I have moved

You can mostly find me here these days instead. I'll do cross-posting for a while longer though.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Holiday baking

Since my grandmother is in the hospital - it's a long story but it's nothing really serious. She has fractures on her pelvis and needs to let them heal - we don't really get any Christmas cookies this year.

She's 87 years old and mildly diabetic but I'll bet she would make cookies for us all for Christmas if she had been home and at full capacity.

Instead I've decided to pull my weight.

My girls are going to their grandparents' (my Mum and Dad) this weekend to assemble and decorate two ginger bread houses.
That gives me a Saturday to get some of our Holiday baking done.

I'm making:
Saffron buns
Ginger bread (ginger snaps)
Rolled lace cookies
Currant cookies (Mum's favourite)
Almond crisp cookies
Piped wreaths

Most of it will go to my Mum since she's hosting this year's Christmas Eve dinner, but I'll keep some of it for us for when Rickard's sister comes to us to have our kids meet for Christmas.

I have half a batch of ginger bread dough in the freezer from last year. I think I'll have to take it out to see if it's still good.
The girls will want to make ginger bread too so I'll make them myself first to make sure we have enough, then they can be let loose and make as much as they want before they get bored.

I need to get some saffron. Last year it was horribly expensive. But it's a lot more affordable this year. 32 SEK for a bag. Last year it was 70 SEK for a bag. (1 bag = 0,5 g).
Apparently the harvest has been better this season.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Results

The curtain's fixed and hung and looks great.

No way I'm making up the second one. That will turn into a table runner instead.

I got groceries - sort of. I forgot half of it, but I did remember lamps for the Advent lights in the windows! I just have to get my butt up in the attic to find the missing star for one of them.

Bath time went smoothly, mostly cause it was just one of them and she took a shower. We swung by the library on our way home and checked out The Narnia Chronicles and while we were there I found Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as an audio book and thought Isabel would like that.
She did. As soon as we came home she disappeared into her room and only came down to have supper.

Things to remember tomorrow would be to give Sofia her meds as soon as possible after dinner and not wait until she's in bed.
We read for so long from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe that she fell asleep on the sofa.
Isabel liked it though. I think she's keeping up hope that the Witch is going to be a nice person, but she will be sorely disappointed I guess.

On our own ...

I finished the curtains on Saturday. They looked so nice and they turned out just as I had envisioned them.

I started on a panel curtain for the kitchen as well, but once I figured out how to hem it correctly (long story) it ended up being slightly skewed.
Not much but enough to show and enough to force me to fix it.

I think I'll do that tonight after the girls are in bed. I have an extra hanger so I can try it out upstairs to make sure it's looking ok.

My husband is away on business all week which is both a drag and a hoot. A drag because we all miss him, and a hoot because that lets me sew all night after the girls are in bed. No need to socialize.

I have a butt load of stuff to do before that though, which is also cause for it being a drag.

Cooking, bath time, cleaning, laundry. But it will get done. Somehow.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Shiver me timbers

We kind of figured out why it was so cold last night upstairs.

I took the girls grocery shopping after school last night and bought some red cabbage. After I got supper started I began shredding the cabbage and make some for Christmas. We eat baked ham with red cabbage for supper on Dec 23rd.

Anyway, since I preferred not to have the house smell of cabbage I ran the fan over the stove the whole time and I think I cooked it for well over an hour.

Sucked all the warmth from upstairs in no time. When I went upstairs to pick up the sink plunger (don't flush red currant jam down the drain - it clogs) we had 16.5C up there.

Ah well. We turned the fan off and put the heater on upstairs and that took the edge off.

I'm soon leaving work to fetch the girls then we're going home to have an afternoon snack. And while they eat (I'm thinking maybe a Nutella sandwich) I'm gonna debone a chicken - just to see if I can.
If I can't I'll just have to grind the chicken meat and make patties or meatballs.

Happy Weekend!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Well .. darn

So much for my pledge.

We had 63 F in our upstairs last night.

So I decided to go downstairs again and read under a quilt on the sofa.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Letter of Intent

Tonight I pledge to get started on the curtains for our kitchen.

There aren't a lot of "must-dos" for me during the holidays, but I will put up the Advent lights in the windows on Saturday so I want the curtains done by then.

Ideally I would also clean the windows first - maybe on Saturday as I put the lights up.

I also pledge to have the mat for the Christmas tree finished this Christmas.

I need to get some fleece for the back before I can finish it. The bias binding is done and all I need is to quilt it to the backing.

I was supposed to go to sewing class tonight but I canceled because I thought I would go see grandma tonight.

Let's see what else?

A table runner from the left over curtain fabric would be nice. I know exactly how I want it to look, but I lack matching sashing.

Sofia has a new dress that I think we'll save for Christmas, but I should really get cracking on one for Isabel too.
I'm thinking a Music Box Dress or a School Photo Dress would be nice.

If I had more time or felt a bit more confident I'd enlarge the Birthday Party Dress for her ... I'll have to take a look at the pattern pieces and see what I can do.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

MovieThoughts: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

So HP7.

I liked it and I wish I could somehow swing it to see it again but I doubt I'll get a chance in theaters.

Beware! Spoilers after the jump

Monday, November 22, 2010

BookThoughts: The Hunger Games


The Hunger Games knocked me off my feet.

I bought it on Saturday and had decided to just read a few chapters, but circumstances allowed me to finish it on Sunday afternoon.

Such an amazing story and so exciting.

I had the sequel, Catching Fire, in my hand at the bookstore on Saturday but decided not to get it in case I didn't like the first book.

I regretted that last night.

So tonight when we go to town to see Deathly Hallows I'm swinging by the bookstore to pick up books 2 and 3 (Mockingjay) as well.

There's something I noticed about good literature that make me want to try it out myself, wishing, hoping I can make something as good myself.
And then there's bad literature - the kind you read and cringe and just want to hide in a hole and abandon books all together.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Thoughts on Glee (2x07)

Ok, so I watch Glee. And I'm wondering where they plan to take this plot twist with the Neanderthal jock who suddenly out of the blue kisses Kurt.

I mean, how do they plan to resolve it? Because by all things Holy - I will strangle someone if they somehow end up together, or even if they just have Kurt feel attracted to the guy.

This guy has abused Kurt and to pair them up after that is just this typical plot where A meets B who is inexplicably rude and abusive and yet stalkery and sending off "I'm sort of attracted to you, but I can't come to terms with my sexual persuasion/lust for you so instead I will be rude and abusive and treat you like shit and hope you will understand anyway"-vibes towards A (you know like the three year old boy who pulls a girls' pigtails and everyone says "Aww, he likes you!" Way to go to indoctrinate your girl to interpret abuse=love) and then A can't help but be "intrigued" and "flattered" by this attention and so of course they fall for B.

Wait, that sounds like ... Twilight.

*shudder*

And in this week's episode they added death threats to the mix.

Oh, joy.

In other news - I quite liked this weeks' episode. Sue was deliciously vicious. Gwyneth actually worked (and was that her singing? I liked it. A bit nasal at times, but good) and I loved the mash up at the end of Umbrella and Singing in the Rain.
Oh and the Glee mini-mes? So adorable!

Sewing related

A few weeks ago I finished Isabel's Music Class Blouse and a Birthday Party Dress for Sofia and all I had left to do were the buttonholes.

Only, my machine would not cooperate. No matter what I tried I could not make it tick-tick-tick like it has to in order to make buttonholes. I guess I could make them manually, but I didn't want to mess up the garments cause they were really nice.

So they've just hung there on hangers in my sewing room. Blocking what little natural light I get in a north-east facing window in November in Sweden. (That is pretty much nothing between 9 am and midnight. And since the sun rises at 8:30 am .. well, you do the math.)

Anyway. Today I finally sucked it up and just put snaps in them. The dress will hold up nicely. The fabric was rather heavy and with the interfacing it will work out well. The blouse though, it might not fare as well. It's made from a fairly sheer seersucker and I worry Isabel will tear the fabric when she takes the blouse off.
I tried adding extra interfacing on the snaps, but I'm not sure how well it will work.

It's nice to be done though.

Tomorrow I hope to get started on the Christmas/holiday curtains I plan to make for our lunch nook and kitchen.
I have a Fruitcake by someone for Moda jelly roll that I'm pairing up with sheer brown linen and a red linen fabric with printed white stars. It will be so pretty (I hope).

And since I like to include at least one picture in a post ..

Here's my little swashbuckler Pirate girl showing off the foam sword she got last weekend.

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Monday, November 8, 2010

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Ready for a Playdate

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There - one dress, ready to wear.

It needs to be washed. There are still some trace lines on the inside of the sleeves. Sofia asked to wear it tomorrow though and I agreed.

I'll definitely make one more - I had a thought on how to bind the neckline and add the piping in one go that I want to try.

I also loved the construction of the yoke. Almost like a puzzle - and no hand stitching!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Halloween and turkeys

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Isabel went to a Halloween party on Saturday. Some of the kids thought she looked mighty scary.

Halloween's gotten more and more popular in Sweden the past few years but for some reason no one can agree on when to come trick or treating.
This year we had trick or treaters on Saturday night and Sunday night.

At least they had dressed up in costumes.

I'm preparing a turkey dinner for our parents this Saturday. I'm not sure how long we've done this, but it might be the 10th year.
We've been doing it since before Isabel was born. But we skipped that year I remember because she was little and I didn't have the energy, what with PND and everything.

We're serving a curried sweet potato soup with goat's cheese biscuits for starters. Turkey with roast potatoes, gravy, carrots and sprouts for the main course. Cinnamon apples with vanilla and cardamom pannacotta for dessert and then I'll make a lemon and poppy seed cake if someone wants cake with coffee.

It's a lot of work, not just on the day but the whole week. I'm buying the turkey today and I'll leave it to thaw in the fridge. Then I'll put it into a brine on Thursday and leave it there until Saturday. Thursday I'll boil the stock for the gravy after the turkey is in the brine.

Cake is done on Friday, along with the pannacotta and the little puff pastry cookies I'm serving with it. I'll also pre-fry the bacon to be mixed with the Brussels sprouts.
I'll also make the soup then and I'll have to check but maybe I can pre-mix the biscuits too.

Isabel is on November holidays this week so there is no school. She's still in school but with the after-school staff all week.
I have taken the day off on Thursday and Friday to be with her and Sofia. I hope I can manage to let them help out.
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