Respite

My sewing machine went to the hospital last night. It's been out of commission ever since I tried to lower the feed dogs the other day and then couldn't get them to go back up. I probably made it worse by opening the thing up and attempting surgery. I finally had to call in an expert.

Like any mother (hey, people have fur babies, can't I have a metal/plastic/pistons/gears baby?), I am worried sick and longing for it's safe return AND hoping the bill isn't exorbitant.

I'm also mid-project several times over. Fabric is piling up in the corners of our house because I can't stop acquiring it. For example:

1. I made a stop at Chic fabric for black stretch twill to make a pencil skirt and found fabric for another black skirt AND some chiffon for a blouse.
2. I've been looking for polyester or nylon tricot for a project for months and finally found a store in Midtown that carries it. Only problem is the minimum cut was 5 yards or $10 per material. Bah! I ended up with about 100 sq ft of off-white and black silkies (but it would've cost triple with shipping for the same amount online).
3. Lindsay gave me a box of remnants her aunt shipped her and she couldn't use. I have a healthy stack from that acquisition.

And I cannot wait to show-and-tell a little refashioning I've been working on. Turning a few long-sleeve, tailored dress shirts for work into a bit more summery feminineness.

I guess my respite isn't really a respite. More like brainstorming ideas and procuring materials and gearing up for projects that will initiate the gradual decline in performance and needing another tune-up for my machine baby.

Chicken pot pie

I have a lot of favorite "comfort foods", but chicken pot pie is up close to the top. Even so, it's been a really long time since I've indulged because, let's be honest, they don't call it comfort food because it makes you shed fat cells.

I adapted Ina Garten's recipe, probably enough to call it my own, and used this recipe as a spring board for the sauce. Here's how I made it:

 

Ingredients:

This makes enough filling for two 9" pies or 8 ramekins

3 chicken breast halves, boiled and cut in 1" cubed

2 large carrots, cubed

1/2 yellow onion, diced

2 medium red potatoes, cubed (I leave the peels on)

1 c. frozen peas

2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced

1 c. milk

1 c. chicken stock, plus 1/4 c.

1/4 c. butter

1/4 c. flour

sea salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

1/2 t. celery salt

1/2 t. onion powder

2 pre-made pie crusts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees farenheit.
2. Boil the chicken until cooked through, then cube.
3. While the chicken is boiling, saute the onions and garlic in a little bit of olive oil until the onions are transparent. Add the carrots and potatoes and 1/4 c. chicken stock, let simmer.
4. In a separate sauce pan (2 qt.) melt the butter and add the flour, stirring until it becomes a paste. Add the milk and the rest of the chicken stock, bring to a roiling boil until it thickens to your desired consistency. Season with salt, pepper, celery salt and onion powder.
5. Add the cubed chicken to the veggies, add the peas and fold into the sauce. I had to use a separate bowl to combine all the ingredients.
6. For the crust, I rolled out the pre-made crust and, using my 3" biscuit cutter, I cut enough to place 1 circle in the bottom and 1 on the top. Stretch the top and press along the edges to seal. Make several small slits in the crust.
7. Place ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees farenheit for 30 minutes or until the filling is bubbling and the crust is golden brown.

Time to fire up the grill

 I love a juicy cheeseburger hot of the grill. This felt version may not taste the same (you'll have to ask Paul, the cutie pie, just turned 2-year-old who was the recipient of this cheeseburger creation), but I think it looks pretty appetizing.

I think that once you get a handle on a few basic stitches and general know-how, you can create pretty much anything out of felt...and a bit of ric-rac.  

Speaking of crafty. Paul's mom made his Winnie the Pooh cake...and that cute little beehive hanging from the ceiling. Marie made a marshmallow fondent that turned out amazing. I love how fondent looks, but have never been a fan of the way it tastes. This is super yummy. 



Polka Dots!

Last month my cute sister posted a DIY tutorial for polka-dot pants. We've all seen them everywhere and not for cheap! This is such a great way to save some cash and still dress on trend.

She invited her readers to join in the fun and just posted a few pics of their projects here.

Here is my attempt. I found these mint green pedal pushers at H&M and used white Tulip fabric paint that I had left over from another project. I still have to finish the back, but I think they'll be a fun addition to my summer wardrobe. The Captain likes them too, which is always a plus.

Google Search by Image

Have you tried Google's Search by Image tool? Go to [images.google.com]. Just upload the image you want to search for. If you do it from your smart phone, you can take a picture then and there and it will search its image database comparing your photo with their bazillion images.

I saw these boots on Pinterest, but the pin that I was looking at didn't have the source material linked. I think they are super cute and I wanted to figure out who makes them, if they were still available, and if so--for how much. It's possible that I was the only person who didn't know who made these boots, but that doesn't say much since my fashion designer sense is not very finely tuned. Anyway, I uploaded this image and was immediately referred to a myriad of sites, the top one being the Free People site (which brand they happen to be). I also learned that they are way out of my price range. Ah well, a girl can lust after a pair of boots, can't she?? 

After the web search results, there is a fun little feature that pulls up images similar in appearance to your uploaded image. Kinda cool! Here are some of my favorites from the similar images that came up from my search...

In clockwise motion: Pita  Dough, Chaiwa Tewa (1922), Worell Young, ballerinas (not linked because I don't want to subject you to the source site's language), Lilli Palmer. 

I love that they all have the same coloring even if they are random in content.

Then I had the brilliant idea to upload a picture of yours truly. I half expected it to generate a bunch of photos of me from facebook or other people's blogs. I was curious to see what's out there on the internets. Ha! My ego got the best of me... here's what came back:

Pretty great, right?