Welcome Stampers!

Those of you who read this blog in Feedly may have noticed a bunch of posts show up this morning.  I don't know how many people read both of my blogs, but I've decided to combine them and make life simpler for myself.  This blog is where all new content will be published, and I've imported all the posts from the other blog to make referencing easier.  The old blog will stay up, but I don't plan to publish new content there.  From now, all my creative endeavors, essays about city living, thoughts about food and raising children, vintage fashion, etc. will all be here.

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Talking Tuesday: Molly Sabourin

"Home is ideally where family members return to for refreshment at the end of a hectic day. How much unnecessary tension, stress and chaos are we allowing to enter? Guard the windows, the doors! Lock out that which robs us of our peace and attentiveness. Relax, unwind, be present, be still." 

~Molly Sabourin, posted on her Girls Gone Great Facebook page, 10/30/13

7QT: Mid-Plague/Post-Plague Edition

--1--

So I wrote last week that we were in the middle of a respiratory epidemic and all the kids were down with it.  Given Piglet and Birdie's underlying respiratory conditions, I wasn't too hopeful that we were going to avoid an ER visit with Birdie, after Piglet had one mid-week.  Last Friday, I put her down for a nap, and neglected to give her the usual mid-day tylenol (we were alternating anti-fever meds throughout the day to keep her crazy high fever reasonable).  She woke up mid-afternoon hot, and just sat on my lap like a lump.  As anyone who knows her will say, this is highly unusual.  She just sat there a long time, not really saying anything, or moving.  She wouldn't walk around, cried every time I put her down, was very listless and super hot.  Around 4:00, I thought I should probably get her some ibuprofen sooner rather than waiting until closer to bedtime.  Almost as soon as that thought crossed my mind, Birdie started seizing from the fever.

This isn't our first go-round with febrile seizure with her (she's probably had about four by now), but this one took years off my life.  My husband had come home early and I hollered at him to call the doctor.  Her arm was twitching weirdly, she was drooling and completely unresponsive.  Then she started turning gray and stopped breathing momentarily.  At this point, we called 911 and got an ambulance.  After about 3 minutes, she finally stopped twitching, coughed a bunch and started breathing normally again (she stopped breathing only for a moment, but was breathing very shallowly during the rest of the seizure).  The dispatcher told us to undress her and lay her on her side to prevent her from choking and wait for the EMTs.

--2--

All I can say is that I'm glad she kept breathing on her own after that momentary stop because the EMTs took f-o-r-e-v-e-r.  I do know CPR, but still.  Scary.  They took her right into the ambulance and my husband hopped in with her.  I was so glad he'd come home early (a rare and unusual occurrence!) otherwise I don't know what I would have done with the other kids.  Her fever was 105.  They gave her more anti-fever medicine at the ER (we'd given her a bit at home before the EMTs got there) and ran some tests to see what might be ailing her.  Negative chest x-ray, negative for UTI.  So they sent her home with instructions to dose around the clock to keep her fever down.  

By Saturday night, however, she was coughing non-stop, her fever was 103 with constant dosing and our pediatrician decided it was time to start an antibiotic for bronchitis.  She has improved steadily since, although her cough is still fierce.  

--3--

Boo complained of ear pain on Saturday, and by Monday was completely miserable, so we kept him home and the pediatrician diagnosed a double ear infection that was bad enough to treat.  So as of right now, my three older kids are on oral antibiotics.  As if keeping up with that dosing schedule weren't enough, we were still dosing for fever, for cough, plus their normal medications.  I felt like my head was going to explode.  

The view in my fridge.  Cue exploding brain now.

Added to that was keeping up with my own dosing schedule, as my illness really blossomed over the weekend and settled into my chest.  I'm taking Robitussin CF around the clock and trying to conserve energy where I can.  Ponchik has been sicker this week too, with goopy eyes, nasal and sinus congestion, and nursing more often, so that has been an additional layer of complication.

--4--

On the whole, however, I can say I've felt pretty even keel mentally.  I credit starting Focus T25 on Saturday and sticking with an early morning workout schedule this week.  (I wrote about it briefly on the other blog on Wednesday).  Despite coughing my lungs up and generally feeling unwell, those 25 minutes seem to set my day off on a good pattern.  I'm participating in a challenge group on FB and it helps me so much to be accountable and stick with it.

--5--

1943 clothing edition from the UK

I got this little book in the mail yesterday and it is so great.  I bought it for the WWII historian in me, but there are lots of great tips and tricks too--I hope to use some of them in the future!

Ways to fix or size up a dress.

Clever ways to save a worn shirt.

--6--

Got it! *Fist pump*

I spent a bunch of time yesterday afternoon puzzling over my blouse pattern.  I'm making a blouse out of the top part of Simplicity 1880 and having a go at a butterfly collar.  The collar attachment was driving me bonkers.  It seemed like there was twice the amount of material there should be on the edge of the front parts, and it just did not want to attach properly and lay right.  I was really getting discouraged and ready to throw in the sewing towel after getting so much energy and excitement about it, and then I put down the muslin and walked away for a little while.  I looked at a similar blouse in my closet to understand the construction and then suddenly it occurred to me that I had made a mistake with the facing that was messing up the collar now.  Suddenly, it all worked after I fixed that piece!  Amazing.  Now I have to do a sleeve mock and make sure that works, but I'm hoping to sew the real blouse next week.

--7--

Birdie has just figured out the zipper on a Hefty ziploc bag.  She spent--no joke--30 minutes zipping and unzipping that bag one day this week.  It.was.fabulous.

Go see Jen for more Quick Takes!

Foodie Friday: Sausage-Zucchini Tart

I've made this a few times now, and it was good each time!  I got the recipe from Real Simple magazine, and I didn't really change it much.  The second time I made it I used mini zucchinis, and crumbled up some feta cheese and that was especially nice, as all the pieces on top of the tart were the same size.

Sausage-Zucchini Tart

1 package puff pastry (I used Pepperidge Farms and used both sheets)
1-2 T. Dijon mustard
1/2-3/4 # mild italian sausage
2 regular or 6-8 mini zucchinis
1 block light feta cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper and place thawed puff pastry on them.  Prick all over with a fork.  Spread Dijon mustard over crust, leaving a 1/2" margin.  Cook sausage in a skillet, breaking up into small pieces. Do not over cook. Remove from skillet, and spread crumbles evenly over pastry.  Slice zucchini and add to the skillet (do not remove oil first!)  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover skillet.  Cook until zucchini sweats a little and starts to look translucent.  Remove from skillet and spread evenly over crust.  Break up block of feta and divide between crusts.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  Cut into slices before serving (I usually cut each square into 6--in thirds one direction and in half the other direction so each piece has a bit of crust on the edge)

.
Makes 12 large pieces.

Five Favorites: Look What I Made! Edition

Hosted by Jenny this week!

--1--

Ponchik has just discovered object permanence.  The giraffe blew her mind.  I wish I could have captured the first look on her face when I put the giraffe in front of her.  It.was.priceless.

 --2--

I decided to put myself on a clothes shopping moratorium for a few months (for myself only, obvs), so now if I want it, I've got to make it.  I've gotten some serious sewing enabling from Rochelle over at Lucky Lucille, and decided to make a blouse.  She made a great dress using the top half of this pattern (paired with the skirt from the pattern in #3, below), and I thought it would make a great blouse as well.  I'm all about the butterfly collar these days. 

  

I'm making a muslin first because I'm changing the length to be a blouse rather than part of a dress, and making long sleeves, which require math and a small bit of drafting, garshdarnit.  Better safe than sorry.  So my muslin is out of this pretty-but-unwearable-for-me fabric I bought on clearance at Joann about a year ago.  

The front (so far)

 What makes this blouse a great 1940s facsimile (my current favorite word) is the tucks at the yoke on the front and back, plus the butterfly collar and pleating at the waist.  One of the reasons I'm making a serious effort to gear my vintage look to the early 1940s is that the detailing is superb, but the practicality is pretty high.  

The back (so far)

I purchased the actual fabric for this blouse earlier this month (on $4.00/yard clearance at Joann!).  It looks like a feedsack print to me, and the cotton is the type that doesn't wrinkle easily.  I'm going to pair it with some vintage buttons from my grandma's stash.  

--3--

And because I'm also focused on making outfits, rather than individual pieces that don't necessarily go together, I'm also going to make a swing skirt out of some navy blue bottom weight fabric that I have in my stash using this fabulous pattern.  I'm a little concerned about the fit being too big (sometimes modern reissues put in too much ease, and it can be hard to tell until you are done), so I'm going to use the rest of my muslin to make up the skirt just to check fit.  

The most massive pattern evah--blouse, jacket, skirt, pants.  It's a lot of pieces!

--4--

And in other sewing news, I made a dirndl skirt this week, largely without a pattern.  I made a muck of one last week with some stash fabric, but I learned from it, and decided to call the mess a muslin and be done with it.  Maybe I can salvage the fabric for some other home decor project or something.  I love this yellow print--it has a mustardy tone-on-tone floral print that doesn't show in the photo very well, but is very pretty in person.  I bought it after seeing Rochelle's skirt made from a green fabric designed by the same person.  And pretty much copied her whole outfit.  I have to say, once I got the math right for the panels (again with the math!!), it came together pretty quickly.  Just two rectangles, attached to a waistband with a zipper.  I ended up hand sewing the zipper in, mostly because I was too lazy to get out my zipper foot, but I had to hand sew the inside of the waist band anyway, so it was just a little extra sewing.  I used a vintage yellow button on the waist band just for decoration, and used snaps as the fastener.  It ended up about an inch too big in the waist, so I have to take it in (I currently have a safety pin in the back), but it is super comfortable and swingy.  I wish I'd put in pockets, but I just wanted a quick and easy project. Instant-gratification-like.

--5--

I have this mom friend who has lost over 20 pounds in the last five months doing Focus T25 from Beach Body, and she is such a source of inspiration and encouragement to me.  She recently became a coach for the program, and started running challenge groups on Facebook.  When she asked if I wanted to do it this month, I shrugged and said, "why not?"  I'm always hesitant about workout programs, because I find them hard to stick to, and tend to get injured, or burnt out, or just find myself too tired from them.  I don't get a net energy boost from exercising, as a general rule.  I just get...tired.  But I want to firm up from the pregnancy, and my heart could use some extra work, so I decided to take the plunge.  

I'm four days in, and I'm kind of loving it.  It is 25 minutes a day, so very doable, high intensity, and sort of fun?  It is getting me out of bed in the morning at the ungodly hour of 6:15 a.m., so that says something, right?  Oh, and I've been ghastly sick since last Thursday, so it definitely says something that I can do this while sick!  (And it is a work out, let me tell you!  I'm so sweaty by the end!)  And honestly, doing it with the challenge group has been the best--I don't think I would have gotten started otherwise, and it definitely motivates me to keep going with it.

Go see Jenny for more Faves!!

7QT: Plague Edition

hosted by Clan Donaldson this week!

--1--

 We inaugurated the cold and flu season this week.  We've all been nursing mild congestion for a few weeks, but Monday, Piglet woke up with goopy eyes and serious congestion that morphed into a 103 fever by mid-afternoon.  He was coughing his head off by Tuesday and by Wednesday was in the ER with mild respiratory distress (sounds oxy-moronic, but isn't; he was breathing too fast at rest and medicine wasn't helping).  He had a chest x-ray and was diagnosed with pneumonia, sent home with antibiotics and has been home from school all week.  Birdie started coughing a bit on Tuesday, started with the fever on Tuesday evening, and has steadily worsened as the week has worn on.  I'm trying to hold off on oral steroids for her since she has already had a few rounds this year and doctors don't like to do more than three in a calendar year.  Boo came home yesterday after running green goop at the eyes all day, and is home today, looking pretty much as bad as Piglet looked on Monday.  I'm waiting for a fever spike this afternoon.  Ponchik is pretty congested, and nursing poorly.

--2--

I've had a sore throat, mild cough and congestion all week, and I was managing okay until yesterday when I discovered a golf-ball size plugged milk duct.  In the same duct that gave me a fiendish case of mastitis when Piglet was a newborn.  To say I'm nervous is kind of an understatement.  I treated with heat, motrin, and aggressive massage (even though the pain from the massage made me want to throw up), and things seem a bit improved today--probably ping pong ball size now, and the whole area is bruised.  But I think I might be past the worst of the clog for now.  Just trying to keep my lungs clear at this point.

--3--

Of course, this all hit at a terrible point--my sitter wasn't available until today, my husband is in the middle of prepping another Supreme Court case argument, and this week was one of the busiest in the process.  He was gone Monday until late, and again on Wednesday from the wee morning hours until supper time.  He's a bit sick himself, so that just adds another layer of yuck on everything.

--4--

On the upside, I finished my lovely Forties Fashion book, and got tons of ideas for Make Do and Mend type projects.  My first was to deconstruct a brown shirtwaist dress that fits me very well, but the color doesn't suit me.  I had initally thought to put the skirt onto another blouse I made recently, and attach the sleeves to said blouse, but once I had everything apart, it made more sense to just bind off the skirt.  It gives me more options.  I wore it today, and I'm pleased with the project.  I was able to maintain the pockets, so that is good!  It doesn't have a finished waistband, so I'll need to always wear something over top, but I think I could probably fix the waist band problem at some point if it becomes an issue.

--5--

I also pulled out my teapot and made Russian caravan tea this week, Russian-style.  (Tea concentrate in the tea pot, left to sit on the counter, and then diluted with boiling water whenever a fresh cup is desired)  That particular tea is so Proustian for me--I immediately conjure images and sensations of Nizhni Novgorod in October, heavily sugared tea from the Profolactorium stolovaya where we lived, and rectangular tea biscuits that came in crinkly package with vaguely fruity after-flavor.  A friend gave me a package of Whole Foods shortbread cookies on Sunday, and they reminded me very much of those biscuits.   Unfortunately, Ponchik does not love tea, and seemed to get a buzz from it and couldn't sleep much yesterday (strange, since I drink a cup of pretty strong coffee almost every morning, but babies are weird). 

--6--

Another perk to my week?  Starz Outlander posted this photo from the series shoot in Scotland.  I love the books so much, and can't wait for the next Big Book!  I'm so excited for this television adaptation, and so far, the casting has been just spot on.  This is of Sam Heugan as Jamie Fraser, the main male character in the books.

--7--

Made from shirting cotton from Joann's.  Sewed up beautifully.

I'm sure long-time readers of this blog will notice I've not posted a stamping project in a long time.  I'm still a demonstrator with Stampin' Up!, but I'm taking a little break from stamping--it requires too much space in my head and a bigger block of time than I currently have to create stuff, and so I'm just focusing on digital projects right now--mostly Ponchik's baby scrapbook and in a few months, our Christmas cards.  I know I'll get my head and time back in the spring, when Ponchik is a little older, but right now, that is what it is.  I can knit a few row here and there, or sew in dribs and drabs, but for some reason, stamping requires more quiet and focus for me.  I still love it, but need to take some time off for now.   So I'll leave you with a pic of a blouse I made last Saturday.  It is based on a 40s pattern reissue from Simplicity, and I love it.  I did a wearable muslin in Kelly green Country Cotton, and hope to remake the green one in a nicer cotton at some point.  Also: snaps are highly underrated as a blouse closure.

Go see Cari for more Quick Takes!

Yarn Along: Two sweaters and Forties Fashion

I am working on one of the sleeves for the vintage cardigan, and cast on the back of the red pullover I wanted to make.  (It looks much smaller than it is--the ribbing bunches it up a lot, plus I'm planning to block it pretty aggressively).  The second photo is of the "right" side of the pattern; I kind of think I like the "wrong" side better--thoughts?

"right" side

"wrong" side

 And I'm currently inhaling this lovely beauty!

So many lovely dresses, so much great information on fashion history of the 1940s, and other interesting tidbits.  I'm geeking out over here--my inner historian is having a research feast.

I want to recreate this outfit (black out cloth skirt and all!) 

Join Ginny for Yarn Along this week!