April Showers and May Flowers

While April is still proving just how little my plans affect what actually happens, I am beginning to make strides toward reclaiming my life. Ideally, though those steps ought to have resulted in a load of laundry, or dishes, or even taking out the trash (all things I desperately need to do), but tonight I had the energy and the desire to do something fun. So I did.

I've been thinking about April showers. And how they're supposed to bring May flowers.

I'm not holding my breath for flowers - in my garden or unforeseen blessings - so I made my own.

It all started with a few bright charms that I got on clearance at Joann Fabrics, and the idea to try a disappearing nine patch.

Since I started with pre-cut squares, it took only a few minutes to create each nine square. That said, the charms were not as exact as I would have liked. Since I didn't take the time to square them up before I started sewing them together, it didn't take long to end up with slightly skewed squares.

After making the nine patch, I followed the general instructions in my hand-me-down quilting book and cut the nine patch square in half horizontally and vertically, resulting in four new squares from each nine patch. 

I spent a few minutes playing with possible layouts for the squares. This was by far the most time consuming step in the process. Once I had a layout that made me happy, I whipped up a quick mini quilt top.

Of course getting down on the floor with fabric means it's time to play - or take a nap.

If you can, ignore how blurry that picture is. I wanted to show that Momo isn't the only one who ends up on the quilt as I baste or pin. I also liked the contrast between my outfit (black and more black) and the quilt top - even the back side of the quilt top is riotous color!

A couple straight lines, a quick turn, and an edging stitch later and I'm almost finished. 

There are still a few finishing touches and a bit more quilting to go - but I feel like I'm meeting my determination to bringing something beautiful out of this month.

What Day Is It? Where Am I?

I'm still having a hard time believing today is Sunday - after a whole week of what I could have sworn were Fridays...

BUT

I'm eating again. And I'm sleeping again. And if I'm not quite feeling back to normal, I'm at least feeling like I'm going to live - and like I've got the energy to do things again. After spending almost a week doing little more than sleeping and moaning, doing anything at all is huge. I've already managed to do three loads of laundry and clean out the fridge - if that's not a sign I'm on the mend I don't know what is!

Unfortunately, things are still rocky. Life kicked me while I was down last week. Repeatedly.

I can't get into details, but we're waiting to learn the outcomes of several situations - worrisome health issues for some family members, bittersweet opportunities for others, difficult living situations for others. Vacations we had planned turned from booked to canceled overnight. Specific things I look forward to are suddenly gone. It's hard on top of difficult on top of painful on top of sick/no energy/no sleep.

When I'm feeling positive, I can bring myself to say that this is the beginning of a period of challenge and growth. For the most part, I'm not that positive.

I'm going to try to get back into the swing of doing things, but life could change dramatically in moments depending on the outcomes of those situations. So I can't hold myself to anything right now.

Falling Behind

I'm amazed how quickly I can completely fall behind.

I've been doing the bare minimum as I fought a cold the last week or so - but I thought I was keeping up on things like dishes and laundry. Now, after 30 hours of what I'll politely describe only as food poisoning, it seems like every surface in the house is buried under dishes (which seems impossible considering how little we've eaten today). I'm not sure if I'm overwhelmed, or too exhausted to care.

I'll be back - but it'll be after I'm feeling better, and after I'm more caught up around the house.

7 Photo Saturday: 4.8 - 4.14

4.8 "My Sunday"

4.9 "My True Love"

4.10 "My Transportation" 

4.11 "My Space"

My area is usually neater than this. Just not by much. Also, I had no idea how many notes I had scattered around until editing this picture.

4.12 "My Eyes"

4.13 "My Evening"

4.14 "My Family"

I think we used up Momo's family portrait taking patience on our Happy New Years cards and he's yet to recover.

Working...

My first attempt at a plush toy for Baby C. 

It looked more proportional on paper and before I sewed it and turned it. The trunk needs a bit of adjusting (higher on the head, bigger around) and I'm leaning towards making the legs a little longer.

I did stuff this one - even though I knew it wasn't going anywhere.

The stuffing makes it even more obvious that the legs and trunk need some work. The rear leg stuffed alright, but the front one is a little funny - and of course that skinny trunk was nearly impossible!

The ears and tail look pretty good. I had planned to add eyes, but at least with this fabric, I like the eyeless look.

The finishing detail - hand stitching - needs more work too. My attempt at an invisible seam looks more like a battle scar.

It puckered as I approached the curve. I don't know if that was because I was nearing the end of my opening, or if it had to do with the curve. Or lack of experience. Would I be better off moving the seam to a straighter area (like above the ears) or somewhere more hidden (between the legs?).

My last attempt at a plush was a project someone else started and I was supposed to finish. My attempt at invisible seams basically destroyed the fabric - and was a major reason behind cutting the elephant on a bias.

The legless dino

The legless dino

This solution to the invisible seam problem isn't a possibility this time (unless I rework the whole shape of the elephant) and I'd really rather learn to do it right! 







Since I was unhappy with the finish on the dino, she's still hanging out in my office instead of with the new owner I'd intended her for. I really should find a better way to finish her up (including some eyes and a mouth) and find her a better home than my scrap fabric shelf.

Little Steps

After months of ignoring the 'remove 5 subscriptions from Google Reader' on my To Do list, I finally sat down and made some serious progress. In about two hours, I unsubscribed from 36 (and subscribed to 3).

Alright, most of those 36 hadn't updated in more than six months. But I'm still calling it progress.

I love my Reader, and it lets me keep up with a lot of stuff - but it feels like most of the DIY/home styling blogs I follow are on long breaks. The quilters are updating, and the political stuff updates almost too constantly, but I'm missing out on the blogs that got me into blog reading to begin with!

I'll admit, the clean out finally got started because I want to add some more active home styling/DIY blogs. Which might defeat the purpose of cleaning out the subscriptions... but for the moment, I'll celebrate my success on finally deleting some.

Enchilada Chicken Crescents

Inspired by the Easy Chicken Enchilada Crescent Bake from the Pillsbury website, I made my own easier crescent roll ups for dinner last week.

Enchilada Chicken Crescents
8 chicken fingers (shredded chicken would have been better, but this is what I had)
1 can crescent rolls - unrolled, but not separated into triangles
Enchilada sauce
Shredded cheese
Cilantro

Separate the crescent dough into four rectangles. Press the seams together as much as possible
Top with two chicken fingers, two spoon fulls of enchilada sauce (more would have been better), cheese and cilantro.

Roll the rectangles up and place on pan seam side down.

I topped them with cheese and more sauce before baking them. Do not follow my example. It would be better to allow the rolls to bake for 10-13 minutes, then top with sauce if desired and bake 2-5 more minutes. The cheese was probably fine added at the beginning, but do not add sauce on the outside until near the end of baking.

Like I said, I'd want to add more sauce on the inside, and change when I added the sauce to the outside, but these weren't bad. Next time, I'd like to try them with 'real' chicken instead of fingers, and perhaps add onion as well, but it was a fun attempt.

Updated Dress

A few years ago, I wore a green dress to my then-fiance's graduation. It was a little too big, and I spent too much of the day adjusting it to stay comfortable. Eventually, the dress made it to my mending pile, and I started working on tweaking it to make it more wearable. My first two attempts mostly concentrated on shortening the straps from the shoulder seam, and more or less didn't work right.

A few months later, I came across another outfit I'd bought for attending a graduation - a black, grey, and yellow shirt. For whatever reason, I tried the two ex-graduation outfits on together and (though you can't tell from my face) I liked the two together.

Still with the dirty mirror...

Although I could have worn the two layered (as above), I've never had much success with layers. The underlayer always rides up and eventually needs adjusting. So, with the thought that I hadn't worn them in two or more years so if I ruined them I could throw them out without feeling bad, I started merging the two into one.

I started by cutting the sleeves off the shirt and attaching them to the dress. Which I got to do twice, since I accidentally attached the sleeves inside out. Both sleeves. I am now a great deal more familiar with my seam ripper. Once I'd attached the sleeves, I thought the v-neck needed a little more attention - so I cut the bottom off the front of the shirt, flipped it over (so the original hem was at the top) and attached it to the dress lining with a bit of hand sewing.

At least I'm smiling this time!

It's a little hard to see the differences between the before and the after here - I should have asked my husband to take some photos for me. I haven't had a chance to wear it out yet, but I'm looking for a reason. I am attending another graduation coming up in May...

I'd love to wear it with black tights/leggings and my boots, but I don't know how to summer it up. It's a little shorter than what I usually wear, but I don't have enough shirt left to add a floral border at the bottom. Would a black or yellow lace trim be too much? Hmm. I guess I'd better start playing around with accessories.

Paper Towel Free Month

In an effort to a) green my life style and b) be more conscious in my consumption, I planned April to be a paper towel free month. We have a surplus of old towels, dish cloths, and other fabric options we could be using, but it's too easy and too familiar to reach for paper towels for every mess.

I actually ran out of paper towels in the last week of March, and decided against purchasing more. For the most part we've been using the cloth options, but I've also noticed an increase in our use of disposable disinfecting wipes - not at all what I was hoping to accomplish.

With the exception of using more disinfecting wipes, so far we haven't missed paper towels at all. It took my husband more than a week to notice we were out of paper towels - and he's generally both cooking and cleaning crew in the kitchen. The additional cloth usage hasn't been enough to lead to an increase in laundry loads so far.

Of course, we haven't dealt with much raw meat or any cat messes, my two biggest paper towel using messes. Personally, I'm hoping we don't run into either of those issues. Ever again.

So far, I'm very happy with how this is going. I'm hoping the month trial will be a success and we'll keep it up - although I think I might keep a single roll on hand for dealing with anything really messy (see above).

We'll see how I'm feeling in a few more weeks!

7 Photo Saturday 4.1 - 4.7

4.1 "My home"

4.2 "My handwriting"

4.3 "My smile"

4.4 "My reflection"

Please ignore my filthy mirror. We keep the sink full of water for the cat to drink play in, and he is constantly putting drops on the mirror. Can you tell we have hard water?

4.5 "My favorite shoes" 

They aren't my favorites for looks, but these are the ones I've been wearing the most recently.

4.6 "My morning"

More broken off snaps from the duvet.

4.7 "My town"

Duvet: Project or Postpone?

Our duvet has been falling apart for a few months now. It started when the plastic snaps that seal the opening started falling off - something I learned of when I stepped on some of the broken pieces left at the end of the bed. It seems the combination of our small foot board and the plastic snaps has not been good for either one. (This is my first duvet - do the snaps go on a side?)

I recently became aware of some more serious wear and tear.

A rip.

There's damage on either side of the rip as well  - to the right, several missing snaps in a row, to the left, a seriously cat scratched area.

We chose this duvet with the idea that we would rather the cat damage this than the beautiful quilt set we chose without thinking about our clawed friend, so the damage isn't terribly upsetting. But now I'm torn as to what to do.

I could probably whip up a simple replacement - likely replacing the cream color side with a flat sheet (the grey side is undamaged) and attempting an envelope or tied closure instead of the snaps. I could also put the comforter in storage and leave one of our many twin size comforters in its place - at least until the weather starts getting colder again.

Any thoughts?

Thread Shelf

A few weeks after I hung the perfume shelf the first time, I acquired an interesting thread shelf and some old thread. I've been dying to get it up on the wall - but that's not quite as easy as it should be.

While I'd love to hang this near my sewing machine, the room isn't arranged for that. This room holds four book cases, two computer desks, my sewing machine and it's desk, a cat tower, a dresser, a large shelf of fabric, the cat's desk as well as three chairs, two lamps, and a few other assorted pieces. Yes, a desk for the cat. He sleeps on it, and it keeps him off the computers or sewing machine (most of the time), so I'm hesitant to remove it. Yes, the cat is pretty much in charge around here.

Here's a very simple sketch of our office space:

Obviously, it isn't the best layout for use - although the cat has a pretty good layout. I've spent more than a year trying to rearrange the room to serve all these needs better, but so far, no luck. So there's no wall space directly near the sewing machine. The nearest space is the wall over the top of the cat's desk:

A quick rearrange of the photos gave me this:

The top most picture does seem a little too high, but I'm holding off on lowering it until I've decided if I'll be putting anything on the top shelf or not. I thought it might be inconvenient to have my most used threads on the shelf (rather than thrown in one of my sewing desk drawers), but the step or two from sewing machine to shelf is certainly easier than digging through a messy and tangled drawer. It's also been fun to see a constant reminder of projects I've finished or that I'm supposed to be working on.

Pinterest Challenge: Parmesan Chicken Crescents

From looking at my pinterest food board, or my menu plans, you would never guess that I hardly ate crescent rolls for the last five years. Now that I know chicken fingers (something else I used to avoid) can so easily be wrapped in crescents - it seems two 'wrongs' make a right!

Although the Buffalo Chicken version is still my favorite, last night I changed things up and went with something much more my husband's style: Plain Chicken's Parmesan Chicken Crescents.

Chicken fingers, dipped in spaghetti sauce:

Then rolled up and ready to bake:

After letting them cook for about 15 minutes, I topped them with a bit more mozzarella and a sprinkling of Parmesan:

And about five minutes later, called them done:

For me, these were just enough sauce and spice - but my husband dipped his in about a cup of additional sauce.

Next time, I'll try for thinner slices of cheese on top - the cheese didn't quite melt as much as I wanted it to. I'll also try mixing the Parmesan in with the sauce rather than sprinkling it on top - but yes, of course, we'll be doing this again.

Cross Stitch Frame Up

I finally found some frames that fit my cross stitch portraits. I wish I'd thought about the standard frame sizes before I made them! Finding something no smaller than 3x3 and no bigger than 5x5 took a lot of effort. Someday when our family is bigger (whether that's another cat, a dog, or a child) I'll center the stitching with more thought so I can use a larger, more easily found, frame.

Since the frames turned out a little larger than I had intended, I added the corresponding years over the tops of our heads. It was tempting to add something more decorative to fill the extra space, but I think the simplicity works.

It would have been ideal to rearrange the portrait wall to the left of the piano to accommodate the new portraits. I spent an hour working on different arrangements before giving up (for now). Instead I turned to the blank spot between the painting and the hutch.

There's enough room there for the collection to grow, especially if I keep them at the same size for a while - I know, I know, I'd better go grab some more of those frames if I'm going to do that! It's not the perfect home for them, but it'll do for now - and it's nice to have them up on the walls instead of buried under fabric scraps on my desk.

April Goals

• Read 5+ books
• Pinterest Challenge
• Delete 5 Google Reader subscriptions
• Paper towel free month
• Photo a day challenge
• Clutter control: office
• List White car for sale
• Welcome Baby C Package
• start on winter weight quilt?
• fasteners for the bibs
• burp cloths/cloth wipes
• hooded towel
• pick books 
• DIY swiffer style floor wipe
• Make a Crayon roll
• Hang Thread Shelf
• Shelf or mantle over love seat
• Sew an article of clothing
• Cut Pansy Patch pieces
• Trip
• Take donations to Goodwill
• Go for a bike ride once a week
• Save $50 toward summer trips
• Try a new restaurant

Looking at it now, it doesn't seem like too much - but I'm a little worried I won't be able to accomplish most of them. My work schedule is looking a little underbooked at the moment; less work does mean more time to do things, but it also means less money to do things. I'm holding my breath to see if I'll be able to justify buying the books I pick for Baby C this month, or if I'll do a lot of window shopping and library visiting instead! 

    

March Wrap Up

• Read 5+ books, 1+ non-fiction
• “Chime” Franny Billingsley
• “Mistresses: A History of the Other Woman” Elizabeth Abbott (non fiction)
• “Crossed” Ally Condie
• “Cinder” Marissa Meyer
• “The Agency: A Spy In the House” Y.S. Lee
• "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" JK Rowling

• Pinterest Challenge
• Giant Star Quilt: inspiration and my attempt so far, I hope to have pictures of it completely quilted and washed by Sunday or Monday 
• Roast Beef Crescents: inspiration  and my attempt 
• 5 Layer Greek Dip: inspiration  How did I not get a single photo of this? We've made it three times this month. Apparently it's too delicious for cameras. 
• Buffalo Mac & Cheese: inspiration  
• Death by Oreo Cupcakes: inspiration  and  my attempt 
• Sweet Potato Gnocchi: inspiration and my attempt 
• Bias Tape: inspiration
• Delete 5 Google Reader subscriptions - Failed again, added five, again. 
• Bind stacked coin quilt
• Prepare for "paper towel free month"  I actually started paper towel free about a week ago - not because I was ready, but because I ran out of paper towels and didn't want to buy more! 
• Revisit perfume storage/shelf
• Frames for cross stitch portraits
• Sew 3 towel back bibs  
• Clutter control: bathrooms
• Order title for car
• Costume delivery - nope, these are still in my living room. 
• Photo a Day Challenge - Well, kind of. I took 31 photos (one for every day), but not one a day
• Start on Welcome Package for Baby C

Project Report

·         Wonky Stacked Coin Quilt – awaiting washing

·         Pansy Patch Quilt - no sewing progress, though I did get some help with constructing the squares