Stop staring and start sewing!

It's late October (why are we still sweating?)

Thank you all so much for the kind wishes on our 25th anniversary.  We're already busy working on the next 25 so onward and upward and all that.  I think the next 25 are the ones with the weddings and grandkids so it's going to be pretty awesome I'm sure.

We did a little pumpkin carving the other night and the boys were pretty darned excited even though they didn't get to handle any of the dangerous tools.  I showed them my childhood pumpkin carving thumb scar while giving them the knife speech (me + steak knife = blood/emergency room/stitches) and then Joey did all the dangerous work.  It was still fun and I think Joey did a good job on accomodating Skate's countless "make sure he has scary eyes!" requests.

This may be the first time we've carved pumpkins since we started having kids.  We used to completely ignore halloween (dark house/quietly hiding out in one of the back rooms), then we softened a little and allowed "harvest parties" as long as they dressed in Biblical costumes....then we bent a little more and started allowing costumes based on literary characters (I made a Laura Ingalls dress for Peety one year).  Now we're pretty secure in the knowledge that dressing up and going door to door for candy will not send our children's souls to hell so we're having a good time with it all (but if you ever see a post where my boys are dressed as Freddy Kreuger and Hannibal Lechter please be kind enough to inform me that I've let things get out of hand, thank you).

They're pretty happy with their jack o' lanterns (they look great when lit up!) and the scary eyes are a hit.  The pumpkins have only been outside for 2 days and they're already starting to cave in though.  That's Arizona for you (shirtless in late October you see).

Here's something totally FUN!!!  That cute little family over at Young House Love is doing another Pinterest Challenge with their friends at the Bower Power Blog and this time I'm totally on board.  I LOVE Pinterest (I'm here by the way) and I'm glad to have some motivation to act on all that inspiration and make something new.

I'm going to try to make something like this frame (super cute and crafty blog there) for my sad front door.  I've got the supplies, have started spray painting, and with a little glue and craft wire I should have something better to look at than the current dust webs on my door.  I'm even painting the door (and I'm going to try to treat myself to a new door mat).  Pictures on Wednesday! 

Go to this page on Young House Love to join the challenge.  Stop Pinning and Start Doing (at least for a little while!).

What I did with my past 25 years

25 years ago today I married a nice, funny, 23 year old man.  He was smart and cute.  A little too skinny but I figured I could work on that.  He made me laugh.  A lot.  And he thought I was pretty but he was gentleman enough to keep his hands to himself.  I was 21 and knew I'd hit the jackpot.

I still have the price tag that was on my Laura Ashley gown.  375.00.

For 5 years we played the yuppies.  I had a great job at a hospital, which paid the bills and put Joey through aircraft mechanics school.  Our rent was 265.00 a month until we took the leap and upgraded to a two bedroom apartment in the hip Hollywood neighborhood of Portland for a whopping 425.00.  We ate out at restaurants a lot, went to the beach whenever, and shopped at Nordstrom because that's what yuppies did.  We did this for about 3 years before we started talking about babies.

Two miscarriages and 1 round of fertility pills later (plus 9 months, 2 weeks) along came our Olivia.  People thought we were crazy to give her such an old fashioned, out of style name.  Turns out we were cutting edge after all.  She was a sweet, easy baby and I was utterly perplexed about how to manage a home but I was determined to stay home and figure it out.  I decorated and renovated our beautiful 1924 house which we'd paid a whopping 59,900.00 for in 1991 and Olivia kept me company.  We had a lot of fun together and fortunately she can't remember all of my fumbling attemps to figure our new life out.

Joey was working as an aircraft mechanic for Horizon Airline (where they would joke "if the meatball's on the tail...go by rail" because the logo looked like a meatball) and going to school to get his FCC license so he could move into avionics where it was dry and warm and he might have a chance for the day shift.

(someone had mistakenly told me I was an "Autumn" so I was doomed to wear the wrong colors until I figured it out on my own)

Meanwhile, were so smitten with our sweet, smiling girl that we were determined to have another as soon as possible.  22 months later we were tickled to get a dark, furry baby girl (I'd married an Italian and I wanted dark babies darnit!).  Turns out this one wasn't going to be nearly as sweet and smily as her big sister.  Pietra squealed and turned every shade of red for the first year and when we weren't pulling our hair out we were laughing our heads off at her cynical, suspicious stares.  At this point I had started sewing again so Joey's the only one in the picture with store bought clothes.  You can see I'm holding Peety's arm down to keep her thumb out of her mouth for this picture.  Man, she needed that thumb.

(This was a Vogue dress pattern on the girls and I probably made it 20 times, so classic and dainty)

Things were swimming along just fine and then we got the crazy idea to uproot and move to Arizona so Joey could go to flight school.  We sold our sweet home for more than double what we'd paid for it and took our girls and our cat to Arizona.  In August.  We'd just left the rain and moved to the scorch.  Oh well, we knew it was only temporary so we figured we could handle it.

We bought a decent little ranch house in an okay neighborhood and plowed ahead with our lives.  3 more miscarriages, back on the fertility pills and along came girl number 3.  Perfect.  I was finished.  Sofia was cute, dimpled, and healthy.  Her sisters were smitten.  What more could we ask for?

(apparently I should've asked for the ability to alter a pattern so that my blouse could fit across my big old nursing boobs but not droop off of my shoulders.  I know how to fix that now but this picture has always bugged me).

Flight school tanked, we sold our house to pay off the debt, moved to an apartment, and Joey went to work at Honeywell.  We found out our insurance didn't cover vasectomies so, not wanting to hand Joey's vittles over to the lowest bidder, we decided to save up for the procedure.....um...  Another miscarriage and then, what the heck?  A boy?  Asher.  Neither of us had had brothers so this was going to be something new for everyone.  Why was he grunting so much?  Why is he banging on his tray so hard?  Why does he always pee out the top of his diaper (had to call a friend with boys on that one.  Turns out you need to point it downward when attaching the new diaper).  By this time we'd managed to get another house but realized it was going to be a tight fit with 4 kids (but were happy to be in a nice neighborhood).

Joey got a new job which was supposed to be a dream come true and turned out to be 4 years of living hell.  It was painful to see my kind husband being treated poorly but it was a real testimony to his love for me and the kids that he stayed there in order to take care of us.  When he finally took a pay cut and less stability to get out of there we were elated.  Some things are more important than money.  In fact, many many things are.

In 2003 we'd had a brand new house built which is more than double the size of our last one and it's a good thing because we weren't done filling it.  See how our "temporary" move to Arizona turned out?

We'd found out how great surprises can be with our first boy and decided to stop messing around with our own plans.  Nearly 6 years (and another 4 miscarriages) after Asher we were blessed with another boy.  I was 41 and a little more tired but, by this time, I had a lot of helpers around me.   This boy was much gruntier and banged much harder on his tray than the first one.  Fun!  Levi (aka Skate, thanks to Asher naming him) has kept every last one of us on our toes and the other kids moved past the "isn't he cute?" to "why does he keep breaking my stuff?!" phase pretty quickly.

So here we are.  25 years.  It really does feel like 25 years except it feels like we just started having kids.  How is it that part goes so fast?  He still makes me laugh and every day tells me I'm pretty.  He's cuter than ever (and has put on enough weight to look healthy) and is nuts about his kids.  He takes us to church every week and is nice enough to run to the store for maxi pads when one of us gals needs them (yes, the ones with wings please).  He's not the same man I married and I'm glad.  I'm not the same either.  We've both learned how to argue, adjust, confront, and grow, while still laughing.  We've had loads of disappointments which could have devastated us but were fortunately off set by overwhelming blessing.  And that's how life is.  Jackpot.

Simply a case of fake it 'til you make it

I keep doing Fall activities in hopes that it will begin to feel even a little more crisp around here and it's just not working.  We had a very short cool spell but then all of last week it was up near 100 degrees.  Ugh.  The air conditioning has been broken in my car for months and it would be a treat to arrive somewhere and not be covered in sweat.  I'm becoming extremely envious of other people blog posts mentioning fallen leaves and mossy smells.  Just smells like sweat here.

So I'm in the house with the a/c on just faking it with a bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich.  Looks so cozy, eh?

We had a garage sale this weekend and my feet actually got tanned again from sitting out here.  My little guy didn't want to miss a thing so he came out early and laid claim to the red sectional.  It must've worked because nobody bought it (I'm going to give it one more try on Friday and then I don't know what I'll do with this behemoth).  It's still out there and I have a feeling it's making my anal retentive, lawn vacuuming (yes, they do) neighbors have little fits every time they look out the blinds in their Gladys Kravitzy way.

My little Skate had the run of the house whilst I was tending to the garage sale and the rest of the family was rushing about with weekend parties and tasks, and he managed to get into a lot of trouble (not even counting this amazing, dare devil feat here).  He opened up most of the games in my (finally organized) pantry (now not-so-organized, sigh), dumped out a bunch of spices, drank a small bottle of vanilla extract (oh yeah) and then came out with blue, liquidy lips claiming he had no knowledge of any food coloring or anything of the sort.  I guess I'll just be glad it wasn't red dye #4 then.

Oh well.  We'll start a new week tomorrow and keep our fingers crossed for a little weather relief and some time to re-organize my pantry again.  It's all good, right?

Don't forget to check Fabritopia for all the final close-out prices.

A winner, a recipe, and some other miscellany....

Alrighty then!  The winner of Jessica Levitt's Modern Mix book is Donna, who loves Tom Hanks (but really, who doesn't?).  Congratulations to Donna!  That was really entertaining reading everyone's favorite celebrities.  Some made me go "me too!" and others made me go "meh poo".  I don't know why but George Clooney has never done much for me.  Tell me there's a movie with Gary Oldman or Robert Duvall in it though, and I'm out the door on the way to the theater.

Since it's fall and that puts everyone in a cozy, baking state of mind I'm sharing another recipe.  This one is very popular with the kids (and everyone else), has simple ingredients, and goes together fast (while still giving you that happy, Betty Crocker feeling inside).  You can replace the cream with milk if you're in a pinch but I've noticed I always get many more happy comments when I use the cream.

This is a fresh hot plate of my Buttercream Biscuits and they taste as good as they look. 

 

You can download the recipe here or just click on the recipe below. 

Here's what it looks like after you've mixed the butter with the dry ingredients.  I think I've bought Bisquick maybe 5 times in my 25 years of marriage.  I really like knowing exactly what is in my food and it's not too difficult to make so many things if you have a few basic ingredients in your kitchen.  Plus you can play around with so many flavors (you can put cheese on these, or different seasonings in it) when you're doing things yourself.

Here's what you have after you've added the yummy yummy cream to the mix.  Cream is the secret ingredient in good scones too (it's pretty much the secret ingredient to anything that tastes awesome).

This is the fun part.  Cutting circles.  And after this you brush a little cream on the top and get a nice pretty, flaky glaze on the top. 

Anyway, give it a try and let me know what you think!  I realized, after the fact, that I had forgotten to include the salt in the ingredients on my buttermilk pancake recipe so you can download the corrected recipe here if you like.

And after a few fun fabric filled years, I've decided to close down my main Fabritopia site and focus more on my patterns and other creative endeavors I'm working on right now.  I'll still have my etsy sites and really that's all I can handle right now anyway.  So I'm having a huge blow out of all the remaining inventory.  I'll just keep reducing it until it's gone.  It's been amazing and I've met some wonderful friends through my store.  But things (economies, grrrr) change and opportunities come and go (but good friends stay, right?).  Onward and upward, and all that!

And if you want some wonderful news.....Mary Engelbreit is planning on relaunching her Home Companion Magazine!!  Please go sign the petition on her blog (now!).  I was so devastated when the magazine ceased publication and, to be honest, I've felt sort of cranky towards Mary even though I know she had nothing to do with the decision that was made (and I'm sure she's a super nice lady who wants to have coffee and cinnamon rolls with me but just doesn't realize it yet).  I'm so happy she's trying it again since I've been missing my quiet time with this wonderful publication. 

Have a great week and keep sewing (I won't even tell you how many days until Christmas since I don't want to know myself)!

 

Jessica Levitt....a blog tour....and a book for you!!

I first met Jessica Levitt in Pittsburgh at the Spring Quilt Market in 2009.  She was shopping around a collection of fabric (see that portfolio behind her back...) and she was kind enough to let me take a peek (seriously, she's just one of the nicest people!).   Here she is chatting with our friend Scott Hansen at our little mixer. 

Well that was her Timber collection and I knew she'd go home with a contract, it was such a pretty and original line.  She now has another collection out (again, beautiful) but we're not here to talk about that...we're here to discuss ...

 

...her new book!!  Modern Mix!  Jessica has teamed with the amazing folks at Stash Books to create this book and gosh it's a great one!  It's just loaded with beautiful (and handsome!) projects and the nicest thing is, they are not overly complicated but have such a great finished look.  I love that!  Why make more work for people when you don't have to?  Of course it might be the great illustrations and flawless instructions that make the projects look so welcoming but, whatever it is, everything in this book looks so "do-able" for beginners and old timers alike.

I was lucky to get Jessica to answer some questions for me...lucky because I waited until the last minute and also because I was totally stumped (seriously...I googled "interview questions for authors" to get some help!).  Anyway, here we go!

1.  When did you start sewing and when did you start to LOVE sewing?

The first thing I ever sewed (I think) was a little felt teddy bear in 6th grade Home Ec.  Didn't love it, but looking back it was probably because we had to sew by hand.  The next year we had sewing machines (I had to take Home Ec because there wasn't enough room in wood shop) and I'm pretty sure the love was instant.  My mom was really more of a teacher than school and I made my first quilt shortly after that.  I think discovering fabric stores was really all it took, even though quilt stores didn't have cool designer stuff they have now.  I quilted and sewed costumes all through High School and the passion has never died...

 

2.  Is this (fabric/book) what you imagined yourself doing when you finished school?

Absolutely not.  I have a degree in electrical engineering and computer science.  I went that way in part because I was good at math and science, but more because it was "safe".  I was too practical to consider a career in any kind of art field.  I wanted what I believed to be a stable and fairly lucrative career.    And I got that when I graduated.  I didn't hate it, but my creative side was really repressed and I hated to have to work regular hours particularly when I was bored.  Lucky for me, I married a very supportive man who encouraged me to go for it, and I left engineering to start my own business.  It has been amazing...

3.  What part of writing the book most surprised you, and which part was most fun?

Well, I'll admit I can be a bit of a control freak so having to let go of the manuscript to have Stash Books do the photography was difficult.  They really took a lot of input from on what look I wanted etc, but I think I still didn't believe they could make it feel like my style.  And there were a few moments of panic there where I thought it wasn't going to be what I envisioned, but when I got back the sample chapters I was totally blown away.  It's just so "me", that I was shocked but very pleased.

As for the most fun, well seeing the final product was such a thrill, but I think some of the sewing was actually the most fun.  Just doing what I love, especially when I was done with the bulk of the writing of the directions.

4.  Tell us about some of your other talents.....

Well, in the sewing arena I've done a fair amount of costume design and construction, both for theater and for myself and my family.  I've also dabbled in ballroom dance gowns, which leads to another of my interests, ballroom and latin dancing.  That's how my husband and I met and we still take lessons together.  I also do interior design and love to add my own sewing to that.  And I love event design and planning.  I was a wedding designer/planner when I first left engineering and now I love to throw elaborate parties for my kids.

 Wow!  I really didn't know how multi-faceted Jessica was (great interview questions, right?)!  I really can't wait to see what she does next.

Okay, here's where it gets good....Stash is giving away a copy of the book to some lucky winner, not only on my blog, but on all the other blogs listed below (I love these bloggers and am honored to be a part of this blog tour with them!).  They will send an actual hard copy of the book in the US and they have kindly opened it up internationally (if you are outside of the US you will receive the book via email in pdf format).

Just leave a comment....the only requirement is your comment needs to be the name of your favorite celebrity (dead or alive).  Don't think too hard since I know you have to visit these other blogs (just name the one that comes to mind first and move on....).  Back on Thursday with a winner!

Thursday 10/6:  Sew Mama Sew

Friday 10/7:  Jaybird Quilts

Saturday 10/8:  Blue Nickel Studios

Sunday 10/9:  Handmade by Alissa

Tuesday 10/11:  Quilting is My Therapy

Wednesday 10/12:  Stitch Magazine Blog

Thursday 10/13:  Oh Fransson

Friday 10/14:  Generation Q Magazine

Saturday 10/15:  Quilt Dad

Sunday 10/16:  Confessions of a Craft Addict

Monday 10/17:  Amy’s Creative Side

Tuesday 10/18:  Pink Chalk Studio

Wednesday 10/19:  Connecting Threads

Thursday 10/20:  Keepsake Quilting

Friday 10/21:  Juicy Bits

Pumpkin and spice (it's everything nice!)

I woke up to the sound of falling rain this morning and enjoyed a cozy, grey day.  While that is ordinary for other cities, it's pretty darn extraordinary for Gilbert, Arizona.  Fall has finally hit us and I celebrated by going up to Starbucks for a pumpkin scone (I love those things).  I sat for a quiet hour of latte, scone, and Harry Potter (I'm on book 5, this is taking forever).

Apparently it wasn't enough pumpkin for me and when I got home I explained to Sofia that she must find a pumpkin bread recipe and make some for me (and I wasn't going up to the store so she had to use what was on hand).  She's such a compliant girl for being a 14 year old and she did a great job making these wonderful loaves (and the house smelled great!).  Actually, it's easy for a teenager to be compliant when pumpkin bread is involved.  So anyway, she used this recipe and doubled it (since I had a large can of pumpkin puree).  I had her increase the spices by 50% which gave it more of that autumny flavor.  She also increased the time by 10 minutes and it could've gone 10 minutes more actually (but that's one of those things you find out after cutting into the cooled bread).  For some reason the 2 loaves that have walnuts ended up a lot taller than the others.  Lovely.

I've been doing oodles of re-organizing and ran into this unfinished project I'd started in the spring.  They were supposed to be a Mother's Day gift for my mom but it looks like she'll be getting them for her birthday in December instead.   I really love this style of oven mitt and worked up this pattern myself.  I think I'll narrow it a little next time but, other than them feeling a pinch too wide (for me anyway), I think they're perfect.

And I've just completed a new pdf pattern!  This one was a lot of fun and was a fairly uncomplicated pattern to create (so it's only 5.00!).  I love it because I was able to fit all the instructions on 4 black and white pages (but the cover has color) there's none of that cringing while your color ink budget is draining before your eyes.  These make wonderful gifts and only require about 1/4 yard of fabric all together.  Right now this pattern is in both of my etsy stores.

And....if you've read down this far....I'm sending my new pattern free to the first 10 commenters!  Go!