a sewing box and a month long commitment

Lenny brought this lovely vintage sewing box home for me. An elderly lady in our parish passed away back in April and her family are just now sorting her belongings. Apparently, she was a crafter and a sewer. This was among her possessions and her family insisted on giving it to Lenny for me to have. They are rather fond of my husband. It was full of sundry items - old wooden spools of thread, a lot of elastic, a dollar sign money clip (alas, no money was in it) and several pieces of candy. Yeah. I have since cleaned it out and I it is just crazy how very much I am in love with this thing. Certain mid-century items are so fabulous and wonderfully made. Another mid-century item I would love to own is one of those vinyl coated woven laundry hampers. Oh, and a martini!

So, last month I kept track of how much money we spent eating out. It's crazy stupid how much we eat out... especially considering that I am a trained chef. Sigh. I hope this next statement isn't terribly arrogant sounding but it's not like any of the restaurants we eat out at are preparing anything that I can't do equally well or even better. We usually eat out for the following reasons - 1) I don't feel well and do not feel like cooking. 2) Poor planning.

So, my challenge is one month, no eating out. We do have a scheduled lunch about mid-month so that will break the rule right there but if we can make the remainder of the month that would be great. So far, so good but it is only July 2nd. We had meat loaf with mashed potatoes and Caesar salad last night and Italian sausage with soft polenta and fresh tomato sauce tonight. Both are items I normally do not make but love to eat. Oh, the meat loaf was really awesome grilled this morning for breakfast with mashed potato pancakes and poached eggs. Sound strange but it was really awesome.

I am also going to make an effort to post more of the everyday type of food we eat in hopes that I will have a log (haha, a weblog if you will...) of recipes that we enjoy.

well, hello gorgeous!

Is there anything quite as lovely as peonies in your kitchen window sill?

I don't think so.

frogs who don't fit it

So, I bought this frog pillow about 2 years ago. I really like it but it just does not really go anywhere in my house. It's cute but it's just not me. So, I decided to recover it with a patchwork pillow front.



I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, mostly. It is a little less sophisticated than I would have liked but that is ok. The back is brown with small white polka dots on it. I have never put welting on a pillow or anything else for that matter. It was a pain in butt until I figured out how to do it and then it was pretty easy. I would be a little embarassed for anyone to take this cover off and look at the inside of the pillow since I had to run the corners through the machine at least 4 times each. I trimmed them up after the fact but it is still rather "stitchy" on the inside.



It definately goes better with my house now. I think I will put it in the nearly ready guest room.

Dad

My father passed away February 22, 2005. He was 66 years old. Today would have been his 70th birthday. The picture above is from his first birthday. He had a pony at his party.

I am not sure if I should say happy birthday or rest in peace. Maybe I should just say this - not a day goes by that I don't wish I had known you better.

painting the guest room with Pebbles

She was very helpful!

I totally want this...

It's a migracap for migraine sufferers. It provided cold therapy and total blackout - both of which I want when I have a bad migraine. I normally put a frozen gel pack (affectionately known as my freezy pack) and a pillow on my head. The husband worries that I will suffocate one day. The only downside I can see on this is that it cost $78. Yikes!

Opening (birth)Day 2010

Lenny bought me 2 tickets to Opening Day for my birthday earlier this month. I decided to take him with me. It just seemed the right thing to do. I like to joke about who I should take with me to the game whenever he gives me tickets for an occasion. It's just fun. I think he always knows I will take him with me. I think.

This was not, unfortunately, to see my beloved Detroit Tigers but our new home team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. I love baseball enough to not really care who is playing. I also love ballpark food. Not the posh stuff served in the suites. No, the real ball park food - hot dogs, peanuts, french fires, beer, soft baked pretzels... you know, junk food. Here is my first baseball hot dog of the year, loaded with relish, onion, mustard and ketchup (so I don't have to really taste the hot dog) and that is PNC Park in the background.