Finally Finished on Friday!

I don't have anything to show today.  But I'd really like to have some project that has been kicking around my craft table or sewing table to be showcased today.  I'd like to start a new series called "Finally Finished on Friday."  The rules about the projects though - they have to be something I started a while back and have finally managed to finish.  New projects started in the last couple months don't count.  Let's see if this will motivate me to finish up some of those half-done projects cluttering up my house.  :)

I know I have several counted thread projects, garments that have been cut out, doll clothes, quilts, knitting and decorative painting projects within view.  Check back in next Friday and see what I've accomplished.

~Jane

Wordless Wednesday

Coming to an Etsy shop near you!

 

 

~Jane

Saturday

Today I was able to just stay home and putter around the house for the most part.  It is so seldom that I get a day at home anymore, I hardly know what to do.  Upon writing those words, I realized I started the morning by going for bloodwork at the doctor and then a trip to Target, but once home I stayed home. 

My daughter is beginning to think of potty training, so I finished up three waterproof trainers for my grandson.  They are three different versions/combinations of materials, so she can figure out which works best for them.  I checked out the waterproof ones at Target and they were horrible with a very noisy vinyl on the outside.  These have waterproof knit PUL on the outside and are so much nicer.  They sure are a pain to sew on my machine though.

The other thing I did today was lots of apron ironing.  These are ready to go to my daughter's for inclusion in her Etsy shop.  I still have a few to wash and a few more to iron. 

I finished the buttonholes in my Schoenhut doll's underwaist with attached petticoat while watching "The Social Network" tonight.  All it needs is a little featherstitching around the hem.  All-in-all a pretty productive Saturday.


~Jane 

Aprons!

I know I've written several times about sorting through my mother's things.  She passed away a year ago last February.  She just had tons of stuff to go through and my daughter and I are still sorting through boxes of things we've never seen.  We probably have about 40 or 50 boxes left to go.  We're trying to get ready for a garage sale in early September.

One of the things that my mother collected was aprons.  Mainly organdy half aprons.  I know they were a regular seller in her antiques space and, during the eight months she was hospitalized or in a rehab center, I ironed and sold quite a few while keeping her space going and stocked with inventory.  At last summer's garage sales, we sold a lot of aprons.  Quite a few armfuls of them.  After the garage sale, my daughter and I couldn't bear to sell the rest of them at garage sale prices, so we started washing and ironing them, doing the few little mends required, and selling them on her Etsy site.  I generally wash, mend, and iron, and my daughter photographs, lists, and sends out the sold ones.  It is a pretty fair division of labor.

We've sold about 35 of them on-line, and at least another 30 at the garage sale. There are about 20 listed right now, and a bunch of them waiting for either pictures or the right season to list. I delivered most of what I had left to my daughter this afternoon. I only had these few to iron, maybe a few more in some of the boxes that I've brought home but not sorted yet.  But I was finally feeling that maybe the end was in sight.

Then we started sorting through boxes today.  It turns out a lot of the boxes today held inventory from my mom's antique space.  My brother had boxed everything up when we closed her space.  It included all the aprons I had ironed for her shop.  Plus, we went through other boxes and found more aprons.  So instead of just a couple, I've got about 40 more to wash and iron.  And, don't forget we also have about 50 additional boxes to sort through.  If you're interested in vintage aprons, keep checking our Etsy website.  We're continually listing new ones.  

~Jane

The Mary Frances Sewing Book - Adventures Among the Thimble People

This is the kind of book that just enthralls me.  I am always so amazed to see the books that children of a bygone era read and used.  This is a simply wonderful book.  It's delightful to read, but also gives very detailed instructions for learning to hand sew.  The little sampler strips the author has you sew to practice the stitches are not unlike the strips my home economics teacher made us do way back in the seventh grade.  I'm not sure what age this was geared to, but I am assuming around age 10.  It was published for the first time in 1913, back in an age where little girls were little girls for a while and it was acceptable to play with their dolls much later than girls nowadays sometimes do.

I have to admit I got quite caught up in the process described in the story and immediately wanted to start sewing for a doll.  Now I have quite a few projects already going, including several doll projects, but had to figure out if I had a doll needing clothes that would fit the time period and the patterns.  A quick scan of my doll cabinet and some measuring with my tape measure brought me to this little Schoenhut.  She's been sitting in my doll cabinet for 20 years wearing just her union suit.  She is just the right size and from the right era to wear the clothes in the Mary Frances sewing book.  So now I have ANOTHER project!  :)  I'd like to make her the entire wardrobe in the book, following the directions they give.  I think it will be lots of fun.

~Jane - Who has also decided she needs a sewing bird like the one mentioned in the book.  :)

Joy of Cooking

While reading through the blogs I read through, I came across one about the Joy of Cooking cookbook.  Here is a quote from this blog:  "So this book just sits on my counter. Normally if I had something for four years and didn't use it, I'd donate it. But I can't seem to do so with this one.

I have many questions for you this week:

Do you own this book?

Do you use it?

Should I keep it?

Do you have any books that have turned out to be "just for show?"  by Ellen Stewart.

Oh, my.  Yes, I've used it. And used it. And used it.  The Joy of Cooking isn't just a book of recipes, although it is.  It's a book of techniques.  One of my bridesmaids, who got married a short time before I did, and wasn't working at the time, made every one of the cakes in the cookbook just for the learning experience.  If you want to know how to carve a turkey, or what temperature to roast your chicken, or how to make the perfect pie crust, this is the book for you.  It is an encyclopedia of knowledge about cooking.  What cuts of beef are the best for whatever it is you want to do.  It kind of like Julia Child's book of french cooking, but just for cooking in general.  This is what my copy looks like:

  Yes, the lettering is just about worn off the spine and it is oil and batter bespeckled.  No, I don't know why I have a potholder stuck in there, but it's marking the recipe to homemade pizza crust.  Yes, there a million other recipes stuck in there that are scribbled on odd little pieces of paper. 

  These are the other cookbooks that I have used since before I got married 32 years ago:  my Betty Crocker Cooky Book, my copy of the Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book. and the Farm Journal Book of Pies.  My mother used to work for General Mills when she was first married and one of the things they sold was the Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book.  She, of course, bought one.  All our family favorite recipes came from that cookbook, my mother's cheesecake, baked beans, BBQ sauce, turkey dressing, and potato salad.  Finally about 15 years ago my husband spotted one in a used book store and bought me my own copy since my mother wasn't ready to give hers up.  They reprinted it about six years ago, right when my daughter was getting married and I bought her a copy.  Now I have my mother's also with all her notations in it.

Yes, I know there is the internet and there are millions of recipes on-line, but there is just something satisfying about cooking from a cookbook that has stood the test of time.  Besides, the internet recipes are the scraps of paper that mark all my favorites in the book.

~Jane

Swollen Ankle

We've been back almost a week, but I am still gimping around on my sore ankle.  It's funny how when it happened, well, first of all I was embarrassed about tripping, but just bounced back up and continued on.  When it means being left in the total dark, a banged up ankle means nothing.  So the poor ankle, instead of getting babied, was made to hike another 1.25 miles over rough terrain and then go back up a million stairs.  The next day, I drove halfway from Bend to home before giving the accelerator over to my daughter.  Since then, I've been on it quite a bit, a lot more than I should, or else just sitting at work, which is almost as bad.  I found a box to prop it up on as I worked this morning to elevate it a little.  It is still sore and swollen.  I discovered a bruise on my other knee, so must have banged it also.  Vacation....I'm beginning to think it's overrated!  :) 

It was cold in the beginning - 42 degrees.

By the end, I'd warmed up! I fought the cave and the cave almost won!

~Jane