CarpeAcum

I spent most of the day yesterday getting my studio back into usable shape. I now have half a room's worth of fabric, projects, and discarded thought processes lying about the rest of the house. Somehow, I have to figure out what to do with all of it today. Some of it needs to go to Goodwill. Some of it needs to go in the trash. And a few things may make it into the garage so I can drag them out again later and actually finish them. I meant to take before pictures, but that's always an embarrassing prospect. I'll get some after pictures today, though.

It's all part of my summer cleanup project. I spent my summer making my house livable so I can spend less time worrying about it during the school year. My hope is that if the studio is immediately usable, I'll go in there after school some evenings. That remains to be seen. Most nights, I'm so completely wiped out after school that the thought of doing *anything* is repugnant. I have to get over that, though. One must live one's life, not just work.

I was taken aback when I started packing for this year’s summer camp. I found several bags of stuff that hadn’t even gotten unpacked last year. In my defense, I started school literally the day I got back from camp, and it was a wild time. I had a week of new teacher stuff, then started in with classes, and I was teaching a 1.2 contract. By the time I got my life squared away and had a planning period again, my mom was taking up pretty much all of my spare time. No sewing for me! Also, no breathing or other relaxing activities.

Hence, my renewed resolution to get the studio up and ready for work! Right now, I have a pile of fabric in the washer. I have to decide what happens to it after it is clean, but that’s the next step.

I just went and took the after photos. They won’t be getting posted. I’m glad I have them for me, though. In my head, the room looks much better. In the pictures, it looks not so great; I’ll just keep them to myself.

So that project is coming along, if not finished. I have several more things to complete before school starts, and we have meetings starting on Thursday. Oops. Lots to do!

Happy 2013!

We had a great New Year's Eve with family in our own home! My brother and SIL have a torn-up kitchen, so we got to spend Christmas and New Year's Eve (and Thanksgiving) right here at my house. It was pretty great. We usually spend time at their house because it's bigger and easier to spread out in. I enjoyed entertaining in my own house. All the cooking seemed so much easier, even though I had to do dishes, too. Maybe I'll get to host another holiday, now that they have discovered that we don't live at the end of the world--it's just a couple blocks. To their house, not the end of the world.

One of the hardest things to me about blogging is writing about what I'm thinking and doing, and not what I'm planning to do. I see other blogs with pictures and beautifully written instructions about crafts or food, but I don't think that's my kind of blog. I just want to blog about what is going on, and have a long-term diary to refer to. I find that if I write about what I'm planning, I just get depressed when I discover that it didn't happen.

However, this is the first of the year, and in the spirit of resolutions, I'll share that I intend to blog more this year. Just enough to keep up with myself, and justify the $$ I spend on typepad every month :-/

I have several other resolutions that I will track on my own, and I may decide to share them later. Maybe not :-)

I have decided that I need to invest myself more fully in my piano lesson business. It is something I enjoy, that I am good at, and that pays very well. So I need to do some advertising and get some more students! I have been trying to keep a couple days a week open to shuttle Punkin from one thing to another, but things have moved around this year, and I only need one afternoon to pick her up. Next year, she'll be driving herself. Ack! That will leave me even more time to teach lessons.

This year, however, has gotten off to a slow start. I didn't get letters sent out when I thought I would, so then I figured I would make phone calls. Then I got sick for a week, and before you know it, it's October. I have 3 sisters starting on Monday, a couple of scattered lessons, and a couple siblings who won't start until swimming/volleyball/football season is done.

All of this leaves me with a bit of extra time. I've been trying to complete some icky tasks that need to be done and need a chunk of time. Today's task was clearing the car spot in the garage. Somehow things fall out of our car onto the garage floor between the car and the shelves. Then they just sit there until I'm completely fed up and also have a 2-hour span of time to go into the garage and do the minimum required to get the car into the garage and open the doors without scratching them. That was today. Lots of piles of undecided stuff. Also, lots of piles of Girl Scout stuff that I need to go through and distribute in one way or another: some will go to other troops; some will go to troop members; some will just go away (cream of mushroom soup from 2007--I'm looking at you!).

Earlier in the summer, I spent a day in the garage moving all the Christmas stuff into the dark room (for some reason, the first owners of the house decided to give up a nice-sized laundry room and sane entry way for a dark room. That probably wasn't a bad decision in 1978 [my dad had an darkroom set up then, too], but in the age of digital photos, I would SO much rather have a big laundry room and the water heater outside the house [end rant]). Well, first I moved my stash out of the darkroom where The Beard had hidden it, THEN I moved the Christmas stuff into the darkroom and went through every box of stash and culled and organized it. That was a day's worth. The culls still need to go to Goodwill, but maybe later this week while I have a car.

Next week is sewing reTreat (yay!), so I need to get through some of my stuff so I can plan projects and pack for that.

Today, I can't wait to hear The Beard notice how great the garage looks. :-)

So I'm back from another week at Girl Scout camp. I've been back for a week, and I'm still kind of adjusting to being home. Not the sleep part--that part I picked up right away --g--. No, it's more how being away from home affects my entire system. I worked in the kitchen again this year, but I ate really carefully this time. It helps to have the insider info and know exactly what's going into the food. I avoided a couple of meals altogether. And every time I started to get the least bit of a suggestion that things weren't going well, I'd take special care (I brought Triscuits and cheese, and instant breakfast). It meant that by the end of the week, I actually had some energy left. I slept through most of the last 4 nights or so--one night we went to bed at 9:30! Unheard of!

The weather was, as usual, yucky. We had one beautiful day during the week--maybe 72 degrees. The rest were in the 60s and overcast if not drizzling. One night, I listened to the rain on my yurt, but it never *really* rained during the day.

Kay and I got to go canoeing on Tuesday. It was windy, but a nice break from the kitchen. We wandered around the lake for a while. It turns out that paddling a canoe is exactly the right counter stretch for hunching over the kitchen counter. It made my back feel so much better! I dragged Belle out in a canoe on Friday. It cracked me up that several people asked where we canoed. It's a lake, people! We went up the lake, and then came back. There really aren't that many choices.

In a fit of unending optimism, I took my knitting with me. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Never looked at it once. I only read my book for the 5 minutes I could keep my eyes open at night. And that one night when I couldn't sleep after my 2 am jaunt to the biffy.

I'm recording this for posterity, because I want to remember what worked for me at camp, and how long it took me to get back to normal afterwards--normal being a relative term, of course.

I have more to say (for once) but I think I'll say it in another post that isn't about, well. . .this.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

This was dinner the other night--Wednesday? Thursday? It all runs together. I just wanted to get a record of it so I would remember what I did, and it's already kind of fuzzy.

 

1 quart chicken broth

2 big baking potatoes (from Costco--biiiiiig potatoes)

dried onion

garlic powder

thyme

savory

celery seed

salt and pepper

about a cup of milk (I used nonfat, because that's what we have)

about 3-4 cups of leftover cooked broccoli

Peel the potatoes and cook them in the broth, along with the seasonings. When the potatoes start to fall apart (really done), blend them to a creamy consistency.

Right before serving, add the broccoli and let it heat up, then blend just a little more and add salt and pepper as needed.

I have an immersion blender. If I had to use a regular blender, I would do the blending all at once. Maybe blend the potato part, then add the broccoli and blend just a little more, then heat the whole thing up in the pan.

This would be better with more milk, but DH is allergic, and this much milk is about all he can take.

This was a big hit at my house. Next time, I'll make a LOT more--like 4 quarts at a time. My family likes soup! And leftovers.

 

(I really hate my harvest gold 1970s countertops)

 

Out of Steam

So. . .I was trying to blog every day, and I was actually doing it, but I felt like I had nothing to say. I was even boring myself. So I gave myself a couple days off. So much for resolutions, but I made a good stab at it. Maybe 3-4 times per week would be a better goal. Then maybe something will have happened that I want to blog about.

Mid-Winter Break has been breakneck. We had something planned every day except Friday, and Friday, Punkin and I had a Glee marathon. Sort of. We didn't get started until about 2 p.m., so we only got in 3 or 4 episodes. It was enough to get us going, though, and I think we'll try and watch some more tomorrow.

Yesterday, I cut out a top for Punkin to wear to her piano recital. I had a splitting headache last night, so I put it aside, and finished it this morning. It looked great! I used swimsuit fabric, so it's a little heavy, but that makes it draped really well. It's a dramatic black and white geometric print. I'll have to get a picture of it later. All the pictures we took today are videos. Her recital went *really* well. She's playing a Chopin Nocturne, Op. Post, and the first movement of the Beethoven Op. 10, No. 1 Cm piano sonata. The Chopin didn't go as well as I have heard it, but she really hit the Beethoven on the head. Everything should be resolved in time for her competition on Friday.

Tuesday was the orthodontist: Punkin got a bracket on her last 12 year molar. When she complained about it, I told her she should have planned ahead and had her 12 year molars come in when she was 12--then she wouldn't have this problem now. <GG> (We love the sarcasm in our little family).

Wednesday, Punkin had a marathon dance practice (dance exams are ALSO next Friday--yike). I had piano lessons. She ate nothing, because her teeth still hurt.

Thursday, she had piano and dance, as usual, except that we travelled 1/2 hour north for lunch with my mom first. While there, we also hit the dancewear store (cha-ching!), and went across the street to one of the few remaining Hancock Fabric stores in the area--that's where we found the swimwear knit.

I feel like this is disjointed, but as often happens with blogging at night, I'm too tired to read it over before I post. Ignore all mistakes, please. ;-)

 

Pulled Pork and Risk

I made pulled pork sandwiches for dinner, only they weren't in the crockpot long enough, so it was more like sliced pork sandwiches. I put the rest of it back in the crockpot, and after an hour or so it was perfect. I also made the buns for the sandwiches. Yum!

My nephew came over for sandwiches, and we all played a game of Risk. Punkin and I been playing it on Facebook, but it's been a long time since I played a real game. And speaking of a long time, it took over 3 hours. Punkin lost interest and went to play Skyrim, but she won anyway <g>.

I've been looking over this year's posts, and I don't say much. I'm really just trying to get into the habit of posting to the blog again. Maybe I'll try and do something more ambitious one month--a post a day with a picture, or with sewing tutorials. For now, I'm just sitting down and getting words on the page.

This is the boot sock that I dropped on the floor at the car dealer. It's finished now, and I'm just about to start on the foot of the second one. They're not really turning out how I hoped, but it will be nice to have boot socks again. I felted the last pair, and they went home with our German exchange teacher as slippers. I hope she's enjoying them!

Lots of Squares

I am attempting, in a long-term project, to clean extra stuff out of my sewing room. When I tidied up during the summer, I filled a laundry basket and a small collapsible basket with flannel scraps (I make a lot of flannel pants as gifts, so I have lots of scraps). Today, I am proud to say that I have finished cutting squares from all the scraps. I cut 6.5" squares and 9.5" squares, and I have lots of both sizes.

I have a lot of ideas for the squares, like making baby blankets to donate or cuddly blankets for the TV room. But for today, I'm just happy to have 2 (TWO!) laundry baskets out of the sewing room, plus one small one. To celebrate, I went to Target and bought two sterlite containers to put them all in. I'm proud to say that both containers are completely full. I hope that it will be easier to keep up with the squares if I cut the scraps right after cutting out the pants.

Flannel squares: Check!

Jerry Springer? Seriously?!?

Did you even realize that Jerry Springer was still around? Still alive? I guess I figured he'd crawled back under his rock some time ago.

Having to share a TV with "the great unwashed" is probably the worst part of having car work done. You're stuck in a room with strangers, some of whom are probably watching the wretched show, trying to read or knit or whatever you do to distract yourself while you're waiting. I assure you, I don't distract myself by watching couples have ridiculously nasty and showy break-ups and break-downs on television. It was horrible. I to not watch, but I couldn't not hear. Blech.

It's the worst of human nature, on steroids.

As one of my bridge partners remarked Friday night, ". . .and these people vote." It's true. The crowd who was chanting on the Jerry Springer show are all old enough and citizen enough to be voters. Let's just hope they haven't figured out how to register or fill out a voting form. They are, more than likely, very excited about who is beating up whom on Jerry Springer, but not so much about exercising their civic rights/duty.

The big question is when did we, as a society, decide that the lowest common denominator was not just okay, but desirable? Why does Jerry Springer have an audience at all? And how do we discourage it?

To top of my little adventure, I dropped my finished boot sock as I left the waiting room. Luckily, someone saw it and brought it into the cashier's room before I left.

In good news, though, I finished the heel and turn on the second sock, and moved on to the gusset. Yay! I have gotten a lot of knitting done on those socks while watching videos in the physics class! Maybe the socks will be smart.

Look! It's our deer. This is most likely the same deer that left hoofprints in the snow. She enjoyed eating leaves off of the trampline--like a buffet!

 

Burned Out

I got a little burned out with all the sewing for $$$ last week. As I was sewing, I would think, "next week, I can work on this or that project." This week, I'm just kind of floating. In addition, the sewing room is such a mess that I don't want to be in there. In the next couple of weeks, I'll be able to share pictures of what I worked on. It's all been very hush-hush. I just checked the website and there's nothing there yet.

The Beard has been sick for two weeks. He was home Monday and Tuesday of last week, then he felt better, but then over the weekend, he seems to have gotten a *different* virus, and he stayed home Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of this week. Having him so sick convinces me that I must be sick, too, or maybe I really am. Twice today alone, I had to lie down for a nap. The cats love that part.

I finally got around to getting my shopping done: Target, Staples, Safeway and Costco all got big chunks of my money today. I also splurged a little and bought something I've wanted for several years: A Foodsaver!

I can't find a picture on the Costco site, but this one is from Amazon, and if it's the same one I bought (it looks the same, but who can tell without walking ALL THE WAY into the other room to check the model number), it's about $12 cheaper at Amazon. Go figure.

I have been looking at them for literally years, and I was feeling like I wanted to get one today, and then there was a woman demo-ing them in the store. Sucker! I didn't buy the bags, though, and I'm not completely convinced that I'm keeping it, so I haven't opened it yet.

So now I'll distract you with more pictures of our snow days, since I've figured out how to post pictures. Maybe you won't notice the lack of sewing content. . .

There used to be three of these dogwoods. I just realized that I took this picture on Wednesday. The one on the left is gone now, too, leaving only one. The ice on each little twig weighed so much that the top of the tree fell over, splitting the trunk into 3 pieces. I wish I had a picture of the back yard after the ice storm. The whole yard was about 12" deep in greenery.

There were about 10 of these birds on the feeder, but of course, by the time I could get a picture, about half of them had left. They were so cold and hungry.

On Thursday, after the dogwood toppled, we took down the big bird feeder (on the right) that hangs from a high fir branch. It was sagging down nearly to the ground, and we were afraid it might snap the branch. When the ice melted, the branch snapped back up, sending the twine high into a neighboring tree. It took some careful maneuvering to get the string back down so we could rehang the bird feeder.