E.C.B.
(especially creative broad)
About Erin
Hi, I'm Erin, and this is my sweet little boy, G. I'm a stay at home mom who does pretty much everything EXCEPT stay at home. I knit, I sew, I crochet, I garden, I build and I play. I try to cook (but I usually let my husband, who is much better at it, take care of dinner!) and every once in a while, if I'm lucky I sleep! Email me at: contact@edesignsfashion(dot)com
E.C.B. (Especially Creative Broad)
Lime-grilled Chicken
Happy Memorial Day everybody! In honor of the start of summer, I just had to have a recipe for something on the grill today.
Here's what we're making:
Here's what you need:
1/3 cup lime juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 garlic clove, minced
1 bay leaf
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Combine all ingredients in a large freezer bag. Marinade for at least one hour in the fridge.
Discard the marinade and grill the chicken over medium high heat (350-400 degrees) for around 4 minutes on each side.
If you don't have access to a grill, or the weather is just too atrocious to use it, cooking the chicken under a broiler is always an option...but doesn't this look better?
This is yet another recipe that I can't seem to find the original of online. Magazine people, put your recipes online! I feel bad not giving credit! ...again, we've made some modifications anyhow, but still!
This doesn't have a huge lime flavor, but it gives the chicken just a hint. We both liked it and G ate his with no complaints. ...his salad he only picked the toppings off of. Sigh.
Hope you're having a wonderful three day weekend!
How to prepare for warm weather parties
Monday is Memorial Day, so it's full steam ahead, we're into summer! And summer means getting together with friends and family to hang out in the beautiful weather, grill food and enjoy each other's company.
I've mentioned before that my attitude towards hosting is less is more, but warm weather does add a few extra factors to the mix. I thought that a list of the extra things to keep in mind might be useful, and besides, it means I'll always have an easy to find checklist for myself for our BBQs.
Clean your outdoor furniture
What on earth is my patio set doing when we're not using it?!? Even if we've used it a few days before, the combination of dust, pollen and, I don't know, what's the mud version of acid rain? seems to leave a film of crud on everything. Use a wet paper towel and wipe everything down. Your sister's white pants will thank you.
Make certain you have enough drinks
I don't actually mean drink drinks. If you're having a party, chances are a few of those are going to show up, even if you don't buy anything. What I mean are non-alcoholic, hydrating drinks. If you're going to have kids at your party, they're obviously not going to be hitting the beer cooler, and even if there won't be kids at your party, make sure you have some water or juice on hand for DDs, pregnant guests or guests smart enough to not want to kill themselves the next morning after too much booze in the hot, hot sun.
Provide shade for the pasty
Please? I burn like paper. Even with sunscreen. And a hat. A chair under a big tree or an umbrella are life savers for me. There are more like me than you think. The Irish are a prolific people.
Fight the sickness
And by "sickness" I mean malaria...or West Nile...or insanity caused by itchy, itchy bug bites. Nobody likes being a dinner buffet for bitey little winged monsters. Screened porches, citronella candles or spray on repellent. Pick your poison, just make sure you have a plan.
Beyond that, everything is more or less the same. Good food, good friends, calm down about the little stuff and enjoy yourself!
Happy Memorial Day weekend everybody!
The Basics of Using a Pattern-Part Two, Cutting or "What do all these marks mean?!"
Last week I wrote a post for you detailing how to choose a pattern, determine your size and figure out which pattern pieces you needed to use. This week I'm going to explain to you what those crazy lines and triangles all over your pieces mean.
So if you're following along from last time, you should have your pieces roughly cut out and ironed to get rid of the creases. If you haven't gotten that far, catch up before doing anything further, those creases can throw your sizing off if you don't get rid of them.
Once your pieces are ironed, it's time to cut out for your size.* Based on my bust measurement, I'm a size 12 for this dress. On that note, please don't freak out when you're looking for patterns and your size is double (or more) your size in off-the-rack clothing. Ready to wear clothing manufacturers figured out that people will pay more money to wear a smaller size and sizing went into free-fall, so what used to be a size 12 is now a size 2. Pattern manufacturers haven't caught up. They're still trapped in like, 1958. Your number is likely to be breath-takingly high. Don't worry about it, one of the benefits of making your own clothing is that you don't have to put a size tag in it.
*For children's clothing, unless the child is the highest size on the package, I don't actually cut the pieces. I trace them so I can go back and use the larger sizes when they grow again. I store all the pieces like this.
On most patterns, different sizes will use different styles of line for each size. For my size, 12, on this pattern, I'll be following the dashed line with alternating medium and short dashes. That's important because sometimes pieces don't nest inside each other cleanly. In the picture below for instance, you can see that the size 14 is the outside line on the left, but the inside line on the right.
Once you feel confident you know which line is yours, you're ready to cut your pattern piece down to the correct size. When you're done with that, it's time to move on to the marks that tell us how to place the piece on the fabric.
The two main indicators of how to position your pieces on your fabric will be your grain lines (the top picture) and how many copies of the piece you need to cut out (shown in the picture above. In this case, "cut 2").
Grain lines tell you a couple of things. First off, the longest part of the line shows you what direction the piece should lay on the fabric. Remember how I showed you how to create a lettuce leaf hem? That effect is created completely by changing the orientation of a piece on the fabric. Your grain line shows you how to align your pattern piece so the fabric will drape (hang) appropriately. The long part of the grain line should be parallel to your selvage (finished, uncut edge).
The second thing your grain line tells you is where to place your piece in regards to a fold in the fabric. Because bodies are more or less symmetrical, lots of pattern pieces get cut twice or on a fold. The grain line on the right is telling you that the piece of fabric you are cutting will be the exact same shape and size as the pattern piece. The grain line on the left is telling you the pattern piece is only half of your final piece. You will use the pattern a lot like kids in school folding paper in half to make a symmetrical heart. Your grain line marked edge lines up with a fold on the fabric and so has no seam allowance.
If you still aren't entirely certain how to arrange your pieces, most patterns have an included cutting layout in the instructions. This layout will only work if you have the indicated fabric width, and isn't always the most efficient layout, but it is a good way to get a feel for how to fit your pieces onto your fabric. (Shaded pieces mean you should flip them backwards, btw)
Pin your pattern pieces and it's time to talk about all those triangles. Don't worry about using too many pins. I typically pin at all corners and once in between. That's it. (You did wash your fabric first, right?)
Alright...triangles!
First off, both the markings in the pictures above mean the exact same thing. These triangles are used to show you where two pieces line up. The double triangle is used when a piece already has a single triangle marking and needs another marker.
Triangle markings can be either cut outwards or in towards the center of your piece when you cut your fabric. The markings on the pattern piece are within the seam allowance, so if you choose to cut inwards, it won't automatically ruin your piece. I personally cut outwards however, because I refuse to take the chance that I'll accidentally hit paper with my fabric scissors. Yes, I am that neurotic about my fabric scissors. Also, depending on the fabric, notching into your pieces can create a weak point where the fabric could tear. Your call.
To create your piece without any modifications to your pattern, you're ready to go. Cut your pieces out of the fabric, creating your notches as you go. Now hold on for a minute, you lucky duck, while I give a little more information for people like me, who have strangely long/short torsos/arms/legs.
Not all of us are so lucky/unlucky as to be "average". I, for instance, have an abnormally long torso. Like, 4-inches-longer-than-average long. What that means is that when I try on a fitted dress in the store, my hips are typically about 4" below where the hips on the dress are, leaving a baggy, empty pocket of fabric hanging above them. It is not a good look.
To fix differences between the pattern and your reality, look for these double lines marked "lengthen or shorten here". These markings show you where you will least effect the rest of the pattern while changing length. To lengthen, cut between the lines and add extra tissue paper. To shorten, fold the pattern together with the double line as the bottom of the "valley" in your fold and tape. If there IS no "lengthen or shorten here" line, do the alteration at the bottom of the piece.
Those are all the marks for getting your pieces cut out. Next week we'll cover the remaining marks that tell you how to go about sewing.
Garlic Artichoke Pasta
Today's recipe is another one of those "I found it online/in a magazine somewhere in 2005, wrote it down, and now it no longer exists" ones. I like to give credit where credit is due, but frankly, we've modified this recipe so far from the original that I can't feel that bad anyhow.
Here's what we're making:
Here's what you need:
~12 oz box of bow tie, shell or elbow macaroni
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp butter
2 cloves garlic
1 sprig fresh basil or 1tsp dried
1-8 oz can artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
1/2 cup black olives, chopped
2-3 tsp fish sauce*
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan
*can be found at Asian markets
Start by cooking your pasta. Drain and set aside.
Heat your olive oil and butter in a deep skillet over medium heat. Add your garlic, basil, artichoke hearts, olives and fish sauce and saute for approximately 5 minutes. Return your pasta to the pan and stir in your cream and Parmesan. Cook another 2-3 minutes, stirring until thickened. Serve warm.
This is so good you guys. I mean, it has heavy cream in it, obviously it's good, but the artichoke and olives work so well together, and the fish sauce adds just the right touch of depth to the flavor. Plus, it's a vegetarian dish! We all know how difficult those can be to find!
G loved it, we love it, you should try it!
The Benefits of Mulch- Why Tiny Bits of Wood are One of my Favorite Things.
As a new gardener, there is still a lot for me to learn. One thing I have learned (the hard way, of course) is just how important mulching is.
Over the weekend I finally got the garden I edged in March mulched. Being a newbie, I made the mistake of weeding it before I bought any mulch. I figured it couldn't possibly get that weedy in a month or so...not with spring frosts and what not killing off plants...
....yeah, about that... The only non-weed in the picture is the tall group of 3 in the middle. And I've been sporadically weeding since the first time I cleared it too. So, with no mulch, if I don't weed every day, my entire garden is overgrown in less than a month. Ugh.
Lets see what the gardens that had mulch put down last fall look like.
The only weeds I've pulled out of this bed were dandelions, because I wanted to get them before they grew root systems like tree trunks. The green in the left bottom corner is the edge of the lawn. I see 3, maybe 4 tiny weeds. Since October.
If cutting down weeding to a minimum were the only thing mulching did, it would be enough for me to be a fan, but it has a ton of other benefits too.
Mulching means less watering
Yes!! Even less work! Mulch is like house elves for your garden. Garden gnomes even. The wood sucks up moisture and it works as a barrier between the soil and the air, keeping water from evaporating as quickly. Plus, keeping the weeds out means the plants you want aren't competing for water with the plants you don't want (weeds). Note that some plants don't like all that water and you'll want to keep mulch away from their bases.
Mulching improves the quality of your soil
Mulch doesn't last forever. Yes, it's sort of a bummer that you have to occasionally top it up to keep the weed killing benefits, but, when the mulch breaks down, it works as compost for your soil. Not a terrible trade off, right?
Mulching insulates
Remember how I said that the mulch works as a barrier that keeps in the moisture? It also works to regulate the ground temperature. That means that the ground stays warmer at night and takes longer to get hot during the day. It takes some of the stress off of your plants, so they can focus on growing.
...and, of course, as we saw in the pictures above...
Mulching keeps weeds from creating 3,000 little weed babies in your flower bed
There are lots of different types of mulch you can look into. Pine bark (the stuff from last fall) looks a little cleaner, but disintegrates faster than hard wood. Cedar or other hard woods (the stuff I'm using this year) looks a little more like shredded BBQ meat, but will stick around for longer.
Mulch is pretty cheap, but know that you're going to need a lot more than you think you will. To keep weeds from growing, your mulch should ideally be 3-4 inches deep. That means one bag of mulch is only going to cover about the same space out of the bag as it does in the bag. Load up.
Don't think that you can dump your mulch on top of existing weeds and call it a day. While being shaded from sunlight might kill off some of the less hardy of the weeds, the majority of them will wiggle their way to the surface again quickly if you try this. Clear the garden first, then mulch. The mulch keeps the weeds out by not letting seeds get to the dirt, not by smothering the plants.
Basically, mulch means less time working on your gardens and more time enjoying them. Sounds good to me!
How I keep my 2 year old from driving me (entirely) crazy
Everybody has heard the phrase "the terrible twos". There's a reason. Whoa boy has it been getting crazy up in here with G lately. He's 3 months into being 2 years old and is finally starting to get into the swing of it.
He's teething and tantruming and generally two-ing the penny out of his days. Most mornings have at least one major meltdown. A few days ago it was because he wanted to come upstairs but he had decided the baby gate had to be shut behind him and he couldn't do it himself. Another day we made the mistake of calling his chocolate milk "coffee" when he wanted "tea" (also just chocolate milk in a coffee mug). I still haven't figured out exactly what it was he was screaming at me about this morning. It's pretty intense.
I do have to be fair. He is two, so the Mr. and I are absolutely having our patience tested, but honestly, he's not that bad. Mostly I think it's because I regularly trick/bribe him into behaving...
I thought I'd share some of the tricks I use to keep him smiling and giggly instead of freaking out and screaming. Hopefully they can help other parents, but I have an ulterior motive too. I want to know what tricks you know that help prevent toddler meltdowns. Pretty, pretty please?
Here's what works for us:
Give them as much control as you can stand
If you've got a 2 year old, I don't have to tell you that they want to do things by themselves. "Me do it!" is probably a phrase you hear enough that it has etched itself onto your eardrums permanently. Obviously you can't let your little one do everything, but I've found that the more I do let G do, the less he freaks out when I tell him he can't do something.Every morning he picks his own pants. The drawer they are in is one of the lowest ones so he is able to see into it and pull them out. Once he has picked a pair, I pick a shirt to go with them. It makes him happy because he gets to pick, but since I pick his top, it keeps him from constantly looking like a colorblind hobo. Of course, occasionally, during the day he decides he now hates the pants he's wearing and wants to change them. He yanked the pair of pj pants above (recognize the fabric?) out of a basket of laundry we were folding and put them on himself. We weren't going anywhere that afternoon, so *shrugs* no harm no foul, right?I try to incorporate giving him some control into most activities during the day. I give him 3 options for breakfast and let him pick what he wants. He decides if he wants milk (coffee/tea), water or juice to drink. He decides if we'll take the wagon or the stroller with us when we go on a walk. He decides which story we read before his nap. The important part is to give them lots of choices that you can live with. No letting them decide if they're going to take a nap for instance, but let them pick out which blanket they'll sleep with.With things he has to do (but doesn't necessarily want to) I give him the option of doing it himself or my doing it for him. If he stalls, I give him til the count of 5 to decide before "Mama does it" becomes the only option. 9 times out of 10 he's brushing his own teeth/heading upstairs for his nap/going inside by the time I get to 3.
Reward them with stupid behavior (yours)
Oh it's a good thing the Mr. and I are just big kids are heart. This one has saved our skin more times than I can count. G doesn't always want to get into his carseat, but he loves being sung to. Turns out that I can convince him to happily get in the car and in his seat if I promise (and then deliver of course!) to sing Ray Charles' "Hit the Road Jack" once he's strapped in. Yup, I'm a dork, but if all it takes to keep my baby from screaming bloody murder when we get in the car is his mama belting out old Motown songs? Well Mama's gonna belt 'em.
Work them like tiny ponies
Thankfully for us, G has never been one to skip naps. My boy loves him some sleep. I understand I'm crazy lucky in that, but I think a big part of it is that we work really hard to let him wear himself out. Whenever the weather is nice enough I try to make sure that G and I get out for a walk. We always take a stroller or wagon with us (for when he gets tired), but the thing is...he pushes/pulls it. I check with him frequently to see if he's ready to climb in and be pulled, but until he says yes, we keep walking. He's a little trooper, my monkey. He regularly makes the mile and a half walk to the library and one of his favorite evening pursuits is pulling the wagon in laps around our house. He loves being the big boy who is in charge of the wagon or stroller and I love that we're both getting exercise and that it helps him sleep.
So those are the tricks I have so far...how do you keep a toddler from having a fit?
Chocolate chip cookies
So I know that the official "Chocolate Chip Cookie Day" was last Tuesday, and that I technically missed the boat, but I needed something to take with me for the Wild Women's weekend before Tuesday...and I'm sad now, after the official day...so obviously somebody screwed up when they were deciding what day of the year chocolate chip cookies were going to be the most needed.
Or maybe I'm just fashionably late. Either way. We're making cookies. Hush.
This is my family's recipe for making chocolate chip cookies. I got it from my mom, who I'm pretty sure got it from her mom (or one of her aunts)...and based on many of the other recipes in our family, it's fairly probable that somebody, 60 years ago, took a recipe off a Toll-house bag and made a teenie, tiny alteration to it that changed it into the fabulous recipe that has been "ours" ever since.
Here's what you need:
2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3.5 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
12 oz chocolate chips
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Thoroughly mix your shortening, butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. After they are mixed, add the rest of the ingredients. Do NOT try and do everything at once. Flour will explode everywhere. I may be saying that from experience.
Scoop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet, 2" apart. Bake 8-10 minutes or until light brown. Cool slightly before removing from the pan.
Typically when I'm making these I use two pans in rotation. I load one up, put it in, prep the second pan and then clean what I can while I'm waiting. In our oven, around 9 minutes is the perfect browning time. The first pan comes out, the second pan goes in and around 4 minutes til the second pan is done I start taking the first batch of cookies off the pan. So long as the phone doesn't ring and the toddler doesn't wake up, the timing is almost always perfect for me to have all the cookies onto the cooling rack and new dough balls back on the pan by the time the other set is coming out of the oven.
This makes a lot of cookies. The number I get tends to be somewhere between 4 and 6 dozen, depending on how heavy handed I am with "mounding" my teaspoons. They freeze well, so it's not a huge deal, but be aware, you're not going to be winding up with a modest number of sweets.
When my mom makes these cookies, they turn out wonderfully lumpy and "tall". Mine wind up larger and flatter. That's because I'm incredibly lazy and melt my butter instead of "softening" it. You also get flatter cookies if you use the mixer to stir in the dry ingredients instead of mixing it by hand. (see "lazy" above) Hers are prettier. Mine are easier. I'll call it a tie. Regardless of the shape of these cookies, they're always delicious. Try them out and let me know what you think!
Obviously this recipe got the "Feeding toddlers is HARD" tag of "G ate it" approval
Pretending to be an Amazon for the weekend-Wild Women's Outdoors Weekend
Last weekend I packed up a sleeping bag, a tent and with 3 of the other moms from the moms group I started and a friend from high school, I went out into the middle of the woods.
Ok, so technically we went to a local Outdoorsman's club, not to the middle of the woods, but really, as much as I like camping, it's not nearly as relaxing of a girls' weekend if there isn't plumbing.
We arrived Friday night, set up our tents and headed to the clubhouse for dinner. The club had cooked beef and asked that everyone bring a dish to pass, so there was quite the potluck spread. I brought homemade chocolate chip cookies, which I'll be sure to share the recipe for in the next few days.
After dinner, we all headed back to our tents. Most of our group was pretty giddy about our night away from our darling (but exhausting) children, so we may have been that group. The one that is laughing just a bit too loud. But I'd rather be the ones having too much fun than the ones who aren't having any at all!
Once the sun went down, there was a large bonfire, and we sat around talking and laughing, having a grand old time. At some point during the night, we took a night hike (no flashlights allowed) and learned how to make owl calls. Again...with all the cackling about how with no flashlights we were going to wander off into the woods and not be found til morning, it's no surprise the owls didn't call back.
In the morning, after a breakfast together in the clubhouse, it was time to set off for classes. We'd all chosen slightly different things, so while we shared a few classes, our group was broken up for most of Saturday. Apparently if we'd have had the foresight to include a note in our applications we could have gotten clumped together more. Oh well.
My first class was falconry. I learned a lot about the sport, including the rather astounding fact that most falconers catch all their birds from the wild. You don't buy a bird...you go out and you hope to see one that's the appropriate age (you can only trap birds that are, more or less, teenagers) and then you hope you can catch it. Sheesh.
Because the birds were currently molting, we didn't see them hunt, but I was able to hold several of them. The bird above is called a Harris hawk and it's a little out of its element up here in Michigan. It is a bird that's indigenous to the southwestern part of the US. I was also able to hold a red tailed hawk and a kestrel, which is very possibly the cutest little killer bird you could ever imagine. I don't want to entirely swamp this post with pictures of me holding raptors, but if you'd like to see more of them, just click over to the FB page and I'll have them up there. It was an incredibly cool experience.
After our first class, we had lunch as a group and then were off to our second classes. Several of the other moms had taken rifle or muzzle loader classes, but I went with a more tame "shooting" class with outdoor photography.
My final class (and the class that everyone in our group took at some point during the day) was archery. (Apologies for the quality, this was a picture taken by the camp that they gave me a print out of and it didn't scan terribly clearly) My brother and I had owned a cheap recurve bow as kids, and I honestly don't think I hit the target with it once. My main memory of that bow was getting fiberglass splinters from it. I didn't have a whole lot of expectation that this was going to go much differently...but while I'm not about to call myself an expert marksman, I'm really glad I tried it, because it turns out I was doing, well, just about everything wrong. Turns out when you knock the arrow/draw the bow/aim correctly it's a lot easier to hit what you're aiming for! Also, for me at least, a compound bow was a much easier option than the traditional "Robin Hood" recurve style. Not as pretty, but that's easy to forget when you actually hit the center of the target.
(Taken before we started shooting, btw)
Our classes wrapped up at around 5 and we all collapsed around the table for a last few snacks and to rehash the day before heading back to the "real" world.
We had an incredible time and have already decided we will be going again next year. Maybe next year I'll even try out one of those guns...
If you are in the Southeastern Michigan area and think this sounds like fun, the information can be found in this link. That currently goes to THIS year's event, but my understanding is that it is always the Friday and Saturday of Mother's Day weekend. Let me know if you'll be there, or just stop by the mob of "Moms with 2 3 year olds" next year and say hi!
Rest in peace buddy cat.
I know I promised you a recap of my Wild Women's weekend...and I will get to that, but I'm just not able to write it right now. Thursday evening one of my cats was killed and I need to give my heart at least one more day to heal before I can do a post about what was a riotously good time any justice.
Boris was my (not so) little boy cat. He hasn't appeared much on the blog before because he was significantly less photogenic than his sister. Any time he was near me he was in my lap or climbing my leg (like the picture above), begging to be pet. It isn't easy to take a picture of a cat when they are trying desperately to climb over the camera into your arms.
Boris and Vodka (yes, I have a Russian Blue cat named Vodka. Yes, it was a joke. No, I'm not going to go into it any more than that.) came into our lives about 7 years ago, not long after we'd graduated from college, while we were still living in the middle of nowhere.
The Mr. and I had been living together for a while, and I had told him that I would love for us to get a cat. For my Valentine's gift that year, he found these two.
They had been abandoned on the side of the road as kittens (probably by a college student who had gotten them and then not known what to do with them when they went home for the summer) and found by an older couple in a nearby town. The couple had taken them home to live with them as barn cats, but because they were so social and friendly, they had moved their way into the house. The only problem with that was that the couple already had a cat...and an older cat at that...and our kitties were starving him to death by stealing all his food.
Because of their origins, we can't be entirely sure how old they were when we adopted them from the couple, but the vet estimated they were around 8 months. At not even a year old, Boris already weighed 20 lbs and looked like a furry grey basketball.
Boris was an easy cat to love, but he wasn't an easy cat to own. He had quite a few issues. We constantly struggled to keep his weight in a healthy range. He was a viking of a cat even fighting trim (the lightest I ever saw him weighed at was 15 lbs. For scale, Vodka, who you can see he dwarfed is a not-small 12 lb cat. He easily reached my waist with his paws when he stood on his back legs). We weren't able to stick him on plain old diet food because he wasn't able to digest it properly and it actually made him heavier. As well as his weight problems, he suffered from severe anxiety that led to fur cropping or pulling, howling and other symptoms that required we medicate him to keep him from self mutilating.
Despite his problems, he was always an incredibly loving cat. When G first came home from the hospital, both the cats were terrified for the first few days, but then Boris decided G wasn't going to hurt him, and returned to his usual personality, which we had always joked was that of an especially dumb golden retriever stuck in a cat's body.
He was always extremely good with G, not only tolerating the gentle (and not-so-gentle) pats he got, but regularly putting himself right next to him.
As the cats got older they developed some behavioral problems. They started wetting on the floors. We tried everything we could think of to discourage them, but the only thing we found that worked was to let them play outside. More and more it seemed like every time they came into the upper stories of the house, there would be problems. Urinating or stealing food from the tables or counters. They became almost exclusively basement or outdoors cats. They honestly seemed happier that way, but it meant the main time we interacted with them was when we were outside.
Thursday, Boris followed us across the street to the park. He'd never done that before, and I don't know if it was because he hadn't been getting enough attention or if he had just been outside for long enough that he felt comfortable in "his" territory. He followed us well back into the park, nearly to the play structure before turning to head back home. A group of little girls saw him and followed after him, wanting to pet the kitty. I thought to myself that it would probably be a blessing for him to discover the park full of children, my loving cat who craved attention more than anything, and I turned away to play with G.
When we walked home, we found him dead on the side of the road.
I can only assume what happened is that he was frightened by the number of girls following him. He was normally so friendly, even to strangers. I have to assume that having them behind him distracted him enough he didn't see the car coming. ...just last week I had laughed when I'd seen him come to the end of our driveway, look both ways and sit down rather than crossing because he'd seen traffic. It was such a human gesture. It led me to believe I didn't have to worry about him with the street. Clearly that was misguided.
He almost looked like he was sleeping when I found him. He was bleeding from his mouth, but I couldn't find any other marks on him. He was already cool. There was no question of if there would be any point in rushing him to the vet. I hope to god that means he died instantly and didn't suffer.
G is too young to understand. I'm not entirely sure he has even reached the point where he actually differentiates between the two cats. I'm glad for that, because at least he still has one grey kitty, who he still occasionally mistakes for Boris. I suspect he may wonder a little why the kitty is never cuddly anymore, but aside from that, I don't think it will affect him.
Aside from my taking her to the garage for a moment so she could say goodbye to her brother, Vodka has been locked in the house since it happened. She has been howling piteously, though I'm not entirely sure how much of it is sorrow and how much of it is just anger at not being let outside. I'm terrified to let her out now, but I'm not sure it's fair to keep her locked in the basement either.
We buried Boris Thursday night after we put G to bed. We decided that him seeing us put a cat in a hole and cover it with dirt wasn't something we needed to confuse him with.
I still haven't come to terms with the whole thing myself. The stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and then acceptance. I keep finding myself circling back to denial, expecting to hear his ridiculously loud yowl, demanding we come pet him, or feed him, or pet him while we feed him.
Rest in peace buddy cat. You were with us through a lot. Two houses, two apartments, an engagement, a wedding and a baby. You were a good, sweet boy, and we will miss you.
The Basics of Using a Pattern- Part One
Today I'm going to backtrack a little. I've already shown you guys how to create your own pattern, but what if you're a beginning sewer and haven't even used a commercially made pattern before?
Several of my friends who quilt, or just fool around with sewing, have mentioned to me that they find patterns intimidating. I can't say I blame them, that little envelope holds a LOT of information! So I thought I'd walk you through the basics. I'm going to break this into more than one post, because there's a lot of information to cover and I don't want to overwhelm anyone.
First, a few sewing basics:
Always, always, always wash washable fabrics before sewing with them. Dump some detergent in there and crank the heat. You want any shrinking that's going to happen to be completely done before you make your first snip with your scissors. Obviously dry clean only fabrics shouldn't go in the wash, but don't worry about those, dry cleaning has never, in my experience, led to shrinkage.
Buy yourself a pair of scissors that will only be used on fabric. Zip tie them shut, deadbolt them to the wall...do whatever it takes to make certain that neither you, nor anyone in your household uses them on anything but fabric. Paper especially severely, severely dulls the blades of your scissors and scissors that have been used to cut paper will eventually just tear your fabric, if they cut it at all. I keep all of my sewing scissors in one place, near my sewing machine. My poor Mr has, more than once, found himself on the receiving end of a vicious growl when I found him (or mistakenly suspected him of) using my fabric scissors to cut paper.
Now on to those patterns we were talking about.
The first thing you'll need to look at on a pattern is the envelope. The front, of course, has a big, pretty picture of what your garment is supposed to look like when you're done. Pictures are all well and good, but it's the back of the envelope we're concerned with.
Find the correct size pattern. Make sure you're looking at the body measurement section (I've highlighted it in green), not the garment measurements (red). Not all patterns include the garment measurements, but if you're looking at them thinking it's supposed to be your measurements, it can really screw you up!
Notice that a 34" bust gets 43.5" of fabric in the finished dress! This nearly 10" difference is called ease. Ease is the difference between your actual size and the size of the garment that allows you to wear it comfortably without it chafing or pinching. In this instance, a large amount of ease is also part of the styling of the dress. The amount of ease you like in your clothing is a matter of personal taste, and the more you sew, the more you will be able to determine if you ought to scale down or up a size based on the finished garment measurements. If you are just starting to work with patterns, stick to what's written.
If (like most women) your measurements don't fit neatly into one column, pick the largest size. That statement does come with the caveat that you pay attention to style though. If your hips are your largest measurement for instance, a dress like this would still be fine in the smaller size to fit your bust and waist. For a fitted sheath dress? Not so much. You can modify patterns to use multiple sizes in one garment, but that's a little more advanced, so I'll save it for another post.
Once you've determined your size and made sure you're buying an envelope that includes that size (what? Not like I'm saying that from experience or anything...) it's time to open that sucker up.
There will most likely be two types of paper inside your envelope. A thin tissue paper and a thicker, craft-like paper. Ignore the tissue paper for right now and pull out the thicker paper. These are your instructions.
On page one of your instructions you should find something that looks vaguely like the picture above. Decide which version of the garment you'd like to create (typically the different versions are shown both flat, like above, and on a model on the front of the envelope). Look at your list of pattern pieces (on the right in the above picture). This list will let you know all the pieces you need to complete your version of the garment*. If a pattern piece does not have letters next to it (like the highlighted "C" above) it means it is required for all versions made with this pattern. Above your list of pieces there will be a sketch of the general shape of piece you are looking for.
*Sometimes extra supplies, such as bias tape or embellishments are needed. Check the materials list on the outside of the envelope to make certain you have everything you need.
Once you've identified the pieces you will need, open your tissue paper. Find the numbered pieces you'll use to create your garment and roughly cut them out. Don't cut on the size lines yet, just get the pieces separated! Place any unneeded pieces back into the envelope (the last thing you need is more stuff in your way!).
Use your iron on its lowest setting (without steam) to iron your pattern pieces. Being folded up in a tiny little envelope puts lots of creases and wrinkles into the paper and if you don't remove them, it can cause fit issues in your final garment.
Next time I'll talk about all that writing and all those weird little symbols all over the pieces, and we'll actually get to cut stuff out! In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions so far, and please, drop by the Facebook page, say hi and let me know if there are any other sewing processes you'd like to have explained!
