Lazy Weekend Photo Recap

Pretty sky on Thursday night…

Pav Bhaji from Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day!  Served Tuesday and Wednesday night.  Very tasty, although next time I will use a bit more crushed tomatoes so the filling it a bit more “sloppier.”  In case you are wondering, since the recipe title is a bit exotic, the filling of the sandwich contains potato, cauliflower, red onion, red bell pepper, garlic, fresh ginger, tumeric, garam masala, crushed tomatoes, green peas, salt.

Puff Pastry Pot Pie Sandwiches from Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day!  Served Thursday and Friday night.  Instead of making the “no cluck cutlets” I substituted about 7 ounces of extra firm tofu.  It was fun serving the “filling” over puff pastry, but next time I’ll probably just serve it over some from-scratch biscuits or hearty bread.

Early Friday night:  Benjamin (on the right of course) with our neighbor’s Boxer named Lola.  Lola is super cute and quite young and jumps around like a kangaroo!  They did run around for a tiny bit, but since Benjamin is 10 years old, he was a bit more interested in lying around with her

Saturday morning breakfast.  1/2 cup Quaker old-fashioned oats + 1 cup soymilk + a handful of raisins + a pinch of salt.  Bring all to a boil and then simmer for about 5 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed.  Then I added some sliced banana, a sprinkling a cinnamon, and about a tsp or so of ground flaxseed meal.  This was awesome and so filling!!!  I wish I had time to make this each morning before I go to work as this is way better than instant oatmeal.

Sunday morning….forgot to flip the couch cushion up to prevent Benjamin from using this particular couch cushion.  He knows  that if we had woken him up, he would have had to shuffle down to the two cushions he is permitted to lay on, hence the bed sheet draped over two of the other cushions.  Oh well, it really isn’t a big deal.

Yay for Sunday sewing!  Finally my neglected pair of pants (M6568) are getting closer to completion!  Why am I typing?!  I should be sewing!

I never get tired of making these cookies.

Benjamin, in the sunny spot on our back deck, looking quite thoughtful.

And to make Sunday even more lazy, we are having leftovers for dinner.  We often cook meals with 4 – 6 servings and eat the same dinner two nights in a row and then freeze what’s left over, if anything.  This is whole wheat spaghetti with creamed kale and chickpeas from Vegetarian Entrees That Won’t Leave You Hungry.  This is a great cookbook and for this specific recipe, I just substituted soy milk for dairy milk.  This tasted great and was very filling served with a side salad and Italian bread.

Hope y’all were able to have a nice relaxing weekend.  Or, if that’s not your style, I hope you were able to squeeze in tons of fun in every minute of your weekend!

Happy blogiversary

Wow, blogiversary is actually a word, I googled it, so it must be true!  Anyway, 5 years ago today I began blogging!  Wordpress has safely archived every single post of mine (see drop down box on far right).  My blog has definitely evolved over time from books to embroidery to sewing and back to books because I will always be a bookworm, while all the time having all that weirdness sprinkled in for good measure.

When my blog first began it was called “Between the Pages.”  In April 2009, I changed the blog’s name to “Keeping it Weird since Last Wednesday.”  However, now I’m trying to be less weird — hence the change in the name on Jan 1, 2012 to “Trying to be Normal since last Tuesday.”

A few months ago, I became vegetarian and now my creative energies are going into making yummy, flavorful dishes for myself and my hubby.  Hubby is being dragged along for the vegetarian ride but, surprisingly, he doesn’t seem to mind.  (I don’t foresee myself going vegan as I love honey and cheese way too much and am not ready to give those up, but I’m not ruling it out at this point in time.)  I definitely see my blog evolving again and most definitely will be showing pictures of some of my yummy new food creations.  I, of course, will still do book reviews for books I swoon for.  And I’m sure there will be a sprinkling of some embroidery and sewing projects to share.

What about y’all?  How long have y’all been blogging?  Any major changes in what you are talking about and sharing on your blogs since they began?  I know we’ve all come to the point where we get tired of blogging and need a break, but I’m glad I’ve never deleted my blog and it’s here waiting for me for when I’m ready to give it attention again

sewing mojo on vacation

It’s been a long time since I sewed.  I still ♥ the process of prepping to sew and the actual sewing, I just haven’t found the motivation to finish the pants I started weeks and weeks and weeks ago.  After cutting out the pattern and transferring the markings, the only thing I’ve done is finish the raw edges of the pockets!  Admittedly, it’s hard to motivate myself to finish the pants since it will be several weeks, if not longer, before the weather will cool off enough for me to wear them.  But the pants will definitely get finished, I just don’t know when.  I’ve been embroidering and sewing for years and I only have 1 UFO (an unfinished object, specifically an embroidery I plan on turning into a pillow) and I don’t plan to add another one to the pile.  Although I’m definitely not sewing as much as I used to, my other stitchy mojo is still hanging around, and I have been doing much embroidery lately, mostly with vintage patterns.  However, most of my creative energies have been spent in the kitchen as I went vegetarian a few months ago and have been enjoying making new recipes for myself and the hubby.  Anyone else’s creative energies evolving or changing?

Getting-ready-for-hot-weather skirt

New skirt.  Yet another A-line, elastic waistband, self-drafted skirt.  Fabric is from the new Flea Market Fancy release by Denyse Schmidt.  (Photo taken in our bedroom, the skirt is hanging off the inside of the closet door and you can see Benjamin’s dog bed in the distance.)

Tomorrow, I have the day off from work and hope to cut out my pattern pieces for M6568.  Do any of y’all have some weekend sewing planned?

Hopeful for some weekend sewing

I must admit, I suppose I have a thing for elastic waistband pants, they are just so comfy!  As y’all know, I’ve already made 2 pair — S2224 and S2061.  And although S2224 has a much wider leg, I so much more prefer this pair and wear them way more often than my S2061 pair.  So of course when I saw this new McCalls 6568 pattern, I wanted it.  I rarely leave the office at lunch time, but today I made an exception, and was able to pop out to JoAnns and pick up the pattern and fabric too.  The fabric isn’t anything special; it’s the same stretch poplin I used for the other two pairs.  It retails for either $7 or $8 a yard but I had a 50% off coupon so that was awesome!

This weekend I will hopefully be able to make some time to finish up a skirt, and yes, it has an elastic waistband.  I started it either last weekend or the weekend before, and I only have one side seam sewn — with french seams of course!

And in case you haven’t heard, there will be an embroidery contest in the New Embroidery with Vintage Patterns group — with prizes!!!! — most likely in July as I think June will be too soon.

Anyone have any summer sewing plans?

Saturday Sewing

I don’t know why, but I feel so giddy about my new sewing apron.  Perhaps because the fabric was *perfect* for this project and the sewing apron was a relatively easy-peasy, quick, instant gratification kind of project.  Yup, that must be it!  I’ll be wearing my new sewing apron whenever I sew now.  I followed the directions from this  tutorial nearly to a tee, I only deviated when making the pockets:  I have a total of four pockets:  three 5″ wide pockets and then a much skinnier one to hold my water soluable fabric pen.  While my sewing corner is small (and believe me I am most grateful to have dedicated space to sew in our extra bedroom!), it seems I’m always leaving behind something I need behind on my sewing desk or ironing board when I’m in the opposite spot.  Or if I’m rotary cutting in the kitchen  No more will I need to walk the 5 steps (or longer if I’m in the kitchen) to retrieve the item I need since it will be in one of the pockets of my new sewing apron!

Fabric for this project was purchased from http://www.fabricshack.com.  It is from the Make Do Mend collection by Michelle D’Amore for Benartex.  Just do a search for “make do mend” on their website.

Housewarming Gifts

So in the past month or so, my parents sold their house, put in their notice at work, and are now officially retired!  Exciting!   They are moving next week!  Not too far though, just a state over, about 5 or so hours away.  They are very excited to make their vacation home (which they purchased a few years ago) their permanent home now!

My allergies have been kicking my butt lately — I’m actually off my allergy meds because I’m getting skin allergy tested next week so that I can have the option of doing allergy shots — so I wasn’t able to make as much as I would like, I still had a set of coasters I wanted to make.  But I am really pleased with how the three gifts turned out.  I hope my folks enjoy using them in their new kitchen!

Embroidered tea towel + 2 hot pads

Embroidery pattern is from one of the new Stitcher’s Revolution patterns by the Aunt Martha/Colonial Pattern peeps.  It here here.  The toaster fabric is from the Metro Cafe line by Robert Kaufman — still in print, you can do a search for “metro cafe” at Fabric Shack and it will come up.  (Big secret about Fabric Shack:  You can order FQs!  Just put in the special note section at the checkout that you want your 1/4 yards as FQ cuts!  Yay!)  It is backed with some surprisingly good quality red/white check fabric I got at JoAnns.  The flowers and yellow crosshatch fabric are from Cosmo Cricket’s Early Bird fabric line.  It is now OOP.

tea towel, so cute!

stitchy quilting detail…

pretty mitered corner, I did a tiny bit of reinforcement stitches at the corners.  I used Rae’s cheater binding method, scroll down a bit for the tutorial…

Painfully cute

Some painfully cute items made for a very good friend who is having a baby girl later next month!

Cheery and bright bib!  Stripey fabric is Remix by Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman.  I don’t know who made the painfully cute driving animals fabric — I received a FQ of it (from a flickr peep in Australia!) in a swap a while back.  The back of the bib is backed in red/white checked fabric.

Beep beep!

Moo!

A bunny softie – free embroidery pattern here

chain stitches

sweet girlie floral fabric for back of bunny softie, I also made a pacifier clip using this fabric, but alas, I forgot to take a pic!

Keeping it Weird on Wednesday

So what do you do when you want an OOP sewing pattern?  You could be normal, go directly to the manufacturer’s site (or etsy), do a search, and then do a happy dance when you see it is available for purchase.  (However, I’m not normal (although I’m trying!))  So you decide to be cheap, er thrifty, and see if you can swap for it, so you put up an ISO pic in your flickr photostream.  And when that doesn’t work, you do some creative stalking, er searching, on flickr.  A search for Simplicity 3754 brings up two promising results on flickr — specifically pics of actual pattern envelopes.  So you leave comments saying your are ISO of this pattern and (1) would they be interested in swapping/selling and (2) does the pattern have the size 4 in the envelope?  Well even though you think you are being weird, these flickr peeps obviously do not, because both people comment back and one of them has the pattern with the size 4 and will sell it to you for $4 including s/h.  Sometimes being weird pays off — the OOP S3754 pattern arrived yesterday in the mail!

I am not a perfect stitcher

So over on flickr, Steph gave me way more credit than I deserve, she said, “Do you ever do anything that turns out messy or ugly? I doubt it.”  Well thanks for the overwhelmingly generous comment, but that is far from the truth!  I admit I may have had more successes than failures when it comes to sewing, but I’ve definitely had things turn out messy or ugly!  Here’s the proof!

Evidence #1 from October 4, 2009 – Muslin made from now OOP S3835.  This pattern has been quite popular on the Internet.  I cut a size 6, I maybe should have cut a size 8, and ended up with what appears to be a nice muslin, but I had barely any range of movement in my arms, and man oh man, was that shirt hard to take off!  I’m surprised, and most thankful, that I didn’t sprain my neck trying to get out of it!

Evidence #2 from June 2, 2009 – A pair of sleep boxers.  Tried to make them cute and tastefully booty-ish (is that even possible?!), but I made a noob error when folding in the pattern to take in some length, and ended up taking in double than what I wanted.  Hello, unwanted wedgie!  Passed this pair onto my niece.

Evidence #3 from July 8, 2009 – Um, what’s a walking foot?  As a new sewer, I had no idea.  Plus can you believe I sewed through all these layers (I think I put 2 layers of batting and 2 layers of terry cloth inside!) and still somehow managed to turn it right side out and then top stitch around the hot pad?  Guess I hadn’t heard of bias tape yet!  This is most definitely messy & ugly, but it is used more often than our current pretty hot pads since it is thick & insulated really well.

Evidence #4 from May 6, 2010  – At this point, I discovered bias tape (but hadn’t yet begun quilting yet so I didn’t know how to make my own binding and make fancy-pretty mitered corners yet), but the store-bought stuff is tricky to work with.  I hadn’t learned yet that I should pre-wash it (put in a mesh lingerie bag and ironed again afterwards) to help make it easier to work with.  The hot pad is pretty on the front, but it looks like a hot mess on the back.

Evidence #5 – You may point out that I only began sewing in April 2009 and most of those noob mistakes occurred shortly thereafter.  However, I am humbled to point out, that it is never too late to make a noob mistake.  Unfortunately I have no photos to share, but a few months ago I was cutting into some cute *directional* animal pirate fabric and totally cut my hubby’s boxer pattern pieces out wrong so I ended up with one leg having the print upside down   My first total  “wadder” before the sewing machine was even turned on.