Reusing an Old Children's Book

I have a lot of fun doing the Pinterest boards for A's creative reuse shop.  However, I am appalled at some of the projects people do with perfectly good antiques, clothes, and books.  I like to repurpose things that are otherwise junk, but I hate to see perfectly good books cut up for art, secret boxes, and planters.  Horrors!

Here, we have a vintage book that a couple at church passed on to us in a box of books.  It was coverless, and the pages were so browned and fragile that they almost crumbled to the touch.  The illustrations were so dear and droll that I couldn't bear to recycle it, however.  I finally knew what to do with it when I needed a new baby card.  I simple cut out the right picture with its fragile side and sewed it onto a blank card.  Charming, easy, and very appropriate reuse!

And Violets on the Cake

We don't usually do much for Mother's Day, but my sister and I thought perhaps we could get all the family together for a dinner. We discussed going to a restaurant, but I suddenly felt that I wanted a home-based celebration and thought of a simple menu to keep me easygoing.  I also wanted to use my new cake stand and dome. (Oh! I suddenly realized I never wrote up the post about Ben's birthday which included a layer cake and accompanying "discoveries").

Menu:
2 roasted chickens with rosemary, garlic and lemon with potatoes and carrots
roasted asparagus
coleslaw
angel biscuits with homemade beet jelly
olives
poppyseed cake with custard and whipped cream (actual recipes I used on my Recipe Verdicts board)
kiwi, pineapple, and purple grapes

Aunt Mel for the win! (wishbone with Genevieve)

Melanie brought some of the food, the beet jelly was from Mom's cousin, and everyone chipped in to help ferry dishes back and forth and wash up. It was a lovely time and everyone said the food was perfect (I humbly agree - I was so pleased).

The chickens were absolutely succulent. I attribute this mostly to the local Amish farm where I bought them!  I put a sliced lemon and some garlic cloves inside them, sprinkled them well with salt, pepper, and rosemary, and roasted them breast up at 400 F for 1 hour with the lid on, and then another hour with the lid off. I wasn't expecting them to take that long, but I had allowed enough time for a long rest before carving, so they simply had a shorter rest. I made a quick pan gravy thickened with milk and flour, with an extra sprinkle of poultry herbs and pepper. The leftover carcasses and shreds are simmering into stock in my Crockpot down cellar, to be canned tomorrow.

The cake was delicious, but it cost me some swear words.  I made it the day before, and I didn't slice the layers horizontally because they were so fragile, but then the custard blobbed out the edges and the whipped cream frosting was quite soft, so the whole thing looked pudgy at the bottom.  I shut it up in the fridge and resolved to make it into a trifle with frozen raspberries early Sunday morning if I needed to.  Well, it held up, so we decorated it with violets and my husband took photos.

The violets are fading and the dandelions have gone to seed.  I'm so pleased with the ways we enjoyed violets this year. 

Job Opening: Team Leader, Laborer, and Domestic Mastermind

Here's a little job description I amused myself with as I looked for a new job this spring.  Just in time for Mother's Day. . . 

The right person for this three-tier job will provide support to other team members to gain increased efficiencies and profitabililty by possessing skills in the following areas:

1. Prepare three meals daily for team members, using proper nutritional balances, fresh ingredients, and various ethnic styles. Must demonstrate skill within budgetary limitations.  Nutritious snacks as requested. Occasional gourmet meals for visiting guests. Provide on-the-job training to junior staff.  Tasks may include other aspects of coordinating and maintaining a 24-hour kitchen and dining room.
2. Maintain inventory including, but not limited to, the following categories: clothes, food, cleaning agents, office supplies, garden supplies. Demonstrate skill within budgetary limitations and stock rotation. Purchase new equipment and supplies as needed for maximum efficiency. Car and company credit card supplied.
3. Manage all aspects of laundry, including training junior staff and acquiring new garments as needed to surmount growth spurts, stains, carelessness, and changing styles.  Experience with mending required.
4. Ensure optimal cleanliness and appearance in building, supervising junior staff as needed. Daily tidying encouraged.  Organize and perform weekly cleaning as well as periodic deep cleaning.
5. Manage incoming paper and mail daily so that other team members can locate their papers up to one year later. Schedule appointments as needed. Handle accounts payable.
6. Manage social calendar, maintaining appropriate stature in neighborhood, school, church, and general acquaintances.  Explore and initiate proper enrichment activities for junior staff.  Transport junior staff as needed.
7. Provide assistance to the Significant Team Member as requested.  Duties and hours vary.  Flexibility and cooperation is key.
8. Provide assistance to junior staff as requested.  Unlimited hours.  Patience and kindness required.

An ideal candidate can perform these duties enthusiastically, consistently, and skillfully.

Daily hours:  6am-9pm, breaks by chance only, on call 24 hours a day

No salary. No sick days. Benefits package includes contentment, frustration, love, antidepressants, and coffee.  Health insurance provided through Significant Team Member (we hope). Disability insurance and 401-k provided through junior staff's future careers and largesse.

No opportunity for advancement.

Photos on this post from a trip we took to New York which included the Staten Island Ferry and Central Park.

And the job I was looking for?  I landed several freelance editing contracts that are just right. I am still getting the hang of working from home, but in general, we are doing well and I am very pleased. 

Violets in the Kitchen

We picked violets and brought them into the kitchen, instead of the vase. We have never put a chemical on our yard because we're not manicured-grass kind of people; the side benefit is organic edibles!

photo by Genevieve

dandelion, violet, and water "soup"

I pressed some violets into spicy sugar cookies, sprinkled them with coarse sugar, and baked them.  Pretty!  Next time I would cut the cookies even smaller or else use several violets per cookie.

Then I boiled up some water and let it cool down.  According to a tip on Pinterest, boiled water makes clear ice cubes.  I froze a tray of ice cubes with violets in them.  I don't have a plan in mind, but it will be nice to pull the pretty ice cubes out for a party or a simple glass of lemonade.

Sewing Flops with a Happy Ending

Exhibit A:  The Skirt with Backbone

My trusty yellow skirt is worn out, so I bought new yellow (unknown) fabric from the fabric outlet to replace it.  After much travail and repeated washings of the fabric in vinegar and salt, I realized I was trying to use canvas to make a skirt.  Canvas may soften over time, but what on earth do I do with a skirt that stands up by itself until then?  (Off to Goodwill - couldn't stand to look at it and I hope someone has a better idea for it).

Exhibit B:  Made-up Tea Cosies

I tried to sew a teapot cosy from my own design.  It was supposed to be a warm little bag with a drawstring top with places for the spout and handle to peep out.  The drawstring was too long and awkward and out of frustration and impatience, I sewed faster and consequently, the work is sloppy. (Stuffed these in my scrap boxes, where my daughter pounced on them and started using them as bags until I pointed out that things were falling out the holes.  She pinned the holes closed.  Hello, Grandma Weaver!)

Exhibit C:  Slippers

First I used this pattern and made a horrible, strange slipper with pretty fabric and a red leather bottom (no photo - couldn't bear to look at it).  Then I used this tutorial, scavenging the red leather soles from the first failure.  These slippers do not match and need some tweaks (thicker cushioning on the sole, 2 layers of fabric on the upper), but I see possibilities here.  Genevieve has claimed them for her own.  I offered to cut them down and remake them for her, but she insists on pinning them to her size with pink plastic clothespins.

In the meantime, I found a pair of Goody Bon Bon slippers on ebay that I love - so whimsical, cushy, and pretty. My husband was commenting on how I wear these slippers with irony and I had to ponder that (out loud, of course) for a while, until I understood that, yes, I am wearing them ironically.  I think they're fun, but they're definitely a joke for me, and I am definitely channeling an ageing Southern belle with a whispery sweet voice and a cool shadowy house with tall ferns at the shuttered windows.

In all of this, I kept asking myself why I was pursuing these projects instead of buying ready-made things. It's because I like solving the problem, figuring things out on my own, and experimenting.  Sewing is really a hobby for me.  There are times when I sew for thrifty reasons, but the thrift is largely a side benefit, and the real reason is my deep satisfaction and pleasure when I sew something just right.  Stay tuned for a happy lot of "just rights" coming up!

Mailboxes in the Garden

I found this idea on Pinterest:  keep small gardening tools and gloves in a mailbox next to your garden.  They're available and protected from the weather and bugs.

After a fruitless search for old mailboxes for sale, I emailed my church listserv to see if anyone could give some hints.  Instead, I got offers for 3 old mailboxes and a fourth offer to salvage a discarded one from roadside.  Wonderful!  I accepted 2 mailboxes.

The green one from Roger and Rosalyn, tucked in next to the raspberries and the overflow compost bin, holds my garden tools and gloves.

The adorable old house from Sheldon and Naomi keeps the miscellaneous bunny supplies together:  comb, clippers, leashes, and treats.

Our church listserv is an incredibly useful resource.  Offers, answers, questions, and events are posted frequently.  People find housing, vacations, tickets, and lost items, thanks to the listserv. Does someone need plants?  Just email the listserv - I'm dropping off hostas today to a church friend, with a promise for irises once they're done blooming.

Our neighbors' yard, with a carpet of violets and a blooming magnolia tree on the right. 

Just Some New Things

I have not meant to be so silent here on the blog!  I write posts in my head, but I run out of energy before I get to my computer.  

I've been sewing a fair amount recently, and here are the new things for sale.  The batch of clothespin bags is for the museum store.  On three of them, I did a lot of piecing.

I loved how the rick rack accented this vintage Laura Ashley fabric. A little graphic jab.

I put the monogram upside down so it would show up in the opening, but also because I thought it looked like a cool flower shape.  Now I'm not so sure.  I did mention my thinking on the hang tag, so hopefully the customers won't think I'm illiterate.

And these hotpads are in my etsy shop.  I really love looking at all these colors.  Might have to do some more patchwork with solids.  It's so classic and modern at the same time, undated the way printed fabric seems to be.

 I did most of the hand sewing on these on the bus ride for Ben's field trip.  How soothing to have a bit of handwork in a day of wildly excited kindergartners.