Well it has been an exciting kind of time since I posted last week! I finally decided to dig in and go for my bakery dream. I'm terrified, and completely unsure of myself, but I know that I have to try, or die. I think I feel that strongly about it. I need to find that beauty, that charm if you will, that's inside and let it out.

I have a cupcake order for the weekend, and I want them to be so beautiful that women weep, overwhelmed with the decision between gazing on in rapturous wonder and devouring them in giant, wolfish bites. So yeah, fingers crossed!

OH I also found out what a split infinitive is! Believe me when I tell you, it has weighed heavily on my mind.

But I'm not going to spoil the surprise for everyone else (except you, Koda). I'll let you investigate the world of slightly arcane grammar for yourselves!

My fabric choice

In the arena of MORE GOOD NEWS, I fixed one of my sewing machines! Yay!

Thank goodness, because I'm like two weeks behind on my pillow/pouf/footstool sewing project.
So I'm basically just starting and have already had to unpin everything because I cut the fabric incorrectly, URGH.

I'm using a tutorial written by  the lovely Susan of Living With Punks . She has a wonderful collection of tutorials on her site, and I aspire to be as prolific as she has been!.


It's going to be the pink chevron, ^^ up there with lime green piping. I think it will be adorable. My niece has already ordered one for herself. It's a very straight forward project, easily completed in a few hours, assuming you cut the fabric correctly the first time. :D

Check out the tutorial  floor pillow, here.

It's Not Easy Being Green

Happy New Year!
I know, it's January 22, but honestly, did you even realize how much time has passed since Christmas? I was looking at the calendar yesterday and realized that we are hurtling towards February. Are you kidding me? We still have a bowl of Christmas cards on the kitchen counter!

So, it's probably time to get started on those New Years Resolutions, right? I stopped making the weight loss resolution years ago. Why set myself up for disappointment? Now I try to set personal goals. Last year it was to learn to make a decent loaf of Italian bread. It took me almost the entire year to get it right, but I felt so good when I finally found the perfect recipe!

Unlike work goals or weight loss challenges, I feel like I've really achieved something unique when I accomplish one of these personal goals, because it it's something just for me.

This year, I've set two goals for myself, to learn Italian, and to eat a diet that reduces inflammation in the body. They don't really seem to go together, right? That's fair. The Italian is really about doing something fun, and maybe sexy. I mean, have you ever heard two people conversing in Italian? It kinda makes me want to rip my clothes off in the middle of the street....


My second goal is to reduce inflammation.


Nope that's not a joke. Though I laugh a little whenever I say, "inflammation." Some of you know that my dad has been really sick the past few years with not one, but two types of cancer. While it is truly a bummer that he is dealing with that, what seems to be worse, is that the treatments are yielding devastating results on his body, as well. So, while he is surviving the prostate cancer,  his kidneys and bladder have been destroyed by radiation and chemotherapy. It doesn't really seem like much a solution. He has spent almost a year trying to resolve a variety of health issues resulting from the treatments.

In body type, my father and I are very similar, and it scares me that I may travel down that same road, someday. I've been reading online and, you know, actual books, and it seems that many scientists think that at the heart of disease lies in inflammation.  Interestingly, thousands of years of Chinese medicine have been focused on reducing inflammation. Hmmmm.

My first attack against this dreaded inflammation is green tea. I like green tea and I find that adding a sprig of mint (which I grow in a pot) makes it taste exactly like the stuff they sell at Starbucks.  Everything I've read supports the fact that green tea reduces inflammation, and since it's easy to drink, I'm drinking it.

Instructions NOT in Italian

Additionally, I'm trying to add matcha, which is powdered green tea, to my diet. According to Dr. Oz, it's supposed to be great for weight loss, another kind of inflammation haha, and I'm all for weight loss!
The problem is that it's impossible to find in the regular grocery store. I was able to purchase it from an Asian grocery store, but the packaging is written in Japanese, which I don't speak, and you probably don't either.

I finally found an online retailer, MightyLeaf.com, which has a huge variety of tea AND a great video of how to make matcha. It can be very bitter, so it's good to try some of the latte recipes you can find online. Even better (!!) they are having a huge sale right now, and you know how much I love a sale.

I am already finding that my fingers, which are usually kinda sausage-y when I exercise, feel better if I have a cup of tea before I go out to walk. Hmmm. So I'm going to keep it up for a while. Let me know how it works for you!

~Jen

Christmas is All Around

Shockingly hard to believe that Christmas is coming up so soon. I was surprised to see a ton of people shopping for Holiday decor this weekend. The Home Goods store near my house had a long line and, of course, every surface was draped in Christmas swag.

I only needed a dog sweater. My poor old man of a dog, has been shivering late at night, in the mornings, and pretty much all the time. So I tromped off to the store to help out the poor beast. They had many, many coats and sweaters. The problem was that they were so silly that I had a hard time finding one that wouldn't make both me and the dog look foolish. A fur lined, parka, really? Does a dog even need a scarf with matching booties? Huh?

I finally found a simple, sweater, sort-of-rug thing, that wraps around the dog. It is a lovely glen plaid, and suits the dog to a T! He has been wearing it 24-7 and seems a much happier pup.

Blurry cuz he won't stop moving!

So my point, and I do have one, is that I was looking at the simple construction of the coat and thought it would make a good gift item. Then I remembered (it could also have been the Christmas Caroles) that if I was going to make anything for holiday gifts I'd better get started! If you're anything like me, you haven't started either. So what shall we make? Any suggestions? What would you like to learn how to do?

Leave a comment. Lemme know!

Jen

Cuts Like a Knife

It occurs to me that there are some out there who might not know what a fat quarter (FQ) is. I mean, I guess it's possible.... Anyway, a FQ is a quarter yard of fabric, except that instead of cutting the fabric from the end of a bolt, resulting in a skinny piece of 9x 44 inch fabric, a FQ is cut by dividing a yard of fabric along the long width and then cutting in half again, resulting in a fat, much more usable 18 x 22 piece of fabric.

Here's a photo from quilting.about.com, which illustrates it beautifully.

Fat quarters can run from about $1.75 each to around $4, for an exclusive fabric. So it can be a lot more affordable to buy a few yards and cut them yourself. For instructions about cutting a FQ, go here

BEWARE, buying FQs is addictive! You grab one here, you grab one there, and the next thing you know, you've got $80 worth of fabric in your cart, with no real plans to use them! The worst places for this problem are the stores like JoAnn, where they have different fabric for the FQ than for the yardage. Always keep in mind that buying buy the yard is a better price per yard.

Check out fabric . com (there's a button on the right) for a really wide variety of beautiful fabric. There is a special of the day and a lot of pre-cuts. What I like about it is that it's affiliated with Amazon so you can use your Amazon account to check out, saving me the step of wandering around the house looking for my purse, hoping that my credit card is actually in there an not left on some countertop from the last time I ordered something online. Go Amazon!

DON'T FORGET, comments get you entries into the charm pack give away!

~Jen

Fat Quarter Skirt Sew-Along (who you callin' fat?)

I have been looking for a short, drawstring-style skirt. Everything I've seen in the stores is a skort! While they are cute, honestly, I can't have the extra fabric, and cutting out the shorts doesn't seem to work, the skirt always rides up a little. Skorts are great if you're five, but I'm not too concerned about my underwear showing when I climb the monkey bars, so I'd just as soon have a regular skirt.

But I digress...

I found a drawstring tutorial at Venus de Hilo and it's a beauty!! So I'd like to celebrate my discovery with...

(imagine drumroll here)

The Fat Quarter Skirt Sew-Along

drawstring skirt by Stephanie Serrano
FQ skirt tutorial

That's right, I'm hosting my first sew-along. I know you're excited, but asking yourself, "What is this thing called a sew-along? Well, my newbish friends it's when we all tune in on the same day and sew our skirts together. In this way, you can ask questions and see comments from other sewers. Many of you guys are new to sewing, so I say, "Get that sewing machine out of the box and let's sew."

Oh Shannon, don't worry, we'll sew one together when you get your machine. ;-D

This could easily be made with one piece of fabric, but I just love the way the FQs combine to make something really original and so pretty. If you're anything like me, you've already got a stash of pretty fabric that you're too afraid to cut. I argue that this is the best use of these! You can take 1/4 cuts of your favorites and still have plenty left over for another project. A second skirt? A matching bag? Hmmmm.

There's even a flikr group for others to post their versions of the skirt, here. Stephanie Serrano, the author of Venus de Hilo blog and quilter, extrordinare, asks that you join the flikr group and share a pic of your skirt when you're finished. I think that's a great idea. As you know, I'm a big fan of the "show-it-off" step.

If you don't have a fabric stash, you're going to need 6 fat quarters (FQ) and a big piece of paper to draft your pattern.Stephanie uses freezer paper. I usually grab whatever's handy. Kraft paper, wrapping paper, even newspaper will do.  Don't sweat too much over matching your fabrics perfectly.

The official start date is October 5. When we will draft our patterns. This is a very simple skirt, so it won't take us too long. It's also my first sew-along, so feel free to leave a comment and let me know what I need to include!

Oh! I almost forgot! To celebrate the start of the blog and the sew-along, I'll be giving away a charm pack at the end of the sew-along. Everyone who comments will be added to a drawing for the pack! Yay!

I'm excited! :-)

~Jen

A, you're adorable. B, you love Batman..

Here it is!! My first blogged project. I bought my very first serger and it arrived on Thursday night. I spent the weekend making Batman pants (who didn't?). My cousin has 3 little boys and I jumped at the chance to do my first project for them. Of course the pants hopped the line in front of a lot of other projects, but sergers gotta serge!

I purchased a Brother 1034D from Amazon. Less than $200 and free shipping. It got terrific reviews online and so far I love it!!! Threading is a bit fiddly, but NOT the nightmare I expected. It's working just wonderfully so far. 

A few tips: 

Have lots of fabric scraps handy for practice. It take a little bit of practice to get the feel of how to guide the fabric and just how it all works. 

Buy extra needles. The Brother uses standard needles so I have plenty on hand. I broke the first two, the first night (this goes back to practicing how to guide the fabric). 

Read the manual. It really does tell you how to use the machine, and if you've never used an overlock before, you're going to learn a few things. 

This machine came threaded with color-coded thread (so cool and helpful), but have your new thread handy, because it doesn't last very long!

After a bit of practice, I made these lovely pants! Three pairs for three little boys. I just hope they fit. They are made from your standard pajama pants patterns, that you can find all over the internet. I used the tutorial on "The Mother Huddle" blog. Lounge Pants Tutorial 

One last bit of advice. If you go so far as to make a pair of Batman pants, post it on Facebook so everyone can tell you how awesome you are. 

Disclaimer: Persons writing this blog may or may not post projects on Facebook in order to receive attention from friends and relations.

~Jen

Oh God, You Again?

So I have this goal of getting a blog going. Despite my sporadic attempts, nothing has captured my interest long enough. Pathetic, right? With all the talking I do, you'd think I would have enough sense to put it down for my legions of friends to read... *snort*

Well I'm going to give it another try. I have a secret wish that just by creating a blog, I will be transported to a rustic, but modern, farmhouse in the country (not too far from good restaurants and the sea shore, of course). Where my burly-but-sensitive husband will chop wood and throw pots in our chicken coop turned potting shed, and I will decorate my pretty children with hand crafted clothing fashioned from fabric I screened myself, after rescuing it from my Grannie's scrap pile. Then after taking effortless, but wildly creative photographs of it all, I will post them to my blog and instantly get a book deal or TV show on the Food Network.

Well, back to the real world.

The truth is, I bought a serger and I want to make stuff and show it off. So here I am again.

The theme of this blog is supposed to be centered around my love of charm packs, but so far I don't have one thing to show for that, 'cept lots of pretty charm packs. I'm just going to get started and see where it goes. My goal to learn to bake a decent loaf of Italian bread only took me 21 months, so this should be a real barn burner.

I have kind of an eclectic skill set, but I'm not at all put together. I constantly wonder when I will start to become this grown-up version of me that I imagined as a child, and let's be honest, making your own laundry soap isn't really something that will help you get a great new job. And isn't that was our post baby boomer generation was raised to believe? You can be a homemaker and a corporate executive! Somehow I just never got the hang of...well, whatever it is people do to get corporate jobs. But I can make a mean butter cream and I once hosted a Lord of the Rings birthday party for 30 children.

That's what I can do, so Imma do it and tell the blog about it.

Join me, won't you, and we will build our farmhouse castles in the sky together.

~Jen