This past weekend we hosted our Harvest Party in which food is the central theme. All things fall are included. The menu included slow roasted pulled pork, sweet corn cakes, cumin roasted potatoes, butternut squash soup, rosemary garlic white bean salad, green beans w/ mushroom cream sauce, and wheat dinner rolls. Everything was homemade of course.

Friends brought wine and dessert which included apple crisp ala mode, pumpkin pie, and carrot cake.


And since friends were coming in from out of town, we needed to get that spare bedroom in order. I had moved all my sewing items out and was able to thrift sheets and curtains to finish the room. In the mean time, my new sewing room is a disaster! Of course when you move things you rediscover lost and forgotten items. I also spent some time cleaning a dress form my grandmother found me. She mentioned it was broken and in its wobbly state I just put it in a corner where she sat for months. She was only waist high when I got her, but I soon realized she did have all her 'parts' and with a little elbow grease and a can of WD-40 she now stands a tall 5 feet. She's still a bit wonky but she'll do.

Much to my amazement she adjusted to a workable size for me. I'll need to make an adjustment to the bust area, but I think a bit of padding will fix that.

Over the last week, Jeff and I packaged multiple shoe boxes for Samaritans Purse. I was responsible for all the girls. In addition to their manditory items, each girl will receive a sewing kit, a box filled with beads and stretchy thread and I topped each box with a purple felted flower pin (pictured above), mini LED flashlight, an awesome journal, and assorted girlie accessories. Boys got real tools.

Oh, and I finally hung up all my frames I painted black down our long front hallway. I consider it my little art gallery. I know it must have been strange for our friends to enter our home for the Harvest Party and see a series of large empty frames on the wall, but as I collect art work I'll suspend the prints in floating glass frames within each frame. This is the before picture. Not all frames have been painted but I was getting a general feel for how I wanted them to layout. Now if I could get a sunny morning, I'll show you the after photo.

I've been on Etsy stalking a few pieces of art. This and this(I love all the artists titles for his prints!) are on my short list.

In the mean time, my top priority is getting my sewing room in a respectable order.

Does anybody know....

EDIT: Kim knew what I was looking for! Thanks! Should have just asked you first anyways. Mexican Corn Cakes. Yup. That's it. And for the correct answer your prize is an invitation to the big party this weekend. :)

You know when you go to a Mexican restaurant and they serve you a little scoop of sweetened corn meal mash as a side? Do you know what I am talking about?

Does anybody have a recipe for this dish?

This Saturday we are hosting our Harvest Party. Over 20 people will be attending. Fun, football, food, and wine will be had by all.

The weather hasn't been cooperating for photo taking. The mornings are overcast and sometimes rainy and by the time I make it home it's almost dark. But I'll be back sometimes soon with some craftiness.

:)

Wow.

What I am suppose to be doing right now- Packing for my week long work trip out of state. I leave tomorrow morning.

What I did instead- Play around on Etsy. And you know what I found? I am featured in a Treasury List! This is the first one that I know of!

Go check it out.

Truth be told I came downstairs to switch around the laundry and polish my shoes. The computer just happened to be sitting on the kitchen table.

I have to pack very cautiously. My trip to Panama destroyed my largest suit case. So now all I have is a carry on and one slightly bigger. Thank goodness its business casual so I don't need to take along suit jackets. Do you think they'll notice if I wear the same pants twice? I only wish I were kidding.

When I get back I have to show off some more pillow covers I made from cotton cable knit sweaters. I think I finally figured out how to sew that super stretchy fabric.

I'm not going to take my computer with me on this trip, so I'll see you all in about a week. :)

Recycled Gift Wrapping

One of my favorite thrifting finds are large grab bags of cheap costume jewelry. Often times many of the pieces are broken or an earrings is missing its mate. But these bits and bobs make great ornamentation for gift wrapping! If you've ever purchased anything from my Etsy shop, you know how I utilize these cast off items to dress up my packaging. At times I just attached a clip on earring to the top of the package as is. Other times I deconstruct the jewelry to get at the 'good stuff'.

After I wrapped up these packages for my Pay It Forward gifts, I knew I had to take a photo of them. I reused wrapping paper from my birthday present, tied them with twine found at the thrift store, and used parts of broken jewelry and old buttons to dress 'em up. So simple, so cost effective, and (I think) so beautiful.

PIF WIP

This is just to let the gals that participated in my Pay It Forward gift exchange that I have been working on things. I have made the decision to use what's in my stash. So I am busting into some upcycled linen.And then rediscovering some beautiful fabric scraps.
For some reason today I have been feeling extra productive in the kitchen. Sadly I forgot to bring in my sage plant before it frosted and all the leaves were curled angrily into tight fists at my laziness. However, I was able to use every single one of those leaves by frying them in a small amount of butter and salt until crisp. They will garnish the butternut squash/pumpkin soup I made that will be the first course followed by a slow roasted standing rib pork roast, mash potatoes and green beans. Someone bring over dessert please!

No longer a single girl

About a month ago Jeff and I celebrated our 2nd Wedding Anniversary, but that's not stopping me from making Denyse Schmidt's Single Girl Quilt. Sort of. I certainly was inspired by her pattern the first time I saw it. Such a new and cheeky way to reinvent the old double wedding ring pattern.

Imagine my joy when I discovered a whole pile of vintage partially hand pieced wedding quilt pieces. Can you just image all these beautiful prints being highlighted by a white background?

So for a very small investment I bought them all. I sewed four semi circles together to get an idea of the scale of each circle. The full circle measures just about 18''. Up until now, I've only really made household goods or handbags. I normally wash every yard of fabric that enters my craft room. But just recently I learned that if you pre-wash your fabric you won't get a beautifully crinkled quilt. The quilter I bought these vintage pieces from suggested I use a white kona cotton (just learned about that too), appliqué the circles to the cotton, then wash the finished quilt with a cup of vinegar in the wash water. Apparently the vinegar will help suspend any dye that leeches out of the vintage fabric and hopefully stop any color from bleeding onto my white background.

I am thinking of cutting the kona cotton into 20'' squares and sewing the circles onto each block. Should I spend the time and use a hidden stitch to hand appliqué all 20 circles? Or should I pin the circles within an inch of their lives and machine top stitch an 1/8th'' around all edges? I used a mini iron and a spray bottle of water to turn all the edges under. I may go get some starch to make sure the pressed seam stays. Invest my time or be happy with semi- instant gratification?

What would you do?

Checking In

I think I clicked on "New Post" four times before I just committed myself to write in here. Here's what's going on:

• The husband is out of town this weekend, so it's just little ol' me and a lot of spare time.
• For the last four weeks I have been scouring Craigslist for a mattress to turn my sewing room into a spare bedroom.
• You heard me. I am GIVING UP MY SEWING ROOM.
  
• I seriously take up too much of this house. I feel very glutenous about it. Sooo...
• I have been reorganizing and redistributing my sewing stuff into my work office room.
• Now we will be able to accommodate guests comfortably. :) (Everyone come and visit me!)
• Wednesday we picked up a 6 month old, in perfect condition, Serta Queen Mattress for $50 (found through craigslist)! Wife had back problems and they had to get a new bed. I cleaned the fabric today and tomorrow I will purchase a mattress pad for it.
  
• I just finished cleaning out my wardrobe closet. My closet is normally an all season closet, but I decided it was time to weed through some things and I have packed up all my summer clothes. It looks neater.
• Tomorrow I hit the thrift stores to find a bed frame and new-to-me fall clothes.
• After cleaning my closet I discovered I only love 5 things. Depressing.
• I need to pick up spray paint to paint some various frames to coordinate.
• Last thought: One of the greatest exercises in creativity is working with what you have!