Machine Head

I hadn't sewn anything since Christmas, and our New Year's cleaning binge had resulted in the dismantling of my sewing space, which was a card table set up in the middle of our living room.

With our "space" looking so much better, I was almost reluctant to start pulling out my gear, but two weeks prior, I'd gone to Franklin to give Lucia some guidance and instruction about the new sewing machine she got for Christmas, and we managed to make a mess and clean it up.

(That day, by the way, is getting its very own blog post, so stay tuned.)

If I can do it at the Baby House, I can do it here, I told myself.

Three hours later, I tried on my brand new patio pants, and celebrated my return to the machine by neatly returning everything I'd used to it's proper place. If this was Twitter, I'd hashtag WINNING.

A few days later, I crawled back through my patterns and fabric collection to do a project I'd hoped to complete by Christmas - hot-pink cowl neck twirly dresses and zebra print leggings for Lucia and Beatrice.

The zebra print is a theme I started at Christmas.

Once in awhile, I run across a pattern that just works, and this dress is one of them. I'll be making these until the girls get tired of them. With short sleeves and a regular crew neckline, they'll be fantastic for summer, too --

Again, when I was finished, I cleaned up after myself. Easy peasy, and not even a single scrap of fabric in the floor.

My most recent projects have used the same pattern I used for the dresses as the base for a fleece pullover, and circle skirts I patterned myself using all the circle math I learned from Judy Fuson in high school and a string tied to a pencil. For the pullovers, I made the collars half the size of the ones on the dress to keep them from being too bulky. And folded-down, this size has a unique yet classic feel.

The resulting outfits are bright and beautiful. The fabric for the skirts has iridescent embellishment with some glittery embroidery, and I used bias binding on the hems to make them stay nice and flat and to add extra "twirly-ness," because twirly is important - very important - to both girls. These should do the trick.

I have enough fabric left to make a pink pullover for Bea and a blue pullover for Lu; and there's enough of the Lucia skirt fabric left to make one for Bea. I can see this collection expanding before Nan delivers it next week.

2016: Snow #2

On the heels of our first snow of the year came the second, and by Middle Tennessee standards, it was a doozy.

Heavy rain moved in last Thursday night into Friday morning. Jack and I walked the dogs around 9 a.m., and just as we stepped off the porch, raindrops magically turned to snowflakes - BIG ones. By mid-morning Friday, our deck and moss beds were white, and the snow just kept coming.

Jack and I sat for a couple of ours, drinking coffee at the dining table, watching the snow fall in wads as big as cotton balls and as fluffy as goose down. It was spectacular and reminded us of all the "good snows" we used to get when we were kids.

At some point, someone on Facebook mentioned snow cream, so we put a big bowl outside and let it fill up throughout the day and overnight. By Saturday morning, we had plenty of snow for a nice batch. Jack stirred in some cold half-and-half and a touch of vanilla, and "voila!" - breakfast. And I'm not even kidding. With coffee and a couple of homemade crispy lemon shortbreads, it was the perfect way to start a snowy day.

Warmer temperatures on Sunday followed by rain on Monday melted and washed everything away, which is fine with us. Having a pretty snow is great; being snowbound for more than a couple of days isn't.

2016: First Snow

Guess what? It SNOWED today!! Not much, but enough to close schools and look pretty while it was falling this morning.

I even took a moment to step out onto the deck with my smartphone -

A lot has melted since then, but school is still called off for tomorrow. The forecast calls for more snow on Friday and Saturday, so think about stocking up on provisions before the stores run out of bread and milk!!

A Happy Birthday, Jack, Restaurant Review: Cock of the Walk

Jack turned fifty-five yesterday, so please take a moment, think a happy thought, and wish him well as he begins his next journey around the sun.

For the second year in a row, his celebration of choice was a trip to Nashville for "the world's best catfish" at Cock of the Walk. Jack and I have eaten a lot of catfish in our time, and the only time we've had better is when it's fresh from Center Hill Lake and fried up in a cast iron skillet by someone who knows what they're doing.

If you've never been there, you should consider giving it a try the next time you're in the airport/Opry area and hungry. The atmosphere is absolutely casual, and the only people wearing tight clothes are those who haven't been to Cock of the Walk before. The restaurant is big and divided into several cleverly-named dining rooms with anywhere from 8 - 15 tables each. The tables are spaced a comfortable distance from one another, providing room for both conversational comfort and convenient access for the wait staff.

When we arrived, we had a five-minute'ish wait to be seated, which gave us time to take one another's photos sitting in the famous big rocking chair.

Cock of the Walk meals all begin with a crock of slaw, a bowl of sweet pickled onions, and a skillet of cornbread, dramatically presented by each table's server, who flips the bread into the air and then catches it. Our waiter was great. He flipped our bread a good fifteen feet into the air! The receipt said his name was "Jon M." He was young and cute and reminded me of a twentysomething version of our friend, Rhett. He was attentive throughout the whole meal, even though every table in our section was occupied. 

The food for the table comes out family style, unless you're one of those weirdos who orders a steak at a catfish joint, and diners are given metal camp pans instead of plates. Drinks are served in metal camp cups - free refills - and the tables are stocked with extra napkin, silverware, and every condiment one could possibly need. 

Our fellow diners were of all shapes, sizes, colors, ages, and styles of dress, but in looking around the restaurant, everyone was having a good time and enjoying their food.

I didn't intend for Jack's birthday blog post to turn into a restaurant review, but the food and experience were so great, we've talked about our trip to Cock of the Walk all day today.

In other happenings, I just checked the outside temperature, and it's twelve. Considering the time is approximately the same, I'm calling it a night.

Love and peace to you all!

Now, a Few Words About the President

Tonight was President Obama's final State of the Union address, and I must admit I'm a little sad to think about the end of his time in office. Controversial as he is to some people, I like him - I love him - and feel honored to have been an American during his historic presidency.

America's first black president has been a big deal on many fronts, because it IS a big deal, but for me the exciting "first" of Barack Obama is his age. He's the first president from my generation - someone I could have grown up with and had as a schoolmate; someone who listened to the same music and watched the same television shows I did as a kid; someone who shares the same basic history as a peer. Someone who is a peer.

Witnessing such an effective and contemporary leader evolve and mature over the last eight years has been and continues to be a spectacular showcase of success, strength, patience, and incredible, incredible grace under pressure.

President Obama brought a dignified swagger to the Oval Office, and America is a cooler, hipper place than we were at the end of 2008.

Aside from the fine leadership and historic accomplishments of his tenure, having the opportunity to watch the beautiful Obama family represent our country in such a genuine, natural way has been delightful. Sasha and Malia were just a little older than Lucia and Beatrice when their father was elected, and America has been there as they've grown from adorable little children to poised and confident young women. Thinking about them brings home the truth that time passes so instantly that we can't see it or feel it until we look back.

One day when I look back on the Obama years, I will see them and feel them in memories of shared pride and joy in the truest sense of those words. In the meantime, I intend to appreciate every moment of Barack Obama's presidency and celebrate his meaningful leadership.

Organized Grime

We've rearranged the furniture in the last few days and can't remember the last time we've loved our living room this much.

As of Saturday afternoon, we officially have enough space between our sofa and the TV for Jack and me to both do yoga at the same time and face the same direction. Sure, we have to slide the coffee table around a little bit, but the improvement in actual and perceived space is significant.

In the lead-up to Christmas, my sewing stuff came to occupy more than its fair share of real estate, especially when I started making grown-up clothes and needed my real ironing board instead of just a couple of towels spread out on a table. Bags of fabric and notions filled a chair and spilled over into a makeshift storage mound to one side. A card table with my machine sat in the middle of the room and remained the one consistently uncluttered horizontal surface in the house and FuzzKitty's preferred place to nap during the day.

Last week, as I prepared to make a day trip to Franklin to spend time teaching Lucia about the sewing machine we got her for Christmas, I began digging through the piles and bags, looking for good-sized remnants and left-over things from my previous projects to carry for her learning efforts. I was overwhelmed.

"Pile storage" isn't storage at all - it's a pile, and it surrounded me. I opened bags to find more bags, and while I didn't run across anything I didn't realize I had, I recognized the need to find a better storage solution for all the wonderful fabrics and things on my "to do" list.

Once I got started and figured out that between space in our cedar chest and an infrequently used "pet cabinet," I could stow everything neatly and completely.

Since then, the cleaning and organizing projects have cascaded into what's now starting to look like a not-overly-cluttered house.

Stacks of old magazines were tossed to make room for new books we received as Christmas presents, important documents were sorted with the truly important put in labeled folders and moved to our secure filing cabinet, and lungs-be-damned, I high-dusted the exposed beams of our living room ceiling.

Jack has made hundreds of trips to the basement with errant, misplaced tools and other things that are supposed to live there and hauled a huge and glorious load of trash to the dump on Friday. Several boxes of rarely used small appliances, kitchen stuff, and mementos have been readied for storage in hopes of being unpacked at a new house on the farm sometime in the not-too-distant future.

It's a new year, a new attitude, and a new peace of mind.

Even though we're still fighting off our Christmas colds, 2016 feels really good so far.

Winterized

For the first time this season, we have snow in the weather forecast.

Christmas week, when our temperatures were in the mid-70's, actual winter weather seemed almost unlikely. Half the people I encountered, including Jack, Sis, and the UPS guy, were running around in short pants, and I broke such a sweat while wrapping gifts that I had to turn on the air conditioner for a little while.

Things have changed since then, and we've had a couple of damp, chilly passes which feel a lot more seasonal and expected this time of year.

Jack's worked hard lately to stock our pile with enough wood to keep us toasty until the next sunny day, and we've been burning it, too.

Everybody loves a comfy fire.

Bring on the snow. We're ready!!

Christmas 2015

Christmas was really fun this year - it's always fun, but now that Lucia and Beatrice are old enough to really "get it," I find myself enjoying the holiday season more and more. Plus, we had a new puppy to play with.

Sis with her new puppy, Gretchen, who was adopted from Happy Tales Rescue on 12/23. 

This year I decided to do something different and more personal than past years and undertook the task of giving everyone in the family something handmade. With my rediscovered passion for sewing, it wasn't difficult to come up with plenty of ideas and special projects for everyone on the list, but as Christmas drew closer, coming up with enough time to complete everything became the big challenge.

I was ambitious in planning my projects, but coming down to the wire and considering the 70-something degree temperatures outside, I moved matching fur coats for the little girls and some warm fuzzy accessory afterthoughts to the back burner to wait for cooler temperatures and a less demanding schedule.

The big hits of the day were matching fleeces for Sis and Chris. I made her a snazzy wrap jacket with deep pockets and a hood, and Chris got a zip-neck pullover of the same bright "suncatcher" fabric.

Chris models his new zip-front fleece pullover.

Everyone loved everything that came out from under the tree, including Jack and me. Much to our delight, Santa heavily shopped our Amazon wish lists, and I should be "set" for sewing books for at least a little while.

We ate and laughed and enjoyed getting to know Gretchen, the newest Vernon.

Early speculation is some kind of big hound, but whatever she is, she's sweet and already has very good in-the-house manners for such a young dog.

By the way, I posted the album of photos from Christmas a bit ago. You should find them in the post directly proceeding this one - simply click on the photo to advance the slideshow or find them on Flickr at this link:

Christmas 2015 Photos

Christmas 2015 Photos

Emerging from a Christmas Cold

Happy New Year! 

Yes, I know I'm a week late in 2016-ing, but a nasty cold has had me sidelined for the better part of the last two weeks, and my ability to write coherent sentences is inversely-proportional to my intake of cold medication, so here we are.

Oh, I tried -- I drafted a couple of paragraphs of Christmas greetings and attempted a synopsis of an extended family gathering with globe-trotting cousins at the local Chinese buffet, but NyQuil makes me see binary and not in a good way, and those efforts are best left in the queue of the unfinished, where bad ideas and half-assed writing live in the purgatory of Google until the end of all time. 

This isn't sounding much better, either. 

Christmas WAS a wonderful celebration with the whole family on the farm. Lucia and Beatrice are now both old enough to be really into the spirit of the season, and they were. We all were. That's what having kids around does to the holidays.

Also, the outdoor temperature on Christmas Day was 75 degrees - it's easy to celebrate when the weather feels like spring in December.

Mom cooked a delicious turkey breast with dressing, gravy, and all the trimmings, including a couple of delicious homemade pies. Jack and I provided a few goodies, and the Vernons brought additions for the table as well.

Every year Chris makes the most delicious date balls - crisp, chewy, sweet without being too sweet. They have both dates and coconut, two things I hated as a child. I don't know why I love them but I do. With my bad cold, I haven't had much appetite, but one night last week, I awoke in the sweat of a fever-dream, and all I really wanted was one of those date balls. Needless to say, the few I'd brought home from the farm had long-since been eaten, and a cough drop seemed a better snack choice for 2 a.m. -

New Year's passed with little fanfare, and we made the best of not feeling well by making a delicious pot of chicken noodle soup and spending the evening on the sofa with some relaxing jazz playing in the background. Since we disconnected our satellite television months ago, we weren't able to easily watch the ball drop in Times Square or see the commercial festivities on any of the other television networks. We didn't miss any of it, and the entertaining bits such as Kathy Griffin spray-tanning Anderson Cooper's face on the CNN New Year's countdown were widely circulated online afterward. 

In the internet age, there's no missing anything - if it's worth seeing the first time, we'll absolutely have another opportunity to see it again. And again. And again. 

So, that's about it for this January morning, folks. I'm typing and hopefully making some sense. I've got Christmas photos I've barely looked at and gifts yet to be put away. Addressing both of those things and sending "thank you" cards are all on the "to do list." 

Filling you all in on some of the more delightful moments of the last couple of weeks is there, too, so stay tuned.