Belly Painting

The kids painted my belly this afternoon. It's 100 degrees outside for the 5th day in a row and feels like its 115. We were bored to say the least! But it was lot's of fun and I think it will be a sweet memory of waiting for baby brother's arrival!

Aggravating...

Over the past few years I have worked hard at moving our family into a seasonal approach to our food. This is actually harder than it would seem given conventional food system's approach to always having available a few crops, never mind the time of year. But, we've managed it, through our own gardening, CSA and local farmer's markets. Part of this journey has been collecting seasonal cookbooks. There aren't many out there, honestly. And the ones that are available tend to be put out by localvores, food activists and other fringe foodies. So, one would assume, given the tendency of these groups to be all or nothing, that they would in fact be consistent in their recipes. But... they aren't. And it aggravates me. It makes me a little crazy to find a lovely recipe for Quinoa salad with arugula, beans, and... tomatoes (which do not grow well in cold spring air). Or find Eggplant listed under "spring." Really, it seems like most recipes call for something that isn't really available concurrent with the main ingredients. It's like the unspoken rule is, "If it's not the main ingredient, then we'll wink it in anyway."

Now, I am a competent cook. This inconsistency isn't really a problem as far as eating from what's available. It's just aggravating. Sometimes, I don't want to have to think about substitutions. Sometimes, I just want to flip through a cookbook, see a good recipe and go. That is, in fact, why I collect cookbooks. Inspiration (not aggravation).

OK, done with the little rant and off to figure out what to feed my family that is actually seasonally available.

OK, funny little side note, but after I hit publish, there was a list of google ads to the side. They included recipes and growing advice for tomatoes as well as links for free Kraft Food samples!

Fix It Friday

I've been following along over at maya*made for Fix-it Friday every week. I've had the goal of making at least one repair for each week and trying to get it posted every Friday. Well, this is week three and I'm posting today for the first time... without pictures. At least I've managed to get the repairs done! Here's the summary so far:

Week 1: replaced the screen on the back screen door. Which has been broken with gaping holes for about three years now. Yep. You read that right. (And since that week I have since repaired the same screen 5 times as my delightful children have pushed the screening out repeatedly as well as managing to somehow pull the frame off the door twice. Maybe that's why I never bothered before???)

Week 2: actually done on Saturday, but whatever. I repaired/altered 22 pieces of clothing. Mostly this was adapting onesies into t-shirts quickly on the serger but there were 3 pairs of pants to be hemmed into shorts, 4 long sleeve shirts to be modified into t-shirts, two also needing to be taken in and a button replaced on another shirt. Still, it sounds so much more productive to say I altered 22 pieces of clothing ;)

Week 3: this week it's another cloth related one. Papa Monkey has a general reluctance to purchase clothing for himself. Which I can relate to being pretty cheap, erm, frugal myself. Still, I do own more than 2 pairs of pants/shorts at a time. Over the course of the past few weeks we've picked up a couple pairs of shorts at rummage sales and found some old ones that still fit but are quite faded. They're all receiving new life via a bottle of RIT dye and the washing machine.

Next week: I'm hoping to actually repair the cabinet front of one of my kitchen cabinets. This has also been for about 4 years. I'll blame it on having little kids or something. Hopefully, I'll have pictures of that process!

Bow tie- close up

Bow tie- close up, originally uploaded by studor.

Bow Tie

Bow Tie, originally uploaded by studor.

I won this bow tie pattern from the blog for Crab Apple Attic yesterday. I had the sewing machines set up today to refashion some jeans into maternity jeans and Mr Man was bound and determined to have his bow tie made immediately. So, I gave him a stack of fabric to pick from and we set to work.

The pattern is incredibly simple and clearly written. Honestly, the thing that took the longest was turning the pieces right side out. All together, including printing the pattern and cutting the fabric, I think it took me 45 minutes. It took longer to figure out how to tie the thing! Mr Man is thrilled with it. The pattern is called Sunday Best Bow Tie and he picked this one out to be his "plain Sunday tie" instead of his "fancy Easter tie."

If you sew, even minimally, and have a dapper little guy hanging around, I recommend giving this patter a go!