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!

A Cozy Day

Since it's like THIS outside ...




... I've got a hot mug of spiced cocoa at MY side.




And a nice, apple-cinnamon candle making things smell good!

Fixed It!

Ah, a nice, sunny day to put laundry out. Here awhile back, Younger Son cleaned his room, and just DUMPED all his T-shirts, clean and otherwise, in the laundry. So I'm just washing them all, and starting afresh. So here on the line is most of that, plus current laundry of long pants, sweatshirts and Hubby's work things. But wait ... what's wrong with this picture?



There are only two lines, not three!


Awhile back, the clothesline broke.



The line we first put up is a wire-enclosed-in-plastic type. The ends are held together with a U-bolt and nuts. If you have to tighten the lines, you have to loosen the screws, adjust the line, and tighten the screws back up. TEDIOUS. You can tell those other two lines need tightened again.


Well, one day I had a bunch of stuff on that third line, and >>SNAP!!!<< the end broke and down it came. It broke in the end loop, snapped completely through, so no putting it back up - too short to do anything with.


So FINALLY at Wallyworld yesterday, I got a package of clothesline. It's woven nylon, and I'll just tie it on.




Tied on to the west end - I'll clip that old line off when I find some wire snips. OR, maybe those scissors will do?




And, the east end tied. Let me tell you, I like those combo gloves. They can be mittens, as well as fingerless gloves, which are good for keeping my hands warm while having to do something tedious, like tie on clothesline.



Levtover line, will have to find a use for!




Ahhhh ... three lines again! Which is good, because I have a load of towels and socks yet.

A Snack for a Cold Day

Winter has hit. Bitter cold overnight, cold during the days, heaters going. So a yummy snack to have with a hot drink is good to have on hand. Today, pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins. I'm not going to say how many I ate since I got them out of the oven!

Knitting Fun With Knotty Yarn

For something to do to be creative and not have to "think too much," I like to crochet and knit. Simple, less-expensive yarn is OK, and has a lot of varieties of color and weight. But here lately I've enjoyed trying to work with some "homespun"-style yarns. They have a wavy, "knotty" texture, and it gives the finished product a nice, soft texture.


But so far, I haven't crocheted with it, because it seems nearly impossible to see where the stitches are! So, when working with this yarn, I've stuck with knitting. This first project, I started quite awhile back ... over a year ago? So I worked on it a good while, then it's been just sitting ever since. So lately, for a break from quilting, I dug this knitting back out. It's pretty close to done, so I should be able to wear it soon, just in time for it turning cold for winter. In this yarn, the colors are mixed anyway, but it seems to be variegated in "chunks."




You can see here the "wavy" texture of the yarn.




Then just the other day, I was wandering through wallyworld, and ended up just WALKING BY the yarn section. NO INTENTION to buy any. But there was this lone skein of pretty, pink-colored yarn. This one skein seemed to say, "I need a home." So I gave it one. I started this scarf, but just since I took the picture a bit ago, I decided not to make it quite so wide. So it got unraveled and restarted with not quite so many stitches on the needle. I might say, too, that on this project and the next one, I REALLY LIKE the shorter knitting needles. For smaller projects, they're not quite so awkward.




A closeup of the pink yarn, also wavy, and a nice mix of pink and white.




Then, I've had this yarn sitting around for awhile. I found the skein at the thrift store for pretty cheap, so I gave it a home as well. But it's been sitting. So tonight I decided I might as well work on 3 different scarves and have a variety to keep from getting bored! Besides, the brown-gold one is almost done. But this yarn is a little different, where instead of being wavy, it has "knot-like" things in the yarn at intervals, and it's a little tricky to pull the yarn through the stitches. But keeping it a little loose, it works. So we'll see how this one goes!




Here you can see the "knots," just little loops that stick out from the main part of the yarn. But it's kind of rough! The little bit of knitting I've got on the needle so far looks like a blurry mess! But it'll still keep me warm this winter. :)