Embroidered Details

I will admit that while I'm generally crafty and creative, embroidery has never been my thing. I don't know why I have such a hard time with it... I can hand stitch a hem that looks fairly neat, but when it comes to embroidery, I struggle. 

Nevertheless, I like a good challenge, so I made these baby blue jeans. Months ago, I checked a book out of the library that had the pattern, discovered that Rowan Denim has been discontinued, ordered Den-M-Nit instead from Elann, and then found the pattern for free on Ravely. Thankfully, the latter happened, otherwise I would have most likely exceeded the number of library check-outs before I finished these. 

These are so, so cute, and will apparently fade even more with every wash -- just like a pair of jeans. They are also a royal pain to put together. I never mind seaming garments together. As I previously mentioned, I know how to sew. However, these jeans needed to be embroidered with the pocket and fly details first, before sewing them together. 

I had a hard time figuring out the placement of said pockets. Then, the in-seams and crotch are actually put together with this visible embroidered seam. I don't think I did too terribly, but then I ran out of orange yarn right when I got to the last part. 

Well, it gives me an excuse to redo that part to make it look a bit neater, I suppose. 

Speaking of neat embroidery... my mother was always outstanding at it. As a child, I loved horses, and my mom made me a giant quilt with hand-embroidered horses in every square.

I've never been super sentimental about stuff in general, but this blanket has been an exception. It traveled to college with me and then to England, and even though it never made it to Africa, I missed it while I was there. 

One of these days, I'll have to redo the edges, because they're starting to fray, but thankfully the embroidery is all intact. Otherwise, my mom would have a lot of work to redo, because there's no way I'd be up for that kind of challenge.

Finishing

Spring cleaning (even if the weather is less than springy outside) means that I feel the urge to get those WIPs done. So this weekend, I did just that.

It's not usually the actual knitting that takes forever. It's the last little bits -- seaming pieces together, sewing on buttons, and of course, blocking. You know, the stuff that's not actually 'knitting', but is just as important to the final product? 

Remember all of those fiddly things I had to do on several knitting projects? Well, this weekend, I finished two out of three. (The blanket still needs to be stitched together... but I'm pretty sure the sewing machine and I will get a little friendly this week.)

 

Buttons on a wee cardi...

Edging finally finished on an even bigger cardi...

And a few extra things found in a pile that got blocked over the weekend. It's amazing what accumulates in said pile because I'm too lazy to look for a button in the jar, or to get the blocking boards out.

I'm truly happy that everything 'grey' I've been working on seems finally DONE. (Remind me never again to work on so many grey things at once...especially over the winter.) Now I can start working on some stuff with a little more color to it. 

For more info on blocking your knitting, read this past post here.

South African Sailor Homecomings

I know I just wrote about needing some recipe inspiration this week... but then I remembered that I promised the Sailor a proper South African milk tart when he arrives home. No inspiration needed there!

When I discovered that it was his favorite dessert while we were dating, I set out to perfect it. I've had a few disasters along the way (once, I actually flushed the contents of the pan because it was so awful. I had attempted to make it at a friend's house and mistakenly used corn meal instead of corn starch. They didn't have a garbage disposal. I still don't remember what we ate for dessert instead.) 

But by now, I've got this recipe in the bag. Or the vintage Pyrex -- which by the way, is the perfect size for fridge milk tart.

I'm sure the Sailor will be happy. I'll be even more thrilled that he's home.

Favorite Recipe Inspiration

I feel like even though I've now organized my recipes, I've been dining out far too much lately. To be fair, my city has some amazing restaurants with great food. This past weekend, friends from out of town visited and it was also my birthday. All great excuses to eat out. 

But in general, I've also just been in a food funk and don't really feel like cooking. (Anyone else out there occasionally have cereal for dinner? Go on, you're in a safe place to confess here.) Oh I've baked a cake here and there -- I just made another orange marmalade poppy seed cake over the weekend -- but one does need a little more sustenance throughout the day than simply flour and sugar.

Plus, since the Sailor is also returning to land soon, I'll need to up my game with planning meals. 

One of my absolute favorite sites for recipe inspiration is Annie's Eats. I've mentioned her blog several times in previous posts. I wrote earlier about her mac and cheese (which is fabulous) and about a month ago I made her drool-worthy cinammon sugar pull-apart bread.

She recently started a new section on her blog called reader love, where one of my pics from Instagram got featured last week. It's been neat to follow her story and passion for cooking over the years. Her photography is also gorgeous and that alone often makes me want to cook whatever I see on there.

I'm also a huge fan of Supercook. Sometimes I have a ton of ingredients on hand, but I'm not sure how to put them together. This site is so handy -- just type in what you have and it gives you a list of what you can make! It has saved me from more than one kitchen disaster. 

Inspiration for gazpacho

What's your go-to plan for recipe inspiration?

Happy International Women's Day!

Until the mid-90s, when I first traveled to Ukraine, I had never even heard of International Women's Day. But there, and in many other countries, it's a celebrated national holiday, in honor of women. It started out in the early 1900s, and has grown since then to become a day to inspire women and to highlight their accomplishments.

What could be better than celebrating the lives and accomplishments of my many fine, fabulous, female friends and family members around the globe, for one special day of the year? Well, by having it on the same day as my birthday, of course! 

I'm sure my mother didn't plan it, but it's super fun to have my birthday coincide with such a neat (and somewhat obscure, depending on where you live) holiday.

This year marks the last one in my third decade. I know many people try to do something special when they actually reach 40, but if the past 39 years have taught me anything, it's to celebrate every day, no matter how old or young you are. Today, I plan to eat my way through a myriad of dishes... bask in the sunshine that's already out... and maybe even buy myself a little something special to mark the past three decades, and to look forward to at least the next six. I might even bake a cake. 

After all, I feel like I get a double dose of a holiday on March 8th, every year.

Happy International Women's Day!