Today I Tried

Whilst sewing for future baby this evening, it dawned on me that I have failed to ever sew anything for my husband.  Over the holidays most family members got something either hand sewn or at least machine sewn and I owe Zach a shirt, but for now, at least he has something.  

I was piecing together this bowling themed material for one of the baby projects I'm working on and thought it would make a nice little handkerchief, especially since I could hear Zach sniffling while I was sewing.  Plus, its a little something he can carry with him on his upcoming travels to remind him of me.  It's certainly not perfect, but then he won't have to hesitate to snot all over it.  That is the purpose of the hanky after all.  

I can order these as a reward if this diet works from here.

A while back I exercised my inner thrift, or so I thought, and bought a whole room full of patterns at an estate sale.  After culling through what I would actually try to sew, I'm left with box of patterns. Hundreds of perfectly serviceable patterns, including some really nice vintage stuff, that some sewist out there would love to put to good use.  There are only a couple of ways I figure I could off load these.  One is through a garage sale, but no one in their right mind goes to garage sales at 10 below zero.  

The other way is through etsy.  I set up a store in August when I first got the patterns and I've sold a few.  The trick with the online store is you have to list the items to make them available, which means taking a photo, writing a description and so forth.  This takes tons of time as I learned today in trying to make a dent in the pattern piles.  

I had 8 items listed this morning and as of now, I have 40 listed, but this took all afternoon.  So, I hate to hit you up, but if you happen to sew and read this blog, head on over and I'll make you an amazing deal; 10% off everything all day tomorrow, January 18th!  Just use coupon code JAN182011.  

I don't know why, but this year the valentine's bug has really bit me.  Maybe its my days spent with my darling husband that make me want to celebrate being lovey dovey all of a sudden. Who knows, but it is a good excuse to make some cute crafts.  Yesterday Karen and I made these great hearts and garland.  I just love them.  Not too sweet, just sweet enough.

This past week I roasted my first leg of lamb and since we have tons of leftovers to eat, we decided gyros would be a tasty way to make use of some of the lamb.  We didn't have pitas in the house, but I had some wheat rye bread mix in the fridge.  I pinched off a couple of hunks of that and rolled it thin and luckily they puffed in the oven and made perfect pitas.  The wheat rye mix made for a denser pita which held up well to all the tzatziki sauce we like to put on our gyros. 

We went out to a new Japanese restaurant with some friends last night.  It was extremely cold outside so the short trip from the parking lot to the restaurant entrance had me wanting something warm to drink.  I ordered hot tea, Zach ordered hot sake, something I can usually pass on.  I gave it another try last night, it was warm after all, and I liked it or at least I contributed to our table of 4 splitting three orders of the large hot sake.   It was warm and had a clean taste.  The aroma wasn't full of alcohol fumes wafting into my nose from the outset, which is what I think has turned me off in the past. 

We decided to make this recipe, which called for 8 oz. of crab meat.  What better way to get the needed crab meat than to buy a crab, cook it up and pull out the meat.  While I've cooked crab legs, I don't think I've steamed and pulled apart a whole crab.  It was fun, but kind of gross to see all the guts when I cracked open the body.  I can't wait to figure out what to do with the other one we have in the freezer.

I've been wanting to try this for awhile, especially since I saw this recipe pairing it with hot chocolate.  Instead I got to try it last night at the christmas tree bonfire and straight, just the Chartreuse and nothing more.  It's definitely herbally and I'm not sure how it would pair with chocolate.  I'd definitely say it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be since it was offered as "the green shit."  I do have a slight headache this morning, but I'm not 100% sure that is a result of the drinking last night.     

Update: Two weeks in I had to go back.  My hair was oily and I couldn't stand it any longer.  It may be the minimal showering I do already that was working against me.  I am more mindful about how much soap and shampoo I am using and I'm using a considerable amount less.  The idea still intrigues me and maybe after doing some more digging I'll give it another try. 

I ran across this article today and the idea intrigues me so I figured why not try it for a month to see if I like it.  I'm what I already consider a minimal shower-er, showering 2-3 times a week.  Now I don't know if this means I have to take more showers if I'm not using soap or shampoo or if I can stick to my normal routine.  I guess I'll try it out and see what happens.  If you meet me on the street and I stink, let me know, otherwise I'll deem this experiment a success and possibly give up soap and shampoo permanently.   Oh yeah, it's worth noting, I still plan to wash my hands at all the expected times - i.e. after handling raw meat, using the bathroom, sneezing.  This is just for regular bathing so don't get too grossed out.

We've been on a popcorn kick lately, ever since we got a Whirley Pop.  As part of our popcorn obsession we've discovered that the spice and tea shop we like to go to has popcorn seasonings, curry being one of them.  We also purchased a cheesy southwest seasoning and a chocolate salt combination.  Curry is my new favorite, next to just adding brewers or nutritional yeast, which sounds strange, but is seriously addictive.  I start searching for the pieces with the yeast on them and scraping the bottom of the bowl for more, but I digress.  So for Saturday's low key day of movie watching, I made a batch of popcorn, added the curry seasoning and then some craisins and golden raisins.  It was the perfect combination of spicy, sweet and savory.