Tidying Up

To say that my sewing table area was a disaster would be a severe understatement. It was in DEEP NEED of sorting and organizing! So today, I tackled that. Put some stacks of material away for awhile. Put yarn projects in a tote and put them out of the way. Tidied the table and put less-used/unused things in the BACK and highly used/necessary things in the FRONT within easy reach. Not vice versa, which I'm prone to do all over the house!


Recently, I found some simple "shadow box frames" at the thrift store, really cheap. So I've had fun putting them to use. I know I'll keep messing with what I put in them, but this is a start. Here's the dark one made of thick wood.





Here's a lightweight one, and it looks like at one time a glass cover might've slid into place over it. but I'm enjoying it anyway. I decided to put colorful scraps in the spaces, then I put wooden spools with simmilar (or no) colors of thread on top. A folded doily that Mom made is underneath.





The jar of crochet hooks and small rulers. Most of the crochet hooks were Mom's, and I've added a few. The tin to the right of that is Mom's old button tin. I played with those buttons often as a kid, dumping them out on the table (this very table!), and looking at them and sorting them.



I also stocked up on a few treats to have handy. Here's a jar of chewy cherry hearts of different flavors. Cherry Cola, Chocolate Cherry, Cherry Cheesecake, Wild Cherry, etc.



Some wrapped chocolate hearts in a jar.



And last but not least a jar of pink and white and red M & M's in the shadow box on the wall. I don't care if it is still only mid-January - I NEED COLOR!!!

A Different Kind of Cake

Mom and I had a habit at home of pouring milk over chocolate cake in a dish. In similar style, Dad was always dunking all kinds of stuff in his coffee. I've got that habit, too. I like hot tea, hot coffee, hot cocoa, etc., and to dunk things in them ... cookies, donuts, biscotti. Mom told about how a lot of their suppers at home in the '30's when she was a girl was cornbread and milk (and a dab of sugar) in a glass. Dad liked saltine crackers crushed into a glass with milk poured over. Mom often fixed "milk toast" for breakfast in the cold months, hot seasoned milk poured over buttered toast.


In light of all this soaked up stuff, awhile back I saw a recipe on Pioneer Woman's website for "Tres Leches Cake."


http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/09/tres-leches-cake/


A cake with milk soaked into it? Right up my alley. But I've not tackled this from-scratch recipe yet. Older Son and I were in wallyworld recently, and they had this cake in mix form, so I grabbed one. You made a cake part, then after it was baked and cooled you poured a milk mixture (milk with some kind of powder whisked into it) all over it. Then I topped it with whipped topping.




Older Son "kind of" liked it, Younger Son ate maybe half a piece. Hubby didn't touch it. Meanwhile, I could've snarfed up the whole cake at once! So if I make it again, it'll probably be all mine. Well, since I have an "easy way" to make it with a mix in a box and whipped topping in a tub, I may just do that.

Rearranging ... on a Wall

I found a really nice shadow box shelf at the thrift store today. My immediate idea was, "Sewing and yarn stuff."


Here's the shelf, reposing on the couch while I decide what to do.




I had kind of put a lot of stuff all over the wall by my sewing/crafting table. Quilt blocks, post-it notes, what-have-you. It got to looking a little messy and disorganized.




So I took all the things down to start with a clean slate.




Measured and marked and nailed, and put the new (dusted) shelf in place.




Then came the fun part, putting a few things back on the wall, then filling the shelf with fun items.




A closeup of the shelf. I think I'll really enjoy this. I can change things out for seasons, holidays, various themes, what-have-you. I'd say the 3 dollars was worth it!