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Saturday, November 14, 2009

Oh the possibilities!

One thing that will always remind me of my mom is fabric. I have so many memories of her sewing and picking out material for quilts or whatever project she was making. She'd take us to the fabric store and spend (what felt like to me) hours, matching up fabric swatches. I never really liked it much. I would stand there and wonder how in the world it could possibly take so long to pick out material. I'm sure I huffed and sighed, rolled my eyes, and gave my mom crap for how bored I was. Sorry mom.

I made a quilt once when I was maybe 12. I still have it. It's a big quilt, big enough to fit onto a king size bed. My mom helped me pick out material and taught me how to cut squares and sew them together. I did the entire quilt by myself (with my mom's guidance of course), and I remember it taking forever. I mean, forever. I thought it was never going to end. Just when I thought it was done, there was something else to do. I swore I'd never make another one. That was the end of my sewing desire.

That was, until recently. I am doing a nursery and in my searching to pull it together I became baffled by the price of curtains. I mean really, some things are just too expensive for what they are. And the windows in the nursery are kind of an awkward length, so I decided if I was going to go through the work of buying expensive curtains just to hem them - why not make my own? But then I soon found that making your own curtains can be just as expensive as buying them. Note that 'can' is the key word. I was looking in the wrong places, and at the wrong fabrics. After knowing where to look I have settled on making my own curtains, at a cheaper cost than buying them. And let me add...they'll be much cuter. I mean really, I didn't like much that was out there anyway - at least in the price range I was looking.

So I venture into a fabric store yesterday. I had no agenda and just decided to ho-hum around and look at all the different patterns. All these different colors and designs were calling to me, they kept saying, "ooh look how cute I am. I could be a ____." And I kept agreeing, saying back, "I love you." It was kind of like shopping for clothes, except the possibilities of what you could do with this cute new and enticing print was endless! I admit, I became my mom. I spent far too long in the store and I enjoyed every minute of it. And found way too many patterns that I liked and also got a list of too many ideas of things to make. Who am I becoming? I have always been artsy, but painting, drawing and music were more my thing, not sewing.

I went back into the store today to pick up a few pieces of fabric, Andy was with me. He became who I was when I was little - bored out of his mind and dying to walk out of the store and go home. And me, well I had a cart full of fabric trying to decide on what to choose and had a hard time deciding to put a few of my cute little friends away. I still have yet to get curtain fabric, there wasn't enough yards of the print I wanted, but that's okay, I have some other projects to work on. :)

We'll see what I say after I sit at a sewing machine for awhile. I might revert back. :)

Friday, November 13, 2009

New discoveries & yummy supper

Why is that all of the sudden when you hit the third trimester it seems like everything changes? I am a few weeks into my third trimester and already the baby's movements have started to become very painful at times, my back hurts, my legs hurt, I'm definitely getting exhausted by doing everyday normal things and all around I just feel completely different than I did a few weeks ago. Andy makes fun of me watching me walk when I'm completely exhausted. I admit, I probably look pretty silly. Sleeping is increasingly getting more and more difficult. The baby seems to get the hiccups just as I turn off my light for the night, which results in keeping me awake. :) Before I could get away with doing a bunch of things if I had the energy, but now, I can definitely tell when I overdue it. Just last night I wasn't feeling well, I had some intense back pain and my stomach hurt - I'm still trying to figure out if its contractions or not. Andy kept telling me all day to go lay down and take a nap (as I was having pains all day,) I kept telling him no, I wasn't tired enough to sleep and things needed to get done. But when supper came around I was utterly wiped out, so Andy, being the wonderful husband that he is, made me to go lay down and cooked supper for us. Salmon, au gratin rice and broccoli, and it tasted wonderful. I mean, really really yummy. I don't know if it was the fresh salmon we bought, or the fact that I didn't have to cook it - but every bite was just fabulous. It's not a new recipe but every time I make it I forget how yummy it actually tastes, better than any salmon I've had in a restaurant. I owe the credit to my sister-in-law, Tia, she found the recipe online and shared it with me. You should try it, it is very very very good.

SALMON

1 TSP ground Ginger
1 TSP Garlic powder
1/3 Cup Soy Sauce
1/3 Cup Orange Juice
1/4 Cup Honey
1 1/2 LBS Salmon fillet

1. In a large self-closing plastic bag, combine first six ingredients; mix well. Place salmon in big and seal tightly. Turn bag gently to distribute marinade.

2. Refrigerate 15 minutes or up to 30 minutes for stronger flavor. Turn bag occasionally.

3. Lightly grease grill rack. (I've cooked it over the stove too and used like 1/2 to 1 TBLS of butter to grease the pan.) Preheat grill to Medium heat. Remove salmon from marinade. Grill 12-15 minutes per inch of thickness or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Brush with reserved marinade (this is key to making it it taste really good!) up until the last 5 minutes of cooking time.