Snowed In

DH, Olive, and I are sort of snowed into my parents so it will be a few days before I can post something substantial.

The boots kept sliding down in the back, five minutes later I yanked them off.

Shakshuka aka "Pretty Much Eggs in Purgatory"

I have most of a real sewing post ready but the shirt itself isn't finished so that will wait until things from the holiday settle. So here is a meal that fits well with the winter weather-  shakshuka....

Chop your parsley smaller, this one of those DH-is-out-of-town-and-I'm-lazy jobs.

Costume Wishlist

I'm taking a break from studying (or something, more like having a Disney and cheesy late 90s/early 00s movie marathon with some notes open with my legal primer staring me down giving me a guilt trip) and wanted to make a costume wishlist. I have a sewing wishlist somewhere for "real" clothes (I have a shirt planned for the week between the end of the semester and Christmas) but nothing really for costumes except for a vague "costume closet" pinterest board. So here goes:

Kaylee Frye (Planning)
Ms Frizzle (Planning)
Fairy Godmother from Cinderella (I really just want a glitter wand)*
Jane from (Disney version) Tarzan
TARDIS (original)
DubDub from Middleman (a mix between the show and the GN)
Weeping Angel (I think this is mostly making up for the mistakes I made in high school musical tech doing set and makeup for Cats)**
Margo from Despicable Me 
Lady Adventurer (not quite steampunk but something not quite accurate either, with a vest. I need a reason to draft a custom vest since I know I wouldn't wear it in real life, but I want a vest!)***
Charlotte La Bouff from Princess and the Frog
This list subject to change and updates as I remember



*Also, the caftan/robe looks like I could wear sneakers underneath or whatever and that's just a win in my book. I'm always looking for a costume that allows for me to wear comfortable shoes.
** Here's a winner from when we were trying to figure out Old Griz's makeup. I was test monkey- someone else got to wear Jennyanydots that night. Her eyebrows got higher with each application.

***I may have mentioned this before but in high school and part of college I worked for Hershey. Part of the uniform in my area for a time was a hideous vest. Not even sure if it was an improvement over the previously hyperfitted ringmaster coats.Wearing both the coat and the vest, I was mistaken for a "nice, young man". Ruined menswear for me forever.

Our First Christmas (Tree)

DH and I finally got a tree. Last year we were pretty much gone for the month with visiting both sides and the Alamo Bowl (we better be representing the Big 12 in the Military Bowl next year, that would be so incredibly convenient). So we didn't get a tree. This year, we have a little more random living space so we ordered a fake little (they say 4.5' but really more like 3.75' with a tall center bit) prelit tree.

 Olive is going through a teenage phase

It has a bit of an identity crisis. We received this set from my godparents for the wedding. I was so confused when I opened it because, well, pinecone for motherhood and fruitfulness? Anywho. They're sparkley. And for our tree, right now, that's all that matters.

Then we bought this ornament on our honeymoon:

 

The only major souvenir from our Honeymoon, seriously

And when ThinkGeek had a end of season sale we bought a set of Giant Microbe ornaments (you can see the red amoeba in the first picture above Ms. Prissy Pant's right ear and the festive cold a little farther up from her left ear).

Finally, when we decided we wanted a tree this year, we thought about the parts of us that haven't been represented yet on the tree. And then the Firefly reunion special was on Science. Big alligator tears and a lot of seal clapping, let me tell you. More seal clapping than tears, much more. So we knew we needed Serenity or at least something show related. Cue Modcloth advertising dinosaurs with wreaths around their necks (at least I think that's how it happened, might been on a blog). And we needed a stegosaurus (not in the correct color sadly) to compliment it.

Curse your sudden, but inevitable, betrayal! *

Finally, we needed the TARDIS. BBC America to the rescue!

 

DooWeeDoo (Dugadada, Dugadada) 

We're still in a debate about what to put on the top. I want something traditional, DH wants something scifi-y. A while back I suggested a wheeping angel (it's kind of traditional, right?) but DH reasoned we would never sleep at night- he was probably right. Then he said a Death Star instead of a regular star (I love the look of Moravian Stars, personally) but I shot that down. So now we're stuck.

Also, I want a pickle ornament.**


*Joss!***
**I have a list of ornaments for next year: a flute, a pickle, a treble clef, and maybe even a Texas flag for DH
***Just realized this could be considered foreshadowing...

Pink Lady Cake- or the Disaster that Sat in a Fridge Until Thrown Out

This is one of those recipes I really can't recommend in good faith. I bet it worked for a lot of people but this disaster was so bad I didn't want to try it again. And I have honestly no idea where the cream cheese recipe came from, mostly likely I dumped powdered sugar and cream cheese in the mixer and called it a day. But it was supposedly based off of this Smitten Kitchen Recipe

Friend R and I started a writing project together in spring 2006*. It’s been a pet project of ours, that hasn't got much attention these last few years as we were finishing college and R is now working and I'm writing papers that vaguely relate to sustainable collections practices.** To see how the script was received by people who weren’t us and how well it read in general, we gathered just under two dozen (I think, it seemed like it anyway, we took up R's living room) of our hometown friends together for food (translation: bribes) and a reading in the summer of 2009. It was hilarious and rather well received, people did say it was very “us” (I’m taking that as a compliment, I think we can be quite hilarious).

That's a crown... with a sad middle point-jewel-thing.
Hurray for R's facebook albums or there would be no record of this cake***

Pretzel Dogs

I know I'm posting more food recipes than anything else, but right now life is: food, school, throw the ball for Olive and pray she brings it back/doesn't eat it.

 This is a half recipe, sort of, it's missing a mini-dog that I was snacking on at the time.*

Joy the Baker's pretzel dogs

(More after the Jump)

PA Dutch Chicken Pot Pie (Bot Boi)

I realized I have an awful lot of desserts on here. In an effort to at least make it seem like we eat healthy, I thought I'd post my version of a staple in the area where I grew up. I say my version as it seems to have as many versions as the chocolate chip cookie but without a default like Tollhouse. Like most good recipes, Chicken Pot Pie recipes are often passed down through the generations. My family, being relatively new to the region, doesn't have their own version so I've cobbled together several I've found online into something  I remember having all over the area (even at Chocolate World) . Because this is my own recipe, I felt like including the actual directions as opposed to a link.

Now before we get into the directions, I should probably describe what I mean by Chicken Pot Pie. According to a couple links here and there (and Wikipedia) it derives from the older Germanic word "bot(t) boi" which references a type of soup using a protein, starch(es), vegetables, and a vegetable/meat stock. And like so many words, it's become a more recognizable phrase "Pot Pie". In most "you know you're from ______ when...." lists that relate in some way to region you'll see something along the lines of "You think of pot pie as a soup". This is why. It's filling, and relatively easy. And you can stretch is a pretty long ways (as is this recipe can last me for more than a week, I made a pot a week and a half ago when it was just Olive and me at home and there's still several containers in the freezer.)

You *will* need a large soup pot for this recipe, my 5qt dutch oven is insufficient to hold all of this at once, so I usually use too little water and then reserve ~1.5 C of stock in a bowl until the soup is being scooped out and then add it back in.

Olive's a Better Fan

Just a short little update to say: Olive is such a better Baylor fan than we are

Art Briles (Head Coach of the Bears) is notorious for wearing a baseball cap and long sleeves. I would sometimes pass him on my way to my job senior year when he was heading out for a run and he was wearing, of course, long sleeves and a baseball cap. He also says pithy sayings like "That dog'll hunt" (which I gather to mean, "That'll work"). Of course, Olive's a Sheltie so she doesn't hunt, she herds. Well, she does hunt squirrels but she's not supposed to.

She was remarkably tolerant, though I do have outtakes of her doing a Dune Cat impersonation since the shirt is DH-size (the neck is tied to be close to her's). Of course, she got a few training treats afterwards.

Today, Baylor is playing K-State (and ESPN favors us?! but Westboro apparently hates us both...*) but neither DH nor I are in Baylor Gear (DH is in a waco-based organization shirt and says that's close enough, I disagree). Therefore, Olive is a better fan than us.


* Supposedly, we're as Baptist as our "bear mascots" - I asked my friend why no one told me Lady and Joy go to church.

**edit** We did end up tuning in for the second half. There was a lot of "I can't watch!"- so a lot like last year, except I was in jeans and tee shirt instead of poly-wool blend uniform. In the end we got several congratulations at church this morning- DH wore his BU sweater and there are a number of almuns at the church.

Cinnamon Rolls

 Pioneer Woman’s much celebrated recipe

There’s not much to say about this one. Everyone who has had one loves them. Pioneer Woman gives awesome directions. Yeast isn’t that scary. The recipe makes close to 8-9 tin pans worth. That's about it. 

Kaylee Costume: Planning

Here's the tie-in I promised! I'm kind of running ragged with year-end work and filling out paperwork for a really awesome volunteer position. It's been a couple month process so I'm really excited to get it all completed. Anywho, here's the tie-in to Olive's potential Serenity costume.

Ms. Kaywinnit Lee Frye aka Kaylee

Photo courtesy of Serenify Costumes 

(other reference shots as well)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

(I promise the Serenity tie-in post is coming!)

A SK recipe

So, my dad had three of these cakes in a week. A big landmark birthday coincided with my graduation from undergrad so my mom said they could either pick up a cake from our wedding bakers (they’re awesome but over an hour drive away in unseemingly hot weather) or I could make one. I had a little over a week between my last final and everyone coming in, and we had already scrubbed the apartment so I had plenty of time for a cake. Well, I sent the recipe to my mom for approval. What she didn’t tell me until the evening they got into town is that she made two of them for the parties they had in my hometown. So my dad had three of these. I then made another for DH's birthday a couple weeks ago (it did not turn out as pretty).

Replaced the ugly old picture with one of DH's birthday in 2014. Much much better.

Pumpkin Spice Whoopie Pies

I've made these twice. The first time... I'm not sure what recipe I used, probably the Whoopie Pie Book (same as the Dr Pepper Float ones). For the second I used the pumpkin recipe from the Whoopie Pie Book and the filling recipe from Amish Cooking: Deluxe Edition which was put out by Herald Press in the 90s.

Itty Bitty Whoopie Pies. That's a teacup saucer for reference.

Olive's First Halloween: Olive Joins the Golden Wave (in spirit)

Unless we decide to take more pictures for Homecoming (first time DH hasn't been, in almost a decade) Olive is finished with her role as the Furriest Member of the Golden Wave! (Fluffiest? Certainly not Hairiest... and I've seen babies dressed up so not Smallest either).

Dr Pepper Float Whoopie Pies

Adapted from this book (thanks to my cousin and her husband for a great wedding gift)

The official soft drink of DH and my Alma Mater is Dr Pepper. Every Tuesday there is Dr Pepper hour on campus (used to be Coke Hour) where Dr Pepper Floats (there is a special recipe of like 1 liter to 1 gallon of Blue Bell) are served to all students and faculty who show up. It’s a time to smooze with professors and the college president. I never made it to one in my four years there but I can’t have a lot of sugar and ice cream is a bad idea anyway. I can smooze at almuni events now, I guess, if I really want.

A Quick and Messy Fez

It's almost Halloween again, so I thought I would share another costume piece DIY (also works for a lazy cosplay for a convention.)

When I made my TARDIS dress, DH wanted to be the Doctor (the 11^th to be exact) and he needed a fez.

If my costume was hasty, his was … worse. I had every intention of sewing a bowtie and fez. Things got away from me so he rented a tie from Men’s Warehouse and in the 5 minutes I had between rehearsal, decorating the gym and the dance I took two plastic cups, a staple, and some red fabric and made a very messy fez.

This is more or less how it went.

Take 2 *matching* plastic cups. Cut on the dots.

Staple the two cups together along the long sides to make a larger loop. Then cover in fabric (again, staple) however you can. I didn't like how I did it soo... yeah. Ya'll are on your own.

And this is how it turned out

Rethinking the TARDIS Dress

A couple years ago (2? 3?) I made a TARDIS costume.

This is the TARDIS:

It travels through time and space and according to Neil Gaiman’s really awesome episode, The Doctor’s Wife, is female.

I picked a 60s type dress and handstitched the thing in a week. It was serviceable but so ill fitting. I want to tackle this again, just to have it on hand (doesn't work for my plan for upcoming-next-year-big-event.) So here’s the original:

A cardigan will cover a multitude of sins... like unfinished/incredibly sloppy armholes that were supposed to have sleeves.

Roast Chicken with DH’s Favorite Sauce

I adapted this recipe from Smitten Kitchen into a meal that DH and I go to fairly regularly. It is fairly cheap, it’s not too-too work intensive, and I can get DH to eat a whole head of broccoli. All in all, a winner.

If you hate vinegar, the sauce is not for you. I don’t really but I sneak a little sugar in to cut it a bit (and the first time I made it we didn’t have heavy cream so I used what was left in the whipped cream bottle in the back of the fridge so DH is already used to it being a bit sweeter.)

The onions aren't the prettiest but this is such a delicious meal. Especially with steamed broccoli or string beans drowned in the sauce, though it tends to overcook the broccoli so keep them separate until on the plate.

Olive's First Halloween: Progress Report III

I gave up on the plume. Nearly spent more on a boa with the correct tinsel (white with gold, for those wondering) than I did on fabric. It arrived with new trimming sheers for little Ms. Barky McBarkenstein (thank DH for that one, even though she is remarkably quiet for a Sheltie) so I was very excited. Sheers are awesome (tidy paws and ears now, so cute), boa not so much. It's a sad, sad, sad boa. If I were going for a ridiculous May West costume, it might have worked but with it going to be a very small section for the chicken, it would look just weird. Also, it shed everywhere and Squishface (my name) tried eating the pieces*.

The boa is now sitting on my scrap pile until I decide what to do with it. I never put a plume hole in her shako (which is adorable) so it's not a big loss. There's a weird pucker on the top that I need to touch up that I was hoping the plume would hide. Otherwise her costume is done.

 Not her costume, but still cute (pre ear and paw trim)

Made three epaulets (one was sewn with buckram forgetting that that stuff doesn't bend and it when flipped inside out should not be between the front and back). Sewed button holes for the epaulets and the cape. Used fancy gold-plated buttons (Fabric Warehouse 5 packs for $2 sale) to attach everything. Freaked out about the zipper (only had a white invisible, should have gotten a white separable) decided to do a fake lapped zipper and have with a gap at the top and bottom (also didn't have the right length). Freaked out about which type of hooks to use, ended up sewing in two different types before realizing I'm worrying about a dog's costume. Drank a lot of cups of tea (Early Grey, hot- also, Turkey Hill Diet Green Tea). Cooed a lot over Ms. Smooshface (DH's name, again) and how cute her costume was).

Olive (halfheartedly tried to convince DH we needed to remain her Oveta after Col. Oveta Culp Hobby) will likely debut it this Saturday at the Petsmart Howl-o-ween, there are at least two we will also do. So no pictures until then.

Waiting very patiently for DH to finish making her special dinner (between trims)

*Discovered that she will eat anything. Also, discovered she has as sensitive a tummy as her mom. Hello, Saturday morning vet visit and "special" food that requires a scrip. Also, special ear drops for her mild reaction to something that she ate.

Russian Apple-Thing with Salted Caramel Sauce

Pretty much taken verbatim from Smitten Kitchen

The way our old church did things, home groups could rotate hosts for a group meal with everyone contributing. For our home group we had to be slightly conscious of not having too weird of foods. While I love “weird” (aka non-generic-American) foods* some people did not care for them. Well, we were having something, maybe brisket, that begged for something lighter and I thought this looked good. But what’s a cake without some sort of icing?

What I changed:

-          I used the springform pan we had that isn’t quite a spring form but I’m not sure what it is then, it's like a really tall-sided removable bottom tart pan.

-          I added the Caramel Sauce also from Smitten Kitchen

Other Thoughts:

      -     I would mix the apples with the custard, it didn’t sink as much as I would like, or maybe I wasn’t patient enough. I probably wasn't patient enough knowing me. Patience. Not a virtue I'm terribly known for (though I hold I found my Christmas presents by accident, I can wait for that at least)

*My family has Rømmegrøt every Christmas Eve when we get together. I made DH have a bowl his first Christmas with us. I cackled. I’m trying to convince him that fiskeboller with white sauce are delicious (they are, at least that I remember from the last time I had them ... which was probably more than a decade ago) since I've given up on lutefisk and he had a bad experience with geitost last Christmas. He at least agreed to a kransekake at the wedding reception (my dad insisted so there wasn't so much of an option). He does love cardamom bread, at least.

Olive's First Halloween: Progress Report II

Olive's costume needs:

Shako Brim
Shako Emblem (trying to figure out how to do that, may be lazy and just make a star)
Shako Strap (do not trust her to keep it on out of the kindness of her heart)
Shako Top Piece
Chicken Plume (must be a universal thing, my high school band called them chickens, and my college band called them chickens... despite being separated by ~1500 miles)
Epaulets (not sure I'm doing these. Me=Lazy)
Cape Buttons
Zipper (or some sort of secure method, I don't have a separating zipper so that puts me in a sticky place)
New Hem on the Coat (positive I measured correctly but surprise...)

I think that's it... that just seems like so much but it really isn't. I'm on the fence about some of these - do I really want to hem the coat? It's reminiscent of my uniform junior year. I could have been a good 6 mo pregnant and not needed a new uniform. Senior year at least it was near perfect. Like it should since it was built to my measurements (or near enough, whatshisface has no idea where the waist is and put my high hip for my waist measurement so that was a wee bit roomy). Epaulets may look silly since her "shoulder" is so sloped (nevermind that's now how you measure the shoulder on quadrupeds) but I'm wondering if I need to hide the attachment of the cape... I still have a month to figure it out.

Here's how fitting has gone most times...

 

"I'm not so sure about this..."

 "That's the cookie bag!"

 "Yay! Cookie!"                        

Since she forgets she is getting a cookie until the very end (every single time), I feel that it's not a bribe. More a reward. Or compensation. Whatever. She gets a cookie, I question my ability to measure correctly.
I swear I measured her several different times but somehow all of the pattern pieces were too big and I ordered far too much fabric. Now I'm tempted to make a cape for myself, just because I miss mine and we didn't have them with the new uniforms and that made me very sad (just like the news about the changes to Homecoming this year. I want to know who thought that was a good idea. But I digress). I have no idea how to draft an armhole for a dog so I aired on the side of caution and it's huge. Like I could fit my arm through probably (I am not trying, I remember what happened when I tried on an old ballet costume. I think my mom almost laughed herself sick while looking for the seam ripper).

But you can see that Olive's ruff is coming in so very nicely. Three months ago it would have barely puffed up and would have looked very sad. Now it's adorable. I just need to remember to hide her tags for photos. I really want to get her a new ID tag- DH put the wrong zip code on the back (before we moved) and it is heavy for her heavy martingale collar, not the thin safety collar. We switched so her coat wouldn't separate as much- no worries, we still use the martingale for walks (or as she knows it "potty", I'm not sure how she figured that out, wish she knew "walk" instead) so there won't be a pretty-much-Sheltie running loose. If we didn't use a martingale she would have slipped her collar long ago when we were just starting on leash manners,.

Peg people

At some point in the wedding planning I wanted a peg people topper and DH humored me. They were really popular at the time, usually with the people in their ceremony attire. They were especially popular with the hipster crowd (which we are not, unless you count liking a certain off campus coffee shop frequented by the slack line and chaco wearing crowd). When DH and I started deliberately hanging out, it was Halloween and I was mechanic!Kaylee from Firefly/Serenity. However, I thought her pink!Dress was more wedding appropriate and since … well if you saw Serenity, you know.  So I set out to make my own. I posted this DIY on another site a while ago but I’ve edited it a bit.

 

Photo By Epic Photography

Olive's First Halloween: Progress Report I

My hometown's fair kicks off the funnel-cake season for the area (yes, it's a season). We discovered when I was still young enough that they had a children's pet show that had a best dressed class in each division that qualified for BIS, additionally, the 4H region (could have been district) fair also had a pet show that was not limited to 4H projects (thankfully, since I was horseless member of the year for the county the year before and nothing changed since then sadly, but DH has promised me a pony within the next decade. I'm holding him to that). A couple years before my parents took in a Sheltie when his owner moved out of the area. He became my guinea pig for drafting costumes. He was Harry Potter, a pony, and a sheep before I aged out of the division and he got too old to put up with that nonsense.

Until a sewing table is constructed, I use the dining table for all my sewing needs. Yippee...

Avocado Salmon Buttered Toast Salad

Let's kick things off with a recipe- for most cases I will post the link for the recipe for the time being .
This came from: Joy the Baker's Buttered Crouton Salad

DH and I loved this salad. I blame my family’s Norwegian-ness for my love of smoked fish and this salad is perfect. I bet you could use broiled or grilled fish instead but we weren’t allowed to have a grill at the old apartment and I'm holding out until we can have fit a full sized grill soo… smoked it is! I wouldn’t try herring on here though, a little too oily. We used a bag or two of mixed spring greens since I thought they worked well, I suppose you could use regular lettuce (DH wanted butter lettuce, he loves it).

Thoughts:
      -     Watch the toasting, without fail, I burn one side of one batch (or myself)*. Good luck.

Things I changed:

-          Nothing**

I miss the balcony, yes, the railing was wide enough that Olive could slip through if she saw a squirrel, and the neighbors smoked which wafted  over, and I could hear sirens from a busy street and there was terrible traffic outside... but there was a good deal of privacy and a great relatively-quiet walking trail was 30 steps away. Goodness this is longer than a caption should be and I haven't even covered the interior...

* First, I should preface by saying I come from a very accident-prone family. Best way to get DH to cringe is to start trying to figure out "whose turn" it was to go to the ER on my side. Anyway, I have a scar on my  hand thanks to this recipe. Wasn't watching what I was doing and was holding a very hot pan in my non-dominant hand and oops, there's a blister. So pay attention, don't wave hot pans around, and you should be fine.

 

**Not a complete lie but sometimes we buy a longer length of smoked salmon and then have lox and bagels for a week, too. I think that's 10 oz. Pretty sure you're not supposed to have that much fish in a week, but meh. Olive has a fish formula dry food (switching her to a buffalo formula after this bag is finished since we now live near a store that carries higher quality food and her current food changed formulas and I don't like it) and she's fine. Yes, I'm using my dog's nutritional needs as a justification of my own.

Meet Olive

I meant to publish this earlier but we went to the beach and I had homework (I didn't miss that at all this summer, or last semester...) so things got away from me.

Anyway, this is Olive. We adopted her at the end of June and since then she has gotten a number of nicknames: Stinkerface, Stinker, Fluffy One, Fluffy Puppy, etc. Every single one she deserves.

As far as anyone can tell, she's a little over a year old (for listing purposes her birthday will be a year before we took her home). She was picked up as a scruffy, flea-infested stray a little over a month before we got her. The rescue got her from the shelter where she was fostered for about a month while the fleas were killed off and she recovered from her spaying (not only is it state law for rescue dogs to be spayed, she is so far from breed standard that it would be irresponsible to allow her to be bred, even if we had her history.) Once her adult coat comes in, we're going to try to list with AKC's PAL (purebred alternative listing) since she still doesn't look entirely Sheltie, or least a "proper" one. But her coat has come a long way since we adopted her. Our goal next year is to pass the Canine Good Citizen test. CGC's test is a good benchmark of what we need to work on since she was a bit of a pain on a leash (still pulls a little but now doesn't sit down at random points, she needs to walk on a loose leash for the test) and cowered at moving vehicles (a passing bike is a possible movement test).

Provided we can get all that settled, we'll take a stab at a pre-agility class or the herding instinct test (assuming we get her listed with PAL). I'm not sure which I prefer, since they have different relationships between the dog and the handler. While she likes being close and wants to please, I think the independent thinking of herding may be good for her. We'll see how this next year goes.

In the mean time, we'll stick to silly tricks. Keeps everyone happy and keeps her from destroying too many toys- one a week is her limit (yes, really... we blew the toy budget in the first month).

An Introduction I suppose

So I guess I’ll give this blog-thing a shot. At the very least, I’ll have somewhere to document new recipes, projects, and the antics of the puppy (DH has decided she will be a puppy until she is 8, and may even after that. We have 7 years to decide).

On Washington Crossing the Delebear.
In a search for a clever user name for something university related and after suggesting more questionable names like "bear collector" (sounds like a bad lingerie shop to me) DH landed on that gem. With a little convincing, it stuck and I promised him I'd reserve it as blog name (since twitter doesn't allow for long handles apparently). It's a play on the fact that our alma mater is the bears (technically bruins but we only use that in pep tunes that no one outside the band actually knows, though they did start announcing as our "war march" my senior season, no clue why) and they love a good play on words. And we recently moved so I can work on another degree in the DMV so it sort of makes sense. And I love history, and I used that particular painting in one of my last finals of undergrad (yes, really, it was military history final no less). So there. Washington Crossing the Delebear.

You’ll find a couple different things here (hopefully):

-          Reviews of mostly successful recipes (I may include disasters like the Pink Lady Cake just because it was that special)

-          “Normal” sewing projects (things that wouldn't be too strange to wear to class)

-          Costumed sewing projects (I have the firm belief that everyone- including the dog- could use a costume box)

-          Puppy sewing projects (yes, double coated breeds are more or less waterproof but they just look adorable in little yellow slickers, especially when they still have a puppy coat and very little undercoat)

-          Maybe some little crafty bits

-          Lots of parentheses (don’t ask where that writing style came from, couldn’t tell you)