced they are changing it! Modernizing! No longer will it be “cookery”, now it will be “cooking”. But it shall live on as cookery here at Sew Buttons.
I Will Never be a Daily Blogger
October 4, 2009 at 1:29 am | In Cookery, Family, Sewing, Wildlife | 1 CommentI’d like to think that I’d cook something or create something and immediately have a photo and a little write up, but that’s never going to happen. I like watching tv after the kids are in bed far too much to write every night (though I do actually think about it every night). This also explains why I am not finishing (or starting) sewing and other projects as much as I might like to. Which brings me to a a few cooking highlights from the past week:
Last week we went apple picking, which was a true autumn delight. (Oh, first we visited Denise and her new baby and she loved the quilt.) We picked many huge apples of the Macintosh and Macoun variety, as well as a whole bunch of delicious peaches (I was suspicious of such late peaches, but they were juicy and sweet.)
What to do with all these apples? Well, the next day I made an apple pie, of course. And if I amy compliment my own baking I will just say that it was fantastic and I made a delicious crust.
For dinner I tried a new butternut squash soup recipe. This was a squash and white bean soup and the seasonings were unusual (not in and of themselves, just for this soup) and spicy: cumin, cloves, cinnamon. Of course I used one of our squashes. Look what a nice color-they were definitely the success of our 2009 garden.
Tomorrow I have plans to can apple slices in a red hot cinnamon syrup. Can’t wait to see how it turns out!
Here’s a neat spider web pic I forgot to put up last week:
Two nights ago it was 5 o’clock and I didn’t know what I wanted to make for dinner. I feel like 5 is the “time to decide” time because I aim for dinner to be ready at 6/6:15 and if we’re having brown rice or something that needs to bake I figure it needs to go in by 5:20. Anyway, I decided I wanted fish and am pleased to report a pretty fabulous dinner was on the table quite on time. But what was best about it was that I made a dinner that was a childhood favorite. I didn’t have a recipe, but it turned out delicious. In fact, it was better than I remembered. Which either means it was just better than I remembered, or the way I made it was actually better than my mom! Clark called this “Fish Muffins” because the dish gets made in a muffin tin. When I was a kid that was also the appeal to me. So novel! Dinner in a muffin tin! Here’s how I made it:
Sauteed mushrooms and the 2 small shallots I had, as well as a green pepper from the garden. Took two pieces white bread out of the freezer and toasted them and the chopped them up. Took all the frozen shrimp I had (about 5 or 6) out of the freezer, ran them under warm water, chopped them up and added them to the pan. When they were cooked I put the sauteed stuff, the bread crumbs, a drained can of crabmeat, some lemon juice, and Old Bay Seasoning all in a bowl and tossed it around well. Meanwhile, I had been defrosting some frozen tilapia fillets. So, you take a piece of fillet and wrap it in a circle in a muffin tin. I used my giant muffin tin so it didn’t make a solid cup, as it would if you used the smaller muffin tin. Then fill the center with your mixture. Drizzle a little bit of melted butter over the top of each and then bake until done. I think I did 400 degrees for 15 minutes. It came out great!
As for sewing, well the fifth expected baby arrived over a month early this week, so now I have that gift lined up as well as another gift for my cousin’s baby (born the preceding week.) I did not work on those thing today, though, instead I finally got around to making Clark his flannel pants. The fabric is a lovely soft flannel, not of a pattern I would have chosen, but he is in love with it–army green airplanes against a cloudy beige background. It’s a very military looking pattern and he just has not clue at all about camouflage or soldiers or anything like that, he just loves the planes. After the last disastrous pants I made him (I think I sewed them upside down so that the inseam ended up being like 8 inches long) I was kind of worried about these. But they came out great! He put them on immediately and wore them for the rest of the afternoon and to bed. I didn’t get to take a good picture of them close up, but here is playing in them:
So there’s the big catchup. Tomorrow is canning and I know I’ll have great pictures because Eleanor will be our photographer for the event!
Circus Baby Quilt for Michael
September 26, 2009 at 12:10 am | In Sewing | 2 Comments
Today I visited my friend and her new baby, Michael, which meant that last night I finally finished off this quilt. I had made proper bias binding out of one of the fabrics on Sunday, but didn’t get around to putting on until last night. I’m very pleased with how it looks overall. There are definitely some flaws, but it is soft, I think the fabrics are really appealing, I love the backing, and I just think it’s quite cute for a baby blanket. This is pretty much the same style quilt as I made for Tabitha, except hers was made with a charm pack of precut squares. These squares I cut myself and I am frankly surprised and thrilled they came out even!
Congratulations, Denise and Bill!
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