2007 Books Read

1. Missing Mom by Joyce Carol Oates

2. Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

3. Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro

4. The Eight by Katherine Neville

5. Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy

6. Isolde: Queen of the Western Isle by Rosalind Miles

7. The World to Come by Dara Horn

8. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

9. Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins

10. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

11. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

12. Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles by Margaret George

13. London by Edward Rutherfurd

14. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

15. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

16. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (reread) by J.K. Rowling

17. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (reread) by J.K. Rowling

18. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

19. Black Unicorn by Tanith Lee

20. You're Not You by Michelle Wildgen

21. I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson

22. Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos

23. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

24. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

25. The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay

26. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

27. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

28. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

29. The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke

30. Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser

31. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

32. Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas

33. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

Back from my blogging break




Four months since my last post! It's been a crazy spring, and I was so busy at work that I didn't feel like writing very much. I've been saving lots of pictures to share though!

Here is a baby blanket I made for my friend Callie who had her baby back in May. I didn't want to make her something that was totally pink. Not only was she having a baby girl, but her favorite color is pink! So I incorporated all of the baby colors into this blanket--stripes of yellow, seafoam green, and blue with pink accents. I made the two pink flowers and attached them to the bottom right corner just to jazz it up a little bit. I think the flowers soften the stripes too. I finished it just in time, the night before the baby shower at work. I think Callie really liked the blanket, and I hope she enjoys it!

I'm at that age where it seems like everyone I know is having a baby, so there will be more baby items in the future!

My First Quilt Project













I have officially started making my first quilt!! I've wanted to learn how to quilt basically since I started sewing a couple of years ago, but was waiting until I was "ready." I was recently inspired by the new line of Freschcut Fabric by Heather Bailey. She has a great blog called Hello My Name is Heather, which I started reading last summer. She has wonderful taste, cute projects, and takes truly beautiful photographs.

So when I heard that she was coming out with her own line of fabric, I was excited! Her fabrics came out earlier this year through the Free Spirit Fabric company. I was browsing through the Fat Quarter Shop, and found this: a "Jolly Pack" of all 40 of her fabrics in 5 inch squares! The stars had aligned--this is how I would make my first quilt! This idea was very appealing to me, in that I didn't have to worry about choosing colors or cutting fabric. All 40 of the fabrics go together very well without being too matchy, and they are pre-cut with pinking shears.

Last weekend, I went to my mom's house, and she helped me come up with a design for the squares. I needed some solid colors to integrate into all of the patterns, so she gave me some yellow and green fabric squares to sprinkle in there. I know it's difficult to see in the pictures, but the yellow fabrics has light, faded polka dots on it, and the green fabric has tiny moons and stars on it. Perfect!

The design we came up with features this fabric, my favorite of all of the prints:

This is actually my mom's favorite too! (Click here for a bigger picture) We placed four squares of this fabric in each of the shades in the center, and surrounded it with a green and yellow border. Then we put four green squares in each outside corner, evenly distributed some yellow squares and the rest of the printed fabrics. Mom gave me a quick lesson and showed me how to iron and pin the squares so that they line up correctly. Arranging the squares and cutting the yellow and green fabric squares took most of the afternoon, so we stopped before any actual sewing.




The next morning, armed with coffee and lots of excitement, I started piecing the strips together. I sewed one row together, and then sewed two strips together (eight strips total). It was so fun! After each strip was added, I ran upstairs to show Mike, who was deep in computer-playing mode. He was a good cheerleader though!

My next step is to add a 6-inch border around the edges, which will make it about 52" square (lap blanket size). I was thinking about edging it in the yellow fabric, and then backing the whole quilt with green fabric. I also like all of the pinks in the fabrics--I could back it with pink. What do you think?

Then, I'll be off for a trip to my Granny's house, where she can help get me started on the actual quilting part! I plan to quilt it by hand for this first one--wish me luck!

2 Weeks of Baking
I don't know about the rest of you out there, but I have had the busiest couple of weeks at work! I have barely had a chance to breathe! I worked late three out of five nights last week, and I had a huge project to work on all week long. I'm finally slowing down enough to post here.

Despite my busy-ness, I have continued my once a week baking adventures! Last week, I made banana bread on Valentine's Day. I got the recipe from the Creating Comfort Cookbook again. I realize that it looks pretty similar to my zucchini bread! Here is the inside--yum!

For this week, I made Baby Carrot Bars on Monday night. I had the day off for President's Day, which gave plenty of time to piddle--I went shopping for books in the morning, and cooked in the afternoon. These carrot cake bars are very delicious! If you follow the link, you'll see that you use 2 small jars of baby food in the dough to keep it moist. When I went grocery shopping, I didn't even know where the baby food was! You'll also notice that the recipe called for raisins and walnuts. I didn't put these in because Mike doesn't like walnuts for some reason, and raisins just sounded weird to me.

But the most fun part of the carrot cake bars was making the cream cheese icing. I LOVE cream cheese icing! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. I'd rather have cream cheese icing than chocolate or buttercream or anything else. It's fairly simple really, you just mix the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla with a mixer.

Stay tuned for more baking ...I now own a springform pan, so there should be some cheesecake soon. And my mom gave me this baking cookbook with over 350 recipes in it, so I should be set for a while!

Zucchini Bread
I may not be very quick in posting, but I have continued my baking adventures! Last Monday, I made a wonderful zucchini bread as my weekly baked good. The recipe was in my Creating Comfort cookbook, which I bought to benefit Genesis Women's Shelter here in Dallas. (You can get one here.)

This version of zucchini bread is pretty sweet, with lots of brown sugar and maple extract in it. These ingredients gave it a rich, dark brown color, and a slightly crunchy texture around the outside. Oooh, it was yummy!


There were 2 full zucchinis in the bread, grated with my cheese grater. I couldn't really taste the zucchini though, with all of the sugar and maple flavoring. I guess the zucchini is just there so you could feel good about eating it!

The recipe made quite a bit of dough--even to fill 2 loaf pans. Mike and I were eating it all last week!


Next baking adventure on the menu is.....


Banana bread!

Popcorn in the Bathroom

Well, not actual popcorn. Popcorn stitches! Here is the bathmat I recently finished from a pattern in First Crochet by Lesley Stanfield. This is a great book with lots of easy-to-understand and very cute patterns. The pictures in the book are great, and the directions are very clear.

The popcorn stitches form that raised star pattern on the mat. I used a white cotton yarn, which created a soft cushy feel--perfect for toes getting out of the shower! This was my first time to do popcorn stitches, and they were quite fun to make.


Now there is only problem--I don't want to use it as a bathmat and get it dirty! The white yarn is so pristine! The thought of water or hair or dirt getting on it makes me shudder! So, for now, it's hanging out on my sewing cabinet.

More baking adventures coming soon!

Adventures in Baking

The proverbial "they" say that your tastes change every 7 years. I don't know if the number is right, but I have noticed that now I like cantaloupe and beans when I hated them for years. Do you think the same is true for the rest of your life? That every few years you like some activity that you used to hate?

I have found this true for me. Any of you that have known for a while know that I used to HATE to cook. I avoided it whenever possible. During college, everything I consumed was pretty much previously frozen, out of a box, or from a restaurant. The kitchen was then a foreign place for me. Chopping vegetables (or anything related to using a knife) was a cruel and esoteric task that I didn't understand or have time for. Baking something was even more foreign to me, as far away from my daily life as could be.

I wonder now why I had this aversion to cooking during this time. Maybe it was a fear of the unknown. I had no idea, for instance, what ratio of ingredients would go into tomato sauce or how to properly hold a knife. Maybe it was a resistance to change. I had been heating up frozen dinners since my Mom had slowly decided that she had been cooking 3 meals a day for me and my sister for 15 years, and we could operate microwaves, so she was tired of cooking! I hadn't paid much attention to her cooking back then, and I didn't have much experience to draw on. Maybe it was something else. Maybe it was the fact that Mike would just cook for me. I admit that I got a little bit of smug satisfaction when people exclaimed, "What! Mike cooks for you?! " Like it is so hard to fathom a man cooking.

Well, the 7 year mark passed, and with the influence of Mike, and my sister and my brother-in-law attending cooking school, I slowly began to see the art of cooking. Hey, it was sort of like crafting! I get to work with my hands. I could put the different parts of a recipe together, and come out with a finished product. And you instantly had feedback on how good or bad something tasted. It was rewarding!

I have also decided to try my hand at baking. Call it a New Year's resolution. Baking is quite a different prospect than cooking. You can be less exact with cooking, you can improvise. Baking requires exact measurement and timing. The recipes say, "Don't mix it too much!" or "Mix only to combine and no more!" It is quite frightening! But, what the hell--I'll never learn if I don't try.

So, on Martin Luther King Day I was off work, and I decided to make Irish Soda Bread from my Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook. I asked my brother-in-law, the culinary school graduate, to supervise me and make sure I didn't mess it up. He showed me how to incorporate the butter into the flour by using my hands instead of a mixer. Oh, and by "showed me how," I really mean, he completely took over! He likes to do things his way. I told him how was I ever going to learn if I couldn't do it myself? He reluctantly relinquished some of the control. I have to say, the bread was DELICIOUS! It has orange zest and buttermilk in it, and currants too--you can see the currants in these pictures. We had the bread with asiago-cheese crusted chicken (Mike's original recipe), Cheddar Corn Chowder also from Barefoot Contessa, and broccoli. Yum!

The following week, I made Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread from the Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook. I was extra proud of this one because I made it all by myself! I mixed the dry and wet ingredients separately, chopped and seeded jalapenos, shredded cheese, and mixed everything just to incorporate. It was quite an accomplishment! A delicious one too.

And this past Sunday, I made Easy Cheese Danishes from guess which cookbook. These were a daunting task in that they use puff pastry. Is there anything more intimidating to the beginner baker than the elusive, persnickety puff pastry? I have watched shows on Food Network about it, and the host invariably cautions you to be careful, don't screw it up, or it won't puff! But cheese danishes are irrestible to me, so I decided to go for it. I started making them while Mike was at the grocery store, and he came home in time for a minor freak-out. My puff pastry anxiety was taking over! I had decided to make smaller-sized danishes, which means I cut 6 out of a sheet of puff pastry instead of 4. When Mike was helping me assemble them, the filling was threatening to spill off the sides and they wouldn't fold over right. They looked pretty ugly, to tell you the truth. I told Mike we just needed to get the damn things in the oven! I just wanted it to be over! I waited nervously for the next 20 minutes, asking Mike every couple of minutes, "Do you think they'll be good? I know they are ugly, but will they tasted good?" Out of the oven they came, looking puffy (yes!) but ugly (oh well). They tasted so good, so creamy, with strong vanilla and lemon flavors. We breathed a collective sigh of relief as we scarfed them down. I completely forgot to take a picture of them in my hurry to gobble them up, so you will just have to use your imagination.

My plan is to bake something new at least once a week. Bread, muffins, cake--something in the oven from scratch every week. (Frozen puff pastry from a box still counts as from scratch, even my brother-in-law says so). I will post my creations here and keep you informed of my baking adventures!

Behold my new Sewing Cabinet!



My mom gave me this beautiful new sewing cabinet for Christmas--definitely my favorite gift this holiday season! It is a Koala Sew Mate II, and an absolute dream come true.

Up until this past Christmas, I did my sewing where most young people living in apartments with no extra space do--on the dining room table. And I use dining room loosely, as our dining room/living room is just one long space. It's not so easy to sew when you are trying not to knock over pepper grinders and cups of coffee. I found it hard to get into a groove when I kept having to hunt for scissors, bobbins, and other paraphernalia when there is no designated place to set them down.

I have been wanting a sewing cabinet for quite a while, but couldn't find what I wanted out there. All of the ones I found were either white or light oak in color--too "country" for me. I wanted something a little more modern. I had complained about it to my mom, and she hatched a plan to find me one for Christmas. She enlisted Mike's help, getting him to measure spaces, and figure out what I needed. Whenever I brought up my desperate need for a sewing cabinet, and how we should go look for one immediately, Mike sneakily would say, "Why don't we look after Christmas when most furniture places have big sales?" So, I huffed and puffed, but eventually agreed.

Then, lo and behold, I received this beautiful cabinet for Christmas! And it is everything a girl could want! It fits perfectly into this goofy little corner we have in our living room, which I like to call a nook. It used to have a swivel chair in it, but nobody really sat there because it is too far removed from the couch and conversation. The cabinet feels just right there, and gives me a special, designated spot for crafting.

Oh, and the features! I know it's hard to see in the pictures, but it has a pull out cabinet with two drawers and a shelf on the left hand side. One of the drawers has a built-in notions organizer--my life is complete! The other door of the cabinet reveals the spot for the sewing machine, which raises and lowers, as well as more built-in storage on the door. It also has a fold-out table leaf on the back, which doubles the surface area again.

My first time to sew using the cabinet was a dream. I had a spot for everything, and had plenty of surface area to work on. I repurposed my dining room table for a cutting table (still don't have room for one of those). I made a checkbook cover and two out of a set of four place mats. I will post pictures of those soon.

To further cement my craft corner, I want to make some wall hangings for the empty space above my desk. Like the ones made by Sally here. And here. Aren't they cute?

The possibilities are endless with my new sewing cabinet!!

Last of my handmade Christmas gifts!

Here are the twenty journal covers that I made for my friends for Christmas gifts! I used a stretchy cotton fabric, which made it easy to create a snug fit on the journal. I embroidered them using my mom's Janome embroidery machine, which took quite a while! Once we got the design figured it out, it took about 15 minutes to embroider each one (15 minutes X 20 journal covers = 5 hours!). I used a different color embroidery thread for each one too, and tried to use each person's favorite color. On a different day, I sewed them together. Actually on two different days. I think they turned out really well! (By the way, this picture shows the covers before I sewed them together and put journals in them.)

Now, here are some gratuitous dog pictures! Here is a sleepy Sadie:


















And here is another sleepy Sadie on Christmas Eve:













And here is Sadie in her most prissy pose!

Christmas Gift-Giving with Granny









For Christmas this year, my Granny gave me this beautiful needlepoint of irises in varying shades of blue and white. My Granny is one the two major creative and crafty influences in my life (the other is my Mom). She taught me how to crochet, paint, scrapbook, hot glue, sew--basically anything and everything she knew how to do. Except knitting--I actually showed her how to knit on Christmas!! It was definite role reversal.

The needlepoint work measures about 15" X 15", and she had it framed for me. This is a pretty large size for needlepointing, so I know it took her quite a while. That detail is just amazing!


Here is my Granny wearing the red shawl that I made this past summer. It was a perfect Christmas gift for her!

More Handmade Gifts and Holiday Goodies

I realize that the holidays are but a distant memory now, but I still have more gifts and pictures to share. This is a scarf that I made for my cousin, who is living in Paris right now. She is there for six months teaching English, and as far as I know, this is the first time she hasn't been home for Christmas. I sent her a box of goodies, including the scarf. I thought the yarn was such an interesting combination of colors: gray, pink, orange, yellow, and blue.

This is a purse that I made for my sister-in-law. I used a linen fabric that I bought at Ikea for the outside, and cute frog fabric that I got on Superbuzzy. It is a linen/cotton mix of a similar color, with green frogs and brown numbers printed all over it.



















Can you see the little frogs?













Finally, here is another grocery bag dispenser that I made for my mother-in-law. (The free pattern is here, written by the Crochet Dude.) It ended up being quite a bit fatter than the other one I made--I think I added lots of extra stitches when I wasn't paying enough attention! I think this is a good thing though, because she will have more room for grocery bags.



















Right after Christmas, I made the Bisquick Applesauce Muffins recipe shared by Alicia from Posie Gets Cozy. I have to say, they were absolutely delicious! You dip the tops of the muffins in butter and cinnamon sugar once they get out of the oven--mmmm! Mike and I kept dipping them as we ate them too!


















I'll leave you with a picture of the Christmas tree at my mom's house--it was just beautiful!!

Happy New Year!

This year has started with me being very busy, but also with me having hope and looking forward to the changes that the year will bring. At work, I am currently swamped with new projects and changes to old ones, but they are all for the better. I think 2007 is promising so far!

I have been holding back on posting--I have been busy as a bee with crafting projects, but I had to wait until I gave them all away to show them to you! I'll start with my fleece blankets. I got the idea for these from Crochet Today, which is my new favorite magazine. I highly recommend it--the issues so far have been stocked with good ideas. In the October/November 2006 issue, the magazine was full of gift ideas, but I especially liked the Ruffled Fleece Blanket. It is shown as a baby blanket, but can be made any size.

I made these 3 blankets for some of the babies in my life--Riley, Logan, and Grant. To make these blankets, you do a blanket stitch by hand around the perimeter first. This gives you a place to crochet into. The Crochet Today magazine had a nice pattern for the crochet part, but I just did 1 row of single crochet and 2 rows of double crochet. I cut the fleece to 36" by 45" for the baby blankets, so they ended up a little larger with the edging. The yarn that I used around the blue and green blankets has the cutest name--Baby Bubbles! I couldn't get over that!

I also made 3 more blankets for adults. This is a great project because you can drastically change the look by changing the fleece and yarn, and still use the same method. I made these slightly larger, about 40" by 50" for a small lap blanket size. The two red ones were for some of my family member in wheel chairs, so they needed blankets that were a little smaller than a standard 50" by 50" lap blanket, so that it wouldn't get caught up in the chair.

The last one is one that I made for my dad and stepmom. They live out in the country in a log cabin, which is decorated in maroons and forest greens. I made them this maroon fleece blanket with a brown edging. It's difficult to see in this picture, but that yarn actually has maroons and greens mixed in with the brown.