A DIY I Could Actually Do

The Craft blog that I read, the link of which is to the right, had this wonderful idea for dealing with excess fabric. If you are a sewer, like me, and have accumulated loads of fabric (3 boxes worth), like me, this could be the answer to that vexing problem of being able to find just what you think you have but which might be down in the bottom of who knows what box.

Here's the link to the original post but I'll give a summary. And, I poked around in the blog from which this came and, well, I've added it to the side bar. Maybe you'll find it as interesting as I did.

Essentially, what the author did was "file" her fabric. She took a filing cabinet and hanging file folders and organized her fabric that way. You cut the hanging folders in half. She mentions which ones are acid-free or suggests wrapping others in tissue paper so acid from the folders doesn't damage the fabric. You simply fold the fabric so it's as wide as the folder and then wrap the folder with the fabric. If the piece is small enough, it can be draped over the folder. Hang the folder in the filing cabinet and, viola, all organized.

This would be awesome for my organization. I could get a two drawer filing cabinet and have the fabric on the top and all the interfacing and fabric pieces on the bottom. This would clear out the boxes in the closet in the office and organize everything so, when I'm sewing, I can actually find things. What a concept!

The first step is to find a reasonably priced filing cabinet I can actually lift into my house.

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb

Muffin Fail

I like to think of myself as a good or even better than average cook. It was my mother's desire that we all be able to cook when we left the nest and I think her devotion to that task has made me able to cook most anything. It is rare that I have a complete and utter failure but I did on Saturday. It was downright awful.

I used to collect cookbooks. If it struck my fancy, it came home. I never bought a cookbook full price, however, They were always found in the remainder bins, the 60-90% off tables, or even better, used book stores and sales. During the week, I tend to fall back on  the recipes I know and can whip up without too much trouble. It's on weekends that I try something new. I hauled out one of my chocolate cookbooks, leafed through it and found a recipe for Peanut Butter Surprise Muffins. The "surprise" was a chocolate kiss in the center. That sounded wonderful.

The dough was very dry, almost crumbly. It bore little resemblance to what I know as muffin batter. Instead of pouring or even dropping the batter into the cups, I had to make balls and press the mixture into the cups. It tasted great, but it resembled cookie dough more than muffin batter.

I pressed the kiss into the center of each and then covered each with another layer of dough. Finally, you add a topping of chopped peanuts and brown sugar. I really had my doubts about this. I slid the whole thing into the oven, set the timer and reread the recipe two more times to see what I missed.

Butter? Check. Peanut butter? Check. Egg? Check. Flour, soda, powder? Check, check, check. That was it. No oil. No milk. Nothing else liquid. That's the full list of ingredients.

The house smelled lovely, I'll grant the recipe that. In 20 minutes, they were done. While they looked good and smelled heavenly, they were hard as a brick. The recipe needs more liquid, maybe milk. They weren't even a cake or cookie like consistency. They were hard. They tasted fine, but the texture was akin to sand, once you broke them open. I'm adding them to the compost heap. To answer your question, without the kiss. I spent 30 minutes last night breaking each one apart to rescue the kiss. I'll be darned if I'm going to compost perfectly good chocolate kisses.

So, not everything I make comes out really good. One of my guild mates suggested I drizzle chocolate over these but that would be a waste of good chocolate. The top to the compost pile is somewhere in the yard so the squirrels will have fun jumping into the container and fishing out the peanuts. At least someone will like these.

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb

The Theme for May

Ever since doing the alphabet title theme last year, I've been trying to come up with another month-long theme that I could stick to. I had this great idea I'd eat through the alphabet, trying new recipes. That lasted through "d", I think, where I crafted a deep-dish pizza. When I cook, it's really on a whim or whimsy so, some days, I come home and cereal it is. I don't want to put hamburger to sizzle or chicken to bake. Just let me sit in the recliner with a box of cereal and I'll be okay. But, I like the idea of a theme, something, beyond my usual observations, that binds a month together. I hadn't really thought of anything until this past weekend.

I took a bunch of photos of a failed new recipe which I have not posted, yet. I tend to do that. I'll take a bunch of photos and think, "This would make a great blog post". A day later, I look at them and the enthusiasm or what I was going to say has waned. They sit in my Flickr account, waiting for the chance to be on the blog. As I'm approaching my 3rd year of blogging, I have accumulated over 3500 photos in Flickr and many were taken and never used. It's time to haul those out and blog about them. Plus, you will be seeing some old family photos. The theme will be "Old Photos". I'll still blog about things I find interesting, cooking fiascoes and other timely topics, but you're going to see a variety of photos that never saw blogging daylight, until this month, and some photos from the past.

My first old photo. I don't think I've used this anywhere else. When you have over 1,200 blog posts, it can be kind of hard to remember or find the photo. This is my home computer set up. When I got the new chair assembled back in October of 2009, it raised me up higher than the old chair I had. That meant I was looking down and not across at the computer. Because I wear bifocals, the depth of field to play the game suddenly changed. I was constantly having to tilt my head to see correctly. I found my shoulders and neck would ache after a raiding session.

I don't have that problem in the office. I would like a taller chair, but that would mean a taller desk. Right, not gonna get that through the budget. At home, I would like a different computer desk. This one is nearly 10 years old and doesn't really work for me. I'd like something more compact. But buying a new desk means getting rid of the old one and that is not a simple "haul it out to the curb" process. The current desk would need to be disassembled to be removed from the room. You laugh but it is too wide to go through the doorways of my 1953-era house. So how to remedy the problem at hand? Raise the computer to a manageable height.

I searched my house for the proper item. I finally found it in Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare. I'm quite surprised you can still get it from Amazon but for a hefty $72. I got mine in the sale bin at a Barnes and Noble for $15. It a wonderful critique of Shakespeare for those interested in such things. Plus, it's about 3 inches thick and that's just the right height to move the screen to my eye level. If I am curious about Asimov's take on Macbeth, I can just move the computer.

I like to think the Bard is with me at all times, resting comfortably, guiding my words when I sit at home staring at an image on the screen and wondering just what the heck I was going to say about this photo.

Beverage:  Huckleberry tea

Deb

Starting May Out Right

Doesn't look like much, does it? I'm opening a can of tomato sauce. What this represents, however, is that I am opening a can of tomato sauce

pain free.

That's right. My wrists no longer hurt and I can do things like turn the crank on the can opener without stopping every quarter turn because it hurts. I don't exactly know when the pain stopped. It just went away and I just noticed it last night when I was making supper.

In the morning, particularly on Saturday, when my pills are spread out in front of me, I can feel sadness that life revolves around a little white dot that tastes horrible. And then, last night, it became all worth it. I have strength back. I have range of motion back. I have my life back. As we head into the warm weather months, I couldn't ask for a better gift.

Beverage:  Huckleberry tea

Deb