We're Going to be Shooting Things Across the Yard...

Or maybe across the room. As long as they're not shooting them at me or at each other, it's all good.



I've posted before about my constant hunt for books with projects that will interest the boys. Rubber Band Engineer: All-Ballistic Pocket Edition: From a Slingshot Rifle to a Mousetrap Catapult, Build 10 Guerrilla Gadgets from Household Hardware by Lance Akiyama looked like a good possibility and, after reading through the electronic review copy the publisher sent me through NetGalley, I'm convinced that this is a book for us.

What do I love about it so much?

The projects use things that we have around the house -- and the instructions include a list of suggested substitutes. So if you don't have a long enough rubber band, you can chain several together. There are a lot of paint stirrers and paper clips and pencils involved, as well as duct tape and a hot glue gun. I've got those things and the extras I'd have to purchase for some of the more complex projects (if they're not already out in the garage or barn) aren't that exotic or expensive.

The book includes lots of clear pictures that show how the pieces go together and the projects range from very easy to what looks like a reasonable challenge.

There are tips for adjusting the trajectory and force, and suggestions what to search online to learn more about what's involved, like "The Archer's Paradox." 

This one looks like a great choice for our household.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {3/1/19}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

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{Thrift Shop Temptations} I Want a Ship in a Bottle

It was a good week for things I've never seen in thrift shops. Especially things I've never seen and didn't know I wanted. 

Like an unused ship-in-a-bottle kit...

And big ugly, but seriously tempting, lamps...

The more I look at this guy, the more I think he might be from the same mold as the one Grandma had in her living room when I was little. I always remembered hers as a knight and I'm pretty sure this guy is a Conquistador, but to young eyes they would've looked the same. I'm sure the posture is right, but I'm not sure about his clothing. And now it's driving me absolutely nuts!

I left the shop empty handed, but there was a lot to drool over.

{Books and Yarn} Bring Me Back

If this weather is good for anything, it's cuddling up under Grandma's double knit polyester quilt and reading or knitting. These most likely won't be done by the end of the month, but I'm not pushing myself while I wait for the first Sock Madness pattern to drop. Tired fingers would definitely be a disadvantage! 

I thought I knew which book I was going to write about  in this post, but by the time I reached the end I realized that there was absolutely nothing good I could say about it. As much as I love domestic thrillers, I didn't care what happened to the protagonist, who stumbled through the story doing (mostly) what her husband told her to and consuming painkillers and sleeping pills and lots and lots of glasses of wine. Something has happened to her, but the author doesn't tell us what it was until the very end and I wasn't even sure until much later in the book if the women in the book even knew what it was. She's a horribly unreliable narrator who keeps doing stupid things and then lying about those things and digging herself deeper into this weird hole that shouldn't exist because she's created it herself for no good reason.

Then the power went out and I found myself with time to read another book.



Bring Me Back by B. A. Paris is the kind of domestic thriller that keeps me coming back to find more of them. A vacationing couple stops at a service station. Finn goes to uses the restroom and when he returns to the car, Layla is gone. The police search turns up no trace of her. Ten  years later, Finn is happily engaged to Layla's sister. They're planning a wedding, until someone spots Layla and Finn begins to receive emails and packages that make it seem that Layla is still alive.

This one kept me turning pages. I can't talk about much more than the cover copy without giving too much away, but I enjoyed the twists of the plot even though I can't even begin to convince myself that what happens at the end could ever happen in real life. It's just a book and it was a fun read.

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with advance review copies. 

My Yard Looks Like My Stitching

Trust me, it looks more fun than it actually is. 

Remember those winter storm warnings I was telling you about earlier this month? Those storms never showed up, at least not at my house. I'd stopped watching the forecast quite so closely and there was nothing exciting predicted for this week.

Monday, we woke up to twelve inches of snow. Then the power went out...and came back an hour later...and went out for the rest of the day and most of the night. The automated system called and told me my power had been restored, it hadn't, and yes I'd checked my breaker box, and no the power had not been off for an hour, it had been off all day. Oh, and each phone call took eight or ten attempts because as soon as I'd waded through all of the recordings about downloading their app and checking online the call would drop.

As of this morning, we had power but no phone or internet. The internet is back, but I haven't even checked to see about the water.

All of that lovely, picturesque water in my pictures of the yard? There isn't supposed to be water there.

My Latest Stitchy Obsession

I thought I was going to try to finish the hedgehogs by the end of the month, but then I picked up All is Calm and spent a couple of evenings stitching on the trees and now I'm just a little bit obsessed. Those half stitches make for fast progress.

In the Q-Snap, it looks like I've got a huge chunk of it done, but there's a lot more bare fabric hiding off to the right. This won't be done anytime soon.

And it looks like that break from while floss I was planning isn't going to last as long as I'd thought. There's a lot of snow waiting off off to the far side of the picture...

This is what happens when you stitch from a thrifted kit with no packaging and forget exactly what it is you've gotten yourself into.

The Novelty of the Pressure Cooker Hasn't Worn Off

I'm still happily using the pressure cooker -- three times this past week! Once was to cook beans for taco soup that I finished on the stove top. I'm getting better at making sure they're completely cooked.

I also made Instant Pot Salsa Chicken, which is exactly the sort of thing I was dreaming of when we ordered our pressure cooker. Put in boneless skinless chicken breast with a jar of salsa, then cook and shred it and make tacos. The whole family liked it and it's quick and cheap, the kind of thing I can make in a hurry if we've spent the whole day out running around.

Thursday night, we had The Easiest Instant Pot Crack Chicken.  (Why do so many of these recipes have "crack" in the name? The boys are giving me all kinds of grief over the recipe names and I'm apparently not creative enough to re-name them on the fly) It came out well, but the family had varying opinions over whether or not it was too hot. I fell into the "not hot at all" category, which meant it definitely wasn't.

Cheesecake is still on the list of things I want to try, but the family keeps eating my graham crackers and I wound up using the cream cheese for the crack chicken because the crackers were already gone. Next time, I'm buying crumbs from the bulk section.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {2/22/19}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

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{Estate Sale Temptations} Hiawatha Genuine Needle Painting

As best as I can tell this was made from a kit sold by a company named Hiawatha in the 1940s (or 1800s to 1940s, depending on which listing we want to trust.) It looks like it was worth more than the five dollars they wanted for it at the estate sale....if that piece of cardboard it was glued to hasn't leached a ton of damaging chemicals into the fabric. And if someone could remove it from that piece of cardboard without making a scary mess of things. 

I left it behind for whoever wants to figure that out. 

I don't frame things properly, but even I wouldn't have done that!

There's a listing on etsy that gives a little more information about the original kit and how it was intended to be used.

This package contains an authentic reproduction of a famous old print, on fine linen...picture frame with enameled glass mat...embroidery floss...needle and directions.

Mounted in its unique frame this picture may be used as it is ... add a few dabs of floss here and there and you have a most charming piece of artistic needlework. 

I love the idea of "a few dabs of floss here and there." That sound fun!

Someone, at some point in my childhood, must have had these two. I absolutely know that I've seen them before.

For fifty cents, maybe I should have brought them home and worried later about what on earth I was going to do with them. Because when am I ever going to find another set? Just look at her little tulle veil and his pipe.

Edited to add -- I found a blog post by a lady who's trying to figure out the source for the pattern. They're so much older than I thought...now I'm really kicking myself!

My sewing room is going to be decorated in all of the oddball vintage DIY home decor.

I've Been Reading...and Buying Adult Coloring Books at the Dollar Tree

The Coloring Cook, the second in the Pen and Ink series by Krista Davis, is a really entertaining read. The mystery starts with an estate sale where Florrie's friend, Dolly, discovers a rare book from the 1700s. The Florist was the first coloring book ever published and a lot of people want to get their hands on a copy. Not long after her discovery, Dolly is found dead with a scrap of paper in her hand that Florrie is sure came from the book, which is nowhere to be found.

In addition to working at Color me Read, a bookstore, Florrie illustrates adult coloring books. As she contemplates the events of her day, she draws. The way she thinks about the other characters while sketching them really helped the elements of the mystery pull together. There's a whole lot going on in this book and it all weaves together into a single engrossing plot.

I had some reservations after reading the first book of the series but after this one I'm definitely hooked for good and I'll be watching for the next one.

The coloring book hasn't quite bitten me yet, but I've been tempted. Over the past month I've found two really nice books at the Dollar Tree. One is intended for moms and moms to be, but does it matter what the title is if there are pretty pictures of yarn skeins and tea pots inside? The other is A Christmas Carol. I can absolutely see packing that one away with the holiday decorations and pulling it out every year...or could if I was that kind of organized.

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an advance review copy. 

Fireside Shawl

I had plenty of yarn left over after knitting the Campside shawl, enough to knit a second one. 

There's no pattern for this one. I made a triangular top down shawl, switched to k3p3 ribbing when I thought there was enough yarn left for a wide band of it, then kept knitting until I was down to what I thought was enough yarn for casting off.

This Week's Goals

Last week I made myself work on the entire list of current projects. This week, I'm going to play with the three that are the most fun. 

Early Morning Stitching

I was stitching on my hedgehogs before the sun was up this morning. There's just that corner of greenery to finish...along with filling in all of the other random stitches I skipped along the way for various reasons. I really should remember that skipping around too much makes things harder later.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {2/15/19}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Inlinkz Link Party

{I've Been Reading} Murder Wears a Little Black Dress

Murder Wears a Little Black Dress by Debra Sennefelder

What happens when a young women takes over her grandmother's consignment clothing store and then a psychic collapses after trying on a black lace dress and announcing that it had been worn by a murderer? It's not good. Not good  for the book's protagonist Kelly Quinn. For those of us reading the book, it's absolutely fantastic.

Kelly had big plans for changing her inheritance into an upscale boutique, but talk of "the murder" dress isn't good for business. Neither is the group that comes in one day and sets up a seance in the home decor area, or the lawsuit filed by a customer who's afraid that Kelly sold her a haunted chair. Or the fact that she's discovered more than one dead body.

I'm not into fashion at all, but that didn't keep me from loving this book. I definitely want to read whatever else is coming up in the series.

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an ARC.

I Worked on Them All!

Last week's goal was to pull out all of my active projects and work for at least an hour on each one. I managed that, and now I've got one fewer project in my rotation. 

I'm still not enthused about the green socks or A Little Girl's Fancy. They're both too fiddly for me to deal with right now. I think I'll focus on the hedgehogs and All is Calm and worry about those later.

Those winter storm warnings are still popping up on my phone even though it's well above freezing and there's not a flake of snow to be seen. Makes me really glad I'm not trying to plan anything around all of this!

Cat With Clock

Those dire warnings about the weather continued all day Sunday. The plan was to stay inside and work on All is Calm, but I wound up finishing Cat With Clock instead.

I am absolutely smitten with this piece, especially when I lay it out with my three possible  frames. For a kit that only included nine colors, there's so much fun shading and detail. Did you notice the cat's shadow on the table cloth? And the flame in the lantern? 

This is the first of my Riolis kits that I've actually finished and it turned out that running low on floss was the least of my worries. I had extra, plenty of extra, of every color.

I'm going to give my eyes a bit of a break, then get back to All is Calm. Or maybe the hedgehogs.

All is Calm

It's thirty-five degrees and the sun is shining...and the weather app on my phone is giving me dire warnings. At least I don't have anywhere to be over the next couple of days. I'm going to hunker down at home with my stitching.

Last night, I pulled out All is Calm. 

I really do like this one, but it took a backseat to the hedgehogs and the one with the clock. All of those blended stitches make it  more challenging, but the half-stitches make it go faster so I suppose it all evens out. Eventually, I'll get them all done.

{Pressure Cooker Update} I Made Flan!

I've pulled out my pressure cooker that isn't an Instant Pot three times this week. For kidney beans and to cook a roast for French dip sandwiches, which was kind of boring.

And to try One Happy Housewife's recipe for Flan, which was a lot more intimidating a whole lot more fun. 

Flan is one of those things I've been wanting to try forever. I've probably still got a couple of instant packets lurking somewhere in my kitchen. I pick up things like that with the best of intentions and then procrastinate.

This thing was from scratch. I cooked sugar into the caramel sauce (probably kind of badly, because although I was sure it didn't burn, it had that kind of taste to it) and pulled out the blender to mix my ingredients. Is there a reason I couldn't do that in the stand mixer?

I honestly don't know how to judge my results. It didn't taste like the flan I've had before, but that's always been pre-packaged stuff from the grocery store. Maybe this was what it should take like? The boys and I devoured the whole thing and I'll make it again, probably soon because I've got half a can each of condensed and evaporated milk left over from this one.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {2/8/19}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Inlinkz Link Party