Thank you Velosewer!

I went to the mailbox today and look what arrived--a package from Australia--specifically from velosewer!!!  Maria has been reading my blog for at least a year now and following me on twitter too.  Go over and check out her blog now if you haven't read it--she is deep into Jungle January!


Her gift was the perfect pick-me-up!
2 zipper pouches, a lavendar tape measure, and a post card from Sydney. Maria wrote some very sweet things on the back! The gray one with the black flower trim is my favorite--I have used that same flower trim (in white with yellow centers) on my favorite pajamas.
Thank you!!

I started my own zipper pouches but ran into problems--I do not like how the zipper ends look--several of you have said to try the Craftsy free bag class and various online tutes--I will revisit zipper pouches soon...but I thought I'd show you mine:

For that bottom one, I used iron on vinyl.  I thought I was being clever but when you turn it inside out, surprise!  It gets all wrinkly/crinkly.
I don't like the ends of my zipper, specifically how the outside of the pouch looks around the zipper end...:


In other news, I'm still engrossed in my Sewaholic Thurlow muslin.  It's still muslin #4....every day or two Angela and I work on it a bit more....(I'm taking Altering Pants by Angela Wolf on the PR website).

Pants fitting is NOT fun but I'm grateful to have Angela's expert help. So far I haven't cried over my muslin yet. I cried over my jeans muslin and soon thereafter went on to sew the real deal, so maybe I'm one good sob away from starting the real trousers.  I really should start practicing double welt pockets and the Sewaholic method of fly front zipper insertion.

Here's the back:

Oh sigh, the flickr thing has reset itself.  I have to find the setting that will always display my rotated photos as rotated in my blog.  This happened last May....I fixed it then, will have to fix it again.

I was kind of blown away by the discussion of food on my last blog post.  First that velosewer had never seen chicken pot pie before, and the variety of suggestions on how to make the cornbread crust better and the dish better overall.  I will try it again.  I love the filling from Cook This Not That, and the idea of the from-scratch cornbread crust...

Tonight I made lasagne bolognese from Rocco DiSpirito's Now Eat This Italian. It has hardly any cheese in it but is SO good.  Like, I was surprised at how good it is when it doesn't have, well, a boatload of cheese in it.


So this was dinner tonight, the lasagne with peas and sugar peas,also from Rocco's book. and cut up canteloupe from Whole Foods, because I'm lazy when it comes to cutting fruit.

Library books for this week:

Several of you have written about Shape Shape and there it was on the library shelf, YAY!

I read the novel "Where We Belong" this weekend. Good thing too, it's an Express Collection book--one week loan, $1 a day fine.

And then Rocco's book. I might buy this cookbook. I *love* cookbooks that have pix for EVERY recipe and have healthier recipes. This book fits the bill nicely.

Be well!
And thanks again Maria!

Firsts of 2013

Sorry, Flickr won't cooperate tonight and won't show my rotated pix as rotated.

I am still fitting the Sewaholic Thurlow trousers.
I started on Dec 31.  I'm on muslin #4.
And still have far to go.
Luckily I'm enrolled in "Altering Pants" on PatternReview.com, and Angela Wolf started helping me fit them to my body last weekend.

That necessitated buying my first bolt of muslin.


A whole bolt of muslin is actually kind of dreamy.
Finally my first wearable garment off my new sewing machine and my first underwear of the year!

Black Fabric: hmmm...probably Joann's.
Iron-On Patch that wouldn't iron on, so I sewed it on: Definitely Joann's.
Hot pink elastic: Pacific Trimming, NYC, MPB Day

I think it's adorable.

I made chicken pot pie tonight, from scratch, even down to the cornmeal crust. The kitchen looked like my sewing room does after a project. 

The recipe from Cook This Not That is MUCH better, but in that recipe I used store-bought phyllo dough and I liked the idea of the from-scratch-ness of this recipe.

Sadly, the cornmeal crust didn't taste like much. It probably needs a boatload of butter and some sugar to make it better, ha ha.  The filling doesn't have any milk product at all.  Traditional pot pie has cream and lower-cal ones use skim milk.  This one just uses chicken broth.

I'd say this dish is like the wearable muslin of cooking.  I'm going to eat it (well, the filling at least) but it's not going to be made in this form again.

But it looked adorable in the cookbook in red ramekins:

I hadn't been to the PPL for a while and it was fun to browse during lunch last week. SO many books I couldn't carry them all, so I got these to start:

I leave you with this.

I helped my friend Debbie learn a bit more about her sewing machine last weekend (which was really fun to hear her reaction especially as she didn't know her machine had so many features, like automatic threading). That was another first, showing a friend new sewing machine features.
We went to the Ardmore Farmers Market so I could relive some college memories.
Ok, ONE more.

Delish!
Well, just ONE more.

Ok, this is what I really came for:

The same woman who served me in college served me last weekend. With the same chocolate chip cookies I adore.  LOVE.  Almost as good as mine.  Different than mine.  But yummy.
Be well!