What I Do on Pinterest

I bookmark my favorite ideas that I find online.  That's it. 

I don't usually spend time looking at other people's pinboards (cool as they probably are), nor do I usually re-pin things that surface when I first login to the site.  I could disappear down the internet rabbit hole!

I am seriously concerned about my screen-time and the effect it has on the people around me, who need me here with them.  It's much more fun to be flitting through cyberspace, but it's a habit I know I would regret if my relationships in real time wither.  We don't have a TV, right, but the computer comes to almost the same thing in our life sometimes.  Crazy.

However, Pinterest is great for organizing the ideas I come across.  So I'm on it, but I'm not evangelizing you to get on and follow me unless you want to (see the button, for your convenience, in my sidebar).

Are you on Pinterest?  Why or why not? (And did you know that Pinterest members are 80% women?)

The Vintage Soda Siphon

Where did my in-laws get this thing?  It's so beautiful and luxuriously heavy.  I keep forgetting to ask.

Not very thrifty, sadly, as a $1 cartridge makes a liter of seltzer

and scares the little boy when it snorts the first drink out. (At this point, I put down the camera and comforted him).

He came around.  We do love carbonation so very much in our family.

Pattern Weights from the Toy Box

I was taught to pin a sewing pattern to the fabric to cut it out.  Clumsy and time consuming.  A few years ago, I started weighting the pattern with whatever heavy objects were at hand.

But if you have a child who loves trains at your house, you have the best pattern weights around:  wooden train tracks.

Ben delights in helping and having "a job."  He fetched all the tracks for me, then watched closely as I cut a shirt dress out of a sheet (the one he is sleeping under on the camping trip).

And yet, it is possible to buy manufactured pattern weights.  I'll save my money for other things, thank you!

The Cutter Quilt

I bought a big old quilt for $2.  Some patches were completely worn through and the whole thing was worn and faded.  The prints were charming, however, and I still felt the magnetism of that unmatched patchwork.

I immediately thought: hotpads!

It was the perfect handwork at our church women's retreat over the weekend.  When I returned home, I replaced some very greasy, stained hotpads in my drawer with great satisfaction.

And there are two sets in the shop, too!

Fresh Bread for Breakfast

When I went with my dad to Costco to shop for the MYF meal, I was round-eyed at the sheer bigness of everything.  In some crazy nostalgia for Germany, I bought two oversized jars of Nutella. 

Then I made Italian bread and baked it hot for breakfast.  It's only 30 minutes of standing and baking in the morning - easy easy easy, and then the house smells wonderful.

It was delightful to recall my German breakfast of great bread, Nutella, banana, Parmalat milk, and fragrant black coffee.

And here's a little kitchen tip:  if I make an eggwash for a baking project and don't use it all, I freeze it and then just thaw it out next time I need an eggwash.  That's my eggwash in the little glass jar.

Freshening the Late Winter Wardrobe with Collars

The end of a season is a dangerous time to go shopping for clothes - it's like grocery shopping while hungry.  I am so sick of my winter clothes, but I try to ignore it.  Soon I will open my boxes and dig into my storage closet to get my warm weather clothes,  and it will be as good as shopping because I forget my off-season clothes.

Nice pose on top of the sandbox, eh?

But here is a little fix, a little happy for your clothes: a detachable collar.  I saw the idea first on Amy's blog, which linked to a helpful tutorial on Casey's blog.

Think of these collars as necklaces and don't worry if they don't look like a whole blouse. I've seen them worn over tee shirts!

The one I'm wearing here is actually reversible to the navy gingham. The gingham ties are too fat, but I wore the collar anyway because I was so thirsting for a little twist in my wardrobe.  I want to use some of my pretty orphan buttons to fasten these too.

Then I couldn't help myself and I made an unabashedly spring collar. 

Most of the time, all I need is a little sewing therapy.

Everyday Life

A stack of pretty hankies and napkins, folded, fresh from the line.  Ben adores his "Jack be nimble" hanky.

My happy boy, absorbed in a new book about cars from Marilou.

And also happy with the "people price."  This is a vintage Fisher Price set from ebay, not from my childhood.  I had to watch and patiently for a long time to get a set at a reasonable price - and that because the A-frame house door is a little broken.

I had some funny cooking trials recently.  Pictured here are "buckeyes" - supposed to be a fried egg in a middle of a pancake.  They were tasty, yes, but difficult to flip and unattractive.  I think my batter should have been thinner so I could have controlled it more when I poured it around the egg.

And one morning I forgot to put baking powder in the Cinnamon Flop.  A true flop.  The children didn't mind, but my husband and I realized we do really prefer a good chemical leavening agent.

The real part of this sewing project was wondering if it was worth it.  My husband had a broken separating zipper in his biking jacket and both of us, confident in my zipper prowess, thought I could fix it.

Ha. It was not easy. 

There was a wind flap behind the zipper.  There were 5 seams holding in each side of the zipper (meaning I had to rip out 10 seams to get the zipper out).  The zipper I got was not as long and also opened on the other side - but I didn't realize that it opened on the other side until I had already put one side in backwards.  (Are you confused?  I was - and disgruntled).

The zipper did get done.  And it does work and look fine.  But I still begrudge all my time in that project - makes me remember my old life where I just threw things away when they broke!

Joining Leila and Rosie's collection of everyday contentment.  An excellent way to look at my days.