sew kinda boring

Since the excitement of making Emily's coat ended, sewing has been more than a little mundane...I darned socks. (really!) I have lengthened every pair of pajamas that Emily owns. I have attempted to alter a favorite dress that got way too small (just didn't work out). And I have made draft stoppers.



Boring to make, but actually kind of exciting to have finished, because they have made a huge difference! Our house was built in 1919 and still has a lot of original windows, some of which are soooooo drafty. Every year I'd say "I ought to figure out to make some draft stoppers for those" but then I never got around to doing it. Finally, after a week of high winds coming up from the water, I did it.

I didn't bother to even look for any directions online, I'm sure there are plenty. But I just forged ahead and did what I thought would work -- and it did! I measured the windows and then cut rectangles that were the width of each window plus 1-1/2" long; and 7-1/2" wide. I used french seams for extra strength, and seamed the rectangles along the long edge and one short edge. Emily and I then filled them with play sand using a kitchen funnel (that was fun, if a little messy!), and then I rolled the open ends over, pinned them and then very carefully brought them back upstairs and sewed them closed. We put them in the windows and seriously, the temperature in the house climbed within just 2 or 3 hours.

Sewing hasn't been all boring though, Emily has her own machine now and has started making things! But more on that later. Ha ha, and I totally forgot, I made a new flannel robe from a vintage pattern for Evan...where is my brain? More on that later, too!

best biscuits ever

And possibly the easiest, too. If you have a food processor, that is. Emily and I had ours with butter and honey, Evan went for straight butter. Thumbs up from everyone!



Seriously, I have never tried a biscuit recipe that grew so tall in the oven! Try these for yourself! Recipe here.

wasabi adventure

Over the holidays, we made our Xmas eve trip to Mitsuwa to pick up our Xmas Cake, and while browsing around the section of special fancy stuff for gifts, we found a display of real wasabi. Not the fake stuff you get in restaurants (which is mustard, horseradish and green color) but the actual root. I was excited to see it, and then flabbergasted by the price:



Yup, that's $59.99 per pound. Luckily, a little root doesn't weigh much! So we brought the tiniest one home.



I didn't have the proper grater (I used my trusty basic microplane) and we weren't even going to have sushi in the house while it lasted. But I wanted to see for myself what it was like.



And it really is nothing like the faux wasabi I've had all my life. It's hard to explain, but unlike the horseradish version, the heat dissipates really fast. And it doesn't go to your sinuses at all. At least in comparison. I do not love wasabi paste, but I really liked this! I couldn't just keep eating little pinches of it though, so I made a bowl of wasabi mayo out of it and we had it on sandwiches for a few days. Delicious, and definitely a worthwhile experiment!

project princess update

So the princess coat has been a huge success. Emily wears her coat every time we go out, without any arguing or whining. She loves it, it keeps her warm, and I don't have to put up with the comments from strangers I used to get for letting her run around coatless in winter. So it's been a total win-win. In fact, it's been a win-win-win, because I entered a sewing contest with it and I won 2nd prize! (And by just 1 vote difference between 2nd and 1st!)



Pretty exciting. And, now I think I'm ready to tackle a coat for myself after thinking it over for a year or two!

So far, 2010 itself has been pretty alright. Here's hoping it keeps on going that way.

Merry Ultra Christmas!

And happy holidays to you!



We're off to pick up a Christmas cake just like Booska did. Have a great weekend!

2009, the year that won't stop giving

So, wow, just as we thought 2009 was getting out of here with all its bad luck, I had a Surprise! Emergency Root Canal! which was my worst dental experience of all time, with a good two weeks healing time needed. Horrible pain and followups were included, with Bonus Tooth Grinding thrown in as well.

Then, during Snowpocalypse 2009, a NYC Sanitation truck hit the utility pole across from our house (at 2 am), tearing the power lines off our house and into the street. Yay FDNY who showed up quickly. And the Con Ed guy who stayed in his truck in the freezing cold until he got the lines back up and power on in our house (sometime after 6am, which was when we finally got to sleep). Boo to the surprise expense of having the power line put back up permanently. (I've already started the process of filing a claim against the city, but I hear it's hard to get your money back no matter how totally at fault they are.)

And a few other glitches, like unpacking and testing the tree lights on the 18th only to discover they didn't work; or looking for the snow shovel and realizing -- we don't have one! How did that happen? We have no idea.

But it hasn't all been bad. I won a giveaway on the really awesome craft/storytelling blog Creative Breathing and got this amazing elf girl peg doll and felt tree ornament:



They will be part of our Xmas decor forever! As will this guy:



Yup, a Yeti ornament! I got it from the Cryptozoology Museum as a surprise for yeti fan Evan. So cute.

Hopefully the next few days will keep on being more good than bad. And then...2009 will get out of here!

And we did find replacement lights at the last minute, not easy when you have a white tree! It ended up being for the best, because we all love the multi-colored light strand we had to get!

project princess is complete!

Remember the pattern I posted about a while back, the one Emily wanted for her winter coat? The one I wasn't really sure I could pull off?



Well guess what..I decided to go full speed ahead and just do it -- and it's finished!!



The process was some learning curve, I tell you. The amount of redrafting I had to do in order to make it fit her was insane. But, as you can see, it ended up working out! The one big drawback is that because it's fitted closely at the waist there's no way it will fit her next year (I'm just hoping it lasts out the winter!). So I'll be making a new coat next year. I got a really nice wool melton for the body, lined it with a silk twill (in orange, Emily's pick!) and Emily picked out some vintage-y black buttons (she really wanted a vintage set I have but there weren't enough of them).

But what really makes this coat a success is that she loves it. She was asking to wear it the day it was done, and when she's worn it out she's kept it on every second.



This from the girl who last year would drop her coat magically right from her shoulders and take off in short sleeves because she "hates jackets" so much! And while it was a lot of work, I really enjoyed making it (and finishing it!). I even want to make a coat for myself now.

Lots more photos are on flickr if you want to see, and for more detailed sewing info you can check out the write up on Pattern Review.